Chapter 35: [35] : The Eclipse Strike, Absolute Execution

The Ashen Bog echoed with the sickening sounds of tearing flesh and clashing metal.

Declan ducked under a massive swipe from the Wendigo. The razor-sharp bone claws missed his head by an inch, slicing through the thick toxic fog behind him.

Declan immediately stepped forward, driving his +20 Carnage Cleaver into the monster’s thigh.

Schwing!

Another splash of dark digital blood painted the mud.

[Hemorrhage stack applied. Current stacks: 4. Total Drain: 200 HP/sec]

The Wendigo shrieked in anger. It lashed out with its foot, kicking Declan squarely in the chest.

The impact was brutal. Declan felt the air leave his lungs. He was launched backward, his boots skidding across the wet stones.

He kept his balance, but his health bar took another serious hit.

[HP: 45 / 100]

Declan coughed, spitting a glob of blood into the mud.

The +10 Predator’s Coat was doing absolute wonders to keep him from being sliced in half, but the Level 40 boss hit with so much raw kinetic force that the blunt trauma was slowly tenderizing his insides.

He looked at the Wendigo’s health bar.

[HP: 138,000 / 150,000]

"This is taking too long," Declan muttered, wiping his mouth.

The Hemorrhage stacks were draining the monster’s health at a decent rate, but the boss was getting faster.

Its attack patterns were getting more frantic and desperate as the unblockable bleed effect slowly melted its code.

Declan knew he couldn’t keep this up. If he took three more solid hits, he was going to die.

He needed to end this right now. He needed a burst finisher.

He could snap his fingers and trigger the Blood Burst trait to consume all the bleed stacks for instant damage, but even that wouldn’t clear over a hundred thousand hit points.

He needed an execution skill. Something designed to completely delete a target when they were weakened.

Declan kept his eyes locked on the pacing Wendigo. The monster was circling him and waiting for an opening.

Without looking away, Declan pulled up his system interface using his mind. He rapidly scrolled through his digital inventory.

He bypassed the stacks of raw iron, the piles of copper coins, and the useless rusted swords he had looted from the Black Vanguard earlier.

’Come on, come on. Where is it?’ he thought.

There. A cheap gray-tier skill book he had picked up off a random rogue player.

[Skill Book: Shadow Strike]

↳ Type: Active Skill

↳ Description: Consume 25 Stamina to deliver a strike from the shadows. Deals 150% base physical damage.

It was a completely average and boring rogue skill. But Declan didn’t care about the base stats. He cared about what his SSS-Rank Talent could turn it into.

"System," Declan commanded instantly. "Learn Shadow Strike. Then enhance it. Push it to plus twenty. Burn whatever points it takes."

He had over three hundred thousand Origin Points sitting in his treasury. He didn’t care about the cost.

The gray book materialized in his hand for a split second before breaking into tiny lights that absorbed directly into his chest.

[Skill Learned: Shadow Strike Level 1]

Immediately, the familiar blinding headache hit him.

He wished he has done this earlier.

The system enhancement alarms blared in his head, screaming about safety thresholds and neural corruption.

Declan gritted his teeth and forced his Boundless Enhancement talent to crush the warning boxes.

[System Enhancement Initiated]

↳ Shadow Strike +5... +10... +15...

[Talent Activated. Cap Removed.]

↳ Shadow Strike +20.

[Triggering Conceptual Mutation...]

The headache vanished. The digital text in his vision shifted from standard blue to a deep menacing purple.

[Skill Mutated: Absolute Execution]

↳ Type: Active Skill

↳ Description: Consume 50 Stamina to deliver a fatal blow. If the target’s HP is below 20%, this strike ignores all physical defense, magical barriers, invulnerability frames, and concepts of immortality. Deals instant, unavoidable death. If target HP is above 20%, deals standard 150% damage.

Declan let out a sharp dark laugh.

"Instant death under twenty percent," Declan whispered. "Perfect."

He just needed to get the Wendigo’s health down to 30,000 HP.

The monster stopped circling. It let out a deafening roar and lunged at him again, closing the distance in the blink of an eye.

Declan didn’t retreat. He met the charge head-on.

He used his high agility to slip inside the monster’s chaotic swings. He became a blur of black leather and red steel.

He slashed at the monster’s knees. He sliced its forearms. He dragged the Carnage Cleaver across its ribs.

He didn’t care about doing massive base damage. He just needed to apply as many Hemorrhage stacks as physically possible.

Every cut was a new geyser of dark blood.

[Hemorrhage stack applied. Current stacks: 12. Total Drain: 600 HP/sec]

The Wendigo was practically bathing the swamp in its own blood. It shrieked in blind fury.

It abandoned all logic and just started throwing wild massive haymakers.

One of the massive bony fists clipped Declan’s shoulder.

Declan spun hard, crashing to his knees in the mud.

[HP: 22 / 100]

His vision flashed red. He was one hit away from a permanent logout.

’Void Blink,’ Declan thought.

He vanished from the mud, teleporting ten meters backward to buy himself some breathing room. He checked the boss’s health bar.

It was dropping like a stone from the massive bleed drain.

[HP: 35,000 / 150,000]

It was almost there. Just a few more seconds.

"Kill him!" Silas screamed from the sidelines. The corporate commander was losing his mind. "He’s at low health! Finish him!"

The Wendigo charged again. It wasn’t fast anymore. Its legs were chopped up, and the bleeding was taking its toll.

But it was still a Level 40 massive threat.

Declan watched the health bar tick down. 33,000. 31,000.

[HP: 29,800 / 150,000]

It dipped below the twenty percent threshold.

The Wendigo leaped, its jaws opened wide, aiming to bite Declan’s head clean off.

Declan didn’t dodge. He stood his ground. He held the Carnage Cleaver low.

He needed the boss to stop moving for exactly one second to land the finisher perfectly. He needed to lock it in place.

Declan purposely raised his left shoulder and stepped into the monster’s jaw.

Crunch!

The Wendigo bit down hard on his shoulder.

The +10 Predator’s Coat groaned as the jagged teeth failed to pierce the leather, but the sheer crushing force of the jaws locked Declan in place.

Searing pain shot down his arm.

Declan didn’t scream. He just smiled right into the monster’s glowing red eyes.

"Got you," Declan whispered.

The Carnage Cleaver glowed with a suffocating pitch-black energy.

"Absolute Execution."

Declan swung the cleaver upward in a tight brutal arc. The blade didn’t meet any resistance.

The system code recognized the skill, recognized the threshold, and simply deleted the monster’s physical durability.

The red and black blade sliced cleanly through the Wendigo’s thick neck.

The massive deer skull was severed completely!

It popped off the monster’s shoulders, spinning through the air before landing with a wet thud in the mud.

The headless body froze. The jaws locked on Declan’s shoulder slowly went slack.

The massive monster slumped backward and crashed into the swamp.

[Corporate Sealed Boss: Blood-Crazed Wendigo Defeated!]

[Experience Points Gained: 80,000]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[You are now Level 14.]

Declan rubbed his sore shoulder and let out a long breath.

He looked down at the massive corpse as it instantly broke apart into millions of bright blue digital pixels.

Total silence fell over the Ashen Bog again.

The remaining seven hundred Apex Hounds were completely paralyzed with shock.

They had just watched a guy wearing trash-tier looking gear face-tank a Level 40 Corporate Boss and chop its head off in a melee brawl!

They didn’t wait for orders. The morale of the corporate death squad completely collapsed.

Hundreds of players turned around and started sprinting into the toxic fog, desperately using teleportation scrolls and running away in absolute terror.

Silas didn’t freeze. The moment his ultimate trump card turned into pixels, his professional demeanor completely broke. He turned and sprinted toward the toxic fog with the rest of his men.

He didn’t make it five steps.

Back on the wall of the Iron Bastion, Kendra pulled the bowstring of her +10 Sniper Bow tight. She peered through the glowing red scope.

The True Sight trait locked onto Silas’s retreating back with perfect, infinite-range accuracy. She released the string.

Thwack!

The black composite arrow tore across the battlefield and pinned itself directly into the back of Silas’s right knee.

Silas shrieked. His leg buckled instantly. The corporate commander crashed hard into the swamp, sliding face-first through the muck.

He frantically tried to push himself back up to keep running, but his ruined leg wouldn’t support his weight. He was forced right back down onto his knees in the dirt.

Declan slowly walked over to him. The Carnage Cleaver hung loosely from his right hand, dripping with digital blood.

"Wait," Silas gasped, holding up his hands. His voice was completely stripped of its arrogant robotic tone. He sounded like a terrified child.

"Wait. We can make a deal. Apex Paradigm has billions in real-world assets. We can offer you shares! A board seat! Just... just let me log out!"

Declan stopped in front of him. He looked down at the pathetic corporate enforcer.

"You guys really only have one script," Declan said coldly. "You act tough, you throw numbers at a problem, and when it doesn’t work, you try to buy your way out."

"Please!" Silas begged. "It was just business! Director Sterling ordered the hit! I was just following company protocol!"

Declan raised the cleaver.

"I don’t care about your company protocol," Declan said, his dark eyes empty of any mercy. "Tell Sterling he can’t afford me."

Declan swung the blade.

Schwing.

Silas’s head hit the mud. His avatar broke into pixels a second later.

Declan stood alone on the battlefield. The siege was over. He had won.