Thanks to Eske's "special treatment," Ye Fengxing had become a "Dragonkin Guard Squad Leader." His level had temporarily risen to 20, and he was now an elite-tier badass to boot. Compared with the ordinary Dragonkin Guards, he was basking in considerably more glory.
What sort of character was Ye Fengxing? Calling him a ravenous wolf or tiger hardly did him justice; a bandit or robber came a little closer! He charged ahead of everyone else, sharing the lead with Eske. An instant before they collided with the "enemy troops," he suddenly dropped into a roll. A gleaming blade darted out from beneath his arm at a wicked angle, neatly shearing several hairy legs off a Scarab General!
With a flick of his blade tip, the Scarab General flew into the air and landed far away in front of the Dragonkin camp.
Nobody paid any attention to the wretched giant bug, because someone else was stealing the show!
Before Eske had even made a move, Ye Fengxing had stormed to the front and taken down a key enemy combatant! Nor did he pause. Pointing at another Scarab General, he roared, "Brothers, follow me and cut them down!"
The Dragonkin Guards instinctively charged after him. Before the two sides could engage, Ye Fengxing unleashed Ashavante's Afterglow, and every bug, large and small, dropped to its knees in perfect unison!
As for the unlucky fellow Ye Fengxing had singled out, the Dragonkin Guards surrounded it completely. More than a dozen pairs of gleaming blades danced over its body, and its Health Points poured away in an unstoppable torrent...
In less than fifteen seconds, that unfortunate Scarab General had been thoroughly violated by a gang of bandit-like Dragonkin Guards without getting a chance to fight back.
"Second one!" someone shouted. His two blades had barely struck the last remaining Scarab General before more than a dozen pairs of blades, sword edges, and spearheads followed, their movements astonishingly synchronized.
The Scarab General fought back a few times, declaring through its actions that it would rather die than suffer humiliation! Unfortunately, its opponents were ravenous wolves and tigers just then. Their great blades cared nothing for its dignity. Their squad leader had said, "Cut it down!" so they would hack it to the ground first and worry about everything else later!
"Captain!" Ye Fengxing shouted at Eske. The Dragonkin Guard Captain, whose subordinate had completely stolen his thunder, paused and turned to look at him.
Ye Fengxing tilted his head toward the King of the Scarabs nearby and gave Eske a meaningful look. Eske understood immediately. With a roar, he swung his two broad axes and brought them crashing down on the King of the Scarabs with tremendous force.
How could the King of the Scarabs not be enraged by that blow? He lowered his head, aimed his horn at Eske, and drove it forward.
Horn Thrust: Strikes an enemy target with the horn, dealing 800 damage, with a chance to pierce the target's body and inflict additional bleeding and piercing damage.
Eske clearly knew how dangerous this skill was. He stepped back slightly and swept his broad axe upward at his opponent's horn.
Ye Fengxing narrowed his eyes, then suddenly swung a blade into one of the King of the Scarabs' legs. It was an exquisitely chosen spot, precisely where the boss was bracing himself, and Ye Fengxing struck it dead-on. With a sharp crack, the boss's enormous body lurched sideways and collapsed on a buckling leg.
Eske's axe had been aimed at his opponent's horn, but the lumbering brute suddenly twitched as though having a fit, throwing his entire head upward... And so the axe landed squarely on the boss's chin.
-1778! Critical hit! Vital strike!
"Damn it, even his legs are this tough?" Ye Fengxing glanced at the boss's leg in astonishment. There was not even a scratch on it. That was downright ridiculous!
Eske also looked surprised, clearly not expecting a casual strike to hit a vital spot. The big brute had now flown into a rage and was fixated entirely on him, lunging and thrusting his horn without sparing anyone else a glance.
Seeing that Eske had secured the King of the Scarabs' aggro, Ye Fengxing pulled away. A glance back showed that the Scarab General was nearly finished too. He immediately pointed a blade at a Scarab Guard Captain and shouted, "Third one!"
More than a dozen pairs of coldly gleaming blades instantly engulfed the poor little elite. Some spear-wielding Dragonkin Guards on the outskirts could not even squeeze in, so they had to jump up and stab wildly into the crowd. The scene was... absolutely explosive!
The Scarab General Ye Fengxing had launched away earlier crawled back. Its aggro was focused entirely on him, and before it reached melee range, it lunged at him with a Charge.
Ye Fengxing abruptly twisted around and swung both arms. His two great blades flew from his hands with a strange, whistling howl and sank into the Scarab General's head with a thunk.
It was a beautiful strike! Once Charge activated, a character moved extremely fast. Hitting a target traveling at that speed required excellent eyesight and skill.
The Scarab General wailed, its hairy legs suddenly losing their strength. It fell flat and scraped along the ground toward him on its own momentum. Ye Fengxing judged its path and shifted slightly aside, avoiding the charge. Then he leaped onto the Scarab General's head, pulled out both blades, and hacked and stabbed wildly at the unfortunate giant bug's eyes.
"Brothers, cut it down!" Even then, he did not forget to issue orders, summoning his gang of lackeys to serve as accomplices.
Of course the Dragonkin Guards would not pass up such a fine opportunity to kick an enemy while it was down. They were all system-controlled NPCs, and their movements could not have been more synchronized. Their blades rose and fell... with a distinct rhythm to them. Even with its high defense and enormous health pool, the Scarab General could not withstand a beating from dozens of vanguard-tier NPCs over level 20...
Once the three commander-tier monsters fell, the remaining elites and vanguards found themselves in the awkward position of being troops without a general... From then on, whenever Ye Fengxing pointed his blade, another monster obediently dropped to its knees! Before long, all the lesser monsters had been slaughtered, leaving only the King of the Scarabs, a commander without an army, fighting alone.
There was nothing more to say. Boss Eske had been tanking the boss all this time and deserved thanks for his hard work. How could his underlings do anything but charge bravely forward and ease his burden?
Ye Fengxing led the charge, springing into the air and driving both blades at a cunning angle into the gap between the King of the Scarabs' head and body. Fluids splattered from the boss, and a huge damage number popped up.
Before Ye Fengxing could do anything else, the bandit-like Dragonkin Guards came rushing after him. They surrounded the boss and relentlessly pummeled him with blades, swords, and spears.
The King of the Scarabs was enormous and looked terrifying, but his size also meant more melee units could attack him at once! When the Dragonkin Guards had surrounded the Scarab Generals, they had been unable to bring their full strength to bear, leaving plenty of them loitering uselessly on the outskirts. Now every one of them could comfortably claim a spot and beat the big brute senseless.
As a level 20 boss, the King of the Scarabs had quite a few skills. With a whole crowd hacking away at him, surely he could not just take it without responding?
The King of the Scarabs suddenly raised his body and slammed down with a boom... A ring of blue light swept out across the ground, sending the Dragonkin Guards flying. They landed in a scattered heap more than twenty meters away! Even Eske was hurled seven or eight meters back, instantly leaving a wide stretch of empty space in front of the boss.
Savage Slam: Knocks all enemy targets within a 270-degree arc around the user airborne and reduces their movement speed by 70% for 10 seconds. Also deals 2,050-2,500 damage to up to 5 primary targets. Secondary targets take 50% damage.
The skill was quite powerful. After all, launching enemies into the air was the flashiest effect around. Though it did not prevent anyone from using skills, no other crowd-control effect could match its visual impact!
The Dragonkin Guards had been hurled far away and saddled with a ten-second slow. They shuffled back in tiny, tottering steps. Eske, however, proved worthy of being the Dragonkin Guard Captain: he immediately used Charge to rush back and resumed hacking furiously at the boss.
Ye Fengxing narrowed his eyes. That charge had been beautifully executed, a genuine pleasure to watch.
Being knocked airborne was different from being knocked back. Once launched, a character traveled very quickly! Charge, meanwhile, had range restrictions. Too close, and there was no path to charge along; too far, and the skill could not reach.
The King of the Scarabs' Savage Slam could launch enemies more than twenty meters away, beyond the reach of an ordinary Charge. Only someone with sufficiently fast inputs could turn around and charge back while still airborne.
Of course, input speed was irrelevant to a system-controlled NPC. Its programming might simply read: when the distance to the attack target is greater than 6 meters but less than 20 meters, immediately use Charge if it is off cooldown.
That sort of thing could be as fast as necessary. Players could almost never achieve such extreme reaction and input speeds.
Ye Fengxing had been thrown back too, since he had not known the boss's skill effects beforehand. Still, he had an advantage: he was a mage and could attack at range, so he had no need to mince along like a prim young lady with the Dragonkin Guards. After being hurled away, he simply stayed where he was and cast Magic Missile. Only when the ten-second slow wore off did he run back, take up his twin blades, and resume hacking.
As an open-world boss, the King of the Scarabs had originally been designed for players to fight. At this stage, player damage was severely constrained by equipment and level, so even sheer numbers would not help much. By his estimate, it would take at least one or two hundred-player raids to successfully DOWN this giant bug. (DOWN: in online games, this generally means killing a boss.)
Now, however, a crowd of vanguard-tier NPCs over level 20 surrounded the King of the Scarabs and hacked away madly. Their damage... was nothing level 20 players could hope to match! Especially since the one tanking the boss was a level 25 commander-tier NPC! There was not a single healer in the entire "raid"; everyone was dealing damage. It was easy to imagine how quickly the boss would fall.
Eske really was impressive. Despite tanking the boss alone, he barely lost any health. He dodged or parried the vast majority of the boss's attacks, which was why he had survived this long without a healer. What a badass!
So far, the King of the Scarabs had used only three skills: Horn Thrust, Ground Spikes, and Savage Slam. As a level 20 boss, he clearly had more tricks than that, but the "bandits" surrounding him were pouring out such ferocious damage that his Health Points were nearly gone before he could use many more skills.
Generally speaking, bosses entered an "enraged" state when close to death. Their attack power rose dramatically while their defense dropped. In simple terms, it was do or die.
This phase put tremendous pressure on the tank, because one slip could spell death. The boss could usually kill any of the other raid members in a single hit, so once the tank fell, a wipe was almost inevitable.
Eske was clearly an outstanding tank. He dodged left and right, and the boss could not land a blow. Whenever the boss occasionally caught an opening, Eske swept an axe up to block, reducing the damage to almost nothing and barely losing any health.
With the boss about to fall, Ye Fengxing instead grew intensely alert. In his experience, no boss ever willingly went quietly to its death. If it did not unleash a few desperate ultimate attacks to take others down with it, it did not deserve to be called a boss.
Suddenly, the King of the Scarabs' eyes turned bright red, and a wave of heat radiated out without warning, as though heralding something...
"Brothers, fall back!" Ye Fengxing's instincts were razor-sharp. He shouted immediately and darted backward, putting plenty of distance between himself and the boss.
The Dragonkin Guards scattered after Ye Fengxing. Though they did not know why, an officer's orders had to be obeyed without question!
In an instant, the area around the boss was wide open. Only Eske remained, still tanking him.
The King of the Scarabs suddenly jerked his head upward. A blazing pillar of flame erupted from his mouth and instantly engulfed an enormous area. Eske vanished completely within it, his fate unknown...
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