Two tanks' worth of work, all handled by Ke Le alone — and he still looked like he had plenty of energy to spare.
"Huo Wu, go pull another wave. Ye Wumian, assist Ke Le and draw the demon maids' aggro." Shi Feng assessed the situation and figured pulling two waves at once wouldn't be a problem. It was more efficient, after all.
The demon servants loved to throw out that Blood Edge buff at the drop of a hat, but with two Priests on dispel duty, it wasn't a big deal. Both Priests were skilled — especially Ziyan Liuyun. After her trial by the gods, she had been completely reborn.
It was no surprise that shortly after passing the Six-Color Trial, she had become a Sixth-Order Divine Priest.
Even without the Six-Color Trial, passing the Four-Color Trial was no small feat. The rewards included permanent attribute points, enhanced skills, and equipment. As far as healing went, it would be hard to find anyone in all of White River City who could match Ziyan Liuyun.
After Huo Wu dragged over the next wave of monsters, Ke Le immediately launched his Shield of Vengeance at three demon servants, dealing over three hundred damage. Their aggro shifted to Ke Le in an instant.
Right after, Ye Wumian charged in with a Flaming Rush, stunning four demon maids in the back row, and followed up with a Thunder Strike. Lightning crackled, and damage numbers hovering near a hundred popped up over all four maids' heads. The damage was noticeably lower than Ke Le's Consecration, which infuriated the demon maids. One of them smashed an Inferno Blast into Ye Wumian's body, sending sparks flying in every direction.
Ye Wumian stumbled back two steps before regaining his footing, his health dropping sharply. A damage figure of over seven hundred appeared above his head — and Ye Wumian's total HP as a Shield Warrior was only 2,580, with a defense of 1,875. Those weren't bad numbers. Even if they weren't quite at the top tier for White River City's Shield Warriors, they weren't far off.
After all, Ye Wumian had been the leader of Qingye, Jinhai City's top studio. His gear had always been solid. On top of that, Huo Wu had dragged him through several Hard-mode dungeons, so his entire set was Iron Rank or above. Three of those pieces were Mythril Rank — the shield, the breastplate, and the legguards — the core defensive gear for any main tank. But compared to Ke Le's equipment, they fell far short.
"So strong." Shuise Qiangwei looked at Ke Le, who was tanking ten Elites without flinching, and couldn't help but gasp.
When she had first watched Ke Le pull and hold aggro, Shuise Qiangwei had felt like this couldn't possibly be a Hell Difficulty twenty-player raid dungeon. Seeing Ye Wumian now had snapped her back to reality — this really was Hell Difficulty. It was just that Ke Le, this Guardian Knight, was absurdly powerful. No wonder Shi Feng had been so confident right from the start, insisting they tackle the Demon Castle on Hell Difficulty from the get-go. With a main tank this strong, starting on Hell wasn't out of the question.
"Priests, prioritize healing Ye Wumian. Everyone else, full DPS — take out the demon maids first." Shi Feng finished speaking and rushed in, targeting the demon maids.
"Leave it to me," Hei Zi said excitedly. He had been waiting for his chance to shine. He hefted his epic-grade staff, Mjölnir's Guard, and unleashed a relentless barrage of spells on the demon maids.
Hei Zi's firepower went without saying. Every Shadow Arrow dealt 964 damage, a critical hit dealt 2,106, and if the Lance of Light procs triggered, that was another 800-plus damage on top.
When he cast Hell Inferno, the spell dealt over a thousand damage per second across a ten-yard radius. If demons didn't have such high magic resistance, those numbers could have been even higher.
Compared to Hei Zi's output, Shuise Qiangwei's damage as an Elementalist was somewhat lacking. Her Fire Blast and Chain Fire Explosions dealt around 670 damage each, which left Shuise Qiangwei a little frustrated. She had been an Honored Elder of Dusk's Echo, for crying out loud — and here she was, trailing Hei Zi by over three hundred damage.
What Shuise Qiangwei didn't know was that Hei Zi was wielding an epic-grade staff. If she had known, she would have been shocked out of her mind.
The other magic users' damage output wasn't bad either — all above five hundred.
Among the melee fighters, Huo Wu was the standout. Her normal attacks only dealt around 280 damage, and even her skills topped out around 460, but those twin daggers had insanely high attack speed. Circling a single demon maid, she not only prevented it from casting spells but also whittled its health down relentlessly. Once she built up eight full bars of energy, a single Eviscerate dealt over twenty-four hundred damage.
Jimo Ruxue was a Berserker. Even though his weapon was only a Level 15 Mythril two-handed axe, his normal attacks hit for around five hundred, and a single Smash dealt over nine hundred. His attack frequency couldn't compare to an Assassin's, though.
The five new Demon Generals and the four experts from Qingye studio had long since grown numb to the damage output of Zero Wing's eight elites. What they were seeing now was just the tip of the iceberg.
While Shuise Qiangwei and Bing Guo were still marveling, Shi Feng's own damage left both of them stunned.
The Abyssal blade and Silver Lake Light whirled in his hands like the Grim Reaper's scythes, carving a tornado through the enemy. His normal attacks alone dealt around 350 damage, but that wasn't the scary part. What was terrifying were the crits — each one topped 700 damage, and sometimes a triple crit would pop for over a thousand. Double crits appeared with dizzying frequency thanks to his attack speed, making the spectacle genuinely pleasing to watch.
He unleashed Thunder Flash — three bolts of lightning lanced through every Elite, and damage numbers of -510, -721, and -1,020 appeared in an instant. Some were crits that doubled the damage outright.
Then Shi Feng activated Dark Sky Rampage, dealing 40% of the target's damage in a twelve-yard area ahead. Sword strike after sword strike rained down, and damage numbers of over a hundred popped up above all fourteen Elites' heads. A single Level 10 Slash would instantly deal over three hundred damage in that mode.
But those weren't even Shi Feng's most impressive qualities. What truly set him apart was his precise sense of timing and battlefield awareness. The moment any of those Elites showed signs of acting out, a single Hellfire Thunder detonation would slam them into a stunned state, buying both tanks more reaction time to reposition and re-establish aggro.
Shuise Qiangwei had known about Shi Feng's strength beforehand, but actually watching him deal damage in person was something else entirely.
After clearing this two-wave pack of Elites, Shi Feng pulled up the raid's damage chart.
"Ugh, not great. I haven't upgraded my gear in too long. Didn't expect to deal so little," Shi Feng said with a wry smile.
Although his total damage was ranked first — ahead even of Hei Zi — in single-target damage, Hei Zi had completely lapped him.
Shi Feng had been too busy making money and building up resources to spend much on gear upgrades. He was still wearing the Level 10 Iron Rank set called Wind Extinction. Only three pieces of his equipment were Mythril Rank, and those were Level 10 as well…
The real reason Shi Feng dealt such impressive damage was the Abyssal blade and the quasi-Transcendent throwing weapon, Inferno Meteor, along with all the bonus base stats from his other gear. Without those, his damage would only rank around fifth or sixth.
But his little self-deprecating remark was met with collective scorn.
Saying "not great" when you're ranked first overall in damage — did he want the rest of them to live or not?
Under Shi Feng's command, the group pushed onward, cutting down hundreds of Elites and over a dozen Special Elites along the way. Among the Special Elites, the demon hounds were ferocious — and at one point they had to face four at once. If Ke Le hadn't been strong enough to tank three simultaneously while Ye Wumian held the fourth, they would have wiped.
Of course, the rewards were nothing to scoff at. Along with some Tier 1 gems and Bronze and Iron Rank gear, they picked up two Mythril Rank pieces. One was a cloth robe for an Elementalist, which went to Shuise Qiangwei. The other was a pair of cloth shoes for a Priest — Ziyan Liuyun's gear was already excellent and she had no need for them, so they went to the other Priest, Bing Guo.
"Hell Difficulty twenty-player raid dungeons really do have amazing returns. Regular Elites are dropping Iron Rank gear, and Special Elites drop Mythril Rank," Shuise Qiangwei remarked, still marveling. Just the loot from reaching the first boss was equivalent to clearing a Hard-mode dungeon. If they could take down one or two bosses, the payoff would be enormous.
"Don't celebrate too early. Let's celebrate after we take down the boss in front of us." Shi Feng narrowed his eyes, fixing his gaze on the towering heavy-armored knight standing in the arena — eyes burning with bloodlust, a crimson aura radiating from every inch of his body.
Knight Commander Frederick Justin. Demon creature. Lord-class. Level 16. HP: 880,000.
(To be continued…)