Free Web NovelChapter 41: [41]: The Blood Moon Herald, Tears of the Warlord
Levi stepped out from the narrow alleyway and onto the main road leading back to the Northern Gate. The city of Thresholds was in absolute disarray. The ambient audio of the game had completely cut out just moments before, replaced by a deafening, earth-shattering roar that physically shook the cobblestones under his virtual boots.
He looked up. The sky was pitch black. The bleeding red moon that had illuminated the entire event was completely swallowed by dark, unnatural shadows.
Through the massive stone archway of the Northern Gate, Levi could see the final boss of the event finishing its spawn animation.
It was a towering, four-armed demon completely wreathed in violent crimson flames. It stood easily thirty feet tall, holding a massive, burning greatsword in two of its hands while the other two hands dripped with liquid fire.
The boss’s stat block materialized above its horned head in bold, aggressive red lettering.
[The Blood Moon Herald]
[Level: 30 | Event Boss]
[HP: 300,000 | ATK: 800 | DEF: 400]
"Three hundred thousand health. Eight hundred attack," Levi muttered, resting the Gold-tier Sovereign’s Deathknell on his shoulder. "That is just mean."
The massive coalition of the city’s top remaining guilds didn’t seem to care about the math. To them, this was the final hurdle. The boss that dropped the absolute best loot in the entire early game.
Guild leaders were screaming at the top of their lungs in the proximity chat, desperately trying to rally their surviving members.
"This is it! Form up!" yelled Gideon, the massive Level 17 tank leading the ’Ironclad’ guild. "Solar Lance, take the left flank! Ironclad, on me! We zerg it down! Healers, do not stop casting!"
Over two hundred players charged through the shattered wooden barricades and rushed the massive demon. It looked like an epic movie scene. Magic spells lit up the dark sky, and dozens of heavily armored tanks raised their shields, popping their defensive cooldowns as they closed the distance.
Levi didn’t join them. He casually leaned against the stone archway of the gate and watched.
"Let’s see the attack patterns," Levi said, treating the massive guild coalition like a free tutorial video.
Gideon and a group of five Level 16 tanks reached the boss first. They slammed their shields into the ground, triggering their taunt skills to lock the demon’s aggro.
The Blood Moon Herald didn’t even look down. It just casually swung its flaming greatsword in a wide, sweeping double-strike.
Levi ran the math in his head instantly. A Level 16 tank wearing standard silver-tier armor had roughly 150 Defense. The boss had 800 Attack.
800 Attack minus 150 Defense meant a clean hit would deal 650 damage. The tanks only had about 800 Max HP.
The first swing of the greatsword smashed into the shield wall.
[-650]
The tanks staggered violently, their health bars plummeting to the absolute brink. Before the healers in the backline could even finish casting a single cure spell, the demon reversed its grip and brought the greatsword back around for the second part of the double-strike.
[-650]
It was an absolute massacre.
Six heavily armored tanks were instantly cut in half. They didn’t even get a chance to scream. Their avatars violently shattered into thousands of glowing blue polygons, instantly logging them out of the event and sending them back to the respawn point.
"Tanks are down! Run!" a rogue shrieked.
The DPS players completely ignored the warning. Dozens of rogues and warriors hacked at the demon’s legs. Mages bombarded its chest with fireballs and ice lances.
Tiny, pathetic damage numbers floated up from the boss.
[-1] [-1] [-2] [-1] [-1]
The boss had 400 Defense. The normal players didn’t have anywhere near enough attack power to break through that wall, let alone the massive Level Suppression penalty. They were literally doing single-digit damage to a monster with 300,000 health.
The Blood Moon Herald raised its massive foot and stomped the ground. A ring of fire exploded outward, instantly vaporizing forty players in a single second. The demon then raised its greatsword high above its head, delaying the swing for exactly two seconds before bringing it down in a massive, crushing overhead slam.
"Okay. Heavy, delayed overhead slam. Fast, sweeping horizontal cleave. And a localized AoE stomp," Levi noted, committing the animations to memory. "Good to know."
Within thirty seconds, the massive guild coalition was completely wiped out. Over two hundred players had rushed out of the gate, and now there was nothing left but a massive field of dissolving pixels and dropped copper coins.
The demon stood alone in the red-lit plains, its flames burning brightly in the dark.
Levi pushed himself off the stone wall. It was his turn.
He walked out onto the battlefield. The demon’s glowing eyes immediately snapped down to lock onto him.
Levi didn’t run. He opened his menu. He knew the 55% Level Suppression penalty for the eleven-level gap was going to make his damage useless if he didn’t buff himself.
"Hollow’s Ward," Levi said.
He dumped 150 Mana. The swirling, pitch-black shield of dark matter erupted around his avatar. Scaling off his 51 Intelligence, the shield locked into place with exactly 755 HP.
He reached down to his quick-belt and grabbed the ornate gold vial he had just fused in the alleyway.
[Tears of the Warlord]
He crushed the vial in his off-hand.
The glass shattered. A violent, blood-red mist exploded from the vial and instantly absorbed into Levi’s virtual skin. The system UI violently flashed.
[Warning: Tears of the Warlord activated.]
[ALL healing and Lifesteal effects have been disabled for 3 minutes.]
His [Siphon Aura] toggle grayed out. The 10% Lifesteal passive on his scythe grayed out. For the next three minutes, he was locked at exactly 1,320 HP. Any damage he took was permanent.
But the offensive math shifted into the realm of the absurd.
Levi felt a terrifying, almost suffocating amount of raw digital power flood his avatar’s arms. He gripped his scythe, the weapon feeling as light as a wooden stick.
He ran the calculation as he stared down the demon.
His base Strength was 131. Multiplied by two, his unarmed base attack was 262.
The Gold-tier potion granted a massive +150% increase to his base attack. 262 multiplied by 2.5 pushed it to an insane 655.
Add the flat 140 Attack from his Sovereign’s Deathknell weapon, bringing the total to 795 Base Attack.
Finally, the system applied his SSS-Rank class passive, increasing his damage by 20% because he was wielding a scythe.
795 multiplied by 1.2 equaled exactly 954 Total Attack.
A timer appeared in the top corner of his vision, counting down from 3:00.
"Nine hundred and fifty-four attack," Levi smirked, looking up at the massive demon. "Let’s see if that’s enough to break your math."
The Blood Moon Herald roared, raising its flaming greatsword.
Levi exploded off the dirt line, his 83 Speed turning him into a dark blur. The three-minute death race had officially begun.
