Chapter 261: First Blood

Although Marni had died-again, Edward frankly wasn’t too worried about the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior.

If a group of newbie Players could reach this far even with a pack of Hyena-men on their heels, how powerful could that Boss be even if he did underestimate him?

And it was certainly true: though quick, strong and able to instakill the fully-armored Marni in an ambush, the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior actually wasn’t killing his victims with a single blow—the System had determined that Marni was actually taken down by a series of skills that he had casted.

It was only because his sneak attack combined Rapid Ambush, Death Charge, Iron Grip, Feral Burst, and Primitive Rage along with a stack of buffs that he could tear of Marni’s head, which also preserves the vanity of Marni’s +7 fully-body armor.

And after knowing that, the strategy against the Boss was clear.

In a nutshell: keep your distance, kite it with powerful long-range skills and grind it down…

Considering that the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior wasn’t brainless (or he wouldn’t have led a whole pack of Hyena-men to break past the Players encirclement and flee to the Mountain Tiger’s stronghold), the Players would also have to deliberately take damage and feign weakness, so that he would be hopeful of killing them with his next blow.

And such an objective could only be achieved by Edward himself.

The other veteran Players’ were quick bad at attacking, and since they were used to taunting in battle, almost all of them preferred sleazy remarks. It would not be a problem if they were fighting some mindless monster who could be kept on a tight leash with their own hate, but it wouldn’t be equally effective against the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior who retained some form of intelligence.

On the other hand, newbies didn’t have to feign being weak since they were weak anyway. Once they cast their spells and were caught off guard, they would be counter-killed instantly.

Be that as it may, Edward was assuredly the best Player there. Though the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior was Level 35 and quite low, his elite template meant that his true level was five or ten levels above that.

Even so, Edward was keeping the most powerful monster in the Mountain Tigers’ stronghold tightly under wraps all by himself.

“Are you not going to face me?! Human coward!”

Having been baited by Edward into running a whole circle around the stronghold and suffering two Blast Fireballs that inflicted outstanding damage, the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior caught on to Edward’s idea. He actually disengaged and went off to kill other players, intent on freeing himself from Edward’s leash.

However, the other players were already given the luxury of time to take out all of their opponents, and started to spread out in search of new ones while farming EXP by launching a few skills at the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior. All at once, the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior couldn’t reach them even though he could have promptly taken them out.

And even if he was quick, could he be quicker than spells?

Because he had tried to ambush other Players and therefore forced to suffer two Black Dragon Hellfire from Edward, the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior’s HP dropped to yellow-a point where the Players could bring it down.

But despite being unable to see its own HP Bar, the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior knew that it is going to drop dead if things continued. Hence, he issued a warrior’s challenge to Edward. “Come fight me honorably if you can!”

“You ambushed Marni! You’re the last person I want to hear that from!”

As a Mage, Edward certainly wouldn’t be rolling up his sleeves, go shirtless and charged forward, swinging his staff in an open fight over such provocation. After all, he was not a War Mage like Gandalf with flashing spells and masterful swordcraft, but a physically vulnerable mage.

And having understood that there was no chance of compromise, the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior therefore gave up on his pursuit of other individual Players and began to unleash his skills at Edward.

The violent battle did not last long-the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior, having been put through every torment beforehand soon fell.

Edward himself was slightly hurt as well. Some wounds were inflicted when he deliberately exposed himself, while the other was the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior’s actual counter-attacks at the very last moment.

Any normal person would have to think about how they should handle rabies even if they didn’t die, but this was also where one of the perks of being a Player came in—their bodies would never be crippled.

For example, the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior had actually taken a chomp out of Edward’s upper right arm. If he was a normal human, that would have meant losing his tendons and bones with just pieces of flesh connecting his body to what was left of his arm, which in turn would be disabled.

While the Players would have their HP cut down in response, their arm would not be crippled-no matter how the opponent would crunch down on their bodies, it would feel no different from biting rubber. The Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior eventually pulled away, giving up because he simply couldn’t sink his teeth into Edward’s flash, although if he kept biting, Edward’s HP would have dropped to a critical level.

Still, staying calm despite the dangerous situation, Edward seized the moment and casted his Final Shine Attack at point-blank range, knocking off the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior’s last HP and successfully taking it down.

The battle between the two had been so vicious that the Mountain Tigers’ stronghold simply couldn’t be used as cover, with their clash destroying most of the ramparts in their wake. Even Gerald, who was still mourning Marni was stunned by the battle that far exceed all his common sense.

Edward himself breathed a sigh of relief. Though he had expected his opponent to be tough, he didn’t imagine that he could be that persistent.

In fact, the battle had left both combatants exhausted towards the end and Edward himself didn’t have any mana left, and was about to resort to a contest of wills.

If it hadn’t been the Rule of Skill that kept his reduction in HP from showing and presented a digitalized comparison of damage between them so that Edward could know that the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior was far more hurt than him, Edward might have given up earlier instead of waiting for his mana to regenerate while finding a decisive opening.

Things would have ended very differently then.

“Now I guess the only one left is the Mountain Tiger Chief.” Edward sighed, rubbing away the sweat from his brow and thinking that he wasn’t needed to fight the normal Level 30 Boss.

He watched as the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior’s corpse slowly vanished, slightly disappointed that he couldn’t personally bury a foe whose might he acknowledged.

That was when a violent explosion erupted at the distant center of the stronghold.

Dust and smoke kicked into the air, forming the shape of a mushroom cloud as Edward looked on in shock…