A Level 40 demonic Great Lord was the stuff of nightmares for current players.
And this particular Great Lord was a gargoyle.
Among demonic creatures, gargoyles ranked among the best in magic resistance and defense. What made them truly terrifying, however, was that pair of massive wings that allowed them to fly freely through the sky. If players ran into one, they wouldn't even have a chance to flee.
To make matters worse, a gargoyle could attack ground-based players from the air, putting melee fighters at a severe disadvantage. Only ranged classes posed any real threat to one.
On the giant stone gate of the valley guarded by Great Lord Noah, a black stone tablet was affixed. The gate itself was protected by a faint gray barrier that no one could break through. That black stone tablet was brimming with dense demonic power — it was the Chapter of Darkness that Shi Feng needed, and also the core power source sustaining the barrier over the gate.
To obtain the Chapter of Darkness, one had to deal with Great Lord Noah and break through the gray barrier.
For that reason, getting the Chapter of Darkness was nearly impossible.
The only viable approach was to kill Great Lord Noah first, then take the time to crack the gray barrier.
As Shi Feng crept closer, he caught faint sounds of commotion from not far away. He turned his head to look.
"Why would players be coming here at a time like this?" Shi Feng's expression turned to one of surprise.
Not far from the giant stone gate where Great Lord Noah stood, a full hundred players — all between Level 28 and 29 — were slowly advancing toward Noah, clearly preparing to engage.
The sky was growing dark. Nightfall was fast approaching, putting players at a terrible disadvantage. Ordinary players would be heading back to a shelter by now, not venturing into a dangerous place like this.
"Are they seriously trying to take on Noah right now?" Shi Feng was stunned.
The group had already formed up in battle formation, making their intent unmistakable. But a Level 40 field Great Lord was no pushover. Forget a hundred players — even five hundred would end up the same way.
That was precisely why the Fifth Zone had joined forces with other zones to assault Noah.
The coalition from the major zones had fielded over a thousand players in total.
That didn't mean all thousand charged in at once, of course. The plan was to use attrition tactics.
Field bosses grew stronger based on the number of enemies within a certain range. Once the count exceeded a hundred, their HP, defense, and attack power all increased significantly. The best strategy was to keep the fighting force at around a hundred at any time. If there were more than that, they rotated players in and out — a standard method guilds used against field bosses.
With attrition tactics, the number of players engaging the field boss was maintained at exactly one hundred. Whenever someone fell, a replacement was sent in immediately, steadily whittling down the boss's HP. If instead thousands of players rushed in all at once, they'd be wiped out in minutes.
The hundred players before him were no ordinary bunch. Just their levels alone put them far above the average player.
A single Level 28 or 29 player would already be considered top-tier even in the Fifth Zone, yet here were over a hundred of them. That kind of power was enough to make anyone take notice, regardless of where they were.
But against a Level 40 Great Lord? It still wasn't nearly enough.
"Go!"
The lead Elementalist shouted the order. Twelve Elementalers surrounding the gargoyle unfurled the magic scrolls in their hands and began chanting incantations.
The twelve scrolls seemed to function as a single unit, instantly forming an intricate twelve-pointed star magic array. In the blink of an eye, the array enveloped Great Lord Noah, and tremendous magical energy crushed inward toward the Great Lord at its center, drawing a furious roar from Noah.