Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 145 Will it be even more powerful after charging?
As she continued along the corridor, she occasionally saw closed doors on the walls on both sides, leading to unknown rooms. Olvera was curious. She knew that this castle was built specifically to imprison her, and no other uses were considered when it was designed. Therefore, there was only a room on the top floor for her to rest, and the rest of the room was blocked by unreachable stone walls. In this case, where did these doors suddenly appear from?

She tried to push open the doors, but they remained motionless, like silent giants, firmly refusing the visit of outsiders, even if the other party was nominally the owner of the castle, Her Royal Highness the Princess of Bemang.

"Don't try." Alice said to her, "They are just some stickers. You can't get in."

"Post-it?"

"Yes, you can understand that these doors are painted on."

Avella's eyes widened when she heard this: "Why do you do this?"

"Because it's free material, we should use it. Besides, this is already the second game, so we have to make the scenes more refined, right? Even if it's just textures, it's better than no textures at all!"

"..."

Avella didn't quite understand what she said, so she didn't know how to comment. But seeing that she spoke so confidently, she chose to believe her.

The corridors were extremely dark where the lanterns could not reach, and many shadow beasts lurked in them, blocking the way forward. Every time Ovira walked a distance, she would have to fight with them. In the process, she gradually became familiar with the operation skills of the holy sword - Broken Steel Oath.

Among the shadow beasts encountered, there are some assault-type shadow beasts like the one just encountered at the door. They usually act alone, roaming in the middle of the road, and like to pounce on people the moment they see them, suppressing the enemy with their body weight, but other than that, they are not a threat. Therefore, as long as you avoid the first wave of attacks, get closer, and complete a set of basic combos, you can clear their health bars.

Olvera encountered these assault-type shadow beasts several times. With Alice's reminder, she was able to avoid danger each time, and even exploded a few pieces of [Embers of Fire] from them. After becoming proficient, she could easily deal with these guys even without Alice's reminder.

However, in addition to the assault-type shadow beasts, you will encounter another type of shadow beast. They look like giant lizards covered in black armor. They like to crawl along walls or the base of walls. The tongue that comes out of their mouths is as sharp and swift as a whip, which creates a whistling sound. When it hits the ground, it will leave a sticky liquid. If you accidentally step on it, it will feel like stepping on swamp mud, moving slowly and unable to move.

What's even more disgusting is that these guys act in groups. Sometimes, if you see one, it means there are at least three or four of its companions hiding in the darkness nearby. Their tongues attack from all directions, making it difficult to avoid them. The mucus they leave behind will also block nearby roads, limiting the target to a narrow range and allowing them to slaughter them.

[Gathering Shadow Beast, HP 200/200, a Shadow Beast that hunts by teamwork, good at climbing walls and attacking from the target's blind spot. Their tongues are as tough as steel, and the mucus they leave behind will continue to corrode the surrounding environment, causing a 50% slowdown effect on enemies who step on them. Weakness damage type is cutting damage, weak attributes are wind and light, no shield coverage. ]

Olvera tried to deal with these disgusting big lizards in the same way as she dealt with the Assault Shadow Beasts, but before she could get close to them, the mucus they spewed out corroded the surrounding ground, leaving a muddy area where it was difficult to move. The girl had to endure a 50% deceleration and struggle to cross this blocked area before she could rush in front of them and swing the holy sword. During this process, the enemies crawling on the walls and the base of the walls would constantly swing their tongues to attack her. The ones that attacked from the front could be cut off directly with the holy sword, but those that attacked from the side could not be dealt with. Although she would not feel pain after being hit, the drop in the health bar above her head was visible to the naked eye.

When Olvera finally rushed to one of the big lizards and killed it with two swords, her HP had dropped from full value to 612/750. Looking up, the remaining big lizards were still crawling at the edge of the fire, staring at her with their cold scarlet eyes. They seemed to know their advantages very well, so they always kept a cautious distance from the girl, fighting and retreating, and disgusting her with slowing slime from time to time. This guerrilla tactic made Olvera feel very uncomfortable: "Woo."

At this time, it was Alice who taught her the true operation skills of the holy sword - Broken Steel Oath.

"Don't just use basic combos." She said to the girl who was obviously aggrieved, "The core mechanism of Broken Steel's Oath is not combos, but charging and positioning. Positioning is for dealing with elite monsters and bosses, and I'll tell you how to use it later; charging can turn your basic combos into medium-range area damage, which is just right for dealing with these wretched guys. Come on, try it."

Under her instructions, Olvera grasped the hilt of the holy sword with both hands, raised it horizontally over her shoulder, and pointed the tip of the bladeless sword at the large lizards that were still spitting out mucus, making a posture of gathering strength.

Charging is one of the two special mechanisms of the Holy Sword - Oath of Broken Steel. As the name suggests, it is a mechanism that accumulates more powerful power for the basic combo through a charging action of about 0.2 seconds, so that it can be transformed into another form. This form change will not only change the skill effects, but also the distance, attack range and damage type.

After using the charged attack, the light attacks 123 in the basic combo will respectively turn into a medium-range light blade sweep, a cross-X-shaped light blade slash, and three consecutive giant light sickles flying by.

"Drink!"

Olvera shouted softly, and after charging for 0.2 seconds, she released the first attack of the combo without any instruction. A pale blue blade of light suddenly broke away from the crystal sword and swept towards the end of the firelight at an astonishing speed, leaving cut marks on the hard and cold walls on both sides.

The swift blades of light did not give the enemy any time to react, and engulfed all the large lizards at the edge of the fire in the pale blue light. The next moment, Olvera took another step forward, gathering her strength to strike hard, and two more blades of light flew out, crossing together to form an X-shaped arc of light, fiercely colliding with the tide of darkness, faintly sweeping it away with countless ripples.

The girl seemed not to feel the weight of the last light blow of the charged combo. She gripped the hilt of the sword with both hands, and after briefly charging, she swung it three times in succession. The huge blue sickle spun rapidly and swept across the short distance, like a raging thunder in a storm, completely engulfing the enemy's figure. Between the sharp cuts, dark and dirty blood continued to gush out.

However, this is not the end, because the last heavy blow of the charged combo is still brewing in the girl's sword.

With both hands tightly gripping the hilt, he raised the pale blue holy sword Broken Steel Oath to his chest, facing the corridor where the blades of light were still raging and clashing, his expression was as calm as the surface of the water. The next moment, as if a magical button was pressed, a low humming sound came from the dragon-shaped and iris-branch hilt of the holy sword, and then, the crystal-colored sword edge, like a precision-constructed mechanical creation, made a clicking sound when gears were engaged, and slowly separated to both sides. The holy silver pattern in the center began to accumulate energy and gradually emitted a sacred light. When that light was extremely brilliant—

boom!
That was the moment of the explosion. A holy silver beam of light roared from the separated crystal sword blades and penetrated the corridor, swallowing up countless flames and darkness in an instant, and even swallowing up the last bit of light in the corner of the eye, so that people's vision was completely covered by this holy silver light.

The last trace of blood remaining on the heads of the several large lizards that were submerged in the holy silver light column was cleared away without any suspense.

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)