The Great Thief

After the end of the match, the audience roared with excitement.

Although everyone enjoyed watching the star players fighting each other, it was still more exciting to watch the group matches with all the members participating and where these skill-consuming tactics couldn’t work.

“Ruling Sword is sending five players out… oh, Lu Li isn’t going to participate?” Jiufeng noticed, then yelled, “Where is Lu Li? Wait! He is sitting in the waiting area…heavens…”

When she was counting through the number of players from Ruling Sword, she finally realized that Lu Li wasn’t participating.

Moonlight, Fat Monkey, March Rain, Kitty Likes Meat and Sakura Memories were the five players on Ruling Sword’s side. Mu Qiu and Lu Li were not present. Lu Li was on the waiting list while Mu Qiu had exited the competition after competing in the individual rounds.

“I guess it makes sense,” Four Seas Dragon sighed.

“Don’t keep us guessing; why isn’t Lu Li starting?” Jiufeng didn’t really understand, but she was perfect as a commentator as she laid out what the audiences’ questions were as well.

“The start of the group round is when the fighting is at its fiercest as each side is at its strongest. Under those conditions, a Thief cannot play a very large role. He would be less effective than even Sakura Memories, so Lu Li has relegated himself to be a substitute,” Four Seas Dragon explained.

“Is there any other reason?” Jiufeng’s eyes widened.

“If my guess is correct, this fight won’t be a drawn-out one. In such a close fight, there will be a sudden turn which will lead to a great number of casualties,” Four Seas Dragon said confidently. “At that time, Lu Li will come in to start taking down his opponents.”

As they were talking, the match had already begun.

The distance between the two teams was quite close, so they only needed to take a few steps before they could start casting their skills. Sakura Memories cast Bloodlust and rushed straight into their opponent’s formation.

“Don’t worry about her; keep attacking our target.”

The Peerless City players were about to attack when they saw the Shaman move out of formation. However, when they heard Green Flag Wine’s order to ignore her, they all obeyed him.

“Good. It seems like a veteran’s wisdom has come in handy here,” Four Seas Dragon applauded the call.

“Was Sakura Memories deliberately sent in to distract their attacks?” Jiufeng asked.

“Yes, it was quite a clever move. Not only would it disrupt the attacking rhythm of Peerless City, but it would also allow Lu Li to come in when she died,” Four Seas Dragon explained. He was obviously capable of seeing through such a tactic, but rubbed his chin and sighed, “Unfortunately, Ruling Sword was trying to use this strategy against the wise old Green Flag Wine, and so it failed.”

“I guess the older you get, the more cunning you become too,” Jiufeng grinned as her words were clearly referring to the person next to her.

“Ahem, this is just a basic tactic. You can hardly call it being cunning.”

Four Seas Dragon obviously liked this calculated style, so he appreciated the moves that a veteran like Green Flag Wine was making.

Green Flag Wine, Unforgettable Maple and the other veterans had been in the professional gaming circle for about 10 years. Most players from that generation had already retired.

Sakura Memories was ignored, so she had no choice but to try to attack her opponents’ healer.

As such, Falling Smile and March Rain had become the objects of attack. Falling Smile struggled to defend himself, but the rest of the team was always ready to step in and help. March Rain was not protected at the core of the Ruling Sword team, but her exquisite equipment gave her considerable attack.

The Shaman’s weakness in the arena wasn’t that their attack or healing was low, but that they had poor survivability.

Although March Rain was more durable, she was still having a difficult time. She had never experienced such a strong threat before.

Without hesitation, she passed the dagger from her left hand to her right hand, which sent a ripple of waves outwards from her.

Everyone around her was sent flying and they were even stunned after landing.

The Book of the Dead (Epic): All Attributes +20, Intelligence +10%, 2 Slots, Special Effect 1: Brilliance Aura, this aura can speed up the mana regeneration of the user and surrounding allies. Special effect 2: Earthquake, all enemies within 8 yards are knocked up and will be stunned for 3 seconds. 10 minute cooldown. Special effect 3: Summon Toothgnasher’s Skeleton to fight for you. Lasts for 5 minutes, 1 hour cooldown. Equipment requirement: Level 50. Exclusive to Priests. Durability 280/280.

This was one of the trump cards that she had been holding, and she did not hesitate to use it in this critical moment.

The players that were stunned tried to lift their crowd-control and restart their focus fire on March Rain. However, they had lost their chance – Ruling Sword was going to get rid of their Healer very soon.

“Dammit!” Deadly Gold Underpants yelled out as he used an area of effect crowd control skill to stall. He couldn’t let his own healer die first.

“Watch my consecutive Fireballs.”

Half a Smoke had been stunned for a long time, but he was now able to cast an ultimate attack to deal significant damage to March Rain.

The two sides exchanged area of effect attacks, which resulted in Falling Smile and March Rain dying one after the other. Fat Monkey, Full-time Assistant and Half a Smoke were also killed in the crossfire. Overall, Peerless City had taken a bigger loss since their Shaman died first. March Rain only survived for a little longer before dying after two more attacks.

At this time, both sides didn’t have a healer and the substitute players could now enter.

“Withdraw!” Green Flag Wine shouted. Deadly Gold Underpants obediently turned around and was dragging his axe on the ground.

If they didn’t withdraw, their disadvantage would become even greater. If they continued fighting Moonlight and Kitty Likes Meat, Deadly Gold Underpants would probably die too which would make the situation worse once Lu Li arrived.

Just because they had lost their healer didn’t mean that they had no more ways of regenerating HP. Green Flag Wine had a few healing abilities so they could prolong the fight.

“Don’t chase them! Come back!” Moonlight shouted at Sakura Memories. There was no need to chase them. After all, if you caught up to them at their base, you would run into their substitute Hunter Vegetarian Mosquito. He had quite a high damage output, and could easily kill Kitty Likes Meat under the right circumstances.

After leaving the fight, both sides ate some bread and regenerated their HP. They both basically had to start fighting again from the beginning.

However, Peerless City was now down to three players – Green Flag Wine, Deadly Gold Underpants and Vegetarian Mosquito. On the other hand, Ruling Sword still had four players – Lu Li, Moonlight, Kitty Likes Meat and Sakura Memories.