Chapter Fifty-Four: The Team's Ultimate Move

The Society of Heaven and Earth truly had some tricks up their sleeves. Dozens of flames shot out from the energy staves of the Controllers, drifting upward and coalescing into a massive fireball. Clearly, all the fire Controllers had pooled their strength together, and the fireball continued to swell, its radius easily reaching twenty meters. On its surface, arcs of electricity crackled and split, a clear sign that the electric Controllers had woven their splitting net around it.

With a series of low, resounding thuds, several waves of psychic energy surged into the fireball, transforming it rapidly. The sphere shrank quickly and then hurled itself at the Queen Wasp, tracing a graceful arc through the air. Anyone could tell that this was a team ultimate, a collective strike that only non-Gunner classes could unleash in Star Wars Online. With enough tactical coordination, multiple abilities could be fused into a single, devastating blow.

A thunderous crash shook the marble plaza, the blaze engulfing everything in sight—the rainfall overhead, the grass halfway up the mountain, all cast in a fiery red glow.

“–20777!”

A green damage number appeared.

Even Wu Hua was stunned. Over ten thousand damage in one strike! Without this boss, they would have been doomed today.

“Malagobi, you really are something,” Wu Hua exclaimed in admiration.

But the most shocking part was yet to come. When the smoke cleared, the Queen Wasp, though charred black, remained unscathed. She simply turned to glare furiously at Malagobi and his group.

Malagobi’s expression finally changed. Wu Hua hadn’t been exaggerating—this was a true boss, with at least 100,000 HP. Even such a powerful ultimate hadn’t been enough to take her down. They’d truly stirred up a hornet’s nest.

This time, the Queen Wasp began to beat her wings and lifted off vertically like a helicopter. Due to her bulk, she only managed to rise about twenty meters. Then, she opened her hideous, grinding mandibles, and from within emerged a continuous swarm of smaller wasps. But these were not ordinary yellow wasps; they were entirely purple, almost black—dozens swarmed out at once, each with its stinger aimed downward at the still-stunned members of the Society of Heaven and Earth.

A hail of black stingers rained down like arrows, instantly engulfing Malagobi and his crew. Each sting dealt around “–100” points of damage, but the poison dealt an additional “–50” per second, lasting for about ten seconds.

Wu Hua calculated that the toxic swarm had a range of nearly a hundred meters and never relented, a black beam that continually enveloped the Society’s members. The scene was like an alien invasion: a massive mothership in the sky, releasing wave after wave of attack craft.

It would be a miracle if Malagobi’s group could withstand such an onslaught.

At last, casualties began to mount among the Society. With three flashes of white light, three “Street Kings”—Alyogan, Haoyougen, and Zhaizhaibulugen—succumbed to the poison first. Clearly, Street Kings weren’t much use against aliens.

Monsters, unlike people, showed no mercy. The toxic stingers poured forth like a flood from the heavens, sweeping over everything without pause. Even the grass, once green, turned purple-black where it was struck, a testament to the venom’s potency.

“I’m afraid only a specialized antidote would help,” Lingling murmured.

Tutie wiped cold sweat from his brow. “Good thing we didn’t rush in earlier. Who would have thought this boss was invincible?”

“It’s not over yet. Look,” Wu Hua said.

The Queen Wasp, hovering in the air, spat out another swarm of black wasps, then suddenly expelled a giant, transparent energy orb from her mouth. The reason Wu Hua and the others could see it so clearly was that it distorted the very air around it, like a magical crystal ball reflecting shifting images of grass and sky.

A low whine filled the air, a sound that any experienced player would recognize as the warning of incoming artillery.

Malagobi and his group were retreating toward the ancient tomb when the orb landed amid them and exploded, sending people flying like stones tossed into a pond.

With a deafening crash, most of them were thrown several meters into the air before crashing back to the grassland.

“That’s a level 25 psychic explosion,” explained su20. “It doesn’t deal direct damage, but it blasts people backward.”

Wu Hua nodded, recognizing the boss’s high intelligence. The group tried to retreat, but the explosion forced them back into the open, right under the toxic barrage of black wasps. The entire grassland, except for the mountaintop, was the Queen Wasp’s domain.

Malagobi was truly out of luck; every encounter with Wu Hua ended in disaster.

Half an hour later, only twelve battered survivors remained from the Society’s sixty-eight elites. They struggled up the hillside, barely escaping the poison. Fortunately, the boss did not pursue—it seemed she only wanted them gone.

“Boss, we’ve been tricked by Bao Feng again,” Chrysanthemum Three Fury panted as he scrambled upward.

Malagobi snapped, “Nonsense!”

“But Bao Feng did warn us not to go, and the boss is indeed fierce. He says he didn’t trick us, and it seems he didn’t.”

Malagobi stared, dumbfounded. “So, you’re saying he didn’t trick us? Then why did you say we’d been tricked again? Was it a trick or not?”

“Yeah, why did I say ‘again’?” Chrysanthemum Three Fury muttered, unsure if he was addled by wasp stings or his own logic. “Maybe he did trick us. Look at us now… Maybe this is what comes of too many misdeeds.”

“Trick you, your mother! You talk too much!” Malagobi slapped Chrysanthemum Three Fury so hard he went flying. “Always spouting nonsense. Why don’t you focus on your studies?”

Dazed, Chrysanthemum Three Fury sat in the grass, stars spinning before his eyes. He got up to protest, but suddenly a sharp, searing pain pierced his chest, his grip loosened, and his M4 slipped from his hands as his vision blurred.

With a wet thud, the bullet struck his heart dead center, blood splattering the grass and flowers.

Green damage value: “–6649!”

“Brother!” Malagobi cried, but even before he finished the word, Chrysanthemum Three Fury had collapsed. “It… was… Bao… Feng…” he gasped, then faded into white light.

Wu Hua owed this shot to his scope and silencer, but the real key was his use of the terrain.

While Malagobi and the others had been fighting the boss below, Wu Hua’s group had circled quietly around the mountaintop and returned to the drawbridge at the tomb’s exit. Now, prone and hidden, with the advantage of scopes, they could shoot at will—whoever they aimed for, they hit.

Tutie, holding an energy sword in his left hand and a megaphone in his right, shouted, “Listen up, Society of Heaven and Earth! I, Lord Bao Feng, am giving you one chance to live. You can fight me one-on-one in groups of three. If you take me down, you can go free. If you want to surrender, just lay down your weapons and hand them over to me, and all past grudges are wiped clean…”

The survivors on the hillside were furious. One of the Green Brigade leaped up from the grass, raised his M16, and unleashed a burst at Tutie.

Sparks flew from Tutie’s armor, with a string of “–420, –399, –411” hovering above his head.

But the moment the Green Brigade opened fire, he revealed himself to Wu Hua, who had been lying in wait elsewhere on the mountaintop. Tutie’s taunt was a classic lure; Wu Hua, the real killer, was waiting for someone to lose patience and stand up. As soon as he did, bullets whistled through the air.

Two muffled shots—Green Brigade’s body rolled ten meters down the slope before dissolving into white light.

“Bao Feng, you little worm, come down if you dare!” Malagobi shouted, unable to contain his rage.