MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

The Soul King’s Arm could alternate between long and short, and thick and thin. Whenever it stretched its arm, it could hit any target within a 50-yard radius. Furthermore, that distance was coincidentally the range where the players could land effective attacks. When players exceeded that range, their attacks would be nullified.

With their three main tanks turned into turncoats and under the Soul King’s constant arm swinging, a minute later, Li Yi’s party was completely annihilated, with some dead, and some made into traitors.

So long as they made contact with the Soul King’s Arms, they would without a shadow of a doubt, succumb to his influence. Furthermore, this status was non-reversible, and the moment they became traitors, they would never return. All they could do was to wait until the battle was over to regain their bodies.

“Is this really Normal Mode?”

After being wiped, the entire party resurrected, and they started to complain.

The battle was truly insane. Even a moment’s contact would cause them to be enslaved, and at the shocking speed that the Arms were flung around, how on earth would they stand a chance?

The party gathered together, and after half an hour of discussion, they still could not think of a way to evade the Arms.

“The main tanks are definitely going to stay behind. Maybe, we don’t need main tanks in this battle.”

“I’m fine with not having main tanks, but how do we evade the Arms?”

“This is tough, very tough…”

In the end, everyone went silent, including Li Yi.

Li Yi’s memories were mostly comprised of single-player dungeon experiences. As for cooperative dungeons such as this one, he really could not recall much.

Li Yi spoke. “Bailu, could you try using Phantom Footprints on it?”

“No problem.”

The Dwarf General entered the battlefield, and she summoned ten skeletal swordsmen to charge at the Soul King.

“Thud! Thud! Thud!”

The Soul King flailed its Arms once more, and even though the skeletons were mindless summons, they were still enslaved. They were now its minions.

Since all the skeletal swordsmen had become red-named, the Soul King’s next target was naturally Shangguan Bailu.

Shangguan Bailu raised her quarterstaff up high and summoned a white layer of light around her. “Phantom Footprints!”

[MISS!]

[MISS!]

The moment the Soul King’s Arms landed onto Shangguan Bailu’s body, two ‘MISS’ texts floated out.

Shangguan Bailu was not controlled, which meant that Invincible statuses were effective against the Soul King.

While Phantom Footprints was still active, Shangguan Bailu utilized her pair of tiny legs to hightail out of the 50-yard range.

System Notification: [You have successfully left the battle…]

Every party member had received the same message.

As long as they were 50 yards away from the Soul King, they would be able to leave the battle.

Li Yi instructed, “Since Invincible skills are effective, I want all Wizards to stand at the sidelines when the battle begins. When you see the Soul King’s Arm coming over, activate Freezer to intercept it. I want you guys to go one after another, and once that’s done, it will be the Summoners’ turn to go up. Like the Wizards, activate Phantom Footprints to block the hits. That’ll be the sequence of our strategy, does everyone understand?”

“Aye aye!”

“Alrighty then, let’s give it another shot. Charge!”

The main tanks did not advance. Instead, the Wizards were the ones who occupied the frontlines. While they attacked, they constantly kept an eye out for its attacks.

“Swoop!”

The Soul King’s Arm had morphed into a white ray of light as it flew over. Ouyang Qian’s reaction was the speediest. After taking a few steps forward, she activated ‘Freezer’ and intercepted the Arm.

[MISS!]

“Those at the back! Quit staring and attack! Hurry up!”

Li Yi thundered, and the party went back to attacking.

Since the Soul King’s body was sealed inside a crystal ball, the only body part left that could attack was its Arm.

[−3566]

[−1346]

The Soul King’s Arm constantly lost HP, but even then, there seemed to be no change in its HP percentage.

Ouyang Qian’s turn was over. She hurriedly dodged aside, and another Wizard took her place. The Wizard now stood at the party’s frontline.

All 25 members were all neatly queued up, with the Wizards at the front, the dagger-throwing and Javelin-throwing Warriors and Thieves at the middle, and the healers at the back.

The Soul King’s Arm was indeed a terrifying foe, but it had a flaw, which was its inability to attack from the sides. It constantly attacked from the front, and it was for this reason that Li Yi had chosen to line up his team in a straight line.

The Wizards constantly tanked the blows, and every time the Soul King swung its arm, there was always a Wizard ready to intercept with ‘Freezer’. For the initial phase of the battle, the Arm attack was the only move available to it, and thus, it seemed plain.

It was only when the Soul King’s HP was reduced to 90% that its attack style finally changed.

The Soul King retracted its Arm and rolled it into a ball as it entered Invincibility Mode.

Regardless of how the party attacked, the Arm no longer took damage. It was at that point that a Spirit Monsterling appeared at the left; an Obsidian Monsterling appeared at the right, and a Rayman popped out from behind. Each of the monsterlings rushed at the party.

“Main tanks! Hold them at bay!”

Unending Unmatched and the other two main tanks each headed to different directions, and they held down each of the monsterlings.

The party unloaded their attacks onto the three monsterlings, and while they attacked, they came to realize that the three monsterlings had their lives tied to one another. When they killed only one of them, it instantly reverted to full health with its ATK stats raised to the roof. However, killing them was easy, as they only needed to kill them together within 10 seconds.

This phase was not particularly hard, as the task of killing three monsterlings simultaneously was no trouble for the experienced group of players.

The party adapted to the situation, and they quickly balanced out the monsterlings’ HP, enabling them to take down all three monsterlings within 10 seconds.

The Soul King’s Arm was still curled into a ball, and yet another three monsterlings had made an appearance. Unlike the previous wave, however, the three monsterlings had a crimson hue to them. Additionally, they were already in a berserk state the moment they appeared.

Being in a berserk state, their attacks had increased by a hundredfold. Even a slight brush against them would cause the main tanks to lose a huge portion of their health.

The Soul King’s Arm was slowly unraveling. Li Yi ordered the party to engage their foes, whereas he himself kited the three berserk monsterlings all around the map while firing arrows at them.

The berserk monsterlings were extremely fearsome, and the main tanks could not withstand their blows. In that case, the best class to handle them was none other than the Archers, as they could kite them around.

The boss had entered its second phase, and now, the Soul King’s Arm had split into numerous tentacles. Though they had lost their ability to brainwash players, they had gained another terrifying ability.

Any players who were wrapped by the tentacles would instantly lose their combat ability. Should that happen, only those who had escaped the tentacles’ grasp were able to attack the tentacles to force it to retract its tentacles.

Since Li Yi was busy leading the three berserk monsterlings around, he could not dedicate any time to dealing with the boss. After all, shooting while kiting the berserk monsterlings was already highly taxing for him.

Tch-tch…

The Soul King extended all ten of its tentacles, and they each lifted a player up from the ground. Then, the players were violently slammed into the ground.

Shangguan Bailu shouted, “Press the attack! Don’t split the damage, focus them onto a single target, and rescue me first!”

Li Yi was still kiting the monsterlings, and as such, he had no time to observe the current state of battle. As such, Shangguan Bailu had taken command and had begun to issue orders.

Any party that was missing a commander was no different from a tray of scattered sand. To illustrate this point, had Shangguan Bailu not commanded the party to focus on each tentacle one by one, and they had attacked separately instead, only one fate awaited the players who were caught. Death.

Once Shangguan Bailu was rescued, the party proceeded to attack the second tentacle, freeing a Wizard.

For the high HP players like the Paladins and Warriors, they had no trouble taking a few more smashes to the face. However, the same could not be said for the fragile Wizards and their likes. They needed to be quickly rescued, otherwise, they would perish before long.

After a long and tiresome effort, all ten players were freed from the tentacles’ grasp, and with that, another crisis had been defused.

“Ka! Ka! Ka!”

Another three crimson Obsidian Monsterlings had popped out and they barreled directly into the party…

The attacks just kept coming, leaving no time for the party to catch a breath. With a swift stroke of his hand, Li Yi fired three arrows, pulling the three berserk monsterlings towards him.

The initial three berserk monsterlings were spirits, and the later ones were golems. The spirits moved quickly, while the golems were slow. As such, kiting these monsters with differing speeds simultaneously was a test of skill.

The arena was only so big, and once he exceeded the 50-yard range, he would automatically leave the battle. Li Yi constantly circled the battlefield, and he dared not go too fast, as he feared the Obsidian Monsterlings would fail to catch up. However, he dared not slow down too much either, as the Spirit Monsterlings would easily catch up if that was the case. Furthermore, regardless of Spirit Monsterling or Obsidian Monsterling, one hit was all they required to bring him down.

The Soul King lashed out its ten tentacles once more, grabbing another ten players and lifting them into the air…

“Focus your attacks! Rescue the Wizards first! Healers! Keep tabs on their HP and quickly replenish the party’s health…”

Shangguan Bailu’s commanding skills were pretty decent. More accurately, it was much better than the half-wit Li Yi. Under her directions, the party cooperated well, and whenever they encountered an unanticipated situation, they remained calm and did not panic, enabling them to successfully defuse the crisis every time.

“Keep It up, hubby! Keep it up, hubby!”

Sister Windcloud Nine shouted with all her might as she lay on the ground. She had died the instant the battle commenced. Though she was able to resurrect, she never did so, as she feared that she would die again.

“We’ll do our best.”

“We’ll do our best!”

Many were quick to take advantage of her comments, and they responded to her words in Brother Windcloud Nine’s stead. The naïve Sister Windcloud Nine did not notice it though, and she continued to shout her words of encouragement.

By the time the Soul King’s was at 60% HP, the scene had become even more chaotic.

A black whirlpool had appeared in the clouds, followed by a constant gushing sound which released twenty or so Kobold Spirits.

“Awooo Awoooo…”

The Kobold Spirits were extremely fast. They rapidly split up and attached themselves onto the players’ bodies. Some bit the players’ necks, some grabbed onto their legs, and some had even flung themselves onto the players’ heads. The battlefield was instantly thrown into pandemonium…

Li Yi’s leg was being gnawed at by a Kobold Spirit, slowing his movements greatly and allowing the Spirit Monsterlings behind him to catch up.

“Tch—”

Li Yi activated his Rocket Propellant and flew twenty meters forward, leaving the Spirit Monsterlings behind.

“Ka! Ka! Ka!”

Since Li Yi was too far ahead, the three Obsidian Monsterlings had shifted their aggro. They had given up on Li Yi and they were now targeting the party instead.

“God Mode!”

Seeing that he had messed up, Li Yi hurriedly activated God Mode, took to the skies, and fired a hail of Meteor Arrows at the Obsidian Monsterlings.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The trio of Obsidian Monsterlings whipped their heads around and went back to chasing Li Yi…