Chapter 186: Hijack!
'Ding! The fourth wave of monsters have started to come out of Tukula Fortress!'
A huge, 10 meter tall treant started to walk out slowly from the fortress! Its movement speed seemed rather sloppy and sluggish. The monster moved one limb after the other, at a speed slightly above that of a real life sloth. However, each stride it took was vast -- as long as 6 to 7 meters. In actuality, it was moving rather swiftly towards them!
Like the previous waves of monsters, treants were also divided into normal and elites. The elite monster was twice the height. Like a sky-scraping tree in the amazon jungle, this monster had similarly proportional long legs! In fact, it was so huge that every step caused a massive tremor!
[Thick Bark Treant] (Normal, Elemental)
Level: 54
HP: 5,400
Defense: 100
[Iron Bark Treant] (Elite, Elemental)
Level: 54
HP: 100,000
Defense: 600
Such a strong defense value; almost double that of other monsters! As expected of the names they were given.
Zhang Yang frowned. In just three waves of monster, the army of players had already lost more than 30% of their total members! Only half of the NPC army remained! This is just the fourth wave! Each wave will definitely be stronger and tougher than the previous waves! If the battle continued on like this, they might not be able to handle all 10 waves!
The thumping of the treants could be heard louder and louder as they approach nearer.
Wham!
As soon as they were in melee range, the treants lifted up their massive feet and stomped on the tanks! Its massive size was so large that it was enough to stomp on 3 to 4 players at a time.
Players around started to initiate their counter attack. The Thick Bark Treants were easier to deal with since they only had 100 Defense. The Iron Bark Treant were significantly harder! Physical attack-type players had a really tough time trying to return damage blow for blow.
Still, one class stood out better than the rest. With strong Defense, the treants had one weakness, fire! Pyromancers in the vicinity were casting waves of <Rain of Fire>, dealing more than twice the normal damage!
In an instant, Pyromancers had their contribution points shoot up like rockets. Daffodil Daydream was one in particular. She had been following Zhang Yang for the past month and had obtained many equipment for herself. She wore a complete set of Gray-Silver equipment. Her damage soared to the sky, laying waste to everything she set her sight on!
Phew Boom! Boom! Her rank rose from 13th to 9th, overtaking Fatty Han at 10th place.
Looking at his rank, Fatty Han could not help but cry in envy.
The vigorous battle raged on, leaving countless monsters dead, equipment that couldn't be perceived with numbers left among their corpses! Subsequently, many players were killed off as well, leaving the battle field emptier as time went on.
"Zhan Yu, how many men do you have left?" ask Snow Seeker, nervously.
"I've lost more than 2000 men. But my main attack force is still intact!" Zhang Yang answered. During the recruitment drive, Lone Desert Smoke had a rather strict policy. The guild would only recruit high leveled and strong players. So, out of a maximum capacity of 20,000 players, the guild only had a total of 9,000 players at the moment.
Moreover, the average level of the members of Lone Desert Smoke was quite high, being at Level 42! Most players that were killed off were basically at around level 30 or so, they had participated in the war only for experience points and equipment. So, while the casualties may seem high in number, it was negligible in terms of strength. Moreover, the healers were now able to focus their healing on the important members only. The combat efficiency of the guild had only risen!
"Our guild has over 7,000 players left! We've even lost some elites! If this goes on, we might be in danger! I think we can only last until the 7th or 8th wave before we bite the dust!" said Snow Seeker worriedly.
Zhang Yang laughed. "Let's just give it all we got!"
In his previous life, he had never participated in such an event. He was not clear of the difficulty of this war! But there was one thing that he knew clearly, even though Violet Star City's item collection quest was not completed rather quickly, the other cities repeatedly failed their expedition war, and so, victory was claimed by Violet Star City, led by the infamous One Sword Stroke!
Since then, his name soared to the high heavens and became the number 1 tank in the China server!
"I...I'll never allow myself to lose to anyone!" Zhang Yang muttered silently. He had always believed that he had the talent in online gaming. Now that he started along with everyone, if he lost to One Sword Stroke while having such an abundance of experience, he would rather just find a rotten piece of tofu and knock himself to death with it!
50 minutes into the wave...
'Ding! The fourth wave boss, Lodac has appeared!'
A super-sized , 100 meter tall giant treant appeared in the battle field. In just one step, it manage to traverse by several hundred meters!
Thump! Thump! Thump!
In just 4 steps, the monstrous treant had arrived to the doorsteps of The Dominators.
Wham! It stomped the ground and struck at least 30 players in one shot, causing many "-5,000!" damage text to pop up like flies.
[Demonized Treant Lodac] (Gray-Silver, Demon)
Level: 54
HP: 14,000,000
Defense: 1,200
"Hold on! Hold on! Get the aggro locked in!" cried out Humbly Gentleman. He wanted to pull the aggro himself but he was a Spellcaster!
Traveling Piglet ran up to the front and after a number of aggro-gaining skills, he managed to hold onto the boss' aggro. Instantly, the main attacking force of The Dominators started their attack. However, even after inflicting 5 <Cripple Defense>, the boss's 600 Defense proved too strong for anyone from the physical attacking class. Exasperated, they were crying out in agony.
Ladac had two attack patterns. The first attack was the stomping attack that caused an area attack of 5,000 damage to every single player in a specific area. The second attack was fist slam, capable of causing 5,000 damage to every player in a long straight line!
Since the boss was extremely large in size, all melee players did not have to go near it to attack; thus, they will not take much damage. Melee class such as Berserker, Thief, Templar were able to approach the boss to attack, their lives out of danger as long they keep a distance from Traveling Piglet.
There were many melee attackers participating in the war, so even though the boss had such strong Defense, and the glaring weakness of treants towards fire, they were doing good damage, more so than the previous boss fights!
Humbly Gentleman begun to smile happily, looking like a cheater grinning evilly after a successful scam. His face was truly asking to be pummeled on.
"Hey noob tank, That Humbly what's-his-face is really annoying and irritating! Let's go and KS his boss!" said Wei Yan Er after staring irritably for a while. She had been pacing up and down on her Hell's Stead.
Zhang Yang thought for a moment and said, "No. The amount of fighting force we have left is very little! If we had another internal conflict, I fear that the chance of us finishing this Expedition would be slim!"
Wei Yan Er pout her lips disgruntledly. "Are you going to just let them be?!"
Zhang Yang smirked. "Calm your flat pan cakes! Just you wait! I'll take all their loots!"
Everyone turned their heads and rolled their eyes.
Do you really think that you are a god of war now? How do you plan on getting past the 3 circles of attackers and 3 other circles of defenders and get to the boss?
Zhang Yang laughed at their incredulous stares. "Just you wait and see!"
Even though Sky Shaman hated Humbly Gentleman down to his bones, he could jeopardize the entire expedition for the sake of revenge! The main objective right now was to survive all 10 waves of monsters! Grudges can be settled after the war!
As the battle raged on, Lodac's HP was left with only 20%!
Zhang Yang summoned his mount and rode towards The Dominators.
"Little brat! Keep me updated on the boss' HP!"
He rode on, leaving his guild members behind.
Everyone was rather confused as they listened to Wei Yan Er yelling the HP percentage repeatedly.
"19%, 18%, 17&, 16%..."
Zhang Yang pulled up near the outermost defense circle and waited there patiently.
Humbly Gentleman always liked to take advantage of others, and fearful of the same being done to him, he was a paranoid one! Now that he saw Zhang Yang coming along with his horse, alarms were blazing in his head and he stared at him suspiciously.
This guy must be up to no good. Could he be trying to lure him out?
Thus, he did not dare lay down the attack order, or else he would have to break his own perfect defense circle, put there in the first place to prevent the nearby Thieves who could be hiding in the shadows, coming out when the boss dies to pick up the loots.
"Zhan Yu! What are you up to?!" Since it was better than to just stand idly by, Humbly Gentleman tried to pry.
Zhang Yang shrugged nonchalantly. "Oh, nothing at all. I like the scenery here!"
Scenery my arse!
Humbly Gentleman nearly opened his mouth to curse. However, he held it in and smile. It did no matter how many hidden thieves he had in place, stealth only made them harder to detect. They could not pass through objects anyway! As long as the defense line is properly formed, no one would get pass this line easily!
Humbly Gentleman quickly reverted to his gentlemanly persona and smiled gently. "I see. If you're keen to watch the scene, please enjoy it to your liking!'
10%, 8%, 6%, 4%!
Zhang Yang dashed forward and breached the defense line!
Without waiting for the attack command, the players in the defense line started to attack with hundreds of arrows, fire balls, frost arrows, aiming directly at Zhang Yang! Even if he was a super tank, these attacks were enough to kill him off in one wave!
BOOM! PAK! WHAM! PEW!
As the attack ended, every attack seemed to only hit air and kicked up dust on the ground, with Zhang Yang nowhere in sight!
Humbly Gentleman was so baffled that his eyeballs nearby popped out of their sockets.
What the hell just happened?! That was <Stealth>! How could a Guardian learn <Stealth>!? WTF!? I must be confused!
"Use all AoE skills! Don't leave any corner untouched!" Humbly Gentleman spun around and ordered his equally bewildered members.
At the same time, the outermost circle Hunters and Spellcasters had attacked continuously with their AoE skills at the area where Zhang Yang was last seen. Any hidden Thief would be forced out of hiding after receiving an attack, if they were to remain in the same spot!
Invalid! Invalid! Invalid!
Humbly Gentleman began to have second thoughts. "Did the first wave of attack killed him already?"
"3%, 2%, 1%!" the chirpy voice of Wei Yan Er rang continuously in Zhang Yang's ears!
He was already in the realm provided by the skill, <Shadow of the Void>! He was still in the same battlefield but in this realm, all life forms had disappeared from his vision, Zhang Yang felt like he had entered a barren earth with him as the sole survivor.
Easily and effortlessly, Zhang Yang had breached through the defense line of The Dominators and arrived at the point where he estimated the boss' stood.
When Wei Yan Er announced that the boss' HP was at 1%, he quickly activated <Blood Rage> and gained 30 Rage point, whist surfacing out of the <Shadow of the Void>. Immediately, as he resurfaced in the real world, he was greeted by the sight of thousands of players along with the gigantic boss.
<Destructive Smash>!
'-3,324!'
With that one attack, Zhang Yang had dealt the last attack to kill off the boss.
'Ding! You have killed Lodac! You have struck the last blow! You have been granted 50% of all experience points! Obtained 7,000,000 Experience Points!'