It was probably that the Rat King also knew the world had been unsettled lately. This time, even the lords around it were more numerous than usual.
Around the Rat King, there were a total of seventeen lord-tier BOSSes!
On the side of the four major guilds, there were as many as fifteen hundred War Gods. Their damage output was terrifying. A scale like this was normally only seen when dealing with a map-level BOSS. How could a king-level one possibly withstand such horrifying attacks?
But this was not the first time the Rat King had seen such a formation. The moment it appeared, it immediately burrowed underground, not giving the other side any chance to focus fire.
"The BOSS burrowed! Be careful!" someone shouted loudly.
Another reason the Rat King was so hard to kill was that if it burrowed alone, then for so many War Gods, it was not completely without solutions. They could track it through sound, changes in the ground, and other clues.
But the problem was that when the Rat King burrowed, a huge number of guards would burrow at the same time.
Especially the lord-tier ones. Their movements were massive. Once large numbers of guards burrowed underground, it became very hard to distinguish the Rat King's position.
After countless rat demons burrowed underground, many people could only feel the ground beneath their feet shaking, but had no idea where the rat demons were.
Moments later, at the edge of the Rat King's territory, the Rat King's massive body suddenly burst out of the ground.
At the instant it broke through the earth, the Rat King swung its thick arms violently. The sharp blades on its front claws instantly killed more than a dozen players who did not have time to dodge. At the same time, the moment it rushed out of the ground, it twisted its body, and its tail covered in spikes swept horizontally in a single strike.
Around its body, more than fifty people were immediately either killed outright or left severely injured and unable to get up!
And this was under the condition that all guilds had prepared in advance and deliberately spread out their positions!
Aside from the Rat King's terrifying lethality, the attacks from lord-tier and general-tier enemies also caused massive casualties.
Just as people were about to attack the rat demons, they immediately burrowed back underground again…
Fate was truly unpredictable. This time, the Rat King tunneled a thousand meters underground and went to the outer perimeter to kill players on the outskirts. Meanwhile, the originally more dangerous positions of Main God and Qingyun were instead not affected.
They only encountered attacks from elite-tier and normal-tier rat demons. But with so many War Gods in Qingyun, there were no casualties so far.
Moments later, the Rat King burst out of the ground again. After sweeping down a hundred people with a single earth-breaking strike, it burrowed back underground once more.
At this point, on the Rat King battlefield, the army of hundreds of thousands of people had fallen into a bitter fight right from the start.
The Rat King rarely stayed on the surface. Even though the War Gods of the four major guilds desperately pursued it, because they could not predict its position, every time the Rat King appeared, the damage they could deal was extremely limited.
Even more troublesome were those guard rat demons. Their fighting style was similar to the Rat King's. When encountering ones at general-tier or above, their lethality was just as astonishing, throwing the players into chaos.
Of course, the number of people participating in the Rat King battle was simply enormous. Their strength was all at fourth tier or above, with two to three thousand War Gods.
Even though the rat demons came and went like ghosts, players were still continuously killing rat demons.
The battle on both sides was extraordinarily brutal.
While the players were locked in a fierce battle with the Rat King and its guard rat demons, on the crown of a thick tree in the distance, someone was quietly watching everything.
Little Rascal stood on Jiang Kai's shoulder, while Jiang Kai stared intently at the battlefield.
"No wonder they got wiped out once before. The rat demons actually use tunnel warfare…"
"There's no way to track their movement routes. This makes them really hard to kill." Jiang Kai also frowned. "How many people have to die to grind the Rat King down!"
Although a king-level BOSS in a BOSS battle could be killed quickly, the real highlight of a BOSS battle was not the king-level BOSS. If so many people died at the king-level stage, it would very likely affect the final map BOSS and the Lord of the Guards.
"This Rat King is really crafty. It ignores the four major guilds and deliberately goes after the weaker ones first!"
At this moment, the little fellow grabbed Jiang Kai's ear and tugged at it.
"Ow, what are you doing!" Jiang Kai turned his head and looked at Little Rascal strangely.
"Zhi zhi zhi!" The little fellow waved its hands and feet, not knowing what it was saying.
Probably finding it too hard to express, the little fellow quickly plucked a leaf from behind Jiang Kai, placed it not far in front, then pointed at its own eyes.
It stared intently at the leaf, suddenly pounced on it, scratched it twice with its front claws, then swept it away with its tail…
Jiang Kai scratched his head, his brows tightly knit. This little actor seemed to be trying to tell him something.
The little fellow performed it again, then looked at Jiang Kai expectantly.
"You mean, before the earth-breaking strike, the Rat King locks onto a target first?"
The little fellow widened its eyes at Jiang Kai, then nodded furiously, as if saying, you actually guessed it right!
"Is that really the case?" Jiang Kai hurriedly observed the Rat King's movements.
This was very hard to confirm. After all, who the Rat King locked onto was something Jiang Kai could not know.
After more than an hour of fighting, the War Gods finally managed, with great difficulty, to push the Rat King into its first phase.
However, by this time, one fifth of the participating players had already been lost!
Facing the rat demons' burrowing, without any good solutions, people could only endure the horrific casualties head-on.
The Rat King's first phase was some kind of skill that enhanced its burrowing ability. Its movement underground became even faster, and its lethality greater.
Fortunately, the abilities of the other rat demons were not enhanced. Relying on the Rat King alone to kill hundreds of thousands of experts was impossible.
Now, the Rat King's goal was to kill as many players as possible, forcing them to retreat due to heavy losses. The players' task, meanwhile, was to grit their teeth and hold on, letting the War Gods grind down the Rat King's state.
Two hours later, the Rat King was worn down into its second phase.
"It's Hell Whirlwind! The Rat King's earth-breaking strike will cause large-scale ground collapse, dragging players within the area into the underground, then killing them there!" Some researchers hiding in trees shouted, doing their best to give the participating players some useful tips.
Although Hell Whirlwind enhanced the affected area of the Rat King's earth-breaking strike, at the same time, it actually made the Rat King easier to detect before it broke the ground.
The War Gods of the four major guilds seized this opportunity and went all out in dealing damage to the Rat King.
In just half an hour, the Rat King entered its third phase.
"Everyone hold on, it's the third phase!" Liu Yuanxiang shouted loudly.
In the third phase, Stealing the Heavens and Replacing the Sun, the Rat King did not need to fully emerge. It could directly extend its iron claws from underground and drag people away.
With the Rat King's size, a single grab meant more than a dozen people. Although the damage range was not as wide as Hell Whirlwind, it did not need to show itself. The War Gods could only attack its claws. It took a full three hours before the Rat King's two claws were finally injured, entering the fourth phase.
The fourth phase was also the final phase for the vast majority of king-level BOSSes. Even if some BOSSes had skills like Revenge, those would only be triggered in a near-death state.
Generally speaking, as long as the BOSS was killed in the fourth phase, the battle was considered a victory.
At this moment, casualties on the battlefield had already exceeded three quarters of the players!
Although the players had also hunted down large numbers of rat demons, among the seventeen lord-tier ones whose strength was second only to the Rat King, only four had been killed. Thirteen remained!
The War Gods of each guild were doing everything they could to protect their own members and dared not leave their teams lightly. Meanwhile, the main firepower of the four major guilds' War Gods was concentrated on the Rat King, which instead allowed those lord-tier rat demons to thrive like fish in water.
"It's the fourth phase!" An elder from an A-rank guild shouted loudly to the people around him. "Everyone pay attention. Demon Blood Boiling will activate the demon blood in all rat demons. All rat demon attributes will be boosted!"
However, at this very moment, the four major guilds simultaneously made their moves.
"Heavenly Hound Jade!" Dongfang Canghai let out a low shout, flung out a jade, and threw it to Dongfang Bai. He shouted to his own War Gods, "Bai'er, use the Heavenly Hound Jade well. You can control the BOSS's movements!"
The Elder of Tianchi also tossed a Heavenly Hound Jade to his own War God.
The Heavenly Hound Jade could track the Rat King's traces based on its scent. Whoever carried it could grasp the Rat King's movements.
Liu Yuanxiang snorted coldly. "As expected of ancient martial forces. There are only six Heavenly Hound Jades in total, and they actually have two of them! Dongfang Canghai and Li Weihong, those two old foxes, only reveal their trump cards now. Luckily, I also have a Heavenly Hound Jade! Chi God, you must seize the BOSS!"
After throwing out the Heavenly Hound Jade, Liu Yuanxiang glanced sideways at the positions of Main God and Qingyun not far away.
Under the command of He Shishi and others, with Hu Yan Ruan Yu and the rest providing support, and under the protection of Qingyun's War Gods, casualties on that side were very small.
Liu Yuanxiang snorted lightly. Another jade appeared in his hand. "Jiang Kai, not only will you fail to snatch the BOSS, I'll make you pay with your lives!"
"Feng Si, use the Succubus Jade to lure those lord-tier ones over to Main God's side!"
"In the Demon Blood Boiling state, even if you have a hundred War Gods, I'll still wipe you out completely!"