Point out any errors I made in the chapters, as I'm very lazy and sometimes can't be bothered to reread them. Also, give your opinions on something I should change or add.
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Even with just this, however, despite the Trial Creature merely being the shell of Feng while possessing Tier 5 strength, it was still too powerful for Feng to defeat with only his own power, making it basically impossible for him to win.
Of course, that was if he purely relied on his own strength, which Feng had no intentions of doing.
Using the bought time before the Trial Creature locates and reaches him, Feng rested, drinking recovery potions prepared in advance, a Life Crystal, some Consumables, and even consuming a Legendary ranked Consumable, several of which he had obtained through various means for the World Summit Trial.
He had naturally made ample preparations before taking on the hardest possible challenge on the World Summit as a Tier 1 player. Apart from potions for recovering his HP and Mana, he had also packed plenty of Consumables at the Epic, Inferior Legendary and Legendary rank for boosting his recovery and attributes.
Some of the Legendary Consumables could give a boost to his strength greater than regular Berserk Skills, with a few being possible to use alongside an already-activated Berserk Skill.
Normally, even Inferior Legendary Consumables were extremely rare, while Legendary ones required a lot of luck and strength to acquire, and they'd be treasured by Guilds due to their exceptional value and rarity, only to be used in emergencies or special occasions.
Feng's guild members had expended a lot of effort in order to obtain these Inferior Legendary and Legendary items despite having some information about them, usually needing over a hundred of them to team up and work together in order to get their hands on the Legendary ranked Consumables, or have Celestina with them.
But Feng was now blowing through them, casually using up the things that his guildmates had put painstaking effort into procuring, not caring even if they were one-time use items. He was willing to pay any price in order to pass the World Summit Trial, so Feng treated these incredibly rare and valuable Consumables as simple necessary expenditures. In any case, the Burning Wing Legion members had already been rewarded with Contribution Points for the treasures they obtained and contributed to the guild.
Aside from Consumables, Feng had no lack of Tool-type items of various ranks, planning to use them to brute force the first phase if he had to.
Thanks to the efforts of his guild members, especially the more powerful ones among the Main Force, Feng now had over a dozen Fragmented Legendary items and three Legendary Tools within his arsenal.
Some of the Fragmented Legendary Tools could be used to launch powerful attacks ranging from the Tier 5 Intermediate to Tier 6 Basic standard depending on how strong the item was, some were used for defense, some for buffs and debuffs, and some for suppression; as well as a few for summoning powerful monsters, but those were banned in the World Summit Trial.
With them along with the Consumables, Feng could make up for the difference in strength and kill the Trial Creature, which was how various Tier 6 experts had passed the first phase during the previous timeline.
Additionally to that powerful lineup of items, one of the Legendary ranked Tools had a skill that could fire off an attack at the Tier 6 Advanced standard, the second one could form a barrier around the user that could completely block an onslaught from a Tier 6 God for a fairly long amount of time, whereas the last one was a suppression tool that sealed the space around its user, preventing any teleportation skills from being used and reducing the Movement Speed, Attack Speed, and Reaction Speed of all enemies within range by a certain amount.
Acquiring all these items was many times more difficult for the Zero Wing members than the Consumables, that counting ten times over for the two Legendary Tools that were obtained out in the field. Legendary items were treasures even for Feng, their power basically being the highest he could get due to Fragmented Divine Artifacts being on an entirely different level of rare and difficult to get.
They were essentially Feng's trump cards that he planned to kill off the Trial Creature with when the time came.
Though, brute forcing the trial was not exactly how it was intended for it to be cleared, instead one should use combat standards and power that the Trial Creature could not copy to defeat it.
Due to its immensely high difficulty, however, players opted to use outside power in order to beat the World Summit Trial, especially in the higher difficulties.
Feng may have tried to do it the proper way if his tier was higher, having more options to use all his power if he had a Mana Body and could use Mana Techniques and his other means. Doubtfully though since at Tier 3 he'd most likely have to face a Tier 6 him with the power of a God if Feng chose God Mode, whereas as a Tier 4, his opponent would be a Trial Creature on the level of Ancient Gods.
But regardless, at Tier 1, Feng didn't have much he could do against something like this Trial Creature, his power and usable tricks being extremely limited. Hence, his only option was to bombard it using borrowed power from the items he brought for the trial.
He was also the only player who could do so.
From reaching the topmost Legendary Shrine on the peak, to challenging God Mode and not dying instantly, and especially gathering so many high-ranking items for the World Summit Trial.
There was nobody who could do so at Tier 1.
The only reason Feng was able to bring so many Fragmented Legendary items for this fight was partially due to him being incredibly lucky and having the chance to open chests and kill high-ranking monsters while his Luck was in the six digits, most of them originating from that time when he had activated Kismet Cascade, as well as using their knowledge from the previous timeline to get many more treasures including the Fragmented Legendary items.
It was the same for Feng's three Legendary Tools, except two were obtained by Zero Wing's Main Force at one point after spending a lot of time and effort, while the third Legendary item had originally been a Fragmented Legendary Tool before Feng upgraded it to Legendary rank with God Crystals; numerous more of which had been brought into the guild's Warehouse by its restored members, Feng cloning the God Crystals with the Philosopher's Stone's Elemental Cloning skill and using them to upgrade a few useful items to Legendary rank.
His preparations and efforts during the little over a month since God's Domain's launch had allowed Feng to achieve a level where he had the possibility of beating the World Summit Trial's first phase.
Still, it would be incredibly difficult to achieve the feat, and Feng had to wait for the right moment.
And that would be once the Trial Creature ran out of Berserk Skills.
On paper, both of them had the same number of Berserk Skills with their duration being the same even with the 75% increase to the skills' length from the Savitarian Carnation Bloodline.
Both Feng and the Trial Creature had Heavenly Dragon's Power, Imperial Ascendance, Mysticsteel Berserk, and Power of Darkness. However, aside from the one bestowed to Black Flame that he had copied, Feng also had the Power of Darkness from the Bible of Darkness. It was his longest skill, having a duration of over fifteen minutes; which is further enhanced by the effects of his Peak Bloodline to over twenty-seven minutes.
Now all Feng had to do was wait and stall for both his and the duplicate's seventeen minute and thirty seconds Power of Darkness to end, then survive with the Bible of Darkness's Berserk Skill while the Trial Creature went through its other Berserk Skills.
Once it runs out of them, Feng could use a more powerful Berserk Skill like Heavenly Dragon's Power along with using Consumables to boost his power even further. Coupled with his current Soulharvest Synergy that should last him for long enough to finish the fight, Feng would be on par in terms of attributes with the duplicate in its basic state.
Although the Trial Creature's power output would still be higher and its defense difficult to breach and deal damage to, using his various items, Feng would be able to defeat it.
Now all he had to do was survive for over half an hour against the Tier 5 monstrosity.
Naturally, though, the Trial Creature would not make that easy. It, too, was aware of how important it was to quickly kill Feng, not to mention that its job was to eliminate any challengers at all cost, so it would not want a drawn-out fight.
Thankfully, the Trial Creature had already used some of the more powerful skills in that brief exchange, including Moonchaser and Worldly Purification, meaning they were now all on cooldown and not available for some time. Moonchaser, in particular, had a bit of a long cooldown and may not come into play at all for the rest of the fight as long as Feng kills it quickly enough.
Feng's situation was similar, having used up most of his life-saving skills and even teleported away to safety with Spatial Shift, but he had other items to make up for it. One of his goals for staying in the fight and not running away immediately was to bait the Trial Creature into activating more skills and wasting them before he bails.
Internal Shock is the most dangerous among them for Feng; along with Drago Buster to some extent. By the time it comes for him all the way here, seven hundred thousand yards from their previous location, the skill would have run out, taking it out of the picture.
Aside from Internal Shock, there was also Destruction Soul Flames to be exceptionally wary of since the Trial Creature could easily kill him with the Soul Fire before Feng has time to react if it used the skill unexpectedly.
Sometime later, while Feng was resting to recover his Stamina and Concentration, his HP having already went back to 100% and the Void Erosion dealt with, he sensed a powerful presence approaching him at a fast speed.
Looking far into the distance, Feng saw a humanoid silhouette with a giant pair of wings behind it rapidly getting closer. The Trial Creature's wings were even bigger than Feng's due to its Physique and Mana Body, having a wingspan of over one hundred meters.
Within a few seconds, the replica was already diving down towards him. Feng naturally ran like his life depended on it. All he had to do was buy time.
And so he did.
For the next dozen or so minutes until their Power of Darkness ended, Feng kept avoiding the Trial Creature's attacks, doing his best to keep a distance from the clone as he dashed across the trial grounds.
Once Power of Darkness's duration ran out, the Trial Creature switched to using Imperial Ascendance whereas Feng activated his second Power of Darkness. The fight grew even tougher for Feng as he struggled to survive under the Tier 5 replica's onslaught, its attributes now being even higher, especially its Agility, with the Blood Emperor's Armor's Berserk Skill.
There were many times that Feng got close to dying after receiving a beating even greater than the initial attacks of the Trial Creature when he had teleported away, his HP falling to critical levels a few times.
But he managed to barely persevere partly due to his techniques and overall skill along with his abilities, and another factor being that he could constantly use Consumables to recover HP and Mana, while Feng also had several Life Crystals so he was never in any danger of running out of Stamina and Concentration as long as he could get a chance to consume them.
Running around, Feng kept pissing off the Trial Creature, which knew that it was on a time limit. Even with them having the same skills, abilities, combat standards, and Combat Techniques, while it had higher attributes and a Tier 5 Mana Body, Feng somehow still managed to evade death each time.
Granted, he was only managing to scrape by thanks to his items, with Yog-Sothoth being the main contributor since the Trial Creature would have ripped Feng apart dozens of times by now had it not been for the broken sword's effects slowing the replica down every time it got close enough to land an attack.
As Imperial Ascendance ended and the clone had to activate Heavenly Dragon's Power, it grew more infuriated and slightly desperate. At one point, the Trial Creature even used Destruction Soul Flames in an attempt to suddenly and quickly murder Feng.
However, Feng had been half expecting it to try such a thing, so the moment his soul sensed the immense danger springing up from the Pandemonium Lashblade and he saw black fire coat the blade, Feng immediately put into play the same tactic as when the duplicate had used Internal Shock.
Though, since Spatial Shift's twenty-minute cooldown had still been a bit away from finishing, Feng used Echoport to get away from the Trial Creature, having placed a Marker at the starting place of the first phase as a precaution after realizing how strong the Tier 5 him was, and had been running in the opposite direction ever since then.
By the time it managed to reach him while flying at full speed, the skill had long ended, thus Feng didn't have to worry that his soul might get instantly sliced up and burned by the Trial Creature.
Soon, the Berserk time provided by Heavenly Dragon's Power, and the small boost from Mysticsteel Berserk following it, ran out, leaving the Trial Creature with no Berserk Skills left to use.
In its base state, Feng, having his current Soulharvest Synergy active and Power of Darkness in effect, along with a decent enhancement to his attributes from an Inferior Legendary Consumable, could match up to the Tier 5 Trial Creature.
At least in terms of attributes, even surpassing it, but ultimately falling behind due to his weak Mana and lack of Mana Body. Nevertheless, he could make do with the situation and started applying pressure on the duplicate, beginning to decrease its HP little by little.
Just as things were looking up for Feng and a path to victory had been shown, a sudden change occurred.
As Feng was attacking the Trial Creature, sending out a flurry of attacks that it failed to block, the aura around his replica suddenly spiked once again, making Feng feel threatened. The speed and strength of its attacks greatly increased, forcing Feng to hastily back away and distance himself from the clone.
Internally, Feng was thinking how this was possible as these were certainly the effects of a Berserk Skill when the Trial Creature should have none to use, wondering if it obtained extra skills in God Mode due to the increased difficulty.
Upon noticing something, however, Feng understood the situation.
'I completely forgot about this skill since I've never used it. Who would have thought it would bite me in the ass now.' A feeling of deep unease crepted up in Feng's mind seeing the power radiating from the Trial Creature, his gaze switching to its HP bar that had suddenly been depleted by 30%.
The change in the duplicate's HP had allowed Feng to realize it had used Blood Tribute, a skill from the Blood Emperor's Armor that Feng hadn't bothered to try out ever since he purchased the Chestplate in its Fragmented Legendary state from the War God's Temple.
Its effects had not been that strong before and required him to sacrifice 10% of his HP, making it not worth using while it was also never necessary, anything that Feng couldn't defeat in his base state usually needing him to activate a much more powerful Berserk Skill, Twofold Berserk if he still couldn't do it, or run, while anything weaker would not require something like Blood Tribute.
After the Blood Emperor's Armor became a Legendary piece of equipment, Blood Tribute grew more powerful, but Feng hasn't had the opportunity to use it, nor would he most likely ever opt for it over his other Berserk Skills since it would take away nearly a third of his HP to activate.
In fact, the improved skill had completely slipped from Feng's mind since he'd never use it in this situation. For the Trial Creature, though, it was completely usable once it ran out of Berserk Skills.
Using Blood Tribute, which had a duration and cooldown of thirty seconds, the replica could continue suppressing Feng and chasing him around with the boost in attributes, and Feng couldn't do anything about it except go back to running from the Tier 5 being.
The drawback of such a forceful method is that the Trial Creature would lose 30% of its HP every thirty seconds as it activated Blood Tribute when it came off cooldown, so it couldn't use the skill repeatedly without pausing for its HP to recover, lest the skill kills it, which would leave it vulnerable to Feng's attacks while it was weak.
But the Trial Creature's Defense and HP were huge, and it could recover 2% of its HP every five seconds, making the wait short. Hence, Feng's current strength would not be adequate to finish off the clone within that period of time.
And that was without fully considering the Trial Creature's survivability and lifesaving skills.
That being said, Feng had the trump cards in his inventory that could potentially allow him to quickly whittle down the replica, so it would be taking an unknown level of risk if it got too low from Blood Tribute.
Since he could still not defeat the Trial Creature, Feng simply decided to go back to his previous tactic of running from the duplicate and waiting. Waiting until its HP drops below 30% and the Trial Creature no longer had the option of boosting its attributes with the costly skill from his Legendary Chestplate.
Waiting for it to return to normal, before bombarding the Trial Creature with his skills and items. Waiting for his Tier 5 replica to finish its desperate onslaught and mark its death.
Feng patiently led on the clone and ran for his life.
Thirty seconds soon passed, but the Trial Creature's Blood Tribute did not end. That was expected since its duration was enhanced to over fifty seconds by the Savitarian Carnation Bloodline. The skill's cooldown, though, remained at thirty seconds, without anything stopping the Trial Creature from activating it again.
Another burst of strength filled the Trial Creature, its attributes increasing by another usage of Blood Tribute while the first one was still in effect, while its HP dropped by another 30%; standing at 52%.
In an instant, the duplicate closed the distance between them, causing the space around its sword to shake as a slash nearly decapitated Feng. Thankfully, he managed to react in time and use Divine Steps.
Blood Tribute, despite its drawbacks, was a very powerful skill giving a greater boost than many medium Berserk Skills that usually come from Fragmented Legendary items. By itself, it already gave the Trial Creature enough strength to completely overpower Feng and make him run with his tail between his legs.
Two stacks of Blood Tribute gave the Trial Creature a greater boost in Strength and Agility than even Heavenly Dragon's Power, making Feng flee like never before. He couldn't catch a breather for over twenty seconds, the first Blood Tribute finally ending.
Without having a chance to relax however, Feng could only receive a mild beating for around ten seconds, at which point Blood Tribute's cooldown ended, and the Trial Creature had two layers of Blood Tribute once more.
Being at risk of losing his life any moment now as he began running low on skills to save his ass with, Feng was getting pushed to the edge. With another twenty seconds of barely surviving, one Blood Tribute ended, only for the fourth activation of the skill to play out after less than ten seconds.
There was only a small gap of a couple of seconds between their activation now, giving Feng no opportunities to recuperate from the intense onslaughts. The only bright side about the twofold Blood Tribute made possible by Feng's Peak Bloodline was that, even with the 75% increase in duration, the Trial Creature could never achieve three stacks of Blood Tribute since it came just short of the third activation.
Otherwise, Feng would have been completely fucked.
Still, the boost of two Blood Tributes was too great for Feng to handle, having to rely on skills and items in order to stay alive up till now.
Following the Trial Creature's fourth usage of Blood Tribute, however, the time finally came. After losing 30% of its HP four times and only having the time to recover some of it, the duplicate was left with only 16%.
Such a small amount remaining was something Feng could quickly remove from the Trial Creature's HP bar, despite his lacking strength so long as he utilized the items he had brought for the trial.
In its state of twofold Blood Tribute, though, the Trial Creature was too strong for Feng to finish off, so he had to wait for them to end. Activating another one won't be possible regardless of if the skill came off cooldown as the Trial Creature won't have enough HP to use it, while even after both Blood Tributes ended, it would only have 36% HP.
Left with anything below 10% of its HP in front of Feng was no different from courting death, much less with only one Blood Tribute, hence the Trial Creature wouldn't dare to use the costly skill.
This was what Feng has been waiting for.
Regardless of having a third of its HP remaining, as it only had a few of its skills left unused, Feng now just had to wai-
The thought froze in Feng's mind while his eyes widened upon seeing the Trial Creature's HP bar increase by more than five times, beginning to quickly refill.
Of course the Trial Creature could just use Ultimate Blood Flow to heal up all its HP. Feng had considered it, but thought it perhaps would not after it didn't immediately recover the HP lost from the first Blood Tribute for some reason.
"It can't go on like this." Feng mumbled to himself, the gravity of the situation hitting him when he realized where this was going to go if the Trial Creature healed itself between using Blood Tribute.
It could simply recover all its HP between uses during Ultimate Blood Flow's duration and continue attacking Feng without stop. Even if it actually only extended the time his replica could spend in twofold Blood Tribute by one to two minutes, the problem was that the Trial Creature could put such pressure on Feng without any cost or genuine danger to its life.
After Ultimate Blood Flow ends, it could simply try stalling Feng with its high Defense and HP until it comes off cooldown and then go back to demolishing him, repeating the cycle until Feng eventually dies.
Meanwhile, Feng was already near death and could not keep fighting for much longer amidst the duplicate's onslaught.
Since his fate would be sealed if the Trial Creature continued going at this pace, Feng decided that he couldn't afford to hold back anything anymore.
Taking out a golden tooth the size of his palm, Feng distanced himself from the clone and bit down on the hard golden exterior, taking out a chunk of the tooth with a loud crunch, swallowing and quickly eating the entire thing.
He wasn't given much time to enjoy the scrumptious meal as the Trial Creature reached him in the next moment, its two blades lighting up like miniature suns that fell down on Feng.
With the difference in their attributes, there was no way Feng would be able to escape unscathed at this distance, but he suddenly accelerated and moved at a speed far greater than before.
Maneuvering elegantly past its attacks, Feng dodged the Trial Creature's slashes and stepped away, but the replica didn't let up so easily, the copied Pandemonium Lashblade extending for the chain sword to whip around at his face.
Unable to dodge, Feng blocked the blazing sword, the immense force throwing him backwards.
However, unlike before when meeting even one of the Trial Creature's regular attacks would send Feng flying and did high damages that decreased his HP by nearly 10%, blocking this strike that was coated in Flame Burst had merely caused Feng to stumble several yards, while his HP dropped by only around 1%.
The difference was evident, surprising the Trial Creature by a great deal. It didn't take much thought to figure out that the golden tooth Feng had consumed was the origin behind his sudden increase in strength.
That had been the most valuable Consumable Feng possessed, a Legendary ranked item called Savior Bite which increased Feng's Concentration and Mana by one rank, all his attributes by 250%, Physique by 140%, Mana by 180%, and damage by 500% for 20 minutes.
It was a unique consumable of immense value since it could be used in tandem with a Berserk Skill without its effects diminishing and had taken a lot of effort for Zero Wing's restored members to obtain; hence a Tier 1 player using it was a massive waste.
Feng had planned to leave it as a trump card to use in the last dash for the win, but considering the situation, that will have to come sooner, using all his strength to kill the Trial Creature once Ultimate Blood Flow ends and it could no longer consistently use Blood Tribute.
Since it would simply continue using the skills in cycle once it could heal again, Feng had to defeat it as soon as the skill ran out. He was also even more glad at the moment that he had left the Seven Luminaries Ring with Black Flame, as the duplicate would be able to use the Tier 4 Aura of Water to quickly heal any lost HP from using Blood Tribute, switching between it and Ultimate Blood Flow.
Despite sensing Feng's change and increased strength, the Trial Creature charged without pausing, fully intent on eliminating the intruder right here and now.
The Trial Creature was well aware of its precarious situation, hence it wanted to kill Feng before its recovery stopped during twofold Blood Tribute. Even if it was strong enough to fight against Feng while in its base form and not be in any immediate danger, the replica would still be the one on the losing end as it grew weaker.
Regardless of its very high Stamina and Concentration, the Trial Creature, too, had a limit. Feng, on the other hand, could easily recover his lost energy and relieve any stress accumulated from the fight by using Life Crystals and his other recovery Consumables.
If the fight dragged on for too long, the duplicate would be the first to run out of steam, and Feng would have a much easier time killing it regardless of having the combination of improved Blood Tribute and Ultimate Blood Flow. Thus the Trial Creature had no other choice but to go hard and eliminate Feng before it grew too tired to fight. Furthermore, its purpose is to eliminate all trial takers.
That was easier said than done, though, Feng being too slippery and possessing too many means of staying alive. Up till now, the clone had used pretty much all of its skills, abilities, and techniques, nothing working out, and it was only left with using overwhelming attributes to throw out powerful attacks that Feng simply could not handle for long.
Had Feng faced the World Summit Trial without first doing plenty of preparation and went into the trial with the intent to only rely on his own power, its method would have worked too. But Feng had packed multiple things that boosted his strength and allowed him to fight the Trial Creature, Savior Bite being the most OP among them since aside from increasing attributes, the Legendary Consumable also gave other improvements and effects to Feng.
Now the Trial Creature could only try its best at beating Feng to a pulp during this period that it could fully utilize Blood Tribute's power. Soon, however, that proved fruitless.
By relying on his techniques and increased strength under the effects of Soulharvest Synergy, Power of Darkness, and the Savior Bite, Feng continued to evade the duplicate's attempts on his life.
He got within an inch of his life multiple times, and nearly got killed within the next over four minutes, barely making it out alive by the time the Trial Creature's twofold Blood Tribute ran out once more and it no longer had the option of using it.
Feng could now nearly match it in attributes and keep himself alive while stalling for more time to pass, the last Blood Tribute ending twenty seconds later.
Without any more skills boosting its strength and only having around 40% of its HP remaining, the Trial Creature found itself in quite the pickle since Feng now surpassed its attributes and could freely attack to kill.
Though, it wasn't like Feng was in good condition either, having only a sliver of his HP remaining and plenty of physical injuries which made using his full power difficult even while possessing the Blood Hardening Passive Skill, so he wouldn't have an easy time draining the clone's HP.
Completely disregarding their precarious situations and conditions, both Feng and the Trial Creature rushed ahead to kill the other. Feng couldn't allow his Tier 5 replica to recover any HP at this time, knowing it would greatly increase the difficulty of killing it and decrease his chances of winning once it's fully healed, so he rushed straight forward with the intention of finishing off the clone before the aftermath of it spamming Blood Tribute disappears.
Although Feng had considered the option of simply exhausting the Trial Creature to death by using guerilla warfare while doing as much damage to it as possible whenever he could, such a tactic was not guaranteed to work since he might not be able to hold out for long enough until the Tier 5 being's Stamina and Concentration ran out, and Feng wasn't certain if he'd even succeed in the endeavor.
After all, if the Trial Creature concluded that it would fall into a state in which it could no longer fight Feng if the situation continued, the duplicate would opt to get away from Feng and recover its Stamina before engaging in combat again.
By repeatedly running away once its Stamina and Concentration became low and recovering, the Trial Creature would have no problem fighting Feng, dragging out the battle until its Berserk Skills came off cooldown, and eventually causing him to use up all his Consumables. At that point, there would be nothing Feng could do.
Of course, Feng would try to stop the replica if it showed signs of running away, but realistically, even if Feng had an advantage in base attributes and techniques, he would not be able to stop the Trial Creature if it truly wanted to leave considering all the Lifesaving Skills the two of them possessed; at least not for an extended period of time.
The Tier 5 him was simply too powerful, and there wasn't a significant gap between them in combat standards or Combat Techniques, not to mention its huge amount of Mana and the ability to efficiently utilize it in order to boost its power even further, so Feng doesn't have the strength to keep it once the Trial Creature decides to retreat and recuperate.
Because of how unpredictable the current situation is and in which way it will develop not being something Feng was sure of, he needed to resolutely take charge and do in the Trial Creature.
His opponent had a similar thought process, planning to quickly reduce what little HP Feng had left to zero before he recovers. Even with it having inferior attributes to the current Feng in its base state, the difference wasn't so large that it was insurmountable, and its power as a Tier 5 being could make up for it. Thus, the Trial Creature thought it could quickly finish Feng off.
The two Swordsmen clashed, trying to slay each other before their HPs regenerated and before they died to the other's blade. However, neither could decrease their opponent's health, Feng relying on his prepared resources and Berserk Skills to recover from all the damage accumulated and what he was taking while pushing the clone back, whereas the Trial Creature had its extremely high Defense and HP to resist his attacks along with fighting back by utilizing Mana.
Both dealt damage but recovered at the same time in the odd fight between such experts, not seeming to be capable of killing the mirroring Swordsman.
Feng soon realized that he could still not finish off the duplicate despite having better stats after seeing its HP bar begin to noticeably refill, so he pulled out all the stops, bringing out the Epic and Fragmented Legendary ranked Tools and attack-type Consumables.
Letting loose a hailstorm of attacks ranging from the Tier 5 to the Tier 6 standard, Feng completely and utterly overpowered the Trial Creature in firepower, the turns tableing as the Tier 5 clone was now the one running for its life.
Faced with attacks of such caliber launched by Feng, the Trial Creature didn't have much leeway as the ones at the Tier 5 Basic, Intermediate, and faintly Advanced standard may not be a true threat, but even they could be dangerous in large amounts while its HP was this low.
Attacks with Tier 5 Peak and Tier 6 power were an actual problem for the Tier 5 replica since they could do real damage to it and were not something it could easily counter.
Normally, the Trial Creature would at least have some skills and strength to block a part of the attacks to a certain extent, but it had already exhausted most of its attack-type skills on previously assaulting Feng in an attempt to kill him, while the clone's Stamina, Concentration, and Mana were also fairly drained during the time it was bullying Feng without pause.
Now it was having difficulty keeping up with Feng and all the powerful attacks he was firing off at it. Of course, being Feng's replica, the Trial Creature would not fall that easily.
Utilizing its high standards and techniques, along with Mana control, the Trial Creature fought through everything Feng threw at it, taking minimal damage in the process of escaping Feng's reach.
Three minutes passed, feeling like ages for the combatants as they engaged in the high-intensity, high-stakes battle. By now, the Trial Creature's HP bar was fairly empty, having less than 5% remaining.
During this time Feng had experienced for himself how much of an unkillable cockroach his clone, and he as well by extension, was, getting a firsthand feel of what it's like to chase around someone with so many Lifesaving Skills and methods to stay alive.
The Trial Creature's survivability was even greater than Feng's own due to having higher stats and a Mana Body, allowing the clone to bring out the skills' full power. The same way it had previously been chasing Feng around while he used one skill after another in order to escape death's clutches, his replica was now managing to hold on in a similar manner despite him throwing much more powerful attacks at it.
Just damaging it this much had required Feng to go through all of his attack-type Consumables and most of his Tools of various ranks.
Ultimate Blood Flow would soon be usable again, however, which would instantly reset Feng's progress.
Seeing that he was running out of items to use in the bombardment on the duplicate, and, having kept track of the timing throughout this fight, knowing that he didn't have much time left before it all fails, Feng decided that it was now or never.
Throwing everything else that he had left at the Trial Creature in order to preoccupy it with the high-ranking attacks, Feng took out a pale-yellow mace the size of his forearm. This was the strongest attack method that Feng possessed, which he had saved until now.
A Legendary item his guild members had expended a lot of effort to obtain during a Quest using their knowledge of the future.
[Selles Fall] (Tool, Legendary Rank)
An item used by followers of Oorthos to protect sanctuaries.
Active Skill 1: Flowing Repel
Send out a burst of powerful shockwaves with every swing of Selles Fall to repel all enemies.
Duration: 4 seconds
Cooldown: 28 hours
Active Skill 2: Hola Bombarda
Create twenty-one mace heads to bombard opponents. Each mace head carries power at the Tier 6 Intermediate standard and could be used for one attack.
Cooldown: 60 hours
Active Skill 3: Descent of Oorth
Summon a phantom of God Oorthos that possesses a fraction of his power for a single strike that could injure a God depending on the user's control (Up to Tier 6 Advanced).
Cooldown: 2 days
Suffice to say that this was Feng's trump card against the Trial Creature, as well as any other powerful opponents he faced in the future since items as powerful as Selles Fall would be difficult to come by even in the future, much less while Feng's tier was so low.
It just so happened that the Legendary item could be obtained through a method that even low-tier players could use as long as they were strong and skilled enough, which was not the case for other such high-ranking items.
Without hesitation, Feng used Ethereal blitz to appear next to the duplicate, which was busy dodging the other attacks of various types and nature that Feng had previously launched, and swung the miniature mace at it.
The Selles Fall didn't make contact with the Trial Creature, its length being far too short for it to reach it when the Sword Saint was moving so quickly. Though, that wasn't Feng's intention to begin with, merely swinging it in the clone's direction, causing a shockwave that broke the space around them to blast towards the Trial Creature.
Having previously not sensed any particular power in Feng's strike nor that it would actually land, the replica had not paid much attention to his swing or the spiked mace, despite sensing the powerful aura and Divine Might radiating from it, focusing on handling the immediate threats.
When the shockwave caused by Flowing Repel exploded out and struck it, though, the Trial Creature became well aware of the mace's danger, switching its attention to what Feng was doing with Selles Fall as the clone attempted to regain its balance.
Although the shockwave's power was immense and reached the limit of Tier 5 Peak standard thanks to Feng's strength and the skill's effects, it unfortunately didn't damage the Trial Creature too much since it had the Shock-Inducing Fists and their Blastwave Resistance Passive Skill, which made it immune to Shock Damage.
Hence, even when hit by an attack of that power which originated from a Legendary item, the replica's HP bar barely moved, not even decreasing by 1%. The Flowing Repel did serve to greatly destabilize the Trial Creature, though, which was Feng's reason for using it to begin with as he continued swinging the small mace in the duplicate's direction, sending out more shockwaves to rattle it, while activating Hola Bombarda.
Twenty-one floating mace heads with several pointy spikes across their surface appeared around Feng as he swung the Selles Fall, controlling the hovering metal balls to fly in the Trial Creature's direction.
The moment it sensed the approaching threats that carried Tiers 6 Intermediate power, the replica instantly backed away and focused on the mace heads, knowing them striking it would be lethal in its current condition. Resisting the shockwaves to the best of its abilities, the Trial Creature tried dodging Hola Bombarda's created balls.
Due to the timing and not being able to move properly after avoiding all the previous attacks and enduring Falling Repel, however, it wasn't successful in dodging all the spiky spheres whose movement Feng was controlling to some extent, forcing the duplicate to block one with its sword in a swing that was powered with Thunder Flame Explosion.
A huge explosion that shattered the space resulted from the clash as the Trial Creature was sent flying, its HP dropping by over 2%.
But before it could even land on the ground, ten more flying mace heads converged on its location from all sides, leaving it with no room to run.
Now it could neither dodge the incoming dangers, nor could the clone block all of them since it would die from all ten of the powerful mace heads striking it at the same time.
Furthermore, the Trial Creature had already run out of Lifesaving Skills while running from Feng's previous onslaught as he had been sending dozens of attacks carrying power at the Tier 5 Peak and Tier 6 Basic standards at it, causing his replica to use them all up in quick succession, in the end being only able to dodge and block the less powerful attacks.
Facing the fastly approaching yellow spheres without having any Lifesaving Skills left to use, the Trial Creature was essentially screwed.
BOOOOM!
Except, it wasn't.
An even larger explosion occurred when the ten mace heads came together and blew up on contact, turning the area into an empty void. However, a deep frown appeared on Feng's face with his brows knitted, knowing that the duplicate was not yet dead since there was no system notification about it being defeated or the first phase being completed.
"Damn it!" And he immediately knew why and how it was still alive, raising the Selles Fall straight up above his head while looking in a far-off direction, where a Tier 5 him stood.
A few hundred yards away from Feng, the Trial Creature leaned against a transparent barrier while panting, feeling completely exhausted after running around and dodging attacks without Feng giving him even a second to stop and catch its breath, his last attempt to kill it being an incredibly close call that put a great strain on the clone's Concentration.
If not for having its safety measure and saving it until now, the clone would have definitely been killed in that explosion just now.
Feng had instantly figured out that the Trial Creature had used Spatial Shift, which, although technically not a Lifesaving Skill but a skill meant for crossing large distances in an instant and potentially to get out of sticky situations, could definitely be used as one, to teleport from the epicenter when the mace heads were about to reach it.
This shouldn't have been possible as Feng had at one point when the replica had received a large amount of damage that brought it close to death, and Feng thought that it might try to bail using its teleportation skills or just run away at full speed, used a skill from one of his three Legendary items that seals the space around them and prevents anything from leaving the area or using any teleportation abilities at all in order to make sure the Trial Creature did not escape his clutches.
Since the Trial Creature did not use Space Shift to get away after running out of Lifesaving Skills despite the powerful attacks he was sending its way and how low it was getting, Feng thought that it couldn't teleport within the range of Falmuth Seize's, Feng's space sealing Legendary Tool's, skill.
So Feng had been confident and brought out the Selles Fall to end the fight at an opportune moment, thinking that the duplicate would not be able to avoid Hola Bombarda, and finally die. However, it turns out that the sly replica of his had simply kept it as a hidden card until the last moment to dodge what Feng had planned to be the final blow thanks to the effects of Spatial Liberation.
Even with the Fragmented Legendary Space Helmet's Passive Skill greatly reducing the suppression on the Sword Saint when it came to space-restricting matters, having been caught within the skill of a Legendary item whose main function is to seal space and restrict people from using spatial abilities, the clone's teleportation range was limited to the inside of the space sealing barrier created by Falmuth Seize instead of Spatial Shift's usual 700,000 yard teleportation option; so it thankfully couldn't fully get away from Feng.
Still, it created a massive problem for Feng who had expected that to be the finishing move.
Being left with no other choice as he didn't have much time, calculating that there were only a few seconds left before the Trial Creature's Ultimate Blood Flow came off cooldown, Feng activated Descent of Oorth, causing a giant silhouette of a brawny man to appear in the gray sky of the trial grounds.
The phantom held an enormous yellow mace, which it suddenly lashed out with towards the ground at where the replica was standing.
As for the Trial Creature, it was having a hard time recovering considering all its injuries and expended Stamina and Concentration, especially after forcibly teleporting using Spatial Shift while under a Legendary item's restriction while the space itself has become very unstable after all the fighting and high-ranking attacks that had bombarded the area, the feat being difficult regardless of Spatial Liberation greatly decreasing the suppression on the clone.
Upon sensing the huge amount of Mana that had gathered above them and the feeling of death, the replica looked up, only to be greeted with the sight of a God swinging down a giant mace that descended like a lightning bolt.
Without hesitation, the Trial Creature used Echoport, knowing that receiving a strike from the enormous figure would instantly turn it into dust after Descent of Oorth's power reached the entry level of Tier 6 Advanced under Feng's control that thankfully did not require himself possessing a large amount of Mana and Concentration; being able to simply rely on skill to operate it.
Another explosion that shook the entire trial ground and created a void devoid of life, nearly shattering the space-sealing barrier from Falmuth Seize, rang out.
Naturally Feng's Tier 5 duplicate was unharmed, having set several Markers at different locations in advance, so it simply teleported away to safety, barely succeeding in time considering the suppression it was facing.
Not letting up, Feng immediately sent the ten remaining mace heads from Hola Bombarda at the Trial Creature, hoping to end it before the replica regained its bearings.
Just as the spiky spheres were about to reach the Trial Creature and remove all of its remaining health points, however, its total HP suddenly increased by several times, while the HP bar above the Trial Creature's head refilled slightly.
Standing properly, the Tier 5 Feng executed Sword's Orbit at the Silver Combat Technique standard, deflecting the yellow balls. The Hola Bombarda-created attacks exploded after being struck away, still greatly damaging the Trial Creature and forcing it back by over a dozen steps, but thanks to Ultimate Blood Flow recovering a considerable amount of its HP, the replica survived.
A second later, the Trial Creature recovered from that damage as well, and then some, its HP quickly climbing back up.
Feng immediately knew that he had lost his chance to kill the opposing Swordsman, meaning that passing the first phase was going to be much more difficult now without the assistance of all the items he had prepared; the Consumables having been mostly used up whereas the Tools' skills were on cooldown.
Both fighters paused for a few moments to rest and catch their breath, much different than before when the two of them immediately rushed towards each other out for blood. Feng's Stamina and Concentration were all but exhausted after using so many high-ranking attacks and controlling them properly, especially the last two at the end.
Had it not been for his Life Crystals and other recovery Consumables, Feng would not have been able to sustain the consumption of energy needed to operate all the Tools during the fight.
As for the Trial Creature, it, too, was fairly spent despite its immense stats, having little Stamina, Concentration, and Mana remaining. It had also sustained a large amount of damage, both to its HP and physical injuries. Although Ultimate Blood Flow would quickly restore its HP back to max, the accumulated damage to its body affected the Tier 5 being's combat power to a certain extent, which the Legendary Chesplate's skill could not recover as easily; being of limited help in that department.
Eyeing their opponent, Feng and his duplicate took a moment to rest in a wordless agreement, pausing as they regained some strength.
Ten seconds later, and fighting spirit filled their eyes, commencing another round of battle.
The Trial Creature had recovered enough HP during this time to activate Blood Tribute, using the skill to bridge the gap in attributes and fully fight Feng on equal footing.
It attacked madly with all the skills it could use at the moment, desperate to quickly kill him before Ultimate Blood Flow's duration ended. Unlike Feng, the Trial Creature didn't know that he was out of items to use against it.
From the duplicate's perspective, the trial taker could still possess many methods to send out powerful attacks that could threaten its life like Selles Fall's skills, having no clue what else Feng might have in his arsenal, so it was in a hurry to beat him while it still had the ability to do so and the challenger could not bombard it like before.
With no Lifesaving Skills left and its teleportation skills spent, little energy to fight remaining, along with not having the option to run away while Falmuth Seize's spatial sealing barrier was still up, it not killing Feng by the time its hyper regeneration ran out was a death sentence to the Trial Creature; making it anxious as it tried to eliminate him.
Meanwhile, Feng, who was aware of his own position and that repeating what he previously did was impossible, was just as desperate to do damage to the Trial Creature. The moment Ultimate Blood Flow ends and the duplicate realizes that Feng was out of items to send out attacks that could threaten its life, it will be game over.
Thus, Feng could not allow for that to happen and had to kill the Trial Creature, or at least make sure it was completely exhausted or couldn't use its full power, before it cycled around again after catching wind that he was powerless to defeat it. But there were multiple problems with that plan, considerably so at the moment since the replica could match him in strength with just one Blood Tribute, and it would significantly surpass him after activating a second one.
The most Feng could do, which was what he was attempting to accomplish now, was land attacks on parts of the Trial Creature's body that had already received a large amount of damage in order to prevent it from regenerating and recovering the clone's combat power even further, attempting to apply his Void Erosion effect on the damage to slow down the effects of Ultimate Blood Flow as much as possible.
Additionally, the skill from Falmuth Seize that he had used to seal the space around them would soon end, allowing the Trial Creature to come and go as it pleased. At that point it could simply distance itself from him if necessary to recover its lost Stamina and Concentration, along with waiting for its skills to become available.
Worst of all, however, was the fact this had taken longer than Feng expected, causing his plans to unravel, and for what he thought wouldn't be an issue to now put a deadline on his capability to fight the Trial Creature.
Within a few seconds of engaging in combat, Feng's Power of Darkness ended, its over twenty-seven minute enhanced duration finally no longer able to keep Feng going in the fight and forcing him to use Heavenly Dragon's Power.
Although it was a more powerful Berserk Skill than the Power of Darkness Feng could use from the Bible of Darkness, its duration was much shorter, meaning Feng didn't have much time left. Heavenly Dragon's Power would only last him through the replica's Blood Tributes until it couldn't use the skill any longer, and he'd have to rely on Imperial Ascendance to combat the Trial Creature afterwards, ultimately having to kill it before the Legendary Chestplate's Berserk Skill ends.
He'd only be left with Mysticsteel Berserk after that, whose effects would not be enough to make up the difference in this fight, while even the boost he received from Savior Bite would soon disappear following Imperial Ascendance.
The result of the fight would truly be determined in the next ten or so minutes.
If Feng could not kill the Trial Creature during the time between it not using Blood Tribute repeatedly and Imperial Ascendance's duration counted down to zero, he'd lose, regardless of the duplicate's state at that point and him still having Soulharvest Synergy active.
Their difference in attributes would make it so that Feng had no shot at killing the Trial Creature as long as it barely defended itself and waited for its HP and energy to recover, after which it would only take some effort to kill Feng.
Both of them were desperate to finish the fight, the Trial Creature fearing what else Feng may have up his sleeve, and Feng knowing he's fucked if he doesn't defeat this insurmountable opponent quickly.
They exchanged blows and landed a couple of hits, with Feng barely managing to somewhat slow its recovery while trying not to receive too much damage, until the clone used Blood Tribute again, creating a pretty large difference in their attributes and forcing Feng to go back to running away from the Trial Creature.
No matter what it did, the duplicate could not take away what remained of Feng's HP despite him losing some during the initial clash and being weakened. He just continued slipping out of its grasp, and when it got dicey with Feng losing most of his HP, he activated his own Ultimate Blood Flow in order to endure the Trial Creature's onslaught.
During the skill's duration, as long as Feng didn't receive several critical hits in a row from the Tier 5 replica, he was basically unkillable. Hence even with the difference in their attributes, Feng could continue fighting the Trial Creature, landing some attacks as well while getting thrown around from the powerful blows laid on him.
Feng chose this method since a large number of his Lifesaving Skills were still on cooldown, whereas he wanted to save the rest for the upcoming mad dash to victory, so he opted to simply continue regenerating with Ultimate Blood Flow, managing to keep up some level of pressure on the Trial Creature and prevent its injuries from fully recovering.
Since he had activated it later than the clone, Feng's Ultimate Blood Flow lasted longer and allowed him to hold on for a while, him being at max HP making it possible for Feng to survive even later as the Trial Creature's twofold Blood Tribute was usable.
A few minutes after the Trial Creature saved itself with Ultimate Blood Flow, and the two found themselves in a similar position to before, with the duplicate no longer able to sustain the HP draining skill and was left with around 40% of its health, whereas Feng had gotten beaten up and had less than half of his HP remaining.
Except, the Tier 5 Sword Saint was now running low on Stamina, Concentration, and Mana, along with having received many injuries from attacks on the Tier 6 standard, which could not be fixed easily in such a brief period of time.
But the Tier 1 trial taker was worse off than the Trial Creature, as he too was fairly spent, while he didn't have any items left to bombard the replica with and kill it.
Relying on his own two hands, Feng deactivated Heavenly Dragon's Power, which only had a bit of its improved duration left, and switched to Imperial Ascendance. Blood armor covered his entire body, with a pair of bat wings emerging on his back, followed by Feng's angelic wings being released and stretching out the elastic hardened blood to cover them as well.
Flapping his four wings and going at his maximum speed, Feng reached the clone in the blink of an eye, slashing down with Chop towards its head. Before the Trial Creature came to the conclusion that he no longer had the ability to use so many powerful attacks as he did on the previous occasions, Feng intended to do as much damage to it as possible since it would be holding back its skills for later.
Completely surprising him, however, the Trial Creature did something totally unexpected.
Instead of dodging or blocking his slash, the Tier 5 replica let go of its sword and caught Feng's Abyssal Blade with its hand. The Magic Weapon was naturally not something that could be casually grabbed while Feng was slashing with the intent to kill using his full strength and Chop, especially when the Trial Creature's attributes were inferior, so Feng's sword made a cut through the duplicate's copied gauntlet and sliced into the Trial Creature's hand; drawing blood.
Faced with his opponent's weird choice, Feng at first wasn't sure how to react or what move to make next, but panic appeared in his eyes a moment later. The Trial Creature firmly grasped the sword, ignoring the sharp blade which cut deeper into the wound, holding it in place and preventing Feng from retrieving the Abyssal Blade.
At the same time, the Mana inside the Blood Emperor's Armor began to stir and tremble, quickly going berserk and starting to grow unstable. Feng instantly recognized the phenomenon as Sanguine Annihilation.
Realizing the Trial Creature's plan, Feng immediately pulled his sword harder while flapping his wings and rising in the air, needing to free himself before the skill fully activates, causing the Blood Emperor's Armor to explode and deal a huge amount of damage to everything around it.
Although Feng's attributes had increased exponentially under the two Berserk Skills and Legendary Consumable, his Defense didn't change as much, only getting significantly improved by Imperial Ascendance.
The damage he'd receive from one of the Trial Creature's proper direct hits would still be very great even with the boost and suit of blood armor protecting his body, not to mention a blast of this scale, which originated from a piece of Legendary equipment and would deal two hundred times the replica's damage, at point black range.
In Feng's current state with the HP he has left, Sanguine Annihilation would eradicate him.
He had not expected the Trial Creature to pull such a move, temporarily sacrificing the attributes provided by the Blood Emperor's Armor and the Passive Skills by activating Sanguine Annihilation, while trying to keep him in place for the blast by holding onto the Abyssal Blade without letting go.
Regardless of how hard he pulled, Feng couldn't free himself from the Trial Creature's clutches. He didn't consider abandoning the Magic Weapon and running since he definitely won't get it back in that case until the end of the first phase; fighting with only one weapon against the Tier 5 Sword Saint being no different than a death sentence in this situation.
Thinking he could quickly break free and get away, Feng slashed the Pandemonium Lashblade at the replica, the Demon Sword becoming covered in pitch-black flames. Its soul shuddering from the Soul Fire, the Trial Creature hurriedly blocked the strike with its copied Abyssal Blade.
Its arms grew numb upon the two swords coming into contact, and the Trial Creature could feel its entire arm get damaged from blocking it, not because of the power within the slash, but the internal shock that spread throughout the clone's whole body.
The chain sword's splitting mechanism activated, and the four-yard-long whip blade coiled around the duplicate following another slash. Unable to defend both its right side and flank at the same time, the Trial Creature seemed to be in trouble at first glance, only for swordlights to appear and clash with the extended blade, while blocking the Pandemonium Lashblade caused no damage to the replica this time.
Even though it was a Lifesaving Skill and technically an Invincibility Skill, the Trial Creature had never bothered to use Fortress, since it either wouldn't be of help, or it wasn't powerful enough to protect it from Feng's more powerful attacks as the skill of a Fragmented Legendary item like the Mysticsteel Belt would not stop damage originating from Tier 6 sources; or even those with power high in Tier 5.
Luckily for the duplicate, Fortress now came in to save its day, negating the damage it would have received from blocking an attack powered by Internal Force, whereas, although it couldn't defend against the Destruction Soul Fire directly, the skill increased the user's attack range and allowed the Trial Creature to send slashes everywhere within a ten-yard radius; as long as it did not move from its position.
Once again getting caught off guard by the Trial Creature's unexpected utilization of his skills, Feng grew even more frustrated and anxious, having no choice but to continue slashing at the duplicate while trying to move the Abyssal Blade back and forth like a saw, hoping Internal Force would damage its hand enough to free the Magic Weapon even if it caused no damage to the clone's HP.
Not seeing immediate effects, Feng even resorted to kicking the Trial Creature in the head.
Fortress only made the user immune to damage that would decrease their HP, unlike Absolute Defense and Domain which created invincibility barriers around the user to protect them from all attacks.
Hence, Feng's attacks could still strike the duplicate, only it would not receive any damage. Internal Shock's effects, however, were unthwarted by the Invincibility Skill, making the Trial Creature's insides fully experience Feng's attacks, especially when his foot meets the opposing Swordman's skull.
The kick made the Trial Creature's consciousness blur for a split second, a second kick to its face nearly striking it unconscious. Additionally, the Boot of Slaughter had very sharp blades all across them, creating wounds and scars on the clone's face with each of Feng's kicks.
Doing its best to avoid the sweeps to the head without actually moving its body, the Trial Creature attempted to not incur any lethal or particularly harmful injuries, but between Feng's Attack Speed, him using a Bronze Attack Combat Technique for kicking, that proved difficult, with one of the blades on Feng's feet striking the replica's eye; destroying it from Feng's immense strength and Internal Force.
Normally, this many attacks packed with Internal Force's effects to the head would cause another creature's brain to explode, or at least greatly damage it to the point of death. Due to the Trial Creature's powerful Physique, Mana Body, and Defense, though, it was managing to somehow endure Feng repeatedly stomping on its face.
Damage still accumulated from the kicks, the duplicate having trouble seeing straight and the control over its body waining, causing its grip on Feng's sword to loosen, and with him sawing its hand apart, greatly damaging it, he finally freed himself.
With a powerful flap, Feng rose into the sky as quickly as he could.
But it was too late.
From realizing what was happening to messing up the Trial Creature's face and escaping its clutches, it had only taken Feng two to three seconds. Nevertheless, the Tier 5 Trial Creature's efforts were not in vain, as it had managed to slow down Feng for long enough that he was still completely within Sanguine Annihilation's blast radius.
The Blood Emperor's Armor turned bright red like a blood sun before exploding out, a thick red mist spreading in all directions at a fast speed.
Feng attempted to get out of its range by using his wings, but it was already too close, making escaping its range that had spread to more than fifty yards in an instant impossible.
Since getting away wasn't an option, Feng turned around and faced the red mist head-on while hovering in the air using his wings.
Unlike usual attacks that had a physical form or were possible to strike down, Sanguine Annihilation created a powerful mist that spread around and destroyed anything it touched. It could not be dealt with using standard Combat Techniques like Sword's Orbit or Sword's Transmigration, and few Defensive Combat Techniques of any rank could be used to defend against it, none of which Feng could execute at the moment either due to lacking strength or not being of the right class.
Only a certain type of defensive skills would be capable of blocking the mist, making Sanguine Annihilation very unique and difficult to handle, Feng not having any skill available to block it in this predicament.
Nevertheless, being Feng, he wasn't out of possibilities to save his ass. Thanks to the huge boosts to his attributes, Physique, Concentration, and overall being from Soulharvest Synergy, Imperial Ascendence, and Savior Bite, along with him fully focusing with his senses sharpened to a razor's edge, Feng could finally use a certain technique.
When the cloud of blood was about to reach him, Feng took a stance and brandished his swords, creating a torrent of light that cut across the sky and collided with the blast from Sanguine Annihilation.
Advanced Silver Combat Technique, Sword's Ripple![1]
Using his first ever invented Advanced Silver Combat Technique, Feng blocked Sanguine Annihilation, defending against the cloud of bloody mist. Unfortunately, being only Tier 1 with powerful stats, Feng was unable to fully utilize Sword's Ripple or execute it properly, it not completely reaching the Advanced Silver standard due to Feng's lacking strength.
Nonetheless, he persevered and managed to block the life-threatening attack, only getting sent flying even higher up and losing around 10% of his HP.
He was left fairly exhausted after using Sword's Ripple, both his Stamina and Concentration falling to a low and leaving Feng in a bad condition to fight, so he paused in the air to rest for a few seconds; waiting for the effects of the Life Crystals and other Consumables he had downed during the fight to kick in and recover his spent energy.
Looking down towards the Trial Creature, Feng saw it staring back up at him, standing in a punching stance with its less injured left hand cocked back. In the next moment, it punched out at Feng, causing the air to ripple between them.
Shockwave!
A burst of wind suddenly struck the unsuspecting Feng in the abdomen, causing him to spit out a mouthful of blood. The Passive Skill Blastwave Resistance made it so that Feng received practically no damage from the replica's skill, but it had knocked the wind out of the already breathless Feng as he wheezed.
"Son of a-" About to curse, Feng glared at the Trial Creature, only to see it pick up its dropped sword and unequip the pale-red Blood Emperor's Armor, whose effects were now unavailable for three minutes, before unfurling its wings and flying up, clearly intending to end Feng before he recovered.
The sight and brazen behavior made Feng feel irked, "You're the one on the ropes here, not me!"
Without hesitation, Feng flew down to meet the Trial Creature in the air.
They might both be reaching their limit, but considering their current conditions, the Tier 5 replica was definitely the more bruised and worn down one.
Apart from being spent after all the fighting without having proper rest and expending nearly all its Stamina, Concentration, and Mana, the Trial Creature had accumulated numerous injuries and extensive damage. Its arms and hands, the most important parts for both of them to fight, in particular, were messed up.
Its right hand, the main one which they both use to wield the Pandemonium Lashblade, was torn apart, with the flesh sliced up so much the bones were visible, the blood flowing freely, and the hand being further corroded from the inside by Void Erosion. Feng found it difficult to believe the Trial Creature was managing to even hold a sword using it, but he supposed that was the power of a Tier 5 being.
As for the left limb, although not as grievously or visibly injured as the right one, it had been greatly weakened during all this time, their swords colliding while Feng's strength was at its peak and Internal Force in effect nearly breaking the clone's arm. Its left hand's power was now significantly limited and any attack would be much weaker than before.
The rest of the Trial Creature's body was very beaten up too, having several injuries that decreased its combat power and fighting capabilities, along with limiting the time it could continue fighting, its head probably having been shaken by Feng's Internal Force kicks. All that along with basically all its offensive, defensive, and Lifesaving Skills being used up.
Feng was just tired from the fighting and had low HP, Stamina, and Concentration, all of which he could quickly recover to a certain extent.
When comparing who was more likely to come out of this victorious, Feng would clearly be the winner since regardless of whether he kills the Trial Creature before Imperial Ascendance ends or not, with how damaged the Sword Saint was, Feng would still be able to make up for the difference in attributes.
He even had Destruction Soul Flames active right now, which was all the more reason for the Trial Creature to play it cautiously. Yet it was rushing in recklessly for a direct confrontation.
Of course, Feng wouldn't complain if the Trial Creature wanted to be sent to an early grave, welcoming its choice since it would be bothersome if it started running away.
Flying towards each other quickly, the two of them were about to come into contact. Feng was suddenly assaulted with a powerful feeling of death out of nowhere when there were less than ten yards separating him and the Trial Creature.
Not fully sure why, but Feng felt like he was in danger despite the odds being heavily in his favor. He almost had the impression that he had fallen into a trap. The faint smile on the Trial Creature's messed up face also only served to sound alarm bells in his head.
Utterly trusting his instincts that had carried him throughout his career in God's Domain without hesitation, Feng immediately switched from attacking to defending, albeit not knowing what danger was coming at him.
Mysticsteel Body!
Void Shield!
Activating the two skills that greatly boosted his defense, Feng still felt that it was not enough, so with a flapping motion of his giant wings, Feng folded them one over the other in front of him, using them as shields for whatever was to come.
Not a tenth of a second later, a huge silver light erupted in the sky, the space in the surroundings quaking, while Feng stared ahead in shock, his eyes widening.
What had appeared before him was a bloodied blade, inches from his face, that oozed with the smell of death. Simultaneously, Feng felt otherworldly pain assault his mind.
Somehow, the Trial Creature had reached Feng in an instant, gaining an enormous boost in strength and using Moonchaser, its Abyssal Blade instantly shattering the barrier from Void Shield, breaking the blood armor from Imperial Ascendance, piercing the toughened light-blue layer on his body from Mysticsteel Body, and plunging into Feng's wings.
Although Feng was only Tier 1 and had no Mana Body, his Physique was quite high, while the wings themselves were incredibly tough as they were a part of Sharlyn's Full Blessing and had a constant layer of Mana and Divine Might, although not a lot, covering and protecting them during battle.
Yet the Trial Creature had somehow managed to pierce all that and push its sword through both of Feng's wings, coming out on the other side and nearly stabbing Feng in the face; without him even having time to react until it was already done.
Feng was left baffled, having no clue how it had done so or where the increase in the duplicate's power had come from, wondering if the Trial Creature on God Mode had some extra abilities he didn't know about.
After glancing over his bloody wings and looking at the clone, however, Feng sensed an incredibly dark aura emanating from its body, Power of Darkness erupting around its body and from one of the rings on its fingers in waves.
The mistake he had made dawned on Feng as soon as he noticed the change in the Trial Creature.
An ability Feng had written off ever since he obtained it due to the skill not being something he could afford to use.
Bestowal of Darkness.
It was a skill Feng had unlocked after removing Moloch's Ring's Fifth Seal, which increased a player's tier by one and gave a huge boost to the wielder's stats.
Feng had never considered using it due to his soul already being close to getting devoured by Moloch's Ring. If he used any of the Legendary Ring's skills, especially one like Bestowal of Darkness which filled the user with potent Power of Darkness, the darkness attempting to swallow his soul would greatly increase and Chibi Sharlyn would no longer be able to save him.
For the Trial Creature, which was a Tier 5 being and possessed a Tier 5 soul, though, this was not the case.
Having a soul more powerful than Feng's by hundreds of times, even with the darkness increasing in size and power, it could not devour the replica's soul, so it could withstand using Moloch's Ring and getting a boost to its strength from Bestowal of Darkness.
It would even be able to use Moloch's Ring's other skills as well, but none of them are applicable in this situation; Gate of Darkness not being usable in the trial space since it created a passage outside it;
Whereas since summoning things using non-equipment items or bringing summoned creatures from outside the trial wasn't allowed, even if it's done using a skill from a piece of equipment, only learned summoning skills working, otherwise Summoners would stand no chance, Calling of Balrogs wouldn't work either as it summoned Balrog Demons from the Abyss; unlike in the Wraithwood Sigil's case where the Ghost Tree is summoned from inside the Legendary Ornament.
Normally the ban on summoning help would be more detrimental for the trial taker, but in Feng's case, it served to aleviate one source of grave danger to him.
If the Trial Creature were to use Calling of Balrogs and summon five Level 109 Tier 5 Demons, Feng's chances of victory would instantly drop to zero. Feng wasn't sure if he 'd be able to handle even one Tier 5 Balrog ten levels higher than him, let alone five at the same time, along with the Tier 5 him who was the summoner.
Still, even with just giving the replica Bestowal of Darkness, Moloch's Ring had already casued Feng way more trouble than it was worth to have equipped for the fight.
Since it had a limit of promoting the user up to Tier 5, the Trial Creature could not get its tier increased, but the Berserk Skill still brought it to the limit of Tier 5.
Along with the increase in attributes, the power it currently possessed was greater than when the duplicate had twofold Blood Tribute or Imperial Ascendance active.
In a split second, the Trial Creature managed to move faster than Feng's eyes could keep track of, reaching him and using Moonchaser, whose cooldown had recently ended, to stab him as the Abyssal Blade easily cut through the obstacles.
Had Feng not reacted at the time and used his wings as a shield, the Magic Weapon would have instead made a hole in his head, the blow instantly killing him.
The Trial Creature itself seemed greatly surprised that Feng had survived, clearly having expected to do him in with that surprise attack after activating Bestowal of Darkness. Apart from getting its supposed winning move blocked, the clone even had its Abyssal Blade still stuck inside of Feng's wings, unable to retrieve the sword due to his back appendages being very durable.
Regardless of its immense strength, the Trial Creature would not have been able to achieve what it did without Moonchaser, and it would have only managed to cut and leave some wounds on his wings; not fully pierce through both of them and get past Feng's defense.
Without Moonchaser powering its blade, the duplicate could no longer remove the sword as the flesh of the wings reflexively thickened around the Magic Weapon, stopping it from building up power in a motion. Having its sword now taken out of the fight and its less injured hand without a weapon, the Trial Creature fell into a precarious situation.
Though, it wasn't as if Feng was in a good state either, the pain from his sensitive wings receiving such damage and injuries agonizing beyond belief, being only inferior to when the two bird parts had first grown from his back, and increasing severalfold as the perpetrator attempted to pull it out.
Gritting his teeth, Feng made sure to tighten the flesh in his wings around the sword, keeping it and the Trial Creature in place, while slashing at its head with the Abyssal Blade in his left hand.
Using its nearly destroyed right hand, the duplicate raised its cloned Pandemonium Lashblade, barely blocking Feng's strike and stopping the sword from cutting its head in half. Feng couldn't place his full strength into the swing or execute a powerful Combat Technique due to their current position, in midair with Feng's bat wings from Imperial Ascendance keeping them afloat, with his giant feathery wings between them.
Thus, he could only dish out a regular slash, which the replica managed to block despite how injured its hand was. Otherwise, no matter how much higher its Strength was than Feng's, the gory condition Feng had left it in would make holding a weapon impossible after blocking a strike with Feng's full force behind it.
However, with its Abyssal Blade stuck in Feng's wings and its Pandemonium Lashblade busy blocking Feng's Magic Weapon, the Trial Creature's left side was wide open for Feng to freely attack with his Demon Sword.
At the moment, Feng's Pandemonium Lashblade was still ablaze with Soul Fire, and setting aside the base damage he'd deal to the opposing Swordsman by slicing its head and the pitch-black flames destroying its physical body, the Trial Creature's soul would also be heavily damaged.
A Tier 5 soul would be much more resistant to Destruction Soul Fire than that of weaker creatures, not to mention that Feng was the one wielding the flames at the moment, so their effects would be even less.
Nevertheless, receiving a direct attack from the Pandemonium Lashblade and getting burned by Soul Fire would still bring forth grievous consequences to the Trial Creature. Despite the duplicate's soul being more powerful than Feng's, from previously using the Ethereal Replicant Core, Feng knew that it wasn't possible to clone a God's Full Blessing, so the most it had copied was a regular-level Blessing.
That brought much less soul defense than Feng's Full Blessing and the Chibi Sharlyn it had formed, providing minimal protection. A Moloch's Ring with its Fifth Seal released could quickly devour even a Tier 5 being, while the Trial Creature had no other boosts to its soul's power or methods of defending it aside from the copied Blessing residing in the replica's soul.
Hence activating Bestowal of Darkness still brought considerable risk to the Trial Creature's life, albeit less than in Feng's case, and receiving any damage to its soul could greatly speed up the process of its soul being devoured, if not instantly kill it. Feng could easily deal the finishing blow right here and now.
But he didn't dare to do it.
Feng wasn't immune to Soul Fire and had to be careful when using Destruction Soul Flames, so he was at just as much risk of getting his soul damaged as the Trial Creature, if not more since the black flames would be more potent on him, and had to keep it safe at all cost.
Considering their current compromising positions, attacking with the Pandemonium Lashblade was very risky as the Trial Creature could, in a desperate attempt, redirect some of the Soul Fire onto him even if it cost it its life. Feng may be able to pass the First Phase if he kills the Trial Creature, but he'd probably die in the process as well, or at least come close enough that the Moloch's Ring could easily devour his soul with little time.
Unlike the replica which just had the job of making sure he doesn't pass the trial, Feng needed to defeat the Tier 5 duplicate without dying in the process or bringing his soul in any danger.
Thus Feng could not afford to risk attacking with the Soul Fire while the two of them were so close to each other.
So he came up with an alternative.
Throwing the blazing Pandemonium Lashblade into the air, Feng activated Blade Dance and controlled it to float above them, before punching the Trial Creature while keeping its free sword occupied.
Internal Force was still completely active, so Feng smashing his fist onto the Sword Saint's head caused plenty of buzzing in its mind. Bringing his fist back, Feng hit the top of the Trial Creature's head with the side of his fist again, even executing Divine Change at the standard of a Bronze Combat Technique as all the muscles in his body moved in a single direction in an attempt to crack its head open.
Repeatedly punching the Trial Creature, Feng hoped to quickly beat it unconscious and finally kill it, or simply turn its brain into mush; his fist resulting in the duplicate's vision swirling and mind going numb.
After the first punch, the Trial Creature had activated Mysticsteel Body, increasing its Defense even further, which greatly decreased the damage Feng's punches were doing to nearly nothing, but Internal Force was still causing great internal damage, and the clone was getting close to being struck into sleep. Had it been anybody else who wasn't as durable as the Tier 5 Feng, their head would have already exploded.
Clarity suddenly returning to its eyes for a second, the Trial Creature moved its head and avoided Feng's punch, its aura skyrocketing once more. With a swift and ruthless motion, the replica cut through the wings, leaving an even bigger wound that Void Erosion was spreading inside.
Its slashes being too fast for Feng to follow while it was in Twofold Berserk, the Sword Saint used Double Chop on Feng's wings, cutting them precisely and creating two gashes that would make it very difficult for him to continue flying.
The Trial Creature then sent another slash at Feng's face, but he had already caught on to what was happening and activated Thought Acceleration, greatly boosting his Reaction Speed and thinking speed, along with matching the replica's actions by finally bringing Blade Liberation into the fight.
Countering with Chop, Feng blocked the attack, the force behind it pushing him back and creating an opening for the Trial Creature to prepare an Earth Splitter, only for Feng to folly its plan by controlling the Pandemonium Lashblade to fly down at it.
Sensing the incoming Demon Sword that was still burning with Soul Fire, the duplicate could only give up on a follow-up attack and move back, choosing to fly down.
Making the Pandemonium Lashblade come back to him, Feng grabbed the Demon Sword, activating its Splitting effect and slashing down at the Trial Creature. But the opposing Swordsman simply dodged the chain sword and continued descending to the ground.
Since Feng had two pairs of wings, even with one pair being greatly injured, and was much more experienced in areal combat than it, the Trial Creature realized that it would be at a disadvantage if the two of them fought in the air.
Furthermore, the whip-like Pandemonium Lashblade would be much more versatile and have more opportunities to strike at it when the Demon Sword could move freely in the open space; Feng having the capability to attack it from all sides.
Hence, to level the playing field a bit, the Trial Creature decided to go down and fight on the ground.
However, another reason was to stall out the battle.
Now that both of them had activated Blade Liberation, a clock was ticking. Once the Legacy Berserk Skill ended, they would fall into a Heavily Weakened state, but that meant two entirely different things for Feng and his Tier 5 replica.
A drop in 80% of their attributes was not the same for them as the Trial Creature had more base stats than Feng, so falling to only 20% would still leave it the stronger one with a bigger difference in attributes than when they were at 100%.
Being a Tier 5 creature, though, the debuff from a Tier 1 skill would not affect the Trial Creature as much, its attributes not dropping by the full 80%. Of course that also meant that it currently wasn't getting as big of a boost in strength as Feng was from the Legacy Berserk Skill, but it was still great enough to have forced Feng into having to use his own Blade Liberation.
Upon the duration running out, the two of them would have their attributes decreased by a considerable amount, with the Trial Creature having the advantage in both the lost amount and overall strength, along with the duration greatly differing.
The Tier 5 Sword Saint would probably spend only a minute or so in the Heavily Weakened state, whereas Feng's would be much longer, taking more than a dozen minutes to recover from it.
At least that would be the case if they were both in Twofold Berserk.
Feng currently had Soulharvest Synergy, Imperial Ascendance, and Blade Liberation active. The three incredibly powerful Berserk Skills did naturally give him an enormous boost in strength, but once his Threefold Berserk state ends, the duration he'd be weakened for would be on an entirely different rank than from Twofold Berserk.
He instantly found himself in quite the predicament. The Trial Creature now just needed to stall him until their Blade Liberations ended. It would have the advantage and be able to easily dispatch him, and even if it couldn't, the clone would quickly recover from its weakened state, at which point it will be game over for Feng.
In fact, it didn't even need the Legacy Berserk Skills to end as Feng would lose the ability to kill it once the durations of Internal Force and Destruction Soul Flames ran dry.
Rushing down, Feng sent a barrage of attacks at the Trial Creature, in a great hurry to quickly drain what remained of its HP.
Thanks to its superior attributes and being on the defensive, even with one of its hands being nearly unusable and the other greatly damaged, the duplicate was managing to hold on, blocking all of Feng's attacks despite their unpredictable nature, their speed, and the power he was putting behind them.
Its HP was decreasing bit by bit due to Internal Force, but it was not enough to outpace the Trial Creature's natural recovery, and would definitely not be enough to end its life.
As if the situation did not look bleak enough, there was also the fact that this was only the first phase of the World Summit Trial's God Mode. Naturally, the next phases would be much more difficult than this one, but Feng was already struggling so much now, and would end up Heavily Weakened for a considerable time even if he did manage to win now.
Nonetheless, Feng wasn't worried about that. In reality, the first phase was the biggest obstacle for him and the most difficult phase to pass as Feng had cheese strats for the second and third phases of the trial.
As long as he could beat the Trial Creature and get past the first phase, Feng passing the God Mode World Summit Trial would nearly be guaranteed. Hence, Feng wasn't worried about anything else and was willing to do whatever it took so long as he won and survived.
When only a few seconds of Feng being able to use Soul Fire and threaten the Tier 5 being remained, he activated Divine Steps, surrounding the Trial Creature from all sides and covering the nearby area with 36 doppelgangers.
Feng began rapidly changing positions with the dozen doppelgangers around the Sword Saint, constantly slashing away with the Pandemonium Lashblade from all directions and creating a flaming dome around it. Executing a form of Sword's Orbit, the Trial Creature barely managed to defend against nearly all of them. The attacks that did land, the replica could temporarily withstand, trying to endure until the skills ended.
He also used Phantom Kill, creating another two points of attack as he switched its position along with his own between Divine Steps' doppelgangers so that the Trial Creature did not kill it, but nothing Feng tried worked as the Trial Creature managed to somehow defend against everything.
With only two seconds of Divine Steps and Destruction Soul Flames left, the doppelganger's sword erupted with a silver light. Ignoring Phantom Kill's doppelganger using Moonchaser, the Trial Creature mainly focused on blocking Feng's attacks, simply activating Defensive Blade in order to increase its attack range and slightly counter the incoming attack.
As expected, the doppelganger was too weak to threaten the Trial Creature, it managing to block the Tier 4 skill with relative ease. Suddenly, however, the Tier 5 creature sensed danger, the doppelganger's sword turning into a glorious golden light in the next moment.
Apart from the soul getting more polluted with the Power of Darkness when using it, another great risk that came with using Bestowal of Darkness was that it increased the damage received by the user from Holy sources tenfold.
Worldly Purification was Feng's strongest skill and the most dangerous one for the current Trial Creature not only due to how little HP it had left and how powerful the skill was, but also because it carried the power of purification; an incredibly potent Holy power.
If the Trial Creature received a direct hit from Worldly Purification while having Bestowal of Darkness active, even if it was by the doppelganger, the damage would be devastating. And if Feng was the one hitting the duplicate with it, the damage would be fatal; possibly even if the Trial Creature was in its peak state.
Hence, the moment it sensed the doppelganger preparing Worldly Purification, the replica instantly became on edge and prepared to block the attack.
At the same time as the doppelganger used the Tier 4 Peak skill, Feng slashed with the Pandemonium Lashblade in a curve from a different angle, threatening to cut apart the Trial Creature with Soul Fire, while stabbing forward with his other sword and using Moonchaser.
There was no way it could block all three attacks that were coming from different directions, but were equally threatening. No matter which attack it received, the Trial Creature was at risk of dying.
Just as the attacks were about to dig into the Trial Creature, however, it activated Phantom Kill, creating a doppelganger five yards away and switching places with it. Feng's Moonchaser and his doppelganger's Worldly Purification exploded out and created a huge explosion, only for the attacks to be in vain.
Although it could not use Phantom Kill like Feng did to have a doppelganger fight alongside it, the duplicate was fully capable of activating the skill and using the doppelganger as a scapegoat.
Having dodged that, the Trial Creature believed it was now over as it pulled even further away from them, knowing that the challenger's skills were about to end and that he'd no longer have the power to kill it.
Milliseconds away from Divine Steps deactivating and the doppelgangers disappearing, Feng switched places with one of them that was standing next to the Trial Creature, all the 36 doppelgangers disappearing instantaneously after, along with Internal Force and Destruction Soul Flames ending.
Not caring about that, Feng slashed at the Trial Creature, finally using the skill he has been saving up for the critical moment as his sword turned into a brilliant golden light.
The panic on the Trial Creature's face was evident, but it had nothing left to dodge Feng's Worldly Purification, which was much stronger than any other attack he had pulled off during this fight, save from the ones he used the items for.
Thundering Flash was the only thing the Tier 5 replica could do in the face of the purifying golden light while trying to back up from the attack.
Another resounding explosion echoed in the trial space, the mesmerizing light that had erupted like a sun fading.
By some miracle, the Trial Creature was still alive, left with less than 1% of its HP as it was sent flying away from the blast. The damage it had taken was astronomical, the purification power having coursed through its entire body and eradicated the Power of Darkness inside it, greatly damaging it in the process with its arms getting particularly fucked up as they had received the front blow, with the Trial Creature no longer able to even hold its swords.
Before its back could touch the ground, Feng teleported directly behind it using Spatial Shift. However, as if having expected that, Guardian's Bulwark appeared before him, blocking Feng's Double Chop.
Its momentum not having decreased from getting blasted away by Feng's Worldly Purification, the Trial Creature continued flying through the air, the blue barrier moving along with it, and Feng riding on top of it.
His two weapons lighting up like miniature suns, Feng shattered Guardian's Bulwark using Flame Burst, leaving the duplicate wide open.
Knowing it was about to get stabbed but not willing to give up, the Trial Creature turned in midair and prepared to either block or dodge the incoming attacks. Unexpectedly, though, there was no slash or stab coming at it, Feng having let go of his weapons, spreading his arms as if wanting to lovingly embrace the Tier 5 him.
The Trial Creature, still zooming through the air, smashed into Feng, who immediately wrapped his arms and legs around it into a tight bearhug. His actions were something that the Trial Creature might have interpreted as a peace offering, was it not for suddenly sensing the Mana inside Feng's Legendary Chestplate go berserk.
Apparently, to fully ensure no more mishaps or surprises as he attempted to kill the Trial Creature, Feng decided to act like a kamikaze bomber and wrap himself around the replica before activating Sanguine Annihilation.
Naturally, the Trial Creature struggled, attempting to break free while elbowing Feng on the head.
Using its superior strength, the Tier 5 replica managed to break free and pry Feng off itself for a moment, before spreading its wings to try flying away from the blast radius. But that's when it caught up to the Trial Creature.
Even though they both technically have equal combat standards and the same abilities, Feng was naturally the better and more experienced fighter. Additionally, his timing was impeccable.
Weakness spread throughout the Trial Creature's body, its attributes dropping, and the accumulated damage it had taken causing the duplicate's movements to slow to a crawl.
Blade Liberation had a short duration even after being ehnaced by the Savitarian Carnation Bloodline, resulting in it running out just as the Trial Creature was preparing for liftoff.
However, Feng had activated his Legacy Berserk Skill nearly two entire seconds after the duplicate, so he hasn't fallen into a Heavily Weakened state yet, catching up to the Trial Creature in an instant and jumping on the Swors Saint.
Sanguine Annihilation fully activated a moment later, the Blood Emperor's Armor turning into a cloud of blood mist that destroyed everything around Feng.
There was no escaping or surviving this one for the Tier 5 Trial Creature, getting disintigrated by the sacrificial skill.
A moment later, Feng's Blade Liberation ended as well, causing him to temporarily lose 80% of his attributes. Moreover, as he had used Threefold Berserk, the duration was much longer, being several hours even with Feng's improved Physique, Life Rating, and the debuff's duration getting decreased by his Peak Bloodline.
Completely and utterly exhausted, Feng fell to the ground, having no energy left to continue fighting. His Stamina and Concentration were all but used up, and he'd need some time to recover even with Life Crystals and his other Consumables; which he was now running low on.
While Feng was resting, however, a system notification sounded in his ears.
System: First Phase completed. The Second Phase of the God Mode World Summit Trial shall now commence.
"FUCK!"
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1. Apparently Sword's Ripple was modified after Sword's Transmigration, which is a Defensive Combat Technique, but the wiki says that it's an offensive technique and SF had used it to attack the Scholar when it was introduced, so I'm not sure if it's meant for offense, defense, or both. Either way, since LOC never felt like elaborating on it or ever using Sword's Ripple again, I've taken the liberty to interpret it as I wish.