Chapter 33 (1/2)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Grievous Harm was one of twenty-six party leaders working at Wandering Souls Studios, a group that accepts various assassination quests and in turn earn their pay. Each leader was assigned with two followers, and almost half of the players in Wandering Souls were Thief-class. Aside from profit, another advantage of killing players was to loot their items, and since Wandering Souls rarely fail under most circumstances, their items were quite fine.
The studio itself also has a powerful intelligence network in place. They had immediately received word once Nie Fan arrived in Tajit Village, after which Grievous Harm led two of his underlings and set an ambush outside.
It was quite the unlucky day for Grievous Harm, however—first, their target noticed stalking, and then they had one of theirs killed in retaliation, something which never happened before. Moreover, with their client watching a livestream, Wandering Souls Studios would have nowhere to show their faces if they failed to kill Nie Fan!
As such, Grievous Harm was anxious to reclaim their honor, attacking lethally at the get go and with an unyielding attitude.
Even so, his first blow, intended to knock out Nie Fan was evaded. Still, he did not give up, and aimed his second strike at Nie Fan’s throat.
Life and death hung within a split second!
Watching as the sharp dagger was about to hit his neck, Nie Fan promptly leaped away while still facing the dagger.
With a slashing sound, the dagger cut through Nie Fan’s belly and another damage value just above seventy popped up over his head again. After suffering two hits, Nie Fan had finally managed to leap to Grievous Harm’s flank.
Even so, there was no chance that he would spare Nie Fan. Locking on to Nie Fan’s position with the corner of his eye, he stabbed down ferociously with his dagger.
Die!
Grievous Harm could see from Nie Fan’s HP bar that most of his HP was gone from his two chained strikes. He is definitely getting him with this one!
Thud!
A cold smile of delight flashed over his face as he watched his dagger plunge into Nie Fan’s body, but he also abruptly felt that his dagger had hit thin air. What was going on?
Then, the cheetah in front of him suddenly turned illusory before eventually fading.
He turned to find that Nie Fan had already dashed five yards away.
Moreover, his speed after Cheetahmorph was simply too swift, and it did not take more than a few steps for Grievous Harm to realize that he would never catch up.
His face turned to a frightening scowl. He was actually fooled by Nie Fan’s Phantom.
When Nie Fan pulled around sixteen yards away, he looked aside to find that the other Thief whom he dumped Black Oil on was still drenched in the sticky fluid. With a turn of his paw, he shot a Mini Fireball at the man.
Grievous Harm smiled in disdain. A mere fireball, he thought.
All classes wouldn’t have any strong offensive skills at the early game after all. No matter how powerful Nie Fan’s attack stat was, the Mini Fireball would at best knock off up to 20 HP.
Nonetheless, that Mini Fireball struck his underling with an echoing bang. The stunning wave of hit spread, almost sending Grievous Harm flying and was followed by his party mate’s blood-curdling screams.
The Thief was completely consumed in the flames and he dropped to the ground, his HP emptied within moments.
[System: Your friend Codfish has died.]
Grievous Harm took it all in with sheer shock. ‘That’s the effect of a Black Oil and Mini Fireball combo?’ He thought in horror.
There were thousands of novice skills available in the early game for all classes, with most matching with others to produce certain special effects. And since Black Oil and Mini Fireball appeared to be the least useful amongst those skills, no one expected that putting them together would cause such devastation!
After all, thousands of novice skills would at least form dozens of thousand combinations, and yet it was Mini Fireball and Black Oil that could combine for the highest damage. Moreover, Nie Fan’s skills had been buffed with the Ring of Fate to a shocking Level 5, and using that combo now meant several times the damage, even instantly offing Grievous Harm’s party member.
Indeed, Grievous Harm felt as if his heart was stabbed violently at the successive deaths of his underlings. He wanted to reclaim their items, only to find that Nie Fan was still there and eyeing the corpses like a tiger glaring at its prey.