Chapter 157: Deviljho

This NPC troop charged into the horde of monsters with ferocious momentum, their weapons rising and falling as they cut down monster after monster. In battles among NPCs, concepts like attack and defense hardly existed; in their world, being struck by a weapon meant either death or severe injury, unlike players who could rely on healing potions.

At that moment, I discovered an overwhelmingly formidable entity. An NPC clad in golden armor was brandishing a massive greatsword, hacking up and down as beast dragons crashed to the ground one after another, exhibiting unmatched ferocity! Wow, this NPC is insanely powerful! Let me check his background. Using the Insight skill to scan: Zhao Han, Level 76 Boss. Description: A garrison general sent by the empire to Dragon Heaven City, tasked with leading his subordinates to assist adventurers during the final monster siege.

So he was a general dispatched by the system—no wonder he was this savage. I figured there must be more than just one such NPC, and soon enough, I noticed that the other three city gates also had bosses of this caliber. With the NPCs helping out, the pressure on the players' side eased dramatically. I thought that the Kodo Beast King would surely meet its end, though the drop rate for items when killed by NPCs was virtually zero, and dropped items had no loot-owner settings, meaning anyone could pick them up—it was practically like pie falling from the sky.

However, with high-tier experts like these holding the line, there would be no problem stopping this wave of monsters. Of course, the Devouring Dragon had dropped nothing thus far; after all, it was the strongest boss.

Yet, even the most powerful entity could not endure indefinitely amidst a dense sea of enemies. The NPC's health bar was plummeting rapidly. I roughly calculated that once this NPC unit fell back, the player ranks behind them would definitely fail to hold. Already, the NPCs were gradually losing their footing, falling one by one.

As the distance between them and the monster army shrank, the number of NPC troops dwindled. Players immediately rushed to reinforce the unit, sending countless arrows and spells flying into the monster horde. There were simply too many lesser monsters, and they forced their way through despite the players' onslaught.

The monster army drew ever closer, now less than three hundred meters away from the inner city wall. They resembled a churning, rolling black tidal wave, and it was estimated that in ten minutes at most, this NPC force would be finished.

Right then, I noticed many Priest players ignoring other targets to focus their heals on that NPC, keeping his health safely above the eighty percent threshold. I thought to myself that as long as this NPC captain remained alive, chopping down this boss wouldn't prove overly difficult!

Similar situations were unfolding at the other gates, though the battle outlook remained grim. The NPC soldiers were being killed faster than they could fight, and the city gates were now firmly closed, suggesting that all available NPC troops within Dragon Heaven City had been deployed. The system certainly hadn't provided nearly enough soldiers.

Mages unleashed various spells while archers covered the area below with showers of arrows. Warrior-class players charged out, but they clearly lacked the durability to withstand the attacks of these beast dragon monsters. If they didn't strike down as many as possible right now, once the monsters finished off the NPCs and breached the city wall, it would be all over for everyone!

The warrior-class players successfully drew the aggro of the monsters below, while the players on the wall bombarded them relentlessly with spells. Summoners' wolves, tigers, and leopards engaged in chaotic melee combat with the beast dragons. While the ranged DPS from the wall was satisfying, patches of white respawn light began flickering below as the melee warriors fought desperately.

At the same time, the stones hurled by the catapults upon the city walls landed with resounding crashes, though the monsters below seemed entirely unfazed. As for the ballistas and repeating crossbows, the projectiles either bounced off the monsters' hides or merely sparked harmlessly against them. However, these beast dragon monsters had no ranged capabilities and were thoroughly provoked by these weapons, venting all their fury onto the warriors resisting them. Wave after wave of new warriors stepped up to replace those who had fallen, turning the engagement into a grueling war of attrition.

Those NPC captains managed to survive thanks to the players' healers, and although their subordinate soldiers had already returned to the main server intelligence, as long as the healers remained, these boss-level NPC captains would be able to slay even more monsters! At the very least, holding the line should pose no problem!

Up ahead, the Kodo Beast King was also brought down by these NPC captains, marking the fall of one of the two bosses in this wave. At that moment, the Devouring Dragon in the rear let out a heaven-shaking roar and charged forward at terrifying speed, sending both monsters and players flying in its wake.

The beast dragons below were thinning out. If not for the assistance of the NPCs, I figured the inner city wall would have already been breached by this horde.

Uncle Zhao immediately shouted in the academy guild channel: "Attention all healing-class students, lock all healing spells onto the remaining NPCs, throw all debuff skills at the boss, and target all offensive abilities directly at the boss!"

"Roar!" The Devouring Dragon let out a mountain-shaking bellow, swinging its head—which was roughly the size of a small car—and slammed it fiercely into one of the NPC captains, instantly knocking him down. Following through, it whipped its head back, opened its cavernous maw, and with a loud crunch, bit clean through another NPC captain who had just rushed forward, severing him from head to waist.

After clamping down on the NPC captain, the Devouring Dragon violently thrashed its head around, smashing the remaining half of the NPC's body until it was reduced to a pulp. It then spat out the remains and stomped down with a massive foot, driving the captain deep into the earth. Everyone was struck dumb with horror as an NPC captain was killed in a single instant.

Meanwhile, the NPC captain named Zhao Han rushed up to the boss, his greatsword hacking away wildly!

Several gasps and wounds immediately appeared on the Devouring Dragon's hide. An Insight scan revealed that this single combo by the NPC had stripped away over three hundred thousand health points from the boss, yet the creature still possessed four and a half million health remaining—needless to say, this boss was absurdly powerful!

"Boom!"

The boss pivoted its body, delivering a heavy tail swipe that struck Zhao Han and sent him flying far away. His body tumbled repeatedly, soaring over a hundred meters before finally coming to a halt, lying motionless on the ground for a long while, unable to get back up.

At that moment, the final NPC captain, a mage, waved his staff as tens of thousands of ice shards rained down from the sky, followed by massive chunks of ice and a howling blizzard that all bombarded the boss, freezing the Devouring Dragon in place. Seeing an opening, the players immediately rushed forward, but helplessly, the attribute gap between them was so vast that their attacks registered mostly as mandatory 1-point damage from the system. Refusing to stay frozen, the Devouring Dragon instantly caused the thick scales all over its body to flip outward with a series of loud, cracking sounds, and in a fraction of a second, the frost encasing it shattered into powder.

Before the NPC mage could react, the newly freed Devouring Dragon let out a snap and swallowed the mage whole in a single gulp, chewing thoughtfully before letting out a satisfying burp.

The two previously sent-flying NPCs picked themselves up and lunged at the Devouring Dragon once more, joined by a flood of reinforcement players. I leaped onto the back of the Dragon Warbeast while the Gatling Tyrannosaur followed close behind. The Dragon Warbeast carried me into the sky, and looking to my left, I saw Guardian mounted on the head of a Mechanical Tyrannosaurus, while to my right was Purple Moon sitting atop the back of a silver giant eagle. I asked them, "What are you two doing here?"

Guardian replied, "Killing the boss, obviously. Why else would we be here?"

Purple Moon added, "Exactly. But let's observe for now; rushing in blindly is a surefire way to get ourselves killed."

"Sounds good," I said. Just as I finished speaking, the boss on the ground lashed out with its massive tail, instantly sending Zhao Han flying to smash heavily against the city wall with a thunderous roar that shook the entire fortification!

Following that, the players rushed frantically toward the boss under the leadership of the remaining NPC captain, but facing the monstrosity, it merely flicked its tail and ended the lives of a small cluster of nearby players. Then, the Devouring Dragon's belly heaved, unleashing a wave of black energy in a 180-degree arc from left to right. A torrent of black flames descended, accompanied by the shrill screams of players below; virtually anyone touched by those black flames perished without exception, and even the NPC soldiers were burned to cinders. By this time, Zhao Han was struggling back to his feet, and a large group of priests on the city wall focused their healing output entirely on him, restoring his health to maximum! Zhao Han let out a tremendous roar as his eyes turned bloodred, flashing with alternate hues of red and gray as he triggered his Berserk, Wrath of Fire, and Ultimate Defense skills. He then unleashed a chaotic flurry of sword auras, shockwaves, and miscellaneous abilities directly into the boss!

This time, the attack shaved off over a million health points. Enraged, the Devouring Dragon swept its tail once more, knocking Zhao Han back against the city wall. The priests above frantically cast heals, but the boss immediately plowed directly into the wall, causing it to collapse entirely. Aside from Zhao Han, who managed to crawl out, a vast crowd of players there was instantly wiped out!

Subsequently, players from the other three gates swarmed over, sensing that this was the only remaining action. Eager to contest the boss, everyone began attacking desperately. Countless skills rained down upon the boss, yielding only pitiful chips of health or tragic "Miss" prompts. Meanwhile, the Dragon Warbeast soared high in the air while the Gatling Tyrannosaur kept its rotary cannons spitting streams of fire—though the damage output was negligible, it remained safe, since after all, the Devouring Dragon couldn't fly.