Chapter 68: Fury

"It seems that Three Years Younger's offensive is not very aggressive, and the damage dealt to Wine Cups Trap Heroes is also not quite obvious."

Huang Hong said with a slight frown, looking puzzled at the current situation.

"Normally, it's impossible to tell where the brilliance of the Saber Monarch system lies, and the Saber Monarch system is a difficult path to tread. Without specialized guidance and training, well, one of the coaches in the club's coaching team is the true founder of the Saber Monarch, so naturally, he is better at this direction than anyone else."

Old Hu said indifferently, while inwardly beginning to carefully observe Three Years Younger's combat style.

On the holy stage, the figure of Wine Cups Trap Heroes stepped back slightly. After stabilizing his posture, he lowered his head a bit to inspect the spear marks on his armor. Faint crimson flames were lingering within those spear marks, which caused Wine Cups Trap Heroes's expression to shift slightly and his brows to knit together.

Seeing this, Three Years Younger said coldly, "You shouldn't let your mind wander on the battlefield! Otherwise, you'll meet an untimely death in a matter of seconds!"

Three Years Younger immediately launched his next attack. Hearing these words, Wine Cups Trap Heroes snapped back to his senses, his face turning solemn. The next instant, he dissolved into patches of black flames that scattered in all directions, swiftly retreating toward the cluster of his black flame clones.

At the same time, while falling back, Wine Cups Trap Heroes directly launched an attack against Three Years Younger.

"Shadow Wolf Kill!"

The next moment, the black flames behind Three Years Younger merged to form a giant wolf standing about six feet tall, its entire body radiating surging black flames. The wolf claws viciously crossed and slashed directly at Three Years Younger. Because of his extremely high agility during the assault, Three Years Younger abruptly lowered his head upon sensing the situation behind him, easily dodging the attack and continuing his pursuit of Wine Cups Trap Heroes, who had dived into the cluster of black flame clones.

"No wonder the RG Club gave up on investigating our skills."

At this moment, Ye Yu's eyes narrowed slightly, a flash of cold light gleaming deep within his pupils as he spoke coldly.

"Oh? How so?"

Old Hu didn't understand what Ye Yu meant. He looked at the combat situation on the holy stage, still unable to comprehend the reasoning behind Ye Yu's words.

"The reason we noticed we weren't encountering the mercenaries hired by the RG Club later on is because they abandoned that channel to probe our skills and directly chose other methods instead. Although it hasn't been publicized, they must have obtained a considerable amount of information to deduce the skills on our custom talent skill trees."

Ye Yu frowned slightly, rubbed his chin with his left hand, and continued, "Wine Cups Trap Heroes's skills have obviously been deduced to some extent. Look at how Three Years Younger, when facing this 'Shadow Wolf Kill', didn't even need to look back to accurately judge the timing of the wolf's attack and used his sheer agility and speed to dodge it directly. That kind of fluid, effortless awareness—even with hellish training, Three Years Younger couldn't possibly anticipate an entirely unknown skill like that."

"So, Third Bro, you mean that Three Years Younger has already figured out that idiot's skills?" Huang Hong was startled at this moment, unable to hide his astonishment upon hearing Ye Yu's conjecture.

Wine Cups Trap Heroes on the holy stage could naturally hear their conversation. At this point, he was beginning to realize that things were taking a bad turn. Although he still had his summoned cluster of black flame clones and had devoured quite a few of them to enhance his attributes, there weren't many left, and his health had only recovered to forty-eight percent—a world of difference compared to Three Years Younger's health pool.

Thanks to his high speed, Three Years Younger had closed the distance to Wine Cups Trap Heroes in the blink of an eye. The holy martial spear in his hand thrust straight into Wine Cups Trap Heroes's right leg and swept upward. Crimson flames surged into view, leaving a gruesome spear mark on the armor. The faint, continuous burning of the crimson flames proved extremely punishing for Wine Cups Trap Heroes.

This single attack reduced Wine Cups Trap Heroes's health by another two percent, dropping it down to forty-orship six percent, while the negative status effect of continuous burning was refreshed.

Wine Cups Trap Heroes's expression gradually grew ice-cold. At this point, he had no choice but to face the situation with absolute calmness. Even in this state, he didn't appear to be falling entirely behind. A black spear manifested in his hand, enveloped in roiling black flames. A ferocious black gale swept across the holy stage, which was long past its original pristine and untainted state, now blending crimson and pitch-black hues.

Wielding his longspear, Wine Cups Trap Heroes shot directly toward Three Years Younger. Swinging the black spear, he materialized right before his opponent in a split second, bringing the weapon down in a vertical chop aimed squarely at Three Years Younger's head.

Whoosh—

Seeing this, a flash of surprise crossed Three Years Younger's face. He sidestepped just half a meter before the black spear struck, evading the blow entirely. Taking a slight step back, he patted his chest with his left hand and wore a playful expression as he said, "Heh, that was close."

The moment his words fell, Three Years Younger thrust his holy martial spear toward Wine Cups Trap Heroes once more. This time, however, a layer of black flames spread across Wine Cups Trap Heroes's body as if endowed with life. When the spear thrust forward, the black flames directly latched onto the shaft and surged explosively toward Three Years Younger lurking behind it.

The black flames transformed into vicious black chains, instantly binding Three Years Younger. Seeing this, Wine Cups Trap Heroes gripped his black spear and aimed it at his trapped opponent. Terrifying black flames swirled around Wine Cups Trap Heroes, forming the visage of a ferocious ghost behind him, resembling a fiend straight from the abyss.

Three Years Younger merely smiled faintly. At that exact moment, a crimson fireball suddenly materialized beside him and detonated the very instant it formed.

Down by the edge of the holy stage, Ye Yu and his companions were momentarily stunned. Three Years Younger's holy weapon actually possessed additional special effects—a spell-category, explosive-ball-type skill that could be condensed and detonated instantly. That alone made him exceptionally difficult to deal with, and so far, Three Years Younger hadn't even revealed his actual skills yet.

At that moment, Wine Cups Trap Heroes charged violently toward Three Years Younger. Under his current state, if the amplified attributes collided with Three Years Younger, the resulting damage would undoubtedly be astronomical. This impact effect was far more powerful than anything Wine Cups Trap Heroes had displayed previously.

However, because of the sudden explosion of the crimson fireball summoned by Three Years Younger, the sheer blast radius shattered the armor on Wine Cups Trap Heroes's body. Although the armor remained on him, it was on the verge of complete disintegration at any moment.

Crucially, the explosion of the crimson fireball also generated a sheet of crimson flames that obstructed Wine Cups Trap Heroes's vision. Because Wine Cups Trap Heroes had already committed to his charge, he could not stop his momentum. Yet the very next second, a figure skirted around from the flank directly above him.

Due to his high agility, the black flame clones summoned by Wine Cups Trap Heroes were nothing more than decorations to Three Years Younger, utterly incapable of blocking his advance. In the end, the only useful purpose those clones served was restoring Wine Cups Trap Heroes's health. However, Three Years Younger's speed was simply too fast, leading Wine Cups Trap Heroes to attempt to utilize the "Overclocked Mode" for offense rather than defense. Throughout their exchange, Wine Cups Trap Heroes had ultimately been forced to halt his attacks on Three Years Younger, slipping into a passive defensive posture instead.

...

In the spectator stands, many figures were seasoned, experienced players. Because this battle was generating such a massive sensation, a large number of powerful players had come to watch it unfold.

"That Shaman-class player is already playing quite well, but unfortunately, his opponent is even stronger."

"The key is that the RG Club trained him in the Saber Monarch system. That kind of developmental path can only be nurtured by RG's own coach, the Saber Monarch himself."

"By discarding attacking opportunities and heavily leaning into defense, the Shaman has undoubtedly fallen into a disadvantageous position. Going on like this will be very unfavorable for him."

"..."

Ye Lingxue's group appeared unusually silent. The burly man sitting to her right spoke with a slightly magnetic voice: "This battle... by the end, that Shaman player might not even force the RG Club's youth training team member to use a single skill."

"That's very likely. The Shaman player is playing well, and among newcomers, he's undoubtedly displaying extraordinary proficiency. Such talent is bound to catch the eye of interested parties, and invitations will surely be sent out before long."

The lean man to Ye Lingxue's left agreed with the burly man's assessment. Meanwhile, Ye Lingxue furrowed her delicate brows slightly, staring intently at the combat unfolding on the holy stage. To be honest, deep in her heart, the players fielded by Ye Yu's lineup had already given her quite a shock. Even though this match would likely end in a defeat for the Shaman player, given time, surpassing this Saber Monarch disciple named Three Years Younger wouldn't be an overly difficult task.

...

On the holy stage, after just a few exchanges, Wine Cups Trap Heroes had already been struck by Three Years Younger multiple times. His body was covered in clear, slightly gruesome spear marks, over which faint crimson flames continued to burn. Because these were merely basic attacks, they hadn't actually depleted a massive chunk of Wine Cups Trap Heroes's health. Conversely, however, Three Years Younger had accumulated eleven stacks of the burning negative status effect inflicted by Wine Cups Trap Heroes's black flames, and the continuous burn was noticeably chipping away at Three Years Younger's health pool as well.

Yet, in order to drive up those stacks of continuous burn on Three Years Younger, Wine Cups Trap Heroes had once again been caught at close range during their subsequent clashes, causing his own health to plummet to roughly thirty-seven percent.

"It seems you've done quite a bit of research on my skills, and even deduced a good deal of the direction on my custom talent skill tree. As expected of the RG Club's capabilities—if it were just you alone, how could you possibly master such a capability in so short a time? But I still have quite a few trump card skills up my sleeve, ones I've never used in actual combat against anyone. I'm quite curious how you'll handle them?"

At this moment, Wine Cups Trap Heroes looked at Three Years Younger with a cold smile curving the corners of his lips. Even as he spoke, his figure slowly retreated back into the cluster of summoned black flame clones. He stretched out both hands, and the remaining black flame clones abruptly began to transform, turning one by one into warriors clad in black flame armor.

At the same time, Wine Cups Trap Heroes checked his ongoing burning status effects; they had reached eight stacks, while Three Years Younger sat at twelve stacks. In this regard, he held a slight situational advantage.

Seeing this, Three Years Younger rested his holy martial spear across his right shoulder and walked forward at a leisurely pace, the playful expression on his face growing increasingly pronounced. "Looks like you're planning to wait out your negative status effects before making a move?"

Beneath the holy stage, Huang Hong watched Wine Cups Trap Heroes's actions and praised him in admiration, "Is he using his summoned legion to protect himself? Buying time isn't an impossible strategy, and it lets those negative status effects wear off."

"That method is indeed effective, and his legion can evolve as well. The ones remaining have all transformed into the likeness of battlefield soldiers, making them far more combat-capable than before," Ye Yu nodded in approval.

On the holy stage, Three Years Younger continued his slow advance. From time to time, two soldiers would charge directly at him, only to be blasted away by a single punch. Looking at Wine Cups Trap Heroes hiding amidst the legion, Three Years Younger scoffed, "Don't you think this approach is a bit naive? Did you forget that my current strongest attributes are agility and attack power?"

As his voice trailed off, Three Years Younger came to a halt. Rhythmic ripples of crimson flames suddenly surged around him. Standing at the epicenter, his expression abruptly turned solemn. Raising his holy martial spear in his right hand, he aimed directly at Wine Cups Trap Heroes in the center of the black-flame-armored soldier legion, his eyes filled with dense, heavy killing intent.

"Let you experience my true strength today—prepare to face my wrath!"