Chapter 681: Souron’s Castle
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Souron's castle was located at the center of Mar Gaia Forest. Be it from any direction, it was the same distance from any direction in the thick forest. It was both easy to move around, and hence was one of the major factors of any Territory which made it easier to defend. (1)
The little party flew for 2 hours before they approached the castle. From afar, they could already see the silhouette of the castle. Zhang Yang could roughly guess from the sheer size of it, that it was at least 10 times the size of Morning Town. The castle walls were thick and tall. There were many magic cannons situated on top and around the castle. Inside the castle compound were tall buildings that were built extremely close to each other. However, despite the congested towering structure, there one tower that stood tall, overshadowing all other structures. Located dead center was a towering structure that had to be at least 300 meters tall. On the top of the tower, the single shaft of the tower split into two like a fork, and there was a large magical black orb that hovered between the forks.
Zhang Yang scoffed. That would obviously be the Shadow Demon Souron.
Souron had only managed to resurrect his one eye. However, according to General Turkin Han's explanation, the Shadow Demon will have the rest of his anatomy follow, soon after. If that is to happen, darkness shall envelop the earth. Rains of blood and fire shall befall and all that live and breathe shall cease to be.
Zhang Yang led the entire party and tried to infiltrate the fortress through the airspace. However, once they were close to the castle wall, the giant orb opened its eye lid and revealed its burning fiery red pupil to the world. With one quick beam of light, the entire party, including Zhang Yang was killed.
[Eye of Absolute Obliteration]: Blasts a death ray and deals 200,000 damage to all targets within 30 meters around. If the target is far away, damage will be increased by 100% every 10 meters. Longest Range: 10 kilometers. Unable to attack targets at ground level.
The eye of Souron had 10 kilometers range of attack, that would mean that its aggro range was also 10 kilometers long. The airspace was completely sealed off as a death zone. If either one of them tries to fly, it would be an instant death. The only way to enter the castle was to knock on the doors!
Everyone revived and got on their battle mounts. However, instead of flying, they rode the mount and galloped across the ground. Even though they were now free from that laser beam of death, the magic cannons on the castle would still be able to bombard them.
Pew!
A bright beam blasted off the cannons and created a small crater at the point of attack. Lost Dream and Hundred Shots had taken exactly 200,000 damage. When the attack struck, the party happened to be spread out. Hence, the cannons' small radius of attack had only managed to hit two of them. Fantasy Sweetheart and Han Ying Xue quickly got to work and healed the two of them back.
Pew! Pew!
Two more cannons blasted and attacked the party once more. Small craters started to form all around the battlefield, and Fatty Han nearly fell into one of them.
Zhang Yang immediately activated {Vanguard's Aggression} to protect everyone and headed towards the castle wall. When {Vanguard's Aggression} ended, Endless Starlight cast the same spell and protected everyone. Two skills, 20 seconds, should be enough for their mounts to travel as far as 1 kilometer, however, since they were not flying but galloping, their speed was not too fast. Hence, they merely traveled close to 500 meters.
Since the magic cannons had a range of 300 meters, by the time Endless Starlight's {Vanguard's Aggression} ended, everyone had managed to get cover behind the blind spot of the cannons.
Now that they had arrived at the enemy's front line, the defenders started to retaliate. The large stone slabs opened up and a sea of monsters rushed out. Amongst the monsters, there were orcs. However, unlike the Red-Skinned orcs and the Green-Skinned orcs, the orcs inside Souron's Castle were deep, mud-like green.
[Demonic Orcs] (Normal, Humanoid)
Level: 160
HP: 104,440
Defense: 4,260
Melee: 20,992 – 30,992
Skills:
[Instant Rage]: Increases attack power by 20% for 15 seconds.
Note: Created by merging the life of orcs and treants. By trading off their Intelligence, they possess powerful fighting capabilities.
Fatty Han raised an eyebrow and asked, "How did an orc and a treant merge?"
"…Do you really want to know?"
"Urr…Perhaps not. Not even if you pay me."
"Kill!" The Demonic Orcs wielded many different types of weapon. They had long swords, clubs, pike, spear, and even something as oddly shaped as a broken limb of another orc! However, they seemed not to care of their weapons as the red glow in their eyes burnt with a berserked rage and a lust for battle!
"Fufu! What maniac!" cried Zhang Yang as he swung his sword vertically and dealt over 80,000 damage. With a little Rage points gained, Zhang Yang cast {Blast Wave}.
WHAM! WHAM!
'-29,410!'
One cone shaped wave of compressed air blasted out and dealt damage to more than 10 monsters. The sword procced and repeated the attack once more. Seeing that only one additional blast was created, Zhang Yang sighed heavily. If the sword's Echo effect had not been nerfed so greatly, Zhang Yang's single blast of {Blast Wave} could have procced over and over again until 30% of the monster's HP are gone before stopping.
But then again…It was for the best. Zhang Yang could not bear to think that if a similar weapon with a similar effect existed somewhere else in the world. It would be extremely broken!
However! A stronger "broken" killer machine had just arrived! The Phoenix drew in a deep breath and blasted out a 20 meters long flame that dealt more than 80,000 damage to all monsters that was in front of it. In that situation, the Phoenix was definitely much stronger than anyone around!
Die! Die! Die!
The Demonic Orcs only had 100,000 HP. With the combined power of Zhang Yang AoE attacks and the Phoenix's normal attacks, the monsters were killed almost instantly! Hmph, as expected of normal tier monsters, they did not stand a chance against the Phoenix! Come one come one million, they would all face the same fate!
And that was just one! Fatty Han's Phoenix was much stronger! Fatty Han had positioned his Phoenix right next to Zhang Yang's, allowing the two birds to cover most of the frontal attack position. With both Phoenixes attack simultaneously, no monster could get close to them without dying. While the rest could only land one to two hits, more than a hundred orcs would have already died.
"Nice! Farming experience points had never been so easy!" said Fatty Han happily.
"Fatty bro is so strong~ I'll leave myself in your care~~" Endless Starlight posed as a girl and tried to catwalk towards Fatty Han.
After acquiring the Phoenix, Fatty Han's leveling speed had skyrocketed to a point where he could be faster than Sun Xin Yu if he does not slack off like a pig! Zhang Yang had always lectured him about it, yet Fatty Han felt no need of being the highest level. As long as he is the same as the average level of players in the core party member, he would not spend extra time to grind.
"F*ck off! If I were to take care of someone, I would have asked for Little Sweetheart there!"
When Fantasy Sweetheart heard Fatty Han's sudden confession, she blushed madly and said, "I'm so sorry Fatty bro. I…I…I've already have someone I like."
While they were joking around nonchalantly, the party had made their way into the castle walls and proceeded to kill their way towards the tower. Out of the corner, a mysterious figure flashed across the street. Zhang Yang reaction was fast. Much faster than average humans around. With quick reflexes, the shadowy figure glided through the floor and struck Zhang Yang. Zhang Yang already had his shield ready and the sudden attack struck his shield.
PANG!
Based on the sound of the metal, Zhang Yang felt it was something light and flat, yet possessed such a powerful force that he was pushed a few steps back. He lowered his shield and saw the weapon that had attacked him was a long swirly whip.
The whip flashed around in the air before returning to the hands of the owner. The figure walked out of the shadows and revealed itself to be a slender woman tightly wrapped in leopard-skinned tights. She was a beautiful elf with skin as fair as snow. Her eyes were radiating with life and her long, emerald green hair swayed like the whip itself. The tight leopard skin tights were so tight that it squeezed her chest upward. Every step she took sent the upper portions of it jiggling!
[Anita – The Light of Stars] (Ethereal, Humanoid)
Level: 160
HP: 160,000,000
Defense: 10,490
Melee Attack: 80,772 – 100,772
Skills:
[Iron Whip]: Strike hard and fast, dealing 150% melee physical attack to a target.
[Shadow Whip]: Flash the whip at super-sonic speed, dealing 100% melee physical attack to all targets within 30 meters. Knockback.
Note: Once a brave fighter of the Elves. Possessed and subdued by the power of Souron and became a faithful follower.
"Phew~" Fatty Han whistled. "That's one smexy elven chick right there! How could I lay a hand on her!" said Fatty Han as he stared at the boss' perky bouncing while drooling like a deranged dog.
"Fatty bro…When you say you can't lay on her. Could it be that your little wee wee has failed you!?" Endless Starlight pretended to gasp.
"…Ask Xiao Wei about it then. Or better yet, ask your mom!"
By then, everyone level and equipment tier were not the same when they initially fought the first Inheritance quest boss. They were, in fact, far stronger than before. Plus, even Mythical tier bosses were nothing but scraps for the party! Though Anita may have strong attacks, she lacked the one skill that made any boss a tough fight. That is, the HP recovery skill.
Since the aggro was already on him, Zhang Yang picked up his sword and charged towards the boss on the back of the Phoenix. The first attack that landed on the boss was the {Spear of Obliteration}. It was to build more damage based aggro.
"Little Yang, do we need to activate any Transformations?" said Fatty Han.
"Nope. Not needed really. This boss is not that strong anyway. We can still kill it easily. Reserve the Transformation skill for the final boss. Who knows how strong would he be!"
"There's no need to think about the future, for all of you will die here!" Anita voice rang like a train horn. True to her race and appearance, she moved at such speed that perhaps, only Zhang Yang could follow. She jumped into the air and lash out her whip, binding Zhang Yang's throat tight like a viper's talon.
"URGH!"
Zhang Yang had used {Block} earlier from the first attack and could not block the incoming attack. The whip wrapped around his neck so tightly that he could not breathe for a second. Luckily, when she attempted to choke Zhang Yang, he was smart enough to rush over to her side to loosen the tension of the whip. When the whip was loosened off, a deep red mark was imprinted on his neckline. Such an attack had caused Zhang Yang difficulty in breathing! Not to mention the loss of the ability to consume potions.
Although the attack was not a skill, it does carry an additional effect. For example, attacks that hit a player's eyes could cause temporary blindness and the inability to lock on to a target. Asphyxiation would cause temporary immobility. There were various effects that would not cause damage but would greatly inconvenience players.
Luckily for Zhang Yang, he does not need to consume any potion! For he has the great Milkmaid Deity around to heal him with her "milk"! All he had to do in the fight was to maintain his attacks and keep the boss to himself.
Everyone else surrounded the boss in all directions and landed earth, fire, and storm-like attacks.
Anita remained unfazed and smirked coldly. With a quick swing of her whip, her hands made movements that was unlike what anyone had seen before. Everyone was instantly blown away.
Zhang Yang held his shield up high despite {Block} still being on cooldown. He knew that the attack was the {Shadow Whip} that deals AoE attacks and knockback effects.
Zhang Yang jumped off the Phoenix and activated {Charge} right at the moment when his foot touched the ground. With incredible speed, Zhang Yang glided across the floor and struck the boss.
"Your fight will be for naught! Master shall return to walk on this world soon. Everything that exists shall be his to rule!" Anita's eyes turned cold. Her face stiffens as it slowly became devoid of emotions. Her whip lashed out again. This time, it was targeted directly at Zhang Yang and had a slight metallic luster!
Pishh!
The whipped had dealt more than 70,000 damage on Zhang Yang, even when he was already activated {God of War's Shield} that granted him 20% additional damage reduction. D*mn…Never should have underestimated the boss. Even though Anita was just a side character in the entire map, her damage power was still deadly.
In that case…
{Charge Up Strike}!
{God of War Devastation}!
'-869,283!'
Zhang Yang dished the same pain that Anita had served him. In fact, by multiple folds! The instant of damage that reached as high as 800,000 damage sent fear returning to her facial expression.
"Nyehehe! Watch me, noobie tank!" Wei Yan Er ran up to the boss and wanted to show off as well. They were already within the region of Souron's dominion, hence, The One Ring had its stats and effect active. The little brat struck out a normal attack and dealt 127,400 damage. Zhang Yang smiled as her normal attack had already exceeded Zhang Yang's.
"YEAH!" Wei Yan Er cried happily and lunged at the boss.
{Dark Vengeance}!
'-318,500!'
Sadly, the little brat did not have the skill {Charge Up Strike}. Even though her normal attack may have surpassed Zhang Yang, her attack burst via skills was still far from Zhang Yang.
Translator Note:
(1) Territory Defense: In my not so humble opinion, I don't think a Territory is easier to defend if there is a massive land surrounding it. In fact, it would be difficult to defend since enemies could attack from any direction.
(2) Editor's opinion: Well, thick forests and whatnot imply that the defenders could send out small scouting parties on a regular basis and intercept would-be attackers using guerilla tactics. Think LOTR (Lord of the Rings) where the elven defenders of Lothlorien long heard the approach of the company before they even got close, etc.