Chapter 588: Chimera

Truth be told, the moment she saw the Bowmaster producing a Shadowmesh Arrow from his pack, Xin Yu had been a little bit worried. Fateless had told her a little about Spell Arrows.

There were lots of Spell Arrows available at the Alchemists’ Guild which increased a Bowmaster’s attack damage, or gave them the ability to deal elemental damage; and then there were items like the Shadowmesh Arrow, which produced incredibly powerful magical effects.

The Shadowmesh Arrow was effective even against Boss monsters, but it was prohibitively expensive! Ten thousand gold apiece for a one-use consumable item—the average player couldn’t even consider it.

The Shadowmesh Arrow had another invaluable quality: when Binding a target, even if they had defensive magic such as a Barrier active, they would still be subject to the effect!

Anxiously, Xin Yu thought up a solution to this problem. Retreating hastily upon her wings, she had Little Eye follow after her, only to turn suddenly and charge back in.

The Bowmaster had immediately figured out that Xin Yu was creating room for her Pet to cast a spell. As he flew, he hastily summoned out his own Pet.

Dark purple and titanic, the monster appeared like a vast shadow over the Bowmaster’s head, and with limitless ferocity, it attacked.

“Chimera!” Black Rock yelped in the distance.

The Bowmaster of Satan’s Salvation, Hughes, had a Level 50 Chimera as his Pet, a two-headed flying dragon of legendary power. It was an Aerial-type Pet with the elements of both ice and shadow at its command.

“What are you worried about?” Judge snapped at Black Rock derisively. “It’s just a common double-elemental flying monster, not even close to an Ultimate Boss like Galbis!”

Black Rock shook his head in despair, ignoring Judge as he continued to groan, “You think I don’t know that? What if I told you that our Bandit babe has only been playing this game for about half a month? What do you think of that?”

Judge opened his mouth as if to speak, then turned to Xiaoxiao, who confirmed this. Rapping his knuckles against his helmet, he wondered what Qin Ruo was thinking.

The Bowmaster was obviously an expert player with plenty of combat experience, and he’d sent out a newbie to face him with barely half a month’s time in this game. What’s more, she was a Bandit, and a little girl to boot.

Xiaoxiao looked at the both of them and smiled. “Watch closely. Xin Yu and Little Eye are not as helpless as you think.”

She had also spent the past three days in the Underworld, and had seen how much Xin Yu had improved. If she told the two of them that Xin Yu and Little Eye had broken through a Lich’s Barrier without any help from Fateless or Qin Ruo, and had then gone on to kill it by herself—there was no way they’d believe her!

This was also the reason why Xiaoxiao hadn’t held any objections against Qin Ruo’s strategy.

Wandering Soul had the Heaven’s Peal Lion, and Xin Yu had Commander Galbis. The two Ultimate Bosses wielded power the average player couldn’t even imagine.

The Bowmaster worked well together with his Chimera, but it wasn’t quite on the same level as the other player’s Lich.

Speaking of which, the curtain was already falling on Wandering Soul’s own duel. As the Heaven’s Peal Lion struck down the Lich, Kevin was also being killed so hard his equipment fell off.

And then all eyes turned to Xin Yu and Hughes.

“Another one!” Savior stiffened as he finally noticed that the Fallen Angels girl, the Bandit, had none other than Commander Galbis by her side, the terror of the Mythical Battlefield!

Another Ultimate Boss! Curse their luck!

No wonder Qin Ruo and his bunch could prance around like this, acting so cocky and self-assured.

At last, the slightest tinge of uncertainty had appeared in Savior’s heart.

This was quickly turning into a nightmare.

Xin Yu and Little Eye moved swiftly. After four seconds, Little Eye halted suddenly, turned around, and threw both hands wide. A surge of magic rose up!

Rumble, rumble!

A violent earthquake spread outwards, with Little Eye at its center. For thirty meters all around, the streets split open and buildings collapsed, and the Undead that thronged the streets either tumbled to their oblivion or were knocked sprawling by the debris that broke away and began to fall… upwards.

Strangled howls carried on without end, along with the sound of rock crushing bone.

Up above, Hughes’ Chimera was in full panic as stones began to hurtle upwards towards it. The colossal beast beat its wings in a desperate attempt to escape the spell, but it couldn’t move an inch, as though caught by an impossibly strong hand from the moment the spell had begun.

What came as a greater surprise was that this was obviously different from the Tier 5 area-attack spells they were familiar with. The initial shockwave knocked Hughes right out of the sky, but the effects continued on, holding the Chimera in place for well over three seconds, so that it was battered mercilessly by the gravity-defying avalanche of debris… and the spell was still going on.

Clutching the Shadowmesh Arrow in his hand, Hughes’ face was pale.

All the Undead in a thirty-meter radius had been eliminated, and the Chimera was now both Stunned and Weakened by the spell.

Hughes had no idea what to do.

The spell’s area of effect was simply too large, and it was still being sustained, constantly producing overwhelming physical damage and effects. A character of any class besides an Elementalist, going in there, would probably not be in for a good time.

There was a prolonged roar of pain, and Hughes could only watch as his Pet, beaten and savaged, toppled out of the sky and into the ruined street below.

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***

Hughes wasn’t the only one who couldn’t believe his eyes—Black Rock and Judge had never imagined that Commander Galbis, supposedly just a Pet, could command power of this magnitude. With a single spell, it had casually disposed of a Chimera, all the while giving the enemy no chance to flee or retaliate.

So this was the might of an Ultimate Boss?

Overcome with shock and awe, Black Rock was now of half a mind to replace his unremarkable Two-Headed Poisonscorp.

It was too far behind! The Two-Headed Poisonscorp wasn’t even as mighty as a Chimera. If he ran into another player with a Pet Ultimate Boss during the Grand Tournament… never mind the Top 10, he wasn’t sure if he’d even be able to make Top 100.

***

Just as Black Rock, Judge, and Savior were staring in shock at the might of Commander Galbis, Qin Ruo suddenly looked up, past Savior to the massive platform of the Warp Portal behind him. He frowned.

“Xin Yu.”

“Mm?” It seemed Xin Yu still didn’t feel worthy to attack an elite enemy player. Although Little Eye had slain the Chimera, she didn’t press the attack against Hughes himself.

However, she was running out of time. More Demon Faction players were arriving in the Buried City.

“Finish your duel quickly!”

Hearing this, Xin Yu steeled her resolve and dismissed her doubts, commanding Little Eye to attack.

‘Thoom!’

There was a resounding boom as three dragons, formed from stone, rose up from the street below. As Little Eye urged them onwards, they rushed up at the Bowmaster Hughes, still distraught over the loss of his Pet and the overwhelming threat of an Ultimate Boss.

By the time Hughes realized he was under attack, the stone dragons were already within five meters of him.

Commander Galbis moved with breathtaking speed!

Even an agile Tier 5 Bowmaster with Demonic Wings would have little hope of evading this assault—what more Hughes, who’d just been stripped of his wings?

(Translator’s Note: Original stated ‘Angelic Wings’ twice here. I assume both are mistakes.)

It looked like Hughes was about to meet the same fate as Kevin, when a small hexagram suddenly appeared beneath his rapidly retreating feet.

‘Whoosh!’

There was a flash of light, and Hughes disappeared from sight. The three stone dragons lashed out at empty air.

Qin Ruo sighed inwardly.

Just a little more, and Xin Yu could have gotten her first real kill in ‘Honor & Glory’, not to mention an article of Bowmaster equipment—Dark Golden at the very least—if only that Summoner from Satan’s Salvation had arrived a moment later.

He turned to regard Savior, a short distance ahead of him. “Looks like the two of you are beaten.”

Black Rock, Judge, and the others had also noticed the dozens of dark shadows behind Savior, soaring in from the distance. They wrinkled their noses with disdain.

“We’re leaving.” Qin Ruo saw that Savior was doing nothing to halt the reinforcements arriving through the Warp Portal, which meant that the victories won by Wandering Soul and Xin Yu had been a huge blow to him, shattering his confidence and sense of invincibility.

Savior wouldn’t fight anymore. At least not right now, with morale at its lowest and anxiety running wild.

It was a bit disappointing that Qin Ruo wouldn’t get to go all-out against Savior, but seeing both Wandering Soul and Xin Yu finding triumph in their respective duels was a decent consolation prize.

With dozens of Demon Faction champions swooping towards them, he called Wandering Soul and Xin Yu to regroup, and then the six of them turned around grandly and went back the way they’d come.

***

“Damn them! After killing Kevin and Hughes’ Pets, they think they can get away?” Fuming with rage, a winged Berserker rushed up behind Savior, who halted him with one hand.

“Let them go.” Savior’s voice was even and measured, as though completely unaffected by the two battles that had just taken place.

“No way! They’ve forced us all the way back to our own doorstep! Kevin and Hughes were among our brightest stars!” The Berserker glared at the six red outlines, making an unhurried retreat, and he continued to bluster, “Losing their Pets at a time like this… There’s no way they’ll be able to regain Tier 5 within three days! We can’t just let them get away with this!”

“We won’t be able to catch them,” Savior replied, his tone remaining calm. “They have two anti-air specialists with them. If you try to chase them, you’ll only be adding your corpse to the pile.”

“… Ah.” The Berserker’s mouth opened and shut, looking down at the endless sea of Undead below, and then back up at the six figures taking their sweet time to make their escape. He didn’t say any more.

Anti-air… Never mind two—in these circumstances, even one would be more than enough.

“But then… Kevin and Hughes have lost their Pets for nothing?” Someone else asked in frustration.

“No one will have died for nothing.” Savior watched as a Priest moved over to Kevin’s body to begin his Resurrection, and then turned away to depart the Buried City.