The seventh monster wave was truly powerful. Even we—Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Snowy Cathaya and The Monarch Descends—just barely held on to the driver"s seat and stabilized ourselves after nearly an hour of fighting. The players guarding the other sides were faring far worse though. From what we heard, many defense lines had crumbled completely, and armies were cleaned off the surface of the earth. The Half-beastman Warriors had slaughtered them like ants.
……
Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh…
Holy light rained on my body constantly. The priests of The Monarch Descends had been focusing most of their healing on me and my people because Ling Xueshang ordered them to. The girl knew very well that she couldn"t let any of us die; that would only grow the debt she already owed us.
The situation was fine, but I couldn"t help but look at my equipment durability with worry. I was a warrior, but I had been fighting like a magic knight and absorbing the mobs" firepower all this time. Long story short, I had taken too much damage, and most of my equipment was close to breaking completely. The 5-star Outstanding equipment like the G.o.d Suppressing Helmet and G.o.d Suppressing Necklace were still okay at 40%, but I had items with durability as low as 10%. It was worrying to say the least. I wasn"t sure my equipment would last until the tenth wave, let alone the boss of the tenth wave.
……
That being said, it wasn"t all bad. The protracted battle netted me an innumerable amount of experience, and I had leveled up to 121 and 73%. I didn"t even realize this until just now because the battle was too fierce. So far, everyone who was still alive—especially the damage dealers—had gained between 2 to 5 levels. This was why people said that monster attacks were a boon to both the monsters and the players with the power and skill to make full use of it. It was an elite player"s best chance to widen the gap between themselves and the normal players!
The number of Half-beastman Warriors at the east side of Sky City was slowly but surely decreasing. Our DPS wasn"t for show after all. We couldn"t do anything to help the players guarding the other sides, however. The Half-beastman Warriors were powerful enough that even Gui Guzi and He Yi would be beaten to death without a priest to heal them. Moreover, priests were so fragile and slow that it was impossible to reinforce the other sides in a reasonable amount of time.
I checked the UI and noted that there weren"t many players who were still alive in Sky City. The player count had dropped all the way from ten million to 2.37 million, and almost all of them belonged to the big guilds. Almost all of the small to middle–rank guilds had been slaughtered. There were thousands of guilds in Sky City at least, and every one of them had their own heroes. It would be impossible to list all of them.
Next, I checked the point ranking. As expected, I was firmly at first place thanks to my powerful skills such as Silver Dragon Storm, Burning Blade Slash, Thousand Ice Slash, and War Crush. Lin Yixin was second, and Shadow Chanel, third!
Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand Points: 298030
Wind Fantasy Points: 227610
Shadow Chanel Points: 198260
From Water Points: 192370
Beiming Xue Points: 188260
Moonlight Stone Points: 187220
Legendary Brave Points: 182040
October Rain Points: 181190
Purple Marquis Points: 179270
Ling Xueshang Points: 177340
High Fighting Spirits Points: 172390
Warsky Points: 169900
Little Piglet Points: 157390
Clear Perfume Points: 155280
Gui Guzi Points: 145110
……
Lin Yixin and He Yi were fighters, but they both possessed pets with high Magic Attack, and being mounted turned their basic attacks into AoE attacks. That was why they were able to enter the top four. Otherwise, neither of them were even close to matching me, especially in terms of AoE skills. Of course, I would enjoy the same benefits once I hit Level 150 and got a mount of my own. a.s.suming that I had a mount right now, my points would probably exceed 400k already.
Anyway, the Top 100 players on the point ranking would be rewarded handsomely, and it wouldn"t be just experience reward. Unless I was mistaken, everyone would get a varying increase of Luck, also the most desired stat of any first-rate expert. Equipment would grow outdated eventually, but Luck was a permanent power whose strength only grew with time.
Suddenly, Chaos Moon pointed toward the front and cried out, "Wah! Look at that, Lu Chen…"
I looked at the direction she was pointing at. In the middle of a group of mobs I found a half-beastman wearing b.l.o.o.d.y red battle armor and a huge battle hammer. Its appearance wasn"t that distinguished, but it couldn"t hide the name above its head—Oka the Stonebreaker...
I couldn"t stop myself from laughing. "Good! A boss finally came our way!"
The defense line stretching about a hundred yards to the left and right were all players from Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, and the boss was right at the center of it. There was no way anyone could take this from us.
I raised my arm and tossed out a Dragon Slaying Slas.h.!.+
Bang!
11988!
The skill hit Oka the Stonebreaker in the head and made it shudder a little. Huh, I wasn"t expecting to deal a critical hit. Anyway, the Level 147 Spirit Rank boss roared angrily and started charging toward me!
At the same time, the players of The Monarch Descends started shouting, "Wah, the boss is here, the boss is here…"
Ling Xueshang"s lips tugged into a smile. "Since Lu Chen was the one who scored the first hit, the boss rightfully belongs to Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, am I right? Moreover, they saved our lives just a moment ago. Is everyone fine with giving the boss to our ally?"
Everyone in The Monarch Descends nodded in agreement. If I, Chaos Moon, Xu Yang and the others hadn"t helped them, their defense line would"ve been destroyed by the Half-beastman Warriors a long time ago. They wouldn"t have been in any shape to fight the boss even if they wanted to. Also, one of The Monarch Descends" weaknesses was their lack of a super warrior. Purple Wind Chime was okay, but she was at the level of High Fighting Spirits at best, and the guy would literally die if he was forced to act as a tank in a boss fight.
……
The Stonebreaker ran up to me and swung its hammer right at my shoulder. The pain was so great that I literally felt it in my bones, and the damage it dealt seemed to reflect that—7843! d.a.m.n, if even I took this much damage from a simple attack, I couldn"t imagine how anyone else in my party could withstand this...
Chaos Moon turned pale and backed away like the wind. "I only have less than 13k HP, so I"m definitely not the right person to tank this. Xu Yang, you go…"
Xu Yang stared at her. "Can I refuse…"
I was the only one with the power to tank this boss, so I had no choice but to meet it head-on.
The Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf let out a howl and attacked the Stonebreaker from the flanks. The boss tried shaking it off after it sank its fangs into the tattered cloth around its b.u.t.t, and the way it was swung left and right across the air made them look like a pair of ice skaters in a figure skating tournament for some reason...
Bang bang bang...
The boss slashed me three times in a row. My attempts to parry the attack were completely useless because the gap between our Strength was just too big.
My health kept dropping like mad, and The Monarch Descends" priests couldn"t heal me enough to save me. I had no choice but to use Tenacity of the Dead and drink a potion—
+3985!
+3500!
……
I should be able to last a bit longer like this, but it was super risky. I could use Guard, but I would lose all the aggro on the boss. The Stonebreaker had an AoE skill where it summoned flames to its battle hammer and hit an entire group of people, so if I Guarded, the target could only switch to players of The Monarch Descends. This way, at least I was the only one who was getting hit.
"Call for reinforcements now! Lu Chen can"t handle the boss himself…" Chaos Moon panicked.
Xu Yang immediately shouted in the guild channel, "Little Gui, boss, Murong Mingyue, and Beiming Xue, come here now! Lu Chen is fighting the boss, and he"s not strong enough to tank it himself! The Monarch Descends" priests are so s.h.i.+t they can"t for life coordinate well enough not to waste their healing! He could seriously die at any moment!"
"We"re coming…"
Reinforcements came very quickly, with Gui Guzi being the fastest of them all. Urging his land dragon to move as fast as it could, he activated Charge the second he got into range and shouted, "Panic not, Boss Broken Halberd! I hast cometh to saveth thee…"
I stared at him. "Thee your sister! I wasn"t panicked in the first place…"
Li Chengfeng laughed loudly as he arrived and hit the boss beneath the armpit with Dragonbone Flurry. The guy had a keen eye for weak spots, it seemed.
He Yi had also shown up on her Snow Domain Windchaser. Since seven players had died in my 40-man party while we were defending The Monarch Descends, I added everyone into the party so we could all enjoy the kill experience together. The battle happening at our guild"s battle line was nearing its end, so I wasn"t worried that they would fall to the remaining Half-beastman Warriors without us.
Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh…
A series of pillars of holy light flashed around my person, and I knew from the amount I was healed and the pattern alone that it was Murong Mingyue. There was no one in Sky City who had a better grasp on healing than her.
And so we surrounded the boss and steadily chipped away at its HP while a large group of priests healed us from the back. Anyone could be one-shot by a boss this powerful, so the healing mustn"t stop until it was dead.
……
The Stonebreaker roared and swung its hammer around like crazy, causing metallic sparks to appear on Gui Guzi"s s.h.i.+eld again and again. I had pa.s.sed the party leader to Gui Guzi because one, Knight G.o.d would ensure that all the riders in our party like He Yi and Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun would deal good damage to the boss, and two, for the Defense boost of course. With Knight G.o.d active, the chances that our magic knights would be one-shot was drastically lowered, even if it managed to crit us multiple times in a row.
Gui Guzi"s Defense and HP were slightly behind He Yi"s, but he had a skill she couldn"t hope to match, Undying s.h.i.+eld X. The skill absorbed 50% of the damage taken as health, so it might as well be a 50% damage reduction if he wasn"t one-shot before the absorption tick. The effect was so powerful that no one could dethrone Gui Guzi"s position as the number one tank of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls to this day. Our Undying Knight"s only flaw was his lack of attack power, resulting in frequent losses of aggro and some damage being done here and there.
At the back, Beiming Xue and her archer party went all out and shot the boss until it resembled a pincus.h.i.+on. Li Chengfeng, High Fighting Spirits and I also gave it a good thras.h.i.+ng every time its AoE skill went on cooldown. In fact, I never even bothered leaving the boss"s side because the boss didn"t have the ability to one-shot me through my Defense and HP.
Almost ten minutes later, Oka the Stonebreaker was finally nearing its demise!
However, a group of Hegemon Palace players suddenly appeared at the distance. They were led by none other than w.a.n.g Dongliang, Little Piglet, and Shangguan Wan"er.
"f.u.c.k! What is this timing? Are they planning to steal the boss from us?" Xu Yang exclaimed in shock.
Li Chengfeng bared his teeth. "Let them try. Death will be the only end for these losers!"