"Holy Sword Slash!"
Diabel's roar was hoarse, his voice strained, and the blue sword light became the only hope in the dim stone chamber.
He gambled everything.
However, the moment before the sword's edge touched the BOSS.
Lord Illfang's massive body, with an agility that belied his size, suddenly leaped, and the stone slabs beneath his feet shattered in response.
Boom!
He jumped!
Diabel's Holy Sword Slash swung through empty air, cutting only a lonely void.
"What?!"
The fanaticism on his face froze, then was swallowed by boundless panic.
This skill was not in the beta test records at all!
In mid-air, Lord Illfang gripped the ominous-looking Nodachi with both hands.
His target was not the missing Diabel.
His crimson eyes looked down upon the dense crowd, like ants below.
His target was — the entire battlefield!
"Everyone scatter!"
Chen Mo's furious shout, like a sudden clap of thunder, instantly overwhelmed everyone's screams and the clashing of weapons!
He knew better than anyone that this was the BOSS's hidden mechanism targeting large-scale teams — "Death Shockwave"!
In the original work, this move directly wiped out half of the raid team's players!
"Run!"
Kirito's pupils contracted, and almost instinctively, he grabbed a stunned teammate beside him and dragged him backward like a madman.
Asuna also instantly grasped the deadly sense of crisis, sheathed her rapier, and turned to sprint without hesitation.
But, it was too late.
"Roar — — — —!!!"
Lord Illfang's roar stretched out in the air, his Nodachi raised high above his head, his entire body transforming into a burning meteor, plummeting toward the center of the hall with a crash!
Boom — — — —!!!
A violent shockwave, with the impact point as its center, transformed into a visible ripple of death, ruthlessly sweeping across the entire area!
The ground cracked inch by inch, and the entire throne room groaned violently under this world-ending power.
The seven or eight players closest to the impact didn't even have time to scream; their HP bars instantly dropped to zero, and their bodies transformed into scattered blue data blocks in an instant.
More people were thrown flying by the shockwave, crashing against the walls like broken dolls, their HP bars uniformly plummeting into the red critical zone.
"No—!"
Diabel watched helplessly as his proud raid team disintegrated, his faith and hope shattered along with it.
His perfect plan, on which he had staked everything, had completely turned into a joke.
Even he himself was completely thrown off by the immense power of the shockwave.
Just a second before the shockwave erupted, an iron-clamp-like hand grabbed Argo's wrist.
"Hold on tight!"
Chen Mo's voice was unnervingly calm.
Argo felt the world spin, her entire body pulled backward by a tremendous force, arcing through the air in a perilous curve.
The world whizzed past her ears.
When she came to her senses again, she was already in a firm embrace, her back securely protected.
The deafening roar and screams seemed to come from another world.
She was unharmed.
"You..."
Argo looked up, meeting a pair of bottomless eyes incredibly close, and her heart began to pound uncontrollably.
At her nose was his faint, cold scent, a mix of dust and metal.
This man, was he protecting her just now?
"Don't space out, the battle isn't over yet."
Chen Mo released her hand, stood up, and smoothly brushed the dust from his clothes.
The Blade of Perseverance in his hand once again pointed distantly at the monster in the arena.
The battlefield at this moment was like hell.
The elite team of forty-four now numbered less than thirty, and each was wounded, their fighting spirit completely gone.
"It's over... We're dead..."
Someone completely broke down, collapsing on the ground in despair, fumbling for a teleportation crystal, only to find it grayed out.
"Don't bother! Teleportation crystals are invalid in the BOSS room!"
Diabel yelled hoarsely, his voice trembling with frustration and unwillingness.
Lord Illfang slowly straightened his body, his blood-red eyes indifferently scanning the survivors, and he twirled the Nodachi in his hand, letting out a bloodthirsty hum.
He had only a sliver of HP left.
But this sliver of HP became an insurmountable chasm, separating life and death.
"Damn it... What on earth is going on..."
Kirito gritted his teeth, supporting himself with his weapon, a trickle of blood sliding from the corner of his mouth.
To protect the teammates behind him, he had taken the brunt of the impact, and his HP had dropped to the dangerous yellow line.
"Kirito!"
Asuna was anxious, about to step forward, but Mito held her back tightly.
"No! If you go now, you'll just be committing suicide!"
Mito's face was as pale as paper; her own HP bar was already in the red, and she could barely stand steady.
Despair, like a plague, spread among the survivors.
Just then.
A figure moved.
He walked against everyone's panic and retreat, step by step, slowly toward the center of the battlefield.
Toward that giant monster representing death.
It was Chen Mo.
"Hey! Are you crazy?!"
Argo instinctively reached out to grab him, but only grasped empty air.
"Alone? What does he want to do?"
Diabel looked at Chen Mo's solitary back, his eyes filled with incomprehensible shock.
At a time like this, someone still dared to challenge the BOSS proactively?
Chen Mo stopped.
He turned back and looked at the faces behind him, etched with fear and despair.
Kirito, Asuna, Mito, Argo... and the players whose names he couldn't recall.
"I want to..."
He spoke softly, his voice not loud, yet it clearly reached everyone's ears.
"End this farce."
The moment his words fell, he gripped the Blade of Perseverance tightly, his body leaning slightly forward.
Battle stance.
Lord Illfang felt the provocation, letting out a low growl, raising his Nodachi high, and his massive body charged forward with overwhelming force!
"No!" Asuna exclaimed in alarm.
Challenging a berserk BOSS alone?
This wasn't bravery; this was suicide!
However, facing the shadow of death that pressed down like a collapsing mountain, Chen Mo's face remained utterly calm.
In his mind, a cold system notification quietly sounded.
"Player detected facing a desperate challenge, special title 'Warrior in Despair' effect activated."
"Friendly units with current HP below 30%: 27."
"Restrictions lifted... Potential amplification initiated..."
An unprecedented sense of power instantly surged from his heart to all his limbs!
It wasn't energy created out of thin air, but his own power, completely unleashed without reservation after some kind of shackles were broken!
Attack, speed, reaction... everything was pushed to the human limit at this moment!
The corner of Chen Mo's mouth curved into a smile.
Now.
It's my turn.