The Great Thief

Whether in reality or in games, wars will always be fought to the bargaining table.

Majin Temple and Blood Red War Flag won the battle, but there were other costs to consider. It wasn’t too costly for Blood Red War Flag; their losses were only medicine and equipment. They made an example by reminding everyone of Blood Red War Flag’s fierceness. Majin Temple’s problem was regarding the fact that they had lost a large number of master players.

An unknown financial group sneaked into the gaming circle. They hired a large amount of master players and integrated several mercenary groups before starting the game where big fish ate small fish. With gold coins in one hand and a kitchen knife in the other, they bought over many clubs. Even an old club like Peacetime Dynasty had admitted defeat.

Their tactics for taking over had improved. Majin Temple’s leaders didn’t have a clue, but they already had people seep into their ranks, and had persuaded the elite team members to leave with them. Then, they engaged in a large-scale team battle when Majin Temple was at its weakest.

Now that they had won, they could lay down their conditions. But even if Unforgetful Maple did lay down conditions, there was still no way that those elite team members who had left could be returned. To take those traitors back in would be like keeping a time bomb.

The outside world had another conspiracy theory.

Why did Blood Red War Flag rush to the rescue when they could’ve tried to take over Majin Temple instead? Majin Temple’s abilities at the moment was indeed not as great as before, but a lean camel was still bigger than a horse. Blood Red War Flag needed way more power to defeat Majin Temple. Otherwise, why would they help them so recklessly?

Lu Li didn’t entertain the theory. If they really did have plans for this, then these two clubs would’ve joined together ages ago. They had too many opportunities to do that.

He had already entered the Serpentshrine Cavern and planned to first clear Vashj Sis. Vashj Sis had been fighting for days already. Lu Li was pretty much there the whole time, but Sky Moon was the one responsible for commanding at the moment. Everyone had successfully fought to the third stage and victory was right in front of them.

As a top competitive player, Lu Li evidently wanted to participate in the final battle.

After the battle began, Lu Li was the first to get hit by Vashj’s Static Charge. His truly was the unluckiest.

Static Charge was a debuff that Vashj released in the first and third stage to a random person. It lasted for 30 seconds and dealt 2775 to 3225 natural damage per second to the target and all targets within five yards around the target.

The damage would accumulate and increase if not managed properly, and the team could get wiped out unexpectedly. Luckily this debuff could be removed with skills like Shadowcloak, Ice Block, and Holy Shield. Lu Li’s Shadowcloak was enough to remove it. He reacted quickly so there was barely any HP loss. The first stage went by without much difficulty.

Vashj wasn’t very formidable in the second stage. She ran to the centre of the platform and created a shield around her. The only way to break the shield around her was to destroy the four pillars connected with her shield.

There was a Poisonous Water Elemental that would randomly shoot copies of itself in all four directions. They would get mixed in normal water, and if it wasn’t destroyed in a long period of time, it would automatically disappear. Killing it dropped a Tainted Core. Using the Tainted Core to tap the pillar connected to Vashj would release it. They needed four altogether. After breaking the connection of the four pillars, then could they enter into the third stage.

Once the second stage started, everyone all went to their respective positions immediately. Every side of the stairs were left with two Damage Dealers and one Healer. Main Tanks and Sub-tanks were left in the middle, ready to pull Vilefang Elite who was about to appear.

That left long-distance Damage Dealers, Main Tank and Sub-tanks grouped in the middle.

After the second stage began, the Enchanted Elemental started to appear on every side of the stairs at the bottom and moved towards the direction of Vashj.

Each Enchanted Elemental had 7800 HP. Each team needed to destroy them before they moved to Vashj.

Every Enchanted Elemental that successfully moved to Vashj would increase her damage by 5%.

If more than two Elementals were consumed by Vashj then it could very likely lead to the whole team being destroyed. Furthermore, any losses of members at this stage could cause significant reduction in damage output. Therefore, killing the Elementals while surviving was the main objective.

Lu Li’s professional responsibility was to kill the Elementals. He was a master and killed them as if he was simply chopping vegetables. He didn’t even need healers to follow along.

This stage had many different types of little monsters. Amongst them were the Coilfang striders that could one-shot certain professions. It killed from a long-distance, and if there were too many of them in the area, it pretty much meant a complete team wipe.

Sky Moon changed from pick up mode to free pick up so that not just the team leader and looters could pick up, but now everyone could.

This was for the sake of collecting Tainted Cores dropped by Enchanted Elements.

The people who got the Tainted Core would be frozen for a short period of time. But the Tainted Core could be passed along to people within a certain radius within sight. So, it was like passing a ball.

Quickly obtaining the Tainted Cores and passing it to the people nearby in order to remove Vashj’s shield could prevent the site from accumulating too many Coilfang striders. Hence, passing the Tainted Cores quickly was very important. Whoever that didn’t pass it on would have points deducted.

If Ruling Sword didn’t clear Magtheridon’s Lair and gotten the qualification to enter into Serpentshrine Cavern before the other clubs, then there was perhaps a chance for Glory Capital to get the First Clear of Serpentshrine Cavern.

As long as Vashj hadn’t consumed too many Water elements, and they hadn’t lost too many people, then clearing the third stage should go smoothly.

The Boss’s life was already at 50% in the third stage so they could now attack with full force; Main Tanks could cast their blessings with less constraint. The close combat team’s Grounding Totem must be protected well. In the third stage,

Sky Moon had to admit that when the First Clear notification appeared, it perfectly displayed Lu Li’s skills as a player.

After Lu Li joined the team, he proved that he was a master at killing the Elementals. His attacks had a high level of control. He had the skills to flash in front of the Enchanted Elements, kill it right away, and pass the ball both very quickly and accurately— any team leader would be happy to have him on their team. With Lu Li on the field, Sky Moon felt a lot more confident.

Ruling Sword got Serpentshrine Cavern’s First Clear. It was a lot quicker than those who planned to get the First Clear from the Eye. They gave up Serpentshrine Cavern to go to the Eye so that all of them could fight their own battles without getting in each other’s way. In the end, they sadly discovered that they needed to compete with Ruling Sword for the First Clear anyways.