Chapter 182: Lethal Strike

“Pebble, hold the line!”

Desperate Strike had finally come off cooldown. Marcus shouted the order the moment his newly summoned Temple Guardian solidified, then pulled back several steps, swapping in a fresh longsword from his inventory. Without hesitation, he activated the skill and hurled the blade forward.

-1700, -1500

The numbers were almost insulting. Even with fivefold damage, the attack barely scraped past fifteen hundred. The fiend’s defenses were simply too high, and the lingering effects of its abilities continued to suppress his output. Frustration gnawed at him, but he forced himself to stay calm. The boss was down to less than six thousand health. If he could just survive a little longer, the fight was still winnable.

’You’ve got to be kidding me.’

As if sensing his thoughts, the fiend reeled back from the blow and let out a sharp, piercing howl. A wide arc of water magic burst outward, slowing both Marcus and Pebble. Then, instead of pressing the attack, the fiend turned and fled.

It was not retreating from the fight entirely. Its role was to guard the spring, and it remained within the courtyard. What it was doing was stalling, deliberately buying time until Mist Vortex came off cooldown again.

’Damn it… it’s learning,’ Marcus realized grimly. The tactic was uncomfortably familiar. It had likely picked it up from him earlier in the fight. Regret flared. He should have closed the distance with Dragon-Roar Critical Strike first, then saved Desperate Strike for the moment it tried to disengage. That mistake was now coming back to haunt him.

“Chase it!”

He urged his Nightmare Dragon Steed forward, unwilling to let the fiend regain control of the battle. But the moment he entered the fiend’s five-meter aura, his movement speed was slashed by forty percent. Even with a Divine-tier mount beneath him, he could not close the gap. No matter how hard he pushed, the distance stubbornly held at five meters.

’Fine.’

He clenched his teeth. If he could not catch it now, then he would wait. Thirty seconds was all he needed for Desperate Strike to recharge again. At this range, it was still his best option.

Reality, however, had other plans.

Fifteen seconds later, with Desperate Strike still unavailable, his Adamant Shield Wall expired. At almost the exact same instant, the fiend’s Mist Vortex came off cooldown.

The timing was flawless, and merciless.

The fiend spun around, both faces curling into cruel expressions, and raised its hands. Thick white mist surged outward in a spiraling cloud. Marcus’s vision blurred as the vortex engulfed him, his health immediately ticking down by two hundred points per second. Just like before, his health potions were rendered useless.

There was no room for hesitation. This had to end, now.

As he fought through the mist, another realization struck him. While the fiend lacked any active healing abilities, its natural regeneration was astonishingly fast. In the short time it had been stalling, it had already recovered nearly a thousand health.

’This thing is ridiculous’, he thought grimly, finally understanding why so many high-level players had failed to claim the treasures hidden within this palace.

’Seriously… what is with my luck today?’

As if to mock him further, the fiend’s fortune surged again. One of its attacks triggered the freeze effect, rooting Marcus in place mid-stride.

The fiend shrieked in delight and unleashed a barrage of powerful magic at the immobilized target. Pebble reacted instantly, charging forward and intercepting the worst of the assault. Without that intervention, Marcus would have been killed outright and forcibly revived by his Ring of Resurrection.

“Pebble!”

Under the combined pressure of the fiend’s relentless attacks and the unyielding damage of the Mist Vortex, the Temple Guardian could not hold. Just as Marcus broke free of the freeze and lunged forward, Pebble’s health hit zero. It vanished once more in a flash of white light.

Anger roared through Marcus’s chest. He surged after the fiend, but it refused to meet him head-on, gliding away just beyond his reach, maintaining that infuriating distance.

’Oh? You want to play games with me?’

“Desperate Strike!”

The moment the skill came off cooldown, Marcus roared, fury burning through his exhaustion. He equipped yet another longsword and hurled it with everything he had, the weapon spinning through the air toward the fiend’s exposed back.

-7820

The impact was catastrophic. With a sickening crunch, the blade punched straight through the fiend’s massive body. A huge purple damage number erupted above its heads. The Two-Headed Mist-Tear Fiend let out one final, agonized wail before collapsing, its form dissolving into mist.

It was dead. Killed in a single blow.

Ding!

“Congratulations, Player Stonehaven, for killing the Level 40 Gold-tier Two-Headed Mist-Tear Fiend. You have been awarded 100 Reputation and 8,000 gold coins.”

“Congratulations, Player Stonehaven! You have reached Level 31. HP +10, MP +10. You have 5 attribute points to allocate.”

A Lethal Strike! It was actually a Lethal Strike!

After the most recent system update, damage had been divided into three categories. Normal attacks and skills appeared in red. Critical hits appeared in yellow. And then there was the rarest outcome of all.

A Lethal Strike.

Exactly as the name implied, it was an instant kill. Enemy level, defense, health, all of it became meaningless. With perfect timing and an absurd amount of luck, a single blow could end everything.

The odds were beyond astronomical. Against an opponent even one level higher, the chance was already vanishingly small. Against a Gold-tier boss with high Agility, ten levels above him, the probability bordered on the impossible.

This had to be his Luck stat at work.

“Hahahaha!”

His laughter rang through the empty courtyard, echoing off the stone and blending with the soft bubbling of the spring. The exhilaration flooded through him, leaving his limbs light and his mind buzzing.

“La la la…”

Still humming, he urged his Nightmare Dragon Steed forward and approached the dissolving remains of the fiend. He activated Advanced Gathering.

Ding!

“Congratulations, Player Stonehaven. You have gathered one Pure Negative Energy Core. Gathering proficiency increased.”

“Congratulations, Player Stonehaven. You have gathered two Pure Mist Cloud Clusters. Gathering proficiency increased.

Marcus inspected the items.

—

Pure Negative Energy Core: An advanced material with a wide range of uses. If consumed by a water-element pet, it will greatly enhance the pet’s abilities.

Pure Mist Cloud Cluster: A unique treasure produced by the Two-Headed Mist-Tear Fiend. Can only be obtained with Advanced Gathering. By reciting the incantation “I am a cloud,” the user can instantly transform into a cloud and float in the air. While in this form, the user is undetectable by any monster below the Mythic tier and gains a 50% damage reduction effect. Each cluster can be used for ten hours.

—

’Not bad at all.’

And yet, the real reward was still waiting. Once the fiend’s body fully faded, several gleaming pieces of equipment were revealed beneath it, scattered across the stone floor.

A level forty Gold-tier boss never disappointed.

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