Chapter 296 - Perfect Combination

Although the Mirage Beast was capable of duplicating a player’s every skill, Shi Feng had already obtained a clear understanding of the Mirage Beast during this short period of time.

Shi Feng had previously activated the Ice-Blue Devil Flame after starting the battle. Yet, the Mirage Beast had not done so.

The Ice-Blue Devil Flame was not a skill Shi Feng had learned. Instead, it was an additional effect provided by the item known as the Ice-Blue Devil Flame. Hence, Shi Feng could say with certainty that the Mirage Beast was incapable of duplicating the additional skills of a player’s equipment.

The moment the dark fog, which emanated from the Abyssal Blade, started permeating Shi Feng’s body, a faint silvery-gray aura of death emerged on the surface of his body. Immediately, he charged at the Mirage Beast, while simultaneously activating Nine Dragons Slash. The twelve Abyssal Blade phantoms promptly started attacking the Mirage Beast the moment they came into existence.

When the Mirage Beast saw the twelve phantoms striking at it, it cleverly chose not to block them. Instead, it bombarded Shi Feng with a Thunder Flame Explosion. As long as Shi Feng died, the twelve Abyssal Blade phantoms would naturally disappear along with him.

Seeing the Mirage Beast’s actions, Shi Feng simply revealed a calm smile. Rather than dodge the attack, however, Shi Feng chose to activate Defensive Blade and proceeded to assault the Mirage Beast’s vital point.

Defensive Blade provided Shi Feng with complete immunity to four melee attacks. He could simply allow the Mirage Beast’s attack to connect without needing to defend using his sword at all. Meanwhile, Shi Feng’s twin swords had also landed on the Mirage Beast’s body.

Previously, in order to block Shi Feng’s Thunder Flame Explosion, the Mirage Beast had used up its own Defensive Blade. Hence, it had no choice but to endure Shi Feng’s attacks right now.

Shi Feng took this chance to make seven consecutive slashes on the Mirage Beast’s body. His normal attacks caused over -500 damage, while critical hits dealt over -1,000 damage.

Meanwhile, each of the Abyssal Blade phantoms could also inflict over -200 damage.

Out of the seven sword strikes Shi Feng landed on the Mirage Beast, four achieved a critical hit. Coupling those sword strikes with the attacks of the Abyssal Blade phantoms, Shi Feng dealt over -7,000 damage within this brief moment. It was a very impressive amount of damage.

However, the Mirage Beast, which had taken on Shi Feng’s appearance, simply gave Shi Feng a smile of disdain.

The Mirage Beast looked as if it was saying, “This is your limit.”

The Mirage Beast had 200,000 HP, so -7,000 damage was only a scratch to it. It would be perfectly fine again once it rubbed some spit on its wounds.

On the other hand, now that Shi Feng no longer possessed any lifesaving skills, only death awaited him.

“A high HP is really a great asset.” Shi Feng sighed when he looked at the Mirage Beast’s HP bar. In the next moment, though, Shi Feng revealed a smile, saying, “However, you are still ten years too early if you think you can overpower me just with this asset of yours alone.”

Shi Feng activated the Purgatory Shadow’s additional skill, Purgatory Power, increasing his Attack Speed by 100% and damage by 30% for 15 seconds.

Shi Feng then pointed the Abyssal Blade at the Mirage Beast charging at him.

Abyssal Bind.

Nine chilling chains instantly emerged from the ground, wrapping around and restraining the Mirage Beast.

Abyssal Bind had a duration of four seconds. Despite being sealed, however, the Mirage Beast showed no signs of panic at all. It did not even try to resist in the slightest. Instead, it revealed a mocking expression as it looked at Shi Feng, as if telling Shi Feng to slash it as much as he wanted to.

Previously, Shi Feng had only managed to take away around 7,000 of its HP after attacking it for slightly over a second. Even if the Mirage Beast allowed Shi Feng free rein for four full seconds, the most it would lose was around 30,000 HP. That was not even a quarter of its total HP.

Moreover, after Shi Feng exhausted all his skills, he would also lose his means of dealing bursts of damage.

With neither lifesaving skills nor bursting skills, the end result was obvious. Hence, the Mirage Beast felt very assured of its victory.

Since the very beginning, this human never had a chance of defeating it.

However, the Mirage Beast quickly discovered that reality was much crueler than fantasy.

The Abyssal Bind indeed had a duration of only four seconds. However, the skill also possessed the effect of reducing its target’s Defense by 100%, and this allowed Shi Feng’s damage to abruptly soar.

Now, each of Shi Feng’s normal attacks could deal over -700 damage. Miraculously, one of his attacks even triggered the Doom Curse, one of the Abyssal Blade’s effects. Instantly, the Mirage Beast had its Attributes reduced by 30%, and its maximum HP fell from 200,000 to 140,000.

Engulfed by the storm of swords, the Mirage Beast’s HP fell crazily. Shi Feng also achieved critical hits with his attacks one after another, stacking layer upon layer of Death Aura around his body. In this situation, the Nine Dragons Slash could be said to be a perfect match for the Black Emperor Inheritance. After activating the Nine Dragons Slash, Shi Feng would not be lacking in Death Auras at all.

Before the four seconds were up, the Mirage Beast’s HP had already gone below the 70% threshold.

Just as the Abyssal Bind was about to lose effect, and the Mirage Beast was about to regain its freedom, Shi Feng abruptly leaped into the air and switched sword techniques. Simultaneously, he used ten of the 30 layers of Death Aura he had accumulated to reduce the Thunder Flame Explosion’s Cooldown. The Level 7 Thunder Flame Explosion had a Cooldown of 30 seconds. Meanwhile, each layer of Death Aura could reduce a skill’s Cooldown by three seconds. After using ten layers of Death Aura, Thunder Flame Explosion could be used again.

However, Shi Feng was still not done. He then used the remaining 20 layers of Death Aura on himself, instantly increasing all his Basic Attributes by 40%, and Attack Speed and Movement Speed by 20% for ten seconds.

After receiving this new buff, Shi Feng executed Thunder Flame Explosion, bombarding the Mirage Beast’s head and sending sparks of flame flying all around. A damage of over -1,300 points appeared above the Mirage Beast’s head, and the monster was placed into a Fainted state for three seconds.

Unless a monster was completely immune to control skills, powerful experts could usually restrain said monster continuously until death. Meanwhile, it was obvious that the monsters were not completely immune to control skills; they simply had a certain degree of resistance that would degrade the effects of control skills. Otherwise, it would truly be impossible for players to clear the Twelve Trials.

Nevertheless, Shi Feng was very clear about his own situation. Currently, as his Level was still low and the number of skills he had learned was few, he only possessed explosive power but no staying power. After his short burst, if his enemy wasn’t dead, the only options left for him were either to die or to flee.

At present, Shi Feng still had many gaps to fill in terms of the Skills he had learned. However, the Black Emperor Inheritance just happened to be able to fill these gaps, allowing him to create a perfect cycle with his skills. Without the Black Emperor Inheritance, Shi Feng would not have dared to challenge the 7th trial at all. The only pity was that the effects of the Black Emperor Inheritance could only be used on the skills Shi Feng had personally learned; it could not be used on the additional skills that came with equipment or weapons.

If it were actually possible to do so, it would simply be too overpowered...

Throughout the Fainted debuff’s three-second duration, Shi Feng had not only dealt a ton of damage himself, he had also managed to collect over 20 layers of Death Aura, thanks to the Nine Dragons Slash.

When the Mirage Beast was about to regain consciousness, Shi Feng spent another ten layers of Death Aura to reset the Cooldown of Thunder Flame Explosion, before promptly using it on the Mirage Beast again.

This time, however, the Fainted debuff of Thunder Flame Explosion was less effective on the Mirage Beast; the debuff’s duration was less than three seconds now.

However, Shi Feng did not care about this matter, because at this time, he was drowning in the pleasure he felt from brandishing his two swords. He felt that this was the true combat method a Swordsman should have, and it was a combat method he had always been pursuing.

Excessive strength easily gave rise to gaps. Instead of mindlessly trying to deal as much damage as possible, the true way to battle was to combine and coordinate one’s Skills to attack steadily like flowing water.

In this way, Shi Feng continually used Thunder Flame Explosion to incapacitate the Mirage Beast. Although the Fainted debuff’s effect grew weaker and weaker each time, the Mirage Beast’s remaining 140,000 HP was still forcefully wiped out by Shi Feng’s perfect control.

Ultimately, the Mirage Beast remained helpless until the very end.

The various big shots present in the Eternal Throne also could not help but be shocked by this result. They had never imagined that Shi Feng had such strength within him.

System: Mirage Beast defeated. Seventh trial completed. Rewarding 15,000,000 EXP, 30 Free Mastery Points, and 10 Gold Coins. Proficiency of all Skills increased by 800 points.

System: Seventh trial cleared. Do you wish to start the next trial?

The moment Shi Feng received 15,000,000 EXP, he instantly leveled up twice to Level 23. Currently, only Blackie had reached Level 23 throughout the entire White River City. However, Blackie had spent several days in order to go from Level 21 to Level 23. On the other hand, Shi Feng had taken less than ten seconds to do so...

Shi Feng then looked at the system notification. Although his heart was filled with anticipation towards the 8th trial, he still shook his head, thinking to himself, One needs to know when to stop. With the points I’ve earned, I can already exchange for an Epic ranked item. If I were to choose to continue, I would no longer be an expert but a gambler.

The Twelve Trials was the toughest trial of the War God’s Temple. The difficulty of the trials would definitely multiply severalfold the further he went. In Shi Feng’s estimation, the monster of the 8th trial would not be just a Special Elite monster. Instead, it was highly possible for it to be a Chieftain ranked monster.

A Chieftain was much more powerful than a mere Special Elite. Aside from having even more HP, it would also possess a much greater resistance to control skills. Chieftain ranked monsters also possessed team-wipe skills, and a single mistake would mean the end for Shi Feng.

Moreover, Shi Feng did not possess the slightest idea what kind of monster he would be facing in the 8th trial. If it was a Chieftain ranked monster that he was completely unfamiliar with, then he practically had no chance of successfully killing it.

The ability to make calm analyses was also a prerequisite to becoming an expert in God’s Domain.

As a first-rate expert, Shi Feng naturally knew when to decisively give up.

Following which, Shi Feng selected “No’ in reply to the system’s prompt. He was then teleported out of the Twelve Trials.