Battle, What a Rush!
When the monsters facing Su Luo emerged one by one from the thick darkness, the scrolling comments in his Livestream Room seemed to be strangled by an invisible hand, leaving a momentary void.
They... seemed a little different.
One level 4 elite [Shadow Curse Binder]!
It seemed to be made of pure shadow and negative energy, with a humanoid outline and no facial features. Darkness spread wherever it passed, and even the light of Su Luo's fireballs seemed to dim.
Three level 3 elites!
[Thunder Rhino], its massive body clad in thick natural rock armor, lightning crackling and bursting around its single horn.
[Soul-Snatching Enchantress], floating in midair with an ethereal form, humming a decadent tune that directly eroded the mind and broke down the will to fight.
[Razorblade Demon], shaped like a rapidly spinning wheel of death, its limbs transformed into peerlessly sharp, pale bone blades that left streaks of afterimages as it moved.
Ten ordinary level 3 [Demonized Gnolls]! Their muscles bulged, their eyes were blood-red, and they held finely crafted bone clubs, roaring as they gave off a berserk aura.
[W-wait a second?!]
[Th-this doesn't look right!]
[Why does it feel like these aren't on the same level as Ye Xu's monsters? These things all look terrifying.]
[It's "fighting alone"! The Monster Tide's difficulty has increased dramatically!]
[How did he dare challenge it...]
[Shadow Curse Binder (elite)]
[Level: 4]
[Strength: 1]
[Spirit: 13.5]
[Constitution: 5]
[Skills: Invisibility, Curse, Embrace, Rebirth]
Ridiculous!
Su Luo's eyelid twitched. This monster had the most ridiculous stats he had ever seen.
13.5 Spirit. What did that mean?
If converted to Strength, estimates from analysis posts on the forum suggested that 13 Strength meant a bench press of roughly 12–18 tons, while 14 Strength meant 25–35 tons.
And what did that mean?
With 14 Strength, a punch was estimated to be capable of piercing 3–5 meters of reinforced concrete or thinner alloy armor. One could crush a tank's gun barrel and tear apart a warship's deck with bare hands, easily destroy steel plates 50–100 millimeters thick, and break the structure of a small destroyer by attacking it with full force.
Not to mention its whole slew of skills, or the fact that it was an even more bizarre spirit-type monster.
A hard fight.
Flames rose around Su Luo, and fireballs as bright as the scorching sun suddenly lit up, trying to dispel the suffocating sense of pressure. The monsters opposite him were already stirring, their bloodthirsty gazes fixed on the lone figure atop the stone pillar.
The battle erupted in an instant!
The [Shadow Curse Binder] vanished from the spot without a sound.
The [Thunder Rhino] charged like a heavily armored tank, smashing through a stone wall amid crackling lightning; the [Soul-Snatching Enchantress]'s decadent tune pierced straight through his eardrums, attacking his mind; the [Razorblade Demon] became a streak of silver light, spinning at high speed as it rushed at Su Luo!
All ten [Demonized Gnolls] hurled their bone clubs at once, and the power of their enchantments sent the clubs whistling toward him like cannonballs!
Faced with a siege that could only be called a desperate situation, Su Luo's mana surged around him at an unprecedented speed.
The earth in the Thunder Rhino's path instantly softened into mud, and jagged rocks sprang up out of nowhere, trying to slow it down.
At the same time, three walls of wind instantly formed in the distance and shattered, deflecting the gnolls' volley of bone clubs.
The fireballs split apart and joined together as though they were alive. Some became a rain of flaming arrows that picked off and intercepted the Razorblade Demon, forcing it back.
The rest slammed violently into the ground ahead, erupting into a raging sea of flames. Then, joining with the howling wind, they rose from the ground to form a massive ring-shaped wall of fire, temporarily cutting off the charge behind it!
The roar of explosions, the bellow of thunder, the monsters' snarls, the soul-snatching shrieks, and the hum of spells intertwined in a deafening frenzy!
Su Luo's face turned pale. He took a mental shock from the [Soul-Snatching Enchantress] head-on, and a trace of blood seeped from his nose.
A small Fireball Formation he had set up earlier rapidly erupted beneath the [Soul-Snatching Enchantress], carrying nine highly compressed miniature fireballs. Right behind them, the flames burning around it surged toward it as if summoned, taking it out in a single wave.
[You have leveled up!]
Before he could celebrate, the [Shadow Curse Binder]'s attack arrived!
The [Shadow Curse Binder] suddenly materialized a short distance behind Su Luo, but he was already prepared.
A ring of intensely scorching flames suddenly expanded outward from him!
The [Shadow Curse Binder] was instantly pushed back, but quickly flew forward toward the stone pillar again, its twisted body spreading open in a spine-chilling [Embrace].
At the same time, dense shadow curse power surged toward him like a tide, trying to drag him into eternal darkness. A cold, sluggish sensation instantly gripped Su Luo's heart and brain!
[Curse] took effect! His thoughts were mired as if in mud, turning with extreme difficulty, and his body grew immensely heavy.
Gritting his teeth, he slowly brought forth a Fireball Formation he had cast earlier, based on eight times eight, sixty-four yao!
The rock beneath Su Luo's feet softened like a living thing, and his body plunged into the stone pillar. Sand, earth, and rock surged madly around him, thickening layer upon layer to shield him securely at the core!
The [Shadow Curse Binder] couldn't pull back in time, or perhaps it simply didn't care. It went straight ahead and "embraced" the complex Fireball Formation radiating destructive energy fluctuations.
The formation was eerily quiet in its embrace, quiet as a baby born dead.
Then came an earthshaking explosion. Blinding white light instantly swallowed the [Shadow Curse Binder], violently tearing apart the shadows and energy that made up its body; faintly visible, its form had grown unstable.
Su Luo's headache eased considerably. He hurriedly pulled out a [Mana Potion] and a [Stamina Potion] and poured them into his mouth.
Lying inside the massive earthen sphere formed from sand and stone, he sent his mana surging again. It drained rapidly, squeezed out until there was almost not a drop left, then was replenished by the [Mana Potion].
All the fireballs he had cast earlier, even the flames still burning on the monsters' remains in the distance, rushed madly toward the space above his head as though summoned by an emperor!
An unprecedented, immensely complex and gigantic fireball slowly took shape in the air, rotating slowly and emitting destructive energy fluctuations, while its light instead gradually dimmed!
Su Luo's face was as pale as paper, and a trace of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. This move had clearly put an enormous strain on him. Mud and rock carried him underground.
Using the Livestream Room's third-person view, Su Luo kept track of the battlefield.
"Explode—!!!"
Boom!!!!!!!!!!
That was no mere explosion. It was as if a sun had been born overhead and collapsed in an instant! Extreme light and heat swallowed everything! A massive ring of fire swept mercilessly outward from the stone pillar!
The explosion's shock wave was contained by the surrounding stone walls, further constraining and concentrating the flames' power. It produced an effect similar to a kiln, bringing its killing power to the extreme.
Wherever the flames passed, the level 3 [Demonized Gnolls] died before they could even scream, the level 3 elite [Razorblade Demon] was torn apart, and the [Thunder Rhino]'s rock armor shattered piece by piece. Its massive body was set ablaze and blasted away!
Even the level 4 elite [Shadow Curse Binder] perished in the fiery nova, letting out a sharp, inhuman shriek. Then it slowly reappeared in the air, considerably more insubstantial.
[Rebirth]!
The light gradually faded.
Su Luo drank another bottle of [Mana Potion] and spotted the revived [Shadow Curse Binder] through the Livestream Room.
Its dark body had grown thin and transparent, floating in a massive, charred crater. Inside the crater were burning remains and drifting ash.
It seemed to have temporarily lost the ability to attack.
The battlefield fell silent for the moment.
The entire battle, from start to finish, had lasted less than three minutes, its pace suffocatingly fast. After a full several seconds of silence, the Livestream Room comments erupted like a flood bursting through a dam!
[What happened?]
[He c-cleared the field?! He killed them all in one shot?!]
[So cool!]
[God Su!!!]
[A nuclear explosion?! Am I allowed to watch this?!]
[Are we playing the same game?]
[Is this the power of mastering class skills early?]
[Even a max-level Fireball isn't this ridiculous, right?]
[He cast at least hundreds of fireballs... He's really using a cheat!]
[Why does it feel like the monsters are fighting a boss when they fight Su Luo?
[His talent must be a spell-related cheat! Something like power amplification or spell optimization...]
[Powerful, calm, and carrying a kind of destructive beauty... Can a man be this beautiful too...]
[???]