The Ultimate Evolution

Reef stumbled back unsteadily, blood spilling out of the gaps between his tightly gritted teeth. With every backward step he took, the ground underneath his foot seemed to explode, sending soil and stones flying everywhere. The surface of his dark gold shield was ablaze with fire, and there were some very visible dents and cracks on it!

That was the cost of blocking the blows launched at full power by nine contestants, by himself!!

The enemy’s ambush was not refined, but it was vicious. First, a woman fired a shot at the Orc labourers Party Ace was escorting. If these fragile creatures died, their mission would fail.

That was not all. The woman had deliberately paused before she pulled the trigger, for a very simple reason. The shot was aimed at the enemy’s weakness, the place where they were most vulnerable but had no choice but to protect. Therefore, she was sure that the enemy MT would definitely save the Orc labourers.

Indeed, that was what Reef did. With the shield in his hand, he stepped in front of the oblivious Orc. But the bullet shot by the woman unexpectedly exploded before hitting Reef, forming a vast net of sticky threads which tied Reef down in place!

This was the first part of their plan. MTs were generally not very agile. Now that the MT’s mobility was restricted, it was close to impossible for him to dodge.

After that came the second part of their plan!

The four people with the strongest firepower in their party, together with five other powerful contestants borrowed from three other parties, focused fire on Reef!! Among them were some who wielded Blood Weapons that could greatly reduce the healing effect on the enemy. The reason they acted together was to breach the enemy’s defence from their strongest point! If even the MT was insta-killed, it was bound to be a heavy psychological blow to the remaining enemies, making their morale drop. After that, the encounter would simply become a one-sided hunt!

The one who came up with this plan was definitely not a simple person. His plan was meticulous and logical, and he had skillfully analysed the psychological weaknesses of human beings. He truly believed that this plan was infallible and had no loopholes.

They had already wiped out a party with this very plan and profited greatly!

But….but!

Plans could never keep up with changes. The joint strike of nine powerful contestants failed to kill the MT wielding the dark gold shield!! What’s more, he showed no signs of falling into a state of near death or using recovery items!!

“No way…!!!” The unexpected disruption in the plan caused momentary panic among the assailants. Little did they know that the party they were facing was a freakish dual-MT party. The moment Sheyan realised the ambushers’ bold plan to insta-kill Reef, he immediately cast his ‘Awakening Skill: Survival Mark’ on Reef with a cold smirk. In addition, Reef’s own ‘Divine Blessing Aura’ had abruptly increased his HP by 1500 points!

“So naive…. You guys got lucky and managed to kill a mediocre MT with this method once, and you think it’s a flawless plan that’ll work all the time? You really think a second-rate tactic like this will work on our Reef?”

Reef was a full-fledged MT, so his defence was extremely high to begin with. After Sheyan secretly used his ‘Survival Mark’ ability on him to help him share the damage burden, it truly did seem to the enemies like he was a monster who was fine after receiving the joint attack of nine people, only staggering a few steps back.

Even more terrifying was the fact that Reef had instantly launched a counter attack after that. His shrunk his whole body behind the dark gold shield, but extended his right hand outside. The Nightmare Imprint on his chest glowed brilliantly, projecting the image of an exquisite cross tower shield.

While the enemies were still in confusion, a vivid illusion of a large golden paladin gauntlet appeared around Reef’s right palm. The palm closed, and one of the contestants who attacked Reef before suddenly cried out in alarm. The assailant was hiding behind a cover and there were multiple obstacles between him and Reef, but he suddenly flew towards Reef involuntarily, his arms flailing about as he traced an arc through the air.

‘Holy Grasp’!

Reef’s ‘Holy Grasp’ actually pulled the enemy out of the cover and exposed him to Party Ace’s attacks! Reef, who should have died, had actually survived and immediately launched a fierce counter attack!!

The one who was pulled was a mage who had cast the spell ‘Hand of Fire’ at Reef. The damage he dealt to Reef was the highest, so he was naturally the one Reef targeted. His reaction was actually pretty fast. His body instantly glowed a few times as he buffed himself up. There was the red ‘Fire Shield’, the yellow ‘Increase Defence’, the blue ‘Healing Ray’, and a sharp ray which was shaped like a prism….

But it was futile. Before Sheyan and Sanzi could make their moves, Zi and Ronnie had already finished their attacks, sending the mage into a state of near death. And before he could use his party skill, the continuous damage of ‘Holy Grasp’ made him burst into a hail of flesh and blood!

Mages were well-known for having high attack but low defence. Ronnie alone could have finished the guy in a few moves. Furthermore, Reef’s ‘Holy Grasp’ could do quite a lot of damage too (The holy afterglow of the shattered Holy Grasp will cause ( 100 + Reef’s Physique x 2 ) holy damage to the enemy, and inflict a further 300 holy damage in total in the next five seconds). With the combined powers of Zi, Ronnie and Reef, the mage did not stand a chance.

Not only had the ambushers failed to kill their target, one of them was even killed in retaliation. They were naturally shocked and angered. But at that moment, Sheyan threw out several bottles of curse-mixes, and a dense green smoke instantly enshrouded the area hundreds of square metres around him.

Aldaris flung a ‘Psionic Storm’ at a place where many of the enemies were gathered. A white electric web instantly spread across the ground. The wilting grass on the ground let out a burned smell, accompanied by the non-stop zapping sounds of electric current.

Exclamations of shock and anger rose one after another. About six or seven shadows scattered like frightened rabbits. Sheyan’s eyes narrowed. He was really itching for a fight. If he went full power at this time, they might actually be able to wipe the enemies out.

However, he suddenly glanced towards the grassland at the back. There did not seem to be anything out of the ordinary there, but Sheyan had noticed a small lump of air that had a strange ripple, like the slight distortion in the air when a car blew hot air out of its exhaust.

And so, Sheyan resisted the desire to go all out. He moved sideways and positioned himself in front of Zi like a common second MT, looking to absorb damage for his party members. Ronnie, on the other hand, had no qualms about letting himself loose. His ghastly figure flashed again and again as he relentlessly chased the enemies down. The air was filled with spurting blood.

The enemies, who had the numerical advantage, kept sniping at Ronnie, but after being buffed up by the mix and the party skills, Ronnie was currently as durable as a Berserker who dared to rush to the front line. So, after receiving several attacks, Ronnie flung his Blood Shortblade towards an empty spot ahead of him. A bloody figure suddenly appeared out of the empty air with his hands holding his throat and his eyes almost bulging out of their sockets!

The ambushing party continued to fight with Party Ace for almost five minutes. The more they fought, the more shocked they felt. Under the protection of the MT and the second MT, all the strikes that were supposed to be fatal were skillfully unravelled, and they were unable to kill even one of the oppositions. On the other hand, because they were in pursuit of extreme attacking power, they did not bring an MT along, so they were falling one by one! Four of them have died since the fight started! If they continued to fight, they might lose the whole team!

“They’re about to run away,” Ronnie was the first to notice the signs, “You should activate your disease now, boss. Oh, one more thing. It wasn’t explicitly stated, but it looks like emergency return items can’t be used in this world. Let’s massacre them!”

“No, just pick up the pace,” answered Sheyan steadily. “This is just the beginning. There are more eyes on us on this accursed battlefield than Orc dung. It’s too early to expose the true strength of our party.”

Everyone obeyed Sheyan’s order without any objections. The attacks of Zi, Ronnie and Aldaris became even more ruthless! During the enemy’s rout, two of them had triggered the most common and practical party skill which teleported them to a random place within a kilometre when they fell into a state of near death, but they were still killed by the continuous damage that continued acting upon them!

After the battle, Party Ace made a quick check and found that they had killed two Awakeners and four Growth Hunters. However, they still itched for more, as if they had just finished a warm-up. The harvest, though, was quite satisfactory, because they had surprisingly looted a Blood Equipment. It was a cloak which could absorb 15% of damage from contestants and lower explosive hit rate against the wearer by 5%.

Sheyan did not appear too concerned about the loot. Instead, he asked Zi, “Ronnie’s right. I didn’t see anyone use an emergency return item just now. They can’t be used here?”

Zi closed her eyes, as if she was trying to sense something. After a while, she said, “Not exactly. The dimensional flow here is really turbulent and chaotic, so it’s almost impossible to locate the Realm. The emergency return items can still be used, but the rate of failure is terrifyingly high!”