Before Ke Loong and Kong Rong could step into the fight against it, another three more adventurers tried to cover the loss of one, hoping that it would be a numbers game. If you throw enough bodies it might eventually be a solution and that was the most logical thing to do in an MMORPG and in dungeon instances. So, they thought that was how they would overcome this particular problem. However, that solution became non existent the moment the total of four adventurers had engaged it.
The fifth one was being knocked back before he could even be within the range of the grazing sheep and a barrier emerged out of nowhere as if to stop anybody else from coming close to it. Everyone within the vicinity then realised there is an expected difficulty fighting against the enemies and there was no other way than to carefully choose their battles.
“Holy shit, isn’t this just a normal mob? It suddenly becomes a battle to the death against a normal monster?” Kong Rong found it hard to believe it was that gruesome and the other adventurers recognised the same too.
“I think this is to prevent experience point tagging or a group of people just mob rushing and levelling up fast.” Ke Loong presumed and could only anticipate the slaughter of the four level 1 adventurers as the sheep once again smashed its head towards one of the adventurers who had accidentally stepped on uneven ground.
The stomp killed the adventurer causing the sheep’s experience points to go up while the other three took a more cautious approach. This time, everyone did not try to be a hero entering the barrier to substitute for the dead adventurer. Even the level 2 duos did not try anything particular and could only hope for the best for the remaining three.
On the other hand, someone attempted to cast support magic through the barrier, hoping it would go through but to their dismay, it was not possible. The remaining three had to tackle it themselves and they were already cautiously fighting against the monstrous sheep by making sure there was sufficient distance away from it.
At the same time, they had to make sure that they did not accidentally provoke another monster in their midst. Thankfully, this was still the starting area where all the monsters were considered passive and while the counterparts of this innocent looking four legged herbivore had no wish to join the fight, the adventurers believed it would not be the same for other areas.
The only advantage they had now was they were trained agents despite the fact two colleagues of theirs had unfortunately fallen due to their sheer bad luck. They kept their cool and analysed the situation despite the shocking catastrophe they encountered in the first place. The agents found out that the sheep was a more passive creature and continued to stay on its guard, only to attack when its enemies came too close.
This gave them time to plan their attack so long they did not do anything rash to provoke the sheep and that was the only notion they could rely on.
“Maybe I will distract you and you two attack it from the flanks and avoid its legs. After all, the sheep is not exactly a very agile creature.” One of them who was carrying a sword and shield ordered the other two. “I should be able to block a hit or two allowing you two to have enough time to damage it.”
“And then allow it to cause a rampage and kill us all three? Have you seen a very angry sheep before in real life?” Another adventurer said and they were in a stalemate in terms of handling the monster. “If it levels up again, it will regain its full hit points and come back stronger.”
“Lol, plus that headbutt it did was rather quick too and do not forget that the sheep had wool as its protective cover. Even if we are fast, it would be pretty meaningless if our strikes are not deep to pierce through its wool and into its body.”
Upon hearing the conversation, that was when Kong Rong had thought of an idea to possibly circumvent this level difference. He quickly searched for an enlarged ladybug and stabbed it once, causing its health to drop to half its hit points.
Angered by his actions, the enlarged ladybug attempted to attack Kong Rong but he managed to evade it in time. Simultaneously, he started to bring it closer to the adventurers who were in the stalemate against the sheep and shouted at the adventurer who was equipped with a sword and shield.
“Yu Xuan! Try and see if you can kill this!” Kong Rong shouted as he blocked the ladybug’s attack with his sword. Not sure what his leader was thinking, Yu Xuan merely nodded and followed orders as he took another step back to position himself for the attack. When the ladybug was in range, he used all his might to strike it and to his surprise, the attack went through, allowing him to drop its health to a quarter while Kong Rong finished it off.
Both of them got experience points while the sheep continued to stay stationary. The rest of the adventurers saw what Kong Rong was doing and had decided to do the same for the remaining two who were engaged with the sheep. They realised that the interaction between the monsters was something similar to basic maths. To be more exact, Venn diagrams where each set of monsters and adventurers can intersect and subsequently overlap the barriers if they play by the rules.
It was also because of the nature of their opponent that they allowed them to do this ‘cheat’, allowing the current group to reach level 3 despite it being a slow and painful process for baiting. At this point, Kong Rong and Ke Loong had also reached level 4 but they decided to let their leader join in the fight.
So with a smaller level difference, the group had decided to try their luck fighting against the killer sheep. Kong Rong might not have any skills under his belt but the other three had briefly talked to their trainers, allowing them to learn basic skills. Yu Xuan was the tank and he had acquired the skill ‘Shield Bash’ that could temporarily stun his opponent for four seconds. The other two were DPS class with them being a thief and archer respectively, allowing them to have speed on their side.
Thus, they hoped that their tank could at least block a hit or two and subsequently the damage dealers could inflict sufficient damage so when Yu Xuan bash its shield against the sheep, they would have enough attack to kill it before the sheep had the chance to counter attack. Worse case scenario, they did what they had done for the past fifteen minutes.
Overlap the monsters by tagging and thus allowing other adventurers to enter the fray. It is however a fairly complicated manoeuvre especially when the sheep might possibly deal a critical hit once more, levelling itself up.
But one thing was for sure. If they can’t kill this sheep, the sheep might potentially become strong enough to be their first boss encounter.
