Chapter 261: First Blood (1/2)

Although Marni had died-again, Edward frankly wasn’t too worried about the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior.

If a group of newbie Players could reach this far even with a pack of Hyena-men on their heels, how powerful could that Boss be even if he did underestimate him?

And it was certainly true: though quick, strong and able to instakill the fully-armored Marni in an ambush, the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior actually wasn’t killing his victims with a single blow—the System had determined that Marni was actually taken down by a series of skills that he had casted.

It was only because his sneak attack combined Rapid Ambush, Death Charge, Iron Grip, Feral Burst, and Primitive Rage along with a stack of buffs that he could tear of Marni’s head, which also preserves the vanity of Marni’s +7 fully-body armor.

And after knowing that, the strategy against the Boss was clear.

In a nutshell: keep your distance, kite it with powerful long-range skills and grind it down…

Considering that the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior wasn’t brainless (or he wouldn’t have led a whole pack of Hyena-men to break past the Players encirclement and flee to the Mountain Tiger’s stronghold), the Players would also have to deliberately take damage and feign weakness, so that he would be hopeful of killing them with his next blow.

And such an objective could only be achieved by Edward himself.

The other veteran Players’ were quick bad at attacking, and since they were used to taunting in battle, almost all of them preferred sleazy remarks. It would not be a problem if they were fighting some mindless monster who could be kept on a tight leash with their own hate, but it wouldn’t be equally effective against the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior who retained some form of intelligence.

On the other hand, newbies didn’t have to feign being weak since they were weak anyway. Once they cast their spells and were caught off guard, they would be counter-killed instantly.

Be that as it may, Edward was assuredly the best Player there. Though the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior was Level 35 and quite low, his elite template meant that his true level was five or ten levels above that.

Even so, Edward was keeping the most powerful monster in the Mountain Tigers’ stronghold tightly under wraps all by himself.

“Are you not going to face me?! Human coward!”

Having been baited by Edward into running a whole circle around the stronghold and suffering two Blast Fireballs that inflicted outstanding damage, the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior caught on to Edward’s idea. He actually disengaged and went off to kill other players, intent on freeing himself from Edward’s leash.

However, the other players were already given the luxury of time to take out all of their opponents, and started to spread out in search of new ones while farming EXP by launching a few skills at the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior. All at once, the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior couldn’t reach them even though he could have promptly taken them out.

And even if he was quick, could he be quicker than spells?

Because he had tried to ambush other Players and therefore forced to suffer two Black Dragon Hellfire from Edward, the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior’s HP dropped to yellow-a point where the Players could bring it down.

But despite being unable to see its own HP Bar, the Ancient Imperial Wrath Tiger Warrior knew that it is going to drop dead if things continued. Hence, he issued a warrior’s challenge to Edward. “Come fight me honorably if you can!”