The raid team now stood at seven members.
Morris Chow, Daisy, and Jessica had long since fully materialized their stats and abilities.
The four new additions, in order of joining, were Colleen Wing as a Rogue, Young-hee Choi as the bakery’s utility Mage, Raya Cole—who was likely to be the first to break through to Martial Level 2—and Chloe Wood as a Hunter.
For the core setup, Jessica served as the main Tank.
Raya played as an Arms Warrior day-to-day, but thanks to dual specialization, she could off-tank during raids.
Healers were limited to Morris and Daisy.
Fortunately, both were versatile Foundation Establishment cultivators, making them more than capable of handling the workload.
With three Damage Dealers filling out the rest, the fundamental framework of the team was officially assembled.
Once all four new members reached Level 70 and mastered their abilities, Morris took them on a preliminary run of the Battle for Mount Hyjal raid.
Though there were a few stumbles along the way, the overall performance was solid.
Once they grew familiar with the mechanics, clearing twenty-five-man Heroic raids with a seven-person squad would simply be a matter of time and team coordination.
Daisy was thoroughly pleased.
She declared that she would leave all future recruitment to Morris while she stepped back.
Morris naturally had no objections.
He was more than satisfied with Daisy’s open-mindedness.
Time slipped away as the team built their synergy, bringing them to the arrival of winter break.
Winter break at New York universities typically began a few days before Christmas—around December 20—and ended between January 5 and January 15.
For the 2005 winter break, Morris and the others received three weeks off, with classes resuming on January 11.
Morris and Daisy planned to use this downtime to move against The Hand.
Colleen Wing’s recent investigation into The Hand, paired with her sudden hostility toward Bakuto, had made the syndicate impatient.
In fact, ninjas from The Hand had already infiltrated Colleen’s dojo three separate times.
The first time, Colleen held back because the ninja showed no intention of fighting, merely scouting the premises.
The second time, three ninjas attacked her directly.
She slaughtered them on the spot, discovering in the process that their bodies dissolved into nothingness upon death rather than leaving corpses behind.
The third time, a much larger force arrived, including several “masters” dispatched directly from Japan.
Though Colleen could hold her own, she retreated to avoid having her dojo destroyed in the fray.
Currently, Colleen was staying with Morris and the girls in their apartment building, successfully throwing off any pursuers.
Having chosen the Rogue class, her Stealth and Vanish skills were borderline divine, making her virtually impossible for The Hand to track.
Meanwhile, Morris’s own investigation into The Hand had never ceased.
Now that these guys were knocking on their doorstep, Morris had no intention of showing mercy.
Unfortunately, because of the holidays, the Chinese girls had returned home to China, leaving only Young-hee Choi and a few regular hires working at the shop.
To strengthen team cohesion, Morris decided to bring everyone currently in New York along for the operation.
Since this was their first time taking down a major syndicate, the five of them spent three days hammering out a detailed plan.
They launched their strike two nights before Christmas.
As the member with the lowest attributes, Young-hee was assigned lookout duty by Morris.
Driven by a desire to avenge her family, Colleen strongly requested to be on the front lines, so Morris gave her the task of taking down Bakuto.
The remaining leaders, Madame Gao and Alexandra, were assigned to Daisy and Jessica, respectively.
Morris took his eight pets to sweep through the foot soldiers and prevent any of the leaders from escaping.
The operation targeted three locations:
First, The Hand’s main compound in Hell’s Kitchen, where the majority of mid-level lieutenants and ninjas congregated.
Second, the drug refining factory along the Hudson River.
Madame Gao spent most of her time residing in a detached villa behind the facility—and tonight, Alexandra was there as well.
Third, the welfare school.
At night, only Bakuto and a dozen of his closest confidants remained on the grounds.
The three sites were not far apart.
Young-hee was posted in a top-floor hotel room situated centrally between all three locations, monitoring surveillance feeds and feeding intel to the group.
Colleen headed to the private academy alone to begin her path of vengeance.
Morris took charge of the Hell’s Kitchen compound to wipe out the syndicate’s main fighting force.
Daisy and Jessica got lucky, teaming up to raid the drug factory.
Morris’s end of the battle was trivial.
He simply sent his two stealth-capable pets, Big Cat and Little Cat, into the stronghold, while keeping his remaining pets deployed around the perimeter to ensure no one escaped.
As for combat difficulty, there was none to speak of.
These ninjas possessed strength no greater than ordinary humans, relying merely on basic sword techniques and thrown weapons.
Big Cat and Little Cat, on the other hand, were Level 70 beast templates further boosted by Morris’s Beast Mastery talents.
Facing what amounted to Level 1 humanoid mobs, every strike was an instant kill.
Thanks to the stealthy entry of the two pets, most of the ninjas were dispatched without ever knowing what hit them.
Infused with power and longevity by the “Black Sky”—the dark entity behind The Hand—the two leaders were considerably stronger than normal humans.
They were roughly equivalent to Level 10 humanoid mobs.
Lacking stealth spells, Daisy and Jessica were forced to push through heavy gunfire.
Faced with firearms, the two had wanted to test their physical durability against bullets, but feeling uncertain, they played it cautious.
As a result, the fight took longer than planned.
While Morris was busy clearing loot at his location, he listened to nearly twenty minutes of distant gunfire before Daisy finally sent a message confirming that Madame Gao and Alexandra were dead.
Morris didn’t bother heading over to assist with cleanup.
Because his own area had just respawned!
Inside The Hand’s compound, Alexandra and Madame Gao—accompanied by nearly a hundred ninjas—had actually revived!
They stepped out from a hidden door, coming face-to-face with Morris!
Through the doorway, Morris spotted mob information that should have been impossible in the real world:
[Black Sky (Demon)] [Level 40 (Elite)]
There was no health or mana bar—just a name and a level.
Without a second’s hesitation, Morris unleashed all eight pets, activating Intimidation, Kill Command, and a barrage of other skills.
Six Hunter pets charged Madame Gao, Alexandra, and their retinue, while his Warlock Voidwalker and Felguard bolted straight for Black Sky.
Morris drew his bow, aiming a volley directly at the entity!
A string of “Immune” text popped up in midair.
Neither physical pet attacks nor standard arrows dealt a single point of damage.
Fortunately, Morris’s habitual Arcane Shot dealt its normal damage.
Black Sky let out a bloodcurdling wail.
To Morris’s eyes, the sound condensed into a visible wave of energy—a boss AOE attack!
It was a psychic shockwave that dealt more damage the closer the target was.
His two demon pets lost less than a tenth of their health pools.
Positioned far away, Morris felt only a slight wave of discomfort, taking zero physical damage.
Morris immediately stowed his bow and switched to spellcasting mode, unleashing over a dozen instant-cast spells on Black Sky in a single breath.
Sure enough, the Level 40 Black Sky dissolved the moment the spells landed, turning into a churning cloud of dark mist that vanished into thin air seconds later!