17 Explosive Potion (1/2)
Li Wei debated whether to voice out his opinion or not and finally decided to speak. Even if they could not defeat the Wolf Queen, he was planning on coming back the next night.
”But you were only a group of 5 at that time right? Now there are seven of us, we can give it a shot” said Li Wei while looking at the others.
The temptation of beating a boss was not small and the party recognized the mage and Li Wei's skills.
The party members discussed among themselves for a little while and then: ”Let's give it a try, but if we see that one of us is about to die, we retreat immediately, I don't want to waste tonight's experience” said Salty Boy
”Agreed”
”Yes !”
And so they resumed hunting by entering the Wolf Queen's territory. Li Wei got used to fighting in such conditions. He could easily deal with one wolf and often fought two or three at once. There were also bears but Li Wei could only fight one at a time; bears were slower than wolves but had higher Vitality and Strength, their massive claws were to be avoided at all cost.
Eventually; ”Aoouuhhhh” a long deep howl was heard from behind the team. They all turned back to see a wolf, 3 times larger than the other ones, almost of the size of a human. Above its head was ”Wolf Queen level 9”. It had a majestic appearance, her white fur was shining under the moonlight gave it an air of royalty.
Li Wei and his teammates immediately got into formation, the Paladin raising his shield in front of the Wolf Queen. But before they could engage, the Wolf Queen made the first move, it revealed its fangs and let out a long deep howl; 3 wolves immediately appeared behind her ferociously looking at the party.
The fight began, the Paladin taunted the Wolf Queen while the rest of the team focused the normal wolves. It was a common strategy to get rid of the minions first before defeating the boss. Li Wei engaged the closest wolf while the rogues took one each. Li Wei could immediately see the difference; the wolves' fur was darker and there was a dim light surrounding these wolves, they were faster than the other ones.
Li Wei stabbed his right sword towards the wolf but it easily dodged the strike and countered with its claws. Li Wei tried to parry with his other sword but it was pushed back. The Strength of that wolf was definitely higher than usual. Li Wei thought a little and determined that he could defeat the wolf but that it would take time as he needed to slowly wear it out, but time was what he was lacking, he did not know how long the Paladin would be able to hold.
[Strengthen]
Deciding to end it quickly, Li Wei used his skill and this time, pushed back the wolf's claws. Sword strikes after sword strikes, Li Wei slowly depleted its health. It looked like the defense of these wolves were lower than usual, each of Li Wei's sword strikes was dealing about 15 damage while it would normally only deal 12 on the other wolves.
No one on the team was slacking off, both rogues used their own skill, [Rush] and were nimbly dodging the wolves claws while striking them with their daggers. The Ranger was constantly firing arrows, synchronizing with the rogues to prevent the wolf from dodging. The priest and the mage were standing behind the Paladin; the first one was constantly healing the Paladin while using its other skill [Empower], it could increase the target's strength by 2 for a limited amount of time. As for the mage, he was constantly firing Mana Bolts at the minion wolves.
It did not take long before all 3 wolves' HP bar was depleted, the whole party then focused its attention on the Wolf Queen. The latter looked enraged, seeing the slaughter of its kin. It howled and pushed back the Paladin; it was a skill similar to Warrior's [Howl] that could produce a knockback effect. The Wolf Queen then jumped into the air and pounced right at the priest, its claws shining with a deadly glow.
”Crap”
The priest had the weakest defense of all of them. If he died, then defeating the boss would be impossible.
[Earth Wall], seeing the situation, Li Wei did not hesitate and immediately protected the Priest, he elevated an Earth Wall between him and the Wolf Queen, buying just enough time for the priest to retreat. The Wall barely held the one strike but the Paladin recovered and immediately drew back the aggro by using [Taunt]. The claws pushed the Paladin back a few meters, taking away a quarter of his health.
The rogues immediately took advantage of the situation and used [Stab] on both sides of the Wolf Queen. ”-17”,”-19”.
The Ranger also followed up with [Precise Shot], the level 5 skill that greatly increased the precision of the next arrow, and this time, she aimed at the Wolf Queen's eyes.
However, the wolf queen was not stupid, it had good instinct and even if the shot was precise, it was cut in mid-air by her claws. It then turned around and bit at the male rogue, taking one-third of its HP. Li Wei immediately jumped in to take the spot of the rogue, stabbing its sword towards the Wolf Queen, but the latter easily dodged it.
The Wolf Queen then jumped and tried to bite Li Wei, but it was intercepted by a Mana Bolt on the face.
...
Both sides took some distance from each other, the priest quickly healed the rogue back to full health while the Wolf Queen broke from their encirclement. 2 minutes have passed since the beginning of the fight, but she still had 80% of her health despite receiving the attacks from all of them.
”Aouhhh”
Following that, the Wolf Queen howled once again, summoning 3 other wolves to her side, it was back to square one.
”How is it? It's feasible right ?” asked Li Wei
”Yeah if it continues like that, we can slowly wear her down, but we don't know if she has other skills so be careful everyone !” answered Salty Boy.
The fight resumed and the team adopted the same strategy as last time, each rogue lured one wolf each and Li Wei engaged the last one. This time, they all finished their targets faster than last time. They quickly drank a potion and charged towards the Wolf Queen.
The Wolf Queen varied its attack patterns, sometimes biting, sometimes using its claws or even its tail. Both sides slowly lost their HP. When the Wolf Queen reached 50% HP, she once again howled and summoned wolves, but this time she did not summon 3 but 7 of them.
Li Wei and his team became anxious, they would not be able to resist the attack of so many wolves. But all the 7 wolves did not charge at them, only 3 attacked them, the others revealed their fangs to the side bushes and charged in that direction.
...
”F**! We were discovered! Fight them !”
Suddenly, a group of players charged out of the woods on the right. There were 10 players, all level 7, they were watching the fight of Li Wei's team and trying to be the mantis stalking the cicada but their plan failed. The Wolves had good sense of smell, and could easily locate them, as for why more wolves were summoned this time; the number of summons depended on the number of players around the Wolf Queen, it would be too easy if players ganged up to fight a boss and so it became stronger the more players there was.
”Let's back off !” said the ranger, sending a meaningful glance at her team.
They all understood a boss was valuable, they did not want to risk losing all the loots to the other party; they would rather not get anything. Li Wei did not mind that, he had already obtained what he wanted, he now knew how the Wolf Queen fought, he wasn't sure if he could solo it, but he could give it a try. After all, he did not use his full strength, nor his throwing needles.
The other party of players fought off the wolves, they were visibly taken by surprise by the strength and speed of these wolves, but they nevertheless held their ground. But as Li Wei's team retreated, the Wolf Queen and the other wolves focused their attention towards that party.
Li Wei's team did not fully retreat, they only walked back a few meters, just enough to let go of the aggro of the wolves. It was their turn to observe the fight. But the other party was not stupid either, they also started to retreat letting the Wolf Queen regain its HP.