Da Fei led the Angel Army like a meteor across the Despair Plain, the struggling giant figure of the Thunder Angel appearing before him. Behind the Thunder Angel, a Nightmare pursued relentlessly like a dazzling fireball!
They finally arrived just in time!
Seeing Da Feiās army arrive, the Thunder Angel suddenly sped up as if burning its last energy, tears of excitement streaming down its face, "Itās been ten thousand years, and Iāve finally seen my companions!"
At that moment, the Nightmareās wild laugh resounded through the heavens and earth, "Ten thousand years, and I finally see the birdmen sticking their heads out of their shells! None of you will return alive!"
Da Feiās heart tightened. Could this lone BOSS really be this confident?
Ror shouted, "Warriors, prepare for battle!"
In an instant, the brilliance of various healing skills, fortification skills, strength skills, blue refill techniques, and stamina recovery spells enveloped the entire group, including the Thunder Angel who had come to join them. As the golden light of the spells fell upon the Thunder Angel, it let out a scream of agony, "Pain!"
Why would it hurt?
The Nightmare immediately laughed maniacally and provided the answer, "His body has been corrupted and is no longer your companion!"
The Thunder Angel said in a deep voice, "My faith will not change!"
The Nightmare laughed loudly, "Then let your faith find doom in the nightmare!" With that, its whole body flashed with fire, turning the entire world a fiery red in an instant!
āSystem Prompt: The Nightmare has activated the Nightmare Space skill. Scene loading, please prepare to respond!
Da Feiās brow jumped in shock. Damn, itās the first time heās seen the system specially load a map for a monsterās ultimate move. This Nightmare truly deserved the treatment of a Divine Beast level?
After a moment of waiting, the scene finally changed, and Da Fei, the Thunder Angel, Ror, and the other angels appeared in a scorching fiery red space.
Ror immediately reminded, "Warrior, be careful. This is the Nightmare Space! Everything you encounter here is real!"
Da Fei hurriedly looked around, only to find himself above an endless Lava Sea, with numerous giant poker cards floating in the sky, each with a human face and limbs, armed with weapons. There were also giant chess pieces with human faces, ferocious toy bears, toy rabbits, even books with fangs opening and closing!
This place was a toy loft floating above a sea of fire, and it had a certain feeling of "Alice in Wonderland"! But the key was, where would he set foot? Surely he couldnāt just keep floating in the air?
At that moment, the Nightmareās laugh resounded through the space, "Mortal, your battle of dodging hundreds of pursuers was impressive, so Iāve prepared an equally splendid battlefield for you. Also, I invite you to play cards and chess. May you have fun, hahaha..."
As the Nightmareās laughter filled the air, those floating poker cards, chess pieces, and toys turned hostile and began closing in on Da Feiās army.
Da Fei frowned. With the speed of these monsters plus Little Feiās Petrification Aura, they obviously couldnāt catch his angel army. The problem was his army would eventually tire out, and then where would he land, only to fall into a fiery sea and become angel stew? This meant that he had to find the key to breaking this situation before his army exhausted its stamina!
Da Fei confirmed again, "Miss Ror, are you sure these monsters are real and not illusions?"
Ror said in a deep voice, "Yes, theyāre real. Battle is inevitable. We need to find where the Nightmareās true body is hiding during combat."
Where the true body was hiding? That was like finding a needle in a haystack! Looking at the vast numbers of poker cards flying in the sky, Da Fei suddenly lost confidence in his God-level Reconnaissance Technique. In fact, during the competition, his God-level Reconnaissance Technique hadnāt even spotted the sandworms in camouflage!
Just then, the Thunder Angel spoke, "The Nightmare loves to invade childrenās dreams to collect Nightmare Force, and then it uses that force to materialize such a real space. In some ways, the Nightmare Space is almost a Divine Domain, but in a Divine Domain, a god is the sole master of the rules. In the Nightmare Space though, the rules affect both sides. So, warrior, if we find the rules of this space, we can defeat the Nightmare without having to locate its hiding true body."
Ror exclaimed in surprise, "Is there really such a method? Then what are the rules of the Nightmare Space?"
Da Fei quickly asked, "Same question!"
The Thunder Angel smiled, "The root of nightmares often lies in the fear that parents forcibly instill in children. For example, if you throw your toys around and donāt clean your room, then the monsters will come out at night. So the scene before us is actually the childrenās nightmare. We might as well help the children clean up their room, perhaps by starting to collect a full set of poker cards?"
Collecting poker cards? So thatās the principle, just like dispelling the Resentful Spiritās obsession! No wonder he was an Ancient Angel, so experienced! A full poker set with 54 cards, with so many floating around, how hard could collecting them be?
Da Fei immediately said, "Okay, letās start with the poker cards! Letās avoid the toy bears for now."
Now, Da Feiās team rushed toward the first card in sight, a Spade 5. With Da Feiās career in the Great Crusader raising his Strategic Attack to 134, boosting angel damage by 670%, making it a full 7-fold increase, and thatās not to mention Da Feiās Master-level Attack Skill Morale Strike further enhancing damage. Thatās the fundamental difference between an army led by a hero and wild monsters led by none. Even a powerful BOSS without crowd control or AoE skills that bypass defenses couldnāt compete with a hero-led army.
Now, the Elite Angels swarmed the poker card, inflicting tons of damage in an instant. Massive red numbers, "-780!" "-730!" sprang forth. The poker card shattered into pieces and fell into the Lava Sea below before having a chance to counterattack.
āSystem Prompt: You obtained a poker card, "Spade 5"!
The first battle was remarkably easy, but Da Fei was left astonished! Not for anything else, but because of the poker monsterās health, it was at least over ten thousand! Meaning any of these monsters could be considered a BOSS with stamina despite its poor combat capacity!
Now Ror grew ever bolder and immediately lunged at the second poker card.
Meanwhile, Da Fei quickly checked the spoils of war.
āSpade 5: Using this card allows you to instantly defeat all 2, 3, 4, and defeat Heart 5, Club 5, Diamond 5 of all suits. Once used, the card disappears.
Da Fei was startled, damn, so he really was invited to play cards, huh? If he didnāt want to waste stamina and time, he could use cards to dispatch a monster? So thatās how it was!
Da Fei then lifted his head to focus back on the battlefield and was surprised to find that in the short time he examined the spoils, Ror and the others hadnāt managed to take down the poker monster yet. Not only that, but the poker card also retaliated with a sword, dealing 100 damage even with Da Feiās massive defense advantage. He realized that it was the Diamond J!
Damn, face cards! So the higher the card, the stronger the power!
At that moment, more playing cards approached! Damn! Retreat, Da Fei had to abandon the Diamond J. Now Da Fei faced an even bigger headache; if he couldnāt deal with a Diamond J, what about Qs, Ks, As, and even Jokers?
Oh, right, especially the Jokers, who knew how powerful they could be? Perhaps they couldnāt be dealt with using player strength alone and might require poker rules, like collecting four of the same cards for a bomb or a Straight Flush. In any case, that seemed like the most reliable speculation right now. So he needed to focus and look closely, starting with the smaller, easier cards first.
...
At this time, in the competition arena, five minutes had already elapsed without any attack or movement, and all 400,000 worldwide spectators were booing! If the contestants could hear the boos, the whole arena would likely be ten times more exciting than a football World Cup, which can only hold tens of thousands of people.
In reality, the issue under discussion by the event committee members at this moment was precisely this: whether the contestants should be allowed to hear the audienceās calls like in ordinary matches. With nowhere to express their dissatisfaction, spectators were quite upset. If a paid channel for calls opened, surely some would pay to swear, right? But this would pose a strong test to Battle.netās capabilities.
Now, SAWSAW had handed over the main forces to the Vice Hero, stayed far from the center of the battlefield, and sneaked close to the Lava Lake in the arena map. Then, he made a Demon Transferās Instant Teleportation onto a rock in the Lava Lake. Then, he waited quietly. With the difficulty raised to S-level and an ultra-long warning range, the BOSS would be drawn out just by waiting.
SAWSAWās undisguised movements, as if already knowing the BOSS was in the lake, drew Fortsonās dissatisfaction. Nevertheless, all players were well aware, like an unwritten rule across any forest or lake. All viewers started eagerly awaiting just what kind of hidden BOSS would emerge!
Finally, the Lava Lake surged, a giant lava wave rose high as the sky covering the rock SAWSAW was on, but in a blink, SAWSAW teleported away in advance.
At this moment, audiences worldwide clamored, as they saw a flaming giant horse, its size comparable to a Unicorn, break through the waves, a roaring neigh echoing through the arena space! It was a Hell Horse BOSS!
Now, the Hell Horse BOSSās hooves flamed fiercely as it galloped over the Lava Lake, fiercely chasing after SAWSAW, who was, of course, sprinting in the direction of Da Feiās army. Success in luring the monster!
And at this very moment, killing poker cards in the Nightmare Space, Da Fei seemed to hear a familiar horse neigh. Was it the Nightmare? No, it was from the competition arena! He hurriedly switched to the contest small screen and was dumbfounded!
Damn you! (To be continued. If you like this work, youāre welcome to come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)