MMO: Pierce Heaven Til' It Breaks

Blackbeard’s descendant had a very tragic backstory. He had nothing to do with the Cursing Sect at all, and he just lived here in seclusion. However, the poison that Zangila released had infected him as well.

Although Blackbeard’s descendant had become an undead, he could still retain a sliver of consciousness because he had the Hero’s Bloodline. He never attacked players of his own accord, but if a player attacked him, he would fight back, tooth and nail.

When Li Yi saw Blackbeard’s descendant, the latter was being surrounded by a group of spirits. The two sides were deeply embroiled in battle. Of course, considering how powerful Blackbeard’s descendant was, the spirits were naturally no match for him. With every swing and slam of his sledgehammers, he would kill one spirit.

“Zangila, you mad monster, I’m gonna kill you, I will…”

Blackbeard’s descendant finished off all the spirits but he kept howling out angrily, yearning for revenge against Zangila.

“Whoosh— Whoosh—”

Two Fire Arrows flew at him, hitting Blackbeard’s descendant directly. Li Yi had made his move.

Blackbeard’s descendant had 80,000HP. Since he was a super rare Elite, he was even more powerful than other bosses of the same level in the dungeon. As soon as Li Yi made his first move, he immediately drank an Advanced Fury Potion.

[Advanced Fury Potion: Increases Crit Rate by 30% for 20 seconds. Potion cooldown time: 2 minutes.]

When a Master-level Great Apothecarist used any potion, its effect would be boosted by 30%. The Advanced Fury Potion initially only lasted for 20 seconds, but when Li Yi used it, its effect would be lengthened by 6 seconds.

Add that to Li Yi’s own Crit Rate and it meant that every shot was guaranteed to be critical. Each arrow dealt at least 3,000+ in damage.

“Who are you? Why are you attacking me?”

Blackbeard’s descendant flew into a rage, pointing a finger at Li Yi as he barked loudly. A skull appeared above Li Yi’s head, bouncing and prancing about wildly.

[Fear: Causes player to lose control of their character and renders them unable to use any skills. Lasts for 12 seconds.]

“Dark Devour!”

A wisp of black smoke enveloped Li Yi, and the skull above his head vanished.

Blackbeard’s descendant used Charge at the Violent Bear King. The sledgehammers in his hands rose and fell, and the Violent Bear King’s HP was immediately reduced by half. Both sledgehammers crashed down at the same time, and the Violent Bear King howled in agony once before falling to the ground, lifeless.

Two hits, it took just two hits to instantly kill the Violent Bear King!

When he saw that Blackbeard’s descendant was running towards him, Li Yi retreated as quickly as he could, making sure that Blackbeard’s descendant could not approach him.

Blackbeard’s descendant had terrifyingly high ATK. Given that they were all the same level, it would require two main tanks to take turn tanking his hits in order to properly pull him. One main tank alone would never cut it; they were 100% guaranteed to get instant-killed.

Li Yi activated the Wind Shield’s Protection and even flipped the switch on his Rocket Propellant. It was only when he had created a significant distance between him and Blackbeard’s descendant that he began to attack.

Along the way, Li Yi pulled many other undead monsters. His aim was to have them temporarily stop Blackbeard’s descendant. This was also the strategy he had planned beforehand.

The undead monsters attacked everyone they saw, completely ignoring the identity of their target. While Blackbeard’s descendant was being surrounded, Li Yi would deal damage desperately from the back. This was the only way to defeat Blackbeard’s descendant. Otherwise, it would be impossible to defeat Blackbeard’s descendant alone.

Li Yi had planned his retreat route very precisely. There would be undead monsters throwing themselves into the fire all along the way. According to his calculations, he would be able to kill off Blackbeard’s descendant within a dozen minutes or so.

“Fiery Explosion! Inferno Impact! Meteor Volcano!”

Li Yi turned around to look and could not help a brief pause. Before he knew it, that crazy Lonely Semi City had shifted his training grounds, and now he was farming monsters right in the middle of Li Yi’s retreat route.

How ridiculous was that? Without undead monsters to get in Blackbeard’s descendant’s way, how could he possibly win?

“Bro, do me a favor, could you grind later? I’m doing a quest now.” In his desperation, Li Yi sent Lonely Semi City a voice message.

When Lonely Semi City saw Li Yi run toward him, he raised his staff and paused slightly. He never imagined that he would encounter another player in this map.

This split-second distraction cost him dearly. A horde of undead pounced at him, grabbing his legs and chewing away at them. In no time at all, his HP dropped to zero, and he died on the spot…

“Cough… Thanks, bro.”

By then, Li Yi had been forced to a dead end by Blackbeard’s descendant. When he saw that Lonely Semi City had died, he was instantly overjoyed. Acting quickly, he ran up to that horde of undead, pulled their aggro, and ran off.

Li Yi led the many undead and Blackbeard’s descendant away, running into the distance. Not long later, Lonely Semi City corpse-ran back, resurrected himself and stood up. His expressionless face twitched slightly and he gave chase in the direction Li Yi had run off to.

As long as he had undead monsters to help him keep Blackbeard’s descendant occupied, Li Yi was safe. He just had to control their aggro and make sure that Blackbeard’s descendant never stopped chasing him. That way, there would be no danger whatsoever.

When Blackbeard’s descendant’s HP fell below the 200,000 mark, a large fireball flew at him from behind and accurately crashed into the back of Blackbeard’s descendant’s head. Lonely Semi City had made his move.

‘Hey, is he trying to steal my kill?’

Li Yi paused for a moment and then continued to attack.

“Fiery Explosion Missile!”

Blackbeard’s descendant turned around to chase Lonely Semi City. Lonely Semi City leaped backward and used his Fiery Explosion Missile in mid-air to attack.

Fiery Explosion Missile was a homing spell. Just like Arcane Missile, it could be cast continuously as long as the spellcaster did not run out of mana and was not interrupted.

‘Chain Arrow Skill! Eliminate!’

Li Yi was not about to back down, either. He shot three arrows at once, instantly pulling Blackbeard’s descendant back to him.

“Meteor Volcano!”

Lonely Semi City grew desperate. His body levitated slightly and even his hair began to float as he sent countless fireballs crashing at the ground. Not only did he manage to successfully pull Blackbeard’s descendant’s aggro, he even killed off all of the undead monsterlings that Li Yi had pulled.

Now that all the undead monsterlings were dead, Li Yi stopped fighting. Holding his bow, he stood back and watched Lonely Semi City’s solo performance.

“Who are you? Why are you attacking me?” Blackbeard’s descendant pointed at Lonely Semi City, and the latter immediately started spinning circles everywhere. It did not matter who the player was, if they were hit by the Fear Spell, they would lose control of themselves.

“Mind Purification!”

Lonely Semi City waved his large hand and a white angel’s halo appeared above his head. The effects of the Fear Spell vanished.

He had somehow gotten his hands on the Mind Bangle. This guy was really something else.

Li Yi understood with a glance. The Mind Purification that he used was just like Li Yi’s own Dark Devour. Both were special skills from equipment that could dispel Abnormal Statuses.

“Flash!”

When he saw that Blackbeard’s descendant was catching up, Lonely Semi City used Flash to create more distance between them. He then used Fiery Explosion to push Blackbeard’s descendant several meters away.

Fire Wizards had high ATK but fewer crowd control skills. Fiery Explosion was not particularly powerful, but this move could generate a pushing force, which made it one of the few crowd control skills in his arsenal.

“Charge!”

“Fire Shield!”

Blackbeard’s descendant used Charge to abruptly close the distance between them. Lonely Semi City reacted quickly and used the life-saving skill, Fire Shield, to reduce 90% of the physical damage.

Fire Shield only lasted for 6 seconds, and his Flash skill was currently on cooldown as well, so he was in a seriously perilous situation.

“Why aren’t you fighting anymore? Come fight!” Under the current circumstances, Lonely Semi City asked Li Yi for help.

“Crippling Shot! Resounding Shot!”

As soon as the words left Lonely Semi City’s lips, Li Yi’s arrows met their target. He had long since been prepared for this. Now, all the undead monsters around him were dead, so if Lonely Semi City died now as well, it would not be easy for him either.

“I hate you living creatures!” Blackbeard’s descendant gave up on chasing Lonely Semi City and turned around to rush at Li Yi instead.

“Control that aggro and take turns dealing damage!” Li Yi yelled at Lonely Semi City.

“Inferno Impact! Meteor Volcano!”

The two of them did not form a party. Just like that, they began to coordinate with one another, one on the left and one on the right, they attacked Blackbeard’s descendant in succession.

Neither Wizards nor Archers could use Taunt, so it was extremely difficult to control the boss’ aggro. The only way to transfer the aggro would be to have one person forcefully deal damage while the other stayed completely still, without moving or attacking. They had to wait until the boss changed targets before they could proceed with their next move.

Thankfully, both of them were solo kings. When it came to keeping a rein on aggro, they were much more capable than normal players. Blackbeard’s descendant ran left one moment and right the other. After he ran back and forth several times, he finally fell to the ground with a groan…

[Ding! Ding!]

A small golden bell lit up above both Li Yi’s and Lonely Semi City’s heads. It was an icon that meant their quest was being activated.

‘So he’s here for a quest too, just like me.”

The two of them exchanged a look and the same thought occurred to both of them.

For super rare Elites like Blackbeard’s descendant, only one spawned each time. That was why the system dictated that as long as a player with the quest was close to a quest monster, it would be considered quest complete for the player no matter who killed the quest monster.

Since the two of them had not formed a party, the default looter for Blackbeard’s descendant’s corpse was Li Yi. Of course, since the game was so open, Lonely Semi City could loot it too if he wanted to. However, the price to pay was that the name above his head would turn black. If he was killed by another player just then, his current equipment would have a 100% drop rate whereas the killer would not be punished at all.

The corpse of Blackbeard’s descendant lay right at Lonely Semi City’s feet. All he had to do was bend down and he would be able to loot the corpse. However, this was clearly not his aim.

“Thank you for saving me, adventurers…”

Blackbeard’s descendant’s soul floated out. Li Yi went forward to talk to him.

The quest Lonely Semi City was doing was not the same as Li Yi’s, so naturally, their conversation with Blackbeard’s descendant would be different as well. It did not matter, however, because the two did not interfere with each other. Li Yi could only hear the dialog meant for his quest, and the same went for Lonely Semi City.

“You’re an Archer? Haha, what a coincidence, my grandfather was a great archer as well. His name was Blackbeard Mike.”

Blackbeard’s descendant began to ramble on, his tone full of admiration for his grandfather, Blackbeard Mike. Unlike the other dwarfs, Blackbeard Mike’s descendant knew the truth about his ancestor’s history.

“Haha, young Archer, you are here to ask about that Divine Bow, are you not?”

Li Yi nodded.

“I do indeed know where that Divine Bow is hidden. However…” Blackbeard’s descendant hesitated for a moment before saying, “I have an unfulfilled wish, would you help me fulfill it?”

“Pray tell!”

Blackbeard’s descendant sighed, “Kill that b*stard Zangila for me!”

Li Yi accepted the quest and the quest in the list changed.

[Quest Title: Kill Zangila. Blackbeard’s descendant died horribly for no reason all because of the mad Apothecarist, Zangila. The dwarf’s vengeance will only be quenched by killing Zangila. If you wish to hear about the location of Wrath of the Stars from the dwarf, just do as he says.]

[Quest Difficulty: Level B. Quest rewards: 100,000 EXP, 5 Skill Points.]

Now that Blackbeard’s descendant had given them their quests, his soul would temporarily disappear. Li Yi and Lonely Semi City said to each other in unison, “Want to form a party?”

“Zangila,” they both said at the same time.

Li Yi smiled at Lonely Semi City and sent him a party invitation.

…