The Great Thief

The first five minutes of the battle were very relaxed; Magistrate Barthilas didn’t do much and lost a large amount of HP.

However, after this, it was like he suddenly woke up. He released several area of effect attacks and all of the melee players lost a significant amount of HP. Some players who were already low almost died and even Lu Li needed to retreat to regenerate.

When a level 50 Boss used a skill, it was like a level 40 Boss’ Ultimate skill.

Lu Li was level 47 and the Boss was level 50. There was a 3-level gap, which meant that there would be a penalty applied. In Instance Dungeons, this affected a lot of things like Attack, Defense, Evasion, and most importantly, Critical Hits.

Otherwise, why would the early explorers of new maps not just take all the First Clears of the Bosses?

All players from major guilds were familiar with the idea that the Main Tank needed to be of a suitable level. It was only when the Main Tank and the Boss were within 5 levels of each other that a First Clear could even be attempted.

Fortunately, Paladins were rarely struck by critical hits, so Wandering was actually surprisingly unaffected. He only lost a small measure of HP.

Azure Sea Breeze, who was next to him, had been hit by three bursts of damage and was left on critical HP. He didn’t feel like he could tank much more after that, but in fact, he had been quite negligent. Not only had had he replaced much of his defensive equipment, but he had also forgotten to use his damage reduction skills.

"Everyone be careful. If that happens again, all melee players should spread out," Lu Li said, unable to stay silent.

If they continued to stand so closely together, they would all continue to be affected by these skills.

But even then, when Magistrate Barthilas used his ’Mighty Blow’ skill, Azure Sea Breeze, Moonlight and Sakura Memories were still sent flying.

Moonlight seemed to have taken the brunt of the attack and died mid-air. Sakura Memories was lucky enough to have sliver bit of HP remaining, but unfortunately lost it after taking fall damage.

Azure Sea Breeze actually benefitted from not using his damage reduction skills earlier, and managed to survive.

Wandering was alright once again. Lu Li wasn’t hit by the main attack, but he hesitated before deciding not to Resurrect his two teammates.

In the strategies for fighting Magistrate Barthilas, melee players suffered from the highest mortality rate. Being revived now didn’t mean that they would continue surviving. Lu Li needed to hold on to his Resurrect for a critical moment later.

As for Sakura Memories’ Bloodlust, it had already been cast even though she was now a corpse on the ground.

The melee players had now been reduced to the remaining three players. Wandering, Azure Sea Breeze and Lu Li stood in a triangle formation, ensuring that there would only be one person to get hit next time.

The next person to get hit was Lu Li. He cast his damage reduction skill the moment he was struck, which ensured that he survived when he landed on the ground. This happened very suddenly, which meant that his damage reduction skills needed to be timed well.

However, Lu Li wasn’t blindly optimistic.

Furious Anger: Debuff applied to a target. Physical Damage increased by 50%, Attack Speed increased by 40%, and Critical Hit increased by 20% for 12 seconds.

Wandering’s HP was almost completely lost after that skill was cast on him. Lu Li hurriedly called Azure Sea Breeze to pull the aggro, but it was too late. Wandering had died, despite not receiving any critical hits.

After Wandering died, Azure Sea Breeze had to tank the Boss, but his damage reduction skills were just not strong enough and he eventually died too.

The two Main Tanks had fallen, and the Boss began to methodically kill the rest of the party. After all, he still had about half of his HP and they were simply unable to stop him. Barthilas killed most of the players in a single hit.

Even so, getting wiped like this was normal for a party that hadn’t reached level 50 yet. Lu Li had already prepared himself for this outcome.

The first three Bosses weren’t that much higher in level, and they had various skills that could be avoided. This was also true for the Main Tanks of other guilds.

However, for them to defeat a level 50 Boss without being wiped was absolutely impossible.

On their second attempt against the mayor, Lu Li had nothing more to say. The mayor had two tricks that everyone had already seen, but he had no clever means for them to evade them.

When it came to clearing Instance Dungeons, you needed to look at the levels, equipment, skills and the skills of the Boss. Of course, there was also a bit of luck involved.

The reason why they got wiped the first time was only partly because of the level difference. Even if everyone was at level 50, the number of players sent flying would be the same. If Moonlight and Sakura Memories had cast their damage reduction skills on time, they wouldn’t have died. Of course, they couldn’t have known what the Boss was going to do, so it was unrealistic for them to have prepared for it.

If the Boss hadn’t killed Azure Sea Breeze so quickly, Lu Li would have been able to Resurrect Wandering to continue the fight.

That was chalked up to bad luck.

In preparation for their second attempt, the melee players began to cleverly separate themselves. Wandering even pulled the Boss to a corner so that at least three players could stand by the wall. If they were hit now, they would be pressed against the wall and wouldn’t take fall damage.

It was actually just a simple attack that sent them flying; they just needed to cast their damage reduction skill and no one would die.

In fact, there was actually some telegraphed actions leading up to the attack that could be noticed with careful observation.

The first attack in this attempt only caught two players – Lu Li and Azure Sea Breeze. There was no danger this time, as Lu Li was mentally prepared for it, while Azure Sea Breeze had high Defense.

The second attack hit Moonlight and Wandering.

It would have been very troublesome if the Main Tank was sent flying. If it weren’t for the fact that Wandering was standing in the corner, the Boss would have started killing the others after knocking him away.

Although Moonlight was sent flying, he was a PVP player and wouldn’t die so easily to fall damage.

After this, the Boss cast Furious Anger, which made him significantly more powerful.

"Dammit, you were supposed to take the aggro! Why didn’t you take the aggro?" Lu Li began to scold.

"I... I actually missed my skill..."

Azure Sea Breeze felt particularly aggrieved because it was such a critical moment.

"Damn it. If you didn’t get it, then do something else to get it!" Lu Li shouted.

Unfortunately, Azure Sea Breeze was so shocked by missing the Taunt skill that he couldn’t continue his role. Lu Li, who was naturally first in damage output, was going to be the next target. After Wandering fell, he let out a long sigh.

Even with a ring effect that blocked damage, he couldn’t stand up to a Boss whose physical damage had been increased by 50% with a 40% bonus attack speed and a 20% increase in critical hit. Lu Li was almost instantaneously struck down.

After losing two members, Azure Sea Breeze finally succeeded in landing his Taunt before Magistrate Barthilas could turn to Lonesome Flower.

"Keep fighting and don’t be discouraged; there is still hope," Lu Li continued to instruct from the floor. "Hachi, hurry up and resurrect me."

Hachi Chan eventually went over and Resurrected Lu Li. After Lu Li got up, he didn’t say anything else and immediately went over to Wandering to revive him.

"Now that all the Resurrects have been used, no one can make any more mistakes," Lu Li said seriously.

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