Chapter 111: Shadows of the King

He cast Hollow’s Guillotine exactly on cooldown every ten seconds. He wove his basic attacks constantly, refreshing the 5 DMG/sec true damage bleed on the boss.

Whenever he failed a dodge and took a glancing hit from the massive greatsword, he ate the 3,323 damage straight to his health pool.

[-3,323]

His health bar dipped, but a fraction of a second later, a single swing of his scythe fed roughly 791 health back into his pool. He just swung four times and completely erased the damage, locking his health right back at 26,180.

As long as he kept attacking, he was functionally immortal.

Minutes dragged on. The VR stamina engine was completely brutal. Levi was sweating heavily inside the NerveDive helmet. His real-world arms felt like they were filled with wet cement from forcing the heavy Platinum scythe through its attack animations hundreds of times.

Kaelen’s massive 15,000,000 HP pool was slowly, painfully melting down.

14 million. 13.5 million.

"Keep firing, Isolde!" Levi grunted, ducking under a dark magic projectile.

"Artillery protocols remaining at optimal output," Isolde replied flatly, her gray cloak completely still as she launched another barrage of white light.

Levi checked his mana. He was down to 1,500. He pulled a Greater Mana Potion from his belt, popped the cork with his thumb, and chugged the blue liquid while sliding across the black ice. His fuel tank shot back up.

He gripped his scythe and dove right back into the pocket. They just had to keep the math rolling.

**

Ten grueling minutes passed.

Levi was heavily panting, his virtual breath turning into white mist in the freezing air of the arena. His arms were screaming in protest. He had just swung the Platinum Scythe of the Eclipse well over two thousand times.

He landed another basic physical strike, carving the blade into the Night King’s heavy armor.

[-3,164]

Kaelen’s massive health bar finally hit exactly 12,000,000 HP.

The boss didn’t stagger this time. Kaelen suddenly stopped swinging his dark magic greatsword. He took a heavy step backward, raised the blade high into the air, and violently struck the polished black ice floor.

A massive shockwave of freezing blue energy expanded across the arena.

[Warning: The Night King has entered Phase Two.]

A thick, impenetrable dome of solid blue ice instantly encased Kaelen. Levi swung his scythe at the ice, but a gray [Immune] text popped up. The boss was completely shielded from all damage.

The black ice floor surrounding the boss bubbled and cracked. Four distinct pillars of frost erupted from the ground. The frost shattered, revealing four identical, slightly smaller clones of the Night King.

[Ice-Clone of the King]

[Level: 60 | Elite]

[HP: 200,000 | ATK: 5,000 | DEF: 2,000]

"Of course there’s an add phase," Levi groaned, wiping digital sweat from his forehead.

He didn’t have time to complain. He needed to clear the clones to drop the boss’s immunity shield. He ran the math instantly.

Because the clones were classified as Elites and not Bosses, his damage against them was significantly more effective. Their Defense was 2,000. His scythe ignored 30%, dropping it to 1,400.

His Total Attack was 6,756.

6,756 minus 1,400 left 5,356 raw damage. Applying the 20% Level Suppression penalty for the four-level gap meant his basic strikes would hit them for exactly 4,284 Final Damage.

"I can melt these," Levi said.

The four Ice-Clones didn’t wait. They raised their smaller greatswords and swarmed him from four different directions.

"Hollow’s Traverse!"

He teleported directly into the center of their formation as they recovered from their swings.

"Hollow’s Guillotine!"

He ripped the blade in a massive cone that smashed into all four clones simultaneously. The skill completely shredded 20% of their remaining armor.

"Isolde, lock them down!" Levi shouted.

"Artillery protocols adjusted," Isolde replied. She slammed her wooden staff against the ice. A glowing red circular field expanded across the platform, catching three of the clones in a heavy gravity snare and ripping their speed down to a crawl.

Levi blurred into the snared group. His 1,736 Speed made him a glitching nightmare. He hacked into the frozen armor of the clones, landing massive 4,284 damage strikes.

But the fourth clone wasn’t snared. It circled behind him and swung its greatsword.

Levi was locked in a swing animation. He tried to pivot, but the blade clipped his shoulder, and a second clone managed to break out of the snare just enough to bash him with the pommel of its sword.

The VR pain engine sent two violent, blunt-force shocks through his body.

The system ran the hits. Clone ATK (5,000) minus Levi DEF (1,354) equaled 3,646 incoming damage. His Diamond necklace cut it in half. He took exactly 1,823 damage per hit.

[-1,823] [-1,823]

His health bar dropped from 26,180 to 22,534.

Levi didn’t even care. His Platinum scythe carved through the clones on his next swing. 4,284 damage times two targets equaled 8,568. His 25% Lifesteal instantly triggered, feeding 2,142 health directly back into his pool.

He swung a second time, entirely over-healing the damage and locking his health back at 26,180.

"You can’t out-damage my lifesteal!" Levi yelled, spinning the heavy scythe like a propeller.

Isolde backed him up, dropping 5,000 True Damage blasts into the pack. The clones’ 200,000 HP health bars plummeted rapidly under the relentless assault.

100,000. 60,000. 40,000.

Exactly twenty percent.

"Soul Harvest."

Levi spent 50 Mana. The pitch-black spectral guillotine dropped, decapitating the first clone.

[Movement skill cooldowns reset.]

He chained the executions flawlessly. He burned 20 Mana, blinked two feet to the right, and dropped a second spectral scythe. Blink. Execute. Blink. Execute.

In less than three seconds, all four Level 60 Elite clones violently shattered into millions of glowing blue polygons.

Four dense crimson auras ripped out of the empty space and slammed into Levi’s chest.

[Supreme Harvester triggered 4 times. Gained +140 STR permanently!]

Levi gasped as the raw physical power forced its way into his avatar mid-fight. But before he could even check his stats, the massive XP drop from the four Elites hit his progression bar.

[System Notification: Slain 4x Level 60 Elites. Gained 160,000,000 XP.]

The golden pillar of progression light crashed down from the dark sky. It completely engulfed Levi, washing away the ten minutes of agonizing physical fatigue he had just built up.

[System Notification: Level Up! You are now Level 57.]

Levi didn’t even pause the fight. He used a neural thought-command to open his menu and instantly allocated his 5 free stat points directly into Strength.

He recalculated his stats mid-swing. His previous Strength was 2,565. He added the 140 from the plunder and the 5 from leveling up. His new permanent Strength hit exactly 2,710.

2,710 multiplied by two gave him a base attack of 5,420. Add the 500 from his Platinum scythe, bringing it to 5,920. Apply the 20% class passive.

His Total Attack shot up to exactly 7,104.

He closed the menu just as the massive dome of solid blue ice encasing Kaelen violently shattered. The Night King roared, his glowing blue eyes burning with fury. The immunity phase was over.

Levi spun his scythe, the dark aura flaring aggressively.

"Alright," Levi grinned, staring down the boss. "Let’s finish this."

The fight dragged past the thirty-minute mark.

Inside the NerveDive helmet, Levi was practically choking on his own breath. His virtual lungs burned like he had just sprinted a marathon in the desert. His real-world arms felt like they were filled with wet cement. Swinging the massive Platinum Scythe of the Eclipse thousands of times without a break was pushing his physical stamina to the absolute breaking point.

He didn’t stop. He couldn’t.

He stepped inside the Night King’s guard and slammed his scythe into the boss’s armored ribs.

[-3,164]

Kaelen’s massive health bar finally hit exactly 10,000,000 HP.

The boss didn’t just stagger this time. Kaelen yanked his dark magic greatsword out of the black ice, took a heavy step backward, and drove the blade straight down into the center of the arena.

The temperature on the platform, which was already freezing, plummeted into the negatives.

A harsh red system warning flashed across Levi’s vision.

[Warning: The Night King has entered Phase Three.]

[Casting The Midnight Blizzard.]

The entire apex platform was instantly engulfed in a raging, blinding storm of dark ice and swirling black snow. Visibility dropped to less than ten feet. The wind physics kicked in violently, shoving Levi backward.

But the wind wasn’t the problem.

[-500 True Damage]

The red corrupted text popped up over Levi’s head. A second later, it popped up again.

[-500 True Damage]

The Midnight Blizzard wasn’t just a visual effect. It was an environmental area-of-effect hazard that dealt 500 True Damage every single second to everything standing on the platform.