Sithran drew her weapon—a mace as long as her forearm.
She had prepared thoroughly. Gargoyles had extremely high resistance to slashing, piercing, and cleaving attacks, but were weak against blunt force. Weapons like hammers could easily break through their defenses.
There was nothing left to fear!
Just then, she saw Gong Qiying casually pull out a Great Shield and a lance, apparently intending to use those two weapons.
"Uh..." Sithran hesitated before asking, "Gargoyles have resistance to spear-type weapons, don't they? Won't a lance deal too little damage?"
"It does deal too little damage, but why do I have to deal damage?"
"If you don't deal damage, you can't hurt monsters."
Gong Qiying gave a mysterious smile. "Just watch me in a moment. Don't interfere."
He was really good at keeping people in suspense, and Sithran happened to fall for it completely!
When they entered the fortress, she obediently stayed near the entrance instead of going deeper inside. That way, the gargoyle would treat Gong Qiying as its primary target.
"I'd like to see how you plan to fight."
Sithran was still somewhat unconvinced. Throughout history, what had been the most important thing when fighting monsters? Every adventurer would answer: damage!
Without sufficient damage, every attack against a monster was nothing more than a tickle!
In this era, adventurers had reached a consensus—focus on heavy damage and neglect technique. Don't bother with defense.
Even Shuen, the sword-and-shield warrior, primarily attacked by smashing people with his shield. He only defended occasionally.
So when Gong Qiying pulled out a heavy Great Shield, Sithran was baffled. Holding up such a large shield would severely impede combat, not to mention affect agility. No matter how she looked at it, there was no value for the cost.
"Roar!"
As soon as he heard the gargoyle's furious roar, Gong Qiying threw a throwing knife at the monster on the ceiling, successfully drawing its aggro. The gargoyle spread its wings and charged over!
"Dodge!" Sithran muttered under her breath.
But Gong Qiying did not dodge.
He stood where he was and merely raised the Great Shield, standing there blankly as if he had been frightened stupid, waiting for the gargoyle's charge!
"Bang—"
The gargoyle's massive claw slammed into the Great Shield. Gong Qiying's body trembled, but his stance did not collapse! The Great Shield perfectly absorbed the blow!
He would dodge now, right? Sithran stared wide-eyed. If he dodged now, he could counterattack the gargoyle and reap a great reward.
However—
"I stab."
Crouching behind the Great Shield, Gong Qiying jabbed the gargoyle.
"???"
An exclamation mark appeared above Sithran's head. That attack was feeble and weak, merely scraping off a tiny bit of the gargoyle's skin!
No wonder Gong Qiying had been going around the monsters on the road. His hard power didn't allow him to go on a killing spree!
"I'll take over!" Sithran shouted.
"No need. Stay over there."
Gong Qiying kept jabbing the gargoyle one stab at a time. The latter paused, perhaps because it had encountered such a light attack for the first time since entering the world.
Then the monster became enraged. Its attacks came down like a violent storm, swearing to smash this weakling human to pieces!
Something miraculous happened.
The attacks were fierce, but the Great Shield was even better, absorbing every one of the gargoyle's attacks!
"Roar!"
The gargoyle bellowed, spread its arms, and tried to send the Great Shield flying. Gong Qiying seemed to have seen through its move long ago. He bent down and rolled lightly out of the way.
Then he continued hiding behind the Great Shield and jabbing away.
If the gargoyle could speak, it would have started cursing by now.
Jab jab jab, roll once, then jab jab jab, then roll once more.
If the monster tried to snatch the shield, they simply had to start running a marathon.
What? You asked how they could run while carrying a Great Shield?
If you didn't even have the strength for that, why were you playing shield stab?
At some point, Sithran was already staring in stunned disbelief. She had never seen such a shameless fighting style.
Even when another gargoyle charged over, with both monsters bombarding him furiously, the Great Shield did not budge an inch.
As the saying went, quantitative change led to qualitative change. Before long, the gargoyle's body was battered beyond recognition. Gong Qiying thrust the lance forward, piercing through its head.
He repeated the same process, and the other one died as well.
"How was that?" Gong Qiying planted the lance into the ground and said proudly, "That was a truly exhilarating battle."
What battle?
"That was an eye-opener." Sithran did not know what to say, and her expression was quite something. After struggling for a long while, she asked, "May I ask what school of fighting that was?"
"The shield stab school! An invincible school!"
Sithran opened and closed her mouth, but remained silent for quite some time.
After killing the gargoyles, Gong Qiying did not disappear. Instead, he continued leading her through Blighttown.
When they encountered highly mobile canine monsters, shield stab solved the problem.
When they encountered monkey monsters that could throw weapons, shield stab solved the problem.
When they encountered a corner where they did not know whether monsters were lying in ambush, shield stab still solved the problem.
Sithran's eyes had gone numb.
After watching Gong Qiying use shield stab to deal with a pile of monsters that she found troublesome just to look at, she glanced at the mace in her hand and cautiously asked:
"Are you still accepting disciples?"
Beneath his helmet, Gong Qiying revealed a bright smile.
"Want to learn? I'll teach you."
"Here, take my shield and weapon. You go in front. Yes, hold the shield like that. See the monster ahead? Charge over and beat the crap out of it!"
Sithran recalled how Gong Qiying had used shield stab and launched an attack against the monster in front of her accordingly.
The Great Shield was extremely heavy, but she was an elite among adventurers, at least. Even when facing the charge of a massive monster, she could hold her ground without letting go.
Things went well at first, but as the battle gradually grew more intense, the arm holding up her shield began to tremble.
The monster seized this opportunity and suddenly rammed forward!
Her guard was broken!
"Yaaah!"
Sithran hurriedly drew her mace and smashed the monster's head apart.
"W-why didn't your guard get broken?" Her mind was filled with confusion.
Gong Qiying waved his hand cheerfully. "Didn't you notice that whenever I can't keep holding on, I put down my shield to recover my stamina?"
"Rumble—"
Like a bolt of lightning striking her head, Sithran suddenly understood!
So shield stab wasn't something that could be used carelessly. It required a bit of technique too!
When the enemy attacked, raise the shield. When it paused, lower the shield to recover stamina. When the enemy made a move to knock away the shield, roll out of the way.
In just one or two short hours, she felt that she had learned something new that she had not managed to learn in the past decade or more.
Most importantly, this knowledge had genuine practical value!
The only flaw was that its damage was too low.
But!
One person stabbing alone would appear to deal insufficient damage. What if there were two people? Three people? Even ten people stabbing together?
An image appeared in Sithran's mind: she and ten companions holding up Great Shields and surrounding the monster, their long, hard weapons repeatedly thrusting into it while all the monster's attacks amounted to impotent fury. They could only watch helplessly as they stabbed it to death.
Her delicate body trembled with excitement. Just imagining that scene was enough to make her climax!
Seeing how excited Sithran was, Gong Qiying's smile grew even wider.
Rejoice! A great shield stab player had been born!
Sithran gleefully held up her shield at the front and slew enemies, completely immersed in this almost cheating fighting style known as shield stab.
And Gong Qiying?
He silently pulled out a small sickle.
Before you continue