374 Wonderful Idea (1/2)

In the Buried City, underneath Eternity Peak.

Upon catching sight of a Spectral Shaman, Qin Ruo immediately raised his dual defenses, and with a great swoop of his Angelic Wings, he soared past the Undead horde until he was right above his target.

The Spectral Shaman, wreathed by a pervasive aura of death, glared up at him. Raising its magic staff, it chittered and wailed hideously, enraged that it was being looked down upon by a human adventurer who was merely Level 42. There wasn't a Tier 5 Miniboss who could endure such audacity from a low-level player.

However, as an Undead Summoner-type Boss, the Spectral Shaman was not given to doing battle itself, but was more specialized toward summoning and raising the dead. In direct combat, it was at a severe disadvantage, which was why it surrounded itself with a horde of Skeleton Warriors and Archers, Hellhounds, and Arcane Zombies.

What Qin Ruo did alarmed the Spectral Shaman greatly, and the Arcane Zombies and Hellhounds howled up at him. Meanwhile, the Skeleton Warriors withdrew to the edge of the formation, crimson flames dancing within their hollow eye sockets as they looked out at something large in the distance.

The Amethyst Orc approached, radiating an aura no less powerful than that of the Spectral Shaman itself. None of them wanted to mess with it.

And then, the gathered Undead sensed the faint ripples of magic overhead…

***

The moment he had the Spectral Shaman beneath him, Qin Ruo had immediately begun channeling his Water magic. Aquaramparts, one after another, appeared around him with terrifying speed.

Every second mattered! Time was of the essence.

The whole way here, he'd already lost nearly half an hour of the quest time, and Qin Ruo had not even slain a single Spectral Shaman yet. At this rate, he could kiss that Legendary item goodbye, as well as the right to leave behind his own Soul Imprint upon the Eternal Barrier.

With 150 minutes left, and twenty Spectral Shamans to kill, that left less than eight minutes for each one. This included running around and clearing away the Undead in his path.

Time was very tight! Qin Ruo did not have so much as half a second to waste.

Conjuring fifteen Aquaramparts in the blink of an eye, Qin Ruo hurtled down toward the ground, bringing them all along with him.

”Freeze!” With a shout, the Twelve Frostramparts Formation was in place.

As Qin Ruo descended to a height of thirty meters above the Spectral Shaman, there was an overpowering blast of frigid cold air! Instantly, all the Undead monsters below were frozen in place, their attacks halted.

As Qin Ruo hovered in the air, the fifteen Frostramparts crashed down amidst the Undead horde, and without hesitation he spat, ”Burst!”

At his command, the fifteen Frostramparts, along with the Twelve Frostramparts Formation which was already in place, detonated right where the Undead were the thickest, exploding mightily into countless fine, razor-sharp blades of ice. A great billowing cloud of snow engulfed the area for thirty meters all around.

Skeleton Warriors, Arcane Zombies, and a small number of Hellhounds with over six thousand HP each, were all wiped out in that blast.

The Spectral Shaman had also suffered the combined effects of the fifteen-fold Frostburst.

Its Barrier was destroyed!

Each Frostburst dealt nearly 230 Magic Attack. After fifteen of them, the Barrier around the Spectral Shaman was blown into smithereens, and the total damage exceeded four thousand.

(Translator's Note: Whether the extra damage comes from equipment, potions, or attributes / vulnerabilities, it isn't stated.)

With his first attack, he'd gotten rid of most of the troublesome small fry, and had also broken the Spectral Shaman's Barrier, while dealing a heavy blow to it.

Meanwhile, Qin Ruo himself had barely taken one shot of Psystrike from the Boss monster in return, which had been blocked by his Frostbarrier—the Barrier had only lost forty-or-so of its Guard, and a hundred-over HP.

After taking down quite a number of the surrounding Undead, Poochie dove into the snowstorm. There was a muffled bang, and something was sent flying out of the freezing fog—a body wreathed in shadow.

Just then, the Amethyst Orc suddenly came charging in, its Amethyst Slash severing the Skeleton Warriors at the hip, cutting them down like stalks of wheat. It carved a path of carnage across the battlefield, until the Spectral Shaman tumbled to the ground at its feet, still badly Chilled.

What followed next was a scene of tragedy!

It was a Tier 5 Miniboss Amethyst Orc vs. a Tier 5 Miniboss Spectral Shaman.

Helplessly Stunned, the gloom-shrouded Spectral Shaman was treated like a punching bag, and the Amethyst Orc descended on it with its Successive Strikes, knocking it senseless.

Even if it could shake off the negative condition, with the Amethyst Orc's continuous barrage at close range, there was absolutely no hope of fighting back. The Spectral Shaman had been knocked away from the initial battle, and Qin Ruo was drawing the rest of the Undead to himself. They would not allow the Spectral Shaman to get close enough to the remains of the Undead to cast an AoE Resurrection.