Chapter 530: Flying General (1/2)

I had managed to get out of the boss’ attack radius by locking onto Moonlight Stone and activating Thunderous Charge, my increased movement speed allowing me to get out of its range. He Yi and Gui Guzi’s mounts were fast enough, so they both managed to successfully dodge this AoE attack as well. Fortunately for us, Xu Yang, Li Chengfeng and all of our core melee fighters were smart enough to have retreated before I even yelled my warning, so they had managed to scramble to the sidelines as well.

However, nearly thirty of our melee players hadn’t been able to dodge the boss’ sudden attack. So when those golden blades started to shatter, all of them immediately collapsed to the ground, not a single survivor remained as damage numbers over fifty thousand popped up above their heads.

Holy shit, even I wouldn’t be able to survive an attack like that! I’d probably be one-shot as well! Fighting a Level 155 Earth Rank boss was really biting off a little more than we could chew. We could still tank its normal attacks and skills, but the moment it started using its ultimate moves, the only option left to us was to retreat.

……

The boss’s Golden Barrier Blade skill lasted for nearly thirty seconds. As the dazzling golden light finally started to disperse, we saw that the golden dragon was rearing back its head and howling at us. It was as if it was venting its dissatisfaction and rage at these puny interlopers who had dared to attack it. As a true ancient giant dragon, it had actually been ganged up on and beaten up by a bunch of players. It was an indignity that its pride simply could not suffer!

“Little Gui, go!”

I hefted the Heaven-stealing Sword and rushed towards the One-horned Golden Dragon with lightning quickness. Of all the players present, it seemed as if only He Yi, Gui Guzi, and I had the ability to shake up this boss. He Yi’s mechanical skill was still quite lacking when compared to Gui Guzi, so she couldn’t be the main tank yet. This meant that only Gui Guzi and I could meet this boss headon. Even then, the golden dragon was still extremely powerful and Gui Guzi’s face had already gone ashen after the first hit from its claws. He started roaring in pain as its claws slammed into him relentlessly.

Woosh!

Gui Guzi charged forward as swift as lightning, but a big “MISS” appeared in the air above the golden dragon’s head. The golden dragon answered that impetuous charge with a slap of its claws. As the dragon’s claw slammed into Gui Guzi’s face, I winced. Ah, he really lived a hard life.

Woosh! Woosh!

Gui Guzi’s health bar filled up quickly as beams of holy light fell on him incessantly. Everyone else charged up to deal damage us. Li Chengfeng, He Yi, Xu Yang, Chaos Moon, and the rest all stepped up to deliver their Barrier Breaks before they scrambled back 10 yards. They definitely didn’t want to attract the dragon’s aggro, this was especially true for Li Chengfeng, Chaos Moon, Xu Yang, and High Fighting Spirits. Their HP wasn’t high enough so getting attacked by the boss would be disastrous.

It was at this precise moment that my God Binding Art wore off. The golden dragon suddenly reared its head backwards as its neck swelled up again. This was the windup for its dragonbreath attack, and it only lasted for half a second. However, I had already sprang into movement even before the dragon reared its head back. I jumped and punched its throat, my left fist covered by a swirl of bloody energy!

Bang!

Magic Piercing Punch managed to work this time as it caused the energy gathering in the back of this gigantic dragon’s throat to dissipate. Yes, we had successfully stopped it from using its dragonbreath!

“Haha! What a beautiful interrupt!” Xu Yang and High Fighting Spirits crowed together.

Gui Guzi and I continued to circle the boss and wear down its HP as we kept trading aggro using our respective Break skills. Once we got a grasp of the boss’ behavior, attack power, and speed, killing it wasn’t as hard as we had imagined. Moreover, we had an elite squad of priests to back us up, so we didn’t need to worry about our healing or the boss’ minor attacks.

……

Time slowed to a crawl as we slowly shaved away at the golden dragon’s health. My Silver Dragon Ring kept roaring as Silver Dragon Storms continuously exploded out of it. By the time the golden dragon had been hit by a dozen of these storms, its HP had finally dropped to 10%. However, this entire experience had lasted for a full forty minutes! Killing this boss was way too hard!

“Let’s keep going, the boss is almost dead!” Gui Guzi crowed in delight.

I nodded my head, “We need to watch out for its final phase though!”

“Yeah!”

But before I had even finished speaking, I saw a beam of golden light drop down from the heavens. Bloody fucking hell, it was Golden Barrier Blade again! This was the second time this boss had used its ultimate attack!

As all of us started to scramble backwards, but before I had even taken a few steps, I suddenly realized something. I immediately yelled, “Shit! We’ve been had! Beiming Xue, you and your squad need to retreat now! Retreat at least fifty yards! Hurry!”

“What?” Gui Guzi was greatly shocked by my outburst but he soon realized it as well. “Fucking hell! This boss is way too despicable! It actually centered the skill around where Beiming Xue is standing?”

Beiming Xue reacted extremely quickly, clearing the distance after using a single Leap. However, not every archer had her reaction or movement speed. In the next instant, a 100 yard area was covered by the One-horned Golden Dragon’s Golden Barrier Blade skill. As the golden energy blades shattered, most of the archers, mages, and priests who were standing there instantly collapsed to the ground!

“We’re done for…”

My heart fell. This attack had done us some serious damage. Out of our archer contingent, only Beiming Xue and a few of our elite archers had survived. Even our best mage, Moonlight Stone, was lying in a pool of her own blood. Just this skill alone had practically wiped out our entire elite squad of more than a hundred archers, mages, and priests!

The only thing we could celebrate was that our two main healers, Murong Mingyue and Moon Dew, were still alive!

“Charge!”

Gui Guzi and I reversed course and charged towards the One-horned Golden Dragon. The best time for us to hit the boss with our best shot was after it had just used Golden Barrier Blade. We just happened to be outside of skill’s area of attack, so we would not even get hit by any splash damage even as we assaulted the boss.