The instant Izroth reached within striking range of Zareign, he felt a heavy strain weigh down on his body.
Due to having Flickering Steps, Heavenly Field, and Full Mantle active simultaneously, the amount of stress it placed on his body was astronomical. If not for the Earthly Golden Bones effect of his Heavenly Golden Body and Might stat, he would have had trouble pressing forward with his attack so smoothly right after "jumping" with his Compressed Lightning Movement.
'My body's holding up well. It shouldn't be an issue as long as I control my movements with a certain level of precision.'
At his current agility, which was over 20,000 points, even with his monstrous sense of perception, Izroth still had trouble following his own movement without relying solely on his instinct and muscle memory. At least, this would have been the case if not for one skill at his disposal—Time Dilation.
Right as he triggered the effect of his Full Mantle, Izroth also set his Time Dilation skill to 75%. However, this added to his burden. That's why, to ease that burden, Izroth also utilized the Strength of the Ancient Colossus skill from his Ring of the Ancient Colossus. This temporarily doubled his Might stat for one minute, not only further enhancing his physical body but also making it so that he recovered much faster from physical irregularities.
However, Izroth knew that he could not afford to be careless. With Reign of the Shattering Void and Compressed Lightning Movement active at the same time, he was losing more than 10% of his health every second, and the number was also going up with every passing moment.
Izroth sustained this HP loss with a small percentage of lifesteal and by employing the Rapid Regeneration effect attached to his Apparel of Insatiable Transcendence that increased his HP regeneration by 200% for one minute. But even that would soon not be enough to keep up with the constant use of the powerful skills he was using in combination with one another.
Since the Duke had not escaped the range of his tenth sword form, he was also affected by the defense-reducing effects of Disintegration.
However, Izroth swiftly discovered that the effect that his tenth sword form had on Zareign was not amplified by much.
The stronger one's attachment to life, the greater the effects of the tenth sword form were amplified. The fact that Zareign showed minimal signs of distress meant that he was prepared to face his death at any given moment.
Though Izroth was not too surprised by the results. Lower ranked skounae may still possess a healthy attachment to life like Varokin who tried to plead for the Duke to save him in his last moments. But for those higher up on the pecking order like Zareign, they were no different than blindly zealous servants of the Night King and Night Lords.
To Zareign, his life belonged to the Night King and Night Lords. Therefore, to die carrying out their will was the highest honor rather than something to be feared.
Nevertheless, Izroth actually preferred that to be the case. To him, it was easier and much more straightforward to face an opponent who was already prepared to fight until the end and give up their life if necessary. Those kinds of opponents were not usually the type to plot and scheme or flee right before their imminent defeat. And more importantly, they would face whatever was thrown at them head-on.
Izroth stabbed his spear into the center of Zareign's chest. With his agility boost from Flickering Steps and the Fourth State: Heavenly Field, the 100% attack speed gain from his Spear of Perseverance passive, the 25% attack speed increase from his Dual Wielding, and the massive 400% attack speed surge from his Reign of the Shattering Void, the strike was so fast that the spear cutting through the air released a sharp high-pitched whistling sound and generated a sonic boom.
BOOM!
Izroth's first strike landed perfectly at the center of Zareign's chest. Right as it did so, Izroth received an alert from the system.
〈Battle Alert: The «Instant Multi-Strike» effect of «Reign of the Shattering Void» has been activated!〉
The next moment, the spear in Izroth's hands turned incredibly light. Then, in the blink of an eye, Izroth struck out six times in instantaneous succession with his spear, further pressing his assault against the Duke.
-30,250
-30,640
-31,030
«Critical Hit»
-62,842
-31,811
«Critical Hit»
-64,403
-32,592
Every time he successfully landed an attack with his spear, Izroth gained stacks of Madness. This increased the damage of his next spear attack and could stack any number of times. And for Izroth, this was only the beginning of his onslaught.
〈Battle Alert: The «Link» effect of «Dual Wielding» has been activated!〉
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A series of sonic booms rung throughout the room as the sword and spear in Izroth's hands transformed into a thin streak of light.
In the blink of an eye, following the six strikes, Izroth's Sword of the Storm and Scorched Inferno's Fang bombarded Zareign from every angle imaginable.
Due to his current boosted agility stat and skill mastery of Dual Wielding, Izroth could perform a staggering twenty instantly chained attacks with the skill's Link effect. Since the number of strikes was divided evenly among both weapons, this meant that ten of the attacks originated from his spear.
Out of those ten attacks, even though it was only a 25% chance, because of his abnormally high luck, eight of the attacks triggered the Instant Multi-Strike effect of his Reign of the Shattering Void.
The number of attacks for Instant Multi-Strike started off at six; however, they increased by one for every additional ten stacks of Madness. Although the attacks from Instant Multi-Strike could not activate its own effect, it still granted Izroth stacks of Madness. And, by the time his last strike connected, Izroth had reached a staggering 176 stacks of Madness!
〈System Alert: You have gained 1 Stack of «Madness». [Current Stacks: 176]〉
〈System Alert: Your next spear-type attack will deal an additional 1,408% damage!〉
