A queen-tier boss

"Do you really have to be so happy about someone looking down on me? Do you know that I'm your squadron commander? When someone looks down on me, they're looking down on you too. Got it? What a bunch of clueless noobs. Not a shred of team pride. No wonder people look down on us!" Lin Yu yelled furiously.

He could hardly be blamed for getting angry. Back in World of Warcraft, people had looked down on him and refused to take him into dungeons because he had no money, no time, and no gear. Fine, he could live with that. But now even a bunch of NPCs were looking down on him. How could he not be furious? By then, he had forgotten all about what made someone a fool or an idiot.

The rookie Rangers thought he seemed to have a point. Gradually, they quieted down and waited for their handsome, dashing, charming, wise, and mighty squadron commander to speak.

It wasn't that the rookies were particularly eager to hear him talk. Unless he spoke, the formation couldn't be dismissed, and they couldn't go back to rest. Right now, the one word they most wanted to hear from him was "dismissed."

But, much to their surprise, Lin Yu was sulking and said nothing.

Listening to Lin Yu talk was torture. Now that he wasn't talking, it was even worse for the rookies. None of them knew when they would finally be dismissed and allowed to rest.

At last, one rookie couldn't stand it anymore. "Commander, we do have team pride. We were only joking just now. Please don't take it to heart!"

What he really wanted to say was: It's getting late. Can't we be dismissed and go back to rest? Commander, hurry up and say it!

"Team pride, my ass..." Lin Yu curled his lip in disdain. "Do you even know what team pride is?"

"Commander, do you know what team pride is?" the rookie couldn't help asking.

"Team pride means..." Once Lin Yu got talking, there was no stopping him. That rookie wished he could slap himself twice. Over a hundred sword-sharp glares were practically stabbing him full of holes.

Starting with their current situation, Lin Yu branched out into every subject imaginable, even rambling about the army's Three Main Rules of Discipline and Eight Points for Attention, the Third Plenary Session of the Thirteenth Central Committee, and delegates to the Fifteenth National People's Congress. In the process, he completely forgot about the quest he had imagined for himself, Sylvanas's Test.

Later, seeing that the soldiers really were tired, he took them into the shade of a large tree and continued talking. Strangely enough, perhaps because they no longer had to stand solemnly in formation or suffer under the sun, the rookies relaxed and stopped finding him long-winded. They gathered around him in a circle and eagerly chimed in, having a thoroughly good time.

Only when evening approached did Lin Yu start to feel hungry.

His final conclusion was basically this: if someone bullied him, they had to back him up and settle the score, no questions asked. If an outsider bullied any of them, he would bring everyone along to get justice.

In short, within their squadron, looking down on one person meant looking down on them all, and they had to settle the score. Beyond their squadron, if a High Elf was bullied, every High Elf had a duty to help settle the score.

"I get it! We all fight together and all get beaten up together, right?" another rookie said with a laugh.

"More or less, but there are still differences. I already explained those earlier. Now, let me ask you something. Do you know which beast is the strongest?" Lin Yu asked.

"Lynxes!" someone said.

"No, bears! Bears are powerful," someone countered.

"Raptors! My dad told me there are some in Stranglethorn Vale, and they're really fierce," someone else argued.

...The elves offered plenty of examples and argued among themselves. But no matter what anyone suggested, someone else always disagreed.

"Wrong! You're all wrong. Wolves are the strongest beasts! Wolves are relatively small, but they always move in packs. That's why lynxes, bears, and raptors all stay well out of their way. Anything that dares challenge them gets eaten as a snack. That makes them the strongest!"

"Do you know why they're so formidable?" Lin Yu said. "Because they're united. A wolf pack is a single team. When they fight, it isn't dozens or hundreds of wolves fighting. No matter how many wolves there are, in battle, they're a single wolf!"

Naturally, some elves weren't convinced, and some wanted to argue. Lin Yu knew perfectly well that his claim had holes in it. In a crazy world like Azeroth, blindly applying experience from Earth was never going to work.

The varieties of beasts here were nowhere near as limited as on Earth, nor were they as weak as Earth's beasts. The beasts here were all ferocious, and some individual creatures were absurdly powerful.

As a veteran Hunter player in World of Warcraft, Lin Yu knew that better than anyone. But one thing had led to another, and now that he had come this far, he wasn't about to back down.

He waved a hand to stop the elves who wanted to speak. "I know some of you aren't convinced. To be honest, I'm not convinced by my own argument either."

He laughed. "I said all that to tell you that you need to be as united as wolves. We're too weak. Unity is our only path to strength!"

"Do you know how wolf packs chase down their prey?" Lin Yu asked, looking around at the elves one by one.

The elves listened closely, and as his gaze passed over them, they all shook their heads.

"During my travels in the Human Kingdom, I once heard about it from an old hunter who lived in the forest," Lin Yu said. "He told me a story about a wolf pack chasing a herd of deer. Wolves can't run as fast as deer, but they're clever. They divide up the work and cooperate..."

Naturally, this story hadn't taken place in Azeroth. It was simply a story about wolves hunting together that Lin Yu had heard as a child. He had merely changed the time, place, and names before telling it.

The story chiefly stressed the importance of unity and cooperation. Lin Yu had been young when he first heard it, and the wolves' intelligence had left him deeply awestruck.

The wolves in the story had displayed extraordinarily sophisticated tactical coordination and hunting skills. At the time, he had thought they were even smarter and more cunning than humans.

Sylvanas had spent almost the entire day with the rookies, listening to him talk. Lin Yu knew she was there, but he hadn't thought much of it and soon forgot her presence.

After the story about the wolves, a rookie suddenly asked, "Commander, who looked down on you today? Let's go settle the score."

"That's right! Let's settle the score!" the rookies clamored.

"Settle the score?" Hearing that he was about to lead a bunch of underlings into a fight-a hundred soldiers, no less-Lin Yu thought they would look every bit like a mob gang.

I'm going to be the big boss! He sprang to his feet in excitement, only to turn and meet Sylvanas's gaze. He instantly wilted.

"Well, uh, about settling the score! We can't do that yet. Our opponent is too powerful.

"She's a queen-tier boss! We're still a bunch of noobs. We're not strong enough. We can't beat her!" Lin Yu sighed.

"Not even with this many of us?" a rookie asked.

"Maybe once you're all veterans, we'll have a ten or twenty percent chance of bringing that boss down. Right now, don't even think about it," Lin Yu said helplessly.

"She's that strong? Then won't we be unable to settle the score?" a rookie cried.

"How could we let it go?" Lin Yu said solemnly. "A gentleman can wait ten years for revenge. Sooner or later, we'll take her down by force!"

As the big boss, he couldn't lose face in front of his underlings. Otherwise, how could he keep his position? As he spoke, he stole glances at Sylvanas's expression.

Sylvanas answered with a silent sneer. Beside her, Lor'themar's face had turned red, and his whole body shook as he struggled to hold back his laughter.

"Right! We'll definitely take her down by force!" the rookies vowed in unison.

"Oh, Commander, didn't you say you had some good news for us? What is it?" another rookie asked.

"The good news is... Oh, crap..." Lin Yu suddenly cried. "I forgot about our mission!"

"Your mission is complete!" Sylvanas turned and walked away, saying as she went, "And I'll be waiting for you to come settle the score."

"Ah! The queen-tier boss!" the rookies gasped.

Lin Yu looked utterly dumbfounded.

Sylvanas looked thoroughly exasperated.

Lor'themar roared with laughter.

What are you laughing at? You're boss number two, you bastard, Lin Yu thought bitterly.

Sylvanas walked ahead with a dark expression while Lor'themar followed, laughing uproariously. They entered the command tent one after the other, leaving the two guards utterly baffled.

Even inside the command tent, Lor'themar still hadn't stopped laughing.

"Have you laughed enough, boss number two?" Sylvanas asked coldly, irritated.

"How did I become boss number two?" Lor'themar finally stopped laughing.

"You're my second-in-command. If you're not number two, who is?" Sylvanas sneered.

"I'm not the one they're after!" Lor'themar said with a laugh.

"I'll put you in front of me!" Sylvanas sneered.

Lor'themar... What did I ever do to deserve this?