Published: February 12, 2025
“Ability 4, Thorny Grasp of Objects. When attacked, it returns 10% to 50% of the attack strength to the attacker, consuming the bearer’s mental power. When the return rate is set at 10%, the mental power consumed is 10% of one's own, and for every 10% increase in the return rate, the mental power consumption increases by 5%. The effect lasts for thirty minutes, and the abilities of other shields are disabled. The cooldown time is five hours. During one cooldown period, the return rate can only be set once.”
This ability is clearly the greatest reliance of the shield during continuous combat and can be said to be its essence. The damage reflected back to the attacker can reach up to fifty percent, which means that any action taken by the attacker would injure themselves along with their target. If one's own defense is not high, they wouldn't even need to wait for others to attack before being defeated first.
After Ye Zhongming activated this ability, he set it to reflect 50% of the attack power. Each time the fire stone creature attacked, it would injure itself. It was not a particularly high-defense entity, so it quickly weakened. Coupled with the attacks from Red Hair, Xia Bai, Xiao Min, and the red dress guard, it was no surprise that the Cloud Summit warriors prevailed.
Everyone sighed in relief. The events of the day had left everyone feeling fatigued, and victory might be the only thing that could temporarily help them forget that feeling.
However, at that moment, the shattered pieces of the flaming stones began to coalesce, and soon, more than twenty smaller fire stone creatures appeared.
If everyone watching this scene had a divine beast in their hearts, then Cloud Summit could flatten this space.
One ninth-level creature had left, and twenty eighth-level creatures appeared...
So, how far off could more seventh and sixth-level creatures be?
Compared to the stone knights encountered earlier, these fire stone creatures were completely different!
“Follow me! We don’t seek to kill, we just need to charge through!”
Ye Zhongming immediately made this decision.
All signs showed that the situation here had shifted, similar to what they had encountered earlier on the ice plains. Remaining in place to fight could also pass the test, but casualties would occur.
What if the next test was a similar situation? Should they just allow this place to wear down Cloud Summit's living power bit by bit?
The Youth Army is the hope for the future, and the red dress guard is the cornerstone of the present; both are key forces for Cloud Summit. Ye Zhongming could not allow them to be consumed here.
Since he didn’t want to clash head-on, they could only break out.
One thing that the King of Cloud Summit was concerned about was that the air here was really foul, with the concentration of toxic substances increasing rapidly. He feared that staying here too long would poison the warriors in his team.
Under Ye Zhongming's lead, the entire team immediately charged at the fire stone creatures, and battle erupted instantly.
Cloud Summit had many high-end combat forces, but due to the limitations here, the battle beasts lost their complete combat power. Facing these eighth-level fire stone creatures, the team struggled a bit.
However, due to Ye Zhongming's personal strength, and the fact that Xia Bai, Xiao Min, and Red Hair could also engage with two of these incomplete lifeforms in a short time, coupled with the overall strength of the red dress guard and Youth Army, the team was still able to maintain stability. When necessary, they also relied on the physically strong Yangos and earth yellow pill battle beasts to help.
Ye Zhongming was also generous in using the prepared equipment and items; just talking about the Staff of Nature, it was constantly glowing to block attacks from one side, allowing others to have more opportunities to act.
Killing one fire stone creature resulted in more but weaker mini versions appearing, attacking from behind Cloud Summit. As they broke through, a line of fire stone creatures was left behind. The weaker battle beasts ran ahead, protected by the Youth Army, while Ye Zhongming and the red dress guard occasionally turned back to fight the enemies.