Chapter 622: Slaying the Golden Rabbit King [II]

"Again!"

Before the Golden Rabbit King could close the distance, Marcus and Pebble swung their Ice-Fire Twin Dragon Hoes in unison. A wave of dark energy erupted around them, rapidly spreading across the battlefield.

"Corpse Demon Shatters Heaven!"

The ultimate ability of the Corpse Demon set activated.

Dark demonic energy surged outward as three thousand-year Corpse Demons materialized in front of Marcus and Pebble. The towering demons raised their steel blades and swept them through the air, sending six razor-sharp black crescent beams screaming toward the Golden Rabbit King.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The attacks crashed into the rabbit one after another, critical hits stacking rapidly amid the barrage. Another 70,000 HP disappeared from its health bar, and despite the protection granted by its Lucky Gold passive, the relentless assault finally triggered a Stun.

The Golden Rabbit King froze in place, completely helpless.

With the Mythic Beast unable to move and Marcus’s pets continuing to pour damage into it, its health rapidly dropped to 380,000 HP.

"When they’re down, put ’em out!"

While the rabbit was still stunned, Marcus and Pebble swiftly switched to the Divine-tier Adamant Shield Wall and the Blackflame Ice Flower Sword, then activated Blackie’s Nightmare Charge.

THUNDER! THUNDER! THUNDER!

Blackie accelerated once again. The Temple Cavalry passive activated alongside the charge, further increasing their speed and impact as Marcus and Pebble shot forward so quickly that they seemed to teleport across the battlefield.

"Dragon-Roar Critical Strike!"

Using Blackie’s momentum to its fullest, Marcus and Pebble brought down the powerful skill at almost exactly the same moment.

BOOM! BOOM!

Two enormous explosions erupted as their attacks struck. The damage exceeded the normal limit by a considerable margin, tearing away another 70,000 HP from the Golden Rabbit King.

Damn!

That was on par with the Corpse Demon set’s ultimate. The bonus from Blackie’s charge was seriously impressive.

Marcus barely had time to appreciate it before continuing the assault. The rabbit was still stunned, and he had no intention of giving it even a second to recover.

He glanced at his current stats while attacking, taking in just how much stronger he had become after reaching full combat power.

—

Player: Stonehaven

Class: Temple Knight, Mountain Roarer

Level: 56

Strength: 1400

Constitution: 1191

Agility: 23

Focus: 612

Luck: 81

Health: 28,535

Mana: 11,581

Attack: 14,879

Defense: 17,585

Accuracy: 3,247

Dodge: 4,835

Attack Speed: 58

Movement Speed: 89

Health Regen: 1,701/sec

Mana Regen: 581/sec

—

Strong!

His trip to Twin Wing Island had given his overall strength a substantial boost, and seeing these numbers only made Marcus more confident. He and Pebble unleashed another barrage of Dragon-Roar Critical Strikes while their pets joined in, filling the battlefield with a chaotic display of skills and explosions.

By the time the Golden Rabbit King finally recovered from the stun, another 100,000 HP had been carved away.

The Golden Rabbit King’s health had fallen to just 200,000.

The rabbit panicked.

One moment it had still possessed hundreds of thousands of HP, and the next, its health had been cut down to a fraction of that amount. As a Mythic Beast, it simply could not accept being pushed into such a desperate position.

"Clone Golden Burst Charge!"

Golden light began to shimmer across its body. Its soft golden fur rapidly hardened, transforming into armor that gleamed like steel as the Golden Rabbit King prepared to unleash its ultimate ability.

It was clearly planning to use Clone Golden Burst Charge to annihilate Marcus and Pebble at close range.

Unfortunately for it, the Golden Rabbit King’s movements and attack speed had already been severely reduced by the Blackflame Ice Flower Sword’s powerful Freezing Effect and the Knight’s Frost Ring.

The moment it attempted to activate Clone Golden Burst Charge, the black blade in Marcus’s hand suddenly erupted with brilliant blue light.

Marcus had struck first.

After taking one attack after another without giving it any opportunity to retaliate, the Golden Rabbit King’s instincts immediately screamed that something was wrong.

’This is bad!’

But it was already too late.

"Blackflame Ice Flower!"

Marcus’s Divine-tier sword slammed into the Golden Rabbit King.

A burst of blue light exploded outward, and enormous ice flowers bloomed across a ten-meter radius, engulfing both the rabbit and the surrounding area. The attack did more than simply interrupt the Golden Rabbit King’s ultimate. Each successive burst of ice inflicted damage again and again, turning the entire area into a storm of freezing energy.

Even better, every wave of blooming ice carried a powerful Knockback effect.

With each pulse, the Golden Rabbit King suffered another burst of damage before being violently shoved backward. Four consecutive impacts sent the already battered Mythic Beast flying a full ten meters away, each hit stripping roughly 20,000 HP from its health bar.

By the time the combo ended, Blackflame Ice Flower had dealt nearly 90,000 damage.

’Damn!’

Marcus stared at the result in surprise.

Back in Thunder Dragon Ravine, when he had used Blackflame Ice Flower against Level 70 Thunder Beasts, the skill had only dealt around 40,000 damage. Against the Golden Rabbit King, however, its damage had nearly doubled.

Could the skill’s damage scale with the strength of the target? The stronger the monster, the harder Blackflame Ice Flower seemed to hit.

Marcus’s eyes flickered with understanding.

’So that’s the advantage of a Divine-tier weapon.’

He was still processing the discovery when the Golden Rabbit King barely managed to steady itself.

Another dark figure appeared before it. A towering black knight was already charging straight toward it.

And the black sword in that knight’s hand was glowing blue once again. The Golden Rabbit King’s heart sank.

’I’m dead.’

It knew exactly what was coming.

"Blackflame Ice Flower!"

The second attack activated.

Ice flowers bloomed once more, overlapping across the Golden Rabbit King’s battered body as waves of damage and knockback struck it again and again.

This time, however, it was not Marcus.

It was Pebble, his Temple Knight clone.

Marcus’s own Blackflame Ice Flower was still on its thirty-second cooldown, but Pebble had followed the Golden Rabbit King during its previous knockback and had positioned himself perfectly. The moment the rabbit came within range, Pebble struck without hesitation.

The result was exactly the same.

When the freezing storm finally faded, another 90,000 HP had been stripped away, and the Golden Rabbit King had been knocked back another ten meters.

The poor Mythic Beast was now barely clinging to life.

It had just over 20,000 HP remaining.

Marcus had been waiting for this exact moment. He had even ordered his pets to stop attacking so that they would not accidentally finish the rabbit before he could deliver the final blow himself.

"Kill!"

As Pebble’s combo ended, Marcus roared and moved.

"Nightmare Charge!"

Blackie’s skill activated again, and Marcus shot toward the Golden Rabbit King, which was now less than twenty meters away. The Temple Cavalry speed boost kicked in once more, pushing his movement speed to an absurd level.

SHING!

He crossed the remaining distance in an instant, appearing directly in front of the Golden Rabbit King just as it desperately attempted to activate Golden Burst Charge.

Marcus was faster.

"Quadruple Surge!"

His attack landed first.

Four consecutive strikes descended in rapid succession, each one empowered by Nightmare Charge and Temple Cavalry. Every strike landed as a critical hit.

A cascade of yellow damage numbers filled Marcus’s vision.

The Golden Rabbit King’s health dropped to zero.

Its enormous body finally collapsed to the ground, and a shower of loot burst outward around its corpse.

"Got it!"

"I killed a Mythic Beast!"

Marcus could not hold back his excitement and shouted triumphantly.

He had been confident before the battle began, but even he had not expected the fight to go this smoothly. There had been no real danger, no desperate struggle, and most importantly, the Golden Rabbit King had never even managed to unleash its signature abilities.

The system notification sounded immediately afterward.

Ding!

[Congratulations, player Stonehaven, for defeating the Mythic Beast Golden Rabbit King. Reward: 500 Reputation, 50,000 gold coins.[

’Holy hell.’

Marcus felt a surge of pride at the announcement.

He had actually done it.

Still, he quickly reminded himself not to get carried away. The Newbie Village treasure map quest was probably designed to give Level 50 players a reasonable chance of completing it. Otherwise, there was no way a battle against a Level 50 Mythic Beast would have been this manageable.

That did not mean Mythic Beasts were weak, either. If anything, Marcus understood better than most how dangerous they could be. He had simply entered this battle with too many advantages stacked in his favor.

After killing the Level 50 Mythic Beast, his experience bar surged all the way to Level 56, 87%, saving him what would otherwise have been another five or six days of grinding.

’Sweet!’

Marcus grinned as he walked toward the Golden Rabbit King’s corpse to collect the loot.

Then the system pinged again.

Ding!

[Player Stonehaven, please note: The Dark Assassin Seven-Soul Devil has sensed the death of the Golden Rabbit King guarding the Divine Bamboo Paradise. He is accelerating his approach. Estimated arrival: 30 minutes.]

’Thirty minutes?! Damn!’

Marcus’s expression changed immediately.

That was only half the time he had originally expected to have. He had not even properly explored the Divine Bamboo Paradise yet, let alone found the Panda King’s pet egg mentioned in the Insight description.

"Mother...!"

The curse barely left his mouth before Marcus sprang into action.