Chapter 22 Use Your Brain to Kill the Boss

Having distanced himself, Li Yao stoops low and takes up his crossbow, aiming carefully.

This arrow makes its way into the chest of the troll priest Skakir. However, Skakir, prepared this time, leans back a bit to steady himself and continues advancing towards Li Yao.

Li Yao puts away the crossbow. The troll priest is now just a few dozen yards away, and Li Yao quickly runs towards the mouth of the valley.

The troll priest is fast, but Li Yao is not slow. Every time Li Yao noticed the troll priest retreating, he would fire an arrow from his homemade bow, redirecting the priest's attention towards him.

Unlike a wild beast boss, this humanoid boss tends to behave similar to adventure game bosses, with a clear aggro system, but due to its intelligence, its aggro behavior differs from the consistent aggro mechanics seen in previous games.

"Prepare to take the boss," said Li Yao as he quickly runs into the ranged DPS team.

The Avenger's Shield!

A golden shield with holy wings slaps the boss on the head.

-25

Lesser Priest・Skakir

Rank: 4th-level lower boss

Life: 10725/11000

Skills: Lightning Arrow, Lightning Chain, Summoning Poisonous Snakes, Transformation into Poisonous Snake, Toxic Breath, Poisonous Cloud, Poisonous Explosion.

Dewdrop screams, "Our five-man team has 8000 health points, together we have 11,000, this..."

Li Yao felt fortunate that they could not see the host of skills piled up behind the boss, or else they would not have the motivation to continue the fight.

Li Yao hurriedly said, "Now, follow my command. Xiao Jia, Dewdrop, and Dream, stand together and go all out in damage-dealing. Dragon, you go to the right side of the boss and take care of the vipers summoned from that side."

"You order this and that, what are you doing?" Dragon muttered discontentedly.

Li Yao frowned, "Follow the command or I will kick you out. I will explain it one last time, I will deal with the vipers on the left side of the boss. Remember to kite the vipers around the boss and keep dealing damage to the boss. If anyone questions my orders again, I'll kick them out."

Dragon gave a cold snort, but seeing no one speaking in his support, he awkwardly followed Li Yao's commands.

"The aggro is stable now, you can DPS," stated Suddenly.

"Go all-out with the DPS. When the boss throws out a Lightning Chain, don't panic, don't avoid it, just keep DPS. Healers, you okay?" asked Li Yao.

"I have fought this boss before. If it's just the damage from Lightning Chain, I can handle it," Blue Dream quickly responded.

Li Yao nodded, pulled out his heavy crossbow, and joined the others in DPS.

As a summoner, Dewdrop could offer everyone a buff that increases movement speed, the King's Blessing from the healer also increased everyone's attributes, and Li Yao's aura could provide a 10% ranged enhancement.

The fire spirits summoned by the summoner, the shadow arrows from the magician Li Jia, and the arrows from Dragon all began to deal damage to the boss.

The damage they inflicted typically ranged from 18 to 22. Thanks to the elite set gifted by Li Yao, Li Jia's output was in no way inferior to theirs.

However, Li Yao's arrow, dealing over 80 points of damage, completely dumbfounded them. This was a boss, and an arrow from him dealt over 80 points of damage. Even if he only fired one arrow every four seconds, when compared to their attack frequency of once every two seconds, their combined damage was only half of his hits.

What's more, with Li Yao's equipment and various buffs, coupled with the Platinum Badge enhancements, such damage was in no way surprising.

Suddenly, Skakir unleashed a Lightning Chain, and the three ranged players lost nearly half of their health. The healers scrambled to restore their health.

Two more minutes have passed, and the boss's health dropped below ten thousand.

"Prepare yourselves. Whoever sees a snake, pull it away. Hold the snake's aggro, do not let it break away and explode in our ranks."

Having said that, Li Yao switched to his bow and arrow.

"Obey my summons, Master of Poison."

The troll priest raised his wand and called out loudly. A green light column appeared behind him to his left, and a green cobra emerged from it.

Deadly Poison Cobra

Rank: 4th-level Normal Monster

Life: 3000

Skills: Deadly Poisonous Bite, Furious Poison Explosion

Despite knowing the snake's health in advance, Li Yao wanted to curse. This snake had nearly as much health as an elite monster, giving more truth to the idea that field bosses become relentless as more players join the fray.

Concussive Shot!

A blue ray bursts forth, followed by a Charged Arrow. The serpent's aggro is redirected to Li Yao, who begins to run while attacking the boss.

Li Yao handled it well, not consistently dealing damage to the minion but landing an arrow on the snake right before it broke off, then switched back to the boss.

As the pace escalated, Li Yao's commands became faster and faster and everyone grew increasingly tense.

After ten seconds, the troll priest hollers again, and another venomous snake is summoned. Dragon, trying to keep up with Li Yao, kites the snake around while shooting at the boss.

However, as time went by, there were already twelve snakes trailing behind Li Yao and nine behind Dragon.

But Dragon is already overwhelmed and gets hit by the minions from time to time.

"Dream, heal me."

"Dream, heal me."

"Quick, heal me. I'm running out of health."

"My health is less than a third. If I go down, we are finished."

Dragon's voice grows louder with each shout.

The boss's health is now down to 60%, and its attacks are becoming more frequent. Blue Dream is under increased pressure, and upon hearing Dragon's incessant cries for healing, he becomes annoyed, "Would you stop shouting? Do you think I can't see that you're running out of health? Your noise makes it hard for all of us to hear the commands."

Furious, Dragon roared back, "Command, command my ass! How come his health is still full? Aren't we from the same guild? Can't you see my health is nearly depleted?"

Blue Dream's cute face immediately turned bright red, while she continued to heal him and said scornfully, "Are you blind or what? When did I heal the raid leader?"

"You think I'm stupid? How else is his health always full?" Dragon Roaming Seas scorned.

"I'm tired of you!" Blue Dream, who is always considered a lady, cursed, "you keep screaming even though your skills are awful, as if you've lost me! The boss has pulled four more monsters than you. No, now it's five more, as he pulled another one from your side. What a fool you are. He's been tanking fourteen Deadly Poison Cobras and the aggro is still stable. I haven't healed him once, and his damage output isn't any less than ours."

"Look at yourself, you're panicking because of only nine cobras. Your health fluctuates up and down. Look at your damage output, do you even have any? How can there be such a huge gap between two hunters? The team manager said your father was an Olympic shooter, that's why they recruited you. You were given priority access to the hunter's gear and you have the most skills, yet this is your performance. How do you still have the nerve to complain?"

Dragon Roaming Seas used an escape move to get away from the monsters, then launched Arrow Rain, then started running again, his face turning red: "you're full of crap."

"I'm full of crap? Check the system's stats panel, it's crystal clear there." Blue Dream quickly lost interest in arguing with Dragon, apologizing quickly, "I'm sorry for the distraction."

It wasn't until they heard her complaining that everyone started checking the stat panel and gasped in surprise. The damage received by Li Yao was zero, and his damage inflicted on the boss was second only to Instant Splendor, just by a bit.

Li Yao was zipping around with fifteen monsters in tow and yet was amazingly agile. The monsters followed him like he was leading a parade, a truly impressive sight.

Meanwhile, Dragon Roaming Seas was being hounded by his pack of monsters, and some were even breaking off from the pack. He was running around in circles, and if it wasn't for the primary heals, he would have died many times over already. And looking at the total healing received, boy, Dragon Roaming Seas had received even more heals than Instant Splendor who was tanking as the main tank.

"Your brother's friend is pretty awesome, commanding us like this." Little Raindrop muttered.

Li Jia was also puzzled, "I didn't know my brother's friend was this strong."

After a while, Li Yao used a few Shadow Rolls to distance himself from the monsters. "Stay away from the cobra bosses."

"You damned elves will feel the wrath of the true master of poison!" The troll priest's staff emitted several lines of green light.

Thud thud thud...

Each line of green light drilled into the cobras' heads, causing them to explode and a green light to burst out at the same time.

Dragon Roaming Seas tragically died due to the explosion of two cobras and fell to the ground complaining, "You sabotaged me. How can I react in time when you only now tell me?"

"We've told you about this issue since the beginning. You've also fought it twice, how could you not dodge the cobra explosions?" Blue Dream casually replied.

Li Yao ignored him and merely said, "I saw the route to the graveyard earlier. It's only two minutes away. If you can't revive within two minutes, I'm going to kick you."

"You're ruthless." Dragon Roaming Seas was furious but dared not say more. He had already died twice today, losing two levels. If he got kicked out, the losses would be even greater.

As the shadows of the cobras exploded one by one, they entered the body of the troll priest who instantly transformed into a phantom cobra, towering four to five yards high, looking incredibly fierce.

"How dare these weaklings disturb my slumber, replenish my losses with your fresh flesh and blood!"

"Everyone concentrate now and pay attention to my commands." Li Yao switched his weapon to a heavy crossbow and began to deal damage. "Instant Splendor, turn the boss away from us, quick. Dream, prepare for a major healing spell. Use it on Instant Splendor in three seconds."

Li Yao convinced them with his strength. Instant Splendor rolled over to face Li Yao and the others, causing the boss to turn around as well.

Whoosh...

A Toxic Breath sprayed out stretching dozens of yards. Instant Splendor's health was dropping fast, but Blue Dream's major healing spell had finished. A holy light descended, instantly restoring Instant Splendor's health to full. Even though it started dropping again, Blue Dream had reacted and began using smaller heal spells.

"Spread out, everyone. Keep a distance of at least ten yards. Healers, don't move around, stay alert on your feet. If you see a green light under your feet, dodge immediately. Don't get greedy on your damage output."

"Feel the wrath of the divine spirit." Skakir roared.

The ground began to show small green whirlpools, and at Li Yao's warning, several people quickly moved out of range.

Pop, pop, pop, pop...

Clouds of poisonous circles burst, but everyone was dodging quickly.

"Commander, the boss is about to release the toxin, the poison fog will cover a vast range, it spreads quickly and can't be avoided. If everyone's blood drops at the same time, the healing won't be able to keep up." Blue Dream warned.

"I know." Li Yao said, then warned, "The boss will breathe its second breath in three seconds, be careful."

With the previous experience, Timeless Beauty and Blue Dream had passed this little hurdle without Li Yao needing to say anything.

"Let the boss charge at us again, Beauty, face away from us and fight while retreating. Quick."

"You mortals have really provoked me." Skakir was generating a faint poison fog around him and Timeless Beauty, who was within his range, began to lose health continuously.

"Dream, just heal Beauty, don't worry about anything else, also continue to fight while retreating."

Everyone began to fight while retreating, the green poison fog kept at least a ten-yard distance from them.

"What's going on here, we've fought like this before, but we just can't avoid the poison fog. We can't even reach the boss without the poison fog, why aren't we affected?"

"The reason is simple, you've actually discovered it already." Li Yao breathed a sigh of relief, as long as the poison fog couldn't cover everyone, the healers would have no pressure. Nowadays healers basically lack AOE healing spells, even if they have them their cooldown is too long, they can't keep up.

Dragon Traveling the Four Seas had revived and was blocked outside the valley by the poison fog. He could only watch Li Yao and the others through the hundred-yard-wide poison fog on the other side.

"I've got it, it's the wind." Little Raindrop was the most relaxed because of her Fire Spirit's damage output. She quickly discovered that the poison fog was spreading towards the valley mouth very slowly, swaying with the gentle breeze from the valley mouth.

Although the wind wasn't strong, it was spreading the poison fog inside, but the speed was slowed down because of the wind.

"Commander, I don't have any complaints. I have to admit, I was doubtful when I watched your video, but now, I'm convinced. From now on, you're my idol." Little stars appeared in Blue Dream's eyes.

"Dream Sis is smitten, hehe." Little Raindrop teased.

Blue Dream was at a quasi-god level as a healer in her past life - so being worshipped by a big shot who had the same status as her in her previous life actually felt pretty good to Li Yao.

While the team fought and retreated, the boss's blood was steadily decreasing, and a few minutes later, he was critically injured.

Everyone retreated a few hundred yards. Under Li Yao's command, everyone had managed to narrowly escape danger, and finally, the boss fell to the ground, full of regret.

"Beauty, withdraw quickly.

As Timeless Beauty withdrew, the Cobra's phantom exploded, but thanks to her timely evasion, the boss's self-explosion didn't harm anyone, the phantom once again became a troll priest.

Everyone cheered, everyone's experience had surged a lot.

"Commander, go and loot the body." Blue Dream said.

Timeless Beauty also moved away from the boss's body and said, "Go ahead and loot the body. This is the first humanoid boss killed, right? I want to see what it dropped."

Li Yao was smiling as he said, "You guys know it's the first time killing it, don't forget, the world announcement, just watch, here it comes."

As Li Yao spoke, a line of multi-colored text shone in front of everyone...