Chapter 413 - Thrown into a Battle of Chance
Zhang Yang had been aware of his surroundings, taking in everything, including the expressions of the five Spartan Warriors. He had not missed that. He smiled coldly and said, "Witchy Snow, hang back a little and keep my health bar at 50%."
"Hmm... what are you trying to do?" Han Ying Xue couldn’t understand what Zhang Yang wanted to do, so she asked.
"Those 5 behind us aren’t looking at us so pleasantly. So, I plan to set up a bait and see if they would change their minds maybe? Their decisions shall decide their own fate." Zhang Yang laughed.
"... Noob tank, you’re very…‘benevolent’!" Wei Yan Er was laughing very hard.
"Well, if they weren’t thinking about taking advantage on us, then they wouldn’t be lurking around us still! Haha!"
Han Ying Xue slowed down her healing on Zhang Yang, slowly letting Zhang Yang’s health bar reduce from 90% down to 80%, 70%, and all the way down to 50%!
It seemed really dangerous to do so, but now that they were in an outdoor environment, Zhang Yang was mounted on his [Mount], boosting his maximum health up to a total of 133,470 points! So 50% of the maximum health he has is approximately 70,000 health points! Plus, all non-members of his party will not be able to see the specific amount of health points he has, they would only see the percentage of the health bar left.
The Spartan Warriors had no idea how much health points Zhang Yang has at the moment, all they could see was that Zhang Yang’s health bar was reduced swiftly down to 50%, and then the health bar was maintained at 50%. So they began to lurk from the shadow.
To them, their chance to strike has finally come!
Freezing With Heart gave the signal, "Alright! Let’s get going!"
The five of them looked at each other and nodded. They raised up their weapons and began to approach Zhang Yang slowly.
"Go to hell, all of you!" Anelia suddenly let out a sharp and thunderous roar, as a stream of dark light surged around her body. The dark light then shot out from her body in all directions!
‘-20,000!’
‘-20,000!’
‘-20,000!’
In that instant, everyone was inflicted with a large damage value, and that wasn’t all, everyone was inflicted with a DOT effect!
[Shadow Corrosion]: Inflicts 3,000 Shadow damage every 3 seconds and reduces 50% healing effects, lasts for 15 seconds.
"Son of the sniper!" all five members of The Spartan Warriors cursed at the same time. Other than Spartan Warrior the tanker, who had approximately 30,000 health points on him at the moment, the remaining of his party members only had around 20,000 health points. After being assaulted by the boss with that powerful skill, the remaining four were left with only approximately 5,000 health points. The worst part was that the negative effect actually inflicted DOT damage on their health points! None of them could handle that sh*t!
It had turned into a catastrophic disaster for The Spartan Warriors!
All five of them had their faces wet with tears. "What a stupid boss! We were coming to aid you, and this is how you repay us! Don’t you know who are your enemies and who are your allies?"
Invincible Mouth-Sacrifier quickly activated his {Sacred Protection} and entered his invincible state, trying his best to heal up his ‘brother-in-arms’ a little! However, he was just a holy knight in the end. He specialized in single-target healing. However, there were 5 players - including himself - that required healing, so it made sense that he couldn’t handle it! Priests would fare better in this sort of AOE healing.
He quickly shouted, "Quickly, use your skills! I can’t hold it up much longer!"
There and then, the five of them had activated their own life-saving skills to save their own *sses.
"Hahaha!" Wei Yan Er suddenly laughed madly and broke off from the battle. She rode on her [Crimson Flaming Horse] and charged towards the five of them.
At the current situation, [Battle Mounts] were still rare, or at least, the five Spartan Warriors had not yet acquired such rare equipment. Standing before the [Battle Mount], they never stood a chance. All they could do was to watch Wei Yan Er charging in swiftly, like a mad general on a horse with a giant axe!
"Taking advantage of others when we’re busy? You better go home and suck on your own thumbs!" Wei Yan Er wielded her axe and directed the swing towards Ten-Times-of-Grass!
‘-14,211!’
It was a {Destrutive Smash} indeed, Ten-Times-of-Grass turned into a stream of white light immediately and got transferred straight to the nearest graveyard. He had already activated his {Ice Barrier} to remove the effect of [Shadow Corrosion], so he had nothing left to block the heavy strike that Wei Yan Er gave him!
Wei Yan Er giggled and turned her horse around, charging towards her second target, Freezing With Heart!
Taking advantage of others? The Spartan Warriors were already wounded badly by the boss! So now, it was actually Wei Yan Er who was taking advantage on The Spartan Warriors, finishing what the boss had started!
Although the 5 of them had already broken out of their formation, the distance of 20 to 30 meters made no difference. In just an instant, Wei Yan Er had caught up with her next target and had swung her axe again!
‘-9,212!’
Freezing With Heart had also let out a sad scream and disappeared into a stream of white light, joining his pal, Ten-Times-of-Grass.
Wei Yan Er turned her horse towards her next target, Invincible Mouth-Sacrifier, and she began to charge again, terrifying Invincible Mouth-Sacrifier until he almost pissed his pants! His face turned pale the moment he saw her charging towards him, because he never expected the little girl to come at him first! He had healed Spartan Warrior first, but Wei Yan Er did not charge at him firstly, even though she knew he was the healer. Instead, she went on killing his other two ‘brother-in-arms’ on her horse mount!
As his {Sacred Protection} had already been activated previously, it’s futile to even think about running away. So all he can do at that moment was to focus healing himself!
‘-15,789!’
{Tornado Cleave} activated! Wei Yan Er swung her axe through and instant-killed Invincible Mouth-Sacrifier!
‘-4,221!’
Zhang Yang also turned around and threw a {Spear of Obliteration} at Sloppy Sloth, taking away the health points that he had just recovered from a [Red Potion].
Wei Yan Er had already arrived at where Sloppy Sloth was, right after Zhang Yang had damaged him, and with a powerful swung, she struck Sloppy Sloth without holding back!
‘-9,284!’
Sloppy Sloth let out a miserable cry and collapsed in his own pool of blood.
There was only one left on The Spartan Warriors party, Spartan Warrior himself!
What a tragic day! They were supposed to wait for the boss to wound Zhang Yang and the ladies before they could cut in and finish the job, but instead, they were the ones who were wounded badly! Left near dead, and having expended their life-saving skills, it was no wonder that they were so easily slaughtered by Wei Yan Er!
It was really a tragedy that would make people fill their faces with their own tears!
Zhang Yang did bother much about The Spartan Warriors, because he knew that Wei Yan Er alone was enough to take care all of them! A Violet-Platinum boss was so much more intimidating and threatening!
"Pitiful humans, why are you still alive? Just die already!" Anelia let out a hissing scream while reaching out with her arms. Clouds of black shrouds were surging around one of her arms, and she clawed her arm towards Zhang Yang.
{Block}!
Cheh ---
Although the {Block} was effective in blocking the attack, the [Titan Wall] was covered with a black shroud. Zhang Yang took a look and he cursed, "What the f*ck! The attack of this boss has a corrosive effect on equipment! My shield lost 29 points of durability just by touching her hand!"
As long as the durability of equipment did not hit 0, the effect and function of the equipment would still be there, even if there was just 1 point of durability left. But once it hits 0, then wearing the equipment will mean nothing, it will be just like being naked! To get the equipment functional again, one would have to take the equipment to a Black-Smith to repair it!
Fortunate for Zhang Yang, the [Titan Wall] was a Violet-Platinum that he used very often, so he knew the exact durability of the shield to be 1,920. Although he had engaged the boss with his shield at 1,600 durability points, it would still take a very long time to whittle away those durability points, even for a boss.
"Argh ---" on the other hand, Spartan Warrior could only struggle for a bit before he was chopped down by the giant axe of Wei Yan Er. There, he was transferred to the graveyard to join his brothers.
"Noobie!" the tragic hero Spartan Warrior heard Wei Yan Er looking down upon him as he was being transferred to the nearest graveyard. He had never felt so humiliated in his entire life, that he felt like killing himself with a piece of soft tofu. Obviously, he was on the brink of losing his mind.
Wei Yan Er took up her giant axe and spun it to make herself look cool, and then she patted her horse and ran back to the boss.
Without the need to worry about being stabbed in the back by the five ‘noobies’, Zhang Yang and the ladies began to unleash all their power onto the boss, without a single sign of holding back!
However, Zhang Yang was inflicted with the negative effect [Fatigue], so his attacks had been reduced by 50%, causing him to be able to inflict only about 2,000 damage onto the boss with each hit! If it weren’t for his {Eagle Eye} that ignored 50% of the target’s defense, and also having 5 layers of {Cripple Defense}, he would have been affected, even more, having his damage output lowered even further!
Zhang Yang had already dismounted from the Turtle. Although he could boost his maximum health points a lot higher by mounting, it would expose [Mythical Turtle] to the effect of [Fatigue].
After waiting out the {Fatigue} effect, Zhang Yang quickly activated Turtle’s {Spirit of the Flame}. All attacks of the Turtle had turned into Fire-type attacks in that instant, and the attack of Turtle had been boosted up to another level!
Although the damage output of Zhang Yang had been reduced steeply, Wei Yan Er and Turtle were still inflicting damages to the boss as steadily as usual.
On the other hand, the five members of The Spartan Warriors were running in their soul state.
"Are we still doing this?"
"... Forget about it, after we revive ourselves, we’ll just wait until those god-slayers finish off the boss, before we get the quest done."
"Gosh, she was really worthy of the title ‘One of the Strongest Core Players in Lone Desert Smoke’, look at her! How fierce she can be when in battle! What kind of axe do you think she’s wielding? That berserker can inflict me with about 9,000 damage with a regular attack. It only took her 3 slashes to kill me!"
"Better don’t provoke them ever again! Let’s just hide from them whenever we see them!"
When the five of them were running around in their soul state, Zhang Yang and the ladies were engaging the boss in a fierce battle. The boss had many different patterns and styles of attacks. She would switch between applying {Fatigue} and {Shadow Corrosion} effects, depend on her mood. The negative effect - {Fatigue} only affected Zhang Yang alone, but the {Shadow Corrosion} was very horrifying! Not only could it inflict 20,000 Shadow damage directly, but also inflict a total DoT damage of 15,000 points, adding up to a total damage of 35,000! Even Han Ying Xue would ‘choke’ on it!
Fortunately, Zhang Yang had crafted a large number of high grade transmuted potions and had seen to it that the two ladies had an abundant supply as well. They were able to enjoy the perks of spamming the potions without worry! And thanks to this large number of [Mana Potions] with extra effects, Han Ying Xue could heal more comfortably.
"I’m the master of the undead! Spectres, awaken from your slumber, and fight for your master!" Anelia’s humanity was beginning to slip away, as she was transforming into a true aster of the undead!
She raised her hands up and sent black shrouds across the air, over to the six corpses on the ground.
Right after that, a series of violent cracking sounds could be heard, and those corpses started to shuffle on their feet. The eye sockets of these corpses were ignited with green flames of the undead, clear and bright. The corpses then opened up their arms and roared into the sky in rage.
[New-Raised Skeleton Soldier] (Elite, Undead)
Level: 85
HP: 85,000
Defense: 450
At that exact moment, the five players of Spartan Warriors had finally arrived at the locations of their own corpses and selected ‘Revive’. Shoof shoof shoof shoof shoof! Five of them revived and stood on their feet in the middle of the battlefield!
"Rawgh!" the six elite skeleton soldiers had empty aggro bars, the moment they were raised from the dead. So, the moment the five players respawned nearby, the skeleton soldiers immediately set them as their primary targets! Growling all the way, other than the one skeleton soldier raised from the dead Kyle Dylan close to where Han Ying Xue was, which charged straight for her, the remaining 5 skeleton soldiers went on to slaughter the five players of The Spartan Warriors.
These five poor souls had just respawned, and they had only 20% health points on them. Furthermore, they were not particularly skilled in the game. So, when the elite skeleton soldiers came up to them, they did not stand a chance and got slaughtered all over again. With some miserable screams spreading into the surroundings, the five of them were quickly sent back to the graveyard.
"What just happened? Why are we dead again?"
The five of them were looking at each other, their faces gaunt and manic.
Zhang Yang quickly flung a {Spear of Obliteration} at the skeleton soldier from afar attracted its attention, shouting, "Little girl! Kill the small ones first!"
"Roger!"
"Kill, kill them all!" Anelia cried out in a hostile tone of her sharp voice. There were more than a few white bones all over her body that had already been smashed and shattered to the ground like bread crumbs, all thanks to the powerful smashes and slashes that Zhang Yang and Wei Yan Er had brought upon her. But that had only provoked her even further!
Zhang Yang stepped up and clashed with the remaining 5 skeleton soldiers, with the activation of his {Horizontal Sweep}, a powerful swing of his [Sword of Purging Devourer] directed straight at the monsters. The special effect of his sword was triggered as well, and countless aurablades were dancing around the monsters, luring them over to Zhang Yang.
The firepower of five elite monsters and a Violet-Platinum boss was quite powerful. Zhang Yang did not dare to slack or to be negligent at all. So, he activated his {Shield Wall} to tank them, and finally, he took them all out one after another.
But these monsters had a skill on each of them, that was, when these monsters die, they would cause the damage done to them to turn into the health points for the boss! Although these monsters had been slain, the health bar of the boss had recovered by 2%!
"It’s all because of those five nincompoops! That was how 5 more monsters were spawned!" Wei Yan Er scolded.
The situation was obvious just now. The number of elite skeleton soldiers Anelia can summon depended on the number of corpses in the surroundings! If The Spartan Warriors had not died, there would only be one skeleton soldier summoned, and there wouldn’t be a problem at all!
If The Spartan Warriors could hear what Wei Yan Er just said, they would probably puke blood immediately --- it was Wei Yan Er who slaughtered them in the first place!
Zhang Yang frowned, "They were just killed again, so there are another 5 fresh corpses around for the boss to rise again!"
"What a bunch of losers, can’t they just find a better spot to die?" Han Ying Xue started attacking the boss directly.
One minute had passed, Anelia let out a deafening cry again and said, "I’m the master of the undead! Spectres, awaken from your slumber, and fight for your master!" She raised her hands up and sent black shrouds across the air over to the corpses of The Spartan Warriors on the ground, just like how she did previously.
Clak! Clak! Clak!
5 Death Knight began to spawn out from the corpses! The Death Knights were resting on their own battle horses, and the horses would paw their hoofs on the ground from time to time, breathing out fire from their noses!
[Newly-raised Death Knight] (Elite, Undead)
Level: 85
HP: 200,000
Defense: 900
Wei Yan Er was staring with her jaw hanging, "That doesn’t make any sense! How can a horse even come out from the corpses!"
Zhang Yang laughed out loud and said, "Something to think about, The Spartan Warriors should be proud of themselves, because they can still transform into such powerful foul monsters!"
"Whinny!" the five battle horses from hell let out their battle whine, moving their powerful legs, carrying the Death Knights towards Zhang Yang and the ladies like howling gale!
Death Knights were not regular elite monsters, and if 5 of them activated {Death Strike} at the same time, together with the boss’s attack, even Zhang Yang could be instant-killed!
At that instant, the three of them were in a very dangerous situation!