Chapter 84: Main Wing! Here we come!
Translator: Zenobys Editor: TheRealSeal
After clearing both Front Wing and the Middle Wing dungeons, Zhang Yang and his party gathered in front of the last dungeon.
After 5 minutes or so, the second team led by Hundred Shots came out, followed by Fatty Han’s team, and the last team was Ironhill’s. In this small dungeon, the performance of the tank will determine the success of the team. That is why even though Ironhill’s team had a strong supporter like Little Snow, it would be useless since their team’s tank was not strong enough.
“I assume by now everyone fully understands the boss’ mechanics.” Zhang Yang asked. “If that’s the case, go and complete the quest and let’s go to the Main Wing!”
“Woohoo! Equipment!”
“First Clear!”
Everyone’s morale was high as they marched into the Main Wing with high spirits.
The dungeon was set in a palace, and Zhang Yang with his party were standing in the center of a huge courtyard. Ahead of them was the palace’s Main Wing and it was there Marzerway resided!
Zhang Yang cleared his throat, signaling the starting of his speech.
“*Ahem* I’ll now explain the strategy to fight. This boss has a total of 5 stages. At the first stage, he will take the form of the Water Spirit and had all of the Water Spirit boss’ skill. In this stage, it is important to interrupt its skill casting. Hundred Shots, Comet Tears and Big Ben, you guys are the first team to fire the first volley of <Silencing Shot>, the second volley team will be Fatty Han, Iron Heart and Burnt Snow. One more thing, always be on alert to evade the <Ice Ring>!”
“The second stage…”
Zhang Yang paused immediately and smiled. “You know what? Let’s just focus on practicing at the first stage!”
“Ok! Let’s go!”
The party went forward until they could finally see Marzerway’s own body.
From the looks of it, he seemed like a middle-aged man no older than thirty. A deep purplish red robe adorned his slim and tall body, having a sort of an appearance of a well-studied philosopher, and he held a long wooden staff on his left hand. With the way he portrayed himself, he did not give off the vibe of a mass-murderer.
[Marzerway the Fallen]
Level: 25
HP: 1,000,000
“Team 1 move to the North! Team 2 take the East! Team 3, South! Team 4, attack from the West! Once you have arrived at your position, we will begin the attack!” said Zhang Yang as he dashed toward the boss.
“Impudent fools, you dare to disturb my rest! Weaklings that seek death, I shall grant you your wish! Hmm… hmm…With the power of water alone, I shall cleanse you off this earth!” Marzerway started its attack.
Once Zhang Yang and Marzerway’s distance were close enough, Zhang Yang activated <Charge>, followed by a normal attack and <Provoke>.
‘-332!’
‘Immune!’
With that alone, Zhang Yang gained important information, learning that it had immunity against <Provoke> along with having 100 Defense value.
Still, Marzerway’s aggro was on Zhang Yang, and he raised his staff to smack him.
As a magic-based boss, Marzerway’s attack speed was slow enough that Zhang Yang could evade it whenever he wanted to! But he did not, and instead took a full hit to understand how strong the boss’ physical attack was. As Sun Tzu explained in his Art of War, ‘know your enemy and yourself and you’ll win a hundred war’.
‘-448!’
Zhang Yang took damage without any resistance. He never had thought that a magic based boss would have such high physical attack. Marzerway was truly strong!
With that, Zhang Yang gained 30 Rage.
‘<Cripple Defense>!’
‘-141!’ <Cripple Defense> damage.
‘-714!’ <Horizontal Sweep>.
To counter a high defense boss, Zhang Yang first prioritized stacking <Cripple Defense> to maximize the party’s damage output.
Once the boss’ defense was reduced by 50%, the party began to deal higher damage.
“Weak little humans, I will freeze you ‘til the depth of your soul!” Marzerway stopped his physical attacks and started to cast a spell.
Pew!
After 3 second casting, Marzerway fired an ice arrow and hit Zhang Yang.
‘-1200!’
“What the hell! Why would his attacks be much stronger than the 5-man dungeon boss Water Spirit?!” After fighting the element spirits for several days, Little Snow had a better understanding to all skill damages as a healer.
“Hmm. This is a 20-man dungeon, of course the attack will be higher!” said Zhang Yang.
Even though this boss was much stronger than the Hardcore bosses, Zhang Yang was able to fight with lesser stress as the team had 4 healers. The healing load was shared among them and it lessened the burden on Little Snow.
99%, 98%, 97%...
The boss’ HP was just too much. Even with 20 players attacking constantly, the HP reduction rate was the slowest he had ever seen!
“Slumber in eternal winter!” Marzerway cried out as he spread out his arms, casting 8 visible rings of ice onto the battle field.
‘Ding! Marzerway has used <Ice Ring>!’
“Pay attention to the floor! Move away if there’s an ice ring!” Zhang Yang could only scream to remind the party, not having all day to supervise one by one.
3 seconds after the skill had been activated, 8 icy orbs formed.
‘-2500!’
‘-2500!’
‘Ding! Player Four Hairs has died!’
‘Ding! Player Golden Big Ben has died!’
Crap! Two down!
Holding in his anger, Zhang Yang asked. “How did you two die?! Didn’t I tell you all to be careful of the rings?!”
“Sorry, boss. I was completely immersed in attacking!”
“Me too!”
Zhang Yang shook his head angrily. He wanted to unleash his rage but he suppressed the urge. It was not the time be playing the blame game; the teamwork might just be affected.
Zhang Yang took a deep breath and said, “Just be careful next time. One more careless mistake and you’ll have your guild contributions deducted!”
“Understood!”
Both dead players accepted Zhang Yang’s reproach but whether their apologies were sincere or if it was just for the sake of it, nobody knew but them.
Sigh… to think that Zhang Yang had assigned Big Ben to the “interruption” team.
“Defiant Monk, you’re now assigned to the “Interruption” team, go and get together with Hundred Shots!”
“Roger that!” Defiant Monk listened obediently to Zhang Yang since they got along some time ago.
So far, the only classes that had interruption skills were Spellcasters, Hunters, and Thieves. Hunters required Focus while Thieves required Stamina. Both classes cost system had a maximum of 100 points and they could recover 10 points every second. Casting the interruption skill <Silencing Shot> or the <Low Kick> both required 25 Focus for Hunters and 25 Stamina for Thieves. They would need to make sure they had sufficient Focus to make sure the cycle did not stop.
A Spellcaster’s interruption skill <Counter Magic> required Mana. As long there was sufficient Mana and the skill was not in cooldown, you could stop a channeling spell by casting it before the spell could be completed. By far, a Spellcaster was the most suitable to be the “interrupter”.
There were 4 Spellcasters in the party. Zhang Yang assigned 2 to Hundred Shots and the other 2 to Fatty Han. Now that they lost a member, Zhang Yang had to assign Defiant Monk as replacement.
But was it really necessary to have three players simultaneously casting three “interruption” spells?
One, to avoid a possible chance of missing; and two, the casting speed was much faster than the Water Spirit boss. One man alone could miss out the chance to stop the spell.
As the fight continued on, Marzerway has casted <Ice Ring> twice. Zhang Yang kept reminding the team so that no one else would get hit by any of the spell.
“Hmmph! A bunch of noisy little pests! I’ll drown you all in a hail storm!”
Marzerway raised its staff up high and started to chant a spell. Hundred Shots quickly called out as he casted a <Silencing Shot>.
“Interrupt together!”
However, the assigned players were Defiant Monk and Comet Tears, and only Defiant Monk activated his <Silencing Shot>; the Spellcaster was still casting a <Fireball>!
Luckily, <Silencing Shot> hit its target, stopping the <Hail Storm> from being casted.
“Comet Tears, why didn’t you cast <Counter Magic>!?”
The Spellcaster quietly muttered. “I wanted to finish my <Fireball> before I cast an interruption spell. But since you guys had already casted your skill, I didn’t think mine was necessary.”
Hundred Shots stared at him angrily and scolded. “Do not make the same mistake ever again! Just because you wanted to attack, you could have caused the entire team to be killed! As a member of a party, you must bear the responsibility of a team member! You cannot just go around and act on your own accord!”
Comet Tears appeared to be in despair after that rebuke.
“Alright, what’s done is done. No use crying over a spilt milk. Cheer up. There’s more interruptions coming later!” Hundred Shots turned soft.
Zhang Yang was genuinely surprised to see that Hundred Shots could also be stern! If he were to give him some lessons, there was a chance that Hundred Shots could be a good leader!
After the small commotion, the interruption team became fairly serious and performed extraordinary. They never allowed Marzerway to successfully cast a single time!
90%...85%...80%!
Even with Zhang Yang’s repeated remainder, there were still careless players that died by the <Ice Ring>. A total of 3 players had died and one of them was a healer. They had now lost 5 members!
After a while, Marzerway roared. “I have underestimated you all! Heed my call, O God of the Earthly Spirit! Become one with me and crush these proudly beings!”
The boss has entered the second stage!
Pak!
Marzerway turned into a physical attack monster. He swung his staff and Zhang Yang had star circling on top of his head! Zhang Yang was hit by <Smash> and had been stunned! Marzerway’s physical attack suddenly increased, and he then focused only on Zhang Yang and dealt a series of heavy attacks.
‘-704!’
‘+402!’ Little Snow <Higher Healing>.
‘+80!’ Face Floored <Regeneration>.
‘-735!’
‘-747!’
‘+240!’ Face Floored <Higher Healing>.
‘+207!’ Vanilla Ice Cream <Holy Light>.
‘-711!’
In just 2 seconds, Marzerway attacked 4 times, totaling up to 3,000 over damage! Luckily, his team had 3 other healers that instantly healed him over the attacks and saved him from death!
Zhang Yang quickly activated <Block> the second he recovered from the stun effect, providing an opening for the healers to do their job.
“Attackers would only need to focus on evading the spikes on the floor! Little Snow, just like the last time, when the boss stuns me, use <Holy Prayers> on me!” Zhang Yang cried out.
“The second stage is very simple! The boss is just like a wooden pole!”