[True Name: Nightmare (Nocturne)]
[Race: Demon of Fear, Nightmare]
[Health: ???]
[Mana: ???]
[Combat Power: ???]
[Abilities: Aura of Fear, Shadowy Spirits, Shadow Blades, Path of Nightmares, Dark Sanctuary, Voiceless Fear, Haunting Shadows, Mental Storm, Nightmare Feast...]
[Data Mind] revealed all of Nocturne's information in Li Lin's mind.
With health and mana exceeding 100,000 and combat power surpassing 100, Data Mind couldn't measure the exact data.
Or perhaps, the specific data was meaningless.
As the embodiment of fear and nightmares, Nocturne's combat power was much stronger than Kog'Maw, who had not yet fully grown, and had not met Malzahar.
Nocturne's "Aura of Fear" could instill fear in all living beings around, making it easier for him to reap them directly.
"Shadowy Spirits" allowed him to merge into shadows and swiftly traverse the spiritual realm. He could also generate several shadow clones with similar strength to his own and freely swap positions with them, albeit at the cost of diminishing his own power.
"Mental Storm" would create a massive mental shockwave, serving as one of Nocturne's ultimate abilities.
Nightmare Feast" could enhance Nocturne's strength by devouring fear and nightmares.
As for "Shadow Blades," "Path of Nightmares," "Dark Sanctuary," and "Haunting Shadows," they had some similarities to Li Lin's impression.
Increasing attack speed and stealing life, throwing a shadow magic-formed blade to increase speed, generating a shadow shield, or merging into the shadows to be immune to damage...
But these were nothing compared to what worried Li Lin the most: Nocturne's other ultimate ability - Haunting Shadows.
Nocturne could forcibly twist the target's surrounding spiritual domain into a shadow domain, allowing him to teleport to any desired location within that domain...
Thanks to the magical barrier accumulated by the Banshee's Veil for more than ten minutes, Nocturne's fear magic did not affect Li Lin.
Without hesitating, he immediately used a barrage of mini-energy cannons to cover Nocturne.
At the same time, he deployed the armor on the outside of his left leg, took out the folded crystal reinforced spike, inserted it into the ground under his feet, and instantly teleported to the other side using the "Blink" ability.
With the enhancement of the crystal energy device on the infinite armor's Hextech core, Li Lin could see a significant increase in various values on the holographic display screen.
"Hehehe... Did I scare you? I can already feel your fear," Nocturne's voice coldly chuckled, "Your armor is strange, but your magic has no effect on me."
The brightness of the energy cannon shells dissipated, and he reappeared unscathed from the shadows.
Li Lin raised his hands, and the laser emitter on his forearms and the hand cannon in his palms emitted orange-red and blue-white light respectively.
"Eternal Nightmare Nocturne, I have seen through your true name..."
Before he could finish his sentence, Nocturne sneered, "Nocturne... Nocturne? Hehehe... puny humans, is it your ignorance that gives you the courage to face me?"
The cold flames in his eyes flickered, and the blades on his arms traced an arc around him, shimmering with silver light.
Ignoring Nocturne's mockery, Li Lin finally uttered that name: "Nightmare."
Nocturne's body, formed by shadow magic, stiffened in place, and his cold eyes widened slightly, as if he had entered a state of dullness.
There was a brief silence in the air.
In less than a breath, Nocturne's body visibly trembled, and a large amount of magic power that had just been devoured by it overflowed from its body, dissipating into the spiritual realm.
Li Lin clearly saw the information provided by Data Mind in his mind change drastically.
[True Name: Nightmare]
[Health: 94369↓↓]
[Mana: ???]
[Combat Power: 90↓↓]
Li Lin's expression brightened, noticing that Nocturne, whose true name had been broken, showed signs of wanting to escape. He immediately instructed the armor's functional system to lock onto it and opened fire.
Dozens of energy cannon shells instantly turned the entire space into "daylight," surging towards Nocturne along with the orange-red high-energy death rays.
"——Ah ah ah!" Nocturne let out a desperate roar.
He barely managed to erect a shadow barrier using shadow magic, barely blocking Li Lin's first wave of attacks.
But this was just the beginning.
The energy consumed by the armor's weapon system had no pressure on the Hextech core at all.
Energy poured out like it was free, followed by another wave of over a hundred energy cannon shells covering Nocturne. The bright blue-white light turned into a huge energy ball, completely engulfing Nocturne.
The laser emitters on both arms overheated, and the high-energy death rays had changed from orange-red to black-red, doubling their power.
The displayed life value of Nocturne on the panel rapidly decreased like flowing water, falling below 50,000.
As the range of the energy spread wider, Li Lin even had to retreat a distance to avoid his own weapons from harming him.
However, when Nocturne's health dropped to 30,000, it locked in place and stopped moving.
What's going on...
Li Lin didn't dare to stop attacking, but he was puzzled.
After a few more seconds, a strong mental magic shock wave burst out from the center of the huge light ball, temporarily dispersing all the energy cannon shells still shooting in the air.
The magic barrier of the Banshee's Veil could resist magical damage, but it had little effect on the shockwave.
Affected by the mental storm, Li Lin was pushed back dozens of meters away, and the originally heavy dark silver shield became thinner.
Fortunately, the armor's protection was good, and the intelligent system automatically activated the adaptive shield. He was unharmed.
Li Lin just looked up, and the almost translucent Nocturne flashed in an instant, roaring, "Damn ant, you've thoroughly annoyed me..."
Before he could react, in just the span of a heartbeat, everything went black before him, losing all sight.
This was Nocturne's final counterattack before being dispersed.
"Darkness... descends!"
"Uh-oh!"
Li Lin's heart sank, realizing that Nocturne had used another ultimate skill, "Shroud of Darkness," turning the surroundings into its domain.
He didn't know the extent of Nocturne's "Shadow Realm" coverage, perhaps it could move with its own movement.
Anyway, despite Li Lin activating "Overload Charge" and using "Blink" multiple times, he couldn't escape this dim and lightless environment, unable even to see clearly with night vision mode.
Due to Nocturne's elusive presence and "Data Mind" only being usable through the naked eye, he couldn't use this ability to pinpoint Nocturne's location.
Now Li Lin could only rely on the energy index displayed by the Infinite Armor's intelligent system to roughly judge the position of this nightmare, and take countermeasures...
Actually, he was just passively taking hits.
Nocturne could meld into the Shadow Realm and teleport instantaneously, while Li Lin could only maintain the Adaptive Shield continuously to withstand its ambushes.
[You receive an attack from Nocturne's "Path of Darkness," -4982 health to the magic barrier of the Banshee's Veil.]
[You receive an attack from Nocturne's "Silent Fear," -3592 health to the magic barrier of the Banshee's Veil.]
[You receive an attack from Nocturne's "Nightmare Blade," -2436 health to the adaptive shield of the battle armor.]
...
Seeing Li Lin unaffected by his attacks, coupled with his power diminishing after his true name was revealed, Nocturne realized the seriousness of the problem.
This insignificant human ant had magical items, making it impossible for him to evoke fear in him and then devour him.
Moreover, the strange armor he wore could generate barriers slightly different from magic, and his blades couldn't pierce his heart.
Neither fighting nor escaping, this guy's speed wasn't much slower than his own, and it seemed he couldn't outrun him either...
What should he do now? Should he really die here?
The last time he was pressed like this was when hundreds of powerful shadow mages sealed himself...
If only he hadn't been affected by this human nightmare in the city, he wouldn't have encountered this.
A strange emotion arose in Nocturne's heart.
In human terms, it should be called "regret."
He threw out another Shadow Blade, but it still had no effect on Li Lin.
Seeing this, Nocturne maintained a distance of more than ten meters from Li Lin, blinking back and forth, his voice elusive, "In this domain, no one can help you, just surrender!"
"You're getting impatient."
"Damn bug! You really disgust me!"
"You can't do anything to me, you've been breached."
"..."
Nocturne froze in place.
Though unsure of what Li Lin meant by "breached," it could sense the mocking tone in the words of this insignificant human.
The armor's system pinpointed Nocturne's location, yet Li Lin remained unfazed, continuing to taunt verbally:
"I know you emerged from the Shadow Wars, embodying human fears and nightmares. But being beaten to this extent by a 'tiny bug' as you call it, what do you feel?"
"Hmph! If you hadn't learned my true name..."
"If revealing your true name weakened you so much, couldn't you at least make an effort to crush this 'bug'? You can't even beat me. What does that say about your demonic prowess?"
Nocturne: "..."
"A thousand years ago, you lost to the combined efforts of shadow mages, and now you lose to me. Are you going to be defeated by a child next...?"
Listening to Li Lin's mocking words, Nocturne's anger was rising. "Shut up!"
"You're getting impatient. You've been breached."
"Damn!"
After all, he was a demon sealed into the spiritual realm by humans shortly after his birth.
Even though he had devoured countless nightmares over the millennia, that belonged to controlling human fears, utterly crushing.
Nocturne didn't understand the concept of "provocation," nor did he realize that Li Lin was actually powerless against him now, intentionally trying to provoke him to expose a vulnerability.
Li Lin's goal was achieved.
"Go die!"
Nocturne prepared to make a final effort, suddenly lunging at Li Lin, the massive blade on his arm slicing through the air with a piercing sound.
Perfect opportunity! Li Lin had long been prepared, inputting two commands into the battle armor, waiting for this attack.
As Nocturne's blade, imbued with shadow magic, approached, it struck the just-emerged translucent force field shield, not even touching the adaptive shield of the battle armor.
As soon as he realized it was a trap, Li Lin smirked, and a highly destructive energy shockwave erupted from the back of the battle armor, blasting directly onto Nocturne.
"Ah!!"
Nocturne couldn't control his life force anymore, plummeting once again, while the Shadow Realm could no longer be sustained, shattering.
Seeing the situation turning grim, Nocturne quickly used "Shadow Flicker," becoming more transparent and creating four illusory clones, attempting to escape into the shadows.
But Li Lin didn't give him a chance.
The intelligent system of the Infinite Armor quickly locked onto each of Nocturne's shadow clones, numerous mini-energy cannonballs bursting forth from his back, tracing an arc in mid-air and attacking all the shadows.
In this way, no matter which clone Nocturne switched positions with later, it would be covered by firepower.
Meanwhile, his shoulder cannons, palm cannons, and high-energy death rays locked onto Nocturne's main body.
As the continuous barrage of energy cannons erupted, Nocturne looked back at the approaching blue-white energy spheres and laser beams.
"No!!"
(End of Chapter)