Chapter 370: Coin Flip

For Xia Nan, the situation on the field was already very clear.

Moxi, after complete crystallization, had exaggerated physical defense performance, but 【Gravity Etching】 could almost ignore the crystals on his body surface and cause fatal injuries to him.

The only limitation was the "number of uses."

He only had one chance for a sword strike.

For this reason, Xia Nan had to find the perfect opportunity when the other party was 100% unable to dodge or defend, and use all his strength as much as possible to slash that sword strike carrying the field energy onto the enemy's vital point.

This was his general battle plan for later.

And at the same time, after the stone skin on the surface of the Goddess statue peeled off, revealing the pink gem body underneath, the pink energy filling the air allowed Moxi to not only recover from his injuries and greatly enhance his physical fitness, but also take the opportunity to cause serious injury to himself.

How to choose next... depended entirely on Xia Nan himself.

【Healing Potion】 was excluded first; not to mention taking that fragile little glass bottle out of his waist bag, pinching and biting open the bottle seal, pouring the potion into his mouth, and then waiting for the medicinal effect to gradually take effect—during this entire process, Xia Nan, who was in a seriously injured state, would face what kind of extreme danger when facing the enemy before him.

Such a bottle of ordinary quality healing potion priced at 50 gold coins was also not enough to restore his full combat capability; for the enhanced Moxi, the situation would only be worse.

The "Spring Pulse Cleansing" of 【Tears of Spring Breath】 was indeed a 4th-ring healing spell, and the effect was quite good, but in the final analysis, it was just an enhanced version of a "Healing Potion."

It could not make Xia Nan completely recover from his seriously injured state, nor did it have any effect of enhancing his abilities.

In this situation, how to choose... was very clear.

Xia Nan had already fully grasped the information about Moxi's combat style, physical strength, actual combat power, and other aspects after a few rounds of confrontation.

What he needed was just to earn a sufficiently good opportunity for himself.

【Ember Echo】—achieves usage conditions when the user's vitality is below 33%.

And its 30-day cooldown had already recovered a few days ago.

The duration was 60 seconds.

One minute... Xia Nan had one minute to cut off the enemy's head.

Boom—

Carrying ashes and sparks, the invisible scorching air current swept and surged toward the surroundings amidst the sound of his beating heart.

Crimson flames burst from deep within his body, turning into scorching flame light spreading and lingering on the surface of his skin.

The wound on his abdomen stabbed by the dagger stopped bleeding instantly, and under the coverage of the flames, it healed in a flash, without even leaving the faintest scar.

The special effect from 【Ember Echo】 allowed Xia Nan's vitality, which was originally below 33%, to be pulled up to 66% in an instant amidst the flickering firelight, and it continued to recover at a rate of 0.333% per second.

His already abundant physical strength soared by a large margin; his energy limit, recovery speed, and consumption rate were all greatly enhanced; along with this, the physical defense capability of this flesh body was also strengthened with the fire light covering the body surface.

"Hoo..."

His breath was long, and crimson sparks drifted into the air with his nasal breath; the air current surged, and amidst his violently swaying pitch-black broken hair were the shattered ashes burning with fire light.

The 【Infernal Pulse】 on his surface, which had a deep indentation, had its silver-grey armor body already swallowed by the flames rising from below, presenting a molten state glowing with flame light.

Fortunately, the main material itself came from the Nine Hells of Baator, and it had a certain adaptability to flame effects, which was why it did not completely scrap under the passive burning of that sorrowful flame from another realm.

In contrast, it was the leg guards on Xia Nan's lower body named 【Bone-Binding Iron Shins】 that performed much better than the metal products, possibly because the main material during production was the bones of powerful magic beasts; at this moment, the cold, white, delicate bone surface was glowing with a layer of crimson fire light.

But looking at Xia Nan's whole body, the biggest change was naturally the 【Cinder Meteor】 straight sword in his hand.

Wisps of flowing fire conducted to the sword body along his fingertips, without any signs of resistance or defense, as if they were one body; the pink enchanting light originally reflected on the surface of the blade was instantly dispelled without any suspense, and replacing it was a layer of scorching flame light that made the surrounding air slightly distort and soaked the straight sword.

If the color of the 【Cinder Meteor】 straight sword's blade before was the twilight grey-black of the sky when night fell;

then now, it was stained with a touch of orange-red, glorious sunset afterglow.

It shared the same origin as 【Ember Echo】, and was combined with 【Molten Ash Silver Ingot】 that had been cast and modified by the secret realm flames during forging.

At this moment, when the sorrowful embers swallowed Xia Nan's body, the weapon quality of the originally "Blue Rare" 【Cinder Meteor】 straight sword was also upgraded to "Purple Epic."

The 【Molten Flow Reshaping】 passive, which could automatically restore the blade's durability and slightly increase the ember attachment damage, took effect.

The cold, dark eyes, pitch-black like a solar eclipse with only a layer of crimson flame light on the edges, reflected the crystal figure on the field ahead that seemed to be stunned by the scene before him.

Xia Nan stared at his enemy.

At this moment, the first second had passed since he opened the "Ember" state.

"Awoo!"

It was a long wolf howl that was different from before, more high-pitched and as if wrapped in angry flames.

The 33% all-around physical fitness bonus of 【Ember Echo】 caused his "Strength" and "Agility" attributes to increase by nearly six points in an instant.

Reflected on 【Wolf Tooth Hunt】, it was an even more exaggerated starting speed and powerful explosive force.

The black wolf with the same eclipse-like eyes moved its steps, and every time its slender limbs touched the ground, it could leave a scorched black mark glowing with fire light.

The barrier of space was crossed in an instant.

Even Moxi, the crystal man whose physical fitness had also been enhanced, found it difficult to capture the black-red phantom that had almost condensed into a line in front of him for a while.

When he subconsciously crossed his arms to block in front of him under the influence of the extreme sense of danger in his heart,

that scorching air wave had already fallen on him along with the molten blade of the slash.

At this moment, Moxi could even briefly glimpse the crimson fire light flickering and jumping on the cheeks of the young man in front of him, and feel the scorching heat brought by the ashes and sparks drifting around the other party's body.

Then, there was the scorching pain of the flames burning.

The 25% ember damage attached to 【Ember Echo】, distinct from ordinary flame attacks and different from field energy, was a mixed damage that blended mental and physical flames.

Coupled with the 10% mental damage bonus of the 【Cinder Meteor】 straight sword itself,

this sword strike, although blocked by Moxi with his arms, caused his mental willpower to be slashed hard by the flaming sword as if there were no obstacles in the invisible.

While the whole person was suddenly dazed, unspeakable scorching pain erupted in his heart.

And what made this priest even more unacceptable was that the crimson flames circling the surface of the sword held by the black-haired adventurer before him seemed to possess some kind of unique scorching damage.

It was no longer a simple physical attack.

It caused the pink crystal particles on the surface of his body, bestowed by the "God" and possessing extremely strong physical defense performance, to show a clear trend of decline.

The crystal skin that might have required slashing more than a dozen times in the same place to barely break the defense was scorched away by more than half with just one sword of crimson fire.

"Ah!!!"

A high-frequency scream formed by energy vibration erupted in the air, and the sudden sense of danger and powerlessness that emerged in his heart made Moxi frantically pour out the pink energy in his body.

The translucent light shield expanded and expanded toward the surroundings again, centered on the pink gem on his chest.

The sword tip touched down, and Xia Nan, who knew after a slight attempt that he still could not break through the light shield's defense at the moment, did not hesitate, retreating rapidly under the wrapping of the black wolf phantom glowing with fire light.

He easily dodged the other party's counterattack.

His feet landed lightly amidst the wolf howl, and his pitch-black eyes glanced at the outer side of Moxi's arm, where the scorched sword mark was recovering rapidly under the encirclement of the pink energy in the air.

As his eyes turned, he glanced at the Goddess statue composed of pink gems behind the other party.

Thoughts flashed in his mind.

After 【Ember Echo】 was opened, his attack added another layer of "Ember" attachment damage, which could cause significant damage to Moxi. ===== CHAPTER 371 =====