"Is this the strategy from the walkthrough?" Tian Qi and the others weren't newbies—who would be fooled so easily? The walkthroughs they'd read contained no such tactic at all. If any walkthrough had one like this, its author would have been ridiculed to pieces. Why? Because this was merely a theoretical possibility. Four people keeping the Spider Lord in infinite stagger—that was still achievable. But with just one person, who could guarantee not a single mistake while picking off every last small spider?
If even one small spider slipped out of control and bit any one of the four, the coordination would be broken. The Spider Lord could soar into the sky, burrow into the ground, spit webs to drag people in, and spray poison and mist—it was the most powerful of the three hidden bosses. The four were in the middle of a group kill; giving it a counterattack opening like this could result in a party wipe on the spot.
"Well? Can you do it?" Ye Xiu was still asking.
"Hey, hey, shouldn't you be asking yourself that question? Can you guarantee you won't miss a single small spider?" Yue Zhongmian said.
"Of course. So the key lies with you four. Four people in a group kill, against the highest-level Spider Lord—the rhythm of the coordination has to speed up. Me giving callouts would be useless; by the time you hear me and react, it would probably already be too late. So it can only rely on the tacit understanding between the four of you. How about it? Any problems?" Ye Xiu asked.
"Are there any other tactics?" Tian Qi asked. Honestly, the four of them weren't very confident.
"With your class skill combination, I'm afraid not," Ye Xiu said.
"You looked at our class skills and decided on this tactic on the spot?"
"That's right."
The four were shocked—shocked yet again. They had been wondering when Ye Xiu said he'd read the walkthrough, because the several runs through Spider Cave showed none of the tactics the walkthrough described. Now they understood: Ye Xiu hadn't read the walkthrough for tactics at all. He had merely familiarized himself with the characteristics of the Spider Cave boss, then designed on the spot a set of tactics suited to their party. No trials, no practice runs—he commanded directly, and they cleared the instance directly.
What shocked the four this time was not flashy execution, not outstanding awareness, not excellent leadership and command, but an extremely deep understanding of the game. At this moment, Tian Qi and the others deeply felt that for this person, the word "expert" was no longer sufficient—there needed to be an even higher-level term...
But the four hesitated. This time they could not rely entirely on him; the four of them also had to hold their own. They weren't experts to begin with, just seasoned players—ordinary players somewhat better than newcomers who'd just entered the game. Could they actually manage what Ye Xiu described? They truly had no confidence.
While the four hesitated, Ye Xiu did not rush them. The five of them just stood quietly outside the Spider Lord's lair. At that moment, a message box suddenly flashed with a system announcement: the other hidden boss of Spider Cave, the Spider Demon, had its first kill completed.
Tian Qi gritted his teeth and thought—forget it, even setting aside the fact that this was a race for the first kill, on any normal day, in any dungeon, when people ran into a hidden boss, few would give up without even trying. If they truly couldn't do it, they could always flee quickly. The Starter Village dungeon had one advantage: if you forcibly quit the instance, although you'd be a corpse needing revival, you wouldn't lose experience. The Starter Village was, after all, a place that took good care of new players.
"Let's give it a try?" Tian Qi looked toward his three brothers. Those three, seeing the first kill notification in the system message, had their fighting spirit stirred as well, and agreed in unison.
"Let's do it!" Tian Qi declared to their captain Jun Moxiao on behalf of his brothers.
"Four people is enough to execute this tactic. Recall the rhythm from the previous few times carefully; we're just speeding it up a bit. Don't try to calculate the timing—rely on feel," Ye Xiu said.
"Understood."
"I'll pull the boss." Saying this, Ye Xiu directed Jun Moxiao to the mouth of the lair. He didn't go in; the hand holding his weapon merely lifted slightly, and then he suddenly turned and rapidly retreated.
"He pulled it?" The four were startled.
"Yep," Ye Xiu said.
All four scratched their heads. How was the boss pulled? They hadn't seen it. They all thought Jun Moxiao was about to go in, but he just stood at the entrance for a moment. This kind of pull required a ranged class!
"He's carrying a gun, isn't he?"
"Definitely."
Just as they were guessing, a shrill screech rang out from the lair. The Spider Lord had been roused from its sleep, and everyone felt as if the entire cavern were trembling—the Lord was about to emerge from its nest.
"Spread out left and right, watch out!" Ye Xiu shouted. Tian Qi's four split into two on each side and took their positions. From the cave mouth came a thick cloud of mist—the Spider Lord came charging out spitting venom, leaping straight at Jun Moxiao.
Jun Moxiao did not retreat but advanced instead, charging forward to meet it. Just as he was about to be pounced on, he suddenly dropped low and, with a whoosh, slid right under the Spider Lord's belly in a sliding tackle.
"See! I told you he's got a gun!" Qiansheng Li cried out—the slide tackle was a Gunner's basic attack move.
Having slid through, Jun Moxiao leapt up, twisted in midair, and thrust his spear into the Spider Lord's rear. Riding the momentum of the Spider Lord's forward lunge, he sent it right into the blitz of the four-man team.
"Go!" Ye Xiu shouted. The four were somewhat flustered. With the previous three bosses, Ye Xiu had needed some time to lure the mobs into his setups—who knew that with the strongest boss, the Lord, he'd be so crisp and decisive, sending the boss down the road of no return in a single move.
"I'm first!" Tian Qi yelled, stepping forward to strike.
"Then me." Mu Yunshen next.
"Me." Qiansheng Li next.
"..." Yue Zhongmian had no choice but to go too.
After Yue Zhongmian went, Tian Qi burst into tears: "My skill is still on cooldown."
"Too fast." Ye Xiu's Jun Moxiao had already dashed over to add a Dragon Tooth; the Spider Lord remained staggered.
"Use the time to get familiar with the rhythm," Ye Xiu said, directing Jun Moxiao to flick away a small spider that had just hatched from an egg the Lord had laid.
"Mm!" Tian Qi saw that the Lord's egg-laying didn't start at full capacity—it laid quite slowly at first. That meant they had time to get in sync, because this great expert was fully capable of handling a small number of small spiders while maintaining the infinite stagger on their side.
"Faster again." After one rotation, Tian Qi's skill was still on cooldown.
"Don't be nervous, get the rhythm down," Ye Xiu reminded.
"Too fast—Qiansheng Li attacked early."
"Still too fast, still Qiansheng Li."
"Still too fast—this time it's little Yueyue. Qiansheng Li has settled into the rhythm now, you need to adjust to keep up." While busily killing small spiders, helping maintain their stagger, Ye Xiu was also observing who hadn't gotten the timing down.
The Spider Lord's health kept dropping, and its egg output clearly increased—from one at the start, to two, then three.
"Good, that's the rhythm of that rotation—lock it in!" They finally got it right; on that rotation, the four coordinated perfectly.
=========================================
Good morning! Clicks, recommendations, favorites and such—good morning to you all!