Chapter 196: Your Five-Fireball Sect, Can It Compare to a Heavenly Chariot?
『Eightfold Array』, B-rank Skill / Lv1, Active Skill, Skill blueprint is the exclusive skill held by Zhuge Kongming in the arcade game 『Dynasty Warriors 2』.
Summons eight ancient stone banners inscribed with the Eightfold Array, surrounding a radius of the caster's spirit * 1 meter, and performing a spiritual resistance check on all non-allied targets within the enveloped range;
If the check passes, all targets enter a forced levitation state. They will not be interrupted from levitation by other attacks and will find it difficult to cast spells or move while levitating.
The maximum casting range of the Eightfold Array is spirit * 5 meters. It requires at least 3 seconds of communication and guidance to cast before summoning. The spell consumes 150 MP and lasts for 5 seconds. After reaching the duration limit, it can be maintained by consuming an additional 10 MP per second, but can only last up to 10 seconds, and targets may break free from the forced levitation state during the additional duration.
Someone chose to disregard martial ethics, taking advantage of the routine taunting between the two army leaders to launch a direct attack.
And just as the Eightfold Array hard-controlled 4 people and 4 horses on the spot, a figure emerged from the side.
This was a player dressed like a typical rogue, but between his hands, a fireball was condensing, its temperature steadily rising—
Enhanced Great Fireball casting in progress!
And this player was none other than the one who participated in the night raid yesterday, and after realizing its failure, decisively activated Swift Step to flee. His ID was "Five-Fireball," and those familiar with him called him Old Five.
Old Five's skill set was very interesting. While the skills of most un-transferred players tended to be mixed, his skill set already had the prototype of a "magic assassin."
Swift Step provides invisibility and rapid movement, and after leveling the skill to Lv4, in addition to gaining longer invisibility duration and movement speed, it also acquired the characteristic of not revealing the caster during invisible spellcasting.
It was precisely by relying on this invisibility that Old Five followed the Dual-Wielding Knight, silently arriving at a position where he could observe the two sides' taunting at an extremely close distance.
Then, he decisively released the Eightfold Array.
This move, aside from true contracted teammates who are immune, affects even NPCs.
Once Zhuge Kongming's Eightfold Array completes its initial guidance, it no longer requires management, allowing the caster to directly hack away at the forcibly levitated targets. If there are contracted teammates, this group levitation control effect can even be maximized for damage.
However, he did not choose to use this opportunity for physical attacks, but instead directly began to charge a fireball.
His ID, Five-Fireball, refers to his originally unremarkable Fireball spell, which gained a qualitative boost under the enhancement of his spatial talent.
Simply put, his talent, named 『Five-Fireball Heretic Cultist』, allows the Fireball spell to transform from a channeled cast into a charged state with pre-injected magic and fire elements. When needed, it can be instantly cast, with a maximum charge count of 5. The drawback is that if cast normally, the Fireball spell's channeling time is greatly increased, and its mana consumption also rises.
And when Old Five realized that his talent could also be upgraded with skill points, he decisively invested the remaining 3 skill points he had saved after completing the main story 6 times, and then his talent underwent a qualitative change.
Old Five can consume 1 charge of the Fireball spell and channel for 2 seconds to double the damage of the next fireball, theoretically reaching up to 16 times damage.
Currently, Old Five's Fireball spell, at Lv1, also deals fire damage equal to his spirit attribute * 2 points, which is about 60 damage. A Fireball spell charged to 16 times damage could theoretically deal an extreme damage of over 960 points!
Of course, 16 times damage also corresponds to a full 8 seconds of casting time, and even a sneeze directed at him could very likely forcibly interrupt the casting state.
But the Eightfold Array's group control, lasting up to 10 seconds, was his reliance for safely releasing a great fireball.
And under normal circumstances, when a race is restricted to humans, even a BOSS unit with a leader template will never have an overly exaggerated amount of health.
So Old Five was confident that with his eight-times enhanced great fireball hitting the face, even if the opponent had some divine protection that granted forced immortality, it would be enough to inflict fatal heavy damage.
Five-Fireball seemed to already see the scene of an S-rank settlement evaluation and an additional 50,000 yuan simultaneously hitting his face.
But at this moment, he suddenly noticed that the person who seemed to be Arthur's adjutant had, at some point, donned a peculiar mask that was both ancient and somewhat eerie.
Because this mask was so unique, Old Five immediately remembered... Wasn't this the player who ruined their camp-burning plan last night and was also on the wanted list in the Silver Fortress hall!?
How did he directly become the enemy leader's adjutant!?
Due to the dungeon modifiers, Old Five knew that the players in the opposing faction were actually foreign mercenaries, just like his own side. This identity meant they couldn't be easily trusted by faction commanders, even if the other side was the so-called righteous faction.
He just didn't know that Cheng Mouren was indeed a foreign mercenary, but also a Holy Grail Knight!
This identity was almost as useful within the Knights of the Round Table as Doraemon's "Demon Pass."
And just as Arthur was about to step out and engage in a war of words, Cheng Tian, relying on the unexpectedness of the magic elephant, temporarily swapped positions with Lancelot, disguising himself as Arthur's adjutant and following along.
Although it was broad daylight now, the attribute boost from the sunfire mask had reverted to spirit and charm, which brought his spirit attribute to a significant 37 points. However, he was still affected by the Eightfold Array during the check, and even the warhorse he was riding was suspended in mid-air, entering a forced levitation state.
It must be said, the Eightfold Array truly lived up to its name as the Prime Minister's skill. Not only did it have the group control ability to forcibly levitate and immobilize people, but Cheng Tian also felt that his mental energy mobilization became difficult. Whether activating the Ten Commandments or summoning the Punishing Arrows, everything became very challenging.
And so, he made this decision... On the other side, upon realizing that Arthur's adjutant was actually Cheng Tian, Old Five, knowing that players themselves were the biggest variable, decisively abandoned further charging and directly unleashed the four-times enhanced Fireball spell, which had already completed 4 seconds of charging, towards Arthur and Cheng Tian.
But at the same time, a shadow suddenly appeared above his head.
A steel chariot, equipped with both tracks and drills, appeared out of thin air above Old Five's head, blocking the sunlight—
Just as the flames of the four-times enhanced fireball simultaneously engulfed Arthur and Cheng Tian, the drill chariot, unusable but weighing 12 tons, mercilessly smashed onto Old Five's body!