The horde slowly thinned: 40 warriors... 30... 20...
Then the Whispering King acted.
It raised its staff, and dark energy gathered around the skull topper. The remaining skeletal warriors suddenly moved faster, hit harder, their eye sockets blazing brighter.
[DARK EMPOWERMENT CAST]
[All minions: +50% Attack Speed, +100% Damage]
"Shit!" Max barely dodged a sword strike that would have taken his head off. The empowered warriors were suddenly deadly.
One of his shadow slaves took massive damage from three simultaneous attacks.
-287 HP! (Slave #1)
-312 HP! (Slave #1)
-298 HP! (Slave #1)
[Shadow Slave #1: DESTROYED]
The slave exploded in dark energy.
[DETONATION: 300 AOE DAMAGE]
The explosion caught six skeletal warriors, destroying them instantly. But Max was now down to one slave, and the empowered warriors kept coming.
Max activated Voidreaver's special ability.
[ABYSSAL EDGE – ACTIVATED]
[Next 3 attacks ignore all armor and deal pure damage]
[Cooldown: 60 seconds]
His blade turned pure black, crackling with void energy. Max struck the nearest warrior.
-2,000 HP! (Pure damage)
[Damned Warrior defeated!]
Each strike one-shot an enemy. Three warriors fell in seconds.
The tide turned. Between Max's enhanced attacks, Night's sustained assault, and the remaining shadow slave's chaos, they cleared the last of the skeleton horde.
[LEGION OF THE DAMNED – DEFEATED]
Max stood panting, surrounded by bone fragments, his stamina at 143/410, his MP at 550/750.
The Whispering King finally stood from its throne.
"IMPRESSIVE," the boss said, its voice seeping into Max's mind like poison. "BUT THE TRUE BATTLE NOW BEGINS."
[PHASE 2 ACTIVATED]
[THE WHISPERING KING ENGAGES]
The boss moved with terrifying speed for something so large. Its staff swept horizontally, and Max barely Shadow Stepped away in time. The attack carved a trench in the stone floor.
Night charged in, striking at the King's legs. His Blade connected, but the damage was minimal.
-89 HP!
[The Whispering King: 34,911/35,000 HP]
The boss had massive defense. This was going to be a war of attrition.
The Whispering King's staff came down like a meteor. Max rolled aside, the impact forming massive hole where he'd been standing. Debris pelted him.
-67 HP! (Debris damage)
[MaxThorne: 553/620 HP]
Max countered with a flurry of strikes, Voidreaver's blade finding gaps in the boss's ribcage. The Void Strike passive triggered.
[Void Strike Activated]
-2,347 HP! (500% weapon damage)
[Target Defense reduced by 50% for 5 seconds]
Now! While the defense was reduced!
Max unleashed everything. His attacks came faster, harder, each strike dealing significant damage while the debuff was active.
-789 HP!
-834 HP!
-812 HP!
Night and the remaining shadow slave capitalized on the opening, their combined assault brutal.
Five seconds of enhanced damage before the boss's defense returned to normal.
[The Whispering King: 28,627/35,000 HP]
The King roared—a sound that wasn't voice but pure energy. Dark waves rippled outward from its body.
[SOUL SCREAM]
The attack hit everyone.
-234 HP! (Max)
[MaxThorne: 319/620 HP]
-187 HP! (Night)
[Night: 693/880 HP]
-298 HP! (Slave #2)
[Shadow Slave #2: 202/500 HP]
Max drank a health potion while Shadow Stepping away.
[Health Potion consumed]
[+200 HP]
[MaxThorne: 519/620 HP]
The battle settled into a brutal rhythm. The Whispering King was slower than Max but hit like a truck. Each attack required perfect dodging or blocking.
20,000 HP... 15,000 HP... 10,000 HP...
Then the boss hit the phase transition.
[PHASE 3 ACTIVATED]
[THE KING'S FINAL GAMBIT]
The Whispering King slammed its staff into the ground, and the entire chamber went dark. Every torch extinguished simultaneously. The only light came from Night's blue flame eyes and the sickly green glow of the boss's runes.
[DARKNESS ABSOLUTE]
[Visibility reduced to 5 meters]
[Sanity loss immunity BYPASSED]
[SANITY: 64/100]
[SANITY: 58/100]
[SANITY: 52/100]
Max's sanity meter plummeted despite the helmet's protection. The whispers became a roar—thousands of voices screaming incomprehensible words directly into his mind.
Through the darkness, he saw phantoms. Shadows of people who weren't there, reaching for him with ghostly hands.
[HALLUCINATION DEBUFF APPLIED]
[Accuracy -30%]
[Perception -50%]
Max couldn't see where the boss was clearly. The hallucinations made it impossible to distinguish real threats from imaginary ones.
A massive attack came from his left—Max tried to dodge but moved too slow, his perception warped.
-423 HP!
[MaxThorne: 96/620 HP]
One more hit would kill him.
Max drank his last health potion, his hands shaking.
[Health Potion consumed]
[+200 HP]
[MaxThorne: 296/620 HP]
He couldn't see. Couldn't think clearly. The whispers were overwhelming, the hallucinations constant.
But through the bond, he could still feel Night. Feel the shadow slave. They weren't affected by the sanity loss—they didn't have sanity to lose.
Fight for me, Max commanded through the bond. I'll guide you.
Max closed his eyes. Stopped trying to see with his vision, which was compromised. Instead, he relied purely on the connection to his summons.
Through Night's senses, he perceived the battlefield. Through the shadow slave's alien perception, he saw enemy positions.
It was disorienting—seeing through multiple viewpoints simultaneously—but it worked.
Max directed his summons. Night struck from the left while the slave attacked from the right. Max himself stayed defensive, Shadow Stepping away from attacks he sensed coming through his summons' warnings.
The Whispering King's health dropped: 8,000... 6,000... 4,000...
Max's sanity hit critical levels.
[SANITY: 23/100]
[CRITICAL SANITY LOSS]
[WARNING: Character may enter PANIC state]
The hallucinations intensified. Max saw his father standing in the darkness, beckoning to him. Saw his mother screaming in terror. Saw himself lying dead on the ground.
None of it was real. But it felt real.
Focus. The boss is almost dead. Just hold on.
2,000 HP... 1,500 HP... 1,000 HP...
The shadow slave took a massive hit from the King's staff and exploded.
[Shadow Slave #2: DESTROYED]
[DETONATION: 300 AOE DAMAGE]
The explosion hit the boss point-blank.
[The Whispering King: 700/35,000 HP]
Just Night and Max now. Both barely alive, both fighting through debuffs and darkness, both refusing to give up.
Max opened his eyes—or thought he did, he couldn't tell anymore if his eyes were open or closed—and saw a faint outline of the boss through the hallucinations.
He activated Shadow Step one final time, teleporting directly to the boss's back, and drove Voidreaver into the base of the Whispering King's skull with everything he had left.
CRITICAL HIT!
-847 HP!
Night struck simultaneously from the front, its Shadowforged Blade piercing the boss's ribcage.
-512 HP!
The Whispering King froze.
The darkness lifted. The torches reignited. The whispers stopped.
[THE WHISPERING KING – DEFEATED]