446 Chapter 446 - Random Attack Formula (1/2)

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.