THE STRONGEST THUNDER SWORD, VOLUME 8 - Season 16 Episode 14

After Zero Wing’s team swiftly cleared out the Rock Giant encampment’s outer area, news of its success soon reached the various superpowers.

“They took out the outer area’s Rock Giants in less than half an hour?! How is that possible?!”

“They kited everything in the perimeter at once? Aren’t they just a 50-man team? How is their DPS so high?”

“I’ve really underestimated Zero Wing’s members. They might actually capture the Rock Giant encampment.”

The various superpowers were shocked.

These superpowers had unanimously agreed that the Rock Giant encampment would be the most difficult to deal with. The Rock Giants’ Armor Break ability, in particular, posed a huge threat. If MTs tried to tank the monsters, they’d likely die.

Hence, when fighting these monsters, the players would need to dodge as many attacks as possible. However, the Rock Giants were massive, which gave them a larger attack range than ordinary monsters. This made it very difficult for MTs to dodge the Rock Giants’ attacks. Even if a player were a Refinement Realm expert, constant evasive maneuvers would tax their bodies, yet if one relied on small evasive maneuvers, they’d fail to escape the monsters’ attack range.

Relying on large evasive maneuvers for a short period wouldn’t be a problem for heavily armored MTs, but as fate would have it, the Rock Giants had both high HP and Defense. It would take a considerable amount of time to kill them. On the off chance that the MTs ran out of Stamina midway through the fight, the team would have to flee and start all over again…

The amount of time a team would waste in dealing with the Rock Giants was only a small part of the problem. The bigger issue was the levels players would lose when they died. If players lost too many levels, they might not be able to use their current weapons and equipment, forced to use old items or retire from combat completely. Unlike in Team Dungeons, MTs could only afford to die a very small number of times on Thunder Island.

Compared to the other superpowers, when Nine Dragons Emperor, who was in the middle of an encampment raid, heard the news, his expression twisted with fury.

First, Zero Wing had stolen his Orc encampment, wasting the time and effort his team had put into their first raid. Now, before he had even cleared out the new encampment’s perimeter, Zero Wing had cleared out the Rock Giant encampment’s perimeter.

If this news reached the Dragon-Phoenix Pavilion’s Guild Elders, their estimation of him would plummet.

“Pavilion Master, now that Zero Wing’s team has cleared the perimeter, we can organize a team to harass them. Even if we can’t eliminate Zero Wing’s team, we can at least prevent them from securing a second encampment,” Martial Dragon suggested.

There was a huge difference between a monster encampment’s inner region and its perimeter. Although more monsters patrolled the perimeter, the monsters in the inner region were, on average, much stronger. Take the Rock Giant encampment, for example. The weakest Rock Giant in the inner area was a Lord. Although there weren’t as many of them, they were more difficult to defeat.

If they sent a force to the Rock Giant encampment now, it’d arrive within 30 or so minutes. It was highly unlikely that Zero Wing would reach the Guardian Boss before the force got there. They definitely had a chance of disrupting the troublesome Guild’s raid.

“No, we can’t afford the risk. Don’t forget that they still have a teleportation gate that allows them to travel across the island instantly. If we split our forces, they might come to steal our encampment again. Besides, do you really think that the Rock Giant encampment is that easy to raid? Don’t forget that the Guardian Boss is a Grand Lord ranked Archaic Species.” Although Nine Dragons Emperor hated to admit it, his current team could not afford to provoke Zero Wing. “For now, tell all of our available forces to gather here. We’ll use everything we have to raid this encampment.”

“Understood. I’ll notify them right away.”

As Martial Dragon listened to his commander’s reasoning, he remembered Zero Wing’s trump card. It was precisely because of that trump card that their team had suffered one defeat after another and had yet to capture a single encampment.

Nearby, Lonely Heaven, Firmament’s Guild Leader, wore a solemn expression when he heard of Zero Wing’s success.

How can this be?When Lonely Heaven heard that Zero Wing had begun to raid the Rock Giant encampment’s inner region, regret gripped his heart.

He had been displeased with Phoenix Rain’s actions. After all, Firmament was a bona fide first-rate Guild that had focused on developing its navy, yet Phoenix Rain considered Zero Wing more important, even providing the Guild with various benefits and a ton of Credits.

By doing so, Phoenix Rain had silently expressed her opinion that Firmament couldn’t compare to a Guild like Zero Wing.

Hence, he had decided to join Nine Dragons Emperor’s side instead. By doing so, not only would Firmament secure a temporary teleportation array on Thunder Island, but Nine Dragons Emperor would invest in the Guild, allowing Firmament to develop far more quickly.

Yet, his decision had backfired.

Even if Nine Dragons secured a monster encampment, Firmament wouldn’t get a temporary teleportation array. On the other hand, Zero Wing, whom he had assumed was unfoundedly arrogant when the Guild had promised Phoenix Rain two monster encampments, was close to fulfilling that promise…

Without the temporary teleportation array on Thunder Island, Firmament would not have the foundation to develop in the Sea of Death.

…

As Lonely Castle regretted his decision to betray Phoenix Rain, Shi Feng’s team rapidly cleared out the Rock Giant encampment’s inner region.

Shi Feng was more careful in the inner area than he had been in the perimeter. He had Cola, Turtledove, and Ye Wumian only lure three or four patrol squads as each was led by a Great Lord. While Cola’s group kited the Rock Giants, Solitary Nine and Dark Madness pulled the stragglers’ aggro. Like so, the team steadily reduced the number of patrol squads around the Guardian Boss.

As the team faced fewer monsters, they had a much easier time killing the Rock Giants.

Each wave only took around ten minutes or so to finish off.

After fighting for around an hour, they had dealt with all 200-plus Rock Giants in the encampment’s core. The only monsters remaining were the Level 60 Rock King and two Level 60 Rock Guards in the center of the encampment.

…

[Rock King] (Elemental Creature, Archaic Species, Grand Lord)

Level 60

HP 200,000,000/200,000,000

[Rock Guard] (Elemental Creature, Specialized, Grand Lord)

Level 60

HP 150,000,000/150,000,000

…

Zero Wing and Asura’s members shuddered when they saw the three Bosses’ HPs.

Each Rock Guard had three HP bars. Meanwhile, the Rock King had five.

Players HP bars were an indicator of how much HP they had at any time. HP bars had a different meaning for monsters.

Each HP bar a monster possessed signified their combat standards; a monster with more than one had higher combat standards than a monster of the same rank and level with a single bar.

A monster with three HP bars could exhibit combat standards on par with players who could reach the Trial Tower’s third-floor, while a monster with five HP bars could reach the Trial Tower’s fifth-floor. Although this evaluation method was not necessarily accurate, it was not that far off the actual numbers.

Reaching the Trial Tower’s fifth-floor meant that one had the standards of an expert.

No matter how they looked at it, fighting an expert with 200,000,000 HP was suicidal. Besides which, their team only had 50 players.

“Guild Leader, how should we fight it?” Aqua Rose asked as she watched the Rock King. She had no idea how they should raid this Guardian Boss.

“Cola, Ye Wumian, and Solitary, switch shields with each other. Cola will use Solitary’s, Ye Wumian will use Cola’s, and Solitary will use Ye Wumian’s. Cola will tank the Rock King, and I’ll support you from the sides. Turtledove and Ye Wumian will tank the two Specialized Bosses with Solitary and Dark’s support. When the fight begins, lure the two Specialized Bosses away. Everyone else, focus your attacks on the Rock King!

“If no one has an issue with that plan, let’s begin!”

Although Shi Feng had never raided any of the monster encampments on Thunder Island during his previous life, he had watched plenty of raid videos. Hence, he, more or less, knew how to raid the Rock King. However, at the end of the day, the Rock King was an Archaic Species. For safety’s sake, it would be best if Cola used the Titan Guard.

“Switch shields?” Cola was confused. He currently had the Epic ranked Dragonscale Shield equipped, yet Shi Feng wanted him to use Solitary Nine’s shield.