The Great Thief

He had figured out what was going on.

The amount of drops this time was not purely because of the Nightmare difficulty, but because of the greedy game company from his previous life. They had decreased the chance for Righteous Orbs to drop. In Lu Li’s previous life, his party had been unable to even find one, despite grinding day and night in groups of five to reduce the cooldown of the Instance Dungeon. It was because of this constant grinding that Lu Li had gained a great understanding of this dungeon.

After clearing out all the smaller monsters, a total of 18 orbs had dropped. Adding onto the two that were previously hunted, there were enough for two per person.

One could be used to complete the quest, while the others could be taken for personal collection.

After reaching Balnazzar, everyone stayed outside of his aggro zone and decided to rest for the upcoming fight.

The team that was in charge of the Strategies had collected information that was similar to what Lu Li was already aware of. After conducting an investigation, they suggested some tactics that they could use when fighting Balnazzar.

However, the Balnazzar that they saw now was different. He was previously a human called Dathrohan.

’Dreadlord’ was not Balnazzar’s nickname, but ’Nathrezim’, which was his race. They were a group of creatures who had no sympathy and compassion as they took great pride in their strength and nothing else.

Even though they were extremely large in stature, they were proficient in melee range and often used skills that would scare or deceive their opponents. This would result in them having complete control in the darkness.

They had suppressed most of the world using a mindset of controlling their opponents and using their enemies to fight for them.

Sargeras, one of the founders of the Legion, was converted to the dark side under their control.

Dreadlords could not die and often possessed skills that would preserve their lives. even when it seemed like they had been slain. Furthermore, the prospects of internal killing within their own race were nearly impossible, as one Dreadlord could not kill the other.

However, impossible did not necessarily mean that it could not be done.

Dreadlord Tichondrius, their leader, died under the hands of Illidan, who had multiplied his strength greatly after obtaining Gul’dan. This made it possible for him to instantly kill Tichondrius, who was under the guard of many other Dreadlords.

Not many people would know who the Dreadlord Mal’Ganis was. He was mostly credited for the ultimate fall of Arthas, but he had also died to Arthas’ Frostmourne.

There were many other Dreadlords who occupied many other dungeons and places. Some had also already been slain by other powerful beings, so Balnazzar was not the only Dreadlord, or the strongest one.

However, he had been extremely successful. His success could be attributed to his ruthlessness, as well as the cunningness of his heart.

Balnazzar, being a Dreadlord, had pledged allegiance to the commander of the Legion, Kil’jaeden. Balnazzar was then arranged to spy on the Lich King Ner’zhul. However, he was then controlled by the Scourge, so he did not know who to pledge allegiance. It was because of this that he had stayed in Stratholme.

He was an extremely difficult Boss to deal with, which was fitting for Strathholme’s final fight.

It was absolutely impossible to clear Balnazzar on their first try, even if Lu Li went over the strategy with the team.

Furthermore, he also wanted to further train his team in this Instance Dungeon, as well as the guild members in charge of formulating strategies and collecting information.

"Hey there, big boy. Come fight me!" Azure Sea Breeze shouted as he jumped up and into the aggro zone.

Balnazzar’s fighting style was somewhat similar to Dathrohan’s. The Dreadlord raised his large

sword and charged towards the party, but was blocked by Azure Sea Breeze’s shield. However, the strike was so heavy that he was seemingly crushed under the immense strength and was forced to kneel.

"What the hell? What overwhelming strength is this? My shield’s not going to hold. The durability has gone down by 3 points already!" Azure Sea Breeze lamented as he retreated.

Balnazzar did not let him off. After absorbing Dathrohan, he had not only gained his body, but his strength and array of skills. This was why Balnazzar had been able to pretend that he was Dathrohan in the Crusade.

"Don’t you have many other shields?" Wandering asked.

"I still need money to repair...Even if I had many shields, I wouldn’t just use them like this." Azure Sea Breeze said in frustration.

After a typical Boss fight, his repair fees were at least five times higher than players like March Rain. If that attack had been kept up all fight, his repair fees would be in the hundreds.

"Try to avoid taking the sword blows directly on your shield. Try and analyse his focus points on his strikes," Lu Li suggested. Although he had not played as a Warrior, he had heard of many tips and tricks during his time in Dawn.

Swords were easier to block than maces, as the focus point of swords were much easier to predict.

Azure Sea Breeze was a Warrior with elite potential. Although Lu Li’s words were not hard to understand, he had grasped the meaning of them instantly.

After mulling over it a little, he decided to test it out.

As Dathrohan raised his sword over his head, readying for another strike, Azure Sea Breeze had tilted his shield a little.

When his sword made contact with Azure Sea Breeze’s shield, it slid right off. Nevertheless, Azure Sea Breeze had still taken a large amount of damage.

Although this conserved the Durability of the shield, he had not blocked the damage completely. He was fortunate enough to not be instantly killed after that.

During the second phase, Balnazzar used his backhand to strike him. Azure Sea Breeze attempted to do the same thing, but he could not block the incoming sword strike as well.

His HP had not been restored to full after the previous strike, and he did not have a shield to block a frontal attack. Dawn’s number one Main Tank had fallen at the hands of a level 52 Boss.

Wandering had rushed forward in his place and took two or three hits from the Boss, then also died.

Before dying, he looked back towards his team, as if to say, "I’m sorry everyone. I could not protect you all."

But why was he the only one that was anywhere near the Boss? Everyone else seemed like they were running in the direction of the exit!

Bloody hell! What a bunch of cowards!