Chapter 83: [83]: The Dread-Plains, The 100% Wall
The debuff icon shattered. The Level 58 tag snapped back into place over the boss’s head.
Levi swung a basic attack.
[-0]
The 100% suppression wall was back. His damage was entirely negated.
"Window closed!" Levi yelled, immediately backpedaling.
The rest of the fight turned into a grueling, ten-minute marathon of pure survival. Because Isolde’s suppression hack had a massive cooldown, Levi had to rely entirely on his evasion while she slowly whittled the 400,000 HP pool down with her 5,000 True Damage blasts.
Levi couldn’t take a direct hit without his shield. He used his 346 Speed to physically run circles around the giant on the narrow stone bridge. When the Gargantua swung the bone pillar horizontally, Levi dropped completely flat on the stone, feeling the wind pressure rip over his back. When the boss tried to stomp him, he used Hollow’s Traverse, burning 50 Mana to teleport thirty meters away.
His mana was screaming for mercy. He was constantly popping Greater Mana Potions from his belt just to keep Siphon Aura and his teleport online.
Ten minutes of flawless dodging dragged on. The VR stamina engine made Levi’s legs feel like they were going to snap.
Finally, the boss’s health bar dipped to the absolute bottom.
Because Gargantua was classified as a Mini-Boss, Levi couldn’t use Soul Harvest to instantly execute it at 20%. They had to empty the bar completely.
Isolde’s staff flared with green code.
[Target’s Level Suppression mechanic disabled for 10 seconds.]
The wall vanished. Levi dashed right back into the pocket. He didn’t have mana for a Guillotine. He just needed one clean hit.
The giant raised its bone club for a massive overhead crush. Levi used his Speed to slide directly between the monster’s legs. He drove the tip of the Sovereign’s Deathknell straight up into the unarmored joint behind the giant’s knee.
It was a Weak Point strike.
1 damage multiplied by the critical Weak Point modifier.
[-2 CRIT!]
It was the most pathetic critical hit in the history of the game, but the boss only had 1 HP left.
The Gargantua of the Wastes froze completely. The massive bone club dropped from its hands, crashing through the stone bridge and falling into the ash river below. The giant collapsed onto its knees and violently shattered into a massive explosion of blue polygons and loot boxes.
[System Notification: You have slain Level 58 Mini-Boss Gargantua of the Wastes. Gained 15,000,000 XP.]
Levi dropped his scythe onto the bridge, completely out of breath. He toggled off Siphon Aura and fell backward onto the stone.
"Fifteen million experience," Levi wheezed, staring up at the dark sky. "I am never fighting a twenty-level gap again without a buff potion."
He checked his progression bar. He needed 45,000,000 XP to hit Level 39. The 15 million was a massive chunk, but he didn’t level up.
He didn’t care. The bridge was clear. The inner plains of the Midnight Continent were wide open, and the Spire was waiting.
***
Levi stepped off the ancient stone bridge and his boots clacked against the ground. The terrain here was completely different from the outer wastes. The gray ash and dirt vanished, replaced entirely by perfectly smooth, polished black obsidian. It looked like the entire inner ring of the Midnight Continent was a massive, glassy mirror.
"Watch your step," Levi told Isolde. "This floor is basically an ice rink."
Isolde didn’t slip. Her plain gray cloak hovered just slightly above the black glass. "My pathing algorithms automatically adjust for surface friction. You should focus on the hostiles."
Levi looked up. She was right. The inner ring was absolutely crawling with the true terrors of the Midnight Continent. Patrolling the vast, dark plains were massive, heavily armored undead knights. They rode towering skeletal warhorses that left trails of blue ghost-light on the obsidian floor.
Levi pulled out an Inspect scroll and crushed it to check the nearest patrol.
[Obsidian Dreadknight]
[Level: 60 | Elite]
[HP: 100,000 | ATK: 4,000 | DEF: 2,000]
Levi stared at the floating red text.
He was Level 38. The Dreadknights were Level 60. That was exactly a twenty-two-level gap.
It was mathematically impossible to deal damage through standard means. Again.
"Let’s look at the armor anyway," Levi muttered, rubbing his chin. "Boss Defense is two thousand. My Gold scythe drops their effective Defense down to exactly sixteen hundred."
"Sixteen hundred defense against my eleven hundred attack," Levi sighed. "My basic physical strikes are entirely blocked by raw stats. I would deal exactly zero damage even without the level penalty."
For his heavy nuke skill. Hollow’s Guillotine left 2,264 damage.
"So my skill can pierce the armor," Levi said. "But the hundred percent suppression penalty makes it zero anyway. I literally cannot hurt this thing naturally."
He looked over at Isolde. She was standing perfectly still, her blank robotic eyes fixed on the nearest Dreadknight.
"I need your Anomaly powers, Isolde," Levi said flatly. "I can’t break the system’s math on this one. I’m completely walled."
"Acknowledged," Isolde replied, her voice broadcasting directly into his audio feed. "I will prepare the suppression override."
"Good. Give me a second to pull him."
Levi gripped his Sovereign’s Deathknell. He didn’t want to fight the knight while it was mounted. The skeletal warhorse would give it way too much mobility. He needed to force it onto the ground.
He walked forward until he crossed the mob’s aggro radius.
The Obsidian Dreadknight stopped its patrol. Its glowing blue eye slits locked onto Levi. It raised a massive, jagged greatsword, spurred its skeletal horse, and charged across the polished black glass.
"Hollow’s Traverse!"
His body dissolved into a tunnel of dark light. He completely bypassed the knight’s charging path, teleporting thirty meters diagonally.
The knight’s horse couldn’t adjust its momentum fast enough on the slippery obsidian. It skidded wildly. Levi reappeared right next to the sliding horse and swung the heavy haft of his scythe directly into the beast’s skeletal legs.
The physics engine reacted perfectly. The horse’s legs tangled, and the entire mount collapsed. The Dreadknight was violently thrown from the saddle, crashing onto the black glass with a heavy metallic clatter. The skeletal horse shattered into polygons.
The knight was grounded.
"Now you have to walk," Levi smirked.
The Dreadknight pushed itself up instantly. It didn’t have a hit-stun animation for falling. It swung its massive greatsword in a wide horizontal sweep aimed right at Levi’s waist.
Levi used his Speed to duck completely under the blade. He felt the digital wind pressure rip over his back.
He quickly did the defensive math. If that sword hit him, it meant 3,651 raw incoming damage. His Diamond-tier necklace would cut that in half to 1,825.
"Eighteen hundred and twenty-five damage," Levi grunted, popping back up. "With my health pool, three hits and I’m dead. I can’t afford to tank this."
"Target locked," Isolde stated from the sidelines.
Her character model glitched. Green hexadecimal code poured out of her eyes. She pointed her wooden staff directly at the Dreadknight and cast her corrupted, game-breaking spell.
[System Notification: Anomaly Interference Detected.]
[Target’s Level Suppression mechanic disabled for 10 seconds.]
The red Level 60 tag floating above the knight’s helmet violently glitched, turning into a string of random symbols.
"Hit him!" Isolde commanded.
Levi didn’t hesitate. The 100% penalty was temporarily deleted.
"Hollow’s Guillotine!"
The scythe erupted in a blinding, dark-gold aura. He ripped the blade upward in a massive ten-meter cone that smashed directly into the knight’s heavy armor.
With the suppression penalty gone, the raw math finally processed.
[-2,264]
The heavy red number exploded into the air. The giant knight staggered backward. The skill’s debuff triggered instantly, shredding 20% of its remaining armor. The boss’s Defense plummeted to exactly 1,600 overall.
Isolde followed up immediately. She pointed her staff and unleashed a blast of pure white light.
[-5,000 True Damage]
The knight roared, trying to close the gap, but Levi was already moving. He couldn’t deal basic attack damage, but he could apply his bleed. He dashed into the pocket, swinging his scythe to deliberately clip the knight’s armor.
[-0]
The physical damage was zero, but the weapon’s passive triggered. The tiny teardrop icon popped up over the knight’s head, ticking for 5 true damage per second.
The ten-second window closed. The Level 60 tag snapped back into place.
Levi swung another basic attack.
[-0]
"Window closed," Levi yelled, instantly backpedaling.
The rest of the fight turned into the most agonizing, slow marathon Levi had experienced so far.
Isolde’s suppression hack had a massive cooldown, which meant Levi had to rely entirely on his evasion while she slowly whittled the 100,000 HP pool down with her 5,000 True Damage blasts every twenty seconds.
Levi couldn’t take a direct hit without his shield, and he needed to save his mana for Phantom Step and Siphon Aura. He used his Speed to physically run circles around the giant knight on the slippery obsidian floor.
When the Dreadknight swung its greatsword in an overhead crush, Levi slid to the left. When the knight tried a thrust, Levi teleported right through the blade, reappearing behind the monster just to keep the 5 DMG/sec bleed ticking.
He popped mana potions constantly to keep his fuel tank alive.
It was utterly exhausting. The VR stamina engine made Levi’s legs feel like they were going to snap. His real-world shirt was drenched in sweat. Ten minutes passed. Then fifteen.
He took one glancing hit to the shoulder during a tight dodge, losing roughly 1,800 health. He had to kite the boss for another three minutes just to let his Siphon Aura and standard health potions heal him back up to a comfortable 4,655 HP. His mana hovered dangerously around 800.
Twenty minutes dragged on.
Finally, the Dreadknight’s health bar dipped low enough.
"Hold your fire, Isolde!" Levi barked, wiping sweat from his eyes.
He watched the red bar closely. 24,000. 23,000. 22,000.
The bleed ticked a few more times. The health bar finally hit 19,900. It was under the 20% threshold. The setup was complete.
The Obsidian Dreadknight’s health bar flashed, dipping exactly to 19,900 HP.
Because the knight was classified as an Elite and not a full Boss entity, it was completely susceptible to Levi’s ultimate execute mechanic. Levi didn’t hesitate. He was tired of running in circles on the slippery black glass.
"Soul Harvest."
The shadowy aura wrapping around his avatar violently detached. It shot high into the dark sky above the Midnight Continent. The shadows compressed, forming a massive, pitch-black spectral guillotine blade directly over the Dreadknight’s heavy helmet.