Chapter 102: Making a Move

Looking at the BOSS's appearance, Diabel was directly stunned; he never expected this BOSS to end up in such a situation.

Seeing the great sword behind the BOSS, Kirito's expression changed drastically, and she shouted loudly at Diabel, who was frozen in place: "Danger! Diabel, retreat quickly!"

"What?" Hearing Kirito's voice, Diabel turned to look behind him, but what he saw was everyone staring at him with expressions of horror. To be precise, they were staring at what was behind him.

Noticing this, Diabel turned abruptly to look at the BOSS behind him, only to see a scene that terrified him to the core. At some point, the BOSS had already drawn the great sword in its hand and was roaring wildly at the sky, while its HP was recovering at a terrifying speed. A sky-piercing gray-white light suddenly erupted from in front of it, and from within the light came a creaking sound; six other guard squad mobs appeared before it.

What was horrifying was that these mobs had turned into skeletons, with ghostly blue flames dancing in their eye sockets. The armor on the mobs had become tattered, and the weapons in their hands were rusted. Yet, from them, every player present felt a sense of threat.

Looking at the great sword held high in the BOSS's hand, everyone present felt their hearts skip a beat. According to the previous strategy guide, the BOSS would switch to an Indian Scimitar after changing weapons, but now it had actually turned into a Nodachi!

"The settings have changed?" Diabel was greatly alarmed.

Just at this moment, the BOSS, having refilled its two HP Slots, suddenly leaped upward at a speed completely inconsistent with its size, charging toward Diabel not far away. A gray light suddenly surged over the blade of the Nodachi in its hand; it was clearly the precursor to activating a Sword Skill. With the strength of the empowered BOSS, Diabel absolutely could not withstand this blow.

Diabel was terrified and wanted to dodge the BOSS's attack. However, he was shocked to discover that at some unknown time, a circle of gray-white light had already wrapped around his body, and above his head, there was a Binding status.

Diabel looked in horror at the Nodachi drawing closer and closer, his heart filled with despair. Lingyun narrowed his eyes slightly, his figure suddenly darting forward. Just as the BOSS's Nodachi was about to strike Diabel, Lingyun arrived at his side and kicked Diabel with a flying kick.

Under Lingyun's powerful strike, Diabel flew off to the side like an oversized soccer ball, and Lingyun used the recoil from that kick to perform a sharp backflip.

The BOSS's attack missed completely; the Nodachi struck the ground heavily, sending gravel flying and carving a deep mark into the earth. Everyone present looked at the mark on the ground and couldn't help but gasp; if that blade had struck a person, it would undoubtedly have resulted in them being cut in two.

Only then did Diabel crash heavily onto the ground. Because the Binding on his body had not yet been lifted, he could not adjust his landing posture at all. The result was that Diabel landed face-first, nearly flattening his nose. As for the force of this fall, one could tell just by looking at the HP Slot above his head, which had already dropped by one-tenth.

Having missed its strike, the BOSS couldn't help but roar in anger, looking toward Lingyun's direction with eyes full of killing intent. Lingyun raised an eyebrow and looked toward Diabel's direction; the gray-white aura on Diabel's body had already vanished. However, that fall had clearly been quite severe; Diabel was still a bit dazed and was rubbing his nose vigorously. A small squad of players spontaneously stood in front of him, protecting him.

Following another roar from the BOSS, the skeleton guard squad standing in place also began to charge toward the players.

Watching the players who were somewhat chaotic due to this sudden anomaly, Lingyun spoke loudly: "Everyone else, follow the previous squads and hold off the mobs' attacks. Be careful, the mobs' strength has increased significantly! Ye Xi, you all follow me and take this BOSS down."

With Lingyun's command, the many players present found their backbone and began to act in an orderly fashion, taking on the attacks of the six skeleton guards. However, after turning into skeletons, although these guard mobs had decreased significantly in speed, their attack power had risen quite a bit; it took every three squads just to barely hold off the attack of a single skeleton.

Hearing Lingyun's call, Luo Yexi arrived at Lingyun's side at top speed, and at the same time, she held her Long sword horizontally, forcefully blocking a slash from the BOSS. Having caught the BOSS's attack, Luo Yexi's body sank slightly, and the HP bar above her head slid down a small fraction.

The BOSS, its attack blocked, let out a roar; it was clearly enraged. Originally, as long as it killed the person entangled by the Underworld Aura, the BOSS could have refilled its HP, but Lingyun's sudden kick had completely ruined its plan—how could it not be angry?

"Be careful, the BOSS's stats are quite high; they are not something we can compare to right now!" Lingyun warned, his Long sword thrusting out rapidly, carving a wound on the BOSS's hand and forcing it to retract the hand holding the Nodachi.

"Understood!" Luo Yexi nodded slightly, a wisp of red aura appearing on her Long sword, which then collided heavily with the gray-white glowing Nodachi in the BOSS's hand.

A wave of air spread outward; Luo Yexi's body swayed, but the HP bar above her head did not decrease. This strike had actually forcefully blocked the BOSS's Sword Skill.

After raising their levels to a certain point, Lingyun and the others were finally able to use a small portion of their own power in this world, infusing their True Qi into their swords. This was the result of Ruoxi's hard work in analyzing the laws of this world, combined with their own efforts. Once their weapons were infused with True Qi, their normal attacks could fully unleash power not inferior to the Sword Skills of the SAO world.

As the BOSS roared once more, Busujima Saeko had already arrived at its side, a lightning-fast Iai Slash directly tearing a large gash in the BOSS's body and shaving off a small portion of the BOSS's HP bar.

Having received successive attacks, the BOSS raised its Nodachi again, appearing as if it wanted to execute a powerful Sword Skill. Just then, two gunshots rang out in succession; the BOSS let out a pained cry, and blood burst from both its eyes almost simultaneously as it fell into a Blind state. Not far away, Lingqi blew the smoke from her pistol; it was clear that the previous attack was her handiwork.

The blinded BOSS swung its Nodachi wildly, forming a web of blades around itself, seemingly trying to prevent others from approaching. At the same time, red light began to glow in its eyes, and the eyeballs shattered by the bullets began to regenerate.

While the BOSS was swinging the Nodachi wildly, an Ice Arrow struck its body, and a layer of white frost instantly covered the BOSS. After the white frost appeared on its body, the BOSS's speed clearly dropped.

The last person in the team, Kirigaya Suguha, also arrived at the BOSS's side at this moment. After dodging the chaotic slashes of the Nodachi, the Samurai Sword in her hand carved another large gash into the BOSS. Because the weapons in the hands of Lingyun and the others had been infused with the powder of that Gold Crystal during reinforcement, they could cause extra damage to all monsters possessing the power of the Underworld King of the End. Although Kirigaya Suguha's attack did not have the boost of True Qi like Lingyun and the others, it still caused significant damage.

From the moment Lingyun made his move until now, only a few dozen seconds had passed, yet the BOSS, which had displayed such powerful strength, was being firmly suppressed by them.

The players present watched this scene, all of them dumbfounded. Especially the pistol in Lingqi's hand and the Magic used by Alice made them deeply doubt whether they were playing the same game as them.