Chapter 68 - Elven Forest Battle (5)

All melee class players advanced, while the archers, mages, and priests stayed back, channeling their spells from a distance.

The same thing happened on the other side. The soldiers of the Rashk Kingdom advanced, the sound of their plate armor echoing through the forest.

Len was up front. Since he was the captain, he couldn’t hide and look like a coward. Therin did the same.

Point Blank, Suzy, and Tower stuck together in the battle. They were already a team when playing normally, so it made sense they stayed together in the fight.

Arthur stayed separate, watching everything from afar. Shadow Cloak showed up beside him.

"How are we gonna kill that captain?" she asked, playing with her dagger, spinning it in her hand. "It’s gonna be hard to hit him with a bow from far away."

"I don’t know. I think we should focus on other things right now." Arthur’s gaze fell on the archers and mages in the back line.

Shadow Cloak quickly got what he wanted to do, and it was exactly what she was already thinking.

"You can stay invisible even though you’re not a Rogue anymore. What kind of witchcraft is that?"

Arthur laughed at her comment and shrugged.

"No idea. A mage can’t tell his secrets."

"Oh, come on. We’re basically a couple, remember? I must be the only person you’ve kissed recently."

"How about we don’t talk about that during a battle like this?" Arthur gestured toward the battle, metallic sounds echoing and holes getting blasted open by spell impacts, not to mention the screams.

"Look at how our friends are doing and you’re talking about that..."

Shadow Cloak rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Let’s go assassinate some mages already."

"That’s what I’m talking about."

While the battle raged brutally, spells flying back and forth, booms so powerful the trees shook, Arthur and Shadow Cloak used the forest to hide and circle around the battle, coming up behind the enemy army.

Arthur saw the horizontal line of several mages with their staffs raised, casting their spells nonstop. When their mana ran out, they already had a potion ready to refill their MP and keep casting.

The players even tried launching spells right at the enemy mages, but the Rashk army had something the players didn’t.

A specialist mage. It was just one mage, way in the back, channeling a barrier to make sure the mages, priests, and even some archers of the Rashk army couldn’t get attacked from range.

That changed the battle completely.

"We have to kill that guy," Shadow Cloak said the obvious. "Can you hit him with your bow?"

Shadow Cloak wanted him to kill the guy making the barrier with his Sniping Shot. But that wouldn’t be a good idea.

"Impossible," Arthur replied, shaking his head. "Mages like that always carry defensive amulets to tank the first hit. If I use my Sniping Shot, I’ll fail, and then we won’t have a way to attack from range anymore. And they’ll definitely protect that mage the second I attack."

It wasn’t as easy as just hitting the mage from far away, killing him, ending the barrier, and taking that advantage from the enemy army. They needed more than that.

"So what do we do? Shit."

Arthur already knew exactly how armies used that kind of defensive mage. The formation was basically always the same.

"Notice how he’s farther away from everyone? It’s not just to keep him safe. He needs to be farther away to use the barrier."

Shadow Cloak frowned, still not getting what he meant.

Arthur sighed. "Besides having to stay far, he needs to channel the barrier and can’t stop. That means he can’t even use MP potions by himself."

She seemed to finally connect the dots and understand how it worked.

"So there must be someone nearby giving him MP potions to keep the barrier up. If we kill the guy delivering the potions, we’ll have a chance."

"There are 2 delivering potions, for sure," Arthur said. "I’ll stay here and hit 1 with my bow, and you get close to kill the other before he gives the potion to the mage. Ideally we wait until the mage is low on mana, since that’s when they’ll go give him the potion."

"Wait until the last minute?" Shadow Cloak didn’t seem to get it all perfectly.

What she had in skill during fights, she lacked in tactics and battle analysis. She was the type who grinded monsters nonstop and got strong. Thinking too much wasn’t her thing.

"If we kill the two soldiers giving the potions too early, they’ll still have time to send others to do the job. The ideal is to kill them at the right time, so the mage runs out of MP and the barrier gets destroyed. And there’s a cooldown. He won’t be able to use it again."

"Ohhh, now I get it completely."

Arthur took the bow off his back and nocked an arrow.

"I’ll hit the one going to give the potion to the mage. You hit the second one, who should come out of some hidden spot right after I kill the first."

"Got it."

Shadow Cloak activated her invisibility and slowly moved closer to the mage, trying her best not to draw attention so the plan would work.

Arthur stayed put, since he had a really good view for the shot. All he needed was to wait for the right moment. Shadow Cloak kept getting closer to the mage. Arthur couldn’t see her directly, but since they were in the same party he could see a marker showing where she was.

He looked at the barrier. The color was still dark blue.

’I need to wait a little longer.’

The barrier was losing its strong blue color and getting weaker as the mage’s mana dropped. So when it turned a weak color, that was when the soldier would go to the mage to give him the potion.

Already knowing roughly the right moment, Arthur got less nervous. He stayed still, watching calmly, like a hunter waiting for his prey.

It took 5 minutes for the specialist mage’s mana to get close to empty. He drew the arrow and waited for the moment.

A soldier came out of one of the tents, running toward the mage with a blue potion.

Arthur didn’t try to shoot him while he was moving. The chance of missing was too high. It wasn’t worth the risk. The best moment was when he stopped to open the potion.

As soon as the soldier stopped walking, Arthur released the arrow, using his Stealth first to boost the damage.

[Sniping Shot - Active Skill (Lv. 1)]

[Description: Focus for up to 3 seconds before combat to fire a powerful, precise shot at an unaware target.]

[Effect: Deals 250% Weapon Damage + 80% Agility as Physical Damage. Guarantees a Critical Hit and ignores 50% Armor if used out of combat.]

[MP Cost: 20 MP]

[Cooldown: 90s]

Just the weapon damage already gave 325 damage. Adding the agility percentage, Arthur’s damage rose to an incredible 450 damage. On top of that there was still the 15% from the Soul Augment Long Shot on his bow, and a 100% damage increase from Stealth.

That alone pushed his damage over 1000. With 50% armor penetration and a crit... The damage went over 2000.

The poor soldier didn’t even see what killed him. Before he even finished opening the potion, a swift arrow that cut through the wind flew at him and pierced his body. It went in one side and came out the other.

It was so strong it even hit the mage creating the barrier. But another magic barrier formed around the mage to protect him from that arrow.

"Damn, they killed the potion carrier! Reserve, come!" the mage shouted.

His mana was almost gone, so the barrier would break soon. But even after he called, the other soldier who was supposed to bring the potion didn’t show up.

Who showed up was Shadow Cloak, walking toward the mage with a wicked smile.

"I think your friend won’t be able to give you the potion," she said. "And it looks like your magic artifact got destroyed too."

The mage was defenseless, but attacking wasn’t the best idea. Arthur saw Shadow Cloak getting closer and quickly sent her a message.

"Get out of there. It’s not worth killing him. We destroyed the barrier, and they’ll come back to protect him. If you die, it’ll be worse."

That mage was level 25, one of the strongest in the army. Shadow Cloak couldn’t kill him quickly, especially after using her Stealth to kill the soldier bringing the potion. Trying to kill that mage was just stupid.

She read Arthur’s message and did what he said.

"You’re lucky today," Shadow Cloak told the mage. "But stay sharp. Your time will come."

Shadow Cloak ran back to the forest as fast as she could. The mage’s barrier broke the moment his mana ran out completely.

He drank the mana potion on the ground, but the barrier still had a long cooldown.

"Shit. They know how the barrier works," the mage cursed.

Therin noticed what was happening even while trading blows with Len in the middle of the battlefield.

"They destroyed my barrier. But how? Shit, shit."

He tried to calm down as he looked over the battlefield. His army was winning. There were way more soldiers than players.

"It’s only a matter of time before I win this fight, Len," Therin said with a wicked smile on his face.