Inside the world of Helheim in the game YGGDRASIL.
The air thundered as two massive entities engaged in a fierce struggle.
A closer look revealed two giant dragons.
The sound of their collisions echoed through the sky, and brilliant magic illuminated the heavens.
In the distance, a skeleton could be seen casting spells.
[Niennils, Wing of the End]
As a hidden World Boss, it possessed unparalleled defense and attack power.
Under normal circumstances, conquering such an entity required a double-digit number of players.
Even the rarest class, [World Champion], lacked the ability to solo such a monster.
Yet, in the final hours before YGGDRASIL’s shutdown, this World Boss—which should have been quietly awaiting the end—found itself facing two challengers in a life-and-death struggle.
“ROAR!!”
With a deafening cry, a massive magic circle manifested before Niennils.
A surge of immense energy erupted from its maw.
Both players were familiar with this move.
As the innate magic of all dragon-kin, the Dragon Breath—or Roar—was the most common skill for any dragon-type boss.
The purple Dragon Breath swept toward the challengers, but the front-line combatant didn’t dodge.
Instead, he opened his own maw wide, and a similar magic circle appeared.
[Roar of the Demon Dragon]
The spell manifested, releasing a surge of energy even larger than the boss’s.
The pitch-black Dragon Breath collided with the purple one, the two massive forces canceling each other out.
Just as the stalemate seemed likely to continue, the figure in the distance who had been stacking buffs finally made his move.
A magnificent magic circle appeared—the omen of Super-tier magic.
Though called magic, these were more akin to special skills.
They didn’t consume MP; their only limitation was a fixed number of uses per day.
Once used, one had to wait for the cooldown to expire.
“ROAR!!”
Sensing the activation of Super-tier magic, Niennils immediately cut off its breath attack and charged toward the caster.
Aside from its immense power, Super-tier magic had a hidden effect: regardless of the boss being fought, the moment you cast it, you became the boss’s highest priority target.
No amount of “Taunt” skills would change the primary target once a Super-tier spell was initiated.
For this reason, players had dubbed it the ultimate aggro-pulling skill.
The massive silhouette lunged at the tiny skeleton.
Despite the gargantuan dragon claws descending upon him, the skeleton continued his incantation without moving, as if he couldn’t see the attack looming over his head.
*BOOM!!*
A violent explosion rang out.
A Dragon Breath blast slammed into Niennils’ side.
Because his teammate had drawn the aggro, the dragon-form player’s attack hit the boss’s flank without obstruction.
With a pained roar, dragon scales shattered, and precious dragon blood sprayed into the air.
As a World Boss, every scale and drop of blood from Niennils was a priceless material.
Once killed, harvesting it would yield resources for potions, weapons, alchemy, and more.
The boss’s HP bar plummeted, dropping to approximately 3% in an instant.
Just a few more hits and it would be dead.
“Momonga, now!”
A voice came through the party chat.
The magic circle surrounding the skeleton player, Momonga, erupted with brilliant light.
As if the sky itself were collapsing, a massive pillar of light struck the staggered boss directly.
[Super-tier Magic: Fallen Down]
As the chant ended, the terrifying pillar of light ravaged everything on the map.
At its center, Niennils, Wing of the End, let out a final, agonized roar.
The health bar above its head drained rapidly.
“3%…” “2%…” “1%…” “0%.”
Under the onslaught of the magic, the massive dragon’s movements finally ceased as its HP hit zero.
The sound of a heavy impact followed.
One of YGGDRASIL’s strongest hidden bosses, the dragon known as Niennils, Wing of the End, had finally been subjugated.
The gargantuan dragon corpse lay on the ground.
It did not disappear, allowing the players to harvest various materials from it.
Dragon scales, dragon blood, and even rare materials like Dragon Crystals could be obtained.
The quantity and quality of the materials depended on the integrity of the boss’s corpse.
Fountains of colored light appeared around them—the rewards for defeating a World Boss.
There were weapons, potions, and even a small chance for a World-Class Item.
“It’s finally over.”
Momonga, the skeleton player, let out a sigh of relief as he looked at the fallen dragon.
To be honest, he hadn’t been entirely sure his spell would finish off the World Boss.
He had frantically stacked nearly sixty buffs on himself and downed ten specialized potions.
These included [Maximize Magic], [Maximize Armor Piercing], [Dragon Soul’s Extinction]…
and many other rare elixirs that boosted his magical attack to a terrifying level.
But it was a World Boss; being cautious was never a mistake.
He had even been prepared to use cash-shop items to instantly cast another [Fallen Down] if the first one failed.
His friend had given him quite a few of those pay-to-win items that shortened Super-tier casting times.
“Great job, Momonga!
Three hours of fighting, and we finally got him.”
The dragon in the sky slowly descended.
Its massive shadow blotted out the sun.
Four great horns grew from its head, and three pairs of giant wings beat against the air behind it.
A tail as long as its body swayed freely.
The dragon was entirely black, with dark red spots on either side of its chest that resembled eyes made of gemstones.
It had no feathers; its exposed skin was covered in hard, pitch-black scales.
Its gaze was fierce, its teeth razor-sharp, and its claws looked capable of tearing through anything.
The dragon’s silhouette descended and shifted, eventually transforming into a figure about the same height as the skeleton, adorned with dragon horns.
He gave Momonga a smile.
(Note: The protagonist is a Dragonoid.
Since the Dragon race was not selectable in the game, the protagonist obtained a special class called [Dragon Slayer].
Through endless grinding, he eventually gained the ability to transform into a dragon.)
“That wasn’t easy.
I can’t believe just the two of us managed to take down a World Boss—especially a dragon-type, which are known as the hardest to kill,” the undead player, Momonga, marveled.
This was something he wouldn’t have dared to dream of before.
If someone told him two people had taken down a World Boss, he would have thought they were insane—unless they had used a World-Class Item.
“Naiyuan, it’s all thanks to your special skill.
Otherwise, I would have been killed ages ago,” Momonga (Suzuki Satoru) said excitedly.
This victory was largely due to Naiyuan’s special [Dragon Slayer] class.
“If you hadn’t buffed me and hit the boss with all those interference and curse spells, I never would have been able to hold him off,” Naiyuan said, waving a hand dismissively.
Though it looked like he had been trading blows evenly with the boss, that was only on the surface.
Without the buffs and the debuffs on the boss, he would have lost.
Even with that help, he had died and resurrected three times.
One more death and he would have been sent back to the respawn point.
[Dragon Slayer] was strong, but it wasn’t omnipotent.
To this day, there was no record of a single player—or even a small group—killing a World Boss of the same level.
After months of preparation, the two of them combined with several World-Class Items had barely managed to pull off this fluke victory.
Of course, that was assuming one wasn’t using cheats.
Special Class: [Dragon Slayer]
[A Dragonoid who turned against his own kind, yet the youth who slays the dragon shall eventually become one.]
[Ability 1: Dragon King Transformation] [Having bathed in the blood of countless dragons, you have undoubtedly gained the power of dragonification.
In dragon form, your attack and defense power are significantly increased.]
[Ability 2: Dragon Blood Sacrifice] [Bathing in the blood of dragons makes you stronger.
Go forth and hunt every pure-blooded dragon on the continent; they shall become your strength.
(Your attributes will increase slightly for every set number of pure-blooded dragons killed and bathed in.)]
[Ability 3: Dragon Soul Resurgence] [The dragon soul is immortal.
Upon death, you may resurrect instantly and cleanse all negative status effects.
(Limited to 3 times per day.)]
[Ability 4: Ruler of Dragons] [Damage dealt to dragon-type creatures is increased by 50%.]
[Ability 5: Fallen Dragon Form] [Enter a bleeding state, losing 1% of max HP every 10 seconds to increase damage output by 5%.]
…