mtl008 Chapter 4294 Heroes Strike! (26)
Chapter 4294 Heroes Strike! (26)
Chapter 4294 Heroes Strike! (Twenty-Six)
He dissipated into gray mist, and the damage he took was actually limited. I tested the waters with a basic attack first and discovered that the Scarlet Witch's hit range was actually quite large—you didn't necessarily have to hit her humanoid form, but rather the densest layer of power around her to take damage. Sure enough, the game balanced things out in this way; overly powerful characters always have weaknesses.
At that moment, Jarvis said to Wanda in his mind, "Actually, our best opponent would be Batman, because then my skills would be useful. I could hack into his equipment, and our chances of winning would be higher. In the current situation, my skills are completely useless, so we can only rely on you."
“It’s alright, the doctor’s skills are useless anyway,” Wanda comforted him. “It’s like one against one now, we still have a chance to win. It’s a pity we haven’t had much contact with the gray fog before, otherwise we could have more information.”
As Wanda said, it's now a battle between Scarlet Witch and Gray Mist. Not only is Greed's ability unusable because it can't be cast, but Jarvis's electronic invasion abilities are also unusable, resulting in a new balance between the two sides.
If I had to say, Wanda has far more fighting experience than Gray Mist. However, precisely because she's experienced, she has a fixed mindset, always sticking to the same set of skills from the start.
After unleashing her area-of-effect attack, Wanda immediately charged forward, her fist, imbued with crimson power, slamming directly towards Gray Mist. Gray Mist was somewhat stunned, taking the punch and losing a significant amount of health before even thinking to dodge.
"Oh my god," Gray Mist seemed to have just woken up, frantically activating her skills. First, she unleashed a three-hit combo, but only the last hit landed on Wanda, barely dealing any damage. Then she remembered to activate her stealth ability, locking off Wanda's dash skill.
However, Wanda reacted very quickly. After realizing that she was losing health using this skill, she immediately understood that it must be the effect of Gray Mist's skill. So she simply gave up the dash and switched to ranged attacks.
"Her skill set is too comprehensive," Gray Mist said. "She has mobility skills, single-target skills, area-of-effect skills, and ranged attacks. How can we fight her?"
"You have a lot of health, stall for time and wait for your ultimate move," Greed said. Don't be fooled by the fact that this might seem like a last resort; it's actually a tactic.
Greed had mentally estimated that during their exploration, they had rummaged through a bunch of items that increased health. Gray Mist's health was probably the highest among all the contestants—higher than even the seemingly strong Superman, and possibly twice that of those squishy characters. Even if they were used as punching bags, it would take them a while to defeat him.
Greed had already discovered that in this game, nothing beats stacking health. Since skills have cooldowns, more health means you can withstand more damage, which means you can stall until your skills are off cooldown longer. And Gray Mist's ultimate skill deals very high damage, making a tanky ultimate build a viable option.
It looks pretty pathetic, getting beaten up and unable to fight back, so all he can do is hold back his ultimate move. But as long as he wins, who cares about the rest?
He had completely forgotten that the purpose of bringing Gray Mist over to participate in the competition was to train his tactical thinking, but in the end, it turned into a mere scraping of the skin.
Gray Mist maintained his good attitude as always, doing whatever Greed dictated. Even when Scarlet Witch chased after him, he didn't get angry, just focused on the cooldown of his ultimate ability.
As soon as his ultimate skill was off cooldown, he unleashed a "Nameless Mist." Wanda was struck as if by a heavy blow, falling from mid-air and crashing to the ground with a thud.
The blue bar deductions are secondary; the real problem is the unbearable mental pollution. My vision instantly turned into a static screen, and all sorts of eerie sounds filled my ears, instantly triggering the PTSD that Wanda had experienced during her "return to the past."
However, she wasn't the only one who was unlucky this time. For some reason, the walls of the dueling arena couldn't prevent mental pollution, and suddenly screams came from the audience.
"Ah ah ah ah ah!!!"
"What the hell?!"
"What the hell?!"
The audience collapsed like wheat being harvested. The Transcendent was shocked and quickly reinforced the walls, but the mental pollution effect that had already been caused would not disappear so easily. He then hurriedly tried to restore everyone's mental energy.
By the time the audience came to their senses, some were just dizzy and disoriented, while others were vomiting uncontrollably, clinging to their chairs—the snacks they had just enjoyed were all thrown up. A somber mood hung over the audience.
People have already started complaining, but mainly not about the gray fog; they're criticizing the organizers: "We could accept the black screen due to the skill not being compatible before, since it didn't hit us. So your lousy barrier can only block physical attacks? You might as well just blow up the arena and send us all back!"
The feeling of being mentally corrupted by an Outer God is unpleasant; even Batman, with his strong willpower, looked unwell. Although he could ignore the images and noise, Outer Gods of the Gray Fog's level forcibly deducted his sanity, physically affecting brain function and causing all abstract thinking to shut down. Willpower alone was useless.
More importantly, the brain is a complex system, and forcibly shutting down a part of it can cause an imbalance. Disruptions to brainwaves can also affect the cerebellum, causing a sensation similar to motion sickness, which can lead to symptoms such as dizziness and vomiting.
The audience now has only one thought: No wonder they've been fighting for so long and the arena hasn't been blown up yet. It turns out Schiller has changed his style. Instead of blowing up the organizers, he's blowing up us, right?
Ambulances arrived quickly, and several people with weaker constitutions were taken away immediately. Those who remained on the field were unwilling to lose their sunk costs; after all, they had already endured so much, wouldn't it be a waste not to see them go?
Scarlet Witch forced herself to her feet. She felt nauseous too, but held it in. Looking at her mana bar again only deepened her despair: how did it deduct so much all of a sudden?!
She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. She now understood the Gray Fog's tactical approach, but she had no good countermeasures. Even more frightening was that this method might be even more effective than Greed had anticipated.
In the fighting world, pain is reduced to about one-third of its original intensity, meaning that taking a punch normally won't hurt much. The same applies to mental states; if you suffer a brainwave attack, you'll at most experience a headache, which you'll recover from quickly.
So what we fear most are actually soft attacks, such as not hitting you with a fist, but bleeding you out—being cut doesn't hurt much, but the dizziness and weakness caused by blood loss are much worse, because that's not covered by the mitigation measures.
The same applies to mental attacks. The mental attack from the gray fog doesn't involve direct brainwave attacks, but rather disrupts your thinking, causing a series of uncomfortable reactions due to brain disorder, which is more unpleasant than a direct headache.
Wanda flew around for a while before finally calming down a bit. When people are feeling unwell, their sense of time is inaccurate. She thought only a second had passed, but when she came to her senses, the negative effects on her mind had piled up five times over.
That's right, Greed transformed back into human form, seizing the opportunity when Wanda was in distress to begin casting a spell. But when Wanda attacked him, he turned into gray mist and started running away.
This created a vicious cycle: Wanda, suffering from a mental disorder, had a significantly reduced hit rate, while Gray Mist barely took any damage, leaving her with only half a health bar after a long fight, and her ultimate skill was almost ready again.
When Wanda unleashed her ultimate attack again, she was both nauseous and dizzy, resulting in even more negative status effects and a further drop in her hit rate. Even without using her finishing move, Greedy couldn't hit Gray Mist anymore.
Wanda took a deep breath and looked at her status bar—her health was still relatively good, but her sanity was almost depleted. However, there was another bar on her panel that was now full.
At this moment, Greed tried to transform into human form and start casting. Wanda soared into the air, and the Crimson Power erupted instantly.
“I will be unaffected by any abnormal status!” she shouted.
In an instant, all the abnormal statuses above her head were cleared, and the skill that Greed had just finished casting could no longer apply any abnormal statuses.
"Holy crap!" Gray Mist exclaimed, "How could I forget she had that move?!"
At this moment, the ultimate skill finally came off cooldown, and Gray Mist quickly activated it. His mana bar was depleted, but Scarlet Witch was completely unaffected by the mental pollution and launched a flying punch. Gray Mist fled in a sorry state.
"What to do? What to do? What to do?"
“I’m out of ideas,” Greed said, spreading his hands. “Good luck to you.”
"Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah!!!"
Gray Mist was being relentlessly attacked. He did have a lot of health, but he couldn't withstand such attrition. Moreover, without his abnormal mental state, Wanda's punches were unerring, and in no time, he was reduced to a sliver of health.
Fortunately, Wanda's mana bar was almost depleted. Gray Mist, in a moment of inspiration, finally started to think. He figured another ultimate should solve the problem, but the issue was that his health might not last until his next ultimate was ready.
However, Gray Mist quickly realized that the "Factor Infiltration" skill he had used earlier had actually been active all along, and because Wanda had been chasing him and using a lot of movement skills, her health was probably not high either.
So, he might be able to attack with physical skills faster than waiting for his ultimate skill to be ready. And the opponent, thinking they've figured out his strategy, will only be on guard against his ultimate skill and focus more on the drop in his mental energy, ignoring his health.
Furthermore, Gray Mist only used one physical skill from beginning to end, and it didn't even fully hit the opponent, so the opponent had no idea how strong his physical skill was. If the opponent's health was low, a three-hit combo might have been enough to take them down.
With this in mind, Gray Mist began to observe Wanda's movements. Because the more hits the triple attack landed, the higher the damage; to kill her in one combo, all three attacks had to hit, and missing even one would mean certain death.
This is where the advantage of the gray fog comes in – it is spread out on the final field, allowing it to launch attacks from any angle and direction, making it almost impossible for the opponent to defend against.
Seizing an opening as Wanda charged, the fist formed from gray mist attacked from his side and above. Jarvis quickly shouted, "Watch out!!!"
But it was too late. Wanda had already been punched when she looked up. The blow terrified her. She quickly used her movement skill to retreat, only to find that she was losing health while moving. Her health, which she thought was still relatively healthy, was now down to a sliver.
This fact stunned her for a moment, and the second attack from the gray mist hit her as well. Wanda instinctively wanted to run, but Jarvis quickly stopped her—if she used another movement skill, she would bleed to death, but if she didn't run, she wouldn't be able to dodge the final blow.
Wanda gritted her teeth, stamped her foot, and decided to stop running, charging straight towards the gray mist. Gray and red clashed fiercely in the dueling arena. Finally, only a white light appeared.
After a long pause, the voice of the Overlord rang out: "Let us congratulate the winners of this match—Schiller and Gray Mist!!!"
(End of this chapter)