After the young girl smashed through two of Yu Xian's summoned beasts in quick succession, the Guoba Legion's morale soared. Around them, skeleton soldiers were routed one after another by the class users, leaving only the numerous monsters suffering from the Chaos Evil Beast's memetic infection still fighting.
The strength of these memetically infected monsters far surpassed that of the skeleton soldiers. In particular, the elite monsters brought under control earlier required several squads working together just to hold them off.
Yet the class users of the Guoba Legion felt no fear at all now. Instead, they fought with increasing fervor. Once the young girl took action, they were certain victory would inevitably belong to the Guoba Legion.
Aside from those with baffling, baseless confidence, most people's confidence did not arise out of thin air.
Trust worked the same way.
The Guoba Legion's trust in the young girl stemmed from her string of unbroken victories and her absurd stat panel.
Exaggerated as it might sound, in Jiangli City, the name of "Invincible Lin Xiaoxiao" was known to virtually everyone. She was the very embodiment of invincibility.
Seeing Xielina step onto the field, Lin Xiaoxiao pushed off the ground with explosive power, driving a fist toward her.
This strike was not Inversion - Suppression Fist, but Restriction - Dual Heavenly Yin Kill. After all, with Yu Xian acting so confident, Lin Xiaoxiao naturally brought out her trump card against Xielina.
[Restriction - Dual Heavenly Yin Kill: Infuse killing aura into fists to strike targets at range. If the target is knocked back during the attack, they die instantly. If knocked into the air during the attack, they die instantly.]
This skill was an utterly unreasonable rule-based ability.
As long as she could knock back or knock away Xielina with a single punch, Xielina would be instantly killed on the spot; having any number of bizarre abilities would be useless.
Yet swift as her fist was, Xielina was no slower.
In an instant, the State-Guarding Ward Sword unsheathed, and the Twelve Knights manifested before her.
Lin Xiaoxiao's fist was intercepted by one of the knights. Towering and burly as this knight was, his strength fell short of Lin Xiaoxiao's. Though he blocked the fist with his hands, his body was forced back a step under the colossal impact.
That single step back proved to be his doom.
The knight's body swiftly turned gray. With a crisp snap, a dense network of fractures spread across him. Just as Lin Xiaoxiao pulled her fist back, his body collapsed into gray powder, scattering downward.
The strike had failed to hit its true mark.
Lin Xiaoxiao frowned slightly, instantly shifting direction with a burst of footwork, attempting to strike Xielina from the right flank.
She moved too fast, practically resembling a crimson phantom. Had Xielina not drawn the State-Guarding Ward Sword to summon the Twelve Knights to protect her, she would likely have been forced into a desperate, clumsy dodge even if she survived.
However, the Twelve Knights' protection granted her ample time to activate her skill.
Clutching the State-Guarding Ward Sword, Xielina looked at Lin Xiaoxiao and spoke: "O ignorant creations, where the primordial flash and the final wind of ruin converge, listen: this is the end of all things."
Hymn of the Eternal End!
...
In truth, the instant Xielina opened her mouth, Lin Xiaoxiao realized something was wrong. She immediately erupted with astonishing killing aura, boosting her attack power dramatically.
This was another of her skill effects.
[Inversion - Killing Aura: Store killing aura to form tangible power. Killing aura enhances all aspects of oneself; the more killing aura consumed, the greater the enhancement.]
Under the enhancement of her killing aura, her speed became terrifyingly fast.
In an instant, two knights were killed by her, but the Twelve Knights possessed seamless coordination. The moment two fell in battle, others immediately filled the gap. Without cutting down every one of these knights, Lin Xiaoxiao could not hope to touch Xielina.
Gritting her teeth, she pushed forward at full speed. In the blink of an eye, the remaining knights were shattered one after another.
"Inversion - Divine Kungang Fist!"
Lin Xiaoxiao locked onto Xielina, who was now left entirely alone, and unleashed all of her killing aura.
The effect of Inversion - Divine Kungang Fist was exceedingly simple: it drastically raised her own defense, and if the target's soul hardness was inferior to her defense, they would be instantly killed—another utterly unreasonable rule-based skill.
One meter!
Fifty centimeters!
Ten centimeters!
Lin Xiaoxiao closed in on Xielina at maximum speed.
Yet as she had crossed into a ten-meter radius around Xielina, Xielina had opened her eyes. Golden rays shot from her gaze, freezing space and time in place.
At this moment, aside from Xielina, who could still move, only Yu Xian, her master, was immune to her skill's effect. He looked at Lin Xiaoxiao frozen in midair, her tiny fist radiating astonishing momentum, and he could even clearly see the beads of sweat on her face.
Under this eerie stillness, Xielina drew the Thunderous Bowstring Bow with her left hand, notched the State-Guarding Ward Sword against the bow, and drew the string taut, aiming right at Lin Xiaoxiao inches away.
One arrow.
Heaven and earth turned pitch-black.
All light was drawn into this single arrow. Struck head-on, Lin Xiaoxiao's body instantly disintegrated into ash and dust within the brilliance.
In fact, Lin Xiaoxiao had yet another skill called Counter-Restriction Body. Its effect was that every time she suffered reflected damage from restriction power, her stats would drastically increase while her health slowly regenerated; if struck by a lethal attack, it would be reflected back onto the attacker.
In theory, when hit by this fatal strike, the attack should have bounced back upon Xielina. The problem was that this did not conform to the fundamental rules of skill priority.
Take two people, for example: one can instantly kill enemies at range, while the other can instantly kill enemies in melee. The ranged fighter undoubtedly holds the advantage.
If this ranged and melee fighter clash, it is overwhelmingly likely that the ranged class user will instantly kill the melee class user. The melee fighter's chances of killing the ranged one first are slim to none.
Or take another example: Lin Xiaoxiao had been able to instantly kill Bolaiye because Inversion - Suppression Fist had higher priority than Bolaiye's Wolf's Blood. Before Wolf's Blood could trigger, before Bolaiye could enter his three minutes of invulnerability, his passives had already been sealed by Lin Xiaoxiao's Inversion - Suppression Fist, preventing Wolf's Blood from triggering at all.
The situation right now was precisely the same.
Hymn of the Eternal End possessed extraordinarily high priority. The moment its effect took hold, all passives on Lin Xiaoxiao were bypassed entirely—not that they failed to activate, but that their activation was simply disregarded.
From the instant the skill took effect, her death sentence was sealed, and everything in her life marched toward its end.
This arrow did not target Lin Xiaoxiao alone, but every enemy ahead. After obliterating Lin Xiaoxiao's body, the brilliance immediately scattered, striking every member of the Guoba Legion with impartial fury. Then the light ricocheted through the forest; everywhere it passed, dazzling white light detonated like a nuclear blast.
In a straight line stretching hundreds of thousands of meters into the distance, everything was erased.
When the last beam of light faded, a black wind swept past. Corpses were instantly obliterated, fallen trees completely annihilated, leaving only barren earth—as if life had never existed upon this land.
Chapter 481