Chapter 292: Defend the Territory (2)
Zhang Yang went deeper into the swarm of monsters. Nervous and worried sick for him, Han Ying Xue leaped to her feet and followed Zhang Yang from a safe distance. There, she kept on casting healing spells, {Regeneration} to keep him alive and kicking!
It was now, where the difference in individual strengths would be made apparent. Like the character, Zhao Zi Long, from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhang Yang was weaving about in the battle field, with his sword held out, he twisted and turned, turning living monsters into dead corpses without much effort and strength. From afar, you can really see that Zhang Yang was more like a dancer instead of a fighter. If those judges were present in the field, sitting behind a desk, they would surely be holding up scoreboards of 10! Full marks!
Making use of what little firepower they had at the moment, Zhang Yang had arranged a small group of players from the top of the castle wall to be positioned behind the castle gates. There, their attack would be more or less be effective enough to lay waste! Even though the first two wave of monsters were nothing but appetizers, a few Lone Desert Smoke players had already succumbed to death. Still, they quickly made their way back to the battle field, albeit with penalized attributes. It did not feel long, but 50 mins were up and the second wave boss soon made its appearance.
‘Ding! Demon Servant, Morlock has joined the battle!’
500 meters away from the castle, a humanoid beast appeared! Measuring 10 meters tall, this humanoid monster looked like a spawn from hell itself. Its color scheme was mostly just brown and green. It had two horns on its head and a cow’s tail at its rear and cow hooves for its feet. The only thing that resembled a human’s was the human face that it bore. That was about it. A lot of care had been taken into designing its appearance. With each large step it took, flames burst out from the bottom of its feet and spread out as far as 60 meters away before dying down. Theatrical!
[Demon Servant, Moloch] (Gray-Silver, Demon)
Level: 68
HP: 12,000,000
MP: 6,000,000
Defense: 700
Zhang Yang stared at it and urgently shouted. "Team 1, follow me!"
The players in team 1 were those who had already been following him since the beginning, that is Fatty Han, Han Ying Xue, the little brat, Sun Xin Yu, Hundred Shots, Fatty Han, and others who were considered to be the top 10 strongest players in the guild.
The boss carried a DoT burning aura that would cause 1000 Fire damage every 2 seconds. The AoE would be as far as the fire reached out, which was 60 meters. Whether it be ranged attackers or healers, anyone who would want to attack the boss would have to take the boss’ aura damage. A normal healer would not survive long enough to heal others! That being said, Han Ying Xue and Fantasy Sweetheart were well-equipped. Aslo, Priests were better at mass-healing. Han Ying Xue and Fantasy Sweetheart could support a maximum number of 10 players at a time, as exhausting as it may be.
The 10-man party rushed toward the boss with Zhang Yang in the lead. 30 meters away, Zhang Yang used {Spear of Obliteration} on the boss.
‘-1,790!’
Moloch roared immediately and retaliated by reaching out with its right arm and forming a ball of flame in its palm. The ball blasted out, growing in size with each passing moment. At that moment, the boss’ aura effect kicked in and almost all non-tank players around received a good -1,000 damage. The two healers quickly dismounted from their Direwolves and started getting to work.
Zhang Yang ran close to the boss and activated {Blood Rage} and {Crash Magic}!
Immune!
As the game progressed on , boss monsters that were capable of raiding cities, like the one Zhang Yang was fighting, would be much stronger and the usual boss. Judging from the HP of the boss alone, it sufficed to say that it was much stronger than the usual Yellow-Gold or Violet-Platinum boss! This boss had so much more HP! It was made purposely that way to balance out the system. With lower HP, players could easily swarm around and overwhelm it via sheer numbers! That was why, these bosses were all immune to interruption skill or status affect skills! Otherwise, they would be easily exploited, such as having a bunch of Thieves simply spamming {Ambush} and stunning the boss from the moment it appears, all the way till it fell!
Just then, the ball of fire on the palm of Moloch’s palm was completed. The spell was completed and it was instantly flung at Zhang Yang.
‘Ding! You have received 3,806 damage from Moloch’s {Fireball} (1,200 damage reduced, 994 damage absorbed)!’
Such pitiful damage. It’s not even worth being worried about!
Zhang Yang cooperated with Wei Yan Er, one hitting from rear, the other attacking head-on. Before any other skill, {Cripple Defense} would always be the first skill to be stacked on the boss!
With loud bangs and booms, the party rounded up around the boss and started their butchering. With their top-tier equipment, and their high levels that no one else could compete with, no other team such as them could yet be assembled in entire server! Compared to the boss, this party were like hungry wolves, preying on the poor like cow! Molock was slain within 8 minutes!
"Hehe! What a noob!" said Wei Yan Er happily.
"I wonder how is Imperial Sky doing now?"
"Hmph! I hope they lose the Territory Order." Han Ying Xue snorted.
Zhang Yang shook his head. "If that was the case, the system would have announced it! And based on One Sword Stroke’s personality, that guy would not be handing over the order to someone else for safeguarding before the battle ends."
Just than, Fatty Han clapped his hands. "Dammit! I should have taken the Territory Order for myself! Why did I give it to Little Yang then!?"
"Nyehehe! You dumb Fatso!" Wei Yan Er teased Fatty Han, laughing gleefully.
After the boss was killed, everyone looted the battle drops and quickly made their way back into the castle. The next wave of monsters would only be coming in the next minute or two.
60th minute.
‘Ding! The third wave of monsters have started the attack!’
Expecting to see something appearing from the horizontal, players had gathered close to the edge of the castle walls, only to see an empty field.
"Hmmm....I don’t see anything..."
"What’s this? Server lag? System bug?"
"Well, if it’s a bug, don’t mind us! We’ll be able to take a break"
"Are you stupid!? Just look at your EXP gauge! We gained so much experience points just after two waves of monsters!"
"Woah! You’re right! Holy smokes! I’ve gained 17%!"
Even after the system had made the announcement for the third wave of monster, nobody could catch sight of anything. However, the atmosphere was still gloomy. The ground was bare, yet it was covered in floating dust that had yet to settle down, as if, an invisible army was marching towards them!
After listening to the debates of the players around, Lost Dream could not help laugh. "Perhaps, Imperial Sky just did us a huge favor! I mean, just look at the experience points!"
Everyone laughed at the irony.
Zhang Yang gazed at the dusty battle field and frowned worriedly. In an instance, his eyes widened, as if he had seen through the deceit of the enemy. He pulled out his sword and got into his battle stance. "Get ready! The enemies right beneath us!"
"What!? Underneath? What kind of monsters are they? Spectre?"
"No! Worms!" Zhang Yang roared.
Boom!
Just as Zhang Yang had announced the d*mning word, a large hole broke out at the bottom of the castle wall. In an instant, a large, centipede-like monster burst out of the ground and rose into the sky. The worms were very large, at seven to eight meters long, and as thick as the huge stone pillars of the roman colosseum. Like an earthworm, its body was ribbed and pink, with dark, slimy dirt sticking to its body!
Once the monsters had burst into the battle field, be it the rear or the head of it, the monsters had spewed out a green, viscous liquid at all the players on the top of the castle wall.
‘-1,623!’
‘-1,530!’
‘-1,723!’
Just as the green liquid made contact with the players, damage was inflicted and even the castle wall had received a {Corroding} status!
[Burrowing Earthworm] (Normal, Beast)
Level: 70
HP: 7,000
Defense: 70
"Oh bloody hell! It’s bloody disgusting!" female players started to react in disgust, causing them to stop attacking to find a place to cower behind, dropping the damage output down to 90%!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
One by one, many more worm monsters started to surface and attack the castle wall with their repulsive green liquid. These monsters’ attacks were annoying. Not only they were AoE type, they also did not require any cast time! The only good thing about them was the long two minutes cool down time!
This time, the players could no longer depend of the castle wall to defend themselves from the monsters’ attacks. The casualty rate had increased dramatically.
Taking the helm, yet again, Zhang Yang commanded. "All melee fighters! Get out of the castle and kill all the monsters! These monsters can burrow underground! The castle walls would not do us any good! Attacking from inside will only disrupt us! Out! Everyone out!"
Having waited idly for two waves, the melee attackers were extremely delighted to receive that command. They cheered in excitement and followed Zhang Yang out of the castle gates.
Not only were the worm monsters highly annoying to deal with, they were also extremely sly and cunning! The monsters would stay hidden for the most part, pop out, attack once, and then burrow down into the ground again when their attacks were in cool down, leaving the spellcasters who needed some time to cast their spells especially frustrated!
This time, the physical attack classes were much more effective. Classes like Thieves and Hunters that have a fixed Focus and Stamina recovery duration, would merely have to wait and charge their "MP" up, before the monsters resurface. When the monsters revealed themselves, the Thieves and Hunters will unleash all their skills at once, dealing goog damage. It still consumed time, but at least they could do some damage!
It was like war in real life. The monsters were dying off like flies, but the guild was also suffering heavy losses! Many had already come back twice after reviving themselves, losing a great deal of attribute points! A majority of players that had died twice were all too careful with their attack and stance. Dying just one more time will send them back to White Jade Castle for the rest of the duration of the war!
"Dummy dear, is it time to use the cannons?"
Zhang Yang waved his hands off furiously. "Not yet. It’s just the third wave! Besides, the monsters are capable of hiding underground! It’s hard get a clear shot at them!"
As the violent battle between the attacking monsters and the players of the guild continued on, the number of players were gradually dropping as well. The problem with this fight was the fact that the monsters did not have a fixed aggro target. Once they burrowed down the earth, their aggro values would be resetted when they resurfaced, they will randomly pick a target and attack. Tanks were unable carry out their roles, taking the brunt of the punishment on behalf of the others! These bastards were capable of sneaking through the tanks in the front line and head straight towards the attackers in the rear! Even if the tanks wanted to die honorably, there was nothing that they could do to stop the monsters from burrowing!
After barely surviving the 80th minute, the worm monsters had finally stopped spawning, and the boss finally decided to show up.
‘Ding! Earth King Burrowing Worm, Tumorase has joined the battle!’
Thum! Thum! Thum!
From a distance, the earth rumbled heavily and formed huge waves in the ground, as if the monster was actually speeding through the earth at a great speed! Currently, the boss was still underneath the ground, rendering its properties and level hidden away.
Zhang Yang was the first person to charge towards the boss and commanded his troops to fall back. "Move away! Do not stand in the monster’s pathway if you don’t want to get killed instantly!"
Just then the earth rumble even violently as it approached Zhang Yang, the ground in front of him burst open, as if someone had set off an explosion underneath it. As the dirt and dust cleared a little, the silhouette of the monster was reveal. It was three times larger than the previous monsters, 30 meters in height and a 5 meters thick, the monster was extremely huge! At least,, it was easier to determine which was the head and which was the tail. A pair of round, coal-black eyes were seen at the top and a large opening, covered in fangs, was probably the mouth!
[Earth King Burrowing Worm, Tumorase] (Gray-Silver, Beast)
Level: 71
HP: 14,000,000
Defense: 800
When Tumorase appeared, it immediately spewed out a large amount of green, sticky liquid at Zhang Yang. However, unlike the other worm monster that would immediately burrow down into the earth after the attack, Tumorase remained on the surface and thrust its long, ribbed body towards Zhang Yang.