"These Golden Guardsmen are Earth Rank minibosses so that Mad Warrior should be a proper Earth Rank boss. The boss is about 20 yards away from these minibosses, just outside the range of his aggro. Let’s pull these four minibosses away from this place and kill them first. We’ll come back and concentrate our firepower on the Mad Warrior after dealing with them and once we kill him, our job will be complete."

I swallowed audibly before I casually traced out the strategy we were going to use.

…...

After I finished my explanation, He Yi pulled on the reins of her Snow Domain Windchaser as she said doubtfully, "Hmmm, this strategy… Will we be able to kill those four minibosses this way?"

"Don’t worry, we should be fine…" I said encouragingly. To be honest, I didn’t have supreme confidence in my own plan. "We’ll be fine. I’ll use God Binding Art to trap one of them while the Phantom Wolf King lures another one. Eve and I will tank one miniboss each and we’ll focus them down one by one. Sister Mingyue will be in charge of healing!"

"That settles it then! Lu Chen, go lure the mobs!"

"Let’s pull this one away from the others and kill it in the courtyard. It’ll be much easier to move around there!"

"Yeah!"

The girls ran toward the courtyard, their pets trailing behind them. I took my sword and crept forward carefully. After that, I performed a simple slashing motion with my sword, causing a cyan energy blade to shoot out of it. The Dragon Slaying Slash fiercely smashed into the head of the Golden Guardsman standing furthest away from the hall. It immediately turned around, a shrill hissing sound coming from its rotten lips. Its gruesome, rotting face was framed by its splendid helmet and a long rotten tongue that was at least ten centimeters long lolled out of its mouth.

My eyes shone with a black light as I scanned this Level 170 miniboss.

Golden Guardsman (Earth Rank Miniboss)

Level: 170

Attack: 3240~3950

Defense: 3500

HP: 5,000,000

Skills: Blade Slash, Blade Armor Defense, Broadsword Storm

Introduction: This elite warrior used to be one of the Roland Empire’s most loyal guardians, the stout pillars of the empire. Unfortunately, they could only watch as their empire fell into ruin and the plague of undeath invaded their bodies. They were transformed into slaves of the undead and the blades which they once used to protect their king and country were now turned against all of humanity. All sense of morality was stripped from their minds and they are now nothing more than brutal beasts of slaughter and destruction.

……

Well, these monsters only had physical attacks. They wouldn’t be too hard to deal with. They had nearly 4000 Attack, a number greater than the Star Dragon, the last boss we had to deal with in the Nine Lost Dragon Domains. However, they could only deal physical damage, so there would be much less pressure on He Yi and I.

My entire body tensed up as I swiftly backpedaled. I had only hit one of them with my Dragon Slaying Slash, but the other three Golden Guardsmen had immediately started chasing after me as well! This was no small matter!

Whoosh!

I raised my hand in the air, causing four heavenly weapons to shoot down from the sky and slam into the ground. They surrounded the Golden Guardsman who was the furthest back, trapping him inside. This effect would last for fifteen seconds, buying us precious time.

The minibosses were coming! I immediately started using buffs like Wild Roar, Deterrence, and everything else I had. We needed every advantage we could get.

"It’s time! Prepare to pull its aggro!"

When I got within five yards of He Yi, I immediately spun on my heel and shot Thousand Ice Slash at the Golden Guardsmen who were right behind me. An explosion resounded in the air as the feet of the first two guardsmen froze to the ground. Only the last guardsman could continue moving forward. As he bounded toward me, I immediately instructed the Phantom Wolf King to attack one of the immobilized Golden Guardsmen.

"Roooooaaar!"

The little wolf let out a howl of fury as its claws danced in the air. The Golden Guardsman wailed as its sharp claws dug into its armor. This flurry of attacks successfully transferred the aggro of that guardsman over to Phantom Wolf King. My little wolf had nearly 100000 HP so it would take a long while for this boss to hack through it. This was one of the things we were relying on to kill all four of these minibosses.

"Quickly, we need to lock on the one in front and kill him!"

I trained my eyes on the guardsman right in front of me and I swiftly flicked my Cyan Netherworld at it. Burning Blade Slash! Three burning blades of energy howled out of my sword and shot toward a small chink in its right pauldron. It was glowing bright red under the effects of my Dark Pupils. This crack was the Golden Guardsman greatest weakness, and the three energy blades crashed into it.

10923!

19020!

27834!

I immediately stomped down on the ground and activated War Crush, causing three more damage numbers to pop up above its head!

12929!

13982!

13200!

Just as I had expected, an attack that didn’t strike an enemy’s weak point did far less damage than an attack that did. However, War Crush was an AoE attack that spread through the ground, so there was no way I could target a weak point with it. It is what it is.

He Yi continued slashing at the undead guardsman with her sword, but a puzzled look had appeared on her face. She turned her beautiful eyes toward me and asked, "Lu Chen, what’s up with your damage?"

I swung my sword at the guardsman’s right shoulder, my basic attack hitting its weak point. I said, "Attack the spot that I just struck. This is its weak point. Your attack can’t be too far away from the weak point or it won’t count. The closer to the center your attack lands, the more damage you will deal to the enemy."

"Oh, so that’s what you’re doing…"

He Yi gave me an admiring smile as she thrust her sword forward! Barrier Break!

Pchhht!

28904!

The huge damage number caused my heart to dance with joy. But it was time for the guardsman to hit us with a riposte. It raised his blade in the air and started to spin. It had used its skill, Broadsword Storm! A flurry strike!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Our HP dropped like a rock as both He Yi and I were sent staggering backward. This boss's attack was extremely strong and the other two were already breaking out of the ice. We were in big trouble!!

Murong Mingyue swiftly healed us as she shouted, "This isn’t good! The levels of the minibosses are too high! Lu Chen, Eve, we can’t use Martial God anymore! Let’s use Royal Road instead! If we don’t, we’ll definitely get wiped!"

I immediately understood what she was saying and I passed the role of party leader over to He Yi. He Yi quickly activated Royal Road, instantly boosting our attack, defenses, and HP by 50%. The same thought flashed through our heads as all of us tossed out a card in unison. It was the Bloodknight Card that we had just obtained. This card raised our HP by 40% and Defense by 15%, so right now, everyone’s HP had been buffed by 90%.

I quickly glanced at my HP bar as I did a merry jig in my heart. Hot fucking damn! I actually had more than 56000 HP! That will be more than enough! Murong Mingyue’s healing is so powerful that our boosted stats were more than enough to overwhelm these four minibosses!

The other two bosses charged toward us together as they immediately used a combo of Blade Slash + Broadsword Storm. I hurriedly shot out Burning Blade Slash at them before I positioned my sword to defend against their attacks.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Sparks flew from the clashing blades as my body shook from the impact. Three damage numbers popped up above my head.

289!

2789!

4011!

……

Even guarding against their attacks didn’t stop them from damaging me. These minibosses really had absurd physical attack power. This was especially true for that Blade Slash skill. It seemed to be able to penetrate a certain amount of Defense and it dealt more than 10000 damage to He Yi even after she had activated Holy Shield!

I kept using War Crush to pull their aggro as I continued to assault the very first guardsman with my skills. They only had 5,000,000 health, which was very manageable for me.

Soon, the Golden Guardsman who had been caught by my God Binding Art ran over, doubling the pressure on both He Yi and I.

I was a constant blur of motion as I used the length of the battlefield to avoid taking any unnecessary damage. Once another fifteen seconds were up, I used God Binding Art again. Now that I had reached Level 146, this skill was showing its maximum utility potential! It had a nearly 100% success rate against these Level 170 minibosses.

Boom!

My Thousand Ice Slash exploded in the middle of these four minibosses again, freezing three of them in place. He Yi hurriedly retreated backward and unleashed Green Wave Slash. She had cleverly caught all four guardsmen in her attack, dealing the most amount of damage possible.

The Phantom Wolf King howled as it summoned a Purgatory Storm. A wild storm instantly came into existence around us as it savagely ripped into the four minibosses. Damage numbers continued to pop up above the Golden Guardsmen's heads, the Purgatory Storm nearly causing all of the aggro to shift to my little wolf. He Yi and I immediately launched a round of fierce attacks to pull the aggro back. We couldn’t afford to slip up even a little bit.

The Ironwing Dragon let out low growls as its claws smashed into the head of the miniboss it had chosen as its victim. It unleashed another stream of dragon breath as it continued to fight furiously. He Yi’s Royal Road boosted the stats of our pets as well, and they had become even more fearsome than they already were. This was especially true for the Phantom Wolf King, who was already an Immortal Rank pet in the first place, now had more than 140000 HP! My little wolf was an extremely dreadful existence right now!

As long as we focused our fire, the 5,000,000 HP that each miniboss had really wasn’t much. In less than five minutes, we had reduced the health of the first Golden Guardsman to less than 5%. The other minibosses had also taken some splash and AoE damage, and they had around 80% of their HP left.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

Holy light continued to rain down on us as Murong Mingyue’s perfectly-timed heals kept our health at around 50%. Moreover, Murong Mingyue’s timing and control when it came to healing could be counted among the best in Sky City. Her effective healing was more than 80% of the potential output, which was outstanding. Some inept healers would even cast their heals on party members who were at full health, so their effective healing wasn’t even at 30%. If a party was unfortunate to have one of those healers, their adventure would only end in tears.

The Cyan Netherworld Sword scored two consecutive critical hits on the first Golden Guardsman, sending it tumbling to the ground. I instantly noticed that my EXP bar had grown by more than 15%. Fucking hell, killing a boss always felt awesome!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

I raised my arm to receive the blows from the other two minibosses before He Yi, the Phantom Wolf King, the Ironwing Dragon, and I collapsed on the second Golden Guardsman. I had to say that killing these Golden Guardsmen had become a lot easier once the first one had fallen. They hit us for about 5000 to 8000 damage with each strike, but Murong Mingyue’s timely heals kept us out of trouble. She would toss in a group heal from time to time just to boost our HP even higher. She had even cast Pool of Life beneath where He Yi and I were standing, so it would be hard for us to die even if we wanted to.

Time slowly crawled by as we fought the three remaining minibosses. They started to fall one after the other. I killed another one while He Yi and the Ironwing Dragon killed the other two. Murong Mingyue got quite a lot of experience when the Ironwing Dragon killed the last guardsman. Having a pet like that to help her grab the lion’s share of the boss's experience was her good fortune.

We quickly inspected the battlefield. The item drops from minibosses weren’t anything special, and the best item we got was a pair of Outstanding 4-Star Spirit-grade leather wristguards. I tossed it to He Yi and let her handle it. I couldn’t use it and it didn’t catch my eye and right now, this Outstanding 4-star Spirit-grade item wasn’t worth more than the eight Roland sets in my inventory.

……

Once we were done, our HP bars were topped up by Murong Mingyue. With the Cyan Netherworld Sword in hand, I strode up the stairs. A faint smile appeared on my face as I said, "Mad Warrior, we have come to take your life! Prepare yourself!"

Mad Warrior Buffett brandished his battle axe menacingly as he stood in front of the grand hall. His eyes glowed with a bloody light as he yelled, "You damnable adventurers are meddling in affairs that are beyond your ken! The likes of you aren’t fit to interfere with what happened in the Roland Empire! It’s time for me to send all of you to hell!”