Show Me the Money

Chapter 150 – Lava

As a Gold Tier boss, the Queen Ant’s skills were nothing to sniff at. This allowed little room for error and due to a moment of negligence, Liu Lan nearly died without even leaving a trace.

As for the boss, it was still struggling to leave the tunnel with all its might.

“Now that you’re here, don’t even think of leaving,” Fatty muttered. He left Liu Lan and smoothly glided over to the Queen Ant. Deadly Poison!

The poisoning failed, signified by a green light flashing briefly above the ant’s head. As this was within his expectations, Fatty didn’t miss a beat and calmly followed up with a Combo Attack.

–145 –138 –126

The three-hit combo only shaved off less than 500 health, signaling an arduous battle ahead.

“Sparky, pounce!” Liu Lan ordered as she flung herself onto the Fire Cloud Panther. A murderous rage had washed over her from nearly having her face disfigured by the Queen Ant.

Whoosh! The Lightning Bird turned into a streak of lightning and shot at the Queen Ant with a rumble. Surprisingly, the bird managed to pierce a hole through the latter’s stomach.

–863!

Such a powerful attack! Fatty was inwardly startled. While Wheat was safer when it cast a long-ranged attack, the damage certainly wouldn’t be as high as Sparky’s. Even so, Fatty still had some doubts about the Lightning Bird’s attack method. From the start of the battle til now, it only attacked by hurling itself through the air at extreme speeds to hit the opponent. Fatty had yet to see the Lightning Bird cast any actual skills.

“What skills does your birdie have?” Even in the midst of such an intense battle, Fatty found the time to direct a question towards Liu Lan.

“Only some buff skills,” Liu Lan counted with her fingers, “Speed, solidity, and attack boost. Its skills aren’t aimed at damaging the enemy, so it doesn’t have a lot of strong attack skills like your Wheat.”

“No wonder it’s called the Lightning Bird,” Fatty understood. What’s the idiom again? Of all the martial skills in this world, everything can be countered, but speed is an exception. As long as the Lightning Bird is fast enough and its body is solid enough to withstand that speed, it can pierce even a dragon to death.

However, the Lightning Bird clearly wasn’t powerful enough at the moment. While it dealt some good damage to the Queen Ant, all the headbutting had made it dizzy. After piercing through the ant’s stomach, it teetered in the air for a long time before recovering.

“Wheat, stop lazing around,” Fatty growled. Wheat begrudgingly popped its head out from its hiding spot underground and transformed to its usual size. Following Wheat, he hit the Queen Ant with a Howling Bullet, staggering it.

“Screech, screech!” The Queen Ant shrieked nonstop in fury. Be that as it may, the pitiful creature had been too ferocious earlier and had gotten itself stuck in the wall after ramming into it. Unless the ant was ruthless enough to snap off its own wings, it would be quite some time until it could break free. Unfortunately for the other animals, the Queen Ant was too big compared to the size of the tunnel and consequently blocked the entrance, so its six guards could only fret outside in vain.

“Heavy Impact!” Liu Lan shouted. A huge hammer emerged from her hand and violently shot towards the Queen Ant’s head.

The immobilized Queen Ant was currently perfect target practice. Beating the dog when it’s down, Fatty and Liu Lan began a barrage of attack. While their damages weren’t high, the quantity made up for it. Very soon, the Queen Ant’s health dropped a visible chunk.

“Screeeeeeech…” With a long, ear-piercing screech, the six pairs of wings on the Queen Ant’s back vibrated and emitted a red glow. At last, the ant forcefully pulled its wings off the walls.

Maybe it was because the Queen Ant had felt so stifled from being stuck like that, but it unexpectedly went berserk.

After freeing itself, the Queen Ant was determined not to fly anymore. Instead, it directly crawled over to Wheat. Wheat who was still recovering was first to bear the brunt of its rage.

Whoosh. The Queen Ant extended two front legs to grab the big-size Wheat. Wheat was briefly dumbstruck before utilized its usual move… shrink and earthwalk.

Wheat was nearly invincible underground if its opponent didn’t possess earth-attribute skills, so the Ant Queen no longer bothered with the rat and flew straight at Fatty. The six guards followed their boss closely and entered the tunnel.

“Fatty, get behind me,” on the Fire Cloud Panther’s back, Liu Lan said to Fatty.

“What do you mean?” Fatty was stunned.

“You’re a rogue. You really don’t think you should stand at the front of a knight, do you?” Liu Lan smiled and flipped her hair. The action made her look quite charming.

As Fatty’s mind went blank for a moment, Liu Lan was already standing at his front with her spear.

“What the hell are you doing? You think you can tank it?” Fatty quickly regained his wits. He grabbed Liu Lan’s hand and ran away from the Queen Ant while shouting, “Wheat, pounce and hold it off. Lord Fatty will find you a female rat after this.”

Trying to bait me with a female again? Wheat felt great disdain towards Fatty, who always fled at the sight of danger. Despite hating Fatty, it popped out its head as the Queen Ant passed by and cast Petrification.

The Queen Ant was raising a leg in fury when it was frozen stiff by Petrification. Subsequently, the six ant guards hastily halted and smacked on one another.

Liu Lan was annoyed being dragged away by Fatty, but at the same time, she also found his action funny. Anyhow, she urged the Fire Cloud Panther to follow him.

“Huh? Why is the Ant Queen not moving?” As Fatty turned around for a glance, he discovered the boss standing there unmoving with a raised leg.

“Squeak, squeak,” Wheat scurried over and proudly reported its deed.

“Petrification?” Fatty’s lips curved up, “Good, very good. You’ll get a big reward after this.”

Fatty turned to the ant with a sinister smile, “Heheh, without your wings, how can you chase after me now?”

Fatty took out his almighty weapon – the Blacksmith’s Tool. Very soon, he constructed a trap with it.

“Wheat,” Fatty called out of habit with Wheat expressing its usual animosity for Fatty before nimbly passing through the trap towards the Queen Ant.

“Fatty, be careful of its venom,” Liu Lan reminded.

“No worries,” Fatty assured and spat his saliva onto his palms and rubbed them in anticipation. “Speaking of which, Lord Fatty has never killed a Gold boss all by myself. This shall be my first time.”

Liu Lan chuckled at Fatty’s confident manner. She walked to a side to watch out for monsters from that direction.

As Wheat was at a certain distance from the Queen Ant, it spat out a Howling Bullet and hastily turned around and fled. As soon as the Queen Ant recovered from Petrification, it shrieked furiously and pursued Wheat

As Wheat approached the trap’s perimeter, it used Earthwalk, letting the Queen Ant grab nothing but a bunch of dirt. The ant had no choice but to set its sight on Fatty again.

“Come here,” Fatty crooked his finger and provoked the boss.

The Queen Ant strode over, completely disregarding Fatty’s trap. Its six-meter long body speedily rumbled at Fatty like a car.

“Come, come,” Fatty kept luring. As the Queen Ant scornfully stepped across the trap, a scroll flew out from his hand and smacked onto the ant’s head.

System Notification: The player has used an Intermediate Fireskill Scroll – Lava. The user can set a twenty-meter lava pond on the ground. Magic attack: 45. Duration: 60 seconds.

Whoosh. A magic formation appeared under the Queen Ant. Fatty’s initial trap was only several meters long and one meter deep, so it couldn’t confine the boss. But when the scroll activated, a fiery red lava puddle emerged on the ground and expanded the trap several times. Not only could it entirely surround the boss, but its depth was also increased by several meters as well.

Plop. Lava splattered everywhere when the Queen Ant fell down. It instantly suffered from extreme heat while the lava started to melt down its golden shell. A series of numbers continuously rose up from its head.

“Beat the ant while it's down!” Fatty screamed and shot wildly with his crossbow.

“Screech, screeeech,” the Queen Ant squealed and exerted every effort to struggle out. Soon, its two front legs hooked on the ground.

“Hah! Down!” Liu Lan snarled and stabbed with the Fire Cloud Panther’s additional momentum, shoving the ant back down.

Charge.

Tremor.

Trample.

Fiery Prairie.

Liu Lan cast every knight’s skill onto the pitiful ant. The latter spared no effort to brandish its claws but was still unable to crawl out of the lava pond in the end. It could only let out ceaseless ear-piercing noise.

The situation was currently in their favor. Barring any unexpected activities, the Queen Ant should drop 10% of its health by the time the lava disappeared. Fatty used the scroll not for its magic attack, but for the effects that came afterward.

“Bzzzzz, bzzzzz,” suddenly, the sounds of wings buzzing echoed from behind. 

Small mobs are coming. It wasn’t easy to finally trap the Queen Ant. My plan will surely fail if the mobs interfere. Fatty thought to himself.

“You just worry about the boss, leave the mobs to me,” Liu Lan said decisively before Fatty could think of a plan.

“Be careful. From the sound, there must be a lot of them,” said Fatty.

“Rest assured. This girl is a high-rank knight, how can I not handle some trifling mobs?” Liu Lan turned around and gave Fatty a smile that brightened the entire passageway.

“Take this,” Fatty took out several skill scrolls and shoved them into her hands. “Use them as you like. I still have plenty on me.”

Liu Lan caressed the scrolls, feeling a sweet sensation in her heart. She pondered for a bit and carefully put the scrolls away. While the two tokens made Fatty a lot of money, he still relies on the game to make a living, so I should only use these scrolls as a last resort. The more scrolls I can save, the more chance to kill bosses in the future.

Fatty couldn’t have known what thoughts had run through Liu Lan’s, as he was currently focusing all attention on the Queen Ant. The boss couldn’t spread its wings inside the trap, so it couldn’t fly out. Crawling was impossible either since Fatty was blocking its front while its guards stood in the back, tightly flanking it. The Queen Ant, therefore, could only stay in the lava.

Whoosh, whoosh. When the lava effect was about to end, Fatty slid over with a loud shout and violently rammed the Queen Ant on its back.

Thud. The Queen Ant was shoved back down just when the lava disappeared. As the area was restored to its usual state, the boss’s six legs were stuck in the ground, looking as if they had merged together.

The ant struggled with all its might to pull out its legs. However, Fatty didn’t want to give it any chance and summoned Wheat. Then, the owner and his pet began to torture the pitiful ant.

Bang!

After about half an hour of beating, the Queen Ant let out an aggrieved screech before falling to the ground, dropping a bunch of items.

Ding. System Notification: Congratulations. You have slain the gold ranked boss Queen Ant. +20000 EXP, +600 Reputation.