We got off the walls and gathered inside the city. No one dared to go further than that.

Boom!

A sword beam erupted from inside the great hall of Skull Castle again and sliced it into four separate pieces. The sinister-looking structure quickly crumbled into ruins.

"Run, the boss is coming!"

A Level 84 mage with an active Magic Shield shouted while he was running away from the ruins. Judging from the emblem on his shoulder, he was a player from Daybreak City and a guild leader no less. He and his guild members managed to enter the royal palace first, but the boss surprised everyone by exiting its own lair. As a result, they encountered the boss just as they were entering the great hall.

Swhoosh!

A blood-red sword energy blast hit the mage and the players surrounding him, tearing his Magic Shield apart and one-shotting all of them!

……

"Fuck…"

Xu Yang growled. "This is one OP boss!"

He Yi took two steps backward and grabbed my wrist as if she was afraid that I would let my impulsiveness get to my head and get myself killed. She was overthinking things. The boss was clearly powerful, and I had neither the intention nor the confidence to tank it. At most, I might take advantage of the chaos around me to do something.

Meanwhile, Lin Yixin was standing atop the edge of a shattered wall while surrounded by Purple Marquis, Clear Perfume, Shadow Chanel and other Snowy Cathaya experts. The Fruit Knife Goddess looked so impressive in her battle robes that a ton of players forgot their surroundings. Literally. I said that because some of them actually forgot to run away from the boss and got murdered by its destructive sword aura!

A cold wind blew against our skin as a high-level undead general finally came into full view. He wore a craggy dragonskin armor that glowed, and a white cape behind his back. He wielded a translucent sword, and a black metal helmet covered his face completely. The imposing boss coldly stared at the invaders with his blood-red pupils.

"Are you here to kill me, foolish human adventurers? Come at me then. My Arctic Storm will drink every last drop of your blood!"

The boss roared and raised his weapon. The sword was probably the "Arctic Storm" he was talking about, and it seemed like a wind-based weapon. I had no doubt that it had insane attack speed, and it was at least a Purple Gold–grade weapon. How enviable!

After we got close enough to the boss, its stats screen entered our vision—

Iron Skull General Wind Fury (Epic Rank Boss)

Level: 100

Attack: 1320~1550

Defense: 1200

HP: 2400000

Skills: Nightmare Strangle, War Crush, Earth’s Fury

Introduction: Ten thousand years ago during the battle of gods and devils, Dragon Speaker Bing Lan sealed away the cracks of hell at the cost of her own life. Unfortunately, a group of evil spirits still managed to enter the continent and sought for a way to reverse the effects of her magic. Iron Skull General Wind Fury was one of the evil spirits’ leaders and the master of Skull Castle. This powerful monster was one of the humans and elves’ greatest mortal enemies.

……

"Fuck…"

I sucked in a deep breath and shuddered after I was done reading its stats screen. He was an Epic Rank boss, putting him above Dark Gold Rank and Purple Gold Rank bosses, and his stats reflected this rank well. Not even I was confident that I could take a strong hit with 1550 Attack behind it, not to mention that its health was a ludicrous 2.4 million HP. How could we possibly take this boss down?

Stunned by what she was seeing, He Yi looked at me and asked, "What should we do?" Clearly, this was one of those bosses whose stats were available for view regardless of the level disparity.

On another side, Xu Yang raised his weapon and growled, "It doesn’t matter. Let’s kill it and complete this quest already!"

I glared at him. "You’ll die if you go now."

"But…"

Xu Yang gritted his teeth. "What should we do then?"

"We wait for an opportunity to present itself."

"Mn!"

……

Just because we chose to wait didn’t mean that everyone else had arrived at the same conclusion. A group of ten thousand players poured in from the north of Skull Castle and charged fearlessly toward the boss under the command of three guild leaders. Their emblems marked them as players from Samgharama City.

The first guild leader wielding a battle axe shouted on top of his lungs, "Strike fearlessly my brothers, for your brave charge will earn a valuable attack opportunity for the rest of your comrades! For the honor of our guild and our mission as warriors, charge!"

The second guild leader wielding a bow also shouted, "We will not be underestimated by the players of Floating Ice City and Dawn City! Let this battle be the battle that spreads the tale of our absolute strength to the world! Once the super cities officially open, the warriors of Samgharama City shall unite as one and conquer Heavenblessed together!"

The boss was glaring at us at the beginning, but he looked like even he couldn’t stand the sheer arrogance of the players from Samgharama City. He turned around angrily and fired a sword aura at them!

Bang!

The sword aura traveled a ridiculous distance and slaughtered every player in its path, but that was just the beginning. After counter-charging and landing in the middle of the unfortunate group of players, he hit the ground with its sword and discharged a wave of lightning attack, killing everything within a 5-yard radius. Again, not one person was able to survive the powerful skill!

My jaw was about to hit the floor. That stupidly long-ranged attack seemed to be the boss's unique trait, and the skill he used to kill that group of players was the close-range AoE skill, "War Crush”. This motherfucker was ridiculously OP, and he was just an Epic Rank boss. I would probably give up and head home already if he was a Divine Rank boss.

……

The black-armored undead general swung his wind-based sword and slaughtered the players to his heart’s content. His attack speed was insane, and the cooldown on War Crush was only 7 seconds. Every time the boss used it, any player within 5 yards was instantly torn into pieces by a burst of thunder and lightning. The skill truly deserved its name!

Lin Yixin stared wide-eyed at the boss for a moment before murmuring, "What an insane boss. Look at its DPS, it’s going through those players like a lawn mower…"

I nodded. "Yeah, let’s wait a bit longer before we jump in…"

"Mn."

Not far away, Queen Sophia of the Blood Dance Legion was holding the Devil Suppressing Sword with her right hand and the Devil Suppressing Stone with her left hand. A bit of killing intent peeked out from behind her eyes as she stared sternly at Wind Fury.

On the other side, Princess Karinshan was sitting atop a white warhorse beneath the banner of the Silver Moon Alliance. Her eyes looked as calm as water, but the elite cavalry troops around her were clearly waiting for her command. One word, and they would charge and attack Wind Fury until they drew their last breath.

Of course, none of the NPCs had made a move yet, probably because it was a rule set by the system. If the players really couldn’t deal with the boss, then the NPCs would take over and defeat it. Otherwise, it would be sad as fuck if the NPCs got all the loot, and the players got nothing.

Unfortunately, it looked like the player faction was going to disappoint Sophia and Karinshan. As of now, it looked like no one could threaten Iron Skull General Wind Fury, in the slightest!

Despite having sacrificed a massive number of frontliners to buy time for the backliners to do damage, the results were heartbreaking to say the least. The boss had a whopping 1200 Defense, so most of the archers dealt less than 10 damage per hit. Those who did more than that could be considered super experts already. The mages fared slightly better, but even their strongest single-target spell, Ice Dragon Howl, couldn’t do more than 50 points of damage. The boss had both amazing Defense and Magic Resist!

……

"Lowly adventurers, you will be reincarnated in the depths of hell! Now accept the embrace of the great Night Creatures!"

Wind Fury let out a roar and flew into the sky all of a sudden. Hovering in the air, he raised the bloody sword and surrounded it with bloody flames. The longer the boss charged it, the greater the pressure we felt from the weapon. The boss was clearly preparing his ultimate move!

When he finally gathered enough energy to make the Arctic Storm look like a mini red sun, Wind Fury shouted and thrusted its weapon into the ground!

Swhoosh!

The energy-filled sword plunged into the ground like a nuclear bomb dropped on the place where the players were gathered. Everything within 200 meters of the sword started crumbling as an unbelievable amount of energy started erupting from underground. The ground shook like it was the prelude to the apocalypse!

Earth’s Fury!

A chain of explosions began as the sky darkened, and the earth wailed like evil spirits. Countless Samgharama City players turned white in shock as the earth beneath their feet cracked apart and covered them in flames!

5836!

8643!

9044!

……

The devastating damage one-shot absolutely everything within his range. The skill damage was based on the user’s Attack, which was why it was incredibly deadly in the hands of Wind Fury. If Murong Mingyue was the one who executed this skill, then it might not be powerful enough to kill even a chicken!

The entire northern square of Skull Castle was blasted into rubble. Over ten thousand players were annihilated in just the blink of an eye. This Epic Rank boss had single-handedly all but wiped out almost every player from Samgharama City!

Everyone was stunned and pissing their pants after witnessing the boss's insane power. For a time, no one dared to enter its range and draw its wrath again!

It was time. I pulled out the Purgatory Sword steadily and smiled. "Eve, Yiyi, Mingyue, Moon Dew, it’s our turn now!"

He Yi and Lin Yixin followed me closely as I walked toward the boss. Murong Mingyue asked, "Isn’t this just suicide? How are we going to beat a boss like that?"

I replied, "Do you want super equipment or not? If your answer is yes, then join us. If your answer is no, then you won’t get even a hair when it’s over…"

Murong Mingyue finally stopped hesitating and jogged after us, her robes flying and her chest bouncing up and down. The incredibly erotic scene alone could suffocate a lesser man!

Xu Yang, Gui Guzi, Beiming Xue, Purple Marquis, Shadow Chanel, and everyone else also followed us toward the boss. This was the final battle. If we succeeded, then some of us would benefit greatly from the loot. If we failed, then at least we died together!

……

A bunch of other tier 2 cities’ players continued to watch from afar while we were approaching the boss. They all wore astonished looks on their faces.

"Hey look! Aren’t those the famous expert players from Floating Ice City?"

"Yeah, I see Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, Wind Fantasy, From Water, Gui Guzi, Beiming Xue and Purple Marquis! Do you think they can beat the boss?"

"I don’t know, but I do know they’re just humans, not gods!"