The Great Thief

Chapter 1319: A Bloody Battle at the Burning Steppes

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

What happened next was a long silence.

This was the first Legendary equipment that everyone had seen, even Lu Li, who had experienced rebirth.

There had been rumours that someone had a Legendary equip, but all that was speculation and could have been fabricated. After all, if rumours were spread that a certain person had legendary equipment on them, they would immediately become a target.

“Hey, Lighty, what kind of dinner are we having?” Azure Sea Breeze asked after a while.

He had previously wanted to fight Moonlight for this item, but that was obviously a joke. There was no way that he as a Main Tank could ask for such a high damage item like this.

Wandering and Remnant Dream were in similar positions.

In fact, the first special effect that increased the Whirlwind’s level was specifically designed to maximise a Berserker’s power.

In addition, Whirlwind was a Berserker’s signature skill and already made the item second to none. Moreover, this item actually had two more valuable special effects. Of the two special effects, the first allowed the Berserker to have a second Charge, but the benefits of the third were only understood by Lu Li.

What could Shahram do in a window of 10 seconds?

No one could answer that question because there was no answer. The answer to this question wasn’t fixed.

Ten seconds were more than enough to help Moonlight kill a strong opponent. It was also possible for Shahram to heal Moonlight until he was back to full HP. He could also revive one of Moonlight’s teammates, or give the entire team a buff.

There were a wide variety of buffs that he could give. According to some incomplete statistics, there were at least 20-30 buffs.

No one knew what Shahram would do!

The most important part of this effect was that Shahram was unaffected by crowd-control on the player because this was a triggered effect and didn’t require casting.

As for the other Attributes, they were undoubtedly what would expect of the Blackblade.

Lu Li felt a bit of envy, but in fact, the Felstriker wasn’t much worse.

Felstriker (Perfect Epic): Damage 88-120, Agility +120, Strength +100, Critical Hit: +35%. Three Slots. Special Effect 1: Ambush Skill Level +1, +1 Combo Points gained for using this skill. Special Effect 2: After the user successful lands a critical hit, gain 50% damage increased for 10 seconds. Special Effect 3: Phantom Shift – Six Phantoms that last three seconds each appear randomly. The user can choose to change positions with one of them at any time. 2 hour cooldown. Special Effect 4: Bloodthirst, Instant Cast, consumes 20% of HP to increase Attack Power by 50%, Attack Speed by 50% and Movement Speed by 50%. Lasts for 10 seconds. 2 hour cooldown. After using this effect, the user is satisfied and can no longer be affected by other Bloodthirst or time warp effects for 10 minutes. Equipment Requirement: Level 60. Durability 320/320.

Because it was a one-handed weapon, a second dagger could be equipped which meant that its damage and other Attributes were not inferior. It also had a critical hit bonus that was 5% higher.

The Special Effects were also quite different. Felstriker increased the skill level of Ambush,

which was slightly inferior to Whirlwind.

The perfect grade of the Felstriker was comparable to a full grade increase. You could see a Perfect Epic as a Legendary item, but unfortunately, this didn’t have the same effect on people. If you sent someone a Perfect Epic item or a Legendary item, you would receive different responses.

Lu Li gave this Blackblade to Moonlight, deducted his guild points and set a debt of a few thousand points to the guild.

Moonlight was very embarrassed. It wasn’t just the points – he couldn’t afford the red envelope that was to be given to Remnant Dream. He was so poor because of his PVP lifestyle. The gold that he received from Instance Dungeons was usually just enough for him to repair his equipment and help his old friends.

Remnant Dream couldn’t force him to pay up anyway, so she let him go.

There wasn’t much after that. They cleared some of the side quests given by Marshall Maxwell before going back to him to submit them.

As the highest-ranking governor of the Alliance presiding over this area, the rewards he would give couldn’t be that bad.

Lu Li and the others left the Instance Dungeon and headed over the location of the Burning

Steppes Flame Crest. Hachi Chan had previously shared the quest with everyone, so everyone could submit it.

However, they didn’t hear the sound of fighting until they got close.

Lu Li instructed everyone to hide while he turned into a Blood Crow to fly into the sky. From his position in the air, he could see all of Burning Steppes in front of him.

The Burning Steppes were a rugged, bare land dotted with fires that had burned the once-green grass.

A wave of green-skinned troops wearing black armor were charging.

They had a protruded jaw with sharp teeth, flat twitching noses and small bloodthirsty eyes that were red with hatred. Under the dying sun of the Burning Steppes, the ebony shafts and glimmering blades of their weapons let off a radiant shine.

This was Blackrock’s Orc Army!

Lu Li didn’t hate these soldiers just because they had been killing Blackrock Orcs in the Instance Dungeon.

The monsters in the Instance Dungeon were not the same as those in the wild. To put it bluntly, the monsters in the Instance Dungeon were fake. This was not a completely accurate explanation, but the monsters in the wild were definitely much stronger.

The army was quite difficult to deal with. No matter who it was, if they were swarmed by these soldiers, they were bound to die.

As such, Lu Li planned to set up some players to be watchmen. After some time, the Stronghold System would be introduced and the players would be able to fight for a Stronghold. For now, Lu Li’s watchmen would have to keep an eye out for the Orcs.

The Blackrock Orcs were shouting and pointing as they marched towards their objective. Their objective was a little hillside which was surrounded by mountains.

The only advantage of this location was that both sides were steep, which made them difficult to climb, let alone charge up. One side also had a magma stream flowing down, which meant the Blackrock Orcs were unlikely to attack from that direction. They could only mount their attack from one side of the garrison.

At the top of the hillside was a blue Alliance flag. This wasn’t a castle or a Stronghold. The boulders that were piled around barely formed a defensive position.

An officer who looked like he was commanding the battle was standing on a boulder. Occasionally, arrows would fly towards him, but he would deflect them with his sword.

These people had experienced a continual struggle against this attack.

Only a small group of people wrapped in bandages remained. Their dirty armor and broken helmets were covered in blood. Their weapons were jagged and were covered in dried, crimson blood.

Lu Li was dumbfounded – what was happening?

He didn’t know if this had to do with the quest or a movement in the story. He had been to the Burning Steppes quite a few times, but he had never seen an actual battle take place before.

There were close to a thousand Blackrock orcs, while there were only a three or four hundred humans who were capable of fighting. Almost everyone was injured, but they seemed to have some decent equipment remaining. They fired their bows and a wave of arrows rained down from the hill.

Some of the Orcs in the front row were killed in the blink of an eye as the arrows landed. Another volley of arrows then began, which caused another wave of Orcs soldiers to fall, but behind them was a huge legion of soldiers.

The number of human soldiers was simply far too few. The Blackrock Orcs had almost breached the defensive line a number of times.

The Blackrock Orcs were also constantly changing their formation. This was evidence that they had a skilled commander. From Lu Li’s perspective, it was only a matter of time before the Blackrock Orcs broke through.

Lu Li first tried to call people over from the guild, before telling the others to come in.

“Lighty, bring them in.”

It would take time before the reinforcements would arrive. Lu Li was worried that these human soldiers wouldn’t make it through that time. The 15 players that were present were not that many, but they were all strong and were reasonably healthy, so they could fight for some time.

Moonlight took the people along the route planned by Lu Li as they quickly approached the battlefield.

“Woah, there are just too many of them.”

Unlike Moonlight and Fat Monkey, Azure Sea Breeze wasn’t a PVP madman, so his fear of facing all these Orc soldiers was understandable.

“We have no choice. There are only very few human soldiers left and many of them are injured,” Lu Li said, feeling helpless too.

If he could arrange to bring in a thousand players, then these Blackrock Orcs would be manageable. But now, in order to save the human soldiers, they just had to fight together.

As for the rewards of such a task, Lu Li had some expectations, but he wasn’t going to insist on them.

This was the nature of the game. You couldn’t avoid these opportunities if you wanted to flourish. Those who weren’t afraid to do these things were more likely to die, but they also earned more rewards.

“Is everyone ready?” Lu Li asked quietly after everyone was close enough.

The others were becoming excited. They were about to rush out as a group of 15 players to face nearly a thousand Blackrock Orcs.

After Lu Li received a definitive answer, he didn’t immediately command them to charge. Instead, after the Orcs soldiers had reached the hill, he jumped out of the hiding place and attacked the Orc Commander that was riding the giant Warg.

The Orc Command had been busy yelling at the battlefield, so he was dumbfounded when Lu Li stabbed him in the back of the head by surprise.

He shook his aching head and let out an earth-shattering cry.

The Blackrock Orcs that were charging ahead stopped as they turned back to look at their commander. However, just when they thought the Orcs would come back for their Commander, they turned back and continued to pressed forwards.

“Attack!” Azure Sea Breeze cried out with his shield in front of him. As a Main Tank, even if he didn’t want to fight, he couldn’t let his Thief teammate face the monster alone.

The Orc Commander wasn’t really alone either; he had six guards nearby.

Azure Sea Breeze and Wandering were both tanking the aggro of the monsters while being assisted by the melee damage output players. The ranged players’ jobs were to deal damage while the healers were protected in the middle of the formation. Their presence made their suffering a little bit more bearable.

“Pay attention to your HP, and don’t use your damage reduction skills. Our people will be here soon,” Lu Li said as soon as he managed to catch his breath, but he knew that he had underestimated their opponent.

The Burning Steppes were a standard level 60 map with monsters ranging from level 50-60. There were a few areas with lower-level monsters, but under normal circumstances, there wouldn’t any monsters above level 60.

However, what he had been presented with defied Lu Li’s understanding.

These monsters were all level 62, while the Commander was level 65 and was obviously a Boss.

Fortunately, this guy was an Orc Shaman.

The Shamans were the spiritual leaders of the clan and of the Horde. They could communicate with souls, had the ability to predict the future and guided their people through storms in the dark ages. Their role in battle was to boost morale, increase the attack power of the soldiers and ensure that the soldiers didn’t go Berserk. If the soldiers didn’t die from their injuries, he could also heal them.

The Shaman that Lu Li was facing served an assistive role.

Of course, it was still impossible for Lu Li to kill him. Moreover, he also had the six guards who were protecting him. Even if there weren’t any mishaps, it was only a matter of time before Lu Li’s group were wiped.

However, this was only because the Shaman had completely ignored what the players were doing.

He was still commanding the Blackrock Orcs to attack the defensive structure of the human camp. Lu Li and the others had more or less distracted him, but it didn’t stop the attack on the camp.

“Dammit, what are you doing?

The scene that was unfolding made everyone speechless. The human commander had actually taken his group down the hillside to charge into the Orcs.

Lu Li didn’t have much to say, because he understood what the human commander was trying to do. He could clearly see that he was receiving help, but there were only a dozen people and it wasn’t enough to deal with the Orc Commander. As such, he was taking advantage of the brief window where the Orc Commander was occupied.

However, he didn’t know that Lu Li had reinforcements coming. He just told Cat Dad to prepare several groups of a hundred players to be sent here.

Originally, Lu Li’s plan was just to harass the Orc Commander so that he couldn’t remain focused on commanding. This would give the human soldiers a bit more breathing room.

He was also trying to stall for his reinforcements to arrive, where they would be able to at least repel the Blackrock Orcs.

Right now, the human soldiers were rushing down in an attempt to break out of the encirclement. The three sides of the hill that were helping their defense was actually now a disadvantage that restricted their retreat.

As long as the Orc Soldiers were blocking the front, they would be like a mill that slowly ground down the soldiers that were trying to break through.

“Where are you guys? You don’t have to keep formation – just get here! Take whatever mounts there are to do it!” Lu Li yelled into command channel at Drifting Rain.

“Our Paladin team will arrive first. It will be 5 minutes at most,” Drifting Rain said straightforwardly.

The Paladins were professional riders and had a crusader aura which increased the speed of their mount by 20%. If more Paladins were gathered together, their crusader aura would be increased, up to a maximum of 50%.

Under Drifting Rain’s orders, four to five hundred Paladins on their mounts were found out of the few thousand players.

Most of them had joined the Night Watchmen Corps and were well trained.

Lu Li could only pray that the human soldiers could hold on for a little longer, otherwise, these thousand reinforcements would just be here to pick up corpses.

“How about we sneak in to join them? We can retreat into the hillside,” Wandering suddenly suggested.

It was a good idea. Lu Li then realized that it was better to rush in and join the human soldiers so that they could retreat together back into the hillside. As for whether they would be able to hold on after retreated into the hillside, that was another matter entirely.

After discussing it for a while, they decisively broke away from the Orc commander and tried to merge with the human soldiers.

The difference between the players and the NPCs or monsters was clear. Lu Li and the others had far more diverse and complicated skills.

For example, when March Rain approached, she immediately cast Soul Shriek.

A sound wave originating from her cute face scared away any of the Blackrock Orcs that it touched.

Lu Li and the others also took the opportunity increase the gap between them and the Boss.

The others did similar things with Frost Nova, Frost Trap, various area of effect Warlock Fears and even Trample to delay their pursuers. They rarely killed any of the monsters ahead of them, because it was simply unrealistic to quickly kill a level 62 elite monster.

The Orc Shaman watched coldly as the reinforcements got closer and closer.

In fact, he didn’t try too hard to stop the players from joining the human forces. Perhaps he thought this was helpful to him as he could defeat them all together.

This time, it was the Human Commander that was dumbfounded.

They didn’t really understand why Lu Li and the others invested themselves into this battle. Why were they helping them?

Finally, when the two groups finally reached each other, Lu Li approached the Human Commander.

“Hello, I am a Night Elf from Darnassus, and I hope that you can retreat onto more defensible terrain. It is unlikely that you will be able to push out like this. Even if you do, there will be heavy casualties,” Lu Li said.

“I still have some hope,” the Human Commander muttered resentfully.

The conversation with Lu Li stalled them for long enough that the window to escape had closed. However, there wasn’t any time to get angry, so he just called for their retreat. If they waited any longer, they would have been completely surrounded and killed.

After losing a dozen more men, Lu Li and these human soldiers returned to the hillside.

With the advantages of the terrain, they could finally catch their breath even though the danger had not been completely averted.

“Lu Li, I can heal them,” March Rain said in amazement, before quickly adding, “It’s much worse than when we heal our own though.”

“The fact that we can is already good enough. Hachi Chan, cast Tranquillity,” Lu Li said.

Under the protection her teammates, Hachi Chan began to channel one of the most powerful area of effect healing skills. Tranquillity or Enhanced Tranquillity was a skill that few people ever learned.

It didn’t heal them for much, and they visually only looked slightly better. The HP that had been healed was just a drop in a bucket.

What surprised Lu Li, was that the healing skills like Hachi Chan’s Enhanced Tranquillity didn’t just increase their HP, but also had an effect on their wounds.

The soldiers were sluggish, but after receiving this drizzle from the sky, they seemed to be in a better mental state.

But now, they were wondering whose side Lu Li was on. If Lu Li hadn’t helped them retreat and Hachi Chan and the other healers didn’t just heal them, they might have just attacked gun.

“Why did you charge in here!”

Lu Li didn’t answer the question directly, but posed the situation back at him.

“Esteemed commander, I have no doubt about your bravery and wisdom, but when you rushed out, you had so few people left.

The momentum of the Human Commander was suddenly weakened.

“No matter how many people survive, that was better than us all dying here.”

“You must think that our small numbers are not enough to break you out from here,” Lu Li said with a wry smile. “In fact, we are just stalling for you. The real battle is coming with our reinforcements.”

“Did you send someone to inform Marshal Maxwell?” the Human Commander asked in surprise.

“Hrm, I will send someone now.”

Lu Li was a bit embarrassed before setting this aside and saying seriously, “My friends will be here soon. Then, you will be safe.”

“Your friends?”

The Human Commander’s expression turned dark and murderous.

“Rest assured, they are warriors that do not fear death,” Lu Li explained quickly. “There are thousands of troops on their way here. That is the leading group; you will all be safe!”

In the direction where Lu Li was pointing, the Human Commander saw a group of cavalry in the horizon.

They were wearing armor which shone in the dim light of the Burning Steppes. The Human Commander suddenly embraced the man that he had wanted to hack to pieces a second ago.

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