The first second… the Amethyst War Tiger pounced right up before him.
The second second — that huge tiger claw carrying the power of thunder and lightning swiped down: the small-area group attack, Daybreak Tiger Strike, with a very high likelihood of killing Ye Tianxie outright. Had it unluckily triggered that 30% chance of a damage bonus, the odds of Ye Tianxie being one-shot would have risen straight to 100%.
-469!
Compared with the earlier close call of being left at only 2 HP when the tiger struck him, under this blow Ye Tianxie’s full health value plunged straight to 1 point… just that faintest, thinnest thread away from true death.
The third second… the Amethyst War Tiger’s claw rose once more and swiped down — and in the very instant before it touched Ye Tianxie, his eyes suddenly cleared. Utterly unable to dodge in his fallen state, he downed two special recovery potions at top speed…
+300, +300, -466.
Heaven and hell, life and death, separated by so very little. Two green recovery numbers and that bright-red damage number floated up from Ye Tianxie’s body at almost the same moment. Ye Tianxie hadn’t died after all — but had he been even 0.1 second later, he’d have become a true corpse.
Dragging his body, with only 4 HP left, Ye Tianxie rolled down below the platform and, as before, lowered himself and pressed tight against the stone wall. Downing another Advanced Recovery Potion and a special potion to restore his health, his forehead was already covered in cold sweat, his heart pounding violently. Lingering on the edge of life and death — that truly was the most thrilling thing there could be.
The stun state that should have lasted at least three seconds, he’d recovered from clearheaded in just two, letting him escape at that hair’s-breadth moment. And this early recovery relied on that talent attribute nearly all players overlooked: Focus.
The stronger one’s Focus, the harder it was to be interrupted while chanting a spell, and it could even slightly shorten the chant time. This was players’ shared understanding of the Focus attribute. But what they didn’t know was that Focus’s function was by no means limited to this one aspect — it was also reflected in the ability to resist a portion of abnormal states, such as stun, sleep, confusion, and fear. The higher a person’s Focus, the harder it was for their mind to be disturbed by external factors. It was only that, among ordinary people, there was no obvious difference in Focus, which was why this wasn’t something ordinary players could appreciate. In addition, the higher one’s Focus, the correspondingly higher the success rate when performing a whole series of life skills — gathering, forging, crafting, mining, and so on.
-5, -5, -5…
The damage numbers above the Amethyst War Tiger’s head were still floating up ceaselessly. Those uninterrupted numbers gave Ye Tianxie a secret start of surprise, because nearly three minutes had passed since he’d scattered the Dark Man-Eating Flower’s pollen, and the toxicity still hadn’t dispersed. Five HP lost per second — so one minute was 300 HP, and three minutes was 900 HP…
On first seeing the Amethyst War Tiger, what he’d felt was a deep sense of powerlessness; but now, those tiny, tenacious numbers let him see an ever more dazzling gleam of hope, and set the blood boiling throughout his whole body.
In that case… then there was no reason to lose!
A sensation of being suddenly bound by something came over his body. Ye Tianxie snapped his head up and saw a dim purple light coiling around the Amethyst War Tiger’s body. His brow sank, and his body abruptly shot out in the direction away from the tiger… three meters, four meters, five meters… ten meters!
Crack!
A savage bolt of purple lightning came crashing down from the sky, striking the ground behind him all but grazing his body. The Amethyst War Tiger’s Heaven’s Thunder Break — a locked-on attack with a 10-meter range; once locked on, unless you broke free of its maximum attack range, there was no possibility of dodging at all. Because however fast Ye Tianxie’s reaction and movement speed, he could never be faster than lightning — no one could be faster than lightning. The 2.5-second chant time became another critical threshold determining Ye Tianxie’s life and death. That lightning’s strength he didn’t dare test, and couldn’t test, because it very likely had the ability to one-shot him.
Ten seconds… twenty seconds…
The damage numbers above the Amethyst War Tiger’s head finally stopped, and the moving second hand in Ye Tianxie’s mind stopped along with them… 200 seconds! The Dark Man-Eating Flower pollen’s virulent effect had actually lasted a full 200 seconds. And this meant that each portion of Dark pollen could carry off 1,000 HP from the Amethyst War Tiger!
Twelve portions of Dark pollen, if applied to the Amethyst War Tiger one after another, would come to a full 12,000 damage.
What a wonderful number that was.
The 20-second cooldown reached, the furious Amethyst War Tiger suddenly halted its body and threw its head back to howl at the sky once more — and this time, far from feeling fear or retreating, Ye Tianxie’s face was calm, and for the first time he charged straight at the tiger’s body.
Roar!!
The War Tiger’s Roar, shaking heaven and earth, thundering to the core. Ye Tianxie’s body stalled for a moment, but this time he wasn’t knocked down with his consciousness scattered, nor was he stunned; in the very short window of the tiger’s body-rigidity, he rushed up before it, scattered a spray of black pollen over its head, then turned and ran. At once, that layer of black mist that had just dispersed surfaced on its body once more.
Not being stunned under the War Tiger’s Roar wasn’t luck on his part, but rather… with his Focus far beyond an ordinary person’s, he was confident a daunting attack of that degree wasn’t enough to scatter his consciousness. The earlier instance had been entirely because he’d been utterly unguarded. With his guard up, he had every right not to pay it any mind.
-5, -5, -5, -5…
The continuous numbers, once per second, drifted above the Amethyst War Tiger’s head, like Death’s footsteps closing in at an exceedingly slow pace.
Facing this single Amethyst War Tiger, even just dodging without attacking was far harder than facing twelve Frenzied Fierce Oxen. Ye Tianxie, his thoughts now fully in order, used the platform as his center to hold the tiger’s movements in check, whittling down its HP bit by bit with the Dark Man-Eating Flower’s pollen. Each portion of pollen lasted 200 seconds, and after each stretch of time ran out, the Amethyst War Tiger would be poisoned again in the shortest possible time.
Bang! Bang! -150, -150.
Shhk… -467!
An enemy on an entirely different plane of strength — a tangle like this was truly one fraught with peril at every turn for Ye Tianxie. Facing the Amethyst War Tiger, he could only push his reaction and calculation abilities to their limits, dodging and fleeing with all his might… while the sole hope of victory rested on the items he carried. Were they to clash by true strength, ten of him couldn’t possibly have won.
The Dark Man-Eating Flower’s pollen dwindled gradually, scattered by Ye Tianxie one portion at a time over the giant purple tiger’s body. And dwindling along with it were the various recovery potions on him. Half an hour later, only the last portion of Dark Man-Eating Flower’s pollen remained, and Ye Tianxie had only his last five special recovery potions left.
(End of Chapter 44)