Wang Qianduo eyed the boss, which was called an elite but was actually a leader, and felt a headache coming on.
Huge creatures like this were the kind he was worst at fighting. They had the same attack power of 210, but one was about as big as his mecha, while the other was as big as a mountain. If both attacked Wang Qianduo at once, each could take 140 to 150 of his HP.
A small monster's attack ended as soon as it hit, but a large one could come with all sorts of effects, like knockback, crushing, crippling, or stunning.
Sure, big monsters were usually slow and harder to hit than small ones. But to Old Wang, wasn't it all the same?
He'd made it this far, so he had to take it on, no matter how hard it was! If he died, so be it; if he survived, he'd live to fight another day. Just go for it!
A golden glint flashed in Wang Qianduo's eyes as he activated Fiery Golden Eyes' Weakness Attack. A bolt of lightning struck the Elite Demon Rat as it drank.
Weakness Critical Hit -5180, Stunned 0.2s
The Demon Rat had lost more than a quarter of its health to the lightning bolt. Its tiny eyes, comically out of proportion with its body, scanned the surroundings before quickly spotting the culprit on the other side of the lake.
It reared up and charged toward him in a rage.
The moment it stepped into the lake, its enormous body sent a huge wave surging across the water.
The other rats drinking at the shore were swept away. Wang Qianduo was nearly knocked back by the water as well, interrupting his skill.
The Elite Demon Rat's movements carried an unstoppable force, thanks to its size.
But its speed was... pretty awful.
Wang Qianduo wasn't in much of a hurry. The more critical the moment, the calmer he became.
He steadily charged his skill, and a sphere made entirely of mana gradually formed in his hand.
This was the Fine Grade skill he'd bought, [Charged Mana Bolt], an advanced version of Mana Bolt.
Like Charged Slash, it grew more powerful the longer he charged it, dealing up to 350% of his attack power in damage.
The huge monster was painfully slow. By the time the Elite Demon Rat was about to reach Wang Qianduo, he'd already finished charging his skill.
The mana orb curved through the air and struck the Demon Rat squarely under the chin. Its tremendous power triggered the skill's hidden effect, flipping the creature into the lake.
Weakness Critical Hit -3710, Knockback
The rush of water carried Wang Qianduo away from the Demon Rat's vicinity—he'd really just been swept away. He swung the Minghong Blade, and another orb crackling with electricity struck the Elite Demon Rat.
Weakness Critical Hit -1690, Paralyzed 0.1s
This was what made Fiery Golden Eyes so ridiculous. Three skills guaranteed to hit a weak point had taken more than half the boss's health.
After those three skills, Wang Qianduo immediately retreated. From a distance, he hurled an Elemental Orb at the rat. This time it was a Fireball, and it didn't crit.
-367
A modest, unremarkable number appeared above the boss. This was the damage he could normally deal.
At the same time, the Elite Demon Rat reared up again, furious after taking one heavy blow after another.
Squeak!!!
It let out a strangely unthreatening roar, and a layer of gray energy covered its body.
Then, with a casual sweep of its paw, it sent a gray boulder several meters across hurtling toward Wang Qianduo.
Wang Qianduo couldn't dodge in time, so he had no choice but to activate his Energy Shield and take the hit.
-202
The blow left Wang Qianduo's shield dim and on the verge of breaking apart.
Critical Hit -720
Wang Qianduo refused to back down and took the opportunity to hurl an Elemental Orb at it. The Demon Rat was unlucky enough to get hit by a critical.
But thanks to its Petrified Body skill, the Elite Demon Rat resisted much of the damage.
Furious, the Elite Demon Rat hurled two more rocks at Wang Qianduo, but this time Old Wang had seen it coming and dodged them.
Wang Qianduo realized that his piloting skills weren't quite as bad as he'd thought. Flying through the air made it easy to dodge the Elite Demon Rat's attacks.
But he couldn't stop moving. Apart from Elemental Orb, Wang Qianduo couldn't use any of his other attack skills.
He could charge skills while running on the ground, but he couldn't do it while flying through the air. The two were on completely different levels of difficulty.
At Wang Qianduo's current skill level, he had to hover in place to use skills in the air, and he didn't dare do that.
His defense was high enough that one hit from the Demon Rat wouldn't kill him, but its immense strength would interrupt his casting.
If he stopped, he'd take a hit without getting his skill off.
And he didn't dare land either, because one of the Demon Rat's skills was called Earth Spike.
It was a common skill that summoned spikes from underground to attack enemies. It was extremely fast and hard to dodge, yet didn't consume much energy.
He'd get hit if he landed, so all he could do was slowly whittle the Demon Rat down with Elemental Orb.
Still, Wang Qianduo had a bad feeling. Sure enough, when the Elite Demon Rat's health fell to a quarter, it stopped attacking Wang Qianduo in the air and began digging underground.
Wang Qianduo immediately began charging Lightning Chain. Just as the Elite Demon Rat was about to disappear underground, an arc of electricity shot from his hand.
Critical Hit -2550
The Demon Rat had its back turned toward Wang Qianduo. There were no weak points there, so he couldn't land a Weakness Critical Hit.
Getting a critical at all was already lucky, but the Elite Demon Rat still disappeared into the ground.
Wang Qianduo didn't dare follow it into that enormous hole. Underground was its home turf, and fighting it there would be suicide.
He slowly descended to the ground, trying to find a way to draw it out.
But the moment he landed, everything changed. A huge claw burst from underground.
Wang Qianduo activated his shield at once, but the claw punched straight through it and struck the chest of Unit Zero.
-223
-15
The force knocked him back. The damage wasn't much, but it had scratched the armor on Unit Zero's chest.
The claw darted back underground before Wang Qianduo had a chance to counterattack.
What made the situation even trickier was that the Demon Rat's health was slowly recovering.
Wang Qianduo took a moment to think, then narrowed his eyes and landed again.
Sure enough, the moment he touched down, the Elite Demon Rat struck again and sent him flying.
After recovering a little, Wang Qianduo landed again, only to be smacked into the air once more.
Then came the fourth time. This time, the attack wasn't a claw. It was the creature's enormous mouth, seemingly capable of devouring everything.
-248
The Elite Demon Rat clamped its jaws around Wang Qianduo, but that was exactly the moment Old Wang had been waiting for.
He thrust the Minghong Blade toward the Elite Demon Rat's eye. A regular two-hit thrust followed by a normal attack—four consecutive strikes landed in the same spot.
Weak Point Break -290
Weak Point Break -261
Weak Point Break -260
Weakness Critical Hit -681
A string of damage numbers appeared, leaving the Elite Demon Rat on the brink of death.
The intense pain sent it into a Rampage. It flung Wang Qianduo to the ground, knocking more than 200 HP off Old Wang.
Then he saw mana gathering around the Elite Demon Rat's paws as it lunged toward the ground.
"Fly! Fly! Get airborne!"
The skill was obviously its ultimate move, Earthquake Slam, but Wang Qianduo didn't panic. He focused all his attention on driving the Thruster.
Just as the Elite Demon Rat was about to bring its skill down, Wang Qianduo finally managed to take off, narrowly escaping danger.
He watched as the Elite Demon Rat slammed both paws into the ground. The earth collapsed, and a shock wave spread outward from the point of impact.
Everything in the area was destroyed by the impact. The gust of air it kicked up sent Wang Qianduo tumbling backward through the sky.
-370
The highest damage he'd taken so far appeared above Wang Qianduo's head, leaving him shaken.
That was only the aftershock. If he hadn't taken off in time, he might have been badly injured—or even killed.
Meanwhile, the violent impact sent shock waves through the underground world.
The many players who had followed Wang Qianduo down all looked toward the source of the noise. Some immediately headed over to investigate.
The nearest group was only a few minutes away.
Wang Qianduo knew nothing about this. He was focused on the Elite Demon Rat in front of him.
His opponent was already running out of tricks, but he didn't want to let his guard down and mess up at the last moment.
His own HP was low too, but he chose not to use a Potion. Better to save it if he could, right?
Weakness Critical Hit -1647
After a brief standoff, Wang Qianduo caught it off guard and sent a light-element Elemental Orb flying into the Demon Rat's mouth. The massive damage took the last of its HP.
Experience +5000
"System Notice: You can level up!"
After killing the Elite Demon Rat, Wang Qianduo finally had enough experience to go from level six to level seven.
He didn't hesitate and chose to level up. His status was restored at the same time.
He'd reached level seven in just a few days. It was the kind of pace most people wouldn't even dare dream of.
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