The Crimson Eye

The Crimson Eye—Grimagos Challenge Rating: 21 "As you can see, a legendary-tier boss." Singo lowered his voice, speaking in a conspiratorial whisper. "I've been tracking him for a long time. According to Qiuyu's observations, every time this guy relocates, the Weave across the entire forbidden zone shifts in response. He's like the eye of a storm, perpetually sitting at the epicenter of the arcane currents." Xiaye Qiuyu added, "Based on my deduction, he's very likely the one mentioned in the quest—the favored servant of Kazul, the 'Crimson Ember.'" "Looks like this is the real jackpot..." Gangtie Kuangchao's eyes instantly lit up, as if what stood in the distance wasn't a boss, but mountains of gold, priceless enchanted gear, and bloodline potions. Singo shot him a sidelong glance and added, "If the four of us had enough firepower, I would've soloed this boss long ago. You think you'd have gotten a turn?" "Still bickering endlessly over a single kill... Let me tell you, getting an opportunity like this—you should be laughing all the way to the bank." Gangtie Kuangchao chafed at the words, but unwilling to make a scene now, he merely grunted, "Cut the chatter and let's hammer out a battle plan. This is a legendary boss." Mantou's lips twitched slightly, utterly speechless. *The guy went around stealing kills, yet he acts like it's his divine right. Truly, when a person is utterly shameless, they're invincible.* Fortunately, the Dragonscale Marines were mostly core members of the Machine Cult, and Singo's group of four consisted of three and a half top-tier pro gamers—well, Mantou counted as half at best. Their tactical discipline and competence were exceptionally high. Before long, they had formulated a strategy against the half-red dragon sorcerer and made all their preparations. Gangtie Kuangchao grew even more hyped, delivering the classic verdict: "Twenty-five against one—the advantage is entirely ours." *** Lava surged beneath their feet, rumbling deep like the breath of some primeval behemoth. Scorching drafts vented from subterranean fissures, churning up sulfurous fumes and distorting the already dim light deep within the cavern. The air hung suffocatingly thick; every breath felt like swallowing molten grit. *Whoosh—* At the center of this boiling inferno, atop a throne piled high with solidified magma and skeletal remains, a colossal silhouette slowly rose. This was Grimagos, favored of Kazul, the sustainer of catastrophe across this vast territory. Tens of thousands of Seleucians had perished under the flames and magma he had unleashed. Grimagos spread the dragon wings behind his back, his near ten-meter-tall frame brimming with sheer destructive power. His humanoid skeleton had been violently warped and overtaken by draconic features. A thick dragon tail dragged behind him, each flick lashing the sweltering air with a dull, thunderous crack. His monstrous head retained the rough contours of human facial features, yet it was elongated and clad in fine scales. A pair of molten-gold slitted pupils slowly opened, sweeping over the minuscule figures in the distance with contemptuous mockery, like looking down upon ants that had blundered into a furnace. His raspy voice echoed through the lava cavern, sending a chill down everyone's spines. "Pathetic mortals..." "Lord Kazul is about to become a true deity, and I shall ascend alongside Him, becoming a being beyond mortal limits!" "At such a critical juncture, you dare appear before me..." Gangtie Kuangchao's expression flickered. "How did he spot us?" he muttered. "I cast full-set invisibility and breath-concealment spells on everyone..." Singo merely said in a low voice, "Looks like the ambush failed. Prepare for a counterattack! Heavy shield squad, move up and hold the line!" "You seek only death—" Grimagos's enraged roar boomed from hundreds of meters away. Energy gathered long in advance compressed and ignited within his chest before erupting from his gaping maw as a blinding, apocalyptic torrent. Seven Dragonscale Marines bearing combat shields stepped to the forefront. Fitted with compact defensive field generators, their shields projected an energy barrier across the surface to withstand incoming attacks. "Hold the line!" Dragonscale Marine Eamon's shout was swallowed by the roar of flames. The massive shield he hoisted blazed with holy light runes, locking with the shields of the warriors flanking him to form an impenetrable bulwark. These heavy-armored Dragonscale Marines had not only undergone bio-augmentation; most were also high-level paladins possessing various oath spells and sacred auras, making them exceptionally durable tanks. Behind them, Xiaye Qiuyu waved her slender hands, layering several protective spells upon them. Yet Grimagos's breath weapon was far more terrifying than they had imagined. As the crimson torrent crashed over them, the energy fields and warding shields shattered silently like fragile glass, wiped out of existence. The Dragonscale Marines felt an irresistible force capable of melting through mountains slam into their heavy shields. Forged from superalloys and reinforced with enchantments, the heavy shields emitted a dull hum and glowed red-hot. The imperial insignia on their faces melted away, and metal dripped from the edges like wax, sizzling violently against the scorching ground. Behind his shield, Eamon was shoved backward by the sheer momentum of the dragon breath, his heavy combat boots carving deep furrows into the hard bedrock. The gauntlet on his left arm gripping the shield turned glowing red; the stench of scorched flesh filled his nostrils, and the agony radiating through his arm forced him to grit his teeth. To ensure sharper sensory awareness and quicker reflexes, most of these pro gamers kept their pain synchronization above seventy percent. "Don't give him an opening to keep channeling! Suppress him with ranged fire!" Gangtie Kuangchao barked. Instantly, elemental tracer arrows, shrieking magic missiles, and air-ripping bullets wove into a dense net, hurtling toward Grimagos's colossal frame like a raging tempest. *Clang, clang!* Most attacks struck the thick, dark-red scales covering his body, doing nothing more than kicking up negligible sparks and faint white scuffs, like raindrops pelting granite. A few tricky arrows and arcane bolts sought out the seams between his scales, only to be deflected and dispersed by a shimmering, heat-distorting aura. Grimagos didn't even budge. His molten-gold slitted pupils swept over the futile attackers, and a low, sulfurous sneer rose from the depths of his throat. "Such feeble strikes..." Yet right at that moment, an arrow abruptly detonated, shrouding the half-dragon sorcerer in thick smoke. The preceding barrage had only been a distraction to make Grimagos lower his guard. The Dragonscale Marines loaded runed dragonslayer rounds and fired in unison, aiming directly at the sorcerer's head, heart, and other vitals. *Bang!* *Bang! Bang!* Gunfire roared as countless rounds ripped through the air, actually piercing the thermal aura and shattering Grimagos's scales, blowing bloody holes of varying sizes into his flesh. Grimagos's visage twisted with fury. He threw his head back and roared, his entire body trembling violently from utter rage. "Vile mortals! You court death!" From the churning smoke, a massive dragon claw clad in dark-red scales suddenly lifted and clenched hard against empty air. It was not physical might, but space itself groaning under the warping pressure of his will. The violent fire elemental energy in the cavern was instantly siphoned dry, condensing and swirling into a collapse before erupting right before him! Six blinding-white, raging humanoid silhouettes forged of pure destructive flame leapt out of the fissures with deafening roars. They had no faces, only constantly churning, detonating cores of flame. Wherever they stepped, the rock sizzled and melted into glowing red footprints. These condensed fire elemental entities bellowed in a frenzy. The moment they manifested, they charged in different directions with incinerating fury—aiming straight for the vulnerable spellcasters and ranged fighters in the backline! "Protect the backline!" Eamon roared through the bone-searing agony in his left arm. But another rampaging fire spirit had already barreled through the frontliners with a blistering wave of heat, lunging straight for Xiaye Qiuyu as she channeled a powerful spell. Xiaye Qiuyu was forced to interrupt her casting, blinking clumsily toward the flank. A scorching jet of flame brushed past her robes, charring and shriveling the fabric in an instant. Though she also possessed a red dragon bloodline, the fire elementals Grimagos conjured harbored a trace of Kazul's divine power imbued with the essence of destruction, making them difficult for her to repel. Chaos! Deadly chaos spread through the player lines like wildfire. Their well-organized formation was thoroughly torn apart by the six raging fire elementals. Shouts of anger, cries of pain, the sickening sizzle of flesh searing against flame, and the booming clashes of weapons striking fiery bodies merged into pandemonium. Eamon strained to parry the fire elemental's massive fist. Each clash of holy light and flame left his arms numb, the smell of scorched armor and flesh seeping continuously through the cracks in his plate. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced toward the throne, and his heart sank. "Watch out! He's coming!" Grimagos made his move. His colossal frame moved with a chilling agility that defied his size. His powerful draconic hind legs unleashed monstrous force, propelling him forward like a battering ram aimed straight for the center of the formation! His massive membranous wings, plated with dark-red scales, snapped wide—not to fly, but to unleash a sonic crack and a wave of blistering heat as they slammed down viciously upon the players clustered in the center! In an instant, the two foremost Dragonscale Marines were caught off guard and driven into the dirt by the overwhelming impact, their shields crushed into scrap metal. "Now!" Burning his life force, Eamon erupted in a blaze of light, unleashing an all-binding holy barrier while roaring for everyone to focus fire. Xiaye Qiuyu's eyes blazed with intense light. Space abruptly locked in place as an eerie, violet-crimson force field clamped down on Grimagos's space, freezing him where he stood. "It's time!" Singo looked equally thrilled. He let a drop of scalding dragon blood fall onto a crimson dragon scale, and the ground suddenly illuminated with countless intricate, rugged runes—a massive dragon-trapping array had been concealed here, carrying a binding effect against all draconic beings. Having exhausted their repertoire, the players had finally pinned Grimagos midair, freezing him in his monstrous pose with wings mid-sweep, unable to budge. "Focus fire!" "Nuke him down!" The Dragonscale Marines had long readied their most terrifying, devastating heavy weaponry—Laser Destroyers, Havoc Launchers, Hunter-Killer Missiles, and meltaguns... Beams of diverse light crisscrossed, and missiles hammered down like rain. The explosions engulfed Grimagos in brilliant fire, and the annihilating shockwave nearly blew away everyone nearby. The entire cavern shook violently, ringing with tremors as countless rocks rained down from the ceiling. Had any ordinary creature endured focused fire from weapons of this caliber, they would have been reduced to ash. Yet amidst the fire and smoke, that monstrous silhouette remained fixed in his original posture, completely motionless. "He's not dead yet!" "All out! Spare no expense!" In an instant, the pro gamers unleashed everything they had, charging toward Grimagos with reckless abandon. "Today is the day you die!" Tiansheng Zhankuang's eyes turned crimson. With a furious bellow, he activated his infernal pact, unfurling broad, leathery bat-wings as he assumed the form of a pit fiend. Swinging a blazing hellfire broadsword, he slashed toward Grimagos's head. Futejia Hepan burned the blood within his veins, kicking off the ground and leaping twenty meters into the air. Descending from above, his power spear radiated a ruinous energy field as it plunged toward Grimagos's chest like a bolt of lightning piercing the heavens. Steam hissed from Gangtie Kuangchao's body, a murderous glint in his eyes. Revving his chainsword at high speed, ripping through the air, he sheared toward Grimagos's most vulnerable spot—his neck. Flames surged within Xiaye Qiuyu's golden eyes. Clasping her hands together, a torrent of energy channeled through her fair, slender arms to her fingertips, condensing into a searing white pillar of fire that incinerated all in its path, slamming toward Grimagos's chest with an ear-splitting detonation. Singo drew his Starfall Longbow to full tension. Shrouded in an array of buffs and augmentations, he took aim for merely a heartbeat before calmly releasing the bowstring. The hefty dragonslayer arrow streaked like a meteor trailing dazzling starlight and thunder, ripping through the air straight toward the center of Grimagos's brow. *Boom!* *Screeech—* The blazing blade shattered scales; the sharp spear pierced flesh; the roaring chainsword severed skin; the searing pillar of fire blasted through the chest; the whistling arrow punched through the skull. Facing an assault of such ferocity, even a mighty true dragon would tumble from the skies. Under the combined assault of several top-tier pro gamers, Grimagos seemed utterly doomed, stripped of any chance of survival. Yet in that very breath, Grimagos's eyes underwent an abrupt change. Not just his pupils, but his entire eyeballs flushed blood-crimson, emitting an eerie, sinister radiance that bathed the whole cavern in red. *Crack—* The spatial lock shattered instantly, and the ethereal chains binding him snapped under sheer brute force. Under their horrified gazes, the enraged Grimagos broke free. Unfurling his wings with a violent snap, a blood-red storm expanded outward with him at its center, instantly hurling Tiansheng Zhankuang, Futejia Hepan, Gangtie Kuangchao, and the other melee players into the air. "The boss is entering phase two!" someone cried out at the top of their lungs.