Chapter 81 - Fire Cloud King
Several hundred Myriad Sword members scattered in the surroundings and surveyed all directions. XuanYuanSword did not know that Fatty saw them attack the Fire Cloud King by chance. Instead, he thought he set everything up perfectly and nobody would notice what they were doing.
DreamButterfly was a famous female player in Vermillion Bird City. She was ranked fifth on the hunter rankings and seventh on the leaderboard. She was a very formidable player with the hidden class of Mirage Archer.
SnowPhoenix is also a female player. She is ranked fourteenth on the magus rankings. She also possessed a hidden class of Ice Magus, which allows her to stand a head above everyone else.
At that moment, the two of them were standing expressionlessly in front of XuanYuanSword and listening to XuanYuanSword's introduction of the monster.
"Fire Cloud King is around Level 50. The only known skill it has are Fire Rain and Fire Ocean. It doesn't do much physical damage and is immune to fire magic. In exchange, water and ice magic deals bonus damage against it," it was clear that XuanYuanSword didn't know too much about the boss monster either.
This time, XuanYuanSword didn't just try to pile on the monster in numbers. Instead, he had spent a large amount of money to hire DreamButterfly and SnowPhoenix. After all, the Fire Cloud King's area of effect spells covered too wide of a range, if they relied on numbers, then they would be all sent back to town in mere moments.
There was one trait shared by all the monsters in Fire Valley - they all had high magical defense, were immune to fire magic and possessed a degree of physical damage resistance. I wonder if this Fire Cloud King will self-destruct in the end. If it does, then that'll be fun. Fatty thought to himself.
Hearing XuanYuanSword's words, DreamButterfly and SnowPhoenix nodded. They looked at each other, then DreamButterfly spoke once more, "We are in charge of fighting the boss, you guys are in charge of dealing with the other monsters. Don't let them disturb us."
"Of course," XuanYuanSword nodded, then waved his hand, beckoning two squads of players to come over. "The first squad is fifty healers that will focus on healing you two beautiful ladies. The other squad is a combination of water mages and hunters. There are five hundred people in total and they will be able to aid the two of you in drawing the boss monster's aggro."
"Very well, let's not dilly dally around anymore and get started," DreamButterfly and SnowPhoenix were both very happy with XuanYuanSword's arrangement.
XuanYuanSword's offer was far more generous compared to Rainreveler's offer of a hundred thousand gold coins to God Familia. The main reason was because not only did XuanYuanSword arrange for people to kill the monsters, he also arranged healers and a bunch of great mages and hunters to help in slaying the boss monster.
"Young Master Liu, when did they come in?" Tearblade and co. had terrible expressions as they stood behind XuanYuanSword. They felt that although XuanYuanSword was the guild master, they were a crucial part of Myriad Swords as well. Their relationship with XuanYuanSword was merely the relationship between shareholders and the chairman of the board. Yet, they didn't know about these arrangements he made at all!
"They came in yesterday," XuanYuanSword replied indifferently. "I planned for us to kill the Fire Demon today, but since the God Familia took our chance, then we’ll kill the Fire Cloud King instead. Don't fault me for not telling you. The less people that know about this, the better. Even they did not know that they came to kill the boss monster beforehand."
Tearblade wanted to speak up, but Moon&SunBlade yanked his arm, signaling him not to. XuanYuanSword turned around and gave out orders, then ignored his friends.
"Hey, big Bro, do you think XuanYuanSword's guys can beat the Fire Cloud King?" LeftHandofGod counted down on the Fire Demon's cooldowns while asking HeadofGod.
"It'll be difficult," HeadofGod spat on the ground in disdain. "I'm not looking down on him, but their Heavenly Mountain's Seven Swords and Nine Divine Martial Swords count even count as fodder for the Fire Cloud King. Although the Fire Cloud King is a boss of the same level as the Fire Demon, it is far more difficult to kill, especially when it's a flying monster with magic damage. What's more, both of its known skills are AoE, so unless XuanYuanSword hires some experts to help, it is impossible for him to kill it with just numbers."
"Now that you talk about it, I do want to go and meet that Fire Cloud King for myself. Big Bro, how high of a chance do you think we got against the monster?" BigPillarofGod asked as he set up a trap.
"Us?" HeadofGod reached out with one hand. "Fifty percent."
"Only?" TheFugitive was surprised. "The twelve of us together are able to face off against Level 60 bosses. Is the Fire Cloud King really that strong?"
"It's not because the Fire Cloud King is insanely strong, it's because we're too weak," HeadofGod chuckled. "Don't forget that we're only in the twenties, we haven't even gotten our third class enhancement yet. That is when we'll truly become strong."
"Hey, Big Bro, the Fire Demon is at half health now!" RightEyeofGod shouted.
"Alright. C'mon, let's hurry up. Let's go and help Myriad Swords kill their boss monster after this."
"Hehe, of course we should. We are true do-gooders!"
"Oh, OH! Wow, I can't believe there is a boss monster like this!" Fatty chuckled as he watched the fight unfold. "Wow, what a beautiful fire rain. Oh, what a beautiful fire ocean. Oh, what a beautiful blizzard. Huh? Damn, that chick casted it? That's insane!"
Meanwhile, XuanYuanSword's expression had already turned stark white in the face of the intense heat. In less than an hour of combat, over three hundred of the five hundred supporting players had been killed, and all fifty healers were sent back to town with a single meteorite like Fire Rain, so they haven't been able to return yet. Although DreamButterfly and SnowPhoenix didn't say anything, it was rather apparent that they were having a lot of trouble from all the sweat on their faces.
"Young Master Liu, what should we do? This is bad," DragonSword walked closer to XuanYuanSword and whispered.
"Call me Guild Master in-game," XuanYuanSword glared at him. "I know this is bad, but what else could we do? We do have a way to fight it if the Fire Cloud King comes down, but it's in the air, so we can only rely on ranged classes to attack it."
"Is DreamButterfly and SnowPhoenix actually going to be able to do it?" Sun&MoonSword said. "I don't want all of us to end up dying with nothing to show for it."
"Even if they can't, can you?" XuanYuanSword said speechlessly. "Instead of spewing crap, you might as well think about how to get the Fire Cloud King down here."
Everyone could tell just how terrible their guild master's mood was, so they immediately stopped speaking.
"Hah! Icy Blizzard!" SnowPhoenix called out. The silvery white staff in her hands danced as she casted another Icy Blizzard, causing ice and snow to fall onto the Fire Cloud King and dealt significant damage.
"This skill is pretty good, but the cooldown is too long and uses up too much mana. Otherwise, SnowPhoenix would be able to deal with it herself," XuanYuanSword muttered to himself.
"Mirage Chain Shot," DreamButterfly did not hold back either. She pulled back the bowstring of her gold bow with her fingers and released it nine times. Although no arrows shot out, the Fire Cloud King trembled as nine decent damage numbers rose up above its head.
Hidden classes are truly powerful. All of the Myriad Swords members were surprised. So they managed to reach the top 20s of their class's rankings because of the more powerful hidden class skills.
The Fire Cloud King's body was like a fiery red cloud. When it spread out fully, it could reach several dozen meters wide. One could not see any eyes or nose form it, but it did roar angrily with its mouth. Although it already killed most of the Myriad Swords members, it wasn't in too great of a state, since it has already lost around a third of its health after getting attacked by the hidden class skills.
The Fire Cloud King roared angrily once more, then descended a little. As its body trembled, countless basketball-sized fireballs appeared out of nowhere and rained towards the ground.
"F*ck, this again!?" XuanYuanSword cursed and led his subordinates back. This was Meteor Fire Rain, which was one of the Fire Cloud King's more powerful skills. When combined with Fire Ocean, it practically unleashed a fiery hell upon the area. It was also the combination of these two skills that had caused most of their losses.
In contrast, the two female players did not seem worried at all. They merely firmly stood in their places.
"Icy Fortress!" SnowPhoenix called out. A transparent fortress made out of ice surrounded SnowPhoenix. A fireball smashed against the fortress and caused a ripple in the wall, causing SnowPhoenix to shake. However, she did endure her way through the entire skill with less than twenty percent of her health remaining.
Meanwhile, DreamButterfly handled it in a simpler manner. She bent her knee, knotted arrows on her bow, then sent countless arrows flying into the Meteor Fire Rain.
"Piercing Arrows!" DreamButterfly used her attack as her defense and made a clearing for herself. She took a deep breath as Meteor Fire Rain fell beside her, then pulled her bow back to let out another shot. However, this time, it was merely a normal Explosive Shot.
"Amazing!" Fatty was dumbstruck. DreamButterfly's Mirage Chain Shot and Piercing Arrows as well as SnowPhoenix's Icy Blizzard and Icy Fortress were incomparably strong to most of the other players' skills. He really couldn't help but accept the fact that they possessed the strength needed to be acknowledged as real experts with their usage and timings.
"Yes!" XuanYuanSword was overjoyed when he saw the two finally reveal what they are capable of. He had immediately begun to ponder how to convince the two players to join his guild after seeing their trump cards. Right now, Myriad Swords was in a strange state. All of their experts were close combat players, so they could do nothing while ranged attacks fought flying monsters like the Fire Cloud King. If he could get the two female experts to join the guild, it will definitely give them a chance to become the eighth ranking guild in Vermillion Bird City.
"Guild Master, the God Familia killed the Fire Demon!" a player shouted out. This was a player responsible for contacting the player watching over the God Familia.
"Did a Guild Establishment Token drop?" XuanYuanSword's expression drastically changed as he asked.
"They don't know," the player quickly replied. "The God Familia only just killed the Fire Demon when a lot of people surrounded them. There's a huge ruckus going on right now, nobody knows what the Fire Demon dropped."
"Ahh!" Just as XuanYuanSword listened on, he suddenly heard a scream.
XuanYuanSword looked over and saw SnowPhoenix stagger back with an urgent look on her face. Her health was dropping at a terrifying speed.
Original Chapter Teaser:
XuanYuanSword: Myriad Swords, allow me to introduce DreamButterfly and SnowPhoenix, the two experts who will help us down this boss monster today! Please give them a round of applause.
(utter silence)
DragonSword: What the heck, why the hell are we hiring people to do it when we have so many people here?
YinYangSword: I don’t want to agree with DragonSword, but he’s right. Did we bring so many people here for… naught? Guild Master, are you kidding me?
XuanYuanSword: Shut it. Our guild members are here to protect us and divert attention. The real boss killing will be done by the two experts. This will be able to minimize our losses.
YinYangSword: …
DragonSword: Whatever, f*ck it. I don’t give a shit about this. Just let me kill those bastards already!
XuanYuanSword: Well then. Ladies, if you will please begin?
Owed Chapters Count: 6 (+sponsored chapters)