The Great Thief

“I don’t know if we can survive; 10 seconds feels so long.”

Their HP was dropping fast, but no one could cast skills to survive.

Lu Li was afraid to be in melee range as well – Baroness Anastari could easily instant kill him. However, Azure Sea Breeze’s survival was much more important than his, as once the Main Tank was down, the entire party would be doomed.

As such, he decided to attack the Banshee head-on, albeit reluctantly.

With normal attacks alone, Lu Li easily out-damaged Azure Sea Breeze and he quickly stole aggro off him. Lu Li was unaffected by the Boss’ first strike as the special effect on his ring made him invulnerable for one attack.

Lu Li activated his defensive skills which formed a translucent shield around him and tanked the second hit.

Power Word: Shield was March Rain’s signature move. She made sure to max it out for situations just like these.

This bought enough time for the duration of the silence to end. Azure Sea Breeze swiftly Taunted the Boss to retake aggro.

He was rather proud of his quick reaction. Although tank classes couldn’t deal a great amount of damage to Bosses, they had various Taunt skills that could control who the Boss attacked.

“Thanks,” Lu Li said with a breath of relief. He had narrowly escaped death.

“Next time you troll me, just remember that I saved your life.”

“Just hit the boss. Everyone, be careful of her crowd control skills,” Lu Li said as he continued to deal damage and carefully observed her every animation. Baroness Anastari had not yet used all the tricks up her sleeve.

“How much more suffering must I endure? Feel my pain!”

After countless rotations of Fears and Silences, she used a new skill – Possess.

Possess: Take control of a random player no more than 10 levels higher, increasing their maximum health by 200% and damage dealt by 200%. Two-minute duration.

The Banshee did not have an Ultimate skill that dealt massive area-of-effect damage, but her arsenal was still well-stocked.

Possess was one of those skills that took control of a player, increasing their maximum HP and damage dealt. If Lu Li and the others weren’t careful, they could easily get blindsided by their own teammate.

Lu Li had been waiting for this moment; he turned around and kicked Lonesome Flower in the stomach.

The others were confused – what was happening?

Why did Lu Li attack his own teammate?

Then, Lonesome Flower began retaliating. The red border that surrounded his character model suggested that he was an enemy unit.

“Haha, hit him! Hit him hard!” Remnant Dreams laughed as she began to attack Lonesome Flower. Lu Li couldn’t help but feel like his teammates were bored of killing monsters; they seemed to be a lot more enthusiastic when attacking one of their own.

“Dream, stop. I’ve got this,” Lu Li said.

Lonesome Flower’s HP had increased by 200%, but since he was a Mage, his HP was naturally low and Lu Li easily bursted him down.

Lu Li did not stop Remnant Dream from attacking Lonesome Flower from the very start because the controlled player needed to be attacked until critical HP and he couldn’t do it quickly enough by himself.

Otherwise, they would have to wait for the entire two-minute duration for the controlled player to return back to normal. Since he had gained a 200% damage bonus, he was powerful threat. The only other solution was to crowd-control him, but Lu Li couldn’t be bothered with that.

There were no other options but to attack him.

When his HP reached critical level, the spirit of Baroness Anastari would leave his body.

Before other players had figured out the strategy, there were many times where the controlled player was killed accidentally. This was exactly what Lu Li was worried about.

After Lonesome Flower had regained his consciousness, he only had a tiny bit of HP left. He was at the point where if anyone were to simply touch him, he would die.

Besides the Fear, group Silence and Possess, the Baroness also had a few debuffs that she could inflict on the players.

She could cast Banshee Curse, reducing everyone’s chance to hit by 30% for 12 seconds.

Probability outcomes in games were determined by a random number generator and as such, were very unpredictable. Even though the hit chance was only reduced by 30%, it was very possible for a player to miss multiple times consecutively.

There weren’t any short cuts or special strategies that could be used on her besides persevering through the fight. The only good news was that Baroness Anastari couldn’t heal herself.

After more than half an hour, Baroness Anastari was near critical HP.

“Okay, everyone stop and attack her slowly. Don’t let her reach critical HP,” Lu Li instructed, stopping his teammates. This was the stage of the Boss fight that had the highest chance of wiping out the entire team. Lu Li did not want that to happen and have to restart the entire battle again.

As a majority of the players would know, when the Bosses in Dawn reached critical HP, they went into Berserk mode.

This was the hardest stage to survive, especially for Baroness Anastari. If she were to cast her group Silence during Berserk mode, the entire team would be wiped for sure.

Lu Li was waiting for her to cast the Silence right before she was in critical HP so that she could not cast it again for a short while.

“This is my land. If you dare to challenge me, I will shut all of you up. Everyone, silence!”

As expected, after a short while, Baroness Anastari casted her Silence again.

“I think what she meant is…” Azure Sea Breeze cleared his throat and began mocking her, “This is my land. When I’m being a bitch, you should all shut up!”

He was attacked almost immediately after saying that, almost as if she understood what he had said. Fortunately, Azure Sea Breeze was prepared this time.

After the 10 second duration, Lu Li signaled everyone to burst her down.

Sakura Memories activated her Bloodlust, while Remnant dream casted Pistol Aura and Hachi Chan used a group buff which increased attack speed and magic damage. Lu Li had his Retribution Aura constantly up from his Paladin Heart.

Paladin Heart (Dark Gold): All Attributes +20, Special Effect 1: Prayer, Instance Cast. Sacrifice your HP to receive HP and mana to a teammate. 2-hour cooldown. Special Effect 2: Four Paladin Auras available: Crusader Aura – Increase riding speed of all squads and team members within 40 yards by 20%; Devotion Aura – Increase Defense of all squads and team members within 100 yards by 10%; Retribution Aura – Inflict fear onto monsters that attack teammates; Focus Aura – Concentrate nearby teammates to reduce cast time for attacks. Only one aura can be active at a time and this effect cannot be stacked with other items that have a similar effect. Equipment Requirement: None, Durability: None.

Lu Li and the others managed to burst her down before she was able to cast another skill.