16: Chapter 16: Defeating a Heroic Boss Without Taking Damage!

There was nothing left to prepare.

Lu Yang kicked off with his feet, stomping a shallow pit into the dry, rotting soil, and charged straight toward the Skeleton Knight Gu Feng.

Lu Yang currently had max stacks of War Frenzy.

Under the fivefold boost to all stats, his speed was astonishingly fast, his body stretching into a blurred residual shadow.

In the span of a single breath, he crossed dozens of meters and charged straight into the valley.

The moment he stepped onto the valley's edge, his exaggerated aura range encompassed Gu Feng.

Two damage numbers floated up from above Gu Feng's head simultaneously.

-131!

-220!

Looking at these two damage values, Lu Yang raised an eyebrow.

The damage was slightly lower than he had expected.

With the fivefold Attack Power boost, Flame Aura's damage should have exceeded three hundred, but it was forcibly reduced by more than half.

A Hero-rank boss's Defense and Resistances were certainly not just for show.

At the moment the aura dealt damage, Lu Yang hadn't even stepped into Gu Feng's aggro range.

However, upon receiving damage, the eerie green flames in Gu Feng's eye sockets flickered violently, his gaze locking directly onto him.

Aboard his skeletal warhorse, the Skeleton Knight clad in dark iron armor pulled back on the reins with his left hand.

The reins were twisted from several strands of dried black vines, producing a rough scraping sound against the iron-gauntleted phalanxes of his hands.

The warhorse reared its front hooves high, stepping twice in empty air before slamming heavily back onto the ground, splashing a small patch of grayish-green rotting mud.

It opened its bare bone jaw, letting out a raspy whinny as the twin cluster of eerie green flames in its eye sockets burned even more intensely.

Gu Feng let out a raspy, cold growl. "Human, the withered decay of the dead is your ultimate destination!"

After bellowing, he spurred his horse into a charge toward Lu Yang.

The horse's hooves struck the rotting soil, producing dull thuds.

However, a layer of white frost covered his body.

Thick white frost spread out from the gaps in his armor, creeping across his pauldrons and vambraces, even coating the skeleton of the warhorse.

Under the effect of the frost, this mighty Hero-rank boss couldn't even charge as fast as Lu Yang could run!

The slow effect of Frost Aura!

Although Frost Aura only had a 20% chance to inflict a slowed state on enemies...

...Lu Yang was a man smiled upon by the Goddess of Luck!

A 20% probability, for him, was basically 70% to 80% if not 100%!

The very first tick of Frost Aura damage had triggered the effect instantly!

Originally, Lu Yang had planned to charge at Gu Feng and have a real man-to-man clash.

At worst, he'd just die a few more times—it wasn't like he hadn't died before.

But looking at Gu Feng's sluggish charging speed, Lu Yang's expression suddenly turned bizarre.

The corners of his mouth curled up wildly into a Dragon King grin.

If a knight like you moves slower than me, you can't blame me for kiting you!

Who told my aura range to be so massive anyway?

Lu Yang immediately abandoned a head-on charge and instead maintained his distance from Gu Feng.

Every second, two damage numbers floated from above Gu Feng's head, totaling nearly over 300 DPS.

Even with Gu Feng having over 20,000 HP, it would take just a little over a minute to completely drain his health.

Gu Feng glared fixedly at Lu Yang, who was over two hundred meters away, the green bone-fire in his sockets almost bursting forth.

He frantically urged his horse onward, but the frost seemed rooted to his body; every step felt like treading through a quagmire.

As he gave chase, he roared furiously, his raspy bellow echoing through the valley: "Damn human! If you have the guts, stop running!"

Lu Yang chuckled.

As expected of a Hero-rank boss; it even throws a tantrum?

While running, he turned around, took a couple of backward steps, and flashed a middle finger at Gu Feng: "I won't run if you stop chasing!"

"Arghhh! You're courting death!"

Gu Feng had a total mental breakdown right on the spot.

His right hand slammed tight around his long-handled war scythe. The dark mist wrapping the blade suddenly grew dense, churning like a living creature.

The next moment, he swung the scythe violently toward Lu Yang, unleashing a sharp, ear-piercing sound of tearing air.

A jet-black blade beam separated from the scythe's edge, shooting toward Lu Yang at an astonishing speed.

The blade beam cut through the air, emitting a wailing shriek that sounded exceptionally shrill in the grayish-green valley.

Lu Yang was startled. This guy actually had a ranged skill?!

Aren't you a knight?

That's not playing by the rules!

However, when the blade beam flew about one hundred meters out, the solid dark light turned unstable and fluttered, finally shattering with a poof into a cloud of dissipating black fog that melted into thin air.

Seeing this, Lu Yang burst out laughing on the spot.

Makes sense.

Even if he was a Hero-rank boss, he was only Level 10, not even reaching Tier 1 yet.

For a ranged attack to reach one hundred meters was already impressive enough.

If it could really hit over two hundred meters away, Lu Yang felt he'd have to be a Lord-rank or even an Emperor-rank boss.

Seeing his blade beam crumble, Gu Feng broke down too.

He roared repeatedly, "Damn bastard! Stop right now!"

Lu Yang yelled back at the top of his lungs, "No! No! Come hit me then! Come hit me then!"

Gu Feng was so infuriated that his whole skeletal frame rattled.

He suddenly extended his gauntleted left hand, spreading five fingers, and clutched empty air toward the sky.

Eerie green bone-fire overflowed from his palm, dripping onto the rotting soil beneath his feet.

"Rise, my warriors! Slay the enemy for me!"

As his voice fell, the rotting soil around Gu Feng suddenly began to squirm.

The grayish-green mud bulged into several crooked mounds before being torn open from within as Skeleton Warriors crawled out from underground.

Mud rustled off their pale white skeletons as eerie green flames WHOOSHED alive inside their eye sockets.

There were four Skeleton Warriors in total.

Lu Yang swept his gaze over them and discovered that these were actually Chieftain-rank monsters.

He couldn't help but gasp.

As expected of a Hero-rank boss.

Truly powerful.

That ranged skill earlier was clearly an AoE attack with a range of one hundred meters.

Ordinary Level 10 class-holders couldn't possibly reach a hundred-meter range, and given the speed of that blade beam, being targeted was virtually a death sentence.

And now he brought out a summoning skill that could spawn Level 10 Chieftain monsters!

Simply inhuman!

Oh, wait, this guy wasn't human to begin with?

Never mind then.

The four Chieftain-rank Skeleton Warriors that suddenly appeared included a warrior, a mage, an assassin, and a marksman.

It was quite a comprehensive setup.

Except for lacking a healer class.

Though that was normal; Gu Feng was already so powerful, so if he could heal on top of that, others wouldn't even need to fight—they could just surrender.

The moment the four Skeleton Warriors crawled out of the dirt, before they could even gain their footing, they were covered by the dual auras.

Then, frost manifested on their bodies as well, causing their speeds to plunge drastically, making them even slower than Gu Feng.

Seeing this scene, Gu Feng bellowed furiously, "Charge! Kill him!"

The four Skeleton Warriors clearly lacked intelligence and couldn't speak.

They only knew how to take rigid steps, shuffling toward Lu Yang.

However, as Chieftain-rank monsters, their HP was far inferior to Gu Feng's. Coupled with being unable to even touch Lu Yang, in just ten-odd seconds, all four Skeleton Warriors collapsed into a pile of scattered bones under the dual aura damage.

Bone joints crashed onto the rotting soil, emitting clattering noises.

Gu Feng roared again and again, yet remained completely helpless.

Like an incompetent husband.

Just then, Gu Feng suddenly swung his scythe, causing a ring of grayish-green light to ripple outward from the blade, enveloping both him and his horse in a translucent shield.

The next moment, Lu Yang realized his aura damage was being absorbed.

He was slightly surprised.

A damage-absorbing shield skill?

Still, how much could it absorb?

It was merely delaying his impending death.

Just as Lu Yang thought, in only ten seconds or so, the shield gave off a crisp shattering sound, and the grayish-green light dissolved into fragments.

The aura's damage numbers floated up once more, steadily whittling down Gu Feng's HP bar.

By now, Gu Feng's health had dropped to less than seventy percent.

After another ten-plus seconds, Gu Feng's health dropped straight to fifty percent.

Roaring loudly, he summoned four Skeleton Warriors again, playing the role of an incompetent husband once more.

Soon, Gu Feng's health was down to the last twenty percent.

He suddenly stopped pursuing Lu Yang, turned his horse around, and took off running in the direction away from Lu Yang.

The warhorse's four hooves flew wildly as it dragged a body full of frost, its hoofbeats heavy and panicked, looking exceptionally wretched.

Lu Yang stared in surprise for a moment.

Then he realized that this fellow probably wanted to escape his aura range.

However, as a dungeon boss, Gu Feng couldn't leave his encounter area at all.

He could only move within this valley.

Not to mention, he was currently slowed and couldn't outrun Lu Yang anyway.

Lu Yang gave chase with light, swift steps.

Seeing Lu Yang catch up, Gu Feng yanked the reins abruptly; the warhorse reared up on its hind legs, turning around to close the distance.

However, Lu Yang stopped again, took two steps back, and widened the gap once more.

And so, as one chased and the other fled, back and forth, in under twenty seconds, Gu Feng uttered his final roar.

That voice, mixed with anger, unwillingness, and deep humiliation, echoed through the valley for a long time:

"Despicable human! I curse you!"

Before his words fully faded, the dark mist wrapped around him scattered like coal ash blown away by the wind.

His armor peeled off piece by piece, and his skeletal frame along with the skeleton warhorse beneath him completely collapsed, clattering into a pile of scattered bones.

His helmet tumbled far across the ground, only stopping after hitting a protruding mound of rotting soil.

The eerie green bone-fire flickered one last time before extinguishing.

Fragments of dark iron armor lay scattered among the white bones, glinting with a cold luster.

Lu Yang stopped in his tracks, the corners of his mouth curving up wildly in a true "Return of the Dragon King" fashion.

Flawless kill on a Hero-rank final dungeon boss!

I'm so awesome!

Just at that moment, a series of system notifications rang out beside Lu Yang's ears.