BXBX NOVEL Chapter 190: The Strange and Terrifying BOSS
"Will the boss emerge from that black hole?" someone murmured.
"Everyone, prepare for battle!"
"Follow my command!"
"I\'ve led several large-scale boss raids before. My main class is Radiant Hero."
"My profession is of S-rank, with extremely strong defensive and damage reduction capabilities. Priests, prioritize healing me!"
Quickly, a handsome young man in blue full-body armor took the lead, charging to the front of the formation. With practiced ease, he downed several potions, preemptively storing life force.
In short, he was professional!
Other players, however, sneered.
"What\'s so great about an S-rank profession?"
"Command authority? Why should we follow your lead?"
"Damn it! He beat us to it!"
These proud and talented individuals were not pleased with this setup.
But despite their dissatisfaction, they knew the boss was about to appear, and according to the intel, this extreme trial was highly difficult—the boss was expected to be very strong!
It was not the time for reckless fighting or vying for command.
So, they cursed under their breath but moved swiftly and efficiently.
Other melee professionals moved to the front, and within seconds, the fifty-plus players formed their lineup.
The formation was arranged in order of tanks, warriors, assassins, mages, and priests, with those further back being farther from the boss.
Sterl, after some thought, unhesitatingly joined the mage team.
At the same time, he looked at this orderly scene with some confusion—
He knew that fighting a boss required a high level of player coordination and skill. Many teams that got wiped out by bosses did so not because they couldn\'t handle the boss itself, but because of a weak link within the team.
But here, the genius players were all highly skilled. In a boss fight, they could definitely compensate for any massive attribute disadvantages, leaving no weak links.
So, how strong must the upcoming boss be, for a team like this to struggle against it?
Sterl didn\'t wonder for long.
Soon, to everyone\'s surprise, no boss emerged from the black hole.
Instead, the black hole itself kept expanding, eventually transforming into several seemingly pitch-black spheres with shimmering, multicolored patterns.
A medium-sized sphere formed the head, the giant black hole body became the torso, and several smaller black hole spheres connected to form the limbs.
As soon as this monster appeared, the black holes making up its body began to rapidly devour everything around them.
The once clear skies, sunny weather, and beautiful island scenery were now in ruins!
Trees, vegetation, rocks, animals, and even the clouds on the horizon were sucked into the black holes, twisted and consumed! Though it looked terrifying, the genius players remained unfazed, having seen many grand scenes before.
Meanwhile, Sterl habitually activated his Star Insight.
He could only see question marks on the boss\'s attribute panel, with just one name displayed: [Devourer of All Things (Simulacrum)].
The attribute gap was too vast to detect anything!
"This BOSS is at least Legendary tier," Sterl thought cautiously, standing within the group.
The players present didn\'t rush to attack. Instead, they wanted to observe the BOSS\'s behavior and moves first, to better prepare for the fight. After all, the BOSS\'s damage output was likely to be high, and any careless action could lead to death.
The situation was a short stalemate for a few seconds. The BOSS itself didn\'t show much aggression. Upon noticing the players, it slowly approached. Everything around it was devoured, leaving behind barren ground and void.
As a side note, after the black hole had absorbed most of the island\'s surface, a faint shield effect appeared on the remaining bedrock. This shield was similar to the transparent barrier that had previously protected Sterl from Willis\'s attack.
It seemed the Hall of Valor had limited the passive absorption ability of this black hole-like BOSS to prevent the entire island from being devoured, leaving the players without a foothold.
The giant black hole entity moved slowly, emitting a resonant sound as it progressed.
Meanwhile, the players were not idle. Various buff effects shimmered, raising their combat power to a higher level.
The BOSS drew near, and the front-line warriors and tanks were being pulled towards it due to its immense strength.
Finally, someone took action. The Radiant Hero who had claimed command stepped forward, and a blazing golden light ignited on his sword.
In an instant, a light blade several dozen meters long was slashed out.
Sterl, standing behind, recognized this as a golden skill with 8 legend points invested.
However, when the light blade struck the BOSS, it was completely devoured instantly! All the players, though unable to detect the Devourer of All Things\' specific attributes, could feel its life force remained undiminished.
Clearly, this formidable golden skill had no effect!
"This hard to beat?"
"Interesting."
"Everyone, test it with various elemental skills."
...
Sterl was quite surprised. If it were his usual group of players, facing such a tough BOSS, their morale would have plummeted.
But this group of geniuses remained eager for battle, until—
Boom!
With a single punch, the Devourer of All Things shattered and absorbed a dozen tank warriors standing at the front.
Except for a few who used teleportation skills to retreat to the backlines, the rest, whether they unleashed ultimate moves or erected protective barriers, met the same fate—utterly shredded by the "black hole."
The difference in strength among these players only determined how many seconds they lasted before being torn apart.
Immediately, the entire crowd fell silent!
Crushed!
Utterly and effortlessly crushed!
In just a moment, a dozen players, each a peerless genius in their own right, were obliterated with ease!
The devastation was complete!
At that moment, even the most confident geniuses turned pale and showed signs of panic.
But at this moment, the formation surprisingly held firm. The mages and priests in the rear cast various elemental and purification spells, attempting to see if they could damage the boss.
The result, however, was still extremely frustrating!
The players discovered a method to harm the boss. As countless skill effects exploded, the multicolored glow covering the black holes that composed the boss\'s body gradually weakened.
Everyone, seasoned monster hunters, understood that once the multicolored glow was completely shattered, they might be able to truly damage the boss.
Unfortunately, out of the original 50 players—oh, now only 30-something remained—the combined effort only managed to reduce the multicolored glow by about two-thirds, still far from complete destruction.
As a result, all their skills were once again devoured by the Devourer of All Things.
Some even felt that after consuming so many skills at once, the boss\'s aura seemed to grow slightly stronger.
"Roar!!!"
The Devourer of All Things let out a roar. The barrage of attacks seemed to have activated it, transforming its movements from slow to extremely agile and sweeping.
The boss charged madly at the players! It didn\'t use any fancy moves, just its own body to crash into everything!
The problem was, anything that came into contact with the black hole was instantly disintegrated!
They couldn\'t fight it at all!
Formation coordination? Burst skills? Ultimate moves? All were meaningless.
Thus, no matter how peerlessly talented the players were, they could only crumble at a touch!
One by one, they looked horrified: "How is this possible? Who can defeat such a boss?"
"How can we win? Is there a special mechanic?"
"The problem is, we get killed as soon as we make contact. Even if there is a mechanic, we can\'t figure it out!"
"It\'s over! The more the Devourer of All Things devours skills and life, the stronger it seems to get!"
"Stay away!!"
...
The players couldn\'t help but scream and wail. Forget about their proud genius personas. Now they just wished they had more legs to run faster.
However, the horror didn\'t end there...
Initially, the players thought the Devourer of All Things had no special abilities, but after absorbing a substantial amount of energy, this black hole-formed boss unleashed an extremely eerie shockwave.
Many players who had been preparing to flee had to stop and quickly activate their protective skills.
However, what struck them as extremely bizarre was that the shockwave did not break anyone\'s protective abilities. It merely pushed the players a short distance away.
Soon, everyone\'s faces turned extremely pale as the same notification appeared before their eyes.
[You are affected by Preying on Light Waves. All your teleportation skills are now unusable. All your healing skills are now unusable. All your protective skills are now unusable. Your movement speed is reduced by 30%.]
[Duration: 180 seconds.]
In that instant, the geniuses\' morale utterly collapsed!
What kind of boss is this? It even strips away the chance to escape.
Who was the idiot that said the Hall of Valor\'s trials force players to break through in combat to succeed? The problem is, it wipes us out right away!
There\'s no chance for any breakthroughs!
Some frantically checked their panels, hoping for some additional help or hints from the Hall of Valor, as the current situation seemed unplayable!
But ultimately, they found nothing...
No, not exactly nothing—there was still one sentence—
[The true test of a hero is not in their strength, but in their perseverance.]
A cryptic message, barely a consolation, hung on their screens. The players were left with the daunting realization that they were on their own, facing a seemingly invincible foe.