Free Web NovelChapter 23: [23]: The Avatar Awakens, The Three-Minute Death Trap
He stepped up to the stone altar and placed his boot directly onto the glowing runes.
The runes instantly shifted from a dim blue to a blinding, hostile red. The stone floor beneath him violently trembled, sending a heavy shockwave up his legs. The air in the room suddenly grew incredibly dense, making his virtual lungs struggle to pull in oxygen.
A massive pillar of ghostly blue fire erupted from the center of the altar, shooting straight up into the dark ceiling.
When the flames cleared, a towering, armored monstrosity stood in the center of the room. It was easily fifteen feet tall, completely clad in jagged, dark iron armor that constantly leaked black smoke. In its hands, it held a two-handed scythe that was easily twice the size of a normal human.
The boss’s stat block materialized above its head in bold red letters.
[Avatar of the Hollow King]
[Level: 50 | Boss]
[HP: 500,000 | ATK: 600 | DEF: 300]
Levi stared at the numbers. Five hundred thousand health. Six hundred attack. The level gap was thirty-five levels. The sheer suppression penalty meant Levi’s 165 Attack was mathematically useless.
A massive holographic timer suddenly appeared in the air directly above the boss’s head.
[3:00]
The trial began.
The Avatar didn’t roar. It didn’t have an epic villain monologue. It simply moved. The speed was unreal for a monster the size of a two-story house, It crossed the distance between the altar and Levi in a single, blurry step, winding up its massive scythe for a horizontal arc.
Levi’s brain ran the math instantly. The boss had 600 ATK. Levi had 66 DEF. 600 minus 66 was 534 damage. Levi’s maximum HP was 520. If that blade even grazed his peasant tunic, he was instantly dead.
His 43 Speed was pushed to its absolute, screaming limit. Levi didn’t try to block or backpedal. He completely relaxed his legs and let gravity drop him flat onto the stone floor.
The massive iron blade of the boss’s scythe swept over him. Levi literally felt the digital wind pressure from the weapon shave the virtual hair off the top of his head. The sheer force of the swing created a vacuum that pulled at his clothes.
The holographic timer above clicked down. [2:57].
The Avatar didn’t pause to recover from the swing. It immediately reversed its grip, stopping the massive momentum of the weapon instantly, and brought the scythe crashing straight down vertically toward Levi’s spine!
"Are you kidding me?!" Levi yelled.
He executed a desperate barrel roll to the right. The tip of the giant scythe smashed into the stone floor exactly where his chest had just been. The impact sounded like a bomb going off. The stone floor exploded, showering Levi in sharp, heavy rock shrapnel!
The shrapnel didn’t do actual HP damage, but the NerveDive pain engine simulated the blunt impacts perfectly. Levi threw his arms over his face, grunting as the rocks battered his Obsidian Carapace armor.
He scrambled to his feet and sprinted backward, trying to put some distance between himself and the giant. But as he ran, his back bumped hard against the cold obsidian wall of the arena.
Levi quickly realized his mistake. This wasn’t an open-world boss fight where he could kite the enemy through trees or across a massive swamp. The room was a closed, perfectly circular arena. There were no corners to hide in, no pillars thick enough to block a swing, and nowhere to run.
He couldn’t outrun the boss’s attack radius. He had to stay inside the pocket. He had to physically weave through the "safe zones" in the Avatar’s attack patterns.
For the next sixty seconds, the chamber turned into a high-speed blur of near-misses and sheer terror.
The Avatar swung endlessly. Left arc. Right arc. Overhead crash. Diagonal sweep.
Levi fell into a state of hyper-focus. He perfectly cycled his stamina, dodging the basic strikes purely on reaction time and the muscle memory he had forged from fighting real monsters in his past life. He watched the boss’s shoulders, not the weapon. When the Avatar shifted its weight to the left, Levi ducked right. When the giant raised its arms, Levi slid forward, letting the weapon crash behind him.
It was utterly exhausting. The VR helmet simulated his burning lungs and racing heartbeat with terrifying accuracy. Sweat poured down Levi’s face, stinging his eyes. Every single dodge had to be flawless. There were no invincibility frames on basic movement in Starfall. If the hitbox touched him, he died.
The timer ticked down relentlessly. [2:30] [2:15] [2:05]
Levi’s legs felt like they were made of lead. His 43 Speed was the only thing keeping him alive, but his stamina bar was flashing a dangerous, angry red. He needed a break.
Right as the timer hit [2:00], the Avatar suddenly stopped.
It pulled its massive scythe back and stood perfectly still. The blue fire in the room violently flickered and died, plunging the arena into total darkness for a split second. Then, a terrifying, deep black energy began to gather at the base of the Avatar’s weapon.
A system warning flashed in front of Levi’s face.
[Warning: Avatar of the Hollow King is casting Hollow’s Edict.]
Levi recognized the animation. This wasn’t a physical swing. This was a room-wide Area of Effect attack. The boss was about to release a shockwave that covered every single inch of the stone floor. There was no safe zone. There was no blind spot.
The holographic timer read exactly [2:00].
The Avatar of the Hollow King violently slammed the butt of its massive scythe into the stone floor. The gathered black energy exploded outward. A thick, necrotic shockwave ripped across the entire arena, tearing up the stone tiles as it expanded perfectly in all directions.
There was absolutely no physical way to outrun it.
Just as the black wave of death was about to touch his boots, Levi opened his mouth and shouted, "Phantom Step!"
