Chapter 193: The Radiant Dragon
“All teams, attention! Charge!”
Since they were already here, they definitely had to fight the BOSS.
Each team activated their flight packs and entered the central dome from various channels at different heights, totaling 40 people.
As for why it was exactly 40 people, one could only say it was a mysterious number.
The giant dragon was immediately awakened, and the dozens of pairs of elytra on its back emitted a brilliant light, filling the entire dome with a lethal dose of radiation.
Due to strong radiation interference, all advanced sensors became unusable.
In the first second of the battle, the final BOSS displayed a difficulty level completely different from that of minor bosses like the Whip Wielders or the Lurkers!
Now, this colossal beast was officially named the “Radiant Dragon.” Facing the team of terrifying upright apes that had come to hunt it, heat and intense light gathered in its mouth.
Black Smoke, who was in charge of commanding, felt his heart tighten.
“It’s definitely going to use a breath attack. As expected of a dragon, a big move right from the start!”
“Everyone spread out evenly! Don’t let it—”
Mid-sentence, Black Smoke saw a large amount of static electricity and arcs suddenly released from the dragon’s array of elytra. Immediately after, a bright blue light circle expanded.
Whoosh!
Team radio communication was cut off, and Lu Yuan’s real-time team footage on his pad, hundreds of meters away, also cut out.
EMP!
A skill similar to those of the Pacific Rim monsters, specifically designed to counter high technology!
“The BOSS released an electromagnetic pulse! We can only shout to communicate now!”
Black Smoke quickly turned his external speaker to maximum.
“Quick, dodge!”
The next second, the golden flames spewed by the giant dragon streaked across their vision, rising from bottom to top, then sweeping horizontally in mid-air, covering one-third of the battle arena.
Its brightness far exceeded that of the sun. If not for the power armor helmets’ automatic dimming function, everyone who looked directly at it would have been instantly blinded.
The players who entered were all elites. Even with communication obstructed and shouting to each other unclear, they still successfully scattered.
They flew to dodge the dragon flames, with only 5 unfortunates being licked by the tongues of fire.
If the flames spewed by the Radiant Dragon were just ordinary fire, those five people would have been unharmed.
Because the porcelain-gold armor was heat-resistant.
However, after the glow of the flames receded, their power armor was all melted by the high temperature, their flight packs failed, and they plummeted from the sky. This indicated that the BOSS was not spewing ordinary flames! To melt porcelain-gold armor, the temperature needed to exceed at least 5000 degrees!
“It’s plasma! It’s nuclear flame, it can instantly kill people!”
At this point, the fact that the Radiant Dragon had a biological reactor inside was finally confirmed.
“Damn it! Fly towards its rear, make sure to avoid its head! The first three teams land, everyone don’t crowd the sky, move, move!”
Black Smoke commanded passionately, and 15 players immediately responded, shutting off their engines and landing on the ground.
What awaited them was the giant dragon’s melee attack; sharp dragon claws, accompanied by a strong gust of wind, came rushing at them.
The players dodged sideways, or jumped up, barely avoiding this fatal blow, when the thick dragon tail swept over with even greater speed.
Three people were unable to dodge in time and were unfortunately hit directly.
Under the immense force of the dragon’s tail, their bodies could not withstand the tremendous overload from the impact, tearing directly at the seams of their power armor’s shoulders and hips, flying hundreds of meters and hitting the inner wall of the dome, limbs and torsos alike.
What terrifying melee attack power!
With the enhancement of the biological reactor, the strength the Radiant Dragon’s muscles could generate far exceeded that of ordinary creatures, even far surpassing athletic individuals like the Whip Wielders.
Moreover, this creature clearly had high combat intelligence; that previous claw attack was just a feint, and the more powerful tail whip was the true killing blow!
The combination of claw attacks, bites, and the tail meant that the Radiant Dragon’s melee attacks had almost no blind spots and a very large range.
Despair immediately rose in the hearts of the players who had landed. If they didn’t know they could revive, they would probably be fleeing desperately right now.
They desperately moved around and dodged, seizing every opportunity to aim at the giant dragon’s body high above, firing a shot into the only hopeful weak spot between its scales.
The damage caused by these few shots was truly mediocre, but it created space for the other 20 players flying in the air.
At least, the Radiant Dragon, due to being distracted, stopped spewing its nuclear-powered dragon flames.
“Good job! We—”
Beep beep beep!
Before Black Smoke could even be happy, his power armor suddenly issued an alarm.
“Gravity detected to be rapidly decreasing.”
“Presumed to have entered a zero element field. Cause of field generation: unknown.”
The power armor, which originally weighed several hundred kilograms, plus weapons, equipment, and a human body, now weighed less than 10 kilograms.
The Radiant Dragon used a new skill, a biological zero element field! It reduced the mass of objects within a large surrounding area!
“This… this is just a carbon-based biological battleship, isn’t it…?”
Black Smoke’s mind went blank.
“How many skill modules does it even have? Designer, have you even fought this BOSS yourself!?”
He couldn’t guess what would happen next, only seeing the Radiant Dragon’s array of elytra emit an even more dazzling light than before. Although they weren’t flapping up and down, they allowed this giant beast to elegantly float into the air.
Anti-gravity flight?
No… those elytra, could they all be biological Hall effect thrusters? That’s too powerful!
What Gundam light wings!? They’ve already broken free from aerodynamic limitations, so couldn’t it just fly straight into space?
The floating giant dragon’s tail rose high, and thousands of bone spikes densely emerged from beneath its skin. Blue electrical light also permeated from deep within its muscles.
It was like a giant, bizarre glowing cactus!
“Warning: Super strong electric field detected.”
“Oh no, this is… a biological railgun!?”
And it was a dense volley!
Bang bang bang!
The dragon’s tail emitted a violent electric light, simultaneously using biological electromagnetic acceleration to eject all of its bone spikes.
The sonic booms produced by these projectiles breaking the sound barrier crackled loudly. Because the mass of the bone spike “warheads” was reduced by the zero element field, they gained a greater initial velocity after accelerating inside the dragon’s tail.
Although the total kinetic energy of the bone spikes’ damage remained unchanged, still not exceeding the electrical energy supplied by the Radiant Dragon, the faster absolute speed optimized their trajectory performance, thereby enhancing the bone spikes’ accuracy, making them harder for players to dodge, and also producing a better armor penetration effect.
After a volley, the inner wall of the great dome had thousands of “bullet holes,” 9 people fell from the sky, and there were also 6 more bodies on the ground, each penetrated by at least one bone spike.
By this point, Black Smoke’s 40-person team panel now showed 23 people blacked out.
In a short period, over half the team had been wiped out.
As for the BOSS, if it had a health bar, it probably only lost 2% to 3% of its health, almost unscathed.
“Black Smoke! We can’t hold on, should we just wipe quickly?”
“No! We can’t give up yet!”
Black Smoke observed his surroundings.
“The remaining people, according to your respective teams, retreat to the entrance channels we came through, and keep recording the battle!”
“And then?”
“Only evacuate when there are only 5 people left! Try to bring back as much footage as possible. We can’t come here for nothing; we need to provide meaningful references for teams that challenge it later!”
“What if the BOSS breaks through the dome structure and chases us out then?”
“We’ll do our best! And leave the rest to fate!”
“Alright, understood.”
Five minutes later, three survivors, like terrified foxes, escaped the dome and met up with the remaining main force of over 100 people who hadn’t entered the battle.
“Where’s Black Smoke? Didn’t he come out?”
The player who had escaped shook his head and transmitted the battle footage to the others.
After watching the footage, everyone’s brows furrowed.
This BOSS was too strong; it wasn’t on the same level as any previous opponent!
To be honest, Lu Yuan had foreseen that this battle might result in a team wipe, so he didn’t let everyone go in together, nor did he lead the charge himself.
Its massive size was one thing, but its skill set was terrifyingly complete.
Black Smoke’s complaint during the battle was spot on; the Radiant Dragon completely broke the stereotype that carbon-based life forms are inherently fragile against thermal weapons. It was practically a carbon-based war machine.
“...Alright, that’s enough for today’s attempt,” Lu Yuan said to the group.
“Clearly, to defeat the Radiant Dragon, we must discuss more effective tactics. Based on this, I don’t consider today’s attempt a failure. The 40-person team, through their efforts, collected valuable video data. Such data collection will likely need to happen several more times in the future.”
Everyone, being gamers, understood what this meant and nodded in agreement.
It meant they needed to try more, and wipe the team a few more times.
This was the most hardcore and standard dungeon progression process; experience could only be accumulated through death, until they understood all of the BOSS’s moves, all of its attack patterns, and its unique personality and quirks.
There were no shortcuts!
Lu Yuan could have let the remaining 100-plus people swarm in now, but considering that all of the Radiant Dragon’s skills were area-of-effect damage, simply throwing bodies at it was not advisable.
It would probably just let the BOSS have a blast killing them, making it instantly surrender in delight.
Upon returning to Emerald Outpost, Lu Yuan immediately called together a dozen elite players and went into the temporarily set up command tent to discuss countermeasures.
Everyone unanimously agreed that the power armor and weapons of the Defeat members must be significantly improved, and even skill points might need to be reset and reallocated.
“Executive Officer!”
A young player ran into the temporary command post, interrupting the heated discussion.
“Ms. Sasha from the Outpost is looking for you. She said she needs to speak with you privately.”