226: Chapter 226 The BOSS Has Gone Mad

"Well done!" Xiao Niao couldn't help but shout from the bottom of his heart, filled with joy.

Although Hu Gualing couldn't see the BOSS's HP, by listening to Xiao Niao's occasional reports and seeing the damage numbers popping up from the BOSS's wounds, he could roughly guess that the situation was very favorable for them. Feeling a surge of joy, he didn't pay much attention to the fact that the ground beneath his feet had become somewhat soft. By the time he realized something was wrong, it was already too late to dodge. He was hit squarely by a hard Earth Spike that burst out from the ground, -33, and his health bar shrank another chunk.

In pain, Hu Gualing was slightly startled. He thought to himself, wasn't this simple 'Earth Spike Technique' something the BOSS only used in the first phase? After its HP dropped to half, it had already abandoned it, switching to the combo skill of 'Vine Entanglement' plus 'Earth Spike Technique'. Was it using it again because its HP had recovered to the second phase? Impossible, impossible. If that were the case, Xiao Niao would have already screamed in alarm...

As Hu Gualing thought this chaotically, he suddenly felt the ground beneath his feet turn soft again!

This time, Hu Gualing didn't have time to think about anything else. His heart immediately jumped into his throat, and his muscles tensed up. Almost instinctively, he leaned forward and rolled. The moment his feet left the ground, they were grazed by an Earth Spike that burst from underground, -14, a glancing damage number floated up from his leg.

Before Hu Gualing could catch his breath, he saw the ground his hands were supporting suddenly turn soft without any warning. He had never encountered such a thing while rolling during his 'Lazy Donkey Roll', so he didn't react in time. His elbows gave way, and his body 'splatted' onto the ground. Immediately after, he was terribly pierced by the Earth Spikes that continuously burst out from beneath him, -34, -31, -35...

Hu Gualing, dead.

Seeing Hu Gualing's health bar drop rapidly and turn into a corpse in the blink of an eye, Xiao Niao hadn't yet recovered from the shock of this sudden change. His eye twitched involuntarily, and he finally realized what had happened just now.

The Millennium Tree Demon must have been pumped with something, as it was using the 'Earth Spike Technique' skill repeatedly. They hadn't encountered this situation before. Facing the Millennium Tree Demon's barrage of Earth Spike Techniques, Hu Gualing, unable to react in time and without anyone to heal him, naturally could only fall and die.

The Millennium Tree Demon seemed to know its end was near, so it went completely berserk and lost control. After casting several Earth Spike Techniques in a row to instant-kill Hu Gualing, it didn't stop. Instead, it changed targets and started casting Earth Spike Techniques on the Sharp-toothed Piglet and Tang Yao. The Sharp-toothed Piglet was small, and whenever the ground beneath its feet turned soft, its whole body would sink, so it was naturally hit every time, needless to say. As for Tang Yao, if she had been in a state of full alert, she might have barely managed to dodge. However, all her focus was placed on the longsword in her hand and the weak point of the protective barrier around the Millennium Tree Demon. Precisely because of this, she had faintly noticed some spots on the pale white protective light barrier that were lighter than the surrounding flowing white light. Suspecting these were the weak points of the barrier, she thrust her sword at them. To her surprise, without encountering much resistance, the tip of her steel longsword broke through the protective barrier, pierced the bark of the Millennium Tree Demon, and triggered the Burning effect.

But precisely because of this, Tang Yao had no extra attention to spare for anything else. She was oblivious to the Millennium Tree Demon continuously summoning Earth Spikes to kill Hu Gualing. It was only when her turn came that she felt the ground beneath her feet turn soft and, unable to dodge in time, she was hit, -36. Her body staggered from the Earth Spike, and she was forced out of the 'Sword Heart Enlightenment' state.

"Dodge quickly!" Seeing that Tang Yao had indeed been forced out of her focused state after being attacked, Xiao Niao hurriedly shouted to warn her.

Having witnessed the BOSS's chain of Earth Spike Techniques instantly kill Gualing on the spot, Xiao Niao was truly frightened. He had already stood up from the ground and dared not keep his last bit of mana. He threw a long-range 'Recovery Spell' at Tang Yao, +19. He did this because he was afraid that if the Millennium Tree Demon used mind control on him again, he would end up casting the 'Recovery Spell' on the Millennium Tree Demon instead. So, he thought he should exhaust his mana first. Besides, he had already put away his bow and arrows; even if he were controlled again, he would just be useless.

However, even this wasn't safe enough.

Although the remaining Burning damage from the Burning status on the Millennium Tree Demon could theoretically burn it to death, Xiao Niao was worried that if the Millennium Tree Demon went crazy and killed Hu Gualing, Tang Yao, and the Sharp-toothed Piglet, all the accumulated aggro would be wiped clean, and the guy would leave the combat state and quickly recover its HP! He had encountered such things quite often when playing games and fighting BOSSes in the past. Although many things in this game couldn't be viewed like ordinary games, Xiao Niao felt he still had to take precautions. Otherwise, if the situation really arose where they had worked hard for a long time to get the BOSS to its last bit of health, only to accidentally suffer a total party wipe and have the BOSS's HP instantly refill, there would truly be nowhere to complain.

"Gualing, don't wait, resurrect first!"

To be safe, after shouting to warn Tang Yao, Xiao Niao calmed down a bit and hurriedly yelled at Hu Gualing's corpse still lying on the ground. Although, under the BOSS's desperate counterattack before death, it was possible that just after resurrecting and before he could even crawl up from the ground, he would take a few more Earth Spike Techniques—if his luck was even worse, dying again right where he resurrected wasn't impossible—but even if it meant using a few more revival coins, it was still more acceptable than having no one to attract the BOSS's aggro, causing the BOSS to exit combat and recover its HP!

Hu Gualing didn't quite understand Xiao Niao's reasoning, but upon hearing Xiao Niao's shout, he unhesitatingly consumed two revival coins and chose to resurrect on the spot. With a flash of white light, he propped himself up and crawled up from the ground.

"Stop attacking, just try to dodge the BOSS's attacks. If we stall for time, we win!" Xiao Niao had long since put his bow and arrows into his backpack. He held both hands in front of his mouth, forming a megaphone shape to amplify his voice as he shouted.

"But how do I dodge!" Tang Yao said in a somewhat panicked voice. Her HP was already low, and it looked like she could withstand at most one last Earth Spike attack from the Millennium Tree Demon, or perhaps she wouldn't even be able to withstand one before she was gone.