Chapter 189: The Eighth and Ninth Wave
As per Zhang Yang's orders, Lone Desert Smoke sent a large amount of tanks and attackers without MP bars towards Ankeda. All the healers remained behind, the precious keys to victory, tucked safely away.
Ankeda's physical damage was devastating. Each bite from each head of the Ankeda caused 2,000 damage points which could kill a player within two to three seconds. Despite not casting AoE skill, its mere attacks brought enough trouble, how many players would die fighting this boss?
One after another, more players died, as Ankeda's HP was continuously reduced.
Most of the guilds did not send their elite members to fight against Ankeda as 80% of the players would die! The most suitable attackers to fight against Ankeda were the Hunters. When their aggro values were high, they immediately used <Fake Death> to clear the aggro. Thus, even if their damage was high to Ankeda, their lives were not in danger. Hunters were the MVP1s of this boss!
Ankeda had killed more than 300 players within five minutes, but his ample HP was also exhausted. Ankeda's three heads reared up, facing the sky as it roared in denial before crashing down, dropping a lot of loot.
Different tactics were used to fight against different bosses. If they used the traditional tactic of sending tanks and healers to fight against this MP-depleting boss, healers would be wiped out, along with the tanks.
Zhang Yang did not tank the boss; otherwise, he would have held the highest aggro! Even though he was powerful, he would not be able to tank the boss for five minutes without a healer. Thus, this was the first time he stood aside and watched the battle as an audience.
Zhang Yang switched the item distribution mode in the party to All-Pick, allowing every member of their own respective guild to fight for the boss loots. He did not mind them getting a few items for themselves.
'Ding! The eighth wave of monsters is surging out of Tukula Fortress!'
The system did not allow the players to rest for long, and the eighth wave of monsters were already dashing towards the players from fortress.
This time, it was not a running monster but a flying Quad-Winged Demon Bat! A dense, dark mass could be seen from afar, it was like the night itself was being brought to them via sorcery!
The size of a normal Demon bat was similar to a little calf, while the elite Demon bat was much larger in size. Fully outstretched, they would easily have a wingspan of 10 meters. The edges of those wings were lined with gold, which marked the difference between them and the black wings of the normal Demon bats!
[Quad-Winged Demon Bat] (Normal, Demon)
Level: 58
HP: 5,800
Defense: 50
[Golden Quad-Winged Demon Bat] (Elite, Demon)
Level: 58
HP: 100,000
Defense: 300
Countless Demon bats blotted out what little sun they had. Zhang Yang knew that the monsters had ranged attack abilities so he immediately said, "Everybody spread out! If anyone of you is attacked by monsters and you are unable to fight back, you have to run forward, the monsters will chase after you until you have gained enough distance!"
Faced with aerial monsters, defense formations did not matter anymore. Due to the nature of the monsters, attacks would come in three—dimensions, melee attackers would be unable to fight back if they were bunched up together!
Demon bats flew pretty swiftly, able to cover 500 meters in 10 seconds. The Demon bats spat acid on the players from their positions up in the sky. Normal monsters caused 900 points of neutral damage while elite monsters caused 2,000 damage.
Ranged attackers started to retaliate immediately, while the melee attackers ran continuously. Whenever the melee attackers were out of Demon bats' attack range, Demon bats would fly obliquely and land on the ground, where the melee attackers were given the opportunity to run back and hack at them.
450,000!
400,000!
Monsters were raining down from the skies as they were killed, but the number of players also reduced continuously!
350,000!
300,000!
250,000!
The boss spawned at the 50th minute while only 200,000 players remained!
'Ding! The boss of the eighth wave monsters, Quad-Winged Demon Bat King, Cinchorida has joined the battle!'
A giant Quad-winged demon bat immediately appeared on the battlefield. It had about a hundred meter-long wingspan. Once it flapped its wings, a whirlwind was formed and the battlefield was clouded up with dust, demonstrating its power!
[Quad-Winged Demon Bat King, Cinchorida] (Gray-Silver, Demon)
Level: 58
HP: 18,000,000
Defense: 600
This Demon bat king flapped its wings and about ten swirls of dust appeared immediately and formed into a few mini tornadoes. These mini tornadoes moved about ten meters before gradually disappearing!
"Ranged attackers, kite the boss like how you fought the minions!" Zhang Yang immediately spoke in open channel, "Spread out, spread out as far as possible!"
Cinchorida came over the top of the players and spat green acidic saliva on a player, '-5,000' damage text appeared above that player's head, instantly leading to the player's demise. At the same time, about ten ranged attackers also attacked Cinchorida. It came swooping down at them in retaliation, but they scattered, running off in different directions. It was a rather comical, yet terrifying spectacle.
Although the boss spat another acidic glob of sputum and killed a player, an attack interval had been established and thus, based on its rhythm, the rest of the players were able constantly stay out of its attack range. Cinchorida was helpless and it flew obliquely after one of the players who currently held the highest aggro value.
Zhang Yang already summoned his war horse and waited for the chance to tag Cinchorida as it flew low. When the opportunity came, he chased after the boss, yelling, "Demon Snow, follow me!"
Cinchorida successfully chased after a player, killing the player with another spit of acid. At the same time, Zhang Yang already approached Cinchorida and entered the range of <Charge>. Zhang Yang immediately disabled his war horse summon, used <Charge> and dashed towards Cinchorida.
'-1,305!'
'-2,932!'
After two attacks, Zhang Yang had locked onto Cinchorida's aggro. It growled and spat green acidic saliva on Zhang Yang.
'-3,500!'
Damage text appeared across Zhang Yang's head. Because this acidic saliva caused magic damage, Zhang Yang's defense value did little to reduce the damage.
'<Regeneration>!'
'<Mending Prayers>!'
'<Higher Healing>!'
Han Ying Xue stood 30 meters behind Zhang Yang and threw healing spell after healing spell on Zhang Yang.
The rest of the players surrounded Cinchorida and started to attack.
Hu!
Cinchorida flapped its four wings, ten mini tornadoes immediately released around its side, sweeping off in all directions. Those players who touched by the tornadoes, were tossed up to the sky, taking 1,000 damage every second.
"Evade the tornado! Evade the tornado!" Zhang Yang looked around and hurriedly yelled, "Those tornadoes aren't really fast, if you guys don't bump into each other, evading won't be much trouble!"
Tornadoes did not last long, spiraling for about ten seconds. However, these ten seconds were enough to cause more than 10,000 damage to the players who were flung to the sky. If it was not for the efforts of the healers, they would have been dead before the tornadoes even weaken!
This particular round of tornadoes took at least 200 lives, showing that tornadoes could be lethal as well!
Besides, Cinchorida activated tornado attacks rather frequently. It activated another round of tornado attack after about ten seconds, scattering those players who were trying to surround it!
In fact, Cinchorida's single attack was weak. Han Ying Xue alone was enough to heal Zhang Yang's HP easily. If Zhang Yang had sufficient time and lesser players surrounding Cinchorida then Zhang Yang could even kill Cinchorida easily as Zhang Yang would have ample space to evade Cinchorida's attacks. However, Zhang Yang knew that the ninth wave of monsters would be unleashed anytime soon, so he had to wrap things up as soon as possible!
Bosses with powerful AoE skills had been specially designed for this battlefield for a simple but effective purpose--to reduce the number of players and increase the difficulty of seizing the fortress. However, the game had anticipated the average player's strength at this point in time, so the bosses weren't impossible to beat.
This time, all the elite forces had gathered up, and they hacked away, quickly depleting Cinchorida's HP. After three minutes, it succumbed to their deadly blows, dropping loot befitting of a boss. Another scramble among the players occurred again as they raced for the loots.
"Ke, ke, ke, noob tank, I got a Gray-Silver equipment!" Wei Yan Er laughed with proud.
Sun Xin Yu showed her loots, immediately silencing the little brat, as she had scooped up two pieces of Gray-Silver equipment!
"Put them all up for auction!" Zhang Yang simply said, himself only being able to loot a Hunter's skill book.
If the main forces in the guild wanted the equipment so badly, nobody could compete with them as their guild's contribution points left everyone else in the dust. Besides, Zhang Yang used such a method of distributing loots to earn trust and respect from the members. He wanted to give them all a sense of belonging.
"Guys, don't join the auction this time round, Yellow-Gold bosses will appear later, keep your guild's distribution points for that!" Before Zhang Yang started the guild's auction, he told the gang in party channel.
'Ding! The ninth wave of monsters is surging forth from Tukula Fortress!'
Hisssss...
With a series of snake hisses, a group of snake monsters came out from the fortress. They had both humanoid and snake-like features. They had four arms protruding out from their female bodies. Their upper body was covered in golden strips that could hardly be considered armor, merely covering the tips of their breasts. Their fair bellies were fully exposed. Each one of them was rather coquettish and beautiful. The green silky hair had a rather mysterious aura, adding on to the sex appeal.
There were no normal monsters for this wave. All of them were the elite monsters, wielding swords in all four of their arms, gazing upon the players with beautiful deadliness.
[Lamia] (Elite, Demon)
Level: 59
HP: 100,000
Defense: 300
"So sexy!" Fatty Han's eye immediately shone and locked his sights on the Lamias' tits.
"It's such a shame, if only they had two legs, they would be perfect!" Endless Starlight spoke, using a somewhat professional tone.
Zhang Yang shook his head and said, "It would be perfect when they've killed the two of you!"
"It would be our honour to be killed by such great beauties!" Both Fatty Han and Endless Starlight replied together.
Hisssss...
The lamiae swayed their hips seductively as they slithered to the players' direction, their swords poised to strike!
"Stick to your defense line!" Zhang Yang raised his shield and lifted up his axe then shouted, "Two waves to go, we must survive this! For victory!"
"To victory!" All players shouted together.
"Kill!"
"Kill..."
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The lamiae collided with the players' defense line, whirling their swords with deadly finesse, starting another bloody clash!