Chapter 83: The Bloody Battle with the Three-Headed Serpent

Heaven's Eternal Darkness stood in the center, the Azure-clad Knight with his black cap to the left, and another defense knight on the right; the three of them each held back a serpent head, while the melee damage dealers seized the opportunity to surge forward, heading straight for the boss’s vulnerable spot!

Lu Kuan positioned himself about thirty meters from the boss, a distance that allowed him to avoid the poisonous mist while maintaining maximum accuracy.

During the battle, Lu Kuan couldn’t help but steal a glance at the three other girls. Bai Keke and Akuai fought with impressive precision, but especially the Azure Knight—her cooperation with the other two tank classes was seamless, their position shifts and covers executed with practiced skill.

Only then did Lu Kuan feel at ease, focusing all his attention on unleashing his attacks.

The first phase of the boss was unremarkable, but as Heaven’s Eternal Darkness shouted, the real test finally began.

“Watch out for the poison mist! If you haven’t used the Fangblood, stay away from the boss!”

A cloud of deep green poison mist billowed out from beneath the three-headed serpent’s belly, instantly enveloping the melee classes. In the healers’ view, the red numbers representing damage to teammates rapidly filled their screens.

“Healers, keep the health bars steady! Melee, only retreat from the poison mist when your HP drops to 10%! Healers, top them off! Bai Keke, drop the totem!”

Heaven’s Eternal Darkness issued calm, steady orders while keeping a vigilant eye on the party interface. When he saw the melee classes’ health, he allowed himself a small sigh of relief.

Though the Berserkers, Rogues, and Monks were losing health steadily, their decline was much slower than in previous attempts.

Instinctively, Heaven’s Eternal Darkness glanced at the bottom right of his screen, where the team’s real-time damage and healing stats were displayed.

What he saw made his eyes narrow. He blinked and looked again, confirming he wasn’t mistaken.

Lu Kuan topped the damage charts—as expected—but what he hadn’t anticipated was that Lu Kuan’s total damage was already fifty percent higher than the second place!

Heaven’s Eternal Darkness turned instinctively to look at Lu Kuan, weaving around the farthest edge of the party.

Thwack!

A Shattering Arrow flew out, and the Ranger’s Oath special effect triggered once more. Lu Kuan immediately activated Arcane Shot. His energy was at full capacity.

Swish, swish, swish!

A series of pale blue flashes streaked by—two more Shattering Arrows, then a Precise Shot. As the ring’s effect ended, his energy was spent to the last drop.

He then canceled Arcane Shot, filling the downtime with basic attacks and Precise Shot, occasionally using Shattering Arrow to burn off any impending energy overflow. By the time the ring effect’s cooldown ended, he had just enough energy stored up again.

Lu Kuan’s entire sequence was smooth and natural, almost deceptively simple. But Heaven’s Eternal Darkness knew it was anything but. One look at the other rangers in his team told the tale.

If they focused on aiming at the boss, they couldn’t dodge mechanics; if they dodged the mechanics, they forgot to watch their energy, so their burst skills went unused. If they finally managed to store enough energy, they’d have to shoot while running to avoid the drifting poison clouds, tanking their accuracy and wasting the damage window.

The thought flickered through Heaven’s Eternal Darkness’s mind, but he quickly forced his attention back to the battle at hand.

Minutes ticked by, and the poison mist around the boss quietly shifted to a dark yellow. This mist didn’t deal damage, but its effect was even nastier—it halved the accuracy of any player who came into contact with it!

From experience, the yellow and green mists would cycle at least twice before the boss’s health dropped to sixty percent, ushering in the third phase. After that, the disgusting yellow mist would no longer appear.

But things were different this time, with Lu Kuan present!

Yellow mist appeared only once before the boss entered the third phase, the fight time shaved down by a full minute compared to before.

“Great improvement—keep it up, comrades! We have a chance!” Someone in the party noticed the timer and cheered, spurring everyone on.

The team responded in high spirits, their determination mounting.

This was a race against time!

The green mist’s damage steadily increased, and the healers’ output began to lag behind. The entire party’s health bars were gradually eroding, but there was no help for it. All the players could do was unleash everything they had, hit harder, and harder still!

“Prioritize the tanks and ranged DPS—especially Old Deer!” Heaven’s Eternal Darkness’s steady voice rang out again.

But really, he needn’t have said it. Every healer had their eyes glued to Lu Kuan’s health. As the battle wore on, Lu Kuan’s total damage soared, nearly doubling that of second place.

Three minutes later, the boss’s health dropped to forty percent. The party’s average HP was now less than half.

Five minutes in, casualties began. A mage, inattentive while casting, lingered in a drifting poison cloud for a few seconds—and vanished in a flash of white light.

The boss still had twenty percent health left.

“Keke, drop another totem! Top everyone off, don’t save your mana!” Heaven’s Eternal Darkness’s voice now carried a note of urgency, as most of the team’s health bars dipped into the red—below thirty percent.

“-21”

“-21”
“+15”
“-21”

In the lower left of Lu Kuan’s view, red and green numbers flickered incessantly, almost blurring into a single stream. But Lu Kuan ignored them, pouring all his attention into attack.

One of the hydra’s heads had a gaping wound, hacked open by a berserker. Lu Kuan focused his shots there, stacking not only regular damage but significant bleeding as well.

Noticing a defense knight’s health dip dangerously low, Lu Kuan immediately aimed a feathered arrow at the serpent’s eyes, forcing the head to recoil defensively and giving the tank a precious moment to recover.

Meanwhile, party members occasionally vanished in flashes of white, and everyone’s expressions grew more grim.

“Come on! Only ten percent left!”

“Avoid the poison mist!”

“Three percent!”

The poison mist had turned inky green, and the ground was littered with bodies. Out of the original twenty, only four still stood—Heaven’s Eternal Darkness, Bai Keke, Lu Kuan, and another healer, a druid.

Though the boss was hanging by a thread, with so many fallen, the rate at which its health dropped had slowed to a crawl.

Lu Kuan estimated the remaining time and sighed inwardly. It looked like they wouldn’t make it—even one more DPS alive would have given them a chance, but now, he simply couldn’t finish it alone in time.

No one wanted to give up! They had fought tooth and nail to reach this point, so close to downing the boss. Was all their effort to end in death by poison mist?

The Corrupted Hydra seemed to sense their desperation, its roars growing louder, mocking the doomed players who still clung to life.