019 Hybrid Profession!

No matter what was happening outside, all Morning Wind could think about now was how to push through the Challenge Pyramid. He could only come once a month, and the supreme reward on the highest floor had not yet been claimed. Morning Wind was determined to take it. If his guess was right, the Dwarven Holy Knight should be able to clear the seventh floor; the question was whether he could do it even faster.

If he had known how formidable Outlets was, he would never have told him in the first place. Morning Wind had once been far too confident, thinking that as an ability killer, he would be able to roam the game unchecked as long as his gear was strong enough. Only after meeting Outlets did he realize that the game was full of experts. He had seemed overwhelming before only because he focused on burst damage and killing, rarely coming into contact with players of that caliber.

The fifth floor was where the Challenge Pyramid truly became difficult; whoever came here would have a hard time. The boss ahead was always a hybrid-class boss, and extremely troublesome.

No boss?

Morning Wind was teleported into the dim fifth floor, but he saw nothing. That only made him feel worse, because there was a very high chance that this boss had something to do with a rogue.

An arrow flew out from behind Morning Wind and struck his back, dealing more than six hundred damage and applying a forty percent slow. He turned and saw a demon holding a bow, with two daggers at its waist. Clearly, it was a hybrid of rogue and hunter. If that was all, Morning Wind would not have worried, but the most troublesome part was that this demon actually had a detection effect. Morning Wind, who was in stealth, was immediately forced out.

The demon hunter had marked Morning Wind, so slipping away into stealth was no longer possible. Of all the things Morning Wind hated in games, hybrid classes were the worst. They were bosses that were exceptionally annoying to fight. No need to ask, this one would not be dying in under half an hour.

Charge!

Backstep!

The moment Morning Wind tried to charge in, the demon hunter leapt backward and took cover behind a pillar. Morning Wind activated Heroic Leap and went over, only to find the demon hunter already gone behind the pillar. No need to ask, it had to have a vanish-like effect that would let it drop out of combat and enter stealth after a few seconds, just like Morning Wind. The worst part was that Morning Wind had no stealth-detection skill, and he was five levels lower than his opponent.

"Dammit! Crow, what boss did you get on the fifth floor? Mine is a frost mage and holy paladin combo. How are we supposed to beat that?" Outlets was really ready to swear. The holy paladin's survivability, the frost mage's slows and freezes — wasn't this just bullying a dwarf with short legs?

"The boss you got is fine. I got a survival hunter and subtlety rogue combo!" Morning Wind would have rather faced the Dwarven Holy Knight's combo. At least then he could get in close and burst them down. Right now he could not even find the boss, so how was he supposed to kill it?

"Not bad. I got a weapon warrior and hunter combo," Stan said. He had already caught up to the two of them, and compared with theirs, the boss combo he had drawn was much easier.

Since entering the game, this was the first time Outlets had been this frustrated killing a boss. He was being kited completely. Even after activating Hand of Freedom, it was still hard to get close. And even if he did, against a mage with absurd defense, it was difficult to chew through their health. Once Hand of Freedom ended, he would be slowed or frozen, and then kited all over again.

"I hate it when people bully me for having short legs!" Outlets could only complain when he could not kill the boss. If he could not think of a solution, then this might be as far as he got.

Morning Wind was not in good shape either. The demon hunter jumped out and fired seven arrows in a row. In order to close the gap, Morning Wind had to tank them head-on. He charged in and unleashed a burst, but the demon hunter backstepped away and tried to run.

Intercept!

Berserker Rage!

After gaining three Rage Slash charges, Morning Wind took advantage of the boss being stunned and immediately rushed in with Rage Slash, trying to drag its health down as much as possible.

The demon hunter woke up after just one Rage Slash. The original two and a half seconds of stun had been reduced to only half a second? Morning Wind immediately used Intimidating Shout, but this time it was even worse: no effect at all. The boss had very high resistance to crowd control, and its duration reduction was extremely strong.

Ambush!

After closing in, the demon hunter activated Evasion, increasing its dodge chance by fifty percent, then exchanged blows with Morning Wind head-on.

Miss!

Miss!

Even when Morning Wind's attacks landed on the demon hunter, they came up as misses. The close-range trade that had originally favored Morning Wind now left him completely at a disadvantage, so he quickly switched to his shield to block, reducing the damage he took.

When Evasion ended, the demon hunter tossed a smoke bomb behind itself and backstepped into the cloud. It became impossible for Morning Wind to Charge or intercept it now. With two Rage Slash charges left, if he could not land them and let the demon hunter escape, it would all be wasted.

Heroic Leap!

The skill had just come off cooldown, and Morning Wind immediately leaped after it. Heroic Leap did not require a target; as long as he fixed the landing point, he could jump there, and upon landing it would deal damage to enemies within eight meters. By leaping in, he damaged the demon hunter hidden inside the smoke bomb and prevented it from leaving combat.

The smoke bomb lasted five seconds. Morning Wind followed with Thunder Stomp, dealing damage and once again keeping the demon hunter in combat. As for the one-second stun from Thunder Stomp, he felt it probably would not amount to much. In fact, he could not even tell whether that one second of stun was good or bad, because both Intercept and Shockwave also caused stuns, and a one-second stun would apply diminishing returns, reducing the duration of the next stun effect by thirty-three percent.

The smoke gradually dispersed, and Morning Wind finally saw the demon hunter's figure. He stepped in, and both Brotherhood Sword and Storm Sword came down together, with Rage Slash dealing more than four thousand damage. Thunder Strike, converted from Heroic Strike, also had to account for the global cooldown. Morning Wind followed it up immediately, dealing damage once more.

Blood Strike!

While the one-and-a-half-second global cooldown was ticking, Morning Wind finished the Thunder Strike and then used Blood Strike to restore health and deal damage. He saw the demon hunter's two daggers coming at him. With two combo points on himself, the demon hunter was likely trying to use Kidney Shot to stun him and create another chance to vanish.

Morning Wind switched to his shield and parried the demon hunter's attack, used Bloodthirst with his main hand, and then followed with Shield Slam. The demon hunter quickly retreated, apparently trying to avoid Morning Wind's strike, but then suddenly lunged forward again, driving a dagger straight at Morning Wind's eyes. In that lightning-fast instant, the rogue was trying to blind him. Morning Wind knew retreat was impossible, so in that split second he equipped the Shrinking Ring, and his body became that of a dwarf.

The rogue's Blind failed to work. Now much smaller, Morning Wind immediately slammed in with Rage Slash, unleashing over four thousand damage. After landing the hit, he followed with Thunder Strike.

Rage Slash!

Taking off the Shrinking Ring, Morning Wind returned to his original form, jumped up, and immediately struck with another Rage Slash. Once the demon hunter was forced into close combat, it could only use rogue skills, and that made things much easier for Morning Wind to burst down.

Sprint!

After its attack failed, the demon hunter began to run. Morning Wind activated Windstride to chase after it, and every three seconds he hurled a thrown attack to keep the demon hunter from entering stealth.

Dispel Shot!

Morning Wind sidestepped the hunter's shot. He absolutely could not afford to be controlled here. His only concern now was that the demon hunter might use rogue skills to vanish completely. If that happened, he would have to figure out a way to force it back out.

Charge!

Once the demon hunter opened up the distance, Morning Wind immediately charged in and followed with Rage Slash. Seeing the boss's health drop to thirty-five percent, he instantly unleashed his ultimate burst.

[Crushing Brutality]: Burst skill. Sacrifices thirty percent of maximum health to gain fifty rage. For the next six seconds, your damage is increased by forty percent, but the damage you take is also increased by twenty percent. Cooldown: 2 minutes. Cost: 30% of maximum health.

Morning Wind's health was not high to begin with, and after using Crushing Brutality it was already below twenty percent. After gaining the rage, he launched into a full burst and drove the demon hunter's health downward. He was taking a risk this time. If he let the demon hunter escape, the next stage would take far too long.

Vanish!

With its health dragged down, the demon hunter could only use Vanish to flee. But Morning Wind was now below twenty percent health as well, which meant the demon hunter might decide to go for the kill instead.

Morning Wind was relying on exactly that bit of NPC intelligence. He had Regrowth Wind, which restored three percent of his maximum health every second, so he could gradually recover.

Ambush!

Just as expected, the demon hunter went all-out on Morning Wind. This time, Morning Wind directly used Shockwave to stun it, then activated his god-mode burst. As long as the demon hunter came out, Morning Wind would have a chance to kill it.

He usually did not use Crushing Brutality, because the skill was far too dangerous. Once used, it put him in extreme danger. But now he needed it to force the demon hunter out, to bait out its life-saving vanish and draw it into attacking him from stealth. He had no choice but to use it.

At first, Morning Wind had been worried that the boss might hide at a distance, waiting to ambush him while slowly kiting him. The skill he had almost never used, Crushing Brutality, was something he had only just thought of. All this time, he had not dared use it, because he had died to it many times before.

Rage Slash!

Once the boss's health dropped below thirty percent, Morning Wind's Rage Slash became guaranteed to crit, allowing him to chain it endlessly. Now that the demon hunter had no more ultimate escape skill, Morning Wind was no longer worried about it getting away. He could finish it off quickly. In the past, fighting a demon hunter would take a very long time, but he had not expected this character to be so much stronger than before. He even had Windstride now, which let Morning Wind keep up and prevented the boss from running.

The demon hunter fell before even Morning Wind had expected.

This was the first time he had killed a demon hunter so quickly. After a moment's thought, Morning Wind realized it was because he now had Intercept. His close-combat ability was much stronger, and he was no longer being kited. His survivability was also far higher than before, and with Shockwave as a stun, he was extremely potent.

By clearing the fifth floor, Morning Wind was now faster than Stan. As for Outlets, he was still slowly grinding down the boss's health. For a Dwarven Holy Knight, short legs had always been his weakness. Of course, Morning Wind did not believe Outlets would be kited to death by that demon mage. Outlets must have some way of dealing with a mage, otherwise how would he dare to be so arrogant on the world map?