The Golden Blade's Exit

“Roar!”

As Liu Xuan silently recited the skill’s name, Thornthroat opened its enormous jaws at the same time and unleashed a deafening roar straight at him.

“Roooar, roar, roar… Huh? (⊙o⊙)”

Halfway through, its voice suddenly weakened, ending in a whimper like a puppy.

Liu Xuan was completely unharmed. He hadn’t lost any health, nor had his movement speed been reduced.

Instead, Thornthroat itself was sent running around in terror.

Fortunately, its hide was thick and its body tough. After taking Liu Xuan’s full combo of Fear and Poison, it still had more than half its health bar remaining.

But in Thornthroat’s eyes, Liu Xuan was now the very embodiment of fear.

And he wasn’t talking about the debuff.

Once Thornthroat recovered from the control effect, it kept its distance, staring at Liu Xuan and nervously refusing to approach.

It couldn’t hit him.

Its skills didn’t work either, and it would only keep losing health.

Damn it, that lump of “meat” was poisonous!

Thornthroat paced back and forth, but simply didn’t dare charge again.

“As expected, monsters with a certain level of intelligence really are different from mindless ones.”

Thornthroat had been cursed out by Goldblade earlier, so it was obvious at a glance that this was a coward with an exceptionally strong instinct for survival.

In the stands, Goldblade saw that the hound it had raised was actually reduced to such a sorry state and became completely enraged.

This wasn’t just a beating for the dog—it was a slap in its own face!

It let out several furious hisses, urging Thornthroat to attack.

Terrified by its master’s authority, Thornthroat had no choice but to pounce at Liu Xuan. It clawed wildly, but still couldn’t touch him. In the end, it lowered its head and whimpered at Goldblade twice.

The meaning was obvious:

I really can’t hit him, boss.

“Hsss!”

Goldblade glared furiously at it and let out a sharp hiss. Suddenly, a wave of air shot from its mouth and slammed directly into Thornthroat’s head.

The attack shattered its head in an instant.

Goldblade’s bloated body then slowly rose to its feet. Once standing, the wings that had been pressed against its back suddenly spread open.

The enormous golden wings were a full six or seven meters across.

With a gentle flap, Goldblade shot into the air at a speed completely at odds with its massive frame. It flew into the arena and looked down at Liu Xuan from above.

“So you finally decided to come down?” Liu Xuan asked with an unhurried smile.

The Insightful Eye activated, and Goldblade’s attributes appeared before him.

[Golden Blade Lord]

Level: 30

Attack: 1,500

Health: 250,000

Armor: 200

Magic Resistance: 200

Tenacity: 70%

Skills:

[Lord of the Skies: The Golden Blade Lord is a powerful aerial creature. Only by dealing sufficient damage to its wings can it be forced to land.]

[Tempest Domain: The Golden Blade Lord controls the direction of the wind in the surrounding area. Any enemy attempting to move away from it will suffer 200 points of magic damage per second, and have their movement speed reduced by 40%.]

[Wind Bullet: The Golden Blade Lord fires an extremely powerful wave of air from its mouth, dealing 2,500 points of magic damage to the target.]

[Storm Descends: The Golden Blade Lord creates a storm across the arena, dealing 500 points of magic damage per second to all enemies within range for 20 seconds.]

[Metallization: When its health falls below 20%, the Golden Blade Lord’s armor and magic resistance each increase by 100 points. All of its attacks will then deal additional magic damage equal to their original damage, while all of its skills will deal additional physical damage equal to their original damage.]

Tsk. This guy actually had some tricks up his sleeve.

It looked so bloated, yet it was unbelievably fast.

And it could deal both physical and magical damage.

Its basic attacks dealt physical damage, while its skills dealt magic damage.

Once it entered its final berserk phase, its damage would effectively double.

Its basic attacks would gain an equal amount of magic damage, while its skills would gain an equal amount of physical damage.

Of course, the most troublesome part was its first passive, Lord of the Skies.

At the start of the battle, Goldblade would remain airborne. Unless its wings were damaged, it wouldn’t come down.

Fortunately, Liu Xuan relied entirely on reflected damage. Distance was irrelevant to him—as long as the opponent could hit him, it was enough.

Hovering in midair, Goldblade hissed something at him. Liu Xuan couldn’t understand a word.

Whatever it was, it seemed to make Goldblade even angrier. It opened its mouth and fired a Wind Bullet straight at him.

The Wind Bullet was incredibly fast. It reached him in the blink of an eye, and even with Lightfooted Body, Liu Xuan couldn’t dodge it.

Remembering how Thornthroat’s head had been blown apart by a single shot, Liu Xuan felt a flicker of nervousness at first.

But he quickly realized that Thornthroat had still possessed eighty or ninety thousand health at the time. It had clearly been killed by “plot armor”—or rather, a scripted death.

Sure enough, when the same Wind Bullet struck Liu Xuan, it only took away a little over two thousand health.

Because of its astonishing 70% Tenacity, Goldblade was barely affected by the control effects of Nightmare Incarnation. But that only enraged it further.

Without even landing, it began using Wind Bullet like a basic attack, firing one after another without pause.

If anyone else had come to fight it, they probably wouldn’t have been able to hold out for long unless they quickly brought it down and forced it to rely on basic attacks.

The damage from Wind Bullet was far greater than that of its regular attacks.

But this fighting style was perfect for Liu Xuan.

What, you think you’re awesome because you can use your skills like basic attacks?

Then take a look at Heavenly Being!

Liu Xuan mindlessly recited Wind Bullet.

Goldblade was completely dumbfounded.

It kept opening its mouth, yet not a single wave of air came out. Instead, it was the one constantly losing health to Poison.

Trading health was one thing, but it absolutely couldn’t accept being unable to use its skills while inexplicably losing health at the same time!

For the first time, it experienced the same frustration its pet had suffered moments earlier.

Already driven mad with rage, Goldblade let out a furious hiss and raised its sickle-shaped arms, moving them in rhythm with the flapping of its wings.

Liu Xuan immediately felt the wind around him begin to stir.

This guy was charging up a powerful skill!

Unfortunately for it, did it really think he would let it cast the skill?

With Insightful Eye combined with Heavenly Being, abilities with such obvious casting animations were practically cheating.

Liu Xuan was becoming more and more convinced that Heavenly Being was an absurdly overpowered shield.

The description of the Fortune Tree’s skill had said it was something that appeared only once every ten thousand years. But Liu Xuan felt that the time it had spent being nurtured inside the treasure chest had probably been far longer than ten thousand years.

That was why its quality was so outrageously high.

Among divine-grade equipment, Heavenly Being was probably one of the very best.

At that moment, Goldblade Lord’s Storm Descends had only just begun. The wind had barely grown strong enough to ruffle a few strands of hair when it abruptly came to a halt.

The boss nearly ruptured something from holding it in.

The highly intelligent Goldblade realized that the fellow below was strange—he could prevent it from casting skills.

So it chose to dive down on its own, flapping its wings and charging at Liu Xuan with both arms swinging.

“Well, looks like I don’t even need to hit its wings to bring it down.”

Facing the oncoming Goldblade, Liu Xuan didn’t move an inch.

That thing had Tempest Domain. He couldn’t outrun it, and trying to escape would only make him lose health.

So he would just stand and fight. They could see who died first.

The boss?

Sorry, but you have less health than me, deal less damage, and recover health more slowly than I do.

Obviously, you’re the one who’ll die first.

Seeing its health bar plunge, Goldblade attacked with even greater ferocity.

It cleverly noticed that by weaving the short-windup Wind Bullet between its basic attacks, the opponent couldn’t interrupt it every single time.

Even so, it wasn’t enough to save its life.

Goldblade’s health quickly dropped to around 20%. With a furious roar, the golden glow surrounding its body grew even brighter.

The creature had activated Metallization—in other words, it had gone berserk!

Its damage increased dramatically. A single Wind Bullet now dealt four to five thousand damage, while even its basic attacks inflicted two to three thousand.

Relying on its extremely high attack speed, Liu Xuan’s health was also falling rapidly.

But that was all it could do.

When the Golden Blade Lord finally collapsed with a wail, poisoned to death, Liu Xuan still had 240,000 HP remaining.

And it was recovering rapidly.