Debuff Master

The second battle at the Suzdal Empire Ruins: 458 could only be described as the worst-case scenario for the expedition team.

Once again, the battlefield was cloaked in dense Void Mist, but this time, they were up against four Level 500 boss monsters alongside what seemed to be an endless horde of otherworldly monsters numbering in the billions.

It seemed that this was the end of the line for the expedition team, as their current predicament was truly dire.

Instead of complaining or grumbling, however, Siegfried moved into action.

‘That one!’

With lightning speed, Siegfried dashed forward and charged at the specter of Pluto, but—

‘W-What the?!’

Siegfried froze as soon as he kicked off the ground. The scene before him forced him to come to a halt. His master, Deus, had already plunged into the heart of the enemy ranks and was mercilessly pummeling Pluto.

At this precise moment, the greatest threat to the expedition team was the Void Mist; just like in the earlier battle, the Void Mist had sealed the use of skills, making its elimination the top priority of the party.

Siegfried couldn't help but marvel at Deus’ lightning-quick and accurate decision-making.

‘That’s Master for you!’ Siegfried exclaimed inwardly in sheer reverence. However, he didn't stand idly by. Fueled by determination, he followed suit and dove straight into the heart of the enemy horde to assist in eliminating Pluto.

Unfortunately, taking Pluto down was proving to be far more difficult than expected.

“How dare you?!”

“Begone, you insignificant creatures!”

“I’ll kill you all!”

The other specters, Hennesy, Seraph, and Death Fog, immediately prioritized protecting their comrade, Pluto. However, defending their comrade from Siegfried’s master, Deus, proved to be anything but simple.

“Get out of my way.”

Even without the use of skills, Deus effortlessly fended off the Level 500 trio, Hennessy, Seraph, and Death Fog. With his left hand, he grabbed Pluto by the collar and slammed him into the ground. Then, he unleashed a relentless barrage of punches with his right hand.

Deus’ fists moved like pistons of a mechanical engine—no, his fists were faster than a piston engine.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

A deafening rhythm of punches rained down as hundreds of them slammed into Pluto in mere seconds.

It was a machine gun-like assault!

‘T-That’s…!’ Siegfried immediately recognized the punches that resembled the Machine Gun Smash, an active skill of the Debuff Master. Of course, due to the Void Mist's influence, even Deus couldn't his skills, but his raw speed and power made it seem as if he were using Machine Gun Smash.

“Get lost! I’ll be only beating this guy up,” Deus said with a nasty smirk.

Deus remained focused only on beating Pluto to death despite being attacked from all sides by Hennessy, Seraph, and Death Fog. His resilience was staggering and borderline monstrous, but what was even more impressive was his endurance, superhuman Stamina, seemingly infinite HP, Defense, and Magic Resistance.

He withstood every attack thrown at him, and he seemed unbothered by them, too, as he remained focused entirely on beating Pluto to death. Truly, his level of focus and determination was on a whole different level. ꞦÂƝốBĘṠ

‘I have to help him!’ Siegfried thought, charging at the other three boss monsters in a bid to keep them away from Deus.

However, he stood no chance against the Level 500 boss monsters as a mere Level 299.

‘I have to avoid any direct confrontation.’

He knew that he had to adopt an out-boxer-like strategy, so he used hit-and-run tactics to harass the three boss monsters and distract them.

Bam! Boom! Boom!

Armed with the devastating attack power of his +15 Vanquisher’s Grasp, Siegfried managed to shove or knock back the boss monsters, but he never engaged them head-on.

He knew that he'd die in less than ten seconds if he were to fight them, so he focused on supporting Deus and nothing more than that.

Boom!

Siegfried transformed his +15 Vanquisher’s Grasp into a shield and smashed Hennessy away.

“That’s some impressive moves you got there!” Deus shouted over his shoulder.

Bam! Boom! Boom!

Even while shouting, he was still hammering Pluto into the ground; his fists didn't pause for even a second. Together, Siegfried and Deus formed a perfect tag team; they took on all of the four specters conjured by the Soul Fragments of Apocalius.

***

While Siegfried and Deus were keeping the boss monsters occupied, the expedition team focused on surviving the onslaught of the hordes of monsters.

Cheon Woo-Jin was at the heart of their defense.

Daode Tianzun was incapacitated by the Void Mist, while Betelgeuse was battered badly from his earlier battle against Deus and was in no condition to fight.

In other words, Cheon Woo-Jin was the strongest active member of the expedition team in this current situation, and he unleashed the full extent of his powers by using all of his remaining stacks to fend off the otherworldly monsters.

Boom! Kaboom!

The shockwaves generated by his punches were strong enough to obliterate dozens of monsters at once. He sure was an impressive fighter, but he was slowly feeling the strain from overusing his powers.

‘Damn it…! There’s too many of them!’

Unable to use his core skills, Cheon Woo-Jin was struggling to hold his ground.

‘But I have to hold on, or we’re gonna get overrun.’

“Everyone! Gather here!” Seung-Gu shouted, rallying the expedition team.

Under his command, the Iron Golems planted their feet deep into the ground as if taking root in the soil. Then, they locked arms to form a protective dome barrier.

“Ah! A defensive terrain!”

“Use the golems to our advantage!”

The Iron Golems formed a bunker that allowed the expedition team to fend off the horde without getting overrun, but this was not the end of Seung-Gu’s contribution to the battle.

“Wipe them out!”

“Don’t boss me around, you bald moron!”

Even while bickering with Golem King Reventon, Seung-Gu annihilated waves of monsters, buying precious time for his comrades to catch their breaths.

Whenever a monster wave was driven back, he'd activate the cannons on the Iron Golems’ shoulders, unleashing a barrage of artillery fire to decimate the distant monsters, buying further time for the expedition team.

For the first time in a long while, Seung-Gu proved himself to be indispensable in combat, and he was worth more than a hundred elite soldiers right now.

***

Eventually, the dense Void Mist dissipated; Deus had succeeded in eliminating the source of the mist, Pluto.

“Finally!”

With the Void Mist gone, Daode Tianzun could cast a spell once again. He started channeling a spell the moment he sensed that the Void Mist was soon going to disperse, and he cast it once the Void Mist was vanquished.

Rumble!

A massive magic circle appeared around him, and all the otherworldly monsters were thrown into the air as if gravity failed them.

Swoosh!

Fwaaa!

Daode Tianzun swung his staff, causing flames to spew forth from it.

The flames roared like a hungry predator before incinerating the floating monsters.

It was truly a breathtaking spectacle.

Archmage Daode Tianzun single-handedly incinerated the millions of otherworldly monsters to ashes almost instantaneously.

***

Right after killing Pluto, Deus turned his sights on Hennessy.

Hennessy was relying on his potent acidic venom as his primary weapon, but unfortunately for him, such attacks had no effect on Deus. Having ascended to the level of a Grandmaster, Deus had immunity to all poisons, but…

‘Wait a minute…’ A thought suddenly came to Siegfried's mind. His gaze shifted from Hennessy to Seraph and Death Fog. The two boss monsters were focusing their energies on the corpse of their fallen comrade, Pluto.

‘Could it be…?’

Based on his previous encounter with these bosses, Seraph could resurrect the dead with unmatched divine power, while Death Fog specialized in raising the dead as undead minions.

In other words, as long as either Seraph or Death Fog was alive, they could resurrect the others endlessly.

‘We have to take them both out at the same time!’ Siegfried realized the key to clearing this stage. Every dungeon had its unique mechanics, and it was the same for the Soul Fragments of Apocalius.

“We need to kill those two at the same time! Or else they will keep coming back to life!” Siegfried shouted to Deus, who was still busy pummeling Hennessy. Then, he pointed at Seraph and Death Fog to emphasize his point.

“What nonsense is that?!” Deus retorted. He even paused his relentless assault on Hennessy to respond, and he looked visibly annoyed by what he heard.

“They can resurrect each other! Kill them both at once, or else this fight will never end!”

“Are you sure?!”

“I’ll go stop them!”

Without wasting another second, Siegfried hurled his +15 Vanquisher’s Grasp at Death Fog.

Whoosh!

The +15 Vanquisher’s Grasp zipped through the air, assisted by Flying Sword, and it struck Death Fog right in the head, interrupting his efforts to resurrect Pluto.

“Kuheok!” Death Fog gasped and was blasted several meters away by the +15 Vanquisher’s Grasp.

‘Alright! I canceled it!’

After confirming that Death Fog’s channeling was canceled, Siegfried immediately turned his attention to Seraph. He used Waves of Oppression to unleash pulses of energy toward his target.

“...!”

Seraph faltered upon getting hit, and the resurrection spell was interrupted.

“How dare you?! You worthless insect!” Seraph roared in fury, shooting a wrathful glare at Siegfried.

Seraph used divine energy to unleash an overwhelming pressure that attempted to crush Siegfried where he stood.

But—

Wooong!

Siegfried retaliated by casting Wave of Truth to nullify Seraph’s divine power.

The celestial being’s abilities were truly omnipotent, but unfortunately, Siegfried was the perfect nemesis for such abilities. His Wave of Truth easily rendered Seraph’s abilities useless, leaving the celestial being unable to use any skills.

“...!” Seraph’s expression twisted with disbelief. The authority he had considered to be divine had just crumbled before Siegfried’s ability. “T-This is impossible…!”

Meanwhile…

‘Perfect!’

Seizing the momentum, Siegfried placed down Blaze Field and Shadow Hell, blanketing the battlefield with his debuff spells.

Whoosh! Tak!

He snatched the returning +15 Vanquisher’s Grasp from the air and gripped it tightly.

“Hey, Cheon Woo-Jin! Over here!”

“I’m on my way!”

Siegfried and Cheon Woo-Jin joined forces to attack Seraph. Although Siegfried could negate Seraph’s divine powers with the Wave of Truth, he was still just Level 299. He was far weaker than Seraph, who was Level 500.

Fighting one-on-one against Seraph and winning was nearly impossible. In fact, attempting to do so was just utterly foolish.

With Cheon Woo-Jin, a Grandmaster, by his side, however, the odds could tip in their favor.

“Haha! That kid’s got guts. I like him,” Deus murmured with a smirk while staring at Siegfried from afar. Then, he tossed Death Fog aside like a ragdoll and shifted his attention to Death Fog, who was just starting to get back up after getting struck by Siegfried’s attack earlier.

Tokki's Thoughts

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