Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 102 - 97: A boss with a second stage must be valuable, right?

Chapter 102: Chapter 97: A boss with a second stage must be valuable, right?

These demon incarnate bandits could hardly believe their own eyes.

The people before them were clad in crude and even ostensibly shoddy armor, and their strength obviously wasn’t anything formidable compared to the native residents of other historical slices; there was no significant difference.

But the mental state they displayed was completely different.

In historical slices, native residents are basically just reproductions of ordinary soldiers or civilians from history. Confronted with bandits, particularly those possessed by demons, they would feel fear, shrink back, and even a slight casualty would send them completely fleeing.

Thus, the thirty-something demons were confident enough to flatten such a small historical slice.

But these people were completely different from the usual native residents!

Each of them moved with agile grace, their expressions fervent, their fighting will not just high, but exceedingly limitless!

If this was a slice of history where only a few heroic characters existed, one might see a team filled with fighting spirit, but this was clearly an insignificant little slice.

Moreover, their mental state couldn’t entirely be described simply as having vigorous fighting spirit.

They... were ecstatic!

Even crazier than the wildest barbarians!

Before the demons could react to what was actually going on, both sides had already clashed!

Led by Fan Cun and Zhao Haiping, a group of Warrior Players charged to the forefront, their movements varied and not uniform battle gestures trained within military ranks, yet highly skilled.

Since the Warrior Trials didn’t restrict the players’ fighting styles, after honing their skills, players had vastly different combat techniques.

Some players preferred to use shields, blocking then attacking; others wielded long spears or long blades, an utterly blood-thirsty style of play.

Thus, at first glance, the whole scene appeared chaotic, because normally in team battles, soldiers would have the same weapons and training methods, and though there might be differences in combat skill, they wouldn’t be so vastly divergent.

Yet this group of players were like a whirlwind of demons, each employing their own combat method.

And each person’s individual combat ability was exceptionally strong!

The Ranger players had already maneuvered to the demons’ flanks and rear, starting to attack in conjunction with the Warrior players.

The assassins stayed on the perimeter, seizing any opportunity to deal the final blow to any disadvantaged bandits.

As for the Scholar players, they might as well have been cracking seeds on the sidelines, occasionally reciting a few lines of poetry, buffing other players, and when the bandits charged at them, they would run with thighs pumping, standing back to watch as the other players slaughtered the furious, helpless bandits.

In "Dark Sand", there isn’t a scenario of "kill-stealing", as rewards are distributed automatically based on each person’s contribution in killing the bandits.

Therefore, each player was very eager in battle, and aimed to kill the enemies as quickly as possible.

After all, dying cost money to resurrect, and low casualty rate was most important!

Fan Cun casually took down a bandit and charged towards the bandit leader.

He had just been killed by this bastard, of course, it was time for revenge!

Zhao Haiping quickly followed. By now, everyone knew that once Fan Cun was riled up, he lost all reasoning; considering the bandit leader wielded a large reaper blade and appeared rather troublesome, if Fan Cun carelessly got killed, it would be too great a loss, so he went to provide cover.

The tall, demon-mask wearing bandit leader was alarmed and furious, but more so angry.

He couldn’t understand why he was being challenged by the residents of such a minor slice, and, crucially, losing to them!

At this moment, there was only one tactic for him: to quickly kill a few enemies and try to break the opponents’ morale and make them flee, or, to carve a bloody path for himself and escape!

With that in mind, the bandit leader swung his large reaper blade at these two oblivious Warrior players.

He was absolutely confident, for the power of a demon hugely surpassed that of the native residents of the historical slices.

The reaper blade’s strike was powerful and forceful, chopping ferociously towards Fan Cun!

Clearly, it was an attack that couldn’t be blocked by a shield, blocking would mean immediate death.

Although Fan Cun had an intelligence of only 1, his combat IQ was still intact; he was already well-acquainted with the bandit leader’s various moves.

The two Warrior players dodged with great dexterity to the left and right— the blade missed entirely!

The bandit leader was surprised; the agility of these two native residents before him was exceedingly nimble, such combat skills were utterly unheard of.

He initially thought it was just luck when he swung his blade again, but the two Warriors dodged agilely once more!

Though the reaper blade nearly grazed their garments, creating dangerously close shaves, following several consecutive attacks, they managed to evade in the most extreme situations.

Fan Cun even found a moment when the bandit leader was attacking Zhao Haiping and stabbed him in the lower back.

Although the demon had heavy armor and a different body structure from humans, losing only some black demonic energy, this attack was highly insulting, though not very lethal.

The demon, behaving like a player with a high-level account and impressive stats, was being toyed with by a PVP expert, quickly got furious.

"Without the Return Order overseeing, you natives dare to be so rampant!"

The bandit General roared in anger, stirring all the black smoke around his body into a tumult.

The other bandits were already retreating step by step, unable to withstand the players’ "militarized hunting" with their numerical advantage, increasingly showing a one-sided situation.

But suddenly, the black smoke on these bandits seemed to be pulled out, leaving only empty husks.

All the black smoke converged onto the bandit General, transforming him into a small giant nearly three meters tall!

"Using this trick again?

"Can’t win, so they cheat, huh?"

Zhao Haiping silently complained, having seen this scenario before during the Return Order Expedition’s recovery of historical slices.

The bandit General he’d encountered then, commanding the historical slice, was much stronger when concentrating his power, requiring Beichen to step in with a plot-driven kill.

This one, however, was much smaller.

But despite the complaints, the players were still excited.

A second-stage mini-boss!

Must be more valuable than those random troops encountered before, right?

The more diverse the monsters, the more excited the players, as it meant richer rewards after defeating them.

Watching the hefty naginata swing towards them, Zhao Haiping and Fan Cun were not flustered; they continued to rely on their combat skills to overcome their significant disadvantage in strength!

Of course, with the demon’s increased size, meaning longer arms and a larger attack range, the space for dodging was severely reduced.

But this only fueled the players’ combat spirits even more; the bigger the boss, the greater the sense of achievement in defeating it!

Some soldiers and Ranger players attacked the bandit leader head-on, other players shot arrows from behind, assassin players waited for the chance to launch suicidal attacks, and scholar players were ready to share the damage.

If the game could incorporate a boss aggro system allowing several top-skilled players to act as MTs to attract the boss’s attention while others dealt damage freely, the fight would be easier, but unfortunately, that wasn’t possible.

Thus, casualties were inevitable during the battle, with many players getting cut down by the large naginata because they couldn’t dodge in time.

The demon thought it could carve a path of escape, but every time someone fell, the natives immediately filled the gap, giving it no chance to flee!

These people seemed utterly indifferent to death, neither caring about their teammates’ deaths nor their own!

What kind of devil was this?

After slaying more than a dozen players, the bandit leader was covered in wounds, with black energy steadily escaping from the injuries, his movements growing slower.

Especially his legs, which could barely support him anymore.

Due to his height, players could only attack his legs, frantically slamming them.

If he were not a demon but a human, he would have fallen already.

"Die! Die!"

The bandit leader, driven to near madness, swung his naginata at Fan Cun, as he had the highest aggro value for it!

But this time, Fan Cun did not dodge; instead, he raised his shield high to block the strike.

The bandit leader’s eyes glinted coldly; his naginata split Fan Cun’s shield in two and, without losing momentum, cut through his body and slammed powerfully into the ground!

However, in the next second, the surrounding assassin players, as if coordinated, suddenly leaped from behind the demon, their daggers fiercely plunging into its back!

Not only that, but the scholars also rose to recite poems that restricted the demon’s power.

The massive righteous energy hit the demon like a boulder, while the assassins’ daggers cut off its power completely!

As the last wisp of black energy disappeared into nothing, the bandit leader’s body also shriveled into a husk, leaving only his armor and weapon.

Until the end, it never understood what was going on in this slice.

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