Everyone including Zhang Yang himself, gasped at the array of skills that the boss had.
With the {Sloth Aura} in effect, players will be forced to move around every 4 seconds, or they will deal 200,000 AoE damage! Worse of all, if they are moving, they will receive double damage from both {Tail Whip} and {Death Blade}. The situation was so bad that the party was caught between getting killed by sharks in the ocean, or tigers on land.
Fortunately, the {Sloth Aura} bomb effect will only detonate after 4 seconds. All they had to do to remove the debuff was to move within 1 second after obtaining it. On the other hand, both {Tail Whip} and {Death Blade} had casting times, which allowed players to decide whether to take it or to avoid it. Naturally, taking the hit was far better than allowing the bomb to detonate! Anyone would rather take the double damage rather than inflict damage to anyone around them!
The match would be a messy one. When a character moves, they cannot attack. Hence, the entire party will be producing crippled DPS. Still, it was extremely fortunate that the boss did not have any HP recovery skills.
Since the quest was limited to only 10 participants, Zhang Yang believed that the final boss would not spawn if he had brought more players over the limit. Now that the final boss had appeared, all they had to do was to kill it to complete the mission!
"Alright. Time to shine guys!" said Zhang Yang as he activated his Transformation skill. Everyone else followed immediately after. They had all been reserving their skills for several days. All for the sake of defeating the final boss for the S class quest!
One by one, everyone shone brightly as their character glowed with a beautiful radiant light. All except Wei Yan Er and Fatty Han. Wei Yan Er was engulfed in e dark cloud, turning her entire character into a pitch-black entity. Fatty Han himself had grown fangs and had a black mental cloak that turned him into a vampire. Just like the boss, those two were like monsters!
"Go!" said Zhang Yang as he took the lead and charged towards the boss.
Zhang Yang did not bother explaining the strategy since the boss' skill was there for everyone to read. Everyone knew what they should and should not do, for they have been fighting for more than two years side by side! Repetition is the progress to mastery. Even Fatty Han had gotten used to controls and even the battle flow.
Was it you lot that tried to destroy my refinery!?" Longador pulled out his blade and swung it hard at Zhang Yang. "Lord Angus' plans shall never be foil by the likes of you. Leave! Or suffer a painful death by my blade!"
Longador's force was so strong that Zhang Yang was sent flying away. Even though he had managed to block the attack with his shield, he was unable to withstand the boss' sheer power. With a quick flap of his wings, Zhang Yang shot himself towards the boss and sliced the boss' chest open.
"URGH!" The boss grunted. Even though the boss was in a fit of rage, he was unable to attack for his attack intervals was determined by the 2 second attack interval. However, instead of attacking with his sword, Longador hurled his fist to strike Zhang Yang. The oncoming attack was so fast and unpredictable that Zhang Yang was unable to guard it.
With a loud thud, Zhang Yang was sent flying again.
"Aw!" Zhang Yang tried to move but it felt like every rib cage had been broken by the attack. His breathing was ragged. After merely 1 second, Zhang Yang managed to get back to his feet and rushed towards the boss and landed {Cripple Defense}. Wei Yan Er followed up and smacked out {Cripple Defense} to stack it up to 5 counts. Only after that, the party started to attack.
"Woah. I've never seen a boss could also use supporting attacks!" said Endless Starlight.
Zhang Yang was not the only person who had taken a fist attack. Everyone else was randomly targeted and will be disrupted for a brief moment. Although it was not considered as a real damaging attack, it would still affect the DPS of the player. What's more, the attack was completely random! If the boss hates your face, then prepare to take a fist to your face!
The situation had turned a little worse. Since everyone will be rendered motionless for a second after being struck by the fist, the bomb that sets in might go off! It would be a disaster if that happens. On the other hand, the attack will also directly affect the party's attacking ability. Magic attack classes will be the ones that suffer the most. When a player is casting a spell, be it healing or attacking, the fist attack will ultimately disrupt the spellcasting, forcing the player to recast the skill all over again.
It was unfortunate that the boss had long arms. In just a few steps, the boss could punch the range attackers who were standing at the maximum range. Hence, it would be impossible to escape the range of the boss' serious series punch!
Physical attack class player would be luckier of the fist landed on them for their attacks do not require any casting animation. They could still move around only after 1 second of recovering. The worst would always be the Spellcasters since they had to keep on monitoring the bomb on their character. They could not just ignore them to heal or attack.
"Haha! Little bugs! I'll smash you to bits!" Longador stopped moving and a progress bar appeared on his head, that sped up in the blink of an eye.
Everyone stopped moving instantly and was ready to take the hit.
The boss turned around and unleashed his tail to strike everyone. Everyone took the hit, taking the damage head-on. 140,000 was the lowest value and 220,000 was the highest. Even though they were all in their Transformed state, if the healer does not keep up the healing, the entire party will eventually plunge into a dangerous state. The party had not reached the level where they could easily be killed by boss with their HP.
"Weakling! You are nothing!" Longador grunted boldly. Another progress bar appeared and disappeared in a flash. The boss took out his sword and prepared for a swing.
It was the {Death Blade} and Zhang Yang was not afraid of it. With his legs carrying his character, he held his shield up high, ready to block the attack.
PANG!
The boss swung his massive blade and struck Zhang Yang's shield. The powerful strike was rendered powerless in the face of a Guardian.
"Stupid boss! Taste my axe!" Wei Yan Er hovered over to the boss in her smoke form and cleaved the boss at his neck.
Even though both Zhang Yang and Sun Xin Yu each had the [Book of Revelation,] the damage aura could not stack on each other. Only the stronger one, Zhang Yang's 10% damage increase was applied to everyone. Hence, even though the little brat had lost its {Axe Mastery} 5% damage increasing buff, she still gained a boost of power from Zhang Yang's aura. Furthermore, a Holy tier weapon was far stronger than an Ethereal tier could be.
Even though the little girl only a class A Inheritance, she was able to rely on her two-handed weapon to deal the strongest attack! Even Sun Xin Yu and Zhang Yang could not deal that much damage in a single strike! However, to compare a character as a whole, Zhang Yang had Felice and the Phoenix to add up to with his own devastating attacks. As such, Zhang Yang was still the highest DPS in the party, followed by Wei Yan Er as the second, and Sun Xin Yu as the third. Hundred Shots and Fatty Han were far behind them.
The most pitiful one was Lost Dream. Alone, he could take on two Hunters at the same time. However, now that both Fatty Han and Hundred Shots had Legendary Beast as their pets, their damage was too much for Lost Dream to compare. Daffodil Daydream, on one hand, had the A class Inheritance. Before Transformation, her damage would be on par with Lost Dream. However, after Transforming, the power boost she gains will overwhelm even Lost Dream.
Hence, Lost Dream was rank at the lowest in the damaging ranking board. To be fair, he was still higher than Endless Starlight, Han Ying Xue, and Fantasy Sweetheart because they were tanks and healers.
After some time, the battle had started to heat up. The boss' attacks had started to pick up the pace as it used its {Tail Whip} attacks rather frequently and dealt a great deal of cumulative damage. Right then, the battle had progressed for some time and everyone's attention was starting to wane. From time to time, they would take a blast from the bomb and even take double damage from the skills.
"Hahaha! Run like the insects you are!" The boss laughed after he sent Zhang Yang flying off his feet, showing off his grand stature as a Holy tier boss.
While Zhang Yang was busy trying to strike with {God of War Devastation} and {Heavy Axe} as frequently as he could, the battle was still progressing slowly. As for the newly obtained skill {Tribulation}, he wanted to keep it quiet and not use it for the moment.
Since the boss did not possess any HP recovery skill, the party's overall DPS was not being suppressed or rather "absorbed". However, the biggest problem with the fight was the fact that Longador could use supporting attacks which will give pause to the party's killing speed. That, and the occasional running around to dispel the bomb's effects on them greatly slowed their speed. At that point, their highest DPS rating was only around 1,000,000.
Then again, it was only 30 minutes of fighting before the boss will be killed!
80%...60%...40%...
When the boss' HP had dropped down to 30%, Zhang Yang activated {Tribulation}.
For the next 10 minutes, any damage that Zhang Yang receives from the boss, would simply be reflected back at him! The best part of the skill was that the damage value that is "reflected" was not calculated by the damage that Zhang Yang receives. The skill accounted the boss' basic attack or rather, the unsuppressed damage! For example, if the boss' attack is meant to deal 200,000 damage, Zhang Yang would naturally take only around 80,000 damage after going through his Defense and damage absorption passives. {Tribulation} will not cause the 80,000 damage, but instead, it will cause the full 200,000 damage.
The reflected damage that hits back will go through the Defense of the boss and only strike him for 181,530 if the boss' defense value is 18,470.
Zhang Yang defense was far greater than the boss. Even moreso when Zhang Yang is in his Transformed state. His Defense had reached as high as 80,050. The number was so high that any player with a one-hand weapon would not deal any significant damage to Zhang Yang! Hence, Zhang Yang was not worried about the boss going berserk. In fact, he welcomed it. The more damage the boss could deal, the better the damage that Zhang Yang could reflect back to his face!
{Tribulation} would work best when the boss' HP reaches under 20% and 10%, since the boss will go berserk, increasing his attack and skill rate. Technically speaking, if Zhang Yang has a higher HP than the boss, the overall reflected damage would be so great that Zhang Yang would not need to attack to kill the boss!
Sadly, to keep the skill secret, Zhang Yang had never once used the skill in PvP battle nor the Individual Ranking battles. If his secret was known to the world, none will even come to his challenge! That, and players will device a plan to counter his skill. It was his powerful, deadly secret.
The boss raged on as his HP dropped lower and lower. Although the boss still has over 500,000,000 HP, it was not showing signs that it was aware of the damage that was being reflected back at it. How could it be?
"Wow…noobie tank. I feel bad for calling you a noob tank. Your skill is clearly out of this world!" said Wei Yan Er with admiration and a little hint of envy.
Although having {Tribulation} could reflect damage, the caster would still have to sustain damage as well. Then again, it was like having an extra hand to attack!