Chapter 62: Commander of the Black Warriors

There was only about a minute left of the Ghost God state; Lin Zheng certainly had no time to stand around in a daze! A downward kick followed by a stomp, topped off with a couple of basic attacks, shaved off another ten thousand HP from one of the Black Warriors. Only then did wisps of black smoke rise from the warrior as its armor shattered and scattered across the ground! Good grief! Lin Zheng was utterly shocked! Those fully healthy Black Warriors must have had close to seventy thousand HP!

At that moment, Xiaomo emerged from the portal, her eyes immediately falling upon Lin Zheng being swarmed by eleven Black Warriors. Without a moment's hesitation, she drew her sword and charged forward. With a sharp cry, her flurry of thrusts landed on one of the Black Warriors, and after just seven consecutive hits, the target dissolved into a heap of armor on the floor. Unaware that Lin Zheng had already used a Burst, Xiaomo simply assumed that the Black Warrior's vitality had been depleted by Lin Zheng's Ghost God state, making it this easy to kill. Harboring no doubts, she immediately launched into an assault on her next target!

With Xiaomo joining the fray, the twelve Black Warriors were wiped out in no time at all! As difficult as these Black Warriors were to kill, the experience they provided was exceptionally generous! Each one granted Lin Zheng a full 2% experience, and by the time all twelve were defeated, Xiaomo even leveled up directly! This left Xiaomo somewhat unsatisfied as she sighed, "What a pity there were only twelve of them! How wonderful it would be if there were a few more!"

Lin Zheng, whose Ghost God state had just expired, immediately rolled his eyes and retorted irritably, "A few more?! Do you have any idea how hard these guys are to kill? Even with their attributes cut in half by me, they still had over thirty thousand HP and a defense of eight or nine hundred. Do the math yourself and imagine how overpowered a fully healthy Black Warrior must be! A few more? If there were a few more, the two of us would be dead meat!"

"It can't be that exaggerated!" Xiaomo exclaimed in surprise. "I only used seven strikes to kill one just now. Where did all that health you mentioned come from?"

"Please, that was because I had already used a Burst earlier, knocking off over twenty thousand HP from each of them!!"

"Ah—?!" Hearing this, Xiaomo was finally convinced. With around seventy thousand HP at full health and extremely high defense, monsters like these were indeed far from easy to handle! Patting her chest in lingering relief, she murmured, "Good thing, good thing! There were only twelve! Oh right, the boss downstairs dropped two items. I'll take the pair of Shadow Greaves, and I'll give this to you!" With that, Xiaomo produced a skill book. Lin Zheng was somewhat surprised; skill books were absolute rarities, and the fact that one actually dropped meant it was bound to be something good! He took the book and checked its description:

Deadly Pierce: Usable by Warriors and Archers. Imbues the weapon with a short-lived Deadly Pierce state, granting a certain chance to directly reduce the enemy's maximum HP by 10% or more.

Deadly Pierce?! Wasn't this the exact move the Gargoyle boss used to wipe out 90% of Lin Zheng's HP?! Lin Zheng was moved; this skill was ridiculously overpowered! Dealing direct percentage-based damage would be insanely formidable when used against bosses with massive health pools! However, upon reading the skill's description, Lin Zheng immediately and unhesitatingly handed the skill book to Xiaomo. The phrase "short-lived" implied that the effectiveness of this skill scaled directly with attack frequency. Lin Zheng couldn't possibly think of anyone more suited for this skill than Xiaomo, especially considering she was a formidable "Swordsman" capable of landing fourteen consecutive thrusts within a mere 0.5 seconds!

"You don't want it again?" Xiaomo looked at Lin Zheng in astonishment. Ever since they entered the dungeon, all the drops had ended up in her hands, making her feel somewhat guilty. She had intended to use the skill book as compensation for Lin Zheng, only for him to reject it once more!

Lin Zheng let out a breath and said, "This skill is much more useful in your hands than mine. You can strike fourteen times in an instant, while I can manage three at the absolute most! Giving it to me would utterly waste the skill."

"Fine! Since you put it that way!" Xiaomo was overjoyed, as Lin Zheng's admission that his attack speed was inferior to hers gave her a strong sense of accomplishment! "Then I suppose I'll reluctantly accept it!"

"You get all the benefits and still act coy!" Lin Zheng shot Xiaomo an exasperated glare. Unbothered, Xiaomo tossed her head proudly and opened the skill book to learn it. Once learned, Xiaomo opened her skill interface and shared the skill's attributes:

Deadly Pierce: Level 1, proficiency 0/2000. Imbues one's weapon with the Deadly Pierce state for 1 second. Grants a 6% chance to directly reduce the enemy's maximum HP by 10% or more during this state. Mana cost: 200. Cooldown: 10 minutes.

Indeed, Lin Zheng's decision was entirely correct! With the state lasting a mere 1 second and a mere 6% chance to trigger its effect, only Xiaomo could maximize the potential of this skill! With fourteen instantaneous thrusts, barring extreme bad luck, at least one Deadly Pierce was bound to activate! And if Lady Luck smiled upon her, who knows? She might just instantly annihilate a ferocious boss with a single blow! Of course, that kind of probability was about the same as winning the lottery jackpot!

Having learned the skill and feeling invincible, Xiaomo began clamoring to hunt down the boss and give it a thorough beating. However, Lin Zheng believed that unless his eyes were failing him, the bulky figure clad in black armor, clutching a massive black greatsword and sitting upon a stone chair in the center of the Warrior Hall directly opposite them, must be the guardian boss of this stage!

Black Warrior Commander: Level 60 Dark Gold Boss. Physical Attack: 4040-5050, Physical Defense: 1400, Magical Defense: 1300, HP: 750,000. Skills: Soul Cleave, Shield of the Dead, Crescent Blade! The Black Warrior Commander is the strongest guard under Onar, forged by Onar using the soul and armor of a legendary renowned general as a killing machine. Extremely dangerous!

Seeing the boss information shared by Lin Zheng, Xiaomo instantly quieted down. This boss could undoubtedly kill her in a single hit! As for her killing the boss in a single hit, it wasn't entirely impossible—though, as mentioned before, the probability was akin to winning the lottery! Fortunately, the boss had not initiated an attack on them. Lin Zheng estimated that they had simply not yet entered the boss's aggro range; the moment they took a few more steps forward, the boss would likely pounce on them and start hacking away!

"How much mission time do we have left?" Lin Zheng asked.

"Quite a lot, over 40 minutes!"

"Good! Then let's take a short break and wait for my Ghost God cooldown to finish before we head up!" With that, Lin Zheng simply lay down on the floor and closed his eyes. "Not bad, there's even a carpet!" He glanced up at Xiaomo. "You should rest too! Constantly using those consecutive thrusts must be terribly exhausting for your mind!"

"I'm alright!" Xiaomo instinctively massaged her temples. Lin Zheng had hit the nail on the head; executing consecutive thrusts required intense concentration from Xiaomo. While the mental drain wasn't massive per se, the cumulative fatigue from using it repeatedly was no joke! As long as she kept tense, she didn't feel it, but the moment she relaxed, a wave of drowsiness instantly washed over her!

"Go get some sleep, I'll wake you up later!"

"A single man and an unmarried woman, and you're telling me to sleep right next to you? What are you plotting?!" Xiaomo glared at Lin Zheng, who immediately glared back, "Fine, don't sleep then! I'm not begging you! Saves you from accusing me of harboring ulterior motives!"

"Hmph—" Xiaomo turned her face away, her tone suddenly softening as she muttered, "I can't sleep without a pillow!"

"..."