Chapter 239 The Devil King

Before the system's voice could finish those eight short words, a series of thoughts had already flashed through Tanlang's mind.

He knew very well that task updates always had a "trigger condition." Usually...this "condition" was either arriving at a certain location, obtaining a certain item, encountering a certain character, or arriving at a specific point in time.

The mission prompt Daofeng received naturally followed the aforementioned pattern.

Therefore, Tanlang quickly used the process of elimination to filter out the possibilities...

First, they didn't hear a voice prompt when they entered the Throne Room, so "location change" wasn't the trigger; second, they hadn't acquired any plot-related items, so "obtaining an item" wasn't the trigger either; third, from a temporal perspective, at least according to Tanlang's estimation...this wasn't a specific point in time. Therefore, "reaching a time point" wasn't the trigger either.

In conclusion, the answer was obvious—they had encountered a certain "character" that caused the task to update.

And judging from the content of the task—[Kill the Demon King Dracula]—who they had encountered was also very clear...

"Careful!" Tanlang, who was just roaring about chasing after the members of the Hell's Frontline, suddenly changed his tune within two seconds. He stopped in his tracks, turned his head, and shouted at his teammates, "The Demon King is about to possess..."

Whoosh—

A black gust of wind swept over, cutting his words short.

By the time Long Ge and Qi Sha reacted, Tanlang had already been grabbed by the neck and lifted into the air by Dracula.

"The three of you..." The Count steadily strangled Tanlang with one hand, unperturbed by the latter's struggles, "...were using an Athena_exclamation (a technique where three Gold Saints elevate their cosmos to the limit and concentrate it into a single point of attack) just now, weren't you?"

Worthy of being the main Boss of the script, Count Dracula was truly knowledgeable. He could not only recognize Feng Bujue's Yi Da, but also identify the combination technique of Daofeng's trio.

"To be honest, I'm surprised..." Dracula continued without waiting for a response, "I originally thought you interdimensional travelers could only use some strange props, but I didn't expect...you to possess this level of power."

As he spoke, he increased the strength in his hand.

Tanlang's slender neck couldn't withstand this pressure. Within seconds, his face turned from red to purple as he entered a state of oxygen deprivation.

"Even I probably couldn't take such an attack head-on," Dracula said, applying even more force, preparing to end Tanlang's life, "But...as long as you can't gather 'three people', I should be able to directly suppress that move..."

Boom—

Before Dracula could finish speaking, a loud crash suddenly erupted.

Long Aomin's battle qi exploded from his entire body as he raised his shield and charged forward in a [Savage Charge].

"With this level of skill..." Dracula said calmly, raising his other arm and blocking with the palm of his hand, "You think you can save your companion?"

The next second, with a "bang," the shield collided with Dracula's palm.

Long Ge had also anticipated that the Boss wouldn't suffer any serious damage, but he didn't expect that the Count would stand firm in place after receiving the attack, without budging an inch, as if he had caught a charging cardboard box with his bare hands.

"Looks like you're a lot stronger than I imagined..." Long Ge said, raising his head from behind the shield.

"What does your imagination have to do with me?" Dracula's attitude was still cold and detached.

"Hmph..." Long Ge snorted coldly, "Luckily...we have a backup plan."

"Hmm?" Dracula suddenly realized something upon hearing this, but it was too late...

In that instant, Qi Sha had already used his classic combo—[Shadow Step] plus [Heaven-Piercing Bone-Penetrating Fist].

The incredibly penetrating fist struck Dracula's lower back, directly hitting the spine (generally, Qi Sha would aim for the back of the heart, but hitting that area with his current height would affect the power). Even though the skill's destructive force was affected by his child-like physique, it was still extremely ferocious.

"Ugh—" Dracula groaned, and the hand strangling Tanlang involuntarily loosened.

The moment Tanlang's neck was released, he only had 2% of his survival value left. When he landed, he almost died from the fall damage... Fortunately, he had a self-saving skill in his skill bar...

[Name: Last Gasp]

[Skill Card Attribute: Passive Skill, Permanently Mastered]

[Skill Category: Medical]

[Effect: When you suffer fatal damage, this damage is nullified.]

[Consumption: All current survival value]

[Learning Condition: Medical Specialization A]

[Remark: Can only be triggered when survival value is less than or equal to 20%, and can only be triggered once every ten hours; the moment Last Gasp takes effect, your survival value loss will be calculated as usual, and the overflow damage will be converted into corresponding mental and physical impact; after this calculation, your survival value will return to 21%]

The existence of this skill greatly enhanced Tanlang's survivability.

Anyone who has played a medical class in an online game understands that Tanlang, a pure medical type, can restore his health to full as long as he has a breath left... And the passive skill [Last Gasp] guarantees that Tanlang will have a chance to come back to life when he has low health.

In fact, Tanlang would only be helpless against the blood corpse god's super-speed and super-strength instant kill attacks; the way Dracula was using "strangulation" to deal with him allowed him to survive.

But this skill... obviously came at a price. It wasn't like you could easily use your last sliver of health to withstand a nuclear bomb... The "receiving corresponding mental and physical impact" part was quite deadly.

Some people should remember Feng Bujue's several experiences of "stamina value returning to zero." Even with Jue Ge's tolerance, those were very painful experiences.

From this, it's not hard to imagine how intense the pain would be when "survival value returns to zero" without turning into white light and dissipating...

For example, if Tanlang used 1% of his health to withstand a skill that could deal 2% damage, then he would have to endure the mental shock converted from the overflowing 1% damage, which would basically be... a state of dizziness, nausea, and weakness.

And if Tanlang used 1% of his health to withstand a skill that could deal 20% damage, then he would have to endure the mental shock converted from the overflowing 19% damage, which might cause full-body pain and neuralgia on top of dizziness and nausea...

By analogy, we can imagine what the result would be if he really used 1% of his health to withstand a nuclear bomb.

Of course, if a situation that could cause a player to mentally collapse really occurred, the system would definitely force a disconnection of the nerve connection when the player's mental endurance reached the critical point. The operation precision could be accurate to microseconds after many decimal places, so it would never turn someone into a vegetable for playing a game.

"Ugh..."

Two seconds later, Dracula, whose spine had been broken, let out a groan and said, "So that's how it is... The one with the shield was just trying to attract my attention..." He slowly turned his head and looked at Qi Sha behind him, "You... did well..."

At this moment, he actually praised the players, which wasn't a good sign... It's like hearing the opposite side say "Good game" and "Sorry" when playing certain card games. Something terrible will often happen next.

"Hmm?" Sure enough, a second later, Qi Sha looked up and glared at Dracula, "You!" His expression changed drastically because he realized that his arm was stuck inside the demon king's torso and he couldn't pull it back.

"Tch... what's with this guy?" Long Ge also noticed a similar situation—his shield had been sucked onto the opponent's palm.

In less than a minute since Dracula appeared on the scene, two of Daofeng's three players had their movements restricted by this Boss, and the other was barely able to crawl up from the ground (due to his body turning into a child, the impact on Tanlang was also magnified), and he couldn't even stand steadily in his dizzy state.

This... was the strength of the demon king, which was on a completely different level compared to all the previous small bosses.

"Unfortunately, you are far from being my match right now." Dracula was still able to move freely and remain calm and composed despite having his spine broken. The groans just now seemed to be casual moans due to pain. "Feng Bujue used an item called [Vajra Bell] as a sacrifice to complete a sacrifice ritual that no one has ever successfully performed in a hundred years, successfully summoning my castle to the present world... Hah..." He breathed a sigh of relief, "Right now, I possess both the mortal body and the spiritual power of purgatory... I have never been this powerful before."

At this point, the Count's tone changed slightly, "And you... I can see that you, as well as Feng Bujue and the others... are restricted by some strange power and are not in your best state."

As he spoke, he used the hand he had freed after letting go of Tanlang to cover Qi Sha's crown from top to bottom.

"Although you can still use Athena_exclamation, a move powerful enough to destroy my body..." Dracula sighed softly, "But I won't give you the opportunity like the werewolves did..."

Crack—crack crack—

Immediately afterward, the sound of several skull fractures echoed in the open environment.

This undoubtedly fatal injury instantly sent Qi Sha back to the login space, and Tanlang didn't even have a chance to heal his teammate.

"Ah—" When the teammate's death notification sounded, Long Aomin's blood surged instantly, and he roared out loud.

Long Ge was a relatively straightforward person. He was open, magnanimous, loyal, and didn't care about gains and losses. He was the type of person who would take a bullet for someone he didn't know, which was why he was injured when he was a police officer, which was why he was recruited by the special department of the Ninth Division, and which was why... he was here today.

The weapon he chose was a shield, which couldn't even be called a "weapon"—weapons often imply offense, but his philosophy was "defense," was "protection." Because the thing he hated the most... was seeing his companions die in front of him.

However, at this time and place. Tanlang had fallen, and Qi Sha had died in battle.

Long Aomin watched all of this happen with his own eyes, but he couldn't stop it. He suddenly felt that the shield held in front of him and unable to move was so heavy, so heavy that he wanted to let go; at the same time, he felt that the shield was so fragile, so weak that it was just for show...

Chi—chi chi—

"Hmm?" Just as Dracula raised his hand and licked the blood on his fingers, he seemed to hear bursts of energy surging from behind the shield in front of him.

"This is..." Soon, the Count's palm felt an astonishing amount of heat. Alarmed, he suddenly stopped adsorbing to the shield.

"You..." Dracula's expression changed. His composure disappeared from his face, replaced by solemnity, "...you're actually hiding this kind of power..."

At this moment, Long Ge's entire body was engulfed in hot, orange dragon battle qi, and a new power had awakened.

Soul Intent—[Dragon Knight].

"Heh... I'm not too sure what this is either..." Long Aomin moved the shield away from his body and looked up at Dracula. At this time, Long Ge's physique had become about 30% bigger than before, and the surface of his muscles had a layer of amber-colored scales, and his eyes had become a pair of red gemstones, with integrated pupils, "...I only know... I'm going to kill you!"

The killing cry suddenly rose, and the figure was unsteady.

With each step, Long Aomin seemed like a giant dragon stepping on the ground, releasing a force of vibration that made the entire hall tremble.

Duang...

A second later, Long Ge raised his shield and struck the staggering Dracula.

This was one of the [Dragon Knight] form skills—[Dragon Tail Sweep]: A melee strike performed with a shield, dealing massive damage and stunning the enemy.

"Ugh—" The Count's self-restraint was really good. Half of his body was smashed into mincemeat, but he only let out a muffled groan.

"Hmph..." In that fleeting moment, Dracula thought to himself, "Although Feng Bujue told me to try to delay the time and not kill all of them, but in this situation... If I don't use some means, I'm afraid it will be dangerous..."

With this thought in mind, Dracula immediately transformed. A puff of blue smoke quickly rose, and his incomplete figure quickly turned into a bat and flew upwards.

"Want to run?" Upon seeing this, Long Aomin immediately retracted his shield, bent his knees forward, and raised his head to shout.

A dragon's roar roared out, unleashing a cone-shaped spreading giant flame that burned half of the hall's ceiling in less than a second.

This was the second [Dragon Knight] form skill—[Dragon Breath Roar]: Breathe dragon flame from the mouth, burning all targets within the cone-shaped range in front (including friendly fire).

"Foolish dragon descendant..." Dracula, in his bat form, wasn't burned to a crisp after being burned by the fire, but there were still remnants of dragon breath flames on his body. He replied in the air, "...I advise you not to anger me!"