Chapter 89: Summoning the Explosive Ape
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Disaster upon disaster followed. Li Yi and the Wutong sisters defected, and the team instantly fell into chaos.
Assigning Not-a-confused-brother to help the Wutong sisters to interrupt the Little Fire Dwarf Monsters' skill was a decision that had been carefully considered by Li Yi. There was only one reason for that. Although his ATK and DEF indicators were not qualified, but if something went wrong with the main tanks in front, he would be able to fill in immediately. Holding out for a while would not be a problem for him.
Not-a-confused-brother did not make any mistakes. Seeing the Wutong sisters defect, he immediately turned on Righteous Wrath (the attacker can generate an additional 30% Aggro value for any attack, and it is a Paladin's divine skill), taunted one and slashed at another, seamlessly transferring the two Fire Dwarfs' Aggro onto himself.
Not-a-confused-brother finished doing what he should do, yet the others were making mistakes instead.
Seeing that main tank had died, many despaired. Tankers falling implied a Total Party Wipe, and without main tanks, how could they continue the battle?
When the heart was nervous, it was easy to make mistakes. At least half of them forgot Li Yi's orders and simply rushed to attack the defecting targets...
Li Yi instantly fell, and the Wutong sisters were also not spared. All of them died by the hands of their own people.
This was Li Yi's first death after his life was reset!
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Three more people defected. At this time, the party was a complete mess. The DPS damage was not enough, and he watched two people run into Llamasden's head. What came next was a boom...
A [-5000] appeared on above of all the surviving players' heads, and all of them fell to the ground at the same time.
Total annihilation...
It was just a small mistake, yet it brought along a series of disasters.
"Quickly corpse run!"
Li Yi roared and released his soul.
After toiling for four hours, this was the result they acquired instead. Many could not accept it, and they blamed Wang Wang.
"I'm sorry, everyone..." Wang Wang was filled with remorse, and he left the party.
Li Yi added him back in.
"Everyone makes mistakes. This is nothing. Let me ask you, will you make the same mistake thrice?"
"Not even twice!" Wang Wang gnashed his teeth and replied.
"Then you can join us."
Li Yi said in front of all the party members, "What a good party needs is not blame due mistakes, but encouragement. Can any of you guarantee that you will never make mistakes? No one can! Not you, not me!"
...
The party members came back from corpse running and sat on the ground, drinking potions while listening to Li Yi.
The strategy when defected; when whoever defected, who was to be in charge of attacking, and when defected, who was to go and rescue; Li Yi explained it all in detail.
"Don't mess up. Look at the target. There's no need to rush your output. In the Defect Red-eye Mode, everyone's damage ability is increased by 3 times. As long as there's no mistake, with one saving one, it's absolutely not a problem."
Li Yi talked about the first stage up to the fourth stage before opening the floor to the members to speak. Anything that they did not understand could be asked now. Once the battle began, any opinions could only be set aside.
After consolidating all the members in the party, Li Yi did not announce to start right away. Instead, he sat down quietly and did not say anything.
"Guild Master, can we begin?"
"Yea, let's get started."Regardless of what the party members said, Li Yi ignored them all and just sat on the ground. No one knew what he was thinking.
Time was tight, and Li Yi was feeling tenser than all of the people here combined.
Star Fire would win the first kill at 1500 hours, so if they failed the dungeon challenge this time, even if they were to challenge it again, there wasn't enough time left.
There was only one chance, and he had to think long and hard about it.
Patience!
He waited for everyone's excitement to cool down. This time, there must be no mistakes!
"I want to say a few words to everyone. When fighting, I hope that every one of you will not be disturbed for any reason. Do your part well. Even if main tanks and healers are all down, you can't give up. Can all of you do this?"
"Yes!"
Li Yi stood up, checked the members, and got in position.
"Main tanks charge!"
The battle had started again!
"Thieves, pay attention to Aggro. Others, bash it up!"
Refighting the battle this time, everyone was being very careful. As the number of failures and refighting increased, no one could stand it. Four hours of hard work had yielded nothing. Was this lesson not tragic enough?
The first stage was easy, and no one died. The second stage was also easy, and no one died. Llamasden's head descended to the center of the furnace and began to enter the third stage.
"Don't have any fear in your heart. Just fight the way you should. Completely let loose and wallop it!"
Li Yi was also feeling frenzied, and he gulped down bottle after bottle of Fury Potion. Once the Cooldown time was over, he would immediately drink another, and so his DPS output was three times more than that of second place.
Fury Potion was one to five Gold Coins per bottle. This was almost considered as burning money, but luckily, his secondary class was an Apothecarist...
In order to prepare for this dungeon, Li Yi's expenses were rather high. All of the 30 player's equipment coupled with a variety of auxiliary items came from him, and the total cost had exceeded 50,000 Gold Coins.
'Go big or go home.' This was Li Yi's notion.
It did not matter how much he had invested. What he valued was the return!
Even if they failed the dungeon this time, could those who had taken his equipment just pat their *ss and leave? 1 Of these people, except for four or five whom Li Yi was unfamiliar with, he had known the rest of them in his previous life. The only difference was the depth of friendship.
Their character was the finest of the finest, and they were loyal people. This was Li Yi's first criterion when selecting people. As for their competence, it was prioritized far behind.
Competence could be slowly nurtured, but could you nurture character? Li Yi, who had been a cheater in the past, expressed a strong sentiment in this aspect...
It was very easy to get through the Molten Furnace. Just by collaborating with other guilds, he would not need to spend a single penny, and the other party would also have to hand over all the good equipment for him to distribute them.
But if he had really done this, would the Little Drunk Cat Guild gain fame? If you really wanted others to truly admire you, you would have to reject any outside help and rely on your own strength to conquer by yourself!
"Boom!"
Red-eye members appeared and ran toward Llamasden.
The first phase of the third stage was of no concern to this team. Even when Zimu Wutong and Qingshui Wutong defected one after another, the Fire Monsters were still firmly restrained by Not-a-confused-brother. Group Fear was continually released, and the aggro was tightly pulled, leaving the team with no concern whatsoever.
The most difficult third stage came and caused three people to defect at the same time. This not only put the DPS' output ability to the test but also tested the individual's reaction.
When the 10% HP Defect Mode disappeared, if you were to attempt an additional strike, it was very likely to cause a TPW.
"Don't panic. Just fight the way you should. Don't panic at all." Chen Yang was so anxious that he was stamping his feet non-stop, and yet, he was unable to lend any helping hand in this segment. Fire Spirit Pet stood insensibly by him and was motionless.
In this segment, he could only order Fire Spirit Pet to standby; otherwise, if Llamasden caused Chen Yang to defect, Fire Spirit Pet would attack the other party members right away.
In this segment, there was nothing for him to do except to wait patiently.
The interval between the defections was getting shorter and shorter, and when the occurrence of transfer at 10% HP dropped to 5%, one by one, the party members were seen running toward the center. The sense of urgency was raised to the highest level!
"Boom!"
Another member was flustered and hit out one extra time, causing Qing Pingle to lie on the ground.
"You despicable, contemptible and damnable creatures, you... you've really infuriated Llamasden."
Llamasden's head trembled violently, showing its rage at this time.
Although one person died, yet they had passed the third stage!
"Fatty, charge!"
Li Yi shouted at Chen Yang, and the acceleration effect from his Inferno Boots was initiated. He dashed to the front of Llamasden's head with the fastest speed, while Chen Yang also ran over using Instant Slip-Away.
"Come out, Explosive Ape!"
With a whistle, a golden-haired Explosive Ape appeared inside Llamasden's head, chattering non-stop. Chen Yang then used Switch, and his body traded places with Fire Spirit Pet.
"Eek eek, hoo hoo..."
The Explosive Ape jumped up and down and wanted to run out of the head, but it was blocked by Fire Spirit Pet. The ape was angry and immediately kicked and hit Fire Spirit Pet. Fire Spirit Pet bore it all up front and did not budge from its spot. Its decreasing HP was instantly boosted back up by healers.
The Explosive Ape's attack belonged to the category of indiscriminate attack. Whoever looked unpleasant to its eye, it would strike that person, including its own master. Hence, calling it out was a great danger.
The rest of the party did not see Li Yi summoning the Explosive Ape. They only saw Chen Yang positioning Fire Spirit Pet in front of Llamasden.
In the midst of Llamasden's angry bellows, a blazing flame once again wrapped around its head.
The Explosive Ape was trapped inside, and the only one way out in front of it was still being blocked by Fire Spirit Pet. This caused the ape to screech and howl continuously and trash about madly.
After a while, Fire Spirit Pet still did not fight back. At this time, the temperature of the fire around Llamasden's head had risen, and the Explosive Ape was burned until it was feeling dizzy. In order to protect itself, it gave up on striking Fire Spirit Pet, and it started to attack Llamasden from the inside.
[−832]
[−960]
[−1300!]
Llamasden's most vulnerable spot was at the inside of its head, and the Explosive Ape's P-ATK ability was comparable to that of the same level Warrior; fierce and vigorous, and Violent Strike was engaged from time to time.
Llamasden was immune to all Control Skills. Dizzy, Stun, Freezing, etc., had no effect on it, and so the Dizzy Mode attached to the Explosive Ape's Violent Strike was naturally ineffective. Nonetheless, the Violent Strike skill could interrupt the target from casting spells. The party members did not know that because of this ape, at least half of the skills that Llamasden tried to release were interrupted, and the pressure on the team members naturally declined sharply.
The fourth-stage Llamasden's interruptible skill only had 1.5 seconds of channeling time. It was still fine if the distance was near, but if it was a little farther away, it would be difficult to interrupt.
Countless molten and blazing rocks gathered at the top of the furnace, madly smashing downward. This move was more perverse than the Meteor Fire Shower. It had a powerful ATK, its range covered the whole field, and its lasting time was unlimited!
The Fire Projectiles were bombarding below non-stop, and the party members had to constantly avoid the Fire Projectiles while preserving their output. The most thing was that when the Fire Projectiles landed on the ground, it would also form a short-lived sea of fire. Stepping on it would cause one's HP to be reduced by half, and staying there for just one second would kill you.
Both Llamasden's skeletal eyes shot out fire shockwaves from time to time. When they came into contact with the main tank who was at the front, every wave would cause the main tank's HP to be reduced by one-third.
White light continued to flash on the main tank's body, and Wu Old Wolf would run around and find time to heal him. He would also replenish the Wutong sisters' HP on and off. This powerful capability of his proved that his reputation was not undeserving but a well-earned one.
Other healer classes were not able to achieve this. It was good enough if they were not bombed to death by the Fire Projectile. How would they still have time to heal?
The DPS class was not any better off. There was a time limit when fighting the fourth stage. If they could not clear it within an hour, Llamasden would enter Berserk Mode, and then there would be no chance of winning.
Chen Yang was the relaxed one as Fire Spirit Pet only needed to standby and wait for commands. There was only one thing he was doing at the moment, which was to ensure that he would not die, and this would be considered as successfully completing the task Li Yi gave to him.
"Whish! Whish!"
In the shower of fire, there were also a few who were able to deal damage continuously among the DPS class, and one of them was Li Yi, who kept gulping down Fury Potions, enabling each of his arrows to deal out more than [−600] damage.
"Everyone, keep up the good work..." Qing Pingle was lying on the floor dejected, his heart filled with anxiety.
If Qing Pingle did not die, with his operational skill, continuous damage in the fire shower was not a problem to him.
"Eek eek eek..."
The Explosive Ape's attack was even crazier...
"Despicable, despicable..."
Llamasden bellowed, and the fire on the surface of the head blazed up. Li Yi dealt a Muting Shot in the nick of time. When the Muting Arrow reached Llamasden, the channeling bar skill had just emerged a little but was interrupted.
The time difference was mastered just right!
Interrupting the boss' skill required all of the party members to take turns doing it, but with Li Yi being able to interrupt it accurately every time, this greatly relieved the pressure bore by the party members, and they were able to concentrate on performing their tasks better.
Fortunately, even if Llamasden's channeling bar skill succeeded, it would not cause a TPW but would only put the party members' positioning skills to the test. As long as there were no big mistakes, there would not be a problem.
120... 118... 109... 93... 91... 82... 71... 52...
Llamasden's HP continued to decline, and the shower of Fire Projectiles chucking down from above was getting more and more freakish. There was no rhyme or reason as they became random...
At this time, there were already six in the team who had fallen!
Wu Old Wolf was still going on strong, grinning his large, fierce-looking mouth, and ostentatiously positioning himself in the fire shower. Every time his staff lifted, he would save the main tank's and the Wutong sisters' lives in the nick of time. As for the others, even if there was only 1 HP left on top of their head, he would not be bothered at all.
This was the result of Li Yi's repeated instruction before the battle. Wu Old Wolf was indeed very strong, but unfortunately, he was not Superman. If he were to be distracted saving others, it would definitely affect the main tank's HP, and this was what Li Yi absolutely did not want to see happening.
When Llamasden's HP was reduced to 180,000, 12 people in the team had fallen, including Zimu Wutong, this important main tank.
Qingshui Wutong fought one against two and tightly pulled aggro on the Little Fire Dwarf Monster, while Moonlight Ocean and Not-a-confused-brother steadily stood behind her and gave her support.
Not-a-confused-brother had also rendered a meritorious service. As a Paladin, he could also be partially regarded as a healbot. Whenever he saw Wu Old Wolf having difficulty with healing, he would immediately take the initiative to heal so that Wu Old Wolf would have time to regenerate mana.
Li Yi continued to deal damage, and he could not wait to empty all of Llamasden's HP in one-shot.
Cover all, lose all. There was no mistake in this saying. The Fire Projectiles overhead was about to land, and Li Yi initially could have easily run away from them. But because he wanted to deal output a little bit more, he played out another Chain Arrow Skill.
"Pooh!"
One Fire Projectile smashed on top of his head, and he instantly suffered [−278] damage, almost emptying his HP.
Resisting it forcefully before running away. Li Yi had already calculated these, but what he did not foresee was a sea of fire formed by the Fire Projectiles crashing into the ground nearby.
A sea of fire suddenly appeared in front of him, and he could not move forward. He turned around and tried to fall back but was too slow by a step. The blazing fire had set alight.
At this moment, a shadow teleported to his front just in time, and two hands flung out, pulling him from the sea of fire.
"It's ok if I die, but you can't." Wizard Wang Wang smiled and laid on the ground face up...