Chapter 1086: Focus Fire
Dragon Swordsman, the level 75 wild boss of Dragon Highlands, was their target today.
By now the eight level 75 wild bosses had been completely figured out by the players. Out of the eight, there were six that were each experts of single class type. The other two were amalgamations of three different class types. Figuring out the class of a boss wasn’t just to make the battle easier, but also to understand the rewards that the boss could drop. The drops from the boss would naturally coincide more with the class of the boss.
Dragon Swordsman was one of the six class type experts. His class type was obviously the Swordsman class, if his name was anything to go by.
There would be events that signalled Dragon Swordsman’s respawn, and the guilds that noticed these events would naturally prepare to welcome the boss beforehand. That was what Thunderclap had planned, and also what Happy had planned. It was just unfortunate that they bumped into each other. They exchanged blows, but tried their best to preserve their strength. It hadn’t been a minute since the Dragon Swordsman had spawned.
"Attack!"
The two teams simultaneously received the order, but no one charged towards Dragon Swordsman.
All of Thunderclap’s players focused on Ye Xiu’s Battle Mage without any hesitation. All of Happy’s players focused on Xiao Shiqin’s Mechanic without hesitation.
Having hundreds of people focus on one target was just in theory. In reality, the DPS methods of healers were limited, the melee classes needed to switch places as they attacked, which had a method to it because they couldn’t all attack the same target all at once, and ranged attacks needed space: Gunners needed a path for their bullets while Mages needed a good angle to cast spells from.
The two teams had only just received the order to focus fire and hadn’t had the time to arrange a formation for attacking and positioning. This wave of attacks was rather hapdash.
Perhaps it was enough against normal players, but Ye Xiu and Xiao Shiqin were both at the top of the Glory scene, and the top of the top at that.
Battle Mage, Mechanic, the two figures weaved in and out of the attacks, parrying the strikes from melee classes, and dodging the blasts from ranged classes. When they did receive damage, it was only the smallest loss possible at the time.
Both sides were stunned.
The offensive launched by the other side made them feel like they were looking in a mirror. They all turned their views and saw two characters running around desperately.
"One Wave Rush!" Even their yells were exactly the same. The two sides had come across each other, but the battle between them hadn’t erupted yet. Both sides were focused on accomplishing their orders and had sort of switched places. After all, Happy’s players were in a position where it was easier to hit Ye Xiu’s Battle Mage while Thunderclap was in a position closer to Xiao Shiqin’s Mechanic.
In that moment, people from the two guilds had mixed together and it was hard to tell who was friend and who was foe. From the overall situation, it looked more like Ye Xiu and Xiao Shiqin were on the same side.
How merciless!
A focused attack like this wasn’t easy to deal with, even for a God like Ye Xiu. While parrying, his Battle Mage managed to throw in a few Neutral Chasers and rely on these Chasers to increase movement speed. Ye Xiu’s Battle Mage sprinted across the field, quickly looking around, spotting a massive tree root lying across the ground. He charge wildly towards it and jumped over the root, immediately crouching and finding cover against the ranged firepower.
In almost the exact same moment, he saw a Mechanic using accelerator, practically rolling on the ground as he swerved over from the other side of the tree root.
The two characters looked at each other.
"Hahaha...."
The two couldn’t help but laugh.
"I’ll draw their attention, you all go and steal the boss!"
The team chat of the two guilds once again flashed with the same message at the same time.
Then, Xiao Shiqin’s Mechanic flicked his hand and threw a Grenade, while sneakily setting up a Mechanical Seeker. Ye Xiu was even more vicious. His Battle Mage directly activated Dragon Breaks the Ranks and charged at Xiao Shiqin. Grenade? Mechanical Seeker? These skills couldn’t stop the momentum of Dragon Breaks the Ranks. Xiao Shiqin quickly jumped back thrice, barely dodging the attack, but Ye Xiu had already completed his attack. Low-leveled skills like Dragon Tooth and Sky Strike flew out. Mechanics did have some close combat ability, but it was nothing compared to Battle Mages.
Ye Xiu naturally didn’t want to drag this out either. He hadn’t forgotten that Thunderclap’s army had their eyes set on him. When Xiao Shiqin swerved around the tree roots from the other side, he had already been prepared to keep fleeing. But, then he saw that the army that had been hunting him down had switched targets.
Ye Xiu was stunned. At the same time, Xiao Shiqin also realised that Happy, who were hunting him down before, had gone elsewhere.
In that moment, next to the tree root, the leaders of both sides stood there alone.
Caw caw!
A crow landed on the tree roots, shuffling its feet for a moment before flying away after losing interest.
"Ha..." Xioa Shiqin said, "They all left...."
"Why aren’t you leaving yet?" Ye Xiu asked.
"I want to leave." Xiao Shiqin said. This wasn’t a courtesy. The current distance between them meant that Battle Mages had the advantage. Leaving gave Xiao Shiqin the advantage. Pulling away meant that the Mechanic could gain the upper hand.
"Then I’ll escort you." Ye Xiu didn’t say anymore, striking out.
This time Xiao Shiqin didn’t fight for his life, especially the last knockback attack. He just stood there and took it.
With the Mechanic sent flying, Ye Xiu understood what Xiao Shiqin wanted, not bothering to pursue. Instead, he immediately ran towards his own team. Xiao Shiqin did the same. When his Mechanic quick recovered, he immediately got his feet and headed towards Guild Thunderclap.
"What’s the situation?" Ye Xiu quickly returned to his team, asking for the current battle situation.
"It’s very lively." Wu Chen said. In reality, he was the leader when it came to Happy in the online game. Of course, with Ye Xiu here to help, he would naturally give up command. Any club guild would do the same.
Ye Xiu looked around. As expected, it was very lively.
With Dragon Swordsman’s spawn method having warnings, it gave the players plenty of time to prepare. Usually, by the time he spawned, several guilds would have already arrived. It wasn’t like other bosses that would usually have been snuck away by one guild and the others who arrived later would chase after it.
Right now, the teams from Blue Rain, Tiny Herb, and Hundred Blossoms had arrived, and their scouts said that Void’s people were on their way.
There were only eight level 75 wild bosses in total, and their class characteristics were exceptionally obvious. Each guild would naturally place importance on them in accordance to their own needs.
Dragon Swordsman was a part of the Swordsman class. There was no need to explain Team Blue Rain and their two Blade Masters. Team Tiny Herb had Liu Xiaobie’s Blade Master, while Team Hundred Blossoms had Yu Feng’s Berserker. As for the rapidly approaching Team Void, the Ghostblade Duo were clearly of the Swordsman class as well!
It wasn’t very feasible that one team would have all 24 classes, but having all 6 class types was rather common. However, characters would have different levels of importance within their team. Of the four guilds, Blue Rain, Hundred Blossoms, and Void had Swordsmen as their core classes. As for Tiny Herb, their Swordsman was just a level of importance below that. Then there was Happy who had Qiao Yifan’s Ghostblade and Ye Xiu’s unspecialized. In comparison, Thunderclap seemed more like a bystander. The Blade Master in their team was Zhang Qi’s character, and this rookie hadn’t even become a core player yet!
The teams of the guilds had all gathered and Dragon Swordsman seemed like the huge bonfire on Bonfire Night. Currently, no one had gone up to him yet. They were all looking at one another and waiting for the right time to break the stalemate.
"Quick, you go up and light a fire first," Ye Xiu messaged Xiao Shiqin on QQ.
"You first," Xiao Shiqin replied.
"Hurry up! What are you waiting for?!" Ye Xiu and then went and messaged Huang Shaotian.
"Holy f*ck where are you!?" Huang Shaotian immediately replied back. He didn’t use many words, but used a bunch of emojis instead, almost 30 of them.
"God Jiexi, hurry up. You guys look like a team of janitors. Hurry up and come out and sweep." Ye Xiu then went to bother Tiny Herb’s Wang Jiexi.
"There’s plenty of time." Wang Jiexi was very calm. Tiny Herb did have quite a few Witches, and they were all holding brooms. Janitors? Wang Jiexi looked around. Come on...
"Comrade Li Xuan, don’t blame me for not reminding you. Ghosts Boundaries have to be set early. If you throw down a bunch now, you’ll definitely come out on top." Ye Xiu then sent a message to Void’s Li Xuan.
"Are you trying to fool ghosts*?" Li Xuan replied.
"I’m not joking."
"But we’re not even there yet..."
"Really? Then you don’t need to come. It’s already finished, seriously. Tiny Herb’s janitors are already sweeping up the remains," Ye Xiu said.
"Hahahaha...." Li Xuan sent back.
There was also Hundred Blossoms. Ye Xiu glanced over his QQ friend list, but didn’t immediately see anyone. He wasn’t very close to Hundred Blossom’s Yu Feng.
"Has anyone else not arrived yet!?" Ye Xiu yelled.
"Old Ye, where are you come out come out I hear your voice!" Blade Master stepped out of the crowd on Blue Rain’s side, swinging around his sword and showing off.
"It’s Huang Shaotian, quick, don’t hesitate! Kill him!!" Ye Xiu yelled.
Boom boom boom!!
The guilds really didn’t hesitate. They were all throwing attacks at Huang Shaotian’s Blade Master, and most of them were ranged attacks. For a moment, it looked like Blue Rain was having a fireworks party.
"Ye Xiu, fuck you! I’m going to kill you!" Huang Shaotian ran around, desperately dodging the attacks. Blue Rain’s entire team had to back away as well. All the attacks were focused on Huang Shaotian’s Blade Master, but they weren’t that accurate, especially not the AoE ones. Amongst these, Tiny Herb’s members were the most outrageous. All the witches threw a bunch of Lava Flasks over, covering the ground with lava like a volcanic eruption.
"Shot with Sorrow is Ye Xiu, don’t hesitate, focus your fire on that Battle Mage!" That was when yelling erupted from Thunderclap’s formation, and it seemed like it wasn’t just one person.
"Don’t fall for it everyone, I have eight computers and I’m logged onto eight alts. If I die I’ll just switch alts, so killing me is a waste of time. Don’t fall for the enemy’s lies*!" Ye Xiu yelled back.
"Enemy’s lies, my ass! We’re all enemies, anyways!" Huang Shaotian, having been focus fired, somehow hadn’t died and had hidden into some corner, but refused to give up the chance to speak.
In Happy’s training room, everyone was glancing at each other. What eight computers? Whenever you open your mouth, all you say is bullshit and you manage to shit it out so fluently too.
"Peace Breaker is Xiao Shiqin, don’t hesitate everyone. Focus that Mechanic!" Happy yelled in revenge.
"Don’t fall for it everyone, I have ten computers and I’m logged onto ten alts!" Xiao Shiqin yelled back.
"Hahahaha, Xiao Shiqin are you trying to fool Void’s Ghostblade Duo*? Your Thunderclap doesn’t have enough extra computers for you!" Ye Xiu laughed.
The pro players that had visited Thunderclap before thought for a moment. That was right, Thunderclap’s training room didn’t have so many free computers, so let’s hurry and focus him!
In that moment, there were some attacking Ye Xiu, some attacking Xiao Shiqin, and some continuing to attack Huang Shaotian. Under this situation, pro players were a target.
TN: 哄鬼 “Fooling Ghosts” means to lie or speak nonsense. Fooling Void’s Ghostblade Duo is a pun on that because Ghostblades are known as ghosts.
*The enemy’s lies is a phrase 挑拔离间 “Provoke and sow discord”, meaning to spread false rumors in order to drive a wedge between people on the same side. -Jouissance