Chapter 74: [74]: General Malakor, The True Damage Grind
Levi crashed into General Malakor’s guard, his Speed turning him into a glitching black shadow.
He didn’t swing a basic attack first. He needed to check the math, and he needed his armor-shred debuff active immediately.
’Malakor’s base Defense is 1,800,’ Levi calculated rapidly. ’My Gold drops his effective Defense to 1,440.’
He checked his own permanent Total Attack. It was 1,020.
If he swung a basic attack right now, his 1,020 Attack would go up against 1,440 Defense. He would still deal absolutely zero damage.
He had to use his skill.
"Hollow’s Guillotine!" Levi roared.
The Sovereign’s Deathknell erupted in a blinding, dark-gold aura. He ripped the heavy blade upward in a massive, ten-meter-wide cone that smashed directly into Malakor’s chest plate.
After multiplying his Attack by the 3.5 modifier and subtracting the effective Defense, applying the 50% Level Suppression penalty left his final skill damage at exactly 1,065!
[-1,065]
The heavy red number exploded into the air. Malakor grunted, his massive frame staggering backward a half-step.
"A thousand damage on my strongest nuke," Levi muttered in annoyance. "Against an eight hundred thousand health pool. This is going to be miserable."
But the skill’s secondary effect triggered. The broken shield icon popped up over Malakor’s head, shredding another 20% of his remaining defense.
Malakor’s Defense dropped from 1,440 down to 1,152.
Levi immediately swung a basic physical attack, hoping the shredded defense would let his normal strikes deal some damage.
His 1,020 Attack hit the 1,152 Defense.
[-0]
Levi’s eyes widened. "Are you kidding me?"
Because his Attack was still lower than the boss’s shredded Defense, his basic strikes were completely blocked. He did absolutely zero damage.
The realization hit him like a physical punch to the gut.
If his basic attacks did zero damage, that meant his scythe’s 10% Lifesteal passive had nothing to scale off of. Ten percent of zero is zero. He had completely lost his primary source of healing.
"I can’t Lifesteal," Levi realized instantly. "I only have my aura and potions."
Malakor didn’t give him time to panic. The massive general recovered from the stagger and swung his glowing purple greatsword in a devastating, horizontal dark-magic sweep.
The attack covered the entire width of the courtyard. Levi’s Speed was fast, but he was locked in his basic attack recovery animation. He couldn’t physically run out of the hitbox in time.
The massive greatsword slammed directly into Levi’s avatar.
The VR pain engine sent a violent, shocking pulse of blunt-force trauma through his entire body. The kinetic force threw him backward, his boots skidding wildly across the shattered stone floor.
The system ran the defensive math.
Malakor had 3,500 Attack. Levi’s current Defense was 283.
But Levi was wearing the [Heart of the Chained]. The Diamond-tier necklace instantly kicked in, applying its permanent 50% Damage Reduction.
The system rounded it up to 1,609 incoming damage.
The massive hit slammed directly into Levi’s [Hollow’s Ward]. His dark-matter shield only had 1,505 HP.
The shield violently shattered into thousands of black shards, sounding like a collapsing glass building. The remaining 104 damage bled through the shield and slammed into his actual health pool.
[-104]
Levi’s health bar dropped from a perfect 5,160 down to 5,056.
"Okay, he hits like a freight train," Levi coughed, digging his boots into the stone to stop his slide. "If he hits me without my shield up, I lose over sixteen hundred health. I can survive three hits, tops."
He glanced at the debuff timer floating above the boss.
[4:45]
He had less than five minutes to kill this thing, and his only source of damage was his Guillotine skill and the scythe’s passive bleed.
Levi dashed right back into the pocket. The scythe’s passive bleed triggered from his zero-damage basic attack. The tiny teardrop icon popped up over Malakor’s helmet.
[-5] [-5] [-5]
"True damage," Levi grunted. "The only thing that matters."
The fight devolved into a hyper-lethal, absolute nightmare of stamina management. Levi couldn’t trade blows. He couldn’t face-tank. He had to play a flawless game of evasion.
He used his Speed to physically run circles around the towering general. When Malakor brought the greatsword down in an overhead slam, Levi sidestepped perfectly. When the boss used a dark-magic AoE burst, Levi burned 20 Mana for [Hollow’s Traverse], teleporting thirty meters away to clear the blast zone, then immediately blinking back in.
He cast [Hollow’s Guillotine] exactly on cooldown every ten seconds.
[-1,065] [-1,065] [-1,065]
He wove zero-damage basic attacks just to keep the 5 DMG/sec bleed ticking endlessly.
His [Siphon Aura] was constantly running, draining 2 Mana a second while slowly ticking his health back up by 15 HP a second. But his mana pool was hemorrhaging.
Every time his mana dropped below 300, he pulled a Greater Mana Potion from his belt and chugged it. But because his Lifesteal was broken, he also had to manage his health manually. When he took a glancing hit from a shockwave that chipped his health down to 4,000, he reached for his ultra-rare health potions.
Pop. Drink. Dodge. Cast. Blink.
It was a completely synchronized, exhausting dance.
Three minutes passed. The VR helmet simulated the heavy, burning fatigue in his lungs. His real-world arms were practically screaming in agony from forcing the heavy scythe through the air over and over again without landing any actual damage.
Malakor’s health bar was massive, but the constant Guillotine hits and the true damage bleed were slowly chewing through it.
800,000. 500,000. 200,000.
The debuff timer floating above the boss’s head was ticking down mercilessly.
[1:00] [0:45] [0:30]
"Come on, just die," Levi wheezed, his avatar completely drenched in digital sweat.
"Hollow’s Guillotine!"
[-1,065]
Malakor roared in fury, spinning around and unleashing a blind, desperate backhand punch. The massive armored fist clipped Levi’s shoulder.
Levi didn’t have his shield up. It was on cooldown.
[-1,609]
The hit threw Levi into one of the stone pillars. His health violently plummeted from 5,000 down to roughly 3,400. He ignored the pain engine entirely. He didn’t even look at his health bar. He just looked at the timer.
[0:15]
Fifteen seconds until the Platinum vial wore off. If the boss snapped back to Level 50, the 100% suppression penalty would return, and his Guillotine would hit for zero.
Malakor’s health was sitting at exactly 3,000 HP.
Levi didn’t have ten seconds to wait for his Guillotine cooldown. Basic attacks did zero damage.
"I need a critical hit," Levi panicked.
He sprinted straight at the boss. Malakor raised his greatsword for an execution strike.
Levi didn’t blink away. He used his 341 Speed to jump directly onto the flat side of the falling greatsword. He ran up the blade, defying the game’s gravity for a fraction of a second, and launched himself directly at the boss’s helmet.
He aimed the tip of the Sovereign’s Deathknell directly at the glowing red eye slit in Malakor’s visor.
It was a Weak-Point strike.
But Levi’s basic attack damage was zero. Zero times two is still zero.
But Levi wasn’t relying on his base attack.
"Hollow’s Guillotine!" Levi screamed, forcing the skill off cooldown a half-second early by burning double the mana cost—a hidden mechanic for Gold-tier skills.
The scythe erupted in blinding light right inside the boss’s helmet.
1,065 skill damage multiplied by 2 for the critical hit.
[-2,130 CRIT!]
The massive yellow text exploded in his face.
The true damage bleed ticked one final time.
[-5]
General Malakor’s 800,000 HP health bar completely shattered.
The debuff timer hit [0:02] and vanished as the boss’s character model entirely froze.
The massive, Level 50 invasion commander dropped his greatsword. The weapon shattered against the stone floor. Malakor let out a hollow, echoing groan, falling backward onto the steps of the Citadel Core.
The boss exploded into millions of glowing blue polygons, raining high-tier loot boxes all over the courtyard.
[System Notification: Event Boss Defeated. The Abyssal Incursion has been repelled.]
Levi hit the ground, rolling across the stone floor before coming to a stop. He didn’t cheer. He didn’t even stand up. He just lay there, staring at the smoky sky, listening to his heart hammer in his chest.
Before the polygons settled, the dense crimson aura of the harvest ripped out of the boss’s crater. It slammed into his chest.
[Supreme Harvester triggered.]
[General Malakor’s primary stat is VIT (800).]
[You have plundered 2% of its core stat.]
[Gained +16 VIT permanently!]
A second later, the massive event XP modifier hit.
[System Notification: Gained 50,000,000 XP.]
[Level Up! You are now Level 35.]
Levi just closed his eyes and let the golden light wash over him. He had done it. He had saved the server, and completely shattered the early game. Now, the real game could begin.