Chapter 23 – Coming and Going Unobstructed (1/2)

Chapter 23 – Coming and Going Unobstructed

The Fighter shouted with a booming voice then rushed forward and cleaved down with the sword in his right hand.「Slash!」The sword left a large wound after it struck the Deer Chief’s body.

The Deer Chief took one step forward and swept its sharp antlers at the Fighter.

The Fighter pulled back a bit and raised his shield to defend against the incoming blow.「Bang!」A heavy sound reverberated as a pair of antlers collided with a round wooden shield.

The Berserker and Paladin took this opportunity to flank the Deer Chief on both sides in a pincer attack.

“Guys, pay attention to your aggro,” the Fighter urged with a worried tone. Due to their ability to wield a shield, Fighters had a much higher defense when compared to other professions. Because of this, the Deer Chief was only able to deal ten or so damage to the Fighter when it attacked. However, if the Deer Chief were to switch aggro onto the Berserker or Paladin… they would at most be able to survive five attacks.

Monsters would initially focus their aggro on whoever attacked them first. However, in the event that there was someone who dealt too much damage to a monster, or a player’s level or power was exceedingly low, the monster’s aggro would switch onto them.

“We know. You can relax,” replied the Berserker and Paladin.

The Holy Mage and Elementalist at the back began casting spells and dealing damage.

Their coordination would be considered about average. It seemed that killing the Deer Chief within the next few moments wouldn’t be a problem for them. Only, they weren’t aware of the danger that was quietly approaching from behind.

Nie Yan stealthily made his way behind the Holy Mage and Elementalist. Only a few steps more and he would close the distance between them. The two Mages were standing quite close to each other, and their attention was focused entirely on the Deer Chief.

It appeared that the Deer Chief would be dead within the next thirty seconds. The party members were filled with an endless amount of excitement when they thought about all the loot they would receive.

Before Nie Yan’s eyes, the heads of the Holy Mage and Elementalist were completely exposed.

Nie Yan’s pacing slowed as he drew closer, as he needed to be more cautious when he neared his target. Otherwise, there was a possibility that the prey within his grasp would slip away.

Patience was another major quality that defined a Thief’s competence. After all, the outcome of their battles often depended on whether their first strike was a success or not. Of course, there was also an endless amount of sneaking and preparation which led up to that first strike. If a Thief lacked patience, it would be very easy for others to find flaws and catch them.

The battle between this group of players and the Deer Chief was about to reach its climax. The Deer Chief had been unceasingly ramming its antlers against the Fighter, causing the latter’s health to rapidly fall. When his health fell to around twenty, the Fighter took out a Basic Health Potion and drank it.

“Keep it up, everyone! The Deer Chief only has half its health remaining!” the Fighter shouted as he raised his shield and slashed forward with his sword again.

The Berserker and Paladin followed suit, increasing their attack speed. While in combat with the Deer Chief, their health had fallen to about half. The only ones who hadn’t received any damage were the two Mages in the back.

“Lei Zi, fall back a bit. Why are you so far forward?” the Fighter admonished to the Berserker.

“I know, I know.” The Berserker hurriedly pulled back.

Evidently, out of the five people in this group, it appeared that this Fighter had the most combat experience.

“When we’re running a dungeon in the future, you guys absolutely cannot go too far forward. Otherwise, you’re looking to get yourself killed. Realize your mistakes today, and tomorrow we’ll run a small five-man dungeon together. Once you guys get more familiarized with team-based combat, then we can start running larger dungeons with a full team,” the Fighter said. He then took a few steps back, luring the Deer Chief in between two large trees.

“What activities has the guild been doing lately?” The Berserker’s eyes lit up as he asked.

“There have always been guild activities. The Guild Leader and some of the others have been running the Treant Forest and Dark Wetlands for awhile now. You think you’re good enough to accompany them?” the Fighter asked rhetorically.

The people running the Treant Forest and Dark Wetlands were all elites in the Radiant Sacred Flame guild. In terms of a player’s defense, attack, health, etc… their guild had harsh requirements. So unless a player’s equipment reached a certain level, or they had good skills, there was basically no chance that they would be allowed to run a dungeon with the elites. In other words, this group of five shouldn’t even dream of going.

“There’s no Level 2 dungeons? You know, like the Moose Rat Cavern or Skeleton Cave?” the Berserker asked. These dungeons were also twenty-person instances. They were easier and the equipment that could be looted wasn’t bad either. Which was why running one of these dungeons would help them upgrade their equipment in preparation for the higher ranked ones.

“The Guild Leader will be organizing something in a few days, so let’s focus on raising our levels for now. Be careful and don’t let your attention wane. But for now, let’s get rid of this Deer Chief. Who knows? It might drop some decent equipment.” The Fighter took two more steps back. His retreat was firm and stable.

The Holy Mage and Elementalist copied him and retreated a few steps back as well.

Nie Yan noticed the opposing Fighter was rather decent. His ability to pull aggro was quite good. As soon as he noticed the Deer Chief was about to switch its aggro, he would strike it with his shield and attract its attention again.

With its aggro constantly being attracted and pulled, the Deer Chief was unable to display its full fighting strength.

Were it not for this Fighter, this team wouldn’t have stood a chance against this Level 3 Deer Chief.

Nie Yan’s movements were extremely cautious in order to prevent being detected by the Holy Mage and Elementalist. However, they unexpectedly started retreating back towards him.

For fucks sake… Nie Yan thought. The Holy Mage had already retreated back to where he was hiding.

Nie Yan raised his dagger and struck down, aiming at the back of the Holy Mage’s head.

“Smothering Strike!”

His dagger hit the Holy Mage and put him under a dazed state.

“Someone’s trying to steal our kill!” the Elementalist beside them noticed the commotion and turned his head, immediately discovering Nie Yan. Yet before even half of these words could come out of his mouth, Nie Yan dashed over and used the handle of his dagger to strike the Elementalist in the forehead.

“Concussive Strike!”

After successfully stunning his target, Nie Yan followed up with Assassinate, Lacerate, and finished it off with a Vital Strike aimed at his opponent’s throat.

Nie Yan’s actions were quite fast. In just a short amount of time, he managed to inflict a massive amount of damage.

−20

−22

−29

−36

Four damage values floated above the Elementalist’s head. By the time the Elementalist came out of his dazed state, he was left with only eighteen health remaining.

The Mage had gone into a state of panic—Nie Yan’s damage was just too terrifying.

−5

−5

Two more damage values floated above the Elementalist’s head in succession.

The Elementalist hurriedly took out a Basic Health Potion. Just as the bottle touched his lips… Nie Yan’s dagger flashed into view and lightly slashed across his chest. −8 A damage value floated atop his head.

The Elementalist staggered back and reached out as if to grasp something, but his hand found only empty air. Soon after, he collapsed on the ground as his health bar fell to zero.

“That’s one down,” Nie Yan whispered to himself as he picked up the piece of equipment that the Elementalist dropped.

By this time the Holy Mage had come out of his daze. But, unluckily for him, Nie Yan had already finished off the Elementalist. The Holy Mage turned tail and attempted to escape, but how could Nie Yan possibly give him such an opportunity?

Nie Yan brandished his dagger and gave chase to the fleeing Mage. After catching up, he unleashed a barrage of attacks on the Holy Mage’s back.

−12

−13

−15

Without exception, every single one of his skills was on cooldown. Therefore Nie Yan could only use a normal attack. However, due to a Thief’s attack speed being innately fast, the damage dealt was still quite considerable.

The Holy Mage wasn’t about to go down without a fight, though. He turned around and hit Nie Yan with Holy Strike, then followed up with Holy Smite—dealing a total of fifty-three damage.

During all this, the Fighter, Berserker, and Paladin had continued fighting with the Deer Chief. They became aware of the situation after noticing that, all of a sudden, the constant damage from their Mages in the rear had suddenly disappeared.

“Someone mounted a sneak attack! It’s that Thief, Nie Yan (Nirvana Flame)!” the Fighter anxiously shouted. Why did this scoundrel have to suddenly appear during such a crucial moment in their fight against the Leader class monster?

In addition, Nie Yan still had over twenty minutes of Retaliation Time left!

“What are we gonna do!?” Little by little, the Berserker slowly retreated. Their current circumstances were quite unfavourable. They were suffering from a pincer attack, with the Deer Chief attacking from the front and Nie Yan attacking from the rear. The three frontline had been constantly dealing with the Deer Chief, which was why each of them had a little under half their health remaining. If they were even a little careless, it was very likely that all five of them would die here today. In the blink of an eye, Nie Yan had taken out their Elementalist. Their other Mage was still alive, but he barely had any health left. The way things were looking, the situation was about to become even more worrisome!

“First, kill the Deer Chief; we’ll deal with the rest later!” the Fighter instructed. The Deer Chief’s aggro was completely focused on them. If they ignored the Deer Chief and went after Nie Yan instead, it would definitely cause them trouble later on.

The Deer Chief doesn’t have much health left!

“Cleave!”

The Fighter cleaved down with his sword. The Berserker and Paladin also quickened their pace as they unceasingly hacked at the Deer Chief.