The refraction of light resulted from the rising smoke and the dazzling scarlet soil had heavily impaired their vision. Usually, the party would only be alerted when a Divine monster was within eighty meters or closer to them.

Emerson’s years of inspection caused him to risk his life time and time again to mark down most regions inside the tenth level. Owing to that, Qin Ruo and co. could at least commence their quest with a draft map.

This saved them from searching blindly and also helped them to avoid a lot of unnecessary danger.

Despite the small advantage, the conditions inside level 10 of the Graveyard was much more treacherous than they had first imagined.

The party was periodically thrown with unpredictable obstacles or being ambushed by Divine creatures. They barely survived each hindrance and casualties were inevitable along the way.

“Beware!”

“Three Magma Platypuses!”

“They are coming from 11 o’clock! Ninety meters… now seventy-five!”

Elemental Perception was deemed insufficient to serve as an early warning in such circumstances. Qin Ruo had no other choice but to deploy the most agile member of the party, Xin Yu, as the vanguard. This could at least provide them with two extra seconds to brace for incoming threats.

These two seconds were extremely vital, as it allowed Qin Ruo and company sufficient time to decide which strategy they were going to employ. The strategies depended on the enemy or obstacle that they were about to encounter.

The Magma Platypus was a Level 73 Fire-type creature born with immunity against Fire-type damage. Similar to the Pangolin, the Platypus had an acute sense of smell. It could easily detect the scent of intruders from more than a hundred meters away.

The Magma Platypus is a combat-type creature. It has an outstanding ability in defense and attack, thus making it a challenging foe to be dealt with.

In the party’s first encounter with the Platypus, their pillar of defense, Judge, had died once under the assault of three monsters. Homme Fatale and Slayer’s Heart were also among the casualties.

They would have been eliminated by now if Qin Ruo did not promptly cast his Frostdragon Bind, in addition to the timely Great Resurrection by Violetmoon Devilite that brought Judge and Fatale back to life.

Hence, when they heard that another three Magma Platypuses were approaching, the nine people at the rear immediately came to a halt.

They couldn’t risk being seen by other Divine creatures. Three Magma Platypuses were already difficult enough to defeat, what’s more if they were surrounded by other Divine creatures at the same time.

“Judge!”

Qin Ruo condensed the Elements with a powerful force while soaring to join Judge in the air. “If you’re alone, you will be killed instantly by the three monsters. Let me hold them back together with you.”

The Death Barrier of the Grand Reaper had already collapsed in the previous tragedy and had temporarily lost its impenetrable defense. Now, Qin Ruo was the only one in the party apart from Judge that would not lose too much blood from taking Fire-Type damage.

With sixty-five percent Fire Damage reduction and 30% Fire Damage absorption on top of his own Magic Defense, the remaining damage would be minimal. But he is not entirely immune as Fire-Type attacks usually ignored resistance.

“Fatale, Black Rock, stick with the plan. After the first attack, Judge will stall the monster while the two of you back away to a safe distance and condense your next attack. All others aside from Priests and Bandits, maintain your attacks and give them all you’ve got!”

“…”

The Magma Platypuses were now in sight after Qin Ruo gave the command.

The monster’s dark red scales and their cold eyes grew larger and larger. The three Platypuses charged in one after another like a train.

Schwaff!

Judge flapped his Angelic Wings and flew forward slowly while maintaining a close proximity to the ground, with Qin Ruo following right behind him.

The ground rumbled vigorously!

The three monsters were carrying a force akin to that of a grand army. The pressure that loomed upon them was even greater than when they were facing the Undead Horde.

The few dozens of meters in distance vanished instantly.

Such was the sovereignty of a Divine monster. Their charging force alone seemed to have engulfed them in their entirety.

However, this was, after all, not the first time they had come across such a predicament. Although they were still a little nervous from the previous experience of being nearly exterminated, everyone was at their 100% the moment they got into their battle modes.

Once the Magma Platypuses entered Judge’s attack range, nine strokes of blazing flames burnt through the ground and rushed toward the human adventurer.

Each stroke of fire carried 200 points of Fire-type damage that ignored defense. That, added up with the monster’s 600 points or so of Magic Attack, would surely instantly kill Judge who only had 4000 HP. This included him wielding a shield.

However, when the party saw the attack happening, they gradually became a little relieved. They watched on confidently as Judge abruptly sped up and slid through the gaps between the nine burning blazes.

He had evaded the attack successfully!

Hum!

At the end of his Charge, a layer of Berserk Shell in blood-red formed around Judge’s body. It protected Judge as he swiftly shortened the distance between himself and the Magma Platypuses.

“Hit!”

An ordinary Frost Arrow left the bowstring and directly hit one of the Platypus. This well-timed attack had distracted that particular Platypus away from Judge before they launched the second round of attacks.

Since Qin Ruo was in the air, the provoked Platypus stopped subconsciously. Five continuous Compressed Firebolts ferociously shot through the air toward Qin Ruo.

As a result, the Platypus was separated from its two other members that continued to lunge forward. Before they reached Judge, the two charging Platypuses suddenly felt that they were being pushed downward by an invisible force the moment they spat out the second attack.

At the same time, the ground under them had also strangely softened out of the blue into thick mud. This brought their forward momentum to a slow and trapped them right in front of Judge.

Furthermore, Judge’s Spellbreaker Shield worked flawlessly and deflected the two Platypuses’ second attacks. He then instantly drew out his war blade and gashed a giant wound into the jaw of the two Magma Platypuses.

The two Platypuses were distracted and were actually looking at the Earth Enchanted Spider and the One-Eyed Orc that had just joined the battle when Judge attacked. The pain though, had instantly drawn their vision back to their attacker.

Still, Slayer’s Heart’s Defense was not as prominent as Judge. The Magic Attacks of his Pet also would not inflict any significant damage to the Divine Monster. Thus, it was better for him to use a supporting spell to assist Judge in this case.

Coordinated with Little Eye’s AoE Gravity, the two Pets could rein in and confine the Magma Platypuses without gaining too much attention.

The combined effects of the Arcane Bog and Gravity had successfully overpowered the wild Platypuses. Judge could now safely land his attack from close range.

The Priest’s hands began to release one after another radiant beam. The buffs fell on Judge at a rather high frequency—Judge’s HP had begun to free-fall the moment the two Platypuses got near him.

Simultaneously, a solo fight was happening on the other side of the battlefield.

Qin Ruo held on to his Barrier and gulped a large HP Potion. While he was sustaining the constant waves of attack from the Platypus, he had noticed that thunder had started to rumble above his head, as well as the increasing number of Rock Spears floating behind Judge.

“Attack the Magma Platypus on the left first!” Qin Ruo yelled.

In the next second, more than twenty unstoppable pillars of lightning struck down ruthlessly from the sky!

The twenty Rock Spears hovering in front of the Platypuses also broke through the air and shot forward simultaneously.

Heaven Peal Lion, Wandering Soul, Slayer’s Heart, and the Pets of the two pretty Priests had joined in the attack as well.

Regardless of how much damage they were able to inflict, all members single-mindedly aimed at the Platypus on the Judge’s left. Since none of their attacks were as eye-catching as Homme Fatale, they reckoned the monster would not target them first.

Yowl!!

The hurt Platypus miserably shrieked out in pain and anguish.

Though both Platypuses were Divine Monsters, its defenses were still a tad weaker than the immobile Ancient Ghostvine. The attacks from the party drained almost 80,000 HP from the monster. Among them, Homme Fatale’s damage was the highest, amounting to more than half of the total damage inflicted.

The heavily injured Platypus immediately switched its target and turned around to aim at the enemy that it deemed most dangerous…

Unfortunately, to the Platypus dismay, the opponent immediately left its attack range once the spell was cast. Still ensnared by the Bog and Gravity, the Platypus was completely unable to lift its limbs. Therefore, it could only watch on helplessly until its depleting HP was finally emptied by the subsequent attacks of the two Elementalists.

One of the three Magma Platypuses was taken out without much hassle. The remaining Platypuses in front of Judge also inflicted no further danger toward him.

Qin Ruo triggered his wings and retreated to a place above Judge. A warm light immediately fell upon him to ease his losing HP. The Barrier around him had almost collapsed. Against a Divine monster that ignored Fire Resistance, one round of Multiple Attack yielded more than 600 points of damage. When the monster attacked in quick succession, using a large HP Potion alone was not going to cut it.

Normally, monsters would immediately turn to Priests once the class got involved.

However, this iron rule was broken in front of the Divine monster.

The Platypus seemed to be well aware of Qin Ruo’s HP condition. It knew that his HP had dropped by more than 1000 points after sustaining five rounds of attacks. The Platypus knew that another two spells would finish it off for good.

Hence, not only did it not switch targets, but the monster had also sped up its attack frequency!

“Hmph!” Qin Ruo was obviously flabbergasted.

“Be careful!”

“Damn!!”

The moment his HP dropped below 500 points, Qin Ruo gritted his teeth as he heard a few of his comrades exclaiming nervously…

“!!!”

A piercing whistle erupted from Qin Ruo’s shoulder.

The entire space vibrated following the sharp noise.

Qin Ruo swiftly avoided the deadly blow.

Zaap!!! A bolt of golden lightning came down from the sky.

Blurred by the sudden entry, the frantic Platypus was unable to react fast enough when the golden flash turned into four clones right in front of it.

Clone Shadow Strike!

The Magma Platypus quivered violently and its frail body fell to the ground, head first, after the attack.