Chapter 384 - Corpse Eater
Furiously roaring, the Blackett Grizzly swiped away with its massive paws. A Fighter was sent flying with every sweep, only to be immediately replaced by those waiting on standby in the back.
A few Thieves were also active on the battlefield. They were in charge of picking up the equipment of their fallen comrades. Every now and then they would circle round the Blackett Grizzly and attack it with skills that inflicted continuous bleed damage before immediately backing off.
Nie Yan didn’t dare to join in since his high damage would lead to the Blackett Grizzly shifting aggro. He suddenly recalled seeing Threat Null in Sunny South’s skill list.
Threat Null was a Holy Mage spell that nullified all aggro generated by a targeted ally for a set period of time, allowing them to dish out damage to their heart’s content.
Sunny South had learned Threat Null from the Magic Tower. It was a fairly useful spell in boss fights.
“Sunny South, cast Threat Null on me!” Nie Yan ordered before circling behind the Blackett Grizzly.
Sunny South raised his staff as a ray of light shrouded Nie Yan in a faint radiance.
Nie Yan checked his status bar.
Threat Null: Your attacks and skills generate no aggro. Duration: 30 seconds.
It was more than enough time!
Backstab!
Nie Yan plunged Zennarde’s Sword into the Blackett Grizzly’s back. After which he ruthlessly slashed down as blood sprayed out of the gaping wound.
Eviscerate!
Assassinate!
Blast!
Nie Yan exploded out with an onslaught of high damage skills, inflicting the Blackett Grizzly with a myriad of debuffs such as bleed, burn, and poison. On top of this, his attacks also dealt additional piercing and chaos damage.
The Blackett Grizzly's thick, steel-like hide was no match for the sharp blade of Zennarde’s Sword.
−1525, −425, −356
−1473, −396, −381
−1429, −372, −320….
A string of damage values floated up above the Blackett Grizzly’s head.
The 30 seconds of zero aggro generation from Threat Null was extremely precious. Nie Yan wanted to make every second count!
Even though Nie Yan was doing far more damage than the players around him, the Blackett Grizzly couldn’t be bothered to spare him so much as a glance.
Nie Yan looked at his damage stats and saw he had dealt over 32,000 damage in total! He immediately retreated once the 30 seconds were over, not daring to linger a second longer.
No one else in the group had an aggro removal skill. Nie Yan would have to wait 20 minutes for Threat Null to come back off cooldown.
At the back, Yao Yao gazed at the battle with a thoughtful look on her face. This sort of aggro removal skill appeared to be useful to Nie Yan. Learning Threat Null would only take up one skill slot, and the 1,000 gold fee was pocket change in her eyes.
The Corpse Eater skill of the Blackett Grizzly was frightening. It would immediately heal back to full health if there were more than five corpses nearby, making all their efforts go to waste.
The Blacket Grizzly barreled forward, sending Fighters flying. Corpses were strewn about the battlefield.
Every time the Blackett Grizzly tried to break out of the encirclement, one or two Fighters would rush forward into certain death to obstruct its charge.
These sacrifices were necessary. If Bladelight, Lofty Shadow, or Yi Yan died, the situation would turn grave fast.
The Mages never stopped bombarding the Blackett Grizzly, and the Priests never stopped providing support.
Time ticked away. After roughly 20 minutes, the Blackett Grizzly’s health fell under 50%. At this moment it let out a deep roar that shook the entire plaza.
“Priests, purify the corpses on the ground! Quick!” Nie Yan hoarsely ordered. He barely gave them any time at all!
There were at least 10 corpses within range of the Blackett Grizzly.
Nie Yan had already reminded them prior, so the Priests immediately raised their staffs. The corpses were bathed in a purifying radiance and disappeared into motes of light.
The battlefield was cleared of all corpses!
Corpse Eater!
A bloody aura enveloped the Blackett Grizzly as a strong devouring force emerged in the air, but there were no corpses nearby to absorb.
The Blackett Grizzly lashed out in fury, catching a nearby Warrior off-guard and killing them instantly. Its health immediately recovered by 5%.
“Warriors, retreat. Bladelight, Lofty Shadow, and Yi Yan, lock the boss down. Priests, protect them with Radiant Barriers. Paladins, buff them with your blessings!” Nie Yan calmly ordered. He was simply relying on the fuzzy memories of the video from his past life to command the team.
Even if this was his first time conducting a boss battle, Nie Yan couldn’t show it! He was their leader and backbone. If he panicked, the entire team would fall apart!
Wiping was a common occurrence. Even if they wiped once or twice, they could simply revive and try again.
The levelling system of Conviction was interesting, only giving players allocatable stat points once every five levels. Even if the team dropped one or two levels, their overall strength wouldn’t be heavily impacted. This was exactly why they could keep on going.
The duration of Corpse Eater was short. And with there being no corpses nearby, it had basically gone to waste.
Everyone wondered how Nie Yan knew about the Corpse Eater ability of the Blackett Grizzly beforehand. He simply claimed he happened to learn about it while searching for information.
There were many strange and fantastical rumours circulating around in Conviction. Sometimes they were simply interesting tidbits related to the history of the continent. Other times they were clues to quests. So, Nie Yan happening to find information related to the Blackett Grizzly was quite plausible.
“The Blackett Grizzly will activate Corpse Eater again once its health drops below 20%. Priests, pay close attention!” Nie Yan informed. The team’s coordination was decent. They had breezed through the first phase of the battle without suffering heavy casualties.
Once the danger was over, the Warriors rushed back to support Bladelight, Lofty Shadow, and Yi Yan. The three of them were under heavy pressure facing the Blackett Grizzly alone.
After roughly 10 minutes, the Blackett Grizzly’s health fell to 23%. Everyone was tensely playing their respective roles. At this moment, the Blackett Grizzly let out a deep roar, signalling the coming of something ominous. A powerful force started building up, like a volcano about to erupt.
The Priests believed the Blackett Grizzly was activating Corpse Eater again, so they quickly started purifying the corpses.
Seeing the Blackett Grizzly’s movements, Nie Yan’s heart tightened. It was Dark Roar!
“Mages, pull back! Get more than 100 meters away from the boss! Priests, use Radiant Barrier on yourselves!” Nie Yan commanded. The Mages had to retreat because they would be dead if they were caught in the skill. The Priests couldn’t leave, or else the frontline would collapse. Thankfully Radiant Barrier could mitigate the damage of Dark Roar.
The Mages didn’t dare to linger and immediately retreated.
The Priests protected themselves with Radiant Barrier as a faint membrane of light surrounded each one of them.
The Warriors had also made their preparations.
Bladelight and Lofty Shadow were locking down the Blackett Grizzly. Suddenly, it let out a heavy roar that carried a powerful sound wave attack, sweeping through everything within a 100 meter radius. A handful of Mages failed to get out of range in time and were instantly killed.
The Warriors at the front all lost around 50% of their health. The Priests protected by Radiant Barriers lost around 70%–80%. A few of the squishier ones were even killed instantly.
The Blackett Grizzly sweeped away with its massive paws, sending a large group of Warriors flying and killing another ten or so of them.
Bladelight, Lofty Shadow, and Yi Yan, who received the majority of the support, were somewhat better off. After losing half their health from the Dark Roar, they immediately received healing. When they were hit by the Blackett Grizzly’s swipe, they had lost 70% of their health. However, they were still alive. The Priests immediately healed them back up to full health.
The Blackett Grizzly had decimated its surroundings!
At this moment, the Blackett Grizzly started activating Corpse Eater again!
“Priests, quickly purify the corpses!” Nie Yan anxiously yelled.
The Priests quickly started clearing away the corpses. However, it was too little too late. There were simply too many corpses. Several corpses were still on the ground by the time the Blackett Grizzly activated Corpse Eater. Its health immediately recovered back to 83%.
All the team members gazed at each other in despair. They had worked so hard to take down the Blackett Grizzly to 20%, yet now all of that effort was wiped away in an instant. If it kept doing what it just did every time it reached low health, did that mean they could never kill it?
The team had suffered a heavy blow to their morale.
At this moment, Nie Yan’s voice roused everyone’s spirits, “Good work, guys! We only gave the Blackett Grizzly three corpses to absorb. Let’s continue. Have the Warriors on standby replace the fallen. Mages, come back! We’re only getting started. The Blackett Grizzly is running low on mana. Its mana only replenishes once a day!”
Only now did everyone recall that the Blackett Grizzly had a limited mana pool. If it had an endless supply of mana, they would truly despair. However, Nie Yan just said the Blackett Grizzly’s mana only replenished once a day. As long as they could force the boss to waste all its mana, they could kill it!
They immediately regained their confidence. The Warriors rushed forward and surrounded the Blackett Grizzly. The Mages were also back in position and resumed their bombardment of magic.
They once more started gradually chipping away at the Blackett Grizzly’s health.