Chapter 312: The Holy Radiance Form is business-oriented, while the Demonic Nightmare Form is sports-oriented.
With a flash of light, Irene, who had been on the verge of death with only 1 HP remaining, revived on the spot. Her physical condition, skill cooldowns, and other aspects returned to their initial state.
However, even though her body recovered, the lingering pain in her abdomen wasn't so easily dispelled.
Interestingly, Irene didn't feel anger or hatred as a result; instead, she developed a strong sense of defiance.
"Let's review first! Then we'll go again!" Irene shouted at Cheng Tian.
Anyone who can survive in a purely dog-eat-dog environment like this space, regardless of gender, must be resilient. And female players, who tend to be more emotional due to physiological reasons, must have reason taking a higher dominant position and stronger stress resistance.
Self-pity in failure is the least advisable; reviewing and finding countermeasures is the best choice.
Cheng Tian didn't hide anything and directly told Irene about the effect of the Demonic Nightmare Spear.
Creating the Demonic Nightmare Spear consumes 100 MP. Its attack type is mixed damage, with a damage value of 350 (Strength + Agility * 10). If the target hit is within the range of the Heart's Barrier, the Heart's Barrier will explode immediately upon impact, dealing area-of-effect damage equal to the barrier's remaining HP to the target. That is, with 0% Demonic Nightmare Corrosion bonus, the theoretical maximum damage is 850 points; with 100% Demonic Nightmare Corrosion bonus, it is 1700 points of damage.
This is still within the tolerable range for most BOSS units, but without damage reduction, it's already an attack strong enough to instantly kill some human-race individuals with a Strength extreme of 50 points.
Although Irene underwent bloodline purification and gained a 1:15 strength-to-blood ratio increase, her Strength value, being agility-focused, didn't increase significantly. Even with the Crimson Chaos Staff's permanent 150 HP bonus, her bare HP limit was only 375 points.
With equipment bonuses, it was only a little over four hundred.
So, when the Heart's Barrier was detonated by the Demonic Nightmare Spear, her high agility, despite being hard-controlled in place by the barrier, could only endure the damage and was instantly pierced through.
"If only Storm Strike could have been used a little earlier..." Irene bit her nails, constantly replaying her recent failure in her mind, imagining Storm Strike being used first to shatter Cheng Tian's Demonic Nightmare Spear and avoid a direct hit.
But to this, Cheng Tian just extended his finger and clicked his tongue a few times, then, under Irene's fierce gaze, summoned the Crystal of Imagery.
The Crystal Eye had been permanently converted into the "Eye of Fakt" exclusive to the Heart Priest profession. It essentially retained all the effects of the Crystal Eye period, but could maintain 2 in existence constantly, without maintenance cost.
"...Are you saying you can even replicate that level of attack!?" Irene's shriek was a little off-key.
Watching Cheng Tian nod, Irene's puffed-up chest instantly deflated.
With just one Demonic Nightmare Spear, she could try to block it, but three at once would be too much for her.
Very quickly, the defiant Irene started a second round with Cheng Tian.
This time, she maintained her advantage as a ranged marksman, engaging Cheng Tian in a long-range attrition battle, extending the distance as much as possible to control the casting range, and maximally avoiding being hard-controlled again by the Heart's Barrier.
Cheng Tian's MP was limited, but her Elven Quiver could generate arrows infinitely!
She didn't believe that Cheng Mouren's MP recovery rate could be faster than her Elven arrows!
Irene's strategy was indeed viable. Mana recovery rate was indeed Cheng Tian's weakness. If they just kept wearing each other down, even if Cheng Tian's Heart's Barrier defended precisely, there would always be a time when his MP ran out... but that was before his job advancement!
Facing Irene's relentless rapid fire, maintaining distance and giving him no time to breathe, Cheng Tian directly entered the Holy Radiance Heart form, emitting a light more dazzling than many legitimate Holy Light-type professions.
The purple hemispherical barrier previously used to bind Irene now appeared in a brilliant blue form in the area where Cheng Tian stood.
Unlike a regular barrier, which might be destroyed along with the arrow like a wall, the surface of the blue barrier rippled like water. When an arrow hit, it dispersed like falling into water, its force greatly scattered. Almost simultaneously with hitting the barrier, Cheng Tian's self-mana recovery rate began to significantly increase, and as the number of Irene's arrows increased, his mana recovery rate further improved—
Holy Radiance Heart Form, Heart's Barrier Guardian Barrier.
Activated in Holy Radiance Form, it can create a group protection barrier that covers him and nearby teammates. The barrier's consumption is linked to Cheng Tian's mana bar, transferring all damage directly to mana loss. However, the MP to HP conversion ratio is only half that of a regular barrier, only 1:10. While casting the Guardian Barrier, Cheng Tian himself cannot move or cast spells other than barrier skills. The cooldown is 60 seconds.
However, on this basis, for every 1 effective attack received by the Guardian Barrier from an enemy, Cheng Tian's self-mana recovery rate will double once, up to a maximum of 6 times, lasting up to 60 seconds. When attacked again, it will only refresh the duration, not continue to stack the mana recovery rate.
Originally, Cheng Tian, with 50 Spirit, had a recovery rate of 5 MP per minute. With his current mana bar having a limit of 1250 points, it would take 4 hours and 10 minutes for him to self-recover to full mana.
And if he could stack the mana recovery rate to the maximum with the barrier, Cheng Tian could reach a maximum mana recovery rate of 320 points per minute, or 5.3 per second... and this is still at 0% Holy Radiance Purification. If he could reach 100% Holy Radiance Purification, Cheng Tian's maximum mana recovery rate would double again.
For those unfamiliar with the Guardian Barrier's mechanism, such as student Irene, who chose rapid-fire to wear down Cheng Tian, continuous low-damage rapid-fire would only allow Cheng Tian to stack mana recovery buffs.
To break through the Guardian Barrier, the best method is actually to unleash large damage in quick succession, and preferably Demonic Nightmare attribute attacks that can deal double final damage, dealing tens of thousands of damage to Cheng Tian and breaking the barrier before his mana recovery rate stacks up.
Actually, it's not that difficult. If a hundred people were to besiege Cheng Tian, only 100 damage per person would be enough... How much aggro would Cheng Tian have to pull to provoke a hundred people at once?
Additionally, although Cheng Tian cannot move or cast regular spells while maintaining the barrier, he can still use the ordinary Heart's Barrier for precise defense, further reducing the pressure on the Guardian Barrier.
It was clear: the Demonic Nightmare form leans towards offense, with its abilities primarily focused on control and high damage, while the Holy Radiance form leans towards defense. As long as he stacks his buffs, he will become an unassailable fortress.
Moreover, the Guardian Barrier also has an effect similar to the Mental Barrier. While Cheng Tian himself cannot be a damage dealer while maintaining the barrier, it doesn't prevent teammates within the same barrier from performing ranged output.
After shooting for a long time and seeing no sign of Cheng Tian running out of mana, Irene silently stopped her output. After a moment of silence, she said, "That Demonic Nightmare Spear of yours, it should have a Holy form too, right? How about I try that?"
She was getting addicted to being pierced, it seemed.
"You're really hungry... But unfortunately, the Holy Spear Yggdrasil is usually a wide-area buff-type chess-piece-like buff that only works on allies. Unless you're a Dark, Chaos, or Evil attribute unit, you won't be able to get it even if you want to," Cheng Tian replied truthfully.
Irene, after another moment of silence, turned to the referee, Kuroko.
"I can't outlast you. I surrender."
"Irene! Surrenders! Winner! Cheng!" Kuroko waved his little red flag again.