Chapter 43: Aura of Absolute Zero

"Vile wretches! You have angered me!" roaring in fury, Slaughterwind was ablaze with solar fire. "Accept my wrath! Thunder Stomp!" Pulling on the reins, Slaughterwind forced his Nightmare to rear up on its hind legs. The forehooves gathered two massive balls of violent thunder light and slammed viciously into the ground! "Boom!" The earth shook and split, and lightning arrows shot in all directions! Lin Zheng and Yang Qi, caught within the attack range, instantly lost 6,170 HP and were simultaneously paralyzed!

The color drained from both of their faces instantly. Losing sixty to seventy percent of their health in a single hit was bad enough, but they were paralyzed as well! To make matters worse, the paralysis lasted a full 8 seconds! This was completely absurd! An 8-second paralysis was a level 6 status effect, which Lilith's Purification skill couldn't possibly dispel! Glancing at Slaughterwind, damn it, the burning effect had actually been dispelled. This Thunder Stomp was outrageously powerful, even carrying the ability to clear negative status effects! At that moment, Slaughterwind was looking at the two of them in high spirits, seemingly contemplating who to carve up first! That mocking gaze—even knowing this was just a game—still made both of them seethe with rage! Damn it! Killing people was one thing, but this bastard was outright humiliating them!

Finally, Slaughterwind made his move. The Nightmare galloped forward, the longsword in his hand pointing straight at Lin Zheng's chest! Lilith cast a rapid heal, barely managing to pull Lin Zheng's HP back up, only for Lin Zheng to be skewered and sent flying by Slaughterwind's sword, losing 4,800 HP in the process! Failing to finish off Lin Zheng in a single blow, Slaughterwind looked thoroughly irritated, and his aggro instantly shifted to Lilith, who had cast the heal! Seeing Slaughterwind turn his horse's head to face her, the color drained from Lilith's face! She was a priest with low defense and a thin health bar; any casual hit from Slaughterwind would send her packing straight back to Frostveil City!

"Hyah!" Slaughterwind spurred his steed into a gallop, charging straight at Lilith. Suddenly, a figure blocked her path—it was Xiaomeng, wielding a golden longsword! "Death to anyone who stands in my way!" Slaughterwind roared arrogantly, slashing his sword directly at Xiaomeng! Xiaomeng took a deep breath, raised her sword—"Frost Sword Qi!" "Whoosh!" A blue wave of sword qi swept toward Slaughterwind, instantly freezing the Nightmare in its tracks! The immense momentum sent Slaughterwind flying right off the horse's back. Even in mid-air, Slaughterwind's ferocity remained unabated as he brought his twin swords down in a cross-slash toward Xiaomeng!

"Zap—!" A cluster of lightning struck Slaughterwind mid-air in an instant. With no ground to push off from, Slaughterwind was blasted away by the lightning bolt and crashed hard onto the ground. The one who intervened was undoubtedly Youxi! Whether it was due to sheer terrible luck or not, being struck by the chain lightning triggered a low-probability paralysis effect. Well, now he could finally experience the sensation of being paralyzed himself!

"Great job!—" Lin Zheng roared! The 8 seconds had flown by in an instant, and the two of them were finally free from paralysis! The moment the status cleared, Lin Zheng immediately swapped his title to Frozen Fighter. "Freezing Halo!" Thwack! Lin Zheng loosed an arrow that struck Slaughterwind dead-on. The moment it hit, a white halo radiated outward from Slaughterwind as the center, expanding into a massive ring with a 20-meter diameter. Within the halo, the ground turned to frost, and Slaughterwind was encased solid into an ice sculpture! This was the effect of the Freezing Halo: centered on the point of impact, it created a circular frozen zone with a 20-meter diameter, locking hostile targets inside in ice for 10 seconds! The cooldown was extremely long, reaching a grueling 120 minutes! After all, this was a forced-control skill that could not be resisted—simply too overbearing!

Having frozen Slaughterwind, Lin Zheng swiftly switched his title again. With the 20% skill cooldown reduction from Cold Star, his "Ghostly Deity" cooldown had just finished. The moment he changed titles, he immediately activated "Ghostly Deity!" Once executed, Slaughterwind's stats plummeted by 50%, leaving him practically crippled. Remembering Slaughterwind's earlier contempt, Lin Zheng smiled, and Yang Qi smiled too!

"Weren't you acting all high and mighty just now?! Treating us like fish on a chopping board? Damn it!" Provoking someone with immense pride was a terrifying thing. Slaughterwind, trapped in his ice-bound state, finally understood this completely! Lin Zheng and Yang Qi didn't even bother using their weapons; they just started kicking Slaughterwind savagely like a pair of street thugs—a dual blow to both his pride and his physical body! Those ten seconds felt like years to Slaughterwind! When he finally broke free from the ice, Slaughterwind let out a roar, his eyes blazing with fire as he knocked Lin Zheng and Yang Qi flying. Then, with a "shing!", right before their astonished eyes, the two fire swords were forcefully assembled into a double-bladed polearm. Wielding the double-bladed weapon, Slaughterwind's attack power rose once again. Even under the suppression of "Ghostly Deity," his maximum attack still reached 4,087. In other words, had he not been suppressed, his peak attack would have hit an astonishing 8,175! After doing the math, Lin Zheng sucked in a sharp breath! This guy was way too monstrous!

"His attack power went up, but his attack frequency is bound to drop! That actually makes him easier to kill!" Yang Qi analyzed, based on the boss data provided by Lin Zheng. "With my Ghostly Deity, we have about 9 minutes to suppress this guy. Let's make it quick and take him down within 9 minutes!" With that, Yang Qi charged forward, hacking viciously at Slaughterwind with her sword. With his defense severely reduced, Slaughterwind took nearly 2,000 damage and was set ablaze once more! Slaughterwind retaliated with a strike of his own, shaving off close to 3,000 of Yang Qi's HP. However, Lilith's heal landed just in time, quickly topping Yang Qi's health back up!

"All-out attack! Youxi and I have the boss's aggro locked down!" Lin Zheng shouted, instantly disassembling Crescent Moon and charging in. Under the Ghostly Deity state, Lin Zheng's maximum attack soared to 4,470. Combined with the buffs from "Ghostly Warrior," every single hit shaved off around 5,800 HP from Slaughterwind! Slaughterwind's aggro instantly locked onto Lin Zheng, and he swung his double-bladed weapon in a frenzy, hacking wildly at him. However, Lin Zheng now possessed stats granting 110% damage reduction, meaning Slaughterwind's attacks only dealt a handful of forced minimum damage—not even enough to outpace his natural health regeneration! After trading blows for a few moments, Slaughterwind roared, "Accept my fury, you vile wretches! True Flame Slash!"

"Damn it! Evade! That's an area-of-effect kill skill!" Yang Qi cried out as she scrambled backward. But Slaughterwind's movements were far too fast. He brought his weapon down in a ferocious sweep—"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!" Five pillars of flame erupted from the ground, instantly sending all three melee fighters flying. Forget Yang Qi and Xiaomeng; even Lin Zheng lost half his health bar in an instant. This move dealt direct damage, completely unmitigated by defense or reductions!

Shaking his head as he scrambled back to his feet, Lin Zheng looked around and saw Slaughterwind ignoring the three of them entirely, charging straight toward the fallen Longxue! Lin Zheng knew the bastard wasn't going over there for anything good. Recalling Slaughterwind's previous actions, Lin Zheng couldn't help cursing aloud, "Damn it!" He bolted toward Longxue at a full sprint. Unfortunately, he was much farther away from Longxue than Slaughterwind was, and could only watch helplessly as Slaughterwind grabbed Longxue with one hand and opened his cavernous maw, ready to devour Longxue whole at any second!