Chapter 561: Group Battle Tower - End

"The Group Battle Tower Event is getting heated up folks, as England, Mexico, Canada, and Central Country are neck and neck for first place! Who will be the one to come out on top?!" Amber cried out with excitement while displaying the current results of the tournament. 

1st – England: 34th Floor, 0% 

2nd – Mexico: 33rd Floor, 98%. 

3rd – Canada: 33rd Floor, 92%. 

4th – Central Country: 33rd Floor, 91%. 

5th – Italy: 32nd Floor, 67%. 

6th – Ghana: 31st Floor, 34%. 

7th – France: 31st Floor, 23%. 

8th – China: 30th Floor, 76%. 

9th – Japan: 30th Floor, 75%. 

10th – India: 29th Floor, 55%. 

The crowd too were enlivened, wanting to see more of their own countries blazing through the floors on their way to the top. 

...... 

The English team of Sublime Notion, Happy Scholar, Lucia, Noble Soul, and Silent Walker were the first to reach the 34th floor. Luckily, each floor reset their skill cooldowns, HP, MP, and Stamina. 

Otherwise, this entire challenge would have ended before anyone would have reached the tenth floor. However, that did nothing for the mental fatigue and stress that came from battling for long periods of time, especially when they had to compete against other teams. 

On the 34th floor, they found themselves were in the midst of a bog, the stench of the rotting water and the defiled wood made everyone's face crinkle. Still, they kept an eye out in alert for whatever monster awaited them. 

Eventually, the boss revealed itself, having the form of a tall cloaked female that had a darkened hood with two torch-like green eyes flowing from within. Her figure was quite sexy, though her hands were withered and drained like that of a zombie. 

｢Name: Witch Queen – Major Rank monster 

Level: 265 

HP: 234,000,000/234,000,000｣ 

That's right. Ever since the 31st floor, the various Groups had been fighting against Rank 6 foes! 

Just like Draco and Eva had suffered when fighting the Sand King, everyone had to fight with a 99% reduction in stats, a 90% reduction in Damage and Defense while giving the Witch Queen a boost of the same amount in the same fields. 

It should be impossible for a normal person to deal with this. Even in their OP forms, it had required Draco and Eva to cycle through all three transformations and unleash every skill in their repertoire back then. 

Admittedly, this had meant that the entire fight had lasted around 4 minutes before they had killed the poor creature back then, yet it had been because the hits from their forms had been too heavy to ignore. Not to mention, its HP had been far less than the current monster the group was facing. 

To progress to higher floors without refreshed cooldowns and stats? What a joke! 

Not even Draco and Eva would have been able to make it this far if that had been the case. 

As it were, the group had the advantage of having high-level classes, so they could somewhat mount a resistance. The goal here was to find a way to restrict this high-level boss and bombard it with their strongest skills within a short period of time, then try and survive the battle till the end. 

This task fell on Silent Walker who immediately cast the skill he had used in previous floors to solve this same issue. 

Endless Night! 

Tendril Storm! 

｢Endless Night – Active skill 

Effect: Cover an Area Zone in a veil of darkness, buffing all darkness skills and techniques by 400%. 

Duration: 15 minutes 

Cooldown: 16 hours.｣ 

｢Tendril Storm – Active skill 

Effect: Summon an endless amount of shadow tendrils that rampage around an area of 5 miles around the user, dealing unpredictable amounts of damage to all enemies within and trapping them. 

Duration: 3 minutes. 

Cooldown: 20 hours.｣ 

A shroud of darkness wrapped around the entire floor, sealing the sky and letting only minimal light come through. Apart from the visual effect, this also made all of Silent Walker's darkness-related skills 400% more potent, buffing the skill he used after. 

A wealth of shadow-like tentacles merged from all places within the range, thrashing about aimlessly at first before pausing, then rushing towards the Witch Queen. The Rank 6 foe screeched with anger, her body glowing with a green light as she summoned Malevolent Spirits that wanted to rush at the group and tear them apart. 

Unfortunately for the eldritch being, they were still bound by the tendrils as the darkness was semi-corporeal, allowing it to harm both the solid and the intangible. The tendrils also wound around the Witch Queen, making her shriek in anger as she couldn't move her hands to cast. 

From there, the others began their work. They only had 12 minutes to do what they could in terms of damage, and this was not the time to hold back or hide any secret trump cards, otherwise their journey would stop here. 

While this was fine on paper, the issue was that they had no way to see the rankings, which added another form of pressure. Many could wrongly assume they were in a good spot, only to come out and realize they were far below expectations. 

Many had tasted such a bitter pill in the Individual Battle Tower, so they certainly would not wish to experience that again. 

A barrage of skills began. 

Ordinance! 

Blade of Purification! 

｢Ordinance – Active skill 

Effect: Bless an ally with the divine ordinance, allowing them to increase their damage, defense by 150%, attack and movement speed by 30%, and a 2-second invulnerability. 

Duration: 5 minutes 

Cooldown: 10 minutes.｣ 

｢Blade of Purification – Active skill 

Effect: Summon a holy blade made of Light Energy to slice apart your foes and bring divine justice upon them. This deals 90% Light damage to a single target. 

Cooldown: 5 minutes.｣ 

Ordinance was placed upon Happy Scholar, who had proven himself to be their highest raw damage dealer in the previous floors. Since its cooldown would elapse before the bindings came to an end, Lucia could place it on anyone once more if the situation got critical. 

Her next attack, which was her only offensive skill, formed a huge divine blade that was burning with Light Energy above her head. The moment it was ready, she cast it out at the Witch Queen, striking the foe severely and making the monster screech. 

Lucia had her Light's Flow passive skill that increased the effectiveness of all Light-based skills and techniques by 120%, increasing the damage of her attack greatly. 

-450,645! 

Alas, suffering from the high Level and Rank Suppression, the millions of damage that should have been dealt was squeezed down to just a bit below half a million. If it was not for this, they would not have had such a tough time climbing the tower at this stage. 

Sublime was next, she began unleashing hundreds of magic spells that she had learned since her class had no limitations. 

Fire Bolt! 

Fireball! 

Fire Spike! 

Immolation! 

Incinerate! 

Inferno! 

Armageddon! 

Feather Fall! 

Wind Blades Barrage! 

Cyclone! 

Tornado! 

Sparks! 

Thunderbolt! 

Lighting Strike! 

Thunder Blast! 

Overcharge! 

Water Shot! 

Water Cannon! 

Torrent! 

Tsunami! 

Ice Bolt! 

Ice Blast! 

Ice Spear! 

Blizzard! 

Blades of Earth! 

Rock Blast! 

Earth Golem! 

Earthburst Explosion! 

Earthquake! 

Poison Spray! 

Acid Burst! 

Toxic Cloud! 

Noxious Spear! 

Debilitating Plague! 

Bolt of Light! 

Prismatic Light! 

Sunray! 

Searing Light! 

Arclight! 

... 

Countless spells of all different elements were fired out like they were cheap. The mana cost of this was paid by Sublime, who had made sure to stock up on numerous Epic-tier Angel Kiss potions just for this purpose. 

The collective damage dealt by the lolitician was extremely grand, not due to the power of the spells obviously, but the sheer quantity of them. 

-29,876,098! 

As impressive as this number might look like, it only accounted for about 10% of the Witch Queen's total HP. This kind of output was awesome to look at, but would not be anywhere near enough if they wanted to succeed this time. 

Silent Walker also chipped in using a skill that worked perfectly on bosses like this that summoned adds to distract players. 

Darkness Devour! 

｢Darkness Devour – Active skill 

Effect: Swallow the souls of all enemies within a 300-meter radius of the user, turning them into shadow slaves. 

Note 1: Only those at the Lieutenant Rank for monsters or those at Rank 3 for NPCs and players can be consumed 

Note 2: Only 20 shadow slaves can be made at Rank 3 

Note 3: Excess souls consumed by this skill would be used to replenish mana. 

Cooldown: 6 minutes.｣ 

Immediately, all the Malevolent Spirits that had been summoned by the Witch Queen and neglected up until now were dragged over by the darkness spell and consumed. From the remains came 20 shadows forms that reassembled burning darkness. 

With a shriek of malice, they pounced on their former master and began tearing her apart. Of course, the damage dealt was not significant, but anything would be useful at this juncture in time. 

Then, all eyes fell on Happy Scholar as he was expected to recreate the special miracle he had created on the past few floors. With a serious expression, knowing that the success of his entire country rode on this, the fellow used his best skills. 

Word of Power: Destruction! 

Written Word: Execute The Enemy! 

Knowledge Rune: Empower! 

Wisdom Rune: Recover! 

｢Word of Power – Active skill 

Effect: Speak out a selected word and turn it into a rune that will affect its literary meaning upon a foe. The effectiveness of this varies per word chosen, the strength of the enemy, and the number of mana points invested into the skill. 

Cooldown: 2 minutes.｣ 

｢Written Word – Active skill 

Effect: Write down a word or phrase that will become a single rune, effecting itself in reality to perform what it states. The effectiveness of this depends on the circumstances, the amount of mana divulged to the spell, and the length of the phrase. 

Cooldown: 4 minutes.｣ 

｢Knowledge Rune – Active skill 

Effect: Eject a rune from your memories that works in tandem with other offensive or defensive runes to increase their effects. The amount of increment depends on the amount of mana invested. 

Cooldown: 1 minute.｣ 

｢Wisdom Rune – Active skill 

Effect: Manually craft a special rune with any effect. The rune works based on the parameters described and its effectiveness will be based solely on the amount of mana placed within. 

Cooldown: 30 minutes.｣ 

Happy Scholar had managed to Class Up into the Epic Runemaster class, which was one that fought using runes and words to suppress enemies. His class was special because he could use any words and turn them into runes, granting them great power, but the drawback was the sheer mana drain. 

Without putting in a substantial amount of mana, his attacks would just be flashy nonsense with no substance. As such, he had invested every stat point he had ever gained into Spirit in order to increase his mana pool and regeneration. 

After all, nothing in his skills said anything about percentages and damage types, only that the amount of mana and the circumstances decided effectiveness. This was a clear sign that his class was to min-max in the vein of getting huge amounts of mana. 

In fact, Sublime had even pulled strings to get him some Epic Items from the Guild Vault on a loan that would increase his mana pool by huge amounts, which was why he was crucial to their success. 

Abuse of power was disgusting? Of course, it was! But only to the powerless, hehe! 

Happy Scholar's two offensive runes were 'Destruction' and 'Execute The Enemy', both of them the two most powerful things that led to death within Boundless. The first rune directly burned its target via Destruction Energy, albeit in far weaker concentration than what had been in the Evil Beads used to destroy Immortal Spirits, while the 'Execute The Enemy' rune was sharp but seemed a bit lacking. 

There was only so much mana Happy Scholar could invest into them when he was casting four runes at once. However, the Knowledge Rune soon wrapped around the two offensive runes, greatly increasing their power. 

The Wisdom Rune also wrapped around them, but did not seem to do anything at first glance. The two runes then shot forward and struck the Witch Queen, the first one searing her with Destruction Energy and the second one stabbing right into her heart like an assassin's blade, both making the monster cry out in agony. 

-67,998,445! 

The damage was huge and the England team and their fans were euphoric to see the numbers displayed. Since Happy Scholar could deal this much, they knew everything was in the bag. This was because the England team had a special trump card which was the direct reason why they had been able to take first place from Mexico, who literally had a member that could transform into a Space Dragon on every floor- 

Noble Soul smiled and stood forth. He then raised his sword in a Paladin's pose, then cried out so loudly it seemed to make space around him crack. 

"I FIGHT FOR MY FRIENDS!" 

Immediately, he activated his skill which was their team's trump card, Heroic Valor! 

｢Heroic Valor – Active skill 

Effect: Shout out a line that boosts the morale of all allies and invigorates them to fight harder and longer in order to save their friends and family waiting for them at home. This skill resets all skill cooldowns for allies in a party, but the caster is unable to use any skill for the next 6 hours. 

Cooldown: 7 days.｣ 

It was a pretty OP skill for guild battles and raids, which was why Desecrators had still been able to develop so strongly even though Umbra existed in this timeline. Gentle Flower also had her own trump card no weaker than this, but this was the England team's show. 

Immediately, Sublime, Happy Scholar, Lucia, and Silent Walker smiled as they saw their previously expired skills now usable once more. Noble Soul himself sighed with fatigue and moved to the side, sitting on the ground as he was disabled until the next floor. 

Once more, the same barrage of skills were fired out and almost in the same order. 

Ordinance! 

Blade of Light! 

All those spells from Sublime! 

Darkness Devour! 

Word of Power: Destruction! 

Written Word: Execute The Enemy! 

Knowledge Rune: Empower! 

Wisdom Rune: Recover! 

This time, Ordinance was given to Sublime as Happy Scholar still benefitted from it, allowing the damage of the Vice Guildmaster to increase by a factor of 1.5! 

Their first salvo had done a gross total of 98,325,188 damage, whereas the second reached 113,263,237. 

｢Name: Witch Queen – Major Rank monster 

Level: 265 

HP: 22,411,575/234,000,000｣ 

The Witch Queen was on the verge of death and they still had around 10 more minutes of binding on her. She began to struggle intensely and try to use her skills, but this shadow tendril binding was fat too efficient. Unless you could physically break free, it was impossible to do anything but wait for the duration to end. 

Of course, the more the Witch Queen struggled, the weaker the bindings became and the lower the duration of the skill went. However, Silent Walker was not bothered as he still had the skill open, ready to use it again if necessary. 

All the England team had to do was use their weaker skills until the cooldown of their stronger skills elapsed, especially Happy Scholar who only needed a few minutes for his. His problem came from the mana costs, but the supply of Angel Kiss potions kept him afloat. 

Soon, the Witch Queen could only scream impotently as she was turned into dust by the group. Without wasting even a second on rest, they quickly climbed up to the 35th floor and saw that this time, they got transported into a modern metropolis that was bustling. 

It was like any first-world city, only that they were located in a park for public enjoyment. While the pedestrians and civilians walked about, ignoring the players as if they didn't exist, a buzzing sound appeared in the ears of the players. 

Looking up, they saw a round aircraft-like machine that had two blazing green eyes above its saucer, its round body spinning continually as it neared them. 

｢Name: Unidentified Flying Object – Major Rank monster 

Level: 270 

HP: 197,000,000/197,000,000｣ 

Lips twitching, the group got into their battle-ready formation and began utilizing the same method as on the previous floors to deal with the enemy before them. 

......….. 

"Ladies and gentlemen, let us give a round of applause for our valiant contestants who fought their hardest during the Group Battle Tower event! The various groups valiantly proved that they had come prepared and brought their A-game in order to secure the win for their home countries!" Amber exclaimed once the 3 hours for the event had come to an end. She watched the square before the tower fill up once again with many people. 

She was even more excited and crowed: "This time, not a single country got eliminated before the time limit! This is simply fantastic, a show of valor and determination to not fall until the very end!" 

The crowd was roaring with excitement, having watched their countries fight hard as if their lives had depended on it. No matter which position they ended up in, no one would dare say that someone had held back, which was why the crowd was so moved. 

The contestants themselves sighed weakly and many plopped to the floor, even those at the top. Essence Stalker directly spat out a mouthful of blood and fell to one knee. Even Draco would have suffered after transforming into a Dragon so many times within 3 hours, much less him. 

Many did the same, from Rambunctious to Slim Fatty and even Noble Soul showed severe damage from their repeated use of certain skills which had drained more than just MP or Stamina, but also required an extra ingredient, which was why they were so powerful.