Nie Yan and Xie Yao appeared on the stone bridge in the volcano alongside the rest of the team. The moment they entered the game, their battle with Drakuru continued.
Bladelight rushed over and attracted Drakuru's attention.
Drakuru's health hadn't recovered. This was because the servers came to a full pause when they were offline.
Nie Yan quickly summoned Lil' Gold. With a loud roar, the golden dragon charged toward Drakuru.
Drakuru immediately aggroed onto Lil' Gold. The damage Lil' Gold dealt to him, mostly thanks to Explosive Counter, was higher than that of Bladelight.
The two titans clashed as the stone bridge shook violently.
Nie Yan then summoned Paladin Lafus, who immediately started supporting Lil' Gold.
With the aggro secured, the Mages in the backline also started attacking Drakuru without worry.
They spread out over the bridge and continued dealing damage. Nie Yan took out his Dullahan Crossbow and shot out several volleys of bolts. However, he almost dealt negative damage. Drakuru's resistance to piercing damage was too high.
Nie Yan thought for a moment before entering stealth. He snuck around to Drakuru's side, plunged down with Zennarde's Sword, and then ran the blade across his flesh.
−3,369
−2,961
−3,764
…
Drakuru stomped down with his feet. Nie Yan hurriedly rolled out of the way. BOOOM! Feeling no little bug squashed beneath his feet, he stomped down again.
Nie Yan frantically weaved between Drakuru's feet before finally getting out. Panting, he looked haggard and miserable.
This was the result every time Nie Yan tried to approach Drakuru, to say nothing of the other Thieves. When Drakuru stomped down onto Bladelight, he could push back with his shield. However, they didn't have that kind of strength.
Drakuru's health was slowly falling, but it was almost unnoticeable, only dropping by a small sliver.
This was the first time Nie Yan and the others had encountered a boss with so much health.
Nie Yan pulled open Paladin Lafus' skill window to try and find something useful. There were 100 skills altogether, quite a dazzling sight. The stronger Nie Yan grew, so too would Lafus. At certain levels, he would also acquire brand new skills, many of which Nie Yan had never seen or heard of before.
After skimming through the list, Nie Yan's eyes landed on a skill called Demon Bane Formation. It was a formation that reduced the health recovery speed of all demonic creatures within a 50-meter radius.
To activate it, Nie Yan needed 10 Radiant Scrolls, three Silverbright Stones, and five Radiant Stone.
"Any of you guys got Radiant Scrolls, Silverbright Stones, and Radiant Stones?" Nie Yan asked. These materials were mainly used by Paladins, Priests, and Holy Mages to cast certain spells.
"I have three Radiant Scrolls and two Silverbright Stones," Young Seven said after glancing at his bag.
"I have nine Radiant Stones," Xie Yao said.
...
With everyone pitching in, Nie Yan gathered all the required materials. Following the skill's description, Nie Yan found an open space about five meters away from Drakuru and set up the formation. Paladin Lafus walked over and activated it, after which the formation released a brilliant radiance which slowly enveloped everything within a 50-meter radius.
Drakuru let out a furious roar. He wanted to charge forward and destroy the formation. However, he couldn't even take one step before the chains binding him to the obelisk went taut, leaving him unable to move even half an inch further.
After the formation was activated, Nie Yan and the others could clearly see that Drakuru's health was falling much faster than before. A portion of their damage was freed up and no longer used to mitigate his health recovery.
At this speed, Nie Yan and the others could shave away 1.5% of Drakuru's health every hour. Even though this was still slow, it was much better than before.
Seeing that the formation was effective, Nie Yan immediately continued searching through Paladin Lafus' list of skills. He eventually found three more formations that could greatly reduce the stats of Drakuru. After gathering the required materials from Xie Yao and the others, he set them up.
Debuffing formations were useless to most players, simply because they attracted too much aggro. If a boss were to discover such a formation in its vicinity, it would make it a priority to destroy the formation first. Add on the fact they were a pain in the ass to set up, and it explained why very few players used them to deal with bosses. However, in this situation, they were incredibly effective.
Drakuru was bound by chains. All they had to do was to set up the formations out of its reach, and there was nothing he could do.
Nie Yan and company continued chipping away at Drakuru's health. After an entire day, they brought his health down to 62%.
Even though it still went painfully slow, they at least saw a trace of hope. With Drakuru's health steadily going down, perhaps they really did stand a chance to kill him! If they did, who knew what kind of loot he would drop. One had to know, this was a Level 180 Demonified Lord!
Apart from Drakuru's drops, Nie Yan would also obtain the legendary Assassin's Heart. This would surely be an incredible boon for his growth.
"Boss, I'm out of Specialist Potions. I only have a dozen or so Advanced Mana Potions left," Undying Scoundrel said after looking in his bag.
"Same here," Summer Bug said.
"I'm almost out as well," Lustboy added.
Their mana potion usage was extremely high. Even though they were doing their best to use them sparingly, they still eventually ran out. Normally, these kinds of mana potions would only be used in case of an emergency. No one would use them so willy nilly. They'd brought with them enough mana potions to last them up to two months, yet now they were all out within two days.
Aside from Tang Yao and Xie Yao, all other casters were running on empty.
"I still have nine Specialist Mana Potions on me. You guys can use them," Tang Yao said. He passed them over to Undying Scoundrel, Summer Bug, and Lustboy.
"I still have eight Specialist and six Advanced Mana Potions," Xie Yao said.
There was no point in Tang Yao and Xie Yao saving these potions.