MMORPG: The Elementalist

Qin Ruo’s party truly embraced how dependable the Tier 5 Miniboss, the Amethyst Orc was.

Even though the Level 55 Flora-type Deadwood Elf was considerably powerful with its unpredictable ranged and melee skills, it hardly caused any problem for the Amethyst Orc.

With more time to spare, Qin Ruo began to observe and gain a better understanding of the Amethyst Orc’s battle techniques and style. He subconsciously commanded the Amethyst Orc to fight like a Berserker, which only further boosted the Orc’s battle proficiency.

The other four in the party realized the subtle change in the Amethyst Orc’s fighting after Judge’s explanation. Based on their estimation, the time required for the Amethyst Orc to take down a Deadwood Elf in a solo battle had drastically reduced from the initial 20 seconds to less than 10 seconds.

Amethyst Aura!

Amethyst Serial Punch! Explosive Violet Aura Punch!

Amethyst Blade!

Amethyst Spiralswipe!

Violet Lightning Barrage!

Triple Violetbolts!

Under Qin Ruo’s explicit commands, the Amethyst Orc’s skills were linked up efficiently, and the interval between skills was minimized. The Amethyst Boss now fought like a Berserker who excelled in Successive Strikes.

Imagine an already powerful Tier 5 Miniboss suddenly being taught the Successive Strikes technique of a Berserker. Not to mention, it was not some ordinary skill but a top tier combo attack; how high would the ceiling be?

At least for Judge who was also a Berserker himself, he wished he would never have to fight a Boss monster with such high intelligence and battle prowess during his entire life. Based on its total dominance in terms of Attack, Defense, and HP, on top of its terrific Mobility and Attack Speed, half an attack from the Amethyst Orc would most probably turn him into dust.

Perhaps Qin Ruo was the actual monster there. Even after he had successfully elevated the Amethyst Orc’s battle proficiency to a whole new level, he was still searching for a faster way to finish off the Deadwood Elf to his teammates’ horror.

The battle between Slayer’s Heart and Darkshadow Archdemon resurfaced vividly in Qin Ruo’s mind. Heart’s moves, the potential weak points he aimed at, and the attack angle, which the Berserker micromanaged during that fight were all recalled in detail by Qin Ruo. He studied those moves carefully and slowly applied Heart’s pattern on the Amethyst Orc.

Although the Amethyst Orc’s giant body did not suit such a micromanaged fight style, its enormous speed somehow compensated for the lack of precision.

Boom!

The Amethyst Orc completely ignored the Deadwood Elf’s counterattack and gave up on flashy moves. He closed in courageously and fought with its fist. Punches covered in Amethyst Aura repeatedly fell heavily on the Deadwood Elf’s dry, hard trunk, yielding a thunderous resonance.

The frequency of attacks was extremely high. The target was mercilessly dealt three to four severe blows in a three-second span. The elf’s tree bark was torn off by the force of the attack as it shrieked horrendously. Its attempt to counter with its sharp wooden claw was interrupted again and again. The Deadwood Elf’s body staggered like a punching bag after it was ravaged by Amethyst Orc.

Ten seconds passed, and the “spoiled” Deadwood Elf accepted its fate and returned to mother earth. Its once threatening claws shrank inwards pitifully, and the monster lay down lifelessly as if it had just experienced a great storm.

Throughout the rest of their journey, thanks to the Amethyst Orc’s daunting outlook, all rival faction players fled as far as they could the moment Qin Ruo’s group came into sight. Meanwhile, Angel Faction players did not dare approach them rashly. Without any disturbance, the six players and one Orc pushed forward against the wind, unobstructed for more than half an hour.

Finally, dark clouds began to appear at the edge of the yellow sky.

Qin Ruo looked into the distance on the Amethyst Orc’s shoulder and saw that the horizon was filled with what looked like specters. Those things danced freely in the air and numerous square-shaped stone structures were seen around them.

“We’re here,” Qin Ruo said and jumped to the ground from the Amethyst Orc’s shoulder.

Black Rock pretended to look into the distance and questioned the mysterious lad’s previous theory, “Judge, didn’t you say it’s dangerous at the border between different regions? Why can’t I see any monster around here?”

Judge was also looking at the empty horizon and feeling puzzled himself. “Weird… There are indeed threads posted in the circle, which claim that players were attacked by unidentified monsters when they were crossing the border. Although so far, there isn’t any direct video evidence yet.”

As he spoke, he retracted his sight and warned the rest. “Anyway, just be cautious.”

The others nodded. Despite not seeing a single monster within their field of vision, none of them dared to neglect Judge’s warning. No matter what, Judge’s intel was the most comprehensive among the six of them.

***

The six players party advanced carefully for another two hundred meters. The Tomb Region was visible now—an eerie middle age looking cemetery came into their sights.

None of them were in the mood to admire such a scene, which only appeared in horror movies. Six pairs of eyes scanned through every corner and every inch of the cemetery to look for suspicious movement.

At last! When the Tomb Region was about 100 m from the party, a deafening screech suddenly broke out from the land in front of them.

All the party members, including the Orc, were attracted by the sound. They concurrently focused on a rotten, black wooden claw that suddenly protruded out from the ground right before them.

“Sh*t! It’s the Boss. Everyone beware!”

The observant Subjugator was the first to react, and he warned the others swiftly.

Qin Ruo and the others could tell that they were in deep trouble too—the protruding claw was disproportionately huge. The claws of normal Deadwood Elves was, at most, the size of a paper fan like Amethyst Orc’s palm. The enemy they were looking at now was still buried halfway underground, but its “finger” was almost the size of a human thigh! Even a blind person would have known that they had encountered the Boss.

All six of them retreated rapidly at the same time. Qin Ruo did not leave Amethyst Orc behind. He instructed it to pace away from the Deadwood Boss attack range first and act depending on the situation.

But in the next second, the way the Deadwood Boss unearthed and the ensuing chain reaction startled everyone in the party.

Following the emergence of the two giant Deadwood claws, the land along the entire border vibrated as one after another paper fan size Deadwood claws began to unearth. The claws lined up straight with the Boss at the center, with more Deadwood claws broke out from the ground as the vibration intensified.

Subjugator and his comrades’ face could not be paler…

At a quick glance, the entire zone in front of them was blocked by a dense amount of Deadwood claws with the count of at least a hundred.

“All these Deadwood Elves? F*ck me! That’s too much! Amethyst Orc won’t be able to handle all at once!”

Taking the opportunity that Deadwood Elves were still not completely out from the ground, the party had retreated beyond the monsters’ effective attack range. But they were mentally paralyzed seeing countless Deadwood Elves arose successively through the ground.

There were at least sixty of them. This was such a deadly lineup.

Although the Deadwood Elves looked big and clumsy, a player, except for those with max Agility, will not be able to escape the monster once they get too near to it. It’s too late for them to get away now.

‘If running is no longer an option, then we fight!’

As soon as the resolution came to Qin Ruo’s mind, he was bewildered by his own though, ‘I must be out of my mind. Even a single enemy with Magic Penetration is deadly to an Elementalist, what’s more, there are sixty of them now. Besides, we still have a big guy coming through at the moment!’

‘Damn!’

“What on earth is this shit. If only we know this earlier. Even the Teleportation Point to Level 5 might not be this dangerous.”

Qin Ruo could only smile bitterly now. Nevertheless, he still quickly plotted several countermeasures in his mind that might bail them out from this mess.

“Condense Frostrampart! Quick! The more the merrier!” Qin Ruo turned to Snowleaf and shouted.

***

The appearance of sixty Deadwood Elves and an unknown Tier 5 Boss had Subjugator completely confounded. On that instance, he could hardly provide any useful idea that might help them survive the ambush. His pale face looked on helplessly as the agitated Boss claws continue to unearth. All he could think of now was to stay together with his temporary party members, be it alive or dead.

Until Qin Ruo’s shout reached his ear, then only he realized it…’Frostburst!’

‘That’s right!! Aquamancer’s multiple Frostburst is an AoE attack with overlapping damage. Besides, Qin Ruo Magic Attack is exceptionally high… Then again, to use Frostburst, he will need to enter the elves’ attack range…’

While Subjugator was contemplating, Qin Ruo had quickly constructed two Aquaramparts. Even though Snowleaf was shouted at all of a sudden and did not understand the purpose behind the instruction, she did not think twice and did as told because she had already witnessed what Qin Ruo is capable of during their short expedition together. She and her monster, Cryospider, quickly joined Qin Ruo in producing the ice walls.

Just as they managed to form four Aquaramparts and two Frostramparts… Bam! …a large pile of land, where the black claws were at, was suddenly flipped high up into the air.

The detached land then shot rapidly towards the six adventurers like a loose cannon.

Eek!

The black shiny giant Deadwood Boss shrieked while it showcased half of its body above the ground. Following the monster revelation, the six-player party trembled in fear after learning the true identity of the enemy through a system message.