Kiting was a common tactic in online games. Some players had even developed entire "kiting builds"-all ranged classes with strong crowd control, since the tactic would be impossible otherwise.
Put simply, kiting meant "I can hit you, but you can't hit me." In PvP, it was a technique every ranged player had to learn, or they would have no way to deal with melee opponents. They couldn't exactly trade blows with a staff or longbow, could they? They had to use crowd-control skills to limit how long the enemy could stay close.
Besides PvP, kiting was also very useful for fighting monsters.
Take this level-17 Elite Monster, for example. Even a level-17 warrior would struggle to withstand its attacks without a healer restoring their health, let alone a certain poor little level-9 mage. One touch, and he would be dead.
Chronicles of the Sky had no rule saying Elite Monsters could only be killed by parties. Players had limitless ingenuity. Just because most people couldn't do something didn't mean nobody could.
How exactly would he do it? Simple. The monster hit hard? Don't let it land a hit. The monster ran fast? Pummel its legs for all they were worth.
A certain someone's "dirty" tactics sounded simple enough, but actually pulling them off was incredibly difficult! Never mind anything else-dodging every single Charge was a feat of pure skill. Let someone else try it and see how they did.
Whatever the case, Ye Fengxing had already been leading the Scarab Guard Captain around for five minutes. He could handle this extremely difficult kiting routine with ease, and still had plenty to spare.
"Almost there..."
Ye Fengxing calculated the distance in his head and looked up again.
As he had expected, an enormous dark shape appeared a hundred meters ahead, too indistinct to make out.
Ye Fengxing flicked his hand backward, and another stone struck several of the scarab guard's legs, slowing the giant bug once again. This guy could hit his mark without even looking. Anyone who witnessed that throwing technique would have been utterly amazed.
As he drew closer, the enormous shape finally became clear... It was actually two massive boulders sitting on the ground, with a gap between them forming a rather narrow passage.
"About time to let it rip, huh? Hmm, still not far enough..."
Ye Fengxing abruptly changed course, leading the Scarab Guard Captain off to the right. White vapor burst from the giant bug's body as it used Charge again, only to produce another utterly predictable "MISS."
MISS: an attack that failed to connect, usually because the opponent dodged it. (Ahem, you probably all knew that. Sorry for stating the obvious...)
This area sloped downhill. Running on a steep incline usually affected movement speed-for instance, running downhill made you faster. This boost was calculated as a percentage of the character's own speed, depending on the steepness of the slope.
The Scarab Guard Captain's movement speed was already far higher than a player's. With that extra boost, it actually began closing the distance to Ye Fengxing little by little.
Ye Fengxing paid this no mind. He led the level-17 elite bug around in several more loops before approaching the two boulders again.
"5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Come on!" A certain someone suddenly stopped between the two boulders. Right on cue with his countdown, the Scarab Guard Captain used Charge and hurtled straight at him!
Thud! After a heavy, muffled impact, Ye Fengxing flipped up to his feet, rubbed his temples, and let out a long breath.
As for the Scarab Guard Captain, the poor, stupid giant bug was now wedged between the two boulders, unable to advance or retreat. It could only flail its long, hairy legs in a futile struggle.
"Think you can take me on, punk?" A certain someone wore the eminently punchable expression of a man whose devious scheme had succeeded, casting a contemptuous glance at the Scarab Guard Captain stuck in midair.
Downhill slopes were actually well worth studying... When a character running downhill suffered a "trip" effect, they wouldn't simply fall over. Instead, they would become "airborne." As the name suggested, no part of their body would touch the ground; they would be completely suspended in the air. Generally, the faster they were moving before they tripped, the longer they stayed airborne.
Being airborne was a nasty effect. Once it took hold, players lost a considerable degree of control over their characters. It was like basketball: if you leaped up for a dunk and someone bumped you in midair, could you still land safely? Controlling your body in the air was difficult.
Ye Fengxing was a guy who absolutely loved going airborne. Not only did the bastard enjoy it himself, he also loved sending his opponents airborne...
Once a character was airborne, changes in their viewing angle and a whole host of other factors made it difficult to retaliate against an enemy target, and even harder to block or dodge the attacks that followed. It was a feeling that left people helpless, miserable, and... hating their opponent's guts!
In PvP, airborne effects were often used to chain combos. An airborne opponent was practically a sitting duck, and repeatedly launching them could produce combos with an impressive number of hits. This was precisely why a certain someone adored his "infinite aerial combos."
For that very reason, he had once been ranked among the "ten most hated PvP experts," and had even held the top spot repeatedly.
Unfortunately, a little level-9 mage's Strength was far too low to launch a level-17 elite. Even a level-17 warrior who put every stat point into Strength would struggle to manage it, with a skill offering only a slim chance.
So how had a level-17 elite running along perfectly normally suddenly gone "airborne"?
The secret lay in the stone in front of a certain someone...
Ahem, another stone... This one wasn't large, merely protruding a little above the ground. Although tripping while running downhill caused an airborne effect, it would never normally be this extreme... But a certain someone was just that devious. He had actually calculated exactly when the Scarab Guard Captain would use Charge! Then, through careful maneuvering, he had finally lured the giant bug into position before the little stone and the gap between the two boulders.
The Scarab Guard Captain, the little stone, Ye Fengxing, and the gap between the boulders-all four points lined up, and so...
Besides, everyone knew that the speed of Charge was far more explosive than any movement-speed buff...
The stupid bug charged forward, its enormous body flew high into the air, and it plunged headfirst into the gap between the boulders. With nowhere to brace itself, it became firmly wedged in place, unable to move again.
Who knew whether this counted as a bug? But in terms of difficulty... It would have been easier to rush straight in and tank the monster! Ask an ordinary player to try this, and they might not succeed even once in a thousand or ten thousand attempts. What incredible control, mental calculation, and reflexes it required!
Could a bug that difficult even be called a bug? After all, the whole point of exploiting a bug was to save time, effort, and trouble. A method like the one he had just used was utterly meaningless to the vast majority of players. (BUG: here, an undiscovered flaw or problem hidden within a game's code, which players with ulterior motives could exploit to obtain rewards or effects that should not occur.)
What followed was terribly dull. Ye Fengxing really did have remarkable patience: using nothing but rank-1 Magic Missile, he actually whittled the level-17 elite Scarab Guard Captain down to death...
Low-level characters regenerated mana fairly quickly. As long as they didn't cast spells nonstop, their mana could keep up. All he had to do was keep the monster in combat. He could drag this out and see who could endure the boredom longer.
Combat status: once a player attacked another target, both entered combat. Until they left combat, they could not rest, replenish health and mana by eating, or summon a mount.
"Resting" was just a term. If you wanted to sit, lie down, or sprawl on your stomach in combat, nobody would stop you. What resting actually meant was receiving various recovery effects while "out of combat."
Health and mana regeneration, for example, were far faster out of combat than in combat, and eating certain foods could accelerate those recovery effects further.
In combat, relying on natural regeneration to restore health or mana clearly wasn't practical. Skills were the only option. Classes that couldn't heal-warriors, for instance-had to use certain combat recovery potions instead.
Those potions had restrictions too, usually limiting the number of uses to so many per fight. Otherwise, if players could drink potions endlessly, what would anyone need healers for? They could just compete over who had more money and bigger bags.
Leaving combat was easy: go six seconds without attacking the opponent or being hit by them.
When fighting monsters, though, you couldn't leave combat carelessly. Once a monster left combat, it would do everything it could to recover its Health Points, and its health regeneration would increase dramatically. By the time you came back to fight it, it might already be at full Health Points.
Unless someone else was helping, leaving combat casually during a monster fight was out of the question. A certain someone was all alone right now. If he left combat, who would keep the monster engaged?
With no other choice, Ye Fengxing rationed his meager mana, casting one Magic Missile every three or four seconds to keep the Scarab Guard Captain in combat.
The tedious process continued for fifteen minutes. With a mournful cry, the poor giant bug finally breathed its last...
"Bloody rotten luck!" Ye Fengxing glared at the little pile of copper coins on the ground and cursed bitterly... He had worked himself half to death grinding this thing down, and the bastard had dropped only twelve copper coins. How was a certain someone supposed to take that after all his hard work and dazzling displays of difficult techniques?
"I refuse to believe this!" Ye Fengxing picked up the copper coins, turned, and headed back. Damn it, wasn't there another one? Surely they couldn't both fail to drop anything good?
Ye Fengxing had discovered this spot on his way here. Now that his experiment had confirmed it could successfully trap certain large monsters... How could the bastard possibly fail to make full use of such a "great spot"?
Waste was a crime! That was what he had always believed.
The first attempt had been an experiment, and his unfamiliarity with the route had cost him quite a bit of time. The second time, however, he knew the drill. It took Ye Fengxing a mere four minutes to kite the other Scarab Guard Captain over to the boulders.
Thud! With another muffled impact, a second giant bug found itself in that utterly miserable predicament...
After he killed both Elite Monsters, two commander-tier "Scarab Generals" spawned, just as Ye Fengxing had expected. But he didn't care whether they were "generals," "commanders," or anything else. He would kite them all the same.
The Scarab General had a new skill: Ground Spikes.
Ground Spikes wasn't entirely without warning. Before the spikes emerged, a faint glow appeared on the ground to mark where they would erupt. With quick enough reactions, dodging them wasn't difficult. As for a certain someone, he didn't even need to look. The vibrations beneath his feet alone told him where they would appear...
Up against a freak like him, even level-20 commander monsters had no choice but to "show their true colors" at the hands of a little level-9 mage.
Twenty minutes later, Ye Fengxing reached toward the bug's corpse, brimming with anticipation. The moment he opened its loot... a green light flashed. His eyes and hands were quick, and he immediately seized the item in a firm grip.
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