The Great Thief

After Lu Li had rested for a while, he logged back on and looked for Moonlight.

He immediately put the axe and skill book into the trading window without mentioning any sort of payment.

Moonlight didn’t pay too much attention to the items at first. The skill book was good; it was definitely something he could use. The axe…

“Silver! You’re joking. Are you sure you want to give this to me?” Moonlight had almost accepted and taken the axe.

“Of course, unless you want me to sell it?” Lu Li laughed.

“If you can use it, then take it. I just hope that you won’t PVP other players so recklessly. It would be a great loss if someone else picked it up.”

“Thank you so much, but I can’t afford this.”

Moonlight equipped the weapon, waved it around and nodded in satisfaction.

“We can deal with the money issue some other time; I trust that you won’t run away.”

Lu Li had complete faith in him. With an equip like this, Moonlight was likely to win more wagered matches anyway. With a few wins in a row, he could easily make tens of thousands of dollars.

Moreover, he didn’t seem like the kind of guy to not pay his debts.

“Okay, I’ll send you the cash when I get it. How about your fight with Hornet’s Nest? Are you feeling confident?”

“I won’t lose,” Lu Li said firmly and full self-confidence.

“I’ve PVPed him a few times and I’ve lost more than I’ve won. His equipment is really good,” Moonlight said a little sadly.

With Dawn’s hidden identity system, Moonlight had decided to start anew. He no longer kept in contact with all of his previous friends and guilds.

Without a guild to support him, it was quite hard to keep up. At the very least, he would fall behind in equipment.

Hornet’s Nest had a full body of LV15 Steel equipment and likely even had some Silver equipment. On the contrary, Moonlight didn’t even have a full body of LV10 Steel equipment. In fact, some of his equipment was still LV5. This kind of level difference in equipment couldn’t be made up for with skill.

However, even if he had lost more than he had won, this still meant that he had won before. His God of War title hadn’t been given to him for no reason.

“Let’s have a warm up match then.” Lu Li created a competition room and invited Moonlight.

“I thought you wanted to rest,” Moonlight said, as he licked his lips, “But if you’re up for it, then so am I.”

From Moonlight’s perspective, Lu Li was a good PVP partner, but was also generally unwilling. Moonlight didn’t want to bother him, so he usually wouldn’t try to invite him to a match.

But ever since his last loss to Lu Li, he had looked forward to the next duel.

How could a Warrior lose to a Thief?!

A random competitive map had been chosen. An expanse of wilderness appeared before Lu Li, covered in dry, windswept grass. This open environment had no effect on the Thief’s Stealth but provided the Warrior with a convenient view of the battlefield.

With his high damage and armour, Moonlight was more like a human tank compared to the last time had he fought Lu Li.

Lu Li immediately went into Stealth and distanced himself from Moonlight.

The arena system had a special requirement for the battle, given the two player’s professions: If Lu Li did not attack in 10 minutes, he would lose.

However, this didn’t mean that he was in a hurry. He carefully observed Moonlight, trying to find a good angle of attack.

Moonlight didn’t stand still, but continually adjusted his position. Sometimes he would move quickly and other times he would move slowly; his actions seemed to be compeltely random. He was always ready for the moment that Cheap Shot was cast.

The map was windy, but the wind was inconsistent. The grass constantly swayed in a disorganised mess.

Most people wouldn’t be able to use the environment to determine much information. However, Moonlight was an expert with a wealth of PVP experience.

His thought process was that Lu Li was a PVE player with very little PVP experience. Even if his overall skill was good, this wouldn’t necessarily translate into PVP prowess.

He would definitely try to attack from behind, as most Thieves tried to do.

He was probably sneaking over right now, walking slowly to prevent detection while keeping a low centre of gravity.

Moonlight stood still. He twisted his head and stared at his surroundings. He watched the grass sway and felt the wind move around him.

Lu Li crept up behind him and stopped moving.

This was a good position. He only needed to take 3-4 steps forwards and thrust his dagger to cast Cheap Shot.

Could it really be this easy?

Lu Li thought about his options. He was about to commit to casting Cheap Shot before he realised that this was a trap.

Moonlight’s heavy armour was a little awkwardly positioned. He also wasn’t one to leave himself open and vulnerable like this. His attention didn’t seem to be focused in front of him, but behind him. He was definitely expecting an attack from behind.

With one sweep of his axe, he would easily be able to hit Lu Li.

Lu Li cautiously retreated. He retraced his steps and waited quietly.

1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes…

The position that Moonlight was in was a little tiring, so he gently took a step forwards. In doing so, he completely exposed his back.

Suddenly, some hay flew past him and a patch of grass was flattened.

Moonlight’s eyes narrowed as his upper body spun around, swinging his big axe from left to right. The blade’s arc covered at least 5 yards behind him.

This was the Berserker’s Crescent Slash.

He thought that this surprise attack would definitely hit and reveal Lu Li. He didn’t expect that the area above the flattened grass would actually be empty.

Moonlight immediately turned back around, but unfortunately for him, it was too late.

Lu Li’s Cheap Shot had already perfectly hit his target, resulting in a 4 second stun.

With their levels being so similar, any bonus effects from skills were especially important. A half-second stun would already be very strong, let alone a 4 second stun.

Petrify!

Moonlight cast a damage reduction skill. His skin turned into a stone-like material and his defence greatly increased. This would reduce the damage that was going to result from the stun.

Backstab: successfully applied an Armour Break effect.

Lu Li didn’t rush to deal his damage.

He then calmly used two ordinary attacks, and just before the stun on Moonlight was about to end, he cast Shadowstrike. A two second stun was added on!

He unable to gather the 5 combo points required to cast his Ultimate Skill and Moonlight was about to recover. As such, Lu Li instead used a high Skill Completion Slit Throat that didn’t deal much damage, but still resulted in a strong bleed effect.

With this round of attacks, Moonlight’s HP had been dropped to 50%, and he was still bleeding.

Everyone knew that Lu Li’s equipment was good, but they wouldn’t truly understand how brutal his attacks were until they personally experienced them.

After casting Slit Throat, he activated his shoe’s skill and increased his movement speed.

He only just outran Moonlight’s Trample skill.

However, Moonlight wasn’t an idiot. Once he realised that his Trample had missed, he immediately cast Charge and rushed towards Lu Li.

Lu Li turned around to see a wall of flesh barrel towards him. He didn’t even have time to finish casting Vanish before he was stunned.