Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
After equipping the Snow Ring, the team got an additional status—Ice Queen’s Dignity! The Ice Half-Centaurs would not attack them now. If anyone left the protection area of the Snow Ring, this effect would wear off.
With this status, the team finally did not need to worry about the Ice Half-Centaurs along their journey.
Lin Jie guessed that this status’ main motive was to provide players with the ability to explore the side-maps. Although that was the case, he had no intention to explore the side-maps now. The map did indeed have many side tracks that contained items, which could help players in their following conquests, but this did not mean that every team had to pursue after such items. When players were strong enough, they could just get by with their own skills!
“Zeh, zeh… This troop of Half-Centaurs is now so obedient like they are my grandsons. Heh…” Zheng Ziliang walked arrogantly amongst the Half-Centaurs and laughed. “With the Snow Ring, does it mean that we can battle the Boss directly already? Won’t it be especially thrilling to earn EXP and equipment in this manner?”
“How can it be that easy? Before the Ice Queen dies, the Snow Ring will not be effective. If not, everyone would have spent all their energy on getting this item.” Lin Jie rolled his eyes.
The team walked smoothly among the Ice Half-Centaurs, and ignored all other side tracks. Very soon, they reached a crystal door.
This door looked like an ancient Chinese establishment’s door, and on both sides of the door were symbols of sturdy horses.
As the team did not explore any side maps, they didn’t have the key to open the door. Lin Jie gave a single order, “Smash it!”
No matter what, a door was just, simply a door. Even a crystal door wasn’t able to withstand all sorts of flames, burning, and bombs. Soon enough, the crystal door was shattered to pieces by all the blasts.
Behind the door, the team was greeted with a scenery entirely different from what they had seen on the Ice Castle map. It was just a piece of barren land, and a horn-like totem stood in the middle of this wide plains. Ice crystals revolved around the totem, like a tornado, and one could hear thunder from the skies occasionally.
[Ice Abyss Totem] (Dark Gold Overlord)
Level: 65
Health Points: 2,800,000
Magic Attack: ???
Defense: ???
Special Feature: ???
“Well, my identifying skill’s grade is too low. Seems like I’ll need another Scout-type skill soon,” muttered Lin Jie softly to himself. He could still roughly remember that the Ice Abyss Totem had around 2,200-2,700 Attack. As for the other stats, he couldn’t recall much of them already.
Weng—
The Abyss Totem vibrated slightly and started speaking in an alluring tone. “Adventurers from afar… Bow to me, and sacrifice your souls to me… I will give you great powers in exchange…”
“Breathless, go.” Lin Jie made a series of movements, and various Command Markings jumped out. Most of the time, Command Markings were not as useful as verbal instruction, but during perfervid battles, Command Markings could instruct people where to go. When used together with verbal instructions, the team’s efficiency would increase.
Mixed Breathless activated Lion Strength and Defense Stance, and charged towards the Abyss Totem. The totem’s horn shimmered continuously, which made Mixed Breathless feel threatened. Immediately after, the ice crystals surrounding the Abyss Totem transformed into eagles and flew straight at him.
“Angry Lion’s Roar!” With a loud roar from Mixed Breathless, he stunned all the eagles in mid-air. The next moment, he raised his shield and slammed it against the eagles. At the same time, he reached the Abyss Totem’s front and attracted the Boss’ aggro with a series of Aggro Combo Attack.
Other than being able to use an Advanced Ice Mage’s skills, the Abyss Totem also had a passive skill [Ice Health], which allowed it to summon servant Ice creatures every 30 seconds to fight for it. This skill would evolve when the Boss’ health bar fell to around 50%, and it would then be able to summon permanent, powerful creatures to fight for it.
Ssss—ssss—
After a flash of light, the Abyss Totem activated the Level 70 Ice Mage’s skill [Iced Tornado] and swirled up Mixed Breathless. A 3,000 Damage Dealt jumped up above his head—this was just a single skill! What’s more, Mixed Breathless already had the Ice Resistance buffs from the Snow Ring. If not for this ring, this skill would have caused at least 6,000 or more damage points, killing him instantly!
“Attack together!” shouted Lin Jie.
The method to take down the Boss at this stage was very simple—just attack. Other than that, if there was only one person within 20 meters around the Boss, it would not use any AOE skills. As for the single-unit attacks, Mixed Breathless would be able to handle it—after all, 60 Ice Resistance Points were not to be trifled with!
Sea King Scaly Armor!
Heart of Enrage!
Blood Power!
Death Rage!
…
Lin Jie gave off increasingly violent vibes. Meanwhile, Broken Blade was covered with flames and adorned with lightning—he activated all sorts of skills! These actions sent a message to the rest of the team—just use whatever damage output skills they had!
“Fire Dragon!” chanted Fat Cattle at the top of his voice. A small Fire Dragon burst out at his calling, and one breath from it engulfed near 10,000 health points from the Abyss Totem!
“Element Whirlpool!” Baili Changcheng smashed all the Power of the Elements he had into a whirlpool, and blasted them upon the Abyss Totem! Element Whirlpool was the Elemental Sword Artists’ greatest damage output skill, which would temporarily destroy all the skills the Elemental Sword Artist owned and hence deal a great blow to the target!
“Fighting Explosion!”
“Thunderbolt Arrow!”
…
Everyone blasted whatever damage output skills they had at the Boss. One of the most impressive players among the team would be Charming Smile. With a loud “Aeeeya, aeeya!” shout from her, all of them felt blood rush to their heads, and their bodies swelled up. This was a Shaman’s specialty skill [Bloodthirst Spell].
[Bloodthirst Spell]: Increase your teammates’ Attack Speed and Chanting Speed by 35%. Its effects would continue for 30 seconds. Cooldown: 10 minutes.
No other buffs could be more powerful than the Shaman’s Bloodthirst Spell. Shamans might not be well-known for their powers, but there would always be a place for Shamans within a team—because of that skill! As long as the Bloodthirst Spell was used, it meant the whole team needed to deal out high-damage-output. For a very long time, a Shaman’s main job would be to use the Bloodthirst Spell when the Boss was in its Enraged Mode, and hence they got the nickname Bloodthirst Blast.
Eventually, everyone just remembered that there was a job known for Bloodthirst Blast.
With the Bloodthirst Spell, the team’s attack efficiency increased exponentially. The Abyss Totem’s health bar fell rapidly, and 50% of its health bar was depleted with the team’s blasting.
Weng—
“Who dares to profane the Abyss Totem!”
Along with a low chant, an illusionary Demon of Destruction appeared in front of the team, cackling sneeringly.
“So, it’s this bunch of ignorant adventurers who dares to profane the Abyss Totem. You shall die in punishment, and you will sacrifice your souls to the Abyss Totem!”
Cold winds were brought up, and the Demon of Destruction became more solid. This was just its Ice Clone—in the later stage of this map, the Abyss Totem would transform into the Demon of Destruction Ice Clone and fight in this form! If the team managed to take down this clone, it would mean that they had successfully destroyed one of the Demon of Destruction’s clones, reducing the Boss’ stats by 10% overall.
This Ice Clone had the same stats as the Abyss Totem.
“Old Shield, Breathless, tank it. The rest of you listen to my commands!” A flash of light fleeted past Lin Jie’s eyes, and he moved his fingers ever that slightly. In that instant, many Markings Trails appeared on the ground.
After his trip from the Tribe, Lin Jie had learned many instructing ideas and techniques from Dark Emperor. He had improvised and merged them into his own instruction style.
The Heavenly Shield and Mixed Breathless immediately lured the aggro of the Demon of Destruction Clone. Both noticed that shimmering Marking Trails appeared beneath their feet, but they brushed those markings aside. Each one took turns to get the best positioning and advanced forward with their shields step-by-step, one before the other, forcing the clone back.
“Destruction Dark Sword!”
The Boss’ right arm muscles transformed into a longsword and slashed down upon them.
At that moment, the Marking Trails on the ground moved, and an arrowhead appeared. Both of them were shocked, but when they followed the arrowhead and moved accordingly, the longsword narrowly slit past their ears. That cold feeling made their hearts thud—but before they could even let out a shiver, an Ice Spur stuck out at the spot where they were originally standing on.
“What’s that?” Cold sweat formed on The Heavenly Shield’s forehead.
“This must be the additional effect of the Boss’ basic attack, somewhat like the Blade Auras formed by Leader Lone Wolf, but it seemed more unpredictable,” answered Mixed Breathless.
“If we follow the markings below our feet, we should be able to predict where those Ice Spurs strike. Leader must have been watching out for us and trying to warn us about them.”
At that moment, the Boss’ attack descended upon them. The Command Markings on the ground appeared again. Both of them followed the arrowheads swiftly, and they successfully escaped the Boss’ attacks.
The Heavenly Shield couldn’t help but admire secretly. ‘What great prediction ability!’ He turned back briefly, but ended up being utterly shocked by what he saw—he thought that Lin Jie must have been observing the Boss intently, and hence he was able to make such accurate judgments.
However, the combat behind them was even more intense!
While Mixed Breathless and The Heavenly Shield were fighting against the Boss, they were being watched over by the healing jobs like Bu Yi, Jiangnan, and Lingyun Xiaoxiao. Furthermore, they still had Lin Jie’s instructions to guide them along—and although they were under quite some pressure, they were not in any mortal perils.
Yet on the other battlefield, things were getting intense! The Ice Abyss Totem’s passive skill, Ice Health, was summoning out Ice Ghost Warriors and attacked the rest of the team!
The Ice Ghost Warriors had appearances alike that of Japanese samurais and were advanced troops summoned by the Abyss Totem.
[Ice Ghost Warrior]:
Level 65
Health Points: 100,000
These monsters had high Attack, but zero Defense. Their Movement Speed and Attack Speed were even faster than Bandits. The most disgusting thing was that these monsters had a Self-Destruct ability—once their health bars became emptied, they would explode themselves, and all the targets within the attack range would suffer the same damage. However, when one of them exploded, it would affect the other Ice Ghost Warriors; hence, that would mean the explosion of the whole load of them!
Even with Childe’s excellent kite-flying abilities, these high-speed fellows would prove to be much of a challenge. Moreover, they were Ice-type monsters themselves and had a very high defense against Speed Decrease-type of skills, which made kite-flying them even more difficult.
Each of the Ice Ghost Warriors could cause 500 or more damage points on even Lin Jie if their longswords hit the target, needless to say, the other players. Yet now there were over 30 Ice Ghost Warriors surrounding them!
This was exactly the reason why The Heavenly Shield was so shocked!
“Fallen Flowers!” Qiu Yuan hit out and blasted the monsters back by one small step.
Immediately, Netherblue followed up with a Ground-Splitting Slash and hit the faltering Ice Ghost Warriors. Ziliang’s Mechanical Gargoyle took this opportunity and crushed down upon the Ice Ghost Warriors, and flew off when the monsters showed signs of retaliation.
At that moment, Lin Jie activated the Mountain-Crushing Flame Slash and hurled the fragile Ice Ghost Warriors out, while Dejected Night opportunely cast an Ice Wall below the monsters, then removing it away. Immediately after, there was another strike of Fallen Flowers. This group of monsters was being thrown up in the air with no power to retaliate at all!
Lin Jie did not deal out many blows during this battle. Ultimately, he was an ordinary guy just like anyone else—he was reaching his maximum capacity by instructing the team while simultaneously trying to deal out his crowd control skills.
At that moment, the situation took a 180-degrees turn!
One of the Ghost Warrior’s sword stabbed accidentally into another Ghost Warrior’s heart. This batch of monsters did not have much health points, to begin with, and this stab just landed it in peril! Its body swelled up, and a domineering sense of destruction spread out.
