018 Demon Dragon!

After killing the venomous mummy, Morning Wind was the first to reach the third floor of the trial pyramid. The boss on this floor was random, and when he was teleported in and saw that it was a level 36 demon dragon, he could not help feeling that his luck had turned abysmal. Among all the bosses on the third floor, the hardest to deal with was the demon dragon. It was a wyvern from the abyss, swift in motion and terrifying in explosive power; killing it was no easy matter.

Taking advantage of the opening phase, when the demon dragon was trading blows with him on the ground, Morning Wind charged in and immediately activated God Mode.

Bloodthirst!

Whirlwind Strike!

His luck was excellent. Bloodthirst triggered a free Whirlwind Strike on the very first hit, and after the attack landed, it crit twice. Morning Wind first used Giant Strike to weaken the demon dragon’s defenses, then followed up with Furious Cleave.

The critical hit bonus from Recklessness was excellent. Morning Wind’s equipment already offered a decent crit rate, and once Furious Cleave went off, the hits kept critting one after another as he kept hammering away with it, wildly and relentlessly. The demon dragon’s health fell rapidly, but Morning Wind’s own health also dropped in a straight line. If not for the fifty percent defense from Iron Body and the twenty-five percent damage reduction from Defensive Stance, he would likely have gone down already.

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Blood Strike. As the demon dragon took to the air, Morning Wind immediately used Blood Strike to restore fifteen percent of his maximum health. Blood Strike had a twenty-five-second cooldown, and as soon as the demon dragon landed again, he would be able to use it once more. While the demon dragon remained airborne, Morning Wind only had Heroic Throw available, so he switched to his featureless shield to block the attacks.

Shield Reflection!

While in the air, the demon dragon attacked with Corrosive Breath, a magical attack. Morning Wind’s Shield Reflection bounced it straight back. He kept weaving through the columns inside the pyramid, doing everything he could to avoid the demon dragon’s attacks. He would take one breath attack, then hide behind a pillar and wait for Rejuvenating Wind to heal him back up; soon he would recover to thirty-five percent, take another hit, then recover again.

Without the ability to solo a minor boss, any player entering the trial pyramid would only be courting death. The smaller bosses here were not especially powerful; with enough skill, they could be killed. If Morning Wind did not have Rejuvenating Wind, he still had a way to deal with the demon dragon, though it would have been more troublesome.

Meanwhile, Quicksand had finally entered the second floor, and Stan had nearly finished off the mummies on that floor and was about to reach the third. The dwarf paladin had already arrived on the third floor. His luck was much better than Morning Wind’s; he had drawn the Mummy King, which was comparatively easy to kill. Besides, as a paladin, he dealt thirty percent more damage to mummies.

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The demon dragon had just descended when Morning Wind leaped back two steps, then immediately charged forward, unleashing Giant Strike to vent his fury before following with Bloodthirst. Since he did not trigger a free Whirlwind Strike, he filled the global cooldown with Blood Strike and Thunder Strike, doing his best to maximize output during the six-second armor-ignoring window after Giant Strike.

Shield Slam! Since no free Whirlwind Strike triggered, Morning Wind followed up with Shield Slam to keep the pressure on and attack as much as possible.

Unlike the explosive opening burst, Morning Wind no longer dared to trade blows directly with the boss at this stage. His health pool simply could not match the boss’s; direct trading was impossible. Even with a twenty-six percent life-steal effect and Rejuvenating Wind, he still would not dare do it.

Sweep!

The demon dragon suddenly turned and swept its tail across him. This was an attack with extremely high damage. Morning Wind had long since learned that the boss possessed this skill, and he dropped low to evade it before continuing to unload his abilities. What Morning Wind feared most was encountering a boss with explosive power like this one. It was a direct clash of force, and he simply could not afford to trade with it.

"Raven, I’ve reached the fourth floor. How about you?" The dwarf paladin was killing bosses more easily, and with the added damage bonus from his holy attacks, he was almost as good as Morning Wind’s racial advantage.

Morning Wind had thought he would clear the course and, being as powerful as he was, should be ahead of them, but he had not expected Otlas and Stan to be this formidable. World-class players were indeed different from national-level players. If his former self were judged on the world stage, he would probably only count as a third-rate player. After all, Morning Wind had never truly faced the super-experts of the world before.

After killing the demon dragon, Morning Wind reached the fourth floor. He quickly calculated the time: he was two minutes behind the dwarf paladin. There was no helping that; the boss he had drawn was much stronger. Fortunately, the boss on the fourth floor was comparatively easy— a dark demon.

The dark demon was a summoning warlock. Its burst damage was not especially high; its control skills were what made it troublesome. Morning Wind’s abnormal status resistance was high, and his burst was formidable, so he did not need to worry about the demons the dark demon summoned. He could simply bomb the boss directly. Compared with the third-floor boss, the fourth-floor boss saw its overall attributes increased by twenty percent, with health alone rising by as much as fifty percent, making it even more troublesome to kill.

To Morning Wind, the dark demon was far too easy. He charged in and immediately activated God Mode again, completely ignoring the three summoned creatures the dark demon called forth and simply blasting away. Facing the dark demon, Morning Wind found it far easier than killing the demon dragon.

With Rejuvenating Wind, Blood Strike, and his twenty-six percent life steal, Morning Wind had no fear of the summons’ attacks. Even when the dark demon called forth six summoned creatures, Morning Wind still ignored them and pursued the dark demon directly. The dark demon’s defense was poor; after Morning Wind used Giant Strike, a single Furious Cleave could deal over ten thousand damage, extremely devastating.

In five minutes, Morning Wind activated God Mode for the second time and ground the dark demon to death. Its summons had little effect on him. He passed the fourth floor with ease. Next came the fifth floor, where things would become troublesome. The real difficulty began from the fifth floor onward. Even Morning Wind could not be certain he would make it through; it would take a bit of luck.

"Fuck! Dragon Knight Peter really is waiting for us outside the pyramid!" Otlas had previously placed a surveillance device outside, and just now he had discovered Dragon Knight Peter moving around outside the trial pyramid. As for whether there were others, that was harder to say.

"Once we’re inside, we can’t teleport out. This is trouble!" Stan and the others had originally intended to kill Quicksand during the Dark Desert quest, never expecting that fellow to actually call for reinforcements in advance. By then, even if the three of them left, they would still have to face a four-man ambush, and that was anything but good.

"Their ring gives them a huge early-game advantage. We have no advantage if we fight them head-on." Otlas knew very well that his own ring could only become more powerful after absorbing multiple rings or when paired with top-tier gear. In other words, the three of them relied on equipment to amplify their ring, while the Dragon Knight’s group of four did not place much demand on gear. If they fought now, Morning Wind’s group would be at a complete disadvantage.

Stan brought up the profiles of the four men. The previous ring bearer they had encountered, Quicksand, possessed the Bone Ring. He was a nimble thief, adept at ambushes. After transforming into a bone sand scorpion, he gained the ability to strike from underground and had one instant-kill strike per day. Terrifying. As for his true fighting style, very few had ever seen him battle in thief form, so no one could say exactly how strong he was.

Dragon Knight Peter from the American server was a hidden class Dragon Knight, skilled at focused burst damage, with extremely strong survivability. He could be considered a dual-specialty class of Retribution and Sanctuary. He could transform into a flame dragon, gaining a flying form and long-range burst attacks, making him terrifying to current players. Rumor had it that once Peter donned the Dragon Ring, no one could kill him. In arenas, rings could not be equipped.

Dark Demon from the Russian server was a special Night Demon King. No one knew how he had obtained that class; the most plausible explanation was his Night Ring. The Night Ring could turn day into night, greatly enhancing the Night Demon King’s abilities. No one had ever seen the Night Demon King during the day. Rumor said he had little combat power in daylight, but at night he became monstrously dangerous, even more terrifying than the Dragon Knight. What made him most fearsome was his movement speed and attack speed, both of which nearly reached the limits of human reaction. On top of that, he had an extremely vicious silence skill that prevented opponents from using abilities.

And now it was night, which meant it was the Night Demon King’s strongest time. If they went out now, they would be met with his ferocious assault. In the Chinese server, Morning Wind could run rampant for a while, but on the wider world map he no longer possessed that sort of advantage. Against opponents like the Dragon Knight or the Night Demon King, he truly was not confident he could win.

The barbarian berserker Baru from the Italian server possessed the Barbarian Ring, which enhanced his race and granted him damage and critical bonuses. His solo output was equal to that of three people. At present, Baru only had a pair of epic twin-headed axes, but if he were given an adamantine axe, he could absolutely kill in an instant in the arena. The greatest hallmark of a berserker was explosive damage in a split second, and with powerful weapons he could certainly achieve that.

When they left the trial pyramid, three of them would have to face four. Morning Wind had little confidence. Knowing Otlas’s personality, that fellow would very likely run. Even with his three specializations, he might not necessarily defeat the Dragon Knight. Morning Wind could trade blows with Baru, even suppress him, but he was not sure whether Stan could hold the Night Demon King Dark Demon in check, or when Quicksand would appear from underground to launch his ambush.

"Once we’re out, I’m killing Quicksand first!" Their original plan had been to drag Quicksand into the task and let him clear the way, then kill him when the mission was complete. Otlas and Morning Wind had thought their plan excellent, but the other side was hardly foolish. Quicksand had taken the initiative and moved to encircle them first. Four against three, with the advantage in the early game, Quicksand’s team could completely suppress Morning Wind’s side. Otlas wanted to kill Quicksand, but that would not be easy. After all, the man could hide underground and vanish into stealth. How was he supposed to find him?

"When we go out, we move together. Forget everything else—focus fire Baru first. Take one man out before we talk about anything else." Morning Wind’s suggestion was to kill one target first with concentrated fire. That way, the others would be forced into support and interception, and the initiative would belong to Morning Wind’s side.