booktalesy Chapter 4141 Shackles of Battle Intent
Chapter 4141 Shackles of Battle Intent
Chapter 4141 Shackles of Battle Intent
Nereid's elemental backlash caused it to writhe and groan on the ground for a full two minutes.
This shows that the elemental backlash caused it a great deal of damage.
As it rolled and howled, Angor activated his God's-eye view, focusing his gaze on Nereid's body.
Angell had wanted to do this when he was working on the Dream version.
However, the situation in the Dream version was special; once you entered the God's-eye view, you automatically escaped the Nightmare. This time, the real body entered the level, which allowed them to achieve their goal.
From God's-eye view, Angor could clearly see the elemental backlash within Nereid's body.
A moment later, he snapped his fingers lightly.
After the snap of his fingers, Nereid underwent some changes in the eyes of the gray porcelain and the rabbit girl.
—A long health bar suddenly appeared on its head.
The health bar has an outer frame and an inner layer.
The outer layer is a border representing the maximum health, with scales from 0 to 100%, clearly indicating Nereid's total health threshold; the inner layer is a red fill bar that expands and contracts with the health, currently displaying its current remaining health.
90%!
This is Nereid's current health!
Gray Porcelain and the Rabbit Girl are no strangers to the health bar rule. Angel had marked the health bar for Nereid before during the simulation battle!
"Did you mark this health bar, sir?" Gray Porcelain looked at Angell. "Is it real?"
Angel nodded: "That's right, I marked the health bar, and as for the current value... there shouldn't be any problem."
Angor observed Nereid's internal condition from a god-like perspective in order to create a health bar model, so that he could more intuitively see the changes in Nereid's health points.
Overall, this is a feature that isn't very useful.
However, for challengers, the feeling of challenge is completely different with and without this feature.
Previously, when facing Nereid, they could only guess at its injuries based on its roars and struggles, like groping in the dark in a fog, with even the outline of victory unclear.
But when this health bar is suspended in mid-air, each elemental backlash shortens the red bar, and each round of bombardment causes the value to jump, victory changes from a vague "possibility" to a "progress" that can be grasped in one's hand.
It's like seeing a road sign on a long journey; even if the destination is still far away, at least you know you're on the right track.
Although it cannot bring direct victory, it can give people hope to grit their teeth and keep going during a long and drawn-out struggle.
The introduction of the health bar is undoubtedly a shot in the arm for the Challenger team!
Especially when they saw that a single backlash had reduced Nereid's health by 10%, Gray Porcelain and the Rabbit Girl's eyes lit up instantly.
You see, in the dream version, they made Nereid endure twenty backlashes before they could successfully hunt him; but in the real version, a single backlash takes away one-tenth of his life—meaning that if they could repeat this backlash ten times, the battle would be over!
Although the actual number of times is likely greater, since each elemental backlash requires interrupting all four elements of Nereid once.
The total number of times spellcasting can be interrupted will exceed 40.
But once you understand its elemental backlash mechanism, taking down Nereid is not difficult.
……
When Nereid flew back into the air and roared at the crowd.
No one felt afraid anymore.
When the BOSS shows its health bar, no matter how strong it is, they have the courage to grind it down!
What followed was a drawn-out, blood-splitting tug-of-war.
They allowed Nereid to unleash different elemental abilities, and when it began to control itself and not release the fourth element, they would suppress it with elemental cannon fire, forcing it to use the fourth element to attack.
And so, it continued to retaliate for five rounds.
Nereid's health bar dropped to 50%.
It was at this moment that Nereid revealed a new mechanism that had never appeared before.
It seemed to realize that elemental attacks were having little effect on them, so it abandoned elemental attacks and began to use its huge and hard body to launch physical attacks on them.
Although the Elemental Rainbow Dragon's physical body was somewhat weaker than other Abyss Dragons, it was still many times stronger than the others. Nereid finally began to utilize the power of his physical body.
The dragon's tail, like a steel whip, lashed out at the crowd.
The whistling sound waves generated by the impact on the air showed just how terrifying this attack was.
At this moment, fear also flashed in Gray Porcelain's eyes.
Elemental fields can't withstand physical attacks!
Is this the end of their battle?
Just as Gray Porcelain's thoughts flashed through his mind, he caught a glimpse of Angell and the rabbit girl beside him and noticed that they were both extremely calm and their expressions had not changed at all.
"?"
The question mark had just appeared in Gray Porcelain's mind when she heard the rabbit girl's voice emerge from the mental ties: "Gray Porcelain, you protect her. Leave Nereid to me."
Angel nodded, gently pulled Gray Porcelain back a step, and dodged Nereid's tail whip.
At the same time, the Nightmare Node is activated.
Angell and the gray porcelain went into "invisibility" mode.
After Nereid whips out its tail, its body will turn its back to the ground due to inertia. When it turns around, it finds that Angel and Gray Porcelain are gone, and only the rabbit girl appears in its field of vision. Naturally, its target of attack changes to the rabbit girl.
The tail whip, combined with the wing flash, kept trying to strike the rabbit girl, but the rabbit girl was like a butterfly flitting among flowers, extremely agile.
In addition, Angell left behind a large number of phantom mist clouds on the field, each cloud having a boosting effect, making it even easier for her to dodge.
They even started to tease Nereid.
Nereid angrily unleashed a "Hurricane Throw," but before the wind elemental attack could be expelled from its mouth, a ground cannonball was launched from an unknown location, precisely interrupting its breath.
The attack failed and resulted in a loss!
Nereid's anger intensified, but he dared not use elemental attacks again, because two wretched little rats were lurking in the shadows, eyeing him covetously.
And it still can't pinpoint their location.
Unless it has a group attack that forces them out. But its group attacks are all elemental abilities...
For a time, Nereid was helpless against Angel and Gray Porcelain, and could only continue to attack the rabbit girl.
But after the rabbit girl dodged the tail whip that slammed into the ground, Nereid suddenly felt an unprecedented, excruciating pain.
"howl--"
Nereid screamed and fell to the ground, rolling around in agony.
At the same time, its health bar dropped by another 10%.
The sudden screams and changes in the health bar startled Gray Porcelain, who was hiding to the side.
"What on earth happened? There was no elemental backlash, so why did my health bar suddenly drop?"
Unable to understand the gray porcelain, he could only turn to Angell for help.
Angel didn't explain, but instead snapped his fingers lightly. The next second, a miniature overhead view appeared before Gray Porcelain's eyes.
The image shown is the tail whip from which Nereid suffered damage just now.
When he looked at it from a normal perspective, he didn't find anything unusual; however, when he switched to an overhead view, he clearly discovered the problem.
...Nereid has crossed the line.
Literally, crossing the line.
When its tail whip slammed to the ground, the tip of its tail left the shelter platform and went outside.
At that very moment, a faint, almost invisible light emanated from the edge of the platform.
After the light faded, Nereid let out a huge scream, and 10% of his health was deducted.
Only after this scene did Gray Porcelain finally understand the reason: "...Nereid can't leave the shelter platform?"
Angel nodded: "That's right."
Gray Porcelain glanced at the rabbit girl in the distance, then looked at Angel. Recalling the confident calm on the faces of the two people she had caught a glimpse of earlier, she belatedly realized and asked softly, "You expected this beforehand?"
Angel nodded noncommittally: "Although it's a hidden mechanism, it's not hard to find."
Whether it's the dream version or the real version of Nereid, there's always a platform that serves as the battleground.
Moreover, this platform is also called a shelter platform, which is clearly biased towards challengers.
Despite being on a platform that favored challengers, Nereid never left, remaining steadfast even as he suffered constant elemental backlash.
Clearly, it's not that it doesn't want to leave the platform, but rather that it cannot leave the platform.
They discovered this mechanism back in the Dream version.
Even at first, the bunny girl tried to lure the dream version of Nereid away from the platform, but the dream version of Nereid was too rigid and its actions were completely programmed, ignoring the bunny girl entirely.
But the real Nereid has self-awareness, and its thoughts come and go. When it finds that elemental attacks are ineffective, it resorts to physical attacks.
However, when it comes to physical attacks, it can only use its tail whip, and it cannot even control the distance of its tail whip.
He was easily lured to the edge by the bunny girl.
Then, naturally, he cheated and crossed the line.
The backlash from the shelter platform came immediately.
After learning the whole story, Gray Porcelain looked at Nereid rolling on the ground not far away and suddenly felt a pang of sympathy...
About a minute later, Nereid took to the air again.
Having learned its lesson, its attacks have taken a new turn.
It still primarily relies on physical attacks, but occasionally it will incorporate some elemental attacks. It thought it could hide perfectly, but every elemental attack was detected in advance by Gray Porcelain's danger sense.
Then, interrupt the spellcasting.
After two consecutive rounds, Nereid's health had dropped from 40% to 20%.
At this moment, it realized again that elemental attacks could no longer be used, but physical attacks were too easy to go out of bounds... So what should it do?
Nereid flapped his wings, lost in thought in mid-air.
This thought lasted for ten minutes.
The group refrained from attacking at this moment. Although the elemental cannonballs were usable, it would be a waste to use them directly. It would be better to wait for Nereid to launch an attack before taking counter-attacks.
However, while they were waiting...
Something unexpected happened: a notification from Wonderland suddenly popped up.
"Battle progress stalled: Hidden rule [Battle Will Shackles] triggered."
"Shackles of Fighting Spirit: From the moment a challenger steps onto the sheltered platform, both sides' fighting spirit will be forcibly maintained until the end of the battle. During the battle, if either side continues to slack off, a penalty mechanism will be triggered."
"Punishment countdown begins: 10, 9, 8..."
The sudden notification left everyone completely bewildered.
Shackles of fighting spirit? Punishment for slackness?
They weren't slacking off either; wasn't it Nereid who was?
Despite their doubts, after reading the message, they immediately prepared to enter combat mode to avoid punishment.
But just then, Gray Porcelain suddenly spoke up: "This punishment will not be life-threatening."
"?"
Reading the information about the fairyland, and with Gray Porcelain's words interrupting everyone's thoughts, they were still pondering the meaning behind Gray Porcelain's words when ten seconds had already passed.
The next moment, the punishment of the shackles of battle spirit struck like a thunderbolt!
The shelter platform trembled violently, and an invisible energy wave emanated from the center of the platform, exploding outwards in all directions.
Gray Porcelain, as if struck in the chest by a giant hammer, cried out in pain and curled up into a ball, the teapot spout hitting the ground with a dull thud; Nereid's massive body suddenly collapsed to the ground, convulsing, spiderweb-like red patterns emerging beneath its dragon scales, emitting a deafening howl of pain.
Although Angell and the rabbit girl did not fall, their faces turned pale and a metallic taste rose in their throats.
Even the strength to stand had vanished.
Fortunately, Angel had previously set up a large number of illusionary mist clouds around him, and with the support of these clouds, they did not appear to be in such a sorry state.
The punishment of the shackles of fighting spirit was even more severe than they had imagined.
If we were to express it in terms of data, it would be roughly like... everyone had their health forcibly reduced by 10%.
Upon realizing this, Angell and the rabbit girl exchanged a glance and immediately looked at Nereid.
This lapse in concentration wasn't their fault, but rather the fault of Nereid! They've lost health, and Nereid probably won't escape either…
Their eyes lit up when they saw the health bar above Nereid's head.
really!
Nereid also had 10% of his health forcibly deducted due to the [Shackles of Battle Spirit]!
Nereid already had 20% health, and now with another 10% loss, he's down to his last sliver of health!
"Perhaps we can use the rules of the War Will Shackles to kill Nereid?" the rabbit girl said slowly.
Even if they trigger the battle intent lock again and lose 10% of their health, they will be fine, at most suffering some minor injuries.
But Nereid is a different story! They will die instantly!
You can give it a try!
Thinking of this, Angor snapped his fingers lightly, using illusion magic to conceal everyone, attempting to kill Nereid by hiding the rules.
However, they soon discovered that this wouldn't work.
As long as Nereid has the intention to attack or engages in an attack, even if it is just a casual physical attack, the Battle Will Shackles will not be triggered.
On the contrary, if they continue to avoid battle, they will trigger the shackles of fighting spirit.
The shackles of fighting spirit clearly cannot be used as tools for their attacks.
However, despite the failed experiment, they were not discouraged. Since they couldn't exploit the rules, then... they would resort to brute force!