Hill had a bad premonition as soon as the hand appeared.
For Sheyan, whose cleverness and cunning were far beyond Hill, to take such an action at this time, he had no doubt already taken into account the first reaction of everyone on the battlefield.
He ripped open the stomach of the hungry ghost, leaped up vigorously, and activated the ‘Hornrage’ ability on his ‘Barbaric-Demon Pupil’!
An illusion of a huge beast emerged from behind him and charged forward. Sheyan’s target was Corina in the distance! By this time, their battlefield had spread to the entire floor. Sheyan covered the distance of 20 meters in the blink of an eye and slammed into the head of the helpless Corina!
Only now did everyone there notice that Sheyan’s previous injuries had all miraculously healed. A layer of strange, sticky glow rippled above the surface of his body.
Seeing this, Hill could not help shouting.
“IMPOSSIBLE!!!”
The hungry ghost that Hill had summoned was actually his ultimate skill. It was very aggressive and was one of the rare abilities that could instantly kill an enemy.
After the summoned hungry ghost had devoured the enemy, three things could happen.
(1) If the enemy’s HP value was fairly low, they would be digested and killed by the hungry ghost, which could circumvent most life-saving party skills. That was also the craziest thing with the hungry ghost. To get the drop afterwards, Hill would have to brave the stench of dung and the danger of being swallowed by the ghost to find the dropped key in the excrement of the hungry ghost .
(2) If the enemy’s HP value was adequate, the hungry ghost will absorb a certain percentage of the enemy’s HP before throwing them back out. It goes without saying that the enemy in question would have been thoroughly corroded by gastric acid and would be in a rather pathetic state. More importantly, the enemy would be trapped in the ghost’s belly for a period of time, during which they would be completely isolated from their teammates. The hungry ghost thus became a powerful crowd control ability in addition to its offensive capability.
(3) The 3rd case was not beneficial to the summoner of the hungry ghost. Remember that the ghost would absorb the enemy’s HP by percentage. If the amount of HP absorbed was over a certain limit, the ghost would become too full. In such cases, not only would it completely return the absorbed HP to the enemy, it’s own HP would leak to the enemy too, thus healing the enemy.
That wasn’t all. If the hungry ghost gave back its own HP to the enemy, the enemy’s maximum HP would permanently increased by 10%, while its summoner, Hill, would have his HP permanently decreased by 5%!
The only reason Hill dared to unleash the hungry ghost on Sheyan was because he did not see Sheyan holding a shield. Otherwise, he would have definitely used this ability on Zi instead. How would he know that Sheyan was a bizarre MT who had no shield?!?
Corina could no longer restrain Zi after she was hit by Sheyan. Zi instantly took the opportunity to cut off most of her contact with the realm of death. After that, the edge of Zi’s silver curved dagger shined with a dazzling light, and the threads of time converged.
Corina instantly knew something terrible was going to happen. She screamed and, braving the risk of the spell rebounding back on her, forcefully casted another ‘Fear’ spell on Sheyan using her pendant. Unfortunately for her, resistance towards fear-type spells was closely related to the Physique stat. Sheyan did not fall for the ‘Group Fear’ spell the first time, and naturally did not succumb this time either.
He aimed a heavy punch towards Corina.
‘Strength of the Sky’, activate!
A cocoon-like shield appeared on Corina’s body, seemingly trying to block Sheyan’s punch, but under the effect of the ‘Strength of the Sky’, the punch simply shattered the cocoon shield and gave her no chance at all. He grabbed her arm, the metallic parts on his gloves spinning at high speed, then executed a shoulder throw using the ability ‘Tactical Throw’ to hurl Corina into the air!
By now, the wolf had bitten away most of the ‘Titanium Mesh Magic Barrier’, and its sharp black claws had scratched through the skin of Zi’s upper arm. The crimson blood that flowed down stood out in stark contrast to her snow-white skin; the sight was cruel but beautiful. Despite the dangerous situation, Zi remained as calm as ever, as if the injury was not inflicted on her at all.
A green light flashed continuously on her mask and gloves. The next second, a huge, weird-looking and mysterious phantom of a savage mask materialized before her. The special effect on the ‘Massive Ndipaya Augustmask’ had made an appearance!
(TL: Refer to chapter 629 for details on the Massive Ndipaya Augustmask.)
At this time Corina had just landed ten meters in front of Zi. She screamed in terror and her body started to vaporise – it seemed that she was ready to escape. But just then, Zi’s chanting was completed. She opened her eyes, and the national emblem of the Sith Empire from Star Wars floated in front of her. It then turned into a giant claw of a Sithspawn and ferociously grabbed Corina’s throat!
This was the ability derived from Zi’s Force: ‘Force Suffocation’!
Corina let out a scream. Half of her body had already turned into black smoke, but under the grip of the giant claw of the Sithspawn, she was still greatly damaged. She was already heavily injured after taking Zi’s ‘Force Collision – Wall’ previously, and now that she was assaulted again, she immediately felt a strong sense of crisis.
Sheyan took a deep breath. Behind him, the phantom image of the ‘Stairway of the Sun’ was wildly whipping and waving about. The bulging blood vessels on his right fist looked like the roots of a plant. He launched his right fist with full force, and a horrible black gas gushed forth from it. The gas took the form of a black cross and branded itself on Corina’s body.
‘Beast of Corrosion’!
No one could take this terrifying ability lightly!
When Hill witnessed Corina taking these attacks, he immediately closed his eyes and threw out six talismans with no regard for the cost. He then turned around and ran away. He had realised by now that they had bitten off more than they could chew. The loss this time was already great enough; if he stay here any longer, he might not be able to leave this place alive.
As for Corina….this was no time to be emotional. Hill was sure that even if he tried to save her, the chance of success was less than 1%. On the other hand, if he decisively ran away right now, he had 50% chance of escaping successfully.
Corina, whose body had half turned into black smoke, howled in hysteria. Light continuously flashed on what remained of her body, indicating the use of various items and medicines. Sheyan frowned seeing that. He took a step forward to finish her off, but Zi was faster than him. She sent another ‘Force Collision – Wall’ towards Corina. At the same time, the curved silver dagger had disappeared from her other hand, to be replaced by a glistening dark gold….camera!
While Corina was plastered to the wall by the Force, Zi calmly pressed the shutter of the camera!
Amidst a rich dark golden glow, the ‘Puppet of Photography’ displayed its power!
(TL: Refer to Chapter 971 for the Puppet of Photography)
A photograph slipped down from the sky. Seems like the photography was successful. It was, after all, the most common case out of the 3 possibilities.
Zi caught the photo, and immediately tore it up. Meanwhile, the Sithspawn claw on Corina’s neck also tightened. Corina once again screeched in pain. Her body had almost fully turned into black smoke by now. She suddenly inflated like a balloon, then exploded with a loud bang. A black ray of light shot away from where she was towards the distance. A red cloak which glowed with a silver light slowly floated to the ground.
Sheyan was not unfamiliar with this situation. Corina had obviously used a substitute item which could help its owner evade death once. However, the owner could not escape from the punishment for death. Not only would all their attributes decrease, they would also drop a piece of equipment they were wearing as the price! Because this was an ability contained in an item and had nothing to do with the power from the realm of death, Zi could not prevent it even if she had previously cut off Corina’s connection to other dimensions.
Strictly speaking, the only thing that could counteract against these live-saving items and abilities were the weapons dedicated to the slaughtering between contestants!
The weapons that were known as the Blood Weapons!
Zi coldly snorted.
“They got off easy.”
As she said that, she displayed the property of the red cloak. It turned out to be an equipment that had the rare ability to increase casting speed. To Sheyan, whose skills were almost all instantaneous, it was pretty useless, but to mage-type contestants who needed time to cast spells, any equipment which could increase casting speed were godly items.
Apart from the cloak, Sheyan also found that his maximum HP had increased considerably. Such extra reward was always a welcome surprise.
Sheyan stared forlornly at the direction where Hill had escaped and said to Zi, “If you had attacked the guy just now, he wouldn’t have escaped.”
Zi rolled her eyes.
“Of course I would’ve attacked him if I could. But I couldn’t! Yes, the ‘Titanium Mesh Magic Barrier’ has high defence, but it also has a fatal weakness, and that’s its shocking MP consumption while it was in use. Don’t forget that I’d been attacked by Hill’s demonic wolf for a full 30 seconds. Stopping the woman took almost all the MP I have left.”
The defensive forces of Cyberdyne Systems had a fairly high efficiency. They had begun to organise themselves and carry out investigations. Although the Terminators released by Sheyan had caused them a lot of trouble, they were only troubles and not exactly a threatening crisis. At best, they could buy some extra time for Sheyan and Zi’s retreat.
