Chapter 362 - The Fifth Dimensional Key Fragment
As always, Zhang Yang’s party total attack power was not to be underestimated. The boss was strong, but so was the party. They had managed to hack down Brook’s HP down to 75% in less than a minute.
During that time, Brook lifted his wand and cried out, "Spirits of Fire! I summoned thee to assist me!"
In a split of a second, eight Fire Elementals appeared on the battle field. They had miraculously been formed roughly 40 meters away from the boss. Slowly, the elementals moved towards the center where they spread out to where Brook was at. The elementals were only as tall as half of a man’s height. Burning in the air, they hovered a few inches above the ground, like the glowing orbs of ghosts.
‘Ding! Brook has used {Summon Fire Spirits}!’
[Fire Spirit] (Elite, Summoned)
Level: 85
HP: 100,000
Defense: 450
Immediately, Zhang Yang switched his targets and call out. "Aim for the minions!"
Usually, when the boss summons something out, they would target the players and chase after them. Their roles were simple, to either immobilize them or damage them. The player could simply move away and kill them before any bad stuff happens. This time, the summoned elementals were all moving towards the boss! That must be a hidden agenda behind their movements! Also, their slow movement speed had practically given the players a chance to destroy them. Like the previous bosses that Zhang Yang had encountered, the summoned minions might buff the boss or even heal him! By any means necessary, it would be wise to kill them before they could do anything at all!
The rest of the team understood, without having Zhang Yang to point it out for them. Melee players pulled the reins of their mounts and headed to engage them. Ranged players stood from afar and attacked from there.
After a few experimental shots, it was just as Zhang Yang had guessed. The elementals would not attack the player, much less even pay any attention to them. Unfortunately, the elementals would not be affected by any status effect skills. They would just continue on, at a constant, uninterruptible speed, towards the boss.
Everyone’s combined attack power, coupled with the battle mounts that they possessed, had managed to kill one of the Fire Spirits with relative ease. Shortly after that, another one dropped and turned into ash. Following next was the third. And then the fourth…
These Fire Spirits were so slow that they had needed more than 30 seconds to travel a short distance of 40 meters. Thus, with Sun Xin Yu and the other attacking class had a luxurious amount of time to terminate them.
That being said, it would still be impossible for them to kill all of the Fire Spirit within the stipulated timing. Each of the Fire Spirits had 100,000 HP and were widely spread across the battle field. After killing one, the players would have to travel a short distance to kill the other. That travel time alone had provided the Fire Spirit the opportunity to move closer to the boss!
Zhang Yang started calculating and if the situation continued on, at least two Fire Spirits would successfully have made it to the boss. Though he may not know what would happen if they did, it could not be pretty.
Zhang Yang hesitated for a while before he jumped down from the Mythical Turtle and ran towards the empty spot where the Fire Spirit was killed. He wanted to lure the boss away to extend the distance for the Fire Spirits to travel and provide more time for the team to kill the remaining Fire Spirits.
Although his plans and execution might be flawless, Brook was not stupid enough to be "trick". Or rather, Brook did not chase after Zhang Yang even when he had the aggro. The system might have set the boss to be stationary when Brook has summoned the Fire Spirits. He had to remain stationary until they had come to him or if they were killed off.
Zhang Yang quickly went back to his original position. There could be a chance that the Fire Spirits might heal Brook, and if that was the case, Zhang Yang had to be in place to make sure that {Destructive Smash} is on the boss.
Zhang Yang came to him, dealt a clean {Destructive Smash} and the two remaining Fire Spirit had arrived to the boss.
Brooks laughed and pointed his wand at one of the Fire Spirits. "Let the Fire Spirit cleanse your sins!"
Foom!
The Fire Spirit exploded into a large fiery wave that spread to all directions. The initial wave was so strong and powerful that the fire could even reach the end of the island!
‘-100,000!’
Immune!
‘-100,000!’
Transferred!
Absorb!
It was during this time, everyone is tested for their intuition and speed.
Sun Xin Yu and Lost Dream had disappeared the moment the wave struck them and had evaded the attack via the I-Frame. Daffodil Daydream used {Ice Frame} to render herself immune to all attacks. Endless Starlight used {Sacred Protection}. Zhang Yang used {Sacrifice} to protect Han Ying Xue and had activated the Titan’s Chest Plate’s extra effect to protect himself.
Sadly, that was the only survival skills that were used. Fatty Han, Hundred Shots, and Wei Yan Er were killed instantly. None of them had any life-saving "immunity" skills.
When everyone thought that the worse was over, Brook pointed his wand to the other remaining Fire Spirit and repeated the same line again, releasing another intense blast that spread all across the battle field.
‘-100,000!’
‘-100,000!’
Both Sun Xin Yu and Lost Dream were immediately sent out of stealth and died.
Immune!
Immune!
Daffodil Daydream and Endless Starlight both still had their "invincibility" skill active, so they were unscathed.
Transferred!
Zhang Yang’s {Sacrifice} was still active on Han Ying Xue and he had taken all the damage on her. At the same time, the Titan Chest Plant effect was still active, and was able to further absorb more damage before it breaks. In fact, the Titan Chest Plate effect could absorb a total of 300,000 damage! There was a surplus of damage that could not be absorbed.
‘-12,904!’
After the grand attack, Zhang Yang’s team was only left with five members, leaving Daffodil Daydream as the only person capable of being the attacker.
How could they continue the boss fight when the boss’ own normal attack was overwhelmingly strong?! Even with Zhang Yang’s iron clad defense and Han Ying Xue’s super healing capabilities, they could not last until the boss was defeated. They could only throw in the towel at this point. Especially since the team was left with just one attacker, or even two, if you take Zhang Yang as one of the main damage dealers.
"Noob tank. I think we should kill all the minions before they reach the boss. Or else, they will explode and kill us all," said Wei Yan Er after a long silence.
The party kept quiet when one of them accidentally cough out a laugh.
"…You’ll make an Isaac Newton. Really…I mean it. It’s just, why didn’t you say it 300 years ago!?"
"That’s because I wasn’t born 300 years ago, dummy!’
As expected of the little girl, she was still new at detecting sarcasm. Knowing that continual struggle would be meaningless, Zhang Yang ordered everyone to give up the fight and start it over. Everyone allowed the boss to burn them to death and they regrouped.
"Those Fire Spirits are the main problem."
"I agree. But I feel that our DPS was a little too weak."
"You’re not wrong, though. In fact, we might not make it if we rely solely on DPS. The boss summoned those fire thingies at 75% HP. I fear that it might summon those things again at 50% and at 25% HP."
"How about this, when dealing the first wave of minion, take a bottle of {Power Potion}, in the second wave, use any skills that can increase attack damage. Kill the third wave of minions normally. If there’s not enough time, kill them with {Dance of the Heaven and Earth}. However, I must warn you, that skill is our trump card. God knows, the boss might go berserk later. Do not use the skill unless it’s really necessary!"
"Roger."
Everyone revived and healed themselves back to full health, and had a lively chat until all their skills were ready to be used. The pets that had been killed in the battle were also revived. The team could not proceed on without them. After 6 to 7 minutes, everyone was ready to go.
Fatty Han sent his little white bear cub into the altar and lured the boss out again.
The battle took off smoothly without using any strong skills. They all waited until the boss summoned the minion, and then only used all their skills in one lump sum.
75%...
"Fire Spirits! I call upon thee to assist me!" cried the boss and the same Fire Spirits were summoned.
Zhang Yang knew that the boss would not attack, hence he ignored the boss and jumped down from the Mythical Turtle to attack one of the Fire Spirits. Everyone else consumed a bottle of [Power Potion], gaining a 20% increase in attack damage and attacked the minions.
Slightly faster than before, the party had killed the first, followed closely with the second and third. At the 29th second after the boss had summoned the Fire Spirits, the last Fire Spirit was only one step distance away from the boss before it was killed in time.
It was a pity that the active skill of the Titan Chest Plate had a 4 hour cool down time. Since it would be a long time since it could be used again, Zhang Yang could only rely on all his other skills to survive. However, when the boss had over 57% HP, Zhang Yang had reached his limit.
"Endless Starlight! Prepare to take over!" Zhang Yang cried.
"Ok boss!"
Zhang Yang immediately activated {Shadow of the Void} and slipped into the other dimension. After getting to a safe distance, he sat down to eat recovery snacks.
Before the battle had even begun, everyone already knew what they were supposed to do and not to. Wei Yan Er and Daffodil Daydream whom did not have any aggro clearing skill started holding back to make sure they did not OT Endless Starlight, which might lead them to be killed the moment Zhang Yang left the battle. At the same time, Endless Starlight had used {Dance of Heaven and Earth} to increase the damage deal on the boss to increase his aggro value on him. Sun Xin Yu, Lost Dream, Hundred Shots, and Fatty Han had their own aggro clearing skills and had easily done so.
After healing, Zhang Yang came back to the boss, hopped onto the Mythical Turtle and regained the aggro target. Zhang Yang tried his best to get the boss to attack him and to make sure no one dies in battle.
50%...
"Fire Spirits! I summon thee to assist me…" The same call, the same speech, and the second wave of Fire Spirits was summoned again.
Everyone changed their targets and attack the minions. All skills, accessory effects, anything that could increase their damage were activated to deal with the second wave.
Their speed gradually became faster, and the monster were all killed in just 28 seconds.
"That’s great! Keep it up, guys!"
Endless Starlight might be the future top tanks in China, but his talents were not truly demonstrated in the face of a Violet-Platinum boss. Right now, Zhang Yang, Han Ying Xue were the only two players in the party who had more than a full set of Level 80 Yellow-Gold equipment. Sadly, Endless Starlight’s equipment were just too weak!
At 31%, Endless Starlight had used all his survival skills and had unfortunately died. The boss had immediately switched to Zhang Yang after Endless Starlight’s death. Zhang Yang’s own DPS of 3,200, coupled with the Mythical Turtle 3,600+, were able to grab the aggro successfully! Furthermore, the passive skill {Shield Oath} had provided an extra 20% aggro generation on each attack that allowed Zhang Yang to ace the aggro list.
Now that Zhang Yang was taking the helm, both Wei Yan Er and Daffodil Daydream had no need to hold back any longer. Even after Endless Starlight had died, it would not affect the overall damage output. He had done his job as the secondary tank, and he had done it flawlessly.
25%!
Brook had summoned the third wave of minions. This round, everyone’s skill and potion were still in their cool down status. The only thing they could do was attack as furiously as they could.
One by one the minions were taken after, but it was the same as the previous fight, there were at least two more minions that they could not defeat in time.
"Fatty! Use {Dance of Heaven and Earth} to kill that one! I’ll take care of the other!"
"Ok!"
Both brothers activated their skill and instantly killed the remaining Fire Spirits, leaving the boss alone!
"Heretic! Blasphemy! Death! Death be upon you!" cried the boss crazily.
22%, 16%, 11%...
Zhang Yang had already used {Rearm} to reset all the skills. Besides {Shield Wall}, and {Vanguard's Aggression}, all other important skills were already used twice! Finally, the boss had reached 10% HP!
As expected, the boss glowed with a bright reddish light and gained a huge size increase. He had entered Berserk state.
"I am the son of Fire God! I am Invincible!" bellowed Brook.
‘Ding! Eins Brook has gained the power of Fire. Gained a 100% increase in attack!’
"Everyone! To me!" cried Zhang Yang.
Everyone pulled their reins and rode towards Zhang Yang. After gaining a huge boost in attack, the boss could easily kill everyone, except for Zhang Yang.
Pew!
With increased speed, Brook threw out his wand and blasted a series of {Fire Missile}.
Before the attack landed on Zhang Yang, he had managed to protect everyone with {Vanguard’s Aggression}. A huge bubble had formed around him and formed a protective light barrier.
"Everyone, use {Dance of Heaven and Earth}!"
At the same time, all six remaining members of the party used {Dance of Heaven and Earth},
Shush! Shush! Shush!
One by one, shadows formed and entered the boss’ body, dealing huge damage to him.
‘-10,000!’
‘-10,000!’
At the same time, Zhang Yang had been recovering nonstop ever since he had activated {Shield Wall}. It was all because of the Titan Chest Plate’s special effect that granted a 10% HP healing each second.
After 10 seconds, Brook’s HP was left with 24,000 HP!
10,000!
4,000!
0!
‘Ding! You and the party members around have killed Eins Brook! Obtained 1,075,050 Experience Points (50 points party bonus)!’
The moment the boss dropped, everyone received a luxurious amount of experience points. All, except for poor Endless Starlight. At the very least, they had killed the boss.
"Me! Me! Lemme! I want to pick!" Excited like a child on a sugar rush, Wei Yan Er jumped down from her Chocobo and proceeded to pick up the loot on the floor. It was not just Wei Yan Er, in fact, everyone else was eager to see what the boss had dropped for them. After all, it was a Violet-Platinum boss!
Zhang Yang found a piece of a silver-metallic object on the floor and picked up the fifth piece of the Dimensional Key Fragment.
‘Ding! You have obtained an item: Dimensional Key Fragment 4!’
Zhang Yang had collected the fifth piece. With only two pieces left, Zhang Yang could form the final Dimensional Key to open the path to the Imperial Heaven's Empire!