"Snow White! You evil being! I will never allow Oz to fall into your hands! Your evil ways will cause Oz to fall into the depth of the abyss!" Shaenita held up a dark magic staff and stepped forwards boldly.
She raised her staff up high and chanted something rather mysterious. However, after a quick rumble, she stopped halfway. Her confident expression went pale immediately. She looked up to Snow White, with horror written all over her face.
"You…You’ve destroyed the Mirror of Truth!?"
Shaenita looked in despair at Zhang Yang and the party. Her voice trembled as she spoke. "The Mirror of Truth is the one and only thing that could repel Snow White! She could have never destroyed it herself! It was you! All of you! How could all of you be so dumb and stupid to help her!? Imbeciles! You have assisted evil itself! What have you done?!"
Zhang Yang was stunned. It was a huge, sudden change of events.
"Did we just help the villain?"
"I think the evil witch is the good guy here, and Snow White is the evil one!"
"Damn! We have been duped into thinking that the plot will follow the actual fairy tale! This is ‘God’s Miracle’! Not the world of Grimm’s fairy tales! Snow White isn’t the real damsel in distress! And the stepmother isn’t the real villain here!"
"Sneaky developers!"
"I think it’s on us. Remember when we met Snow White for the first time, the system had given two choices. To kill her or to spare her. We were the ones who chose to help Snow White with her evil plot!"
"Oh I see! No wonder why we haven’t seen the seven dwarfs! She must have killed them all!"
Snow White laughed. It was not the same kind of laugh of a woman. It was the exact same cliché laugh of a villain. The deep, long, maniacal, and draggy laughter. "You’re absolutely right! These gullible adventurers had helped me! The only thing I had to do was to tell them a pathetic story and they had bowed down obediently to me! With a simple request, they had agreed to help me to kill Herlow and get his heart for me, sneak into the palace for me, and destroy the Mirror of Truth for me! Hahaha! Shaenita! Without the mirror, you’re not worthy of being my opponent. Today, I will let it rain blood all over the Kingdom of Oz! I will summon the darkness to envelop Oz for as long as I breathe! I will instill fear into every one here! They will fear me! They will worship me! For I, am, Snow White!"
Shrom!
Black rays started to leak out of Snow White and blasted off everywhere like a massive explosion. More and more rays blasted out of her in the form of sharp swords. As the rays dimmed a little, Snow White’s black hair floated around wildly. Her eyes glowed brightly. Another sudden flash of light blasted off her and she gained a three tier jump.
[Snow White] (Violet-Platinum, Humanoid)
Level: 80
HP: 8,000,000
Defense: 2,400
"Violet! Platinum!" Everyone gasped in horror.
"Adventurer! Your acts have led to this result! Because of your foolishness, you Snow White now roams free! Now, you have to do what is right! Kill her now! Do not let her win! Or Oz will forever be plunged into darkness!" Shaenita pleaded the party.
‘Ding! Your quest: Take Back the Throne has been forfeited.’
‘Ding! Shaenita has a quest for you: Atonement! Will you accept it?’
Accept!
[Atonement] (Difficulty Level: S)
Quest Description: Due to your inconsiderate acts, Oz is now facing the greatest threat against humankind. Without the Mirror of Truth, the evil Snow White is now undefeatable! You will have to atone for your mistake and kill the princess to save Oz from certain doom!
Quest Participant Limit: 5
Progress: Kill Princess Snow White 0/1
The quest had just completed a huge loop, from killing Snow White back and back again. The only difference back then, was Snow White was just an elite tier monster, but now, she had turned into a formidable Violet-Platinum boss. Which was, by far, the strongest boss in the game!
With that quest level of difficulty, it surely had to come with a certain level of reward!
If the party had killed off Snow White when she was only an elite tier monster, the rewards obtained from the quest would be relative to that level. However, after the sudden change of events that had led to Snow White gaining a huge upgrade, the quest had also been upgraded to an S Level difficulty! Not that an S level quest was that scarce throughout the game, but once a quest was set to an S level difficulty, the rewards would most definitely be luxurious!
Zhang Yang was the first one to intercept Snow White’s attack. With a quick flash, Zhang Yang swung his sword and hacked at Snow White.
‘-1,005!’
With a 2,400 Defense value, Zhang Yang unbelievable attack was diminished to only 1,000, even though he had {Eagle Eye}.
Snow White retaliated with a raging roar and countered Zhang Yang attack with her own long sword.
{Block}!
Wham!
As her huge long sword clashed onto Zhang Yang’s shield, the huge difference in strength and power had pushed Zhang Yang a few steps back! This proved the formidable power of a Violet-Platinum boss!
The worst was not over just yet. In just two seconds, Snow White rushed to Zhang Yang and attacked again. This time, Zhang Yang was forced to take the attack head on!
‘-12,606!’
Even though he may be a Guardian with huge physical attack defense, and also, by far, had the strongest equipment in game, Zhang Yang still took an insane level of damage from the boss.
"GRAHHHH! How dare you deceive this young lady’s good heart! I will smash you good!" cried Wei Yan Er as she started attacking Snow White furiously. Without much delay, Sun Xin Yu and the rest of the attackers followed Wei Yan Er and started to attack as well.
Still, no matter how spirited they were, everyone besides Zhang Yang could not deal much damage. Since Snow White was a Level 80 Violet-Platinum boss with ultra-thick defense, coupled with the huge level gap between the party and the boss, all their attacks were greatly reduced.
Wei Yan Er was still able to dish out visible damage values since she was wielding a two-handed weapon to begin with. However, attackers like Sun Xin Yu could all scratch the boss with her tiny daggers and deal only three digits damage numbers to the boss! Daffodil Daydream’s attacks would not be affected by the boss defense, however, since the level gap was too huge between them, and they were penalized for a different reason.
The only person who could deal a visible amount of damage was Zhang Yang alone. He was, by far, the highest-level player in the game at Level 71. He had a nine Level gap, the damage reduction was not too severe. Besides, he was always able to hit the boss, ignoring all Defense with {Eagle Eye} and {Cripple Defense}.
However strong Zhang Yang was, Snow White was several times stronger than he could ever be! Even though she could not instantly kill Zhang Yang, her strength was so strong that the super-healer Han Ying Xue could not keep with the HP loss! She had been putting all she has on Zhang Yang and still could not keep him out of danger!
On the other hand, what made things worse was that Zhang Yang had already used all his strong skills during the fight with Angelo! {Shield Wall}, {Berserker’s Heal} and even {Rearm} was on cold down!
"Foolish peasant! You dare to attack me!? Die!" Snow White bellowed thunderously and spun around with her long sword far out.
‘-27,080!’
‘-27,000!’
‘-27,160!’
‘-27,160’
‘-19,966!’
‘Ding! You have received 27,080 damage from Snow White {Tornado Cleave} (120 damage reduced)!’
‘Ding! You have received 19,966 damage from Snow White {Tornado Cleave} (6,240 damage reduced)!’
The AoE of the skill was so huge that even Han Ying Xue, who was standing far behind, received the attack! The damage was so great that everyone besides Zhang Yang was instantly killed! None of them even had the split-second window to use their skills such as {Ice Frame} or {Vanish}.
Though Zhang Yang still had over 10,000 HP in his HP gauge, he quickly jumped down and escape more attacks with {Shadow of the Void}.
‘-16,600!’
When Zhang Yang had vanished and cleared his aggro, the only one target left in the battle field was the white bear. A single strike from Snow White was enough to kill the bear, allowing Zhang Yang to safely escape.
Zhang Yang was pissed. He was so ticked off that he resorted to using his trump card. Swiftly, he took out the [Friendship Jade], equipped it, and canceled {Shadow of the Void}.
When his character reappeared, his appearance had undergone a major change. From the rotting flesh, to dangling ribs, his entire appearance was changed into a spectre!
After successfully killing off the players around, Snow White shifted her target to Shaenita. The fight between two NPC boss was on another level. Still, Shaenita was just a Yellow-Gold tier boss. Though she may had the help from her four elite tier maids, Snow White had killed them all by spamming {Tornado Cleave} on and on until Shaenita herself was at the brink of death. Snow White herself had only lost 10% of her HP after the ordeal.
Zhang Yang walked closer to the bosses and lightly pressed the jade in his palm. At the top of his rotten lungs, he cried. "Come to me! Shadow of Smaug!"
Voom!
With a strong blast wave of an unknown force, a shadow emerged out of the [Friendship Jade] and materialized in midair, taking the form of Smaug, The King of the Forgotten One. Though he had a single skeletal wing protruding out from his back, and a fully skeletal body, Smaug was not lacking in his threat value!
[Shadow of Smaug] (Holy, Summon)
Level: ???
HP: ???
Defense: ???
Note: This is but the shadow of Smaug, yet it still possesses tremendous power!
The moment Smaug appeared in the battle field, his dominating presence had even cause Snow White and Shaenita to stop their skirmish for a good second! They lowered their weapons and stared at Smaug, terrified!
Zhang Yang pointed his boney finger to Snow White and commanded. "Kill her!"
"Growl!" Incapable of any form of speech, Smaug growled and brandished its copy of the Blood Shadow Blade and rushed towards his target.
DIIING!
Fearing for her life, Snow White frantically lifted her sword up to parry Smaug’s attack. The strike was so strong that a single metal clashing sound was as loud as a gunshot fired right beside your ears. The strike was not just for show. It had managed to send Snow White flying back a good 10 meters and more, leaving a deep mark on the floor where Snow White had dug her feet in.
‘-200,000!’
It was not a glitch, nor was it a system error. Smaug had indeed dealt 200,000 damage on Snow White with just one parried strike.
"Noob tank! What’s happening?" Just when Han Ying Xue and the girls were running back to the fight as fast as they could, Wei Yan Er sent a message via the party channel.
Zhang Yang laughed. "Just hurry up! You’re missing a good show!"
The shadow of Smaug was relentless. One strike after the other, the shadow did not stop to rest for even a second as he struck at the enemy with all his malice.
Before the appearance of Smaug in the battle field, Snow White had seemed unstoppable. However, right after Smaug was summoned, she was immediately turn from a formidable enemy to a mere punching bag as she continually had her HP chiseled away like nothing. Just so you know, after Violet-Platinum, there would still be the Mythical and Ethereal rank before coming to Holy tier! With a three tier gap between the two of them, it was obvious who was going to perish!
The gang quickly made their way back to Zhang Yang and was instantly shocked at at his appearance. While talking, the girls quickly munch on recovery snacks.
"Woah. Dummy Yu, what had happened to you?"
Zhang Yang scoffed. "If I hadn’t become like this, how do I summon that awesome ultimate weapon!?" Zhang Yang replied Han Ying Xue and also posted the properties of [Friendship Jade] on the party channel.
"Holy-macaroni! That is awesome! Why didn’t you tell me about this awesome thing!" Wei Yan Er puffed angrily. "Hey! There’s only two uses left! Give it to me! I wanna play!"
"Dumb girl. Don’t you see it’s bound to me?"
Wei Yan Er squinted and stuck her tongue out at Zhang Yang. "Noob tank! Call me dumb one more time, and I will cut ties with you!"