Chapter 181: First Wave
The tanks in the front line has formed a rigid, impregnable defense line, while the ranged attackers standing behind them had started to cast their AoE skills at the monsters that were grouped tightly together!
Zhang Yang cast <Horizontal Sweep> and dealt more than '3200+' damage to all monster in the semi-circular area in front of him. He then stomped the ground and cast <Thunder Strike> dealing another '444' damage! Wham! <Blast Wave> was cast and a similar '444' damage was dealt.
In this chaotic situation, all skills and attack could only be cast upon instinct, not anticipation of the enemy's actions. As a tank, he must stand his ground firmly without moving around. He needed to make sure that no monsters could get pass him or else they would threaten the attackers standing behind. The number of monsters were pouring in like tsunami in the ocean. No one knew exactly how many monsters are there behind the front line! How much could a single tank handle? Only a full battalion of tank could do so much.
While the monsters around Lone Desert Smoke and Crimson Rage were blocked off, not all player were able to perform just as strong as them. Other side of the warzone, monsters had already penetrated the player defense line and had clashed with the NPC army.
The sound of war echoed throughout the field, clashing and banging of metal against metal. This is the true opening of the full-scale warfare in 'God's Miracle'!
With the level 50 Yellow-Gold Dragon Tooth Battle Axe in his hand, a full Gray-Silver tier equipment clad his body, coupled with the 50% defense negation passive, even as a tank, Zhang Yang's damage output was overwhelmingly devastating! Especially when he had use <Horizontal Sweep>, he could easily deal 3200 or more damage and 6400+ if it was a critical strike! If he got a Lucky strike, his damage will burst out with a 9600+ damage. It was enough to trigger a heart attack to anyone who witness his power!
Is...is this motherf*cker really a Guardian?!
Tanks regardless of class had one unique AoE skill for themselves. A Guardian had <Thunder Strike> while a Defender had <Devotion>. Defenders also had <Spike Shield> which only trigger when one was attacked. Zhang Yang was an odd ball among all tanks, as other than <Thunder Strike> he also had <Horizontal Sweep> and <Blast Wave>!
In a fight like this, with tanks standing in the front line with that many attacks, their Rage would be built up without limit and they could just simple cast all their skills once the cool down finishes. With <Horizontal Sweep> alone, Zhang Yang had already on par with Spellcasters and Hunters in terms of damage. Adding on <Thunder Strike> and <Blast Wave> to the equation Zhang Yang had long exceeded the rest of the attack and became the strongest attacker in the field. He was obviously ranked first in the contribution list and left the second ranked player far behind.
Contribution points were measured in attacks dealt and also healing amount. To balance the contribution measurement, tanks would have a bonus counting system that would multiple the damage deal by a certain amount to balance the low damage tanks.
However, Zhang Yang had nothing to do with the regular low damaging tanks! This guy's damaging power was like an apache attack helicopter. Bom Bom Bang Bang! This guy would drop hell from above when you least expect it! How would his contribution point be low?!
The two other tanks who were standing next to Zhang Yang was rather bored since all the monster that approached them only targeted Zhang Yang instead. Their own roles were lessened by a notch and had only to make sure the line remained impregnable to monsters. They would only need to make sure Zhang Yang was not surrounded and to kill off any other enemy that risked breaking past the line, putting the healers and attackers in danger.
Apparition Guards had a basic attack of around 1000, and when they attacked Zhang Yang, he would only receive 20+ damage after deducting his Defense value, 20% damage reduction, and the equipment own 450 damage absorption effect! Only around 10 monsters could attack Zhang Yang in one instant; and all those attacks were only just petty tickle to Zhang Yang!
When the Apparition Killer appeared, Zhang Yang gathered his concentration and fought seriously. Even though the number of these elites were just a few, when one struck hit Zhang Yang, he was received more than 800 damage in one strike. Han Ying Xue quickly cast a <Regeneration> and went on her way.
Others where not as strong as Zhang Yang with Han Ying Xue the super healer supporting his all the way, when the battle had only started not too long ago, many front-line tanks had fallen and allowed many monsters to spill into the crowd of players. Now it was the chance to let other attacks such as the Berserkers, Bandits, Templars and other melee attacking class to shine. All of them rushed to meet the monsters and killed them all. Even without a tank to hold the monster's aggro, a beautiful woman would automatically attract man; and good monsters would attract players to attack! Elite or not, this Apparition Killer had 100,000 HP, but it was still killed off by 10 over players in only 10 seconds or so. The monsters could not even kill a single player!
The NPC army were not just sitting ducks there doing nothing while Zhang Yang and the rest of the tanks were fighting with their might. The monsters that were attacking from the front could not trigger the NPC army behind the defense line, but once the monster had broken through the tanks and headed for the ranged attackers, the NPC army would initiate their attacks on them monster and help the players.
The monster kept on pouring in endlessly; and when one bunch was killed, another would take its place! The cycle would only repeat endlessly! Luckily, the sheer amount of experience points provided by the monster were so much that many golden lights kept on flashing on and on; players were gaining levels here and there. The level 20 to 30 players that had joined this battle were definitely in for a treat!
While the monsters around gave out precious experience points, they would also drop equipment. Even though the drop rate of 10% was rather low, but the sheer number of monsters made up for it, the floor was filled with many Black-Steel equipment and a few Green-Copper equipment as well! Since the battle ground was still filled with monsters, no one actually dared to step forward to pick up the loots. Only the equipment that were lying around between the players crowd could be picked up; they were dropped by monsters that had broken through the defense line.
50 minutes later...
'Ding! The first wave boss Bangla has appeared!'
Along with the system notification, a large, 50-meter-tall giant flying Apparition appeared in the field. The minions stopped spawning.
[Bangla] (Gray-Silver, Demon)
Level: 51
HP: 10,000,000
Defense: 600
"F*ck! 10,000,000 HP?! It's just a Gray-Silver boss! Look at that Defense! 600?! How do you expect us to kill it?! I have only a level 40 Gray-Silver equipment and only 1200-1400 damage! I would only hit with less than 50% of my original power!" Fatty Han cried out as he check the boss' properties.
Zhang Yang laughed. "This is rather normal! Look at how many players we have right now! If the boss did not have that much HP, wouldn't he die after 2 to 3 seconds?"
Fatty Han nodded. The number of player participating in this war could easily exceed 2,000,000 players! However, not everyone could damage the boss at where they stood. At most, only 100 to 200 players could attack the boss in the same time, it could be a rather fast kill too!
"Noob tank! Let's get that boss!" Wei Yan Er squealed.
"There are still many monsters around here! We can't just rush out even if we want to! Keep an eye at where will the boss go!" Zhang Yang smashed a <Destructive Smash> and instantly killed many monsters around him with a critical strike!
The boss' movement speed was not all that fast; it took him forever just to move 500 meters. By the time the boss had arrived, players had already killed most of the Apparition Guards around. By then, battle cries from players could be heard filling the air.
"Kill the boss!"
"WOOAHHH"
When Zhang Yang had noticed many players rushing over to the boss, he had immediately called out to his guild mates via the guild channel. "Don't rush to the boss just yet. Any boss that appears in full scale war like this would definitely be strong as f*ck. Don't throw away your life! Take this chance and get all the equipment that belong to us!"
In that instant, as if those players were trying to prove Zhang Yang was right, most of the player that had rushed over to the boss had gained its aggro. The boss waved its right arm and a huge black hole appeared among the rowdiest players.
'-4000!' '-4000!' '-4000!'
Players that were standing on the hole received continuous damage every 2 seconds, instantly killing most of the players there! Those that were still rushing into the fight and suddenly pulled the handbrakes and turned around, running away like they saw their ex-wives chasing them with a knife.
The slow and sluggish boss had suddenly moved around with such agility, as if the steroids that he had taken earlier had finally kicked in. One by one, the boss chased after the players and killed them by summoning more black holes. Eventually, without much effort, the boss had killed off most of the players that had rushed over earlier.
Those players that arrived slightly later had gratefully thanked their own tardiness. If they had rushed in along with the earlier players, they would have joined them in their death. Everyone took the chance and rushed to the other way and picked up the loots and equipment on the floor. If the items were left on the floor un-looted, they will disappear along with the monster's corpse after a fixed duration.
In an instant, players around would not step forward anymore. In fact, no guild would dare to make the first move to attack! When a boss appeared, it was just too strong for any random guild to take on! Secondly, every guild master had already come to an agreement about the boss. It was the boss to decide whom shall claim his loots! With much haste, the boss had entered Sky High's defense line.
Sky High guild master, and also the main tank of the guild, Sky Shaman, a Dwarf Guardian, had quickly gathered 20 other well-equipped tanks to join him to tank Bangla. Behind them were ten and more healers supporting the tanks. Within seconds, Sky Shaman had successfully hold onto the boss aggro and the ranged attackers from Sky High had started their assault. Their melee attackers had all stood back, preparing themselves from getting hit by the boss devastating AoE attack.
The boss had the extremely thick 600 Defense value, not only that, it also had a similarly strong Magical Defense as well. Even with 5 layers of <Cripple Defense> on it, most players' attacks were already reduced by 40% since their equipment were at level 40 Green-Copper and their character level was only at level 45; their damage was only around 500 over.
Those player that with that standard of level and equipment were the majority of all the players in this war. After all, not many could get their hands on the level 30 or level 40 Gray-Silver equipment!
90%, 80%...
Bangla's HP was just too much for them to handle. Even though they had several hundred players surrounding the boss attacking, the HP bar was dropping at an extremely slow pace! Sky Shaman was clearly holding onto the boss aggro firmly but yet it could still toss a black hole among the crowd from time to time. As long as players were gathered closely together, they would be killed without being able to dodge the skill in time.
When Bangla's HP had been reduced down to 30%, Sky High had already lost more than a few hundred players. However, if there were no other unexpected incidents occurring, the boss should eventually fall to Sky High.