MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

“Heroes, do not panic! Get down, get down!”

Karone Foresight the Dwarf burst into the scene, driving a Fiery Chariot. Unleashing an enormous Energy Barrier, he deflected every single one of the several thousand air bombs.

“Heroes, my Energy Barrier can only last for half an hour. You gotta come up with something. Oh yeah, on my way here I had seen many unmanned aircraft at the left mountain corner. Perhaps you could use the aircraft to defeat them.”

The several thousands of Metal Skin Birds kept tossing down bombs, but since the players were under the protection of Karone’s Energy Barrier, they were still safe for now.

Li Yi used 200 magic crystal rocks to save the Instance Dungeon Record.

The Fire Devil Dungeon’s reset time was extremely short, refreshing once a day. However, because the three bosses in the dungeon were just too powerful, it was simply impossible to take down all three bosses at once. It was already difficult enough just to take down one after an entire day.

If they wanted to save their Instance Dungeon progress, the process was very simple. The party leader just had to spend 200 magic crystal rocks and they would be able to save a day’s worth of records. The Instance Dungeon Records lasted 10 days at the most.

They had somehow managed to get past Fire Demon Lina, and Little Elf from the Magical Realm had truly shone as the hero of the party. Without her, there was no way they could have won that battle.

Although this was not the first kill, Fire Demon Lina was still an epic-level boss, so every member of the party attained another Hall of Fame Event.

Karone might have said that the Energy Barrier would only last for half an hour, but in truth, as long as the party members did not go to the mountain corner to ride the aircraft there, the Energy Barrier would be able to last forever. Of course, if they kept waiting like that, they would not be able to progress any further in the dungeon either.

Seven main tanks had died earlier, so the Priests started reviving them with Resurrection Spells.

Regular Resurrection Spells had a cooldown time, but the Reinforced Resurrection Spells had no such limits. As long as you had sufficient MP, you could save one after the other. Of course, if you wanted to resurrect someone, you would first have to break away from the battle.

“Miss Ice, you should be the one to loot the boss this time as well.”

Ever since they witnessed how lucky Fire Ice’s hand could be, she had more or less become the designated looter whenever they defeated a boss in these Instance Dungeons.

Fire Ice nodded and went up to loot it. The Virtual Inventory Pane appeared before everyone’s eyes. There were two pieces of gold-colored equipment listed there.

“…That’s it?” Mad Dragon gulped.

“Seems like it…” Infinite Insanity was also slightly dumbfounded.

There was not even a single miscellaneous item. The two pieces of gold-colored equipment were literally the only things there. One was a hat for Curse Priests, and the other was a long robe for Curse Priests…

“Trash…” whispered someone in the party. Fire Ice instantly blushed, running back into the ranks.

Li Yi smiled at Fire Ice encouragingly. “It’s okay, you’ll get used to it after a while.”

He was considering Fire Ice from his own perspective, and that just made Fire Ice even redder. That awkwardness went beyond words.

After all, that was an epic-level boss. Without the most abysmal luck, even obtaining a piece of purple-colored equipment or two would be a cinch.

Just like that, a God Hand became a Trash Hand. When it came to luck, who could ever say for sure?

Everyone in the party was disappointed. Only Li Yi was pleased.

Although Fire Ice was very unlucky this time, she had been extremely lucky for him.

He had obtained 10 of those Treasure Map Fragments he had been collecting, all at once. Was it any wonder that he was ecstatic?

In the blink of an eye, he had gone from having 7 Treasure Map Fragments to 17. Now he just needed 4 more, and he could continue with the Epic-level Class Quest!

As Curse Priests only became important at the higher levels, there was not a single Curse Priest among the 100 members of the party.

Sure, they could give the items to One Big Bun, but there was a chance that guy would just decompose them immediately…

“Now what?” the mysterious woman in black asked Li Yi.

“We continue on!”

Royal Blue Sky waved his hand, saying with difficulty, “I can’t anymore, I can’t yell with this voice any longer.”

Pretty Good Mood shook his head as well. He never fought a battle that he was not confident in, and he did not know a thing about the way to defeat the second boss, so naturally he could not lead the party.

“I’ll take command!” Li Yi thumped his chest.

Fire Demon Lina required the cooperation of the entire party, but defeating the second boss required no such thing, so Li Yi’s confidence was off the charts.

“Everyone’s seen the information on Fire Devil Dungeon on the official site. The second boss is the Dwarfs’ Ultimate Combat Weapon. Defeating this boss isn’t like beating normal bosses, because we’ll all need to use flying aircraft to launch an aerial battle.”

They had plenty of time, anyway, so Li Yi began to explain the strategy against the second boss patiently.

“There are three types of aircraft, namely the Red Attack Flying Bird, the Yellow Defense Flying Bird, and the Green Support Flying Bird, corresponding to DPS, main tanks, and healers respectively. Also, when we’re flying the aircraft, our normal skills are off the table. We’ll only be able to use the skills that come with the aircraft, and the power of those skills depends on the pilot. In other words, the better your equipment, the higher your multiplier.

“Although there are three types of aircraft, when it comes to the actual battle, only individual prowess is put to the test. Avoid getting hit by the enemy aircraft, open fire as much as you can at the enemy aircraft, and most importantly, try to get a combo. If you have a higher combo, the power of your aircraft will increase as well.”

Li Yi explained carefully, giving a lot more details than the vague description that the official site provided. He could not afford to hesitate right now. Fire Demon Lina’s first kill had already been taken, so if he kept trying to act all mysterious and secretive, there was a chance they might even miss out on Ivrit’s first kill.

The first two bosses were not that important, but they had to take Ivrit. There was no room for error, or their losses would just be too much bear.

More than three hundred bird-type aircraft lay at the foot of the mountain, arranged neatly. When everyone climbed aboard and took flight, they floated as though drunk, inviting peals of laughter.

They would not enter the battle as long as they did not fly into the distance, so there was plenty of time for them to train. This went on back and forth for some time, until everyone, including Li Yi, had tried flying the aircraft a few times and gotten used to handling it. Only then did Li Yi finally announce that the battle had officially begun!

The Yellow Defense Flying Bird had more health and higher DEF. 10 main tanks flew those to the frontlines. They did not need to attack, all they had to do was attract enemy fire.

Li Yi also rode a Red Attack Flying Bird, rising into the air. The aircraft created by the Dwarfs was tattered and broken, with a gust of black smoke billowing from the back. It rumbled chaotically as it went, as though it would fall apart at any moment. Riding it in felt extremely unsafe.

The Red Attack Flying Bird had three skills, the first being normal shooting where they had an infinite number of Fire Projectiles to attack the enemy with. However, the offensive power of this move was slightly lacking. The second skill was something like the fire cannons from the Heart of the Fire Dungeon. It was very powerful, but it had a longer cooldown time, requiring 20 seconds to recharge. The third skill was ‘Evade’, a skill shared by all the bird-type aircraft. Upon activation, it allowed the aircraft to enter 5 seconds of invincibility with a 5-minute cooldown time.

There were at least several thousand Metal Skin Birds flown by Fire Dwarfs swarming the sky. The players’ current quest was to shoot them all down until they could lure out the Ultimate Combat Weapon invented by the Dwarfs.

Li Yi had beaten the Fire Dwarf Dungeon no less than a hundred times in the past life, so it was only natural that he was extremely familiar with the aircraft controls. Although he had not touched them in a while, he just needed some time to adapt and soon he had rediscovered his groove.

Amidst a violent spray of Fire Projectiles, Li Yi instantly shot down five Metal Skin Birds. Just then, the combo figure began to appear above his head, stating that he had a combo of 5.

It was much harder to string a combo here than it was in the cannon-shooting from the Heart of the Fire Dungeon. The Fire Projectiles were weak, so if he only relied on these to attack the enemy, there was no way he could attain a combo. He had to use the second skill as well in the correct places, taking turns with both skills, in order to obtain a decent combo figure.

As the combo figure increased, so did the power of the Fire Projectiles and the fire cannon. That was why he had to get as high a combo as he could attain because it greatly helped in cutting down the enemy numbers.

Thus began a unique aerial battle. Aside from Li Yi, no one else had come across this newfangled game mechanic before, so it was no wonder that they were much less familiar with it.

Forget combos, most of them could barely even hit the target, and it was impressive whenever they did. Of course, there were also many players who were great at adapting, and these players displayed a decent level of skill as soon as the battle began.

The mysterious woman in black was one such player.

In the previous boss battle, her performance was extremely average. She had not been outstanding, but she had not been the worst either. It was just that Li Yi felt as though her skills did not match her title of the leader of Platinum Hand.

As soon as the aerial battle began, however, Li Yi’s perception of her changed. This was because she was somehow defeating the enemy even faster than he was. Even when faced with five Metal Skin Birds at the same time, she could deal with them easily.

Of course, defeating them quickly did not mean that she could accumulate combos. Without a proper grasp of the rhythm, she would not be able to create a combo no matter how quickly she fought.

Everyone could call up a Virtual Panel where every member’s achievements were displayed in detail. As of right now, Li Yi was in first place, the mysterious woman in black was second, and the third was the famous black horse, Wu Old Wolf.

Although the Green Flying Birds had the five seconds of invincibility as well, they did not have Fire Projectiles or fire cannons, their only two skills being Drain and the ability to heal allied Flying Birds. However, Wu Old Wolf used the pitiful amount of damage that Drain could deal and exploited a loophole. Whenever he saw an enemy that had low HP, he would immediately go and Drain it, resulting in his party mates laughing as they called him despicable.

Li Yi evaded the enemy attacks as he retreated, luring 5 Metal Skin Birds together before he abruptly shot his cannon.

“Boom!”

With that one cannon shot, he instantly destroyed 5 Metal Skin Birds at once. The combo figure above Li Yi’s head rose 5 times in quick succession.

He had a combo of 58 now, increasing his aircraft’s ATK by about 15%. As long as he continued on like this, it would make things much easier for him when they enter the boss battle.

“Boom! Boom! Boom!”

The aerial battle waged on, and more than 300 Metal Skin Birds were destroyed, whereas more than half of the party members had crashed and died…

Li Yi sent the mysterious woman in black a message, “You’re pretty good atshooting your planes ¹ , huh.”

After a while, the mysterious woman in black replied, “I see that you’re an old hand at this as well. Trained before?”

Li Yi chuckled. “In what sense?”

“…”

The mysterious woman in black stopped replying.

“Wooooo—”

Several hundred more Metal Skin Birds appeared, and five extra-large Metal Skin Birds appeared with them. From the way they looked, they were clearly the ones that the Superior Fire Elf who had controlled the Dwarf King’s corpse, Shakra, had used!

The flying-bird warplane boss had appeared!