Canis raised his right hand, and the clone raised its left hand, standing next to each other to form a Y-shape.
"Divine Protection."
[RPG Dungeon Analysis: Divine Protection. Defect: 2 layers. Increases speed and thinking ability by 16%.] [Dungeon has a new discovery about skills. Divine Protection: This skill has a stacking property; multiple layers can be stacked upon each other. The higher the skill level, the more layers can be stacked.]
"Canshit, I don't care if you incite war, dominate the world, or anything like that. But if you dare to block my path of wooing girls, then you must die without a doubt."
Canis remained silent and did not respond. He knew that "Canshit" was not a good word, but he couldn't prove it.
Riven had received quite a few skill points after leveling up in the battle with the golem, plus the leftover skill points from before. He quickly learned 1 active skill and 1 passive skill from the RPG Dungeon's skill tree.
[Shadow Shift: Teleport within a 3m radius centered on oneself. Slight dizziness after teleporting, and cannot teleport consecutively.]
[Survival Instinct: When falling into the threshold of death, if mana still remains, the next fatal blow will be blocked by mana. Only effective once per day.]
"Simp, can you handle that hypocrite? His class completely counters mine."
Hearing this, Baz nodded confidently. Baz had always held a grudge since being ambushed at the tent. One thing was clear in his heart: if he met that mysterious mage again, he would definitely win.
Don't look at Baz being only Level 9 while Canis was Level 15. For a Swordsman, there is no difference between a Level 10 and Level 15 Priest. Simply put, as long as they successfully close the distance, all living beings are equal.
"How can a class created for support be my opponent? Can you handle that puppet?"
"Good. Abuse that hypocrite like the way I abused his mother in bed last night."
Looking toward the puppet, Riven smiled faintly.
"Just leave it to me. Facing an opponent like that might actually suit me better."
Hearing the two talk, Canis couldn't control himself anymore. No matter how good his upbringing was, he couldn't stand Riven's vulgar words. Although furious, his emotions had not yet clouded his reason.
Canis understood clearly that Baz and Sora had no ability to coordinate well because they had never worked together, so they would definitely find a way to split up. Keeping the puppet close to protect himself, his hand formed a seal again.
"Variant Fireball: Multi-Fireball. Enhanced Blue Fireball."
Baz and Riven simultaneously rushed in two directions, left and right. Canis immediately ignored Riven and aimed at Baz. In his eyes, only a Swordsman could pose a danger to him.
Suddenly, a magic stone tore through the wind, piercing straight into Canis's leg, making him scream in pain. The other two stones hadn't even arrived before they were deflected by the Wind Wall cast by the clone.
Before he could think, Canis saw Baz's sword qi flying towards him.
[Instant Recovery: Quickly fully heals a wound but will never be able to cast Instant Recovery on that body part again, and permanently loses 20% max mana. Cannot heal severed limb wounds and can only choose 1 body part.]
Canis's injured leg emitted a holy blue light and healed immediately. He jumped away to dodge Baz's sword qi. This move could completely destroy his Wind Wall.
It was absolutely impossible to block directly. If it weren't a desperate situation, he wouldn't want to use a move that would permanently cost him 20% of his mana.
Canis decided to change tactics. Although it looked like a 2v2, the clone shared mana with him; the longer it dragged on, the more disadvantageous it would be. He needed to quickly take down one person first to gain a numerical advantage.
Killing a thief was obviously much easier than killing a Swordsman. The eyes of Canis's clone flashed, and together with the puppet, they rushed toward Riven.
Seeing this scene, Riven suddenly stopped. Everything was exactly as he predicted. When attacked alternately from two directions, Canis wouldn't be able to hold out and would decide to deal with the weaker one first, and that was Riven.
Riven stood there calmly, his right hand drawing Martin's blade. Riven's eyes were so calm that even Canis's Parallel Processing controlling the clone found it confusing.
"Have you ever heard of a guy wearing only a loincloth on his lower body and a jar on his head, who defeated a great demigod with just a pair of twin swords?"
Hearing this only confused Canis's clone, who then snorted coldly.
"Stop acting mysterious and die for me!"
[Flawless Perfection: Activated]
As soon as the words were spoken, the puppet's greatsword swung down with breakneck speed, even faster than the speed at which Farrdin suppressed Riven. Canis laughed coldly in his heart; Riven couldn't even keep up with Farrdin's speed, so how could he dodge this?
Just by killing Riven, due to the Lumen Vitae link, Sylvie would undoubtedly die. Completing this task well, he would gain a favor from the future Azula patriarch. Thinking of this, he imagined a fulfilling life and a brilliant future.
But in that moment...
"Clang!!"
The sound of metal clashing brought him back to reality.
Before Canis's eyes, Riven not only dodged easily but also swung his blade straight at the puppet's right leg joint. However, the armor was too durable, so it didn't cause damage yet.
Riven's eyes flashed at this moment, his face focused like a gamer in the final match to rank up. The puppet swung its sword again; Riven simply sidestepped by a surplus of a millisecond.
Seeing this, the furious clone controlled the puppet to unleash dozens of attacks, making it harder for Riven to dodge. It wasn't that everything in Riven's eyes slowed down, but simply that his reflexes, judgment, and information processing capabilities were pushed to the limit.
He felt like he was in a chess match, and Riven was a boss with 5000 Elo. No matter how smart the enemy's move was, every possibility was within Riven's calculations. Just a small movement of a few centimeters in Canis's puppet-controlling hand would be noticed by him.
The puppet swung its sword continuously. Riven sometimes dodged, and when conditions allowed, he parried and then slashed at the puppet's joints.
Continuous stabbing and slashing attacks came from the puppet. Close-range sword qi was released at a speed even many times faster than Baz's. Although Riven's reflexes were pushed to the limit and he moved flawlessly, he still took some hits. It was simply too large a gap in physical stats.
Riven's limbs bled incessantly even without being hit directly. He understood his muscles were working at 100%, pushing him to the limit and causing self-inflicted damage. A machine usually operates at 70-80%; if forced to run at full capacity forever, its lifespan will obviously decrease.
20 seconds passed. Riven's body was covered in wounds, but there were no fatal ones. On the other side, the armor on the puppet's leg joint was almost completely shattered.
Seeing this, Canis's clone broke into a cold sweat. He had tried to push Riven into a corner so Riven wouldn't have a chance to attack him.
Because the puppet was a dead person, just a corpse and not even undead, it couldn't be killed. The best way to deal with it was to handle the controller or disable its mobility.
Riven couldn't attack Canis due to the puppet's speed being too fast; obviously, he could only cripple its legs and then attack Canis.
Seeing the current situation, Canis only wished he could grow back two arms; controlling would be much easier than with one hand.
Parry, parry, slash, dash, parry.
In the moment Riven shattered the puppet's right joint, he quickly used [Shadow Shift] to teleport to Canis's clone. However, before he could do anything, disoriented by the first teleportation, he was hit by a [Fireball] and blasted into the wall.
"Damn it, I forgot you aren't exactly weak either."
Struggling to stand up, he looked at the puppet. Although it had lost a joint, it could still move with difficulty. Normally, taking a fireball at such close range would undoubtedly mean death. Luckily, [Survival Instinct] saved Riven's life.
"Too bad. I thought Flawless Perfection could resist that stun effect. You got lucky, but there won't be a next time."
That was when Riven understood that he had to completely disable the puppet to deal with Canis's clone.
Canis's clone looked at Riven warily. He didn't know what method Riven used to possess such terrifying power, but at least in his current state, Riven was even stronger than Farrdin. If he lost, his original body would definitely be ganged up on until death.
Flawless Perfection: 19 seconds remaining.