Chapter 92: Power of the Artifact
In this critical moment, a cold light suddenly flashed from the noble attire of the Vampire Son, which was adorned with gold-threaded silver-edged thorn flowers. In the blink of an eye, it blocked Soren’s attack, and then the cold light disappeared again as the Vampire Son retreated three steps in quick succession. The cold light came from his cuff and could be determined to be some type of short weapon, no longer than fifteen centimeters.
“Sleeve sword?”
“Could it be that his profession is Assassin?”
Soren’s pupils contracted slightly, and he kicked off the ground to charge forward again, the Holy Avenger slicing down.
—“Sword Intent: Beheading!”
Faced with Soren’s fiercely powerful attack, the Vampire Son could no longer afford to attack others. The power unleashed by Soren in Slayer Form was astonishing, and the relentless offensive forced the Vampire Son to retreat repeatedly. His retreat was not due to fear of Soren’s strength, but rather a deep concern for the Holy Avenger in Soren’s hands, as even a Deity’s avatar-like Saint would not withstand an artifact’s attack.
—”Human Immobilization!”
The Vampire Son tentatively cast an instant spell.
But.
Soren’s steps did not pause for a moment; his own saving throw did not even trigger.
Because before him appeared a line of data:
“Target affected by [Human Immobilization] effect!… Triggering inherent spell resistance!… Holy Avenger’s spell resistance activated!… Lich Ring +5 spell resistance activated!…”
“You are completely immune to the effects of this spell!…”
The Holy Avenger had a 50% spell resistance, providing a half chance for any spell cast against its wielder to be completely ineffective. The Lich Ring +5 also added an additional 10% spell resistance; when combined, they provided 60% spell resistance. Statistically, with a ten-sided d*e, Soren would need to roll a 1-4 for the spell effect to be triggered. Otherwise, normal spells would struggle to affect him.
Moreover, even if a spell did affect Soren, he would still need to make another spell saving throw for it to take effect.
However.
Soren had another special ability – [Blessing of the Goddess of Misfortune]!
The effect of this blessing was to cause Soren’s enemies to suffer a point of misfortune penalty whenever they triggered any saving throws. Meanwhile, Soren’s luck would not drop below a baseline level.
The blessing of the Goddess of Misfortune could not make someone extraordinarily lucky.
But it could ensure that a person would not experience exceptionally bad luck. In fact, Soren rarely encountered catastrophic misfortunes, especially in battle; he almost always performed above average. He had never faced any incident of unexpected misfortune that caught him off-guard.
In the current situation, the effect of the Goddess of Misfortune’s blessing was incalculable!
—”Edict: Intimidation!”
—”Displacement!”
—”d*ath Touch!”
—”Mislead!”
—”Maze Spell!”
The Vampire Son’s casting ability was quite astonishing. As a Saint form after the Investiture of the Gods, his casting level far exceeded Vivian’s. Facing Soren’s incredibly fierce attacks and wary of the Holy Avenger’s power, the Vampire Son, unwilling to clash head-on, could only continue to unleash a barrage of various instantaneous spells while retreating. It was unknown how powerful his legendary instantaneous specialty was; so far, every spell he cast had no visible casting process and surged toward Soren like a storm.
Without the Holy Avenger in hand, Soren would have been severely injured or even dead at that moment!
However.
With the Holy Avenger, Soren directly ignored these spells.
Edict: Intimidation?
Ignored.
Displacement?
Ignored.
d*ath Touch?
Ignored.
Mislead?
What good is that!
Maze Spell?
It seemed a bit troublesome? But before Soren could evade, the spell went invalid. It appeared that it wasn’t due to the Holy Avenger, but in Slayer Form, he seemed to automatically become immune to spells that confined space. The power of the artifact was so astonishing; previously, Soren had relied on saving throw resistances to resist spells. Even when he managed to endure, he would still take some damage, but now he received no damage at all unless the 60% spell resistance was broken, which would then trigger a damage-saving throw that determined how much damage he would take.
For example, ‘d*ath Touch’.
If the 60% spell resistance was not broken, it would fail outright. If it were broken, Soren would then have to face a forced Fortitude saving throw, where failure would mean instant d*ath, while success would result in reduced damage, with further mitigation due to his inherent resistances.
With the Holy Avenger in hand!
Any spell would need to overcome two of Soren’s saving throws before it could damage him.
“d*mn!”
The Vampire Son’s expression became increasingly grim. He muttered to himself, “What kind of monster is this? Even with the Holy Avenger, it shouldn’t be that all spells fail, right?”
Grinding his teeth.
The Vampire Son’s figure instantly transformed into a gaseous form, and just as time stop was about to end, he raised his hand to cast his most powerful instantaneous spell.
—”Energy Drain [Legendary Spell]!”
Since the enemy’s strength was so formidable.
He could only rely on Energy Drain to erode his opponent’s abilities, significantly weakening him first.
“Again with this spell!”
Soren’s face finally showed a bit of change; he had suffered greatly at the hands of this spell in the past. If he hadn’t found a way to restore his abilities, he would have had a long headache. In the current situation, if Soren was affected by this spell, the battle would be over; he would completely lose his rhythm. But at this distance, there was no way to dodge such an instantaneous legendary spell, so he could only rely on his resistance to endure.
In his Slayer Form, holding the Holy Avenger and the Lich Ring +5, he didn’t believe that with the Goddess of Misfortune’s blessing, he would encounter bad luck.
With all these advantages combined, he shouldn’t be able to withstand this legendary spell!
A line of data appeared before him:
“Attacked by the legendary spell [Energy Drain]!…”
“Triggering inherent spell resistance!… Holy Avenger’s spell resistance activated!… Lich Ring +5 spell resistance activated!… Slayer Form resistance activated!…”
“You are completely immune to the effects of this spell!…”
………………
He succeeded!
Soren immunized the effects of this legendary spell!
At that moment.
Even Soren felt an urge to laugh out loud, whispering to himself, “So powerful! Truly so powerful! Is this the might of that legendary artifact? No wonder so many people competed for [Holy Avenger] and [Pale Justice] back then!”
In his memory.
Both artifacts had caused quite the uproar. Yet they were both weapons for Paladins, about which Soren had held no interest in the past.
If not for the [Universal Skillful Hand] today, he wouldn’t have been able to wield the Holy Avenger.
—”Shadow Leap!”
The astounding power of the artifact filled Soren with confidence for the impending battle; with such high spell immunity, he had no concerns, and as for physical confrontations, Soren did not believe anyone could match him, wielding a five-tier artifact!
“+15 Sharpness, +10 Penetration, +15 Resilience, +10 Armor Piercing, +10 Holy Damage.”
This completely overshadowed the legendary curved blade Icebane’s effects, and Soren was confident he could turn a full-grown dragon into nothing more than minced meat within a minute.
The effect of time stop ended.
But in battles of this level, even a second could lead to astonishing changes, so neither side had any time to communicate.
Soren’s Shadow Leap charged again into the presence of the Vampire Son.
—“Sword Intent: Spinning Dance!”
The Holy Avenger drew a sacred light, directly slashing toward the Vampire Son before him.
An invisible energy defensive force field activated.
In the Saint form, the Vampire Son had numerous defensive measures; the initial attack was not enough to breach all his defensive energy shields.
However!
At the moment of contact, a sacred light also emerged from the Holy Avenger:
“Hit the target!”
“Triggering the Holy Avenger’s [Dispel Magic] effect!… Dispel Magic check passed!… Target’s high-level energy shield dispelled!…”
Dispel Magic.
Any enemy struck by the Holy Avenger, as long as they had any spell effects upon them, whether it be energy protective fields, elemental resistance abilities, or enhancements such as Bull’s Strength, Cat’s Grace, and Fox’s Cunning, would automatically trigger a legendary-level dispel magic effect upon being hit by the Holy Avenger.
This weapon had caused countless spellcasters to suffer over the years!
Clang.
The sound of weapon collision rang out again.
With no other options available, the Vampire Son could only brace himself to withstand Soren’s attack once more. This time, new data appeared:
“Hit the target!”
“Triggering the Holy Avenger’s [Dispel Magic] effect!… Dispel Magic check passed!… Target’s high-level Haste dispelled!…”
………………
In an instant.
Both the Vampire Son’s movement speed and attack speed significantly decreased, and he awkwardly dodged the Holy Avenger’s sharp edge. He seemed to want to escape Soren’s attack range. But how could Soren let the enemy create distance at this moment? He instantly activated the Lich Ring +5 on his finger, his speed suddenly quickening to the point of resembling an afterimage.
—”Greater Haste!”
In Soren’s eyes was an endless killing intent; he moved like a whirlwind without stopping. The terrifying attacks even formed a wave of energy blades rampaging.
On the other side.
The Warden, having exited the time stop, stood in stunned silence, murmuring, “How is this possible!!!”
“He can actually use the Holy Avenger!…”
“And also…”
“Why can a Wanderer unleash the legendary Sword Saint’s [Great Whirlwind]!?”
………………
(PS: This is the first update, and there will be two more updates today.) (To be continued ~^~)
