Chapter 71: The Power of Asura

Boom—

In just an instant, a crimson radiance enveloped "Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes," and right at that moment, the slightly smiling voice of "Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes" rang out from within the red glow.

"You successfully forced out my death-immunity after all. In that case, I concede!"

Boom—

A beam of light descended instantly from the heavens, shattering the crimson glow and engulfing "Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes," forcibly sending him to the edge outside the holy stage and dropping him right beside Night Feather and the other two.

"Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes" directly chose to surrender, forcing himself to step down from the match. Because the moment his death-immunity was triggered, he immediately chose to concede defeat, meaning that no matter how fast "Three Years Older" moved, it was impossible to instantly kill him.

Standing upon the holy stage, "Three Years Older" wore an extremely frosty expression as he watched "Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes" leave the platform, his eyes brimming with endless murderous intent.

Naturally, they chose to ignore these expressions from "Three Years Older." "Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes" looked at Night Feather and the other two and said, "I could only do this much. This guy has truly undergone training and drills at the RG Club, and his practical combat ability has improved by more than just a notch. His level is entirely in the super-tier category."

"Don't worry, leave him to us. You've already done quite well," Night Feather said calmly, then glanced at Huang Hong and nodded.

Upon hearing this, Huang Hong nodded as well, patted "Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes" on the shoulder, and smiled, "Leave this battle to me. I'll make sure to treat 'Three Years Older' well and collect some interest for you."

"Just make sure you aren't the one getting beaten up instead!"

"Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes" replied with a raised corner of his mouth, giving Huang Hong a thumbs-up.

The second match: "Three Years Older" versus "Xin'ai."

In reality, in terms of purely personal combat power, the practical combat ability of "Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes" was by no means inferior to "Three Years Older." If both sides fought under equal conditions, it would be an absolute fifty-fifty matchup. Ultimately, "Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes" had been thoroughly deduced and anticipated by the RG Club, and Night Feather and his companions had ultimately underestimated the capabilities of the RG Club. After all, this was the cream of the crop among first-tier clubs, and their habitual tactics involved unorthodox and underhanded methods.

Furthermore, the RG Club's investigation into "Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes" actually exceeded everyone's imagination. The prowess of the RG Club remained formidable; even with Night Lingxue's warning, Night Feather had still underestimated them. After all, this was a first-tier club, and one of the most resourceful ones at that.

The RG Club's simulation and estimation of the skills of "Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes" had reached an accuracy of seventy to eighty percent, complete with numerous calculated skill permutations. Therefore, virtually every move "Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes" made on the holy stage had been predicted and budgeted for by the RG Club. Consequently, "Three Years Older" had naturally conducted a targeted investigation and prepared countermeasures against them during this period.

"Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes" losing to "Three Years Older" was, in truth, not unjust at all.

The current fighting style of "Three Years Older" relied on basic attacks with very low damage values, utilizing them solely to stack the layers of the burning debuff state. He then depended on accumulating this effect to a certain threshold before triggering an explosion, achieving massive damage figures. If the opponent's health was low, he could outright instantly kill them. Even if he couldn't achieve a one-hit kill, he could still shatter the defensive armor of "Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes" and continuously suppress him near the brink of death.

What's more, the advantages possessed by "Three Years Older," who wielded a holy-grade spear, could by no means be completely balanced out by numerical equilibrium. After all, a holy weapon remained a holy weapon; in the presence of holy-tier items, all other grades of equipment were reduced to mortal gear.

Therefore, at the start of the battle, "Three Years Older" had let "Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes" pretend to show courtesy and take the initiative to charge up and execute his skills, while he himself secretly channeled his own required skills. Once the fight truly began, the most crucial advantage "Three Years Older" gained was absolute dominance in agility. Under such absolute suppression, he managed to avoid being touched by the skill damage of "Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes." Although burning debuff stacks accumulated on his body, the damage inflicted upon "Three Years Older" under these circumstances was not high, nor did it help "Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes" recover much health.

"Relying on such minor skills to figure out the opponent's fighting style and techniques, completely grasping every detail of the opponent, and through these details deducing skill directions and the potential types of customized talent skills to formulate targeted countermeasures for various special situations—that is the RG Club,"

Old Hu crossed his arms across his chest and said coldly, "Even among first-tier clubs, the reason the RG Club has a poor reputation is simply because their methods are extremely ruthless and underhanded. However, their actions still fall within the permitted scope and do not cross the line, which makes other peers hold them in contempt. Yet, fame naturally brings negative reviews. In short, we cannot rule out the possibility that the skills of everyone currently on our side have already been estimated and evaluated by the RG Club through simulation testing."

Night Feather nodded. Clearly, choosing Huang Hong to face "Three Years Older" in the second match was actually the most appropriate choice, as only this could preserve their remaining chances to the greatest extent possible.

Moreover, a spearman countering a spearman was the most likely scenario to force out the opponent's corresponding skills. From this angle, both Night Feather and Old Hu would be able to deduce the skills of "Three Years Older" as well as those on his customized talent skill tree.

"Although we have roughly figured out the combat style and tactics of 'Three Years Older,' we haven't forced out his trump card or ultimate-level skills yet, so we still need to be extremely careful. What follows are just guesses made by third-brother and me; during the fight, you'll have to rely on yourself to verify them."

As his voice trailed off, Old Hu furrowed his brow slightly as if recalling something, and lowered his voice to give a few final instructions to Huang Hong.

What Old Hu wanted to remind Huang Hong of was that the fighting style of "Three Years Older" was not too difficult to understand: relying on absolute agility superiority to create an unbreakable advantage that suppressed and even massacred the opponent, while using basic attacks as the primary offensive method to stack burning debuff layers on the enemy. Through this strategy, he could unleash a massive burst of damage. As long as this tactic wasn't broken through, "Three Years Older" might not even need to display his next tier of skills.

However, every player's skill set possesses a certain AI-evaluated comprehensive value, and this comprehensive value is standardized across all players. Therefore, the skills on every player's customized talent skill tree are bound to have restrictive conditions. Furthermore, maintaining the highest state of agility under these restrictive conditions is an imbalance, and because it is imbalanced, there must naturally be a flaw associated with this skill. This very flaw was the crucial and only path to defeating the combat style of "Three Years Older."

The hypothesis held by Old Hu and Night Feather was that this key skill flaw involved an extremely tight consumption of mana. Every time he moved using that high-agility state, it undoubtedly consumed the mana of "Three Years Older." Therefore, it wasn't that "Three Years Older" chose not to use skills, but rather that he deliberately minimized skill usage with the sole purpose of preventing his mana consumption from exceeding safe limits.

Consequently, "Three Years Older" ultimately relied on basic attacks and the area-of-effect properties of his crimson flames to stack the burning debuff state.

Moreover, Night Feather had also discovered that the base physical damage of "Three Years Older" was slightly lower than that of a normal spearman. This was likely due to some skill requirement that forced a reduction in base physical damage in exchange for balance. Crucially, every time "Three Years Older" fought, it triggered a certain crimson brilliance. While that brilliance looked dazzling and seemed useless, it could transform into flames to burn opponents in close-quarters combat. Furthermore, during the fight, because "Three Years Older" utilized high agility to suppress his opponent, he lacked the opportunity to stand still and channel skills. Therefore, Night Feather suspected that the skills of "Three Years Older" were far more complex than they appeared on the surface.

Perhaps the effect of this skill also included an automatic channeling function, which was one of the reasons it forced a reduction in base physical damage. However, the speed of this channeling was obviously at least half as slow as normal skill preparation. Thus, during the battle, Night Feather had clearly observed that whenever there were pauses in the fight, or when the opponent was blown back or forced out of distance, "Three Years Older" didn't choose to pursue; instead, he used those brief moments to channel, even taunting the opponent during this time and voluntarily giving up advantageous offensive opportunities.

While relinquishing those advantageous attack openings seemed to deliberately give the opponent a chance to catch their breath and recover, in reality, it was because "Three Years Older" himself needed to channel to recover his own consumption and prepare for the energy required later.

When near death, "Three Years Older" would definitely choose to let the burning debuff stacks reach eight layers or more, and then directly use basic attacks or transform the crimson brilliance into crimson flames during close combat to further increase the stacks. Once the stacks reached ten or more, he could directly execute a long-range manipulation, causing the burning debuff states left by the spear marks on the opponent to automatically detonate, as if directly incinerating the adversary from within.

Of course, many of these summarized discoveries by Night Feather had also been noticed by Old Hu. The insights of the two complemented each other, playing a crucial role in helping them see through the skills of "Three Years Older" and the key details of his combat style.

Upon hearing these words, "Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes" was stunned. During the heat of battle, he hadn't had the slightest opportunity to discover these critical issues and fatal details. Naturally, "Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes" admired the observation skills of Night Feather and Old Hu all the more for reaching such a degree—it was evident just how intensely focused their attention had been.

"It seems my fight truly wasn't in vain, and it even brought you such major discoveries. Suddenly, I feel like losing this match wasn't a loss at all; it almost makes me feel a bit proud."

"Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes" laughed, the expression on his face swelling with pride as if he felt his previous battle had played a decisive, crucial role. And considering this was merely the first match of their lineup, uncovering so many detailed and critical issues was undoubtedly an excellent outcome.

"You noob spearman, if you have the ability to defeat 'Three Years Older,' go ahead and finish him off!"

At that moment, "Trapped Cup of Wine with Heroes" looked at Huang Hong as the latter walked onto the holy stage, and said with a smile.

"Tch, you guy."

Huang Hong rolled his eyes, then looked at Night Feather and Old Hu, and nodded.

Immediately afterward, Huang Hong turned around and brandished his spear-halberd. The weapon in his hand flashed with a dazzling brilliance, wrapping around the shaft as the expression on his face gradually turned stern. He looked at "Three Years Older" and said, "Ever since joining the RG Club, the speed of your improvement has exceeded everyone's imagination, and your combat power has reached such formidable heights. It makes my blood boil with excitement, and the holy weapon in your hands has certainly made you even more formidable. However, you've also thoroughly absorbed the contemptible traits of the RG Club. In the server, you truly are such a contemptible person; in a way, one could say you and the RG Club are cut from the exact same cloth."

"Hehe, I have no idea what you're talking about. I defeated the Witch King fair and square."

The trace of playful mockery on the face of "Three Years Older" froze slightly upon hearing Huang Hong's words, replaced by a calm yet ferocious expression that was dangerous to the extreme. He stared intently at Huang Hong and continued, "However, my goal hasn't been fully achieved yet; for me, that was just a minor slip-up. That mistake won't affect the second match, so a blunder like the one in the first round will not happen again."

"Is that so? That actually makes it feel a bit regrettable."

Huang Hong hoisted his spear-halberd onto his shoulder, a faint fighting spirit gleaming in his eyes as the corners of his mouth curled upward. "It seems only defeat can turn every excuse into empty nonsense, turning them into evidence that merely covers up the truth. Of course, if you want to blame someone, blame yourself for being too weak while relying too heavily on external strength!"

"It seems you see things very clearly. Then why do you still wish to fight me?"

"Three Years Older" raised the holy weapon in his hand, the tip of the spear wreathed in sharp air currents, pointing directly at Huang Hong.

Huang Hong slammed his foot hard against the ground, and instantly, a totem-like phantom materialized behind him.

The armor on Huang Hong's body glowed with incantation-like runes, radiating an aura that felt as though a brave hero was undying and his potential was fully unleashed.

That totem resembled a scarlet blood moon, and right at its center stood a towering sacred spear that seemed capable of shaking the heavens and earth and suppressing all existence.

It was like the twilight of the gods, with a single holy spear standing eternal between heaven and earth.

"Asura's Might"

……