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Chapter 271 – Seventh Stage Battle Spirit

A Level 50 Awakening Skill obviously couldn’t appear on a Level 31 character. However, the glow around Soft Mist, as well as her sudden increase in attack speed and strength, was without a doubt from Battle Spirit.

Battle Spirit continuously buffed the Battle Mage as they fought. The buff applied was based on the number of consecutive combos done by the Battle Mage.

At a 10-hit Combo, the attack speed would increase by 0.5, the movement speed by 2%, and the Strength stat by 30.

At a 20-hit Combo, the attack speed would increase by 1.0, the movement speed by 4%, and the Strength stat by 50.

At a 30-hit Combo, the attack speed would increase by 1.5, the movement speed by 6%, and the Strength stat by 70.

And like this, there were a total of seven stages. On the seventh stage, the buff would be even greater than the previous jumps.

The seventh stage required the Battle Mage to Combo 120 hits, but the attack speed would increase by 6, the movement speed by 24%, and the Strength stat by 260. Compared to the sixth stage, it required twice as many combos, but also doubled the buff.

How strong were these buffs?

An attack speed of 6 was similar to the difference between the slowest Greatsword and the Tachi.

A movement speed increase of 24% was 4% more than the buff from a max-level Neutral Chaser.

As for a Strength stat increase of 260, that was even more terrifying. The Ghostblade’s Sword Boundary would only increase the Strength stat by 150 at max level.

A Battle Mage at the seventh stage of Battle Spirit was extremely terrifying.

Wind Following Sword was an experienced player. Soft Mist was moving faster, attacking faster, and also hitting harder! He was well aware that she was at the seventh stage of Battle Spirit. That golden glow around her was quite distinct.

The seventh stage was indeed extremely strong, but in reality, it was practically impossible to achieve. If she had comboed Wind Following Sword 120 times, then he would have died long before that. If that happened, she wouldn’t even have the opportunity of getting to the seventh stage.

The seventh stage could, in reality, only be achieved in a chaotic battle where there were many targets, allowing the Battle Mage to quickly rack up a high combo. Soft Mist had used these surrounding monsters to accumulate a 120-hit combo. After reaching the seventh stage, she turned to Wind Following Sword to attack him.

As for where the Battle Spirit came from, Wind Following Sword knew the answer.

Event. It was due to the Christmas event.

The items from Christmas thieves could be used. After using the item, the item couldn’t be used to exchange for gifts with Santa. These items couldn’t be traded and weren’t worth any money. They would also expire after the event had ended.

Smart players weren’t likely to use these items, but Soft Mist had been forced to use one of the items that she had received from a Christmas thief.

Skill Scroll!

Skill Scrolls allowed a skill to be added onto an equipment. The Skill Scroll would then add one level to the skill. The level of the skill could even go over the max-level. In other words, if a skill was at max level 10, then after using a Skill Scroll, it added a level to that skill, making the skill go to level 11. However, there was a limit to the amount of times a skill scroll could be used, so it wasn’t possible to level up endlessly through this method.

In order to level a skill, the character first had to have learned it already. If the character hadn’t learned it yet, the Skill Scroll would only be used on the weapon, which would allow the skill to be used at a skill level of 1.

All of this was explained on the Skill Scroll. Tang Rou had put the Battle Spirit Skill Scroll on her Scarlet Moon Lance, which allowed her Level 31 Soft Mist to learn the Level 50 Awakening skill: Battle Spirit.

The Christmas event was even more generous. With this scroll, Soft Mist was able to directly learn a maxed Battle Spirit. Of course, this would only be temporary and the game wasn’t afraid of it messing up the game’s balance. They wanted to let new players personally have a taste of what high-leveled skills were like. And due to this, it helped Tang Rou out tremendously.

Tang Rou didn’t really understand all of this. She had heard from Chen Guo that Battle Spirit was the Battle Mage’s signature move, so she understood that quite well. After seeing this scroll in her inventory, she didn’t hesitate to add it to her weapon.

In ordinary circumstances, a normal Skill Scroll would only allow her to use a level one Battle Spirit, which would only allow her to reach the first stage and the first stage wouldn’t be enough power. But because of the event, a max-level Battle Spirit allowed Soft Mist to explode with power.

A sudden increase of 260 Strength at Level 31 was much more terrifying than having that increase at Level 50 or Level 70 because the proportional strength gained was completely different.

Wind Following Sword quickly understood, but it was already too late. Even though he was experienced, there was no way that he could have anticipated this situation.

Wind Following Sword was thrown onto the ground. His health rapidly decreased and he was only at ⅓ health now. Attacks with a 260 Strength increase were way too difficult to bear.

Wind Following Sword immediately drank a potion. He wouldn’t give up so easily. The seventh stage was terrifying, but it wasn’t without a weakness.

Battle Spirit was a passive skill. After a Battle Mage learned it, they would grow stronger with more combos. However, the buff depended upon the combos and wasn’t as stable.

For example, Tang Rou’s Soft Mist had reached a 120-hit Combo from the monsters. If she stopped attacking, she would still have the seventh stage buff and if she kept on fighting, she would still be fighting at the seventh stage. But her next attack would reset the Battle Spirit’s combo count. If her combos stopped at 10 in the next round of attacks, her seventh stage buff would wear off and she would only have a first stage buff.

In other words, if she wanted to maintain her seventh stage buff, then every time she did a round of attacks, she would have to keep doing 120-hit combos.

When Soft Mist rushed forward, she used all of the skills she had at her disposal in order to create a combo. If she stopped comboing, her seventh stage buff would immediately wear off and Wind Following Sword understood this better than Tang Rou did.

As a result, as long as he dodged or interrupted the next attack…….

A scarlet light flashed.

Wind Following Sword was still thinking the plan through, when Soft Mist’s attack connected. The previous Circle Swing knocked him down, disabling him from using a Quick Recover.

Wind Following Sword was suddenly scared. In terms of mechanics, he never was fit to be her opponent. And now that his opponent had the seventh stage buff with an attack speed increase of 6 and a 24% increase in movement speed, along with the movement speed buff from the Neutral Chasers, how was he going to dodge her attacks?

Just as he was thinking about Neutral Chasers, one of Soft Mist’s Neutral Chasers slammed into Wind Following Sword’s head. Luckily, the Neutral Chaser did magic damage, so it wasn’t affected by the Strength boost and the damage was normal. However, as the Neutral Chaser exploded, Soft Mist swung her lance and launched him into the air with a Sky Strike.

“I can’t escape!” Wind Following Sword cried. If Soft Mist used all her skills, his life would certainly end! However……. if Soft Mist killed him, then she’d also die as well due to the attacks from the oncoming monsters.

Wind Following Sword knew it was over, but he still held a bit of hope.

As Wind Following Sword thought of this, he suddenly saw an item roll towards Soft Mist’s feet.

Wind Following Sword immediately laughed madly. He turned his camera mid-air and saw a person’s hand pulling back.

“Bang!” A grenade exploded under Soft Mist’s feet, knocking her aside. Even though she quickly used a Quick Recover and didn’t get knocked to the ground, Soft Mist’s seventh stage Battle Spirit immediately wore off.

“Ha ha ha! Girl, you and I aren’t the only ones playing the game!” Wind Following Sword laughed in glee.

Tang Rou felt depressed. She had already seen that there was someone on a rooftop nearby and there were also more players coming from the far end of the street. She knew that, this time, she was out of luck.

“You’re quite right.”

At this moment, Tang Rou suddenly heard a voice. The voice was very close, as if it were coming from next to her……