The Great Thief

A large group of Poison Fang Druids made threatening gestures at Lu Li from across the ravine, but they couldn’t really do anything else. After a while, the System prompted them that they had escaped the fight and the monsters bitterly turned away.

Even after crossing the ravine, there was still quite a long way to go and many more monsters on the path.

However, this time wasn’t as difficult as before. Although there were many mobs, they were all close-ranged and didn’t use poison. They were also a little ugly, but gave quite a bit of EXP.

The Deviate Shambler staggered around with a sway in its step. Its appearance almost terrified the younger players.

Its body was made of mud, so its attacks would often miss. The melee players experienced some difficulty in hitting them, but the ranged players didn’t have any problems with this.

There was also another monster called the Deviate Lasher, which didn’t have high HP or resistance. The only issue with them was that they were quite densely-packed – there were usually a few dozen of them together. Even a tank as strong as Azure Sea Breeze made sure to cast his resistance skills before he dared to charge in.

After clearing the mobs for over an hour, they group finally reached Serpentis.

Serpentis was once one of the best students of Navarax.

In the Howling Caves, Serpentis wasn’t the final Boss, but it definitely had the most personality.

Many players thought that this unusual Boss was very sophisticated.

It lived in a nearly open-air cave with green lights hanging on the wall. There was also a wooden frame nailed to the walls and the shelves were filled with bottles and jars.

A number of wooden stakes were strewn all over his testing bench, while he sat at his desk performing Druid Mage experiments.

He allowed some Druids to understand the wonder of transforming into a Poisonous Python, while allowing other Druids to experiment with fast-acting, natural poison.

“We have guests…” Serpentis lifted his head to look at Lu Li and the others.

At this moment, four Wind Snake Guards appeared before him. Two of them transformed to display Sharp Fangs, while the other two transformed to have Poison Fangs. They were all as tall as an average human and had wings on their back, which gave them a streamlined aesthetic.

However, Lu Li knew of their true savagery.

“Get ready.” Wandering was uneasy as well. Upon seeing the Wind Snakes approach, he quickly ordered the party members to prepare for battle.

Wind Snakes were snakes that had grown wings and were the descendants of Hakkar. Serpentis had developed a way to control them, making them his own watch-dogs. The four Wind Snakes had multiplied to form the community of Wind Snakes that filled this entire Instance Dungeon.

“Hiss…”

They still retained one particular snake-like aspect – before attacking, they would provoke their opponent to demonstrate their strength.

Azure Sea Breeze took a step forwards to meet them.

One of the Sharp Fang Wind Snakes flapped its wings and produced a gale, which reduced the speed of all players by 50%.

Both sides then engaged in battle. Azure Sea Breeze pulled two of them while Wandering and Moonlight took on one each. The other people all focused their attacks on one of the Poison Fang Wind Snakes.

One of the Poison Fang Snakes spat poison at Azure Sea Breeze. He suddenly turned green as a damage value of 300 appeared above his head again and again, quickly dropping him down to half-HP. If he had cast his damage reduction skill any later, it was possible that he could have died.

“Are these damned monsters considered mobs?” Azure Sea Breeze asked in fear.

“This is basically a super elite – kinda like a mini Boss.” Moonlight made his judgement after looking at the monster’s remaining HP.

Not all Bosses fought alone. Some of them had subordinates, which were usually very strong. Serpentis was one of these Bosses; each of the Wind Snakes had the strength of a mini Boss.

At this moment, the other Poison Fang Wind Snake tried to spit poison. Its target was Sakura Memories.

With her current HP…

Lu Li rushed forwards with a kick, forcing the Snake to swallow its poison. A huge -1600 appeared over its head.

Counterattack!

The other players didn’t know that you could do that. As they watched Lu Li, they thought that what he had done was very unnatural.

“Who else has an interrupt skill?”

“Yesterday, the System awarded me with Rebuke. It can prevent a target from casting spells for 4 seconds, but it has a long cooldown,” Wandering responded.

“I have Wind Shear,” Sakura Memories said as she raised her hand.

“You two can organise those two among yourselves. You are responsible for interrupting the one on the left. I will interrupt the one on the right. Make sure you cast your skills quickly – you have to interrupt it on time.” Lu Li had unconsciously taken over command once again.

However, there was no other way. If they fought this Boss under Wandering’s directions, they would have a 100% chance of failure.

The Sharp Fang Snake inhaled and bit at Azure Sea Breeze. Azure Sea Breeze immediately felt his body become heavier and quickly glanced at his status effects.

Armor Pierce, Bleed, Lethality.

He had received three debuffs in a single moment.

Armor Pierece reduced his Defence, Bleed continuously reduced his HP and Lethality cut his ability to heal in half.

“Cast Shield Wall. Make sure the Main Tank is healed up.” Before he could say anything, Lu Li had already issued a command.

Azure Sea Breeze had just cast his damage reduction skill, but all four Druids stopped attacking their respective targets and cast a skill onto him.

-600, -600, -600, -600!

These skills had dealt 600 damage even though Shield Wall was up, which demonstrated how strong they really were. After this, the four Wind Snakes surrounded Azure Sea Breeze and unleashed a ferocious Thunderclap, dealing over a thousand damage in a matter of seconds.

If he hadn’t cast his damage reduction skill, or if Lu Li hadn’t reminded them to heal him, Azure Sea Breeze would have already been lying on the floor.

“Continue to focus the Poison Fang Snakes. Just ignore the Sharp Fang ones,” Lu Li called out to the players who wanted to use their AOE skills.

“But the Sharp Fangs are so strong. Why aren’t we hitting them?” Wandering couldn’t help but ask.

“These four monsters are the same grade. There is no reason to hit the Sharp Fang one over the Poison Fang one; I just decided it to be so.” Lu Li didn’t have time to spend on explaining.

The Sharp Fang Snake’s strength was in its ability to quickly apply three debuffs.

The Poison Fang Snake’s strength was in its poison and Tainted Blood.

Tainted Blood: A mutated Wind Snake can select a target and reduce its defence by 90%, before dealing significant damage to it.

This could instantly kill someone!

After fighting for a few minutes, they finally managed to kill one of the Poison Fangs. They then followed Lu Li’s instruction to turn and start focusing on the other one.

This Poison Fang let out a cry and spat a green light at Sesame Rice Ball.

Sesame Rice Ball cried as he hit the ground and was instantly killed.

Everyone’s faces turned green. This wasn’t even the Boss – how was it capable of one-shotting someone?

Sesame Rice Ball’s equipment gave him a decent amount of HP, so he wasn’t particularly lacking in that area.

It wasn’t just Sesame Rice Ball. When the two level 30 players had brought Lu Li here in his previous life, they would be left with a sliver of health if a Poison Fang hit them.