076 Shocking the World!

You will pay the price for that statement! Before Morning Wind could finish his words, the Death Mantis suddenly slashed his throat with its two scythes, sending him flying into the air. The Death Mantis backed up, flew upward, and turned around, swinging its two scythe arms toward Morning Wind once again. This was a combo sequence combining the Steel Armor Mantis with a combat rogue, integrating and intensifying the two skills, Throat Lock and Shadow Strike. It was a formidable combo skill.

Switch to Shield!

Morning Wind had already switched to a defensive stance. The previous Throat Lock and Shadow Strike combo had already silenced him, preventing him from casting skills. Now, Morning Wind could only minimize the damage as much as possible. Following the Throat Lock and Shadow Strike was an aerial piercing kill. The Death Mantis would transform into a red light and charge over. Being silenced meant he had no way to use skills to defend himself; he could only reduce the damage to the utmost limit.

The Death Mantis transformed into a green light and charged over, piercing through Morning Wind's shield and body. Under normal circumstances, this combo could not be withstood even with damage-mitigation skills activated, but the shield was able to block a portion of the damage. Morning Wind took the hit and crashed down to the ground. The Death Mantis stomped down from the sky once again.

Upon landing, Morning Wind immediately rolled to the side, and right after, the Death Mantis stomped down like a ten-thousand-jin giant elephant, shattering the ground. This was the Death Mantis's third combo strike. If Morning Wind had been hit, he would have lost at least 3,000 health points and been stunned for 4 seconds, at which point Morning Wind truly would have died.

Having endured a full three-hit combo, Morning Wind had deliberately let the Death Mantis out and been forced to take the first attack head-on. For the second attack, Morning Wind minimized the damage as much as possible, and he successfully evaded the third combo strike. Even so, Morning Wind's health had plummeted by nearly 4,000, losing a full third of his total pool.

Charge!

Bloodlust!

After rolling to the side, Morning Wind rose, jumped backward, and immediately charged forward. The Death Mantis used its dual-arm scythes to block Morning Wind's charge, while Morning Wind's main-hand Arcanite Reaper slashed directly onto the Death Mantis's shoulder.

Even with the high damage of the Arcanite Reaper and the 30% damage bonus from Enhanced Titan's Grip, the damage dealt to the Death Mantis was not particularly high. The Steel Armor Mantis could be considered the nemesis of physical classes; its defense was naturally high, and its physical defense effect was even stronger. Temporarily speaking, among physical classes, aside from Morning Wind who could barely manage to scratch the Death Mantis, virtually no one else could.

Avatar! Recklessness! Skull Banner!

Activating God Mode, Morning Wind's off-hand instantly unleashed three free Raging Blows, while his main-hand Thunderstorm Strike and Tiger Strike continued without pause. Morning Wind still had 8,000 health points left, while the Death Mantis had 3,700 health remaining. At this point, it was entirely possible for Morning Wind to kill the Steel Armor Mantis. It could be said that the Death Mantis managing to acquire the Steel Armor Mantis Legendary Beast God form at this juncture was absolutely a bug-like existence, even more terrifying than Morning Wind himself.

Morning Wind's sudden burst of damage was extremely abrupt. The Death Mantis had initially intended to instantly kill Morning Wind, but he never expected to be counterattacked. When trading blows head-on with a physical class, the Death Mantis only ever aggressively attacked others; no one had ever dared to clash with him in a brute-force contest. Morning Wind was the first, and this guy even had all his ultimate abilities active, determined to fight him to the death.

"Mutt, you're not bad either. To be able to trade blows with me like this, you count as a somebody!" The Death Mantis's output was twice as high as Morning Wind's, but Morning Wind's health pool was larger than his. After trading blows, Morning Wind still held the advantage.

There was a sore spot for the Death Mantis: his mother had been a mistress. After this became known to others, everyone called him a mutt. The Death Mantis had witnessed with his own eyes his mother being beaten to death, and to avenge her, he had killed his father's entire family. While on the run, he was recruited into the Acid Rain Organization, becoming an assassin within it. The Death Mantis was cold-blooded, ruthless, insidious, and cunning, possessing virtually no weaknesses. However, the word "mutt" was his ultimate taboo. In reality, the Death Mantis would not have been so impulsive; he would have used every means possible to kill anyone who called him a mutt. But in the game, death allowed for resurrection, so he had no need to endure it. Given his identity as the Steel Armor Mantis, he had even less reason to hold back.

He is trying to provoke me!

The Death Mantis knew Morning Wind's intent. The first time, he had acted recklessly because death in the game wasn't permanent and the Steel Armor Mantis's ultra-high attributes allowed for an explosive burst, but this time he knew he couldn't act carelessly. He saw Morning Wind raising two two-handed axes to slash down—Morning Wind usually adopted this posture for a Furious Slash. If he got hit, he might actually die.

Killing Spree!

By now, the Death Mantis had very few skills left to use and could only activate Killing Spree to deal with Morning Wind. When it came to combos, the Death Mantis had two more left, but he knew clearly that they probably wouldn't work against Morning Wind. Besides, his own health was too low; he had to use the combat rogue's ultimate ability to kill Morning Wind to ensure his own survival.

The Death Mantis vanished. This combat rogue skill allowed the user to slip into the shadows, continuously attacking enemies within a 10-meter radius for a total of 7 strikes, each spaced 0.5 seconds apart, with damage increased by 50% during the attacks. With Morning Wind as the sole enemy within the 10-meter radius, the Death Mantis directed all his attacks exclusively at Morning Wind.

Steel Body!

After Morning Wind activated Steel Body, the damage he received was reduced by 70%. Unlike Shield Wall, it did not require a shield to block; regardless of the direction from which the enemy attacked, 70% of the damage was completely negated. Normally, after activating Steel Body, Morning Wind's entire body would turn a steel-gray color, but under the Blood Dragon state, this effect could not be displayed. Morning Wind didn't have to worry about exposing his identity because of Steel Body.

"So what if I just stand here and let you kill me!" Morning Wind simply stood motionless, letting the Death Mantis continuously assault him. Attacking once every 0.5 seconds meant that after 3.5 seconds, the effect of Killing Spree would end. If the Death Mantis failed to kill Morning Wind by then, he would be in deep trouble.

The abnormal output capability of the Steel Armor Mantis Legendary Beast God, combined with the combat rogue's Killing Spree 7-hit combo, only dealt this little damage? Everyone found it completely unbelievable. If Morning Wind were a Paladin who had activated Invulnerability or Hand of Protection, they might believe he could endure it. But Morning Wind was a Warrior! He hadn't raised his shield, hadn't entered a defensive stance, and hadn't activated Shield Wall—how on earth did his sudden damage mitigation reach such an absurdly high level?

The Death Mantis simply couldn't believe this was the damage he was outputting. Aside from Paladins, Mages, and Shadow Priests—classes possessing massive damage-mitigation abilities—who could resist his Killing Spree, other classes basically faced certain death under it. The Death Mantis had no idea what skill Morning Wind had used; characters of the neutral faction could not inspect status effects, nor could they see what skills the opponent had cast.

When the Steel Armor Mantis launched its 6th attack from behind Morning Wind, Morning Wind suddenly spun around, raised the pair of two-handed axes in his hands, and brought them down on the incoming Steel Armor Mantis, dealing nearly 8,000 damage. The Death Mantis's health had dropped below 30%, allowing Morning Wind's Furious Slash to trigger a 5x critical hit. With God Mode currently active, dealing 8,000 damage wasn't considered exceptionally high. As long as health fell below 30% and one took a direct hit from Morning Wind's Furious Slash, there was only one outcome: death!

Previously, the Death Mantis's health had already dropped below 30%, but the remaining single chance to use Furious Slash had exceeded the 8-second window and lost its effect. Therefore, Morning Wind intended to rely on Bloodlust to trigger a critical strike, regain the Furious Slash opportunity, and execute the Death Mantis in a single blow.

Morning Wind knew that the Steel Armor Mantis still had two survival skills unused; even after Killing Spree ended, it would still be very difficult for Morning Wind to kill the Death Mantis. This time, Morning Wind's move could only be considered a setup to trick the Death Mantis, making him believe Morning Wind truly wasn't going to fight back, thus allowing him to exhaust Killing Spree. The shadow-stealth effect of Killing Spree was indeed formidable; during this period, a combat rogue was virtually unkillable. However, its weakness was that the user had to materialize the exact moment they attacked.

Morning Wind was also familiar with the combat rogue's Killing Spree, and his Blood Ring possessed a spacetime-shifting effect similar to Killing Spree. Thus, this time Morning Wind anticipated the exact moment the Death Mantis would drop his guard to strike and kill him.

The Death Mantis had no time to dodge. The moment he saw Morning Wind suddenly spin around and raise two axes to slash at him, he couldn't believe it was real. In that instant, the Death Mantis desperately wanted to activate a skill to evade, but Killing Spree had one fatal flaw: during its duration, no other skills could be used.

He fell!

The Death Mantis collapsed filled with resentment and reluctance. He never expected that he would lose. Clearly, the Steel Armor Mantis's attributes were higher than the Blood Dragon's, and he held a massive advantage over Morning Wind, yet the outcome turned out so unexpectedly? Why was there such a huge gap?

It wasn't a matter of skill!

Having been killed and forced offline, the Death Mantis huddled in a dark corner of his small room, reviewing the events step by step. He could say with absolute certainty that he hadn't lost due to skill. In fact, his skill was even slightly superior to his opponent's, with the combo sequence being the prime piece of evidence. But why did he lose?

"This person seems very familiar with me, knows my style, and knows the data of the Steel Armor Mantis." The Death Mantis's opening ambush had been counter-killed by the opponent. The opponent had seized the 5-second window where he hadn't removed crowd control to strike instantly, used verbal provocation to force him out into the open, and finally lied to make him commit a mistake, finding the opportunity to kill him.

The Death Mantis felt as though he were facing a lifelong rival of Morning Wind's. His personal fighting style and the influence of the Steel Armor Mantis on combat rogues were completely known to Morning Wind. How could this be? The Death Mantis rarely interacted with players outside his organization. Even when he did, he never used the identity of the Steel Armor Mantis. Not even his teammates possessed this much detailed information about the Steel Armor Mantis—how did Morning Wind know?

Berserker! How could a Berserker from the China region be so familiar with him? The Death Mantis felt he had to track down the Blood Dragon, otherwise he truly wouldn't know what the identity of this guy was who knew his past, his weaknesses, and his game data.

"Don't tell me that little mantis is your strongest player in the Japan region? Bah, what absolute trash!" Morning Wind spat out a mouthful of saliva onto the ground, eyeing the dumbfounded players surrounding him.

"Blood Dragon, don't be so arrogant! We refuse to believe that not a single player in the entire Japan region is your match." A player roared in fury, currently wishing they could transform into a Super Saiyan and punch Morning Wind to death.

"Today, I'm going to solo your entire Japan region by myself. Who dares step up to take a blow from my axe?" Morning Wind felt his state was exceptionally good. To be able to intercept the Death Mantis's ambush earlier was something that couldn't just be done casually. In the past, Morning Wind had considered this method, but it had never succeeded before. Relying on sheer intuition to intercept an opponent while blind to their location was a capability Morning Wind hadn't yet mastered. With his state currently this stellar, Morning Wind was even less afraid. The Death Mantis had been killed by him—who else dared to step up?

Hearing Morning Wind's deafening roar, the thousands of high-end players gathered near the decisive battle barrier didn't dare make a sound. This scene instantly shocked the players watching the livestream: a single person was single-handedly taking on an entire national server, leaving all the high-end players too terrified to utter a sound. To this day, not a single player worldwide had ever caused a sensational effect like Morning Wind's.

Being able to create this current shockwave was largely due to the Death Mantis coming out and getting killed by Morning Wind. Since even a player in the Legendary Beast God form was no match for Morning Wind, who else could possibly be his opponent?

Stealth!

Within the decisive battle barrier, no player could investigate Morning Wind's hidden effects. If no player initiated a challenge within 10 seconds inside the decisive battle barrier, Morning Wind could choose to rest and pause the combat, during which other players were unable to challenge him. The stealthy Morning Wind canceled the Blood Dragon state, then channeled his Hearthstone to teleport back to the city.