Chapter 113 - 109: Chaotic Battle Before the Boss Hall

Chapter 113: Chapter 109: Chaotic Battle Before the Boss Hall

SSS-grade Talent: [Armor-Stripping Death Battle]!

It cleared all bonuses to the user’s Physical Defense and Magic Defense, while simultaneously clearing all bonuses to the Physical Attack and Magic Attack of anyone who damaged the user. Moreover, every attack from the user dealt an additional 10% of the target’s maximum Life Value as physical damage!

What did it mean to clear all bonuses?

Talent bonuses, title bonuses, Equipment effect bonuses, skill bonuses—even the stat boosts provided by Equipment attributes—would all be wiped out!

The only thing left would be the most basic leveling growth stats!

How much could those stats amount to?

Even for Mages and Archers, the ranged Output Professions with the highest attack stats, their base attack at Lv30 would not exceed four thousand.

At the cost of his own defense plummeting, Rooney could cause the attack power of any opponent who struck him to plummet as well!

However, the percentage-based additional damage attached to every one of his strikes allowed him to deal bone-scraping damage!

He was a Warrior focused purely on damage output!

Having already dropped his defense to the absolute limit, he had absolutely no fear of opponents with defense-ignoring effects, because his damage output would always be higher than theirs!

He would crush everything with absolute skill and combat prowess!

A sharp glint flashed in Rooney’s eyes. Propelled by [Charge], he moved like a streaking rainbow, arriving right in front of Yu Zhun in the blink of an eye.

Then, he clearly saw the opponent’s health bar.

The red bar was squeezed so thinly by a massive shield that it was barely visible, causing him to nearly stumble mid-charge.

"Wait... how does an Assassin have such a massive shield?" he wondered in shock. "Is it an Equipment effect? Or something else?"

Rooney’s heart instantly sank. His previously triumphant expression beneath his mask twisted into an extremely ugly grimace.

"Damn it..." he cursed inwardly. "Even dealing damage equal to 10% of my maximum Life Value per strike, it would take hundreds or thousands of attacks just to shatter that shield..."

"Paris! Attack!"

With a furious roar, Rooney glared at the Archer trailing behind him unhurriedly.

He didn’t need to worry about his opponent, whom he had just been locked in a Death Fight with, turning against him before killing Yu Zhun.

As long as the opponent targeted him, the debuff from [Armor-Stripping Death Battle] would immediately be applied to them!

The reason the two of them had fought for so long was precisely because, under the suppression of his Talent, the opponent couldn’t do anything to him!

But by the same token... he couldn’t do anything to his opponent either.

"I’m on it," the male Archer named Paris replied with a darkened face and a muffled voice.

[Server 39723][Paris, Lv30]

If not forced by the circumstances, he would absolutely never cooperate with a guy who wanted to kill him.

Locking his gaze onto Yu Zhun, Paris’s eyes narrowed slightly, and his pupils rapidly contracted to the size of pinholes.

This was the Archer-exclusive skill, [Eagle’s Eye]. It provided an Enhancement to visual acuity and vastly increased the accuracy of arrows.

With this skill, even players who knew nothing about archery could easily transform into a Divine Archer.

Seeing Yu Zhun’s shield clearly from afar, Paris felt an equal jolt of shock.

"Such a massive shield capacity?" he thought. "The ratio of this shield to his health bar... Based on the roughly forty thousand Life Value of a normal, fully equipped squishy target, that shield must be at least ten million!"

"Hold him off. A mere ten-million-point shield will definitely be broken within ten arrows," Paris said coldly, expertly winding his heavy mechanical one-handed crossbow.

At this moment, he was suppressing a belly full of anger.

He was the first to arrive at the Boss’s palace, yet he had actually been delayed by a Warrior!

With the Talent he possessed, this should never have happened!

SSS-grade Talent: [Close Combat and Long-range Attack]!

The further the target, the higher the damage he dealt, capped at 1000%. Conversely, the closer the target, the lower the damage they dealt to him, capped at 1%!

Under normal circumstances, Archers and Mages were most afraid of melee Professions closing the distance, but Paris was an exception. Any melee Profession that attacked him would have their damage reduced to 1%.

Even though he was a squishy class, he could make his opponents’ attacks feel like mere scratches!

Likewise, the further away he was, the more damage Paris could inflict. He only dealt normal damage to melee players in close range, but against distant targets, he could deal 1000% damage!

It could be said that with this Talent, whether he faced melee or ranged opponents, Paris would absolutely crush them!

However, this Talent had hit a brick wall when he fought Rooney.

Because the damage taken was reduced to 1%, the percentage-based additional damage attached to each of Rooney’s attacks was also reduced to 0.1%, turning his strikes into harmless scratches.

Meanwhile, Paris’s own Physical Attack had been stripped of all bonuses by Rooney, leaving him with only a little over three thousand...

Rooney’s Physical Defense had plummeted, yes, but his Life Attribute was completely unaffected!

As a result, it was equivalent to both of them exchanging meaningless tickles.

Paris had never fought such a frustrating battle! Seeing mere four-digit damage numbers pop up on his opponent made him feel incredibly stifled!

And now, this intrusive Assassin had become the perfect tool for him to vent all his pent-up frustration.

"You think his shield is too thick and you can’t break his defense?" he sneered inwardly. "No worries, I’ll break it for you! I’ll let you know, Rooney, that my attacks, Paris’s, are never just scratches!"

CLANG!

Rooney’s Long Sword and Yu Zhun’s dagger clashed in an instant.

At the exact same time, a streak of Golden arrow shot out violently, slamming heavily against Yu Zhun’s shield.

[Shield -1,253,000]

Seeing the line of text pop up above Yu Zhun’s head and his shield visibly dropping by a chunk, the expressions of all three men shifted simultaneously.

Yu Zhun’s expression visibly relaxed. With the buff of a max-level [Sword Dance], he actually had a way to dodge that arrow just now. However, he didn’t evade, intentionally letting the opponent hit him.

He did this simply to test the waters and verify the opponent’s situation.

Even if he were in true danger, the refreshed [Sanctuary] could save his life at a critical moment.

Facts proved that the Archer standing far away, too afraid to get close, did not possess a shield-ignoring ability like Belorn.

Although dealing over a million points of damage was equally absurd, his stacked shield was more than enough to withstand it for a while.

On the other side, the shift in Rooney and Paris’s expressions came from the realization that Yu Zhun’s shield was far thicker than they had imagined.

Based on the proportion of the shield that had just dropped...

They realized in shock, "The opponent’s shield capacity is at least thirty million!"

"Fuck!" Rooney cursed angrily. Activating his equally maxed-out [Sword Dance], he yelled, "Hurry up and kill him!"

CLANG CLANG CLANG!

The Long Sword and dagger turned into afterimages as they collided rapidly, each strike kicking up a shower of sparks. In the distance, Paris’s expression looked a bit ugly. It wasn’t just because his earlier boast had been mercilessly slapped down by reality, but more so because, in a battle of this intensity, it was very difficult for him to find a suitable opening to attack.

If he accidentally hit Rooney, his own Physical Attack would plummet, making it even more impossible to take down Yu Zhun!

Rooney realized this as well.

"Attack!"

He suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs, his body twisting violently mid-combat to intentionally reveal an opening.

Although this move would likely allow Yu Zhun to hit him, Rooney firmly believed that under his Talent, Yu Zhun’s attacks would be nothing more than mere scratches!

Paris’s arrows, on the other hand, could scrape bone!

Paris, having long since drawn his bowstring taut, saw his eyes light up. Seizing the opportunity, he fired an arrow straight at Yu Zhun!

"Hmm?" Yu Zhun mused as his eyes narrowed slightly.

He had heard their exchange loud and clear, and he had formed a basic assessment of the current situation.

Between the two, the main attacker was Paris, who possessed truly terrifying damage potential.

Yet previously, the battle between these two had been stuck in a stalemate. Therefore, this guy named Rooney most likely possessed an ability that lowered incoming damage.

This was also why Rooney dared to actively reveal an opening.

"He is certain that my strike won’t be able to do anything to him?" Yu Zhun thought.

A hint of a smile flashed through Yu Zhun’s eyes.

"If that’s the case, this guy is about to be very disappointed."

Neither dodging nor evading, Yu Zhun allowed Paris’s arrow to strike him. Without the slightest hesitation, he seized the opening and viciously plunged his dagger into Rooney’s chest.

[Life -174,238]

Rooney, who had been smug just a second ago about the arrow hitting Yu Zhun, instantly froze.

He stared in disbelief at his emptied health bar. In the very next moment, he dissipated into specks of Light, exploding into a massive pile of Equipment and items.

"Nice Talent," Yu Zhun remarked as he collected everything the opponent dropped.

It was only the moment his dagger struck the opponent—when he saw his Physical Attack stripped of bonuses and reduced to just over three thousand—that Yu Zhun understood the true power of the other man’s Talent.

Any other Assassin reliant on Physical Attack would indeed have been helpless against him.

But Yu Zhun was an exception.

Rooney only had 1 Divine Demon Medal in his backpack. His name was red, meaning this was his reward for killing 1 player.

Upon seeing the opponent’s server number starting with a "6," Yu Zhun had already mentally prepared himself for not earning much.

Paris, whose server number started with a "3," was the actual fat sheep he had his eyes on, as this opponent likely carried 20 Divine Demon Medals on him.

Seeing Rooney’s health bar instantly emptied, Paris’s pupils violently contracted, and his motion of drawing the bowstring turned exceptionally stiff.

Meeting Yu Zhun’s gaze, cold sweat trickled down his forehead.