Chapter 138: Escort Mission
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor:
<Destructive Smash> cool down was complete. Zhang Yang immediately used <Destructive Smash>, followed by a <Force Strike> on one of the mages, dealing two damages of '-1,680', '-821' respectively, sending the players to the afterlife in seconds!
[Clear Lotus] drifted back, under the command of Zhang Yang, and then she wildly unleashed her assaults onto the members of the 'Pride' inside out!
"Take out Zhan Yu first!"
The members of 'Pride' had finally come back to their senses and reacted. After all, the boss was just an NPC controlled by a computer (artificial intelligence), with limited IQ. As long as the tank returned, the problem could be solved easily! But it was different when it came to players, as players would exploit the softest spot before stabbing in!
Zhang Yang laughed loudly, and he said, "You guys are taking neither of us out!"
<Thunder Strike>, slow down movement speed!
<Horizontal Sweep>!
'-1,578!'
'-1,627!'
'- 3,360!'
'-1,611!'
'...'
A dozen of horrifying damage values fluttered on each of the players, with two of them as critical hits! Even before the effect of <Deep Wound> could trigger, the two members were instantly smashed into waste products!
The melee combatants of the 'Pride' had Zhang Yang rounded up, while the remaining 18 players that were still alive unleashed their attacks at him one after another. With their skills disorderly spammed, it would be unbelievable that so many players could not do the justice in killing one player!
<Substitute> skill activated!
Zhang Yang immediately escaped the controlled situation, descending into the state of 5-second invincibility. The [Lover's Sword] emitted a cold flashing aura. It was like a grim reaper frantically harvesting the lives of the players!
While on the other side, the Berserk Bear King did not go soft on them at all, waving its wrathful claws, landing it onto 3 different targets at the same time, dealing a basic damage of 1,500, give or take. When it came to a non-tanking class without any skills that decreased or avoided damages while not being, all it took for the boss to kill off the players were 2 aggressive attacks!
The 5-second invincibility ended, but the number of the 'Pride' members had been drastically decreased to only 11 people, with their magic-type players all gone, leaving 7 melee combatants and 4 Hunters behind!
"Sun of the beach, this b*tch's damage output is terrifying!"
"Heal? Someone please support me with some HP recovery!"
"There's no way we could fight anymore, one Zhang Yu is already hard enough, and there is a boss creating disturbance at aside!"
The members of the 'Pride' were screaming their miserable lungs out.
'Pride' guild was not a large guild in the gaming world, and there was not much master-level players around, with Floating Fire Ball more concerned with training instead of clearing dungeons. Because for him, equipment could be bought with money, but him being rich did not mean that his underlings would be rich too. Most of the members only had Level-20 Green-Copper grade equipment, while only a small number of them had a few pieces of Level-30 Green-Copper equipment.
As for the Gray-Silver equipment pieces? Sorry, there was no way for an ordinary level guild to roll against Marzerway in Hardcore Mode!
According to the setting of 'God's Miracle', in Normal Mode, players around Level 10 could perform a raid, and those at least Level 20 were be eligible to challenge Hard Mode, and lastly, the Hardcore Mode required players to be Level 30 or higher!
Players around Level 30 wearing Level 20 Green-Copper equipment with about 2,500 HP without equipping a shield were totally incomparable to Zhang Yang or the boss, no matter what!
Just like a whirlwind sweeping away some scattered clouds, Zhang Yang and the boss joined together to dispose of the remaining 11 players of the 'Pride', like tearing away some withered stumps.
However, the moment all members of the 'Pride' were taken care of, the boss navigated its aggro onto Zhang Yang.
"Ouw!" Berserk Bear King let out a furious roar, waving its huge paw, slamming towards Zhang Yang.
<Block>!
With a lift of his shield, Zhang Yang sheltered himself from the attack. But the impact was so strong that it pushed him 3 to 4 steps backward before he could regain his stance!
The presence of the knock back effect only meant that the strength that the Berserk Bear King had was so much stronger than Zhang Yang's!
'-274!' Deflected damage.
With a grin on his face, Zhang Yang said, "You stupid ungrateful piece of bear! I took care of those people for you, and you are trying to kill me instead of thanking me! Sigh, being a nice person is really a mistake, after all I have done, I only get a bite in return, no wonder there are lesser nice people around in this year!"
'-1,154!' <Shield Bash>, critical!
Instantly, the body of the Berserk Bear King was added with a negative effect, <Bleeding>, causing a damage value of '-79' to pop out once in every 2 seconds.
The battle must be ended quickly as his powerful skills drained him of his stamina quite enough. If the members of the 'Pride' happened to revive themselves at the moment, even he could not bear it!
After all, their equipment pieces were only 1 level different from each another. If he has his skills at ready, Zhang Yang could roll with it again. But once <Shield Wall> and <Substitute> were on cool down time, even Zhang Yang cannot underestimate a party with 20+ members in it!
Berserk Bear King has only 20,000 HP left in the bar. Under the joint attacks of Zhang Yang and [Clear Lotus], the boss could only last for 20 seconds more. With the <Lifesteal> effect also in play with the Lover's Sword, Zhang Yang eventually took out the boss!
After picking up the loots from the boss and the equipment dropped from the members of the 'Pride' in a quick manner, Zhang Yang summoned his war horse and left the spot, leaving the 'Pride' people to their sulking.
About 7 or 8 minutes later, curses coming from the 'Pride' people started to appear in the regional channels. Zhang Yang smiled at it; only incompetent people would rely on cursing to make a scene for themselves.
Passing through the mountain forest, Zhang Yang continued for his search on the location of the sacred fountain. In fact, he was keener to locate a Centaur. According to Markan, the Fountain of the Souls are a sacred relic of the Centaur, so there should be Centaurian guards around the fountain guarding it.
'Pikplak!'
One of the bushes suddenly split in half, and from between the separated bushes came a weird looking creature rushing through... the lower body of a horse, and the upper body of a human! With 4 legs it could really run fast, just like a gust of wind blowing by, with a long bow in his hand.
A Centaur!
"Rawgh!" Right behind the Centaur was a sabretooth leaping out from the same way. Its size was bigger than a huge bear, tall and sturdy, with long and sharp teeth, gleaming with cold white light!
Having Zhang Yang in sight, the Centaur instantly ran towards him, at the same time, he shouted, "Help! Help! Please help!"
[Bangar Kukulo] (Normal, humanoid creature)
Level: 35
HP: 1,235/3,500
Note: "Coward" Bangar Kukulo, Kukulo of the Centaur tribe.
Instantly, Zhang Yang made an immediate judgment, went straight at the sabretooth and landed a slash onto it.
2 seconds later, the sabretooth regained conscious, switching its target to Zhang Yang and threw over a bite.
At first, Zhang Yang wanted to cast a <Provoke>, but seeing that Bangar Kukulo did not cause any damage to the sabretooth, it became easier to pull agro in.
No wonder Bangar Kukulo had a nickname of 'The Coward', assuming that he would run the moment he saw the sabretooth, the long bow in his hand might only be a decoration!
Although the sabretooth was indeed tall and sturdy, but it was just a normal Level 33 monster. With just a few tricks in his sleeves, Zhang Yang took it down for good, leaving only a few strings of tiger hair behind.
"Hero! Hero! Gratitude for saving Bangar Kukulo!" The coward Centaur put away the long bow into the backpack on his horseback. He made a move swiping away his sweat and said, "Bangar Kukulo will repay you!"
Zhang Yang smiled and said, "In my travels I would draw out my sword whenever I would see any injustice being done!" As the words came out right from his mouth, he felt a shiver on his back for a moment.
"Hero, a person like you definitely would not want the dead body of this tiger! Then make it as a gift to Bangar Kukulo!" after talking to himself, Bangar Kukulo immediately pulled the dead sabretooth and hung it around his horseback! It was unforeseen that even though his courage was so puny, but his strength was definitely strong as hell, not to mention his face was so thick to the point where no words could describe it!
Zhang Yang continued to ask, "So how did you ended up in such a tragic situation?"
"Sigh!" Bangar Kukulo said, "Today is my coming-of-age ceremony, only by hunting down a sabretooth all by myself would I become one of the real member of the Kukulo family! But this beastly sabretooth was too powerful that Bangar Kukulo could not defeat it!"
Could not defeat? Or perhaps it was him who was so terrified to the point that he just could not do anything, being chased over by the sabretooth a few blocks through maybe?
Zhang Yang laughed and said, "Yes, this sabretooth is indeed very hard to hard to be dealt with!"
Bangar Kukulo was instantly very pleased in hearing that, seeing Zhang Yang as his friend, and he said, "Hero, Bangar Kukulo has another favor to ask of you! Please escort Bangar Kukulo back to sacred land! Bangar Kukulo will definitely pay you handsomely once we are at the destination!"
"Ding! Bangar Kukulo has a quest for you: Escort Bangar Kukulo. Will you accept it?"
Of course Zhang Yang naturally accepted it, having not to worry about finding the place where the Centaur lives anymore!
[Escort Bangar Kukulo] (Difficulty: C-rank)
Description: Escort Bangar Kukulo back to the Centaur camp. If Bangar Kukulo dies, the mission will fail.
Completion: <Escort in progress>
"Thank you so much, hero!" Bangar Kukulo filled his face with a smile, immediately leading Zhang Yang by walking towards a direction.
On their way, it was unavoidable to be attacked by sabretooths, thunderstorm wolves, chimeras and other beast-type monsters. Anyhow, Bangar Kukulo would escape as far as he could go whenever a battle began, and he would only return after Zhang Yang has taken care of the monsters. Then he would show that face of his that says "I was not refusing to aid you in battle, I was on the look-out for you." Meanwhile, he would pick up the corpses and hung them on his horseback, until the point that he no longer could move his ass, and then dropping the monsters' corpses with a bitter heart.
After heading straight for more than half an hour, they finally reached the Centaur camp. It was a very well hidden in a far-off valley. If it was not for Bangar Kukulo's guide, Zhang Yang might not even find the place even after searching for 3 days.
The entrance of the valley was surrounded with high wooden fence, each of the top sharpened, to prevent anything from invading over the wall. In the middle of the fence was an open wooden door, a Centaur guard armed with bow and arrows was standing guard of it.
The sight of that Centaur was extremely great, he could see Zhang Yang and Bangar Kukulo from afar. Immediately raising their awareness with arrow loaded onto the bow, they made a defensive stance.
"Matta Kukulo, do not shoot, it's me!" Bangar Kukulo was timid, worrying that the opposite side would shoot the arrow over to him, he shouted at once. It reminded Zhang Yang of the phrase, "Tai Jun, don't shoot, it's me"1.
"Bangar Kukulo, why did you bring a human into our camp?" the guard did not lower his guard down at all.
"He is an important guest which Bangar Kukulo invited to join the coming-of-age ceremony!" Bangar Kukulo was smart, giving Zhang Yang a title of 'guest'.
Zhang Yang could not help to have his mouth twitching about. Previously with the dwarves, he was also a guest, but in a blink of an eye he almost got turned into a prisoner! Hopefully this time around, the situation would not be the same!
The guard hesitated for a moment before putting away his bow and arrow, so he asked, "When did you know such a human?"
Maybe Zhang Yang was there backing him up, so Bangar Kukulo became bold and strong, with a head full of pride, he said, "Do I need to tell you?"
Under the guide of Bangar Kukulo, Zhang Yang had finally entered the Centaur camp.
---
1A line from a Chinese movie.