A Reckless Charge (2-in-1)

"I want this day..."

A long string of sentences burst from Lin Haoyang's mouth, his heart overflowing with shame. He wished he could bite off his own tongue, but his mouth just wouldn't obey him.

After uttering this string of lines brimming with adolescent angst, Lin Haoyang's "Silent Philosopher" persona was essentially ruined.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Bai Xiaowen fired a shot at Lin Haoyang, the Desert Eagle bullet whistling out with a 100% Critical Hit.

Lin Haoyang, as expected of a veteran of countless battles, was saved by his instinctive reaction as Hero Class. He had long known that Bai Xiaowen's first shot after entering combat mode would be terrifying, and he had been on guard against that.

Even while reciting his cringeworthy lines, Lin Haoyang subconsciously activated his blink ability, dodging the bullet's damage.

"... all vanished into thin air!"

The long string of lines finally ended. Lin Haoyang moved to another position, gritted his teeth, and continued to cast, Siphon Arrow.

The Butcher sprinted forward, with Bai Xiaowen close behind, like a living shield! Although the Siphon Arrow could slightly adjust its trajectory, it could no longer bypass the Roshan that was the Butcher and hit Bai Xiaowen; it could only strike the Butcher's belly.

Although the Butcher didn't activate Rot or have any set bonuses, the +4 effect of the Venomfang Priest Robe already reduced magic damage by 15%. Combined with his astonishing Life Value, taking a basic spell was practically nothing to him.

Two Skeleton Sword-and-Shield Soldier flanked him from behind, forcing Lin Haoyang to activate the speed boost from his shoes and retreat to create more distance.

In mobile combat, there's no way to cast spells. Relying on his faster movement speed, Lin Haoyang created some distance and then unleashed a Siphon Arrow, a textbook example of kiting tactics.

During the 10-second speed boost from the shoes, Lin Haoyang unleashed three Siphon Arrow! Including the two that Butcher had taken earlier, that's a total of five Siphon Arrow, theoretically dealing over 370 magic damage!

Such damage should bring down even a tank-type Elite Tier summon.

However, the Butcher's Life Value only dropped by about a quarter.

Looking at the Butcher's health bar, Lin Haoyang felt a surge of powerlessness. What kind of summoned creature was this? It was even tougher than the Boss Tier! His spell attacks had an additional 20% damage bonus against silent targets.

Not only Lin Haoyang, but the audience was also extremely astonished. Five spells had been cast, and the Butcher was still full of energy! Although they couldn't see the Life Value bar of their opponents like Lin Haoyang, they could still glean clues from the Butcher's condition.

"The Stitched Monster Butcher is too strong! With such high Life Value, he's practically the perfect tank!"

"Mom no longer has to worry about me getting pew pew pew pew pew pew. As long as I hide behind the Butcher, its big butt can perfectly protect my face."

"The Spirit Channeling Prince character... is really strong! The Silent Philosopher used two important items in a row, but he's still being dominated by the Spirit Channeling Prince... those four lava monsters are about to collapse!"

Those who were already following the competition casually opened the Virtual Battle Platform's store interface and quietly unlocked the Spirit Channeling Prince character.

Bai Xiaowen previously stated that the current price of the Spirit Channeling Prince is 9900 points. Once Bai Xiaowen scans all the data and updates the character information, the Virtual Battle Company will definitely raise the price. Originally, everyone thought 9900 points was the maximum for a mid-level character, but now...

The audience's assessment of the situation was correct; Lin Haoyang was being suppressed.

Although Lin Haoyang used an S-Tier summoning item and temporarily possessed four Rare Elite- level summoned creatures, he had no Summoner Class bonuses and didn't know how to control them, so he could only let the Lava Construct fight based on instinct.

Fortunately, the Lava Construct itself has a passive AOE ability called "Flame Scorch," so even without manipulation, its minimum strength won't be too low; otherwise, it would have been overwhelmed long ago.

While pressing forward, Bai Xiaowen also focused on manipulating his summoned creatures, such as Kitz, to fight. He adopted a strategy of defeating them one by one, with the Elite Tier creatures holding off the other Lava Construct while he concentrated the power of several summoned creatures to surround and kill one of them!

Bai Xiaowen himself was also constantly firing. After his first attempt to attack Lin Haoyang missed, Bai Xiaowen locked his target on the Lava Construct that was being focused on. He extended a rock-solid arm from under his Commander’s Cloak and kept firing at the first Lava Construct.

Four Lava Construct, one of them died within ten seconds! Then summoned creatures rushed out and ganged up on the second one...

Bai Xiaowen remained calm. Given the current situation, he had no need to rush. The banishment period for Rageclaw was only 75 seconds; if it dragged on too long, Rageclaw would return to the battlefield, and Lin Haoyang would have no chance at all! Therefore, Bai Xiaowen chose to play it safe.

Lin Haoyang gritted his teeth and unleashed a Greater Slow.

This skill has clearly been leveled up to a very high level, reducing the movement speed of enemies within range by 50% and their attack speed by 20%. It is significantly stronger than the basic skill description seen in the Insight section, and the duration is almost doubled.

However, the main effect of this skill is to reduce the opponent's movement speed. As for attack speed... 20% isn't low, but it's not exactly a game-changer.

The current situation is that the Lava Construct are already locked in combat with Bai Xiaowen's summoned creatures. Their rudimentary combat instincts have no concept of "retreat" or "flanking maneuver"; they simply swing their burning lava arms and attack any hostile target that dares to stand in their way.

Therefore, the halved movement speed has no impact on the summoned creatures; it simply allows Lin Haoyang to move around more freely. Bai Xiaowen continued to coordinate with the summoned creatures to deal damage, and soon they took down the second Lava Construct.

Lin Haoyang could only continue attacking Bai Xiaowen, firing Siphon Arrow one after another! He knew that Bai Xiaowen and Rageclaw shared Life Sharing link, so he could only take advantage of Rageclaw's absence to unleash his full power and try to knock Bai Xiaowen down. If Rageclaw broke free of his banishment and returned to the battlefield, it would be even more difficult to kill Bai Xiaowen.

Unfortunately, the Butcher stood like a solid wall in front of Bai Xiaowen, absorbing all the magical attacks. The Siphon Arrow's Mana Drain effect could only forcibly extract 1 point of the Butcher's Divine Might each time, not even enough to cover the Siphon Arrow's own energy consumption...

Does the Butcher's lack of mana have any impact?

"This can't go on... it's a slow suicide!"

Lin Haoyang saw that the Butcher's Life Value was down to half, and the return time for Rageclaw was drawing ever closer. He took a breath and finally made up his mind.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a pair of transparent wings unfurled from the cloak behind Lin Haoyang, flapped forcefully, and propelled Lin Haoyang Sprint, speeding ahead—note that this was just an acceleration Sprint, not flight.

"Actively closing the distance? What kind of tactic is that?"

Bai Xiaowen was slightly taken aback, then realized something, and a smile appeared on her lips.

"Oh, you're in a hurry..."

Lin Haoyang closed the distance to the Butcher and Bai Xiaowen by tens of meters, his body radiating light as he suddenly unleashed his combat skill: Flame Ground!

With a deafening roar, the earth cracked open within a radius of several dozen meters around Lin Haoyang, magma churned, and flames rose up.

This skill is considered Lin Haoyang's ultimate move. Generally, AOE skills with long cooldowns and high Divine Might consumption are the most difficult to master. However, Lin Haoyang has already mastered this skill to a very high level. The rising flames even have an additional burning negative status effect that can stack!

Additionally... there is a 25% speed reduction effect.

What's most outrageous and shameless about this skill is that it's not a skill that requires maintaining a casting time!

After casting the spell and expending a large amount of Divine Might, the Flame Ground beneath Lin Haoyang's feet will continue to burn for eight seconds. But during these eight seconds, Lin Haoyang doesn't need to cast a spell; he can do other things... such as repositioning, casting other spells, and so on.

Although the skill's base damage isn't high, the burn stacks become unbearable. Especially when summoned creatures are all affected by the Greater Slow, their movement speed is drastically reduced, making it difficult to escape the Flame Ground zone quickly.

Flames surged, and the air twisted.

The Skeleton Sword-and-Shield Soldier exploded one after another.

The Skeleton Champion were also in dire straits, and Kitz had already used his Bat Transformation ability to escape outside the fire zone.

Kitz's escape was Bai Xiaowen's order. Kitz had already died once in the Ramses Plane World, forgetting some things from his childhood. If he died a few more times, he might completely lose his memory.

Fortunately, the Shadow Assassin is at a disadvantage against the Lava Construct, and its Stealth ability is even more detrimental to those with Mental Specialist. Bai Xiaowen did not summon it, otherwise, given its vulnerability to magic, it would probably be finished.

The one who truly stood firm was the Butcher, who, despite being heavily slowed and enduring wave after wave of scorching flames, still slowly moved towards Lin Haoyang.

"What a formidable opponent. Even with the use of two items, you've managed to push me to this point; you have every reason to be proud."

Bai Xiaowen didn't say this aloud. He genuinely acknowledged Lin Haoyang's strength, and saying it would be tantamount to a provocation.

The Bone Warlock unleashed a Yellow Heaven skill from afar, restoring a small amount of Bai Xiaowen's Life Value and briefly pulling him out of his silent state.

Hiding behind the Butcher, before the next wave of burning damage from the Flame Ground took effect, the Four-Color Talisman in Bai Xiaowen's palm flickered, finally locking onto the red one.

The target is Bai Xiaowen herself.

With a Pure Note sound, the slowing effect of the Flame Ground on Bai Xiaowen's body dissipated instantly, his skin turned red, and he quickly entered a state of immunity to control and damage amplification! Then, he activated the acceleration of his shoes and rushed towards Lin Haoyang!

Actually, without the continuous slowing effect of the Flame Ground, Bai Xiaowen wouldn't have needed to use so many skills—the duration of the Greater Slow only lasted about half on him, and it's already over. After all, he has the powerful passive ability of the Kusanagi Sword's Heart of Sincerity, and there are three "strong enemies" on the field: Lin Haoyang and two Lava Construct...

However, Bai Xiaowen has many trump cards, so it doesn't matter if he uses them now.

Lin Haoyang's heart skipped a beat. He had already used up his speed boost and had no other way to create distance between himself and Bai Xiaowen. He made up his mind, raised his staff, and fired the Siphon Arrow again. This time, there was no Butcher to stop him.

At this moment, Bai Xiaowen is immune to crowd control, so the Siphon Arrow does not deal any additional damage.

"Even if someone with Mental Specialist gets right in front of me, what can they do... I know you have the Orochi Nagi, and maybe you know some fighting moves, but so what? How many points is your strength, twenty or thirty? I have Mana Barrier; before you fall, your output won't be enough to kill me instantly!"

These thoughts raced through Lin Haoyang's mind. He wasn't a talkative man, but his inner world was surprisingly rich.

In Lin Haoyang's view, Bai Xiaowen's best option at this moment was to take advantage of his unrestricted movement speed to get away from the Flame Ground and buy time for Rageclaw to return to the battlefield. Charging in recklessly with the immunity to crowd control granted by the Berserk Talisman Rune... that's just reckless!

When Bai Xiaowen rushed in front of Lin Haoyang, he still had about 150 Life Value points left. Although the Berserk Talisman granted immunity to control effects, the burning negative status effect would not disappear, and the continuous loss of health was very fast.

This means that Bai Xiaowen has lost 170 Life Value.

If Lin Haoyang had any Insight- based skills, he would definitely be able to see that Bai Xiaowen's current strength was not twenty or thirty, but... 48 points.

Nearly 50 strength!

This is already close to the stats of other strength-based Hero Class of the same level.

That wasn't all. A flash of blood-red light appeared on Bai Xiaowen's body as he unleashed his Blood Rage! Then, a powerful punch, burning with flames, slammed heavily into Lin Haoyang's abdomen.

Thump.

A muffled thud, like the beating of a drum.

The phantom of the Orcs chieftain Absolon roared and pounced!

Lin Haoyang's expression changed drastically. He quickly bent over, clutching his stomach, and staggered backward. The Siphon Arrow, which was halfway through its cast, was also interrupted.

Even with the protection of the Mana Barrier, Lin Haoyang's Life Value dropped by half in an instant! Although the Mana Barrier could offset the imbalance caused by physical attacks to a certain extent and reduce the pain by half, Bai Xiaowen's attack was too fierce, and the strength completely exceeded Lin Haoyang's estimate.

Bai Xiaowen followed up with a second elbow strike, sending Lin Haoyang reeling into the air, before delivering a final, powerful blow.

Pfft.

A chill ran down his spine. The Shadow Assassin finally seized the opportunity, stabbing Lin Haoyang in the back, a vital spot, before pulling out his knife and stabbing again!

As it turns out, when a mage has no skills and gets caught in close combat... no matter how strong their damage reduction is, they're just a competent punching bag.

Lin Haoyang crashed heavily to the ground, turning into a beam of white light and being teleported out of the battlefield.

The battle is over. The victor is Bai Xiaowen!

When Bai Xiaowen's close-up shot appeared on the big screen, not only did the auditorium fall silent, but the viewers in front of their televisions and computers were also momentarily stunned.

After a very brief silence, the audience's enthusiasm erupted.

Online comment sections, Starlight Livestream Platform... everywhere was filled with comments or bullet screens like "The Spirit Channeling Prince is awesome", "Congratulations Xiao Wen", "666", creating an uproar.