Chapter 870: Combine

Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi

With a single Teleport, Sealed Mountain Tiger had left Lord Grim far behind and the newly summoned Blademaster Alpha ran up to engage him. Lord Grim swung out his Myriad Manifestation Umbrella and a quick Sky Strike sent the Blademaster airborne. A step to the side and then a Falling Flower Palm sent the Blademaster into Windward Formation’s range of control.

"Will you have any problems with keeping both of them occupied?" Ye Xiu asked Wei Chen.

Wei Chen was especially straightforward, immediately replying, "Yeah, some."

They might have been summons, but they were summoned by a level 75 final Boss. The CC skills of a Warlock were weakened quite a bit, unable to perform to their full potential. Being able to keep one under control was already very impressive, but Wei Chen couldn’t fully hold onto two. Without waiting for Ye Xiu to think of a new idea, a figure flashed by. Mo Fan’s Deception appeared, taking on Blademaster Alpha.

"Will our loner have any trouble taking it on alone?" Ye Xiu immediately asked.

Mo Fan didn’t reply, simply controlling Deception to engage Blademaster Alpha.

"One Inch Ash, pay a little more attention to the situation over here," Ye Xiu still arranged.

"Okay," Qiao Yifan agreed.

"Let’s go and take out the leader." Saying this, Ye Xiu had Lord Grim charge after Sealed Mountain Tiger. Dawn Rifle and Chasing Haze continued to provide ranged support. All three characters had ranged attacks, so gunshots sounded out before they even arrived. Missiles and bullets streaked through the air towards Sealed Mountain Tiger.

Sealed Mountain Tiger didn’t just rely on Teleportation for moving; his movement speed was also very fast, allowing him to dodge the attacks from the three.

"Be careful to complement each other’s attacks. I’ll take the left, Daw Rifle the right, Chasing Haze blast our target!" Ye Xiu commended. If they didn’t take care to cooperate with each other, then their attacks would be no different from a single person’s attacks. With Ye Xiu’s arrangement, their accuracy was assured, despite the cut in DPS.

Lord Grim and Dawn Rifle’s attacks limited Sealed Mountain Tiger’s space for dodging and Chasing Haze’s attacks flew directly at him. Unless he Teleported again, these attacks weren’t something that could be dodged through normal means.

Teleportation didn’t appear again. It seemed that the CD time for Sealed Mountain Tiger wasn’t short either, which was a huge relief for Ye Xiu. The designer wasn’t that inhumane, it seemed.

Boom!

Their attacks caused a chain of explosions, finally damaging Sealed Mountain Tiger. As a Summoner, Sealed Mountain Tiger would try to follow or get closer to his opponents even with an aggro target. Sealed Mountain Tiger used his finger to point, sending commands. Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta all had the intention to come over and protect their master, but with Happy’s members keeping them occupied, they didn’t have the chance.

"Will you be ok on your own, Soft Mist?" Ye Xiu suddenly asked.

"What do you think?" Tang Rou’s reply was full of confidence.

"Steamed Bun, get over here." Ye Xiu decisively stole him. Now knowing that Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta were just summons, there was no need to waste much time and effort on them. As long as they were kept under control, it would be enough.

They could imagine that this design for Sealed Mountain Tiger would cause a lot of parties to waste a lot of time and effort on a futile task if they didn’t know it’s true face beforehand. Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta didn’t seem like summons at all. Even a god like Ye Xiu hadn’t realized at first, so how would normal players?

With the level normal players had, they probably wouldn’t be able to deal with just these four like Ye Xiu and co could.

For normal players, they would probably need to do quite a bit of research into how to beat this "curtain raiser" battle. Then, after accumulating the experience from all those defeats, they would finally manage a single victory, only to realize that this was a battle against the Boss’ summons...

"How cunning." When Ye Xiu gave his final opinion on Sealed Mountain Tiger, he had already launched a two-pronged attack against the Boss with Steamed Bun, one coming at him from the front and the other from the back. In addition, his left and right were being taken care of by Dawn Rifle and Chasing Haze.

"You won’t be able to escape!" Steamed Bun yelled threateningly.

"Don’t let your guard down!" Ye Xiu warned sighed.

This formation had taken a little bit of time to arrange. Ye Xiu believed that Sealed Mountain Tiger’s Teleportation’s CD was up, otherwise there was no point in having the skill.

"Watch this!" Steamed Bun hollered, having Steamed Bun Invasion charge forth.

"Go!" Yet Ye Xiu’s voice rang out only after Steamed Bun Invasion had begun to charge, seeming to be unnecessary.

Seeing how he couldn’t escape by normal means, Sealed Mountain Tiger attempted to Teleport, as expected. This spell was an instant one, activated with the raise of his hand without any cast time. It was then that six pillars of light crashed into the ground like swords from the heavens and a hexagram lit up on the ground.

Warlock skill: Hexagram Prison.

The very second before Sealed Mountain Tiger’s Teleportation activated, Windward Formation’s curse struck, entrapping Sealed Mountain Tiger before he could act. Under Hexagram Prison, even Teleportation wouldn’t activate.

"Not bad!" Ye Xiu praised Wei Chen.

Wei Chen didn’t have the time to reply. He still had to deal with Striker Gamma. Having barely managed to get enough time to throw a skill their way and with such precise timing, the action naturally didn’t do any good for his situation. He was too busy trying to save his situation to reply!

There was no need for Ye Xiu to say anything more.

Steamed Bun, Dawn Rifle, Chasing Haze, and Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim immediately attacked fiercely.

With just the two Satellite Beams that crashed down one after another, the smaller beams reaching the middle, their targets survival seemed unreal.

This wave of attacks caused immense damage. However, Hexagram Prison wouldn’t entrap this level 75 final Boss for long. Yet, the moment Hexagram Prison disappeared, a sacred white flame flickered to life and Sealed Mountain Tiger was burned in an instant.

Cleric skill: Sacred Fire.

The damage was secondary to the effect of the three second silence, which once again delayed Sealed Mountain Tiger’s use of Teleport. The four took this chance to deal as much damage as possible again. When the effect of Sacred Fire ended, Steamed Bun Invasion ran up with a Strangle, getting a solid grip on Sealed Mountain Tiger.

Under this circumstance, Teleportation also couldn’t be used. Another wave of attacks flew, seeming to provoke Sealed Mountain Tiger. Strangle didn’t really count as a CC skill, so characters under its effect could still attack. Sealed Mountain Tiger pushed out with his palm and there was a loud slapping sound; Steamed Bun Invasion had somehow been slapped flying.

This was the Battle Mage skill Falling Flower Palm! So this Sealed Mountain Tiger did have some offensive skills! Yet this sort of close-combat skill seemed to be like a skill that players commonly added to their skill tree, often to make sure that their character had a few skills to protect themselves. This made it seem like Sealed Mountain Tiger really was designed based on what was mainstream for Summoners.

"Aiyo, so strong!" Steamed Bun Invasion was blown back quite the distance. A level 75 final dungeon Boss’ strength wasn’t something to laugh about. However, in the time he took to send Steamed Bun Invasion flying, he had taken a severe beating. Just as he wanted to teleport out of the way, he was caught by Lord Grim and sent smashing into the ground, head over heels, with a Grappler’s Back Throw.

Ye Xiu arranged the entire team to delay Sealed Mountain Tiger’s Teleport for as long as possible. Unfortunately, this skill was instant and they didn’t have any way to reliably predict its activation. Everyone was delaying it through their use of skill combos and their own experience. This wasn’t infallible though. Eventually, a skill wasn’t fast enough to continue the CC chain and allowed Sealed Mountain Tiger to Teleport, immediately distancing himself from them. However, Ye Xiu’s reaction was fast. As Sealed Mountain Tiger darted away, his Lord Grim was already chasing after him with a Shadow Clone. This time, Sealed Mountain Tiger didn’t have a Teleport to use. It might have a few close-combat skills, but they weren’t specialized, so how could he deal with Ye Xiu? His greatest weapons were his summons, but they were being kept busy by the opponent. So, Sealed Mountain Tiger once again fell into his own personal hell, surrounded and getting beat on by Ye Xiu, Steamed Bun, Wu Chen, and Chen Guo.

Just from this battle, Sealed Mountain Tiger didn’t seem much stronger than Frigid Eagle. However, that was mostly because the four summons were being heavily suppressed by six people, so their master was completely cut off from receiving their support. This definitely wasn’t something a normal pioneering team could do. Team Happy’s members were all very skilled in their own right, and this gave them a huge advantage against this Boss. If it wasn’t a team like theirs, they wouldn’t be able to suppress Sealed Mountain Tiger so well.

The battle continued. As they fought, there would naturally be some bumps, like when a summons was killed and resummoned, they had to spend time getting it under control again. Or, when someone lost control of a summons, it would come over and cause some trouble, but all this was dealt with, and the situation was maintained. Soon enough, they were approaching the Boss’ red-blood state. Many players fell to this darkest period before dawn.

What sort of ace did Sealed Mountain Tiger have up his sleeve?

Since there were still four summons on the field, there was no way to clear the field for Lord Grim to go forward and test out the Boss. In their hunting down of the Boss, his health fell to 10 percent and Ye Xiu yelled a "careful", before watching the Boss warily with everyone else.

The current Sealed Mountain Tiger’s demeanor had changed. He raised his arms to the sky. Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta suddenly dispersed into smoke with four "poof"s, but the four’s weapons were left behind, spinning in the air. Then, they came together and flew into Sealed Mountain Tiger like souls, combining with Sealed Mountain Tiger. Seeing this, everyone had a vague idea of what changes Sealed Mountain Tiger had just gone through. With his last 10 percent of health, Sealed Mountain Tiger was no longer a Summoner, but he had absorbed his summons’ power and took control of it himself, turning himself into a summons to battle.

"That isn’t very impressive, is it?" Wei Chen was already starting to lower his guard. This was just a Boss with a rather complicated fighting style. With just a tenth of its health left, it should be easy for them to deal with, right?

As his words fell, a figure seemed to dart straight through Windward Formation and Windward Formation suddenly erupted with a fountain of blood. This scene was incredibly familiar, almost exactly the same as when Brother Wolf had struck Dawn Rifle with Downwind Sword Slash.

"Holy f*ck!" Seeing his health, Wei Chen had been scared sh*tless. Windward Formation had almost been one-shotted.

"Stop him, quick!" Wei Chen didn’t dare to lower his guard anymore. This Summoner-turned-summons had terrifying attack power!