Thriller Paradise

"Let me tell you… traveller from another world…" As he expected, the Lotus Soul continued. "The ugliest moment is… the instant when that most beautiful thing… is destroyed!" Her tone was venomous and every word that she said was laced with hatred and pain. Lotus Soul raised her arms, and the next second, a 'shit dragon' flew out from the swamp and rushed dangerously at Feng Bujue.

Seeing that, with a light yelp, Brother Jue twisted his body in speed. Using both of his feet as axle, he spun out multiple Rankyakus. The shit dragon flew right into the slashes of air. The Rankyakus created layers of halos in the air like waves that swept the shit dragon along with it. Gradually, Feng Bujue successfully neutralized Lotus Soul's attack.

Lotus Soul though did not stop there. She joined her hands and prepared for another attack. A powerful blast of wind howled out from her clasped palms. Even if the blast did not kill you from the force, it would suffocate you with its smell…

Facing this kind of shapeless attack, Rankyaku would not work. Feng Bujue could only try to retreat and flee from the range of attack.

[Hmm… This boss appears to be stuck…] When Feng Bujue moved through the air, he thought. [Her lower body is stuck in the swamp and her upper body turns rather slowly. In other words… if I can get to behind her swiftly and attack her waist, she won't be able to avoid it.] At that moment, Feng Bujue continued to activate Body Enhancement Spell-Enhanced and used Geppo with both of his legs. He kicked thrice. His body shot out like an arrow of light and teleported behind Lotus Soul.

"Since I am wearing gloves… to hell with it!" Feng Bujue understood it was impossible to kill this boss without actually touching her. To decrease the amount of contact as much as he could… he decided, as long as he made his move, it would have to be a final blow!

A gale of howling wind gathered. The strong palm strike hid an undercurrent of soft energy, the majestic dragon lashed at its target, aiming to kill. With the unleash of Flying dragon Fist, the dangerous Qi struck like a thunderous storm and it hit right at the back of Lotus Soul's lower spine…

…

At the same time, on the other end of the swamp.

"Did you guys hear that?" Pegasus who walked in the middle of the group suddenly asked.

"Ah… I did, this wind…" Atobe answered, "It sounds like someone's crying is mixed within it…"

"It should be the system trying to scare us." Uncle Worthless explained, "It's not uncommon in this game…."

Ambitionist concurred, "Yes… I've once queued up for a solo nightmare mode where I was harassed by ghost whisper from the start until the end…" He pushed on his glasses. "Even now, thinking about it… it sends chill up my spine."

"Hmph… I hate this kind of indirect scaring tactic the most." Pegasus huffed.

"How shall I put this…" Ambitionist added, "The 'indirect'-ness that you mentioned can be considered the set up of a scenario's atmosphere, it is one of the more effective ways to scare people. Compared to the more direct visual scare, this kind is more damaging." He paused. "using some elusive voices or images to implant the seed of horror in one's mind… before finally creating a scare point at an unexpected spot, it will create a greater effect than a simple jumpscare."

"Hmm… I wonder how is Brother Feng doing at the moment." Uncle Worthless said. "In this kind of environment… this kind of effect will get to you easier if you are travelling alone, no"

"He will ~be fine!" Both Atobe and Ambitionist said in unison.

"Don't you worry about him. He would be glad to be rid of us." Atobe added, "That thing will not be affected by these things because his brain would be thinking about something worse… One time, he found himself inside a city filled with mutated zombies and somehow he decided to build a temporary pitstop to farm the zombies. The spot had an open view of the surrounding, he had prepared more than enough ammo, and lures. He had even somehow managed to fix up some audio to provide him with background music…"

"Indeed, the man is no normal character…" Ambitionist agreed. "And I have not seen him being afraid of anything before…" he paused for 2 seconds before saying, "Plus, I believe all of you know about the illegal drug use by the members of Zombie Blade right? Even under the influence of drug, they could not remove the sense of fear from a person completely and the drug will dull their reflex and their facial expression will appear rather numb." He pushed on his glasses. "But Brother Feng… is really fearless in all meaning of the term. In the team scenario that I've queued up with him, he has requested multiple times to conduct a research in a dark environment all on his own… And he was chill as cucumber throughout, I really have no idea how he manages to do that…"

"Alright… looks like I was worried for no reason." Uncle Worthless replied awkwardly. He did not interact directly with Brother Jue during the Tournament of the Best, he did see the few recordings of Brother Jue's battle after the tournament. His knowledge of the man stopped at how powerful the man was and how 'crazy' his personality was…

"Ah! Do I see a stone path before us?" At that moment, Pegasus looked over Uncle Worthless' shoulder and shouted loudly.

"Hmm, a few more metres and we'll cross the swamp successfully." Uncle Worthless said as he removed the helmet. "The light path also ended around there."

"Phew…" Atobe breathed a sigh of relief. "Feng Bujue was not wrong though… By now, our sense of smell had gotten used to the stench, I didn't even notice the fact that the smell has faded."

Indeed, from god knows when the four stopped covering their nose with their hands, that was proof that they had gotten used to their disgusting environment…

"Wait! What is that?" Ambitionist who walked at the back discovered something and reminded the rest. "There, at the edge of the swamp."

The rest of the group followed his direction and looked. They saw… at the edge of the swamp, the convergence point of the mud and the stone slate path, there was a curious shadow that was wiggling on the ground. Upon closer inspection… it looked like a giant hand caressing the ground…

…

And now back to the battlefield with the hidden boss. Feng Bujue's Flying Dragon Fist did land on the target. Lotus Soul was too big and stuck inside the swamp to evade it. Therefore, she took the hit squarely and howled in response… A horrible wail mixed with a horrible stench echoed out from Lotus Soul's mouth, it expanded inside the battlefield.

After Feng Bujue landed the attack, he swiftly retreated. He climbed and bounced against the invisible barrier to introduce as much distance between himself and the boss. However… the shrill echo still drilled into Feng Bujue's ears. In that short amount of time, the voice managed to disrupt his balance and sense of distance. It staggered him and it almost caused him to fall.

"QIe… after being injured, she countered with this kind of unavoidable sound-based attack…" As Brother Jue steadied himself, he was still analysing the various meanings of this boss' many different reactions. "That aside…" His eyes moved to the spot where his attack aimed at earlier. "Did my attack… cause any damage on her…" There was valid reason behind his suspicion, because in these few seconds, the spot at the back of Lotus Soul's spine where she was hit was quickly covered up by a dark brown subject. It looked like she had never been damaged.

"She's invincible to physical attack? Or… she has incredible self-recovery?" Feng Bujue tried to analyse while his body moved. Before Lotus Soul's next attack, he had to get to as high as a position as he could so that he could have more space to navigate.

"Ah! You disgusting, dirty little ant! Wait til I get you, I swear to drown you at the deepest part of this swamp!" After that scream, Lotus Soul cursed.

"Hmm… Perhaps I should try a magic attack." Feng Bujue ignored the scolding. He leaped to the highest curve of the barrier. He took out Bell of Jin Gang and used the fourth special effect. "Double the effect of your next Sorcery Mastery skill (under acceptable condition)". Then, he placed both of his hands before him and aimed downwards.

"Ah… the gloves are stained with shit…" As Brother Jue assumed the pose, he mumbled, "And this boss is large enough… to take 100 percent of the damage from Kamekameha."

His gaze sharpened. The air around him stilled and the gathered energy channelled like an arrow nocked on a bow.

"An optimistic gauge puts her at being seriously injured…" Feng Bujue speculated as he adjusted the angle. And then infused with the spirit of Sophomore Syndrome, he shouted loudly, "Lotus Soul! Eat me Kamekameha!"