Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Assassin’s Sangfroid could be easily dealt with the moment its aggro formula was made known to the players. A rudimentary method to deal with this would be to have the target lie flat on the ground and have the other players pile up on top of him to form a dog pile... Now that the Shadowmist Assassin was unable to attack the targeted player within, and the others were not its target of aggro, which would not shift either, would that not mean that the players could have free reign and slowly whittle it to death?

Of course, not.

That was precisely the condition to cause the Shadowmist Assassin to enrage. The moment the Shadowmist Assassin was unable to land its attack on the target, it would then become enraged.

Furthermore, after the Shadowmist Assassin became enraged, its attack power and speed would visibly change, while its aggro formula would surreptitiously change. This new aggro formula was all the more severe, as the BOSS would randomly attack any target within its aggro range without any rules whatsoever. Even Ye Xiaowu had no idea who it would target once this happened.

That first attack targeting Gu Fei upon emerging from the fog after it became enraged was entirely coincidental – a mishap that made everybody fail to realize that the aggro formula had changed. It was only after Eternal Dominion had executed Seismic Toss, which resulted into the Shadowmist Assassin abruptly kicking him, that the quick-witted and experienced Young Master Han started to have an inkling that something was amiss.

If the aggro had been concentrated on Gu Fei, no other factors would make this change; this meant that there was no way the BOSS would attempt any sort of retaliation to the others aside from Gu Fei. Even though its speed and attack power had increased tremendously, Young Master Han felt that the design of this BOSS’s aggro formula was foolish. He had long considered the method of doing a dog pile the moment he had seen through this weakness, but because Gu Fei was effectively dealing with the BOSS as he was, he felt that there was no need to resort to such a crude method.

In fact, Young Master Han already felt something amiss when the BOSS attempted to kick Eternal Dominion, but before he could even properly ponder over this, the Shadowmist Assassin had already dashed over to Royal God Call and insta-killed the Hunter, smugly entering the fog once more.

“What just happened?!” Everybody was in shock.

“The aggro formula has changed,” Young Master Han said, “stay within range of one another.”

Everybody immediately shifted closer to one another, as Brother Assist furrowed his brows. “But why would it be Royal? If we go by how threat is usually calculated, it should be War Without Wounds, Eternal Dominion, and you. Each of you should have accrued a higher threat than Royal.”

“I’m afraid the BOSS has now adopted a random attack formula...” Young Master Han answered.

“F*ck, what a cheap move!” Everybody cursed. Threat could be the key when challenging difficult BOSSES. To think that the aggro formula for this boss would change like this. Adopting a random attack formula now meant that the calculation of threat and subsequent aggro was thrown out of the window. No matter how they looked at it, this BOSS was clearly intentionally made to trouble the players.

“Random; I wonder how random this will be?” Even at such a time, Brother Assist was still interested in researching more.

Young Master Han wrinkled his eyebrows and did not say a word.

“Here it comes!” This time it was Eternal Dominion that alerted everyone. The Shadowmist Assassin came charging in his direction, but nobody knew who its current target was.

“It’s really fast!” Now that the Shadowmist Assassin was enraged, even the time it spent hiding in the fog was reduced and soon came back on the attack. Hurtling out of the fog undauntingly, it suddenly leaped into the air and seemed about to execute a plummeting aerial assault once more.

“Brother Assist, it’s on you!” Gu Fei and Eternal Dominion yelled this out at the same time as they rushed toward it. From the posture it held while mid-air, the two men had already determined the general direction it would be plummeting, and it was where Brother Assist happened to be standing.

Now that the most inexperienced combatant Brother Assist had become its target, he was so panicked that he even forgot how to hold his sword properly. This time, however, everybody was close by. Furthermore, it was Gu Fei’s belief that this plummeting aerial assault from the Shadowmist Assassin was the easiest to deal with because it gave them much more time to prepare.

Eternal Dominion, who was somewhere in front of Brother Assist, was the quickest and nearest, yet he was still unable to completely dart in front of the Knight. In the end, he stretched out his hands, as if he were diving down to the ground, and a much larger Chiwave Shield formed within his two palms. The size and defense of the Chiwave Shield were proportionate to the amount of mana he expended, and what he had just used was the limit of what he could activate at the moment.

Nevertheless, this impedance was not enough to fully contain the rushing impact from the Shadowmist Assassin. The Chiwave Shield broke like tofu, as Eternal Dominion’s entire body was sent flying. The trajectory of this flight sent him toward Brother Assist, who staggered backward upon collision. A figure darted from behind him, an electric glow pulsing in his hand.

Palm of Thunder!

Gu Fei managed to gather lightning in his hand in the additional time Eternal Dominion had managed to buy them and firmly placed it directly on the Shadowmist Assassin’s temple.

Repulse!

Gu Fei prayed wordlessly. The Repulsion effect from his Palm of Thunder was originally 100%, but he was uncertain if that was still the case when facing against a BOSS in this game. All he knew was that back when he was being hunted down by the NPC guard, it barely even moved upon taking a direct hit with the skill. He had successfully repelled the Shadowmist Assassin previously, but he had Blinked behind the BOSS then and struck him square in the back. It was the Palm of Thunder and his technique of leveraging the force of the enemy’s hit that caused the effect. Now that the Shadowmist Assassin was dashing directly at him while enraged, what would happen?

Success!

That one palm strike on its temple allowed the Palm of Thunder’s Repulse effect to send the BOSS away.

But before Gu Fei could even celebrate his success, he saw that the Shadowmist Assassin had only been pushed back for about five meters, so even though it was repulsed by his skill, the efficacy of his blow was significantly reduced.

Moreover, it appeared as if the patience of this BOSS had increased after becoming enraged. Instead of immediately diving into the fog as what everybody had hoped it would do, it drove its foot into the ground and attempted another attack; it had also very deviously chosen another target.

“Young Master!” Gu Fei hurried yelled out; the target the Shadowmist Assassin had chosen this time was actually Young Master Han. As Gu Fei and Eternal Dominion were unable to provide any sort of assistance in time and could only watch the Shadowmist Assassin pounce on him, another dagger came stabbing in from the side.

Sword Demon. He was the only person that would be using a dagger.

Their weapons clashed. If even a sturdy Warrior like War Without Wounds could be sent flying, Sword Demon would fare even worse; however, the man had already expected this to happen, so the moment he was sent flying, he was able to deliver a cut to the BOSS with a raise of his hand.

This cut was better than nothing. The Shadowmist Assassin’s attention did not seem to shift, and its dagger continued to plunge toward Young Master Han, but a white light from Young Master Han’s magic staff floated over to himself at the same time.

Young Master Han had no way to evade this strike that had sent him flying away, but with a wave of his staff mid-flight, another shining radiance cocooned him. Everybody turned to stare at Young Master Han when he landed on the ground, but instead of disappearing in the usual white light, he got up and gazed disdainfully at everyone. “Do you think it’s so easy for me to die?”

“Unnatural! Too damn unreal!” Brother Assist may be unable to comprehend the underlying nuance behind the kung fu of Gu Fei and martial practitioners, but he could clearly grasp what Young Master Han had just done with his skill, which was a perfect casting of Heal that was accurate down to the millisecond. It took time for the players’ HP to drop to zero. Thus, although this time was but a mere instant, it was so quick even the naked eye could not tell when the damage would be applied. Yet, Young Master Han was able to sneak in a Heal in this instant. His calculation and senses were all pushed to the limits just to catch this instant. Even Gu Fei felt that this man could become quite the talent if he were to practice kung fu.

The Shadowmist Assassin retreated after it attacked Young Master Han. Everyone could not help but thank their lucky stars, for if it were to attack again, no matter who it targeted, the next victim would most likely be finished off without much hassle. They were all drained from just dealing with these two attacks from the Shadowmist Assassin this time around. Feeling pressed for time, they tried to recover as fast as they could.

“It comes and goes so quickly! We don’t have much time to replenish our HP and mana,” Gu Fei said as he bit on an apple.

“There’s absolutely no way we can take down this Assassin if it continues to fight like this.” War Without Wounds was the only one left unscathed from that previous assault.

“Maybe, that’s why it comes and goes like this. BOSSES are made for players to slay, after all, so if there’s truly no way to fight it, then what’s the point of playing the game?” Young Master Han pointed out.

“But aren’t the random attacks it does far too messy? Can we still take it on?” Brother Assist asked, adding, “Sword Demon, you seem to have managed to get a slice at him just now.”

Sword Demon grimaced, “It was just a cut; I didn’t even use my skill, so I doubt I managed to penetrate its defense.”

Everybody’s gaze gathered on Gu Fei.

Gu Fei looked embarrassed, sighing, “Don’t look at me! I can perhaps give it a shot if it continues to target me like before, but now that we can’t even confirm who its target is gonna be, it’s really very difficult to deal with it.”

“Then, are we doomed to be wiped here? M*th*rf*ck*r. We just wiped Southern Lone Blade’s entire squad; it’s too soon for retribution!” War Without Wounds tilted his head up to the skies and heaved a long sigh, showing the look of a hero facing his end.

This was when Young Master Han suddenly asked, “Any of you have friends in Xiawu City?”

“Acquaintances are fine as well!” Young Master Han added this before anyone could say another word.

“Slyris?” Gu Fei suddenly though aloud. He had courteously added Slyris as a friend after explaining the whole situation to her. Gu Fei even asked her when she would find others to come and rob him, which caused Slyris to turn frigid for a bit.

“Oh, that’s right! Let me contact her!” War Without Wounds immediately became energetic. He had also added Slyris’s sister Yan Xiaozhu as friends. He hurriedly pulled out his friends list and was just about to compose a message when he suddenly gazed sheepishly at everyone. “What should I say to her?”

Young Master Han glared at him contemptuously for a while before saying, “Tell her our coordinates and then ask her where the nearest grinding map is. The more populous it is, the better.

These men immediately came around to his idea. “You intend to...”

Young Master Han flashed a smile that was ten times more devious than the smile Ye Xiaowu had shown. “It randomly attacks, right?”

“Whoa! That’s way too despicable. Can you not be such an abhorrent cad?!” everyone clamored.

“We can’t do that!” Gu Fei and Eternal Dominion promptly expressed their refusal to this plan. Even though this was just a game, the moral code that these two men had sworn themselves to was not affected one bit. After all, this was something their upbringing had emphasized on the most. If they could not even demonstrate this level of righteous morality, they would not even be allowed to learn kung fu.

Young Master Han stared at the two, yet he said nothing but a simple, “Suit yourself!”

Sword Demon suddenly blurted out in this moment, “Don’t you guys think that this BOSS has been gone for too long?”

“Yeah, it’s definitely past the time limit.” Brother Assist checked his booklet. He enjoyed recording down almost anything and everything.

War Without Wounds raised his head to the rest and said, “Slyris said that we are already in the most popular grinding map...”