MMORPG: The Elementalist

The barren face of Death Mountain rose out from the surrounding jungle, about a thousand meters across. Everything was either rough gravel or bare dirt, and there wasn’t so much as a small boulder one could use to hide behind.

In the words of Fateless, using the Ambush skill was all but impossible here, and no high-level Bandit enjoyed venturing into a place like this.

This was exactly the reason why Qin Ruo had selected Death Mountain for their first combat trials. Scattered all across the mountain were Tier 6 Undead Warriors, each one bearing two mighty spears behind their backs. Each Undead Warrior was as tough as carven stone but was also able to move swiftly—a fearsome, full-spectrum close combatant.

Against opponents like these, one or two may still be manageable, but if they were allowed to call for help, they would have to watch out!

It was impossible to advance upon Death Mountain without being spotted, and then the enemy could mobilize in response immediately!

Although Qin Ruo was as yet unable to determine whether or not there was really a Tier 6 Mega Boss occupying the Mountain Shelter at the mountaintop, Subjugator and the others were of the opinion that they should first eliminate all the Undead Warriors patrolling the mountainside, nearly a hundred strong. After that, they could investigate the Mountain Shelter and figure out how to proceed.

***

Thud! Thud! Thud…

At the foot of Death Mountain, an Undead Warrior, twin spears strapped across its back, was moving along its route with steady, resolute footfalls. Faithfully, it carried out its tedious, never-ending duty to patrol the foot of Death Mountain, as it had always done.

Exactly 10 seconds later, a second patrolling Undead Warrior appeared, in full battle dress. With practiced, disciplined movements, it marched across the distance. In the solemn rhythm of its march, there was an underlying tone of sinister gloom and malice. Witchfire eyes, like the gaze of death itself, swept constantly across the wood below.

Hiding behind the trees, Qin Ruo’s party of six could feel that piercing gaze lancing through the shadows, and their hearts felt cold with dread.

There was no doubt that these were Tier 6 monsters!

Even if they were the weakest monsters to be found on Death Mountain, they were part of a highly intelligent race. What’s more, aside from HP, all of their attributes were comparable to a typical Tier 4 Boss.

Qin Ruo and the rest felt the sensation of having already been discovered.

“Do you feel that?” In the shadows, Fateless rubbed his nose, his tone annoyed. “The Undead Warrior could see me.”

Subjugator was the nearest to the mountain, and in fact, had closed in from a hundred meters distant to less than 60 m away from the Undead Warrior’s patrol route. This should have been enough to draw it away towards him, but the Undead Warrior nevertheless continued along its way, as though it was just another perfectly ordinary day.

Subjugator was pissed. ‘Accursed Undead! Exactly who’s drawing whom out, now?’

Black Rock and company nodded in frustration. At first, they had planned to lure the Undead Warriors away one-by-one, but now it seemed more like the Undead Warriors were pulling them closer to the mountain.

How cunning of them!

After some thought, Qin Ruo looked away from the mountain.

“Since we can’t lure them away from their positions, we’ll just have to change our strategy!”

“What’s the plan?” Ever since they decided on Death Mountain, Judge had begun to show a lot more initiative, speaking up more often than he had ever done throughout the past two levels. Being on the fifth level of the Graveyard of the Gods must have been having an effect on him as well.

Qin Ruo knelt down and drew a circle in the ground. “There should be about 20 Undead Warriors patrolling the foot of this mountain. Every 15 seconds, another one comes along—just one, all on its own. Let’s push ourselves to finish each one off in 15 seconds or less!”

“Fifteen seconds?” Black Rock looked up in disbelief, while the rest raised their eyebrows, but waited silently for Qin Ruo to outline his battle plans.

“Yes, 15 seconds should be enough,” Qin Ruo explained. “I’m guessing that a warrior-type monster like the Undead Warrior has between 10,000 to 15,000 HP, with more Physical than Magical Resistance…”

The crowd murmured, nodding. It wasn’t an exact estimate, but if the Undead Warrior was only about that powerful, or even less so, then defeating it could be a simple matter.

Seeing that everyone was warming to his idea, Qin Ruo continued. “My Lycan Barrage spell deals several heavy strikes in a row, each strike worth 270 Magic Attack. Every two seconds, I can use it to deal roughly a thousand damage to an Undead Warrior. Keeping up this pace, I’m confident I can deal about 8,000 damage to it in 15 seconds—assuming its Magical Resistance isn’t that high.”

The other Elementalist in the party, having heard Qin Ruo’s estimated figures, wordlessly looked up at the sky. Two hundred and seventy Magic Attack for over five hundred damage per second from a mere Level 41 Aquamancer… What dignity did that leave the other high-level Elementalists?

Everyone else was delighted by these projected numbers.

“Eight thousand damage in fifteen seconds? If that’s the case, then it’s certainly possible! With Black Rock and Snowleaf as well, along with Judge and me… Fifteen seconds, yup! It should be enough to take down one Undead Warrior!” Subjugator slammed a fist into his palm, grinning with excitement.

“How soon do we strike?”

When Fateless noticed that he hadn’t been given a part in this plan, he immediately realized that Qin Ruo meant for him to keep a lookout, in case of any surprises. In any case, it was too dangerous for a low-HP Bandit to go toe-to-toe against a high-HP Tier 6 monster, so being a lookout was really the ideal position for him.

However, Qin Ruo shook his head, and said to Snowleaf and Subjugator, “Rather than attacking, Snowleaf should be healing Judge. Subjugator, you won’t have to join the battle, either. We’re on the fifth level, here—besides Fateless keeping watch, I also want you to stand by in case of an emergency.”

“Huh?” These assignments caused both Snowleaf and Subjugator to gape in shock. “Do you mean for Judge to hold down the Undead Warrior by himself?”

“Don’t forget about Poochie. It won’t let the Undead Warrior go anywhere.” Upon hearing its name, the little creature poked its head out of Snowleaf’s warm embrace, squeaking excitedly as though to remind everyone of its presence.

“Alright, with Poochie’s help, it’s true that the Undead Warrior will have a hard time escaping. However, isn’t this cutting things a bit too close?” Judge frowned, still unsure about the plan.

“Don’t forget about negative conditions—if we can Stun it, we’ll be able to deal 10% to 20% more damage to it,” Qin Ruo added.

“Trust me: fifteen seconds is more than enough to take down one Undead Warrior. Rather than this, we should be more worried about something unexpected cropping up. That’s why we can’t just throw out everything we’ve got right away, or else we’ll be screwed if something nasty shows up!

“Anyway, someone has to provide support—we don’t have a lot of potions on us, so we shouldn’t waste any on the small fry.”

With this explanation, Snowleaf and Subjugator were finally able to let go of their desire to be at the front of the battle, and they accepted their assigned roles of sentry and support.

***

The Undead Warrior, looking as though it had been cast from a mold, ‘once again’ panned its vision across where the six people were hiding. This time, however, five of them leaped out from behind the trees, and charged across the 40 m between them!

Judge and Subjugator led the way, followed by Qin Ruo and Black Rock with their dual defenses up, with Snowleaf and her summoned Cryospider bringing up the rear.

The moment the five people (and one monster) popped out from their hiding place, the Undead Warrior they were supposedly ambushing was already prepared to face them! Standing its ground, its cold eyes locked onto Judge, who was at the head of the group. It reached over its shoulders and readied its two spears, each one three meters long.

Whoosh!

It brandished its twin spears, leaving behind blurred after-images, along with a fearsome whistling gale!

At the same time, the Undead Warrior’s tough body exuded a shadowy Dark Aura, rolling like wildfire across the length of both weapons.

This was a much more powerful adversary than the low-level monsters the had faced before!

However, its menace had no effect on the five people before it!

It brandished its spears again, and two lines of black fire spiraled into a chain that flew through the air. As Judge and Subjugator closed within 30 m of their target, the chain came hurtling straight at them.

‘Damn!’ Subjugator cursed at the insanity of Tier 6 monsters—to think they even had such powerful ranged-attack skills.

As annoyed as he was to discover this, he didn’t slow down for an instant, activating his Charge in unison with Judge. The black fire sailed past them and hit the ground with a thundercrack, leaving behind two deep gashes in the earth, as though cut with blades.

It was clear to see that Tier 6 monsters could attack with extraordinary speed and frequency—no sooner had the first attack landed, than the second attack was already underway!

The Darkfire once again arced high into the air, moving so quickly that it gave Subjugator an unpleasant shiver. “Attack!”

As he hollered this, Qin Ruo and Black Rock arrived within 30 m of the target as well and unleashed their Lycan Barrage and Starfury skills in a howling torrent of fury. The Undead Warrior arrogantly twirled its spears in challenge, even as the devastating spells descended upon it.