The Abyssal Dragon screamed.
It's battlecry shook the obsidian walls of the sanctum and sent hairline fractures crawling across the floor. It had been wounded and it knew the only possible thing it could do right now was to rage.
Ethan didn't flinch.
He stood at the center of the formation with his eyes tracking the dragon's every movement, the way its left wing dragged slightly where Seraphia had pierced it in the second phase, the rhythmic stuttering of its breath that deflected a flame burst three seconds before it happened.
He knew this creature too well, it was his fifth time fighting this same boss.
[BOSS: Abyssal Dragon — HP 2%]
With how low the health was Ethan couldn't help but grin, this was their only chance at defeating this beast.
"Seraphia handle the left flank, keep the aggro!" he called.
She nodded and immediately moved according to Ethan's command. The knight heroine drove her lance into the dragon's wounded wing joint and twisted it.
Her silver hair whipped across her face with her boots grinding against the cracked stone floor. Her armor was split down the left side, the enchantment on it long since shattered.
She was running on nothing but stubbornness and sheer will.
[Seraphia — HP: 18%]
"I'm aware of my HP, thank you," she said through gritted teeth.
The dragon's tail whipped sideways. Ethan threw himself back and felt the shockwave of displaced air slam into his chest even from a distance. Behind him, he heard a crash.
"Lyria!"
The mage was already picking herself up from the rubble, her white robe was torn at the shoulder and her expression was somewhere between irritated and exhausted.
She raised her staff and sent a volley of condensed light bolts into the dragon's underbell relentlessly.
[Lyria — MP: 4% | Basic Attack Only]
It seemed to have little effect but she didn't stop.
The dragon's chest began to glow.
That deep, pulsing amber light pooling behind its ribcage, Ethan recognized it immediately.
[Third phase flame burst]
He had seen it kill his entire party twice before he had learned the timing.
"Everyone MOVE —"
[ABYSSAL INFERNO — CHARGING]
Seraphia leapt clear. Lyria threw up a half-formed barrier that shattered on contact but bought her half a second. Ethan rolled hard to the right with his shoulder hitting a stone, the heat from the blast washed over him like opening an oven door from the inside.
He came up on one knee.
Across the sanctum, through the smoke and the settling ash, he saw the dragon stumble.
[ABYSSAL DRAGON — HP: 2% → 2%]
It's health was still at two percent, he couldn't help but smile helplessly.
He almost laughed.
"Okay," he muttered, standing. "Okay. We have to finish this now." He looked across the battlefield. Seraphia was back on her feet with her lance raised, waiting for his call.
Lyria was already repositioning her self with her staff glowing with what little she had left. "Together. Don't stop until it drops."
The dragon locked eyes with him.
Then it inhaled.
[WARNING: ABYSSAL CORE OVERLOAD — ENRAGE TRIGGERED]
The amber glow exploded into white. The entire sanctum lit up like a second sun.
Ethan had exactly one second to register that the dragon had bypassed its own attack pattern entirely which was something it was never supposed to do.
And then the world went white.
[PARTY WIPE]
[ETHAN CROFT — DEFEATED]
---
The game over screen was bright blood red which left a bitter taste in Ethan's mouth. A dark crimson with the Ethereal Covenant logo fading in at the center, and below it in clean silver text:
[Would you like to return to the last checkpoint?]
Ethan stared at it.
He had spent six hours on that run. Six hours, three phase transitions, two full party wipes before this one, and an embarrassing amount of consumables. And it had gone off script.
The Abyssal Dragon had gone off script in the final two percent and wiped them with a move that wasn't in any guide or any forum post, any of the three hundred hours he had put into this game.
He pulled off his headset and set it on the desk.
He then picked up his energy drink only to find it empty and set it back down with a sigh.
"Uninstalling," he said to no one.
He reached for the mouse and uninstalled the game with a blink.
---
The first thing he saw after blinking was grass which was cool asn slightly damp against his cheek
Ethan lay completely still for a moment, staring at a blade of grass approximately two centimeters from his left eye.
Beyond it, he could see cobblestones and beyond that, silver-barked trees and beyond that, a stone gate carved with a crossed blade and an open palm.
He recognized that gate.
He sat up slowly and ooked around then loked down at his hands.
Then he looked back at the gate.
This was Celestine Academy, the main entrance of the academy to be exact.
A long silence passed.
"…I wasn't actually going to uninstall the game," he said quietly but nobody answered.
A group of students in academy uniforms walked past him without a second glance, chatting about their class assignments.
Ethan stood and brushed the grass off his sleeves, he was a webnovel geek so he knew a lot of stories like transmigration although he was still a little confused he could handle it better.
With a thought of his mind he opened the system panel.
```
ETHEREAL COVENANT
─────────────────
Name : Ethan Croft
Age : 21
Level : 1
Class : ??? [LOCKED]
Subclass : ??? [LOCKED]
─────────────────
Status : NEW ARRIVAL
Location : Celestine Academy Outskirts
```
[Locked.]
He closed the panel and fell into step with the crowd heading through the gate.
"Whatever..."