The Great Thief

Chapter 446: Peerless City

Translator: Halcyon Translations Editor: Halcyon Translations

"Stay calm everyone. Continue to do damage and the boss will come back down eventually. Azure, when that happens, I want you to be in the very centre of the fight, ready to draw aggro." Lu Li was very calm because all they had to do was to dodge the fire raining upon them.

Lu Li decided not to tell him that the Boss would land right on top of him.

There was less and less space for the players to manoeuvre around as the fire continued falling down from above. Many players were burned to death.

However, Lu Li had taken all of this into consideration; it was impossible for everyone to survive this stage. As long as more than two-thirds of the party survived, they would have a much better chance of prevailing through the last two stages.

When Headless Paladin dropped to 40% HP and descended onto the ground, Ruling Sword still had over 70 players left.

"Druids, revive the Healers and Tanks. Two druids from four teams should save their Revives for later... I said save it for later, never mind." Everyone was hyper-alert during this fight and executed Lu Li’s orders before he managed to finish talking. Lu Li was speechless but decided not to blame his teammates.

"Melee classes, focus the boss."

"Glory Capital has completely wiped out twice already. On their first attempt, they managed to take down 30% HP of the Boss’ HP, and on their second attempt, they manage to reach the half way point." Square Root Three must have planted some undercover players within Glory Capital and received the most recent updates about their progress.

"Keep us updated with Peerless City as well," Lu Li added with a nod.

Peerless City was the front runner to complete the First Clear for the Halloween event. They were one of the best up and coming guilds in the game. Although they were relatively new, many players were already comparing them to the major guilds like Blood Red War Flag. Both of these guilds were considered to be the top contenders to overthrow Glory Capital as the best guild in the game.

"Peerless City, you got it." Square Root Three wasn’t sure why Lu Li had singled out Peerless City, but he followed his orders anyway.

At this very moment, the Headless Paladin’s next stage was about to begin.

The Headless Paladin charged forwards on his horse, dealing heavy physical damage to any players in his path and also knocking them back for a certain distance. At the end of his charge, all enemies around the area are feared, lasting 4 seconds.

As usual, Lu Li was the only one to know about this beforehand.

Once again, he had to careful not to reveal his secret but also giving them enough information for the team to survive.

He ordered everyone to keep distance from each other and not to stand in a straight line in order to minimize the number of players in Headless Paladin’s path.

The Spirit Paladins summoned by him were even more powerful in this stage. Not only did they swing their weapons around, their charge radius was large and the area of Fear was a lot wider than Headless Paladin.

Players who were feared ran around like aimlessly like headless cockroaches.

The Headless Paladin took this opportunity to attack and instantly killed a couple of players.

"Azure Sea Breeze, do not move, and use Taunt," Lu Li ordered Azure Sea Breeze as he directed the other tanks to spread out from each other.

As planned, the Headless Paladin became confused and randomly charged towards one of the tanks.

The group of players that were feared before had completely dismantled their formation. Many players were either feared or knocked away from the fight.

Their DPS began dropping immensely.

The Headless Paladin charged towards Azure Sea Breeze and when the fear was over, Azure rushed towards the Boss and drew aggro onto himself.

The Boss had no other choice but to follow the game mechanic and began focusing on him.

However, after 5 seconds or so, the boss began charging again!

This time, Lu Li stood in the path of the charge, but narrowly escaped with Gale Steps.

What made this stage difficult was the chaos and confusion. It really tested the ability of the commander to stay calm in order to lead his team. Since many players were constantly feared or knocked back, their DPS dropped substantially and the stage was dragged on for much longer than it should have been.

In Dawn, many factors played into the length of a dungeon battle; it wasn’t as simple as dealing the greatest amount of damage in the least amount of time possible.

Although Ruling Sword’s Elite team was still very much underdeveloped and lacking in talent, Lu Li’s commanding skills were definitely one of the best in the game. Additionally, the knowledge he had gained from his rebirth had saved his team many times during close calls.

Before entering the final stage, there were less than 70 players remaining.

"Type 1 if your revive is off cooldown," Lu Li typed into the chat near the end of the fourth stage as he began preparing for the final stage.

The final stage would be a test of their DPS. If less than half of the team survived during the final stage it would be better to restart rather than to continue on.

"Lu Li, you better hurry up. Peerless City is already in the final stage."

Square Root Three’s update was slightly too late, but there was nothing that could be done.

The Final Stage?

Lu Li was in disbelief. Although he had logged on a bit later and had been wiped out once already, it was impossible for Peerless City to complete the whole run without failing a single time.

"They’re utilizing the ladder method for First Clears. Firstly, they send two teams to clear the first stage, then pass on the information and strategy to the next two teams, and so on. However, their first team has yet to fail so they’re much more ahead than we are."

This was a brilliant idea, however, Lu Li did not have the manpower to do that.

Rather than investing fifteen groups at once to run the whole dungeon, they sent in two teams to scout the stages first, then passed the information on to the next teams.

Peerless City was the first to popularize the ladder method, which became the staple strategy for major guilds to complete First Clears.

Guilds like Peerless City could easily form a 1500 player team, while Glory Capital could send in 3000 players. However, the newly developed Ruling Swords had yet to even complete their second 100-man group.

The distance in manpower and resources between new guilds and the established ones was far too wide.

"Do you know how many players the first two teams from Peerless City have lost?" Lu Li asked, forcing himself to calm down.

"Apparently, they still have around 60 to 70 people, but I can’t guarantee how accurate that is. They might be releasing false information to throw other guilds off." Square Root Three became very worried but didn’t want to put even more pressure on Lu Li.

"Announce our progress to the world chat; tell them that we’re on the fifth and final stage. Oh, and also add that we have more than 80 players left.

"But we only have 60 or so left." Square Root Three was confused.

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