With a flap of his wings, Fallen Angel Brufut avoided Nie Yan's attack. He then slashed out with his sword, sending a peerless sword beam flying towards the casters on the ground.
BOOOM! The earth was rent apart. However, it failed to hit anyone. The casters had already blinked away.
Another miss.
Brufut wasn't slow. His attacks were super quick, in fact. If it were any other Mages, they would've definitely been cut down in an instant. However, these were some of the most skilled Magisters. Their reflexes were extremely sharp. Under normal circumstances, they were impossible to hit, unless you used a large-scale AoE attack like Doom Cyclone.
Fallen Angel Brufut never expected Nie Yan's group to live through the doom cycle. It required a lot of mana to cast, and he had no mana potion to quickly replenish it.
The Magisters ruthlessly bombarded Brufut with spells as various magical explosions lit up the world of darkness.
After gracefully landing on the ground, Nie Yan pounced back into the air and stabbed Brufut in the back with a Backbreaker. He felt an odd sensation when his attack landed.
It didn't cripple? Nie Yan's heart trembled.
"Insolent ant!" Brufut laughed in rage. He slapped out with his palm toward Nie Yan like he was swatting a bug.
Caught mid-jump, Nie Yan had no way of dodging. He quickly protected himself with a Rank 18 Darkbright Barrier. BANG! He was sent flying several dozens of meters before crashing into the ground.
What frightening strength!
Nie Yan glanced at his health. He had taken over 30,000 damage even through the shield!
Fallen Angel Brufut was just about to chase down after Nie Yan, when three balls of light whizzed toward him.
When they were only a meter or so from Brufut, Tang Yao shouted. "Explosion! Explosion! Explosion!"
BOOOM! Three enormous explosions engulfed Brufut.
Cracks spread across Brufut's armour. "Trifling bugs!" He was like an enraged beast, wishing nothing more than to rip Nie Yan and company to shreds and feast on their remains.
Three minutes later, Brufut's health was chipped down to 3%.
Almost there! Everyone felt hope ignite in their hearts as an indescribable excitement bubbled within them. The Magisters activated skills like Arcane Reset, Elemental Reset, and Holy Reset.
Their cast speed tripled while cooldowns basically became nonexistent. Mana drained from their bodies as they let loose with a ferocious barrage of magic.
Fallen Angel Brufut roared furiously. He raised his greatsword to the sky as syllables flowed out of his mouth in an ancient language. The magic energy in the atmosphere started trembling violently.
Nie Yan and company felt their faces pale. Another magic! The last one, Doom Cycle, had nearly wiped them out. What kind of spell would it be this time?
"Finish him off! Quickly finish him with Execute!" Tang Yao anxiously cried out. If Fallen Angel Brufut were allowed to unleash this magic on them, they would die for sure. Then, all their efforts would go down the drain.
The spell Brufut was casting seemed even more powerful than Doom Cyclone.
"Kill him! Someone, kill him!"
Bladelight, Lei Su, and the other Warriors all leaped into the air and tried to finish Brufut off with an Execute.
This was their last opportunity!
Execute!
Execute!
One sword after another came down on Brufut. However, they all resulted in failures.
The magical fluctuations became increasingly violent. The spell was nearing completion.
They had to stop it now if they hoped to beat Brufut. Nie Yan let out a deep grunted and leaped into the air. Swapping out the Bloody Dagger for Zennarde's Sword, his blade blazed deep crimson as he slashed down on Brufut with Hell Execution.
Hell Execution's success rate was far higher than that of an ordinary Execute.
PSFHT! Zennarde's Sword cleaved into Fallen Angel Brufut's back as blood sprayed out into the air.
−12,555,555
Success? Nie Yan's eyes lit up.
"GHHK!" Fallen Angel Brufut's chant came to an abrupt halt.
The various team members, suddenly seeing Brufut falling from the sky, widened their eyes in shock.
"W-we did it!"
"I-I can't believe it! You're awesome, Boss!"
...
Everyone broke out into cheers. The surrounding darkness gradually dissipated as the shrine took shape around them again.
"Yes!" Nie Yan's heart raced with excitement. With Fallen Angel Brufut's defeat, the Dragon King Fruit was his! His Darkwing Dragon would soon break through to Rank 9!
Nie Yan suddenly sensed a frightening berserk energy permeating into the surroundings. He glanced over at Brufut's corpse, which was swelling with a volatile red aura.
"Shit! Everyone, get out of the shrine! Hurry!" Nie Yan shouted.
"Boss, what's going on?"
"Huh?"
Why did the boss cut their celebrations short?
It was already too late. BOOOOOOOM! A blood coloured light enveloped everyone as a giant plume rose up into the sky. The entire shrine shook violently, teetering on the verge of collapse. Even those back in the City of Sin felt the shockwave.
...
At a bar in the northern district of the City of Sin, Soaring Angel was fidgeting restlessly. It had already been an hour, but Nie Yan's group still showed no signs of giving up on the special dungeon. Could it be that they were close to obtaining the Dragon King Fruit?
Everyone in World's Edge had felt the previous two magic fluctuations in the air. Based on the intensity, they could tell they were of two powerful Forbidden Spells. The battle was most likely reaching a climax. This was exactly why Soaring Angel felt so anxious. If Nie Yan defeated Fallen Angel Brufut, that would be detrimental to Angel Corps.
BOOOOOOM! A giant explosion shook World's Edge.
"W-what was that?" Soaring Angel asked in surprise.
"Boss, it came from the direction of the shrine! The might of that explosion was even more powerful than a Forbidden Magic!"
Soaring Angel's heart sunk. Was this a trump card Nie Yan had been saving?
A feeling of dread welled up in Soaring Angel's heart. Why did it seem like the heavens were always against him?
"Boss, Black Hawk sent back a report. Asskickers United wiped! A lot of souls appeared in the graveyard next to the shrine. We don't know for sure if Nirvana Flame was among them."
Even though Shadow Priests could detect spirits, they had no way of telling their appearance.
Soaring Angel burst out into laughter. "So, those guys still wiped in the end. I'll give them credit. They lasted longer than we did, but that's still not enough! Serves them right!" He felt a huge weight lifted off of his shoulders. He turned toward others and said, "The battle is about to begin. Asskickers United won't have a second chance! Get ready! Today, we will crush Asskickers United and let them now that we are the true rulers of the Righteous Faction!"
Soaring Angel was filled with ambition. He'd been waiting for this day for a long time!
...
There wasn't much left of the shrine. Parts of it were collapsed, with a massive crater in the center. Fallen Angel Brufut's self-detonation was too frightening.
Fallen Angel Brufut's corpse had disappeared without a trace. In the middle of the shrine lay 30 corpses. They were Nie Yan and company, all of them. The blast came too fast. They had no time to react.
About half a minute later, Nie Yan's finger twitched as he gradually regained consciousness. He sat back up and looked around at the destruction. The power of that explosion was too shocking! Thankfully, he had a revive ability that allowed him to come back to life within a certain time frame.
Nie Yan staggered back to his feet and noticed all his items on the ground, including the Death God's Edge, Paternoster's Warhammer, and the chapters from the Book of Order. He hurriedly picked them back up.
Nie Yan suddenly thought of something. Fallen Angel Brufut had self-destructed. Then what about the Dragon King Fruit? If the fruit were destroyed in the explosion, all their effort would've been for naught!
Nie Yan scoured around the blast site. Within a pile of rubble, he spotted a red fruit about the size of a head. It was bright scarlet like a ball of flame, emanating a blazing energy which spread out to the surroundings.
The Dragon King Fruit!
Nie Yan's heart skipped a beat. He could feel the most pure energy coming from the Dragon King Fruit. This was definitely an extraordinary item!
All dragons yearned for this Dragon King Fruit. If one below Rank 9 ate it, they would instantly break through to the next rank.
Within Nie Yan's pet space, the Darkwing Dragon and Spectre Dragon seemed to have caught a sniff of the Dragon King Fruit. They started moving around restlessly.
Nie Yan walked toward the Dragon King Fruit to pick it up.
At this moment, the other 29 team members found their way back to the shrine in spirit form.
Do you wish to revive?
Yes!
Do you wish to revive?
Yes!
Rays of light flashed out as everyone revived. After coming back to life, they were in a weakened state. They sat back up and recovered their health and mana. Sensing the pure energy in the air, they all looked over at Nie Yan. Their eyes instantly focused on the fruit in his hand.
"Is that the Dragon King Fruit? Such pure energy!" Bladelight gasped in admiration. This was the famed item that could allow a flying mount to directly break through?
"We got it! We finally got it! Ha! I can already imagine Soaring Angel's face when he sees the Rank 9 Darkwing Dragon." Smoke Stub chuckled.
Everyone was elated. Even though they had wiped twice, they had succeeded in obtaining the Dragon King Fruit.