1091 Before He Arrives

Because of the dangerous terrain, even though the guilds could jump into battle at any moment, for now they could only huddle together. Everyone looked around at each other, secretly preparing their skills and targets. Once their leaders gave the order, they could instantly and accurately launch their attacks.

Yu Wenzhou had also originally wanted to play it safe, but after hearing Huang Shaotian and Lu Hanwen's conversation, he agreed with Lu Hanwen's judgment. Ye Xiu and his team hadn't heard the news about Shadow Commander Shaan's spawn, they'd only casually asked about Huang Shaotian's location. But now with Huang Shaotian's reply, they were exposed. Aside from a boss spawn, there was no reason for Huang Shaotian to run to Barrier Mountains.

"Team Happy needs many things!" Yu Wenzhou thought to himself. He was very clear about the roster of that grassroots team, and knew that they had two Nightwalker classes, especially Windward Formation, who had history with Blue Rain. Yu Wenzhou's current account Swoksaar was originally that person's account, after all.

But right now, Yu Wenzhou was using an alt anyway, and so he didn't let himself dwell on the past - the thought just crossed his mind briefly, and then he began to ponder how best to combat Ye Xiu.

Ye Xiu was undoubtedly the number one enemy. In the current situation, this guy would certainly break the equilibrium, so wouldn't it be safer to sort everything out before he got here?

Just as Yu Wenzhou was about to speak, he heard another voice cutting before him. "I say, to make this easier, how about we negotiate a plan?"

The sound seemed to come from Thunderclap's area. Yu Wenzhou was fairly sure who the speaker was, so he smiled and casually said, "You're in a rush?"

"Before that guy arrives. I'm sure everyone understands what I mean," said Xiao Shiqin.

"Mm… Agreed." From Misty Rain came a woman's voice. Misty Rain's captain, Chu Yunxiu.

"Hmph…" From Wind Howl there was a disdainful cough. Tang Hao knew to whom these people were referring, and was unimpressed by their fear.

"What kind of plan?" Someone asked from 301 Degrees. It was their captain Yang Cong. 301's strength here was slightly weaker compared to the others. If this became a direct battle, they would certainly be disadvantaged, so they were particularly interested in reaching some sort of agreement through negotiation to solve this problem.

Right now, the groups present were Blue Rain, Thunderclap, Misty Rain, Wind Howl, and 301 Degrees, with each team's respective captains present. Tang Hao's scoff wasn't quite an agreement to negotiations, but it at least wasn't a clear refusal, so he was automatically included in the talks.

"Let's each send a representative to 1v1!" Yu Wenzhou was the first to propose a solution.

"Opposed!" Xiao Shiqin immediately objected. 1v1, at first glance, seemed to be fair. But it depended on each side's members, and who they could send up! Blue Rain had Huang Shaotian, an absolute titan at 1v1s; he had a high chance of winning. Thunderclap could put up a fight. Itt wasn't like they'd be instantly crushed by Huang Shaotian, but their chances of winning would definitely be smaller. As for the other teams, they were probably in a similar situation. Yu Wenzhou's suggestion appeared to be fair, but it was definitely biased toward Blue Rain.

"Opposed!" As expected, Misty Rain's Chu Yunxiu also expressed her dissent, following the same train of thought as Xiao Shiqin.

"You want a 1v1, then let's 1v1!" On the other hand, Tang Hao was unafraid and boldly accepted the proposition.

Yang Cong hesitated. When it came to 1v1, his chances of winning were similarly low. But compared to a battle between the full forces of all sides, a 1v1 definitely increased 301's chances of success. Huang Shaotian, Tang Hao, and the others were much bigger players than he was. But in a 1v1, no one would dare say for sure that a win or loss was guaranteed.

"Well, we can't play a group battle, that'd waste too much time." Yu Wenzhou chuckled. Seeing two votes against him, he knew that his suggestion definitely wouldn't be accepted.

"Then to be fast, let's just roll for it!" Xiao Shiqin said.

"Relying on luck to decide? That's absurd! This should be decided by strength." Tang Hao immediately expressed his objection toward this plan.

"Hahaha, I remember hearing that Tang Hao was especially bad at rolling! I heard that he almost always gets less than 50, isn't that right?" From Blue Brook Guild's side came another person's voice. The fact that Huang Shaotian had managed to stay quiet until now was already quite a remarkable feat.

Originally, this was a captain-level conversation, and the other players were careful to maintain silence as they watched. Once Huang Shaotian spoke up, there were suddenly whispers everywhere. It was clear that this was a never-before-heard piece of gossip.

"What kind of skill is rolling?" Tang Hao fumed.

"Haven't you heard that luck is also a part of strength? For example…"

"What about this?" Chu Yunxiu ruthlessly interrupted Huang Shaotian. By the time they waited for that guy to finish, Ye Xiu probably would have already slaughtered his way here.

"Each of us can send out a few people and attack the boss in teams. Whichever team has the highest damage output can have the boss," Chu Yunxiu said.

"Hm, that's not a bad plan." Yu Wenzhou was the first to agree.

"It's alright. That way, I think five people per team would be enough," Xiao Shiqin said.

"Who's controlling the aggro? What about healing?" Tang Hao asked.

"We'll specially designate people to control the aggro and not count that in the damage output. Each side will be responsible for their own healing, and if they cause an OT, then they're disqualified." Chu Yunxiu efficiently laid out the details of her plan.

"Hm, if we do that, then I think sending three people per side would be enough. If there are more, then there'd be too much conflict. We'd get in each other's way," Yu Wenzhou said. If each side sent five people, then that'd be a large 25 person team attacking the boss. If the team was composed of all long-ranged classes, then it'd be a little better, but if there were more close-ranged classes, then that'd require careful coordination of position.

But this was supposed to be a competition. There was no way that someone else would willingly give up their position for you, and so there'd definitely be a lot of clashing. Even if everyone was on the same team and couldn't damage each other, there could still be plenty of intentional interference with other players' attacks.

"Exactly! Competition keeps things interesting!" Chu Yunxiu said.

Yu Wenzhou felt a shiver. This woman, she didn't have some deeper plan, did she? At the same time, he saw Xiao Shiqin's Mechanic glance toward his Warlock.

These are in-game characters, we don't need to meet each other's eyes, do we? But it seems like you also have reservations about Chu Yunxiu's plan? Yu Wenzhou quietly thought to himself, but he truly couldn't find any reason to oppose her plan. At least, unlike his proposal of 1v1, the plan didn't obviously favor one side over another.

"Then let's hurry up and begin?" From Wind Howl, players had already jumped forward. Just by looking at their classes, it was clear that they were all members of Wind Howl's professional team.

Once he saw the classes of those characters, Yu Wenzhou suddenly realized what game Chu Yunxiu was playing. Team Misty Rain had many long-ranged attackers! Even if long-ranged attacks could also be blocked, they were still much better off than the close-ranged classes vying for positions near the boss. This was what she had been counting on.

Then what should Blue Brook do? For this battle, they couldn't just rely on the skill of the pro players, they also had to consider which classes would complement each other the best in this situation. Truly a competition of tactics! This was shaping up to be quite interesting.

Yu Wenzhou thought and eventually decided on a suitable team. They didn't all have to be pro players. Here, the class composition mattered more. But just as he was about to call out names, he heard someone in the group shout, "What's that?"

"Where?"

"Above!"

Yu Wenzhou raised his camera and saw the shadow of a character falling from the mountain's cliffside.

"This is…" Yu Wenzhou startled, but there were already others with sharper eyes than his, who could see the ID on top of that shadow's head.

Lord Grim!

An infamous name in their circles, Ye Xiu's unspecialized Lord Grim.

Free-falling at an acceleration at 9.8 m/s, Lord Grim seemed like he was about to crash into the mountain stream, but no one believed that this guy would just slip and fall to his death. At this moment, three shots of gunfire sounded. Lord Grim pulled out his Myriad Manifestation Umbrella, sending an Anti-Tank Missile attack toward Shadow Commander Shaan.

The three shots fired one after another, three shots worth of recoil that slowed Lord Grim's body.

And then, the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella opened, and with the Mechanic's skill Rotor Wing, Lord Grim flew back up into the sky.

Not good!

Yu Wenzhou already realized what was going on.

"Quick, pull the aggro!" Yu Wenzhou hurriedly shouted. The others now understood what this was all about. The long-ranged classes launched their attacks, while the Knights immediately came to stabilize the aggro.

But it was too late...

In order not to disturb the boss, the various teams had maintained a considerable distance between themselves and Shadow Commander Shaan. But now Lord Grim suddenly fell from the sky and opened fire. The boss's reaction was of course instantaneous, especially since this was a Level 75 Nightwalker boss. Assassins, Thieves, Ninjas, they were all agile and lightweight classes.

The players couldn't scale the cliffs to the left and right of the mountain stream, but this wasn't an obstacle for this Level 75 boss. With one stride, Shadow Commander Shaan already leapt onto the cliffside, bounding and pedaling upward, instantly leaving behind all the long-ranged attacks of the players. Those clumsy Knights wanted to mock them, but there was no way for them to keep up with Shaan's speed.

But would the boss be pulled away just like that?

Incredulous, everyone looked up at the midair Lord Grim. To fly completely above the top of the cliffs, that simply wasn't possible for a player, was it? Whether an assassin's Air Jump, or a Mechanic's Rotor Wing, or a Witch's Broom Mastery, or a Summoner's Small Flying Dragon summon, or so on, the skills of these classes could help a player achieve heights that other classes wouldn't be able to, but they wouldn't allow a player to fly clear over these cliffs, would they?

It was true, these classes couldn't accomplish it. But Ye Xiu's Lord Grim was an unspecialized! If he used these skills in combination, this height…

Even though most of these skills weren't sub-Level 20 skills, it was no secret that the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella could change forms to allow the usage of higher-level skills.

As expected, after the Rotor Wing, Lord Grim jumped up again in midair, a movement that could only be accomplished with the usage of the skill Air Jump. And then there was another shot, an Aerial Fire that sent his character flying higher. Lord Grim waved his hand, and that Myriad Manifestation Umbrella was in some unknown form and was stuck into the mountain. Lord Grim twisted his body, landing on and jumping off the weapon; with a tug, he pulled the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella back out of the cliffside.

Fuck! This umbrella had ninjato abilities too? Everyone could only look on with dazed expressions...