Chapter 206 – The Broken Stalemate

Silently drenched in blood, Vick swept his gaze over the poised Boss Lady, Iron Tower, and Golem Two. With a fierce tear, he ripped off his shattered and disintegrated armor, “War Song,” revealing his robust physique clad in a leather shirt.

Despite countless wounds large and small covering his body, Vick’s aura hadn’t diminished in the slightest; instead, he emanated an even more perilous presence. Previously, Vick’s target had always been Princess Trelinka—from start to finish, he had never intended to engage with Punk and the others.

But now, after a painful lesson, the Kingdom’s top Sword Saint had realized he lacked the ability to “dive past defenses for a kill.” Finally, he directed his killing intent toward the three Formal-Level powerhouses present.

Faced with a battered yet fiercely murderous Vick, not one of the three—including Punk—seized the opportunity to attack. Instead, they unanimously chose to defend and observe.

In truth, everyone knew that launching a swift assault the moment Vick landed was the correct response. Cautiously watching until this Sword Saint caught his breath was purely wasting the chance Punk’s spell had created.

Yet no one present was willing to make the first move. Iron Tower, the warrior who should have borne the tank’s duty, was even cautiously retreating step by step.

Everyone understood that Vick would inevitably—and could only—opt for a “divide and conquer” tactic. The first to attack would surely face the Sword Saint’s torrential rain-like onslaught.

Vick Swordsaint’s offensive power was too terrifying. The solidified Formal-Level spell of the “Wind-Bathing Punisher” hung over them like the Sword of Damocles. If this were a good-aligned team, someone might have chosen to reveal their trump card, risking severe injury to force out the enemy’s ultimate strike.

But all three present were neutral or evil-aligned, prioritizing self-interest. Not only was no one willing to make such a sacrifice, but even if someone did, once severely wounded, the other three “teammates” would likely ruthlessly “dismiss” the injured party after the battle. After all, one less person meant one more share of loot, plus the chance to plunder the wounded’s possessions—why wouldn’t they?

Thus, even the chaotic evil Iron Tower wasn’t foolish enough to act self-sacrificingly. As for Punk and Boss Lady, they were poised to stab a teammate in the back at any moment while keeping a sidelong watch on Bloodclaw’s movements.

In the end, by the time Vick Swordsaint had caught his breath, the three were still wide-eyed, gesturing at each other:

“You go first, I’ll follow.”

“Dream on, why don’t you go?”

“You’re good at defense—you hold him off.”

“Do I look stupid to you? I’m not going, so what?”

Watching as Vick was about to circulate his Battle Aura to heal his wounds, Punk was left utterly speechless inside. A battle that should have ended in a few rounds had dragged into this mess: two level-thirteen and one level-twelve professionals completely suppressed by a single level-fourteen professional. Everyone was conserving strength, everyone was scheming against their “teammates,” and no one was willing to use their killing moves. If this continued, Vick might just pull off a one-versus-three upset.”What a bunch of useless teammates. Looks like I’ll have to play dirty if I want these guys to pull their weight.”

Punk shot a gloomy glance at Iron Tower, then another at Boss Lady. He decided to employ some “cunning” to help one of these two make a “sacrifice.”

“Better target Boss Lady after all. That Iron Tower’s defense is too strong. If Vick fails to kill him and he goes berserk, it’d be way too troublesome.”

Punk calmly contemplated this in his mind.

“Are you all just going to stare each other to death? If you three don’t make a move soon, this bastard’s going to come after me again. I’m not sticking around for that this time – I’ll really turn and run this time.”

Seeing Vick Swordsaint’s gaze drifting vaguely in his direction, Bloodclaw’s face turned pale. He was gripping the princess so tightly that she cried out in pain, but he didn’t even notice.

“Coward! If you dare run, I’ll dig out your heart, chop it up, and feed it to the dogs!”

Iron Tower glared furiously at Bloodclaw. Boss Lady beside him seemed about to say something to Bloodclaw too, but Bloodclaw’s loud complaints acted like a fuse, instantly igniting the tense atmosphere on the battlefield.

“Gale Thrust!”

Vick Swordsaint suddenly shouted, as Wind-Type Battle Aura mixed with scorching heat erupted from beneath his feet.

But the move he executed wasn’t Gale Thrust at all – it was the most orthodox warrior Combat Skill: Leap Slash.

When Iron Tower heard Vick Swordsaint suddenly shout the Combat Skill name – “Gale Thrust” – he was the first to lose his composure. Before attacking Vick, the group had thoroughly studied the intelligence provided by “Silver Staff,” knowing that “Gale Thrust” was an extremely powerful armor-piercing move. And without question, the person with the strongest defense present was “Iron Tower” encased in his layers of onion armor. When Vick Swordsaint suddenly yelled “Gale Thrust,” Iron Tower instinctively assumed Vick had targeted him.

As the type of warrior whose “true instincts are faster than thought,” he almost instinctively rolled sideways. And because he didn’t bother checking his teammates’ positions while dodging, Iron Tower’s massive onion-like iron ball just happened to block Golem Two’s path to Punk’s side.

“Idiot! Couldn’t you look first? If he yelled ‘Apocalypse Descends,’ would you think he was casting a forbidden spell too?”

Seeing Iron Tower being so “cooperative,” so “obedient,” even someone as composed as Punk couldn’t help but curse. Though he knew warriors often trained common moves into muscle memory to facilitate combat reactions, in Punk’s view this was truly idiotic behavior. The direct consequence was situations like Iron Tower’s – responding “instinctively” without thinking.

Such “instincts” might not matter in one-on-one combat, but in group battles for screwing over teammates, they were perfectly effective.

Punk had been screwed over once. Vick, leaping into the air, had clearly set his sights on the mage in the three-person team – that is, Punk himself.Perhaps because he felt Punk posed the greatest threat, or perhaps because Vic upheld the excellent philosophy of “kill the mage first in battle” and “the battle may be lost, but the mage must die,” Vic’s attacks became truly much sharper than when he was chasing Bloodclaw earlier. Leaping into mid-air, Vic didn’t even care about the Battle Aura defense on his body, channeling all his blazing fire-attribute Battle Aura into his twin flesh greatswords—the “Wind-Bathing Punishers.” The three Master-Level greatsword-solidified “Greater Daze” spells were unleashed upon Punk like freebies, one after another.

From the fiery pupils in Vic’s eyes, it was not hard to see that this attack was one he was determined to land!

(End of chapter)