When they hit the Ender Dragon, the health bar representing its HP would visibly drop.
If things continued like this, even with the dragon's damage reduction, he could just avoid its attacks and wear it down with ranged weapons.
He would be able to grind the Ender Dragon down to nothing quite easily.
But if it were truly that simple, the dragon wouldn't be known as the strongest entity in the Block World, the final boss that had to be defeated to beat the game.
As a white beam connected from one of the towers, the damage he had just dealt was restored in an instant.
Flying through the sky, the Ender Dragon remained at full health!
"Its health isn't dropping? What's going on?"
"It's not that its health isn't dropping—something on top of those obsidian towers is healing it!"
"It can self-heal? Truly a terrifying dragon!"
"No wonder every mage avoids this place like the plague. This is definitely something else!"
"I've never seen a monster that heals itself before, especially not a boss-level creature!"
"Holy crap, doesn't that mean it's basically immortal? How is anyone supposed to win?"
"A dragon... such a creature is far too powerful!"
Seeing this mechanic for the first time, the audience was stunned.
Even something as strong as the Wither only had a second phase that ignored arrow damage, and that didn't even account for firearms.
In the entire Block World, the only other creature capable of self-healing was the Witch.
With both damage and healing capabilities, an enemy like that had to be taken down with massive burst damage or a high enough attack speed to kill it in seconds.
Otherwise, a normal battle would take forever to win.
For the contestants, the Witch was easily one of the most annoying and difficult hostile mobs to deal with.
The feeling of fighting for ages only to see the enemy suddenly return to full health was agonizing.
If a Witch was bad enough, the Ender Dragon was on a completely different level.
As a boss-level entity, there was a fundamental difference between the two!
"There's actually something on the obsidian towers that can restore the Ender Dragon's health?"
The Blonde Elder's eyes lit up with joy.
To be honest, he hadn't paid much attention to those obsidian towers when they first entered The End.
He had assumed they were purely decorative—it was normal for a dragon's lair to feature structures built from precious materials.
He never expected them to have a practical function: healing!
'If it can self-heal, Mark—no, the entire Alliance—would find it nearly impossible to defeat.'
Thinking of this, the Blonde Elder felt a lingering sense of dread.
He knew Mark's strength better than anyone; the boy struggled even against bosses from the Twilight Forest.
Before seeing the Ender Dragon, he thought they might have a chance, but now he was witnessing its true power.
It was far more difficult than he had imagined!
In this situation, even returning from The End would be an issue. It was more likely they would have been wiped out.
It was a blessing that the Ender Pearls had malfunctioned and failed to guide them!
Relieved, the Blonde Elder watched Galen Yu as if he were watching a show.
"Attrition won't work. Let's see how you kill the dragon now!"
If he didn't kill the Ender Dragon, he couldn't go home. If he couldn't go home, he would just be stuck here.
Faced with an endless horde of Endermen, his only end would be death!
"It seems the Ender Dragon is even stronger than we thought!"
Back at the Research Institute, Fries murmured to himself.
He had seen it before, but the dragon's state back then was definitely not as good as it was here in The End.
This was its home turf; it was bound to be different from what they had encountered previously.
As for the obsidian towers, he had never seen those before either.
"This is a one-way trip with no return!"
If anything happened to Galen Yu, it wouldn't just be a simple failure—the Alliance would seize the lead with the SlashBlades.
Watching the Samurai Nation profit felt worse than losing out himself. Despite his trust in Galen Yu, he couldn't help but worry.
Under these circumstances, Fries was naturally filled with anxiety.
However, Galen Yu had long expected this trait.
"There's something on the obsidian towers?"
Entering The End for the first time, the Wandering Mage's pupils constricted.
"The Ender Dragon really is different from other dragon species. Even an adult Fire Dragon wouldn't heal itself mid-battle..."
To him, this was a complete novelty.
"It's just an End Crystal. Why not just destroy it?"
Noticing that the Ender Dragon showed no signs of attacking yet, Galen Yu planned to proceed cautiously.
Finding a high vantage point, he drew his bow and aimed at the top of a nearby obsidian tower.
From his perspective, he could see a pulsating object on the tower—encased in glass with a swirling purple core.
Its base was made of bedrock, giving it an otherworldly appearance.
'Destroy it? Is that even possible?'
Having a natural fear of items imbued with mysterious elements, the Wandering Mage hesitated.
In his experience, such things usually had rules and protections that made them difficult to break by normal means.
Since it was protecting the Ender Dragon, the restrictions were surely even tighter.
However, once Galen Yu actually attacked, he realized he had been overthinking.
A volley from the Nine-shot Bow flew out. The moment the arrows touched the End Crystal, it exploded.
"It worked!"
After the crystal detonated, the Ender Dragon flew past, and as expected, no white beam appeared to restore its health!
"Since that thing heals it, can't we just destroy them all?"
"Indeed, that makes perfect sense!"
"Is it really that simple? It feels almost too good to be true."
"There's more than one tower. That was just a short one!"
"You'd have to pillar up to those taller structures. That's the most dangerous part; it's so easy for something to go wrong!"
"Wait, what just appeared?"
There were many End Crystals scattered across towers of varying heights, providing comprehensive healing for the dragon.
While a Tri-Bow could handle the shorter, more accessible ones...
It was obvious to everyone that the tallest towers were the most perilous. The moment someone started building up with blocks, they would be vulnerable to a surprise attack.
The Wandering Mage was no exception to this fear.
"They're too high. If I'm seeing correctly, some of them even have iron bars protecting them."
"Going up blindly is extremely dangerous. My magic shield can negate damage, but it can't prevent knockback."
He was confident in his proficiency with the magic shield; after all, it was his signature skill that he relied on during his travels.
But while it could stop minor mobs, it couldn't fully stop a boss-level creature like the Ender Dragon. Negating three hits was its limit.
Furthermore, secondary effects like knockback or Wither could not be nullified.
The attack frequency seemed low for now, but the Ender Dragon wasn't a statue; it would definitely strike eventually.
If he were knocked off halfway up a tower, the shield would hardly be able to prevent a lethal fall.
Moreover, judging from the crystal just now, destroying one caused an explosion.
Though the exact damage was unknown, the Wandering Mage guessed it wasn't low. Building up was simply unwise.
Well aware of the risks, Galen Yu never actually intended to pillar up himself.
He had a much better option than doing it personally.
"Come forth! Lich!"
Communicating with his chunk buildings, a skeletal death mage clad in robes appeared in the next instant.
A scholar-mage from the Lich Tower, the Great Mage who governed the barrier domains of the Twilight Swamp, Dark Forest, and Snowy Forest.
The Lich!
This was the bonus granted by upgrading the Great Wall with Runed Bricks.
[Witchcraft: Empowered by the Twilight, you can summon a Lich to assist you at any time. Limit: 10 minutes per summon, once per day.]
Use a boss to fight a boss!
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