"What?"
Seeing Kno Slough suddenly turn into that cloaked freak, Chen Zijin exclaimed in surprise, "What's going on?"
Zhang Yue stayed calm and clear-headed, "Think about the news you saw before."
Chen Zijin was instantly enlightened, "He's not Kno Slough, but a monster disguising itself as him?"
Zhang Yue looked at the black cloak and said in a low voice, "Or, to be more precise…"
"He's been possessed."
'Possessed?'
Hearing that word, Chen Zijin's heart jolted violently.
Then Zhang Yue's voice pulled her mind back to reality, "This guy's not ordinary. Step back, I'll handle him."
Chen Zijin let out an "Oh," and decisively moved behind Zhang Yue.
To be fair, though she liked showing off in front of him, when facing a problem she couldn't handle, she still knew when to back off.
That's what it means to be brave when it's time to be brave, and back down when it's time to back down.
Zhang Yue's gaze locked onto the figure in the black cloak.
Looking closely, he saw the man was wearing a long black cloak, a retro-style bamboo hat, and holding a blade.
When he lifted his head, a black mask covered his face.
At first glance, he looked like a Ming dynasty Jinyiwei, an imperial secret guard.
But when Zhang Yue tried using his Reconnaissance Skill to check the guy's stats, he was stunned to find that even with an SSSS-level detection skill, he couldn't see any of his data.
There wasn't even an ID label above his head.
He hadn't said a single word, but Zhang Yue could clearly feel a murderous intent radiating from him.
The guy came prepared.
And, unsurprisingly, his target was Zhang Yue.
Zhang Yue kept his eyes fixed on the cloaked man's movements.
The instant the man drew his sword, Zhang Yue attacked first.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Thunder Wrath + Lightning Dance + Shattered Thunder.
Three SSSS-level lightning skills struck directly at the black cloak.
The cloaked man didn't dodge at all. Instead, he swung his blade with precision, blocking every single one of Zhang Yue's attacks.
In this otherworld, "blocking" attacks was a valid action.
Whether you were a player or a monster, as long as you used your weapon to successfully defend against an enemy strike, the system would recognize it as a successful block, meaning that blocked damage would count as nullified.
Zhang Yue was slightly surprised.
Up to now, he had rarely met an opponent with this kind of tactical awareness.
And Zhang Yue's attack speed was fast.
Those three lightning skills were released in nearly the same instant.
Yet the opponent's technique was fast enough to flawlessly block all three in under a second.
After neutralizing Zhang Yue's attack, the cloaked man gripped his long sword tightly.
Whoosh!
His body shot forward like a shadow, rushing toward Zhang Yue at blinding speed.
In a blink, he was right in front of him.
Clang!
The sword came sweeping down, Zhang Yue raised his staff in time to block at close range.
The cloaked man's offense was ferocious.
After the first slash was blocked, he immediately changed direction and swung the secon, not even 0.1 seconds apart.
Third slash!
Fourth!
Fifth!
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
Zhang Yue parried every single strike.
Although he was currently in the role of a ranged mage, in his past life Zhang Yue had been a combat warrior, a true operations master.
Even though nowadays he often relied on sheer damage output to crush enemies instantly, his real skill, the one he'd honed to rival the so-called "Dragon Nation's No.1 Micro-Control God, Yue Hen, Moon Mark", had never faded.
After several failed strikes, the black cloak suddenly pulled back his blade to his hip, and began to charge up power.
Draw! The! Blade!
Clang!
A single, charged slash came crashing down toward Zhang Yue.
Zhang Yue didn't think the attack would be that strong. He didn't activate Angel Wings for defense, just used his staff to block like before.
The block succeeded, but the power behind the strike far exceeded his expectations.
The long blade rose upward in a sweeping arc, knocking his staff aside and slicing straight across Zhang Yue's shoulder.
Zhang Yue staggered back several steps, as a blood-red damage number flashed above his head—
–4.82 billion!
Seeing the damage number pop up, Chen Zijin, who was watching from behind, couldn't help but gasp.
"What? That much damage?"
"Even the three Main Gods could only deal around 3 billion at most, this guy's attack power is higher than a Main God's! What is he?"
At that moment, Chen Zijin realized, this level of battle was far beyond what she could possibly participate in.
Smart as she was, she quietly turned on the recording function…
Fortunately, Zhang Yue still had the protection of the Void Shield.
The Void Shield from his Glory·Transcendent Set absorbed damage and converted 200% of it into extra shields, stacking up to 20 times his HP limit.
From the previous fight on the Cross-Sea Bridge, Zhang Yue had already maxed out his shield to 20x his HP.
With a max HP of 3.7 billion, he couldn't have survived that last attack otherwise.
But thanks to the Void Shield, he had only lost a little over one shield bar.
Still, Zhang Yue could tell, this opponent's power level exceeded that of the Three Main Gods.
Yet… aside from the Demon Emperor, what other creature in this world could surpass the Main Gods?
And this thing was showing up in a mid-tier world like World 45?
That made no sense.
In Zhang Yue's field of vision, the cloaked man reversed his grip on the sword. And then, with his left hand, gestured at Zhang Yue to come at him.
That taunting motion instantly ignited Zhang Yue's fighting spirit.
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
Fatal Lock sensed their master's killing intent and launched an attack of their own.
Seven chains shot out from around Zhang Yue like seven deadly blades, lunging toward the black cloak.
To his surprise, the black cloak's reflexes and combat control were godlike, even facing the assault of the Transcendent Mythic Artifact: Fatal Lock, he handled it effortlessly.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Each time, his sword struck precisely, blocking every lightning-fast chain.
While the chains unleashed continuous attacks, Zhang Yue also swung his staff and began casting spells, finally managing to break through the opponent's guard.
Thunderfire Blaze + Thunder Wrath!
Two skills hit the black cloak squarely.
–32.58 billion!
–31.17 billion!
Even so, the damage dealt was less than what he'd done to the Three Main Gods before.
That meant the enemy's damage reduction stats were sky-high.
No doubt, the man before him was a super boss whose strength surpassed even the Three Main Gods.
[🎉 Shoutout to Acheron13, LightEvil, Amirul, Benedict, Jordan, Cameron & Jerome for joining p@treon. There is also a discount event ongoing till 6 November 12.00 P.M. Thank you very much.🤗]