“Give up; you can’t kill me.”
An Dong, casting [Healing Spell] once more, spoke with a hint of exasperation to the One-Handed Sword Player before him.
This marked the fifth Healing Spell he had unleashed, yet his health remained full, and five minutes had already elapsed in the arena match.
Throughout those five minutes, the One-Handed Sword Player had launched a furious assault, but it had proven largely ineffectual, merely draining his own stamina in vain.
“Is your mana infinite, you bastard? Doesn’t a Tier 4 Healing Spell run out of mana after three or four uses?”
The One-Handed Sword Player, seething, pointed at An Dong and yelled, unable to comprehend the situation.
“Well, I’ll be frank with you,”
An Dong released his grip on the greatshield, spreading his hands in a gesture of helplessness.
“My innate skill, Blood Exchange: A certain percentage of damage taken is converted into mana.”
“I haven’t quite figured out the exact ratio yet, but I do know that if you convert the mana cost of the [Healing Spell] skill into health, it’s actually less than what the spell recovers.”
An Dong chuckled sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.
“In other words, as long as you can’t instantly kill me, I can fully recover my health, and I’ll never run out of mana.”
“Damn it!”
Upon hearing this, the One-Handed Sword Player furiously threw down his sword.
“That’s insane! Aren’t you essentially an immortal perpetual motion machine?”
“Well, theoretically, if you can’t instantly kill me, then yes, that’s precisely it…”
An Dong shrugged helplessly.
“Hmph! I still don’t believe it!”
The player seemed to recall something else, picking up his sword with a defiant glint in his eyes.
“If I just chain-control you, preventing you from casting [Healing Spell] to recover, wouldn’t that work?”
“Oh? Want to try?”
Hearing his words, An Dong merely laughed, raising his greatshield with a somewhat provocative tone.
“Falling Moon Slash!”
The One-Handed Sword Player brandished his longsword, and the [Falling Moon Slash], adorned with a silver visual effect, struck An Dong.
This was a Swordsman’s knockback skill, one that had previously appeared in the duel between Xiao and Yan.
It seemed the One-Handed Sword Player had shifted his strategy: since he couldn’t kill An Dong, he would simply push him out of the arena.
After all, the stage was only 40 yards wide, and once a player was knocked out of the designated area, the system would automatically declare them defeated.
Watching the [Falling Moon Slash] about to connect with An Dong, the One-Handed Sword Player grinned triumphantly, convinced he had finally found the correct approach.
“Hoho, excellent!”
An Dong let out a strange laugh, raising his greatshield and directly confronting the [Falling Moon Slash] unleashed by the One-Handed Sword Player.
With a resounding crash, the sword blade struck An Dong’s greatshield, but the anticipated scene of An Dong being knocked back never materialized.
Instead, the One-Handed Sword Player’s body uncontrollably recoiled 20 yards, nearly landing at the very edge of the arena.
This comical turn of events caught everyone off guard; it was as if the One-Handed Sword Player had been hit by the “recoil” of his own skill, flying backward, while An Dong, who should have been knocked back, remained utterly motionless.
“W-what just happened?”
The One-Handed Sword Player stood shaken at the edge of the arena, staring bewildered at his sword, wondering if his own skill or equipment was somehow betraying him.
“Brutal Charge!”
An Dong, however, showed no intention of explaining.
He immediately activated his own skill, raising the greatshield that had been resting on the ground, and charged directly toward the One-Handed Sword Player.
“Hey… big brother, let’s talk this out… don’t!”
The One-Handed Sword Player stood rooted in panic, utterly at a loss.
He recognized the skill: it was a Tier 2 knockback and movement ability for greatshield players, allowing them to charge a target and push them back 10 yards.
Moreover, it was a targeted skill, meaning it couldn’t be dodged.
In the blink of an eye, An Dong was before him, his greatshield slamming into the One-Handed Sword Player’s body.
Instantly, the One-Handed Sword Player was knocked back 10 yards, landing outside the arena.
“It’s over…”
The One-Handed Sword Player uttered bitterly, watching the blue teleportation light slowly materialize around his body.
Players knocked out of the arena were deemed defeated and immediately teleported out of the arena map.
However, unlike players whose health dropped to zero and whose bodies vanished instantly, those leaving the arena had a brief window to speak before their teleportation.
“It’s the end, Brother An Dong. Tell me why I lost.”
He smiled wryly, looking at An Dong, who stood at the edge of the arena, seeing him off.
“I want to understand my defeat.”
“…”
An Dong gazed at him in silence for a moment, then raised the greatshield in his hand.
“Innate Grade Equipment, Shield of the Profound Stone: Toughness +30%, Health +1000, Spirit Blood +40%. Innate Ability: Steadfast, the wielder cannot be knocked back or knocked airborne. Any knockback or knock-airborne effects received will be reflected back to the attacker.”
“Also, I’m an abnormal resistance tank, so my specialization isn’t health, but abnormal resistance… which is toughness.
With my current abnormal resistance stats, aside from being immune to knockback and knock-airborne effects, all other crowd control durations are reduced by one-third.
Therefore, attempting to chain crowd control skills to prevent me from using healing spells is nothing but a pipe dream.”
“I see…”
The One-Handed Sword Player nodded with a bitter smile, his gaze falling upon the greatshield in An Dong’s hand.
Only now did he fully grasp the unique nature of the greatshield in An Dong’s grasp.
It appeared as if a natural boulder had been perfectly sculpted, without a single flaw.
Indeed, as its innate ability described, it seemed to weigh a thousand pounds, standing immovably, ensuring its wielder, An Dong, truly never retreated a single step throughout the entire match.
“It seems all talk about tank classes being unsuitable for PvP is just prejudice.
In this game, players with powerful innate skills and innate equipment, who can use them flexibly, certainly have no ‘unsuitability for PvP’ whatsoever…”
The One-Handed Sword Player chuckled, the blue light now almost completely enveloping him.
“Keep it up, you absolutely have to defend the arena.
I hope I lose to someone in the top five, not some unknown scrub.”
“Ah.”
An Dong smiled in response, watching the One-Handed Sword Player’s figure vanish before him.
“I’ll do my best to break into the top five, to save you some face.”
Holding the Shield of the Profound Stone, he returned once more to the center of the arena, awaiting the next challenger’s appearance.
****
“An Dong certainly has a few tricks up his sleeve, that guy.”
Yan, with his hands clasped behind his back, stood on the arena stage, embodying a dignified, almost immortal air (TL Note: A humorous phrase, literally ‘immortal grace and daoist bones,’ but in this context, it humorously implies a ‘leader inspecting rural areas’ – a detached, superior demeanor), gazing at the projection of An Dong’s victory in the sky, and nodded with a faint smile.
“Mhm, mhm, he truly is the man I acknowledged.” (TL Note: This refers to Yan’s encouraging words to An Dong, “Go, abnormal resistance tank!” when they first met.)
At this moment, he was utterly idle, truly so.
In fact, few overconfident challengers remained to step onto the arena stage; he had been standing there for about ten minutes without a single player daring to challenge him.
Indeed, it wasn’t just Yan on Arena Stage Three; Qing Bai on Arena Stage Four and Lian on Arena Stage Five had also seen no challengers for quite some time.
“Arena Stage Two was taken down by that shota (TL Note: A Japanese term referring to a young, attractive boy) who fought Qing Bai earlier… ah, no, the melee mage.
I knew it! With such a powerful innate skill, he was bound to be formidable in close combat.
They should have chosen a 40-yard map from the start.”
Yan looked toward Arena Stage Two, where the matches had just concluded.
He surmised that for a while, only An Dong on Arena Stage One and Ivan on Arena Stage Two would face continuous challenges.
An Dong was a tank, and Ivan had just taken the stage, so many likely hadn’t fully grasped his strength yet and were eager to test their mettle against him.
‘Ah, it’s truly wonderful to be able to relax and watch the show…’
Yan thought, like a ‘salted fish’ (TL Note: A Chinese slang term referring to someone who is lazy, unmotivated, and content with doing nothing), even crossing his legs and sitting down where he stood.
“How leisurely you are, Yan.”
Just as Yan raised his head, intending to simply be a spectator for the other arena matches, an unfamiliar voice reached him.
“And you are?”
Yan slowly rose to his feet, a frown creasing his brow as he looked at the tall male emerging from the blue light before him.
He couldn’t recall ever knowing such a person, and in truth, he didn’t.
“I am Xiao’s friend…”
The man, gathering the long strands of hair that drifted beside his face, unslung the strange long-handled weapon from his back and twirled it gracefully in his hand.
Then, with knitted brows, he glared fiercely at Yan, emanating an imposing aura.
Yan observed the man’s practiced stance and his solemn, dignified expression, a powerful sense of déjà vu washing over him.
Were it not for the fact that the man before him appeared quite young and lacked a long beard, Yan would surely have exclaimed, revealing the man’s identity.
The man then plunged the butt of his weapon into the earth, letting it stand upright.
He then raised a hand and lightly cupped his fist in a salute towards Yan.
“Guan Gong Blade Art (TL Note: A legendary martial art associated with Guan Yu, a famous general from the Three Kingdoms period) successor, Guan Ying. I ask for your guidance.”