great-warnovel Chapter 74 This is due to the excessively high drop rate.
Chapter 74 This is due to the excessively high drop rate.
After defeating the first clone, the team felt much less pressure. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and readjusted their positions.
"Keep pressuring their health down," Lu Yan said rapidly in the tactics channel. "Don't be greedy for damage, maintain a steady pace. Su Yunqing, watch your mana."
"Received." Su Yunqing gripped the Gift of Yaoguang tightly, staring at the health bars of the entire team.
Zhao Lei slammed the two shields into the ground. The Earth Pulse Set glowed, and a wall of earth rose from the ground, blocking all the acid spewed out by Hydra. The acid corroded the energy wall, emitting a piercing hissing sound.
Xiao Qianyu and Shen Xinglin circled around to the flank. The Crimson Lotus Goddess Spear and the Thousand Transformations Cavalry Spear alternated in thrusts. They fought with great restraint, layering the Withered Marks on top of each other, taking advantage of the Vulnerability effect to keep the damage within an extremely stable range.
The progress bar smoothly declined, passing the 80% mark.
The Hydra's main torso convulsed violently. The second head snapped off. This head didn't smash into the crowd, but fell straight down to the center of the platform.
Landing, transformation.
[Corrosive venomous snake].
There was no roar, no lunging or biting. This thing didn't even maintain a physical form. The moment it touched the stone bricks, it disintegrated into a thick, dark green mist.
It spread extremely quickly. In three seconds, the entire temple's platform was covered in this greenish substance. Visibility dropped to a minimum; you couldn't even see your teammates' faces.
All terminal panels turned red.
[Abnormal Status: Highly Toxic Corrosion]
[Effect: Deducts 3% of current health per second until the poison source is destroyed]
Lei Zhan glanced at the status bar and cursed.
At the center of the toxic fog floated a fist-sized, green, pulsating sphere. It was surrounded by a dense layer of toxic gas several meters thick, resembling a beating heart.
Su Yunqing gritted her teeth in desperation. No matter how thick the shield from Yao Guang's Gift was, it couldn't withstand this true damage mechanism. The health bars of all thirty members of the team plummeted simultaneously. She had no choice but to abandon the shield and frantically cast group heals.
Blue energy is being depleted rapidly.
"I'll go to the center and take it down!" Xiao Qianyu charged into the poison circle with her gun.
She entered for only two seconds before exiting. Her health bar was down to 40%.
"No, the closer we get to the core, the faster the corrosion builds up. We simply can't withstand it." She shook off the green liquid clinging to the tip of the gun, her breathing slightly erratic.
Lu Yan didn't move. He stared at the green mist, his eyes reflecting the swirling trail of poisonous gas.
Initially, everyone assumed the toxic fog was spreading evenly outwards. However, Lu Yan's further analysis revealed a flaw in its diffusion logic.
Any sustained, large-area-of-effect (AOE) skill needs an energy circulation hub. That green orb is that hub.
Energy output cannot remain at its peak indefinitely; there will inevitably be a period of decline.
This confirms that the toxic fog has a rhythm: it spreads for three seconds and then recedes for one second.
In that split second of retraction, the concentration of toxic gas around the core was extremely low, as thin as a cicada's wing.
This is the system's weakness, and also the only window of opportunity.
"Wen Yue, set up the crossbow." Lu Yan gave the order in the channel, his tone calm. "Watch my hand gestures. Expand for three seconds, contract for one second. When contracting, use a basic attack to hit the core."
Wen Yue set up the World-Destroying Thunder Crossbow and aimed at the faintly visible green ball deep within the poisonous gas.
"Don't you need any skills?" Wen Yue asked.
"The skill animation is too long, you can't time it in that one second gap," Lu Yan explained crisply. "Basic attacks need to be fast."
"clear."
"Three, two, one, release."
The bowstring vibrated.
The crossbow bolt pierced through the extremely thin layer of poison gas and struck the pulsating sphere squarely.
A crack appeared on the surface of the green ball.
"Continue, two more rounds." Lu Yan's voice drowned out the noise on the field.
Wen Yue seized that one-second window of opportunity and fired three consecutive blind shots.
The third arrow struck, and the pulsating sphere shattered into dust.
The poisonous fog has completely dissipated.
Su Yunqing plopped down on the ground, six empty blue medicine bottles lying around her. She rubbed her aching wrists, too exhausted to even complain.
Lu Yan walked over and kicked away the shattered sphere fragments.
A palm-sized fragment lay on the ground. It was neither gold nor bone, with spiral patterns, and its quality was marked "Unknown".
The second piece.
He casually stuffed it into his storage space.
"Don't rest, keep attacking the main body." Lu Yan tapped the terminal screen.
Lei Zhan wiped the sweat from his face, picked up his knife, and charged forward again.
Hydra's health was being steadily reduced by the Wither Mark, approaching the 70% threshold.
The third snake head broke off.
The thing that fell this time didn't even have the shape of a living organism.
A lump of black iron.
Countless black iron chains were intertwined and twisted into a ball, suspended in mid-air.
【Abyss Chains】.
The moment the metal lump hit the ground, dense black shadows darted out from the cracks in the floor tiles.
Thirty people, without even time to react, had their wrists, ankles, and waists tightly bound by iron chains.
Physics engine determination: Absolute confinement.
I can't move.
They couldn't even turn around; everyone was frozen in place.
A black vortex cracked open at the bottom of the iron lump, and countdown numbers jumped before everyone's eyes.
[Abyss Judgment Countdown: 15 seconds]
The chains began to pull back. The thirty men were like fish in a trawling net, slowly sliding towards the whirlpool.
"What kind of hellish mechanism is this!" Zhao Leiguang roared, his arm muscles bulging as he tried to break the chains with brute force.
He uprooted two stone bricks from the ground, but didn't even leave a white mark on the iron chain.
Lei Zhan was sweating profusely with anxiety, his sword locked at his waist, making it impossible to pull out.
"All the crowd control removal skills are off!" shouted a member of the seventh squad.
"Me too! My inventory is grayed out!"
Absolute judgment. Once pulled into the vortex, it's instant death.
10 seconds.
8 seconds.
We are getting closer and closer to the vortex.
Lu Yan tried to move a finger. No, his entire body was locked.
His mind raced, searching for a way out.
Physical attacks are ineffective; skills are sealed.
The turning point came from somewhere no one expected.
Lin Chuxue stood at the edge of the line, also bound like a rice dumpling.
However, large snowflakes were falling above her head.
【snowstorm】.
This was a skill she casually threw out before engaging the enemy. The "one blood, ten thousand shields" mechanic allowed her to use skills without any hesitation. Blizzard lasts 60 seconds, dealing negligible damage, but its high frequency makes it worthwhile.
She didn't need to raise her hand or chant any spells; the skill's effect had already been triggered.
Dense ice flakes, mixed with the cold wind, pelted down on the suspended iron lump.
One, two, three hundred.
The metal lump's outer shell couldn't withstand such high-frequency impacts, and a crack appeared on its surface.
The crack expanded rapidly.
The chains loosened.
Xiao Qianyu reacted extremely quickly, using her right hand to break free of her restraints. The Crimson Lotus Goddess Spear swept across, severing the iron chains binding Lei Zhan.
A chain reaction occurred.
Thirty people broke free one after another, and the group, seething with anger, pounced on the broken iron lump and dismantled it into parts.
The vortex disappeared.
Su Yunqing lay completely flat; she didn't even have the strength to lift her staff.
Lu Yan walked to the middle of a pile of scrap metal, bent down and picked up the third fragment.
Same material, same spiral pattern.
Three heads, three pieces.
He pieced the three fragments together perfectly.
At first, he thought it was just a coincidence. But further analysis revealed that things were not so simple.
Legendary bosses drop unknown items with an extremely low probability. The consecutive drop of three fragments of the same material is no coincidence.
Is it due to an excessively high drop rate?
The aura forcibly upgraded the quality of the dropped items. Each of Hydra's clones, which originally only dropped some ordinary legendary materials, was forcibly upgraded into these "unknown" fragments under the aura's blessing.
If all nine heads are destroyed and the nine fragments are collected, what will be pieced together?
Top-quality clues?