Purple Hammer rapidly swung the Purple Treasure Mallet to meet the approaching Manfred.
The mallet, carrying immense force, slammed heavily into the broadsword slashing toward him.
However, as the yellow sand drifted slightly, Manfred vanished into thin air.
No, he had not vanished!
Instead, relying on extreme speed, he had used the cover of the yellow sand to flash to another position in an instant.
Purple Hammer quickly swung his other pair of arms, raising the Purple Treasure Mallet.
But it was already a step too late, as the nimble Sword Qi unfolded first, parrying the Purple Treasure Mallet and thrusting straight toward Purple Hammer's neck.
Purple Hammer grit his teeth, and the muscle memory from countless sessions of smithing made him swing three Purple Treasure Mallets simultaneously.
At this moment, the blade slashing toward him had become a glowing block of iron in his eyes.
Forging!
Purple Hammer seemed to be covered in a layer of flame as he smashed toward the incoming blade.
Everything happened in a heartbeat.
Purple Hammer's figure was sent flying back with great force, crashing onto the cold sand.
Unlucky as he was, he had never expected to encounter the only Manfred team in the vast ninth floor.
He wiped his face with his arm, finding a cut over one eye that left a sword scar.
However, the eyeball was not damaged, and Manfred did not continue his pursuit.
'Did he hold back?'
Purple Hammer scrambled to his feet, and Manfred immediately attacked again, his broadsword slashing down with unpredictable Sword Qi.
Having no time to wonder if Manfred was holding back, Purple Hammer swung the Purple Treasure Mallet to meet the descending Sword Qi.
Boom!
A massive sound erupted from one side of the desert, kicking up a storm of yellow sand in the dark night.
"That is... the captain!"
Rhine's voice interrupted Manfred's movements, giving Purple Hammer an opening to escape.
He quickly retreated with his Purple Treasure Mallet and looked toward the source of the commotion.
Amidst the yellow sand of the night, a massive figure slowly approached from the desert.
It had four arms, each ending in a curved blade that trailed along the sand.
Its massive body was covered in silver armor, and inside the armor, wood and metal seemed to grow together.
On its slightly hunched upper body, two irregular horns extended from the sides of its metal head-armor.
It wandered through the desert, its erupting aura making it almost impossible to breathe.
That body was filled with power and a sense of sharpness.
It was like a ghostly sword attendant wandering the desert.
It was the hidden boss that roamed the entire ninth floor, the Desert Sword Attendant!
"It is Lord Desert Sword Attendant!"
As a monster of the Well of Eternal Imprisonment, Purple Hammer easily recognized the identity of the Desert Sword Attendant.
"Alert immediately, prepare for battle!"
Manfred shouted, and Weiss had already stepped forward with his shield to reposition the team at the front of the Desert Sword Attendant's path.
"I am the Desert Sword Attendant, the guardian of this desert."
"O insignificant fools who step into this desert, these cold sands shall be your burial ground."
The Desert Sword Attendant swung one arm, and a rampaging Sword Qi slashed straight down, cutting through the cold desert.
"Hah!"
With a low growl, Weiss raised his shield against the incoming Sword Qi.
The powerful Sword Qi made Weiss stagger backward slightly, but he still relied on his great shield to block the attack.
No one had expected this sudden encounter.
After all, who would have thought that such a powerful boss-level monster would be wandering this floor?
Generally, hidden bosses were found in fixed boss rooms.
A hidden boss that could roam the desert like this was something they had never encountered before.
An unplanned encounter was an entirely different matter from a fully prepared raid.
The Desert Sword Attendant did not care about any of that.
It attacked, swinging its four arms and their bladed edges.
Its massive body charged across the cold yellow sand like a wild beast, with rampaging Sword Qi slashing from all directions.
Weiss's eyes widened.
He could not block an attack with such a wide range!
He could only raise his shield and try his best to face the large surge of Sword Qi coming from the front.
Rhine took the opportunity to cast earth magic, summoning walls to block the Sword Qi attacking from the surroundings.
The walls collapsed under the Sword Qi, and yellow sand flew into the air, obscuring the Manfred team.
Using the yellow sand as cover, Manfred rushed out and attacked the Desert Sword Attendant from the side, hoping to interrupt the enemy's assault.
Four blades collided with Manfred's longsword.
Sparks flew everywhere.
Manfred used the force of the impact to fly into the air, instantly slashing out eight strands of Sword Qi and manipulating them to strike the Desert Sword Attendant from different directions.
The eyes beneath the Desert Sword Attendant's head-armor glowed with a red light.
The armor shone with a silver light.
Swish, swish, swish!
Its four arms moved with extreme speed, blades interweaving as if drawing a seamless curtain of Sword Qi, blocking all eight strikes.
What kind of speed was this? Its four arms were like four swordsmen swinging their blades at the same time!
Manfred quickly swooped back to the ground.
He needed to gather information first, he could not...
"Captain, watch out!"
Rhine shouted!
At the same time, Weiss also launched a charge.
Only then did Manfred see that the Desert Sword Attendant had opened its fanged mouth beneath the head-armor at some point.
Flame power gathered within, turning into a compressed, spinning Fireball.
Fire magic!
Manfred decisively swung his longsword, his Sword Qi flying toward the Desert Sword Attendant!
The Fireball collided with the sharp Sword Qi and exploded violently!
Gushing flames burned toward Manfred from all sides.
Manfred used extreme speed to dive toward the ground, his clothes already scorched.
The Desert Sword Attendant had no intention of letting Manfred go, swinging its four arms as Sword Qi wreathed in flames sliced through the night sky, slashing down continuously.
By now, Weiss had rushed in front of Manfred and raised his great shield.
"Immovable Fortress!"
The shield glowed with an intense light, and an invisible defensive barrier expanded with Weiss at the center.
Boom, boom, boom!
The flaming Sword Qi slashed down one after another, exploding in front of Weiss.
By the time the series of attacks ended, Weiss's feet had sunk deep into the sand.
His body suffered some burns, but relying on the magic item Copper-Vine Armor, these minor injuries could recover in an instant.
Seeing the attack end, Weiss raised his great shield, ending the Immovable Fortress, and continued to move around looking for an opportunity to take more damage.
But he soon felt a wave of numbness in his body.
This was...
Poison!
"The smoke attached to those flames is poisonous!"
Although Weiss did not speak often, he would quickly speak out information in a crisis.
"First-rank magic, Wind Barrier Shot!"
Rhine quickly activated her magic.
The swirling wind bullet rapidly gathered the thick smoke brought by the flames into a ball and blasted it toward the Desert Sword Attendant.
The Desert Sword Attendant crossed its four arms to block the attack, its body sliding backward across the desert for a distance under the force of the strong wind.
Rhine wanted to follow up with a Grass-Tracing Wind to weaken its defense, but the Desert Sword Attendant's four arms swung, and its metal armor fit tightly over its entire body.
It gave her no opportunity to weaken its defense at all.
"Information is insufficient, do not fight a hard battle, retreat first!"
Manfred shouted.
Weiss was already poisoned and his body was gradually becoming paralyzed, and their detoxification alchemy potions were also severely lacking, so they could not afford a prolonged fight.
Although hidden boss drops were incredibly precious and hard to come by,
He had something even more precious to protect.
"Yes!"
Rhine nodded quickly and adjusted her magic, firing another Wind Barrier Shot to interrupt the Desert Sword Attendant's pursuit, and the team adjusted their formation to begin their retreat.
Rate on N.U.
