Bold yet meticulous was a fitting summary of Cheng Tian's outward demeanor.
Before facing the Red Demon, he had already observed the effects of Duck Transformation three times. The targets and resulting forms had respectively been "human = ordinary duck," "zombie = dried zombie duck," and "Man-eating Flower = plant duck with roots and stems."
From this, he could conclude that at least the transformation cast by the Gentleman's Cane in his possession was affected by the target's racial state.
But it also led to another conclusion: injuries sustained in duck form were very likely transferred back to the original body once the spell ended!
As an elite demon, the Red Demon had a full 200 HP. Even if Cheng Tian whipped it fiercely with the original Vampire Killer, he would need a full twenty strikes to kill it. What was more, due to the extra resistance granted by the Elite Template, the transformation spell, which originally lasted five seconds, had been weakened to just three.
Even Teacher Ma couldn't lash out twenty times in three seconds.
So, in that split second, Cheng Tian's battle instincts made him choose to slash at "Summer Duck's" wings first.
As a Flame Gargoyle of the Red Demon Clan, the Red Demon possessed not only high agility and mobility, but also two racial talents derived from its bloodline.
One was Fireball Projection. By gathering magic power, a Red Demon could spit out compact yet powerful fireballs.
The other was the ability to rapidly petrify itself in an emergency under any circumstances.
In statue form, the Red Demon would lose all ability to move, but the complete petrification of its skin granted it substantial physical damage reduction at a price, while its body also began healing rapidly.
Yet while Duck Transformation turned it into a duck, it also made it completely unable to actively use those racial talents that had become skills.
The Red Demon's race had indeed affected the duck form. Being pecked by a duck with ten Strength was more than enough to leave a bruise on someone's shin, but a duck's physiology meant that its flesh could never be as tough as its original body.
Three seconds were already enough for Cheng Tian to put his back into three heavy slashes.
In fact, by the second slash, the Red Demon duck's wings and a large patch of flesh along its back had already been completely cut open.
The Red Demon duck's Demon Blood sprayed directly onto Cheng Tian's Knight Armor, staining a large patch across his chest a bizarre purple.
A duck-like quacking, like that of a duck being slaughtered, came from the Red Demon duck's mouth. For a battle-hardened mercenary demon like it, the pain was simply unimaginable.
Duck Transformation seemed to have reduced the Red Demon's pain tolerance from that of an insensitive demon to that of a duck as well. At least in that instant, it could not resist the agony at all.
One second passed... three seconds passed!
As the transformation spell completely wore off, the Red Demon, sprawled on all fours in utter disarray, reverted to its demon form.
But Cheng Tian's merciless pursuit was waiting for it.
Almost instinctively, the Red Demon tried to flap its wings and take to the sky, putting distance between itself and this damned human again. But the fact that the ends of its back no longer responded, coupled with the searing pain that followed, made its entire body jolt.
The bloodied duck wings Cheng Tian had hacked off with two savage slashes had already reverted into the Red Demon's pair of bat-like Demon Wings. They lay silently discarded on the ground, while its status panel now prominently displayed: "Mutilated Limb, flight ability lost."
But it had no time to mourn its wings. Cheng Tian had already rushed forward and delivered a fierce kick to its jaw, putting enough force behind it to shatter the thing's jaw outright.
Judging by that soccer kick, he had probably gotten into plenty of street brawls before.
The Red Demon was in pain and furious.
Cheng Tian was cruel and cunning.
This time, he had guessed right again.
The injuries sustained in duck form truly did transfer back to the original body, but there was one question that could not be determined beforehand.
The Red Demon had both arms and wings. If its duck-form wings were injured, would the damage transfer to its wings or its arms?
Then again, Cheng Tian had no time to think about all that nonsense. Naturally, it would have been best if the damage transferred to the wings, but even if it transferred to the arms, it would still weaken the enemy. He could deal with everything else afterward.
Fortunately, the damage to the duck wings successfully transferred to the demon wings. Cheng Tian's two slashes directly took away its flight capability, instantly stripping it of its most troublesome aerial advantage and forcibly turning it into a flightless chicken.
Even more terrifyingly, the mutilation was directly reflected on the Red Demon's status panel. Its Agility of fifteen, a full 1.5 times Cheng Tian's, was temporarily halved, dropping to eight—two points lower than Cheng Tian's unmodified base stats.
Clearly, the Red Demon's exceptional agility was almost entirely built around its demon wings. Only while flying could it fully display the level of agility that fifteen points should have provided.
Still unsatisfied after that kick, Cheng Tian raised the Goblin Cleaver in his hand and swung it at the pointed head's neck, like some young thug fighting to kill.
Today, Cheng Tian was going to be the asshole!
Yet at that most crucial moment, the Red Demon made what it believed was the correct choice.
The sharp cleaver struck directly into the Red Demon's neck, but the strange sensation that came back the next second made Cheng Tian's tiger's mouth go slightly numb.
Looking closer, he saw that the Red Demon had entered a strange, motionless state. At the spot where its neck had been struck, there was only an inconspicuous white mark... much like a blade hitting stone.
The Red Demon had activated its racial talent and entered "statue" form.
The wound on its back and shoulder blade, which had still been bleeding heavily from the severed wings, rapidly stopped bleeding the instant it entered statue form. Its HP, which had fallen to 160 due to the Mutilated Limb and ongoing heavy bleeding DEBUFFs, immediately froze in place and began to slowly rise.
The healing rate in statue form seemed to be about one HP per second. In other words, the Red Demon needed only forty seconds to recover to its theoretical full health.
At the same time, the Red Demon's targeted physical damage reduction increased drastically in statue form. The Goblin Cleaver could not break its defense at all—not even enough to deduct a single point of HP.
And because its biological nature had transformed from demon to Inorganic Statue, as long as the Red Demon did not voluntarily cancel the form, it was no different from a real stone statue. Even the Holy Damage temporarily enchanted onto the cleaver had almost no effect.
Its curled-up posture was indeed rather miserable-looking, but the defensive effect it brought was entirely real.
After sensing Cheng Tian's apparent helplessness, the Red Demon, filled with rage and killing intent, felt equally intense delight and anticipation rise within itself.
At that moment, the Red Demon made up its mind. Once its wounds had been completely healed and the bleeding stopped by statue form, it would violently tear open Cheng Tian, this damned human can, roast him into Hell Charcoal, then swallow every last bit of him without leaving a crumb before excreting him through its intestines!
Ever since it had been born in the demon realm, it had never wanted the healing effects of statue form to be faster so badly.
As for whether it could catch Cheng Tian after losing its wings, the Red Demon, utterly ruled by rage, had completely forgotten about that.
But just then, the Red Demon sensed Cheng Tian standing there as if helpless for six or seven seconds. Then, a two-handed warhammer appeared out of thin air in his hands—
The smile on the Red Demon statue's face abruptly froze.
Before you continue