A Fight to the Death (Part 2)

There was no way Buru's skill would take 10 seconds to channel. Ye Ci readied herself, with a Large Health Potion in hand, ready to gulp it down the moment she was hit by Buru's skill. That was, of course, if the attack did not kill her right away.

However, Buru enjoyed toying with Elves before taking their lives. There was no way he would allow an Elf to die easily without pain, and Gongzi You was a member of the Elven race. Buru's attack did not kill Ye Ci. Instead, it took away 10% of her hitpoints, and added a Poisoned debuff to her status.

Buru's poison was way more potent than the poison of the monsters that Ye Ci encountered before. Even at 1 stack, it dealt more than 1000 damage every 3 seconds. As a DPS class, Ye Ci had only a little over 10,000 HP at lvl 42. Buru's attack dealt a total of half of Ye C's hitpoints.

"Can you feel the pain, Elf? Does it feel like you've been consumed by a raging flame?" Buru laughed out loud, showing his snow white fangs, "This is the pain that your kind has inflicted upon me! I will make you pay! Ah, you're almost dead. Do you think I'll allow you to die so easily?"

As if he was able to see Ye Ci's hitpoints, Buru cast Heal on Ye Ci when she had only 30% of her hitpoints left. As expected of a lvl 50 BOSS, he was able to heal Ye Ci back to full health. But, would Buru be so kind hearted? Of course not! Even his healing on Ye Ci came with poison. He inflicted yet another stack of poison damage on Ye Ci, dealing 1500 points of damage to her every 3 seconds.

Ye Ci drank a bottle of potion that has a healing over time effect, and waited patiently for the thorns to disappear. There was only 2 seconds left.

Buru let out a maniacal laugh, and began channeling another spell. Before he could cast the spell, the thorns binding Ye Ci disappeared. She tumbled to a side and entered stealth, backing a few yards away from her original spot.

"What? She disappeared! That damned Elf disappeared!" Buru was momentarily stunned as Ye Ci vanished from sight. He then bellowed in rage, "After so long, you Elves are still despicable as ever! You're even more wretched than before! I would throw up whenever I smell the stench of your lowly race! You don't deserve to be in this world! Die! Just die!" Buru raised his hands and began chanting, "O' Earthly Mother, your humble servant calls to thee, grant me thy strength, and I shall use this Elf as a sacrifice to thee!"

Ye Ci remained in stealth as she continued observing Buru's actions. He knelt on the ground with hands raised, appearing to be praying. The skill that Buru was casting had a long channeling time. Seizing this opportunity, Ye Ci circled around Buru and approached his back. She then stabbed her short sword into his heart.

"You have poisoned your enemy." the poison effect on Ye Ci's short sword was nothing compared to Buru's poison. However, every ounce of damage counts. In a situation like this, Ye Ci could only grind the hitpoints of her opponent down bit by bit

As a Werebeast NPC, Buru was a humanoid creature. This meant that his heart was his weakness. Ye Ci's attacked dealt a critical blow to the NPC, taking away 5% of his life. She was also able to disrupt Buru's channeling. He clutched at his chest and fell onto the ground.

Ye Ci immediately backed away from the BOSS and summoned Ol' Four. She drew her crossbow as she gave the order to her pet to go after Buru, and began firing her weapon at the BOSS.

Ye Ci's critical blow was able to stun Buru for a few seconds. Within the precious window, Ye Ci was able to land several critical hits on the BOSS while Ol' Four used all of its offensive abilities on Buru as well. Despite being a lvl 50 NPC, Buru lost 10% of his health under the onslaught. Ye Ci was troubled. With Buru having an 8-level advantage over her, quite a number of her attacks missed. This would badly affect the outcome of the battle.

At that moment, Ye Ci remembered a certain ring that was sitting in her inventory. It was the ring dropped by Fleeting Time. Despite her reluctance, Ye Ci was in a really dire situation. She had to use the ring.

Even if… Even if that ring used to be owned by Fleeting Time, but… Ye Ci had no time to spare. She immediately equipped the ring, and her accuracy soared. Her MISS was reduced by at least 70%, significantly increasing her damage output.

"Damn you Elf! You'll pay!" recovering from being stunned, Buru let out a roar and cast spells at Ye Ci. Without the ability to disrupt spell casting, Ye Ci could only try to predict the type of spell that would be released by Buru based on the channeling time.

If the spell was an AOE one, Ye Ci would jump away in advance, dodging the high amount of damage of the large area spell. If it was a single target spell, it would all depend on Ye Ci's luck. She might be able to avoid the spell, or duck the cover of a rock or a tree.

As a Huntress instead of a Sorceress, Ye Ci was agile and fast. Coupled with the positioning she had acquired in her past life as a spell caster, Ye Ci had an edge in her battle against Buru. She was able to avoid most of Buru's attacks. On the other hand, Buru was slow as a druid, and many of his skills require a long channeling time. This placed him in a disadvantage.

How could Buru not be enraged? As a noble Werebeast, he was being toyed around by an Elf and an annoying dinosaur. He let out a roar, "Come out, my pets!"

A huge number of poisonous monsters appeared around Ye Ci, who immediately entered stealth. The monsters began swarming at Ol' Four, which was focusing its attention on Buru. The beast was enraged. It let out a mighty roar and cast Tremor on its assailants, dealing tremendous amounts of damage.

Ye Ci seized the opportunity to put a distance between herself and her foes. Buru, who was unwilling to let Ye Ci escape, gave chase. However, as he took a step forward, he unwittingly walked into Ye Ci's Frost Trap, and was frozen solid.

The effect of the Frost Trap would only last for 10 seconds. However, a large number of tasks could be accomplished in such a short window. Ye Ci was able to heal Ol' Four up and took out all of Buru's summoned monsters. As the monsters died, Ye Ci noticed that Buru's health was also affected by the health of his pets as his hitpoints dropped by 10%.

Could it be…

Could it be that lives of Buru's summoned monsters were linked to his hitpoints? Would he receive damage when his pets died? Ye Ci was unable to confirm her theory. However, she hastened up her attacks, forcing Buru to once again summon his pets. Ye Ci began dealing with Buru following the same set of strategy. She would pretend to escape and set Buru up to be frozen by her Frost Trap, and then eliminate all of Buru's pets.

As expected, Buru would lose 10% of his hitpoints each time his pets were eliminated. Ye Ci had also discovered that if the monsters were not defeated within a minute, the damage that they dealt would act as a lifesteal for Buru. How peculiar! If Ye Ci did not have a high DPS, and was unable to control the tempo of the battle, she would be in a pinch.

With a way to defeat Buru, Ye Ci was no longer at a loss. She slowly seized the tempo of the battle, placing Buru in a disadvantage.

Even with his level advantage, once Ye Ci took control of the tempo, Buru was just a slightly tougher bone that would eventually be devoured by her. With enough patience and effort, taking down Buru would be an easy task.

Buru would of course not allow himself to be killed by Ye Ci easily. Even after grasping the tempo of the battle, Ye Ci would receive a lot of trouble from Buru. The BOSS would often use Feign Death, heal himself, and increase its defence. These skills were not used often, but they were very troublesome for Ye Ci. After being in combat for such a long time, Ol' Four's mood and stamina was rapidly deteriorating. Even food was unable to improve Ol Four's mood.

The mood of a pet like Ol' Four would not affect the tempo of the battle, but his attack speed and damage was significantly decreased. For Ye Ci, it was the worst case scenario. Judging by the rapidly dimming sky, she had already been locked in combat with Buru for almost 4 hours. Ol' Four was not the only one with dwindling stamina. Ye Ci herself was also at her limits.

To make matters worse, Ye Ci's ammunition was almost depleted. A system notification constantly rang in her ears, "You have only one set of arrows left in your quiver, please replenish your ammunition."

Ye Ci was equipped with a 24-slot quiver. It has 6 more slots than a normal quiver, and has a passive ability that allows it to recycle used normal arrows. Despite that, the fight with Buru had almost depleted Ye Cis arrows. If she was unable to defeat Buru, she would end up like Fleeting Time, and taste defeat when she was so close in achieving victory.

5% of Buru's hitpoints remained while Ye Ci had 244 arrows left. She began formulating plans in her mind, drawing up the best strategy to take buru out with her remaining arrows.

Ye Ci did not panic even as the situation grew dire. She was calm. Ye Ci felt that she had grown. In her past life, such unfavorable situation would cause her to go into panic. However, she was able to remain calm. Perhaps it was because her attitude has changed, and she had begun enjoying the game for real, or perhaps she no longer place benefits above all else, things have changed for her.

No matter the reason, Ye Ci was able to remain focussed. The calmer she was, the more she was able to analyze the battle. She lurked just beyond Buru's casting range, healing Ol' Four and feeding it food while dealing damage with her skills. From an outsider's point of view however, the Gongzi You in this moment was no different from the Gongzi You at the start of the battle.

Despite her agility and the ferocity of her attacks, only Ye Ci knew that she was at her limit. Her hands were numb and her body felt as if it was being torn apart. Even her organs were protesting. The system was flooding her with notifications, stating that her stamina was at its limit. If she did not take a rest, there would be a 24-hours fatigue penalty for her.

She was aware of what it meant. However, she was also aware of another thing: she must not give up, because she had not done her best. As long as her body could move, as long as she could still control her body, as long as she was conscious, she must continue the fight.

She was a Huntress, she was a DPS player, she was born for battle.

And she will fight to her death.

"Elf, I know you can't endure any longer! You can barely move, can you? Give up now! You cannot resist me! You cannot defeat me!" Buru had only 3% of his hitpoints left. With his eyes red with rage, the BOSS began casting a spell not far away from Ye Ci.

Buru was a BOSS with high intelligence. A BOSS like Buru was able to analyze the situation and adapt to its outcome. Buru knew that he was at the end of his life, and he also knew that the Elf was at its limits. Only one of the two would survive this battle, and Buru's pride as a Werebeast refused to allow the Elf to be the survivor. It was a fight to the death.

I have 171 arrows left, I might be able to defeat him. Ye Ci's throat was on fire. She could not even speak, and every breath she took brought scorching pain. As she took a look at Ol' Four, she noted that her pet was truly at its limit. Without hesitation, Ye Ci dismissed Ol' Four and summoned Ol' Three.

Despite being 2 levels below Ol' Four, Ol' Three and a mere Elite Monster, Ol' Three was freshly summoned and was full of energy. His damage output was way better than the exhausted Ol' Four.

The fight dragged on.

When Buru had only 1.8% of his hitpoints left, Ye Ci's high damage skills were on cooldown. She ran around the BOSS, using Rapid Fire and Viper Stinger to buy her some time.

"Die, Elf!" Ye Ci's body was really at its limit. She eventually showed an opening, which was exploited by Buru. He immobilized Ye Ci with Thorny Entanglement. Scooping Ye Ci up from the ground, he clamped down hard on her throat.

Buru glared at Ye Ci, and tightened his grip on her throat."Puny insect! How dare you stand against me! You'll suffer for even daring to challenge my might!"

Ye Ci was out of breath, and she could almost hear the snapping of her bones. If the situation continues, she would have the life choked out of her. Her limbs were too short to reach Buru, and her strength was rapidly waning. She did not even have the strength to draw out her short sword.

Am I going to die just like this?

Ye Ci's bones and windpipe began making a crunching sound. She was unwilling to accept her defeat, but…

It seems this is the end.