NOVEL NEXT Chapter 76
Crash! Crash! Crash!
Every time the massive forepaw of the Green Dragon came crashing down toward me, I deftly dodged by shifting my body lightly.
Bam.
On the third and final strike, I grazed the dragon’s gigantic foot with my hand and leaped over it, twisting my body.
Whoosh!
Bam! Bam Bam!
Sparkling sword strikes accompanied by starlight continuously struck the dragon’s scales around me.
Thud!
I felt a rebound as if I had hit a barrier of the Named Enemy. The impact shot through my sword and up my arm. I delivered one final powerful strike and used that rebound to land a bit farther away.
The defensive power of the scales surrounding the dragon’s entire body was indeed formidable. The sheer HP figure of 200 million was overwhelming, and considering its defense, it was something that couldn’t simply be measured by raw numbers.
This is a World Boss.
Even with over a hundred users relentlessly attacking it, its HP barely budged. But then—
Whoosh!
The dragon lifted both feet, casting a massive shadow over my head. It felt like a huge building was collapsing on me.
I took advantage of the rebound from striking the scales to create enough distance. With a backward evasion and one Flash move, I should be able to escape the range of the downward strike pattern.
Bam.
My body, using the backward evasion, was still within the shadow of the dragon. But if the dragon landed flat down now, it would be right near its neck.
The neck was the only part where I could deal colossal damage, ignoring the dragon’s defense. But opportunities to strike there were few and far between.
Snap.
Ignoring the dragon’s body approaching dangerously close above my head, I prepared the stance for the Flash move.
Shimmer!
Crash!
Puff! Puff! Puff!
Flesh flew and green blood gushed forth. My sword, piercing without resistance, left a long but narrow wound on the dragon’s neck. My body, now a flash of light, precisely slipped through the gaps in the scales and cut into the dragon’s neck.
Roar!!
Feeling a sharp pain, the dragon immediately raised its body and thrashed its head, twisting in agony.
I smirked at the sight.
If it’s going to hurt, it shouldn’t attack like that.
Boom!
“Rain! I’m joining you!”
With the sound of the second guardian falling, Chris’s shout echoed.
I looked around the battlefield in response to her voice.
This time, it’s not a solo play.
This is my first raid with my teammates.
Right after we took down the first guardian, the ‘Hong Baek’ guild party split up, with melee dealers focusing on the remaining guardian and ranged dealers starting to chip away at the dragon’s HP.
Currently, the dragon’s HP is:
[World Boss]
[Green Dragon]
[HP 160,851,050/200,000,000]
Smack, smack, smack!
Green scales fell from the guardian’s body, impaled by the party members’ hands, forming a barricade.
Roar!!
At the same time, the dragon entered a special phase, indicating the Breath attack.
Whoosh, whooooom!
The immense body of the dragon, jumping back, landed against the cliff. And then—
Whooosh!
Crack! Rumble!
Massive energy began to gather slowly around the dragon’s mouth, the ground around it cracked, and chunks of rock floated away.
“Ugh! It’s the Breath!”
“Get out of the way! To the corners!”
Dozens of surviving individual users and party members began to scatter in a panic.
“Rain, over here!”
Chris urgently gestured towards me.
The Hong Baek guild members were all moving in perfect unison, gathering behind the scale barricade.
Rumble rumble!
I shook my head slightly, glancing at the boulders levitating around the dragon.
I could use that.
While unleashing the Breath, the dragon will be defenseless.
It’s the perfect opportunity to attack the dragon’s most vulnerable spot, its neck.
Ranged magic attacks wouldn’t deal significant damage due to the scales around its neck, but—
Tap, tap, tap!
Having calculated it, I dashed forward.
“Rain!”
Leaving behind Chris’s worried shout, I sprinted toward the dragon and leapt into the air from the ground using the newly fallen rocks.
Two, three, four times. With consecutive leaps onto the rocks, I found myself just inches away from the dragon’s head in the blink of an eye.
Whoosh!
The light gathering on my sword soared to its zenith.
I felt the dragon’s eyes lock onto mine.
Whirl.
I spun in the air, executing the stance for the Flash move.
At the same moment, massive energy collected in the dragon’s mouth erupted forward.
Crash! Crash! Crash!
Spark!
Parting through the blinding green flash, my sword grazed the dragon’s mouth as I landed on its neck.
Even though I was just behind the attack range of the Breath, the aftermath was tremendous. The violent vibrations shook my body as I stood on the scales.
My white hair fluttered in the wind.
Shaking my head once, I began to swing my sword.
Bam Bam Bam!
My sword delved persistently between the dragon’s scales, stabbing and poking fiercely. Flesh and green blood splattered everywhere. I shook my blood-soaked hair once more and initiated my bracelet’s cooldown reset ability.
And again, I prepared for the Flash move.
Boom!
The Breath was still ongoing.
Was the Green Dragon planning to ignore that pesky mosquito stuck to its neck and tackle the annoying things up front first?
But this will hurt a bit.
Focusing precisely on the wide gap created in the dragon’s scales, I unleashed the Flash move.
Spark!
Swish! Swish! Swish!
My second Flash, slicing through the dragon’s neck between the scales, cleanly removed several large scales.
Roar!!?
The dragon let out a pained roar and twisted its neck wildly, starting to emit light.
The Breath couldn’t continue and had to be cut short mid-attack.
Bam.
I launched myself off the now agitated dragon’s neck and landed lightly on the ground.
“Rain! Are you okay?”
Chris, who had rushed over, questioned with a worried expression.
What must I look like now? I hope I don’t look like a green monster drenched in dragon blood.
“I’m still attacking. Do you see that?”
I pointed to the exposed wound where the scales had fallen off on the dragon’s neck.
Chris’s eyes sparkled.
“If we aim for that…”
I nodded while looking at her.
The Green Dragon’s scales wouldn’t resist the magical damage there.
Roar!!
During that time, the dragon’s glowing eyes fixed onto me. Flames of rage danced within those eyes.
Tap, tap, tap!
I quickly maneuvered back into the main tank position.
The poison field that had gradually spread around the battlefield after the Breath was not affecting our raid party.
I smiled, gazing at the gentle green glow surrounding my body.
“This is a standard dungeon gimmick. As expected, it can be used even during a World Boss raid.”
The typical dungeon in the Berveia Plains region, ‘Spider Nest’, offers a ‘Poison Resistance’ buff through its gimmick.
Once you gain this buff, if you exit the dungeon without defeating the boss in the Spider Nest, the buff remains.
The continuously damaging poison field is a major hindrance to the raid. However, with the ‘Poison Resistance’ buff, there’s no need to drink antidotes within the poison field, and you also won’t take continuous damage.
The poison field is sorted thanks to this.
The dragon’s massive resistance and defensive abilities were rendered ineffective.
I also successfully blocked the Breath without injury.
Now, only the flying pattern remained.
Roar!!
Staring directly into the bloodshot eyes of the dragon, I raised my sword high.
—
[World Boss]
[Green Dragon]
[HP 115,476,057/200,000,000]
Individual users had been wiped out by the first Breath. The GG Guild’s main force was holding off enemy forces on the outskirts of the forest.
Currently, only the members of the Hong Baek guild remained in front of the dragon’s lair.
However, the speed at which the dragon’s HP was dropping was much faster than when hundreds of users had been swarming around it.
Crash! Crash! Crash!
Roar–!
Hong Baek guild’s ranged dealers aimed precisely at the neck where the scales had fallen and unleashed their skills.
Spark.
Using the dragon’s patterns, I executed Flash each time its neck came within range of my attacks.
Crash!
Suddenly, beside me, the Deathly Death landed a punch on the dragon’s neck and gave me a sly smile. I returned the gesture with a bashful grin.
“Is it okay for you to fight up front? The patterns are tricky.”
“Just practicing as the main tank.”
Whoosh!
Tap!
With those words, Deathly Death expertly dodged a swipe from the dragon’s forepaw using a backward evasion.
Boom! Crash!
Roar!!?
The dragon, just about to roll its back foot, momentarily stiffened. It seemed flustered.
“Grrr! Riii—Hopkins!”
Crash, crash!
Hopkins and another gladiator froze the dragon’s back foot.
Blue flames shaped as energy erupted from the gladiators’ bodies.
With the gladiator-only Training Tower skills ‘Heavenly Weight’ and ‘Strength Contest,’ the overwhelming might of the gladiators in purely strength stat equipment temporarily halted the giant dragon’s movements.
Crash! Crash!
As the dragon halted, spells from the ranged dealers poured down onto its neck.
The dragon’s HP finally dropped below 50%.
Roar!!
Flap!
The massive wings of the dragon, which had been folded, suddenly flapped once.
Whoosh!
“Ugh!”
“What is this!?”
Along with the gust of wind, the Hong Baek guild members were swept away, forced to lower their bodies and retreat.
Flap, flap, flap.
The giant dragon’s body started to lift off the ground slightly with each flap of its wings.
It was hard to imagine a creature over dozens of meters in size floating in the air.
Defying the laws of physics, what a sight that was.
The second special phase.
The prelude to the flying pattern had begun.