Chapter 272: Every Man's Dream of a Flying Sword
[Kishugal (Demonized): Leader Template. Demon, Magic Swordsman. HP = 4887 / 5000 (Demonized, HP doubled), MP = 920 / 1140. Strength 50, Agility 45, Spirit 38, Charm 25.]
[Unit Traits — Demonization, Frost Magic, Berserker Asura, Asura Battle-Axe]
[Saultopa (Spirit of the Guardian / Soul Materialization): Spirit of the Guardian / Quasi-Leader Template. Commander of the Temple Knights, Magic Knight. HP = - / -, MP = 760 / 800. Strength 49, Agility 36, Spirit 40, Charm 42.]
[Spirit of the Guardian Traits — Mana Burst, Blazing Magic, Oath of Strength, Crimson Lotus Greatsword]
Judging purely by attributes, it was no injustice that the axe-wielding man, Kishugal, who had not yet undergone deep demonization, lost to Saultopa. As the commander of the Temple Knights, Saultopa's only so-called weakness was a slight inferiority in agility.
This was largely a problem caused by aging and accumulated old injuries, a ravage of time that treats all things in the world equally.
And as a Magic Knight and a member of the Strength Priest lineage, Saultopa could also cast many auxiliary spells on himself to compensate for his physical shortcomings.
However, after slaying tens of thousands of demonic creatures, even the strongest body would inevitably fall into exhaustion. And when Kishugal returned for the third time, he had undergone deep demonization. With the ebb and flow, Saultopa fell beneath his battle-axe.
At this moment, Saultopa, appearing as Cheng Tian's Spirit of the Guardian, clearly had his physical attributes fixed at his state before death, not at his peak. However, the word "fatigue" would no longer appear on the soul-form Saultopa.
In reality, no longer human, his combat power might even be slightly higher than when he was alive. Those acts of breathing, pausing, and gasping were merely pre-death instincts imprinted in his soul. But now, Saultopa was gradually realizing that he no longer needed biological behaviors like breathing.
This astonished the demon axe-wielding man, and at the same time, made him even more excited.
Of course, the price was that Saultopa no longer had a conventional HP bar. His duration and health depended entirely on Cheng Tian's soul reserves. The ideal state was only a hundred seconds of existence, and that was in a no-damage state where he couldn't be hit at all. This was very disadvantageous for some boss battles with scene-range restrictions or those requiring long-term combat.
However, Cheng Tian immediately caught onto what might or might not be called a bug regarding the duration.
Since maintaining Saultopa's existence required a continuous consumption of Innocent Souls, wouldn't he just need to keep killing demonic creatures to acquire souls?
Under normal circumstances, the drop rate of Innocent Souls was not actually high. But at this time, Cheng Tian was equipped with a special item like the "Ghost Gauntlet." As long as he and his subordinates killed a demonic unit, they would inevitably drop more or less soul fragments. These soul fragments would then grant Cheng Tian a corresponding amount of Innocent Souls at a 10:1 ratio.
This indirectly increased the drop rate of Innocent Souls to 100%.
In other words, how long the Commander could fight the axe-wielding man depended entirely on how many demonic creatures in the entire Blazing Fire Domain Cheng Tian could kill.
But then again, if Cheng Tian and his party crushed the demonic creatures in the Crying Domain on the first floor of the Black Tower, and found it relatively easy to deal with the demonic creatures in the Water Prison Domain on the second floor once they understood the mechanics, then upon reaching the third floor, they began to return to the normal difficulty expected of a C-rank dungeon, meaning it would require a certain price to clear.
Throughout the Blazing Fire Domain, there were ubiquitous demonic units that generally possessed fire attributes, essentially acting as small fire cloaks, making them quite troublesome for melee characters.
Such as the firebird-type demon "Kairasken," whose body was engulfed in flames and constantly birthed offspring; the "Nuzhu," whose name meant nothing but whose form was a typical fire-attribute slime; the frog-type demon "Giarmopur," who hopped around throwing cross shurikens; and the giant ogre "Boddyt" who wielded a spiked heavy hammer and enjoyed tormenting living beings.
There were also many mutated units from the previous two floors, simply with different armor, colors, and the addition of a fire attribute.
If Bazett didn't have fire resistance runes, her body might not be in much danger, but her hair and eyebrows would certainly be gone.
Before, it would have been very difficult for Cheng Tian to deal with these demonic units quickly, as all his skills leaned towards control, summoning, and other aspects. He only had one continuously usable damage skill, Judgment Feather Arrow, and its damage was severely insufficient.
But now, Cheng Tian had acquired the power of the three Ys Artifacts, gaining three exclusive derivative Ghost Armaments: Gale Blade, Thunder Halberd, and Blazing Dragon Sword. These came with no-cooldown equipment skills, and combined with the hidden attribute of the Ghost Gauntlet that increased the corresponding soul drop rate based on the user's current state, it was enough for Cheng Tian to complete a virtuous cycle without needing supplies, with his status almost fully restored after each battle.
More importantly, Cheng Tian learned to exploit a bug, or more accurately, to free-cast skills, using the +1 charge effect provided by the Goddess's Blessing.
The charge effect from the Goddess's Blessing allowed the skill to be cast without MP or other conditions. And Cheng Tian's Crystal Eye consumed additional MP based on the cost of the skill being cast. This meant that when a charged skill had a 0 MP cost, the Crystal Eye's additional consumption for skill replication was also 0!
And Cheng Tian's primary target for this free casting was, naturally, the summoning of the Prince's Silver Guard from the prince's sword.
Combining attackers, cannon fodder, and pathfinders, there was nothing better to free-cast!
Incidentally, Cheng Tian also unexpectedly discovered a shortcoming of the Goddess's Blessing: the "+1 Charge" effect only worked on skills with a cooldown. Equipment skills with no cooldown, like those attached to Ghost Armaments, did not receive an extra charge.
With the Silver Guard charging ahead, Cheng Tian, positioned in the rear, held the Blazing Dragon Sword to his chest.
With a thought, the sword's blade instantly split into seven arrow-shaped fragments, which then scattered like exploding winged gun-drones, darting at high speed through the enemy-occupied area, before returning to Cheng Tian's hilt to reassemble into a complete greatsword.
[Blazing Dragon Sword: Lv1, Greatsword + Magic Sword, Template Armament. Equipment Requirement: Ghost Warrior Template / Ghost Gauntlet Holder. (Omitted details).
Damage 35-35 (one-half of total Strength + Spirit), Fire Attribute Damage, small chance to cause Burn effect on hit, repeated hits accumulate probability, resets after one activation. Durability - / -.
The Blazing Dragon Sword's blade can split into up to seven pieces, which can strike like a soft whip, or scatter and be propelled by spiritual power and fire elemental assistance, achieving the attack effect of small flying swords. Maximum control distance is 40 meters.
Tactical Shell: Flame Array — Splits the blade, using fire elements as propulsion, transforming each Blazing Dragon Sword fragment into a small flying sword, repeatedly striking targets within a 5-meter radius. Blazing Dragon Sword fragments will continuously strike all enemy targets within the range, each fragment causing 10 points of base fire damage. If subjected to continuous strikes from fragments, starting from the second hit, each subsequent hit deals +5 points of damage, up to a maximum of 175 points. If subjected to 7 consecutive strikes, the target will inevitably enter the "Blazing Dragon Entanglement" state, taking 10 points of fire damage per second for 7 seconds, and any current spell casting will inevitably be interrupted. Releasing Flame Array consumes 25 MP, no cooldown. (Tactical Shell Skill Buff)]
[Additional Comment: Compared to the original Jack Brown's Flame Serpent Sword and Soulcalibur's Ivy's Whip Sword, the Blazing Dragon Sword is closer to The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd's Ries Argent's Magic Sword.]