Free Web NovelChapter 43: The Core
"Braveheart! Thorne!" Arthur roared over the chaos, completely exposing his real position to the boss. "I have a plan! But I need one clean opening!"
The Death Knight stopped swinging at the fading illusions. Its massive, horned helmet slowly turned toward the elevated stone rubble where Arthur was standing. The glowing red slits of its visor flared with absolute, murderous intent.
The boss didn’t cast another spell. It gripped its heavy black broadsword with both hands, its heavy boots cracking the stone floor as it began to charge directly towards Arthur.
Arthur didn’t flinch. He stayed perfectly still, keeping the boss’s aggro locked entirely on him.
"Listen to me!" Arthur yelled, not taking his eyes off the charging juggernaut. "Leon’s last holy strike didn’t pierce the armor, but it warped the steel! There is a hairline fracture dead center on its breastplate. The Necrotic Core is right behind it!"
Down on the floor, Leon wiped a streak of blood from his mouth, using his glowing broadsword to prop himself up.
"The armor is too thick!" Leon shouted over the heavy thud of the Death Knight’s boots. "My holy magic can’t cut deep enough!"
"You don’t need to cut it!" Arthur barked. "I just need you to strip that suffocating dark aura protecting it and stun the bastard for two seconds! Emily! Can you break a cracked shell?!"
Emily Thorne spat a mouthful of blood onto the dungeon floor. She wiped her chin with the back of her taped hand, a fierce, completely psychotic grin spreading across her bruised face.
"If the metal is already stressed?" Emily laughed, her martial aura flaring to life, glowing with a blinding, dense white light around her fists. "I’ll shatter the damn thing into powder."
"Do it!" Arthur ordered. "Now!"
The Death Knight was twenty yards away. Ten yards.
It raised its massive broadsword, preparing to cleave the stone rubble and Arthur entirely in half.
"Hey, ugly!"
Leon Braveheart intercepted the charge.
The classic protagonist limit-break.
Leon’s blue eyes glowed with a terrifying, absolute righteous fury. The holy mana radiating from his broadsword didn’t just pulse; it violently erupted, bathing the dark cathedral in an overwhelming, blinding golden light.
The Death Knight paused, raising its gauntlet to shield its red visual receptors from the blinding holy glare.
"Valentine! Boost him!" Arthur yelled.
Alicia, holding her injured shoulder, didn’t hesitate. She channeled every last drop of her remaining wind mana into Leon’s back.
[Wind Magic: Gale Step applied.]
Leon practically teleported. The wind magic launched him forward at the speed of a bullet. He completely bypassed the Death Knight’s guard, dropping to one knee directly in front of the colossal boss.
"Limit Break: Radiant Cross!" Leon screamed.
He swung his broadsword in a massive, dual-arc cross slash directly against the boss’s chest.
BOOM!
It sounded like a holy hand grenade detonating. The explosion of pure light violently clashed with the boss’s dark aura. The sheer, concentrated power of the limit-break completely stripped the protective layer of dark magic clinging to the heavy black armor.
The Death Knight let out a deafening, metallic screech. The holy magic burned its exposed joints, temporarily paralyzing the massive undead juggernaut.
"The aura is down!" Leon shouted, completely exhausted, his sword dimming to a dull grey as he collapsed onto the stone.
"My turn!"
Emily didn’t run; she launched herself off the altar like a human cannonball.
She soared through the air, her right arm pulled all the way back. The dense white martial aura surrounding her fist began to wildly spin, compressing into a terrifying, concentrated drill of pure kinetic energy.
The Death Knight, paralyzed by the holy stun, couldn’t raise its sword to block. It could only watch as the athletic brawler closed the distance.
Emily locked her eyes entirely on the tiny, warped crack in the center of the black breastplate.
"Thorne Family Secret Art," Emily roared, her biceps visibly bulging as her muscles pushed completely past their natural limits. "Shattering Palm!"
She didn’t punch the armor. She slammed the heel of her open palm directly against the hairline fracture.
CRACK-KABOOM!
The shockwave was catastrophic. The kinetic energy didn’t just hit the surface; Emily’s technique drove the force completely through the metal, targeting the structural integrity of the heavy plate.
The sound of the Level 45 black steel shattering echoed like a bomb going off in a closed vault.
The massive, impenetrable breastplate protecting the Death Knight’s chest violently exploded outward in a shower of jagged black shrapnel.
Emily’s momentum carried her through the strike. She hit the floor hard, rolling to bleed off the speed, her right arm completely numb and trembling violently from the recoil.
The Death Knight staggered backward, a hollow, furious roar escaping its helmet.
Arthur’s eyes locked onto the target.
With the breastplate completely shattered, the inner cavity of the boss’s ribcage was exposed. And sitting right in the center, pulsing with a toxic, heavy purple light, was the Necrotic Core.
It was the size of an apple. A very small, heavily guarded apple.
The Death Knight’s stun wore off. Realizing its absolute vulnerability, the boss immediately raised its massive left gauntlet, crossing its arm tightly over its exposed chest to shield the core, while raising its broadsword to slaughter the exhausted students at its feet.
The opening was closing in a fraction of a second. The heavy black steel of the boss’s gauntlet completely blocked the direct line of sight to the core.
Standard physical attacks were useless now.
Arthur stood on the rubble. He was completely out of stamina, his left arm was heavily poisoned, and his shoulder screamed in agony.
He didn’t care.
He raised the Whisperwind Longbow. freēwēbnovel.com
He didn’t pull a standard physical arrow from his quiver. He didn’t just activate Mana Quiver to generate a basic shot.
Arthur closed his eyes and forced his mana circuits entirely open. He grabbed the remaining pool of his MP and violently forced all of it—every single drop he had left—directly into the glowing blue bowstring.
[Warning: Extreme Mana Depletion Detected.]
The blue string hissed, turning violently bright. Between Arthur’s bleeding fingers, a new arrow materialized. It wasn’t just blue; it was a blinding, pure white streak of highly condensed, volatile magic.
He aimed directly at the heavy black gauntlet shielding the boss’s chest.
I just need a ten percent chance, Arthur thought, a cold, absolute certainty washing over him.
He released the string.
