The Great Thief

Ruling Sword’s competition lineup consisted of Moonlight, Lu Li, Kitty Loves Meat, Sakura Memories and March Rain. Based on the map, these players made up the best lineup that Ruling Sword had to offer. The reserves were Mu Qiu and Fat Monkey, who was a fire mage and therefore not suited for this occasion.

The last update had increased the impact of the map and terrain on fights. For example, fire skills would be less powerful on maps with bodies of water and ice skills would be less powerful in hotter and drier conditions. There were mixed opinions about this from the community, but most players were upset by the changes.

As such, the gaming company had reduced the debuff on the current patch. However, since this was an Elite level competition, any reduction in damage would be game changing.

Their goal was probably in trying to make the game more realistic.

When they entered Dustwallow Marsh, the smell of sulfur shot up their noses. The sense of smell could be turned off in the options, but the sight of the rotten flesh and green, murky, bubbling water was enough to make them puke.

Lu Li was coping well because it would often rain back home and the place he used to live in would smell of mold during the rainy seasons.

The others were not coping so well. None of them grew up poor, so they were never forced to live in a place that smelled bad.

Peerless City was probably planning on making them die of disgust rather than the actual fight itself.

They quickly became serious and focused on how to end this fight as quickly as possible in order to escape the stench.

Lu Li looked at the enemy line up from afar and quickly devised a plan.

“Moonlight, protect March Rain. We’ll focus on killing Immortal. Kitty, watch out for yourself. If all goes wrong, just transform.”

Peerless City’s team consisted of Deadly Golden Underwear, Half a Smoke, Falling Smile, Immortal, Vegetarian Mosquito, and their backup Green Flag Wine. Since Green Flag Wine was put on the reserve team, Peerless City’s game plan was more focused on the offensive side of things.

Their plan of attack was to burst one person and slowly kill off the rest.

Their main target was most likely March Rain which was why Lu Li had given Moonlight the job of protecting her.

Since Lu Li was able to observe the enemy team composition, Peerless City was obviously able to do the same.

The two sides discussed their game plan and when the battle started, Lu Li immediately disappeared from sight.

Although this map was not the ideal map for Stealth, Lu Li had learned enhanced Stealth, so his position would not be given away by the ripples. The fact that they could not physically see Lu Li placed a lot of psychological pressure on Peerless City.

Immortal was wearing Cloth Armor and was positioned at the back left of the team. Falling Smile was in the center, heavily guarded by teammates. Falling Smile was the best healer in Peerless City despite being a Restoration Shaman, which was a more unorthodox healing class.

Peerless City had another Shadow Priest that was a great DPS player, but he had likely something going on in real life because he was not present today.

It was hard to separate real life from gaming because things that happened in real life would always have an impact in game and vice versa.

Although Shamans were a leather class, their survivability was not be as high as Priests. However, as long as Peerless City did a great job of protecting their healer, the Shaman would be able to cast countless chain heals throughout the game.

Lu Li was already lurking next to Peerless City.

Because of the lack of practice, it was difficult for him to know which areas could be stepped on or avoided. If it wasn’t for his Enhanced Stealth, he would’ve been discovered ages ago.

Despite him being extremely careful, Lu Li accidentally stepped on and aggroed a Marsh Crocolisk, which took a big bite out of him.

The monsters were only Lv20 and the damage wasn’t very significant, but it was still enough to break Lu Li out of his Stealth.

However, Lu Li’s reaction time was unmatched in the professional scene.

He immediately dashed away from the Crocolisk and went into Stealth mode again. All of this happened in a matter of milliseconds and it was almost as if nothing had happened.

He had to make sure that he wasn’t caught here since his teammates were still trying to get into position. If he was found out, Peerless City would rip into him without mercy; this wasn’t some amateur competition.

“Lu Li!” Immortal cried out. She was on the very left of the team and as a squishy player, she had developed a keen eye for those who would try to ambush her. She was still pissed off about what had happened before and so she decided to chase after him.

“Immortal, no!”

Moonlight, who was very experienced in tournament settings, knew that this was the perfect opportunity for them to capitalize.

He immediately charged forward, not afraid of using his mobility skills to close the gap.

Peerless City had to change up their game plan and immediately followed closely behind to attempt to take out Lu Li first. Deadly Golden Underwear thought that this might actually turn out good for them.

If only Green Flag Wine was here…

Although Immortal managed to land her skills and force Gale Steps out of Lu Li, by that time, Ruling Sword was already behind them. Sakura Memories activated Bloodlust as a signal for Ruling Sword to attack.

Lu Li laughed and turned around then immediately jumped onto Immortal.

Drakefire Amulet (Legendary): All Stats +40, HP +800, Socket Slots: 2, Special Effects 1: Fire Resistance +20%, Special Effects 2: Flood of Life, instantly heals 1000 HP, for the next 30 seconds, user receives increased healing by 100%. Special Effects 3: Resurrection, allows the user to revive on the spot once per day, loss of EXP reduced by 50%, after respawning, player becomes invulnerable for 3 seconds after reviving. Level Requirement: 60, Durability 350/350.

This was the trump card that Lu Li had been hiding up his sleeves this whole time.

Flood of Life allowed him to survive for a while longer, buying enough time for March Rain to heal him.