Chapter 48: Borrowing the Monster to Destroy the Enemy

After clearing out the lesser monsters, everyone surrounded the boss. For bosses like this, which can't interfere with the players' attacks, no matter how much health it has, it's nothing more than a training dummy. A boss with two million health was just a matter of three to five minutes for Zhang Shan and his team. After all, with so many people, the fight went quickly.

Before long, the elite demon squad leader fell to the ground in unwilling defeat, several brilliant beams of light landing in Winds of the World’s inventory. Before anyone could ask, he displayed the loot for all to see. Two blues and one green—what a pitiful drop. For a boss to drop a green item was the epitome of bad luck; such a boss truly had no prestige.

“Let’s go, on to the next batch.”
“Wait a moment, someone just mentioned in guild chat that they spotted a red boss. Shouldn’t we go after the red one?”
“Forget it. If the purple boss already has two million health, the red must have at least twenty million. Even if we fought it until the event ended, we might not be able to kill it.”
“Exactly. And who knows how terrifying the red boss’s damage could be. Even if dying doesn’t cost us experience, it’s still a waste of time.”
“Right, let’s ignore the red bosses. If we see one, we’ll avoid it. We’ll only go after the purple and orange bosses. Our goal is the city defense contribution leaderboard.”

With Winds of the World’s directive, everyone began searching for the next target.

Just as they were about to move out, someone spoke up in the guild channel.
“There’s an orange boss here, but two people from Heaven and Earth Guild keep following us. There’s nothing we can do.”
“Don’t mind them. Let’s find another one. There are plenty of bosses. If they’re that bored and want to play around, let them,” Winds of the World replied.
“That won’t work. Wherever we go, they follow. We can’t do anything. Plus, we can’t attack players inside the city, so we’re powerless.”
“Damn, are they leeches? How shameless.”
“Yeah, whenever we fight monsters, they just try to steal them. There’s nothing we can do about them.”
“Unbelievable. Once this event is over, we have to drive them out of Dangyang City. They don’t deserve to hang around here.”
“So what do we do now?”

Everyone was at a loss. Running into such shameless people and being unable to attack them was the worst—if you tried to fight monsters, they would steal them, making it all the more aggravating.

Zhang Shan thought for a moment and said, “You go to the orange boss. I’ll lure the boss over and have it kill them, sending them back to the respawn point.”
“That might not work—the boss moves quickly. Don’t end up dead yourself, boss.”
“It’s fine, I’m fast. My boots give plus ten movement speed. I might not outrun the boss, but I only need to be faster than everyone else. When the time comes, you just block the Heaven and Earth Guild guys so they can’t run too fast.”
“And what about us? Won’t we be sent back by the boss too?”
“It doesn’t matter if you get sent back. The respawn point is close by. If we send them back, they won’t have a chance to harass us again during this event.”
“Alright, let’s do it. To hell with it—at least dying doesn’t cost us any experience.”

“I’ll take care of those two shameless Heaven and Earth Guild guys first. You come over in a moment,” Zhang Shan said to Winds of the World.
“Alright, that sounds like a plan. You go ahead,” Winds of the World replied.

Zhang Shan quickly ran to the location marked by the guild members. After observing carefully, he saw the guild’s team in the middle, with the two Heaven and Earth Guild players lingering behind them. It would be tough to deal with them like this. If he lured the boss over, those two would run first, and his own guild members might die while those two escaped unscathed.

He had to come up with a way to get them to change their positions.

“Pass by the boss’s side, make them follow you, and I’ll draw the boss’s aggro from behind. Then you block those two scumbags so they can’t escape past you.”
“Got it, understood. Moving now.”

The guild team quickly moved past the monsters and the boss, keeping a safe distance so as not to trigger its aggression. The two Heaven and Earth Guild players, thinking they were off to another boss, hurried after them, intent on preventing them from fighting in peace.

As soon as they passed by the boss, Zhang Shan rushed forward and fired a shot at one of the elite monsters. It was as if he’d poked a hornet’s nest—the boss, followed by a horde of elites, charged after him in a frenzy.

The orange boss was incredibly fast—there was no way Zhang Shan’s boots, even with their ten-point speed boost, could outpace it. But he didn’t need to outrun the boss—he just needed to be faster than everyone else.

With the boss and its minions in tow, Zhang Shan shot past the two Heaven and Earth Guild players. The guild team swiftly stepped aside to give him room to run through. Then they blocked the two pursuers, trapping them with the boss and the swarm of elites.

What happened next was simple. Although Zhang Shan was the boss’s primary aggro target, he was the fastest. More importantly, the guild team had blocked the path, so the boss would have to kill them to get through.

By then, Zhang Shan had already run beyond the boss’s aggro range. Naturally, the boss and the elites turned to attack the nearest players—especially the two Heaven and Earth Guild members, who were closest.

At first, the boss’s aggro was on Zhang Shan, so it didn’t attack them. But once Zhang Shan escaped, misfortune fell on their heads. Of course, many in the guild team didn’t escape either and were sent back to the respawn point.

But it was no big deal—they didn’t lose experience, and with the respawn point nearby, they could just run back and fight again. As for the two Heaven and Earth Guild players, they could forget about coming back. There were less than fifty minutes left in the event, and they might not even make it back in time. Besides, Heaven and Earth Guild would be busy organizing their own boss fights; not everyone could waste time annoying others.

“Alright, problem solved. Should we fight the orange boss or look for a purple one?” Zhang Shan asked. He had a reason for this—if they wanted to rank steadily on the contribution board, fighting purple bosses was the safer choice. The event was only an hour long, and they’d already spent over ten minutes; with purple bosses, they could probably take down three or four more. If they went for the orange boss, they’d likely only have time for one before the event ended.

The real concern was that something might go wrong—if they didn’t finish the boss before the event ended, it would simply be refreshed by the system, and that would be a huge loss. He wasn’t sure if fighting the orange boss would earn more contribution toward city defense than fighting the purple one. For instance, would ten thousand damage on a purple boss give one contribution point, but the same on an orange boss give two?

There was another advantage to fighting the orange boss—the loot would be better, with a chance to drop orange equipment.

Zhang Shan personally preferred to fight the orange boss, but others might feel differently, since everyone wanted to climb the rankings steadily.

“Let’s take down the orange boss first. Other guild members have already checked its stats, and Little Secretary can tank it,” Winds of the World decided after some thought.
“Alright, hurry over. I wouldn’t dare go alone,” Zhang Shan replied.

He glanced over the boss’s stats, which had been shared by a guild member.

Demon Elite Captain (Orange): Level 25, Health 10,000,000, Attack Power 2,800, Skill 1: Enhanced Charge, Skill 2: Three-Blade Style, Status: Demon God’s Inspiration.

Enhanced Charge: Charges rapidly at the target, dealing double damage, stunning for one second, then slowing for three seconds.
Three-Blade Style: Attacks three times in succession, the second attack dealing double damage, the third dealing triple damage.
Demon God’s Inspiration: During the city defense event, demon forces are inspired by the Demon God, greatly increasing their attributes—health is increased tenfold.

This boss wasn’t particularly difficult; only the Three-Blade Style was a bit formidable, as it could deal six hits worth of damage in one go. But it wasn’t a major problem—Little Secretary had nearly ten thousand health and over a thousand defense, so he could hold out as long as the team cleared the mobs quickly.

Still, it would take quite some time—just seeing that ten million health bar was daunting. With Zhang Shan’s damage output, it would take at least half an hour. With the rest of the team, maybe ten minutes or so. Factoring in the time to clear the mobs, as long as everything went smoothly, they should be able to finish in just over twenty minutes.