Chapter 1 The Interlude

The commentators' narration chimed in, introducing the battle.

"The two contestants in this match are Solomon's Key and Mad Blade Raging Sword. A demon mage versus a human mech-warrior. Solomon's Key is currently ranked seventh, while Mad Blade Raging Sword is ranked eighteenth. The pre-match win rate is assessed at 57% to 43%. Judging from the previous matches of the two players, Solomon's Key has a slight advantage."

"We can see that the venue is the Black Specter Third Shelter on Aquamarine Star. The Huaxia player is from Aquamarine Star, so Mad Blade should have the advantage of familiarity with the terrain. It is worth mentioning that Black Specter—that is, Black Star—was the first to lead Huaxia players into the interstellar arena. Now the Huaxia players are following Black Star, which is a kind of fate."

"They're starting to move, okay, let's look forward to a wonderful showdown..."

As soon as the battle began, Mad Blade didn't intend to fight head-on. A steel cable shot out from his armor's waist, hooking onto a house below the city wall. In the high-speed whir of the cable, he was pulled down, away from the city wall. In mid-air, he took out a large-caliber machine gun, and a series of orange-red bullets rained down on Solomon's Key.

Buzz—

Solomon's Key held a bone staff and activated the ready-made instant magic rune. A semi-transparent blue-green magic circle protected him, and the bullets hit the shield, creating a dense spray of sparks. The audience could see that his status bar had a shield durability meter, which was slowly decreasing.

At this time, Mad Blade had disappeared among the buildings, firing bullets from time to time, as well as high-trajectory small projectile grenades, which exploded on the city wall in puffs of black smoke. Solomon's Key narrowed his eyes at the sight. "Because he's familiar with the terrain, he's using hit-and-run tactics to wear down my HP, huh."

With that, Solomon's Key also jumped off the city wall, took out several magic scrolls, and tore them open, releasing various colors of magical light. Several buffs instantly appeared in his status bar.

"Tracking Spell, Stealth Spell, Perception Misdirection Spell, Shadow Demon Cloak, Feign Death..."

"Damn, that's expensive. Magic scrolls are so expensive."

The Huaxia audience couldn't help but sweat for Mad Blade. Although they rarely came into contact with magic, they could learn a lot about the effects of magic from the forums.

Mad Blade's armor's built-in radar suddenly lost track of the enemy. He frowned. "Magic stealth, troublesome ability. I'm at a disadvantage in terms of detection. It's not good for kiting..." Thinking this, he changed the radar's detection properties and began to detect air disturbances in order to re-locate his opponent. The sensing range was smaller than before.

The two stalked each other, each with offense and defense, mainly probing. Once they discovered their opponent's weakness or flaw, a thunderous blow would immediately descend. The audience watched the match intently, their tense emotions rising as the distance between the two gradually narrowed. The positioning, vision control, setting of diversionary traps, and feigned openings of the two while moving were all delicate operations, commonly known as fighting wits with the air.

"Huff, huff..."

Dull breathing echoed in the armor's helmet. Mad Blade hid behind a building, observing the tactical screen. Traces of air disturbance appeared in his vision, presenting a blue line like a snake. The head of the line was the opponent's position. Mad Blade was good at close combat, but he chose to keep his distance because Solomon's Key's data revealed that the opponent wasn't as fragile as other mages. Many close combat martial artists had suffered a crushing defeat because they rashly approached. Mad Blade's plan was to find an opportunity to sneak attack, a set of combos, control the enemy, and maximize damage output.

Although he had an invincible trump card, Mad Blade would not use it rashly. If he could win with his own ability, he could save the character card for the next time he faced a strong enemy.

"His magic shield has a time limit and consumes mana. I still have a lot of ammo, which can consume about 28% of his mana and about 15% of his HP..."

Thinking this, Mad Blade opened fire at the enemy's position, hitting the magic shield. However, at this moment, a new buff suddenly appeared in his status bar—[Marked].

"Reverse Retaliation Mark!" Mad Blade secretly cried out, "Not good!" This skill was rare, and the opponent was using it for the first time. The previous data didn't have this item. The effect was very simple: attacking the opponent would mark you, and the opponent's attacks within a certain period of time could automatically track the target. This was a spell used to deal with stealth and sneak attacks.

The next moment, a burning sensation rapidly approached.

Boom!!

An Icefire Ball blasted through the house where Mad Blade was hiding, turning the environment into a blue sea of fire. Solomon's Key slowly walked over from afar, expressionless. He was a demon mage, cultivating both ice and fire, fusing the two to form the Icefire Stream.

The magic fusion function was like a mechanic's custom blueprint. The difference was that the magic fusion success rate was quite high, but the experience consumption was also more significant. The fusion mechanism was to mix two or more magic skills into one to obtain a new effect. It required specific casting materials. For example, forming the Icefire Ball required the magic skills [Frost] + [Great Fireball] and the material [Trapped Fire Ice Crystal]. Several magic skills used for fusion would be forgotten. If you wanted to re-master the original skills, you could either separate the fused new skill or find someone to spend experience to learn it again, which was also very experience-intensive.

The characteristic of icefire was that it rapidly consumed the durability of metal, making it an excellent means to deal with mechanics.

Chi chi chi...

At this time, the surface of Mad Blade's officer-level armor rippled with a magical halo, and the dancing icefire was repelled, and the rate of durability drop rapidly slowed down. The enchantment from the Volga brothers gave his armor a certain amount of magic resistance.

—We can't defend against those psychic orphans, but we can still defend against you mages!

Mad Blade's leg armor slammed into the ground, and the propulsion device on his back spewed blue flames, increasing his power. The whole person charged like a rhino, and a huge folding alloy shield popped out of his left arm armor, enough to protect his entire body behind it. His right hand pulled out a metal short staff embedded in his waist armor. The short staff automatically extended section by section, turning into a slender gun-spear.

Instantly entering close combat mode!

The alloy shield slammed into the magic shield with great force, and Solomon's Key was knocked back two steps. At this time, Mad Blade seized the opportunity and thrust out with his spear, stabbing into the magic shield. A concentrated burst bullet slid from the gun's magazine into the chamber. The next moment, a violent explosion was released by the spearhead, detonating inside the magic shield!

Boom!!

Black smoke spread, and flames flowed!

"A beautiful strike! The mech-warrior's tactics are varied. Mad Blade Raging Sword has changed another set of weapons. Speaking of which, he has not used the same weapon in every personal match..." one of the commentators shouted "Nice!"

"Wait, the HP drop is very small, it doesn't seem to have hit completely!"

In the black smoke, Solomon's Key's figure had disappeared, replaced by a piece of stone brick that had been shattered into powder. He himself appeared fifteen meters behind Mad Blade, not much injured.

"Oh, he used Object Swap on himself in an emergency. This skill has a long cooldown of five minutes. It seems that Solomon's Key is very careful to protect his HP. That's right, after all, Mad Blade Raging Sword is equipped with a mech, and his HP is almost 1.7 times his."

After the stealth situation was broken, the two entered a back-and-forth battle. Mad Blade kept poking and poking in close combat, while Solomon's Key kited, releasing Icefire. The two fought back and forth, passionately, and the situation seemed to be evenly matched, but the status bar showed that Mad Blade was at a disadvantage, and his HP was dropping faster. The two professional players naturally did not output damage while standing still. They each used delicate shifting and dodging skills. Obviously, Solomon's Key's skills were slightly better.

However, it seemed that the overall situation was on Mad Blade's side. With his armor, his HP was too high. He could wear down the opponent to death.

However, the commentator was not optimistic.

"Mad Blade Raging Sword has 80% HP left, armor durability 66%, Solomon's Key has 73% HP, magic shield 31%, and mana 68%. The situation is actually very unfavorable for Mad Blade. Although he has more HP, if the armor durability is used up, his combat power will drop by at least half! He only has one set of armor, while the opponent can create new magic shields at any time as long as he has mana."

Bang!!

Icefire exploded, this time with a knockback effect. Mad Blade was forced back a few steps. Solomon's Key retreated, a flash of thought in his eyes:

"Not bad, I underestimated him a bit, but it won't affect the result."

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Solomon's Key muttered strange demon words, like a low murmur. His eyes seemed to be burning, and countless blue flames spewed out from the gaps in his scales. His figure suddenly grew taller and larger, turning into a demon covered in blue fire, and a new buff was added to his status bar.

Demon Talent - True Name Release, Initial Stage!

All attributes increased by 13%! Lasts for ten minutes! HP and mana recover by 30%! Removes all current buffs (including buffs)!

Immediately afterward, he took a deep breath, and the surrounding flames turned into burning air currents and were sucked into his mouth. He gained an additional 20% fake HP, [Fire Excitement Technique], and his HP instantly reached 120%.

The commentator excitedly said: "Here it comes, the demon race's talent skill! Cooldown time of three days. Among the regular races of all novice planets, the demon race's talent is the most suitable for actual combat. They have innate self-enhancement skills, which are very perverted!"

Rumble rumble rumble—

The situation instantly fell into the abyss. Icefire bombarded wildly, and Mad Blade endured a storm of destruction. The opponent's magic power greatly increased, and his HP overflowed. It was equivalent to him losing so much durability and HP for nothing. Solomon's Key was throwing magic combos methodically, not giving him a single chance, with a calm expression.

Just like his pre-match prediction, this was a match with no suspense in the result, and there was no need to use any trump cards at all.

The Huaxia audience was shocked and looked at the embarrassed Mad Blade on the screen with dejected expressions.

"Crap, there's no way to fight!"

"It's over."

"The Americans really have dog luck, choosing Frostwinter Star for the start. All demons have this perverted skill, and they're all like bosses."

Burning heat permeated the armor. Inside the armor helmet, Mad Blade showed a wry smile.

"Damn, I really can't beat him. As expected of a captain from a large club..."

With his own skills and combat power, the hope of defeating Solomon's Key was slim.

However...

He was not alone.

"Although I can't beat you, but if we're comparing who's more perverted, who do you think you are!" Mad Blade gritted his teeth and played his trump card.

Character Card - Black Star Descends!

Buzz!

A four-meter-high semi-transparent phantom suddenly appeared behind Mad Blade. He was dressed in black, and his appearance was all too familiar to the audience. Who else could it be but Han Xiao.

"Isn't that Black Specter!" The audience was surprised.

The tall phantom was expressionless, slowly reaching out and pressing on Mad Blade's head.

Zzzzt—

Blinding lightning suddenly lit up. Rampaging machinery power flowed through the phantom's palm and poured into Mad Blade's body. The next moment, Mad Blade was surrounded by lightning, and electric light shot out.

"What kind of skill is this... Holy crap!" Before the commentator could react, the next scene almost made his eyeballs pop out.

Mad Blade thrust out with his spear, and the newly created magic shield of Solomon's Key was instantly burst!

As fragile as a bubble.

Immediately afterward, Mad Blade approached and smashed his shield into Solomon's Key's stunned face.

Bang!!

The demon flew out like a cannonball, spinning around and smashing into a building, his HP directly dropping by 21%!

Just one slap with the shield took away more than one-sixth of his HP! The fake HP was instantly gone! The super-strong bonus directly caused suppressive damage!

In an instant, the situation reversed!

The scene quieted down, leaving only the crackling of the flames and the flashing of electric snakes.

The audience hurriedly looked at the status bar and were immediately dumbfounded.

[Black Star Descends]: Mechanical Affinity +247%, lasts for three minutes—from Character Descend Card - Han Xiao

"This, this..."

The commentator opened his mouth, speechless for a moment, only managing to squeeze out a sentence:

"Perverted!"

He forgot that the praise of "perverted" had just belonged to Solomon's Key.