“We’re all done here, Your Highness Annan!” Delicious Wind Goose looked around and quickly said to Annan.
As a veteran warrior and core MT player, he knew it very well. In the typical monster clearing dungeon instance prioritizing “overwhelming the enemy in numbers”, the most challenging part was to receive the monsters’ assault at the beginning. There would be surprises of having a sudden decrease in members or having the tanks annihilated.
[TN: MT stands for Main Tank.]
However, without the ability to taunt and attract the enemy’s aggro, this world did not have a tank profession in the strict sense.
Instead, the melee professions took on the excellent role of interception, interference, and controlling the foes.
While it was right to say that there was no tank, it was accurate to say that everyone in the melee profession was a tank.
The front line was stabilized. The first defense all the spirits could engage was of melee profession, and there would be no multiple spirits attacking the same player on both sides. Since Annan had gotten rid of the entanglement of these spirits, he managed to enter the Swamp’s Black Tower.
Compared with Annan, who was alone, these spiritless bodies would prioritize the player group.
It had become a battle with soldiers going up against the soldiers and the generals having a showdown.
Annan had achieved an overwhelming victory on the “soldiers vs. soldiers” battlefield.
If Annan came here alone, these spirits would swarm and drown him here.
After all, Annan lacked the AOE skill to vanquish the spirits.
In the best-case scenario, Annan would utilize the [Brilliance] element to vanquish all spirits by relying on the Sage’s Stone.
But Annan’s activation on the Sage’s Stone would only last him a total of three minutes.
Cleaning up the spiritual bodies and advancing would delay him at least one minute. That was equivalent to shortening Annan’s boosted period by half to two-thirds.
Annan believed that this should be Bernardino’s original plan.
Bernardino took advantage of these spirits and traded the disposable “resources” for Annan’s trump cards. This was not a conspiracy but a forced “exchange” imposed on Annan. Even if Annan knew the opponent’s goal, there was no way to go about it.
However, the players cooperated well and resolved Bernardino’s tactics despite having a disadvantage in quantity and level.
This was something that Bernardino could not do.
He couldn’t return the will to the spirits he controlled.
Bernardino knew very well that those spirits would rebel against him immediately if he did so.
This also meant that although he had a large number of spiritual bodies, there were only very few who could exert 100% of their power.
That was why he only brought two Gold Rank spirits and then assaulted the Swamp’s Black Tower. The reason was not that he did not have other Gold Rank spirits, but he had to control those Silver Rank wizards simultaneously. That was already his limit of multitasking while he had to cast spells.
This was the theoretical limit of the Soul Snatch School.
The Soul Snatch Wizardry was a school whose core idea was to nurture oneself by relying on others.
They were bound to excel in the early and even the middle stages compared to the wizards at the same level.
However, the situation wasn’t necessarily the same in the later stage.
The Soul Snatch School focused on absolute control. However, their upper limit was the lowest in comparison to the others.
There was a limit to having perfect control over the other’s minds or spiritual bodies, which solely depended on the individual’s “capability”.
How much strength robbed from the “others” could you control?
How much of the mind could you snatch from the others?
The players were different.
Although they were smaller in numbers, they had freedom of will without Annan interfering with them.
Bernardino couldn’t be distracted just to control weak spirits.
However, the players displayed far superior fighting power than usual for Annan in the name of justice, revenge, and many other factors.
This difference in “heart” was the foundation for players to defeat the strong while being the weak.
“—I will leave the rest to you.” Annan said solemnly, “Can you keep up?”
“I will need 15 minutes.”
Delicious Wind Goose took a rough estimate and replied in a deep voice, “However, the resurrection skill you activated is probably not going to be expended here.”
“That’s for the best. This shows that you are becoming really strong.” The corners of Annan’s mouth rose, revealing a gratified smile, “Then, I can rest assured to have you all adventure on your own in the future.”
“Go, Your Highness Annan.” Lin Yiyi replied, “Old Goose and I are in charge here. So you should conserve your energy and mana.
“You still have a strong enemy to defeat.”
“Then, I wish the best for all of you.” Annan finally nodded.
He then walked in the “twelve o’clock” direction, which was the ritual’s location closest to Swamp’s Black Tower.
Then, he bounced off the ground and sent a frost-colored beam forward. Finally, he leaped out of the gray barrier!
Annan landed precisely in the opening he made available and withdrew the blade into the sheath around his waist.
Immediately after landing on the ground, he supported himself on the ground with his left hand and exerted force on his hands and feet at the same time.
Shua!
Annan’s movement stirred up whirling air around him. At the same time, he was like an agile fish, flying just above the ground as he darted through the spiritual bodies floating above!
That was because the spirit bodies feared the earth.
If Annan were alone, he would never dare to rush in like this. He might stand no chance to stand up later on.
However, Longjing Tea, who spectated the battle for a long time at the 12 o’clock location, had played a vital role after Annan launched himself:
“—Truce!” The “Edict” spell was activated.
Those spirits in the sky who wanted to chase Annan were instantly pushed to the other end of the battlefield by Longjing Tea’s spell. They were launched away from the Swamp’s Black Tower at six o’clock direction.
As for the ally spell target, Longjing Tea only picked himself. This meant that Longjing Tea “shot” a large area of ??enemies to one side without disrupting the players’ formation.
To conserve mana, the invisible wall in the middle was only maintained for a moment before Longjing Tea disbanded it.
But even so, his positioning skill played an outstanding group control.
Given the speed of these spirits, they missed the chance to chase Annan, and it was no longer possible to catch up.
“That looks like Tathagata’s Palm attack!” The Child exclaimed excitedly, “That’s beautiful!”
[TN: Reference to the Monkey King’s inability to escape Buddha’s palm.]
Then, Longjing Tea irritated these spirits. Scorching hot fireballs, laser beams, fatal poisons, reactive acid, and the invisible attack concussing the soul drowned Longjing Tea instantly. Spirits without long-range ability also flew toward Longjing Tea.
He was also the first player to die.
However, as soon as his body was reduced to ashes, it gathered and appeared again. Like turning back time, he appeared in place intact.
“It’s Overtime!” Longjing Tea roared, “Neckless, quite screwing with me!”
“I’m coming!” Delicious Wind Goose shouted.
He leaped forward and slashed with excitement, instantly beheading a spirit body. It was a contrasting swordsmanship approach, like how he had fought reservedly just now. Instead, the swordsmanship was wild, wide open, and full of flaws.
Then, Delicious Wind Goose caught the attention of other spirits.
Since the spiritual bodies were displaced, they needed time to return to their previous formation.
Longjing Tea reached out to him when Delicious Wind Goose was about to be besieged.
“[Dodge]!” An Edict spell came.
Delicious Wind Goose seemed to have eyes behind his back—or rather, his body had 360-degree perception. His body moved flexibly, and he dodged all the attacks smoothly.
Then, Longjing Tea pointed to Jiu Er, who was about to be besieged again, and ordered again, “[Dodge]!”
Jiu Er also became flexible and avoided several attacks that were in the blind spot of her vision but could be seen by Longjing Tea.
The Child standing in the center of the ritual also used the Aero Strike to send out a few invisible air blades and pull several spiritual bodies over.
Soon, with incomparable cooperation, the players stabilized their lineup again.
Annan kept jumping upward from the outside of Swamp’s Black Tower.
After all, he could not fly, so efficiently climbing up the wizard tower was challenging. Who knew if the collapsed debris blocked the stairs?
So Annan was outside the wizard tower, breathing out frost air. After the frost burst from outside the tower, he stepped on the place where the flames were temporarily extinguished and jumped upwards again.
After about five minutes of climbing, Annan finally approached the upper floors of the wizard tower.
The brilliance in his eyes has grown brighter.
He held the dagger around his waist with his right hand and touched the bonding knife with his left. Then, he took a deep breath.
He did not use Sage’s Stone right away.
But when he reached the tower’s roof, he leaped high into the sky.
Without hesitation, Annan blessed the [Frost Sword] magic on the bonding knife.
Then, he immediately hurled it toward Bernardino!
It was followed up by Annan pulling his rapier out.
A meteor-like bright frost flashed by.
Annan activated [Victory Will] for a frontal charge attack!
Then, activating [Victory Will] again to launch a heavy blow!
Annan’s Strength and Agility increased sharply from 14 to 36!
He appeared in the Bernardino perception range under a quarter of a second.
Annan had already launched a swift surprise attack!
His figure was like a comet hitting the moon, following the dagger he sent to attack Bernardino!