Chapter 41: Shield
Looking at the Lv.20 Azure Steel Shadow, Su Xiao showed a pleased expression.
The previous Mana Detonation effect had disappeared, replaced by a new ability. While burning the enemy's mana, it not only dealt true damage equal to the amount of mana burned, but also added 8% of the enemy's lost mana as additional true damage. This ability was far stronger than Mana Detonation, which could only burst once and had an extremely long cooldown.
As the Azure Steel Shadow level increased, the mana consumption became more and more terrifying, reaching 50 mana points per minute.
Currently, Su Xiao had 1488 mana points, allowing him to activate Azure Steel Shadow for 30 minutes.
Relatively speaking, the power of Azure Steel Shadow had greatly increased, incomparable to before.
Not only that, reaching Lv.20 Azure Steel Shadow unlocked two new abilities. The first was manifesting Azure Steel Shadow energy to form an energy shield. The shape of this energy shield could be formed according to Su Xiao's design, either circular or rectangular.
The strength of the energy shield could be adjusted. Su Xiao could choose to consume 50 to 300 mana points to form the shield; the higher the mana consumed, the stronger the shield.
Although Su Xiao's attacks were sharp, defense had always been his weak point. In most battles, he relied on 'Sanctuary' or 'Secondary Invincibility Shield' to defend against enemy attacks. If he couldn't block them, he could only endure with his body.
Both shields had long cooldowns and could only be used once per battle.
Now, with the energy shield, things were completely different. The energy shield had no cooldown; as long as Su Xiao had enough mana, he could use it continuously. This gave him a conventional means of defense when facing enemies.
The shape, size, thickness, and even the generation position of the energy shield were all determined by Su Xiao. He could instantly generate an energy shield at any position within one meter of himself.
Su Xiao's hand opened, and a rectangular energy shield appeared in his palm. Because he deliberately suppressed it, the shield was very small, only the size of a palm, floating just above his hand.
This energy shield was light blue, with slightly darker edges. It was somewhat transparent and wouldn't obstruct vision. The surface of the shield had fine patterns that were hard to notice without careful observation.
The energy shield floated motionless in mid-air. Su Xiao could control it with his mind. Since it was a manifestation of Azure Steel Shadow energy, he could manipulate it as easily as moving his own limbs, without any sense of difficulty.
However, Su Xiao could only control the energy shield within one meter of himself. Beyond that range, he could still control it, but it would consume a massive amount of mana. If he tried to control the shield from two meters away, he would consume at least several hundred mana points per second—that was how exaggerated it was.
Relatively speaking, controlling the energy shield within one meter consumed almost negligible mana.
He pinched the energy shield with his hand and applied force.
Crack~
Su Xiao's mouth twitched. It wasn't that the energy shield broke, but that the thing was so hard. The sound came from the joints of his fingers.
Examining the energy shield in his hand, this was formed by converting 50 mana points into Azure Steel Shadow energy. An energy shield of this strength could be cut through with his blade.
If he used 80 mana points to construct the shield, cutting through it would be somewhat difficult.
At 100 mana points, with his current blade technique, it would take at least 3 to 4 strikes.
At 150 mana points, forget it. Su Xiao would be doing well if he could break it within 10 strikes.
Starting at 200 mana points, breaking it would be challenging. Conservatively, he estimated it would take several minutes.
As for the maximum strength of 300 mana points, an energy shield of that level was something Su Xiao couldn't break.
Once formed, the energy shield didn't last forever; it had a time limit. If not broken by an enemy, the shield's strength was highest within the first ten minutes. After ten minutes, the shield began to show signs of decomposition, until it completely disappeared after half an hour.
Therefore, the energy shield couldn't be used continuously. It was best to deploy it at the point of the enemy's attack to defend.
As for whether the floating energy shield could be knocked away, there was no need to worry about that. The energy shield was centered on Su Xiao. As long as the enemy's attack wasn't strong enough to send Su Xiao flying, the shield would remain firmly in front of him, because there was a spiritual link between the shield and Su Xiao.
Even if the enemy's attack was enough to send Su Xiao flying, as long as the strike didn't shatter the energy shield, even if he was pushed far back, the shield would still block in front of him.
After roughly figuring out the energy shield's function, Su Xiao expressed satisfaction.
Generating an energy shield by consuming between 50 and 300 mana points was extremely fast, didn't obstruct vision, and had impressive defensive power.
But there was one problem: Su Xiao's mana wasn't enough.
If he constructed an energy shield with 300 mana points of strength, he could only make four such shields, consuming mana at a very high rate.
Even just that would be manageable, but using Azure Steel Shadow energy for attacks also consumed a large amount of mana—a full 50 points per minute couldn't be ignored.
With all this back and forth, Su Xiao felt that his 1488 mana points were somewhat insufficient. If the battle was intense, he would run into a 'mana shortage' situation.
Su Xiao finally understood why his 'Soul Devourer' talent, a mage-type ability, was inherited by the Shadow of Law Destruction. It was because the Shadow of Law Destruction required even more mana consumption than a mage. Without such a talent ability, it would be impossible to use Azure Steel Shadow for sustained combat.
Su Xiao had a talent ability that permanently increased mana after killing enemies, and his intelligence attribute was very high. Even so, he still felt a shortage of mana.
"I need to get some equipment that increases mana when I go back this time."
Su Xiao had previously thought his mana was sufficient, but now it seemed that wasn't the case. If the battle was too intense, he might deplete his mana within ten minutes of starting the fight.
Consuming massive amounts of mana wasn't without benefits. His combat power had increased significantly, at least much stronger than before.
Not to mention the skyrocketing true damage, just the energy shield compensating for his lack of defense was something no other ability could match.
The 'eggshell shield' that mages used to envelop their entire bodies wasn't suitable for Su Xiao. That thing was cumbersome and not as convenient as an energy shield that could be generated and dismissed at will.
The energy shield might not only be for defense; other uses were yet to be developed.
Su Xiao looked at the final 'Form Three: Azure Shadow King (Unawakened)'. He was completely in the dark about this. Not to mention the awakening method, he didn't even know what it was.
"Can't you just awaken it directly for me?"
Su Xiao temporarily ignored this ability. Even if he wanted to deal with it, he couldn't. Before the Shadow of Law Destruction was fully awakened, the Azure Shadow King wouldn't awaken. As for how to awaken the Shadow of Law Destruction, that wasn't something Su Xiao could get involved in now. It could only be done after the fifth rank. To put it simply, the Azure Shadow King was a big move of the Shadow of Law Destruction, a very powerful one.
Currently, what Su Xiao possessed were all ordinary skills of the Shadow of Law Destruction. Although they were all strong, none were extremely powerful killing moves. The Azure Shadow King was the killing move of the Shadow of Law Destruction.