Chapter 82 – Reasonable Tactics
This chapter was sponsored by Laura Lai Tong, Bakari Gaynor, Jason Chen, Vesa Kivisto and William Wang!
Whooshwhooshwhoosh…
In the glow of the three continuous [Heals], the monk’s HP was pulled back up. With tears, he raised his steel rod and aimed for the boss, but it barely did anything with an attack damage of under 100.
Lime colored air swirled around General of the Everlasting Wind and suddenly his sword trembled with 4 golden hexagrams sweeping across his sword. Damn, it was a [Combo] LV-6! 4 strikes!
“690!”
“674!”
“710!”
“704!”
Luckily, the monk’s total HP was at least 2000, and with a close heal, he withstood it. He held his shield, slowly backed away, and yelled loudly, “Quickly, use [Hemostasis] and [Heal], get my health back to full!”
……
The battle continued ferociously while the Generals and I watched from a distance. I clenched my fists and frowned, “This isn’t too good. The boss’ attack is too high. Even if the monk has enough defense, he can’t dish out enough damage. Once he receives a large amount of damage, he can’t guarantee that the aggro will be on him.The aggro might switch to the higher priority healers.”
Li Mu nodded and muttered, “Yeah, this isn’t going too well…”
……
Whoooooosh!
Under the ray of healing, his health returned to full once again. But at the same time, the General gave up on attacking the monk. He raised his sword, spread his arms, and bellowed, “Die!”
With a whoosh, he used [Biting Cold Blade], and the leaf-like skill landed in the middle of the 4 healers! It was an AOE attack!
The healers let out multiple large cries as a chain of damage numbers flew up. The 4 healers received over a thousand points of damage. They fell one after another and became the boss’ first victims.
I looked at the battle and quietly said, “The General’s [Combo] is a Level 6 skill so it can strike 3-4 times. The healing has to be very tight, or else I won’t able to tank through it. Also, his [Biting Cold Blade] is an AOE attack, so if there are over 2 players standing together, they can very easily attract the aggro. We will need to be careful as well.”
Wang Jian clenched his teeth and asked, “Xiao Yao, is it possible that you can take on a boss like that?”
I smiled, “Give me 10 healers that will continuously heal me non stop, then I can!”
“Mm, then that’s good….”
……
In the battlefield, the General already started to ignore Goodbye Tears’ aggro control and he was raising his sword and causing destruction everywhere. Each of his attacks were in the form of an arc and spread death everywhere. Mages, musketeers, and archers all fell under the attack range of the General. Our first attacking group was almost annihilated.
“Damn…”
Feng Han clenched his fists and teeth while looking at the boss’ direction. He yelled, “The first group can’t take it anymore. Xiao Yao Zi Zai, Generals, you guys prepare to go, and continue attacking the boss!”
I nodded, “Feng Han, I’ll be the leader. Give me 9 healers, and concentrate their healing on me. Bring your best healers, and they need to heal one after another, or else I won’t be able to take on the boss’s attack!”
Feng Han’s gaze landed on Simple, “Sister?”
Simple raised her staff and said, “Duck, take 8 healers and join Xiao Yao’s party, concentrate all of the healing on him. I’ll make two mage and archer teams and we will control the boss. This is the second battle, we need to kill the boss in one go. If we leave it to the third group, then we might not have a chance to win!”
Very quickly, a Level 40 healer stood up, ID: Darling Duck. She should be the best healer in [Vanguard]. I’d give her a 7!
Tick!
System Notification: Player Darling Duck wants to join your party!
……
I immediately accepted and very soon, another 8 healers joined in the party one after another. They were really some top class healers, the lowest leveled one was already at level 39. Duck was the only healer in my party that was Level 40 with the second promotion. She had [Healer Advent], [Revive], and [Group Heal], the three second promotion skills. With her, the success rate should increase quite a bit.
“Duck?” I asked.
Duck widened her eyes, “Mm, what’s the matter, Xiao Yao?”
I said, “When the boss uses [Combo], after his first strike, use [Heal] and then use [Hemostasis] to keep me alive. If I ever get killed, then use [Revive] on me as fast as possible, or else I won’t be able to control his aggro.”
Duck smiled and nodded, “Mm, I understand!”
On the side, the Vice-Guildmaster raised her staff, and organized a 20-man group. She yelled, “Do not stand together, everyone spread apart, or else [Biting Cold Blade] will land on you!”
I looked to my right and saw General Li Mu raising his longsword. He gathered a 10-man party together with 3 healers and yelled, “Xiao Yao is the front line. If his health ever gets too low, then we will immediately go take on the boss to buy him some time. Be sharp healers, I might need to tank some damage. Remember to do some tight healing or else I’m just going to meet the grim reaper…”
The healers looked at each other, understanding that the pressure was on them. Tight healing. Easy to say but hard to do. To do Tight Healing, you needed to anticipate the attacking time of the boss, because all healing spells had a bit of lag time. [Hemostasis] had 0.1 seconds of lag time, which was near instant, but [Heal] had a lag time of 0.5 seconds, which was quite a bit confusing.
……
We finished preparing and Goodbye Tears was already kneeling in front of the General. Feng Han got agitated and said, “Xiao Yao Zi Zai. If you don’t go now, when will you go?!”
I bit my lip, grabbed my sword and ran over there. I needed to instantly grab the boss’ aggro!
A clear sharp sound came from the sword and 3 golden hexagrams swept along the blade. Without any hesitation, I attacked the General. The sword cut through the air and it struck the General’s hip. With 3 clangs, 3 damage numbers also flew up——
“311!”
“287!”
“325!”
Of course, the boss’ level was too high, to the point where even with [Turmoil Sword], [Encourage], and other buffs, I couldn’t penetrate its defense by a large amount. However, dealing 900+ damage with a single [Combo] was pretty good.
Growl….
The General glared at 3 mages from afar with his blood-red eyes and seemed to be planning to charge at them. My aggro wasn’t high enough, this wouldn’t do!
With a circle of white light, Baby Bobo’s [Combo] attacked 3 times. The boss hesitated for an second before his body tilted slightly. This was the chance that I was waiting for!
Whoosh!
A white-glow appeared under my legs, it was the activation of [Strength of a Thousand Men]!
“147!”
“172!”
“155!”
“74!”
With those attacks, it was obvious that my attack damage and strength didn’t match my opponent’s. My head became purple from the ramming. Nevertheless, my sword collected the wind and after 0.2 of preparation, I used my strongest attack——[Wind Blade]!
Bang!
The sword’s edge sparked blue as it slashed the boss’ heavy armor and a huge damage number popped up——
“1544!”
A Critical hit! Not bad!
But the thing that broke my heart is that I still didn’t have the boss’ aggro. The ranged attacks from behind were way too strong and I immediately chased after the boss who was charging towards the back line. I checked my skills’ cooldowns and my sword started to emit a glow. Ice started to swirl around my sword and I struck powerfully at the General’s back——[Fierce Ice Blade]!
“679!”
Indeed, the skills gained from the second promotion were strong. Frost started to form on the boss’ armor and his speed was greatly decreased. The slowing effects from it were stronger than the ice spells’ from mages!
…….
Growl…
The General finally turned around and with blood-red eyes, he stared at me. The corners of his mouth rose and he said, “Brat, are you looking for death? I’ll bring you into the depths of Hell!”
He raised his sword, and a blood-like glow appeared on it!
I instinctively stepped back but my body felt like it was attracted to a magnet and it was hard to move. I felt a wave of pain on my shoulder. The boss’ attack landed on me!
“987!”
Of course, I was no monk. I hadn’t put any points in endurance, so my defense was a bit weaker!
I had already cast a skill right when the boss was striking and with a flick of my wrist, I healed myself. [Heal] recovered 600 HP, and at the same time,
“Ding!”
LV+1.
[Heal] rose to level 5 in the middle of a battle! Last night, when I kept on using this skill. I had forgotten to look at the skill proficiency!
The boss’ killing intent instantly rose since my [Heal] gathered a large amount of aggro. The guy swept his blade and started a Level 6 [Combo]! 4 strikes!
I saw through it instantly and jumped to the side to dodge it!
“MISS!”
I successfully dodged the first one, but I couldn’t do the same for the next 3!
“847!”
“+870!”
“821!”
“+614!”
“+434!”
“811!”
……
A chain of damage numbers and healing numbers blended together. Duck’s healing effect was quite good, she had a 750 base heal and with equipment and stat points, the heal effect rose to 870. She also healed me the instant I took damage. There weren’t many healers like this and out all of Ba Huang City’s healers, her skills were at least in the top 5!
Right when my skill cooldown ended, I immediately used [Wind Blade] and [Fierce Ice Blade]. The two skills provided explosive damage and with the slow from [Fierce Ice Blade], the General bellowed in frustration. He tried to kill me but couldn’t. Even though he had a level 6 [Combo], he was a bit slow when it came to using it and I could usually dodge the first strike. With that, a lot of my pressure was reduced.
In the air, many high-leveled mages including Simple continuously cast freezing spells. On the tip of her staff, a curiously dangerous combination of fire and ice appeared. In the next instant, the Level 40 skill [Pillar of Fire and Ice] was cast!
“774!”
[Pillar of Fire and Ice] was a 5×5 meter AOE magic spell. Combined with such a high damage, it was really amazing.
“Careful, don’t get too close!” Feng Han warned from afar.
Sadly, the mages were a bit too slow. With a sweep of the boss’ blade, a leaf-like glow appeared between two mages and they were instantly killed!
“Damn…”
My heart sunk, but I continued slicing at the boss with my sword. After a few seconds, I used [Strength of a Thousand Men] again. The boss could only keep slashing at me. But with 9 healers healing me continuously and 1558 HP, it would be hard for me to die, even if I wanted to!
……
“Hehe, looks like Xiao Yao can tank everything on his own…” Li Mu smiled.
Wang Jian frowned, “Boss, we need to be careful. If he makes any mistakes then we need to save Xiao Yao instantly…”
Li Mu nodded and didn’t say anymore.