Lords of the Heavens

Chapter 272 The Duke's End
At this moment, it was as if Li Yue was using herself as bait to lure the Flame Duke into making a move!
She had to do it; there was no other way.

So she didn't dodge, and only had time to retract her four-star powerful bow before she took the full force of Duke Flame's attack.

In that instant, a mysterious light flashed across Li Yue's body, sparing her from Duke Flame's terrifying attack.

It's some kind of item, similar to the magic emblem on Li Wei's noble crest armor, which can grant immunity to instant-death attacks.

Almost simultaneously, Li Wei unleashed a rapid barrage of three armor-piercing arrows from his three-star warbler, aiming straight for the Flame Duke's third life core.

There's no escaping it; it's right here. This is both the core of his life and the core of his strongest attack.

But just as the three armor-piercing arrows pierced through, Duke Flame suddenly revealed his human form. The three arrows struck him squarely on the lower right side of his chest, yet not a drop of blood flowed. A mocking sneer played on his lips. He had anticipated Li Wei's prediction, because up to this point, he remained calm and possessed sufficient rationality.

He saw through Li Wei and the other two's scheme, so it wasn't impossible for him to turn the tables on them.

"Buzz!"

"Pfft!"

Duke Flame's mocking sneer remained on his face, but two thick steel armor-piercing spikes, no, no, no, those were just crossbow bolts from a siege crossbow!

The two crossbow bolts were fired by Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi.

Yes, Duke Flame thought Li Wei was the main attacker, but little did he know that he was the bait.

Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi, who initially appeared to be bait, were actually the main attackers.

The siege crossbow is stored in the resource card, pre-loaded, and can be taken out and fired instantly when needed, with great power!
This became even easier after Li Wei helped to roughly lock and outline the third life core of the Flame Duke.

"You...you...won. Fifteen years of the apocalypse, I held on for fifteen years. I thought I had found the path to evolution, I thought I would become a god...hehehe, I never expected this result...So tiring, once a year, like undergoing a tribulation. I really wanted to give up completely, but...there was a shackle, because I had to always remember that I am a human being...But now...hehe, I can finally let go. So tiring, but it's no longer relevant to me..."

"Quack quack..."

"Hoohoho!"

Duke Flame staggered and fell directly from the seventh floor, crashing into the ground with a loud thud, creating a large crater.

However, it is clear that a very strange change has occurred in him.

It was as if he had suddenly become two people, no, one person and one zombie.

The human part of him kept muttering about his experiences over the past fifteen years, his hardships, and his gradually fading obsession.

The zombie part of him kept growling, becoming increasingly ferocious, until it completely suppressed and tore apart the human part of Duke Flame.

His humanity as a human being was completely dead.

The next moment, dark flames suddenly ignited around Duke Flame. Under these flames, the surrounding radioactive toxic fog was absorbed by him at an astonishing speed, and his body began to mutate wildly and chaotically!

They even started sprouting heads from their bodies, like giant mushrooms!

At the same time, the Flame Duke zombie turned and ran, absorbing the radioactive fumes as it ran.

"Oh no! He's turned into a zombie!"

Liang Yuzhi exclaimed in surprise. Almost simultaneously, Li Wei and Li Yue had already drawn their bows and started firing. In just ten seconds, Li Wei fired sixteen arrows, while Li Yue fired nineteen arrows in ten seconds.

Arrows rained down, not only blasting apart all the newly grown heads, but also turning the zombie that was the Flame Duke into a hedgehog!
This is the fastest way because they are on the rooftop of the seventh floor, while the Duke zombie is below. The enemy is too fast, and without a barrage of arrows to block and suppress them, there is no chance to intercept them.

At this moment, Li Wei and Li Yue, having each expended a great deal of their energy, successfully kept the Duke zombie in place.

This also bought Liang Yuzhi time to launch an attack.

She had already jumped off the building several times to rush up, and as soon as the rain of arrows stopped, she rushed up and pierced Li Wei's bloodthirsty spear with a spear.

Only a four-star quality, sharp, enchanted weapon can inflict maximum armor-piercing damage on the Duke Zombie.

Yes, it only broke through the defenses.

At this moment, the Duke zombie was as hard as iron. Even with Li Wei's three-star war bow and Li Yue's four-star powerful bow, which were comparable to armor-piercing arrows from a siege crossbow, they could only penetrate less than ten centimeters into its body. Moreover, this was only possible by taking advantage of the process of the Duke zombie growing a human head.

In reality, just ten seconds later, the Duke zombie had already mastered the ultimate invulnerability technique, and arrows could no longer harm it.

"Ahhh!"

After frantically thrusting out a spear, Liang Yuzhi immediately realized something was wrong. She drew her Bloodthirsty Spear, took a step back, and with all her might, held the spear with both hands and thrust it into the Duke zombie's tailbone.

In an instant, the Bloodthirsty Spear pierced a full meter deep, but it was essentially rendered useless. There were only three chances to break through the armor!
"Roar!"

The Duke zombie felt no pain, nor was it affected at all; its strength was soaring with each second of ingested radioactive toxic fog.

Turning around abruptly, he was like a monstrous tiger with piercing eyes, pressing down on Liang Yuzhi with a gust of wind.

With the latter's reaction and speed, there was simply no way to dodge it!

The next second, the Duke zombie's huge mouth suddenly split open like a shark and bit down on Liang Yuzhi's head!
At this critical moment, Li Yue finally arrived, her blue greatsword flashing, the cross-shaped sword leaving a mark in mid-air.

The Duke zombie's head was severed.

But the next second, a barb resembling a scorpion's tail silently lashed out from the Duke zombie's tail, piercing Li Yue right through the heart.

With a whoosh, she was flung dozens of meters away.

Even if their heads are cut off, they remain completely unaffected.

"ah!"

Liang Yuzhi suddenly sprang into action, wielding two enchanted entrenching tools, but could only scrape off a few hairs from the Duke zombie's body...

She really didn't have any suitable weapons, and none of them could break through her defenses.

"Shhhhhh!"

The Duke zombie was slowly growing a new head while stabbing Liang Yuzhi repeatedly with its long, barbed tail, causing her to break out in a cold sweat. She could only barely block the attacks, and the once-powerful five-star crippled boss was now truly crippled.

She's so arrogant! If only she had forged a weapon for herself a few months earlier!

Fortunately, Li Wei finally managed to find a way out.

He didn't rush up with Li Yue, partly because his attributes were slightly inferior and his speed was slower, and partly because he activated the Tracker title in an attempt to find the remaining two life cores of the Duke zombie.

Without finding the life core, everything is for nothing. However, ever since this Duke zombie began frantically absorbing the radioactive fog and its body became as hard as iron, the life core has become even more difficult to hide.

Even with Li Wei's perception at +3, he still had difficulty catching up with her; he was completely clueless.

It was also thanks to Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi who fought desperately against the Duke zombie that its life core underwent a slight change, which was extremely difficult.

Especially after he switched to the Rat Exterminator title, the damage caused to him by the radioactive fumes was terrifying.

At this moment, when Li Wei finally caught a slight fluctuation of the life core, he accelerated and sprinted without hesitation, even if he bled from all seven orifices, even if his lungs and trachea felt like they had been filled with a bucket of concentrated sulfuric acid!

The pain was like a landslide or a tsunami.

But it didn't affect him in the slightest. In the blink of an eye, he rushed behind the Duke zombie and unleashed a powerful split!
It was split from the back of its head all the way down to its tailbone.

It forms a vertical line!
Previously, Liang Yuzhi had actually sensed the approximate location of the Duke zombie's life core, but she had too little time to properly sense it. It's like having an ultrasound; a cursory glance and a careful examination yield completely different results.

Unless you have a significant advantage!

As a result, even though she pierced the Duke zombie's tailbone, his life core managed to evade her attack.

"boom!"

Like a sledgehammer striking, the 25-pound two-handed greatsword in Li Wei's hand truly played a crucial role at this moment, not only because of its weight, but also because it had been enhanced once before and was already a four-star weapon with special properties.

Even though the Duke zombie's body was as hard as iron, Li Wei still managed to cleave it in two with a single sword strike!
Its fourth life core was completely destroyed!
However, there is a fifth life core!

Unfortunately, Li Wei had exhausted his power at this moment. He didn't even have time to finish off the enemy, and it was too late. The next second, the fifth life core inside the corpse that had been split in two exploded and was instantly blasted into hundreds or thousands of fragments. Some of these fragments turned into flame bats and tried to fly away, but they were quickly merged into the radiation toxic fog.

Immediately, eerie roars came from all directions. The fragments of the Flame Duke's exploded body transformed into various bizarre little things under the influence of the radioactive toxic fog. They began to grow wildly, devouring and merging with the level 4 ability users, and fighting each other.

Visibly, it looked as if vortexes were forming, sucking away large amounts of radioactive fumes, and the city streets that had been shrouded in them began to see the light of day again.

But instead, nine Level 5 radiation zombies suddenly appeared in the city.

The only good news is that they are all standard-grade.

"Xiaoyue! Xiaoyue!"

Liang Yuzhi dragged the seriously injured Li Yue back like a madwoman, and with Li Wei protecting her, they rushed into a building. As soon as they entered, two level 5 radiation zombies chased after them.

There was nothing more to say; Li Wei and Liang Yuzhi mustered their remaining strength and each faced off against one of them.

But when facing a common level 5 radiation zombie, Liang Yuzhi is truly able to differentiate herself from him.

She was even able to hold her own against the level 5 irradiated zombie with her broken, enchanted shovel, and occasionally even manage to gain a slight advantage.

Li Wei was firstly exhausted, secondly lacking in basic attributes, and thirdly with Li Yue right behind him, leaving him nowhere to retreat and unable to maneuver or fight. In the end, he was forced to rely on the magic runes of his noble crest armor to block fatal attacks twice in a row before he could quickly kill her.

Holding Li Yue, who was barely breathing and on the verge of death, he rushed over and pressed her against the golden light of the omnipotent gold card. Li Wei's head and face were covered in blood mixed with sweat, making him look extremely disheveled.

This battle was truly devastating; he almost suffered a complete defeat.

In the blink of an eye, the light of the all-powerful gold card dimmed, and Li Yue, who had almost had a transparent hole ripped out of her stomach, finally slowly woke up. She looked at Li Wei with complicated eyes, gently wiped the blood off his face, and then leaped up, took Li Wei's two-handed heavy sword, and snatched a head from Liang Yuzhi in an instant.

Then, without even glancing at the slowly forming universal gold card, he threw the two-handed greatsword directly at it. At that moment, he seemed to have been reborn from the ashes, radiant and exuding heroic spirit!

"Brother, congratulations! Although there's no such thing as a Rookie King in the pioneering missions, I believe that after today's battle, your name will be known to everyone in the Duchy of Ver! I'm sure someone will regret this."

That's a bit of a no-no, but in this combat situation, the standard for no-no is greatly lowered, so it doesn't really matter.

Perhaps Li Yue was just expressing her feelings.

Because she even gave the middle finger to the sky—who was she trying to impress?

it goes without saying.

Next, she took out her four-star powerful bow and rushed out in a flash, while Liang Yuzhi lightly touched the universal gold card to replenish her status and also followed suit.

Their time for slaughter has come.

Meanwhile, in the distance, at the central building, the sounds of fighting and roars were in complete chaos as more Level 5 radiation zombies were besieging the area!
However, as Li Yue said, the most difficult time has passed.

The luxurious perks of this battle are beckoning to him.

That's right, it's basically settled.

Li Wei breathed a slight sigh of relief, reached out and put away the two universal gold cards, and exchanged them for two silver-level clearance tokens. That's right, level 5 universal gold cards!
Outside, there should be seven more universal gold cards waiting for him to collect.

He doesn't even need to participate in the war.

Because Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi finally had a chance to dominate the weaker opponents.

Thomas, Leon, Zhao Xuanxuan, Zhang Jinjun, and He Yuying successfully used the terrain to hold off and kill two level 5 ordinary radiation zombies. Meanwhile, Li Yue had already killed three zombies, and Liang Yuzhi had killed two.

The whole process took less than three minutes.

All Li Weizhen needed to do was follow behind and pick up the universal gold cards.

He exchanged the first four universal gold cards for silver tokens. He gave the fifth one to Li Wei to enhance his three-star war bow and three-star dagger. He gave the sixth universal gold card to Liang Yuzhi, as she needed a suitable weapon.

To Li Wei's dismay, Liang Yuzhi casually upgraded the two-star enchanted shovel, though it was upgraded to four stars, which was acceptable.

The seventh universal gold card was given to Leon to further enhance his codename and two-handed greatsword, upgrading them to a four-star enchanted greatsword with special properties.

The eighth universal gold card was given to Zhao Xuanxuan to enhance her destiny title and her two-star iron hammer, upgrading it to a four-star enchanted hammer with special properties.

The last card was given to Thomas to enhance his codename and his three-star blank steel tower shield, upgrading it directly to a four-star enchanted heavy shield with special properties. That's right, Li Wei even gave away the shield.

At this point, Thomas, Leon, and Zhao Xuanxuan could be considered core players in the Ministry of the Interior.

Regardless of whether they were slacking off or made any significant contributions in this battle, Li Wei allocated them this way, not only because they were allies in their own camp, but also as the greatest recognition of their hard work over the past four months.

The three of them truly deserve credit for the scavenging camp's current success.

Therefore, he deserves a generous reward!

(End of this chapter)