---o---
Fu Zhu glided slowly through the mid-air, his gaze meeting the Ender Dragon's four eyes.
"Looking at you now, it seems you've got quite a few mods installed on you."
The only response Fu Zhu received was a sudden blast of breath from the Ender Dragon's open maw. Being too far from the ground or any other surface, Fu Zhu couldn't use an Ender Pearl to escape. For the first time in a long while, he was forced to switch to his shield and raise it before him.
The moment the breath hit the shield, it began to rattle violently as its durability plummeted. In a matter of seconds, the brand-new shield he had crafted just before entering The End shattered completely.
Fortunately, it had bought Fu Zhu enough time for an Ender Pearl to successfully reach the ground.
---o---
The instant he teleported to the ground, Fu Zhu pulled out a golden apple and took several large bites. Judging from the dragon's recent attack, his vanilla-level equipment would likely be melted in a single hit.
Moreover, that breath attack seemed to be outside the scope of what his Slash Blade could parry. Dodging was probably his only option.
The Ender Dragon in the sky looked down at Fu Zhu on the ground, let out a screech, and then folded its wings, diving straight toward him.
Fu Zhu's heart skipped a beat when he saw this. That diving motion... This Ender Dragon even had the Epic Fight Mod installed?!
He immediately rolled to the side. Although he didn't have the invincibility frames that the Epic Fight Mod provided, he managed to narrowly evade the dragon's ground-slamming attack.
---o---
Up in the sky, unable to join the battle, Herta and the others watched Fu Zhu's "pathetic" display as he dodged the dragon's attacks, and they couldn't help but feel a knot of worry for him.
Silver Wolf couldn't help but say to the others, "This is the first time I've ever seen Fu Zhu look so ragged while facing a creature. Even his fight against Phantylia in the Luofu database I peeked at didn't look this desperate."
"Be that as it may..." Screwllum stared at the Ender Dragon swooping toward the ground, a sense of confusion in his mind. "Why would it forsake its own advantages to engage Fu Zhu in close combat? This doesn't align with standard combat logic. It feels less like a battle to the death and more like... a trial."
"A trial?"
"Yes. Forsaking its own advantages to choose a style of combat that allows Fu Zhu to utilize more of his abilities... this clearly deviates from normal thinking. Of course, it is an Ender Dragon, so we cannot apply human logic to its thought process."
Though Ruan Mei's words sounded quite reasonable, Herta, for some reason, had no mind to listen to her detailed analysis as she watched Fu Zhu being pursued by the Ender Dragon. Instead, she simply raised the staff in her hand.
Screwllum noticed this and asked cautiously, "Herta, what are you doing?"
"Nothing much. It's just that I'm not happy about it bullying the research subject I invited!"
Herta snorted, and dozens of mirrors suddenly materialized around her, each reflecting her image as she held her staff aloft.
The next second, at Herta's mental command, the tip of her staff glowed with a brilliant light. A beam shot straight toward the Ender Dragon. The reflections in the mirrors fired their own beams, which merged with Herta's mid-flight, creating a much larger and more powerful blast.
Just as it was about to continue its assault on Fu Zhu, the Ender Dragon sensed the disturbance from the sky. It immediately spread its sun-blotting wings to block Herta's incoming beam.
The beam struck the dragon's wing, causing a massive explosion. The resulting shockwave was powerful enough to ruffle the hair of Herta's group, hundreds of meters up in the sky.
Herta held onto her hat to keep it from being blown away, her eyes fixed on the smoke and dust cloud where the Ender Dragon was.
A moment later, a bright purple cross-shaped star flared within the dust. A torrent of dragon's breath tore through the smoke, heading straight for Herta and the others.
"Look out!"
Herta, Ruan Mei, and Screwllum acted in unison, conjuring a massive barrier in front of them to block the dragon's breath.
But the moment the breath touched the barrier, it shattered instantly, failing to buy them even a tenth of a second.
In less than ten seconds, Fu Zhu saw a series of four death messages pop up in the bottom-left corner of his vision.
[Player Screwllum was slain by the Ender Dragon's breath]
[Player Ruan Mei was slain by the Ender Dragon's breath]
[Player Herta was slain by the Ender Dragon's breath]
[Player Silver Wolf was slain by the Ender Dragon's breath]
Although Herta's group had been killed, Fu Zhu wasn't too worried, since they could respawn.
He turned his head to look at the figure of the Ender Dragon emerging from the dust cloud after its breath attack and couldn't help but click his tongue.
"Seriously, dude, just how many buffs did you stack?"
---o---
In the Overworld Stronghold, the four of them respawned one after another on the bed outside the End Portal. They stood around the bed, looking at each other, none of them knowing what to say.
After a long moment, Screwllum was the first to speak. He sighed and looked at Herta.
"Herta, you were too rash. You shouldn't have attacked the Ender Dragon without provocation."
Herta, however, crossed her arms defiantly. "So I was supposed to just stand there and watch it attack Fu Zhu?"
"No... that's not what I meant, it's just..."
"Forget 'it's just,' Screwllum." Herta flicked her shoulder-length hair, gripping her staff as she turned to head up the stairs back toward The End. "Fu Zhu is still over there. We don't have time to be chatting here."
"Herta, I know you're in a hurry, but are you really okay?"
Ruan Mei glanced at Herta's slightly trembling hand, then lifted her own, which was also shaking.
"Even though we were blessed by Fu Zhu and able to respawn, the experience of death was very, very real for us."
"So what? It was just dying once."
Just as Ruan Mei was about to say more, another figure suddenly appeared among them. Fu Zhu had also respawned beside the bed. Seeing them all there, he raised a hand with a cheerful grin.
"Oh, everyone's here?"
Hearing Fu Zhu's voice, Herta immediately turned around. When she saw that he had died too, her brow furrowed.
"Fu Zhu, how did you die too?"
Fu Zhu shrugged helplessly. "What can I say? I didn't expect the Ender Dragon's stats to be suddenly jacked up so high. The margin for error is too low. Isn't it normal to die once?"
Hearing this, even Screwllum felt the situation was dire. "If even you can't defeat the Ender Dragon, Mr. Fu Zhu, does that mean it's invincible?"
Herta simply stared at Fu Zhu and asked directly, "Fu Zhu, do you have a plan?"
"Of course."
Fu Zhu's smile vanished, replaced by a serious expression as he raised his right hand and held up a single finger.
"Although the current Ender Dragon is ridiculously strong, I have three plans—upper, middle, and lower—that can help us slay it. Which one do you want to hear first?"
---o---
PS: Third update. The Simulated Universe arc ends today, and next, we'll continue with the main Star Rail storyline.