Chapter 126: Yes, I Am the MT

With a forceful shove of his shield, Lei Ming knocked the Death Knight to the ground and shouted, "I’ve unleashed all my hero skills; I can crowd-control him for about five seconds. Everyone else with hard CC skills, get ready to follow up with stuns!"

Chu Cheng, standing closest, immediately activated the Wild Might of the Orc Warlord necklace, boosting his physical attack by 100. He then vanished into thin air. One second later, he bypassed the undead encirclement through the Ethereal Plane, reappearing directly behind the Death Knight. With a precise thrust, he drove his blade into a gap in the knight's head and chest armor, triggering a massive burst of damage.

He then unleashed a flurry of sword strikes, frantically stacking the movement and attack speed bonuses of his "Bloodthirsty Soul."

Bloodthirsty Soul (Level 1, Top Tier): Passive. Each hit on a target increases movement speed by 10 and attack speed by 10% for 20 seconds.
Note: Bloodthirsty Soul can stack up to 20 times. Each time damage is taken, the duration is refreshed.

With his current agility, his attack speed was already high, base-lining at over two strikes per second. After a few casual hits, he stacked the effect quickly, effortlessly unleashing three or four strikes in rapid succession. The faster his attack speed, the faster the skill effects stacked, reaching over a dozen layers in just three or four seconds.

"Time Lock!"

The blistering attack speed successfully triggered his hero passive. During the one second the Death Knight was frozen, Chu Cheng unleashed five frantic strikes, each landing as a triple critical hit that ignored both defense and magic resistance. In that single second, he dealt over ten thousand points of terrifying damage.

Only five seconds had passed, but Bloodthirsty Soul had already reached its maximum stack, granting +200 movement speed and +200% attack speed. He could now land up to seven strikes per second—only one fewer than a Level 5 Frenzy.

The five seconds passed in a flash, but the mage in Lei Ming’s team decisively activated a hero skill, summoning a ghostly light-form that shackled the Death Knight firmly in place. Two seconds later, Time Lock triggered again. In an instant, another fifteen thousand damage was dealt.

"What the hell!" Shi Chen, standing nearby, stared with his mouth agape at the absurd damage numbers popping up over the Death Knight, his face full of shock. "Aren't you a tank?"

No one answered. Chu Cheng was fully immersed in the slaughter, his hands moving so fast they left afterimages as he jabbed repeatedly at the Death Knight. It had to be said that magic-based crowd control was superior; while it took all three of Lei Ming’s skills to lock the target for five seconds, a single mage hero skill could do the same.

In the ninth second of Chu Cheng’s relentless assault, Time Lock triggered for the third time. During these seven strikes, Chu Cheng was surprised to find that a fourth Time Lock triggered mid-sequence. The time-stop effects stacked, freezing the enemy for two full seconds. Fourteen strikes landed, evaporating over 30,000 health in an instant. Including the previous waves and the non-triggered hits, Chu Cheng had dealt a staggering 68,000 damage in just ten seconds—over a third of the Death Knight’s total health.

In the meantime, the others hadn't been idle; they unleashed all their burst damage, carving off nearly 80,000 more of the Death Knight's health. With a total loss of 148,000 HP, the Death Knight was instantly driven into a critical state.

As the ten-second hard CC ended, the Death Knight, with only 37,000 health remaining, reared up along with his Nightmare Steed. A surge of gray-white energy exploded from his body as he entered a berserk state, spinning around to sweep his lance at Chu Cheng. Having dealt the most damage, Chu Cheng had drawn the highest aggro.

Reflexively, Chu Cheng braced his swords. With a thunderous *clang*, he was sent flying, crashing into a wall a dozen meters away. The Death Knight pressed the attack, his gray-white death aura exploding outward to knock Lei Ming and the surrounding undead aside. The death energy coalesced into a giant spectral knight, which quickly merged into the knight's lance.

"Fortify!"
"Shunt!"

Facing an intense threat of death, Chu Cheng decisively activated his life-saving skills and downed a bottle of high-potency healing potion. The next second, the gargantuan figure struck like lightning. The death-infused lance pierced his armor, pinning him to the castle wall and dealing over 3,000 damage instantly.

Fortify took effect. Shunt did not.

Chu Cheng immediately swallowed the potion he had been holding in his mouth, a green "+5000" floating above him. The next second, the lance’s death aura detonated, dealing another 3,200 damage. A gray skull icon manifested above his head, accompanied by a rapid succession of minor damage ticks. Fortunately, the "Time Force" from his hero specialization, which permeated his body every 30 seconds, washed over him, cleansing the skull icon.

Only then did the others react. "Save him!"

Zhang Chaosheng and Shi Chen charged simultaneously, interrupting the Death Knight’s combo. Both activated their hero skills, forcing the Death Knight into a stun and knockback. Chu Cheng seized the opportunity to pull himself free from the lance and, ignoring his wounds, dove back into the fray.

This time, the group did not dare to be careless, cycling their hard CC skills. When Chu Cheng triggered his fifth Time Lock, a final burst of damage drained the last of the Death Knight’s health. As the time-bending energy faded, both the Death Knight and his Nightmare Steed crumbled into ash, leaving behind a glowing purple loot chest.

With the Death Knight dead, everyone let out a sigh of relief. He had been the greatest threat in the vicinity; the other minor bosses were merely elite templates and posed little danger.

At that moment, a funerary bell tolled from the center of the fortress, and the surrounding undead began to retreat. Though puzzled by this abnormal behavior, the group was glad for the reprieve and naturally chose not to pursue. As the last of the undead figures vanished, everyone sat down to rest. Exhausted from the battle, they had no energy left to chase them anyway.

Shi Chen walked over to Chu Cheng, looking puzzled. "Brother Chu Cheng, I have a question. Are you a tank or a DPS?"

Chu Cheng chuckled. "Does it make a difference?"

"No difference, I'm just curious."

"If you ask, I'm a tank. DPS roles don't get the subsidy."

Shi Chen’s mouth twitched, and he gave a thumbs-up. "Nice."

They rested, replenished their stats, and waited for skill cooldowns. After about ten minutes, with most hero skills nearly recharged, Lei Ming tapped his shield and shouted, "Come on, brothers, let's push hard! There's one last big boss."

"The final boss is a Necromancer. With the support of the Necro-Tower, even without enough death mana to cast war spells, the tower itself buffs all of the Necromancer's spells. If we don't have damage reduction, some of his ultimate moves can one-shot us. He's extremely difficult to deal with."

"I've cleared the Cursed Fortress twice before. Our strategy is to use the war machines on the walls to..."

As Lei Ming was discussing tactics, someone pointed to the rings of necromantic mana rising in circles around the Necro-Tower deep within the fortress and shouted, "Watch out, the boss is casting!"

Lei Ming looked up, and his expression changed instantly. He jumped to his feet and shouted, "Bad news! Fall back, now!"

"That’s not a spell—the Necromancer is sacrificing those undead to convert them into mana!"

Although Chu Cheng didn't understand the mechanics, he saw everyone else bolting, so he ran for his life as well.