Zyrus retreated a dozen steps to avoid Pugalo’s sickle. He wasn’t worried about it summoning every monster and fish from the surrounding area– his fleet was more than enough to handle small fries like that.
*Hissss*
*Tritter*
Countless bugs crawled out from the earth and charged at him. While none of them were above lv 35, such things didn’t matter when they numbered in thousands.
“You’re not the only one who has a summoning skill.”
[Come Fourth]
Zyrus banged his spear on the ground and summoned his abyssal legion along with 400 amargs. A total of 900 of his troops were walking out from the numerous portals.
He ignored the scarecrow’s mumbling and channeled his mana into the twilight crusher. Rather than killing it, he wanted to use his flag’s authority on Pugalo.
Which meant that he couldn’t use his void skills that attacked one’s source of existence. How else would he deal with a field boss who had 1 million HP?
The answer was clear. Twilight was a phase after the dawn and before dusk. Dawn was when the first ray of light reached the earth and dusk was when the last ray of light disappeared below the horizon- such rules were common in all dimensions.
Naturally, he had taken the time into account before starting off this fight.
[Sweet Nightmares]
It was as if time had accelerated as the sun suddenly dipped below the horizon. The farm right now could truly be said to be the incarnation of nightmare.
“Elsid, Zirnitra, merge with the ground and take care of the bugs. Amargs, guard the border.”
*Splatter*
The legion of abyss self-exploded upon his command and killed more than 2/3rd of the insects. At the same time, his named subordinates nodded and melded with the tar-like ground.
*Slicccce*
*Clang*
“Your opponent…is me,” Zyrus blocked Pugalo’s sickle which was trying to cleave the emerging ground.
The two globes of crimson fire blazed as the field boss activated another of his authority.
[Frenzy]
The bugs that were struggling on the ground and even the ones that were attacking his fleet went berserk. The same crimson fire lit up in their eyes, increasing their strength by a notch.
“Focus on defense, they’re burning their life essence.”
“Roger that.”
Zyrus once again attacked Pugalo after advising Ria. His attacks that dealt no more than a thousand damage were nothing to the field boss, but what he wanted now was to buy enough time.
‘Erebus’ was already stacking up to five digits. It created halo spears for every enemy he had attacked– the same applied to the ones summoned from the Balaur summoner class.
The spears could attack at random with 1-5% of your power. And most importantly, they were invulnerable as long as the skill remained active.
*Clang*
The two clashed again and again. Pugalo didn’t have any special skills in the first phase. It jumped around wielding its gigantic weapon and attacked everything in sight. Even the bugs summoned by it weren’t spared.
Zyrus guessed that the effects of sweet nightmare would last at most for an hour. He had to finish the fight before then.
‘Even if I don’t, I can use dawn- or better, drag out this fight until twilight…’
But was there a need for that when he had so many abilities? Even when nerfed, they were enough to handle the one in front of him.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
[Noxious Shrine]
A dilapidated shrine appeared behind Zyrus. Its tattered red roof and decaying pillar were in harmony with the ghastly environment.
*Clang*
The golden bell shrouded with a green halo became the biggest source of light. The players who occasionally glanced at this place were scared witless.
A hundred-foot-tall sickle-wielding scarecrow, the farm filled with countless bugs and a black abomination that was swatting them…. Zyrus and the shrine were by far the most normal-looking ones.
*Clang*
The clash of their weapons rhymed with the tolling bell. Pugalo was trying to destroy the shrine while Zyrus was busy fending off its blows.
‘It’s about time we kick this off,’
“Break its defense Franken.”
“On it.”
*Roooooar*
Not even a second had passed before two shining antlers slammed on Pugalo’s chest.
“ATTACK!”
*Whiip*
The abomination born from the abyssal legion slashed with its tentacles and tore apart the scarecrow’s chest. Rather than the physical force, what dealt the blow was the byssal mana and the halo spears.
-200,000
That was the final damage value that popped up above the field boss. Normally, 1-5% damage dealt by Erebus wouldn’t even scratch the defense of Pugalo. But everything changed with Franken’s one-time attack.
“Your skill’s pretty great.”
“Of course it is. A pity that I can only use it once on the same target,” Franken replied as he carried off Zyrus. He had used the same skill to finish off the other scarecrow boss before.
The duo stood on the roof of the shrine and watched the transforming Pugalo. Its dark brown straws took on a metallic luster while the fire in his eyes blazed with more intensity.
Zyrus already had a plan in mind for the second phase. His poison-related abilities were useless against most of the bugs and Pugalo. Even the shrine’s debuffs like Sacrilege, Anathema, Desecration, and Heresy were ineffective on it.
‘But I’m pretty sure apostasy would work.’
*chiiiing*
All 10,000 straws that made Pugalo shot off in every direction. The bugs were shredded apart and all of his summons died except for Elsid and Zirnitra.
“Damn! What a vicious attack. There’s no way to survive unless you know how to fly.”
“There is one. Just use the players and their corpses as a meat shield."
“Tch…vicious.”
Pugalo was furious as its attack had done nothing to Zyrus. How would it know that his opponent had memorized all of its skill patterns?
“Zirnitra, protect the shrine with your shield. You two attack the moment apostasy is triggered,” Zyrus shouted off his orders and dived down towards the fuming scarecrow.
[Arcane lance]
[Spear Aura]
[Wrath of Jotunn]
He used everything in his arsenal to deal damage. His regen rate and vitality weren’t omnipotent. He knew that if he took a hit on a fatal area– then he’d lose more than his max HP and lose his life.
10k,20k,50k,100k…
The damage kept accumulating as he clashed with Pugalo. He even used long cooldown skills like Quake in order to deal the most amount of damage in a short time.
‘It’s fortunate that I can hit its head every time.’
But even after hitting its weak spot, 100k was his limit. A quarter of an hour had passed since he activated the sweet nightmare and noxious shrine.
*Clang*
Finally, the moment he was waiting for arrived.
[Avatar]
Zyrus transformed into an abyssal dragon and clawed at Pugalo. At the same time, Franken, Zirnitra, and Elsid attacked it with their max power and retreated.
Apostacy: There is a 10% probability that the poisoned targets will abandon their faith.
For a being like Pugalo, its faith was the very core of its existence. Anything that affected that was bound to deal fatal damage.
The towering scarecrow was now kneeling down and howling in pain. Magma-like tears were flowing down from its hollow eyes. It did nothing and let the black dragon tear apart its body.
‘If not for the system, it’d never wake up from this…’
Even Zyrus was surprised by apostasy’s effectiveness. If he knew this beforehand then he’d have used this to deal with the final part.
100k,200k….700k
At last, Pugalo awoke after losing 70% of its HP. By the time it realized what had happened, it was already transforming into the final phase.
“Too late,” Zyrus shook his head and walked over to the shrinking Pugalo. In the third phase, it had two main skills.
Blessing of Famine– which gave the players a ‘hunger’ debuff and decreased their energy levels. The second one was 'Guardian’s Vengeance' which increased Pugalo’s speed and penetration bonus proportional to the damage it had received.
Zyrus didn’t care about the first one as such a weak debuff was nothing against his willpower. As for the second one, there was only one outcome– death.
With the amount of damage he had dealt to Pugalo, it could pretty much one-shot him.
‘So there’s only two things I can do.’
Zyrus channeled all of his power to use the 13 curses of void. He didn’t want to erase Pugalo from existence because he wanted to use his authority ‘Numen’ on it.
You can appoint slain foes as the ‘Watcher’ of your base– these were the exact words written on the authority’s description.
Thus, his goal from the start was to kill Pugalo while keeping his source of existence. He knew that the field bosses had their source controlled by the system. Only their physical body descended on the various rings, and their source of existence was used to create such bodies in every loop.
Camazotz, Tauranox, Nuckelavee…none of them could be 'reused' after he had erased their existence.
‘And the same would happen to it.’
It was just that this time, Pugalo wouldn’t disappear.
[Eye of Annihilation]
Time seemed to slow down as millions of white threads became visible in Zyrus’s eyes.
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