BXBX NOVEL Chapter 424: Rain Down, Hell from Above
Making complaints now would not do anyone any good. Since the boss was designed to be that way, they could only complain to the designers.
Zhang Yang shouted, "Little brat! Maintain {Destructive Smash} on Rayleigh!"
"Ok!" Wei Yan Er nodded her head vigorously and made sure not to waste any second of the skill’s cool down time.
Now that they had formed a new plan, Cherry’s {Holy Starburst} would heal one boss with 75% reduced healing, one boss with 50% reduced healing, and one boss receiving a full heal. Zhang Yang’s plan would prevent an extra 200,000 HP from being healed. It was a real shame that Zhang Yang’s party did not have one more player who could inflict {Destructive Smash}.
{Destructive Smash} had a cooldown time of 8 seconds, and its effects would last for 10 seconds. In theory, they could inflict all three of the bosses with {Destructive Smash}. However, both of them only had 2 seconds to spare. Furthermore, Dolor the Thief was extremely tough to detect, for he was always in stealth. There was little to no room for them to make the strike. None of these bosses was a good fight!
Rayleigh’s Defenses were too strong, Cherry was always using the area knockback skill, as for Dolor the Thief, he had been sneaking around, and had been stunning players whenever and wherever he wanted to! There was no room for a perfect attack!
Luckily, the party’s attacking power was stronger than Cherry’s healing power. The second {Holy Starburst} had only healed themselves for around 8%, while the team was able to take off 27% of the bosses’ HP. Comparing the damage to the healing ratio, it was nothing to be worried about.
50%...
"Foolish mortals! Pray to the Lord, and He shall deliver salvation!" Rayleigh roared to the sky.
Boom!
Rayleigh stomped on the ground with his right leg and created a gold-colored aura beneath his feet. The light glowed brightest from where he stood and faded after 5 meters.
"Hey...I think that’s my {Sanction}!" Endless Starlight cried.
"That can’t be right. The boss is a Guardian. How could he have a Defender’s {Sanction}!" said Lost Dream sarcastically, as he attacked. Right then, Rayleigh struck Endless Starlight with {Brutal Smash}, stunning him for 4 seconds and headed straight to the second aggro rank.
‘-10,000!’
‘-10,000!’
...
As the boss approached the group of melee attackers, the light around the boss had dealt 10,000 basic damage to everyone.
"Sh*t! It’s really {Sacntion}!" They cried in surprised and quickly ran from the vicinity of the boss.
"How could a Guardian have a Defender’s skill?" Fatty Han cocked his head.
Zhang Yang laughed and said, "That’s probably because the boss might be a Defending Guardian!"
"Wut?"
Everyone frowned. They were not sure whether Zhang Yang was joking if he was being serious. Only Wei Yan Er had voiced out and asked, "Is there such a class?"
After being stunned by the boss for 4 seconds, Endless Starlight had taken 4 seconds of {Sanction} damage. Good thing that he was a Defender with a high magic Defense. Out of the 10,000 damage, Endless Starlight had taken close to 5,000 damage instead. Still, he had taken 4 seconds of {Sanction} and had suffered more than 20,000 damage, which did not require any immediately healing.
Rayleigh’s {Sanction} skill was complicated. Occasionally, he would use it once every 10 seconds, forcing the party to move around endlessly, to escape the AoE skill. However, there was a trick in escaping the skill. There is a 1 second delay before the skill could inflict damage on a player. A player must be in the vicinity of the skill to receive the damage and will only continue receiving damage every second for a total of 10 seconds, if they continue to stand in the golden light. Once the light is seen beneath the boss, one could easily jump away to prevent any damage.
Unfortunately for Endless Starlight, who had to tank the boss, under the effects of {Brutal Smash}, would be stunned for 4 seconds, and will take 4 seconds worth of damage from {Sanction}.
Running around like rats being chased by a cat, the party had managed to bring the boss’ HP down to 40%.
"Heretic will be destroyed! Snow storm! Bury the sinners in your snow!" Cherry cried.
White clouds suddenly formed around the battlefield, and had hurled sharp and long icicles! Each of them dealt the same 10,000 basic damage. The problem was worse, the area of effect, was as wide as 10 meters.
"Move away! Move away!"
Before any of them could even see where they were landing, Rayleigh’s was there to attack, with his {Sanction} still active!
"What the f*ck! First, the Warrior has the Knight skill. Now the Priest has a Spellcaster skill! What’s next? The Thief having Hunter’s skill!? F*ck this!" Fatty Han madly yelled.
"D*mn! Don’t jinx it! Stupid pig!"
Unlike a player’s {Hail Storm} which required constant magic channeling. The boss’s {Hail Storm} has only required a 2 seconds cast time of creating clouds above to continue hurling more sharp icicles down the earth, as the caster itself would be free to move around. In this case, Cherry was able to move around to attack and cast {Holy Starburst}.
Everyone, including Zhang Yang himself, had to run around like cats and dogs. Out of the party, Endless Starlight had the short end of the stick. Once he was stunned by the boss, he would be susceptible to both {Sanction} and {Hail Storm}. He would be killed by all the attacks!
Zhang Yang checked the situation and found that he was ranked second, behind Endless Starlight in the aggro list, for Rayleigh. "Starlight! Kite the boss away!"
Previously, Zhang Yang had dragged all three bosses together to inflict enough aggro and to maximize damage dealt by {Horizontal Sweep} and {Tornado Cleave}. However, now that two bosses had revealed a new skill, the strategy to optimize usage of the two AoE skills was no longer worth its toll.
"Got it, boss!" cried Endless Starlight. He then dragged the boss away to the opposite direction. Now that he had kited him away from Cherry, he could reduce the chance of him getting hit by Cherry’s {Hail Storm}, since Cherry had shown the tendency to cast {Hail Storm} on an area with the most concentration of players.
30%...
"Fear not, for the Lord has laid down His blessing upon his loyal followers!" Dolor has finally come out of hiding. This time, as Fatty Han had speculated, Dolor had taken out a longbow and had fired one single arrow into the sky. The arrow then glowed with an intense radiance and burst into countless light arrows which fell back down to the earth, targeting the area with the most players.
It was another barrage of attack which dealt the same 10,000 basic damage.
Everyone started to run around, again! They were so mad and tired at the unfairness the bosses had displayed. First, they fought with human-like cooperation, now they had cheating skills which could deal AoE attacks! None of that was fair!
"The Lord’s judgment shall be delivered!" All three bosses cried out in unison, casting the golden light, the ice clouds, and the barrage of the arrows.
Just when they had thought to solve the problem, a new one arose. After having Endless Starlight pull Rayleigh away, the boss would automatically leave Endless Starlight and runs back to Cheery and Dolor. After a series of trial and error, the party had discovered that 30 meters was the maximum distance between Rayleigh and the other bosses before he would start running back. The battle was designed that way, so that all three AoE skills would be stacked atop one another to increase the difficulty.
"This is the limit guys! I can’t kite him any further. You guys will have to make do with it!" cried Endless Starlight.
"How troublesome!" said Fatty Han as he continued to fire arrows.
The only advantage that Zhang Yang could find was the HP. Luckily, the bosses were only Yellow-Gold tiered. All of the HP combined would only be, at most, 9,000,000. If they were Violet-Platinum tiered, it would be a whole lot more troublesome. Probably, even losing the fight before 50%!
20%...
10%...
The AoE multi-target magic attack skills were strong, but the damage inflicted on every target was not too life-threatening. The healers of the party were still able to keep everyone alive and well. However, it took so much effort that their MP expenditure was off the charts. Fantasy Sweetheart had already emptied her MP gauge for a number of times. Han Ying Xue had to step up to heal Endless Starlight many times around, or he would have already died!
The final push arrived when the boss was left with only 10%, and so was Han Ying Xue’s MP bar.
"Are you sure we’re not using {Dance of Heaven and Earth}?" asked Han Ying Xue.
"No." said Zhang Yang even when he was tempted to. "There’re still five more bosses to go. We must keep our trump card for the worse! Please hold on! How long till you can use an MP potion?"
"21 seconds!"
"Fantasy?"
"38 seconds."
Zhang Yang nodded his head and call out to Endless Starlight. "Starlight! Come to me! Use your {Vanguard’s Aggression}!"
"Got it, boss!" Endless Starlight dashed towards the center of the party and activated the skill there. A bluish-white barrier expanded 3 meters out from where he stood.
Upon activation of the shield, all bosses had cast their AoE onto the crowded party. Since {Vanguard’s Aggression} was used, each of the bosses’ skill had only managed to damage the party member with more than 1,000 damage.
There was a change in the skill. Before the patch, the skill was made to look like a stationary barrier. This time, the skill was like a user’s aura. It could be moved when the caster did.
6%...
After Endless Starlight’s {Vanguard’s Aggression} ended, Zhang Yang took over and used his, and also {Shield Wall}.
2%...
"The Lord shall beseech eternal life upon his followers!" Cherry cried. "Rayleigh, protect me!"
"I hear and obey! The Lord shall provide and serve!" Rayleigh cast {Sacrifice} on Cherry, as she started to chant {Holy Starburst}!
"Oh no!" Zhang Yang panicked. "Kill the boss, quick! End this fight before the boss could cast that skill!" Zhang Yang jumped at the boss and activated {Killing Cleave}.
Due to {Sacrifice} protecting Cherry, the damage was dealt by Rayleigh. However, it was still directly hurting Cherry since all the bosses shared the same HP bar. Zhang Yang and his team would have to deal 180,000 in 5 seconds to prevent Cherry from finishing her chant for her healing spell. Yet, during this decisive moment, two of the healers had already expended all their MP and could not do anything!
150,000! 110,000! 70,000! 10,000!
Besides their trump card, the party had used all their skills, small or big, they used it, as long as it dealt the strongest amount of damage in the shortest time.
5 seconds...
0!
Just as Cherry was about to strike her staff onto the ground to cast the light, the party had successfully depleted the boss’ HP!
"Ack!"
"Ufffhh!"
"Urgh!"
Three thuds were heard as the three bosses fell to the floor.
"W-We’ve done it." Lost Dream dropped his daggers and fell to his knees.
Everyone did the same and fell to the floor due to their immense fatigue. This boss fight was too tiresome. Everyone sat down on the floor to relax for a moment. But not for Wei Yan Er.
She is just like a chirpy little plaything, with a perpetual mood of seeking joy in everything. Giggling and laughing with the happiness of defeating the bosses, the little brat skipped and hopped over to the loot.