MMO: Pierce Heaven Til' It Breaks

Brother Windcloud Nine had fallen, and it was now up to Violent Bear King to defend against Frost Cell. Following Li Yi’s orders, it constantly dragged Frost Cell away.

Their strategy was flawed. In truth, they only needed one zombie to be grazed by the blue Frost Shard in order to reduce Extreme Frost’s stacks.

Right now, too many zombies had been grazed, and it had thrown the battle into disarray.

Fortunately, Violent Bear King was quite reliable. Though its HP still dipped from time to time, there were hundreds of healers backing it up. As long as Frost Cell did not go berserk, it would not have much problem enduring its attacks.

The ten or so upgraded zombies had been slain, and the main tanks ran back to their posts to continue tanking Frost Cell.

Violent Bear King’s task was complete. Though it did not die, its meager damage was negligible to Frost Cell.

The next time Extreme Frost’s stacks increased; Faded Cloud Breeze commanded one main tank to pull over a zombie so that it could be hit by the Frost Shards. With that, they had successfully solved the problem of Extreme Frost’s increasing stacks.

The hardest part about fighting Frost Cell was controlling the upgraded small zombies. However, now that the players had mastered pulling one zombie at a time, Frost Cell had been greatly weakened.

Only 4 God-level main tanks remained. They took turns drawing aggro, and even when Frost Cell went berserk, it could not break their encirclement.

Now that the main tanks were holding strong, there was pressure on the healers. This held true for the DPS as well, as a result, Frost Cell’s HP rapidly fell.

When Frost Cell’s HP dropped to 50%, its attack style suddenly changed. The frigid aura around its body grew colder, and the main tanks surrounding it began to freeze if they stood still for too long.

The main tanks were unable to go near it!

“I’ll handle it!”

Li Yi thundered. He placed on Mislead on Violent Bear King and aggressively pelted Frost Cell with arrows.

The other main tanks halted their actions, and before long, the aggro had been shifted to Violent Bear King.

Frost Cell shuffled towards Violent Bear King, and suddenly, Violent Bear King disappeared. Li Yi had forcefully dispelled it.

Due to this, the aggro that was directed at the pet was abruptly redirected to its owner. With a howl, Frost Cell charged towards Li Yi.

“Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!”

Li Yi continued to shoot as he ran. In order to ensure he maintained the highest aggro in the party, he drank a Fury Potion and activated Rapid Shooting.

Li Yi spun his head around and shouted towards the players who were standing around dazed. “Don’t be afraid of OT, just attack with all your might!”

The Archer Class did not have a taunt skill, nor did they have any other special skills that allowed them to increase their aggro. Thus, their only option was to use their superior damage to maintain it. Should anyone in the party exceed him, Frost Cell would divert its attention towards that player instead.

‘Don’t be afraid of OT? How brave of him to say so!’

The DPS were reinvigorated and had begun to contribute.

Initially, they attacked at a lax pace, fearing that they might OT. However, once they saw Li Yi leading Frost Cell around in circles, they realized that he pulled aggro even better than the main tanks. With that, the DPS finally found their courage, activated their ultimate skills and drank various potions to increase their damage.

“Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!”

Li Yi was still steadily baiting Frost Cell away, maintaining his aggro at a steady level. Furthermore, he had a masterful grasp of maintaining distance as well. For every step that Frost Cell took forward, he would backpedal two steps back. If Frost Cell suddenly increased its speed, Li Yi would do the same. In the end, he maintained an appropriate distance between them that was relatively constant throughout. This dumbfounded many of the players.

“How the f*ck is he doing it? Ghost Steps?”

If the boss’ movement speed was consistent, maintaining distance was not a big deal. However, Frost Cell at low health was not like that. Instead, it switched speeds randomly, making it very hard to master.

When Frost Cell’s HP reached 30%, its attack style changed once again. The frigid aura surrounding its body reached peak coldness, and it was randomly emitting waves of Frost Shards to its surroundings.

The Frost Shards were released from its feet, like shockwaves. Whatever they touched, whether it was a player or an object, were immediately turned into ice statues.

However, the Frost Shards only remained for a short duration. In order to dodge them, Li Yi utilized various jumping techniques. Despite having to attack while hopping around, the distance between them did not change, and he was still firmly maintaining its aggro.

Frost Cell was emitting Frost Shards at a faster rate now, and Li Yi had been backed into a corner repeatedly. However, by utilizing ‘Fly’ and ‘Tumble’ in mid-air, he was able to survive.

Melee main tanks were useless against Frost Cell. What they needed was a ranged main tank…

As time went by, Frost Cell was eventually taken down. Those who were responsible for healing Li Yi were bewildered when they realized that Li Yi had taken no damage at all.

‘Zero healing… He’s a f*cking Tank God!’

“Archers can be main tanks? ARCHERS CAN BE MAIN TANKS?” An Archer was mumbling in disbelief.

“Sure, but you definitely can’t do it.” The Archer’s friend, a Wretched Thief, patted his shoulder.

“Oh…”

The first kill announcement was made. However, since Frost Cell was not the final boss, the system only stated a single sentence with its iconic red-text. [Congratulations! The ‘Fluttering Snow Alliance’ party led by Faded Cloud Breeze has successfully achieved the first kill of Glory’s boss, ‘Frost Cell’.]

Once he saw Frost Cell’s corpse, Li Yi was filled with glee. The reason was that he had received an additional 3 Skill Points as a reward after the system’s announcement.

Someone posted the DPS ranking board, and unsurprisingly, Li Yi was ranked at first place.

Seeing the long list of Wizards below him filled Li Yi with a sense of accomplishment.

“Party Leader, it’s time to start looting. Roll! Roll!”

“ROLL!”

Someone cried out, and another ran towards Frost Cell to loot it.

This was a casual party, filled with random players, players from major guilds, and from various different camps. Unlike in Guild Parties, there was no way they were going to obey the leader’s orders.

Frost Cell’s corpse had already been looted, and every player present was presented with an Item Panel that was filled with tons of Purple Quality Equipment. There were more than a hundred of them…

The Light and Darkness Pearls were instantly placed in the players’ inventories once the corpse was looted. The equipment that dropped were simply additional rewards.

Faded Cloud Breeze ran forward while gripping his Ceramic Quarterstaff. “Everyone! Back! Back I say!”

The moment a party enters a dungeon, the Party Leader was given the right to hold the loot. All party members were allowed to loot the corpse, however, only the leader had the right to collect and distribute the items.

Though hundreds of Purple Quality Equipment sounded like a lot on paper, that amount was nothing in the face of ten thousand players.

The looters realized their mistake and had backed off. Currently, only Faded Cloud Breeze stood before Frost Cell’s corpse.

Though Frost Cell dropped more than a hundred items, it did not drop any full sets. Instead, all of its loot was mixed.

The design of the Light and Dark Instances were very unique. In order to prevent large-scale ninja looting of items, most of the equipment that dropped in its dungeons were non-tradeable.

Whoever that got their hands on the item first would claim it for themselves. Aside from them, no one else would be able to equip that piece of equipment.

“C’mon, start rolling! Get to it!”

The crowd was eyeing the hundreds of Purple Quality Equipment with desire, and they were pushing Faded Cloud Breeze to hurry up.

At that moment, Faded Cloud Breeze gave a faint smile, looked around him, and nodded. “We’ll start rolling now. Those who belong to the Fluttering Snow Alliance or Arthur’s Empire, please step forward. You’ll have the privilege of rolling first!”

Faded Cloud Breeze spoke casually, and the crowd was stunned silent.

‘Motherf*cker!’

There was more than a hundred or so Purple Quality Equipment, but if those from Arthur’s Empire or the Fluttering Snow Alliance were allowed to roll first, would the ones at the back have any chance of getting equipment?

Li Yi flinched. He whipped his head around to look at Defiantly Tyrannical and realized that the b*stard was smiling devilishly. It appeared that he had already expected this.

“Why can’t we roll together? What’s the meaning of this, are you planning on stealing the equipment?”

“F*ck this! If you want to roll, then roll together! I’ve never heard taking turns to roll before!”

Faded Cloud Breeze lifted his hand, silencing those who were causing a scene.

“The Fluttering Snow Alliance sent out 300 brave warriors to test out the boss, knowing full well that they would die. Were their sacrifices not even worth the privilege of being allowed to roll for a few items first?”

At Faded Cloud Breeze’s words, the players exchanged glances but none of them uttered a single word.

“If it’s only a few items, I’ll allow it!” said Amber Sword Heart.

“We from the Iron Alliance are also fine with it.” Li Yi spoke as well. The moment he accepted Faded Cloud Breeze’s proposal; he was already prepared for the worst.

“Legendary Tribe has no objections,” declared Legendary Tribe’s Guild Master, Prague.

“Fine, you guys can roll first.”

Though most players were still displeased, they still agreed in the end. After all, the Fluttering Snow Alliance really had sacrificed 300 men.

That was a fact. As such, it was only natural that they were compensated.

Faded Cloud Breeze had started to divide the loot. The Mixed Purple Quality Equipment did not have many special effects, but their stats were extremely high. They could be considered ‘end-game’ items for those who had hit the level cap.

They were extremely valuable and were it not for the ‘non-tradeable’ restriction, there were many would have tried to ninja loot them the first chance they got.

In a blink of an eye, Faded Cloud Breeze had already distributed half of the equipment available. It appeared that he had no intention of stopping, and he still continued to give out the loot…

“Faded Cloud Breeze, don’t you think that’s enough!” Amber Sword Heart could not watch any longer.

“Last one.” Faded Cloud Breeze gave a contemptible laugh and gave away one last Purple Quality Equipment.

Faded Cloud Breeze clapped his hands, and said, “Alright, everyone can roll together now.”

“Frost Cell’s Wise Boots! A pair of magic boots that increases INT by 300 points and has +8 SPD. All Wizards are allowed to roll together!”

“Hold on!” shouted Li Yi.

“Guild Master Dark Wing, what seems to be the problem?” Faded Cloud Breeze answered with a smile.

“You said that all Wizards are allowed to roll together. Does this mean that those who had rolled previously are allowed to roll now as well?”

Li Yi had noticed that those who had already received items earlier were rolling as well.

Faded Cloud Breeze smiled devilishly. “Of course they’re allowed to. Everyone’s equal!”

“Equal my *rse! F*cking hell!”

“They’ve already rolled many times. Do you think we’re retarded?”

The other players had just noticed and were now chastising Faded Cloud Breeze.

Standing off to the side, Defiantly Tyrannical was laughing so hard that his muscles had begun to grow stiff. Needless to say, he had suffered the same fate in the past.

Amber Sword Heart pointed at Faded Cloud Breeze and demanded, “Faded Cloud Breeze, unless your plan is to anger everyone, you’d better reconsider those terms!”

“Fine.” Seeing the agitated players around him, Faded Cloud Breeze let out an exasperated sigh and nodded his head.

The spellcaster boots were rolled on by the Wizards. However, because of the large number of players in the party, many of them had obtained identical values. As a result, they were required to roll a few times to decide who got ownership.

“Frost Cell’s Bracers of Strength. An exquisite item for melee physical DPS. Those who are melee physical DPS are allowed to roll…”

One after another the items were rolled away. After half an hour had passed, only three items remained.

The final three Purple Quality Equipment were the best out of the hundreds that dropped. Their stats were not just impressive, but each held a special effect and special skill as well!

“Frost Cell’s Robes of Inspiration. Adds 1,000 points to INT, has a special effect that increases mana regeneration by 20%, and has a special skill that temporarily increases all stats by 500 points. Ladies and Gentlemen, as the battle’s commander, without my leadership, none of you would’ve defeated Frost Cell. Additionally, I never participated in any of the earlier rolls. So, will you allow me to claim this item for myself?”

Faded Cloud Breeze spoke confidently as he held the robes up high.