Chapter 32

Just as the Skeleton King was eagerly awaiting Zhou Tian to appear and save it, Zhou Tian, who the Skeleton King had placed great hopes on, was leading the half-orcs into the tunnel, neither too hurried nor too slow.

"Don't rush, don't rush. If we go too fast, how can we achieve our goal?" As he walked, Zhou Tian shook his head and deliberately directed his half-orcs to block the path. Behind them were almost all the Skeleton Archers of the Skeleton Clan.

In this way, while the Skeleton King and the other Skeleton warriors were fighting the NPCs, Zhou Tian was leading his half-orcs to delay the Skeleton Archers in the tunnel. If Zhou Tian hadn't been afraid of making his intentions too obvious and causing the Skeleton King to retaliate before dying, he might have blocked the Skeleton Archers in the tunnel directly.

In the end, due to Zhou Tian's actions, the team that could have timely rescued the Skeleton King was repeatedly delayed. By the time they arrived, the Skeleton King was already on the verge of defeat.

"This guy is still not dead, that old thing is really useless!" Zhou Tian's plan was to let the Skeleton King die at the hands of the NPCs. That way, with the authority he had from his alliance with the Skeleton King, Zhou Tian could command the Skeleton Clan to fight the NPCs to the death. In the end, when both sides were weakened, Zhou Tian could strike, achieving his goal of annexing the Skeleton Clan and claiming the credit for defeating the NPC village.

However, Zhou Tian underestimated the Skeleton King's strength. Despite the strong NPCs he had seen and his efforts to delay, he couldn't kill the Skeleton King. This disrupted his original plan.

"Should I save him or not?" After a moment of hesitation, Zhou Tian quickly made a decision.

"Save him!" Almost instantly, Zhou Tian decided. Given the current situation and the Skeleton King's character, if Zhou Tian saved him, even if his original plan failed, he could still gain some benefits. On the contrary, if Zhou Tian didn't save the Skeleton King, the Skeleton King would certainly die, but Zhou Tian would also face a bad outcome.

With his decision made, Zhou Tian took no further hesitation. Almost immediately, he issued an attack order to the Skeleton Archers behind him.

"Your king is about to be injured by that NPC. For his safety, all archers, target that NPC and attack!" Although the Skeleton Archers were not half-orcs, Zhou Tian, with his BOSS authority, could control them to some extent. As a result, when Zhou Tian gave the order, the Skeleton Archers immediately shot their bone arrows at the NPC.

When hundreds of bone arrows were shot at once, the scene was quite impressive. Although it wasn't as dramatic as the "thousand arrows piercing the heart" in movies, it was enough to make any ordinary target tremble with fear.

The NPC, though powerful, was not invulnerable to the Skeleton Archers' attacks. Even if each Skeleton Archer could only deal a small amount of damage, a single wave of attacks from the Skeleton Archers could deal hundreds of damage points to the NPC.

Zhou Tian didn't yet know how the monsters' and NPCs' health points were calculated. However, based on the health points of players in the game, which were usually within 100 for levels below 10, Zhou Tian was confident that the NPC's health points couldn't exceed 1000. Therefore, with Zhou Tian's arrangement, the Skeleton Archers could pose a threat to the NPC.

In fact, with Zhou Tian's order, the Skeleton Archers' first wave of attacks dealt significant damage to the NPC.

Zhou Tian and the Skeleton Archers couldn't hide their presence, but the NPC never expected Zhou Tian to use the Skeleton Archers for a covering fire attack. In that situation, no matter how strong the NPC was, it couldn't avoid the attack.

Thus, under the attack of Zhou Tian's Skeleton Archers, the NPC's health points were instantly reduced by more than half. If the NPC's health points were not much higher than those of ordinary NPCs, it would have died from this attack.

However, even if the NPC was temporarily unharmed, if it didn't take action, Zhou Tian's next order would likely finish it off with a second wave of attacks.

Feeling the threat, the NPC dared not stay in place. Almost immediately after taking the bone arrow damage, the NPC charged toward Zhou Tian.

Given the NPC's strength, if it had wanted to retreat, Zhou Tian's group would have had little chance of stopping it. Once the distance between them increased, even with the Skeleton Archers' wide attack range, they wouldn't pose a threat.

However, the NPC couldn't abandon its responsibility. Despite being able to leave easily, the NPC chose to take a risk.

Although Zhou Tian usually didn't take the lead, he was the only one besides the Skeleton King who could command so many Skeleton Archers. Now that the Skeleton King was completely suppressed by the NPC, Zhou Tian had to personally take charge to use the Skeleton Archers' strength.

Even if the NPC didn't know that Zhou Tian was behind the events in the village, it could see that the Skeleton Archers threatening it were being commanded by Zhou Tian.

"Capture the leader first," the NPC thought. If it didn't want to retreat, it had to capture Zhou Tian. Only by capturing Zhou Tian could it fundamentally restrict the Skeleton Archers' actions and find a way to save the village.

The NPC's assessment was accurate. The two leaders threatening the village were Zhou Tian and the Skeleton King. If they were eliminated, the half-orcs and Skeletons would become disorganized. Given the NPCs' advantages, although they would pay a heavy price, they could drive the half-orcs and Skeletons out of the village.

Although the Skeleton King had authority, its limited abilities couldn't lead the monsters to victory. Moreover, the Skeleton King, though it had survived the previous battle, was on the brink of death. In that situation, capturing Zhou Tian would resolve the village's crisis.

However, while the NPC's plan was correct, capturing Zhou Tian was not an easy task.