Chapter 214: Destructive Power
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Who among the party had the best equipment? No, not Zhang Yang! It’s Han Ying Xue!
Her staff, accessory, boots, rings and armlet were all Yellow-Gold tiered! That’s five of them! Their attributes stacking up, her magic attack exceeded 1,800. It was a pity that her offensive skill, <Punishment Ray> was not a very high-damaging skill. However, she could still deal around 2,700 damage over two seconds. Her DPS was around 1,300 which could be compared to Sun Xin Yu or other offensive class characters. All things considered, her attack was rather impressive.
That wasn’t all, after activating the skill of <Magician’s Brooch>, she would gain an additional 700 magic attack. If she takes another bottle of [Power Potion], she could raise her damage to an extreme level for a brief period!
The boss attacking pattern was quite predictable. After attacking Zhang Yang for 30 seconds, she would clear her aggro and randomly attack an NPC for 20 seconds for around 90,000 HP worth of damage. She would easily kill off an NPC in two turns. Theoretically, after the sixth turn, the boss will kill all the NPCs and become much stronger than before!
This meant that the party would have to remove all 8,000,000 HP of the boss in just 300 seconds! The required party total DPS had to be at least 26,667 to achieve that!
That was an impossible task! The team had defeated 7 bosses yesterday and hauled a bunch of Gray-Silver equipment, increasing their attack power by a level after Level 50. However, that only increased their overall damage from 20,000 to 27,000! Equipment upgrades alone proved to be insufficient!
A better way to increase the overall damaging power is to rely on the fighting capability of the players themselves! For example, to maximize his damage power, Zhang Yang has loosely arranged a sequence of which skill to use after the other, and to repeat the cycle depending on the cool down. The skill cycle would depend on the usage of Rage, Stamina, Focus, or MP of the player class needs.
The battle progressed on without much difficulties. As per usual, Zhang Yang tanked the boss, while the rest of the squad executed their roles from the rear. The boss would occasionally clear her aggro and pick an NPC to attack. That in turn, saved some MP for the healers!
After 100 seconds, Lingamant was the first NPC to die, while the boss had lost only 30% HP.
200 seconds later, Margeryashe died and the boss had lost 60% HP.
After fighting for a while, Han Ying felt something was off and called Zhang Yang. "Dummy. If this continues on like this, I’m afraid that we won’t be able to kill the boss!" She was not wrong. Each time one NPC fell, the team should have reduced at least 33% of the boss HP.
"Just give it all you got! This first attempt is a good opportunity to gauge the party’s total DPS!" Zhang Yang smiled without any trace of worry.
300 seconds later, the last NPC, Bassan fell defeated after being pierced with an arrow through his chest.
"Hahaha! I can feel it! The last chain has been unshackled! There’s nothing to hold me back now! I…I…I AM THE QUEEN OF MEDUSA! THE STRONGEST FIGHTER OF LORD ROUGELIER!" A sudden dark light erupted from Aigawa. The ray spread across the field like dark clouds before an imminent storm!
The boss still had over 10% HP left, which was more than a value of 800,000!
Now that her attacks have gained a 6,000 splash effect, Aigawa could easily kill the entire party in two randomly placed arrows!
<Vanguard Aggression>! <Shield Wall>!
Zhang Yang quickly activated two skills and protected the entire party with a light barrier. This boss fight does not even require strategic movements in the battle. As long as the fighters positioned themselves conventionally; with ranged attackers attacking from the rear of the tank, and melee attackers attacking the back of the boss, no one would need to move around when the battle starts! Since everyone was already in place, Zhang Yang’s <Vanguard Aggression> could easily protect everyone.
‘-2,832!’
‘-1,800!’
With <Vanguard Aggression> and <Shield Wall> both activated at the same time, Zhang Yang’s damage reduction rate was at 60%. Even though the boss arrow attacks had a 6,000 damage splash effect, it would only cause over 1,800 shadow damage to Zhang Yang, while the rest of the party only received 600 damage.
After 10 seconds, <Vanguard Aggression> ended and the boss still had 7% HP.
<Rearm>!
<Vanguard Aggression> and <Shield Wall> were activated again, buying them another 10 seconds!
6%, 5%, 4%!
10 seconds ended!
Aigawa let out a deafening shriek and shot an arrow towards Zhang Yang. The attack landed on him and a darkened shockwave was emitted from him, striking everyone else. The damage text, ‘-6,000!’ popped up all over the place. Those who had less than 6,000 HP were instantly killed.
In the just two seconds, Aigawa shot another arrow which caused another blast of waves, causing another 6,000 damage to everyone. The sudden drop of HP was too much for any healer, including Han Ying Xue to keep up with. In the blink of an eye, everyone else besides Zhang Yang and Endless Starlight was removed from the battle.
If only the boss had been left with 24,000 HP instead of 240,000 HP, Zhang Yang would have considered staying on to finish the fight, but now that it had come to this, he knew that it was impossible. Activating <Shadow of the Void>, Zhang Yang withdrew from the battle.
"Hey! F*ck! Boss! Did you just give up and run away!?" Endless Starlight screamed as he activated <Sacred Protection>, gaining a five second window of invincibility. He continued to swing at the boss, one hammer blow at a time since he had no way of leaving battle mode.
Pak!
After 5 seconds of wailing pathetically, he fell defeated -- with honor -- in his own words.
As the battle ended, the three dwarves respawned and the boss went back to being restrained by the magical chains, with full HP.
"Noob tank! What sort of act was that! Pui! You’ve lost my respect! How could you not have the spirit of unitiy?!" cried Wei Yan Er.
If he had not left the battle forcefully, instead continuing to fight on, that would not have been unity, it would have been stupidity at its best! Zhang Yang laughed at her comment and replied, "Little brat. You’re not mad because I quit fighting in the middle of the battle. You’re mad because I did not die! Most of all, you’re mad because I was able to save some gold coins from repairs! Isn’t that right!"
"Nyeeheheh.." Wei Yan Wei laughed sheepishly.
"Zhan Yu, we’re severely lacking in firepower!" said Hundred Shots worriedly.
Fantasy Sweetheart solemnly mumbled. "It’s my fault. If only I could be as strong as Sister Snow, I wouldn’t have dragged the team down! Please! Replace me with someone else!"
According to the damage statistic, Han Ying Xue was ranked seventh while Fantasy Sweetheart was ranked at the lowest 18th place.
Fatty Han walked towards her and patted her shoulder consolingly. "Take it easy, Sweetheart. You’re a healer! Why are you comparing your attack power with someone else? Even if we brought another player in, I’d rather swap out Endless Starlight! He’s a useless tank! Look at him, he didn’t get a chance to tank the boss! He’s a huge *ss leecher!"
Endless Starlight was clearly embarrassed. He fired back, "Fatty bro…How about I let you do something about it? Don’t be aiming at my one weakness!"
"BLEH..." Everyone stuck out their tongues and expressed their disgust.
"Haha…still, Dummy, we’re severely lacking in attack power. What do we do now?" asked Han Ying Xue as she frowned over the matter.
Zhang Yang smiled. "That was just our first try. I needed to gauge how strong was our team’s DPS! That is why I did not use my trump card!" he took out the [Magic Scroll: Rising Morale (Level 1)] and posted it on the party channel.
Even though Lone Desert Smoke had dominated the Cave of Bones map boss, the respawn and drop rate was rather low. Zhang Yang was running low on scrolls. Since he had also used some scrolls in the Expedition war, he only had 7 pieces remaining.
The scroll could increase their offensive power by 5%. It wasn’t much, and if the party’s firepower was beyond helping, there would be no point wasting the scroll. But, the party firepower was much better than Zhang Yang had expected. They could at least last until the boss had over 4% HP left. If everyone gained a 5% increase bonus, victory would be quite definite!
"Oh! Right! Haha! I’ve completely forgotten about that thing!" Hundred Shots laughed and face-palmed himself.
With renewed hope, the party quickly respawned and rushed back to the fight. They were already thinking of the rewards.
After 10 minutes, everyone revived and regrouped with Zhang Yang.
"Heal yourselves up. I want everyone to perform just like we did in the previous round. Put everything you have into attacking! Maximize your damage! Remember, the scroll effect will only last for one minute. Fighting the boss could take up to six minutes! We have only one shot at this! Now, if you think that the scroll is going to guarantee a win, then you’re dead wrong!" said Zhang Yang sternly. "Your attacks have to be fast and strong. Only then, will the scroll’s potential be brought up!"
"Noob tank! We’re ready! Let’s fight!" said Wei Yan Er hurriedly.
Zhang Yang looked at the little girl with widened eyes.
He coughed and cried, "Those who wants to fight immediately, please rise your hands!"
Suush! Suush! Other then Sun Xin Yu, Han Ying Xue, and Daffodil Daydream, everyone else in the party raised their hands up.
Zhang Yang sighed and shook his head with disappointment. "Looks like we only have 4 smart players in this party."
Everyone turned and exchange a look with each other. They did not understand what was happening.
"Daffodil Daydream, please enlighten our friends here!" said Zhang Yang as he gestured to her.
Daffodil Daydream smiled and said, "Zhan Yu’s <Rearm> has a 30 minutes cool down duration. If we start the fight now, he could only use <Vanguard Aggression> and <Shield Wall> once! We will be losing that extra 10 seconds of window for attacking!"
"F*ck! How could I miss that!" said Fatty Han as he face-palmed himself hard in the forehead.
"It’s fine. It’s great news for us all that you’re now aware of your own stupidity!" said Han Ying Xue. "Look! Our little Drizzler is still in shock! Her eyes are still wide open!"
"AH. ARGH! AHHHH! Han Ying Xue! You’re calling me stupid again, aren’t you! That’s it! I’m cutting all ties with you!" cried Wei Yan Er angrily.
The tension dispersed in the air as everyone started to laugh.
After 10 minutes, there was only around 5 minutes left on his <Rearm> cool down timer. He would activate it at the exact moment when the last NPC falls. Zhang Yang signaled everyone to get into their positions before starting fight by talking to the three NPCs. The 30 second countdown timer started.
3…2…1…Start!
Both Zhang Yang and Wei Yan Er worked together to inflict 5 layers of <Cripple Defense>. Swiftly, Zhang Yang slung the shield over his back and took out the [Magic Scroll: Rising Morale (Level 1)]. A golden light enveloped his body and spread to everyone.
‘Ding! You have gained the effect <Rising Morale> (Level 1). All attacks and healing effects have been increased by 5%! Last for 60 seconds!’
Rampage: Start!
100 seconds into the fight, the first NPC. Margeryashe fell. The boss had lost 31% HP.
200 seconds into the fight, the second NPC, Bassan fell. The boss had lost 63% HP.
300 seconds into the fight, the last NPC, Lingamant fell. The boss had only 5.5% HP left!
<Vanguard Aggression>! <Shield Wall>!
10 seconds passed; Aigawa had only 2.4% HP left!
<Rearm>! <Vanguard Aggression>! <Shield Wall>!
2%...1%...0%!
"ARGHH!" Aigawa released a deafening scream and twitched violently in her death throes. Her lower half snake body convulsed as her snake hair flailed about like a headbanger. After a few seconds of struggling and the obligatory boss’ ending line, she falls down dead.