Chương 223: Reborn as the Dragon — Chapter 223 - Players vs. Black Dragon (2)

What does it feel like when a creature weighing tens of thousands of tons slams into the earth? It feels like the end of the world. BOOM! Su Nian hit the ground on purpose, accelerating into the impact instead of riding the players' pull. The landing alone killed a good number of them outright, unlucky souls who happened to be standing in the wrong spot. The coastline buckled.

Seawater blasted skyward in a massive column, and when the kinetic energy bled out, it all came crashing back as a wall of water, a tsunami rolling straight toward the players still standing on the shore. Those players weren't standing anymore. They hadn't even gotten their footing back from the shockwave. The ground had fractured outward from Su Nian's landing point in every direction. The coastal soil was soft, and he'd sunk half his body into the sand on impact. One sharp beat of his wings yanked him free.

The back-and-forth had done the rest, nearly every grappling hook on him had snapped under the strain, leaving only a few claw hooks still wedged between his scales and armor.

"Wait, is this thing actually the same tier as the Storm Worm King?"

"Don't panic! The health bar is long, but it's on the ground now. We can grind it down!"

"We are the Fourth Cataclysm!"

"Exactly, if it has a health bar, we'll kill it. We'll kill a god if we have to!" The warrior players rallied each other. The moment that health bar appeared, something shifted. The reality of where they were started to blur. They could respawn. They had stat panels. Whatever this world was, it had the same rules as a game, so why not treat it like one? If you can't tell the difference, stop trying.

"Move in!" Tagoshi Shishi gripped Murasame and charged. Whatever happened, the Tagoshi family never backed down from a fight. He slid in low, closing the distance to the Black Dragon's feet in an instant. He went in with everything. The strike was his family's signature technique, [Flying Meteor Slash], a skill the System had recognized as exclusively his. [Flying Meteor Slash] carried armor-breaking force. It dealt forced damage. No defense could fully negate it. Where there was damage, there was hope.

"HA!" The blade came down. CLANG. Sparks and lightning. A number floated up from the impact point, almost casual in how small it looked. [-1] [You dealt 1 point of forced damage to the Mutant Black Dragon BOSS.]"That's — impossible!!!" Tagoshi Shishi stood there, stunned. [Flying Meteor Slash] hit hard. Against the thick-hided Storm Worm King, it regularly dealt over a thousand damage. The crack in the Storm Worm King's skull? He'd put that there himself. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road.

If you see it on Amazon, please report it. One slash. One point. He raised his head slowly, looking up at the Black Dragon, and found that health bar stretching out above it like a horizon, endless, unmoved. Something about the sight made him feel very small and very stupid. The Black Dragon was already looking at him. Su Nian smiled. He raised one claw, almost lazily, and flicked a finger. Splat. The Sakura player with the tachi and the blank expression ceased to exist as anything other than scattered wreckage.

Nobody noticed. Nobody had time to. The warrior players were already swarming in from every direction, a chaotic flood of steel and shouting. The mage players were thrilled, a target that size didn't need aiming. Spells lit up the air around Su Nian in every color, a dazzling ring of magical light. It felt like being a giant watching a bunch of kids set off fireworks. He could stomp a dozen warriors just by shifting his weight. Some of them were actually climbing his tail. He stared at that for a moment.

Were they seriously planning to crawl up to his head and attempt a decapitation? Su Nian didn't even have words for it. He twitched his tail. One sharp flick. CRACK, a sonic boom split the air, and the aspiring assassin became a spinning red mist somewhere above the coastline. The players kept pouring on damage, enthusiastic and relentless, and then the enthusiasm started to curdle, because the health bar hadn't moved. Not even slightly. Magic left faint elemental smears on Su Nian's scales.

The warriors' blades accomplished nothing except polishing his claws to a brighter edge. They couldn't break his defense at all. Not even close.

"Is this thing just... unkillable? Like an invincible mob?" A warrior player dragged his companion back from the crush, wiping blood off his face. Then he noticed his companion felt lighter than usual. He turned to look. His friend had been reduced to one arm. The rest of him was hanging from the tip of one of the Black Dragon's claws, still wearing his armor.

"What the actual HELL." The warrior players were done. Fine, they couldn't deal damage. They'd accepted that. But the dragon didn't even have to try, a casual shift, a stray claw, anything that grazed you was lethal. This wasn't a fight. It wasn't even the same category of conflict.

"I'm calling it. This BOSS can't be taken on with raw numbers. The armor is too thick. We literally cannot hurt it."

"Aish — when did Tagoshi Shishi die?"

"Forget it, retreat! We can't win this! Go grab the treasure chests, seumnida! Kill rights are gone, whoever gets to the chest first keeps it, seumnida!"

"Are you SERIOUS?! You cowardly bastards!" The players still holding the front line watched their teammates peel off and run, and the cursing started immediately.

"Stupid pigs from Ying Country, can't win and still won't quit. What's that called if not brainless?"

"We Kimchi people are smarter than you. We're done here." The seumnida players shot back without breaking stride, already walking away, and dropped an Earth Wall spell behind them as a parting gift to slow the pursuit. The Ying Country players lost it. They turned and went straight for the Kimchi Country players. And just like that, the battle against the Black Dragon became a brawl between players. Then the Sakura players waded in too.

Because a Ying Country player had suggested the Kimchi Country players might have been drinking too much nuclear wastewater. Nuclear wastewater was a Sakura specialty. What did that have to do with Kimchi Country? Unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. Su Nian watched the pile-up forming at his feet and nearly lost it. Truly something else, vicious enough to turn on each other. He wasn't in any hurry. They couldn't touch him anyway. Might as well enjoy the entertainment. Then, cutting through the noise:"High noon."

Low. Clear. It reached every player on that beach like a voice from the reaper himself.

"That's McCree! The top Ying Country cowboy player — that's his signature move!" Someone who knew their stuff called it out, voice sharp with recognition. The move was notoriously difficult to land. Even McCree couldn't fully explain how it worked. [High Noon] required buildup, required the player to absorb the battlefield's atmosphere and feel it reach a breaking point. Only then would the skill release. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. Seven shots. Nearly overlapping, almost a single sound.

Every one of them locked onto the Black Dragon's head. These weren't ordinary bullets. They blazed with vivid firelight, armor-piercing force amplified through the skill's enhancement. The players held their breath, watching. Su Nian's expression didn't change. He flicked two more players into paste while he waited, the same idle gesture he used to use as a kid, squatting in his grandfather's courtyard flicking ants off the ground. The bullets hit. CLINK. CLANK. CLANG. Sparks scattered.

[-4] [-2] [-8] [-6] [-2] [-12] [-6] The health bar moved. The players saw it. They actually saw it jump. 100% became 99. 99%. McCree had just posted the highest damage numbers in the entire engagement. Then the crimson bar ticked again. 100%. A cool sea breeze rolled in off the water. Silence. As if nothing had happened at all. ➤ Next: Black Dragon Outpost (1)