Li Mei had loaned her storage ring to Captain Xinyi for the rest of their conflict with Count Yonge. With their presence at Callum's small castle, most of the ring's items could be safely cleared out and stored in the castle itself.
Several spell scrolls, potions, ranged ammunition, and some traps were all that were left in the ring; freeing up plenty of space for all the gear, except the small clothes, from the eighteen opponents they had just killed.
Their bodies were stacked together and covered in snow in order to resemble a regular snow drift. However, Callum made note of where these bodies were for when Spring came; he would ensure they were properly buried, if animals or monsters hadn't taken care of the bodies by then.
Their Aeromancer had used his powers to erect several layers of different air densities between the chosen ambush spot and the nearest enemy group. These layers disrupted normal sound transmission to ensure that the other group didn't hear anything.
Despite this, Terrel headed towards the other group while the rest of the party dealt with stripping and looting the dead. Terrel climbed back up the hill and checked to ensure that the other party hadn't noticed anything.
With the battlefield sanitized, they moved off to find their next prey.
However, when they got to the nearest group, they realized they were too competent. This group was much more vigilant and setting a similar ambush for them would be problematic.
This group also had an extra party of six compared to the previous one.
Captain Xinyi's small party were of slightly higher levels than their enemies, which gave them a much needed advantage over their enemy who outnumbered them four to one. It helped that they didn't appear to have an Advanced class to challenge Captain Xinyi.
Despite their own advantages, they didn't think they could take this group on without catching them in an ambush. This was especially true since Callum suffered from a 'Weakened' debuff and was unable to trigger another <
They were about to push on when Callum remembered something, the red circle from the Core Room map indicated that a powerful monster was in this area. He checked some of the surrounding landmarks to be sure before speaking up.
"Somewhere about a half of a mile to the North should be a strong monster that we could potentially use to take on this group."
"How strong is the monster? What kind of monster is it?" Jia Xinyi asked.
Callum didn't know the answers to those questions and he didn't want to divulge how he knew, so he hedged as best he could.
"I think it's best if you see it yourself, I'm falling to find a way to describe it. Besides, the monster may have moved on by now, I think it's best that we go check it out before making any plans."
With the help of his increased Intelligence, Callum led the way towards where he remembered the red circle had been.
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"How were you unable to describe this again?" Captain Xinyi questioned with a raised eyebrow.
Callum tried not to visibly squirm as the party stared at the monster below them. He had been hoping that the monster would prove to be something weird or outlandish. Instead, it was a pretty easy monster to describe.
Greater Steel Bear [M] (Lvl 17)
HP:(3000/3000)
"Steel Bear . . . . two words! Just Steel and then Bear."
Callum steadfastly ignored the stare from the Captain and studied the bear at the base of the hill.
"A tier two monster, this should shake them up. We just need to lure it right into their group," he said as he tried to change the subject.
Terrel was selected to be the bait that would lure the Steel Bear to the other group; he had decent stealth, good mobility, and he had a ranged weapon that should keep him far from the bear's attacks.
The rest of the group hid off to the side and were ready to step in should something unforeseen occur. Terrel stepped out from the woodline and immediately loosed several arrows at the Steel Bear; everyone's eyes widened slightly when the bear's health bar barely budged.
However, the arrows did the trick, and the pissed off bear quickly charged at the Ranger. The rest of the party followed at a distance as Terrel slowly lost ground to the deceptively swift Steel Bear.
"Damn, even with my buffs Terrel is struggling to stay ahead of that accursed beast," the Aeromancer muttered as the party lost ground to the two in front of them.
"He doesn't need to stay ahead of it forever, just long enough to run into the other group," Captain Xinyi tried to encourage the worried party.
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Terrel cursed in his mind as the Steel Bear continued to gain on him; he could tell that the bear was only a couple of paces behind him now. He cursed himself for not firing those arrows from a longer range.
Most bears had poor eyesight and he had decided to fire from closer in order to ensure it aggroed on him. Terrel knew that he would die if he tripped; even a slight stumble could put him at risk.
((A/N: Aggro is a mechanism used in many games, by which monsters prioritize which characters to attack. The player who generates the most aggro on a monster will be preferentially attacked by it. Certain classes can either increase or decrease their aggro))
He knew he was fast approaching the enemy group, so he concentrated on pouring on even more speed. He rushed out of some trees and into a small clearing. Terrel and an enemy scout spotted each other in the same instance.
The enemy scout raised his bow and aimed it at Terrel as he shouted a warning to the rest of his group. Terrel ignored him and just kept running across the clearing, he knew what was behind him and the Steel Bear was the larger threat.
The Steel Bear burst out of the woodline and roared at the two figures it saw before him. Terrel took perverse pleasure in watching his opponent's face transform from killing intent, focused on him, to abject shock at the large monster bearing down upon him.
The startled archer loosed his own arrow at the Steel Bear and sunk it into the creature's sensitive nose, unwittingly transferring the Steel Bear's aggro onto himself. Terrel zoomed past him as he belatedly decided to run.
Terrel quietly stealthed as he rounded into a small group of trees and did his best to sneak away from the growing battle as the enemy scout's group attempted to bring down the monster that had just killed their scout.
_____
Terrel breathed out a sigh of relief as he rejoined his party. Several of his friends made jokes at his expense as they generally tried to get his mind off of his close brush with death.
The whole party watched the battle from a slight rise some distance away. They had planned to step in to help the Steel Bear by picking off the healers or magic users; however, the Steel Bear did not need their assistance.
They could only watch in awe as the Steel Bear's health never dropped below half; even with over twenty party members unleashing devastating attacks. The Steel Bear's armor was simply too strong and it simply shrugged off the majority of the incoming damage .
They could tell that the enemy leader was experienced as he expertly directed his group against the raging monster; tanks were efficiently cycled in and out as their health dropped. Buffs were applied to their group and debuffs were laid on the monster.
((A/N: Tanks are generally high health and/or armored party members whose major role is to attract the most aggro to themselves with various taunts or other abilities. This enables other party members to focus solely on dealing large amounts of damage.))
Despite the enemy leader's best efforts, his group's tanks were losing health faster than their healers could keep up. Eventually, one tank was killed before he could fall back behind the next tank; this started a vicious cycle for them as the situation rapidly deteriorated.
What had once been a tough battle swiftly transitioned into a massacre; each tank that went down put even more strain on the remaining tanks. Soon, party members that weren't tanks were forced to try and fill that role with abject failure.
Captain Xinyi's party all looked at each other before collectively reaching the same conclusion without saying a word; it was time to leave, now. Half the enemy group had already been wiped out and they didn't want to be in the area when the other half went down.
They all made notes about the surrounding area and vowed not to return without a significantly stronger group. They didn't want to experience what they had just witnessed since the enemy group had barely made a dent in the Greater Steel Bear's health pool.