Chapter 445: The Fourth Prince Ludovic
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Let’s search for it!" Zhang Yang cried annoyingly.
Everyone spread out and started to search in all directions. Some thought that it must be some sort of switch mechanism that could open a hatch, or reveal a secret wall.
"Nyahaha! I found it!" Wei Yan Er laughed happily. Right at where she stood, there was a large humanoid statue. At the base of the statue was a glowing jade. In the game, items or objects that could be interacted with would be highlighted with a glowing aura. Items or objects such as herbs, minerals, and even switches would be highlighted to help players spot them.
"WAIT! DON’T TOUCH IT!" Zhang Yang stopped her. The stupid and reckless little brat might kill herself by triggering the boss alone. Zhang Yang and everyone else rushed to Wei Yan Er’s side. Zhang Yang nodded and Wei Yan Er twisted the jade. Cracks started to form on the statue and fall down from the top. With a loud crack, a hand burst out and slammed downward.
"Aiyaya! What is that!? Monster? Ghost?!" Wei Yan Er cried out randomly.
With stones raining down from above, Zhang Yang and everyone started to jump away to safety.
The statue cracked even more violently after some time. It seemed that the source of the great vibration was coming from within the statue. It was so powerful, that the entire floor was trembling like a subwoofer! Everyone was forced to stagger about like drunkards!
Crack! Crack! The statue continued to "peel" off its stone skin and reveal its main body. After all the stone had been removed, the boss appeared in gold, shining armor. He was carrying a gigantic axe behind him.
[The Fourth Price, Ludovic] (Violet-Platinum, Spectre)
Level: 100
HP: 10,000,000
Defense: 2,900
"Oh…my…god…Level 100 boss…" Zhang Yang gaped. First, he had goosebumps. Trembles of fear followed next.
Level 95, or 99 would not have much difference from each other, but when a boss reaches Level 100, like Ludovic, the prowess and difficulty was on a whole other level. It was the game’s setting. Every 10 Level gap, equipment, itemd, monsters, players, and even bosses would undergo an upgrade. Hence, this boss had already gained that fore mentioned upgrade, and would be extremely difficult to defeat. A Level 90+ Violet-Platinum boss would have only around 2,600 Defence. Ludovic had an extra 300!
No wonder the previous team in Zhang Yang’s previous life could never make it alive! Just the minions alone would already take too long a time to defeat. Yet, now came a Level 100 Violet-Platinum boss! It would not be such a problem if they were not restricted with time and level limitations. This "dungeon" … this place had a Level 100 limitation, and also a 36 hour duration for them to conquer. Was it impossible? No. But it was close to impossible!
The Level 90 dungeon Rock Frost Palace had already caused players to be stuck in there for more than 2 months! Players had actually taken 2 months to figure out a way to defeat the entire dungeon. Yet, this Level 100 "dungeon" Treasure Cove had forced players to complete it within 36 hours! How!?
Ludovic’s entire body was revealed to the party. It was massive, like a professional, heavy weight MMA fighter. An emerald-green flame burst into his eye sockets, indicating that Ludovic had come back to life. Slowly, Ludovic stared down at Zhang Yang and everyone else, and said in a low husky voice. "Are these the descendants of the seven traitors? Death, shall it be!"
Without saying anything else, Ludovic drew out his axe from behind his back and swung it hard at Zhang Yang and everyone else.
Zhang Yang jumped into action and embraced the oncoming attack with his shield.
PANG!
Sparks burst into the air when the gigantic axe pummeled the shield. Although Ludovic’s attack was nullified, Zhang Yang was sent flying. Instead of knocking him back a few meters, Zhang Yang was literally sent flying backwards. It took a great deal of strength to get back up on his feet, which eventually ended up with Zhang Yang spitting blood out of his mouth.
"Augh!" Zhang Yang struggled to remain on his feet.
"Woah. Noobie tank! What are you throwing up blood for! It’s not like you have cancer!" Wei Yan Er teased.
"Bloody brat! There’s a time and place for everything, and now is neither the time nor the place!" Zhang Yang scolded her sternly, which made her quieten down. He regained his strength and sprinted towards the boss.
"Hmph. No hero, no villain, could ever harm the great prince. Your resistance is all but for naught!" said Ludovic in a very snobbish manner.
Zhang Yang was careless. While sprinting with all his might, Zhang Yang had forgot to guard his side. Ludovic had sent a powerful soccer kick towards Zhang Yang, hitting him right in the chest area, which sent him flying like a bullet. He ricocheted against the wall and fell down to earth, throwing up more blood as he got back up his feet.
"Grah!" Zhang Yang was getting annoyed at tasting the rust in his mouth. He quickly got up to his feet again and glided towards Ludovic with a {Charge}. A quick slam was avoided, with Zhang Yang extreme reflexes, and he managed to land his first hit on the boss. His sword struck the boss’ armor, sending out sparks everywhere, and the word "-3,182" floated up.
Enraged, Ludovic picked up his axe and swung it hard at Zhang Yang.
SPLISHH!
‘-15,238!’
A fresh pool of blood dripped down from Ludovic’s axe after he had chopped Zhang Yang.
*Beep*
Zhang Yang’s Rage gauge was filled almost instantly after he had taken the devastating attack. He quickly jumped towards the boss, avoiding more attacks and landed {Cripple Defense} on the boss to support his team mates. All this time, beside Han Ying Xue, Sun Xin Yu and everyone else had remained idle to allow Zhang Yang to build more aggro on the boss before they could attack.
"Feeble bugs! I will squash you with my fist and feet! Your death will be quick and painless!" Ludovic bellowed. He picked up his axe and spun it around in circle. A bright flash of light shot out in a horizontal sweep and dealt damage to everyone close to the boss’ melee range.
‘Ding! Ludovic has used: Tornado Sweep, all target within the attacking range will receive 25,000 Physical damage!’
Zhang Yang had thick defense, it would not matter for him. But the others had taken close to 20,000 damage. Even though they had Level 90 Violet-Platinum equipment on them, their 50,000 HP was instantly halved. The girls jumped backward instantly and withdrew to the side to heal themselves with [Bandages] and Han Ying Xue’s heal.
"Behold! Feast your eyes on my strength! Bow to the power of absolute force!" Ludovic was talking too much, that even the little brat had gotten annoyed. Zhang Yang was about to approach him to attack, when an axe swung by. Zhang Yang took the axe attack, and was sent flying by another kick to the chest!
Zhang Yang saw the kick coming to him. With quick breathing, Zhang Yang relaxed his body and avoided the incoming "wrecking ball" simply by bending backwards, like Mr. Anderson from the Matrix.
Almost all the girls present on the scene gasped in awe and surprise. Daffodil Daydream cried out immediately, "Guild master, how did you do that? How did you avoid that attack?"
From her perspective, the boss’ attack was too fast to dodge. Unless players were to use special skills to induce a sudden movement, it was impossible to physically dodge the attack!
"That kick attack is not an actual attack. It’s not considered to be a boss attack. That is why there is a flaw which you can exploit. Its easy to dodge once you had grasp the technique." Zhang Yang explained.
The kick that sent him flying the first time had not caused any HP damage. It was all merely an effect. But the effect had a knockback effect, which could send him flying off his feet. It was troublesome, since he could not counterattack!
This type of attack was not alien for Zhang Yang. Ever since the game had undergone the first update, the effect was already added in. It was similar to the knockback effect from bosses and stronger monsters. As long as the Strength value is higher than the target, one could easily induce a knockback effect. In Ludovic’s case, the effect was placed in its kick attack. Since the attack was not an attacking skill which could cause HP damage, the movement speed of the leg was fixed to allow players to avoid it physically.
These kinds of movement in a fight was extremely common after the Chaos Realm threshold. Zhang Yang had been reborn, and it was close to a year since he had fought such a boss. That was the reason why Zhang Yang had made a few mistakes with Ludovic. Not that he had gotten used to it, but he was using everything in his power to avoid being sent flying again.
This type of fighting style is actually applicable in PvP. Zhang Yang had used a similar method of fighting Musashi Ou-sama in the recent past event. Taking a shield to the face would not cause damage, but it could disrupt the opponent’s vision. However, when Zhang Yang was slamming his shield into Musashi’s face, it was all to humiliate him and throw him off his game.
To slam someone off their feet would require the attacker to have a much higher value of Strength compared to the victim. Right now, Zhang Yang could send a player off their feet, provided that the player was equipped with Yellow-Gold equipment, or lower tier. This sort of attacking style was known as the Supporting Attack. In his past life, players around had crafted a series of supporting attacks and incidentally caused a huge uproar about it. There was a case where a random rank-less player, equipped with only a beginner dagger, killed an A-class Professional League PvP fighter solely by using the "supporting attack".
Hence, after the incident, many professional players had adopted the style and utilized them to enhance their fights.
…
"Die! Pest!" Ludovic bellowed again. This time, he spun his axe in circles and created many afterimages of his axe around his body. With a loud battle cry, the mirror images of the axe blasted off in all directions.
‘Ding! Ludovic has used: Axe Barrage. Inflicts 20,000 Physical damage to all targets within the vicinity. Lasts for 10 seconds!’
"To me!" Zhang Yang cried out as he casted {Vanguard Aggression}. The attack would deal 20,000 damage per seconds. That meant it could deal 200,000 damage in total! How could anyone survive that?
With Ludovic as the center, the axes shot out to all directions, and even to the edge of the gigantic room. Zhang Yang frowned at the sight of it. This time, he could use {Vanguard’s Aggression} to save everyone. He could use {Rearm} and use it again for the next {Axe Barrage}. But what about the third one? Right now, the boss still had 92% HP. If the skill was activated at regular intervals instead of by the HP percentage of the boss, {Axe Barrage} could be repeat endlessly, and it would be impossible to survive that!
How could a 5-men party win this round? The system would never design such a broken boss fight! There must be a way to survive the skill, without using counter skills!
Zhang Yang frantically scanned the entire room and found a abnormally large pillar at the far side of the room.
"Guys! I will kite the boss over to that pillar. When the boss uses {Axe Barrage} again, you can avoid the skill by hiding behind the pillar!" said Zhang Yang. During the skill activation, Zhang Yang had observed and found that the skill required the boss’ channeling. Hence, when everyone runs behind the pillar, the boss would not chase after them. Furthermore, he noticed the axes that had flown out were stuck in the pillar and had not phased through.
10 seconds later, Ludovic raised his axe up high and swung it hard towards Zhang Yang. Zhang Yang then kited the boss. Slowly but surely, he managed to drag the boss over to that pillar. He stopped 3 meters away from the pillar, providing enough space and distance for everyone, including himself, to escape the skill, if the boss were to use {Axe Barrage} again.
Now, the boss was not stupid. The raging soccer kick was used repeatedly. If Zhang Yang did not possess his past life experience, he would have faced this sort of attack for the first time and would be kicked so far and so often that the boss could have joined the World FIFA competition. Even when the players were standing close to the pillar, the boss was not stupid enough to let them stay there forever. With all sort of kicks coming from different angles, the boss’ prime objective was to keep everyone from staying at one place for too long. Tanks could not rely on the pillar to prevent the knockback effect!
If another tank were to replace Zhang Yang, they would surely be kicked until he becomes a football (not American football). With him away from the pillar, the boss would then use {Axe Barrage} to kill everyone easily.
This is the main point of surviving the skill. Players would have to figure out a strategy to stand close to the pillar, during and before the {Axe Barrage} is used. If they had figured that out, any less-than-average tank, healer, and attack could defeat him.
"Death to you, insolent fool!" cried Ludovic as he thrust another kick at Zhang Yang.
"Again, with the same trick?" As light as a feather, Zhang Yang twisted and turned, effectively moving away from the kick. Right after the kick was thrown into the air, Zhang Yang moved to the side, and slammed his shield right in Ludovic’s helmet.
Pang!
The slam had successfully knocked off Ludovic’s helmet, and revealed his half-rotten face, just like Two-Face in the Batman. Some of his hair got stuck on the helmet, causing some of his skin on the head to be ripped off as the helmet was blown away. Zhang Yang had not intended to do that. He had wanted to knock Ludovic back, so that he would have more space to start a hit combo. It was a pity that his Strength was lower than Ludovic.
"Ugly snob!" Wei Yan Er cried out and laughed.
"Ugly?" Ludovic heard her laughed and was enraged. "Did you just call me ugly? I am the fourth prince! The most handsome man under the heavens! You ignorant fool! How dare you deny the gift of gods? Are you blind?"
"Nishishishi! Ugly snob! Ugly snob!" Wei Yan Er continued to teased and jumped around as she did.
"I am the most handsome man! Handsome, I’ll tell you!" Ludovic rage built up, and he swung his axe around like a tornado!
‘Ding! Ludovic has used: Axe Barrage. Inflicts 20,000 Physical damage to all targets within the vicinity. Lasts for 10 seconds!’
As the afterimage of the axe started to form around Ludovic’s body, Zhang Yang and everyone else started to make their way to the back of the large pillar.
"Are you daft? Why did you purposely anger a lunatic?! D*mn girl, know what you’re doing, please!" said Zhang Yang as he took the chance to wrap himself up with a [Bandage].
"Okay…" Wei Yan Er sounded like she had learnt her lesson. "Does that mean that I should stop teasing you as well?"
Wei Yan Er smiled, and Zhang Yang sighed. Sometimes, Wei Yan Er was pretty smart in insulting someone. She did not even need to utter a single profanity!
To ease the burden on Han Ying Xue, everyone took out their own [Bandages] and heal themselves. Compared to a bottle of [Healing Potion], a [Bandage] was much cheaper. Zhang Yang had always preferred to use [Bandage] to heal himself since he had the title - "A Physician’s Friend" that granted him a 100% increment in [Bandage] effectiveness.
The four ladies were impressed. Han Ying Xue, however, was extremely jealous. Back when she had saved Zhang Yang to defeat the Python King, she had not realized that it was the last step of the quest. If she had known that, she would have done the repetitive quest before that!
After Ludovic had finished channeling {Axe Barrage}, he picked up his axe, and chased after the party behind the pillar, and started attacking.