The Great Thief

“I don’t care about the amount of damage you deal, just don’t draw aggro.”

After seeing the squad being annihilated for the third time because of this, Lu Li had no choice but to re-evaluate his tactics.

The problem was that with the Boss having about ten million HP, along with its insane healing speed, the team’s Mages and damage dealers would become useless if they did not consistently deal enough damage.

It went without saying though that drawing aggro was dangerous, so at the very least, the team had to have a good awareness of the battle.

Azure Sea Breeze’s sneers were easily brushed off. His Taunt wasn’t unbeatable, and the other Main Tanks weren’t of a high enough level to support him. As such, Lu Li could only issue constant warnings to the guy who would walk away every single time a minuscule disagreement with the team arose.

Lonesome Flower was just as guilty of this.

Despite Lonesome Flower establishing quite a name for himself, Lu Li was sure that if he were out and about, no one would even consider recruiting him into their team.

Even in the Ruling Sword, Lonesome Flower was often isolated. Not even World’s Best Friend would team up with him.

However, in Dawn, there were quite a few Bosses that ignored the Main Tanks and would easily switch aggro, just like the Princess of the Black Dragon in front of them.

“Flower, I understand that you’ve created some of the finest combos for high damage output, but you probably should use something less… vigorous,” Lu Li said when he saw Lonesome Flower glowering as usual, then chuckled coldly, “You know, the next time the whole team gets annihilated because of your mistakes, I’ll take away—”

“Hah.”

As a renowned top scorer in overall damage output, Lonesome Flower was indifferent to such threats.

After all, the top scorer in the Instance Dungeon would receive twice the amount of Guild points, and there was no way that Lonesome Flower could be lacking in things like this.

“I’ll take away…” Lu Li continued in a panic, “I’ll take away March Rain’s Guild Points.”

“What?”

March Rain had no idea how she had gotten involved in this matter.

“Lu Li, you little!” Lonesome Flower roared, wavering from his usual calm demeanour. Although his little sister did quite well in Instance Dungeons as well and was definitely not lacking in Dungeon Points, there was no way she would want to have them taken away from her. Especially not as a consequence of the stubbornness and childishness of her own brother.

“So that’s decided then.”

It was rare to see Lonesome Flower so riled up. Lu Li simply grinned, victorious in keeping his smug teammate in line.

Everyone had their weaknesses after all – Azure Sea Breeze was conceited, but butter him up a little and he would be too embarrassed to make a mistake. Wandering was too prideful and had long decided that he was too perfect to be in the wrong, while for Lonesome Flower, it was obviously his little sister. Dragging her into it gave Lu Li significant leverage.

Although Lu Li was not particularly empathetic, he was skilful in the art of manipulation.

March Rain could understand Lu Li’s intentions and had no desire to expose him of them. After all, it was her brother who was in the wrong. Perhaps it was because he was not on par with Lu Li at anything else, so he decided that while Lu Li was acting as commander during battles, he could take advantage of this and beat him on the scoreboards.

“Wandering, World, the mobs are about to come,” Lu Li prompted.

The Dragon Egg at the far end was showing thin beams of green light glowing from its cracks. As to why the Black Dragon Egg did so during the hatching process, such phenomenon remained a mystery. The good thing was that it did not matter. All that mattered was that the two Main Tanks on either side of Lu Li, and his current division defended well against the newly-hatched mobs.

“Help!”

A voice coming from World’s Best Friend’s division could be heard.

One member from World’s team had been pulled into the Lair. As thirty or so tiny dragons scrambled out of it, along with the already-spawning dragons, the situation had immediately escalated to more than what the team could handle.

“Teams two and three, go and support World’s end. Keep a clear head.”

Lu Li was an impressive commander. He was an expert at strategic decision-making, he joined in Boss battles, and he had better control of the battlefield than those who were solely focused on observing the fight.

In some Instance Dungeons, Lu Li was able to command his team effortlessly while maintaining high damage output that was on par with Lonesome Flower.

However, this was the real deal, and Lu Li did not have nearly enough energy for that. Even so, his damage output was still ranked in the middle.

“Hachi, your current position is unsafe. You’ll be easily knocked down, so move three steps to your left,” Lu Li instructed.

“You’re moving to your right! Don’t tell me you don’t know your left from your right – I know you have no sense of direction, but I didn’t think it was this bad…” he continued in exasperation after remaining speechless for a moment.

“Haha, I was – I was just taking a better look at that thing on the ground over there,” Hachi Chan giggled in embarrassment.

“Alright, teams two and three, return to your posts after clearing out the mobs.”

Lu Li ignored her explanation; her sense of direction seemed to be getting worse every day. He wondered if she was like this as well in real life and couldn’t help but feel bad for her mother. He suspected that she must have put Hachi on a leash every time they went shopping.

The battle continued and the Boss’ HP had been dropped to about 80%. It was evident that the Princess of the Black Dragon wasn’t undefeatable.

The first phase would end after the Boss’ HP dropped below 60%, yet till this day, Ruling Sword was unable to overcome even the first part of the battle.

“Be mindful of your Aggro,” Lu Li said, becoming irritated. “Aggro is slowly accumulated and is delayed, so when you realise you’re about to draw it, simply stopping your attacks won’t be enough. Ice Block, Feign Death, Vanish, Invulnerability – even Night Elves have a Shadowmeld! Do none of you not know any of your skills?”

He used a tone that one would to scold a child, and the whole team was utterly overwhelmed by embarrassment.

Despite everyone being fully informed, it seemed as though the team would once again be annihilated. Lu Li thought it over; perhaps everyone should stop attacking after the Princess of the Black Dragon’s health dropped to 80%. This would give Azure Sea Breeze a thirty-second time frame to accumulate Aggro.

Lu Li never realised this before. He wasn’t sure if it was because the strategy guide he read didn’t mention it, or if he had just been careless.

However, knowing these things was part of a commander’s responsibility. It wasn’t too late to realise now.

Aggro control and Tank positioning were crucial at this point of the battle. The defensive positioning only needed to prevent the Princess of the Black Dragon from hitting the rest of the team, and prevent them from being knocked back to the Dragon Eggs. As long as they didn’t draw aggro, the first wave could be easily overcome.

The moment had finally arrived. After countless challenges of this Boss, Ruling Sword was finally able to witness the flight of the Princess of the Black Dragon.

“I – arrgh! This is a cheat! She’s using a cheat!”

Azure Sea Breeze was dumbfounded upon realising he was of zero threat to the Boss now that she was suspended in mid-air. Oh how he wanted a pair of wings as well…

After all, every Main Tank who had encountered a flying Boss was just a step from traumatisation. Only upon respawning did they realise that they had been completely overpowered.