Chapter 36 - Pangu's Nightmare

The tempo of the battle immediately changed as soon as the mind controlled Wild Dogs entered the fray. The Pack Leaders of the Wild Dogs attacked the melee players surrounding Dorukh and the tens of Wild Dogs behind them followed their lead. 

Just in a few seconds, an elite melee player became the first casualty of the Wild Dogs. Soon after, more and more melee players began to fall under the vicious bites and claws of the Wild Dogs. Under the onslaught of the Wild Dogs, the defense line of the Fortune Guild collapsed like a domino. 

Pangu could no longer keep his calm when three players with nearly 70% of health died within a span of a minute. He realized that they were vastly outnumbered and couldn't waste manpower to keep an eye on the Grandeur Guild's team. 

"Trueword, bring your team and take care of this bastard on the right."

He yelled pointing to the Dog Leader on his right with his chin. Even as he spoke, his ax did not stop swinging and reaped the life of another poor Wild Dog. 

"But Boss… What about the Grandeur Guild?"

Pangu turned his neck and looked at us who were standing together like scared little children. He sneered and said, "They won't interfere because if we the Lv7 players fall, how will those puny Lv5 players deal with the boss?"

His words convinced Trueword. He threw us a glance of disdain before bringing his team to fend off the Miniboss. 

The arrival of reinforcements alleviated a significant amount of pressure from Pangu but it was like pouring a single bucket of water in a raging wildfire. Not only was the danger resolved, but the water was also wasted.

The Tank of the Trueword's team successfully attracted the attention of the Dog leader but without an effective way to fend off tens of Wild Dog attacks at the same time, he fell into danger. In just a few moments, he turned into a gray light beam.

The Fall of their Meat Shield increased the pressure on the team. Without someone to tank the ferocious mobs, the other players of the team also fell into a precarious position. 

Seeing this, Mamamia patted her flat chest and said, "Thankfully brother Samar lured the Fortune Guild members to test the waters for us. Or else it would be us dying under their vicious attacks."

HardBro and BigSoftie nodded their heads with grim expressions. Even though Fortune Guild Players were facing the enemy right now, sooner or later, it would be their turn and they had no confidence in facing such a terrifying mob.

Stivi smiled when she realized their worries. She patted my shoulder and proudly boasted, "In all our years together, I have never seen this guy fail a boss raid." 

She was not boasting. When I was in Kailan, I had always led my team to victory in battles, may it be against the bosses or the other guilds. That's the reason I was known as 'Samar, (The Undefeated Commander).'

I had no intention of losing that title today. 

I had already started analyzing the unmoving Boss and the mini bosses that were wreaking the Fortune Guild members. 

My analysis revealed a peculiarity. Only the eyes of the Pack Leaders of the Wild Dogs were Blue while the other Wild Dogs were merely following their lead. Combined with my previous encounter with the Boss, I quickly figured out the crux of the matter. 

"So this is how you are controlling the Wild Dogs, huh?"

Hardbro and BigSoftie looked at my smile with puzzled faces while Stivi, who was long habituated to my soliloquy, was unbothered. However, she too smiled with joy upon realizing that I already had a solution to win this seemingly unwinnable battle!

During the few minutes I used to study the Boss, the Wild Dogs had annihilated the teams from Fortune Guild. Only three people - Pangu, Trueword and Smexy of the thirty Elites remained. 

The equipment dropped by the dead elite members of their party littered the ground near their feet. Still, they could not even spare a second to pick up the precious equipment and put it in their inventory. 

Pangu looked at his flashing red health bar with bloody eyes and yelled, "Trueword, Smexy, retreat to Grandeur Guild's team. We will use them to escape from this hellhole!"

Stivi and others were instantly enraged. They were not as annoyed by the plan but by the disregard Pangu showed by not even bothering to keep his voice down. Even Zamir who had just returned looked at them with fury.

I retrieved my Cape of Concealed Death from Zamir and patted him on the shoulder. 

"Just enjoy the show next."

Then I draped it over my shoulders and instantly entered a faux stealth mode and disappeared from everyone's perception. 

Pangu and his Guild mates did not notice my disappearance. They charged towards Stivi's party intending to use them as shields. 

However, what they thought of as soft persimmons were actually hard iron nails. It would be a wonder if they didn't get a toothache after biting one.

When Trueword and Smexy were within an arm's distance of Stivi, she drew her Rusty Light Sword and slashed at them. 

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Two astonishing numbers popped up above their heads and emptied their remaining health. Even as they died, they could not figure out how a Player stuck on Lv5 could deal such high damage to Lv7 players. 

The reason was simple. Stivi may have been stuck on Lv5 but she had been training along with me and Goku for the last three days. Not only had her strength increased by 2 points, her agility had also increased by 1 point. 

She had also learned Initial Sword Mastery under the guidance of Trainer Basak which increased the damage dealt by all Sword type weapons by 5%.

Combined with her White-Wood Grade Rusty Light Sword, dealing more than 50 points of damage was very normal. In fact, if not for the level suppression penalty, her damage would've been even higher!

When Pangu saw this scene, he was scared out of wits. He almost paused and let his ass be bitten by a chasing Wild Dog. The severity of his situation made him quickly regain his composure. He did not stop his charge towards Stivi even after she pointed her sword his way.

He looked at her with a sneer and said, "So what if you hid your power? Can your ragtag group deal with so many of these dogs by yourselves? If you had joined hands with us we may have stood a chance. But now we will all die together and you will suffer from double level loss!"

Then he turned around to face the dogs as if he had accepted his death. Just as the huge Dog Pack Leader was about to claim his petty life, an angered roar from the Boss resounded through the cavern. 

The Blue light from all three Dog Leader's eyes faded away and they shook their heads. They turned their eyes to where the Boss was and growled with fury. Immediately all the Wild Dogs retreated and rushed towards the Dark Gnoll, intending to bite him to pieces. 

The sudden reversal stunned Pangu. He saw all his elite parties die under the claws of these beasts but when it was the turn of Grandeur Guild, these Wild Dogs turned around and attacked the Boss?

What kind of witchcraft was this? Who could tell him what happened?

Just as he was trying to make sense of the situation, he heard Zamir speak, "Looks like Samar was right." 

"That annoying guy is always right." Stivi said with a smug smile. She was ecstatic at the fact that Samar had once again come through. 

Zamir ignored her smugness and pointed at Pangu on the floor. "What should we do with him?"

Stivi swung her sword, severing Pangu's head from the neck. She sheathed her sword and said, "Was there even a need to ask?" 

Zamir looked speechlessly at her figure charging into the horde of Wild Dogs and then at the corpse of Pangu disappearing in the gray light. 

Pangu was the leader of the Fortune Guild in Village #89. He was their face in the public eyes. Killing him once was already a slap in Fortune Guild's face. Killing him a second time may create irreconcilable feud between their two guilds. 

Yet, Stivi, the appointed head of the Village #89's Grandeur Guild did not give two hoots about the consequences. Zamir helplessly looked at the sky above and prayed, "God bless our Grandeur Guild."

Then he too charged into battle with the rest of the Party Members.