Chapter 17 begins the boss battle

Zi Liyuan led the Skeleton Army, once again slinking off in a new direction; he had no choice but to avoid confrontation, as they were outmatched.

Luckily, the Skeleton Army now cleared monsters extremely quickly; they only needed to fire once and move on to avoid being caught by the Hero Boss.

With Vulture Skeletons constantly monitoring from the sky, the chances of being caught were extremely low unless under special circumstances.

With aerial units keeping watch, Zi Liyuan's campaign of luring and killing was in full swing, dealing a devastating blow to the entire Goblin Tribe.

A few hours later, Zi Liyuan had penetrated deep into the heart of the tribe.

With such prolonged hunting, now only a few special areas within the tribe were left with Goblins, while those in all the other areas had been wiped out.

Even the team that followed the Hero Boss suffered a terrible fate, leaving only a handful remaining.

This was only because they were under the constraints of the Hero Boss; otherwise, all the rare Bosses following him would have been lured and killed by Zi Liyuan.

"4 Hero Bosses, with only 15 guards left between them, it's no longer feasible to lure and kill them," he said.

After three attempts and the loss of more than twenty Skeletons, he was still unable to separate the guards from the Hero Boss.

"The intelligence of Hero Bosses is no less than that of ordinary humans; it's just that being suppressed by the dungeon, they mostly follow dungeon rules when acting. However, at critical moments, they can somewhat break free from those rules."

For monsters, those who can't become Hero units are just cannon fodder, with just the difference in strength between them.

Clearly, these 4 Hero Bosses had realized what Zi Liyuan had been up to previously, and so they ordered their subordinates to ensure that their protective forces suffered minimal damage.

"Tough situation, I can only try facing 1 Hero Boss and 4 rare Bosses at the same time."

Observing the battles for so long, Zi Liyuan had spotted some issues.

These 4 Hero Bosses were not on good terms with each other, even displaying animosity. Especially when near the central Stone Hall of the tribe, their attitudes towards each other were extremely poor, even leading to conflicts.

Clearly, these 4 Bosses were competing for something inside the Stone Hall.

Using the Vulture Skeletons' observation, seeing the 4 Bosses in conflict and distancing themselves from the Stone Hall, Zi Liyuan moved the Skeleton Army toward where the Goblin Priest was.

Among the 4 Hero Bosses—the Goblin Chieftain, Goblin Priest, Goblin Wizard, and the Great Goblin Warrior—the Goblin Priest had the lowest combat power.

During the attack on the Priest's guard platoon, he noticed it had many support Spells, but very few offensive ones. The only area-of-effect attack was casting Lightning Chain that could hit three targets at once.

However, compared to the other Bosses, this one's guard platoon still had 7 left, which posed considerable pressure for Zi Liyuan.

He swapped equipment, reconfiguring the Skeleton lineup.

All 4 pieces of equipped gear were exchanged for items that increased Spirit.

This allowed the Level 20 Zi Liyuan to raise his Spirit from 45 points to 60, but his Spiritual Power dropped from 52 points to 38.

With 60 Spirit points, he could control 60 Skeletons simultaneously, prompting another adjustment to the Skeleton configuration.

20 Shield Combat Skeletons, 5 Skeleton Behemoths, 5 Vulture Skeletons, 5 Curse Skeletons, 5 Voodoo Skeletons, and 20 Skeleton Apprentices.

Among them, the 5 Vulture Skeletons were to monitor the movements of the other 3 Hero Bosses and to oversee the nearby battlefield situation.

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Near an exit by the stone wall, Zi Liyuan hid in a small goblin stone house.

5 Skeleton Behemoths were scattered not far from the stone house where he was hiding; they were there to guard and charge at to shake off any aggro from monsters or hero bosses.

20 Shield Combat Skeletons were tank cannon fodder and also served to cut through the battlefield.

As the main force for output, the magic-wielding Skeletons were dispersed in various positions, spread out near the hiding places.

2 Vulture Skeletons, one to the left and one to the right, charged at the Goblin Priest squad.

The charge was merely a feint; upon entering aggro range, they immediately ascended, then flew towards the ambush circle.

Just from this one feint, the Goblin Priests raised a hand and with a Lightning Arrow, instantly took down a Vulture Skeleton.

Fortunately, the task of drawing aggro was successful, and the priest squad pursued.

At the same time, the other 3 surveillance Vulture Skeletons did not detect any abnormalities with the remaining hero bosses, which gave Zi Liyuan a slight sense of relief.

He feared that after drawing one over, the other three would immediately come to assist, and then it would be game over.

However, watching the Goblin Priests enter the ambush circle and immediately cast a Lightning Chain that took out 3 Shield Combat Skeletons in a flash, and the remaining 7 Goblin Warriors also using single-target skills to instantly shatter 7 Shield Combat Skeletons, Zi Liyuan's eyes twitched.

That's not all; the Goblin Priests began their mischief, releasing a large cloud of red mist into the bodies of the Goblin Warriors, and in a moment, these originally just over 1.8 meters tall Goblins inflated to 2 meters, with their attack power boosted significantly.

Originally, a normal attack on a Shield Combat Skeleton could be barely withstood with the help of a shield, but the HP would still drop significantly.

Now, a normal attack shattered the Bone Shield, and the Shield Combat Skeletons cracked into bone fragments, a sure kill with one hit, without the need for any skills.

Within just 3 seconds of the battle starting, out of 20 Shield Combat Skeletons, only 4 remained alive!

It was also a good thing that the Summon Skeleton skill had been upgraded to Level 5, allowing for the summoning of 16 Shield Combat Skeletons at once; otherwise, at this rate of attack, 60 Skeletons wouldn't be enough for these Goblins to dismantle.

Watching one Skeleton little buddy fall with each swing of a club, Zi Liyuan's eye twitch continued, but he paid close attention to the condition of the Goblin Priests.

The magic-wielding Skeletons hiding nearby finally began their magic bombardment.

All magic skills were targeted and concentrated on a single Goblin Warrior.

A Level 30 Goblin Warrior had up to 20,000 HP, but their Magic Resistance wasn't very high; each magic spell could inflict over 50 magic damage.

30 magic-wielding Skeletons attacking a single target, one wave of magic later, over 1500 damage, and it would only take 14 rounds of attacks to take down one, taking no more than 40 seconds.

The only pressure was the constant need to summon Shield Combat Skeletons to withstand the boss group's charge.

With an endless stream of Skeleton cannon fodder blocking the way, the boss group was cornered in a small open area, their advance becoming extremely slow.

Yet the battle did not go as Zi Liyuan had anticipated, it took more than 40 seconds to take down a Goblin Warrior, and naturally, the reason lay with the Goblin Priests.

As the targeted Goblin Warrior's HP dropped below 30%, the Goblin Priests stopped casting Lightning Arrows and instead chanted some ancient spell, then showered the Goblin Warrior with a glow of green light.

Just like that, the Goblin Warrior's HP, which had fallen below 30%, shot up to 34%, and began to grow continuously at a rate of 1% per second.

Seeing this, Zi Liyuan cursed inwardly, and at the same time, he came to an understanding.

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