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The ghostly flames in the boss’ eyes flared violently. He lowered his stance, clearly having come up with a counter-strategy. Meanwhile, as the mire dispersed, the skeleton horse returned on its own.

“Invoke: Vines!” Countless vines snapped taut in an instant, binding the skeleton horse tightly in place, completely immobilizing it.

Thankfully, while the skill was ineffective on the Death Knight himself, it still worked on the mount. Without his steed, the power of his Charge was significantly weakened. At the very least, they wouldn’t have to worry about anyone getting instantly killed by it again.

Starry quickly moved in and launched an attack from within Anruta’s blind spot!

Two hundred or so damage meant little to a boss with over ten thousand HP. Starry no longer held any real advantage when facing this level of enemy.

A Mana Bolt flew in from afar, striking the Death Knight directly.

Two consecutive hits caused his movements to pause for a brief moment, just enough time for the flying stones to reach him.

…

That didn’t do much either. The stones could no longer pierce through his defenses. Their stats and level were being completely overwhelmed! Even with every single stone hitting its mark, the total damage barely scraped 1,200 HP. One glance at the health bar told the story, there was still 13,597 HP remaining!

How was this supposed to be a fightable boss? One hit could leave you near death… or outright kill you. In truth, this boss wasn’t meant to be tackled by players at this stage.

Normally, players who reached level 20 would begin acquiring crowd control skills. The real challenge of this Death Knight wasn’t his basic attacks, but his three devastating special abilities, combined with the eerie green flames that rendered him immune to ice and wood-based crowd control. If players could perfectly interrupt all of his abilities, then this boss was really just a paper tiger.

His basic attacks weren’t fatal. At least, they only dealt around 500 damage to someone like Endless Sea.

But now, Zane had two of his three crowd control skills rendered useless. Mire alone couldn’t hold him long enough, and the Death Knight could always leap from his mount to escape. If Endless Sea were still here, they might’ve used Taunt to buy some time. But he’d already been one-shot by Charge.

Lordsey might’ve looked like he had the upper hand, but his damage barely scratched the surface. And with his current HP, if he took a hit from Darkcleave, it would mean certain death!

As if on cue, the thing they feared most happened, dark energy surged again.

*‘Damn it, no time to interrupt!’*

Lordsey fully understood how terrifying this skill was. His greatclub glowed a deep red as he prepared to activate Heavy Strike. He was trying to break through the incoming sword energy!

**Boom!**

A crimson number popped into the air, it was a critical hit! Lordsey’s HP dropped straight to zero. He turned into a flash of white light and was recalled to the pet space, even losing a level in the process.

And it didn’t stop there. Darkcleave kept going, its energy slamming directly into YoyoPink behind him!

She was killed instantly, no surprise there.

“…” Zane clenched his fists in frustration. *‘This b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲…!’*

Even Shiu’s face darkened. *‘This boss is way too tough. If things keep up like this… it is going to be a total wipe.’*

“The meddling rat,” the Death Knight muttered coldly. The skeleton horse broke free from the grasping vines and returned to the knight’s side. Anruta pressed a hand to the saddle and swung himself back into the saddle.

His target—BesideStillWaters.

*‘It’s over.’* As a Mage, Shiu’s speed was nowhere near enough to react in time. All he could do was stare helplessly as a streak of black light came barreling toward him.

Shiu was down, too!

“There are two more,” the Death Knight said flatly, spurring his steed toward Starry. With the mount’s acceleration, there was no way she could outrun him.

*‘Not a chance!’* Starry leapt forward and landed squarely atop the Gray Wolf’s back. In the blink of an eye, she was already speeding off.

“A wolf mount?” Anruta hesitated for a moment. *‘Where did that come from?’* He hadn’t noticed it before.

“You won’t escape.” The skeleton horse reared high, then lunged forward in a low, relentless charge.

…

“Damn, you all went down already?” Endless Sea exclaimed in disbelief. He hadn’t expected the Death Knight to be this powerful. Compared to the Blood Bat King, they weren’t even on the same level.

“Honestly… I was dead before I even realized what was happening,” YoyoPink admitted sheepishly.

“The skill damage is just too high,” said Shiu, shaking his head. “There’s no room for mistakes. They’ll probably be here soon. Let’s just wait.”

…

The skeletal warhorse looked like it was barely held together by bones, but it moved with surprising speed.

While the Rapid Stride skill helped widen the gap for a short time, the cooldown period meant that distance was quickly lost again. Once he was close enough, the Death Knight launched into a charge!

Starry had been watching their rear closely and noticed the danger the moment it approached. Zane pulled into a sharp, low drift along the ground, but the maneuver was too abrupt, Starry lost her balance and was thrown clean off the mount.

*‘Damn. First time drifting didn’t go so well…’*

Starry hit the ground, caught herself, and stood up quickly. She had avoided the charge, but that also meant she had no way to evade the follow-up attacks.

*‘What now?’*

**Whoosh!**

As Zane hesitated, torn between staying or preserving her level through death, an arrow suddenly split the air.

The iron-tipped arrow bounced off the Death Knight’s heavy armor, but it had done its job. A Defense Down debuff appeared above his head. His physical defense had dropped to 52, a reduction of 30 points! Far more effective than the Venomfang Sword’s passive debuff.

Anruta narrowed his eyes, surprised. “You’re still alive?”

Following the direction of his gaze, they saw a lithe figure standing under the moonlight. In her hands was a verdant longbow, glowing faintly green beneath the silver sky. The name hovering above her head: Windblossom.

“Adventurers don’t die that easily!” she said with a faint smile, drawing her longbow. The arrow loosed with a crisp twang.

The Death Knight was just about to pivot when Zane realized this was their opening. Without hesitation, he had Starry move in for the strike. Frost gathered around the Autumn Moon Sword, and at the same time, a warm pulse surged from the blade, a passive effect was triggered!

There wouldn’t be many more chances to attack. This one had to land!

With unstoppable momentum, Starry closed the distance. She struck downward, aiming for the ghostly green flame in the Death Knight’s eye socket!

A blue damage number burst forth. It was a weak point hit!

The devastating blow sent both the Death Knight and his skeletal steed stumbling backward, reeling from the force. Frost clung to his armor, and the flickering of his eye-flames grew increasingly erratic, as if they could be snuffed out by a single breath.

Under Guardbreak debuff, and empowered by Autumn Strike, that Icy Moon Slash was nearly unstoppable!

Even Windblossom parted her lips slightly in awe. “How is that possible…” she murmured. But her hands never stopped moving. Twilight energy surged along the arrow shaft—

The arrow struck true, piercing straight through the Death Knight’s chest. It seemed to trigger an elemental weakness bonus.

Thanks to that shot, the boss was dismounted, crashing hard to the ground.

The earlier Icy Moon Slash had inflicted heavy wounds. Now, he writhed in pain, clutching at his eye.

*‘Strike while he’s down!’*

Zane had no time for subtlety. He immediately shifted into his alternate form: Elna.

“Invoke: Vines!” First, immobilize the skeletal horse. “Invoke: Mire!” Next, trap the Death Knight in a bog of muck! With the setup complete, it was time to finish it with, “Invoke: Blazing Fire!”

A curtain of flame surged up, engulfing the Death Knight’s body.

…

His HP bar ticked down visibly with each pulse of flame. As long as he didn’t trigger a berserk phase, this boss was as good as done!

But just then, Zane noticed it. Windblossom had drawn her longbow, and was now aiming it directly at him.