Chapter 163: Amber Dragon

The Boss was trapped and unable to move in the grip of the Gatling Exploding Dragon, its HP rapidly dropping. At this moment, a blue-and-white energy orb materialized above the Boss's head and flew toward us.

Everyone's immediate instinct was to drop to the ground. The energy orb wasn't moving very fast, but when it hit the ground, it exploded with a resounding boom, like a massive boulder plunging into a lake, sending shockwaves rippling outward in all directions. Instantly, the blue-and-white ring of energy swept over everyone. Damage numbers of -5000 popped up above every player's head, followed by a layer of frost that made my hands and feet feel ice-cold.

The Boss's second wave of energy was about to strike. This second hit would be fatal, likely shattering us into frozen debris. I immediately ordered the Gatling Exploding Dragon to shove the Boss. This push caused the Boss's skill to go off-target, landing in an empty patch of ground in the distance. We instantly jumped to our feet and charged forward, while Ling'er fully restored our HP.

Of course, the Gatling Exploding Dragon wasn't idling. As the rest of us engaged the Boss in melee combat, its Gatling gun opened fire.

Clack! Clack! Clack!

The Gatling gun spat out a long stream of fire. Dense numbers of damage popped up over the Boss's head.

-2134
-2214
-2145
……

"Swish, swish, swish, swish!"

The Boss unleashed energy balls that flew all over the sky, scouring the surrounding ground bare of vegetation and blasting out craters. Roaring furiously, once it finished firing the energy balls, it began hurling massive boulders at us. However, I noticed the Gatling Exploding Dragon's gun barrels spitting out bullets one by one, striking the boulders and blowing them to pieces one by one. The Boss immediately spewed out a stream of black Qi—its Corrosion Spike skill—which descended upon us once again. But just then, a pair of pristine white wings unfurled behind Ling'er, and the next second, the effects of the Corrosion Spike were cleansed away. Shattering Strike, Energy Explosion, and Forceful Strike were unleashed in quick succession. Following that, Holy Fist Combo and Lightning Storm were hurled at the Boss, dealing tens of thousands of damage while triggering the stun chance once again!

I hurriedly stepped back a few paces as the others continuously bombarded the Boss with skills, dealing massive amounts of damage. Phantom Moon stepped forward to engage the Boss; she didn't fight it head-on, but instead struck with a single sword slash before immediately repositioning to dodge the Boss's attacks. Moreover, weaving left and right while trailing an afterimage, the Boss couldn't land a hit on her, yet she kept the Boss thoroughly exasperated. Before long, we had worn the Boss's HP down to less than one-tenth.

Wind Xiao Yue then charged forward without hesitation, unleashing both her Thunder Warrior skills and her original Warrior-class abilities!

-3533
-3931
-3800
…………

With the Boss's HP running low, we instantly unleashed all our ultimate skills simultaneously.

"Sword of Victory!"
"Havoc in Heaven!"
"Heavenly Punishment!"

The ultimate skills of the three of us—myself, Phantom Moon, and Wind Xiao Yue—erupted almost at the exact same moment. The Boss's body instantly collapsed apart, leaving only its head rolling onto the ground. Yet, even this head—

"Roar—!"

The Boss finally emitted its dying roar.

Immediately afterward, a wave of black energy instantly surged toward us. Suddenly, I felt an intense wave of danger wash over my body, followed by my HP constantly dropping, my stamina value starting to fall, and all my attribute points declining as well. The Gatling Exploding Dragon was instantly destroyed. It seemed this Boss was determined to drag a few of us down with it to the grave.

After this terrifying energy dissipated, everyone collapsed onto the ground. Then, checking my stats, I saw my HP at 1, Mana at 1, and all other attributes completely wiped to zero. My stamina value had dropped to 0%, and the danger warning kept blaring endlessly. The others fared no better. Only the Boss's lone head remained alive. Everyone now lay quietly on the ground, staring at one another.

Furthermore, I noticed that the Boss's body was actually regenerating. Within mere seconds, seven or eight tenths of a skeleton had regrown. The tenacity of this Boss's vitality was utterly appalling.

"Damn it! We've made it this far!" Wind Xiao Yue muttered in frustration.

Phantom Moon thrust her holy sword into the ground and tried to lift her entire body up, but having managed to raise herself only halfway, she collapsed back onto the ground once more. The frail Ling'er was completely unable to move at this point.

"Is this for nothing?"
"Has it all ended here?"
"Damn it, we were just a tiny bit short, yet......"

At this moment, six bone spikes slowly floated up, hovering continuously in mid-air with their razor-sharp tips already aimed right at us.

"Are we really going to lose like this?!" Fire Phoenix asked.

"No, we've won!" I said with a smile.

"What? We've won?" Fire Phoenix was startled. Before she could even react, she suddenly saw a strange little monster glaring down at the Boss from atop its remaining head. Then, with a single swipe of its claw, the Boss's head—which had already lost all defensive capability—was completely shattered.

Nearly everyone stared with wide-open eyes at this scene. The Boss probably never figured out how it managed to die beneath the claws of a mere beast, nor what this beast actually was.

That damned summoning egg of mine had leeched off how much of my EXP all along the way? After absorbing an untold amount of experience from monsters of various tiers during the ferocious battle just now, this summoning egg had finally successfully hatched into a summoned beast—and with a single claw strike, it had slain the Boss.

This wasn't so much a testament to how terrifying the summoned beast was, but rather because the Boss's body had been destroyed, leaving behind only this solitary head that presumably possessed zero defense, allowing it to be killed by this tiny summoned beast.

Lying amidst the ruins that covered the ground, my mind and heart were exceptionally calm. The data of this newly born summoned beast flashed across my mind.

Name: Amber Dragon—Xiao.
Category: Animal Type.
Race: Dragon Race.
Quality: Super-God Tier.
Evolvable: Yes.
Health: 500 points.
Attack: 200 points.
Defense: 100 points.
Skills:
Fireball: The Amber Dragon spews a fireball from its mouth to attack enemies.
Bite: The Amber Dragon uses its claws and teeth to bite the enemy, with a certain chance to inflict bleeding.
Description: Amber dragons are a draconic race born with extraordinarily high stamina, adaptability, and combat prowess. However, this race is currently on the verge of extinction, and seeing even a single one across the entire continent is an extreme rarity.

I couldn't help a surge of pleasant surprise. A super-god-tier summoned beast! Incredible!

Among summoned beasts, lower-tier and middle-tier ones were very common, upper-tier ones were relatively frequent, top-tier ones were extremely rare, sub-god-tier ones were exceptionally scarce, and god-tier ones were rare to an almost unbelievable degree. As for super-god-tier ones, they were practically entities met by sheer chance rather than design. Being able to hatch a super-god-tier summoned beast right now—forget being satisfied; fainting from joy would hardly be an exaggeration.

It seemed that having it absorb all that monster EXP had indeed yielded unimaginably lavish returns. Immediately afterward, a system prompt flashed across: "The monster army has been routed, and the schemer has met the fate he justly deserved. Brave human heroes, the homeland you defended with your lives has finally ushered in the dawn of peace. Congratulations to you, mankind."

"Ding! Congratulations on successfully defending Sky Dragon City. Sky Dragon City's city tier has increased by 1, defense has increased by 50%, all players who participated in the defense have gained 2 levels, and the rewards are 5,000 reputation points and 1,500 gold coins!"

It was finally over. I saw golden light shimmering around everyone's bodies. My stamina value was also fully restored, so I walked over to pick up and inspect the items dropped by the monster. This time, the drops were truly abundant, unlike the previous two times where nothing of value even dropped.

Gold coins were scattered everywhere across the ground, but what I cared about was the equipment.

Dark Spike
Quality: Gold
Attack Power +1120
Strength Mastery +30
Agility Mastery +40
Physical Damage +20%
Critical Strike Rate +15%
Petrification Resistance +10%
Mana Regeneration Speed +10%
Additional Passive Skill: Certain Doom. When attacking an opponent whose HP is below 15%, the damage dealt to them is increased by 100%, critical strike damage increases from 200% to 250%, and there is a 0.1% chance to instantly kill a non-Boss unit.
Additional Skill: Throat Kiss. Consumes 300 mana to slash across the opponent's throat at extremely close range. This attack deals a fixed, non-elemental damage of 1,000 points, independent of the user's own damage.
Sharp: aa
Required Level: Level 60
All-Class Universal

Gold-tier equipment! This Boss was truly generous, and it didn't even need appraisal—otherwise, identifying a piece of Gold-tier equipment would have cost me a pretty penny to the system. Most importantly, this weapon was universal to all classes, which meant I could use it too. Once I hit level 60, the Cold Light Sword I was currently wearing could finally retire. Suppressing my overwhelming excitement, I picked up a pair of shoes, and was shocked once again.

Netherworld Battle Boots
Quality: Silver
Defense Power +220
Agility Mastery +35
Movement Speed +10%
Attack Speed +2%
Evasion Rate +10%
Jumping Power +10%
Reduces all types of damage by 2%
Required Level: Level 60

This Silver gear actually had an additional skill-less effect, but it granted damage reduction for all types of damage, which wasn't bad at all. Below that was a shield.

Black Bone Shield
Quality: Jade-Green
Defense Power +420
HP +600
Mana +200
Recovers 0.35% of HP per second starting 6 seconds after leaving combat.
10% chance to block attacks when struck.
2% chance to ignore attacks.
Required Level: Level 55.
All-Class Universal.

Today had brought me far too many surprises; I was almost suffocating! Right as I felt this suffocation, I suddenly remembered: everyone else had leveled up, so why hadn't I? I quickly opened my EXP bar, and instantly turned to stone!

EXP: 100%!