Chapter 420 - Marvados
Zhang Yang found the door which the soldiers had through, proceed inside. The place behind the door was like a dormitory for the soldiers. It was a narrow passageway, with doors on either side of the place. The first few rooms had their doors opened wide with no one inside but messy beds. It looked like the rooms belonged to the soldiers who had just rushed out to attack Zhang Yang.
As Zhang Yang and the party proceeded further down the pathway, more soldiers had rushed out and had attacked them. Without much trouble, the lot hacked their way through the mess and proceeded on through the mess. After covering a short distance at a slow pace, the team arrived at a dome-shaped room. The room was clearly big, since it housed a similar pool of blood like before.
There was man cloaked in a white long robe that was sitting in a chair at one side. There were two other beautiful females who were clinging rather intimately onto him. Behind the three bizarre characters were 12 soldiers in perfect formation. They were all well-equipped, with metal cuirasses, and long spears in their hands.
[Marvados] (Yellow-Gold, Humanoid)
Level: 95
HP: 1,900,000
Defense: 1,700
[Armored Guard] (Elite, Humanoid)
Level: 92
HP: 200,000
Defense: 1,000
The boss was holding a wine glass in his hand, that was filled with a liquid that shared the same color of blood. When the man noticed the presence of Zhang Yang in the room, the guards were signaled with a snap of his fingers, and they had charged towards them.
Marvados was cool and calm. While sipping his glass casually, he said softly, "I should have known that Julio would be dead by now."
The guards had already surrounded Zhang Yang and were pointing their spears towards the party, but they were not attacking.
Zhang Yang had not yet sheathed his sword. He swung the sword extremely fast and the blood flew off the blade and spurted on the floor. "I do need to apologize for that. I kinda went overboard and accidentally killed the poor bastard."
Marvados chuckled and placed the wine glass down. "His death does not concern me. I had never had any inclination towards that arrogant man." The woman who was standing next to him took over the cup and the other had taken out a piece of white cloth to carefully wipe the corner of his lips.
"My lord." The guards that were waiting for the order from Marvados dared not act on their own will.
Marvados stood up and thrust his hand out in a dramatic, anime-ish pose. "Kill them."
"Yes sir." The guards replied in unison and started their attack. A magical staff magically appeared in the hands of Marvados. With a quick glare, he bellowed, "The Sacred One’s plan must never be foiled!"
"Endless Starlight, take the boss. Kite him away. Let me take on the guards!" said Zhang Yang.
Zhang Yang had no problem entrusting Endless Starlight to handle the boss, since it was only a mere Yellow-Gold tier. With his current equipment, he could easily tank the boss without a need of immediate healing. Furthermore, Mardavos was probably a magic type, having a magic class Defender tank him would be wise.
On the contrary, the 12 elite guards were a greater threat than the boss. Even though their HPs were not as long as the boss, together, their combined attack would prove lethal to any tank. Zhang Yang had the better equipment and it would be logical to have him take the heat, instead.
"Got it, boss!" Endless Starlight grabbed the boss’ attention with a quick toss of his shield.
The 12 guards had no original targets to attack in the first place. When Endless Starlight had tossed the shield and went up to the boss, they had went after him. Zhang Yang quickly went up to the guards and activated {Thunder Strike}, inflicting the first aggro on the monsters, while also slowing them down.
"Futile resistance!" Marvados scoffed and pointed his staff towards the group of guards saying, "The Lord decrees, that those who devote their lives to serve shall gain His powers!"
Shring!
A bright light came down from nowhere and struck the group, granting them a boost of power. Whatever buff Marvados granted, it had profound effects. The men had grown in size. The original breastplates they wore suddenly burst off as the buckles gave way.
[Marvados Blessing]: 30% increase in Attack Power. Lasts for 5 Minutes.
Zhang Yang frowned worriedly. If one of them gained a 30% power boost, it would not matter to Zhang Yang. But now, all 12 soldiers had gained power! The overall damage gained would prove to be too much for Zhang Yang to endure.
"We need to kill these guys off, quickly!"
Without delay, the group had rushed forward and unleashed all their AoE skills.
Zhang Yang joined the fight as well. All his AoE skills were used. {Blast Wave}, {Thunder Strike}, {Heroic Leap}, {Brutal Smash}, all status effect skills were used mostly to prevent damage from inflicting him. However, when those proved to be insufficient, {Shield Wall}, {Berserker’s Heal}, and even the new skill, {Last Vigor} had to be used to save himself. In this boss fight, Marvados was nothing but a side character, the main problem was his 12 guards!
One by one, the party targeted one monster and proceed to the next when the first was killed. This way, they could kill the monsters more efficiently when their AoE skills were on cooldown, and they could switch to single target skills instead.
Just when the party had killed every single elite guard and were ready to switch their target to the boss, Marvados pointed his staff at the dead guards and said, "The Lord decrees, that eternal life shall be granted to His servants!"
Whoosh!
This time, a blast of dark light came down from nowhere and seeped inside the lifeless bodies of the dead guards.
"Urgh….Orh…." Slowly, the dead soldiers started to make some eerie noises. One by one, their muscle twitched and moved in a disgusting manner. They scrambled up and started to dash towards Zhang Yang.
[Revived Guard] (Elite, Spectre)
Level: 92
HP: 200,000
Defense: 1,000
Sigh…There’s no end to this!
Zhang Yang immediately cried, "Stop attacking the monsters. Kill the boss! Or else these critters will keep on coming back to life!"
Zhang Yang changed his battle strategy. Instead of tanking the guards head-on, he blasted them with {Thunder Strike} and kited them around. However, Zhang Yang had never expected the undead minions to have such fast movement speeds, that even after the slow debuff, they were still running faster than Zhang Yang could!
‘Ding! Revived Guard has received the effect: God Titan’s Wrath. Stunned for 10 seconds!’
‘Ding! Revived Guard had received the effect: God Titan’s Wrath. Stunned for 10 seconds!’
Since Zhang Yang had received a barrage of attacks from a group of monsters, the Titan equipment set had finally shown its prowess. A holographic image of a metallic, god-like character hovered behind him for a brief second when the equipment set effect was triggered. With a snap of his fingers, the monster was stunned for 10 seconds.
On the other side of the battle, even though Zhang Yang was not participating in the battle against Marvados, the elite fighting party of nine was able to quickly hack away at the boss’ HP till he was close to death!
"For the Lord has decreed! Eternal life and happiness for those who worshiped His name!" Marvados pointed his staff at one of the soldiers who was chasing after Zhang Yang. At first, Zhang Yang felt something was off. Perhaps, the skill was going to be used on the monsters and made them stronger. However, to his surprise, one of the guards had burst into dust, leaving its empty armor falling down to the floor. A light ray glowed around the area for a while before it flew from the place where the soldier had fallen, towards Marvados. The light surrounded Marvados and fully restored his life! Wei Yan Er had inflicted {Destructive Smash} on the boss. But even with the 50% reduced healing rate, the boss was still able to recover to its original, unharmed state.
"Sh*t!"
"I’d be d*mned if the boss could still revive the dead guy there! He’d be invincible then!" said Endless Starlight.
"Why do you always go for the worst case scenario?! Will you be satisfied if that really happens?!" Zhang Yang scolded.
Luckily, it did not happen.
After a mere minute, Marvados HP had plunged down again.
"For the Lord has decreed! Eternal life and happiness for those who worship His name!" this time, the party was not surprised. Marvados had repeated the same skill, which had sacrificed one of the undead guards and had restored his HP back to full health.
"…Thank god that this boss had only 1,900,000 HP. If it was a Violet-Platinum tier with 9 million HP, we would have been in for a treat!"
"That’s nonsensical. A Yellow-Gold boss would never be that OP!"
However, the boss would never bother about being OP, or not. It would only act as it was programmed, killing the players as swiftly as possible, and surviving by any means necessary! Luckily, the person tanking the boss was a Defender with high magic defense. Fortunately, Endless Starlight had a strong equipment, and was able to defend the party easily. He did not need to ask help from Han Ying Xue for emergency healing.
On the other side of things, Zhang Yang was under tremendous pressure from the monsters. Although now there were two fewer monsters to worry about, the pressure placed on him was still immense. His HP was being maintained by Han Ying Xue, while being knocked back down by the monsters so rapidly, that his HP bar was like a pulsating heartbeat.
Although Zhang Yang was taking a beating, it was fortunate that Endless Starlight was facing next to no problems in facing the boss. The main healer for Endless Starlight, Fantasy Sweetheart, could take some time off him and heal Zhang Yang with {Regeneration} and {Holy Shield}. At least, it could take some load off both Han Ying Xue and Zhang Yang.
Zhang Yang had no other choice but to bite down the hardship and push on until all the guards had been "eaten" by the boss.
Slowly, and eventually, the boss had taken the third, the fourth, all to the last one. As the number of soldiers decreased, so did the pressure on Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue. After the last one was down, Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue did not immediately jump to the boss, but sat down and have a little time off to cool off their fatigue. The two of them were constantly on overdrive for so long and simply had to relax for a minute or two. Since the boss was only going to last for so long, Zhang Yang could take his rest without much worry.
However, at 80%, the boss suddenly cast another spell.
"On the first day, the Lord commendeth. Let there be light!"
A blinding light burst out from the boss’ staff and had successfully blinded the party. No matter how quickly one could respond, the light would always be the faster. Everyone had to stop for a good second to cover their eyes, for it was incredibly bright.
[Blinding Light]: Causes the enemy to lose their sight temporarily. Unable to focus on a target for 10 seconds.
The boss’ skill was not an attacking skill, but rather a temporary stun. The entire party had to stop attacking.
In ‘God’s Miracle’ a player can only attack a target by locking onto a target. Losing their sights will lead to a disability of locking onto a target. Luckily, the party members were smart. Instead of locking onto a target, they switched to their AoE skills and targeted the floor around the boss instead. Although they could attack, the damage inflicted on the boss was only but a scratch.
After 10 seconds, the blindness stopped and everyone was enraged. They cried angrily, throwing insults at the boss and releasing their frustration by hacking the boss even more furiously.
The thought of using {Dance of Heaven and Earth} had crossed everyone’s mind. Undoubtedly, it would kill the boss easily. However, this boss was just the first among the 12 Disciples of Madran. If they used their trump card now, how would things be when they fight with an even stronger boss?
60%...
"The Lord said, give the Earth water, and water filled the Earth!"
Qiang! Qiang!
Pillars of ice pierced out of the ground beneath them, and dealt as much as 12,000 damage to everyone. Han Ying Xue and Fantasy Sweetheart had to jump into action to heal everyone before anything else.
"What the hell! This isn’t water! It’s ice! Don’t be playing around with God's words!" cried Fatty Han.
"Nyehehe. I guessed the boss has no knowledge of physics. Water has three natural states!" said Wei Yan Er as she giggled happily. She was showing off her knowledge, since, among the party member there, she was the one who had just recently been in school, and had very limited time to act as a teacher herself.
40%...
"For the Lord granted the Earth fire, and fire lay its fiery breath upon Earth!"
Foom!
Before the pillars of ice could disappear, cracks had started to appear on the surface of the ground. Without any warning signs, the cracks spewed strong tongues of fire which had scorched those that had not able to dodge in time, for 12,000 damage.
Like frightened chicken, everyone had jumped on their feet and had started running around in disarray.