Chapter 817: Lord of Light, Dustan
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As expected of the Bane of shadow, the skillset of the Lord of Light was almost, if not stronger than Margalor. Perhaps, the Lord of Light was stronger in a sense that he was a magic attack type, while Margalor was a physical attack type. The skill - {Radiant China} should be the Lord of Light’s special skill.
The conditions were simple, as all three chosen players must run 40 meters away from each other in different directions.
"I think the skill {Radiant Chain} will be a little tricky. All of us would have to concentrate on using the {Shadow Orb}, and if anyone out of the three Marked players are supposed to use their {Shadow Orbs}, how are they supposed to coordinate? There has to be a plan for this."
Zhang Yang nodded at Daffodil Daydream’s comment and said, "Alright. Here’s the plan. All of us should stick together during the boss fight. If any three players are inflicted by {Radiant Chain}, you should move to the clock, those standing close to 12, 4 and 8 should move towards that direction. If there is someone among the chosen three who has to use their [Shadow Orb], stand your ground and let the others run away. The party will take the damage. Might as well do it that way, rather than allowing the boss to get a damage buff."
"Hold up," said Fatty Han as he determined the direction of 12, 4, and 8 before he grunted. "Okay. I got it. I think."
With Transformations, an Ascended tier boss was not a great threat to them. However, they could not allow the boss to gain any damage buffs, or the party will face imminent danger. Their party could, at little chance, survive the boss fight after one buff. Two buffs would raise the chances of failure to 100%. It was not something that anyone, not even Zhang Yang, could hold off. Hence, the team can only fail once as a whole.
"I have to stress that no one in the party is allowed to die. One death would mean one less interruption in each cycle. Although we can fight against two more cycles, the boss fight will eventually be a failure."
"Understood."
"Remember. Failure is not an option. Unless you want to waste another 3 days."
"Hell no!"
They had been grinding on the same quest for 81 days. They had a total of 9 days, which means, they could use Transformations 3 times. Technically, for both the Shadow Lord and the Lord of Light boss fights, they could only afford to fail once!
Based on the party’s prowess and the number of [Shadow Orbs] in hand, the party could repeat the boss’ fight for 7 to 8 rounds. This was to give players multiple chances to fight the boss. However, there was still a limit to it. If they fail too many times, and all of the [Shadow Orbs] have been exhausted, the quest will be a failure, since there will no more Shadow Stalkers to kill. The previous arrangement was extremely fortunate. Everyone had more than enough [Shadow Orbs] in hand to use in that fight. If Zhang Yang were to distribute the orbs unevenly, perhaps, there would be a situation where the cycle of interruption would run out of juice.
"Ready your Transformations. Off we go!"
Everyone charged towards the boss with all sorts of appearance, both appealing and erotic, while others were disgusting or just plain funny.
"The Light beckons all that is righteous." The lightbulb looking boss struck his staff into the ground and muttered. The boss pointed his staff at Zhang Yang and a powerful beam of light came down from the sky to struck Zhang Yang’s character. "Sinners will be judged! Off you go, to hell!"
After {Divine Judgement}, the boss did not pause and quickly clapped his hands to chant {Radiance Prayer}. His mouth was moving, but the language he spoke was unknown and alien.
3 seconds later, many beams of holy light came striking down from the sky and onto everyone in the field. The boss’ basic attack was around 400,000, paired with the debuff aura on everyone, everyone in the party had taken more than 480,000 damage in that instance.
"I’ll repeat the cycle again. The first to interrupt would be me. Ice cube is the second. Third would be Snow…" Zhang Yang repeated the entire strategy again to refresh everyone’s memories.
After a few rounds of {Radiance Prayer}, the boss had started using the {Rage of the Light}. However, just as the boss opened his mouth to chant, Zhang Yang went ahead and silenced him with {Shadow Orb}. Upon usage, the orb broke into nothing, releasing a large cloud of shadow smoke that enveloped the boss’ character.
10 seconds later, the boss tried to chant {Rage of the Light} again, but was stopped by Sun Xin Yu smoothly. Everyone else performed flawlessly and had prevented the boss from using {Rage of the Light}. It was made possible, due to the 2-second casting duration of the skill. Perhaps, anyone could have performed in the same manner.
The interruption cycle was only important during the first cycle. In the first turn, everyone would have their {Shadow Orbs} ready to be used. Since the item had a 200-second cooldown duration, and {Rage of the Light} only had a 10 seconds duration, it was perfectly designed like a puzzle piece for everyone to use their own {Shadow Orbs} at the right time after the first cycle. There would be no need for anyone to calculate. All they would have to do is to pay attention to the countdown timer on the item and prepare for their turn when the timer runs out.
After the first cycle was completed, the boss started using the skill {Radiant Chain}. On the first use, Wei Yan Er, Cheng Xue Yao, and Endless Starlight were the unfortunate trio. All three of them followed the plan and ran in different directions. Amongst the three of them, two had A class Inheritances, and even though flying was prohibited in the arena, they could glide at breakneck speed. Endless Starlight even had a Mythical tier mount that could run at roughly the same speed. Hence, when the 3-second timer rang, everyone had already reached the required distance and had the skill dispelled.
It was fortunate that everyone had reacted swiftly, as everyone in the team had only taken two ticks of the DOT.
The battle proceeded on smoothly and without a problem. The party had not failed to stop the boss from using {Rage of the Light} and had never failed to run away when the boss used his {Radiant Chain}. Despite that, everyone was still worried about the {Radiant Chain} instead of the {Rage of the Light}. The battle continued on for more than 20 minutes.
If the fight was just a matter of 10 minutes, they could have handled the stress and sucked it in for later. However, the fight was dragged for over 20 minutes! At that moment, the boss had over 27% HP. Everyone started to act sluggishly. The mental stress had acted up and was affecting the team.
Zhang Yang had always had to remind the party member when it was their turn to dispel {Rage of the Light} or {Radiant Chain}, allowing the team to slightly make up for their own mental stress. No one was relaxed then. Not even Fatty Han, who could make jokes, even when at death’s door. The tension in the air was so tense that if anyone slips and made a mistake, it will only cause a chain reaction that will cause the fight to end prematurely. No one wanted to be the black sheep that causes the entire herd to be gobbled up by lions. Hence, even though they knew it was tough, everyone kept quiet and only responded to Zhang Yang’s commands.
1 hour into the fight…
20%...
{Glare of the Death God}!
A shadow cloud formed on top of the boss’ character and grinned. Everyone screamed with joy and instantly launch their attack repeatedly, instantly hacking away 10% of the boss’ HP. Since it was already during the boss’ vulnerable state, the team’s DPS power increased by a notch and had ended the boss fight quickly and swiftly without any signs of failure.
"Eat my axe! Obnoxious boss! Wanna be a saint? Go to church and praise the Lord there!" Wei Yan Er jumped up high in the air and slammed down her {Killing Cleave}. Her 4,000,000 damage had ended the boss with a single strike.
The boss’ lightbulb appearance broke down and dispersed into the air.
"Woohoo! It’s over! It’s time for the loot! @%#[email protected]%^#$ OMG! Look at that! There are so many things!" cried Fatty Han, louder than usual.
Everyone had slain many Ascended tier boss for the past few days, yet they had never seen such a huge pile of loot. The amount of item dropped at that moment could total up to the results of four or five Ascended tier boss fights.
Dustan had dropped a total of 11 Ascended tier equipment, 9 Holy tier equipment, and other random items. That round, Zhang Yang was lucky enough to claim one Ascended tier necklace.
[Aimilla’s Necklace] (Ascended, Necklace)
Vitality: +11760
Strength: +2060
Dexterity: +2060
Equip: Increases maximum HP by 23,520.
Equip: Increases damage dealt and healing rate by 12%.
Equip: Absorbs 1,778 damage from attack.
Use: Unleash the Wrath of Aimilla. Inflicts 1,000,000 Chaos damage and stuns a target for 5 seconds. Cooldown: 2 hours.
Level Requirement: 240
Special: Level Requirement reduced by 30 Levels.
Note: Aimilla was a famous and well-known Jewelry Craftswoman. The necklace was her one and only masterpiece that was imbued with her own power.
As such, the only equipment on Zhang Yang that was not an Ascended tier were two more accessories and his gloves. That, and the Celestial tier equipment that he wore. However, after completing all the quests, he could be able to acquire an Ascended tier accessory which is the [Demonic Seal]. After he obtains that, his goal to get all equipment on him to be Ascended tier would be accomplished.
As expected, the boss had dropped another aura skill book that was closely related to the debuff they received. Galileo, the little boy, had managed to roll for it. Still, it would be inappropriate to call him a boy, since he was about to graduate high school and enter the big league.
[Holy Aura] (Level 1): Affects all allies around 40 meters. Inflicts 1% additional damage as Holy damage after an attack.
Amongst the other items there, there was a large amount of [Advance Aura Stones] as well. Hence, when Galileo obtained the aura skill, he too, was able to enjoy maxing out the aura skill in a flash. The additional damage inflicted by then was as high as 10%. It was similar to that of {Strength Aura} that would directly increase the entire team’s DPS. However, {Strength Aura} only affected physical attack class while Holy damage affected everyone, both physical attack and magic attack. It was slightly better.
After distributing all the items, everyone took a break instead of rushing for the final boss. They had chosen to leave the place for a while since there were no requirements for them to finish any boss in any order. It would only take the party one hour to reach Shadow mountain. However, since the party’s Transformations were on cooldown. There had no reason to go back to Margalor for the time being. Might as well take the time to do some rest and recreational activities.
…
Zhong Xiu Hua’s news about his random activities had been suppressed greatly. In fact, when you type in any keyword concerning him, there would not be an article or blog entry about it. Everything had been deleted. However, the first domino was already pushed and the effect of it would never be stopped. Without posting anything at all, simply by word of mouth, everyone in the country now knew that the main character behind the "funky" piece of news was the powerful political figure’s son.
It has been a few days since Zhang Yang heard of Zhong Xiu Hua’s activity in the game. Perhaps, he was being punished by his father.
They say that good times create bad future. Zhong Xiu Hua’s father was a powerful man in the political world, and not in the bad kind of way. He was rather a famous politician for his deeds and service to the nation. If he knew about the true nature of his son, he could have him punished severely. Disowning his own son would be a far cry, still. At most, Zhong Xiu Hua would be sent to some harsh camp by the countryside to be trained mentally. In better words, change his stuck-up attitude of a spoiled brat.
More than half of the support of Zhong Xiu Hua came from his mother. Who knows? Perhaps his mother shared the same maverick mannerisms of her son. All in all, Zhong Xiu Hua would never be gone for long. Zhang Yang would expect him to appear sooner or later to stir up problems. Then again, if he does, Zhang Yang was ready for it. He had already set up traps for him. The only thing that he needed to be afraid of was Zhong Xiu Hua truly changing for the better and quitting the game.
Like that would ever happen…