Chapter 134: Incubation

Zhang Shan wasted no time. After clearing out the lesser monsters around the boss, he immediately ordered Panda Baby to hold its attention.

The support players quickly followed, healing Panda Baby, while everyone else joined the assault on the boss.

“Damn, is a level-forty boss really this tough? Why am I only dealing a few hundred points of damage?”

“It must be level suppression. The boss is more than ten levels above us, so we’re suffering two levels of suppression.”

“Even with two levels of suppression, our damage shouldn’t be reduced this much. I have over two thousand attack power.”

“Stop asking questions. Just look at the boss’s attributes and skills. We’ll have to grind it down slowly.”

“What the hell? Let me see.”

After stabilizing the boss’s aggro, Zhang Shan continued attacking while checking its attributes and skills.

Demonized Army Ant Queen, Red: Level 40. Attack Power: 12,000. Health: 30,000,000. Skill 1: Queen’s Assault. Skill 2: Status Suppression. Skill 3: Ant Strength. Skill 4: Incubation.

Queen’s Assault: When the Demonized Army Ant Queen casts this skill, its damage increases by one hundred percent.

Status Suppression: The queen stands high above all others. Damage dealt to it by ordinary attacks is reduced by fifty percent.

Ant Strength: Greatly increases the queen’s attack power.

Incubation: When faced with danger, the Demonized Army Ant Queen incubates a large number of army ants to assist it in battle.

So that was it. The queen’s Status Suppression skill was practically cheating. It directly reduced damage by fifty percent.

No wonder Zhang Shan could only deal a little over four thousand damage with each attack. After all, he currently had more than nine thousand attack power.

With the Demon Race Nemesis title added in, he should have been dealing over ten thousand damage. Yet he could only manage four thousand and change.

As for the others in the party, there was even less to say. They could basically deal only three or four hundred damage. Their powerful skills might inflict a little more, but not by much.

“This boss is cheating! It reduces damage by fifty percent? Is that for real?”

“It’s not too bad. At least its other skills aren’t very strong and should be easy to handle. We’ll just need to spend more time on it.”

“Is that really how you understand the boss’s skills? Aren’t you ignoring its ultimate, Incubation?”

“What’s there to fear about Incubation? At worst, it’ll be similar to the Wolf King’s ultimate, summoning a few hundred or a thousand minions to help it fight.”

“Are you sure it’ll summon only a few hundred? I’m worried the boss might summon several thousand, or even tens of thousands.”

“Don’t scare me! Can we handle several thousand army ants?”

“Think about it. They’re ants. It wouldn’t be strange for a single nest to contain several thousand.”

“Damn, that actually makes a lot of sense. But this is a game. They can’t be exactly like real ants, right?”

“Who knows? Attack faster. We’ll find out once we’ve taken away half its health.”

Everyone intensified their assault. With thirty million health, the boss would take a long time to kill. Although Zhang Shan’s attack power was extremely high, and his attack speed had been greatly enhanced, the boss’s Status Suppression skill reduced his damage far too much.

Fortunately, the boss’s other skills were not very powerful. Each attack dealt less than twenty thousand damage to Panda Baby.

Its attack frequency was not particularly high either, and with a whole group of support players healing it, there was no pressure at all.

The crucial question was how powerful the boss’s ultimate would be. If it truly summoned several thousand army ants all at once, they would have their work cut out for them.

It was not that they could not defeat them. They would simply have to spend a great deal of time clearing the minions. The boss already had an enormous amount of health and reduced incoming damage by half. If they also had to clear out a huge swarm of lesser monsters—

They might have to spend more than an hour fighting this single boss.

Fengyun Qingqing cast a curse on the boss, increasing the damage it received by fifty percent for five seconds. Zhang Shan immediately activated Berserk and Frenzy.

Bullets flew rapidly from his weapon. One of them dealt holy damage, inflicting 140,000 damage in a single hit. Holy damage ignored defense, and even damage reduction could not stop it.

With more than nine thousand attack power and the curse effect, Zhang Shan unleashed his full damage output. The numbers were astonishing.

“Damn, I’m going blind! One attack dealt 140,000 damage! The Six-Barrel boss is an absolute monster!”

“Exactly. I think the Artifact boss is the real boss here. The ant queen is just a poor little thing being bullied.”

“Damn, that’s a pretty twisted way to put it. An ant can be called a poor little thing?”

“Come on, I was only making a passing remark. Do you have to argue about everything? Is your family running a tollbooth? You’re a professional contrarian.”

The ant queen was a genuine target dummy. Other than its ultimate, it had no skills that made anyone particularly wary.

So everyone attacked the boss happily while idly chatting and boasting.

“Speaking of which, we won’t be able to use the equipment dropped by a level-forty boss anytime soon. It might take us another month just to reach level thirty, let alone level forty.”

“Isn’t that the truth?”

“Have you been following the news from Heaven’s Gate Pass? Don’t worry. Leveling will be faster from now on. The monsters there give much more experience.”

“Really? I honestly hadn’t noticed.”

“That’s what I heard. The monsters there give almost twice as much experience as those in ordinary maps. They’re harder to fight, though—their defense is higher, and they have much more health.”

“Damn, then let’s finish off this boss quickly. I want to go to Heaven’s Gate Pass and grind levels.”

“You think you can go there to level up? Be careful not to get killed by another player and lose an entire level. It’ll take you several more days to recover.”

“What’s there to fear? If someone kills me, I’ll just lie on the ground and call someone to resurrect me. At our current level, no one would willingly return to town after dying. Losing a level is too painful.”

“Be careful someone doesn’t camp your corpse.”

“I haven’t offended anyone. Who would camp my corpse?”

As everyone continued attacking, the boss’s health slowly declined. At last, it was almost down to half.

“Boss, should we form a defensive formation like we did against the Wolf King?”

“Yes. Prepare for the boss’s Incubation skill. Ranged classes, gather together. Strength-based classes, guard the perimeter.”

“Ah, we have to be meat shields again. But army ants hit so hard. I’m afraid I won’t be able to withstand more than a few.”

“It’s fine. One of you dies, and ten thousand families find happiness.”

…

When the Demonized Army Ant Queen’s health fell to half, a vast swarm of army ants suddenly appeared around the boss.

“What the hell? Is this how the minions hatched by the queen assist it? This is more like protecting it! The boss is surrounded by lesser monsters. We can’t even target it anymore!”

“Damn, we can’t see Panda Baby anymore. We have no way to heal it!”

Zhang Shan was equally helpless. Panda Baby and the boss were surrounded by a huge swarm of army ants, making it impossible for the support players to heal it.

In fact, even if they could reach it with their healing spells, they would never be able to keep up. Panda Baby could easily withstand the damage from the boss alone, but with the damage from this enormous swarm of lesser monsters added in—

How could it possibly survive?

Before long, Panda Baby collapsed.