The Fifth Wave Arrived

Twenty mixed monsters, ranging from level 8 to level 9.

Little Drill Wind went out to meet them again.

Su Mu's gaze followed his every movement.

He had originally thought this was probably Little Drill Wind's limit.

After all, by the fourth wave, the monsters' numbers and levels had reached a terrifying point. No matter how strong Little Drill Wind's combat skills were, there would come a time when he ran out of strength and got hurt.

But that did not happen.

Little Drill Wind fought through the entire wave. Apart from breathing harder than before, he still had no wounds on him.

Su Mu fell silent.

He finally understood that his earlier assessment of this "special dungeon" had been too conservative.

The fifth wave arrived.

The rift widened farther than before, and dark red light surged from its depths, flowing along the ground like blood.

Nineteen elite goblins charged out first.

They were all level 10.

Every one of them stood over 2.2 meters tall. Their scale armor had clearly been reinforced, and a faint bloody glow wreathed their weapons.

And behind those sixteen elites, an even larger figure slowly emerged from the rift.

It was a monstrous goblin over three meters tall.

Its skin was dark red and rough as rock, and the muscles bulging across its back were like small mountains. What it carried was not a weapon, but a stone pillar uprooted from the ground, with dirt and fragments of rock still clinging to it.

Su Mu glanced at its panel.

Name: Goblin Warlord (nightmare boss)

Rank: B

Level: 10

Health: 28500/28500

Attack: 960

Defense: 620

Speed: 105

Combat index: 15552

Skills: Furious Hammer Strike (area attack, deals double damage and inflicts stun), Warlord's Command (increases surrounding goblins' attack by 20%)

Su Mu's eyelid twitched.

These stats surpassed the final boss of the hard dungeon in every respect.

Twenty-eight thousand five hundred health, nearly a thousand attack, and six hundred and twenty defense. With the nineteen level 10 elites working alongside it, this wave's overall strength exceeded the previous four waves combined.

What was more, level 10 against level 5 meant level suppression.

The rules of this world were clear: for every level of difference, the higher-level side gained a 2% bonus to damage dealt to the lower-level side and a 2% reduction to damage received. A five-level gap meant a 10% difference in both directions.

It did not look like much, but in a clash of this intensity, a 10% damage bonus and reduction were often the dividing line between life and death.

Little Drill Wind felt the pressure.

Su Mu could tell from the fact that, for the first time, he stopped charging on his own initiative and assumed a defensive stance.

The Goblin Warlord let out a low roar and slammed its stone pillar hard into the ground.

Amid the dull, thunderous impact, the sixteen elite goblins all let out piercing shrieks and closed in around Little Drill Wind.

Their coordination was better than that of any previous wave.

In groups of four, they advanced simultaneously from the front, left, and right, while the four in the rear circled toward the Lion Camel Ridge stone stele, cutting off Little Drill Wind's retreat.

This was another advantage that came with levels... higher-level monsters' intelligence also rose accordingly.

They no longer charged forward in a disorderly mob. Instead, they began deliberately dividing the battlefield and blocking escape routes.

If it were a one-on-one fight, Su Mu would not have worried at all.

But here, twenty were attacking at once, including a warlord whose stats were not much lower than Little Drill Wind's.

More importantly, Little Drill Wind was currently the only combat card in his dungeon space.

No reinforcements, no traps, no backup plan of any kind.

"I'm counting on you," Su Mu said to Little Drill Wind.

Little Drill Wind did not respond.

He merely narrowed his eyes and held his short blade across his body, a glimmer of dark red light reflected on its edge.

The next moment, he charged forward.

A gray shadow flashed like lightning.

The short blade went straight for the nearest goblin's neck.

The blade cut into flesh, but the sensation it transmitted made Su Mu's heart sink.

"It's tougher than before." He saw clearly that the blade had cut halfway into the neck before catching on bone.

A level 10 monster's defense and health were already beyond anything a level 9 monster could match.

The goblin roared in pain and swept its axe backhanded. Little Drill Wind pulled out his blade and retreated, drawing a spray of green blood.

But he had not killed it in one hit.

The other goblins had already closed in from the sides.

They were no longer a rabble, each fighting on its own.

Four on the left raised their shields and pressed forward, five on the right circled behind to block the way, and six in front advanced step by step alongside the warlord.

Little Drill Wind was surrounded.

The gray figure charged left and right within the encirclement. As his blade flashed, goblins were continually slashed and driven back.

But every time he tried to break through in one direction, at least three weapons came at him simultaneously.

At last, he was forced into a tight spot.

The instant he dodged a Heavy Strike from the warlord, a goblin behind him had already swung its iron axe down without a sound.

Little Drill Wind instinctively turned sideways, but another goblin on his left was charging at him with its shield raised.

Both directions were blocked at once.

The iron axe cut across his back, opening a bloody gash.

Dark bluish-black droplets of blood sprayed into the air.

Su Mu's pupils contracted slightly.

"He's hurt."

He had long been mentally prepared, but when he actually saw it, his heart still tightened involuntarily for an instant.

And he knew that blow had been unavoidable.

Not because Little Drill Wind's combat skills were lacking.

But because sheer numbers had pinned him down.

No matter how fast he was, there was not enough room inside the encirclement for him to make use of his speed.

Monster attacks came pouring in from every direction at once. No matter which way you dodged, you would run into at least one weapon.

The slight disadvantage in stats, magnified by their numbers, had become a deadly gulf.

If Little Drill Wind could kill the lesser monsters with one strike each as before, he could easily use his speed to create openings and defeat them one by one. But now, these level 10 monsters were too tanky. If one strike could not kill them, he had to follow up with a second. The time spent on that second strike gave the other monsters a chance to gang up on him.

"This is bad." Su Mu instinctively clenched his fists.

But just then, Little Drill Wind did something Su Mu had not expected.

Rather than continuing to fight head-on inside the encirclement, he turned and ran.

He raced at full speed toward the depths of Lion Camel Ridge.

He went all out.

Su Mu was stunned for a moment, then realized what was happening.

Little Drill Wind was going to lure the monster horde away.

He would use the terrain of Lion Camel Ridge to scatter the monsters clustered together, then pick them off one by one.

He had used a similar move in the hard dungeon, but back then it had been more a matter of instinct.

This time, he was doing it deliberately, with a plan.

He ran fast, but always maintained a delicate distance, letting the monster horde behind him keep up without being able to surround him.

The warlord led the charge, its crimson eyes locked on Little Drill Wind, its heavy footsteps cracking the mountain rocks.

The twenty goblins were strung out into a long line.