Chapter 82 – The Powerful Fire Cloud King

SnowPhoenix’s expression was filled with fear as she staggered back and her health rocketed down. Yet, no matter how much she tried to replenish her health, it was of no use. In a mere few seconds, her health bar emptied, and she turned back into a spark of white light that returned to Vermillion Bird City.

“What happened!?” XuanYuanSword exclaimed.

DreamButterfly’s face was stark white, she quickly retreated until she was out of the Fire Cloud King’s attack range.

“Be careful, it was the Fire Cloud King’s single-target skill – Firethorn,” SnowPhoenix’s voice sounded out through the communicator.

“What do we do?” XuanYuanSword’s expression became sullen as he looked towards DreamButterfly.

“I can’t kill it by myself,” DreamButterfly bit her lips and said after a brief hesitation.

“We hired you to kill it, and you’re telling us that you can’t!?” DragonSword roared in anger.

“I can return the down payment to you guys,” DreamButterfly smiled as she glanced at the leaders of Myriad Swords. “I can even die if you want.”

“Miss DreamButterfly, what are you saying? Since you can’t kill it yourself, let’s think of another way,” XuanYuanSword was still the leader of a guild, so he naturally understood that there were times that you can’t force things. What’s more, he really did want to convince an expert like DreamButterfly to join them, so he naturally did not say anything too outrageous. “It has less than a third of its health remaining. Don’t you feel like it’s a bit of a waste if we give up now? SnowPhoenix is coming back soon. Lady DreamButterfly, let us think of another way.”

DreamButterfly pondered for a moment, then nodded.

Although SnowPhoenix had not yet returned, XuanYuanSword and co. could not stand idle. Monsters on the level of the Fire Cloud King had shocking health regen rates. If they waited until SnowPhoenix returned, then the Fire Cloud King’s health would most likely be full once more.

“Hunters, great mages, gather over here!” XuanYuanSword shouted. There were only a hundred and seventy-eight left.

When the hunters and great mages rallied together, XuanYuanSword had a solemn look on his face. These people in front of him are all elite players of Myriad Swords, but they will have to pay the price of a level just for them to have a chance at getting a Guild Establishment Token.

“Hunters, listen to Lady DreamButterfly; great mages, listen to my command. Split into two squads and attack the Fire Cloud King. It is rather slow, so as long as we keep our distance carefully, we can prevent a good bit of damage,” said XuanYuanSword.

He had no other choice. DreamButterfly and SnowPhoenix were attacking together previously, so the others were merely cheering on the sidelines and occasionally launching a few attacks here and there, the Fire Cloud King did not care at all. Even so, more than half of the players had already died. Now that they were in charge of the main damage, they had to be a lot more careful about the Fire Cloud King. Once the Fire Cloud King targets them, then it is very likely that they will all die with a single AoE attack.

DreamButterfly led the hunter squad and stood opposite where the great mage squad XuanYuanSword led stood. Both of them remained outside of the Fire Cloud King’s attack range. Then, after both squads readied themselves, they began to attack under XuanYuanSword’s orders.

Countless arrows and spells rained down upon the Fire Cloud King. The monster’s true form was a fiery red cloud, so it could separate itself and combine itself as it saw fit. Thus, the physical attacks merely passed through it and dealt very little damage. Only an expert like DreamButterfly could deal good damage to it.

On the other hand, the great mage squad’s water spells dealt more damage to the Fire Cloud King due to the countering of attributes. As the water-attribute spells landed on the boss monster, it sizzled as white smoke rose from its body, while its blurry face displayed a pained look.

“Great mages, retreat!” XuanYuanSword immediately ordered his squad to step back after a wave of attack. The Fire Cloud King was too powerful, nobody could even take a single hit. Fortunately, they had no need to kill it yet, all they needed to do was buy time and not allow it to regen its health as they waited for SnowPhoenix to come back over. When she arrived, they were certain that they could kill it. That is, assuming that they do not get wiped out first.

The great mage squad retreated quickly as they attacked as well. The Fire Cloud King chased maniacally and completely ignored the hunter squad that was attacking its back.

A huge ball of fire fell down from the sky.

XuanYuanSword’s expression worsened. Shit, Fire Ocean again!?

As the huge ball of fire landed on the ground, it did not extinguish. Instead, it spread out like a blooming flower with scorching heat and a murderous aura. As waves of flames rose up into the sky and spread forth, everything in its path was rendered to dust.

“What a terrifyingly high temperature,” Fatty exclaimed. This skill is way too insane. It doesn’t even need to touch anyone, just being in close proximity would be enough to burn a person to dust.

“Great mages, defend with Water Shield,” XuanYuanSword called out.

Water Shield was a defensive skill great mages could learn when they get their class enhancement. It was a very useful ability that allowed them to reduce damage taken. Hearing the command, the great mages immediately stopped running and cast Water Shield behind them before running back once more.

As the waves of flames crashed against the water shields, the seemingly strong shields crumbled in less than two seconds and were reduced to water vapor. Yet, these two crucial seconds bought enough time for the squad to run out of the range of the attack.

Although several great mages were scorched by the heat, they were not directly damaged by the AoE attack, so they managed to just barely survive.

“Alright, keep attacking,” XuanYuanSword was overjoyed when he saw that his guild members managed to survive one of the Fire Cloud King’s attacks. As long as we get the timings right and work well together, we can definitely kill the Fire Cloud King.

DreamButterfly also found a chance to activate Piercing Arrows, sending countless arrows flying out. Although the Fire Cloud King took reduce physical damage, DreamButterfly’s attack was a skill that counted as magic damage, so it caused the Fire Cloud King to lose a decent portion of its health once more.

When the Fire Cloud King turned around to attack his attacker, XuanYuanSword took the chance to order his great mage squad attack once more.

…

As they repeated this sequence of attacking and retreating, the two squads of Myriad Swords players got more and more familiar with it and worked better and better together. They manage to avoid the several area of effect attacks of the Fire Cloud King unscathed. Although they did end up losing quite a few people, everyone on the scene felt more and more excited as they watched the boss monster lost its health.

“C’mon guys, just a bit more and we can kill the Fire Cloud King. When we do, fifty thousand RMB for everyone and those who died gets a hundred thousand!” XuanYuanSword called out.

All of the players only got more excited when they heard about the rewards. They began to attack relentlessly and fearlessly. After all, although dying once would cause them to lose a level, they would be able to receive a hundred thousand RMB. The correct choice was very clear.

“Damn, if this was the case, then why the hell did we hire experts over. We can kill it ourselves. Now we ended up wasting so much money for nothing,” DragonSword said quietly.

Although the other core members didn’t speak, they all nodded in agreement.

“Nearly done already!?” SnowPhoenix finally returned from Vermillion Bird City. She couldn’t help but gasp when she saw the Fire Cloud King’s health.

“Lady SnowPhoenix is here. Hurry up, we’ve been waiting for you,” DragonSword and co. acted indifferently towards SnowPhoenix when victory was in sight. If they were not melee players and were unable to reach the Fire Cloud King, they definitely would have rushed over to kill the boss instead of waiting around for the woman.

“Icy Fortress!” SnowPhoenix had no time to voice her issues with the attitude of DragonSword and co. The Fire Cloud King cast Meteor Fire Rain once again. SnowPhoenix immediately cast IcyFortress, not to defend herself, but to defend the great mage squad XuanYuanSword was leading.

The Icy Fortress trembled and blocked part of the impact. However, some fireballs did fly past the fortress. Despite that, the force behind them greatly reduced, so the great mage squad easily defended against those.

“Piercing Arrows!” DreamButterfly called out once more. Every single time the cooldown passed, she would cast this ability as it was the only skill she had that dealt a good chunk of damage to the Fire Cloud King.

SnowPhoenix also immediately cast Icy Blizzard, sending a huge cyclone of snow and ice towards the Fire Cloud King.

The boss monster’s health finally began to drop quickly with these two attacks, causing it to lost more than 1% of its max health.

The Fire Cloud King’s body trembled a bit, as if hurt by the attacks. Then, it suddenly spat out a huge fireball with a diameter over one meter. As the fireball landed on the ground, a huge explosion sounded out and a menacing wave of flames surged forth.

What’s more, multiple smaller fireballs flew out of the explosion and covered the entire area.

“Run!” DreamButterfly shouted. Then, she immediately flipped backwards with no regards for the hunter squad. At the same time, SnowPhoenix also quickly cast Icy Fortress around her, allowing her to endure the explosions while continuing to attack. Lastly, XuanYuanSword also leaped out just as DreambButterflly shouted.

This explosion dealt far more damage than the Meteor Fire Rain. The Myriad Swords players who were in the explosion radius were dealt massive damage, and when the explosion area finally cleared up, nearly two hundred corpses laid on the ground. Most of the great mages and hunters were killed.

“What the heck was that attack!?” XuanYuanSword cursed. We are about to achieve victory. How the hell does the Fire Cloud King still have something in its sleeves!?

“Guild Master XuanYuan, hurry up, the Fire Cloud King doesn’t have much health left,” DreamButterfly shouted and returned to attacking.

“Everybody with a ranged attack gather together,” XuanYuanSword roared. “Ignore the normal monsters, killing the Fire Cloud King is more important!”

The Fire Cloud King seemed a bit weakened after the powerful attack. Its body also shrank to around eighty percent of its original size. When it noticed more players gather underneath it, it shook a little, then rained down another rain of fire.