The Green-Eyed Ink-Patterned Flood Dragon

At the sound of a chilling rustle drawing nearer, Xiao Fan and the other four tensed at once, forming a defensive circle with their backs to one another.

"Over there!" Xiao Fan pointed toward the bushes to the southeast.

Chen Xuewei and the others turned at his call. A massive creature burst through the vegetation, weaving toward them at astonishing speed.

It was a giant flood dragon covered in dark green scales. A dim sheen flickered between them, and its barrel-thick body stirred up waves of rank air as it slithered forward. Most terrifying of all were its emerald-green, vertical pupils, cold and utterly devoid of emotion.

Name: Green-Eyed Ink-Patterned Flood Dragon,

Level: 3 (Wild Boss)

HP: 500/500

"Th-this is a level-three Wild Boss..." Zhang Yuanyuan's voice trembled uncontrollably. Her knuckles had gone white as she gripped her whip. "We're only level two..."

"Didn't the Principal say the Cloud Sea Forest only had level-one and level-two Fierce Beasts? How can there be a level-three Wild Boss? The books say Wild Bosses are incredibly powerful. There's no way we can take it on." Zhang Chao's voice broke, as if he might fall apart at any moment.

"Can we still run?" Little Fatty asked, his hand shaking as he held his shield.

Chen Xuewei took a deep breath, forcing down her fear, and shook her head. "It's much faster than us. We can't get away now!"

Xiao Fan stared at the enormous Boss before them, cold sweat running down his forehead. He forced himself to stay calm.

"What do we do?"

In the blink of an eye, the Green-Eyed Ink-Patterned Flood Dragon had closed in. It raised its massive head high, its crimson tongue flickering rapidly in the air as it hissed, sending chills down their spines.

Then the Green-Eyed Ink-Patterned Flood Dragon swept its massive tail toward them.

"Spread out first. Take turns drawing its attention, and the rest of you attack whenever you get the chance. Aim for its weak spot, seven inches below its head."

In that split second, Xiao Fan barked out his orders.

Chen Xuewei and the others had no time to think. The instant Xiao Fan finished speaking, they instinctively did as he said.

The four quickly changed formation, positioning themselves in four directions around the Green-Eyed Ink-Patterned Flood Dragon.

As the flood dragon's tail swept past empty air, Little Fatty looked at the shield in his hands, gritted his teeth, and charged forward, slamming it into the creature.

-3 HP

An embarrassingly small number appeared above the Green-Eyed Ink-Patterned Flood Dragon.

"Damn, how are we supposed to fight this thing?" Fatty yelped.

Chen Xuewei reacted fastest. Seizing the chance, she used her skill against the Green-Eyed Ink-Patterned Flood Dragon.

-12 HP

It was a little better than Fatty's hit, but not by much.

While her skill was on cooldown, Chen Xuewei saw another opening and swung her sword.

-9 HP

Zhang Chao and Zhang Yuanyuan saw this and hurriedly used their own skills.

-9 HP

-8 HP

The four of them dealt 41 damage in that round of attacks, not even taking off a tenth of the Green-Eyed Ink-Patterned Flood Dragon's health.

The four were overcome with despair.

"Help!" Fatty's pig-like squeal rang out.

He had been the first to attack, so the Green-Eyed Ink-Patterned Flood Dragon had locked onto him.

Seeing this, Xiao Fan hurriedly shouted.

"Quick! Take its aggro!"

At his call, Chen Xuewei immediately thrust her sword toward the flood dragon's weak spot.

-15 HP

The Green-Eyed Ink-Patterned Flood Dragon's defense was still too high!

"Ah!"

Chen Xuewei was a step too slow. With a scream, Fatty was sent flying by a vicious strike.

At the critical moment, he used his skill to mitigate some of the damage. Even so, his health had dropped by more than half.

Fortunately, Chen Xuewei had drawn the creature's attention, and the Green-Eyed Ink-Patterned Flood Dragon didn't continue attacking Fatty.

Seeing this, Xiao Fan hurried over with a bandage to treat him.

Fatty stared at him in disbelief. "Bro, I've got internal injuries. What good is a bandage?"

Xiao Fan paused, then kept wrapping the bandage around him anyway. Only when he saw that Fatty's health hadn't increased at all did he reluctantly let go and turn to Chen Xuewei and the other two.

Following Xiao Fan's strategy, Chen Xuewei and the others had chipped away 100 points of the Green-Eyed Ink-Patterned Flood Dragon's health. But he could still tell something was wrong.

The Green-Eyed Ink-Patterned Flood Dragon was incredibly fast. Xiao Fan's method of keeping it at a distance left no room for error; without Fatty, the other three couldn't afford even one mistake.

"Xiao Fan, we can't hold on much longer!" Chen Xuewei was covered in dirt and looked nothing like the goddess she had seemed before.

"Let me think of something." Xiao Fan was taut with tension. He opened the game screen and looked at the skill-creation option.

"Looks like I can't save that skill-creation chance after all."

Each of the four had only one skill, and their attacks were limited. Aside from Zhang Yuanyuan's Long Whip, which could barely count as a ranged weapon, the rest were all melee.

In a situation like this, they wouldn't be able to deal with the Green-Eyed Ink-Patterned Flood Dragon without a ranged support skill.

"Sigh, I'd wanted to get more traits before creating a skill, but I don't have a choice now."

Xiao Fan sighed.

"Create skill."

"Please create a skill for your character."

Xiao Fan quickly finished writing the skill and pressed Confirm.

"Skill creation complete. Our review found that this skill has never appeared in the game before. It requires system approval, and there is a chance it may fail. Would you like to proceed?"

"Confirm."

"Skill under review. Please wait."

"Ah!"

A scream rang out. Xiao Fan looked up and saw that Zhang Yuanyuan had made a mistake.

Fortunately, Chen Xuewei reacted quickly and drew the creature's attention in time.

"Xiao Fan, think of something!" Chen Xuewei's face was deathly pale, and she was already severely exhausted.

Xiao Fan's face blanched as he stared at the screen, frantic with worry.

"Come on! Hurry! Hurry up!"

"Congratulations, player! Skill creation successful. Would you like to view it now?"

At last, the system's heavenly voice rang out.

"View!"

The answer came without hesitation.

Skill Name: Gift of the Saint (Upgradeable)

Skill Rank: Heaven Rank

Skill Description: When activated, consumes 50 mana to create a pure Radiant Domain centered on the caster. All allied units within range immediately gain 30 points of [Holy Light Shield], have their movement speed increased by 50%, and have all negative status effects removed. They also receive [Gift] for 15 seconds: restores 5 health every second.

Cooldown: 120 seconds

Creation Attributes: Intelligence 10 (+) Spirit 10 (+) Constitution 10 (+)

Creation Trait: Saint (Unique)

Seeing the three tens in the creation attributes, Xiao Fan sucked in a sharp breath.

That was close! If he hadn't bought attribute points earlier, the skill might have failed to create.

"Powerful skills really do need to be created with care."

Xiao Fan took a deep breath. He had originally wanted to create a weakening skill that could restrict the Green-Eyed Ink-Patterned Flood Dragon's movements. That would have made it much easier to fight.

But the only trait he had was Saint, and he was afraid the skill might fail if it didn't match the trait.

In the end, he had chosen to create Gift of the Saint.

"Although it doesn't weaken the enemy, a fifty-percent speed boost and the removal of all negative status effects will be more than enough."