The Great Thief

“They’ve taken up all three paths. Sky, take the middle path with teams one to seven. Breezy, take teams eight to twelve to the left. March with the rest to defend the remaining path. Aim for their carts,” Lu Li commanded as he hovered over the Stronghold with Glory Capital’s army formation in plain sight. He ran the numbers, and was reassured by the fact that Thief-class players were indeed a rare breed.

“Look up,” White Westhill said, pointing upwards.

“Ignore him. He can fly all he wants, but I’ll enjoy watching him fall,” Sorrowless scowled. Players with flight skills were difficult to find, and even more so during raids. Lu Li was rubbing it in their faces. The guild tensed up, knowing that being under Lu Li’s microscope meant many strategies would be nullified. Lu Li was insistently irksome. He didn’t care that he was out in the open, free for the entire battlefield to see. On the contrary, he would intentionally fly over the heads of Glory Capital’s players just to spite them.

The problem was that no one had extremely long-range attacks, and Lu Li was aware of this. No one was able to attack him, and his peskiness dealt damage to his enemies in an unexpected form – distraction.

Luckily, Glory Capital was not the type to pull any underhanded plays.

Lu Li did not come down. He decided his physical presence in this battle was more or less expendable. In fact, giving away much of his responsibilities as Commander inspired him with a new purpose.

Looking at the Ruling Sword members beneath the Stronghold, Sorrowless almost let out a chuckle. He felt no pressure at all. If anything, he was afraid that Lu Li and the others would have been cowering at the top of the walls. He would have Ruling Sword realise the power of Glory Capital. In this battle, forty out of eighty of his people were hand-picked personally, while the rest were randomly selected amongst two hundred other players of the guild. With that being said, Sorrowless was confident that even if all eighty players were hand-picked by Ruling Sword, they would have been no match for his own guild.

Sky Moon looked up, dumbfounded. Why was he suddenly made Commander of his path? Fat Monkey was standing right next to him. If they were to speak of combat experience, Sky Moon wouldn’t even be at the table for Commander.

“If the boss insists, then I won’t hold anything back. Paladins, Consecrate the bottom of the tower. Hunters, throw Flares at the healers. Mages, use Blizzard…”

What a way to play it safe – Lu Li was almost disappointed at Sky Moon’s timid tactics. However, the principle of seeking to be faultless rather than seeking merit was fitting for Sky Moon. After all, it was his first time in command, and he was usually in deference to his men.

Lu Li flew to the vanguard of his enemy’s army; his espionage had begun. He went to Glory Capital’s first spawn site (the System’s spawn site). Unless the team’s set up a new spawn site, all defeated players would automatically spawn here.

Spawn sites were limited to three customised settings per team. Under normal circumstances, most people would place one near the Stronghold walls, one inside the Stronghold, and the last one kept as a replacement. Since the spawn site’s Angel Statue was vulnerable to external damage, one needed to be available to replace the other if it was destroyed among the chaos within the Stronghold. That was why when the enemy was still in the sentry tower phase, they would only use the System’s spawn site. Since the System’s spawn site was located relatively close to the Stronghold walls, the offensive guild did not have to worry about wasting previous battle time on travelling from the site to the Stronghold.

Lu Li settled at Glory Capital’s spawn site. He waited for the first defeated player to resurrect. Under the tower, chaos reigned. Lu Li could see numerous teammates killed off already. No more than a minute later, a presence had begun to solidify next to Lu Li. Without hesitation, Lu Li went for a stealth kill. Being equipped with mere cloth armor, he was no match for Lu Li. After a successful kill, Lu Li looted the armor and waited for his next victim.

Lu Li’s victim realised what had happened and reported it to Sorrowless immediately.

“Boss, I got killed again! There’s someone at the spawn site!”

“Lu Li!” Sorrowless cried out, discerning the problem immediately. He grimaced even more, outraged by Lu Li’s deviousness.

“Should we get two guys to defend the site?” the others asked.

They couldn’t have their team members stuck at the spawn site forever, but freshly spawned players with mere cloth armor were no match for Lu Li. It would be difficult even for other classes if they were to fight one-on-one with him. Being stuck with a Thief solely focused on ambushes proved to be problematic.

“I’ll go,” Blood Dagger volunteered.

“There are spawn sites on each path. It’s useless for you to go,” Sorrowless said, shaking his head. If Blood Dagger was to defend the spawn site on the middle path, Lu Li could still target the other two paths.

“What will you do then?” Bloody Dagger could not mask his anticipation to duel with Lu Li.

“Don’t spawn by yourself. Those who have died, wait for the others and spawn together,” Sorrowless sighed. Even if Lu Li’s goal was fulfilled – which was merely to buy time for his guild – the alternative was to dispatch players at each spawn site, but that would be inefficient compared to what he had proposed.

When players confirmed their spawning, they would require 15 seconds of spawning time. Players who had died didn’t spawn right away. They waited for other players and spawned together. By then, it wouldn’t be just one player at the spawn site.

Lu Li looked at the two enemies in front of him. He wasn’t sure if it was a mere coincidence, or if Sorrowless intended for them to spawn together. Either way, he couldn’t be intimidated that easily. Lu Li struck one and ambushed the other, but his enemies wouldn’t be taken by surprise, especially after receiving their teammate’s warning. These two were elites of Glory Capital and were extremely skilled in battle. They braced themselves immediately, and with the two against Lu Li, the latter was slowly pressured and disadvantaged. He obviously couldn’t just kill off one or the other.

With a Shadowmeld, Lu Li disappeared into thin air. The Warlock’s fire worked against them and served as camouflage for Lu Li. The two searched for the Thief but to no avail. Looking at each other, they decided to abandon the search and hurried back to the battlefield.

Lu Li did not stay on one path for long; he had to keep all the enemies on their toes. That way, the players of Glory Capital wouldn’t spawn carelessly and would have no choice but to wait for another teammate before they could spawn. The most infuriating thing was that Lu Li could ambush them at any time.

Sky Moon quickly caught on, realising that Lu Li was churning up chaos at the back. Limiting Glory Capital to spawn only when accompanied, he became much more confident in their plan to drag out the battle.

Sorrowless ordered a strike command after catching a glimpse of the tower’s health and battle countdown.

“Put some power into it this time!”

Pressured by both Glory Capital’s players and battle carts, even the two sentry towers did not prove to be of much help. The third-tier players of Ruling Sword suffered a devastating loss. After having a few players killed off, Sky Moon ordered a retreat to the second defense – the third sentry tower.