Chapter 746: Darkness Falls
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
30 days’ time was not long enough, especially when it was the altered in-game time. Everyone took that chance to raid bosses to raise their Levels and strength. However, little did they know that it would be a complete waste of time. Their opponent was a Celestial tier boss where 99% of all players around can only deal a pathetic 1 damage. They could only make a difference if they could reach Level 200 by the end of the given time.
Zhang Yang had managed to reached Level 169 by the end and was incredibly saddened that he was unable to reach Level 170 before the great war. Then again, even if he is able to reach Level 170, it would not allow Zhang Yang to equip the Ascended tier weapon in his storage, since that equipment required Zhang Yang to be Level 180.
Besides the players, the NPC army was making preparations themselves. All soldiers were gathered together at the frontlines to form a strong and solid formation. Such an army would help against the monsters. Sadly, they would not be of much use when Angus himself comes forth to the front lines.
Zhang Yang pestered his party to keep on completing quests that could earn them Military points. Even though it would be a waste of time, Zhang Yang still pushed them to do it. In his previous life, Zhang Yang’s Level was too low to even participate in the great war. All he could do was to clean up random, low-level monsters. During then, he had heard of the importance of Military points, and it was not just to hire soldiers. Details about the importance of it was unclear to Zhang Yang. He could only guess that it was somewhat important to the boss.
As time goes went on by, the decisive battle arrived. Zhang Yang was so happy that Queen Serene herself had stepped out to his aid and defended Souron’s Castle! None of the other Territories had such privilege to be paid such a visit from an Empire’s queen! It was most probably due to the fact that Zhang Yang had a "good" relationship with Queen Serena.
At that moment, with the powerful Ascended tier boss at their side, everyone but Zhang Yang had the utmost confidence to defeat the boss. They had placed their hopes in Serena to fight the boss while the players swarm the boss and lay down any damage they could dish out.
All but Zhang Yang was happy about it. In his previous life, Zhang Yang had witnessed the downfall of all the players seven times before they were able to defeat Angus in the eighth attempt. By then, all eight major regions, all 64 Ascended bosses were sortied to fight the boss but were unable to defeat the boss until then. That was how powerful Angus, a Celestial boss could be.
Even though Serena had the Meteor Sword, making her stronger than the average Ascended tier boss, she alone was not as strong as the combined number of 64 Ascended tier bosses! Furthermore, they had received a total of 7 buffs while Angus was weakened by 7 times before they could win!
Despite the hardship, players could still fight in the war, not against Angus, but to farm experience points from the monsters in the war itself. Although Angus was practically invincible, the monsters were spawning endlessly. As long as Angus remains alive, so would the monsters’ spawn rate. It was a chance that cannot be ignored! For once it slips away, there is no chasing it.
There was no doubt that the first attack attempt will result in an inevitable failure. It would be nice if they could defeat Angus on their first try and obtain all 13 Celestial tier set-equipment. It was nice to hope, but it would be an impossible task to accomplish. Zhang Yang had estimated that they would only win the war on either the third or fourth attempt. It would still be nice for the equipment drop to be set equipment.
On the first day of New Year, the war started. The war that everyone had anticipated and prepared for has arrived. The system had automatically sent out quests to all players above Level 160. Parties that were able to defeat Angus will receive 2 Skill Points as a reward, limited to only 10 players! Furthermore, if Angus was killed then, all players that had participated in the war will receive a Level +2 reward. Similar to Skeleton Admiral Mathuven.
The calm before a storm was the similar sensation Zhang Yang felt in the silence of the battlefield. As his suspicious rose, the bright daylight was eclipsed by a sudden intrusion of dark clouds. Within an instance, the sun, the blue skies, was covered over with darkness, as if the night had fallen. Cold winds blew by, along with the cries of sorrow and dismay across the horizon.
Darkness Falls has been activated!
The echoes of soldiers marching could be heard right after the sun was blotted out.
"Enemy sighted, commander!" cried the Elven scouts, who had superior vision. Zhang Yang did not need superior elven eyes to know that. With his normal vision, he could already spot the oncoming enemies from the horizon. They were like a pitch black wave that came swarming in like black tar. Over the hills, mountain, and filed, the number of incoming Spectre monsters were uncountable. It was going to be a tough fight, since there was more than one type of monster. Skeletal soldiers were the easiest to deal with, while the others were were zombies, Abomination, Necromancer, Death Knight, and even a siege tank!
The siege tank was unlike any Zhang Yang had ever seen. The tank was made from the combination of the bones of their enemies merged together with eerie, disgusting, exposed muscle and tendons. The problem with the "tank" was that the corpses that were used to build the tank was enchanted with some sort of powerful spell. When an attack lands, the eerie structure will burst, emitting out poison gas that will temporary convert NPC soldiers into Spectres.
What an ingenious method to start a war. Normally, siege tanks would be used to break down thick castle walls, yet the Spectres have used them to change the tide of war by converting the enemies to their allies!
"Ready the troops!" Among the army of the Empire, came a loud bellow from a man fully clad in shiny golden armor. He raised his sword high and with his horse standing on its rear legs.
With the horse stomping down, he cried, "ATTACK!"
PEW PEW PEW!
The army that Serena had brought to the base fired countless of lit oil barrels towards the enemy. The barrels exploded on the ground and caused high AoE damage.
The Spectre retaliated by bringing out their catapults that were armed with rotting corpses. The corpses landed behind the castle walls and spread green, toxic gas that immediately converted all soldiers into zombies. As such, the enemy had managed to attack both in and out of the castle.
The exchange of catapults lasted for several tens of minutes before both sides ran out of munitions. Shortly after, the Spectres were the first to blow their horn to signal the attack. The entire swarm of Spectres came swarming towards the castle, like rodents.
"Knights! Press on!" cried the same general. Before he could complete his order, Queen Serena stood tall at the edge of the watchtower at the top of the castle and cried out, "ATTACK! FOR THE GLORY OF MANKIND!"
Her soldiers roared with vigor and fervor as they charged out of the castle walls and attacked the Spectre. Sadly, the number of human soldiers were only by the tens of thousands. Compared to the Spectre, they were only a small island, versus the entire ocean!
Queen Serena took charge of the command and cried, "Sentries march on! ARCHERS ATTACK THE REAR! SPELLCASTERS! PREPARE YOUR ARCANE BLASTS!"
More and more commands were shouted out and the NPC army obeyed her commands. As such, even though the NPC army were greatly overwhelmed, they held their ground well. In fact, through Serena’s strategical command, the NPC army had not suffered any losses. For the moment. Then, players from China started to pour out from behind the NPC army and flanked the Spectres from the left and right.
Zhang Yang was standing next to Serena at that moment, and he wanted to go down to the battlefield to gain some experience points. However, Serena had mistaken his actions for battlelust and stopped him.
"Hold on for now. Let the troops handle the weak ones first. The strong like you will only be needed in the battle field when more powerful enemies appear. It will be a boost of morale if you appear later in the battle."
"Yes. I hear and obey, your highness."
Although Zhang Yang had knelt down and expressed his desire to acknowledge the queen’s order, he was greatly disgruntled. He had wanted to go down to reap some precious experience points! However, Queen Serena had only come to his aid due to the Relationship. No other territory had such service from their own castle Baron. Even though Zhang Yang was eager to go down to lay down some kills, he had pushed his desire away and listened to the queen. It would be for the wiser, since the queen might be angered. Who knows what she might do to him! As such, Zhang Yang remained on the watchtower.
Even though the Spectre forces were swarming in like locusts, under the command of Queen Serena, the NPC army, paired with players, were able to strike down the incoming Spectres like the locust that they were. Right then, the number of Level 100 players in China had reached over 100 million. Most of them had decided to camp at Souron’s Castle. Even though most of them were unable to get inside the castle, as more and more players had exited the castle to enter the battlefield, most players were able to teleport in and join the fight.
The exchange of attacks continued on and many players fell in the fight. However, the flow of the battle remained unshaken as the graveyard was near. The time taken to revive again was extremely quick and easy. As such, players were able to rejoin the fight while the Spectre soldiers were suffering great losses until their reinforcements arrives.
It was estimated there were around 1 to 2 billion Spectres, then. Since players were able to keep on reviving, Souron’s Castle will not fall since players were able to keep on reviving, as if they had endless reinforcements!
Right then, it was only matter of time for the Spectre soldiers to be wiped out. The only thing to worry about then, was when the final boss appears. When Angus arrives, that will be the final decisive battle since the winner will be decided in merely a short time.
Eventually, 3 hours had passed and the Spectre soldiers suffered the most losses. Initially, they came in like a tsunami, but players were able to stop that rushing wave by hacking away at the front ones first and slowly chasing after the soldiers behind!
"Useless scum…"
A cold, deep voice was heard and amidst the gory battlefield, a black portal appeared. Out came a large character that floated midair. Abyssal darkness seeped out from his entire character and formed an absolute void around him.
The darkness around him was so dark that everything around him was rendered 2D. Even though Darkness Falls had merely turned day to night, light could still exist somewhere in the field. Angus was different. He seemed to be carrying a blackhole around him! An existence that could swallow light, even!
[Angus, The Lord of the Seven Spectre King] (Celestial, Spectre)
Level: 230
HP: 23,000,000,000
Defense: 100,000
Magic Defense: 100,000
Melee Attack: 633,914 – 833,914
Skills:
[Blade of Obliteration]: Deals 100% melee Chaos damage to all targets within 500 meters.
[Death Cleave]: Deals 150% melee Chaos damage to a target. Cannot evade. Cannot block.
[Despair Aura]: Creates a Cage of Despair around a target every 3 seconds. Targets will be immobilized. Aura Range: 200 meters.
[Death Feeds]: Each target that Angus kills will restore 1% HP. Recovery rate cannot be affected by any skills.
Since the battle was part of the story plot, even though Angus Level had exceeded the players’ ability to check his stats, players were still able to observe and examine him. It was then, when everyone gasped in unison. 23 billion HP is not a number to joke about.
Truthfully speaking, the boss’ HP was not an exaggeration. Even though players could only deal 1 damage at a time, there were 100 million players then, and if everyone hits the boss 230 times, they could kill the boss with ease! The problem lay with the boss HP recovery skill. One death will restore 1% HP? That’s just OP beyond reason!
The boss’ attack was more than 100,000. At that point, no one could heal that much in an instance! It would be useless to rely on numbers alone to defeat the boss. Strategy? What is that? The players were all so grossly underequipped! Defeating the boss will only be a pipedream!
"From this day forth, the world shall be mine! Let Darkness engulf the land and the Spectre shall take it all! Death shall come to those who live!"