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When under a crowd control effect, certain movement skills became unusable. Blink was one of them. Because of that, the timing of Blink was especially crucial in high-level combat. Used properly, it could bait out the enemy’s skills and create an advantage for the battle that followed.

The boss’ attack drew closer and closer, just moments away from landing! Starry extended one hand forward as slender frost particles gathered into a flowing stream, circling around the Wishkeeper.

**Bang!**

The massive iron fist collided with the Iceflow Shield, sending countless shards of ice spraying through the air from the violent friction.

Zane only felt an overwhelming force crashing down on him like the sky itself collapsing. The terrifying impact blasted him backward, shattering the ice beneath him in a chain of cracks.

Sent flying again!! Thankfully, the damage reduction from Iceflow Shield softened the blow, so the damage wasn’t too severe. Meanwhile, Starry remained standing in place completely unharmed, a massive “MISS” floating above her head.

Well, that was lucky. She had actually dodged it.

From the damage just now, it was easy to infer that this boss’ stats had been enhanced, and by no small margin either. The increase was estimated to be at least around 20%. Moreover, when viewed up close, it was obvious that the giant’s body was covered in a faint blue-white glow. The exact same color as the massive Frostcrystal ore at the center.

So that rock was basically a buff machine? No matter what, they had to test its toughness first! Taking advantage of the brief recovery window after the boss finished attacking, Zane slashed straight at its arm!

‘Not bad. At least we can still break its defense. Again, Frenzied Blade!’

An invisible blade aura slammed into the giant’s arm. The pain enraged it instantly, and instead of withdrawing its fist, it directly swung the massive hand toward Starry!

‘That fast!?’ Although Frenzied Blade was powerful, it still had a slight recovery animation afterward. Left without a choice, he could only meet it head-on with a basic attack!

Two damage numbers rose from their HP bars almost simultaneously. Starry’s HP instantly dropped to 30%, while the giant’s HP sat at 46%. Though to be fair, it was spawned at half health, and its automatic regeneration had already restored quite a bit.

Although Starry dealt more damage, her Strength was nowhere near the boss’ level. As a result, she was smacked straight into the wall, even denting part of the stone surface inward.

This was another hidden effect of the Strength attribute. When the gap was large enough, every attack carried powerful knockback or even launching effects.

“Holy crap!” Shiu’s mouth twitched violently as he watched the scene unfold. Normal difficulty and Easy difficulty weren’t even on the same level. Was this boss some kind of superhuman!? Nobody said it was this insane before!

“What are you standing there for? Run already!” Zane kneaded his forehead. He turned forward in alarm, only to realize Shiu still hadn’t retreated yet.

“Relax!” Shiu declared confidently. “I’ll hold it off for a bit. Watch this! Flameburst!” A blazing fireball roared toward the boss. With a body that huge, missing was practically impossible.

With elemental advantage, the damage was actually pretty decent. Unfortunately, the price was enraging the giant. Its aggro instantly maxed out as an enormous shadow loomed over the tiny mage.

“Come on, we can talk this out… no need to get violent.”

The boss ignored him completely and smashed its iron fist downward without hesitation!

“S̲h̲i̲t̲!” At the very last moment, Shiu predicted the attack path and Blinked behind the giant.

Pyrestorm, Mana Surge, and every other skill he had were thrown out all at once. A dense barrage of damage numbers floated upward. Not only that, the ground-covering effect from Pyrestorm also melted away the ice beneath the boss’ feet!

‘You can do that!?’

Without the ice-skating effect, the monster’s movement speed dropped drastically. Zane suddenly recalled an old saying: gamble once, and your motorcycle turns into a bicycle?

“Admit it, Zane, I’m amazing, right?” Shiu laughed proudly.

“That’s badass!” Zane gave him a thumbs-up. “If you could spare a second to look in front of you, that’d be even better.”

“What the…?”

**Boom!**

Flames still blanketed the ground when cracks suddenly split across the surface, racing toward him at terrifying speed. At the same time, the giant slammed both fists into the ground with another deafening boom, unleashing a linear fissure shockwave.

The poor little mage simply couldn’t withstand such absurd damage. He had already died from the very first hit, yet after his corpse fell, the second shockwave launched it back into the air again, followed immediately by the third.

“…”

***

One minute later, everyone reappeared outside the dungeon entrance.

“It’s over already?” Shiu asked in confusion.

“No, we got wiped.” Zane sighed speechlessly. “The boss’ Strength is ridiculously high. Every time we got close, we barely managed a few attacks before getting blown away. We can’t do this without ranged damage dealers. On top of that, we were almost out of MP, and when Frost Breath came out, we didn’t even react in time before getting one-shot.”

“How about we go level up first before trying again? The stat gap’s way too big, and we still don’t have our full equipment sets…”

“I think I saw something on the giant earlier…” YoyoPink suddenly spoke up.

“You noticed it too?” Zane nodded. “I’m guessing that massive Frostcrystal in the middle is causing it. Let’s try again and destroy that thing first. By the way, did your EXP already drop to zero?”

“It’s been emptied out ages ago. Doesn’t matter how many times I die now.”
“Mine’s gone too.” Dukeette shook her head.
“I still have 17% left…” DumbCitrus muttered.
“You’re the only troublesome one here. Shiu, start another run.”
“My EXP isn’t EXP or something!? That’s all my hard-earned… hey, wait for me!”

***

They repeated the same process as before, except this time, after getting familiar with the route, clearing the mobs became second nature. It only took a few minutes, and they still had half their MP and SP remaining. That should be enough.

“Shiu, ready?” Zane raised a brow.
“Ready for… what?”
“To pull the boss!”
“Take a look at my HP bar, then look at yours, and ask that again.”
“What are you panicking for? Just go first. You’ll understand soon enough.”
“You’re acting all mysterious… don’t screw me over here!”
“As if I would!” Zane waved dismissively.

Twenty seconds later, Shiu cautiously approached the destination and aimed at the massive Frostcrystal. “Mana Surge!”

The moment the magic struck, the durability bar appeared once more, and the ground began to tremble. The giant was coming! He immediately turned and sprinted back without stopping for even a second.

“Zane, where’s your backup plan!? Hurry up already!” Shiu’s face had turned pale.
“Heh heh, watch closely!” Zane glanced ahead at the battlefield. This space… should work.

As the boss ice-skated out from behind the pillar, Zane charged forward without hesitation. Just as he was about to be sent flying by the collision, the petite girl calmly swung their Mana Blade.

Zane slipped past the boss and arrived directly before the Frostcrystal, immediately sensing the enormous energy contained within it.

‘It is time, Morthar!’

The instant he called out in his heart, the gray-black beetle, even larger than the giant itself, came crashing down from above and struck dead center on the target! The Frostcrystal ore’s thick durability bar instantly dropped by 35%.

‘I kid you not. When it comes to demolishing things, I am a professional!’

Even the Frostcrystal Giant’s movement abruptly faltered, as though it had suddenly lost something important. Just as expected, even though Starry was right in front of it, the boss suddenly slammed on the brakes and turned around to charge back toward Zane!

‘Trying to leave? No chance!’

A blurred afterimage shot forward and slammed into the giant’s body. A ring of tiny stars slowly spun above its head. It had been successfully stunned!