Ziyu the Silver Radiance was a Level 140 Spirit Rank boss and 40 levels higher than I was. This meant that he dealt an additional 100% damage or so to me, and even the success rate of powerful skills like Thunderous Charge would be greatly reduced. Therefore, there was no way we could fight him head on unless we wanted a swift and brutal death.

……

I held my breath and watched Ziyu coldly. Then, I sucked in a deep breath and asked, "How do we fight this, Yiyi?"

But Lin Yixin looked pretty lost herself. She shook her head and replied, "I don’t know…"

"Never mind. I’ll use Dragon Slaying Slash to aggro him and Charge him afterward. If I fail to stun him, you Charge as well. After that, I will use Dragon Slaying Slash to regain the aggro while you zigzag around these twelve pillars and slow him down. Let’s see if it’s possible to kill the boss from a distance!"

"Mn!" Lin Yixin gave me a praising smile. "That actually sounds like a good strategy. Alright then!"

I nodded and pointed at a pair of totems less than three meters away from us. "It should take me around half a second to dash in from the left totem and dash out from the right, so you should time your Charge between this period…"

"Don’t worry, go!"

"Mn!"

I looked at Ziyu. It was impressive that the loyal commander was still obeying the sacred command of his dead princess, Fia, to this day. Unfortunately, the Night Creatures had extracted his soul a long time ago, and the vessel he left behind was just an undead creature overflowing with violence and killing intent.

I raised my Purgatory Sword and charged my left hand with cyan energy. The next moment, I fired a gigantic energy blade that hit him squarely on the head!

954!

I was beyond words. Fuck! Is this real? Did my Dragon Slaying Slash really deal less than a thousand damage? Just how high is this boss's Magic Resist?

The boss abruptly looked up and stared at me with murderous brown eyes. Then, he raised his fiery sword and rushed me with incredible speed!

I hastily raised my hand a second time and backed up a few steps. Then, I activated Thunderous Charge!

Whoosh!

I zipped across the floor and hit the boss like a lightning bolt, but it only resulted in a big fat MISS. The next moment, the boss slammed his blade into my Obsidian Dragon Scale Armor and sent me flying across the room! My chest was burning like something was tearing it apart!

Beep!

Combat Log: Ziyu the Silver Radiance used "Armor Piercing Thrust", dealing 6984 damage!

……

Oh no, this is bad. If the boss could almost one-shot me in a single hit, it can almost certainly one-shot Lin Yixin!

There was a whooshing sound as Lin Yixin charged the boss. She missed and failed to generate any aggro whatsoever, but she continued moving until she was behind the boss. Her dagger flashed for an instant, and a huge damage number appeared above Ziyu’s head—3985!

Nice, she pierced his Defense! Extreme Break was as good as ever!

While the boss was turning around to face Lin Yixin, I gulped down a health potion and rushed toward his exposed back. Then, I executed a Pardon + Desperate Gambit + basic attack, triple-hit combo!

MISS!

4109!

2574!

But even with Extreme Break, I wasn’t able to do too much damage to the undead commander. This Level 140 Spirit Rank boss seriously was a powerhouse!

Luckily for me, my third strike activated the Paralysis Ring’s effect and saved my life in the nick of time. Normally my target would be paralyzed for 3 seconds, but considering how high his resistances were, I estimated that he would only be paralyzed for 1.5 seconds!

I hurriedly retreated a couple of steps and swung my arm again. Dragon Slaying Slash!

3109!

Not bad. The 15-second defense debuff brought by Extreme Break was incredibly valuable in situations like this!

After that, I started running around the ice totems while launching one Dragon Slaying Slash after another. At the same time, I locked onto the boss and marked a trail of red dots with coordinates on them on the mini map. This was the time to show off my powerful skills.

Lin Yixin herself was carefully zigzagging in front of the boss and wasting his time. She was able to repeatedly determine the direction he was running and block him completely. No wonder she was called the Beautiful Little Pepper back in Spirit of Grief. Her incredible reaction and judgment impressed even me.

However, seven or eight Dragon Slaying Slashes later, the boss's health bar looked the same as ever. At most, we had deleted 1% from his health pool even though we had dealt at least 20k damage to him, meaning that the Level 140 Spirit Rank boss had at least 2 million total HP, if not more. All we could do was despair. If this situation continued, how long would it take for me to kill it? Next month?

Worse, the boss was regenerating health at an incredible rate. It regenerated almost all the HP it lost for every hit I dealt!

……

Lin Yixin was also frowning slightly. Our chances of winning were infinitely close to zero if we allowed this to continue.

But Commander Ziyu acted before we could change our strategy. He abruptly raised his sword and shouted, "O’ Earth Spirits aslumber in the rocks, please listen to my summons. I offer a contract with my life as the cost—Howl of the Earth!"

Crack!

I knew it was bad when the earth beneath my feet suddenly cracked like a spider web, but it was too late. The next moment, countless rock spikes hit me and threw me into the air! Although the spell only had a range of 10 yards, I wasn’t able to dodge to safety!

3904!

3874!

3762!

……

I chugged a potion in the middle of the spell, but it still wasn’t good enough to keep me alive. My body turned cold—it was the sensation all players felt before they died—but instead of dying as I expected to, a bloody light enveloped me and brought me back to life!

Immortality? 10% plus 15 points of Luck gave me almost 20% chance to revive on the spot. Not bad at all!

I was overjoyed, but Lin Yixin wasn’t. She forgot to block the boss and the fact that the aggro would shift to her when she saw that I was killed. By the time she came to, an Armor Piercing Thrust had already torn apart her Profound Ice Armor!

8984!

Fuck! This is bad!

I cried in my head, but it was too late. Lin Yixin’s Defense was a lot worse than mine, so there was no way she could withstand the powerful blow. She stared at me defiantly as she collapsed to the ground, but there was no resisting death. She even dropped a couple of equipment in her bag!

Despair filled my heart as I ran across the temple grounds. What should I do? There’s no one left to block for me anymore!

Swhoosh swhoosh!

Two Dragon Slaying Slashes later, the boss's attention was drawn toward me again. This time, I summoned the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf and used it to block the boss!

It taxed me a lot to control two characters at once, so I wasn’t able to block the boss as well as Lin Yixin did. But the good news was the little wolf was fast, so it just about covered up this minor flaw.

I ran a half-arc around the temple grounds before grabbing all the Frozen Earth set pieces Lin Yixin dropped. I didn’t forget to run circles the ice totems and attack the boss from range, of course.

Unfortunately, my good luck couldn’t last forever. Commander Ziyu’s strength was insane, and he cut right through one of the totems. The 40-meter long pillar crashed to the ground just like that!

I continued to kite the boss around the hall. 10 minutes had passed since the start of the battle, and his HP had fallen to 97%. A bit of hope finally grew inside my heart. Ultimately, the boss's regeneration wasn’t higher than my DPS, so killing it wasn’t completely impossible. My chances of winning were still incredibly low, but the chance was there nonetheless.

The ice totems continued to fall one after another, and it wasn’t long before there was only one totem left in the entire hall. This totem was particularly thick, and at the center of it was a half-a-meter wide copper-like metal that probably supported the entire ice cave and kept it from collapsing due to crustal movement.

"Still struggling, peasant?!"

Ziyu’s disdainful taunt reached my ears as he attacked the totem with his sword aura. If the totem was destroyed, then I would be completely exposed. There was no way I could survive more than a few rounds like that.

Clang clang clang!

My eardrums vibrated uncomfortably as the Level 140 Spirit Rank boss continued hacking away at the totem. Finally, about a dozen or so strikes later, the ice surrounding the final totem was completely gone, and the copper totem started toppling sideways. It crashed against the southwest corner of the ice temple and punched a huge hole through the wall!

Boom!

The totem was about 70 meters long, and it crashed through the ice wall like it was made of wet paper, leaving behind a gap about dozens of meters long. Almost 50 meters of the totem were sticking out of the ice cave.

Ziyu smiled savagely and rushed toward me!

At this point, I wasn’t planning to do anything to the boss at all. It would be suicide to fight this Level 140 boss head-on, so I ran toward the gap in the wall like my life depended on it. I jumped out of the hole and ran along the totem!

I felt a chill when I was outside the ice cave. When I looked around me, I felt like my soul was about to leave my body. As it turned out, there was a hollow space outside the ice cave. More importantly, beneath my feet was a black, bottomless abyss that would kill me for sure if I fell into it. It wasn’t even a still environment! Snowy wind blew against my body and threatened to unbalance me as I wobbled like a dead leaf about to fall off its branches. It was such a frightening moment that the blood inside my veins felt like ice!

Right now, I was standing at one end of the totem like a circus performer, not daring to move even a muscle on my body. I would fall if I slipped, and this time I might not be as lucky as the first time.

My cape flapped wildly as the wind blew against it. I stared toward the front and felt both sorrow and despair. Ziyu was standing at the gap between the cave and staring at me with cold eyes. All he needed to do was plant his foot on the totem, and I would slip and fall to my death and turn into a frozen pancake. The only other alternative was to be killed by his blade!

But Ziyu wasn’t moving. He wasn’t moving at all!

Wait… is he a boss that can't leave his zone?

My heart started beating wildly. Ziyu the Silver Radiance was a boss that couldn’t leave his zone! His AI prevented him from taking a single step out of the ice cave, and I was standing outside the Arctic Temple right now! He could stare me down all he liked, but he wouldn’t be able to raise a finger against me!