With Van Tassel’s health below 100,000, he entered a berserk state. His attack power spiked by 500, and his attack speed increased to once every 0.5 seconds. Draevan, whose health was already precarious due to the healers sandbagging, was nearly killed at that moment.
Draevan was the best-geared tank in the entire raid.
His shield was a Legendary-tier item that had just dropped from the Vault Guardian Bastion—the only level 18 Legendary-tier item among the four teams. Draevan had spent eight million dollars to win it in a bidding war against the other three leaders.
“I’LL SLEEP WITH EVERY WOMAN IN YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY!” Draevan’s roar of pure fury was a string of creative profanities. “YOU BACKSTABBING, TWO-FACED SONS OF BITCHES! ALL YOU KNOW ARE DIRTY TRICKS!”
“Please calm down, Mr. Draevan,” Eclipse_Raven said smoothly. “It was truly an accident.”
“The boss’s enrage caught us all by surprise,” Silverwind added. “Don’t take it to heart.”
“Don’t you give me that bullshit, you two-faced piece of shit!” Draevan spat. “You had your healing spells up! You did this on purpose! That’s it, I’m done! You can wipe for all I care!”
He stomped a few steps back, pulling out of the fight. Seeing their leader on strike, his three teammates also stopped attacking.
“Draevan! Don’t be childish!” Dreadclaw boomed. “Quitting now means forfeiting your right to the loot! There could be Legendary or even Ascendant-tier gear waiting for us!”
“Hmph!” Draevan fell silent. However, his greatsword grudgingly found its way back to the boss’s flank.
Draevan might have been a hothead, but he wasn’t an idiot. Ascendant-tier gear was on the line.
Seeing their leader back in the fray, the rest of [Titan Guard] rejoined the battle. Van Tassel was enraged, but against the combined, albeit fractured, might of four top-tier guilds, he was still being controlled.
70,000…
60,000…
50,000…
Lila’s hands were clenched into tight fists as she watched the chaotic scene below. She nudged Kael with her shoulder. “Aren’t we going to make a move? Any later and it’ll be too late!”
Kael didn’t answer her directly. His eyes remained fixed on the battle as he posed a question of his own. “If you were Raven, what would your next move be?”
“Huh?” Lila blinked, pulled from her focus on the boss’s health bar. She forced herself to calm down and consider the tactical situation from the enemy’s perspective. If I were Raven, what would I do?
Suddenly, a spark of insight flashed in her mind. “I’d cancel the buffs on the other teams!”
“Correct,” Kael said, pointing down. “Now watch.”
Just as he spoke, the purple radius of the [Domain of Torment] began to shrink. The three members of [Eclipse] huddled together inside the smaller circle of protection. Their tank even stopped trying to generate threat on the boss.
At the same time, the purple aura vanished from all the other players. Even the debuff on Van Tassel disappeared.
“Damn it, the Vesperians canceled the buff!” Draevan was the first to realize it.
But it was too late. An enraged Van Tassel, restored to his full, terrifying power, was a nightmare incarnate.
-1973
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
-2082
Two slashes in a single second were all it took to kill Draevan for a second time.
“Shit! Everyone, fall back!” Silverwind and Dreadclaw shouted in unison. As long as their members were alive, they could regroup and try again. But death here meant being permanently ejected from the Hidden Realm. The guild vendors had already sold out of the instance’s teleport scrolls; getting back in was now next to impossible.
But how do you retreat from an enraged assassin?
With no tank to control it, Van Tassel became a reaping whirlwind of death, harvesting the lives of everyone present.
Anyone he targeted fell within two seconds. In a single, bloody minute, every last member of [Apocalypse], [Silverwood], and [Titan Guard] had been slaughtered.
Strangely, Van Tassel never once prioritized the four players huddled within the [Domain of Torment], as if the boss’s AI itself recognized the danger of that consecrated ground.
Seeing that everyone else was dead, Eclipse_Raven signaled his Warlock, Eclipse_Blackthorn. The [Domain of Torment] expanded once more, and with their tank and healer, the four of them charged the weakened boss.
Seeing his moment had arrived, Kael waved his hand. “Showtime. Stick to the plan.”
Kael and Lila took the lead, leaping down from their perch. Their target: the Warlock, Eclipse_Blackthorn. Starbloom summoned Hakkar’s Shade and sent it after the enemy healer. Hazel, with Rena right behind her, charged toward the boss to intercept.
The [Domain of Torment] was too large; even with Kael’s 30-yard attack range plus his 15-yard skill range, he couldn’t hit the Warlock from outside. They had no choice but to charge in.
The moment they stepped into the domain, they were spotted.
“Who dares trespass in my domain?” Eclipse_Blackthorn called out.
“Your executioner,” Kael replied, drawing and loosing his bow in one fluid motion.
[Double Shot]!
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Even with Kael’s insane attack power, the domain’s damage reduction was crippling his output.
“Fool!” Eclipse_Blackthorn cursed, his eyes glaring at Kael as he quickly drank a health potion.
At that moment, Lila soared through the air, landing beside him with the force of a hammer blow.
[Earthshatter Leap]!
Eclipse_Blackthorn was instantly stunned. Lila raised her fist to deliver the final blow, but the Warlock’s form suddenly became hazy and translucent.
[Phase Shift]: Become ethereal and untargetable.
“These Vesperians are so annoying,” Lila growled. She had a 250% damage bonus ready to unload, but her target had vanished into thin air.
“Use Whirlwind!” Kael’s voice cut through the chaos. “AoE damage will still hit him!”
Lila immediately began to spin, transforming into a vortex of destructive energy.
[Whirlwind]!
At the same time, Kael’s [Phantom Barrage] rained down from above.
-602 (Whirlwind)
-1622 (Phantom Barrage)
-722 (Whirlwind)
A shadowy form solidified, then collapsed to the ground with a look of disbelief.
Eclipse_Blackthorn stared blankly at the ceiling, dead before he hit the floor.
With its caster gone, the [Domain of Torment] winked out of existence.
“Blackthorn, what happened?” Eclipse_Raven was busy dealing with Hazel when he realized his game-changing buff had disappeared. He turned to see what was wrong and was met with an arrow straight to his forehead.
-8716
“Who… are you?” Eclipse_Raven’s vision faded to black before he could even get a clear look at his killer. He was already on his way to the respawn point.
His tank, now deprived of both the domain’s protection and his healer’s support, lasted less than two seconds against Van Tassel. He fell at the same time as the [Eclipse] healer, who had been cornered and killed by Starbloom and Hakkar’s Shade.
Suddenly, Hazel’s panicked voice cried out. “Mr. Dawnbreaker, hit the boss! The combo points are stacking up really fast!”
Losing 1,000 health a second was nothing to Hazel, not with Rena healing her. But she remembered Kael’s warning: if the boss reached fifteen combo points, she would die instantly, even at full health.
Kael didn’t hesitate. He and Lila converged on the boss, quickly burning through its remaining 10,000 health.
[System]: Congratulations! Your party has slain [Van Tassel]. You gain 3,100,000 EXP.
With a final shriek, Van Tassel collapsed. A shower of loot exploded from his body, scattering across the floor. Kael could see more than a dozen Epic and Legendary-tier items glittering among the drops.
“You guys grab the loot,” Kael said. “I’ll be right back.”
He walked past the body toward Van Tassel’s throne. With the boss dead, the protective ward on a large chest beside the throne had vanished. Inside were three items. Unlike the boss drops, which were bound to their party, the items in this chest were free for the taking. Anyone could claim them.
More importantly, these three items had an extremely high chance of being Ascendant-tier quality, or perhaps even higher.
Kael reached the chest and opened the lid. Inside sat three smaller, ornate boxes. He knew each box contained one piece of gear. He hadn’t called the others over because he wanted to use his own maxed-out luck stat to open them, hoping for an Ascendant-tier prize.
It was at this moment that Kael encountered the first truly infuriating event of his new life.
The instant he lifted the lid of the chest, a shadowy figure materialized behind him. It moved with impossible speed, snatching one of the boxes from the chest, turning, and vanishing before Kael could even react.
