MMORPG: The Elementalist

Roarr!!

Blinking its prideful eyes, the Jebel Pangolin let out a thunderous roar. Enormous power and unwavering temperament still lived within its gigantic body. This monster possessed intelligence that rivaled that of a human. Even though it had now been cornered, Qin Ruo was not planning to lower his guard.

Eyeing all the lifeless bodies of its guards, a shade of red slowly enveloped the Jebel Pangolin’s body, as if its body had now turned into a massive sea of blood!

The Jebel Pangolin’s sudden change led Qin Ruo to halt his attack. He immediately stopped the Elite Skeletal Wraith, who was still in stealth mode, from stinging it with his Poison Needle at melee range. Waving his enchanted “Frost Witch’s Rage”, three shining Fatal Frost Crystals emerged in the air.

Thump!

Jebel Pangolin’s eyes shrunk as it saw this and reflectively stepped back. Apparently, it had now fully understood just how powerful these Aquamancer’s Magic Attacks were—they were far more powerful than the showers of Frost Arrows.

Five-second Frozen time…

The Overlord Boss carefully observed this human Aquamancer; then looked at the Amethyst Orc that was fuming with violet Combat Aura. Finally, its eyes looked towards the area where the Elite Skeletal Wraith was before it disappeared.

Thump!

The Jebel Pangolin took another step backward.

“Oh, trying to run?”

Qin Ruo knew what the Jebel Pangolin had in mind… it wasn’t really scared of battling them, but it was trying to lure them away from the ocean. Away from the seawater that was giving them the geographical advantage.

“…”

Qin Ruo felt a string of regret. If they could resume their battles in the sea, he would be able to utilize the limitless amount of water element in the area—his strength would essentially be heightened. Even if he were to fight with the Jebel Pangolin head on, he would still be able to gain the upper hand and emerge victorious in a short time. Currently, the highest score on the Leaderboard was 250,000 points. If he wanted to surpass that, he would not only need to defeat this Tier 5 Overlord Boss but also utilize the remaining time to defeat some other Bosses.

Unfortunately… the Jebel Pangolin was determined to leave the ocean and Qin Ruo had no other choice but to pursue it. He had used up all his tricks to stop it from leaving after all.

Of course, even if he’d lost the geographical advantage of the ocean, he would still be able to defeat the Jebel Pangolin as he still had the summoned creatures on his side, especially the Elite Skeletal Wraith. With their help, the battle with the Jebel Pangolin would still tip to their favor.

“Do it!”

Roaarr!!

After receiving Qin Ruo’s command, Amethyst Orc bellowed a battle cry and then gave chase towards the shore. The Tier 5 Miniboss possessed around 100,000 HP, and even though its HP was no match against the Tier 5 Overlord Boss, it was enough to lure the Jebel Pangolin away.

Flapping his Angelic Wings, Qin Ruo tailed Amethyst Orc from behind. Along the way, he charged up and pinched three Fatal Frost Crystals firmly in his hands, preparing to shoot them out towards the enemy when the opportunity arose!

“Hmph!”

Dashing right into the Jebel Pangolin’s attack range, the Amethyst Orc quickly activated “Charge” to evade the Boss’s first wave of attacks and then swept up three slashes from the ground, cutting through its body. As the slashes landed on the Boss, it rammed its massive body onto the oncoming Orc.

Just one hit, the Tier 5 Mini Boss was sent flying backwards, creating a huge gap between it and the Tier 5 Overlord Boss.

However, it was not all fine and dandy for the Jebel Pangolin. As the Amethyst Orc was rammed away, its three powerful slashes had already landed on the Jebel Pangolin, tearing up three gaping wounds on its lap.

Roarr!!

Letting out an excruciating wail, the Jebel Pangolin reflexively stopped its advances. The Tier 5 Overlord Boss wouldn’t allow itself to be harmed again by any stealth attacks…

Whoosh!

Pow!!!

Right after the Elite Skeletal Wraith had succeeded in its attack from the dark, Jebel Pangolin slapped its massive palm onto its skull. The poor Skeletal Wraith, who had only just succeeded in its offense, fell to the ground while suffering a five-second Stun effect.

Indeed, the Jebel Pangolin was able to inflict the five-second stun on it. Yet, in exchange, the Boss was also affected by a three-frozen effect!

Qin Ruo’s movement speed was no slower than Amethyst Orc. As he saw it being rammed away, Qin Ruo quickly hurled out the three Fatal Frost Crystals and dashed forward to catch the Amethyst Orc’s falling body. As the Elite Skeletal Wraith who was being assaulted, Qin Ruo’s crystals had also successfully impaled into the Jebel Pangolin’s chest!

Despite not being able to fully freeze the Overlord Boss, the bursting crystals were able to swirl out a surge of freezing current that spread throughout its body.

“It’s over.”

In an instant, a golden ray leaped out of Qin Ruo’s shoulder! Like a darting arrow, it swiftly zoomed towards the Jebel Pangolin…

However, it didn’t act when it arrived next to the Jebel Pangolin. It waited for Qin Ruo to arrive before initiating its attack.

Swoosh!

Shadow Clone Strike!

Four identical golden little beasts suddenly emerged and surrounded the massive pangolin! Then, they simultaneously rammed onto the gigantic Jebel Pangolin!

Poochie has landed its attack!

Jebel Pangolin has sustained 183 damage!

Jebel Pangolin has sustained 18 damage!

Jebel Pangolin has been stunned for 2 seconds!

“…”

“Good job!”

Hearing the consecutive reports from the system message, Qin Ruo felt a string of relief. When it was affected by the frozen debuff, the Jebel Pangolin, whose defense greatly decreased, had been struck by Poochie’s four stun chain-attacks, inflicting a whopping 8 seconds of stun debuff on the Boss.

8 seconds… was enough to finish it off!

In an instant, a glare of light flashed out from the Mana Core on Qin Ruo’s enchanted “Arcane Mirror Cape”!

Boom!!

Twelve Frostramparts lined up around the gigantic Jebel Pangolin, blaring out a gush of freezing wind that was even colder than the ones from the Fatal Frost Crystals.

White snowy ice-frosts started to form around the Jebel Pangolin, freezing up the boiling crimson aura that was formed on its scales.

Then, Qin Ruo quickly summoned three Lycan Barrages. Accompanied by a deafening soulful howl, they darted out and rammed onto the Jebel Pangolin.

Boom! Boom! Booom!

Three flowery splashes burst out on the Boss’s massive body, inflicting over 4500 damage to it. Seconds later, the water that was splashed onto the Boss had started to freeze under the icy air.

In the meantime…

Swoosh!

Amethyst Orc, who was rammed away earlier, furiously stepped back into the battle!

Swinging the Amethyst Blade in its hands, the Amethyst Orc feverishly launched a series of combo attacks onto the Tier 5 Overlord Boss!

As for the Elite Skeletal Wraith that was almost killed from that one gigantic slap earlier, it glared it’s emerald eyes, and reflexively re-entered into stealth mode as soon as it recovered from the Stun effect. Sneaking near the frozen Jebel Pangolin, the Skeletal Wraith promptly depleted 5000 HP by stabbing a Poison Needle into the Boss’s body, inflicting another 30 seconds of Poison effect on it!

Booom!!

As the Jebel Pangolin recovered from the Frozen effect, it quickly turned to face the Elite Skeletal Wraith that was stabbing it from behind. The Tier 5 Minibosses were doing their best to lure its attention.

The Shadowfox, despite not being able to deal powerful damage to the Boss, was doing its part too, by buying its master time to prepare his attacks.

Slowed by the freezing effect of the Twelve Frost Ramparts, the Jebel Pangolin’s movement speed and reaction were decreased by at least 70%. Although it was trying its best to escape the Frost Ramparts’ debuff range, the Overlord Boss was forced back by the three monsters’ furious chain attacks.

Letting Elite Skeletal Wraith and Amethyst Orc improvise their attacks, Qin Ruo focussed all his attention on observing the Jebel Pangolin’s every move using his Elemental Perception while directing the Lycan Barrages’ attacks. Pinching a Magic Scroll in his hand, Qin Ruo planned to hurl it and release “Frozen Realm” if things went south.

Fortunately, the battle was going smoothly.

Although the three monsters’ attacks were not as effective as they had hoped, in just seconds, they were able to lock Jebel Pangolin in the same area, giving Qin Ruo a clear shot for his Fatal Frost Crystals.

In an instant, three salvos of Frost Crystals were shot out! 10,000 damage was dealt on the Boss!

This time, the Jebel Pangolin’s movements had been entirely anticipated and seen right through. Right after landing three direct hits on the Boss, Qin Ruo was able to prolong the Frozen effect by 8 seconds on the Boss by bursting out the crystals again. Not only did this buy Poochie some time to launch another Shadow Clone Strike, but it also gave him an excess of two to three seconds of Frozen effect after it had succeeded its strike.

Seeing this, Qin Ruo let out a sigh of relief. He started calculating as he continued directing his Lycan Barrages at the now stunned Jebel Pangolin…

Only seven minutes had passed since he had first re-entered the Mythical Mirage!

After defeating this Overlord Boss, he should still have another twenty minutes left…

The Amethyst Orc and Elite Skeletal Wraith had only just been summoned, meaning they still had plenty of time to remain active.

It was entirely possible for him to seek out more prey and accumulate more than 400,000 points…

***

“Oh!”

“Here they come!”

“Finally, a Veteran Champion!”

Billions of players were sitting in front of their computers watching the heated rivalry amongst the Champions. Some players were checking the Leaderboard as they were grinding for levels and experience points too.

Suddenly, the name “Qin Ruo” emerged on the number one spot on the Leaderboard. This blew up a storm everywhere in the game and on the forum.

“Now that the Winter Demon had appeared, those other veterans would show up too, right?”

“Oh man, 270,000 points! As expected of the Winter Demon, he grabbed the top spot in just one go! I wonder what kind of Tier 4 Ultimate Boss or Tier 5 Overlord Boss he had slain earlier… that’s so impressive!”

“Impressive my ass! I thought one would need 200,000 points to become Top One… now… getting 300,000 might not even guarantee us that spot anymore!”

“Oh well.”

“I suppose, even the Winter Demon himself must feel some pressure this time.”

“Yeah, the runner-up is just a mile away from catching up.”

“That’s so fucking true, man! I have never seen this many formidable Champions showing up all at once before!”

***

As the players were discussing excitedly, someone’s face in the Neversleep Restaurant of Sin City was turning grim.

Locking his eyes on the top spot of the Leaderboard, reading his name and score again and again… his originally belittling smirk had now turned grim.

This speed!

Could it be… that he also was using that thing?