Chapter 1380: Stalling Tactics
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
The people that Torrent brought hesitated before finally pulling back. They retreated to a position where they wouldn’t affect the performance of these two players.
It was a Jungle environment!
Regardless of whether they were Hunters or Thieves, they wouldn’t be afraid of this terrain. Torrent had a rare colour-s.h.i.+fting leopard. The cooldown only refreshed once a week, and it was often killed when sp.a.w.ned.
In order to catch this pet, Gale Legion had dispatched thousands of players to clear the area so that no one but Torrent could capture this pet. This aroused the anger of some players as they lost their opportunity. In fact, most rare pets in this game had to be caught in some extraordinary way. The fact that not everyone could catch them meant that they would stop others from catching them too. In the previous game, there was a very cute bear pet that was basically always killed when it was refreshed.
The colour-s.h.i.+fting leopard had two skills. One was a powerful Stealth ability and the other was a Flare that it could spit out.
Its Flare was slightly different from the Hunter’s Flare. It was a flaming ball that flew through the air and landed on the ground. It was similar to a bonfire that illuminated an area and
revealed Stealth in a certain range around it.
Lu Li had started the match by going into Stealth and creating some distance between them. He wasn’t going to underestimate Gale Legion’s prospective player, nor would he underestimate the abilities of this colour-s.h.i.+fting pet.
The colour-s.h.i.+fting pet shot out a Flare at a location that was obviously an attempt to predict Lu Li’s movement. This was where Torrent or the colour-s.h.i.+fting leopard thought that Lu Li would go. The white ball rushed by and illuminated the area. Any Stealthed unit in range should have been exposed. When it finally hit the area, it exploded and scattered into a white light.
This was the first time Lu Li had seen this colour-s.h.i.+fting leopard use this skill.
Unfortunately, the colour s.h.i.+fting-leopard was destined to fail, as Lu Li simply wasn’t there.
Lu Li wasn’t anywhere on the ground, nor was he in Stealth anymore. He was looking at the Hunter and his pet from above.
He was sitting on a tree!
Just now, when he was creating some distance between them, he immediately jumped into the tree next to the road. The escape skill he used allowed him this flexibility, and he was able to manoeuvre around the obstacles, avoid rustling the leaves and land on a branch.
The colour-s.h.i.+fting leopard could use the Flare once per minute. In addition to his own Flare, Torrent had a way of ensuring that the Thief had no way of sneaking up on him.
However, when both Flares were cast, and Torrent couldn’t see anything, he became a little confused. The roles were reversed and he was now Lu Li’s prey. The illumination from both skills had failed, and the other party could obviously see him.
Sap!
He had no idea how he had been hit by a Sap. The light from the Flare had not yet dissipated, so if Lu Li got close, then he should have been illuminated.
Was Lu Li’s Stealth effect so strong that he could ignore a Hunter’s Flare? He suddenly panicked and screamed into his own group chat, “I got sapped by Lu Li, but I can’t see him! I am standing right by the light! What is going on here? Can a Thief not be revealed by a Flare?”
“Perhaps an Enhanced Sap increases the skill’s range?” Wendelian suggested.
“There’s no way; that would make it too strong. If Sap was that powerful, then Hunters just wouldn’t stand a chance. I have also heard about the effect of Enhanced Sap. It should be a deep stun where the first attack doesn’t wake up the target,” Torrent reasoned. His research on Thieves was thorough.
“Maybe he’s just behind you?” Wendelian continued to provide more explanations.
“There are three people watching for me. There is no one behind me and he should have been revealed anyway,” Torrent said anxiously. Although Lu Li hadn’t attacked him, this anxious waiting was ruining his confidence.
One could go down the train of thought that Lu Li was just toying with him and putting off defeating him.
“If they aren’t in front or at the back, or on your left or right, and they aren’t squatting below you… then above! Look above you!” Wendelian called out in the chat room.
Torrent looked up and saw a dark figure fill his line of sight, but his position was maintained when he was. .h.i.t with a Cheap Shot. When he thought back on this moment, he probably didn’t respond in time because he was scared. This dark figure would probably be visiting his nightmares for the next few days.
Lu Li originally planned to crowd-control Torrent, then kill the colour-s.h.i.+fting leopard.
However, what surprised him was that Torrent didn’t respond immediately, so Lu Li changed his mind. As long as his target didn’t respond, Lu Li was able to kill him within a two rotations of his skills.
Unmoving targets were the easiest to trigger special effects on, so the chain of stuns was never broken.
“T bro, what are you doing?’
The three onlookers were also scared by Lu Li jumping down from above, but their experience was far less confronting so they could react a little faster.
Torrent finally jolted to attention, and quickly released the crowd-control for a counterattack.
In the face of an opponent like Lu Li, one mistake was probably fatal. At this time, he had less than 1/3 HP left and wouldn’t be able to withstand another round of explosive attacks from Lu Li.
An Ice Bolt was fired from a distance and fell just short before Lu Li.
The colour-s.h.i.+fting leopard spat out another Flare as Lu Li disappeared with Vanish. Torrent threw out a Flare on the right and tried to reveal him. Unfortunately, nothing was gained as no one was there.
How could he run away so quickly!
The newly-arrived Mage was stunned and turned to cast Blizzard on the spot where Lu Li was originally standing. Unfortunately, this was all in vain as he was no longer there.
However, he hadn’t guessed incorrectly. Lu Li didn’t move after using Vanish. He had already accounted for Torrent’s Flare and the leopard’s cooldown. Most normal people would then a.s.sume that the Thief would flee either to the left or the right.
There were more players coming, including two star players – Cloudy Leaf and Wendelian.
There were also players from other professions, including Mages, Warlocks and Berserkers. These were obviously chosen to kill Lu Li.
“Cloud bro, you shouldn’t attack. This is a one-on-one between me and him,” Torrent urged as he looked at how everyone was randomly casting their skills and felt a little uncomfortable. He knew that his mission was to stall Lu Li, but he was in a serious PVP match with Lu Li and thought that this battle shouldn’t be interfered with.
“Don’t be stupid – that’s Lu Li,” Wendelian scolded as she smacked his head. “You might end up defeating him in heaven, but definitely not now. You’ve been sucked in by him.”
“Oh, I lost really badly,” Torrent sighed, feeling frustrated.
“There was nothing to lose in the first place. At least you dared to fight him,” Cloudy Leaf said as he gave up and began searching for Lu Li. When his first Ice Bolt failed to hit Lu Li, it showed that they never intended to let him leave. However, it also seemed that Lu Li had been waiting for this sudden attack for some time.
In fact, Cloudy Leaf’s timing was a little off. If they waited for Torrent to slightly crowd-control Lu Li, they would have had a better chance.
However, there were not many opportunities and Torrent would have been killed in the process. Furthermore, they might not be able to contain Lu Li. Now, although Lu Li was escaping, Torrent had been rescued. Because this was in the Wild, his EXP and equipment was saved.
The only real thing that was lost was Torrent’s confidence in fighting Lu Li.
This was a bit troublesome, but they had no choice but to let Torrent slowly rebuild his confidence. They believed that Torrent’s mind was not so fragile that he had been completely defeated.