Chapter 572: Slaying the Iceflame Serpent Man
The exploding blue ice flower sent Marcus and the Sea Demon Soul flying, both of them thrown backward with a pair of heavy thumps like rag dolls caught in a blast wave.
’That had hurt.’
The Sea Demon Soul took the worst of it. It was knocked completely off its feet and slammed into the ground, leaving it unable to recover immediately.
Marcus fared only slightly better. He managed to stay standing, but the attack had still inflicted a Stun. Blackie staggered backward several steps, while that familiar dizzying spiral appeared above Marcus’s head, leaving him helpless for three full seconds.
’I really want to cry.’ That was the kind of power a Level 80 ultimate possessed. Four separate hits, 5,000 damage each, on top of those vicious debuffs. Marcus had barely managed to keep himself upright through the first assault, and now the Iceflame Black Serpent Man was already coming for him again.
"Still alive?!"
The Iceflame Black Serpent Man stared at Marcus in disbelief, its expression twisting with renewed fury. It clearly hadn’t expected him to withstand the attack. The trident in its hands spun once more, and the skill, Ice Venom World, erupted again as another ring of frost arrows exploded outward.
THUNK. The ice arrows struck Marcus one after another. A critical hit. A yellow damage number floated above his head. Then his HP dropped to zero. Marcus died. The serpent had killed him.
Below them, the five Royal Sorcerers and the two Sea Demon Souls were all already under 10,000 HP. Seeing Marcus collapse, the Iceflame Black Serpent Man released two triumphant hisses before turning toward the remaining enemies, apparently intending to finish them off and claim the victory.
Then the system prompt appeared.
Ding!
[Stonehaven, you have been killed by a monster. The Ring of Resurrection has revived you. All stats have been restored to full. You are in an invulnerable state for the first three seconds.]
Golden light flared around Marcus. A moment later, he was standing again, his HP and stats completely restored, his body surrounded by a shimmering golden barrier that rendered him temporarily invulnerable.
Marcus stared at the serpent, then he summoned Pebble.
"Alright, you bastard. Die."
He drew the Twin-Winged Ice Owl Bow and nocked one of the Mythic Blazing Explosive Arrows he had retrieved earlier. Beside him, Pebble did the same, and the two of them raised their bows together. This time, Marcus wasn’t panicking. He knew exactly what he had to do.
"Blazing Explosive Arrow!"
The two arrows shot forward at the same time, trailing violent waves of fire energy as they tore through the air.
The Iceflame Black Serpent Man had no idea Marcus could resurrect. Its attention was still fixed on the Royal Sorcerers and Sea Demon Souls below, which it was steadily wearing down. It unleashed Ice Venom World once more, the storm of frost arrows sweeping across the battlefield and finally wiping out the five sorcerers and the two Sea Demon Souls.
The serpent seemed ready to celebrate its victory. Then a massive surge of fire energy slammed into its back.
The Iceflame Black Serpent Man whipped around, its eyes widening when it saw Marcus standing there, completely alive, weapon in hand and looking considerably less amused than before.
’Fire.’ The serpent immediately remembered those earlier attacks and tensed, but its reaction came too late. The Mythic Blazing Explosive Arrows struck its body and detonated with two deafening explosions.
BOOM! BOOM! The fire energy tore into it from both sides. With triple damage and critical hits, each arrow dealt 12,000 damage, stripping another 24,000 HP from the monster’s health bar. And Marcus wasn’t finished. More arrows were already in flight.
"Ice Venom World!"
The Iceflame Black Serpent Man hissed furiously and launched its counterattack. A ring of frost arrows exploded outward, racing toward Marcus and Pebble.
But Marcus was still within the three-second invulnerability period granted by the Ring of Resurrection. The attack hit, and nothing happened. The third second ticked away, and the golden barrier finally began to fade.
By then, Marcus had already loosed his third Mythic arrow. "Blazing Explosive Arrow!" He and Pebble fired again.
They each had only two Mythic Blazing Explosive Arrows remaining, and they fired their next shots without hesitation. At almost the same moment, the Iceflame Black Serpent Man unleashed Ice Venom World again. The frost arrows tore into both of them, stripping away another 10,000 HP from each.
Marcus gritted his teeth but held his ground. The arrows hit. BOOM! BOOM! The final explosions ripped through the Iceflame Black Serpent Man’s body. Fire surged across its massive frame, consuming the last portion of its health bar until the HP indicator finally emptied completely.
"Hissss..." A long, dying hiss escaped the serpent’s throat. Its enormous serpentine body finally collapsed. The humanoid torso crashed heavily onto the stone floor, and the monster lay there without another movement.
Slaying successful.
Marcus let out a long breath. Thank God the Blazing Explosive Arrows had decent critical-hit rates, and even better, fire energy was exactly what the Iceflame Black Serpent Man was weak against. Otherwise, the five remaining arrows would never have been enough to burn through the monster’s final 80,000 HP.
That had been way too close. Marcus looked back over the battlefield, still feeling the tension in his body.
Too many things had gone right for him to win that fight.
The Millennium Fire-Apricot Wine given to him by the village chief had been a huge help, protecting him from the worst of the slow and freezing effects. But the real lifesaver had been the ambush at the beginning. That surprise attack had already carved away 300,000 HP from the Iceflame Black Serpent Man before the actual battle had even begun.
Half of the monster’s health had been gone before the fight truly started. Without that advantage, the serpent would still have had 200,000 HP remaining, while all of Marcus’s major cooldowns had already been used. If he’d been forced to fight it from that point onward without the ambush, there was no question how things would have ended.
He would have been the one lying dead on the floor.
Marcus shook his head. ’Lesson learned. Level 80 monsters are completely out of my league right now. I shouldn’t even be thinking about Mythic or Divine Beasts yet.’
There was still a long road ahead of him. The system notification chimed, followed by a stream of reputation and gold rewards. The Level 80 Silver-tier Iceflame Black Serpent Man had also given Marcus enough experience to gain another level.
Level: 53. Blackie had reached Level 50 as well.
Ding!
[Congratulations, player Stonehaven. Your Super Divine Mount, Nightmare Dragon Steed, Blackie, has reached Level 50. HP +200, MP +200, Attack +100, Defense +200.]
Marcus’s eyes lit up. And, thankfully, Blackie had also triggered its Level 50 growth.
Hellfire suddenly erupted around Blackie’s hooves. The Prismatic Horn on its head began to glow, its brilliance pulsing stronger and stronger as rainbow-colored light gathered around its body. Seven different energies, fire, water, earth, wood, metal, darkness, and light, emerged and began swirling around the Nightmare Dragon Steed in a dazzling vortex.
Marcus watched without taking his eyes off Blackie. The transformation continued for two full minutes.
Then Blackie suddenly threw back its head and released a thunderous whinny. The sound shook the battlefield, sending the surrounding black mist churning violently.
A moment later, the rainbow-colored energy surrounding its body exploded outward, blazing across the area like a wildfire.
When the light finally settled, Marcus stared. Blackie had grown.
It was now roughly twice the size of an ordinary horse, its body broader and significantly more powerful than before. Thick muscles shifted beneath its jet-black hide, while its imposing frame radiated a sense of strength that made it look far more intimidating than the creature Marcus had first seen.
Even standing still, Blackie seemed to carry an almost tangible menace.
The system prompt appeared once again.