The Great Thief

Lu Li took a step back, twisted his wrists and stabbed straight into the boss’s spine.

System: Backstab Skill Completion 83%, resulting in 95% Weapon Damage. Rank 1 Armour Pierce Effect.

Akereus entered a state of Pierced Armour. Demon type bosses were immune to stuns, but they were not immune to Armour Piercing Effects.

“You upgraded this skill as well, right?” Lonesome Flower feared that the gap between him and Lu Li was widening. This made him very mad.

“Of course, I increased it by two levels,” Lu Li replied.

“What should I level up then?” Lonesome Flower asked shamelessly.

“Aren’t you a frost mage? Frost Bolt, Blizzard! Those two are essential. When you learn Water Elemental, level that up as well.” Lu Li was an expert at this, but knowing too much beforehand was not fun.

Not everyone treated this game as a job like he did. Discovery and experimenting with the game was part of the fun.

“You put the Intermediate Health Potions on the market?” Azure Sea Breeze asked.

“Yeah, for 1 gold.” Lu Li said, as he looked through the world chat.

“Brother Lu Li, you’re such a scammer,” Remnant Dream said, making faces at Lu Li while her pet chased Akereus.

“The poison damage is pretty impressive; was this the poison you applied before?” March Rain inquired.

“Careful, the boss is using his skill. Azure Sea Breeze, raise your shield,” Lu Li reminded him as he stared at the fireball that was forming in the boss’s hands.

Azure Sea Breeze raised his shield and braced himself.

“Prepare to face Akereus’s wrath!” Fire rained down upon them while a gigantic fireball trailed behind.

Evil Sacrifice!

Evil Fireball!

As the two skills hit Azure Sea Breeze, damage continued to appear above him.

-85, -560, -85, -85, -85...

Evil Sacrifice was also an AOE debuff skill, so everyone had damage figures appearing above them.

Azure Sea Breeze had high defence which negated a good portion of the damage, but he still took 85 damage per second. It was even worse for everyone else. Remnant Dream and Lu Li took more than 100 points of damage, while Lonesome flower and March Rain, being mage classes with high magic defence, still took 89 points of damage.

It was fortunate that everyone had upgraded their gear and had more than 1000HP. If not, half of them would had died.

The Boss continued his assault and rained down fireballs. The dark, red fireballs continued to bombard Azure Sea Breeze.

March Rain had already learnt Flash Heal, which had a lower cooldown and faster cast time than her normal healing skill. Her healing had increased and become more impactful – each flash heal restored more than 200 HP. Azure Sea Breeze had also drunk an Intermediate Health Potion and managed to survive.

This damage absorption was way beyond Lu Li’s expectation. Any other main tank would have died to that barrage of attacks.

Lu Li had never personally fought Akereus and had only read on guides on defeating him. Most of them recommended to bring two main tanks.

After everyone had managed to recover their HP, there was another animation – a summon!

Arcane energy formed blue symbols on the ground and Akereus slowly conjured up two Hell Hounds.

“Quickly, get rid of them! Those monsters drain your mana,” Lonesome Flower and March Rain yelled at the sight of the Hell Hounds.

The siblings played classes that relied heavily on mana, so they had to quickly get rid of them.

Lu Li also knew the consequences of this. If the healer was out of mana, the whole team would die. He charged and attacked one by himself, while Remnant Dream commanded her little cheetah to handle the other. Lonesome Flower panicked and casted a barrage of skills on the Hell Hounds that flew everywhere.

“You don’t seem as powerful when you’re fighting the boss.”

Azure Breeze mocked him.

“The normal mobs can drain all of my mana in 3 hits. These Elite Hell Hounds can probably drain all of my energy in 3 hits. I don’t know what the game company is doing. Where is the counter play?” Lonesome Flower complained.

Lu Li used Backhand Backstab on the Hell Hound, which went flying and died.

The second Hell Hound cast Magic Burn on Lonesome Flower. Lu Li was unable to do anything. He could only watch as Lonesome Flower’s mana dropped by a third.

Luckily, the team ganged up on the Hell Hound and killed it before it could do anything else.

“I desperately need the Awakening Skill Book,” Lonesome Flower sighed heavily.

There were already magicians on the forum that were bragging about this skill. It could restore 30% of one’s maximum mana at LV1, increasing to 60% at LV5. However, Lu Li also knew that at max level, it would restore HP by 20% as well.

The game was unfair to Mages?

They had crowd control, AOE, invincibility, critical strike, teleportation, stealth, doppelgangers and a variety of shields. Mages were overpowered in this game.

Of course, that was only if one had unlocked these skills.

As for the Awakening Skill, players only received it if they were lucky. Lu Li couldn’t help him with that even if he wanted to.

“Are we able to defeat this boss?” Lonesome Flower asked. “It’s not even at half HP yet and we’re already struggling. Who knows what kind of stuff it will pull out later.”

Lu Li couldn’t help but roll his eyes, “How should I know? I just know that there was a LV15 boss here. As for how powerful it is, only the system knows.”

“So, you’re not all-powerful like we thought. Lonesome Flower, March Rain, stand behind Remnant Dream. When the Hell Hounds, appear let them drain mana from her,” Azure Sea Breeze commanded.

“Why?” The little Hunter felt wronged.

“You don’t use mana. Why are you scared of being drained?”

When the boss casted Evil Sacrifice and Evil Fire Ball again, Azure Sea Breeze immediately raised his shield and bravely braced himself before the roars of Akereus.

The Hell Hounds appeared again and Lu Li immediately attacked, as they used their magic burn on Remnant Dream.

Every skill had a cooldown. When Hell Hound’s skills were on cooldown, they were like sitting ducks, waiting to be slaughtered. The team had managed to survive another attack for now and the Boss HP was at 50%.

Suddenly, Akereus began to fly.