Chapter 389: Winning Blow
Translator: Lonelytree Editor: Millman97
Three minutes ago, on one side of the tunnel…
Xiao Tan stood in the middle of the tracks with his eyes burning like lasers. He was not doing anything, but the system did not deem him to be AFK-ing. Wang Tanzhi and Long Aomin could be considered the first batch of players for Thriller Paradise. They both knew from experience that since the system created this endless tunnel, eventually a train was going to come. At that moment, Xiao Tan put his bet on this train. For his assassination to succeed, he needed to borrow the force from this giant moving object that was traveling at 200 km per hour.
The train needed to be coming from his side and running toward Long Aomin. If it were the other way, the plan would fail. And Xiao Tan was indeed lucky. The same could not be said if Brother Jue was in the same situation…
In any case, with the sound of rattling tracks, the train arrived, and the direction was perfect. Xiao Tan faced the approaching locomotive and shouted to give himself some courage. The train was moving very fast. It was 20 meters away in the blink of an eye. Xiao Tan calculated everything. He raised his right arm, faced his palm outward, and used Binding Jaw.
Instantly, the shadow of a beast jumped out from Xiao Tan’s palm, roaring as it leaped through the air. The shadow enlarged in a second, a giant jaw glinting with sharp teeth clamped on the train like it was trying to swallow it. Even though the beast was just a shadow, when the jaw sunk into the locomotive, the train slowed down slightly. At that moment, the train seemed to collide into a thick layer of glue and slowed to a crawl. In the next four to five seconds, it experienced another bout of the process of decelerating and accelerating.
Xiao Tan, as the effect of Binding Jaw activated, he already turned around and used Traces of Gale to run on the wall. During the few seconds when the train slowed down, he used his highest speed, ran on the wall in the same direction as the train was heading. He maintained a 3 meters lead on the locomotive…
Then, before the train picked up speed again, he jumped onto the front of the train. This move lost him 39 percent of his Life Points, but from the result, it was worth it…
This kind of old-fashioned train had a triangular and protruding front. The cylindrical front also provided him with much grip to hang himself off from. Therefore, after using a skill and half of his Life Points, he successfully leaped onto the front of the train.
“Phew… that scared me…” After finishing what he had done, Xiao Tan was still shivering from fear. Even though he had envisioned every step, when he put it into actual action, his Terror Points were still rising. Especially that moment when he leaped from the wall to the train, his heart practically stopped. “It is ultimately a train… the binding effect of Binding Jaw has greatly decreased…” Xiao Tan concluded.
Actually, before he did this, he had considered the various possibilities that might happen after he used his skill. For example, Binding Jaw might not work at all, then he would have quickly run toward the side of the wall and not run on the wall, or the train was stuck to the spot. That would be the best because he could take his time to get on the train, or something extreme might happen… The train might derail or flip over after being attached. If it continued to slide from inertia, then even staying by the wall wouldn’t be safe. The only thing he could do was to run away from the train as fast as he could.
Thankfully, the actual result was the skill caused a slowing effect. Even though it was still hard getting on the train, he did it in the end.
…
In this conference room, Laughing Soul’s heart squeezed. After seeing Xiao Tan land safely, she sighed in relief. “That was such a dangerous move… I thought he was going to kill himself.”
“I think I know what he is planning…” Passing Rain said.
“It is indeed a very risky tactic.” Feng Bujue concurred, “But in a way, it is incredibly brilliant.”
“I know what he’s planning. He wants to use the train’s speed to buff the power of Shadow Soul Impel, right?” Laughing Soul grumbled, “But there are extenuating factors to this plan. What if the train comes from the other side? What if the train moves faster than he predicted? What if the front of the train is so flat that he unable to grip onto it? What if he failed to activate Binding Jaw? What can he do then?”
“There’s nothing he can do,” Feng Bujue said flatly. “This is a gamble of a plan. He placed the result of this match on this gamble,” he said admiringly. “If any of the steps failed, he would fail and there was quite a plausible chance for each of the steps to fail. To succeed, one has to have extremely fast reflexes and… luck.” Speaking of luck, Brother Jue couldn’t help but be reminded of that untold story of Magical Disintegrator Prototype Zero. He paused melancholically before continuing, “But it is undeniable that these two factors are part of one’s ability. To be able to come up with this strategy and to dare to take this risk… then he is good enough to win this battle.”
…
Going back to the tunnel. Long Aomin looked at Xiao Tan who leaned on the front of the train, brandishing the San Leng Thorns, and despair filled his heart…
If I stick against the wall… he only needs to reach out and use the train’s impact to slash at me.
In these few short seconds, many thoughts flashed in Brother Long’s mind.
If I jump upward… the weight of my armor and a lack of jumping height aside, even if I can somehow reach the ceiling and curl up my body… he only needs to raise the thorn and slash me from below…
His gaze moved to the tracks.
If I lie down in the middle of the tracks… and have the train move over me… then he only needs to lower his weapon under the train and using the speed of the train… Ah!
Long Aomin realized none of the scenarios were optimistic. At that moment, Mr. Kizaru’s famous words appeared in his mind—speed is power.
Xiao Tan on the train naturally spotted Brother Long. Perhaps it was already his habit… When a living creature appeared in his sight, his instinct was to silently draw a cross on the surface of the train and use Cross Curse. A bad feeling overwhelmed Brother Long. He did not care for it. If he opened the game menu now, he should be able to see that he was cursed…
Finally, the time of impact arrived…
Long Aomin’s decision was to activate his title skill, Savage Shield. This title skill had the same name as the title, and it was a transformation skill, but its effect and side effects was not as terrifying as Descent of the War Demon.
Under the effect of Savage Shield, Long Aomin could decrease all damage by 30 percent and double his maximum Life Points. This skill could only be used once in each scenario. It used 700 Stamina Points and cost 20 percent of his maximum Stamina Points and would last for 3 minutes. In other words, after using this skill, before the scenario ended, Brother Long’s maximum Stamina Points would change from 3700 to 2960 and it would only recover after he returned to the login lobby. Of course, he wouldn’t care about that now. To prevent himself from being killed with one hit, he naturally used all the skills available to him. Other than the title skill, he used another main defensive skill, Ice Shell, and the round shield that he carried took on a layer of frost.
He leaned against the wall, blocked the shield before him and braced for impact…
Back at Xiao Tan… He too used everything. He had used the curse and activated Shadow Soul Impel. The skill would become stronger with increasing speed. With the buff from the moving train and combined with the 10 percent extra damage, what would happen during the collision, probably only the system could tell…
One could say that both parties had done everything they could.
The match… would be decided in that single moment of contact.