The Great Thief

Theoretically, Arcanist Doan shouldn’t have been in this stage.

The game company made a simple explanation for this: as the guardian of the library, Doan loved his library and refused to damage it. He would limit his actions and would only use some weak spells.

Even so, it would take a lot of effort to kill a strong being.

Lu Li unlocked the door with the key, only to see a bald and old Mage sitting there reading a book.

A bald and old Mage...

Lu Li couldn’t believe that he had the audacity to even like Abbendis with his looks. Doan had always been the most wanted head amongst the male players.

General Abbendis didn’t only look beautiful, she also had a heroic air about her. She was loved and admired by both men and women.

”My, how rude of me. I didn’t realize that we had guests.” In Nightmare mode, Doan was even more intelligent; his facial expression showed no difference to an average human.

”Cut the chit chat, old man. If you kneel down now and beg for mercy, I’ll consider sparing you.” Apart from Azure Sea Breeze, it was hard to find someone else who would say this. His sentence was even more effective than a taunt skill. Doan’s curly hair, the red hair that only covered the edges of his head, began to shiver from his rage.

”Under the instructions of Brigitte, we’re here to end your filthy life.” Lu Li’s words were clearly more well-thought.

He aimed right where it was going to hurt most.

Doan’s old face twisted together in mixed emotions of heart-break, disbelief and an unspeakable ferocity.

”Shut up, go and start the boss,” Wandering said as he kicked Azure Sea Breeze from behind.

Azure Sea Breeze turned to glance behind resentfully, before he charged forward while rubbing his butt.

A Fireball suddenly slipped out between the fingers of Doan. It smashed into Azure Sea Breeze and brought up a huge red line of text – a critical strike!

”****, that’s 900 damage per hit. What kind of Fireball is that? Flower, watch and learn.”

Azure Sea Breeze fearfully took a step back and smacked his shield right onto the bald spot of Doan’s head.

”Stop the talk. We’ll be fine if you can take the damage,” Lu Li snapped. Of all the people Azure Sea Breeze could provoke, he just had to choose Lonesome Flower.

Doan held one book in his hand and casted skills with the other. With just a few simple gestures of his hand, he casted some weak Mage spells with perfect timing.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t learned any strong spells, it was just that the old library wouldn’t be able to take it.

At least, before his health dropped too low, the old man wouldn’t be too violent.

To be fair, these weaker spells weren’t that easy to take either. Azure Sea Breeze’s health bar was constantly jumping up and down, giving everyone a mini heart attack each time it did so.

The old Mage mumbled something under his breath and two Scarlet Caster walked out from the void.

”Grandpa, you’re being too shameless, summoning monsters at 89% health.” Hachi Chan was clearly unimpressed.

Lu Li didn’t have time to join in on scolding Doan. He pounced on one of the monsters and instructed the others to kill the second monster.

These two summoned monsters could heal each other and they were also capable of releasing a massive shield that shielded both themselves and the Boss. This shield was called the Scarlet Shield; it allowed all Scarlet units to take 99% less damage.

It was a skill that basically granted invincibility.

”Drag on the fight and don’t die,” Lu Li calmly instructed.

Since Doan’s intelligence had become higher, there wasn’t a particular pattern to follow. He wasn’t like the other bosses, where they casted certain skills based on their own percentage of health.

For example, these two summoned monsters were sometimes summoned early in the fight and sometimes later.

There wasn’t much that could be done about this stage of the fight, since there was no way for the team to kill the summoned monsters instantly. It was guaranteed that the shield would be casted, so the best they could do was to stay alive.

After thirty seconds, the shield disappeared and the two summoned monsters were quickly slaughtered by Lu Li and the others.

”****, this old thing is way too shameless; his health is regenerating so fast.” Azure Sea Breeze looked like he was about to cry. Under the raining spells from the boss, he had no choice but to activate a damage reduction skill.

”Keep it up, don’t panic. This isn’t too hard.”

Lu Li maintained a steady tone and constantly comforted his team members.

Right at the same moment, Doan pointed at March Rain and a strong wind swept up and blew the Priest into the air.

”Hachi Chan, heal. Breeze, make sure to use damage reduction. Controlling March diverts the attention of the boss so the healing task won’t be too hard. Hachi Chan, you can manage this. Come, use a recover first...” Lu Li encouraged the little girl; he was afraid that Hachi Chan would refuse to perform her part.

Fortunately, Hachi Chan was a professional at doing quests, her gear was good and she also had a lot of skills and skill points.

Lu Li instructed her step by step and as she casted healing skills based on his instructions, the situation stabilized.

Doan was a Mage; he placed a shield on himself.

A shield on him meant that he either didn’t deal damage or would only take a little bit of damage. He also regenerated his health in the process.

If it wasn’t for Lu Li’s constant encouragement, the others would’ve already given up.

March Rain’s mana bar was dropping lower and lower; she had to summon her Shadow Demon to recover her mana. With two thirds of Doan’s health still remaining, no matter how much faith she had in Lu Li, she felt like this was a lost battle.

Kick!

Lu Li interrupted a spell with his Kick, taking a little bit of pressure off the team.

It was hard to cancel the skills of a boss; this was dependent on a player’s technique and luck.

No matter how much effort everyone placed into the fight, the healers were under enormous pressure and March Rain was low on mana again.

The main tank was satisfactory; his defense was good enough and he couldn’t be killed easily. The healer was skilled too; she always managed to bring back the health of the main tank and the other team members. Consistency became the weak spot in this fight.

The only fortunate part of the fight was that Doan’s mana bar was also dropping at a rapid rate.

He tried to cast ”Evocation” to regenerate his mana; Lonesome Flower had the same mana recovery skill too.

Lu Li interrupted his spell just in time with a Kick. If his Kick failed, it would be a guaranteed wipe for the team. As such, Lu Li had been patiently waiting for this moment for a long time.

”Magic, none of you understand magic! I’ll show you all the power of Arcane Magic, Mana Flux!” Doan laughed spitefully, as he threw away the book in his hand and spread open his fingers. A wave of magic, visible to the eye, began to spread around the restroom of this small library.

”Damn, this old thing is going to cast his ultimate skill,” Azure Sea Breeze cursed hopelessly. The others weren’t too impressed either.

Sakura Memories pursed her lips; she was going to try and use an interruption skill. ”Wind Shear” was also an interruption skill, but unfortunately, she wasn’t that great at casting it.

”Don’t interrupt him.” Lu Li was caught by surprise and he quickly held her back.

”Why?” The entire team wanted to run themselves into a wall.

Although none of them expected Sakura Memories to interrupt the skill, they were curious as to Lu Li was so anxious.

Whose side are you even on?!

”Don’t you guys even check your own mana bars? Mana Flux is a skill that affects both parties impartially. While he regenerates his mana, we’re also regenerating our mana bars too,” Lu Li said confidently.

Theoretically, this skill could be explained as Doan stimulating the magic elements that floated around in the air.

With these elements stimulated, all casting units within the area would recover a certain amount of mana.

After the skill had been completely casted, Doan recovered about four thousand points of mana. March Rain and the others didn’t have that much total mana, but at least everyone had a full mana bar.

Lu Li had placed his hopes in Doan’s Mana Flux.

If Doan didn’t cast Mana Flux, all the team could do was to wait until they used up all their mana and wipe. Then, they’d have to restart the battle and continue waiting.

Finally, Doan casted the skill. With their mana bars recovered, the most Doan could do was to repeat what he did before, but Xin Xin Mercenary Group would be able to handle it.