Warscar was huge, but the red python still ate him, his axe and his mount all at once. The Virgin Islands warriors were absolutely flabbergasted by the sight—

"Holy shit, boss got eaten by the mob!"

"The fuck are you guys waiting for? We need to save him, or he’ll turn into snake shit in just a couple minutes!"

"Say, assuming that boss got shat out, do you think he’ll maintain a humanoid shape? Do you think that smoke will rise off his corpse?"

"Of course not! A snake is a cold-blooded animal!"

"Seriously? A snake is obviously a vertebrate! I once caught one and turned it into snake soup. It was delicious!"

"Say, do you think our boss is a vertebrate?"

"No way, he looks like a gorilla in human skin. I bet he’s a primate that hasn’t fully evolved…"

"Holy shit, you’re extremely knowledgeable. Where did you graduate, bro?"

"Netherland’s Rotterdam Rhyne Technical College of Art and Science, the adult education type…"

"..."

……

Unable to stand the sight any longer, Hickey pointed her sword at the boss and ordered, "The red python can only eat three people at a time. You two, go get yourself devoured so we can start killing the mob!"

Two fearless vikings immediately did as she commanded, allowing the red python to swallow them. Its stomach immediately swelled to three lumps, and it twitched visibly as it tried to digest the Zephyr Cavalrymen.

I rushed forward and executed Burning Blade Slash + War Crush combo, deleting almost half of its HP instantly. My dragon-riding apparition also did the same thing. The bards had applied a full buff on me and increased my Attack, Defense, HP and speed stat by a total of 42%, so the amount of damage I was dealing was but the natural result. I still missed Pure Love though. Her buffs could increase my stats by 60% or higher!

Crack!

After I cut off the Cruel Red Python’s head, its stomach automatically burst open and spilled out its contents. The half-health Warscar leaped to his feet and swore, "Dammit!"

Hickey said indifferently, "Wipe the snake oil on your face first before you speak…"

Warscar: "..."

Besides the vikings, the mob also dropped a lot of good stuff. It dropped two Spirit-grade pieces of metal armor and one card. The card in particular increased HP by a whopping 75%. It was obviously meant to be used by a main tank, but I didn’t need it because I had the much better Fire War God Card. So, I gave it to Warscar instead.

……

We continued. Now that we knew what to expect, we split up into ten 100-man parties and tackled a Cruel Red Python each. The arrangement ensured both speed and safety.

Over an hour later, we received word that the defense line we had set up at the entrance had finally been breached. After Breeze and Rain, God of War and the 100000 Beast King Cavalrymen who had burned to death revived, they came straight to Dragonsnake Devil’s Den. Bloodlust, Black Crow Tribe and other forces had infiltrated the place as well. Starting now, Godkiller no longer had exclusive rights over this map.

I was fine with it though. I didn’t think that we would be able to monopolize the entire map anyway. The strong would get the final boss and the true prize, while the weak would feast on the mobs like hyenas. Both ways were valid to survive laws of the jungle.

As we continued, the main path eventually branched into seven different paths. According to the map, they all ended up in the final area, the Dragon God Hall. It was there we would be fighting the final boss.

"What do we do? Which path should we follow?" Hickey looked to me for direction.

I examined the pathways carefully. Each pathway was about a hundred meters wide, which was neither too wide nor too narrow. It was just the right size that a cavalry unit like the Beast King Cavalry wouldn’t be able to make use of their number advantage, while strong individuals like Hickey and I could unleash our full power. In my case, my Summon the Storm and Rise of the Guardian Dragon could cover the entire passageway. It was perfect.

So, I pointed to the rightmost path and said, "Our main party will go through here. The rest of you can choose whatever path you want to follow. There’s no need for us to squeeze into the same path. It will be very dangerous no matter which path you choose though. If you want to play it safe, then you may head back and focus on grinding the Cruel Red Pythons instead. It’s your choice."

Everyone nodded, and the corps commanders left with their parties.

The rightmost, or seventh, path was dark and wet. We moved quickly because we knew that Cyan Beast would make it to this location in less than ten minutes.

Suddenly, we heard a hissing noise in front of us and skidded to a halt. It was a tiny, three-meter-long snake hissing at us menacingly. Its body size was incomparable to the Cruel Red Python’s, and its whole body was covered in cyan scales. It looked pretty cute, to be honest.

"Haha, the little snake is so cute!" Warscar said with a laugh.

Hickey chuckled. "Oh really? Why don’t you fight it then?"

"Why not?"

Warscar walked up to the snake while grinning, "Come to me, little snake! I’ll beat you up so hard you’ll regret ever blocking this hammer’s way, muahahaha!"

Suddenly, the little snake moved like lightning and bit Warscar in the arm before he could. A huge damage number immediately appeared above viking’s head—

182993!

Not only that, it even inflicted the Poisoned status to Warscar. Thank goodness we had priests in our party, or the man was as good as dead.

Everyone except me was stunned by the sheer power of the little snake. I expected this because it looked very similar to bamboo viper, except a lot bigger. Long story short, it was a literal snake boss!

……

I shared the boss's stats screen in the party channel after identifying it with Dark Pupils—

Cyan Snake King (Immortal Rank Boss)

Level: 255

Attack: 18000~27500

Defense: 29500

HP: 45000000

Skills: Venomous Bite, Venom Frost Whirlwind, Human Form

Introduction: An elite guardian of Dragonsnake Devil’s Den, the Cyan Snake King was a small snake until it consumed a huge amount of spiritual energy, hid itself in Dragonsnake Devil’s Den and cultivated for tens of thousands of years. Today, it is a powerhouse that can fight as a snake or a human. It possesses incredible attack power, and it has killed countless human braves with its fangs over the last hundreds and thousands of years.

……

"Let’s go! It’s an Immortal Rank boss!"

I spurred the Ancient Divine Dragon forward to cover Warscar’s retreat and attack the boss. I struck its natural weak point with Universe Break, and—

112023!

The damage was poor, but the snake shuddered and froze all of a sudden. I received a system notice saying that my Necklace of the War God’s Broken Blade had triggered its Broken Blade effect and stunned it for 7 seconds.

This is my chance!

I immediately thrust my sword into the boss's body and used Purple Frost Concentration, lowering its Defense. It was a must-do because the boss had almost 30k base Defense, which was almost too much for me to pierce, much less everyone else.

The boss shivered again and lost 29.7% of its Defense. It was better than nothing!

At the same time, Hickey, Warscar and the others surrounded the boss and executed their own Barrier Break + flurry skill combos, removing chunks from the Cyan Snake King’s health. While this was happening, Hickey asked me, "Boss, is this the boss that will drop the Ascension Proof?"

I shook my head. "Nah, it’s too weak to be the final boss."

"It’s not weak at all though…"

"I’m aware…"

After the Cyan Snake King recovered, it immediately opened its mouth and unleashed Venom Frost Whirlwind. The poisonous wind instantly poisoned the dozen or so melee players surrounding it and dealt around 150k damage. I was the only one who lost 50k+ HP because I had super high Magic Resist.

……

"Keep our guys healed and keep attacking! Don’t retreat!" Hickey looked to the distance while saying, "We need to kill this boss before Breeze and Rain and his goons show up. Otherwise—"

Before she could finish, the Cyan Snake King suddenly let out a roar and spasmed unnaturally. There was an explosion of light, and it suddenly stood vertically and transformed into a beautiful girl clad in cyan armor. She wielded a glowing bamboo stick, and she shouted at all of us, "You shouldn’t have stepped into my domain, adventurers of distant lands! You will not leave this place alive…"

To our surprise, the now-human snake unleashed Barrier Break and took out an unsuspecting Zephyr Cavalryman in one hit. After killing another with Freezing Slash, she spun rapidly until the air around her turned into a whirlwind. It was the Whirlwind Slash, and it killed almost 50 Zephyr Cavalrymen at once.

"Holy shit!"

I was flabbergasted to say the least. After the boss had assumed a human form, her Attack and skills were no worse than a super-tier warrior’s!

I immediately raised my hand and unleashed the God Binding Art!

Thud thud!

Several divine weapons fell from the sky and immobilized the girl before she could rampage any further. The moment the skill succeeded, I immediately executed Burning Blade Slash + Barrier Break combo between her neck where her weak point was. I didn’t hold back because she was way too powerful. Restraining myself because she was a girl would only result in all of us getting killed.

Healing spells flashed on Hickey and my person again and again. We were the only ones who could fight the boss at close range, while everyone else had to stay far, far away and throw whatever range skills they had. The good news was that my DPS was high enough to keep the boss's aggro on me at all times, and the archers and mages’ CC skills hampered the boss enough that she couldn’t one-shot us. Generally speaking, a thousand-man party could handle most Immortal Rank bosses without trouble.

Time passed bit by bit. The Cyan Snake King had alternated between both snake and human forms as she fought us and, despite our best efforts, had killed another 100 Zephyr Cavalrymen by the time she finally dropped to 5% HP. On a related note, I kept Dark Pupils on all the time because I didn’t want an Indian assassin to stealth over and steal the last hit.

"Hiss hiss…"

The Cyan Snake King assumed her human form one last time before threatening us with a pair of bloody lips, "I will evolve again and become stronger, damned humans! Just you wait! I will have my revenge and bleed all of you dry!"

"Yeah, yeah. Now die already…"

I unleashed Burning Blade Slash that triggered the septuple-damage effect. It immediately deleted the Cyan Snake King’s last sliver of HP.

……

Swhoosh swhoosh!

Multiple players including Hickey leveled up at once. The Level 255 Immortal Rank boss gave a ton of experience and dropped a lot of equipment. Wait, is that…? My heart skipped a beat when I saw something that looked like a cyan pet egg. Another boss-tier pet egg? I can’t wait to check it out already...