Chapter Fifty: The Second Victory-Age of Martial Arts(Cool nights come and go.)

"How did you do that! Could it be..."

Watching everything happening before her eyes, Summer Breeze was dumbfounded, and spoke out in disbelief and utter astonishment.

"Because your attack frequency and technique are far too monotonous."

Yeyu looked at the scene before him, shaking his head with a somewhat helpless sigh. Summer Breeze's choice to use multiple attack skills to break the Witch-type's perfect defense was correct, but chaining attacks in this manner using completely identical skills could only work against mediocre offensive Witch-type players. Truly formidable offensive Witch-type players only needed to master the timing of their parries; no matter how many such skills came their way, they could defend against every single one of them. In fact, it only served to increase the number of times the offensive Witch-type player successfully defended, thereby helping the opponent stack up buffs.

"Indeed, the only way to break the defense of an offensive Witch-type's black flames is to disrupt their defensive rhythm by linking attacks with completely chaotic skills," Old Hu said with a cold laugh from the side. "This way, the offensive Witch-type player can only defend against the very last attack. If you can figure out the timing of their perfect defense, you can seize the right moment for your own strike."

However, as a result, Summer Breeze was instantly suppressed and forced onto the defensive by Cups Trapping Heroes. When Summer Breeze retreated into the rubble zone, Cups Trapping Heroes flashed to the edge of the area and launched a charge directly at the perimeter. The figure darted forward through mid-air like a straight line.

Seeing this, Summer Breeze had no choice but to trigger the reaction time inherent to the mage class. Immediately after, the barrier of black flames erected by Cups Trapping Heroes blocked Summer Breeze's attack.

The direct impact of Cups Trapping Heroes collided with the protective barrier forming around Summer Breeze, generating a shockwave that rippled outward in all directions. Fortunately, this immense shockwave did not inflict any damage on either Summer Breeze or Cups Trapping Heroes.

"Ten successful defensive parries—how much of a damage bonus does that grant this guy?" Old Hu watched the scene. The damage-boosting buff on Cups Trapping Heroes had already reached ten stacks. While the exact numerical increase couldn't be clearly seen, passing the assessment of the custom talent skill tree meant that this skill fully conformed to the Witch classification.

Yeyu, however, frowned slightly and said with a hint of speechlessness, "That mage's defensive barrier might not necessarily hold."

True to Yeyu's words, visible cracks had already appeared on Summer Breeze's defensive barrier. Under the pressure, these fissures began to fracture further, the cracks spreading rapidly across the transparent defensive shield. The sound of shattering glass was distinctly audible as the relentless impacts of Cups Trapping Heroes hammered against Summer Breeze's defense.

Crack—

With a shattering sound, the entire defensive barrier disintegrated, and the subsequent collision of Cups Trapping Heroes slammed directly into Summer Breeze's body.

Instantly, Summer Breeze's body petrified, turning into a stone statue. Yet, layers of ripples began to swirl around the statue, carrying a chilling current within them. Though not bitterly cold, that frigid aura seemed capable of halting anyone in their tracks.

The expression of Cups Trapping Heroes remained calm, showing not the slightest hint of surprise at everything Summer Breeze had just done. Swallowed quickly by rising black flames, Cups Trapping Heroes moved forward at a slow pace, continuously crashing into the stone statue.

Bang—

The sounds of impact rang out abruptly. The slightly frigid current was chipped away at a small opening by a perfect defense, and Summer Breeze's true form reappeared before Cups Trapping Heroes once more. At this moment, Summer Breeze looked rather disheveled, yet under that disheveled state, there was an inexplicable sense of pity.

"There are no more chances left. This mage player has run out of options. Even the 'Hyper-Transformation Mode' won't be enough to deal with our Witch King."

Watching the battle unfold, Yeyu stretched lazily and said with a trace of fatigue.

"Damn it, how can this be!" Summer Breeze bit her lower lip gently with her pearly white teeth, finding everything happening before her eyes utterly surreal. She leaped backward in a sudden retreat, raising the staff in her hand as ice-blue radiance flickered around her. From all directions, ice-blue light converged toward the crystal atop the staff.

At this moment, Cups Trapping Heroes stood in the flat terrain area. Although Summer Breeze was positioned within the rubble zone, her line of sight was entirely blocked by the debris, making it impossible to determine her exact location in a straight line. Consequently, Cups Trapping Heroes kept moving to pinpoint Summer Breeze's precise position, the longspear in hand glowing with a faint dark-golden light.

Moving at high speed, Cups Trapping Heroes instantly located Summer Breeze hiding in a concealed spot within the rubble zone. Terrifying black mist split into several trails, leaving Summer Breeze unable to determine which strand of mist Cups Trapping Heroes was actually hiding in. Now that her position was exposed, Summer Breeze wore a haggard expression.

Wielding the longspear, Cups Trapping Heroes suddenly burst forth from one of the trails of black mist, shooting straight toward Summer Breeze's location.

Yet, perhaps sensing the sudden shift in Cups Trapping Heroes's trajectory mid-way, Summer Breeze finished channeling the skill on her staff just in time. Aiming squarely at the incoming figure of Cups Trapping Heroes, she whispered the archaic incantations unique to the mage class.

"Frigid Starfall."

Seeing this skill, Yeyu and the others changed their expressions slightly. Old Hu, on the other hand, watched with great interest as starlight resembling celestial bodies surged toward Cups Trapping Heroes, who was rapidly closing in on Summer Breeze.

"That's a skill created independently within the custom talent skill tree. This little girl's ability isn't bad at all; no wonder she was invited to help deal with us."

A dazzling array of starry, icy thorns flashed with blinding brilliance. Yet amidst this radiance, everyone clearly saw a layer of frigid mist wrapping around Cups Trapping Heroes in mid-air. The original speed slowed down progressively, clearly indicating that the character had fallen under a deceleration debuff. Soon, the icy currents swirling around Cups Trapping Heroes grew denser, and a layer of ice formed by the frigid energy froze Cups Trapping Heroes's lower limbs, plunging the character into a sluggish negative status effect.

In the blink of an eye, Cups Trapping Heroes was instantly frozen solid by Summer Breeze's skill. The piercing frost thorns flickered with faint starlight; while dazzlingly gorgeous, that mesmerizing beauty carried a fatal peril.

Formed directly from the frigid currents, the razor-sharp ice thorns shot violently toward the body of Cups Trapping Heroes. In mere moments, the icy currents wrapping around Cups Trapping Heroes had generated countless frost spikes.

Within the span of a blink, they ruthlessly and completely engulfed the figure of Cups Trapping Heroes.

After letting out a sigh of relief, Summer Breeze said with a hint of smugness, "How's that? Serves you right for choosing to show mercy. Once you're hit by this skill of mine, you're dead for sure. I'm not a player you can mess with easily—you picked the wrong opponent!"

However, the moment Summer Breeze's words fell, the ice layer encasing Cups Trapping Heroes—who had just been pierced and frozen by the frost spikes—began to crack gradually. The figure of Cups Trapping Heroes transformed into a cluster of black mist and shot outward. Before Summer Breeze could activate her remaining "Hyper-Transformation Mode," the black mist had already flashed right behind her.

"How..."

Summer Breeze muttered under her breath, terror welling up in her eyes. Looking down, she saw a spear tip wreathed in burning black flames protruding from her chest. Within less time than it takes to brew a cup of tea, Summer Breeze's health bar plummeted instantly to zero, after which she was restored to her near-death health pool. By contrast, the health bar of Cups Trapping Heroes still sat precisely at seventy percent.

"Heh, even though you still had 'Hyper-Transformation Mode' as a safety net, your reaction time wasn't fast enough. More importantly, since you were facing me, you probably never even got the chance to activate it—or rather, even if you had activated it, you still would have been struck by my attack because your reactions simply couldn't keep up."

The voice of Cups Trapping Heroes rang in Summer Breeze's ear, sounding bone-chillingly cold. There was no trace of mercy in it; the fellow had merely been testing out a new combat style earlier.

"Although the 'Hyper-Transformation Mode' is a decent safety-net skill, if your own reaction time isn't fast enough, even a safety net doesn't guarantee you can activate it in time."

Watching the final clash where Cups Trapping Heroes achieved a narrow and thrilling victory over Summer Breeze, Yeyu crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head with a sigh.

"Using an ultimate skill created through the custom talent skill tree in a situation like that was an utterly foolish move."

Old Hu shook his head, offering a blunt and direct evaluation of Summer Breeze. If Summer Breeze had heard it, there's no telling what kind of expression she would have made.

While the ultimate skill Summer Breeze created herself was indeed impressive, possessing a variety of continuous debuff multipliers followed by a devastating barrage of attacks, its essence seemed far better suited for everyday leveling and dungeon raids. Because it relied on high damage output and binding mechanics, system balancing dictated that such high damage required accumulation over a certain period to reach its peak. Under these circumstances, Cups Trapping Heroes merely had to dissolve into a patch of black mist the instant the freezing layer formed to completely dodge the remaining volley of frost spikes.

However, the most fatal flaw of that skill was that it obstructed vision. Because it blocked the line of sight, Summer Breeze was unable to accurately judge whether Cups Trapping Heroes had truly taken the full brunt of the ultimate skill's attacks. Even if Cups Trapping Heroes had taken the skill head-on, the distance could still be closed continuously during the slow movement phase. If Cups Trapping Heroes survived, a fatal strike could be unleashed before Summer Breeze even realized she needed to activate "Hyper-Transformation Mode." A fragile mage taking that kind of lethal attack would die without a doubt.

Because the attacks of Cups Trapping Heroes already included the damage bonus accumulated from those previous perfect defenses, a squishy mage like Summer Breeze could never withstand it without being able to accurately calculate the incoming damage.

Cups Trapping Heroes steadied Summer Breeze with a hint of gentlemanly demeanor and smiled, saying, "Thank you for showing mercy earlier."

Summer Breeze was still recalling the words Cups Trapping Heroes had spoken earlier and momentarily dazed at this gesture, her initial annoyance flaring up as she prepared to retaliate and attack Cups Trapping Heroes.

Yet in the arena, whether a match ended depended entirely on the players themselves; otherwise, even after the match officially concluded, players could still continue attacking each other until one died. This was precisely the key reason why Yeyu and his companions had resolved to immediately finish off "Minus Three Years" once defeated.

Right after, however, Summer Breeze's figure vanished directly before the eyes of Cups Trapping Heroes.

Such a scenario could only mean one thing: the third player had triggered the forced substitution feature, and Summer Breeze had been directly teleported out of the arena.

"Your Excellency Witch King, I apologize for what just happened. She didn't mean any harm; she was just caught up in the heat of the moment and acted a bit irrationally. Please forgive her."

The person stepping up was another Witch-type player. Judging by the appearance, faint black flames swirled around the entire body—clearly another offensive-route Witch-type player.

This was a player walking the exact same path as Cups Trapping Heroes, with the only difference lying in their custom talent skill trees.

Offensive Witch versus Offensive Witch—all eyes converged on this battle!