Chapter 111: The Invincible Slash

It was indeed a bit tricky. The boss’s ultimate skill had a twenty-yard radius, meaning that after being hit, they had to run beyond ten yards to be safe.

Zhang Shan had no problem with this. His health was nearly twenty thousand, and with his magic resistance passive, he could withstand five seconds of damage without any pressure. That was enough time to get out of the boss’s ultimate attack range. But Boss Wu wasn’t so lucky; his health was under ten thousand. If he got hit by the boss’s ultimate, it would be an instant knockout—he might not even last three seconds.

The key was that without Boss Wu’s healing support, the battle against the Demon Sorcerer wouldn’t go well. At the very least, Boss Wu couldn’t fall too early. Without Boss Wu healing Zhang Shan’s panda pet, Zhang Shan wouldn’t hold on long. So Boss Wu had to try to keep his threat level low. The boss could use its ultimate on Zhang Shan or the panda pet, but it must not target Boss Wu.

“Here’s the plan: you don’t have to keep healing the panda constantly. Stay back for now, and only heal when the panda’s health drops below half,” Zhang Shan instructed.

The panda pet was sturdy with high defense; the boss could only do a bit over three thousand damage per hit to it. It could hold on for about a minute. Boss Wu only needed to heal three or four times to keep it alive until Zhang Shan finished off the boss.

“Got it, I understand,” Boss Wu replied, retreating to a safe distance to wait until the panda’s health dipped below half before moving in.

Zhang Shan launched a rapid assault on the boss, activating his Frenzy and Zeal skills. The Demon Sorcerer’s health plummeted quickly. Zeal had already reached level nine, increasing attack speed by ninety percent for six seconds—extremely powerful.

Under Zhang Shan’s relentless attacks, the boss lost twenty percent of its health in no time. Suddenly, the Demon Sorcerer pointed at Zhang Shan, and he was immediately frozen in place, unable to move or attack.

“Damn it, the first immobilization spell is aimed at me?” Zhang Shan muttered.

Fortunately, Zhang Shan didn’t get attacked while immobilized; the boss continued to focus on the panda pet.

“Your damage is so high, why would the immobilization be cast on you instead of the panda?” Boss Wu joked from afar, stepping up briefly to heal the panda.

He alternated between two healing skills, working furiously to restore the panda’s health before retreating again to watch the fight unfold. Supporting was surprisingly easy.

Before two minutes had passed, the boss’s health dropped to fifty percent.

Suddenly, a massive burst of flames erupted around Zhang Shan—the boss had unleashed its ultimate, the Inferno Array.

Zhang Shan dashed out of the flames. When he escaped the damage radius, he still had over nine thousand health left. Not bad. Even enduring the full five seconds of the ultimate’s damage was manageable. His magic resistance passive reduced spell damage by ten percent, which was quite effective.

Boss Wu quickly healed Zhang Shan back to full and continued observing.

After facing the boss’s ultimate once, Zhang Shan was confident. Even if immobilized and hit by the ultimate at the same time, he had no fear. The boss couldn’t kill him instantly; he could just stand his ground and finish it off.

“Watching you fight the boss looks so easy,” Boss Wu said, standing beside him, impressed.

“It’s just a mini-boss, not hard at all,” Zhang Shan replied with a grin.

“How can it not be hard? Others need a whole group to take down a purple-level boss, and many can’t even beat elite monsters. You call an orange-level boss a mini-boss—it’s a bit too flashy, isn’t it?” Boss Wu teased.

Zhang Shan realized that with a healer’s cooperation, fighting bosses was indeed much easier—except for red-level ones and above.

He didn’t even mention red bosses; they usually had at least one or two powerful abilities and enormous health pools. One person alone would take forever to defeat them. The longer the fight, the higher the chance of something going wrong. But for bosses below red, there was practically no challenge for him.

Soon, the boss’s health dropped to twenty percent, about to enter its berserk phase.

“The boss is going berserk soon. Hurry up and top off the panda’s health. I’ll take care of the rest,” Zhang Shan ordered.

While berserk, the boss’s damage increased significantly, but its defenses weakened. Zhang Shan’s attacks dealt even more damage in response.

The Demon Sorcerer didn’t struggle for long. Ultimately, Zhang Shan controlled the panda pet to land a combo skill that knocked the boss down.

System Announcement: Congratulations to Six-Barrel Bodhisattva and the Taoist Blade for successfully defeating the Demon Sorcerer. Rewards: +1 skill point, +100 merit.

The orange boss didn’t have much health, so Zhang Shan could easily control the panda pet to deliver the final blow. Unlike the monster attack event’s Demon Vanguard, which had hundreds of millions of health—even at one percent remaining, it still had millions of health—making the last hit hard to snatch.

With the boss defeated, Boss Wu rushed forward.

“Damn, no level up this time, but at least we got a skill point,” he said.

“Dream on. You think you’d level up three times after killing three orange bosses? One skill point is already good. I bet no one has beaten this boss before,” Zhang Shan replied.

“Just wishful thinking. Let’s see what crappy loot dropped. Is the gatekeeper boss about to spawn?” Boss Wu asked.

After the drops from the previous two Demon Strongmen, Boss Wu had low expectations for the dungeon boss loot. He just wanted to see the drops, try the gatekeeper boss, then retreat back to town.

Zhang Shan wasn’t hopeful either. It was only an orange boss in a normal difficulty dungeon. At best, it might drop an orange-grade piece of equipment.

While waiting for the gatekeeper boss to appear, Zhang Shan opened his backpack for a quick look.

“Holy crap, what is this? Even a normal difficulty mini-boss drops such a rare skill book?” Zhang Shan exclaimed, stunned.

“What the hell dropped? Why the sudden excitement?” Boss Wu asked, unimpressed. “What good stuff could it be? Probably just a few thousand gold if you sell it.”

Zhang Shan didn’t elaborate but showed the newly dropped skill book.

Invincible Slash: The Magic Swordsman unleashes a massive torrent of sword light from dimensional space toward the target, dealing five times damage within a fifty-yard radius. During the duration of Invincible Slash, the Magic Swordsman cannot be targeted or attacked. Lasts five seconds, consumes 20,000 mana, cooldown 24 hours. Profession requirement: Magic Swordsman.

“Damn, this skill is insane! Five times damage over a wide area, plus temporary invincibility? That’s a crazy skill,” Boss Wu was utterly amazed by the power of the skill book.

“This should be the Magic Swordsman’s ultimate skill book. The damage isn’t the highest though. The archer’s ultimate deals ten times damage—way stronger than this,” Zhang Shan explained.

“No way, ultimate skills are all this overpowered? Wouldn’t anyone who can use one just wipe out groups instantly?”

That was indeed a concern. Zhang Shan guessed that such ultimate skill books would be extremely rare. Even in the late game, it would be impossible for everyone to have one—only a few top-tier players could obtain them.

“How much do you think this could sell for?” Boss Wu finally realized they couldn’t use a Magic Swordsman skill book. It had to be sold—and for a high price given its rarity.

“I don’t know yet. I’ll list it in the auction house later. Definitely won’t sell it cheap. I’ll set a low starting price to test the market. If it doesn’t sell, I’ll keep it listed every day,” Zhang Shan decided.