Chapter 190 – The BOSS’s Shadow Steps
Steamed Bun Invasion’s situation was somewhat similar to that of Wang Jiexi’s. However, Wang Jiexi possessed the ability to adjust, while Steamed Bun Invasion probably didn’t know how to do so. After all, even Ye Xiu wasn’t sure how to help him develop. After Wang Jiexi changed, he was still at God-level, but if others did the same thing he did, they might fall to a mediocre level.
A transformation wasn’t something that easy to do. Even though Steamed Bun Invasion was a noob at Glory, he wasn’t a blank slate in other areas of the game. In reality, he had some understanding of what he was doing. In this area, he wasn’t like Tang Rou. Tang Rou truly was a complete blank slate. But it was a pity that this girl’s personality was so stubborn. She had pretty much figured out her own style already and it wasn’t possible to create a large transformation. Ye Xiu could help by instructing her about the game’s mechanics, but he didn’t have the ability to change her personality. Everyone was an adult so their ways of thinking had matured. Tang Rou’s personality wasn’t anything bad either. It just stopped her from becoming a good team player, that was all.
Ye Xiu pondered over this as he watched the two play. But his playing wasn’t slow even though he was multitasking. With ten years of experience, he had experienced all kinds of battles. Many of the things he needed to do were done automatically without too much thought.
Taking the BOSS down wasn’t a problem.
They were a team that could defeat a Level 36 Wild BOSS. If they couldn’t beat a weaker Level 33 hidden BOSS, Illusion Swordmaster Ahong, then they’d be a joke.
The important point was that these types of dungeons could be used as practice for everyone.
Ye Xiu directed the team as he fought casually. His focus was naturally on Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion. Su Mucheng rarely needed Ye Xiu to say anything. As for Qiao Yifan, Ye Xiu hadn’t judged him wrong. He was the complete opposite of Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion. His personality and awareness made him an outstanding team player.
He was adept at observing; he paid attention to the performance of every team player and tried hard to coordinate with each of them.
A part of why Tang Rou’s and Steamed Bun Invasion’s performances weren’t too good was because they were too unfamiliar with the hidden BOSS. After familiarizing themselves with the Illusion Swordmaster’s various skills, the two would gradually assimilate themselves into the team.
Correct, they could still assimilate.
But as their skills continue to grow, their styles would become more and more unique and their conflicts within the team would become greater and greater. This was what Ye Xiu was thinking about right now.
But as of right now, they were still a good team. Under Ye Xiu’s orders, the Illusion Swordmaster was gradually suppressed as he was hit blow after blow under the cliffs.
Lord Grim and One Inch Ash’s “Dual Linking Ghost Boundaries” never broke sothe team was always in a boundary.
Waves of poison arose from Steamed Bun Invasion’s attacks.
Three types of Magic Chasers flew out from Soft Mist.
Explosions erupted from Cleansing Mist’s cannon.
They continued to bombard the Illusion Swordmaster with their skills. Ahong’s eyes grew more and more red, his head was covered in sweat, and his expression grew more and more serious.
“Careful, almost red blood.” Ye Xiu suddenly said.
“What happens when he goes into red blood?” Tang Rou immediately asked. In the beginning, she had suffered quite a bit because she didn’t know what the BOSS’s features were. Tang Rou had learned from her mistakes.
“Shadow Steps.” Ye Xiu said.
“Oh? What’s that?” Steamed Bun Invasion asked. He wasn’t like Tang Rou in this area. Tang Rou had helped Chen Guo PK a few times before, so she had seen quite a few high-leveled skills. Even though she might not know the name, “Shadow Steps” had been used in the fight between Poplar Beach and Ye Xiu recently. Chen Guo had even called out the name, so Tang Rou knew what this skill was.
But Steamed Bun Invasion had only played on this account, so he didn’t know of any skills above Level 30.
“It’s an afterimage. There’ll be five soon, one for each of us.” Ye Xiu said. If this were a normal team, then they wouldn’t dare split the team to fight each afterimage one on one. But Ye Xiu’s team was strong, so they dared to fight them directly this way.
“Careful!” Ye Xiu, who had been paying attention to the BOSS’s health the entire time, finally shouted.
The Illusion Swordmaster Ahong’s eyes began to glow red. The white of his eyes could no longer be seen.
“Back!”
Following Ye Xiu’s command, the five characters quickly leaped back. The Illusion Swordmaster roared towards the sky. The red light surrounding his body extravagantly burst outwards. The rocks and grass around him were blown apart and a burst of wind surged down. Fortunately, Ye Xiu’s warning had been quick and the five players retreated fast enough to dodge this attack.
Next, the Illusion Swordmaster twirled his sword in a dance-like motion. His figure blurred and split into five towards them.
What was different from a Blade Master’s Shadow Step was that the Illusion Swordmaster’s Shadow Steps didn’t have any distinction between real and fake. The five were all Illusion Swordmasters. This meant that the players had to fight against five BOSSes at the same time.
If this continued up until the end, then the battle would be impossible to finish. Fortunately, Shadow Steps only lasted for a certain duration. For the Illusion Swordmaster, it was 30 seconds. As long as the players could survive for 30 seconds, then the five afterimages would turn back into one. However, after combining together again, the amount of damage the players had dealt in this battle wasn’t additive, but rather an average. This meant that the actual damage the players dealt was ⅕ the total amount.
This made the battle longer. The Illusion Swordmaster’s Shadow Steps wasn’t a one time use skill. It would continue using it whenever it could until its life was completely gone.
Normal parties would run away during this time. Defense was their priority. They weren’t looking for damage. The damage would only be ⅕ of the total anyways. Once the Illusion Swordmaster merged back into one, the team would then begin attacking again. But Ye Xiu’s team was more heroic. It didn’t matter if the damage was split or not, they would still fight like normal.
The five Illusion Swordmaster afterimages were also very intelligent and each found a target to attack.
The left-rear Illusion Swordmaster sent a Sword Draw at Steamed Bun Invasion, who rolled out of the way. Steamed Bun hadn’t even gotten up yet, when he threw out a Sand Toss at him. Even though the Illusion Swordmaster was a BOSS, it was still blinded for a short while. Steamed Bun Invasion took this opportunity and closed in to whack the back of his head with a Brick. After triggering the Dizzy effect, he Applied Poison onto his weapon. He then used Inject Poison and gave the Illusion Swordmaster a good dose of poison.
The right-rear Illusion Swordmaster hacked forward at Soft Mist with a Collapsing Mountain. Tang Rou met with this attack once again, but instead of retreating, she moved forward and once again, jumped up to attack. Except this time, she calculated the height of the shock wave. She leaped over it and stabbed forward with a Circle Swing. Her arms whirled in a circle and smashed the Illusion Swordmaster onto the ground. She had suffered once before and now she was going to return it all with even more ferocity. Tang Rou was just that type of girl who refused to accept defeat.
The left-front Illusion Swordmaster used Triple Slash directly to close in on Cleansing Mist. Su Mucheng immediately jumped up and blasted out an artillery shell, which exploded and sent herself flying backwards from the recoil. However, this shot wasn’t able to interrupt the BOSS’s Triple Slash. Three sword lights, one after another, chased down Cleansing Mist, but each slash missed Cleansing Mist by just a hair’s breadth. Su Mucheng clearly had everything under control.
Qiao Yifan, on the other hand, took the initiative to close in on the BOSS. After casting an Ice Boundary, he not only hit his own target, but he also turned the one heading towards Lord Grim into an ice block. Even in this type of battle, everyone-for-themselves, if Qiao Yifan found an opportunity to, he would still coordinate with others.
Ye Xiu knew what to do. When Qiao Yifan casted Ice Boundary, he casted a Sword Boundary as well. The two began fighting inside these boundaries. His Thousand Chance Umbrella transformed into the Gun form and sent out Anti-Tank Missiles. The target was Qiao Yifan’s opponent. The three missiles exploded and the Illusion Swordmaster stumbled backwards a few steps. Qiao Yifan made his move right at this moment; he used Moonlight Slash into a Full Moonlight Slash followed by a Ghost Slash. The three slashes sliced forward.
At this moment, he wasn’t feeling happy because he had hit the BOSS, but rather he felt happy because he had coordinated with Ye Xiu.
Under his lead, the God had actively responded to his move, making Qiao Yifan feel he wasn’t alone. Every team member depended on each other and this was what it meant to be teammates. This was an extremely wonderful feeling.
After helping Qiao Yifan block his Illusion Swordmaster, Ye Xiu shook the Thousand Chance Umbrella into the Battle Lance form and use a Sky Strike at the Illusion Swordmaster. The Illusion Swordmaster’s right handed sword continued to attack, while using his left-handed blade to block Lord Grim’s Sky Strike. How could Ye Xiu be tricked by this puny trick? His Battle Lance suddenly retracted. The Illusion Swordmaster’s left-handed blade blocked nothing. The Thousand Chance Umbrella had already turned into two sections that hung on Lord Grim’s arms. He rolled to avoid the right-handed sword. His two arms held the Illusion Swordmaster tightly and Flung the Illusion Swordmaster away.
After using the Grappler skill, he changed the Thousand Chance Umbrella back into a Battle Lance. Ye Xiu was just about to have his Lord Grim follow up, when he suddenly heard two ring ring sounds from outside.
Ye Xiu had lowered the in-game volume to very low because he frequently had to listen for these sounds.
When he heard this, Ye Xiu couldn’t help but curse: “F*ck.”
Having been on night-duty for so many days, he had to bring customers drinks many times. Finally, someone had called for his service at a crucial time.
Ye Xiu’s left hand quickly left the keyboard and connected to the service line. He asked: “What would you like?”
“What?” The first to respond were the four players on the team. Ye Xiu hadn’t taken off his headphones.
“Two Colas.” The customer’s voice came out from the service line soon after.
“Just a second.” Ye Xiu said.