Archbishops were scarce strategic resources, especially so in the previous timeline. Standing as bright beacons of brilliance in every war, a single blessing could bolster the might of thousands of troops.
Apart from powerful healing capabilities and a keen sense of awareness, superb PvP senses were also a must.
Young Seven, Painted Muslin, and Black Heaven had all of these qualities and more.
Young Seven glanced at his skill bar, considering his options.
The calm and unperturbed appearance of Young Seven deeply rattled Mad God's nerves. Could a Priest really defeat him? Normally, he would never believe such a thing. However, Smoke Stub's confidence had him questioning this belief.
"Let's start," Young Seven said after finishing his preparations.
Mad God absolutely couldn't lose this match, or else he would no longer have the face to return to the Satreen Empire. Not to mention he'd become a laughing stock among the playerbase.
Charge!
Mad God lunged straight for Young Seven.
Young Seven ducked to the side and targeted Mad God with Ache, then fired out a Holy Smite.
The crowd held their breath, gazing intently at the fight happening on the stage above. They didn't dare to so much as blink, lest they missed out on the action. Cold sweat broke out as they watched Mad God lunging and charging at Young Seven non-stop.
In contrast, Nie Yan and the others appeared fairly calm.
「Boss, what kind of flying mount did you get?」Lustboy asked. Recently, the identity of Nie Yan's flying mount dominated most of the discussion in Asskickers United.
「No flying mount yet. It's still just a dragon egg. I'll have to wait for it to hatch first,」Nie Yan replied. He had no clue when this Darkwing Dragon would hatch, not to mention he would have to take it levelling as well. Just thinking about this gave him a headache.
「Dragon egg…」Everyone was startled. Dragons were incredibly rare existences. The word alone was synonymous with power. Even the weakest of dragons possessed frightening power.
Nie Yan always seemed to get the most amazing things. Even a dragon egg wasn't out of the realm of possibilities.
「What kind of dragon egg? Show us!」
「Let's wait until we return to the guild headquarters. There are too many eyes here,」Bladelight said. These sorts of things had to be kept confidential.
「What about you guys? Find anything good lately?」Nie Yan changed the subject. Smoke Stub and the others likely hadn't been sitting idly by either.
「Lustboy found a Sub Legendary-grade Staff a couple days ago. Its stats are pretty decent. We also found blueprints for a magic cannon while running a dungeon. We've already handed them to Watchful Snail. Sunny South obtained a Kodo, so he's pretty happy. With a pet like that, levelling will get much easier,」Bladelight said. Thinking about it, everything was going pretty smoothly as of late.
「Boss, that list of quest triggers you gave is amazing. We no longer have to worry about wandering around aimlessly trying to find Sub Legendary and Legendary-grade equipment. I was pretty lucky and got a Sub Legendary-grade staff while the others are still searching. I heard Scoundrel recently triggered a quest for a Legendary-grade set. He's working on it as we speak,」Lustboy said. Nie Yan's list had made things much easier for them. The fruits of their labour would slowly be revealed in the future.
「Not bad, not bad...」Nie Yan never expected the list he provided would start showing results so soon.
The group leisurely chatted. Apart from these few notable things, the other items they obtained were too numerous to count. Nie Yan could clearly sense that Smoke Stub and the others were rapidly growing stronger. Before long, they would reach their peaks from the previous timeline, and maybe even go further beyond. They would become the rulers of future battlefields!
At this moment, the battle on the stage was reaching its climax. Everyone was watching with rapt attention.
Berserk Transformation! Charge!
Mad God was being kited around since the start of the duel. After getting hit by three crowd control spells in a row and having his health whittled down to less than half, he finally had enough and furiously rushed forward.
Flame Slash!
Mad God brandished his greatsword and cleaved down on Young Seven.
Young Seven raised his staff and blinked out of Mad God's range.
Mad God was briefly dazed by the sight of Young Seven disappearing into thin air but quickly returned to his senses. It was an evasion skill!
Evasion skills were extremely rare. Those in possession of one were less than 1 in 50,000.
Young Seven reappeared behind Mad God. He raised his staff and opened his mouth as a strange gurgling sound escaped his throat.
Sensing a presence behind him, Mad God was about to turn around, when an ear piercing shriek entered his ears.
Crap! Howl of Terror!
Mad God wanted to activate Mind Guard to protect himself. But it was already far too late. No matter how quick his reaction speed was, could it be faster than sound?
Howl of Terror was normally preceded by clear warning signs. As soon as a player spotted a Priest's throat trembling, they would know to immediately protect themselves with Mind Guard, Mind Immune, or other similar skills.
Watching this unfold from below the stage, Smoke Stub cracked a faint smile. He was all too familiar with this move. When running dungeons, they would often PvP with each other during the downtime between runs. He had fallen victim to this combination of spells many times. It was extremely hard to defend against, even if you were aware of it beforehand. Young Seven was simply too proficient with using Blink and Howl of Terror together. Anyone encountering this deadly combo for the first time would undoubtedly meet with tragedy.
In Smoke Stub's mind's, perhaps only Nie Yan could counter this move on his first attempt.
After being struck by Howl of Terror, Mad God lost control of his body and started fleeing away.
Painful Lash!
Young Seven struck Mad God with a whip of light and inflicted him with bleed.
−111
−123
−134...
Young Seven had trained his Painful Lash up to Rank 5. Its effects were powerful, and its duration was quite long.
Taking advantage of the opening, Young Seven unloaded multiple spells.
Holy Burst!
An orb of light shot out from his staff and struck Mad God, unleashing a powerful explosion that sent him staggering backwards.
When Howl of Terror's effects ended, Young Seven felt a tinge of regret. He had a total of six crowd control spells—two with especially long durations, Howl of Terror and Radiant Bindings; one with a normal duration, Radiant Shockburst; and three with short durations, Elusive Halo, Panicked Flight, and Repel. Having used all of them to lock down Mad God, he could no longer chain his crowd control spells.
Nevertheless, it was already amazing he kept Mad God crowd controlled for so long.
After recovering from Howl of Terror, Mad God only had around 800 health remaining, and it was falling quick since he was still taking bleed damage.
Perfectly linking together his crowd control spells, Young Seven had kited Mad God to only a sliver of health. All the while he didn't even have a single scratch on him! The crowd was flabbergasted. Fuck, how was this a Priest! Even a Mage wasn't this amazing!
Even though Young Seven was as skilled as any top ranked Mage, his damage was clearly lacking. Six seconds of crowd control was all a Mage needed to blast Mad God to death. Meanwhile, more than ten seconds had already passed, and Mad God still hadn't died. Nevertheless, this was an amazing achievement for a Priest. Mad God was on the brink of death.
Mad God let out a roar and activated Divine Bulwark, making him immune to all crowd control as a golden membrane of light enveloped him.
"Die!" Mad God charged toward Young Seven and slashed down with his greatsword.
Young Seven quickly pulled back. His Panicked Flight and Repel were already off cooldown. However, he understood that none of his crowd control spells would have any effect right now. He could only do his best to survive.
If Mad God caught him with a Tendon Break or another similar skill, incapacitating him for two seconds or more, he would be done for!
This was the difference between a Priest and a Warrior!
The attacks of Warriors could easily cut through the cloth armour of Priests. Even if the Priest had over 10,000 health, the end result would be all the same.
Young Seven protected himself with Radiant Barrier as a veil of holy light fell over him. It was Rank 6, so the amount of damage it could absorb was no joke!
Furthermore, at Rank 5 and up, Radiant Barrier also protected the caster from being incapacitated by skills like Tendon Break. It offered little protection against psychic attacks though.
Mad God ruthlessly chopped down on Young Seven.
−1,582
+2,649
−1,158
+2,832
−1,283...
Young Seven kept retreating while healing himself. Each attack was countered with a potent heal. No matter how powerful the strike, he'd always follow up with an even more powerful heal. Like this, he calmly stalled out five seconds. As long as he wasn't incapacitated, he could keep himself alive for quite a while.
The crowd watched in suspense. What powerful heals! Such healing could keep a tank alive through even the toughest of bosses! No wonder Young Seven was known as the number one Priest in Asskickers United!
After five seconds passed, Mad God's Divine Bulwark disappeared.
Just as Mad God was about to attack, Young Seven targeted him with Panicked Flight, causing him to retreat several steps back. Finally, he cast Holy Judgement.
Mad God's health had been whittled down quite a bit by Painful Lash. After being struck by Holy Judgement, the last bit of remaining health depleted as his body slumped to the ground.
This was his third in a streak of humiliating defeats!