Chapter 243: Resurrection of the Wraith-Bird King

Long Chapter

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The group could not help recalling the reputation Marcus had built in previous games. Back then he had already been regarded as a freak of nature among players, someone who always seemed to uncover things others completely missed. Yet watching him in Dominion made it obvious that he had become even more of an anomaly than before.

After seeing the discoveries he casually pulled out during this fight, they could only exchange glances and sigh in collective amazement.

“Stonehaven the Knight… the guy’s a total monster.”

“Heads up, everyone! Stay sharp!” Marcus shouted.

Through his Insight skill he had already glimpsed the Wraith-Bird’s hidden traits, and what he saw made his expression tighten. The creature possessed a resurrection ability. Encounters like this rarely ended cleanly, and Marcus had no intention of lowering his guard just because the boss had dropped once.

Instead of circling at a safe distance like the others, Marcus urged his mount forward and flew directly toward the place where the bird had fallen. His eyes stayed locked on the corpse the entire time, waiting for the moment he knew was coming.

Sure enough, barely a second later the unexpected occurred.

A violent surge of grey necrotic energy burst out of the Wraith-Bird’s remains. The power twisted through the air like smoke caught in a storm, spiraling together until it condensed into the shape of a massive, ghastly skull.

“Stone, what the hell is that?” Invincible Strong yelled, unable to hide the shock in his voice.

“The Wraith-Bird is resurrecting!” Marcus replied grimly while pushing his mount even harder. If he could reach it quickly enough, he might still have a chance to suppress it before things became troublesome.

The spectral skull plunged straight back into the carcass. The Wraith-Bird’s body jerked violently as if struck by lightning, and then its wings snapped open.

The feathers were full of ragged holes, yet they looked unnaturally rigid, cold and metallic, almost like blades forged from steel.

SKREEE!

With a piercing, bone-chilling cry, the Wraith-Bird lurched back into the air. Its skeletal wings beat powerfully as it began to lift off once again.

“Go!” Marcus barked.

He had already driven his Violet Thunderwing Steed to its limits, violet sparks crackling around the creature’s wings as it surged forward. Even so, he was still about five meters short of the bird. That small distance might as well have been a wall. Worse, Desperate Strike still had ten seconds left on its cooldown.

Unable to attack, Marcus cast Insight again.

’You’ve got to be kidding me…’

The Wraith-Bird truly lived up to its status. As a Golden-tier boss, its resurrection had restored it completely. Its health bar was full, its status pristine, as though the previous battle had never happened.

“Golden bosses really are ridiculous,” Marcus muttered.

He could not help thinking about the other Golden bosses he had encountered recently. The Blood-Fiend Flower Demon in the Mist Veil Palace had possessed the demonic artifact known as the Sea Soul Demonic Jade Necklace. That item alone had nearly turned the battle upside down.

Now this Wraith-Bird possessed a resurrection skill that could trigger twice.

Golden monsters were clearly in a class of their own.

If creatures at this level were already this troublesome, Marcus could only imagine how absurd Mythic or Divine beasts would be. The thought stirred a strange excitement in him. Fighting a Mythic beast someday would be an experience worth remembering.

Unfortunately, Mythic beasts usually appeared at Level 50 or above. At his current level he could deal with high-tier Golden bosses of equal level without much trouble, but deliberately seeking out a Mythic creature right now would be nothing less than suicide.

“Kill it!”

The sudden resurrection was irritating, but the team did not hesitate.

Thunder, Fate’s Trial, and Gloomy Arrow immediately unleashed their long-range attacks, spells and arrows streaking through the sky toward the bird. If they could cut away half of its health before it escaped, Marcus would be able to finish the job with a single empowered Desperate Strike.

Watching the barrage rain down from afar, Marcus felt a brief stab of envy. As a Knight he relied heavily on close combat. Without Desperate Strike he was practically useless unless he could get within striking distance.

It was an annoying limitation.

“Damn it…”

Just as Marcus prepared to close the final gap, the Wraith-Bird suddenly flapped its wings with explosive force. A gust of grey anguish surged outward, and a thick necrotic mist rolled around its body like a curtain.

In the blink of an eye, the bird vanished.

“Stone! It used Teleport! It’s trying to bail!” Tactical Drunkard shouted.

Marcus looked upward immediately.

The Wraith-Bird had reappeared nearly a hundred meters above them. The moment it materialized it activated Wraith’s Phantasm, boosting its speed by fifty percent, and began flying straight north at full speed.

This was clearly the creature’s escape plan after resurrection. By drawing on the surrounding necrotic energy, it could instantly blink a considerable distance and create breathing room for a getaway.

“Cowardly bastard,” Marcus muttered.

Normally these creatures only tried to run when their health dropped below twenty percent. This one, however, had just resurrected at full health and had barely exchanged a single blow before turning tail.

For a High-tier boss, it was downright embarrassing.

Still, Marcus had to admit the bird was clever. The combination of resurrection and immediate escape would easily break most teams. Anyone lacking the right skills or mobility would watch the boss vanish before their eyes.

Of course, a quest that difficult almost guaranteed worthwhile rewards.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this! I’m going after it!” Marcus called back.

Without waiting for a response he wheeled the Violet Thunderwing Steed around and shot into the sky. The steed’s violet-red wings beat in steady rhythm, lightning dancing across the feathers as it surged upward in pursuit of the fleeing Wraith-Bird.

“Strong, let’s go,” Drunkard said while watching Marcus disappear into the northern sky.

“Go where?” Invincible Strong asked in confusion.

“To level up,” Drunkard replied simply.

Strong paused for a moment, then nodded. “Right. Let’s move.”

He did not need further explanation. Seeing Marcus in action inside Dominion reminded them just how far ahead their friend had already gone. They admired his strength, but none of them wanted to become someone who merely followed behind him.

Brothers shared both fortune and danger, but brotherhood did not mean clinging to someone stronger and begging for help. It meant standing shoulder to shoulder, fighting together, and earning the right to share the rewards as equals.

Respect between brothers was not given freely. It was built through effort, through growth, through proving that you could carry your own weight.

A man who survived only because others protected him was nothing more than baggage.

Invincible Strong had no intention of becoming baggage.

Everyone in their group had their own strengths, their own specialties that others could not easily replace. Looking around at the team, they knew they were surrounded by warriors who felt the same way. Proud, stubborn, unwilling to fall behind.

That was exactly why they had become brothers in the first place.

Admittedly, because of their classes, Tactical Drunkard and Strong were currently the lowest-leveled members of the group. But they did not need charity. Their skills were solid; what they lacked were the raw stats that came with higher levels.

Right now Marcus simply served as the standard they aimed to surpass.

“Stone is way too much of a freak,” Cleaver muttered while scratching his chin. “I need to grind harder. If that guy manages to find a high-tier blade before me, I won’t even be able to beat him for it.”

“Count me in,” Gloomy Arrow said immediately. Anywhere there was action and a crowd, he was bound to show up.

“Looks like you guys are missing a tank,” DragonBlade added, puffing out his chest as though the world would stop spinning without him. “I’ll lead the way.”

“Alright, everyone, back to work,” Blaze ordered calmly. “Stone has the bird handled. He’ll message us when he’s finished.”

They trusted Marcus completely.

Far to the north, the Wraith-Bird continued beating its skeletal wings, releasing mournful cries as it fled through the air.

Marcus followed close behind, accompanied by his flying companions: the Temple Guardian, the Shadow-Stained Gryphon King, and the Sea Demon Soul. With all three pets soaring alongside him, he could not help feeling a bit proud. Any player who saw this formation would probably turn green with envy.

The only drawback was that the Wraith-Bird was a High-tier Golden boss. The Sea Demon Soul’s Taunting Light had no effect on such a powerful creature. The bird ignored them entirely and focused solely on escape.

“You cowardly, shameless piece of work!” Marcus shouted at its retreating back. “Just run then. Can’t you fight properly for once?”

With Wraith’s Phantasm boosting its speed by fifty percent, the Wraith-Bird maintained a frustrating lead. Even with all his own buffs active, Marcus could barely keep pace. The distance between them hovered around a hundred meters, stubbornly refusing to shrink.

It was maddening.

Fortunately the skill only lasted ten minutes before entering cooldown. When the buff finally faded, the bird’s speed dropped noticeably. After another ten minutes of relentless pursuit, Marcus and his flying companions began to close the gap.

“Pebble, take it down!”

“Desperate Strike!”

The moment the bird entered range, Marcus and the Temple Guardian acted simultaneously. Each of them hurled a Level 30 longsword toward the target.

-3500, -5000!

The Temple Guardian scored a critical hit, while Marcus’s strike landed normally. Even so, the burst damage was not quite enough to kill the boss.

“Damn.”

Marcus waited thirty seconds for the cooldown to reset. Then he drew another longsword, took aim, and threw again.

“Desperate Strike!”

SKREEE!

The Wraith-Bird released one final agonized shriek as its health bar finally emptied.

For a Level 30 Golden boss, it was an embarrassingly one-sided end. The creature had not even managed to fight back properly. Under Marcus’s relentless pursuit it had been reduced to little more than prey struggling helplessly against the inevitable.

Its body tumbled from the sky like a falling star, tracing a long arc toward the ground below.

Marcus angled his mount downward to follow the corpse, but before he could reach it the scene repeated itself.

Grey necrotic energy erupted from the falling body once more. The familiar spectral skull formed in the air and plunged straight into the bird’s chest.

SKREEE!

The Wraith-Bird rose again.

Marcus stared in disbelief. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m the one who should be complaining here.”

In this world monsters ate people, and people killed monsters. That was simply the natural order of things. Yet this bird behaved as if it were the victim in the whole affair.

The resurrected Wraith-Bird spread its wings and released another cloud of grey mist. The necrotic energy was not only restoring its life but also fueling its skills.

In the next instant it teleported a hundred meters ahead again, activated Wraith’s Phantasm, and resumed its desperate flight.

“A fifty percent resurrection chance and it triggers every time. That’s some luck,” Marcus remarked, half impressed despite his irritation.

He urged his steed forward and restarted the chase.

The bird flew as though its life truly depended on it. Watching its frantic escape, Marcus began to suspect it might be heading somewhere specific. Perhaps it was trying to reach another powerful monster and call for help.

With another twenty minutes of pursuit ahead of him, his thoughts began to drift.

If the bird really was leading him into a trap, things could get messy. And if he somehow failed to bring back the Black-Wraith Feather for Fate’s Trial, he would never hear the end of it. The so-called “Top-ranked player in Dominion” would become the laughingstock of the entire group.

“Forget it,” he muttered to himself. “No point thinking about the worst-case scenario.”

If he needed a better distraction, there was always one reliable option.

“Summon Lyanna!”

With a flash of light, Lyanna appeared beside him.

She was clearly designed as one of the system’s masterpieces, flawless in a way that almost felt unreal. Clad in gleaming armor and radiating the calm authority of a battlefield commander, she rode atop her Glacier Ice Dragon as it glided smoothly through the sky beside Marcus.

He glanced at her from the corner of his eye.

Her expression remained cool and composed, her posture elegant, every line of her figure perfectly proportioned. She looked less like a summoned companion and more like a goddess of war descending from myth.

Marcus suddenly felt an impulse to pull her closer, but he restrained himself with a sigh.

“Too bad our intimacy level isn’t high enough yet.”

It was a shame she had not developed true consciousness. For now she could neither speak nor interact with him beyond following commands.

Still, Marcus felt confident about one thing.

If Lyanna ever did start talking, he was fairly certain his silver tongue could charm that intimacy level upward in no time.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep