Chapter 587: Final Assault
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Without having to activate any of their {Inheritance Transformation} Skill, the party managed to progress without much problem. The strength and toughness of a boss were not measured proportionately to the number of {Inheritance Transformation} Skills required in order for players to defeat the boss. Most of the time, players were required to implement tactics that were more complex. Players would need to move around frequently while maintaining high damage to the boss. If players could not take out the boss within 10 minutes, the boss would enter its ‘Hysterical Drive’ state and wipe out the entire party.
However, with Sun Xin Yu, Daffodil Daydream and other core members of the guild joining in, the party no longer had to worry about their firepower. Meanwhile, Zhang Yang could be deemed as the most capable Tanker in the entire game. Even though his {God of War Shield} had over 1 hour of cooldown, he could still use the Skill for 10 minutes. That would be enough for him to hold the boss while the others reduce the boss to dust.
Having been wiped out a couple of times, everyone on the party became familiar with the behavior of the bosses. In this attempt, they used that to their advantage as they moved around to dodge the attacks from the boss. By the end of it, they succeeded slaying the boss and caught up to the progress of other guilds.
However, the party did not stop there. Instead of resting, they continued to push on. Upon clearing the monsters, they arrived before the 12th boss as they brought the fight to the boss.
The Lone Desert Smoke was unstoppable. They took down the 12th boss and the 13th boss in a row, over the course of one night! Furthermore, right before Zhang Yang disbanded the party in the morning, Zhang Yang asked Lost Dream to activate his {Snowman Inheritance} to tank against the 14th boss head-on. With fortune favoring their side, they took out the boss without much of a problem and put a stop on their progress with a score of 14/15. They were only one boss away from securing the ‘First Clear’ of the Hardcore Mode for Dragon Throat Fortress!
Crimson Rage and the other guilds broke out in cold sweat, thinking that Lone Desert Smoke would take down the entire dungeon without stopping! Other guilds were only at ease after knowing that Zhang Yang had disbanded his party members for a break. So, they continued to push on with their own progress on the dungeon.
Not wanting to be left out, some guilds broke through their own limits in a desperate outburst of superhuman effort and succeeded in catching up to where Lone Desert Smoke was at in the dungeon. On the other hand, other guilds were totally broken. They could not even clear the 11th boss. Many of them had laid down their arms in hopelessness.
However, the final boss of the dungeon ‘Argent. Hammer of Battle Hymn’ had put a complete stop to the dungeon progress of every single guild.
During their attempt to take down the boss, many players had activated their {Inheritance Transformation} Skills, but yet, they cried in defeat under the aggressive assaults of the boss. Well, the boss made a clear point that {Inheritance Transformations} was not a solution for everything. Even though [Inheritances] could greatly enhance the ability of a player, but one player could only do so much when confronting a boss. It would not be easy to carry the burden of an entire team! Furthermore, Dragon Throat Fortress was a 50-player scale dungeon. The boss was designed to withstand the assaults of 50 players at the same time without any problem at all. It would be naive to think that soloing the boss is possible!
Of course, if it was a boss from a 5-player scale dungeon, then a player with Class B {Inheritance Transformation} would be powerful enough to solo the boss.
The day passed. All office workers returned home and had their dinner. After resting for a while and loitering about, they logged into the game again.
Zhang Yang gathered his party members up once again and continued to clear the dungeon. They were ready to face the final boss of the dungeon.
Currently, there were at least 20 guilds challenging the boss. Everyone tried their best to slay the boss, and tension was building up in every passing second. There was no telling which guild would be the one who would come up top in this contest and claim the ‘First Clear’ title for this dungeon. The system could make the announcement any minute now!
However, Argent was very powerful indeed. He was worthy of being the final boss of the Hardcore Mode of the dungeon. Even after players had activated their {Inheritance Transformation}, they had yet to find a way to take down the boss. The fact that the boss was still standing firmly on his post had proven that this boss was extremely difficult to kill.
After spending more than an hour clearing out the monsters, Zhang Yang and his party arrived before the great Orc President, Argent for the first time.
It was a Red-Skinned Orc as tall as 4 meters. His body was gigantic and his muscles bulged out. He held a halberd that was much longer than he was, in his right hand. The boss looked incredibly intimidating as he sat on a throne with pride.
[President Argent. Hammer of Battle Hymn] (Violet-Platinum, Humanoid)
Level: 115
HP: 300,000,000
Defense: 3,060
Attack: 30,286 - 42,286
Skills:
[Wind Walk]: enters a state of invisibility and clears out everything from the aggro list. Increases Movement Speed by 100%, increasing the next damage dealt by 100%. The effect can only last for 1 minute, or until the user performs an action other than moving around.
[Storm Blades]: Swings the weapon in hand and causes damage to all targets within the range of Melee Attack in every second. The damage dealt will be based on the Attack of the weapon held. Lasts for 10 seconds.
[Berserker’s Strike]: Unleashes a raging strike upon the target and cause a damage of 200% Melee Damage to the target. Will be used right after {Wind Walk}.
[Hysterical Drive]: When the battle exceeds 10 minutes, Argent will enter into a state of {Hysterical Drive}. Increases Attack by 10 times. Increases Movement Speed by 10 times.
[Demonic Decay Aura]: Causes 10,000 Shadow Damage to all targets within the radius of 40 meters once every 3 seconds.
Note: This is the President of the Dragon Throat Fortress. He is the conqueror of both blood and fire!
As the boss would enter his {Hysterical Drive} mode after 10 minutes, the party must take out the boss within 10 minutes or so. Meanwhile, the boss had over 300,000,000 HP. According to a party with 40 DPS players, each of the DPS players would need to deal up to 12,500 damage every second in order to kill the boss within the time frame.
Theoretically speaking, that amount of damage was not really that difficult. Players would have their Battle Companions to aid them in dealing more damage than they could do alone. However, the aggro list of the boss would be emptied out the moment he activates {Wind Walk}. Upon activating {Wind Walk}, the boss would pick a target randomly and strike the target with {Berserker’s Strike} right after revealing himself. That strike could deal up to a total of 170,000 damage theoretically.
Other than Tankers, players of other Classes would be instantly killed!
In other words, whenever the boss activates {Wind Walk}, someone would definitely die! The longer the battle is prolonged, more players would die. By the end of that, there might not be enough DPS players left to deal enough damage to the boss! When 10 minutes pass, the boss would have entered his {Hysterical Drive}! By then, the boss could take out 90% of the players with the first hit from his {Demonic Decay Aura}!
Therefore, the main problem in this boss battle was the {Wind Walk}. Once the boss has killed too many DPS players, it would become impossible for Zhang Yang and his party to take him out within 10 minutes. Even then, players with {Inheritance Transformations} would not be capable of handling a boss that was 10 times stronger than before!
All {Inheritance Transformations} had over 72 hours of cooldown period. In other words, Zhang Yang and his party would have to try again 3 days later if they ever fail this time. Without any doubt, they stood no chance against the boss without their {Inheritance Transformation} Skills.
Mountain Mover preferred to play safe, so he suggested, "The {Frost Transformation} will only be completely cooled down in another half a day. Should we wait first? I mean, if we can combine the power of all 3 {Inheritance Transformations} altogether, we should stand a better chance of taking down the boss!"
If Mountain Mover had said that a few days ago, Zhang Yang would have agreed with him. He would still believe that the Hardcore Mode for Dragon Throat Fortress would be too tough for others to handle for the moment. However, there was a new, uncertain variable in the game, in this life. The game had Battle Companions now. Initially, only 50 players could challenge the dungeon. However, Battle Companions were not counted as players. They were simply a form of support to the players. Therefore, when 50 players charge into a dungeon with their Battle Companions by their sides, it would be as good as 100 players charging into the dungeon at the same time. It would be much easier for others to clear the dungeon than it was in Zhang Yang’s previous life!
Initially, players had to forego the dungeon and farm better equipment with better Tiers before they could turn back to face the boss. They would need at least Mythical Tier equipment in order to clear the dungeon entirely. However, things became different when Zhang Yang unlocked the Battle Companion System to the game. They would only need to get a set of Violet-Platinum Tier equipment and a Battle Companion before they could clear the dungeon.
In these few days, the large-scale guilds were able to prove that point by progressing swiftly on clearing the dungeon.
Zhang Yang shook his head slowly and said, "At a time like this, any guild could just take down the ‘First Clear’ of the dungeon. We mustn’t take that risk! Although this boss is really a tough one to kill, we do not have to move around all the time. All we need to do is to focus on dealing damage to him. So, let’s settle the boss once and for all! "
Upon activating his {God of War Transformation}, Zhang Yang’s Attack would be boosted up to 100,000 points! That amount of Attack was able to cover the Attack power of 7 DPS players! Meanwhile, the Attack power of Fatty Han should still be able to cover the Attack Power of 4 to 5 DPS players with ease, even though he was not as powerful as Zhang Yang. Furthermore, the total amount of HP on Zhang Yang would reach up to more than 7,000,000 HP after he activated his {God of War Transformation}. Even if the boss enters his ‘berserk’ mode, Zhang Yang should still be able to hold the boss off for quite some time. As long as the remaining HP of the boss is not too much when the boss goes berserk, Zhang Yang and Fatty Han should still be able to take out the boss without much of a problem.
"Make sure you guys maintain a distance between yourselves. All Melee combatants, take note of this. The moment you see the boss using {Storm Blades}, don’t hesitate! Just run!" Zhang Yang activated his {God of War Transformation,} as they must kill to boss in about 10 minutes or hell would break loose. Unfortunately, the God of War EP could not boost the amount of damage he could deal to his targets. Things would have been a lot easier if his {God of War Devastation} could generate more hits for every additional EP he had on him.
"I’ve transformed!"
With a flutter in his pair of wings, Zhang Yang threw his first attack at the boss as usual. {Spear of Obliteration}! A shadow of a blade landed right on the boss. Blood was spilled from the Red-Skinned Orc.
"Intruders!" Argent let out a raging roar as he bent his knees. Then, the boss charged over to Zhang Yang like an arrow that pierced through the sky. The moment he arrived in front of Zhang Yang, Argent raised up his giant axe and smashed it straight down on Zhang Yang. The blade of the giant axe was actually blazing up, due to the powerful friction! The sound of it was astounding!
{Block}!
Zhang Yang raised up his shield to engage. ‘Tang!’ A loud clash was heard as Zhang Yang landed on the ground, falling to one knee with his shield raised up above him! Fortunately for him, this was a Mythical Tier shield. Although the shield took a solid strike from the boss, it only got one white scratch on the surface of it. On the other hand, the sharp blade of the axe was a little rolled up.
‘-28,807!’
Now that Zhang Yang got a boost of 590% on his damage, the reflective damage of his {Block} could deal up to 30,000 damage! Initially, he could only deal 4,030 reflective damage.
Zhang Yang was smiling, satisfied with it. Then, he began to fight back with five layers of {Cripple Defense}.
With the effect of Level 8 {Eagle Eye}, Zhang Yang could ignore 85% Defense of the boss. Even he does not use {Cripple Defense} on the boss, his damage on the boss would still be unaffected by it. However, the others would not be able to penetrate the Defense of the boss. Therefore, Zhang Yang threw the five layers of {Cripple Defense} onto the boss in order to increase the amount of damage dealt on the boss by his entire party.
After all, this was a dungeon designed for 50 players. If it was a 5-player scale dungeon, Zhang Yang would be able to solo the boss after activating his {God of War Transformation}.
All other DPS players had charged forward and unleashed their worst on the boss. After all, the party only had 10 minutes to take down the boss. Either they would be wiped out by the boss for prolonging the battle longer than 10 minutes, or slay the boss and claim victory for killing the boss within 10 minutes!
Though the boss could deal an average of 36,000 damage in every hit, Zhang Yang had achieved 26,200 Defense at the moment. Normal attacks could only deal about 4,000 damage on average. Therefore, there was no need for the Healers to pay attention to him. They were only required to heal up the other party members.
Truth to be told, Zhang Yang could have taken down the boss all by himself if it was not because of that 10-minute time frame. Without the boss turning ‘berserk’, it would be easy for him to take the boss on without any problem at all. It would only be a matter of time.
"My god... Isn’t our guild master a little too oppressive? The boss could only deal about 3,000 damage on him!"
"I’ve heard rumors. They say that the main Tanker of Sunset Amber was almost killed instantly after receiving one of those {Berserker’s Strike} hit!"
"Haha! Are you serious? Their Tanker can’t be that noob, right?"
While everyone was praising and surprised, the boss battle had finally commenced for real. Everyone went into their positions and gulped down a bottle of [Power Potion]. After that, they gave everything they had in dealing the highest damage possible on the boss.
Without the Level Gap Suppression function in the picture, the party was performing a terrifying amount of damage. Zhang Yang had also thrown {Glare of the Death God} over onto the boss --- Resisted!
What a sad case...
However, the Skill itself was a cheat. It was understandable for it to be frequently resisted. Furthermore, with the current Strength of his party, it was not entirely impossible for them to take down the boss within 10 minutes.
The moment the boss battle had begun, the effect of {Demonic Decay Aura} kicked in. The Skill inflicted everyone with Shadow Damage once in every 3 seconds. The Healers had their hands full.
After all, the pressure on the Healers was tremendously heavy in such battles. However, because Zhang Yang did not require any healing attention, the Healers had one player less to worry about. Furthermore, Zhang Yang was a Tanker, the player that needed healing the most. That had lifted a lot of stress off the Healers. Therefore, having 7 Healers on the party seemed to become more than enough. However, the battle had just begun not long ago. It would be better to have more reinforcements than not enough reinforcements.
20 seconds later, Zhang Yang swung his sword at the boss as usual. However, the boss suddenly vanished and Zhang Yang only struck air! The boss seemed to have vanished like how Thieves usually do! However, players could still strike at Thieves in Stealth Mode. The boss seemed to have entered into another dimension. Nobody was able to hit it.
{Wind Walk}!
Zhang Yang got anxious. He kept turning around, observing every inch of his surroundings. Just half a second later, the boss suddenly reappeared right behind one of the Spellcasters. With a leaping slash, he plunged that gigantic axe of his right onto that Spellcaster.
Daffodil Daydream would have reacted in time. She could have activated her {Ice Barrier} to nullify the attack. However, not everyone had the reflexes of a Top 10 Spellcaster. As the Spellcaster had hesitated for that one moment, the axe crunched straight into the Spellcaster’s head.
‘-143,576!’
The Spellcaster was instantly killed!
Zhang Yang threw another {Spear of Obliteration} at the boss and got the aggro of the boss back onto him. He flapped his wings and charged straight at the boss.
Truth to be told, for that one moment when the boss reappeared, Zhang Yang could have used his {Sacrifice} on that poor Spellcaster. He could have saved the Spellcaster in time if he had not wanted the Spellcaster to save himself by using his {Ice Barrier}.
Furthermore, {Sacrifice} had 1-minute cooldown. Zhang Yang hoped that he could use {Sacrifice} on classes who did not have their own life-saving skills. For instance, Wei Yan Er. Although the little brat could deal a substantial amount of damage to her targets, but if she ever gets targeted by the boss, she would definitely be as good as dead without Zhang Yang’s {Sacrifice}.
Another 20 seconds had passed. The boss had vanished once again with his {Wind Walk} and reappeared right behind Sun Xin Yu. However, before the blade of the axe could reach her, Sun Xin Yu activated her {Vanish}.
That was some top class skill!
Spellcaster only had to activate their {Ice Barrier} and stand still to stay alive. However, a Thief like Sun Xin Yu would need to grasp the moment down to a window of 0.01 seconds in order to activate the I-frame of her skill!
The battle continued on. The boss was activating {Wind Walk} at a constant pace. He would use it once in every 20 seconds and instantly kill one player at a time.
Against such a powerful Skill, Zhang Yang seemed to be helpless against it.
The boss only required 0.1 seconds to vanish and reappear with a fatal blow! Meanwhile, Zhang Yang had no idea on where the boss would reappear. He would need to turn around frantically to look for the boss. If the boss happened to appear right within his sight, then Zhang Yang would have been able to activate {Sacrifice} on the boss’s target. If that wasn’t the case, then Zhang Yang would be powerless against the boss.
1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes ... the amount of HP remained on the boss was reducing constantly. However, the number of party members was plummeting as well. The boss could take out one player each time he activated his {Berserker’s Strike}. On the other hand, the {Storm Blades} of the boss was extremely deadly as well! Any Melee combatants who were a little too slow in running away would die after receiving 2 to 3 hits from the {Storm Blades}.
9 minutes, 9 minutes 50 seconds!
Only 8 members remained on the part, and the boss still had over 7% HP left!