Chapter 4: Ten Minutes
Half of a metal round shield flew through the air. The crew-cut main tank had a brief look of bewilderment in his eyes, which then turned into shock. When the long blade wreathed in blue flames slashed before him, the shock transformed into terror.
"Symbiosis: Moon Chain."
A silver energy chain sank into the crew-cut main tank's spine. This was support from his teammate—not a temporary ally, but a healing-type contractor who had been teamed with him for four worlds.
The moment the battle began, this healer had already locked onto the crew-cut main tank with an ability. But Su Xiao's speed was too fast. Before the Moon Chain could even empower the crew-cut main tank, Su Xiao had already charged in front of the enemy. Such was the speed of the Blazing Shadow state.
The long blade slashed toward the crew-cut main tank's neck. The strike was so swift that the crew-cut main tank had no chance to dodge and could only rely on the shield-type ability attached to his equipment to endure.
With a crackling sound, a layer of brownish-yellow shield was shattered. The long blade's momentum did not diminish, heading straight for the crew-cut main tank's throat.
"Contract surrender..."
The crew-cut main tank's words had just left his mouth when Dragon-Slashing Flash drew a trail of blood, cutting across his neck. Because Su Xiao did not use his self-developed blade techniques, naturally, there was no instant kill of a sixth-rank tank.
The crew-cut main tank felt his entire body go limp. His vision narrowed to a single line. He was in a near-death state—brought to the brink after a single fatal strike to a vital point.
The next instant, Dragon-Slashing Flash pierced through the crew-cut main tank's head. The Moon Chain linked to his back collapsed. Su Xiao's two strikes of True Damage, combined with high critical hit damage and blade edge damage, caused this main tank to die on the spot.
The contractors witnessing this were dumbfounded. Their tank—one strike broke his shield, two strikes brought him to near-death, three strikes and he was dead on the ground. Judging by the situation, the enemy didn't seem to have used his full strength, just three ordinary slashes.
Su Xiao pulled the long blade from the enemy's head. A stream of pale blue energy flowed along the blade into his arm.
[Blazing Shadow State recovery effect triggered. You have recovered 20% of your maximum Mana Points.]
Su Xiao's Mana Points were instantly replenished. His gaze shifted to another tank-type contractor among the crowd. He killed the tank first for a reason—basically all tanks had a "soft control" ability that required no judgment.
The so-called soft control ability was to bind the enemy within a certain range of oneself. By the mid-to-high ranks, the enemies encountered were not stupid, especially boss-level enemies. They would never focus their firepower on an enemy holding a shield.
This meant that tank-type contractors simply couldn't hold aggro on boss-level enemies. As for taunt abilities, by the sixth rank, most bosses had judgment-immune control abilities.
To restrain an enemy, one had to start from the enemy's range of movement. Therefore, judgment-free soft control abilities were essential for all tank-types. Otherwise, they couldn't be considered tanks. This was the most basic entry requirement for the tank class.
This kind of area suppression ability could be a domain or a gravity field, etc. Because it wasn't a single-target control ability, it had no judgment effect. The domain would affect all enemies within its range, meaning the domain couldn't be immunized. Or rather, the domain wasn't a strong control but a large-scale suppression.
This was the reason Su Xiao killed the tank first. He wasn't afraid of going one-on-one with any sixth-rank contractor, and handling multiple opponents was no problem either. The situation that could lead to his death was being restricted within a certain range by a tank's domain and then being focus-fired by numerous contractors.
Su Xiao had high Health Points, comparable to some sixth-rank big bosses. But there was one point—he had no damage reduction ability. Additionally, to maintain speed, he couldn't wear heavy armor, which would dull his movements and greatly limit the effectiveness of his blade techniques.
Contractors who could fight their way to the sixth rank were no small fry. If over fifty contractors focus-fired simultaneously, even if each person's burst damage was only 1,000 points, that would be around 50,000 damage intensity.
Moreover, the instantaneous burst of a sixth-rank contractor was far more than 1,000 damage intensity. Once focus-fired, even if not killed in one round, Su Xiao would be injured. This wasn't a game but a bloody battle. Once injured, Su Xiao's speed would decrease to some extent. He was also a human of flesh and blood, not a robot.
Although dangerous, the feeling of facing dozens of contractors at once not only ignited the Cyan Steel Shadow Energy within Su Xiao but also seemed to set his blood ablaze.
As long as he wasn't focus-fired, even against a hundred sixth-rank contractors, Su Xiao could eliminate them all.
With a whoosh, a metal needle nearly twenty centimeters long flew toward the back of Su Xiao's head. In his perception, the speed of this metal needle wasn't slow, but it wasn't too fast either.
Everything around seemed to slow down. Su Xiao slightly tilted his head. The metal needle flew past his ear, cutting off a strand of his black hair. His hand raised, and he caught the end of the metal needle between two fingers.
'Thump~'
It felt as if an invisible wave of perception spread out with Su Xiao as the center. In his perception, the attacks of all the surrounding contractors turned into flying red dots. The larger and darker the red dot, the higher the attack intensity.
Bang!
Su Xiao's arm swung, and a sonic boom exploded. He flung the metal needle between his fingers. The needle broke through layers of air waves. At this moment, everything around slowed down.
The metal needle slowly rotated as it pierced the air. The spiral pattern on it made its flight speed even faster.
A hundred meters away, a man in jungle combat gear held a sniper rifle flat. His finger was already on the trigger, and the crosshairs in the scope were aimed at Su Xiao's head.
The sniper rifle had finished charging. A calloused finger rested on the trigger, ready to pull.
At that moment, a metal needle pierced into the gun barrel, colliding with the bullet about to exit the chamber.
Boom!
The sniper rifle exploded. The energy compression device inside underwent a secondary explosion, sending metal fragments mixed with radioactive material flying in all directions.
With a thud, the sniper fell to the ground. His body was covered in corrosive marks. The high concentration of radioactive material paralyzed his nervous system. Although not dead, he couldn't move for a short time. Using compressed nuclear kinetic energy as the power source for the gun was certainly powerful, but when the gun was blown up, this was the result.
From Su Xiao throwing the metal needle to the sniper falling, it seemed like a long time, but in reality, it was only an instant.
Boom, boom, boom...
Various abilities rained down on Su Xiao. Among them were magic-type abilities, items, and explosives, etc.
The color of the flames after the explosion was somewhat strange. Multiple colors mixed together, both gorgeous and deadly.
Various judgments appeared, almost all of which were exempted by Su Xiao. However, there were some that couldn't be exempted—the Charm Attribute judgment. Fortunately, there were only two types of such judgments. One was a control effect. After a successful judgment, it was immunized by the Blade Grandmaster ability.
As for the other type of Charm Attribute judgment, it was blocked by [Walker's Elegy].
A blue afterimage flashed. After a short scream, a head with a face full of shock flew up. This was a sixth-rank summoning-type contractor, killed in one slash by Su Xiao. It was he who had performed the Charm Attribute judgment on Su Xiao.
In Su Xiao's judgment, the tank was the first target to kill, followed by magic-types, because they were easy to kill. If someone performed a Charm judgment on him, then congratulations—that person would become Su Xiao's highest priority kill target.
Su Xiao wasn't without weaknesses. His weakness was Charm judgment, after all, his Charm Attribute was only 1 point.
The only tanks who could withstand Su Xiao's long blade were those top-tier sixth-rank main tanks, and they needed a Holy Spirit-grade shield in hand. If their armor and other equipment were also Holy Spirit-grade, they could definitely hold out for a little while. But only a little while.
"Don't scatter."
"Run!"
"Don't run. Running makes you die faster. Wait for reinforcements. The main force will arrive in 10 minutes!"
These words boosted the morale of all the contractors present. In 10 minutes, their reinforcements would arrive.
'Blade Path: Azure Demon.'
A pale blue blade aura shot out. A healing-type contractor who had already fled nearly a hundred meters had just sensed the danger when his vision went black. He was killed instantly by Azure Demon.
Grass clippings splattered in the soil. Azure Demon plowed a long trench before dissipating.
10 minutes. The main force of the Apocalypse Paradise side would arrive as reinforcements. The question now was, could these forty-plus contractors really hold out for 10 minutes?
What they faced was the strongest of the sixth rank.