Legends Rise - Chapter 34 The Tokyo Boars Pt. 2

Li Ming had retreated to inform his team on what he had just seen.

“Wow, to think that the Tokyo Boars used the same strategy that I thought up,” Hanzo boasted. Clearly, he was very proud of his idea of sending Li Ming to search for enemy parties while the four of them stayed in a safe formation.

“I can’t fathom how we’re going to take on the Tokyo Boars though.” Ken rubbed his temples. “They’re an actual professional team, no? What kind of strategy do we even use now? There’s less than 7 minutes left now…”

“The Tokyo Boars normally uses a diamond formation to rush the enemy as their Assassin circles around to flank. They’d send their two Samurai Berserkers to create as much pressure as possible to push back the frontline,” Kaori though aloud, “While their Status Mage tries to buff their team while debuffing enemies. The Cleric runs closely to the Status Mage, but despite being a Cleric or Status Mage, they all have at least one offensive ability.”

“How about this:” Li Ming suggested, “Kaori will take both berserkers. Start off with [Berserker’s Howl] to taunt them. While they’re taunted, Ken will give you [Dragon’s Heart] right before they hit you. Hatori, use this opportunity to throw a [Smoke Bomb] right in front of Kaori. Don’t let them see what’s about to happen. Then circle around and strike them from behind while they’re blinded and taunted make sure you stand directly behind one of them.”

“What do I do?” Hanzo asked impatiently.

“You charge your ultimate skill, [Heaven’s Whisper – Smite] and aim it at the smoke cloud.” Li Ming directed, “Make sure it hits before [Dragon’s Heart] runs out. Ken, make sure you use [Team Sanctuary] before [Heaven’s Whisper – Smite] lands on Kaori and Hatori.”

“Wait, you want me to shoot them?” Hanzo greatly surprised by this strategy. The whole party grimaced at the thought of this strategy as well. They were prepared to take some damage and make some sacrifices to win, but they didn’t expect that friendly fire was being suggested.

“Yes. [Team Sanctuary] should be able to heal most of the damage that Kaori would have tanked through the taunt, and the shield would be enough to most of the damage dealt by [Heaven’s Whisper – Smite].” Li Ming confirmed, “Kaori, make sure you use your ultimate skill, [Heaven’s Whisper – Shield] for the invulnerability after the [Heaven’s Whisper – Smite] lands. Otherwise, you won’t be able to survive the barrage of the two berserker’s using [Demi-God of the Undying] Hatori, you can use [Malevolent Blade from the Shadows] here for the escape.”

“And what will you be doing?” Kaori asked.

“Me?” Li Ming smirked, “I’ll be getting some sweet, sweet kills”.

***

“Alright guys, Diamond formation. We’re going to find out who this Player 5 is, and we’ll avenge Hiroki!” Kou shouted.

“Yes, Captain!” the three pro players acknowledge the captain’s orders in unison. They orderly got into the Diamond formation. This formation was their specialty in professional games. They would normally send out Hiroki to lurk behind the enemy, while the formation would apply pressure to the enemy’s frontline. By forcing the enemy frontline back, the enemy’s backline would be forced to fall back as well.

The Tokyo Boars made good use of this Run-and-Gun strategy. While the two Samurai Berserkers charged forward relentlessly, the Status Mage and the Cleric ran behind them. The Cleric would heal and buff the two berserkers, while the Status Mage would time enchantments like [Enchant: Static] and [Enchant: Frost] to give the two berserkers even more terrifying strength.

Of course, what made this strategy even more formidable was that they would normally push the enemy far back enough for their Assassin to pounce on the enemy’s backline. That would be enough to secure a kill or two, and tip the balance of the battle completely out of the enemy’s favor.

The Tokyo Boars made their way through the Ghost Town slowly and carefully.

All of a sudden,

“HOLY SH*T, IS THAT THE TOKYO BOARS?”

The Tokyo Boars all heard a female cry out on their left. In an instant, they turned and charged straight at the source of the voice. It was a team of four. However, they seemed more prepared than what the Tokyo Boars were expecting. Their Paladin Knight was already in front.

“Tokyo Boars!” Kou called out for a rallying cry.

“CHAAAAAARRRGE!” They all shouted as the hurtled straight into the Paladin Knight.

To their surprise, their Guardian Knight stepped forwards to receive them instead of retreating. In fact, the Guardian Knight was holding two shields instead of one.

At this moment, Kaori activated [Berserker’s Howl]. Right before the two taunted Samurai Berserkers were able to land a strike on Kaori, a [Smoke Bomb] went off in front of them.

“Hah!” Chika mocked as she swung her sword’s blindly. “If being taunted means that I can only target you, I don’t need to see to strike you, you know!”

But to her surprise, the Paladin Knight charged forwards to meet her blindly swung sword with her own shield. Instead of being pushed back by the strength of the Samurai Berserkers, the Paladin Knight was actually able to hold her ground and force a stalemate.

“[Dragon’s Heart]! F*ck!” Kou recognized the buff that was on Kaori.

But instead of losing his cool like his junior, Chika (who had started to use skills to try to push back the Paladin Knight), Kou remained level headed.

‘What are these guys planning? There must be some kind of-!!!”

Suddenly, he was stabbed in the back! Unfortunately, due to the taunt, he couldn’t turn around to see who had stabbed him!

As he winced from the pain from being stabbed in the back, he heard Chika cry out as well. It seems like she had been hit too.

“Hey! Where’s the heals?!?!” Chika shouted in frustration.

Weird! Where was Yuumi and her heals? Not to mention Akiza with the buffs and debuffs? Something was definitely not right.

However, tanking attacks from behind while being forced to blindly swing at a Paladin Knight did not help Kou think about what could possibly be happening.
for visiting.

“Sh*t, I’m going to die here!” Chika shouted in anger. She was slowly reaching 25% health. The person attacking her from behind had been very good about hitting vitals, forcing critical strike after critical strike.

“I’m ready!” Hanzo shouted.

“Let her rip!” Hatori shouted as he activated [Malevolent Blade from the Shadows] targeting Kou.

“Not good!” Kou shouted, “Chika, Live!”

‘Live’ was the codeword they used to coordinate the use of [Demi-God of the Undying]. However, Chika was too slow in her use of the ability.

*BOOM*

Hanzo’s [Heaven’s Whisper – Smite] pierced the ground between them and the Paladin Knight and exploded, burning away Chika’s character model without giving it the chance to turn into pixels.

‘What the f*ck are these guys!’ Kou thought. Who would be reckless enough to catch their own teammates in an ultimate ability like [Heaven’s Whisper – Smite]? At full charge, [Heaven’s Whisper – Smite] would execute anyone below 25% health.

As the [Smoke Bomb] dissipated from the explosion, Kou was greeted by an upsetting sight. He and Chika had both spent such great efforts whittling down the Paladin Knight, but the enemy cleric had cast [Team Sanctuary], which had healed the Paladin Knight to 50% health. The shield from Team Sanctuary also soaked most of the damage from [Heaven’s Whisper – Smite], which brought the Paladin Knight down to 40% health.

However, compared to his own 1 health from the use of [Demi-God of the Undying], a Paladin Knight at 50% health would have well over 1000 health points left. At this rate, his only option was to do as much damage as possible.

Thankfully for Kou, he had taken the berserker passive [Will of the Undying], which would increase his damage output and attack speed by 2% for each 1% health he was missing. Currently, he had lost over 99% of his health from the ability [Demi-God of the Undying]. This gave him 198% damage and attack speed buff.

In addition to the abilities he could weave into his attacks like the swordsman skill [True Blade Strike] which would pierce armor and another swordsman skill [Flash of the Dragon] which would ignore enemy defenses and disarm the enemy if they blocked the strike in the same slash, Kou was confident he could win.

However, what he saw next left him speechless. The Paladin Knight that had taunted him had also used [Heaven’s Whisper – Shield], which cloaked her body in a golden light that would maintain her exact current health for 15 seconds.

He already activated his [Demi-God of the Undying] two whole seconds ago. This means that even if he played it out perfectly, he would run out of invincibility first. The Paladin Knight stood firm, with a smile on her face.

Looking at that smile, Kou could only smile back in defeat. He had lost. He didn’t even need to look behind him. He knew that both the Cleric and the Status Mage had been eliminated. He could feel the presence of a spear pointing directly at his back, threatening to stab directly through him the moment his invincibility was over.

Indeed, the choreographer of this entire battle, Li Ming, was on standby behind Kou. The chance of victory for the Tokyo Boars flew away along with the pixels of the Cleric and the Status Mage that Li Ming and eliminated.

This was truly a beautiful strategy. For some reason, this reminded Kou of a strategy that Kartoffel of the Berlin Cranes while they were both still young and on the same team. This was definitely a strategy that they would have cooked up during their youthful years together.