After closing the page, Xiao Fan took a deep breath. He planned to use Gift of the Saint right away.
First, it would remove everyone's negative status effects and prepare them for the battle ahead.
Second, he could use the speed boost to reposition Han the Person and the others.
"Once I use my skill, Garfield Without Fat, run behind the Fierce Beast. Han the Person, go to the right. Swift as Wind, go to the left. Zai Zai, attack the Fierce Beast directly and draw its aggro. The other four, attack it too," Xiao Fan instructed.
"Skill? What skill?" Han the Person asked, looking completely baffled. Then he suddenly felt a mysterious force settle over him.
His fatigue vanished in an instant, and his body felt much lighter. At the same time, a white barrier enveloped him.
"What's going on? This is amazing!"
"Don't just stand there. Get into position!" Xiao Fan's voice snapped him out of it. Han the Person hurried to the right, only to realize as he ran that he was unbelievably fast.
"Holy crap! I can run this fast!"
Ignoring everyone else, Xiao Fan kept his eyes fixed on the Diamond Behemoth in front of him.
Closer! Closer!
"Zai Zai! Attack!"
Zai Zai looked up at the Diamond Behemoth, which stood over two meters tall, his legs trembling.
He was a beginner. How could he have ever seen anything so terrifying?
But when Xiao Fan's voice rang out, Zai Zai, already used to following orders, instinctively thrust his spear forward.
The difference in their heights made his spear strike land precisely between the Diamond Behemoth's...
Legs.
-3HP
"Th-this... I'm sorry... I didn't mean to." Zai Zai froze.
Even Xiao Fan couldn't help clenching his butt cheeks at the sight.
But now wasn't the time to feel someone else's pain.
"Now! You four, get in there and attack it!"
Only after Xiao Fan finished speaking did he realize there was no one around.
"Where'd they go?"
He turned around and saw that the four players had taken advantage of the speed boost from his Gift of the Saint skill to run far away!
"Damn it, are they brain-dead?" Xiao Fan couldn't help cursing.
With all nine of them, they'd had a good chance of taking down the Diamond Behemoth. But at the crucial moment, those four had abandoned the rest and run off on their own.
"Roar!"
Zai Zai's attack had done little damage, but its sheer humiliating nature had thoroughly enraged the Diamond Behemoth.
Its enormous fist swung down at Zai Zai.
"Dodge! Everyone else, attack!"
Thanks to the speed boost, Zai Zai barely dodged the Diamond Behemoth's punch.
At the same time, Han the Person and the other two landed their attacks.
-5HP
-6HP
-10HP
Their first round of attacks had taken 24 HP from the Diamond Behemoth. Xiao Fan's expression darkened. Their damage was a little low.
"Keep attacking."
After Zai Zai's deeply insulting thrust, the Diamond Behemoth had locked its aggro firmly onto him. That gave everyone else a chance to deal damage.
With five points in Strength, Han the Person hit the hardest. He was also the one attacking most desperately.
"Brother Chen, I can't hold out much longer!"
By then, he had used the speed boost to dodge the Diamond Behemoth's attacks three times. That was his limit.
As soon as the words left his mouth, the Diamond Behemoth's fist came crashing down toward him again.
"I can't dodge!" Zai Zai realized, his face full of despair.
The next second, the Behemoth's fist struck him.
-90HP
"Holy crap! It hits that hard?"
After reaching level two, Zai Zai had 200 HP. He had also added two points to his Constitution, bringing his total to 210.
The 90 damage had nearly cut his HP in half. Luckily, Xiao Fan's shield was still up and absorbed 70 damage for him.
Then...
+10HP
+10HP
It was Xiao Fan's Gift: ten HP restored every second.
In the blink of an eye, Zai Zai's HP bar was full again.
So when the Behemoth punched him, Zai Zai barely felt a thing.
In Cloud Sea, players' bodies were digitized. As long as their HP bars were full, any bodily damage would be healed.
"Holy crap! This shield is amazing. I feel like I can take another punch!"
Xiao Fan: "Take another punch, then."
Zai Zai: "..."
After dodging twice more, Zai Zai was struck by the Behemoth's fist again.
-90HP
Without the shield this time, Zai Zai felt as if his whole body had nearly been crushed.
+10HP
+10HP
Luckily, the Gift of the Saint skill hadn't worn off yet. It healed him a couple more times at the critical moment, making him feel a little better.
The skill had two seconds left.
"Enough. Stop fighting and scatter!" Xiao Fan ordered, pulling Zai Zai along as he ran into the distance.
By then, Zai Zai had been healed back up to 180 HP, and his body had recovered to a healthy state.
They had only run 20 meters when the Gift of the Saint skill wore off. Everyone suddenly slowed down, and they found the change strangely hard to get used to.
"The skill has a 100-second cooldown. Hang in there."
The others were more or less fine. The main problem was Zai Zai—the Diamond Behemoth was chasing only him.
Xiao Fan's original plan had been for each of the four to take one hit.
With a shield and healing, no one would have been in danger.
He hadn't expected Zai Zai's attack to taunt the Behemoth so badly. At least nothing had gone wrong.
When the others heard they only had to endure for 100 seconds, they knew they'd be able to return to their previous state soon.
The hope that had just flown away came flying back.
Zai Zai: "Brother Chen, the Fierce Beast is only chasing us two. We can't last 100 seconds like this."
Xiao Fan: "It's not chasing us two. It's chasing you."
Zai Zai: "..."
Xiao Fan looked at the Diamond Behemoth hot on their heels.
"At this rate, it'll catch us sooner or later."
Xiao Fan glanced at his skill's cooldown, calculated quickly, and immediately gave an order.
"Garfield Without Fat, attack the Fierce Beast. Slow it down."
Garfield Without Fat had originally been running ahead of the Diamond Behemoth, but after it started chasing Zai Zai, he had been behind it the whole time.
When he heard Xiao Fan's order, Garfield Without Fat stopped at once and nocked an arrow without hesitation.
"Whoosh!"
With a whistle through the air, Garfield Without Fat's arrow struck the Diamond Behemoth precisely in the...
Butt.
"Roar!"
Its roar was even more furious than before.
Zai Zai couldn't resist looking back.
The Diamond Behemoth had already stopped chasing him and was turning to run after Garfield Without Fat.
The arrow stuck out from its butt, bright and conspicuous, bobbing with every stride.
"Holy crap! You're even more vicious than me."
"Ah! Help!"
Garfield Without Fat turned pale when he saw what had happened.
He had only wanted to slow the Diamond Behemoth down for Xiao Fan and Zai Zai, but he hadn't expected his arrow to hit.
When he needed to hit, he couldn't. When he shouldn't, he was dead accurate!
Dead shot! Damn shot!
Hearing Garfield Without Fat's cries for help, Xiao Fan hurriedly looked back.
One glance at the arrow trembling in the Diamond Behemoth's butt, and he understood what had happened.
Xiao Fan patted his forehead.
Where there was Crouching Dragon, there was bound to be Phoenix Fledgling.
The ancients hadn't lied.
Before you continue