Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 337 Dominoes

 

The appearance of the canyon, and the collapsing of the wall happened so suddenly that the party and even Ye Ci were caught off guard. She was expecting a BOSS to appear after the chess match was concluded, and the party would have to defeat the BOSS to obtain a quest item that would allow them to continue exploring the dungeon. 

 

She did not expect things to be straightforward, and that the path to the next stage of the dungeon would just show itself so abruptly. 

 

The party looked down, and could feel wind blowing upwards from the bottom of the canyon. It was not entirely dark. And from the dim lighting down below, the party could see a square shaped structure at the bottom at the canyon.

 

“Are we going down there?” the Cleric visibly gulped. 

 

“I think we are.” the Berserker beside him chuckled. 

 

“You’ve gotta be kidding me…” the Cleric wailed in anguish.

 

“What/s wrong?” asked Ye Ci. 

 

The Priest chuckled at Ye Ci, “Gongzi, he’s afraid of height. Looking down from such a high place will make him dizzy.” 

 

Ye Ci was baffled. Am I hearing this right? He’s scared of heights? Aren’t we in the game? His fear of heights translated into the game as well? “Is it bad?” she asked when she noticed the Cleric’s pale face. 

 

“It is. Whenever the second squadron explores a dungeon with some form of gorge, ravine or gulch, he would ask someone to either cast Featherfall on him or to carry him down.” the Warrior sighed. 

 

Ye Ci felt sympathy for the Cleric. It’s not easy to have such a serious condition of acrophobia. 

 

“The ravine is too deep… How am I supposed to get down there?” cried the Cleric again. 

 

“I’ll carry you.” the Warrior smiled, and pulled a rope out of his inventory. He tied one end of the rope to a firm spot, and threw the other end down the ravine. “Why are you not a beautiful young lady… Why must I carry a man like you on my back?” he waved his hand at the Cleric. 

 

And the Cleric immediately shot him a glare, “I’ll remember this.” 

 

They were from the same squadron, and had a friendly relationship for a long time. Despite the Cleric’s apparent anger, the entire party laughed. 

 

This is how a party should be like. Thought Ye Ci as she observed their interaction. Just then, a system notification rang out in their ears, announcing the imminent collapse of the Central Control Room. The party had only two minutes to escape the Central Control Room to the bottom of the ravine. 

 

The party was then prompted to finish their preparations. It was apparent that a countdown would be initiated once someone descended the ravine. 

 

“F*ck! Not again! I’ve never hated countdowns so much in my life.” the Berserker cursed under his breath. 

 

“Two minutes?” the Warrior’s eyebrows furrowed. Anxiety was stricken all over his face.

 

“What is it?” asked Ye Ci. 

 

“I don’t think I can reach the bottom of the ravine in two minutes if I have to carry the Cleric. This is the first time I have to carry him to a place that deep. It might affect my speed by a lot…” 

 

It was a problem that was very hard to address, especially under the constant pestering from the system for the players to descend as soon as possible. 

 

Ye Ci looked down the ravine and was able to have a rough estimation of its height. She did a mental calculation of her own Strength and Agility, and said to the party, “Go on ahead. I’ll carry him with me. See you at the bottom.” 

 

“But leader…” the party blurted out almost at the same time. 

 

She raised her hand and cut them off sentence, “We’re exploring a dungeon right now. Teamwork is essential. Nothing else matters.” she turned around and smiled at the Cleric, “If you’re worried because I’m a girl, you have nothing to worry about. Gender does not matter in the game. The only thing that matters is our character class. Remember this.” she then walked up to the Cleric and tied him to her. 

 

The members were already done by the time Ye Ci’s preparations were complete. 

 

They stood at the edge of the ravine, and with a nod from Ye Ci’s head, the party immediately began rappelling downwards. 

 

Instead of the controlled fall of her party members, Ye Ci allowed herself to fall freely after she took a leap. Wind brushed past her face, filling her ears with the wheezing of the wind, as well as the cries of the Cleric. 

 

The Cleric’s grip tightened on Ye Ci as they fell. 

 

Ye Ci could feel her eardrums being pushed to their limits. The scream from the Cleric was not something she would expect out of a man. And just before the duo hit the ground, Ye Ci tossed her Cat Claw at the face of the cliff. 

 

Once her fall was stopped 10 centimeters off the ground, Ye Ci released her Cat Claw and landed gently on the ground. The Cleric was still screaming as she untied him from her. 

 

“We’ve landed.” she said to the Cleric. 

 

The Cleric’s screams continued for a few more seconds before sudden realisation washed over him. He opened his eyes and said in a voice full of disbelief, “I’m alive!” 

 

Ye Ci chuckled as she sat on the floor for a short rest, and waited for the rest of the party. 

 

The party was able to descend the ravine quickly before the countdown was finished. They have seen Ye Ci on her way down, and have also heard the screams of their Cleric friend. 

 

They expressed their admiration for Ye Ci, and their sympathy for the poor Cleric. 

 

There was a BOSS in the middle of the ravine, Bob the Traitor Builder. 

 

It did not take the party long to locate Bob the Traitor Builder, who was sitting on a very flat terrain. The BOSS was drawing something on his blueprint. His hair was long and messy, and his clothes were in tatters. Bob had the appearance of a mad wanderer. But the most eye-catching feature of bob was the thick five yards long chain around his neck that was attached to the ground.

 

This meant that the BOSS’s movements were limited within a five yards radius. As long as the BOSS was not a mage and tank was available to attract its aggro, it could be defeated easily. 

 

There was but a small problem. The developers would naturally never place such an easy BOSS fight in the game. The BOSS was indeed a physical attack monster, but when 20% of its HP was finally chipped away by the party, the BOSS started using his skills, “Haul” and “Rage”. 

 

Haul allowed Bob to pull a random player to him and slam the player onto the ground, dealing huge amount of damage to the player while releasing a large AOE damage, while “Rage” amplifies the AOE damage of “Haul” to five times the amount of the player who was affected by “Haul”.

 

This meant that when a player with 5,000 HP was pulled in by “Haul”, “Rage” would amplify the AOE damage to a whopping 25,000 damage. Even the toughest tank character at the current stage of the game could not withstand a single attack from “Rage”.  

 

Bob’s AOE attack had a diameter of 25 yards.

 

This meant that a single AOE attack from Bob could cover all the open ground around the BOSS. None of the party members would survive if they took an attack from Bob. 

 

But the developers would not design a BOSS that could not be defeated. Ye Ci was the only surviving party member after Bob’s attack. 

 

Ye Ci was saved not by her stats, but by her reflex. She immediately jumped towards a rectangular structure nearby when a rage bar appeared under the BOSS, which released its skill the moment she landed safely. 

 

As “Rage” only deals damage on a single plane, Ye Ci was not within attacking range of the skill due to her elevation. This was why she was able to survive. 

 

When she looked back behind her, only the corpses of her party members remained.

 

“Let’s revive.” said the Cleric. With almost the entire party dead, there was no way the dungeon could be cleared. 

 

“No, don’t do that.” said Ye Ci, “They way here is shut. We won’t be able to get in even if we revive. Let me think of a way to kill him. I won’t allow our efforts to be in vain.” 

 

“Are you going to take it on solo?” the party members were shocked. 

 

“I’m not a GM.” Ye Ci grimaced, “There’s no way I can do that. I’m just thinking of a way.” 

 

This was because Ye Ci had realised something as she stood on the rectangular structure. There were five such structures around Bob with varying lengths, and she was standing on one of them. These rectangles felt familiar to Ye Ci. 

 

They reminded her of dominoes. 

 

It was common knowledge that when a single piece fall, the other will fall as well in a chain reaction until all the pieces fall. 

 

Ye Ci continued studying her surroundings. She was certain that the rectangular objects surrounding the empty space were dominoes. Everything that could be found in Fate’s dungeon serves a purpose. The dominoes were certainly not placed there. They’re meant to be used on the BOSS! Thought Ye Ci as she stared at the five rectangular objects behind Bob. 

 

The objects were 15 to 20 yards tall, and if all of them fell, they would eventually fall on Bob. 

 

“Hold on, don’t revive yet, I’ll be back quickly.” Ye Ci did not care if she left combat by leaving the flat arena as she sprinted towards the edge of the ravine. 

 

The members of the party could only watch on as Ye Ci headed off. Just as they started a conversation of their own, the ground began to rumble. 

 

And before they knew what was happening, a rectangular object fell, and it landed on Bob. 

 

The fallen object kicked up a lot of dust, and it took away 19% of Bob’s HP. 

 

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