Chapter 213: No Great Fortune, But There Is One War Elephant
The one who threw this stone was naturally Cheng Tian's flying combat mount, the Primeval Winged Dragon.
The stone, condensed by mana, directly smashed towards Allen. If it hit, it would not only deal damage equivalent to his Agility attribute but also have a 30% chance to induce a 'cower' state, making him unable to use skills.
Prince Allen's Agility attribute, still at 16 even while wearing his silver armor, was not enough for him to dodge the Primeval Winged Dragon's projectile, which had an Agility attribute of 42. The massive rock accurately smacked Allen's head, which, to show his status, only wore a golden crown and no helmet.
However, the head, which was directly hit and still had many magical rock fragments remaining inside the golden crown, reacted as if it had only been tapped by a block of tofu. It remained completely still, not even shaking.
But under Cheng Tian's gaze, Allen, who had taken a stone hit that felt no different from a tofu tap, made a rather incongruous move.
He actually took off his silver golden crown and, with an incredibly gentle and careful motion that completely mismatched his physique, wiped the position where the Sun God's gem shard was embedded in the center of the golden crown. Immediately after, he sharply raised his head, his eyes instantly bloodshot, and looked at the Primeval Winged Dragon in the sky with a gaze more ferocious and cruel than when he had just looked at Cheng Tian himself.
In gaming terms, the 'aggro' generated by the Winged Dragon's Rockfall hit instantly surpassed its aggro towards Cheng Tian.
It was only when he took off his golden crown that Cheng Tian noticed a mark on Allen's glabella, as if it had been eroded by an external object, surrounded by fine, spiderweb-like scars.
This position corresponded exactly to where the Sun God's gem shard was located when he wore his golden crown.
Cheng Tian seemed to have some guesses about this.
Prince Allen, having put his golden crown back on, swung his meteor hammer towards the sky, mana surging and glowing from it.
As a magic knight, he didn't need a staff; his meteor hammer was his staff.
And the next second, familiar golden arrows began to generate around the meteor hammer at a rate of one per second—
Sanctioning Arrows!
Seeing this, Cheng Tian suddenly realized that King Allen, who possessed 10% of the shard, should at least have Sanctioning Arrows and Purifying Light, both casting abilities derived entirely from the Sun God Kukulkan.
He was still unsure if the opponent had an ability similar to the Primeval Shell, which could replace HP consumption with mana.
However, considering that the opponent already had such terrifyingly high Strength and HP, the possibility of him having a double health bar seemed unlikely.
Although it was unknown if Purifying Light, which could originally turn living beings into gold, had been weakened to only affect equipment, the Sanctioning Arrows' damage effect should be quite similar to his own.
However, as Cheng Tian actively approached the Prince again, he noticed that Allen consumed 2 MP for every arrow he created.
If it weren't for the fact that the opponent's arrows were larger and stronger than his own... Cheng Tian looked at the Primeval Winged Dragon in the sky, cawing like a crow boss, its taunt maxed out, and then glanced again at Allen's mana consumption.
It should be that 'Oppressive Presence' was in effect.
When an enemy's attack target is the Primeval Winged Dragon, Oppressive Presence causes the enemy's skill consumption to increase by 50% to 100%.
In the game, Oppressive Presence's effect was to increase the mana cost of player skills, though it seemed not very useful with the free healing from the Pokémon Center. But here, it meant mana consumption increased by 1.5 to 2 times... However, for Allen, who had a terrifying mana pool of 2700, Sanctioning Arrows costing 2 MP each was merely a drop in the bucket. But this also meant that all the golden arrows Allen was currently creating were prepared for the Primeval Winged Dragon!
Under Allen's control, the golden arrows generated continuously and rapidly as if mana-free, constantly shooting at the Primeval Winged Dragon in the sky. But just as he held an absolute advantage in Strength, Spirit, and Charisma, his Agility, which was an absolute disadvantage compared to the Winged Dragon, made it truly difficult for him to hit the strange creature darting and weaving in the air.
The golden arrows, under Allen's control, weren't even fired all at once. Instead, like nine small flying swords, they moved rapidly in the air under his mental command, chasing and cornering the Primeval Winged Dragon.
Noticing Cheng Tian rapidly approaching, Allen's mind stirred, and he directly split off one golden arrow, which shot towards Cheng Tian.
However, Cheng Tian neither dodged nor avoided this arrow, letting it strike his chest... more accurately, the phantom of the Primeval Shell. And the force wasn't even able to penetrate the Primeval Shell, directly merging into it.
It turned out that this light-attribute golden arrow not only failed to damage Cheng Tian but also restored 5 MP to him because it triggered the Primeval Shell's effect of doubling defensive absorption and buffs!
Just as Cheng Tian's Solar Flare couldn't harm Allen wearing the Sun golden crown, Allen's golden arrows couldn't harm Cheng Tian.
Cheng Tian, who had successfully closed in without dodging or avoiding, continuously struck at Prince Allen's exposed head and the seams of his armor with his twin swords.
However, something strange happened.
Cheng Tian was certain his longsword was aimed at Allen's head, yet it was directly guided by an invisible force to his shoulder armor, making an extremely crisp sound. This happened repeatedly, and when hitting the armor, the visual effects that popped up on his light-based health bar were all "-0" or "Resist"—
Silver Armor: Special armor that can only be worn by spellcasters who possess both powerful physical bodies and strong spirits. All parts of the body have high damage reduction equivalent to a heavy shield. The only exposed head part, under Prince Allen's deliberate enchanted modification, has gained the effect of forcefully redirecting attacks aimed at the head to the armor. This effect requires active activation and continuous mana consumption.
With Silver Armor, even without deliberately blocking or defending, as long as the opponent's attack targets the armor and the weapon used is not a high-penetration blunt instrument, then letting them hack away will almost never break through the defense, unless the armor's durability runs out, a direct gap is cut, and Allen's body is stabbed through that gap.
Perhaps it's a case of emphasizing what one lacks. Golden Grand Duke Garibaldi wore a golden crown with helmet functionality, which had symbolic meaning while also ensuring head protection.
However, Prince Allen, the second most powerful in the empire, deliberately chose not to wear a helmet to showcase his golden crown. That's why he enchanted the Silver Armor with such a somewhat redundant but, for him, very important attack target redirection function, for which he was even willing to pay an additional mana cost.
Theoretically, as long as mana is sufficient, the two toothpicks in Cheng Tian's hands simply cannot penetrate the Silver Armor and inflict any meaningful damage on Prince Allen.
So the question arises: if Cheng Tian's attacks could cover Allen's entire body at the same time, would this forced attack redirection still be effective?
Cheng Tian, who was attacking from the front, suddenly bent down, prostrating himself before Allen as if kowtowing. The next second, an incredibly thick elephant leg appeared out of thin air above Cheng Tian's head, rapidly growing in Prince Allen's astonished vision, and then kicked down heavily!
The Silver Prince was sent flying backward like a tumbling gourd, as if he had been struck by a great fortune that suddenly appeared before him!