Defying Natural Order With DeoxyriboNucleic Acid

There's still a short while before his Lightning Aura runs out.

There aren't too many benefits to waiting it out, though, as he will just use it again when he needs it.

So I just focus on ways to attack him.

He can't brush off my Sticky Bomb, as it is in the name: they are sticky, but that doesn't mean I can throw them.

So long as I throw them, they count as projectiles, and Lightning Aura would destroy them without letting them explode.

And it seems like I can't take my look off my opponent for a moment, as he just canceled plant feet and started casting Revenge.

╔═════════════════════════════════╗

║ Revenge

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Revenge might be best served cold,

║ Deal damages equivalent to 80% of

║ the health you lost in the past 40

║ seconds to a designated target

║━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Evolutions

║ None

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Cost: 50

║ Active

║ Cannot be canceled

║ Interruption Super-sensitive

╚═════════════════════════════════╝

It is one thing I can't allow him to use, so I take advantage of its Interruption Super-sensitive properties and use Attention-Grabbing.

While it simply affects his perception, it is distracting enough to count toward canceling an Interruption Super-sensitive skill.

If I have no ideas, I'll just use the basic cheat:

-Flaws!

I didn't have many uses for it lately, as I preferred to do things myself and increase my Opportunism stat, but I guess this is fine too.

╔═════════════════════════════════╗

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ We all love to steal from LoPH

║ Depending on your and your target's level,

║ gain 90 to 100% comprehension about the

║ target.

║ Opens ergonomics windows around the flaws

║ and details about the spotted target when

║ saying "Flaws"

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ None

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Cost: from nothing to dying, passing by headache

║ and fainting

║ Passive

╚═════════════════════════════════╝

Can someone explain to me what I'm seeing right now?

My opponent doesn't have any major flaw I can exploit.

Even his over-reliance on his shield can't be considered a flaw if I can't exploit it.

Was I a ranged fighter, I would try to get him to run out of skill points by having him overusing Lightning Aura, but even that can't be done for me.

Or can I?

His only way to generate Skill Points is to take damages. And even then, he only has a 5% chance of generating some.

Assuming I force him to use Lightning Aura all the time, he'll eventually be forced to take damages.

What matters is how long I can kite him.

Let's go!

I take more Sticky bombs out of my inventory.

Right now, my opponent is not moving, and we're kind of in a staring contest.

He is probably waiting for me to act so he has an opening to exploit.

Not that I will let him one.

Why several?

Well, one could have been enough, if I was against a motionless opponent.

My opponent moves.

A lot.

Apparently, he decided that going forward was the best way to avoid the bombs I threw in a line.

Truthfully, either moving forward or backward would have been an option, but as a close-range fighter, he needs to get closer to beat the shit out of me.

Fuck you, you won't.

I throw a dozen Sticky Bombs on the ground between us.

He uses Raise Shield and goes right through.

That fuċker...

╔═════════════════════════════════╗

║ Raise Shield

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Raise your shield, negating regular

║ damages and reducing all other kinds

║ of damage taken, whether on the

║ shield or not, by 50%

║━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Evolutions

║ Plant Feet

║ Shield Bash

║ Porcupine

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Cost: Free

║ Active

║ Duration: 4 Seconds

║ Cannot be canceled

╚═════════════════════════════════╝

Of the Sticky Bombs between us, he went through 4, that exploded on his feet, dealing a reduced 78 damages, which would have taken a little bit under half of his remaining health didn't Solid Bones decide that it was the 1 out of 10 times the damages would be negated.

I still take the opportunity of his shield being raised to throw as many Sticky Bombs as I can on his legs, which are left free.

I have the time to throw as many as 5 before he gets in range and instantly uses Shield Bash.

I can't take Shield Bash, so I use Palm Push on the ground, pushing myself out of the way.

Right after, I use Slip on him.

I'm lucky, so I pushed myself toward one of the closest trees, which I can grab to stop myself. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to randomly push yourself toward a nearby tree when you need to, even in a forest.

Sadly, I take 5 damages of my own doing, but I guess it's fine.

If it can count as a form of consolation, my Amulet of Endurance is working fine, and acting as a substitute for half the skill points I use.

Speaking of Amulet, as my luck is shit and Winterlord is taking 51 damages after reduction out of the 5 Sticky Bombs, I use my Amulet of Change to switch my skills.

╔════════════════════╗

║ Amulet of Change

║ Rarity: Epic

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ On activation, allows

║ one to switch two skills

║ for two equivalent skills

║ from a common skill tree.

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Current loadout:

║ Palm Push => Sword Draw

║ Bite => Hammer Hit

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Interference limit: 4

╚════════════════════╝

I also equip Mjolnir, and throw Sticky Bombs toward my opponent, who then decided that using his Lightning Aura would have preserved him from the damages I dealt to him just now, and activated it.

I know that projectiles won't cut it, but I doubt Summon Lightning counts towards it.

╔════════════════════╗

║ Summon Lightning

║ (Mjolnir)

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Mjolnir summons

║ lightning, striking

║ down on the target

║ for 10% of its maximum

║ health, with minimum

║ damages amounting to

║ 10% of the user's

║ intelligence

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Cost: 50 mana

║ Cooldown: 30 minutes

╚════════════════════╝

10% of WinterLord's health is 38, and his intelligence is pretty low, at 720, so it'll only be 72 damages.

This attack is still important though, as of the 388 HP he had at the start of the fight, now only 7 are left.

╔════════════════════╗

║ Heaven-Defying Paradise...

║ Name: ImperialShadow

║ Level: 21

║ HP: 85.584/412

║ MP: 373/423

║ Skill points: 194

╚════════════════════╝

╔════════════════════╗

║ Progress

║ Name: WinterLord

║ Level: 18

║ HP: 7/388

║ MP: 2.13/213

║ Skill points: 241

╚════════════════════╝

I know I could end that fight by using just about any attack, but it wouldn't be fun.

As a toxic gamer myself, now that I'm more or less sure I will win, I want to humiliate my opponent.

So seeing he's about to use Vengeance, who would I be to stop him?

He lost literally 381 HP in the past 40 seconds, which, with 80% of it counting towards damages, would mean Revenge would deal me 304.8 damages.

As his cast is close to the end, I cast Interception, the second skill attached to Mjolnir.

╔════════════════════╗

║ Interception

║ (Mjolnir)

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ When active, Mjolnir

║ moves by its own will,

║ blocking an attack.

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Cost: 1 mana/s

║ Cost per defense: up

║ to 500 or the user's

║ mana

║ Defenses per second: 2

║ Inactive

╚════════════════════╝

It blocks attacks. Not projectiles, not strikes, but attacks. It means that anything that deals damages can be defended.

Of course, it will use all my mana, but I have no use for it anyway.

Now that revenge hit, I don't need to see my opponent's face to know that his previously focused and determined expression wavered by more than just a bit.

And I use Palm Push once more, this time pushing myself from the tree straight to him.

This is a predictable trajectory, and while I may be stupid, I am far from not noticing it.

This is why I am ready when my opponent uses Shield Bash and times to right for my arrival.

I use Sword Draw as soon as he used Shield Bash, and use its effect on my trajectory to avoid the Shield Bash, and set my landing to be behind him.

As soon as I showed signs of using Sword Draw, he canceled the Shield Bash.

But it's too late.

He doesn't have the time to turn around to use another Shield Bash. He uses Raise Shield and Plant Feet in a last-ditch effort, but it won't cancel enough damages out of my next attack.

I use Hammer Hit, and hit him right in the back.

This time, luck isn't on his side, and Solid Bones does not cancel the damages of the hit.

I was ready to throw several Sticky Bombs after, and even send another Hammer Hit, but it seems like it was enough.

Anyway, as the Victory screen is shown, looking at my status at the end of the game, it was dangerously close.

╔════════════════════╗

║ Heaven-Defying Paradise...

║ Name: ImperialShadow

║ Level: 21

║ HP: 85.584/412

║ MP: 0/423

║ Skill points: 172.5

╚════════════════════╝

Way too close when my opponent was a whole two levels lower than me.

As much as I'd like to say the opposite, with the unbelievable gap this game puts between levels, there's no doubt that he would win had we the same level.

One just needs to look at the sum of both of our stats to know that.

All of his stats can be summed to 14,971, which is a high number, yes, but still low compared to my 30,751. Of course, if I exclude my high opportunism, which is a very rare exclusive stat, I am still as high as 18,398.

In the most favorable consideration, the gap between his stats and mine is a whopping 3,427. If placed in his status, this gap would be his third-highest stat, right between Strength and Dexterity!

Of course, from a percentage perspective, the gap is way less wide at a higher level, but the fact still remains this gap can't be bridged by luck alone.

My guess is that his build counts a lot toward this result too. It is way more effective a build than mine.

I'm sure that the top guilds behind mine are recruiting top players right now. If players of this caliber start to get more common, I might need to think about improving my build by a good margin.

Now that my financial future is linked to my future in the game, maybe I should think about recruiting, too?

No, no way I'll allow anyone to see the complete name.