Chapter 85: [86]: The Executioner and the Artillery(BONUS)
The pitch-black, swirling dark-matter shield erupted around him. It locked into place with exactly 1,505 HP.
He didn’t bother trying to dodge. He needed to plant his feet to aim his cone attack perfectly.
The giant greatsword smashed directly into his dark-matter shield. The VR pain engine sent a harsh, vibrating shockwave through his virtual spine, but he held his ground.
The knight had 4,000 Attack. Levi’s current Defense was 349.
But Levi’s Diamond-tier [Heart of the Chained] necklace instantly cut that number in half with its 50% Damage Reduction passive.
[-1,825]
The hit slammed into his shield. The 1,505 HP Hollow’s Ward violently shattered like a broken window, the black shards dissolving into the air. The remaining 320 damage bled right through the shield and hit Levi’s actual health pool.
His health dropped from 6,480 down to 6,160.
"Ouch," Levi grunted. "Okay, tanking is officially a bad idea."
He immediately retaliated.
"Hollow’s Guillotine!"
The Sovereign’s Deathknell flared with a blinding, dark-gold aura. He ripped the heavy blade upward in a massive ten-meter cone that smashed directly into both Dreadknights.
[-138] [-138]
The pathetic red numbers floated up. The giant knights barely even flinched at the damage, but the Gold-tier skill’s debuff triggered flawlessly. A broken shield icon popped up over both of their helmets, shredding another 20% of their remaining armor.
Their active Defense plummeted to 1,280.
"Isolde! Fire!" Levi yelled, immediately using his Speed to backpedal away from the second knight’s sweeping blade.
Isolde didn’t hesitate. She pointed her cheap wooden staff and unleashed a rapid barrage of pure white light.
[-5,000 True Damage] [-5,000 True Damage]
The corrupted red text exploded over the knights’ heads. Isolde blasted them back-to-back, carving massive chunks out of their 100,000 HP health bars.
Levi couldn’t just stand there and watch. He had to hold their aggro so they wouldn’t target her. He dashed right back into the pocket, weaving between the skeletal horses. He swung his scythe, letting the silver blade intentionally scrape against their leg armor.
[-0] [-0]
The physical hits were entirely blocked by their stats, but the scythe’s passive still triggered. The tiny teardrop icon popped up over the knights’ heads, ticking for 5 true damage per second. The true damage over time caused massive aggro spikes. Again.
The two Dreadknights instantly turned their glowing blue eyes back to Levi.
For the next four minutes, Levi just ran. He treated the polished black glass like a skating rink, sliding under horizontal cleaves and... [Hollow’s Traverse] whenever he got cornered by an overhead smash.
Isolde acted like an automated turret. She just stood fifty yards away, completely perfectly still, blasting the knights with True Damage.
Levi kept his eyes glued to their health bars. 60,000. 40,000. 25,000.
Finally, the True Damage blasts dropped both knights down to exactly 19,000 HP.
That was well under the 20% threshold.
"Cease fire!" Levi barked.
Isolde’s casting animation instantly canceled.
Levi didn’t wait for the knights to swing again.
"Soul Harvest."
[Target Executed. Movement skill cooldowns reset.]
His teleport refunded its mana cost instantly. Levi blinked three meters to the right, appearing directly next to the second knight.
"Soul Harvest."
The second spectral scythe dropped. The second knight’s head hit the glass floor.
Both Level 60 Elites violently shattered into millions of glowing blue polygons, raining high-tier loot and silver coins all over the obsidian plains.
Levi let out a heavy breath and rested his scythe on the floor. "That is a flawless loop."
Before the polygons even settled, two blindingly thick crimson auras ripped out of the empty space. They shot across the plains and slammed into his chest in rapid succession.
[Supreme Harvester triggered twice.]
[Obsidian Dreadknight’s primary stat is STR (1,000).]
[You have plundered 9% of its core stat.]
[Gained +90 STR permanently!]
Levi laughed as the raw, heavy power forced its way into his avatar. Ninety Strength from a single pull. It was an absolute joke.
He opened his UI to verify. His new strength is now 540.
His new Total Attack is now 1,464.
"Fourteen hundred and sixty-four attack," Levi smirked, closing the screen. "We are scaling way too fast for the system to keep up."
He picked up his scythe and looked out across the Dread-Plains. There were still dozens of patrols wandering around the glass floor. If he wanted to maximize this run, pulling two at a time was going to take all night.
He looked back at Isolde. "You good to increase the volume?"
"My mana reserves are not bound by standard parameters," Isolde stated flatly. "I can sustain current output indefinitely."
"Perfect," Levi grinned. "Let’s grab five."
Levi’s Total Attack was now sitting at a massive 1,464. He could feel the sheer weight of the numbers radiating from the Sovereign’s Deathknell in his hands.
He looked out across the endless sea of polished black obsidian. The Dread-Plains were crawling with patrols, but pulling two Level 60 Elites at a time was mathematically inefficient. He needed forty-seven more kills to hit his quota. Doing them in pairs would take an agonizing amount of time.
"We’re scaling up," Levi told Isolde, cracking his neck. "I’m going to pull a massive group. Stay near the canyon wall. Do not let them close the distance on you."
"Acknowledged," Isolde replied, her untextured gray cloak completely still.
Levi didn’t walk this time. He kicked off the glass floor, his Speed turning him into a glitching black blur. He sprinted in a massive, wide circle across the plains, intentionally stepping into the aggro radius of three separate patrols.
Five massive Obsidian Dreadknights snapped their glowing blue eye slits toward him. Their skeletal warhorses let out a chorus of hollow, rattling neighs and charged.
Levi didn’t run away. He herded them. He used his speed to weave back and forth, dragging all five knights into a tight, clustered formation. The sound of five massive skeletal horses galloping across the glass sounded like a thunderstorm.