Chapter 68: I'm Not a Mage, Damn It
Boom!
The mage staff-wielding Yan Chen was knocked back, a layer of ice crystals coating his weapon.
Stumbling back a few steps, Yan Chen glanced at the ice on his staff as fire element re-clung to it, shattering the frost.
"Ice-type assassin abilities... Looks like Xi knows my dossier well."
Yan Chen stripped off his mage robe, baring his torso, which was covered in countless magical circuits. Seeing these, the nearby Lin Dong furrowed his brow.
"Over at Xi's place, was my file listed as a magic tank or a fire mage?"
As he spoke, Yan Chen twisted his staff. With a *ding*, the modified gold-quality weapon extended significantly, and a thirty-centimeter spear blade emerged from its tip. The golden staff had transformed into a two-meter-long fire-element magic spear, radiating searing heat that warped the surrounding air. This was one of Yan Chen's abilities, supported by several passive skills that enabled his melee combat style.
Staff Form Shift Lv.26 (Passive): Converts a staff into a magic spear, granting it equivalent quality. Spear quality (Gold).
Polearm Mastery Lv.30 (Passive): Increases polearm attack power by 92%, greatly enhancing polearm techniques.
Weapon Element Infusion Lv.10 (Class-Exclusive Passive): Compresses the user's elemental power to a high density and applies it to a weapon. Element: Fire. Infused attacks deal an additional 100 fire damage, with a stacking burn effect.
Blaze Lance Knight Lv.32 (Class-Exclusive Passive): While mounted, you take 10% reduced damage from any source. You can freely convert attributes between Strength, Agility, Intelligence, and Endurance.
These were Yan Chen's primary abilities. As for spells like fireballs or fire arrows, those were merely diversions.
Yan Chen was neither a ranged mage nor a magic tank—those were just facades. He was a Blaze Lance Knight, an exceedingly rare class. While not as scarce as the Shadow of Law Annihilation, it was still uncommon, with Endurance and Intelligence as its main attributes.
Endurance ensured survivability, while Intelligence primarily served to infuse weapons and enhance the power of the infused element.
When entering a mounted state, Yan Chen would convert his Intelligence attribute into Strength, making him a full-fledged melee fighter.
The magic spear spun in Yan Chen's hand as he smirked at Lin Dong.
"Come out, Piyak."
Yan Chen stomped his foot, and a magic circle appeared beside him, summoning a large, flame-covered feline—a creature resembling a tiger but larger, its body wreathed in fire.
Yan Chen mounted the flame tiger, Piyak, and converted his Intelligence into Strength. Surging power flooded his body, pushing his Strength attribute to a full 80 points.
"Ice-type little assassin, let's start round two."
Yan Chen slapped his mount, and the vicious tiger, hailing from some unknown world, lunged at Lin Dong.
Boom! Boom!
Flames exploded as the labyrinth turned into a bulldozer's path, debris flying everywhere—Yan Chen was charging.
Five minutes later, with a *thud*, a mangled body crashed to the ground. It was Lin Dong.
Lin Dong's lower body was gone, his torso crisscrossed with scorched slash wounds. No blood flowed from them; the high heat had cauterized them, a worse injury than bleeding.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Lying face-down, Lin Dong coughed up blood, which burned his own mouth—a testament to the fire element raging inside him.
Now blind, Lin Dong twitched unconsciously on the ground.
A flame tiger stepped forward, its paw pressing down on him.
"ROAR!!"
The tiger's roar echoed through the labyrinth. Yan Chen, seated on its back, thrust his spear down, piercing Lin Dong's throat in one strike.
"Just a sneaky assassin. Maybe you're good against ranged mages, but I'm not a mage."
Yan Chen flicked his spear, tearing open Lin Dong's throat. Lin Dong convulsed a few times and went still.
"I've been hiding this for so long. Time to give you a surprise, Xi."
Gone was the frail mage persona. Yan Chen now radiated explosive, overwhelming power, unstoppable while mounted.
He pulled out a communicator, spoke a few words, and hung up, heading toward Xi's direction.
Behind the labyrinth.
*Shlick*—a blade sliced through a throat. A support-type contractor went limp, blood not yet hitting the ground before Su Xiao vanished.
Standing behind a stone pillar, Su Xiao held a blood-dripping Slaughter Dagger in his right hand and a text communicator in his left.
"Found another lone healer. Efficiency's good."
Su Xiao dashed out from behind the pillar and disappeared into the labyrinth in a few flashes. With Bubu Wang's coordination, he had already killed over a dozen healing or support-type contractors.
In the chaos of contractor warfare, if there was one ability more annoying than any other, it was healing.
Contractors didn't have much health. When two fought, unless one completely dominated, the side with a healer had over an 80% chance of victory.
Moreover, the Apocalypse Paradise side had several times more healing-type contractors than the Reincarnation Paradise side—several times, no exaggeration.
Given the Reincarnation Paradise's harsh environment, aside from adventure group members, no one would develop healing abilities. Their offensive power and survivability were too weak. Without protection, healing contractors had little chance of surviving in derivative worlds.
Even with teammates, the reliability of temporary allies was uncertain. Thus, healers and main tanks were the rarest contractor types in Reincarnation Paradise. Wild main tanks might appear, given their survival foundation, but wild healers were virtually nonexistent—one in a hundred wouldn't yield one; one in a thousand might.
The Apocalypse Paradise was different. Its treatment of contractors was relatively gentle, with deadly grudges rarely forming, giving wild healers some breathing room.
Apocalypse Paradise naturally had more healers, and with the ancient ruins hosting a large organization of nearly a thousand people, a higher number of healing contractors was normal.
This was why the Apocalypse Paradise side, with its superior sustain, had pushed the Reincarnation Paradise side back to the labyrinth's rear edge, nearly forcing them to retreat to the stone bridge.
What Su Xiao was doing now was reducing the number of Apocalypse Paradise's healing contractors. Forget their pathetic combat awareness and vigilance—their frail bodies were like ants under his heel.
Su Xiao's plan was to kill as many as possible before the enemy noticed him, building an advantage for his side. Once discovered, he'd have to quickly return to his own camp. His current position seemed safe but was fraught with danger—he was near enemy ranged contractors. If found, he'd face a volley from dozens or even hundreds of them, a lethal situation.
High risk, but higher reward. Each healing contractor he throat-slit earned him 3 to 4 merit points. In just a short time, he'd gained 51 merit points. The vigilance of those healers and support types was abysmal. At first, Su Xiao even doubted they were second-rank contractors—they felt more like first-rank.