Chapter 179: The Two Mist-Tear Fiends

The Mist-Tear Fiends were trash.

At least, they would be, as long as Marcus could figure out how to deal with Mistwater Rebirth. Strip that ability away and they were nothing more than oversized sacks of health. Still, one question lingered in the back of his mind. Whatever had absorbed the pure negative energy from the spring must have been something terrifying, to reduce creatures that were once level fifty kings into mere level thirty-five bosses.

Even so, a level thirty-five Silver-tier boss was perfect prey. To Marcus, they were walking treasure chests stuffed with experience.

Finished with his assessment, he applied his buffs and launched himself forward.

“Desperate Strike!”

-4500, -3800

He committed to one target immediately. Marcus and his Temple Guardian struck the same fiend at the same time, the ambush landing cleanly. Unfortunately, neither attack critted. Had even one of them done so, the fight would have ended right there.

“Charge!”

Marcus shouted the command without hesitation. He, the Temple Guardian, and the Shadow-Stained Gryphon King surged forward in unison. The plan was simple. The guardian would pull the attention of the untouched fiend while Marcus erased the wounded one, which now had barely seventeen hundred HP remaining, with a Dragon-Roar Critical Strike.

The Temple Guardian’s Taunt worked perfectly, drawing the full-health fiend aside. Marcus closed in on his target, already preparing the finishing blow.

The fiend hissed sharply.

A faint blue glow spread across its body, and its form began to blur, turning translucent before his eyes.

The Gryphon King’s Dark Thunder Flash slammed into it, but the blue light shimmered and bent the attack aside. In the next instant, the fiend vanished entirely, reappearing within the ice-blue fountain at the center of the chamber, completely unharmed.

’Damn it. Mistwater Rebirth.’

He knew the skill would be a problem, but he hadn’t expected it to trigger so quickly. Worse, the blue light that appeared during activation clearly granted temporary invulnerability. There was no interrupting it.

The glow faded, revealing a fully restored Mist-Tear Fiend with a full health bar. It fixed Marcus with something disturbingly close to a smug look and drifted toward him.

Drifted was the right word.

Its speed was shocking, nearly on par with his Nightmare Dragon Steed. That kind of movement could only mean extremely high Agility, which explained why his opening strike hadn’t landed a critical hit. The creature looked bulky and sluggish, but it crossed the eight-meter distance between them in a blink.

So much for ambush tactics. As much as Marcus enjoyed surprise attacks, this wasn’t going to be one of those fights. He would have to fall back on what he did best.

Tanking damage and trading blows.

“You will have the honor of falling at my feet!” he declared, invoking the grand and overly dramatic motto of the Knights.

-150, Miss, -120…

’Pathetic.’

For a level thirty-five boss, its damage output barely registered. From Marcus’s perspective, it was a pushover. From the fiend’s perspective, though, he probably looked the same. Its passive Aura of Purity was already slowing his movement and attack speed by thirty percent.

“Dragon-Roar Critical Strike!”

Marcus drew his Bat Dragon Cloud Sword and struck back, returning the courtesy.

-2100, -1700, -1500

’Strange.’

Dragon-Roar Critical Strike should have dealt well over two thousand damage per hit. These numbers were far too low. He quickly checked his status.

’Crap. Misty Veil.’

His attack power had been reduced by thirty percent. Combined with the thirty percent speed reduction from Aura of Purity, his combat pefficiency had taken a brutal hit. This was shaping up to be far more troublesome than he’d expected. His high Luck and Agility usually protected him from enemy debuffs, but this fiend was different. It wasn’t lucky. It was simply fast, absurdly so.

No wonder it had as much health as the level thirty Golden Blood-Fiend Flower Demon.

“Pebble, over here. We take them down one at a time,” Marcus called to his Temple Guardian as he adjusted his strategy.

Together, they focused all their attacks on a single fiend.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

With the Temple Guardian contributing damage, several rounds of Dragon-Roar Critical Strike pushed the fiend’s HP down below two thousand.

’Damn it. I overdid it.’

His plan had been to leave the fiend just above two thousand HP and finish it cleanly with Desperate Strike. Instead, his damage output was too high to control precisely.

He was probably the first person in history to be annoyed by having too much attack power.

“Desperate Strike!”

-500

There was no time to hesitate. He swapped to a spare longsword from his inventory and hurled it forward, activating the skill. But with his attack speed crippled, the fiend’s Mistwater Rebirth triggered again before the strike could land properly. The sword slammed into the shimmering blue shield, dealing a laughable five hundred damage.

’Are you kidding me?!’

He watched, seething, as the fiend reappeared in the fountain, fully healed and practically radiating triumph. His frustration spiked hard enough that he was so angry and felt like punching something.

What he’d assumed would be an easy fight had turned into an absolute nightmare.

To make things worse, the second fiend, which had been trading blows with the Temple Guardian, had also dropped below two thousand HP. Just as Marcus ordered the guardian to use Desperate Strike, it too activated Mistwater Rebirth and zipped back to the fountain.

He stared at the two fully restored fiends. All that effort, was completely wasted.

“Fall back!”

Marcus and his battered Temple Guardian retreated to the entrance of the hall, just outside the fiends’ aggro range.

He knew he could win. The problem wasn’t strength. It was arrogance. He had rushed in without a proper plan, relying on brute force and instinct. Against stronger enemies, that kind of carelessness would have already gotten him killed.

A Knight was meant to face monsters head-on, but a truly powerful Knight fought with both steel and strategy.

By the time Desperate Strike came off cooldown, Marcus had a new plan, and it was anything but honorable.

“Desperate Strike!”

-4500], -3800]

He stepped just into range and struck as the fiends glided toward him. Once again, no critical hit. The fiend survived.

This time, Marcus didn’t charge. Without hesitation, they turned and retreated.

The Mist-Tear Fiends existed to guard the fountain. They only pursued enemies that threatened it. As Marcus backed away, they halted and drifted back to their posts. He watched the wounded fiend regenerate, utterly unconcerned.

The moment Desperate Strike cooled down, he charged again.

“Desperate Strike!”

-4600, -3900

Still no crit. He retreated again.

Yes, he was absolutely being that cheap. He had come prepared, carrying more than forty level thirty longswords specifically for situations like this. He would chip away at them endlessly until Desperate Strike finally critted and erased one fiend in a single blow. With his Luck stat, his critical rate had to be at least ten percent. One lucky hit from either him or his Temple Guardian was all it would take.

A cold smile tugged at his lips.

’You want to frustrate me? Fine. Let’s see how you like it.’

On his next charge, the fiends screeched in fury the moment they recognized him. They rushed forward as if desperate to tear him apart.

-4500, -3900

Still no critical hit. But as Marcus turned to retreat, something changed.

Enraged by his relentless hit-and-run tactics, the fiends let out a unified roar. A faint blue light enveloped both of them as they began channeling energy. The glow intensified rapidly, shifting from blue to brilliant gold. Their forms blurred until only indistinct silhouettes remained.

Then, in a bizarre and fluid motion, the left fiend’s right arm and leg dissolved into mist, merging back into its body. The right fiend’s left arm and leg followed suit. The two creatures drifted toward one another and fused.

A blinding golden light exploded outward.

When it faded, a single, enormous monster hovered where the fiends had been, its body formed from shimmering golden mist, bearing two distinct heads.

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