The graveyard of Longsoul(2)

"Cling Clang!"

[Cleave]!

Li Wei jumped and mercilessly swung his sword at the skeleton warrior in front of him, taking away its remaining HP.

"Good job! But there's no time to rest! We'll soon be able to summon the boss! Don't relax," shouted Cai Jing as he cast [Mana Burst] at a group of Skeletons.

20 minutes already went by since Li Wei's group entered the graveyard. At first, he was always asked to fight alone or to intercept a group of skeletons. But as the time went by, Cai Jing and his party naturally took notice that Li Wei could easily deal with the monsters and acknowledged his skills. Although they still considered themselves superior, they put aside their arrogance and fought together with Li Wei to achieve a better time.

The boss of the graveyard; Lich Longsoul was supposed to immediately appear in front of the players once 75% of the monsters in the graveyard would be killed.

It sounded easy but there was a lot of monsters scattered in the graveyard, namely skeletons, zombies, and ghouls. Skeletons had low HP but high Strength. Zombies had high HP but low Strength while Ghouls were ghost-type monsters and took reduced damage from physical attacks.

However, the monsters in the graveyard were weaker than their counterpart in the wild. Furthermore, these Time Attacks were meant to be easily beaten once the players would reach level 15. They were only a challenge for lower-level players; their purpose was not to test the strength of the players but the speed at which they could clear it. And so, there was a large amount of relatively weak monsters. Naturally, they were still a challenge since Li Wei was currently only level 12!

But the most important difference between the monsters in the Time Attack compared to the other monsters was that they did not leave any drops upon death. It did not matter if a player placed his hands on the corpse and said: "collect". Nothing would happen. The monsters in the Time Attack only provided experience but since they were dividing it among 5 players, it was below average.

"Take five seconds to drink potions! Then let's charge at that group of Zombies over there!" announced Cai Jing as he himself took out a Mana Potion. Li Wei and the rest of the party quickly obeyed. Having fought non-stop since the beginning, they naturally had to spend some Mana and lost some HP. Now that the boss was not too far from being summoned, they could not afford to be taken by surprise!

The paladin activated [Reinforce] and charged at the group of Zombies. Li Wei quickly followed and swung his swords at the Zombies. Zombies were in a way weaker than the skeletons; they did not have weapons and only tried to bite or scratch him. His sword pierced through the blackened chest of a zombie as he raised his other sword, ready to decapitate it.

The Zombie did not seem to realize that a sword went through its chest and continued to step forward to bite the human in front of him. Li Wei was disgusted, the foul smell of the Zombie assaulted his nostrils, causing him to want to vomit. He was about to cut its head and retreat back when suddenly, the entire graveyard shook for a second.

"AHHH! Damned Intruders! How dare you assault my kingdom! I will make you pay!" shouted a terrifying large figure as it floated into the sky. It was the boss Lich Longsoul. It had finally appeared. The timer was displaying 24 minutes, but they were finally able to clear 75% of the monsters. However, Li Wei did not have time to rejoice as the zombie in front of him swung its arm and violently attacked his chest with his claw-like hand,"-18"

Li Wei was surprised for a moment but instead of retreating, he swung his sword, ending the life of the Zombie.

"There's no time to waste! The Lich is floating in the sky so let me and Cai Jing deal the damage. The rest of you should block the monsters!" declared the ranger. He picked an arrow from his quiver and pulled his longbow as much as possible.

"Swoosh!" an arrow covered with black aura flew straight towards the Lich Longsoul but the latter did not seem to react.

"Tchack!" the arrow embedded itself in the skull of the Lich but he simply laughed and raised his right hand to pull out the arrow. He lost 20 HP from that arrow but that only took out a small part of its HP.

"Puny humans! Since you've decided to come here! You can stay forever and serve me in death!" loudly declared the lich as he raised his 2 hands in the air.

A few seconds later, the graveyard once again shook but this time, dozens of hands shot out of the ground. Li Wei stared in shock at the dozens of skeletons trying to pull themselves from the ground. Even though this was written in the strategy guide he received, it was still a scary scene!

Li Wei took an aggressive stance. A lot of monsters had been summoned as the boss Lich Longsoul itself was still floating in mid-air, vulnerable to all attacks. As long as Li Wei and the paladin could protect Cai Jing and the ranger as they shot their attacks, then they would successfully clear the Time Attack.

The plan was simple; never stay in the same spot and keep moving. Instead of defending the area of the ranged attackers, they would simply charge at the monsters and open a path for the party to move through. If they did not move, they would slowly be surrounded and will have to lose time to defeat the monsters. Their actual strategy was not perfect, but it delayed the inevitable encirclement from happening.

[Strengthen], [Reinforce]

Both Li Wei and the Paladin activated their skill and charged at the skeletons. The skeletons were still trying to pull themselves out but two of them did not have time to as they were mercilessly killed by Li Wei's sword. As for the Paladin, he charged at the remaining Zombies, pushing them away with [Bash].

Meanwhile, while slowly walking towards Li Wei who was opening a path, Cai Jing quickly threw out [Mana Bolt] and [Mana Burst] at the Lich but the latter did not even move and simply took the damage. Similarly, the ranger used all his skills, [Power Shot], [Scatter Shot] and [Precise Shot]. The lich gloomily laughed as it waved its hand to send a black sphere at the group.

The Paladin jumped in front of the group and raised his shield to take the shot. And almost instantly, his HP bar was completely replenished by the Priest.

"Let's get moving or we'll get surrounded! Another wave of attacks should lower its HP to two-thirds!" said Cai Jing as he drank a Mana Potion.

Li Wei silently nodded and used [Blade Draw] towards the Lich before turning back to the skeletons.

Suddenly, a white halo surrounded his body. It was the priest's [Empower] which had similar effects to his own [Strengthen].

Now having +4 Strength, he easily swung his sword and slaughtered the skeletons. While there were many of them, they were not very strong and would go down after a few sword strikes. In this chaotic environment, swords could appear out of nowhere and suddenly strike him. However, Li Wei now had the Gliding Steps and whenever he felt a sense of danger, he would not hesitate to use his newly acquired skill and glide in a random direction.

And more than once, that move allowed him to gracefully dodge a sneak attack of the skeletons. His party members immediately recognized the skill since they were from the Cai Family but did not say anything. It was not an uncommon skill for them. Even the ranger and the paladin learned it, but they were still surprised to see how fluidly Li Wei could dodge the swords with it.

Thirty seconds went by as Li Wei continuously hacked his swords everywhere when finally, Cai Jing once again raised his hands and launched his skills. At the same time, the ranger pulled his bow and activated his own skills.

"Boom" A massive explosion occurred on the Lich's body as all the projectiles exploded on its body.

"Ahhh Puny humans! How dare you! Rise, my children! Kill those you once swore to protect!" chanted the lich as it once again raised its hands.

This time, the graveyard did not shake but rattling noises entered the ears of the party. A few seconds later, all the tombs scattered in the graveyards opened, revealing the decomposing bodies of Zombies.

"Get moving! We can do this! This is the easiest cycle! They are slow and don't deal as much damage as the skeletons! Don't lose focus," shouted Cai Jing as he waved his hand.

The lich would change cycle at two-thirds and one-third of its HP. Although they made it look easy, the lich still had 400HP which was relatively low for a boss. However, what caused the cycle to change after just to wave of attacks was the fact that Cai Jing was a mage that heavily invested in Wisdom.

Normally, mages would invest in Intelligence to have a larger mana pool but Cai Jing chose to increase his firepower instead and make up for his lack of Mana with items! It was precisely that higher than normal firepower that allowed him to quickly wear off the boss' HP.

Although it was Li Wei that was clearing the skeletons to allow the party to change position, it was not him that was shouldering the most pressure. Instead, it was the Paladin. That guy literally had to guard 3 fronts. Although the Priest was helping him by constantly using [Heal] and [Light Barrier] to delay the skeletons, he was already exhausted.

As arrogant as Cai Jing was, he naturally noticed the state of the Paladin and activated his own skill to buy some time.

[Mystic Barrier]

It was a skill he obtained from one of the training techniques of his family. It created a large transparent wall and blocked the enemies from 2 directions. "Drink your potions quickly! The barrier won't hold for long" said Cai Jing.

The Paladin nodded with a grateful expression and gulped down a health and a mana potion. After that, he went back to his position with a boosted moral! He knew that victory was not far. He could not give up now!

Meanwhile, the Zombies had arrived in front of Li Wei. The latter hated these disgusting fellows. Their signature putrid smell was once again assaulting his nose. [Howl] He immediately used his skill to push them back as he swung his swords at their decomposing bodies. Unfortunately, [Strengthen] and [Empower] just wore of.

The ranger quickly shot a few arrows at the Zombies, helping Li Wei to speed up the process. As for the boss Lich Longsoul, it was simply floating in mid-air glaring threateningly at the players. But it did not attack or else, the Time Attack would be unclearable. In fact, the lich would only attack once it entered its 3rd and final phase.

With the help of the ranger, Li Wei took down four Zombies, allowing the party to move and avoid being surrounded. All that time, they were moving in a circle around the Lich Longsoul. That was the only way for the ranged attackers to be able to hit the lich.

Thirty seconds went by and once again, Cai Jing and the Ranger showered the Lich with their skills. The latter was left with slightly less than half of his HP bar but that still did not trigger the last phase.

Li Wei gritted his teeth as he used Gliding Steps to narrowly dodge the clawing hands of a zombie. At this rate, they would definitely be able to clear the Time Attack but while he was moving, he took the opportunity to take a glance at the timer. It had already been 29 minutes! It was already way above the world record!

Another 30 seconds went by, the party's cooldowns were refreshed, and they could shower the boss Lich Longsoul with their skills once more. But they did not. Cai Jing helped to clear the wave of Zombies. It was an essential part of their strategy! And this greatly reduced the pressure on Li Wei and the Paladin.

Zombies kept approaching the group, but there were obviously a fewer number of them now. They took the opportunity to drink down some potions before their cooldowns once again refreshed.

Lich Longsoul was carefreely standing in mid-air, looking at the adventurers that came to invade its territory. Although it was severely injured, it silently watched his zombies mercilessly assault the invaders. Suddenly, it once again saw a plethora of projectiles fly towards it. It instantly recognized them, but it was too late to move.

"Boom!" A deafening explosion blasted the lich Longsoul's cape away, revealing its disgusting appearance.

"You puny humans! I have shown you enough pity! Tortured souls of Hell! Come out and satiate your thirst!" chanted the lich as his body slowly lowered to the ground.

Immediately, creepy sounds emerged from the depths of the graveyard as the gloomy mist that surrounded the graveyard condensed around, taking the form of creepy ghouls.

As for the lich, it was no longer standing still, it had decided to now kill those invaders. Black sparks surrounded its arms as it raised them towards the invaders.