Chapter 485: Your Gastly's Move-Set Is a Bit Dirty!
Spirit Mediums are beings who, by guiding themselves into a trance state, can directly communicate with the spirits of the dead, nature spirits, and even deities.
To explain it using our country's power system, it's akin to what's known as 'inviting gods to possess the body' (spirit possession) or 'ghost possession.'
The ability used by this contestant, Xiao Zi, from Team 996, is 'Spirit Unity' from the Shaman King system. His target for Spirit Unity is Gastly, which is essentially a Ghost-type unit.
This Spirit Unity allows the target to merge with oneself in the form of a "single-orb spirit," thereby gaining the abilities the spirit possessed both in life and after death.
It must be said, this is indeed very creative.
Or rather, precisely because the player base doesn't have too strong a stereotypical mindset regarding the abilities from these different works, they are able to think more expansively and combine different ability systems, forming combo moves that even Cheng Tian found surprising.
Cheng Tian estimated that the intimacy between Xiao Zi and Gastly should correspond to the synchronization percentage of Spirit Unity. The higher the synchronization rate, the higher the fidelity with which the practitioner uses the spirit's abilities... Which Shaman King game could it be from?
Cheng Tian was very curious.
As an old anime IP, Shaman King actually had some games released, though most were concentrated in the early 2000s. Cheng Tian himself only ever played three.
One was a fighting game on the PS1 platform, and the other two were the Metroidvania-style side-scrolling action games on the GBA platform, "Shaman King: Spirit of Shamans" 1 and 2.
Spirit of Shamans was a Konami masterpiece, with pretty good gameplay. From the UI to the characters to the damage numbers popping up, playing it had a strong "Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow" vibe.
If spin-off characters are also counted, "JUMP Super Stars" on the NDS might also barely fit the criteria. It's just unclear whether Xiao Zi obtained this ability from a dungeon or from some extra gacha draw from the Space.
However, speaking of which, since Xiao Zi, who seems to be a Pokémon trainer, has also layered on the Spirit Medium class, why is he only using Spirit Unity and not the more advanced Over Soul?
Looking at Xiao Zi, who was already emitting ghostly energy, Cheng Tian grew even more curious.
Simply put, 'Over Soul' means no longer merging the spirit with oneself, but instead merging it with a certain object to form a materialized spirit armament with special powers. It is also the main form of power manifestation in the mid-to-late stages of the original ability system. Compared to it, 'Spirit Unity' is too much of an early-stage ability.
Or is it that in the current situation, Spirit Unity is clearly superior to Over Soul?
Cheng Tian precisely grasped this key point!
"Iori Yagami! Versus! Xiao Zi!"
"Ready~ GO!"
The moment the words fell, Iori Yagami unleashed a quick flick, and a ground-hugging wave of crimson flames shot forward at high speed across the ground—
108 Shiki: Yamibarai!
Aside from the color of the flames being different from Kyo Kusanagi's, this move was almost identical in terms of form, power, and speed.
However, the opponent, Xiao Zi, lightly tapped his feet on the ground, then floated directly into mid-air like an erratic balloon. The ground-skimming Yamibarai whistled past beneath his feet, failing to cause any substantial damage.
Iori's reaction was very quick. He almost immediately realized that the opponent's current state allowed him to ignore ground-based waves, so he instantly charged forward, preparing for close-quarters combat.
But Xiao Zi already had a follow-up move.
Xiao Zi, floating in the air, loosely gripped his hand. Then, his spiritual energy, imbued with ghostly aura, condensed into a nail the size of a forearm and a hammer of similar specifications. Then, to the gasps of countless spectators, this person actually turned his hand and aimed the nail at his own forehead, swinging the hammer down violently!
Accompanied by a crisp metallic clang, half of the nail directly embedded itself into Xiao Zi's forehead!
However, something bizarre happened: not only did the self-harming Xiao Zi not show any expression of pain, as if he were nailing a wooden board instead of his own forehead and frontal lobe, but the charging Iori Yagami abruptly stopped, immediately showing a pained expression!
"Contestant Xiao Zi is very skilled! Float Body dodged the Yamibarai ground wave! Self-Sacrifice Curse immediately followed up! The entire team's battle strategy is initially revealed; it looks like they plan to use their numerical advantage to slowly wear down Contestant Iori. A very steady playstyle!"
On the stage, Xiao Zi himself, hearing Cheng Tian's commentary, felt his heart skip a beat involuntarily.
As expected, he was seen through!
When he heard the precise skill descriptions of "Float Body" and "Self-Sacrifice Curse," and the immediate revelation of Team 996's tactical approach, Xiao Zi knew his abilities had been completely exposed... But relying on his experience, he could vaguely sense that Cheng Tian's commentary seemed to be holding back.
Xiao Zi, having merged with Gastly through Spirit Unity, effectively gained a pre-set package of 4 inherent skills and 1 Pokémon ability.
Among them, the Pokémon ability was "Levitate." This ability allows the user to be unaffected by most Ground-type moves, and also avoids certain terrain, traps, barriers, and mechanisms that rely on the ground.
If Levitate's priority was high enough, Xiao Zi could even become the bane of Dry Earth Yashiro Nanakase!
And the effect of Self-Sacrifice Curse was clearly very targeted.
By consuming 50% of his own HP, it applies a curse effect to the target that is difficult to dispel with conventional skills. As long as the opponent remains on the stage, they will directly lose 25% of their maximum HP after this battle ends.
Not current HP, but 25% based on the maximum HP!
That is to say, as long as the curse is not dispelled, even if Xiao Zi does nothing afterwards and immediately retreats, Iori Yagami will immediately lose a quarter of his HP. Theoretically, if it drags on to the third match, the opponent will be forced to fight their team's ace with only 50% HP.
Of course, dispelling this curse is not difficult; it will be immediately removed simply by leaving the arena—
But the problem is, Iori Yagami has no teammates; no one to switch with!
And as a player, and one with generally high self-esteem, Xiao Zi naturally wouldn't just give up there.
The hand he had just used for self-harm now pointed again at Iori Yagami, who had slammed on the brakes due to the curse, and his index finger began to rotate clockwise.
An intensely overwhelming drowsiness, as if one had pulled several all-nighters at an internet cafe and reached the limit of one's mental endurance, suddenly assailed Iori Yagami's brain. His upper eyelids felt as heavy as if two huge stones were hanging from them, and they began to furiously fight with his lower eyelids.
Iori Yagami managed to hold on for a little while, but some audience members who had witnessed Xiao Zi's hand gestures on the big screen had already collapsed to the ground in various postures.
Hypnosis!
Xiao Zi's face showed a triumphant expression, because Hypnosis, with its success rate of less than 30%, had actually hit. Now he could start to feast—
Before the triumphant expression on his face lasted even a second, a magatama shadow flashed across Iori Yagami's chest. Then, Iori Yagami slapped himself on the forehead!
Blood splattered!