MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

All the members of Team 1 Elite Party looked at Li Yi with their jaws dropped. It did not cross anyone’s mind that Li Yi would apologize at a time like this.

” Know thyself and thy adversary to win a hundred battles ¹ . I admit it’s my oversight this time that had caused us to lose,” Li Yi said sincerely. He was not putting on a show because there was no need to.

“Guild Master, it’s not your fault. Defiantly Tyrannical and his gang just seemed to come out of nowhere.”

Flower Underpants nodded as well. “Yeah, Amber Sword Heart’s party was leading in this instance dungeon’s progression. It’s not just us but everyone’s gaze was fixated on Amber Sword Heart, but it so happens that Defiantly Tyrannical and his men managed to clear this dungeon first. This was out of everyone’s expectations.”

Li Yi could only shake his head no matter what the others have to say.

It was indeed his blunder. Moreover, when the party was clearing the dungeon, he was the only one absent. This was a huge and intolerable taboo for any existing party.

Clearing dungeons could not be done with one or two men. It was accomplished by a team of people that were entirely different from one another. If everyone had been like Li Yi who had delayed their progression of the instance dungeon due to a private matter, who was to take the responsibility of clearing it?

There was no doubt that Li Yi was to take all the blame.

His mistake of failing to take precaution against Defiantly Tyrannical came second, but just this one mistake was enough to make Li Yi speechless.

Li Yi had transferred the Guild Master position to Jiaojiao and demoted himself to an Elite member as punishment.

Everyone grew silent, especially Pretty Good Mood. He was the most aggravated by the whole ordeal. He had not slept for days just so they could tackle Light Conference. He had to lead the party when he went online and researched about positioning, formation, skill coordination, and so on when he was offline. The energy and time he had invested in this battle exceeded any of the members of the Elite party.

Pretty Good Mood stood up and said, “Guild Master, although you’ve come all the way, I want to say that this dungeon…” Pretty Good Mood clenched his teeth. “I wish to remain the commander!”

Li Yi nodded. “You’re in command. I’ll follow whatever you want me to do.”

“Okay!” Pretty Good Mood was pleased. He began typing away, arranging a new battle strategy.

Light Conference’s first kill might have been taken, but no one was willing to admit defeat. In other words, they were not satisfied with the outcome, so the only thing they could do was to continue the battle. Only then would they be able to recover from their despondency.

As of this moment, several hundred parties had quit and gave up on Light Conference to try their hands on Dark Paladin since the second group dungeon of Dark Paladin had been unlocked.

With Light Conference’s first kill snatched, they could first familiarize themselves with the Dark Paladin Instance Dungeon and loot some higher level equipment before returning and slaying Light Conference. It would be much less difficult for them then.

There was only a handful of parties who had not resigned themselves to the outcome were determined to continue the dungeon stubbornly. Li Yi’s group was one of them. At the start of the battle, Unending Unmatched was first to rush up and pulled one of the paladin bosses down the platform.

The other three paladin bosses were quick to catch on as they followed down as well. It was then another three main tanks each took one boss upon themselves and pulled them to the respective corner of the platform.

The Four Roaches were buffed with every Light Ring effect of a paladin. The most powerful of them all was a Sin of Holy Light debuff. Should the Four Roaches stood together, this debuff would be activated and all the Light Ring skills on them would be multiplied!

If two Roaches were to stand together, the Light Ring skills would be doubled; if three were to stand together, its power would be multiplied by four; and if four stood together, then it would be multiplied by eight!

Defense Light Ring! Retribution Aura! Resistance Light Ring! Concentration Light Ring! Blessing Light Ring!

If the Four Roaches were to just simply stand together without executing any counter attacks, then the victims at the end would still be the players and not them.

Each of the Paladin Roach’s HP was at 9 million and could not be defeated one at a time. Players would have to kill them all within ten seconds because as long as one Roach was alive, another would revive. It was a never-ending cycle of resurrection.

The four main tanks of Team 1 Elite Party skillfully lured each Roach to a corner, minimizing the forces of the Four Roaches. It was time to use DPS now.

Li Yi was armed to the teeth. He had drunk a bottle of Fury Potion and was now activating Rapid Shooting with every kind of Arrow Skill within his reach. His attack was like the flow of a river, ceaseless and unending.

Jiaojiao lugged her greatsword on her back and ran. Her target was another paladin. As one of the very few Level 100 players in the team, she had long since become the principal force of the party.

Jiaojiao sent a private message to Li Yi: “Lil Yi’zi, dare to challenge our DPS?”

“Can you catch up?”

“We’ll see if I can, but I’m asking you if you dare to take the challenge?”

“Of course, but it can’t be a competition without a bet.”

“Fine. If I lose, you can fix whatever rules but if you lose, I’ll be the one setting rules!”

“Sure!”

Jiaojiao swung her greatsword on her target. Damage points appeared above the Roach again and again.

[-22112]

[-21455]

Jiaojiao was superior to Li Yi when it came to inflicting damage, but she was not Li Yi’s match when speed was in question. Li Yi was already at his third move when she had just accomplished one.

“Everyone, stop! All main tanks switch positions!”

When the Four Roaches’ HP dropped to 90%, Pretty Good Mood sounded the warning alarms.

“3, 2, 1, switch!”

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

The four main tanks of the party initiated Charge to inter-switch their pulled monster.

When dealing with the Four Roaches, the main tanks would be overlaid with Holy Light Rupture debuff where a layer would be added every five seconds and their defense would drop by 1% each time. Once this debuff had been added until the 80th layer, it would explode and instantly kill the main tank and all players within the 30-yard radius if the target was not switched.

The main tank switch had to be fast as the Four Roaches could shift their aggro rapidly. A slow response might cause a TPK.

The best approach to this was to have the four main tanks change their target with Charge, promptly switching places.

“Main tanks, hold on. DPS, change direction. Healers to follow through!”

Pretty Good Mood had just shouted his commands when the Four Roaches raised their swords at the same time and began unleashing Holy Light Impact with their bodies shimmering in Holy Light.

Based on their current position, Holy Light Impact released by the Four Roaches would affect the entire site. There was no way to run or hide, so they could do was to endure it.

They could not face them head on, or else they would enter a minute long state called ‘Blind.’ Even if they were to turn their heads away, Holy Light Impact would still inflict damage on them. Now was the time to put the healers’ abilities to the test.

Wu Old Wolf, Nirvana Inaction, Fire Ice, Little Elf from the Magical Realm. These four major healbots of Iron Alliance made the first move, and the damage by Holy Light Impact was no longer a threat to the party.

Healers, pass!

This party of 200 only had 20 healers, having 10 lesser healers than a regular party should have. Credit has to be given to the four major healbots as the accumulated power of these four healers had already exceeded the other 20 healers in the party.

Those DPS were not bad at all either. Li Yi’s performance was especially attractive. The Four Roaches’ Holy Light Impact continued to torment them, but he had managed to find a gap between the impact to launch his chains of attack.

Orange Quality Bow’s extended shooting range helped a lot. It had allowed Li Yi to fire at the Four Roaches without having to move from where he was. He could reduce the roaches’ HP at a consistent pace.

Jiaojiao became anxious as she watched Li Yi firing while Holy Light Impact was still in session. She took out a scroll and crushed it, slamming her sword while braving Holy Light Impact.

The scroll soon came into effect, and Holy Light Impact ceased to pose a threat to her any longer.

Li Yi had to turn his head away every few times but Jiaojiao could go on slicing because of the scroll.

“Golden Defense Scroll. What a wasteful b*tch to use it here. I outta pinch your boobies…”

Li Yi’s face was twitching looking at Jiaojiao’s current state.

[Golden Defense Scroll: Increase 200000 points on double defense upon usage. Immune to any negative state for an hour.]

The present Jiaojiao had transformed into an invincible paladin, slicing away at the Four Roaches tirelessly…

Jiaojiao said, “Humph, what do you know? This thing has a time limit. It’ll be gone after an hour. It’ll be a waste not to use it.”

“Those with DPS go full on. Main tanks, please be prepared. Time to switch target!” Pretty Good Mood yelled.

Szh!

The four main tanks changed their targets uniformly, eliminating the Holy Light Rupture effect on them.

The Four Roaches’ Holy Light Impact had ended, and their aggro was once again attracted by the main tanks, effectively lifting the pressure off the party. The healers did a couple of group heal once in a while to heighten the overall bloodline of the party.

The Four Roaches’ Retribution Aura was maintained throughout the entire battle, so the healers must step up their game as well.

The Four Roaches’ HP was steadily decreasing. It went from 100% to 65%. Another switch of main tanks would have put it at 50%.

50%! The party was wiped out several times at this segment…

“Caution! Everyone, caution!”

Pretty Good Mood’s tone went up several octaves. He would be lying if he said he was not nervous about this. They had been stuck at this segment for far too many times.

After another change of main tanks, and the stage where they normally would TPK was looming over them.

The Four Roaches raised their swords and ran up to the platform. They stood together and unleashed a super powerful Holy Light Impact…

Holy Light Impact’s range of attack covered more than half the site. The force was 8 times the previous one!

Holy Light Impact continued its assault, and the Four Roaches raised their swords then to release the attack on designated areas.

The 200-men party was currently concentrated in a corner.

“Tremble in fear, for Holy Light will cleanse you of your sins!”

The Four Roaches shouted as their swords glimmered in sparkling Holy Light. A pale ring of light appeared beneath the feet of all party members.

“Run twenty steps to the right!” ordered Pretty Good Mood.

All 200 of them evaded to the right. 199 of them managed to run over in time. Pretty Good Mood was too nervous, so he was a step too slow. Holy Light Impact was launched, and Pretty Good Mood fell to the ground instantly…

“Continue with twenty steps to the left. Take twenty steps to the right 3 seconds later,” Pretty Good Mood yelled while lying on the ground.

With a dull ring of light appearing under their feet, the remaining 199 members followed through with Pretty Good Mood’s instructions to the appointed location. They counted to 3 in silence before running back.

Holy Light Impact was whamming down non-stop and at an accelerated tempo. The party members emotions were strung up. They adhered to Pretty Good Mood’s commands, running back and forth in a group.

Seventeen members died in the blink of an eye!

Szh! Szh! Szh!

When all the party members were focused solely on running to the instructed position and had no time to attack, Li Yi drew his Orange Quality Bow back and persisted in his attacks.

Truth be told, he had not stopped his attacks since the beginning of the battle.

Jiaojiao lugged her greatsword and gritted her teeth in anger. She was of melee class, so this battle of moving around back and forth was taking a toll on her…

Apart from Pretty Good Mood, no one in the party spoke a word. This segment was fairly difficult. Not one mistake could be tolerated.

“Twenty steps to the left, twenty steps to the right, another twenty steps to the left, and twenty steps to the left again…”

Pretty Good Mood was yelling at the top of his lungs lying on the ground. There was no error to his instructions whatsoever!

More and more people fell. As the tempo was at its fastest, no one except for Li Yi dared to persist on their attacks…

They could barely keep up with their two feet.

This segment went on for another 8 minutes before the Four Roaches stopped the attack, resuming to their normal state.

The death count of the party was 47!

They had passed the hardest 50% segment!