After killing Flying Meatbun, the Demon Slaughterer was just about to turn back, when another Thief emerged some 50 meters away from it. He held up his crossbow and fired a volley of bolts.
Put put put! The bolts struck the Demon Slaughterer.
Miss!
−1
Miss!
The Demon Slaughterer had insanely high defense!
The Thief didn't even put away his crossbow. He instantly turned to flee, but the Demon Slaughterer had already closed in on him and slashed down with its greatsword.
−16,283[1]
Another Thief was killed.
Much in the same fashion, one Thief after another popped out of stealth and took aim at the Demon Slaughterer. None of them survived for more than a second. But little by little, they did manage to lure the Demon Slaughterer away from the center of the square.
The ground was littered with corpses. There was a trail of bodies leading out from the square. Before long, the casualties reached over 100.
The Demon Slaughterer brandished it greatsword, calling a shower of fireballs down onto the square.
"This is where we come in…" Downfall muttered to himself. He ran over to the fallen Thieves and cast Hate Dispersal on himself.
The Demon Slaughterer's crimson eyes locked onto Downfall. It raised its greatsword in preparation to kill him.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh! Several arrows flew past the Demon Slaughterer's eyes.
The Demon Slaughterer snarled. It looked toward the new perpetrator and spotted a Thief wielding a bow in the distance. It swung its greatsword and sent flames slashing towards him.
BOOM! The inferno swallowed the Thief up within a second.
Another Thief already took their comrade's place.
When the Demon Slaughterer was distracted, Downfall started reviving the fallen Thieves. As gentle blue rays of light bathed their bodies, they got up one after another. After being brought back to life, they only had a sliver of health. Disappearing into stealth, they hurriedly retreated to a safe space to recuperate.
After discovering Downfall reviving the fallen Thieves, the Demon Slaughterer bellowed out in rage. With a wave of its greatsword, it sent a flaming, crescent-shaped slash flying towards him.
BOOOM! Downfall was knocked off his feet and sent flying.
The Thieves continuously attracted the Demon Slaughterer's attention. As for the Shaman Doctors, they kept reviving the fallen on the ground. They had all set the timers of their Resurrection Emblems to 10 seconds. Even if they were killed, they would quickly revive. Then, they would down some Specialist Potions to recover their health and mana.
The Demon Slaughterer was starting to get flustered. No matter how many Thieves it killed, their seemed to be no end to them.
Since it only ever faced one Thief at a time, the Demon Slaughterer used ordinary attacks instead of AoE magic.
Occasionally, the Demon Slaughterer would also kill one or two Shaman Doctors. However, as soon it turned its back, they would resurrect and run away.
The Demon Slaughterer was slowly drawn farther and farther away until it was over 500 meters from the altar.
Nie Yan slowly approached the altar while closely paying attention to the Demon Slaughterer's movements at the same time.
The Demon Slaughterer had no idea it was being taken for a ride. As long as it saw a Thief appear in its vision, it would charge toward them and swing down with its greatsword. The fact it had killed many of them before never once struck it as odd.
The 190 Thieves had all died at least two or three times by now, but in reality their losses weren't that great.
The situation was better than Nie Yan expected. This sort of luring strategy was extremely effective.
Seeing the Demon Slaughterer being kept busy, Nie Yan smirked. He inched closer toward the altar. When he was about 60 meters away, he bumped into a membrane of light. It was a protective barrier!
As soon as Nie Yan made contact with the barrier, the Demon Slaughterer quivered. It swung its head around with a ferocious gaze. Then, with a flap of its wings, it shot toward him.
「Boss, be careful!」
「Boss, the Demon Slaughterer is after you!」
Seeing the Demon Slaughterer rushing towards the altar, Nie Yan's heart trembled. He activated Gale Step and fled out of the area.
By the time the Demon Slaughterer returned to the altar, Nie Yan was long gone.
The Demon Slaughterer landed back on the ground. After patrolling the vicinity and not discovering anything out of the ordinary, it returned to a passive roaming state.
Seeing this scene, the faces of the expedition team members crumpled with despair. They spent so much effort luring the Demon Slaughterer away, but it was all for nothing in the end. All that hard work had gone down the drain.
「We failed...」
A dejected mood hung in the air.
「Boss, what do we do?」
Everyone gazed at Nie Yan. If he couldn't come up with another idea, they could only return empty-handed.
「Don't worry. There's always a way,」Nie Yan comforted.
The altar was protected by a barrier. Even though the barrier wasn't very strong, the Demon Slaughterer would be alerted to anyone that made contact with it and come rushing over.
The barrier had to be destroyed first!
However, the Demon Slaughterer guarded the barrier. Just what method could they use to destroy it?
Would they have to try luring the Demon Slaughterer away again?
Nie Yan was clear on one thing. If they lured the Demon Slaughterer away and took advantage of that time to destroy the barrier, luring it away a third time would be impossible. Even though its thoughts were simple, it wouldn't be tricked by the same thing more than twice.
This wasn't due to the Demon Slaughterer's intelligence, but one of the settings in Conviction. Every boss monster was the same.
It was going to be incredibly difficult to destroy the barrier under the Demon Slaughterer's watch.
Nie Yan suddenly recalled that Magic Bombs were effective against barriers.
A light bulb lit up in Nie Yan's head. He immediately contacted Guo Huai.「Send 15 Priests and 285 Warriors over to me. Have them bring along 1,000 Advanced Magic Bombs.」
「Alright, I'm on it!」Guo Huai replied.
Apart from this, Nie Yan also had his subordinates bring over some more Specialist Health and Mana Potions and Resurrection Emblems.
Before long, another 300 Asskickers United members arrived.
"Boss, we're here!"
"What do you need us to do, boss?"
The Warriors and Priests all greeted him.
Obtaining Paternoster's Warhammer was truly difficult!
Nie Yan was planning something on a grand scale. If it were just Ronin's party, they would have no way of pulling something off like this.
"Start dividing yourselves up! I want every team with 19 Warriors and one Priest!" Nie Yan commanded.
"Yes sir!" The Warriors and Priests started organizing themselves into teams.
Looking back at the center of the square, the Demon Slaughterer was still guarding the altar.
At Nie Yan's command, 60 Warriors slowly started approaching the Demon Slaughterer. When they stood in position, Nie Yan gave the next order. "Now!"
Charge!
Charge!
The Warriors all rushed toward the Demon Slaughterer.
Seeing the the group of Warriors charging at it, the Demon Slaughterer raised its greatsword. These weak Warriors were nothing more than ants in its eyes!
At this moment, the Warriors chucked the Magic Bombs in their hands. A shower of small metal balls flew toward the altar.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The magic bombs exploded one after another.
The explosions and flames engulfed the Demon Slaughterer but failed to deal it much damage.
The Demon Slaughterer flapped its wings, then closed in on the Warriors. With a single slash, it instantly killed six Warriors.
Before long, the ground was littered with a pile of corpses.
The altar's barrier trembled under the continuous explosions.
"Second squad, you're up!"
Another group of Warriors charged forward without any regard for their lives.
Magic Bombs blotted out the sky. Another wave of explosions rang out.
"Third squad, go!"
"Fourth squad, charge!"
...
Ronin's party watched everything unfold with dumbstruck looks on their faces. They couldn't help but gasp in amazement. If were just them, they wouldn't even dare to dream of employing such a method to destroy the barrier.
This was the advantage of owning a guild. So long as you gave the word, thousands up to tens of thousands of players would stake their lives for you. Of course, that was only possible if the guild members respected their leader. For someone like Nie Yan, a single command of his would see hundreds of thousands elites voluntarily step forward and sweep through everything in his path.
"The barrier is starting to falter," Ronin said.
The rest of Ronin's party looked over at the altar. Sure enough, under the explosions of the Magic Bombs, web-like cracks were rapidly spreading through the barrier. Finally, with a loud bang, it shattered into pieces.
No barrier could possibly endure such a bombing, no matter how strong it was!
However, Nie Yan's losses also weren't small. Apart from the several hundred thousand gold's worth of Magic Bombs, more than half of the 285 Warriors had also died.
Nie Yan had paid a heavy price to destroy this barrier.
This was an unimaginable cost to ordinary players.
Ronin's party and the Shamans in particular, what they were feeling right now couldn't be described in words. This was the power of a guild!
Seeing everything play out as planned, Nie Yan didn't show much of a reaction.「The barrier is destroyed. Thieves, continue luring the Demon Slaughterer away like before!」
「Understood!」
The Thieves immediately set off. Sticking to the same plan as before, they drew away the Demon Slaughterer bit by bit.
It was the same as before. However, getting the Demon Slaughterer's attention was much easier this time around. The explosions from the 1,000 Magic Bombs had thoroughly enraged it. As soon as a Thief appeared, it would immediately charge toward his location. So, before long, it was led far away from the altar again.
Seeing the Demon Slaughterer leave the area, Nie Yan smiled. Now there's nothing stopping us from reaching the chest!
1. Same as last chapter. This is the maximum health of the Thief. The damage meter doesn't show overkill damage.