Chapter 192: Hellfire Demon King Bariyada
It was no longer a mystery on why he wanted everyone to join his party, it was all because Aura skills can only benefit the members of their own party!
The increment of 2%, or 4% may seem very little, but when the number of the party members increases, the power will be immense!
While Zhang Yang kited the boss around, he took out two pieces of scroll --- <Magic Scroll: Increase Morale (Level 1)> and <Magic Scroll: Debilitation1 (Level 1)>. Lone Desert Smoke had been reserving the Cave of Bones to themselves for the past few days, so there were at least 10 pieces of these scrolls deposited in the warehouse of the guild. Zhang Yang had brought them along this time round.
Pak, he tore a piece of the Magic Scroll: Increase Morale, adding the effect onto his own side of the party. Every single members instantly acquired an increase of 5% in both damage effect and healing effect. Zhang Yang threw the other scroll, the Magic Scroll: Debilitation at the boss.
Failed!
As the level gap of the two sides was 7 levels apart, the first scroll was instantly wasted.
Zhang Yang quickly passed another Debilitation scroll to Han Ying Xue.
"You throw it!"
Han Ying Xue was currently at level 53, which was one level higher than Zhang Yang. Although the level difference between the two of them was only one level, the Magic Scroll was just too expensive to be wasted, saving up even one scroll was well worth it!
Pak, Han Ying Xue threw the scroll with a swing of her arm, slapping the <Magic Scroll> onto Bariyada.
'Ding! Bariyada has been affected by Debilitation (Level1) effect', decreasing all damage and healing effect by 10%. Last for 60 seconds!'
Han Ying Xue giggled as she teased sultrily, "Look, even the boss can be affected by the seduction of a woman!"
The party had the <Strength Aura> that gave them an addition of 2% strength, also with <Increasing Morale> that gave them an addition of 5% damage. The damage output of the whole gang had gone up by one level! Engaging a boss with high defense, the 5% increase of their attack was not merely increasing their damage output by 5%!
For example, a player who dishes out 120 base damage would only cause 20 damage to a boss that had 100 points of defense. When there is a 5% increase in the attack, the basic damage will reach a value of 126, which actually can do 26 damage to the boss, which meant that the damage has actually been increased by 30%!
Although the increase of 2% strength could not increase 2% of the players' attack, but the direct increase of 1.5% would still be of use!
Taking the advantage of the time where the magic scroll was still in effect, everyone immediately went out with their full power, unleashing every major skill in their arsenal on the boss.
"Rawh ---" Bariyada suddenly let out a loud cry, smashing both of it's fists against the ground with a rumbling power. Immediately, pow, pow, pow, the cracking ground was abruptly raised up, one piece after another, it looked just like a cloudy shockwave expanding outwards.
As the wave of dirt passed through them, the players fell to the ground one after another, having a damage value of 6000 points appeared right above their heads!
'Ding! Bariyada released <Grounding Hammer Strike>!'
Fortunately, with the <Vitality Aura> in play, the players that survived up to this point were wearing basic armors of level 40 gray-silver equipment, boosting their health points up to 7000, give or take. Most of the players survived the attack, but there were also a small number of players with HP lower than 7000 points. Taking one <Grounding Hammer Strike> and along with the damage from <Burning Aura>, they were instantly robbed of their lives!
Han Ying Xue swiftly used her <Healing Shower>, casting her <Regeneration> and prioritized her healing on the health points of the Lone Desert Smoke members. Other healers were also healing their respective guild members.
With only one wave of this attack, another 7 players were instantly killed, leaving only 45 surviving members in the field!
92%, 84%, 72% ... The sheer defense of the boss was ridiculously high! Even with five stacks of <Cripple Defense>, the boss would still have 500 points of defense. Furthermore, the level of the boss was high, being at level 60, while the average level of the remaining surviving players ranged between level 47 to level 49. A large part of their DPS was taken away by the penalty incurred due to the difference in levels, it was obvious that their attack power was seriously inadequate.
The only player who did not have his attack reduced was Zhang Yang! With his <Eagle Eye>, he could ignore all the defense, and the level difference between him and the boss was only eight levels, so his damage was not penalized. The weapon in his grasp was also a level 50 Yellow-Gold, and while sustaining the attacks raining upon him, his rage points was constantly being charged. His damage per second had reached up to 2000, putting him in the first place for causing the most damage in his party.
The following was Wei Yan Er, with a two-handed weapon that had a high range of attack value, barely affected by the defense value. The only unfortunate thing for her was that her weapon was still a level 40 Gray-Silver Axe, if only she had her hands on a Yellow-Gold weapon, her damage output would definitely exceed Zhang Yang's.
The third in place was Sun Xin Yu. The 500 points of defense of the boss had greatly affected her regular attacks, reducing them to almost nothing. She was saved by her skills, which were not as severely affected!
It was even worse for Daffodil Daydream. She was a pyromancer, with the boss being fire attributed, she could not even make it in the top 10!
Merely 30 seconds had passed, the boss went for another <Grounding Hammer Strike>, and through the rolling dirt wave, another five players were taken away from the field!
66%, 53%, 46%!
The health point of the boss was depleted down by half, but the number of the surviving players had decreased down to only 34!
<Grounding Hammer Strike>!
<Grounding Hammer Strike>!
<Grounding Hammer Strike>!
31 players left... 27 players left... 22 players left...
Another 20 minutes passed, the boss was left with 28% of health points, but only 19 players were left alive! What was even worse was that the mana bar of the healers were at the brink of being emptied! Even the great healer Han Ying Xue had only 20% of her mana left, the main reason being that there were too many surviving members from Lone Desert Smoke! Subsequently, she was under the most pressure among all the healers!
"Kill it fast! Kill it fast!"
The gang were having the same thoughts in their mind.
26%... 22%... 18%...
They struggled to drain the health points of the boss. If this went on, they would certainly be unable to hold on any longer!
Zhang Yang made a critical decision, speaking up. "Players with DPS lower than 300, remove yourself from the effective range of the aura effect of the boss immediately! You don't have to waste the efforts of the healers! All healers split up into two groups, one group in-charge in healing, while the other group, recover your mana points!"
Engaging the boss until this very moment, it had already been 10 hours, everyone was hungry, starving and tired! Their judgment and reactions were declining down in a straight line. Having been reminded by Zhang Yang, everyone only realized it just then --- Argh! They could have done this themselves sooner!
There were still 6 healers in the party. Immediately, they divided themselves into two groups with 3 players in each group. The two groups took turns, with one group healing while the other group stayed out of the effective range of the aura effect, using the advantage of 5 seconds to recover their mana points. The two groups would switch their roles once every 30 seconds. Even though their mana points were still insufficient, that had already bought them some extra time!
14%, 11%, 7%!
"Hang in there! Almost there!" Every players on the field could not help themselves but to shout out loud.
'Ding! Player Another Joy has died!'
'Ding! Player Dragon's World End has died!'
'Ding! Player Sacred Wings of Night has died!'
The boss was still vigorously violent, every strike of the <Grounding Hammer Strike> would harvest a few lives from the field, it was inevitable, because the mana points for healing could only replenish the amount of health point reduced by the aura effect. Confronting the ultimate skill of the boss, only the <Healing Shower> of Han Ying Xue could heal up the health points of the players!
5%, 4%, 3%, 2%!
The remaining 15 players were irritably excited, however, the healers had almost used up all of their mana points!
Bariyada raised up both of it's fists, immediate smashing them into the ground, it was another <Grounding Hammer Strike>!
"Come over everyone!" Zhang Yang shouted in a loud voice, triggering <Vanguard's Aggression> and <Shield Wall> simultaneously, casting a vague blue protective barrier over each of the players.
'-600!'
'-600!'
'-600!'
Under the protection of his <Vanguard's Aggression>, everyone would only sustain 10% of the damage they receive, while with the <Shield Wall> triggered by Zhang Yang, they would only suffer 40% of the damage received!
"Witchy Snow, carry on with your mana recovery, I'm triggering <Shadow of Merlinda>!" Zhang Yang shouted and selected the [Merlinda's Ring of Grateful].
'+1000!'
'+1000!'
In the interval of every passing seconds, a healing number appeared right above Zhang yang's head, in just a short moment, his health points had been replenished back to full.
Sky Shaman witnessed the scene with envious eyes, wondering, "Wow, Zhan Yu, whatkind of skill is that!"
Zhang Yang laughed and then he spoke, "Let's hustle and f*ck the boss up!"
'260,000!'
'210,000!'
'190,000!'
The remaining health points of the boss was only at 1%!
10 seconds after, the barrier of <Vanguard's Aggression> had worn off, the effect of the <burning aura> persisted again, deducting 1000 points of health points from the players!
Han Ying Xue quickly threw out her <Healing Shower>, while using up the last of her mana points to cast <Regeneration> and <Holy Shield> on Zhang Yang, and there she was, completely spent!
She was well aware that it would be useless to stay on the same spot, she would only end up being burned by the <Burning Aura>, so she immediately ran out of the area.
170,000! 140,000! 110,000!
'Ding! Player Slight Breeze has died!'
'Ding! Player Yue Wanxin has died!'
70,000! 40,000!
Zhang Yang activated his <Substitute>, acquiring a 5-second invincibility.
20,000! 10,000!
"Rawh---" Bariyada gave out a raging roar that trembled the sky, and boom, it's huge body was broken down into pieces of gigantic rocks falling down, scattering all over the ground.
'Ding! You and all parties have slayed Hellfire Demon King Bariyada, acquired 230,000 experience points!'
'Ding! The defense of the Tukula Fortress has been greatly weakened, the Empire Dragonic Cavalry are on their way to the battlefield, please wait patiently, and join the Imperial Expeditionary Army in the siege of the fortress!'
On the display of the players, a 30-minute countdown clock appeared.
"We made it!"
The people could not help themselves but to cheer in joy, lost in excitement. Zhang Yang was forcefully hugged by the female rogue Perfumed Water, receiving tons of her fragrant kisses on his face.
Stop it! My equipment! Zhang Yang cried in tears, just in the manner of seconds, Wei Yan Er and Sun Xin Yu had already stabbed him in the back, grabbing all the Yellow-Gold equipment on the ground while everyone else was basking in their current victory!
"Quickly! Grab the equipment!" A few seconds later, someone finally noticed, and they quickly bent down to grab the loots dropped by the boss.
In the midst of the chaos with everyone was grabbing what they can reach their hands on, the 30 pieces of equipment dropped by Bariyada were cleaned up from the ground, distributed among them. 13 players looked at each other, with no knowledge of what the others had managed to grab from the ground.
Zhang Yang kicked all the non-Lone Desert Smoke members out of the party, before he started asking, "So what did you guys get from the loots?"
The remaining members of the Lone Desert Smoke were only the five of them, including himself, Han Ying Xue, Wei Yan Er, Sun Xin Yu and Daffodil Daydream.
Although they didn't amount to much, they still occupied 40% of the total players who survived till the end. Evidently, they were absolutely the strongest among the remaining players who survived based on overall strength!
TL Note:
1Debilitation - the item name was changed from Weakness to Debilitation.