Chapter Eighty-Six: A Simple Attack Method Proves Effective (Second Update)

After witnessing Old Hu’s solo method for fighting the boss, Huang Hong carefully memorized the technique and continued to adapt his own attack style in his mind. Drawing on the talents he’d created in his own talent tree, he devised new strategies.

Though he still relied on basic dodging and his ability to block attacks to probe the attack patterns of the “Frenzied Demon,” just as Old Hu had previously inferred, Huang Hong’s talent tree indeed included skills that boosted his defense. The extent of these enhancements varied depending on whether he was in an attacking or non-attacking state.

For about ten minutes, Huang Hong engaged in a tense standoff with the “Frenzied Demon.” A cold gleam flickered in his eyes, as if he had thoroughly deciphered the demon’s attack style. Suddenly, he stamped his right foot onto the demon’s arm, using the force to leap back and create space.

But just as Huang Hong retreated, the demon’s massive hands swept in from both sides, slashing horizontally.

“Not good!”

“Huang Hong, watch out!”

Huang Hong, however, gripped his round shield tightly and met the attack head-on. Whether it was the demon’s intention or simply its programmed behavior, Huang Hong used his shield to block the incoming crescent blade from the left, then pivoted and blocked the blade sweeping in from the right.

Clang—

Clang—

Two crisp sounds rang out, and the “Frenzied Demon” was sent flying by Huang Hong’s perfect defense. The demon’s hulking form staggered back several steps, its arms flailing wildly before it managed to steady itself. Suddenly, it froze, unmoving.

Seeing the demon’s state, Old Hu gaped at Huang Hong. “That’s a stun state.”

“Stun state?”

Ye Yu, grasping the concept, explained, “A stun state in action games means a period during which, after a certain action, no commands can be input. It’s a duration where skills cause command inputs to become invalid, and sometimes it refers specifically to the physical state of the character’s body.”

Next, everyone clearly saw Huang Hong seize the opportunity. He thrust his spear into the demon’s chest, then swiftly retreated to widen the gap between them.

At this point, the “Frenzied Demon” had lost a staggering eight percent of its health. Clearly, during the stun, Huang Hong had struck the demon’s weak point, causing the attack to inflict a substantial loss of health.

Recovering from the stun, the demon again raised its twin crescent blades for a horizontal sweep. Huang Hong met it with his shield once more. Evidently, he had fully grasped the demon’s attack pattern. Another sharp clang rang out, and for the second time, the demon entered a stun state due to Huang Hong’s flawless defense.

What followed was a simple cycle: Huang Hong’s perfect defense blocked the demon’s attack, causing it to be repelled and stunned; he then landed a spear blow to its weak point, retreated to create distance, and repeated these actions over and over.

“Why can Huang Hong perfectly block every attack from the Frenzied Demon? That doesn’t make sense—when did he become so strong? And he hasn’t even activated ‘Overclock Mode’! If Old Hu doesn’t activate it, I get it, but Huang Hong hasn’t either! Each cycle takes eight or nine seconds, right? The cooldown for ‘Overclock Mode’ is at least ten seconds, isn’t it?”

At this point, Qu Zheng voiced his doubts. Everyone except Ye Yu and Old Hu nodded in agreement; they too found it hard to believe.

Old Hu glanced at Ye Yu and asked, “Did you see it?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Then you explain it to your brothers.”

Old Hu handed Ye Yu the right to answer. Ye Yu rolled his eyes at him, but Old Hu clearly wanted to see if Ye Yu, skilled at calculations, had actually figured it out.

“Huang Hong always positions himself nearly seven or even eight meters from the Frenzied Demon. At that distance, the demon is highly likely to execute a horizontal sweep. Huang Hong uses this, along with confidence in his own defense, or perhaps because the demon’s attack is easiest for him to achieve a perfect defense—without needing ‘Overclock Mode’ at all.”

Everyone immediately understood, and Old Hu’s face showed approval, evidently impressed that Ye Yu had caught onto this.

“Huang Hong’s style has clearly been refined according to his profession. He’s in spear-shield mode, not single-spear mode. So his approach is tailored to his own class and skills—he’s made subtle adjustments to fit his strengths. This is what we call a customized attack technique, one of the features of ‘Divine Ruin’—combat styles are all shaped by the player’s personal flair.”

With Huang Hong’s method of achieving perfect defense, the demon’s health steadily dwindled. It appeared that his talent tree included skills that boosted his attack strength when attaining perfect defense, stacking with his existing defense value to further increase damage.

Thus, even his most basic attacks inflicted impressive harm on the demon. After nearly twenty cycles of this pattern, the Frenzied Demon’s health finally dropped to zero, and it collapsed backward in defeat.

“All right, time to check what equipment everyone can use,” Ye Yu said with a smile, proceeding to examine the loot available to him.

“It’s great to get so many rewards without much effort,” Old Hu chuckled, muttering as he smiled. Noticing odd looks from everyone except Ye Yu and Huang Hong, he hastily explained, “I was just saying, don’t mind me—I meant nothing else.”

By now, Ye Yu had a clear measure of Old Hu’s strength, and Huang Hong’s improvement was evident to all.

Ye Yu realized that Old Hu hadn’t used any ultimate skills the whole time, yet his fundamental abilities alone proved he was no less than average—maybe even in the upper tiers of the player pyramid, much like his own sister, Ye Lingxue.

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