MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

The battle began in earnest and the Light Paladin Trio came charging in.

The Holy Shield Paladin had the greatest DEF and HP, but his attacks were weak. Thus, only ten or so main tanks were needed to deal with him by alternating their taunts. The Holy Paladin’s heal, however, was staggering. When combined, Holy Flash and Holy Shock were able to instantly replenish 5,000,000 HP.

The Punishment Paladin had a fearsome ATK, and even the main tanks were unable to withstand them. Out of the Light Paladin Trio, the Punishment Paladin was the hardest to deal with. However, there was still a method to countering him as most of his skills required incantations. Thus, kiting him was the most viable option.

The Holy Paladin had 15,000,000 HP; the Punishment Paladin had 20,000,000 HP and the Holy Shield Paladin had 35,000,000 HP.

Within the confines of Light Conference, players were unable to summon their mounts. This did not apply to the Light Paladin Trio, however, as they were constantly on their mounts. To make matters worse, the oval-shaped building was quite small. Thus, the player that was chosen to kite the Punishment Paladin had to possess great mobility.

Unsurprisingly, this great responsibility had fallen onto Li Yi’s shoulders.

With his shoes that provided +10 SPD and Mermaid’s Princess’s buff that provided an additional 15% movement speed, Li Yi was undoubtedly the fastest person within the party.

Unless a Cyclone Thief activated Cyclone Step, Li Yi’s speed was far superior compared to the others.

Boom! Boom!

Li Yi launched two arrows, which aggro-ed the Punishment Paladin. Following that, Li Yi ran sideways and kited the Paladin by moving in a circle.

Although the Punishment Paladin was riding a horse, his movement speed was only slightly faster than his walking speed, which made Li Yi’s job of kiting him a piece of cake. After all, he had already kited the Ancient-level boss, Black Dragon Sibling Duo. What could a small fry like the Paladin hope to even achieve?

The Punishment Paladin howled as he gave chase; whereas Li Yi attacked while kiting. After around ten seconds, a ray of Holy Light descended from the heavens, striking Li Yi and forcing him onto his knees. He had lost control of his body.

“Repentance!”

“Fear not for I have arrived, Perverted Wing!”

Jiaojiao dragged her Rune Greatsword excitedly as she came running over. She locked her innocent eyes onto Li Yi’s neck and launched a vicious ray unto him.

“Dark Devour!”

Before Jiaojiao’s beam had even reached him, Li Yi used his special skill to dispel Repentance. He activated his Rocket Propellants and dashed 20 meters ahead.

On the other side of the battle, the Holy Shield Paladin was tightly surrounded by the main tanks and not a shred of space was left unfilled. Since he was locked firmly in place, he became the focus of everyone’s firepower as they fiercely bombarded it directly.

Although the Holy Paladin’s heal was not be underestimated, the healing skills of the Paladin Class contained a major flaw. Unless they learned the Level 100 skill, Holy Light Sign, the Paladins are not unable to heal multiple targets. In other words, the Paladins could only heal one target at a time.

The healing mechanics of the Light Paladin Trio prioritized the healing of the person with the lowest health. If they were to stand a chance in defeating the trio, the party would have to fully exploit their healing mechanics.

First and foremost, they had to attack until the trio had the same amount of HP. Once it was done, the party would have to maintain the rate of HP reduction. By doing so, they were able to ensure that the trio would not heal their allies, and instead, self-heal.

They would maintain the HP equilibrium of the trio until the Punishment Paladin’s HP had reached 3,000,000. Once the threshold was reached, the party would focus their ultimate attacks onto him, which would ensure his immediate demise.

The main tanks would rotate their taunts while surrounding the Holy Shield Paladin. They would exchange the aggro after taking two blows as the Paladin’s normally weak attacks held the potential to burst the main tanks down when enraged.

Nobody would attack the Holy Paladin initially as she had the least health. Since the other two Paladins still had more HP than her, she would not use any healing spells. Instead, she would constantly cast ‘Silence’, which prohibited the party from casting their healing spells.

The Holy Paladin’s Silence was very annoying. Although they could use spells to dispel its effects, Silence had a short cooldown. If the healers were unable to time their dispels properly, they would be chain-silenced, and at worst, would lead to a team wipe.

The DPS did not have it easy either, due to the bosses’ Retribution Aura which would cause the attackers to lose their HP whenever they attacked. The DPS were in a bind as the healers were unable to keep up if they attacked too fast, but if they attacked too slow, the bosses would self-heal, which would replenish more health than they had lost.

There was not a single person that had the time to relax out of the 200 of them. Even Jiaojiao had to rush forward to cast Double Curse. The Black Paladins did not own any buffing skills and Double Curse was the closest thing they had.

When the Holy Shield Paladin’s HP was depleted to around 20,000,000, Pretty Good Mood gave out the command to switch targets and dispatched a group of players to attack Punishment Paladin.

The difficulty had now increased. Since each of the Paladins’ heal replenished different amounts of HP, the DPS would have to control their damage output carefully to ensure that both the Punishment Paladin and Holy Shield Paladin fell together.

Although they had painstakingly described each phase and its details during the briefing before, an accident occurred during the actual battle.

The Holy Shield Paladin’s HP was depleting much faster than the Punishment Paladin’s. Pretty Good Mood’s orders to let up was futile as his HP had quickly dropped to 15,000,000 whereas the Punishment Paladin’s HP was still at 18,000,000. They were nearly 3,000,000 HP apart from one another.

The Holy Paladin raised her hand and shot out two rays of Holy Light. The Holy Shield Paladin’s HP rapidly increased, and within 10 seconds, his HP was full again…

“What the f*ck are you guys doing? Don’t you guys know how to switch targets? Why didn’t you stop if you’ve dealt too much damage? Are you guys pigs? I don’t think humans are capable of acting so poorly!” Pretty Good Mood scolded angrily.

Tch—Tch—

The Holy Paladin lifted her hands and shot out another two rays of Holy Light. With that, the Punishment Paladin’s HP was instantly full as well…

“What. The. F*ck. You pigs can’t even cooperate properly, I’m impressed!”

This was the consequences of failing to maintain the HP equilibrium.

The party was frustrated, but all they could do was to target the Holy Shield Paladin once more.

Pretty Good Mood stood his ground as he launched his verbal assault. He had taken Li Yi’s advice to heart, he sincerely believed that he would survive if he did not move. Alas, Li Yi had forgotten to tell him that he should react appropriately as well.

The Punishment Paladin brushed past him. He was probably born with a naturally punchable face, as the Punishment Paladin raised his massive hammer, projecting a golden cross from his back and smashing it down upon Pretty Good Mood.

“Crusader Strike!”

Pretty Good Mood’s HP of 20,000 was instantly swallowed up.

He was truly the epitome of unlucky…

“Ah, the consequences of being foul-mouthed.” Somebody from the party snickered quietly, and then the party erupted into laughter.

With the commander dead, the world was tranquil once more…

Without the nagging of the commander, the party coordinated amazingly well. When the Holy Shield Paladin’s HP was 20,000,000, they immediately targeted the Punishment Paladin. Not a single one of them had erred.

Both of the Paladins’ HP was steadily decreasing. Before long, they were already at 15,000,000 HP.

“All three groups, attack! Your target is the Holy Paladin! Team 1, slow down your attacks. Team 2, pick up the pace! Dark Wing will help to adjust the HP!”

Although Pretty Good Mood was now dead, there was still Blue Sky to lead the party.

Unlike the bad-tempered Pretty Good Mood, Royal Blue Sky had never scolded anyone. At most, he would ‘howl’, until his voice was hoarse and unable to speak any longer.

“Keep it up, brothers! Epic-level equipment are waiting for you! First team stop, I said stop! The second team, hurry up! Hurry up! Hurry up….”

Royal Blue Sky issued accurate commands with his hoarse voice.

Maintaining the rate of HP depletion of the trio was no small feat as each Paladin possessed healing skills, but the potency of which was different. The Holy Paladin’s heal basically replenished all of her allies’ HP when used on them, but when used on herself, it only provided around 1,500,000 HP.

The third team that was responsible for handling Holy Paladin had the greatest numbers, which had nearly 100 players targeting her. All of this was to prevent her HP from recovering instantly.

“My plane-headed Orc brother, please activate your ultimate skill to heal our brethren in the second team. Don’t fret about the gold-colored shoes, cause you’ll get an epic-level shoe once we defeat this boss!”

“KILL! KILL! KILL….” Royal Blue Sky was hyped-up.

Due to their previous blunder, the party’s mana level was not at a healthy level. The DPS was unable to release their most powerful attacks, and the healers were unable to heal fast enough, as they had to worry about their dwindling mana levels.

“Unending Unmatched, Little Elf from the Magical Realm, and Fire Ice, please use your ultimate skills in five seconds. Everyone, switch your target to the Punishment Paladin and DESTROOOYYYYYY HIM!”

Holy Light Illumination, Shield of Earth, and Wind Miracle were activated simultaneously as everyone targeted the Punishment Paladin.

Li Yi activated God-mode along with Heart of a Clear Mirror. He aimed his bow at the Punishment Paladin and unleashed a barrage of Elimination Arrows.

The Punishment Paladin’s 4,000,000 HP did not even hold out for 10 seconds. The Holy Paladin had just finished healing herself and was just about to cast her healing onto the Punishment Paladin…

The Holy Paladin was late by three seconds, as her target was now dead.

“All hail Blue Sky!”

“Blue Sky, you’re the man!”

This was his commanding prowess. He was able to spot the opportunity where the Holy Paladin could not heal her ally and had commanded a speedy assault to destroy her ally!

“D*mmit!” Pretty Good Mood was lying on the ground as he sighed sourly.

With the Punishment Paladin down, the remaining Paladins’ HP were now out of sync. A hissing sound could be heard as they instantly regained their lost health.

If one died, the other would immediately regain its health. This was something that nobody could prevent.

“Don’t panic! Stay Calm! Brothers, focus your attacks on the Holy Shield Paladin! Nobody touches the Holy Paladin! I’ll repeat it once more, you are forbidden from attacking the Holy Paladin! Hey, you there, the one crossed-eyed brother! Why on earth are you rushing towards her? Is it that fun to attack her? I already told you not to touch the Holy Paladin, so come back right here this instant!”

With the Punishment Paladin now dead, the Holy Paladin’s healing mechanics had undergone a change. As long as somebody attacked her, no matter how much HP was lost, she would immediately release two healing spells, one for herself and the other for her ally.

The Holy Shield Paladin’s attacking pattern had undergone a change as well. It no longer stood stationary as it hacked and slash, instead, it randomly launched Holy Light Impact and Shield Impact as if it was trying to break free from the main tanks’ encirclement.

His comrade’s death had caused the Holy Shield Paladin’s aggro to plunge into chaos.

“Boom!”

The Holy Shield Paladin’s Shield Impact sent three main tanks flying and by using ‘Charge’, he was now at the healing team’s position.

The Holy Shield Paladin hacked furiously, slaughtering the healers. The change was too abrupt, and Royal Blue Sky’s calls were too late. Out of the 30 healers in the team, 25 of them were now dead…

…