The Great Thief

Translator: Halcyon Translations Editor: Halcyon Translations

Lu Li’s affirming voice managed to dissipate the panicked state that everyone was in.

“There’s no need to panic; just do what you’re responsible for. Just use Taunt when you’re near the Boss when we’re on the defensive.”

The first and second Bosses were easier to fight against compared to this third Boss.

They were not able to build up enough aggro in time, which meant that the third Boss’ aggro was all over the place. In other words, it was extremely chaotic. The Boss ran after the escaping players, brandishing his large mace which was enshrouded in lightning. He had the ability to instantly kill any non-Tank classes.

This Boss looked similar to Khaz’goroth, who was a member of the Titan race. The sculptor Khaz’goroth had scorched, greenish-bronze skin and was also equipped with a large mace.

Fortunately, this was not the original. This Boss could not even be compared to a mere Shade.

It was most likely to be the resultant work of a group of Rockjaws who had been abandoned by their original owner. All in all, this statue had gained his own strength and was willing to use this strength to guard the other Rockjaws.

Under Lu Li’s directions, the surrounding tanks understood that they were being used as cannon fodder. As such, they all decided to use their strongest Taunt skills against the Boss.

The fruits of the labour had finally appeared. The Statue of Khaz’goroth stopped chasing after the non-tank classes and decided to focus on these mere mortals who had attracted his attention.

These Tanks were capable of leading normal teams to fight in Instance Dungeons.

However, none of them were able to tank more than two hits from the Boss. When the Boss

performed a Critical strike, some of the players were instantly killed. The first and second Bosses’ strength could not be compared with the third.

Fortunately for the Tanks who were being punished, Azure Sea Breeze had rushed forward to provide support. Otherwise, they might have all had to pay with their EXP.

Azure Sea Breeze was tanking, the Healers were healing, and the DPS classes were fully engaged.

“Kick! Break! Use all the skills that are available!” Lu Li hadn’t lost track of the second Boss, even after the third had entered the battlefield.

Lu Li had thought that the second Boss would use some skill to cause a large disturbance. After all, the first Boss only had around 20% HP left.

Many players tried to use Interrupt to try and stop the High Priest from casting his skill, but they all failed.

The first Boss recovered 20% HP, which meant that all their efforts had been wasted. Immediately after this, an extremely loud chant filled the entire floor.

Truthfully, everyone was afraid of the despair that could consume them as the battle dragged on, and not the actual fighting itself.

They had already cut his HP down to 50%, after which he had healed 20%. Now that he had healed 20% again, he was almost back to half-HP.

“Should we kill the High Priest first?” Wandering asked Lu Li.

The strategy team had also considered the possibility of killing the High Priest first. After all, this Boss was magic-based, which meant that he was not as tanky as the others.

“I think there must be something that’s connecting either two or all three of them. There must be a trigger point which activates these skills.”

Lu Li had remembered the rule when they were fighting the smaller monsters which stated that, “As soon as the other Boss’ HP drops below a certain percentage, the High Priest will use a large-scale healing ability. The first heal will activate when the first Boss has less than half HP of the High Priest’s HP. The second heal will come at around the same point.”

Lu Li’s understanding was very simple – just don’t let the first Boss’s HP drop below the second’s.

As for killing the second Boss first, Lu Li was not sold on the idea

“Can you guys guarantee that if the second Boss dies first, the other two Bosses won’t go berserk?” he asked.

The safest option at this stage was to control both Bosses’ HP bars simultaneously.

“Slow down on DPSing the first Boss. Stop on the second. Second and Fourth squads, begin fighting the third. After the third Boss’ HP is roughly the same as the others, we can begin on the other two.” Lu Li’s strategy was much more effective than only aiming down the High Priest.

The easiest fight was against the small monsters.

The monsters were beginning to thin out, so they were able to send some more players to join the frontlines.

It was still difficult for Azure Sea Breeze to tank hits from a level 55 Boss. Fortunately, Bosses in open environments did not have restrictions on the number of members in squads, so they were able to bring more Healers. Obviously, they needed to balance out the number of extra Healers and DPS, so they could not have infinite healing. The problem that came with having many members was also positioning around the map. They could not group everyone together since it was easier for the whole squad to die that way.

The difficult part about fighting the statue of Khaz’goroth was that he dealt too much damage, so they needed a lot of healing.

Main Tanks needed at least three dedicated healers – a Paladin, Priest and Druid. Lu Li had arranged it this way. The melee DPS classes also needed Healers because of the flames that surrounded the Boss’ body.

If melee classes were damaged by the flames easily, then why not use ranged classes?

The statue of Khaz’goroth’s mace would create balls of lightning, which it would then fling into the group of ranged players. As such, Lu Li had arranged Healers to heal the ranged classes as well.

This Boss was extremely troublesome for Healers. After all, they would be called upon when a member was down.

Furthermore, they could not just go all out and spam their skills. Healing skills were categorised in two groups – a heal with an additional effect, and without an effect. The commander of the squads did not like healers who spammed the normal heal effect and would deduct their guild points. After all, spamming normal healing skills were a waste of mana.

The statue of Khaz’goroth’s HP gradually dropped as the battle went on, but Lu Li still did not seem relieved.

The number of casualties had far exceeded his expectations, especially when the statue of Khaz’goroth entered the battlefield. The number of people who had died by his hands was more than the other two Bosses combined.

One of the major problems was that he had AoE abilities that targeted both ranged and melee classes. The other problem was his arsenal of high-damaging skills.

Lu Li was anxious every time Khaz’goroth jumped. When he landed, formations would be broken, which was undesirable since there were hundreds of people to be lined up.

“Ready…Mitigate!” Fortunately, Lu Li was extremely perceptive, so he had recognised the pattern that led into Khaz’goroth’s jump.

Lu Li found that if everyone activated their defensive shields just before Khaz’goroth had landed on the ground, their survival rates would be greatly increased. Even if the shields were on cooldown, they could still use potions to recover their HP.

After using their offensive, defensive and ultimate skills, Lu Li would rotate them with another set of people to cover. Although it was more work to do, it did prevent more unnecessary casualties.

In Lu Li’s eyes, this was an unsuccessful and unsatisfying battle. However, for the people in Drizzle Court, they nearly worshipped him as a god among men.