Chapter 105 – A Staggering Blow
The dungeoning continued.
Fighting the first BOSS Goblin Patrol Guard was very brainless. Besides dodging its violent physical strikes, there was nothing else to think about. Although these sorts of high damage attacks would make normal players terrified, against players with high mechanical skill, it was just a toy. At this moment, the Goblin Patrol Guard’s aggro was entirely on Lord Grim and was running around in circles. The five players opened fire with all of their might and in a short moment, the first BOSS was mowed down.
No one stopped for a rest. Everyone went straight forward towards the following path. No one looked at what the BOSS dropped. This was something Ye Xiu had explained earlier: every second counted in setting a new record; there was no time to waste. Picking up dropped items meant that they had to crouch down and then get back up. And would still need one or two seconds.
The path after the first BOSS and the opening path weren’t too different. The five players used the same method as they had in the opening path. Steamed Bun Invasion was still Ye Xiu’s main focus. Over the course of his leading, eight out of ten instructions were to Steamed Bun Invasion.
“God, you talk so much! What astrological sign are you?” Steamed Bun Invasion’s words almost made Ye Xiu die from laughter. It took him awhile to recover before saying: “Steamed Bun! You’re our team’s secret weapon. Everyone is counting on you!”
“Oh? Secret weapon? That’s pretty good!” Steamed Bun Invasion said ecstatically.
“Play well. Pay attention when you use Strangle.” Ye Xiu said.
“Got it!” Steamed Bun Invasion radiated with delight.
Saying that Steamed Bun Invasion was their secret weapon wasn’t something Ye Xiu said just to trick him. The Brawler Level 15 skill Strangle didn’t do a lot of damage, but Strangle’s effect of reducing the target’s armor by 50% was extremely useful. Although the effect only lasted 2 seconds, in these 2 seconds, the party could do an incredible amount of damage. Moreover, because skills could level up every 5 levels, now that Steamed Bun Invasion was Level 25, Strangle was Level 3. With the Fighter Claw’s additional attribute of +1 to Strangle, Strangle was now Level 4 and its effect would last 3.5 seconds.
Frost Forest’s highest level BOSS was only Level 25, so there was no level suppression. The effect could be fully displayed in these 3.5 seconds. It was equivalent of giving the entire party 3.5 seconds of an additional 50% damage to their attacks.
The first BOSS Goblin Patrol Guard had been Strangled by Steamed Bun Invasion three times. This was equivalent to giving the entire party 10 seconds of burst saving them a considerable amount of time.
While they were dealing with the small monsters on the side of the path, Steamed Bun Invasion would use his Strangle whenever it was off cooldown. The entire party would then immediately switch focus onto the Strangled target.
While doing this, Steamed Bun Invasion also had a hard time. This was because the user wasn’t Invincible when Strangle was used. The target wasn’t Stunned and unable to move. The Strangled target could use both hands to struggle and attack. But just like how its defense dropped, the Strangled target would also have its attack reduced by 50%. If it wasn’t like this, the previous Goblin Patrol Guard would have thrashed Steamed Bun Invasion with its Barbed Wolf Fang Club long ago.
“The second BOSS!” Su Mucheng reminded everyone and then went to pull it. This time she did it normally without using Delivery Gun. The BOSS rushed out and the four players flipped over the crowd of Goblins they had been fighting. The four dashed up to gang up and beat on the second BOSS. Steamed Bun Invasion continued to use Strangle and the second BOSS defeated in the blink of an eye.
They also didn’t make any mistakes in the path after that. Finally, they reached the Frost Forest’s final BOSS Frost Thain.
They had already talked plenty about how they were going to fight in the past few days. Without saying anything further, the first one to rush up was Tang Rou’s Soft Mist. Frost Thain sensed it. It raised its blade and quickly moved up to face her. Soft Mist ran diagonally around to Frost Thain’s side. Not waiting for Frost Thain to turn its body, she slashed up diagonally with a Sky Strike and Frost Thain was knocked into the air. Soft Mist went up and continued to attack. Adding on the Chasers, the combo she made was even greater than what Lord Grim had done before.
The juggled Frost Thain obviously couldn’t bear it and promptly teleported away. Ye Xiu had already been waiting for this. He had been paying attention to its teleport direction the entire time. He used a Shadow Clone Technique to instantly move there. Right when Frost Thain teleported over, Lord Grim welcomed it with Sky Strike. It was once again knocked into the air.
“Steamed Bun!!” Ye Xiu yelled. Steamed Bun Invasion shot forward. He raised his hands and grasped. The Level 4 Strangle accurately clamped onto Frost Thain’s throat.
“Nice!” Ye Xiu praised. He turned his body and followed up with three skill attacks. Soft Mist’s Battle Lance, Cleansing Mist’s Artillery Shells, and Crowd Lover’s magic also arrived. Even Steamed Bun Invasion was smashing Frost Thain’s head with a Brick, causing Frost Thain to shriek again and again.
Frost Thain’s body was small and light. It didn’t have any strength to resist the Strangle. It had been attacked for a full 3.5 seconds, not even 0.1 seconds short. Lord Grim’s Level 25 Thousand Chance Umbrella Lance Form was much stronger than everyone else’s Level 25 Purple weapon. With its white lance tip, little snowflakes seemed to twinkle with every swing.
3.5 seconds quickly passed and in the process, Steamed Bun Invasion had been hit by Frost Thain’s blade two times.
NPCs weren’t so stupid that it would resolutely search for an aggro target after being seized by such a skill. Usually, it would be whoever had grasped it. From this perspective, Strangle could be considered a strong aggro-shifting taunt skill. However, normally, using this skill to save the show depended on the user’s careful judgement. The Brawler class didn’t have as high of a defense as a Knight. Even if the target’s attack was reduced by 50%, fearlessly being attacked by the BOSS for a few seconds wasn’t good.
This pitiful Frost Thain wasn’t so strong. After being Strangled, it looked like it was struggling. Once the 3.5 seconds quickly passed, Steamed Bun Invasion immediately drank a potion to recover health after letting go. This wasn’t the beginner village’s most basic potion. This was provided by Tyrannical Ambition. Their alchemists had crafted middle-grade potions suitable for Level 20 players to use.
After Frost Thain had been released, it immediately looked for its aggro target: Soft Mist.
But Lord Grim’s weapon was tyrannical; in a few hits, its aggro was stolen onto him. These aggro problems weren’t anything to worry about. Everyone on the field was a highly skilled player. They all had the skill level to serve as the MT. Frost Thain moved quickly, but under these players’ besiegement, it had already been beaten black and blue and was nearly unable to dodge any of the attacks.
Even when Steamed Bun Invasion’s Strangle was on cooldown, he still used normal attacks. He went up to punch and kick, displaying a Brawler’s way of fighting. The Level 25 skill Apply Poison had already been put onto his claw and onto the Frost Thain’s body.
Frost Thain shrieked again and again. Under this situation, it wanted to teleport again. But in the end, even though it teleported, Lord Grim was waiting for him there and his battle lance cut upwards, knocking it into the air.
Ye Xiu yelled another “Steamed Bun!”, and Steamed Bun Invasion dashed forward. Frost Thain once again had its throat clutched like a struggling chicken.
In a short while, Frost Thain’s life had already hit Red Blood. But this party already knew how to deal with it once it reached Red Blood. When they received their Purple weapons, they had to adjust to the changes when clearing the small monsters. But against the BOSS, they just had to fight like they always did. In addition, they were all mechanically skilled experts, so they weren’t afraid of making a mistake against the quick Frost Thain like ordinary experts were. As a result, Frost Thain’s summoned Ice Whirlwind never unfurled. It had been oppressed by the five players from start to finish. Finally, after another Strangle by Steamed Bun Invasion, it unwillingly died in Steamed Bun Invasion’s hands.
Dungeon clear!
The system announcement popped up at the same time: Congratulations to Tyrannical Ambition players: Crowd Lover, Lord Grim, Cleansing Mist, Steamed Bun Invasion, Soft Mist for breaking the Frost Forest clear record, time: 13:05:47.
Success!!
The five players all had their own reactions.
Steamed Bun Invasion saw the system announcement and laughed out loud: “Ha ha ha ha, I’m on TV! Secret weapon!”
Tang Rou opened up the dungeon record leaderboards and saw her name on the record. She felt extremely satisfied.
And Su Mucheng? She just silently smiled, sitting in front of the screen.
As for Ye Xiu…… the noob Steamed Bun actually never made a mistake. This made him feel extremely excited.
In comparison, Crowd Lover’s reaction was relatively ordinary. After all, the person using this account was the the grand Tyrannical Ambition’s guild leader. It was just a Frost Forest dungeon and nothing more. Although it was very astonishing, dancing around in excitement was a bit too exaggerated.
Tyrannical Ambition’s guild channel was naturally bustling with excitement. Everyone energetically praised these five players’ might. It looked like no one saw the message Crowd Lover had sent before that no one in the party would see their messages……
Right when Ye Xiu was about to say a few words to everyone, a window suddenly popped up on his screen. Area C Number 84 wanted two Colas. He helplessly got up and delivered two Colas to them.
While returning, he saw Tang Rou hanging around the reception desk. After seeing him, she asked him: “This record should be the limit right?”
“Limit….. I can’t say that.”
“It’s still not the limit? Why not?” Tang Rou asked.
“Because our party didn’t have the most optimal class combination.” Ye Xiu said.
Although any combination could clear a dungeon, when seeking efficiency, in the end, there was still a most optimal class combination for each dungeon. Ye Xiu’s party couldn’t be considered it. But their opponents, Excellent Dynasty’s party, also weren’t in the most optimal class combination. It was just to clear a mere Frost Forest. As a pro player, how could Liu Hao and the others care so much. What’s more, each pro player had their own class that they were most proficient in. If they temporarily switched classes, it would be just like how in soccer a rear guard ran to play as the forward. Although their basic qualities were still there, their performance was an entirely different matter.
Speaking of Liu Hao and the others and their class combination, although their combination wasn’t the best, it was actually better than Ye Xiu’s party by a bit. However, regretfully, Liu Hao and the others weren’t going all out. This was because they simply didn’t think that any pro-level expert would compete with them in this dungeon. With regards to them, this was just a record against normal players. It was just a simple and easy task. A casual performance was good enough.
He didn’t go at it 100%. But Ye Xiu’s side? Seeing their record and then trying their hardest to beat it, broke their record.
Liu Hao had been pitifully struck a staggering blow on this dungeon record. This was all because he was in the light, while Ye Xiu was in the dark.