Chapter 63: Eighth Rank Combo
In the dilapidated and spacious hall, the distorted spatial fluctuations above dissipated, revealing the appearance of the ceiling.
Plants resembling tree roots coiled across the arched ceiling, covering most of the carved patterns. From the visible parts of those patterns, they were in the style of ancient elven ornamentation.
The floor of the hall was generally flat, but had been eroded by time into many shallow pits of varying sizes.
Clang～
A long sword chimed. Tamisha descended the steps from the stone chair, stopping several dozen meters away from Su Xiao.
The hall fell into dead silence. Water droplets fell from the withered root system above, landing between Su Xiao and Tamisha. Just as a droplet was about a meter from the ground, Tamisha released her aura.
Gold-black aura surged forth. Fine cracks appeared on the walls around the hall. Tamisha's aura swept forward, accompanied by a sharp edge.
Just as this slashing light was about to reach Su Xiao, Tamisha, within the gold-black aura, suddenly halted and desperately dodged to the right. But she didn't yet know that her nightmare had just begun.
A scroll shattered in Su Xiao's hand. This eighth-rank scroll was called [Abyss Gaze]. It had no killing power, but could forcibly suppress the enemy.
Tamisha's gold-black aura dispersed. Two large hands formed from black mist appeared on her left and right, loosely grasping her in the center. This wasn't a strong control effect, so there was no judgment involved—it was pure gravitational suppression.
Crack! Crack!
The air around Tamisha seemed about to shatter. This Lord of the Tiger Bee was so strong that even an eighth-rank item couldn't completely bind her, but she could only move her arms within a small range.
Su Xiao wasn't surprised by this. He had learned from Baha that Tamisha had crushed an Apollo with her bare hands, suffering only minor burns on her right forearm from the solar flames.
Tamisha's eyes, beneath her visor, stared at Su Xiao. A sense of foreboding rose in her heart. If she were in his position with such a binding method, she would definitely seize the opportunity to severely wound the enemy, not stand still.
Su Xiao took out a pocket watch, opened it, and tossed it toward Tamisha. This was an eighth-rank item, [Whispering Atreus]. It also had no attack power, but could greatly reduce the enemy's external and physical defenses.
The pocket watch flew in front of Tamisha in an instant. Unable to move, Tamisha was furious, but in the next moment, a sense of crisis that made her whole body tingle appeared.
A translucent female phantom emerged from the pocket watch, passing through Tamisha's body like a spirit without any obstruction.
Crack～
Cracks appeared on the triangular thin armor plate on Tamisha's face. The cracks were faint but began spreading across her entire body.
Just as Tamisha thought Su Xiao would draw his blade and charge, he took out a crystal. The crystal was translucent on the outside and pitch black inside, giving Tamisha a strong sense of foreboding.
With a crackling sound, the crystal in Su Xiao's hand shattered. A black light streaked through, directly piercing Tamisha's head. To her confusion, she suffered no damage.
[Prompt: The enemy has endured 'Misfortune Possession.' 'Malice' has reached its limit.]
[Prompt: The enemy's Luck Attribute has been reduced to -10 points.]
Seeing this prompt, Su Xiao took out another gold coin. The eighth-rank item 'Misfortune Possession' he had just used was mainly for reducing Luck Attribute. This item had a characteristic: as long as the enemy's Luck Attribute was below 40 points, after enduring this effect, their Luck Attribute would inevitably drop to -10 points, lasting 15 minutes.
Now that Tamisha's Luck Attribute had dropped to -10 points, Su Xiao flicked the gold coin in his hand. This item was called [Fortune Stripping]. When tossed, heads would increase the enemy's Luck Attribute by 35 points, tails would decrease it by 35 points.
At first glance, this eighth-rank item seemed very tricky. But in reality, it wasn't. This thing simply had no heads side—both sides were tails.
Ding～
The gold coin landed in mid-air. Tamisha, still suppressed by [Abyss Gaze], gripped her sword hilt until it creaked, but the expression on her lower face didn't change much.
[Prompt: The enemy's Luck Attribute has been reduced to -45 points. They will soon suffer moderate rejection from the world.]
Seeing this prompt, Su Xiao raised an eyebrow. Suffering moderate rejection from the world was no longer within the scope of bad luck. If one wasn't strong enough, they might inexplicably die. The most typical example was being struck by lightning on a clear day, several times or even a dozen times in a row. A meteor falling would be 'normal circumstances.'
Just as Tamisha thought Su Xiao's methods were over, he took out another scroll and crushed it directly.
Gray mist spread from the shattered scroll in Su Xiao's hand. Almost simultaneously, gray mist also emanated from all over Tamisha's body. This was [Weakness Blessing], reducing True Strength, True Agility, and True Stamina by 10 points, lasting 5 hours.
Having used five eighth-rank items, Su Xiao took out a clump of transparent semi-fluid. This substance disappeared upon contact with the air.
The transparent semi-fluid appeared on Tamisha's left arm. This was Spreading Spirit, which would continuously erode her life force. If Tamisha were decisive enough to cut off her left arm, congratulations—the Spreading Spirit would appear on her right arm. This thing had an extremely long existence time but had a weakness: it feared high temperatures.
Besides eroding the enemy's life force, Spreading Spirit would also absorb water molecules from the enemy's body, a process extremely difficult to detect.
With a crack, the air around Tamisha seemed to shatter. A feeling of weakness washed over her, but for Tamisha, this level of weakness would only reduce her combat power, not render her unable to act.
The moment gravity disappeared, Tamisha vanished from her spot, turning into an afterimage charging straight at Su Xiao.
Boom!
A deafening sound came from above. Over a dozen palm-wide cracks appeared on the hall's ceiling. A stream of energy slowly dissipated.
Drip, drip～
Blood dripped from Tamisha's fingertips. She was now crouching, one hand raised to block above her. Several slender spikes were embedded in her shoulder and left arm, one even piercing through her palm. Her outer armor seemed nonexistent.
Tamisha, always aloof, seemed a bit stunned. She naturally knew this was an ancient elven relic hall. What had just injured her was an ancient elven defensive mechanism called 'Sin Judgment,' which would release a large number of 'Piercing Spikes' across the entire hall to kill intruders.
But this mechanism had existed for thousands of years. Even if not eroded by time, it should have long since failed. Before choosing this place as the battlefield, Tamisha had already checked.
Tamisha slowly stood up. She looked around and, after seeing the ground nearby, this aloof queen almost spat blood. Except for the one-meter radius around her, there wasn't a single 'Piercing Spike' on the ground. If she hadn't charged at full speed, she wouldn't have been injured by the spikes.
Su Xiao looked at Tamisha not far away. He naturally knew this was caused by negative fortune. Now that Tamisha had negative Luck, reduced defenses, continuously eroding life force, and a weakened state, it was time to use offensive items. Under these multiple debuffs, the effect of offensive items would be extremely powerful.
Su Xiao took out an icicle. The icicle shattered with a crackling sound, transforming into six streams of ice-blue rays heading straight for Tamisha. This was [Extreme Ice Ray].
The six Extreme Ice Rays traced a semicircular arc, all striking Tamisha. Tamisha casually waved her left hand, gathering all six rays into her palm, compressing them, and clenching her fist.
A crisp sound came from Tamisha's hand. She was now holding an apple-sized, irregularly shaped piece of ice. Just as she was about to crush it, the ice suddenly transformed back into rays, all blasting into her body.
Boom!
A large area of ice mist spread. Several broken armor fragments flew up, embedding into stone pillars dozens of meters away. These pillars were immediately covered in frost.
With the setup of the previous eighth-rank items, the power of Extreme Ice Ray increased several times. The first ice ray dealt nearly 36,720 points of frost damage. If not for Tamisha's certain self-recovery ability, she definitely couldn't have withstood the subsequent five Extreme Ice Rays.
The ice mist drifted. Tamisha knelt on one knee, her head lowered.
"Cough, cough."
Tamisha coughed up specks of blood. The blood froze as soon as it hit the ground.
Seeing this, Su Xiao drew the Dragon-Slaying Flash from his waist, the tip of the blade pointing diagonally at the ground. The battle could begin.