MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

More than 300 Inferior Fire Elves paced back and forth. Li Yi buffed himself appropriately and went forward, all by himself.

“Whoosh—”

[−1321]

[−1851]

[−1124]

He shot out a Charged Arrow, penetrating several enemies and causing a ton of damage. The 300-odd Inferior Fire Elves were instantly infuriated, and they chased Li Yi.

Activating the Fiery Boots’ special skill, Li Yi created a large distance between himself and the Inferior Fire Elf before shooting out yet another Charged Arrow.

[−1201]

A string of damage figures rose into the air, stupefying the party members who were waiting behind him.

“Wind Shield Protection!”

Li Yi led the Inferior Fire Elves on a wild goose chase. When they were about to catch up to him, he used the Ring of Windstorms’ special movement skill, distancing himself from them once more.

He repeated this several times. Although his ATK was not enough for him to kill off the Inferior Fire Elves, he still managed to keep a tight grip on their aggro.

“Attack!”

Li Yi barked, and the party moved as a whole. Icicles, fire, bullets, arrows and meteors, all of it rained down onto the Inferior Fire Elves madly.

“Miracle of Wind!” Little Elf from the Magical Realm used her Epic-level Skill at the first opportunity as well.

The Rind of Windstorms’ SPD increase effect lasted for 30 seconds. Pulling aggro took 10 seconds, so there were still 20 seconds left for the party members to deal damage.

A lot could be done in 20 seconds!

Li Yi had gotten a decent grip on the aggro. As the Inferior Fire Elves were attacked by the party members, they still chased him relentlessly, not getting distracted in the slightest.

“So even an Archer can be a main tank, f*ck me sideways…” Even Mad Dragon, one of the Unmatched Dual Tanks, had to respect that.

Within those 20 seconds, at least half or more of those Inferior Fire Elves were wiped out. Just as the remaining Inferior Fire Elves’ aggro was beginning to scatter, Li Yi called over his Mutated Small Wild Boar that had been awaiting orders.

“Go, Mutated Small Wild Boar!

“Solid Ice!”

The ultimate suicidal skill gave them another 12 seconds of DPS!

Other than a few of the remaining Inferior Fire Elves that had the Miss notification appear above their heads, the rest were all lured by the Mutated Small Wild Boar. The main tanks went up to challenge the singled-out ones while everyone else continued to deal damage relentlessly. With the help of Miracle of Wind’s powerful supportive effects, only 20 Inferior Fire Elves were left by the time the 12 seconds of immunity was up.

The main tanks could not pull all 300 Inferior Fire Elves, but 20? That was a cinch.

They completed the segment easily and cheerfully. Not even 5 minutes had passed since the beginning of the battle.

They were through!

The party members were stunned. No one had thought that it would be this easy.

“It’s no surprise. After all, our Guild Master is a monster, so it’s only normal to not be normal.” In the end, Chen Yang was the one who understood this the best. His words just confused the party members even more.

They had killed more than 300 Inferior Fire Elves at once, leaving ash piled up all over the floor. With Li Yi’s permission, everyone ran over to loot the bodies. There was a cacophony of “ding”s as they obtained a total of 20-odd pieces of green-colored equipment.

Li Yi collected all of the equipment and continued to lead the party forward.

The party walked for about a dozen minutes, finishing off the few remaining Inferior Fire Elves before they arrived at a vast and empty battlefield. When they raised their gazes, they saw several hundred Green Name Moderate Fire Elves gathered like a mass in the exact center of the arena.

This was the second pressure-point segment of the battle to defeat Ivrit.

The way Moderate Fire Elves attacked was completely different from that of the Inferior Fire Elves. Not only did these guys self-destruct to deal damage, but they were also equipped with ranged attacks as well. A hit from their fireball dealt about 500 in damage. If this many Moderate Fire Elves attacked at the same time, they could definitely destroy the whole party in an instant.

Of course, this segment may seem difficult, but the game designers would never create a challenge that could not be overcome. As long as the players used their wits, there would always be a way to deal with these guys.

On the ground not far ahead of the players, there were many blue Freeze Bombs piled up left and right. These were the products of the Dwarfs’ most cutting-edge technology, left behind courtesy of Karone. If they wanted to defeat these Moderate Fire Elves, the only way was to use these powerful Freeze Bombs.

Anyone could throw these Freeze Bombs, and the effect was to freeze the target for 20 seconds. However, if the target was attacked, the Freeze effect would vanish immediately. This included hitting a frozen target with another Freeze Bomb. Once that happens, the target would become immune for 10 seconds.

The Super Freeze Bomb’s attack range was a whopping 30 yards, and the most ridiculous part was that this thing did not distinguish between enemy and ally. Be it friend or foe, as long as you were hit, you would be frozen into a popsicle.

The Super Freeze Bomb dealt very little damage, however. Its main function lay in immobilizing the enemy. That was why the way they arranged how the bombs were to be used directly affected the outcome of the battle.

The Super Freeze Bombs on the ground could be used limitlessly. Before the battle began, all the members of the party could give the bombs a shot.

“Thieves, come take some bombs. Everyone else, retreat and await orders. Ranged attackers, dps as usual.”

Li Yi delegated the jobs simply.

When it came to fighting these Moderate Fire Elves, aside from the Thieves, all the melee attackers found themselves tragically useless.

In this battle, unless there were people who, like Li Yi, possessed equipment that could remove Abnormal Statuses, the only ones with the right to wield those bombs were the Thieves.

The reason behind that was very simple. The Dwarfs’ masterpiece, these Freeze Bombs, were extremely volatile. Sometimes they would explode in your hands before you could even throw them. What would one do then? Li Yi could use his Dark Devour to remove the effects, and Thieves could use Death Cape to cancel them out.

The others had to stay 30 yards away from the members who were tossing the bombs. The ranged classes could still attack, but the melee classes were reduced to nothing more than a cheer squad…

“We’ll throw these bombs in order. I’m number 1, Lil Man number 2…”

Lil Man glared at him, her intent very clear: You’re the number 2 here ¹ .

“Alright, we’ll split up too. Three people in each direction, surround ’em.”

The Thieves started to split up into their positions. Li Yi and Lil Man were sorted together.

“Go!”

Li Yi shouted loudly, grabbing a Freeze Bomb. He gave it a bite, and “Whoom—” Before he could even throw it, the Freeze Bomb exploded, freezing Lil Man and himself into popsicles.

“Hold on…”

Li Yi called for a time-out.

They sure were off to a bad start. The first try already went awry.

10 seconds later, Li Yi shouted again and tossed the Freeze Bomb.

“Boom!”

The bomb exploded in the middle of the Moderate Fire Elf swarm, instantly freezing more than 30 Fire Elves. The rest threw theirs as well, freezing all of the Moderate Fire Elves that had not been frozen earlier.

With a wave of his hand, Li Yi placed a Hunt Target on one of the Moderate Fire Elves as he barked, “Ranged classes, deal your damage, but remember not to use any AoE skills. Single target attacks, single target attacks!”

The ranged classes all attacked at once, pummeling the one Moderate Fire Elf that had been targeted.

The Moderate Fire Elf fought back, and the healers immediately began healing. Only the melee attackers stood there dumbly, unable to help in any way.

After 10 seconds or so, that Moderate Fire Elf was killed. Li Yi and the other did not get greedy. When the Freeze effect wore off, they retreated in unison.

The Moderate Fire Elves’ aggro was a mess. They split into several groups, chasing the Thieves who ran away with Cyclone Step. Once the 10 seconds of immunity was up, the Thieves started tossing the Freeze Bombs in their hands once more.

This job could only be accomplished by the class that could remove Abnormal Statuses for no other reason than those stupid Freeze Bombs’ ridiculous error rate.

Since their DPS was limited, they could only kill off two at the most each time. The Thieves took turns tossing bombs, kiting the Moderate Fire Elves all over the place. Quite a few had even run out of Li Yi’s sight.

It could not be helped, they had no choice. The Moderate Fire Elves’ ranged attacks were too brutal, and Li Yi’s orders were simply to not die and not run toward the party. If they could do that, they would successfully complete their mission.

As expected of Platinum Hand’s leader, Lil Man was extremely precise with her bombs. One bomb thrown could freeze at least 30+ enemies. Working with her significantly reduced Li Yi’s pressure.

The number of Moderate Fire Elves declined slowly. There were also a few Thieves who could not coordinate well enough, and these ended up on the ground, one after the other. However, since they had led the enemy to the opposite direction of their party members, this did not affect the outcome of the battle. It merely greatly increased the pressure on the others’ shoulders.

The party was constantly moving. When they froze the Moderate Fire Elves, they could deal damage without a worry, but the dangerous part was during the 10 seconds of immunity. As things went on, especially, the immunity times of the Moderate Fire Elves were no longer unified. They had to precisely decide when to attack and when to retreat.

“Retreat! Don’t hit them now. Wait for the Freeze cooldown, let’s sync it up before we attack!

“Go! On my mark, 1, 2, throw!”

As a commander, Li Yi didn’t like giving long commands and preferred going straight to the point. Of course, the most important part was that he could always yell out his orders several seconds ahead of time, giving everyone time to prepare. This was unlike Royal Blue Sky’s impromptu commands, where the time the party had to react was too short and too rushed.

A few more Thieves fell. Just then, the melee classes who had been stuck on the sidelines began to prove their worth.

“Melee classes, go forth. Those who can use Charge, take a bomb and Charge at the enemy. Those who can’t, run into the herd of monsters!”

Once the Moderate Fire Elves’ numbers dwindled down, the time came for the melee classes to shine. As long as they could be healed in time, this battle would only get easier as it went.

“Shield Wall!”

“Reinforced Block!”

“Whirlwind Slash!”

As soon as the repressed melee classes took the stage, they used all their might. The main tanks grabbed a tight hold of the aggro, the DPS showed off all their killer moves, dealing damage much more efficiently than the ranged classes did.

This battle took a very long time, lasting a full hour and more before it finally ended. A total of 36 people had died.

Just then, Fire Ice proved her usefulness.

The Reinforced Resurrection Spell did not have a cooldown time. As long as she had enough mana, she could save as many people as she wanted.

After she resurrected the dead members, everyone took a short break before proceeding forward once more.

They settled the straggler monsterlings they encountered along the way, and the group reached the peak of Pinnacle of the Fire in no time. There, they met the final mastermind behind the Pinnacle of the Fire Instance Group Dungeons, the Fire Devil Ivrit.

Ivrit had a pair of bat wings on its back and was more than three hundred meters tall. His entire body burned with flames, and even before he spoke, the heat waves from his very breathing were enough to distort the air.

The HP above Ivrit’s head was a giant ‘?’ mark.

“It’s huge… Can we defeat it?” said Lil Man in surprise. This time, she forgot to type, so her melodic voice instantly caught the attention of every member in the party.

…