Chapter 39: Countdown to Team Wipe
With a crash, over a thousand blood-colored fragmented blades scattered in all directions, riddling the sculptures at the edge of the alternate space like a sieve.
In the crowd, the thick smell of blood was stimulating Adelie's nerves. He was already somewhat stunned by the beating. This boss fight was completely different from before. The enemy was a dual grandmaster melee type plus a space type.
This made Adelie understand one thing: those giant bosses with various large-scale active abilities were not actually that scary. What was truly terrifying was this kind of human big boss with a bunch of passive abilities, where every slash was lethal. Perception types, healing types, etc.—one slash and they were gone. Melee types died in two slashes. The only ones who could withstand three slashes were probably tank types.
What made Adelie even more desperate was that some of the enemy's abilities were not in the data at all, like the blood-blade sword net just now and the spatial ability. He only saw a large number of X-level passive abilities, most of which enhanced sword technique power.
"Don't be scared! This is a burst-type boss. His spatial ability won't last long..."
Before Adelie could finish shouting, Su Xiao had already appeared in front of him.
"Star Girl!"
Adelie's voice had already changed pitch. The Star Girl he called was the young woman with a white cross tattoo on her forehead. Her code name was Cross Star.
Several dozen meters away from Adelie, Star Girl's old-fashioned rifle was already aimed at Su Xiao. For her, what weapon she used didn't matter. What mattered was that she must have the conviction to kill the enemy. The stronger this conviction, the greater the power of her thought bullets. In other words, as long as she was confident enough, she could even exceed her limits.
Bang!
A roar spread out, and Su Xiao was knocked back. His left arm was raised in front of him, the crystal layer clinging to it already covered in cracks. The crystal layer at the impact point was even pierced through.
A trickle of blood flowed down Su Xiao's forearm. Adelie, who had retreated more than ten meters away, saw this scene and, for some reason, felt a bit relieved. Before he was completely beaten into silence, the enemy was finally injured.
"Star Girl, keep going!"
Adelie let out a loud roar. He hadn't participated in the battle himself, but the other team members didn't show any dissatisfaction. As the team leader, Adelie provided nine types of collective buffs. Besides, he had to command the battle, so of course he couldn't fight personally.
"Easy for you to say."
Star Girl, far away, wiped the blood off her face. Just a moment ago, a blue-green slashing light had come flying. Fortunately, she dodged quickly. She dodged it, but the perception type beside her was unlucky. Already severely injured by the blood-colored fragmented blades, he was then hit by the Azure Demon Slash and died on the spot.
Star Girl aimed at Su Xiao again. Others couldn't imagine how difficult it was for her to lock onto Su Xiao. With his nearly crushing speed and space-penetrating ability, the only way to catch the enemy's trace was the moment he attacked. It was already very hard to lock on, and even after hitting, the enemy had a crystal layer defense. Star Girl's heart was bitter, but she didn't say it out loud.
'Blade Path Sword: Ring Break.'
In the space penetration state, Su Xiao sheathed his longsword.
"Super large-scale circular attack!"
A perception type with a small flower on her head nearly shouted herself hoarse.
Clang!
Ring Break spread out. In that instant, Star Girl pulled the trigger. A thought bullet left the chamber, breaking through layers of ripples in the air, heading straight for Su Xiao's head. It ultimately passed through the center of his brow, but Su Xiao dodged it by entering the space penetration state.
"Tch!"
Star Girl curled up her body as much as possible. The circular slashing light came, and the five layers of shields around her shattered with a crackling sound. The first four layers couldn't stop Ring Break, and the last layer barely held.
Star Girl aimed at Su Xiao again. She was waiting for her teammate's space-blocking ability. That ability was very troublesome. Although it could only interrupt spatial abilities for an instant, its rank was astonishingly high.
Crack~
It was like a mirror breaking. Su Xiao suddenly exited the space penetration state, which surprised him quite a bit.
"Now!!"
Adelie roared at the same time, and the attacks of several dozen nearby contractors all came pouring in. They were basically their strongest abilities. The melee types charged forward, and the perception type unleashed a chaotic perception shock.
Countless attacks came at Su Xiao from all directions. If these attacks hit, it would be very bad—at least severely injured, possibly even instantly killed. After all, this was the strongest attack of a large group of seventh-rank contractors. What Su Xiao feared most was this kind of concentrated fire.
'Blade Path Sword: Time.'
With a thud, a shockwave spread out. The attacks coming from all sides and the charging melee-type contractors all slowed down.
Hexagonal crystal shields appeared around Su Xiao. He pushed his hands outward, and all the hexagonal crystal shields expanded outward and rapidly enlarged.
Boom, boom, boom...
Deafening explosions came from all around. A metal needle, nearly 30 centimeters long and covered in patterns on its surface, shot straight toward the back of Su Xiao's head. The surface of this thing was covered in spiral patterns, and due to its ultra-high-speed rotation, it left spiral air trails behind it.
Just as the spiral needle was 10 centimeters from the back of Su Xiao's head, he entered the space penetration state. 'Blade Path Sword: Time' and 'Crystal Layer' had bought him precious time. The ability that had affected space penetration just now had a mysteriously high rank, much higher than Baha's Demon Hawk Domain, but no ability was perfect. This ability had a very short duration.
'Blade Path Sword: Double Ring Break.'
Su Xiao assumed a drawing-slash posture. The next instant, Ring Break spread out. Just as the first Ring Break spread, the second followed closely.
One barrier after another appeared around Su Xiao to reduce the power of Ring Break. The surrounding contractors either leaped up or activated defensive abilities to withstand it.
After the two layers of Ring Break had passed, most of the contractors present were injured. Originally 105 contractors, after the boss fight so far, only 76 remained alive.
The duration of Demon Hunting Hour ended. Su Xiao felt a sense of fatigue. It wasn't strong, but it would affect his combat for the next few dozen seconds. At the seventh rank, fighting one against many was starting to become difficult. After all, seventh-rank contractors had many tricks, and there were enemies like Star Girl.
In a one-on-one fight, Su Xiao could beat Star Girl until she doubted her life, but now Star Girl had a large group of teammates.
"His aura is weakening! He's about to enter the second phase! Be careful, he might have a third phase."
Heaven knows who had such an idea to shout out about a second phase and even predict a third phase.
"Bai Baisha, prepare to counter the second phase."
Adelie shouted loudly. Hearing his shout, more than a dozen light films appeared on a healer. That was Bai Baisha, the strongest healer of the Holy Hall Adventure Group.
At this moment, most of the 76 surviving contractors were injured, either by the blood-colored fragmented blades earlier or by Ring Break. The few healing types present were already overwhelmed.
Bai Baisha knew the time had come. Generally, when a big boss entered the second phase, they would use a large-scale ability. That ability called 'Dead Silence Arrival: Ember Extinction' should be the most troublesome problem of the second phase—large-scale erosion damage.
Thinking of this, Bai Baisha didn't hesitate. She raised both hands high, as if embracing the sky. Three pairs of light wings appeared behind her. At this moment, she was like an angel.
Bai Baisha floated up. When she stopped at a height of more than ten meters in midair, holy light scattered down. All the contractors below felt warmth throughout their bodies. Their health points recovered at a visible rate, and their wounds healed quickly.
"This is definitely a top-tier seventh-rank big boss! Kill him! Open the chest! Divide the equipment!"
Adelie stared fixedly at Su Xiao. Losing so many team members naturally made him angry, but compared to the gains from killing an overlord-level boss, this loss was barely acceptable.
Hearing Adelie's shout, the eyes of the contractors present burned with passion. They really had never killed a top-tier seventh-rank big boss before. Thinking of the gains afterward, most of their fear dissipated.
Su Xiao swung his sword repeatedly. Pale blue electric arcs surged on his longsword, shattering incoming energy-type attacks or bullets.
Just as Su Xiao was about to charge into the crowd and kill those three annoying tank types, he saw the floating 'angel.'
Su Xiao felt it was time to use [Blood Feather]. To be safe, he planned to activate Dead Silence Arrival while using [Blood Feather].