The Extra Boss Hidden in the Dark

There were five bosses, each with different stats and combat power.

Their levels varied as well, ranging from 43 to 50.

The one with the lowest HP was Blooddrinker Redwing, with only 280,000.

Yet it was actually the highest-level one.

Its attack power was a full 8,000, and it even had a lifesteal passive among its skills.

Liu Xuan was incredibly envious. If only he had lifesteal too.

Taken individually, none of these bosses were particularly fearsome.

At least, they had relatively few skills, most of which were fairly standard, with no especially troublesome mechanics.

A level-forty-something party could definitely take one down.

But when five of them gathered together, quantity brought about a qualitative change.

Their damage was simply too much to withstand. If several bosses unleashed their skills at the same time, it would be easy for party members to die.

No wonder the system had said that coming at this point in time would “greatly increase” the difficulty of the battle.

Of course, that applied to ordinary parties. For Liu Xuan, things were different.

He would rather fight several bosses grouped together like this than clear out all the monsters in the city. That would actually be more troublesome.

Unless the monsters all gathered in one place too, allowing him to wipe them out with Corpse Explosion in a single blow.

But why could he only see these five bosses? Where was the so-called High Priest?

Liu Xuan observed them for a moment and noticed that the bosses seemed to be forming a vague circle, apparently guarding something in the middle.

He looked closely. There seemed to be a gigantic shadow several meters tall at the center, but it was difficult to see clearly in the darkness.

It stood there completely motionless. Liu Xuan could tell that it was not a living creature, but something resembling a stone.

Finally, he spotted the so-called “High Priest” atop the stone.

Naturally, the figure was shrouded in darkness, and he could not make out its appearance. He could only see a silhouette.

However, the Eye of Insight still scanned its data.

[Void-Eroding Priest Shengxing (Boss)]

Level: 60

Attack Power: 100

HP: 1,200,000

Armor: 0

Magic Resistance: 1,800

Toughness: 30%

Skills:

[Spatial Corrosion: Using certain special materials, Shengxing can bite open space and construct a teleportation passage.]

[Environmental Adaptation: Shengxing can adjust the distribution of its armor and magic resistance. Their combined total is 1,800.]

[Protection: Grants one other allied unit nearby immunity to all damage and crowd control for 5 seconds. Cooldown: 30 seconds.]

[Transfer: Shengxing tears open space and transfers any number of nearby allied units to any location within 100 meters.]

[Resurrection: Sacrifices 50,000 maximum HP to revive one allied unit.]

[Guard Link: Forms a link with up to six nearby targets. For every linked target that remains alive, damage taken by Shengxing is reduced by 10%.]

[Enrage: Increases the damage dealt by all nearby allied units by 35% for 28 seconds.]

[Ability Transfer: Shengxing can temporarily transfer the attack power, spell damage, armor, or magic resistance of any nearby allied unit to another allied unit. Cooldown: 5 seconds.]

This High Priest was purely a support unit!

It had practically no offensive abilities, but each of its skills was more obnoxious than the last.

Liu Xuan felt that he might have to take back what he had said earlier. With those five bosses plus Shengxing, six bosses together really could form a formidable combination.

Their combined damage was already considerable. Based on their stats and skill models, a rough estimate put their damage at a minimum of forty to fifty thousand HP per second when attacking together.

The damage alone was actually manageable. Liu Xuan was confident that he could bring them all down before he died.

But with Shengxing’s resurrection ability added to the mix, things became much harder to say.

Shengxing had a full 1.2 million HP, and each resurrection only cost it 50,000 maximum HP. Combined with Guard Link, its HP would remain safe through at least a dozen resurrections.

Not to mention that ridiculous Ability Transfer. Whenever one boss was about to attack Liu Xuan, Shengxing could transfer the attack power of another boss to it—such as the 8,000 attack power of Blooddrinker Redwing, the highest among them—to maximize the damage.

And whenever one boss was about to take damage, it could transfer another boss’s armor or magic resistance to it, reducing the damage as much as possible.

For example, Carnivore Ironhide had a full 1,500 armor and 1,500 magic resistance!

In other words, as long as the High Priest Shengxing had a functioning brain and coordinated smoothly with the other bosses, their actual strength would far exceed what their surface stats suggested.

But…

“I’m not without a chance either~”

Liu Xuan’s gaze fell on Redwing, that “little glass cannon.” It had a mere 280,000 HP.

The damage of Thunder Aura had now reached 180,000. As long as he caught Redwing off guard and killed it with two lightning strikes, the aura’s damage would instantly soar to 460,000!

At that point, all these bosses would be nothing but fodder!

No matter how many times they were resurrected, they would never be able to withstand that kind of damage.

And once his damage increased, there would be a good chance that he could kill the other bosses with additional lightning strikes. Once the snowball started rolling, it would be almost impossible for him to lose.

Thinking of the rewards he would receive if he succeeded, Liu Xuan decided that this was worth the risk.

“Let’s do it!”

It happened to be nighttime, so Liu Xuan charged forward under the cover of darkness.

As he drew closer, he gradually made out the object surrounded by the bosses.

It was a huge blue-green stone. At that moment, the wormlike Void-Eroding Priest Shengxing was lying atop it, slowly devouring the massive rock.

The areas that had been eaten away glittered with a strange light, much like the teleportation portal Liu Xuan had seen in Orenburg.

In other words, once it finished eating the entire stone, the teleportation portal would be complete?

Because the five bosses were positioned around the stone, Liu Xuan deliberately changed his approach slightly as he ran over, ensuring that Thunder Aura would strike Redwing first.

However, just as the distance between them continued to shrink, Liu Xuan’s ears twitched.

There was movement to his left!

The entire city had been reduced to ruins, and the ground was covered in broken stones. It was impossible to step on them without making some noise.

But Liu Xuan’s keen ears detected another sound to his left apart from his own footsteps, though it was incredibly faint.

It was nearly imperceptible.

Fortunately, Liu Xuan had spent years playing games. Listening for footsteps was practically a skill in itself.

The sound was approaching him. If nothing went wrong, they would collide in an instant!

Liu Xuan immediately pulled out the Heavenly One and raised it to block on his left.

“Clang!”

A crisp metallic collision rang out. Liu Xuan saw a small, thin figure flash past in front of his shield.

At that moment, lightning descended. To Liu Xuan’s surprise, the bolt missed entirely and struck the ground instead.

The instant the enemy finished attacking, it had vanished from sight once more!

“Does Thunder Aura not trigger against invisible targets?” Liu Xuan wondered inwardly.

He had never encountered a monster capable of stealth before. Today, however, he had discovered a minor mechanic of Thunder Aura.

The enemy had clearly approached while hidden. During that entire time, the aura had never activated.

Then it would remain visible for far too little time to attack—after a single strike, it immediately forced itself back into stealth, causing the heavenly lightning to lose its lock on the target.

What puzzled Liu Xuan was how the other party had avoided being afflicted by [Fear] and managed to use stealth at the very first moment.

Did it have 100% Tenacity?

Or had it activated a skill in advance that could remove control effects?

For example, Shengxing had a skill called [Protection] that made the target immune to control effects and damage.

The former would be fine, but if it was the latter, how had the boss known that attacking it would result in being controlled?