The Standoff and the Realization

The Old Ape raised his thick arms high, clenching his fists above his head.

Simultaneously, a red circle materialized beneath Yan’s feet.

Yan, brandishing his long spear, charged fearlessly towards the Old Ape.

[Monster Tale Master]’s boss transformation still displaying skill ranges was truly a blessing.

Yan mused internally, such an attack could be easily dodged by any player with even a modicum of confidence in their own maneuvering.

“Piercing Flash!”

The sharp tip of his spear lunged abruptly towards the Old Ape’s colossal frame, and in an instant, his body dissolved into a phantom blur.

After a fleeting gleam of cold light, Yan’s figure reappeared behind the massive ape.

The Old Ape’s fists, which had been whipping up gales of air, slammed violently into the empty ground, sending dust billowing.

“Hah~ I knew it wouldn’t be that easy.”

The Old Ape let out a grotesque chuckle, then swiveled its cumbersome body, intending to launch another attack at Yan, who stood behind it.

Yet, how could Yan possibly let such a prime attacking opportunity slip by?

“Thrusting Spear!”

Yan thrust the tip of his spear upwards, activating [Thrusting Spear].

His left hand loosely gripped the upper-middle section of the long spear shaft, while his right swiftly pulled back the spear’s butt.

The sharp tip danced in the air, forming a blur, resembling a blossoming flower of spikes.

In a mere second, Yan had already unleashed twelve thrusts.

While the real-world Yan (岳明言) would be incapable of such a feat, here, within the world of ‘Divine Companion Realm,’ Yan could accomplish what ordinary people could not, all thanks to his absurdly powerful attributes.

The twelve thrusts landed on the Old Ape’s towering form, inflicting considerable damage despite its incredibly high resistance.

For the Old Ape, which possessed no means of recovery, such accumulated attacks would eventually prove unbearable.

Just then, the Old Ape had fully turned, swinging its right fist to strike at Yan.

“Tch.”

Yan clicked his tongue lightly, then swiftly activated [Backflip] to evade the red circle beneath his feet.

The Old Ape’s right fist sliced past Yan’s nose, a hair’s breadth from impact, a truly narrow escape from the blow.

“Transforming into a boss makes him immune to crowd control and prevents combo attacks, this is truly troublesome…”

Yan swept his long spear behind him, gazing with a hint of helplessness at the Old Ape, now twenty yards away.

In ‘Divine Companion Realm,’ all crowd control effects on bosses are reduced to 25%.

This meant that even if Zhen Bupo didn’t specialize in abnormal resistance (tenacity), his boss transformation still granted him crowd control reduction comparable to a half-finished abnormal resistance tank.

Simply put, Yan’s player-focused combo attacks, which chained crowd control with damage skills, were utterly ineffective against Zhen Bupo.

“You jumping around is annoying too!”

The Old Ape roared, moving its massive legs and striding with meteoric speed towards Yan.

So fast!

In merely two or three strides, the Old Ape covered the twenty-yard distance that Yan had created with his [Backflip], appearing before him in the blink of an eye.

Yan’s eyes widened.

With no time for extensive thought, he instinctively reacted to the Old Ape’s raised fist.

“Binding!”

He swiftly brandished his long spear, its sharp tip blurring into streaks of light that enveloped his body impenetrably.

Gleams of cold light tightly encased Yan’s tall, lean frame.

The Old Ape’s fist descended as expected, striking heavily against Yan’s body.

“Phew~ safe landing.”

Yan glanced at his unchanged health bar and let out a sigh of relief.

[Binding] was a life-saving skill for Spearmasters, capable of blocking attacks.

It offered a 10% chance to block skills, but an 80% chance to block normal attacks.

Yan hadn’t clearly seen if there was a red circle under his feet, so he had gambled that the Old Ape’s attack would be a normal one.

Fortunately, his gamble paid off.

Capitalizing on the Old Ape’s momentary stun after its normal attack, Yan swiftly raised his spear and thrust it heavily into the ape before him.

[Middle-Level Spear]!

The most powerful Tier 4 offensive skill struck the Old Ape, instantly depleting one-sixth of its health.

‘So, the [Weakening Spear]’s attributes are indeed bringing Yan’s attack power down to a normal level, even after specializing in attack power?’ Yan mused with a touch of exasperation.

Previously, during the raid on the first zone’s boss, Yan could instantly kill the Old Ape with a single normal attack.

Now, even using [Middle-Level Spear], he had only managed to chip off one-sixth of Zhen Bupo’s health.

What he didn’t realize, however, was that the Old Ape’s health, as transformed by Zhen Bupo, wasn’t that of an ordinary boss, but Zhen Bupo’s own health.

Currently, Zhen Bupo had specialized in health, and was also equipped with gear designed to boost his HP.

His health bar was already considerably longer than that of the Old Ape Yan had defeated in a single blow, as the [Cave Stone Ape] was merely a Level 15 boss from the first zone.

Zhen Bupo was clearly aware of this fact.

He watched his health bar plummet by one-sixth, his eyes widening in shock.

He had anticipated that Yan, renowned as a [Spearmaster], would be a formidable opponent.

However, he had not foreseen Yan’s outrageous damage output; his dual resistances, inherited from the boss, felt like paper before Yan.

‘I cannot allow Yan to chip away at my health like this any longer,’ he thought.

‘Even with my extended health bar, I will eventually be defeated.’

‘I must find an opportunity to instantly kill Yan.’

Possessing the attack power and skill damage inherited from the boss, Zhen Bupo indeed had the ability to instantly kill Yan.

With this thought, he prepared to unleash another wide-area skill, attempting to strike Yan.

But how could Yan be so easily hit by him?

“[Divine Speed]!”

A pristine white glow erupted around Yan, and instantly, his movement speed surged.

He swiftly created distance from the Old Ape, seemingly anticipating Zhen Bupo’s intentions, and quickly ran out of the red circle indicating the wide-area skill.

However, the Old Ape’s skill this time had an exceptionally large range.

Yan had only just escaped its attack radius when the Old Ape’s heavy, hammering fists slammed down.

With the stun effect ending immediately, Yan found no opportunity to launch an [Attack].

The Old Ape remained rooted to its spot, its crimson eyes fixed on Yan, making no rash moves.

Yan, too, held his long spear at his side, adopting a defensive stance, his gaze locked firmly on the Old Ape, unwilling to launch a hasty attack.

****

If this static scene with the boss had occurred within a regular boss stage, Yan would have had ample reason to suspect a game bug, for bosses simply did not cease attacking once a battle began.

The current situation, however, was different.

Yan knew with absolute clarity that within the Old Ape’s towering monstrous form, a player was at the controls.

Zhen Bupo was an intelligent individual, and he, too, had the option to either attack or defend.

For a moment, both combatants froze in place, their gazes locked intensely on each other, yet neither made a single move.

‘Ah… this is going to be tricky now…’

Yan thought with a bitter taste in his mouth, though his face betrayed no such emotion.

He understood that the Old Ape, endowed with boss-level attack power, possessed the ability to instantly kill him.

Though their previous exchange appeared to favor Yan, it was only because Zhen Bupo had been relentlessly on the offensive.

This allowed Yan to exploit the Old Ape’s post-skill stun to launch attacks, effectively chipping away at its health without taking damage.

However, if Zhen Bupo chose to defend, Yan wouldn’t dare to attack rashly.

A single misstep could result in him being instantly killed by the Old Ape right then and there.

Thus, he remained cautious, merely observing his opponent.

Time ticked by, minute by agonizing minute, yet both remained motionless, neither granting the other an opening to attack.

‘Hmph…’

A sudden, inexplicable impatience stirred within Yan.

His eyes abruptly caught sight of the system clock.

7:13 PM.

In that instant, a realization dawned on him.

“Well played, you’re the arena master!”

“You win if you drag it out for thirty minutes!”

“Tch~ so you’ve already figured it out, have you?”

The Old Ape shook its shaggy, matted head, a helpless expression crossing its face.

Indeed, he was stalling for time.

He lacked the confidence to defeat Yan in a direct confrontation, which was why he resorted to this desperate measure.

In fact, his earlier insistence on watching the other arena matches before starting their own was also a tactic to waste time.

From the very beginning, Zhen Bupo’s plan had been to stall.

Of course, his desire to watch An Ruina’s match was also genuine.

But now, it seemed his stalling tactic had been exposed?

“I won’t let you succeed!”

Yan declared, swiftly charging towards the Old Ape, spear in hand.

‘No choice, I have to fight!’

Zhen Bupo thought, adopting a combat stance as Yan rushed him.

“[Rainbow Thrust]!”

Yan gripped his long spear tightly, his body transforming into a streak of light.

In the very next moment, he and his spear materialized before the Old Ape.

Then, Yan unleashed a fierce thrust, his spear’s cold, gleaming tip poised to strike the Old Ape’s body.

But this was precisely the opportunity the Old Ape had been waiting for.

Exploiting Yan’s momentary stun during skill activation, the Old Ape raised its arms high, and a small red circle appeared beneath Yan’s feet.

‘If this blow lands on Yan, he’ll be stunned, and then I can finish him off with a few consecutive skills!’

Zhen Bupo thought, and the Old Ape he controlled revealed a sinister smile, the dangerous crimson glow in its eyes intensifying.

Its hardened fists, raised high…

Now, descended with crushing force!