Chapter 68 - 65 : Team Emperor’s Might Vs One-Horned Troll

D O O M.

Is what you expected right? Well, even though Swift Blade wasn't a hidden piece of East Crow guild, he was without a doubt among the top 10 among the guild members. In fact, he was actually among the top 5 East Crow members with the fastest reflexes and reaction time.

Even though the one-horned troll's attack got him by surprise, Swift Blade still managed to react quickly, using the [Parry] skill to slow down the attack, applying resistance to it, and finally relaxing his resistance. This made it so that rather than slicing him apart, the force behind the axe launched Swift Blade into the air.

Nonetheless, Swift Blade didn't get away safely as part of the force of the attack had been transferred into his body through his sword. He also didn't have a nice landing after being flung away. In total, Swift Blade lost 62 HP; more than half of his total HP.

Unlike Sato and Fudo, Swift Blade didn't have a subclass so he didn't get any extra attribute points. His HP totalled 110 points and having 53 points deducted left him with a mere 57 HP. That was just a regular strike which he had luckily parried. If he had received a direct strike who knows what would have happened. Right now, Swift Blade can't handle one more, be it direct or parried, otherwise Swift Blade would truly be a goner. Despite his lucky survival though, he was temporary incapacitated as that attack took a toll on him.

"Shit. How do we beat this thing?!" Dream Tiger began to panic.

Normally defeating the one-horned troll wouldn't be a problem but that was if they had an MT. Now however, they didn't have one. Their false MT was even taken out, making things all the more harder for them. Both Dream Tiger and Drunken Hog were long-range players and non physical combat classes so none of them could act as a false MT. With no one to handle the one-horned troll's aggro, death was all that was left for them.

. . . . .

Griffin had hacked once more at it's right knee which was the exact same place he previously hit. He did this so as to try and immobilise the one-horned troll.

"Argghh." (AN: It should sound like a roar.) -51

After Griffin had attacked with [Justice Slash] , the one-horned troll  screamed out painfully and reflexively responded by kicking out it's right leg.

Griffin, who was ready for this, used shield bash against the leg, partially negating some of the force behind the kick. In the end, he only took 4 steps backwards with only 3 HP lost with the troll losing 2 HP. He would have taken less steps backwards but Griffin decided to borrow some of the force to retreat to a suitable distance.

As a member of a super guild, it was only right that they would have already discovered the advantage of getting a subclass. As such , everyone of Emperor's Might players in this exploration had a subclass and we're also one level, in terms of attributes, ahead of those who don't have a subclass. With the extra attribute points, Griffin's defense skill had an extra boost.

The one-horned troll wielded its Zanbatō and sliced at Griffin. But how could the captain of the team stand by why this took place. Chesces had taken the opportunity when the one-horned troll was distracted by Griffin's attack to scurry behind it. As it was about to attack Griffin, Chesces used his saber and slashed out towards the right knee but from behind.

"[Hack]!" [1]

"Arghh" [2]

[-27 critical hit!] (One-horned Troll 370/500)

With just 3 moves, Emperor's Might had dropped the troll's HP by a large chunk. This wasn't just a show of their skills or strength. Rather this proved that they had not only coordination but also tactics. They had continuously distracted the troll while aiming for the exact same spot that caused a critical hit almost every time.

Thanks to the continuous damage dealing, the one-horned troll began experiencing slight difficulties in walking. As they were about to go on and finish it quicker, Kylian noticed East Crow's predicament and called out.

"Captain, those guys are experiencing some problems. It wouldn't be too our advantage if they die now. We need as much men as possible to handle the boss."

Chesces spaced himself from the one-horned troll and looked over at their direction. Seeing as they were indeed having difficulties he frowned but that didn't stop him from making a decision.

"You guys. Bring it over here. We'll help you but there's a cost."

Hearing Chesces' words, Old Jiro grimaced a bit but still agreed.

"Alright."

After that, he, alongside Dream Tiger, kited[3] the troll over to Chesces' side.

Seeing another one-horned troll coming close, Griffin cried out "Captain, can I really handle it?"

"Believe in yourself." Chesces said seriously.

Of course he knew that Griffin could handle it otherwise he wouldn't risk sending another his way. Griffin himself was aware of his own limit. As he didn't have any issue tanking one troll, he could handle another one, though he would have to be committed and focused.

After that, Chesces glanced over at where the boss was and saw it was still motionless with a formation beneath it gathering mana. 'As expected.' Chesces smirked.

As a super guild, Emperor's Might had a lot of manpower to spare. When the game had earlier launched, they had assigned a few players to collecting information about the world from the library. From the summarised version, Chesces learnt that apart from the 5 major element (Fire, Water, Earth, Metal, Air), there existed another 4 groups. One of those groups was the Superior elements; Space, Time and Reality and Illusion. (AN: The last two are one.) According to the summary, unless the user is born with the ability to manipulate the elements any spell involving superior elements requires a massive amount of mana. Chesces doubted whether the goblin boss could manipulate the elements since the summary stated that such users were rare and usually protected and treated as trump cards.

Chesces reached the conclusion that the spell, [Great Call of Old] should have been either a teleportation spell or a summoning. If it was a teleportation spell, then the boss' mana should be drained by a lot. Even if it wasn't a teleportation spell but a summoning spell, Chesces also suspected the boss to be a level 7 creature and for it to have summoned other level 7, it had to have taken a toll on its mana gauge as low level monsters tend to be too weak even to summon other monsters of the same level.

"I wonder how they are doing?" Chesces said and turned to look at Sato's side. Since they were only two plus they didn't have an MT, Chesces doubted whether they could last but he still didn't call them over as Griffin could only handle tanking 2 trolls; anymore and that would be too risky.

"!!!" Glancing at Sato and Fudo's battle with the last one-horned troll, he was shocked.

Let's recap a few seconds back.

The strategy behind the battle at Camara was a combination of kiting and luxury. Even though the word 'luxury' is used, one can simply replace the necessary elements with cheaper products.

The true meaning behind the two words kiting and luxury was quite simple. Kiting as in the strategy of attacking from a distance and luxury as in using pay-to-win strategies. The pay-to-win here doesn't imply using real money though, but in-game currency. Here, the player buys a whole lot of OP or at least powerful equipment or consumables and by a lot, I mean a lot. Once the said player enters a battle, they begin spamming the powerful equipment or skill, mostly from a distance. A combination of kiting + PTW, makes one a pro.

Sato and Fudo had earlier made a lot from their 'treasure hunting'. Using that money, they had bought a few consumables and right now, they combined it with Sato's exquisite martial skills and Fudo's elemental advantage to give the one-horned troll one hell of a ride; one that it surely won't forget.

AN :

[1] [Hack] (skill, not to be confused with verb Hack) : Active Skill : Hack out with 110% of Physical Attack Power. Cool-down : 5 seconds.

PS: I ran out of what to name low level attacks. It really feels weird shouting "Hack" before an attack but compared to wuxia where they go "break"... same energy.

[2] Once again, it's a roar.

[3] One of my favorite gaming style. Browse it.

[4] Pay-to-win