Chapter 180: Two-Headed Mist-Tear Fiend

The Mist-Tear Fiends had successfully merged.

Marcus swore under his breath. He had completely forgotten one crucial detail. Provoking monsters too aggressively often triggered evolution, and his abnormally high Luck stat only increased the odds of that evolution succeeding. He stared at the massive creature hovering before him, its twin heads drifting in perfect, unsettling synchronization. This was bad. Very bad.

A monster formed from the fusion of two level thirty-five Silver-tier bosses was never a simple upgrade. It was more than the sum of its parts. Judging by the pressure it exuded alone, Marcus estimated it had to be at least level forty.

He wasted no time casting Insight. If he was going to survive this, he needed to understand exactly what he was dealing with. The fact that one of the original fiends had been at full health when the fusion occurred meant this new form would be anything but forgiving.

—

Two-Headed Mist-Tear Fiend (Level 40 Low-tier Gold Boss)

HP: 30,000

Description:

Evolved from two enraged Mist-Tear Fiends. Due to the diminished energy of the spring, the original fiends’ power was limited, which has slightly affected the overall strength of the fused entity.

Skills:

Mistform Illusion (Active): Increases self-defense by 30% and movement speed by 20%. Grants immunity to water magic and adds a 20% chance to freeze on all attacks.

Aura of Purity (Passive): Reduces the attack power of opponents within a five-meter radius by 30% and reduces movement and attack speed by 40%. All attacks have a 10% chance to inflict a freezing effect.

Mist Vortex (Active): Creates a vortex of mist that deals 200 damage per second to opponents within a three-meter radius, obstructs vision, and reduces accuracy by 30%. Lasts 40 seconds. Cooldown: 1 minute.

Mist-Tear Roar (Active): Summons two level 30 Mist-Tear Minions to assist in battle.

—

A Gold-tier boss. And level forty.

Instead of dread, a surge of excitement shot through Marcus so sharply he almost laughed out loud. High Luck really was a blessing and a curse rolled into one.

The Two-Headed Mist-Tear Fiend was undeniably dangerous. Mist Vortex alone was a nightmare, completely negating the two-hundred HP-per-second regeneration from a Large Health Potion. He couldn’t simply tank the damage and outheal it. Its other abilities were also far stronger than those of the original fiends. A full party of level forty players would struggle to survive against this thing.

But in Marcus’s eyes, the monster had one critical weakness.

It no longer had Mistwater Rebirth.

That single omission changed everything. Without that infuriating regeneration skill, the fiend was no longer immortal. It was killable. Better yet, he confirmed that, like its previous forms, it would only attack enemies who entered the courtyard.

A slow grin spread across his face.

He might actually be able to kill this thing without losing a single drop of blood.

Thank God it lost that regeneration skill. If it hadn’t, he would have seriously considered giving up on the spot.

Chuckling to himself, Marcus decided to stick with what had worked before: cheap, shameless, and brutally effective tactics.

After all, it did not matter whether a cat was black or white, as long as it caught mice. The same applied here. Honor was optional. Victory was not.

“Charge!”

“Desperate Strike!”

Marcus and his Temple Guardian, Pebble, rushed forward together. From ten meters out, both of them hurled their longswords, activating Desperate Strike mid-throw.

-2500, -4000

Nice.

Pebble landed a critical hit, dealing a clean four thousand damage. The fiend’s defenses were no joke, though. Even with the five-times damage multiplier, Marcus’s own attack only managed twenty-five hundred.

The instant Marcus stepped into the courtyard, the Two-Headed Mist-Tear Fiend let out a thunderous roar and surged forward. Before it could build momentum, the two swords slammed into its body, forcing it to recoil. Nearly a fifth of its massive health pool vanished in a single exchange.

Furious, the fiend activated Mistform Illusion. Its body blurred as its movement speed increased by twenty percent, and it glided toward Marcus even faster than before.

The original fiends had already been high-Agility monsters. Their fused form was even worse. Very few players below level fifty could hope to outrun it.

Unfortunately for the fiend, Marcus was one of those few.

His Nightmare Dragon Steed was a Divine mount, and its twenty percent speed bonus was no joke. Mounted movement was calculated as the combined speed of rider and mount, and with Marcus’s already high Agility layered on top of the steed’s raw speed, the fiend was left hopelessly behind. It couldn’t even get close, reduced to hurling a few water spells that barely scratched him.

Marcus disengaged the moment he reached the courtyard entrance. The fiend slowed, then stopped, unwilling to pursue beyond its territory. With visible reluctance, it drifted back toward the fountain.

Marcus laughed, already waiting for Desperate Strike’s cooldown to finish.

That was the plan. Slowly carve away at a Gold-tier boss ten levels above him. Without regeneration, it was only a matter of time. Five more rounds of Desperate Strike should do it. Then he would claim his rewards.

“What the hell? Are you serious?”

The sight before him made Marcus curse out loud.

“I object!”

The moment he stepped out of combat range, the fiend’s health bar, which he had just chipped down, snapped back to full.

It had no healing skills. It couldn’t use the fountain. So how?

The answer clicked into place with an unpleasant sense of clarity.

System mechanics.

If a monster remained out of combat for several seconds, whether because its target fled or died, its state would reset completely. Health, cooldowns, everything.

“Damn this smart-ass AI,” Marcus muttered. “That’s just dirty.”

Refusing to believe it at first, he tested the tactic twice more. The result was the same every time. The instant he disengaged, the fiend fully reset.

His brilliant, cheap strategy had been rendered useless.

The game’s AI, Skynet, was terrifyingly competent. It had identified the loophole he was exploiting and patched it in real time.

Marcus stared at the fully healed Two-Headed Mist-Tear Fiend hovering beside the fountain, the priceless treasures floating just behind it. The time for tricks was over.

It was time for a real fight.

He raised his divine artifact, the Adamant Shield, feeling its familiar weight settle into his grip.

He might only be a level thirty Knight, but he had absurd stats, a hidden class, and a divine artifact. With advantages like those, failing to defeat a level forty Gold-tier boss would be downright embarrassing.

If trickery would not work, then he would win the only way left. Through glorious head-on combat.

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