Although activating this Title Skill would temporarily deprive Takeda Tomo of her weapon and consume a full 500 points of her Spirit Energy, the effects of this ability were indeed very powerful…
First, any unit within the Rakshasa Halberd Pillar (Luosha Jitianzhu) could not be killed, and could not perform any attacks, use skills, items, or other special abilities until the Halberd Pillar disappeared; of course, attacks from people "outside the pillar" could not penetrate the Halberd Pillar either.
Second, people inside and outside the pillar could enter or leave the range of the Halberd Pillar, but… whether entering or leaving, they would suffer damage equivalent to 95% of their maximum health.
In other words, Zhao Yingwang now had two choices: one, stay inside the Halberd Pillar and wait for the skill effect to disappear before acting; two, rush out of the Halberd Pillar's range to regain freedom of movement, but immediately drop to near-death with very little health.
Clearly, choosing the second option was too risky; Zhao Yingwang's main body had very average physical skills, and even though Takeda Tomo was currently unarmed and being chased by the Platinum Stone Golem, it wouldn't be too difficult to take down a character with only 5% health… she could just trade blows and win.
Therefore, Zhao Yingwang could only choose the first option…
Staying inside the pillar was absolutely safe for at least thirty seconds while the skill lasted, so… when the Halberd Pillar disappeared, Zhao Yingwang would still be at full health. Although the opponent might use these thirty seconds to charge a big move and time it perfectly to bombard him (this was a common tactic used by Takeda Tomo, not a secret), Zhao Yingwang would have a lot of room to maneuver and respond when at full health, which was much safer than going out with 5% health.
All in all, after doing the math, Zhao Yingwang realized that he was not at a great disadvantage, and he even felt that… Takeda Tomo's skill usage was a bit of a misstep; it was clearly a strategically strong control skill, but it didn't bring any obvious advantages, at most delaying the time.
Even the commentators and viewers watching the battle thought that this move was not well-used; because… if she really wanted to delay time, she might as well have cast the skill on herself.
However, only two seconds later, Takeda Tomo slapped everyone in the face with her actions.
"Eh? This is…"
Even the ever-calm Zhao Yingwang was shocked when his opponent rushed into the Halberd Pillar without hesitation.
Anyone could see that Takeda Tomo, who had been fighting the Platinum Stone Golem, had lost more than 5% of her health, and she definitely couldn't afford the damage from entering and exiting the Halberd Pillar.
But… she still resolutely rushed into the pillar.
"Pfft—" The moment she stepped into the Halberd Pillar, Takeda Tomo knelt on one knee, spitting out blood, and looking pained.
But… she didn't die.
This was to be expected, because—"Units within the Rakshasa Halberd Pillar cannot be killed."
Although Takeda Tomo's health was less than 95% when she entered the pillar, her health instantly dropped to 1% due to the "pillar immortality principle" of the Halberd Pillar, and the excess damage was converted into a mental shock.
Bang—
A second later, the Platinum Stone Golem, which was chasing its target, followed in her footsteps, and immediately lunged forward and fell to the ground.
It was not until this moment that Zhao Yingwang suddenly understood, and he widened his eyes and couldn't help but say, "Heh~ that's clever…"
"Hoo…" After taking a few seconds to adjust her breathing, Takeda Tomo stood up again, because she didn't have much "overloaded" health, so the feeling of pain subsided quickly, "Hmph… if you hadn't taken the initiative to run into my skill range, I wouldn't have been able to pull off this 'clever move'."
Now, two players and one Stone Golem were all within the range of the Halberd Pillar; although their health differences were huge, this was meaningless given that they couldn't "harm each other"…
Takeda naturally wouldn't walk out before the skill ended, or she would die; as for the Stone Golem… it was impossible for Zhao Yingwang to order it to commit suicide by stepping out; Zhao Yingwang himself could walk out, but that wouldn't do him any good, as it wouldn't allow him to kill his opponent and would also cost him 95% of his health.
In summary, for the next twenty or so seconds, these few people inside the pillar could only wait.
"I thought you used this move by mistake, but now that I think about it… it's a Title Skill after all, and the owner's understanding is different from us outsiders." Since they were idle anyway, Zhao Yingwang simply chatted with the other party, "Although I also know the effect of your skill, the first thing I thought of was to cast it on myself…" He shrugged, "But you… were able to think of using the point that 'units inside the pillar cannot die,' and decisively gave up a lot of health in exchange for time and the current situation…"
"You flatter me," Takeda Tomo replied coldly, "This isn't some kind of quick wit, it's just experience… after all, this Title Skill has been with me for a long time, and I've used it to deal with all kinds of situations."
At this point, the audience also realized—clever, it was indeed clever.
If Takeda Tomo, like the audience thought… had simply surrounded herself with the skill, then she could indeed avoid losing health and temporarily get out of the battle; however, if she had done that… Zhao Yingwang, at full health, would have been able to support his teammates without any worries for thirty seconds. In other words, it would have been as if Takeda Tomo had spent a lot of Spirit Energy to cast a control skill on herself, creating a two-on-one situation for her opponent for half a minute.
Compared to the current situation, the difference was clear.
"However… there are still one or two things I don't understand…" A few seconds later, Zhao Yingwang continued, "Why didn't you target the Stone Golem with the skill?" He paused for half a second and continued, "In that kind of high-speed offense and defense, I didn't have time to give the Stone Golem a stop command at all; if you had directly trapped the Stone Golem with the Halberd Pillar, it would have definitely rushed out of its range the moment the skill appeared… and would have been killed instantly at that time."
"You yourself said… 'the offense and defense speed is very fast,' so what's not to understand?" Takeda Tomo crossed her arms in front of her chest and replied in a rather displeased tone, "If I want to use your method to kill the Stone Golem, I must ensure that—'the edge of the Rakshasa Halberd Pillar is exactly between me and the Stone Golem the moment it appears.'
But your Stone Golem is stronger than me in physical skills, and I have to use feints and changes in direction to create distance from it, and that distance will be closed again in less than two seconds.
In this situation, it's already difficult to accurately calculate the release point, and what's even more disgusting is… your Stone Golem's 'reaction time,' 'closing route,' and 'instantaneous speed'… are all variable, so how am I supposed to operate?"
Speaking of this, she curled her lips and continued, "In addition, this tactic is not only demanding but also has a low margin of error… if the skill misses, I won't even have my knife, and if the position is wrong, I myself might die; so… it's not that I don't want to kill it, it's just too difficult and too risky… if I had even a 50% chance, I would have done it long ago."
"Hmm…" Zhao Yingwang nodded when he heard this, "Okay… it seems you really considered it carefully… I was presumptuous in asking."
Takeda Tomo had done more than just consider it… from the moment she was entangled by the Platinum Stone Golem, she had been desperately thinking of countermeasures; in fact, she only told half the truth in the above remarks…
During this period, after continuous probing and observation, Takeda Tomo had actually grasped the Platinum Stone Golem's reaction and movement patterns under certain specific actions. If she had a few dozen more seconds, her confidence might have been more than just "50%." At that time, she might have really used the Title Skill to successfully kill the Platinum Stone Golem, and then the situation… would have been different again.
"Hmph…" Two seconds later, Takeda Tomo let out a triumphant snort, and immediately continued, "By the way… you said there were 'one or two things' you didn't understand, what else is there besides this?"
Zhao Yingwang thought for a moment and then asked, "Although you successfully controlled me and the Stone Golem for thirty seconds, and the Stone Golem's health has also been reduced to near-death; but when the skill time limit is up… with only 1% of your health left (he guessed that Takeda Tomo had also lost health to 1% and was forcibly immortalized thanks to the Stone Golem's health), what are your chances of winning against me, who is almost at full health?"
Just as he finished speaking, only the last second remained before the Rakshasa Halberd Pillar (Luosha Jitianzhu) was dispelled…
"Heh…" In that second, Takeda Tomo smiled.
At the same time as the corners of her mouth curved up, her pupils suddenly turned red.
"Ha!" Immediately after, the Platinum Stone Golem's shout and fist arrived at the same time, aimed directly at the back of Takeda Tomo's neck.
Chi—
The fist wind landed, but the figure was no longer there.
In the blink of an eye, suddenly! A slender, fair hand pierced through Zhao Yingwang's chest from behind.
The fair hand instantly turned into a blood-stained hand.
At that moment, coldness overwhelmed the pain and swept through Zhao Yingwang's body.
"I just need to kill you without taking any damage… wouldn't that be enough?" The next second, Takeda Tomo, feeling confident of victory, brought her face close to Zhao Yingwang's ear and uttered this deadly declaration in a murderous tone.
At this time, her other hand had already grasped the katana that had returned from subspace.
While she was speaking, she pushed with her wrist…
When the tip of the knife burst out from Zhao Yingwang's left chest, Lao Zhao only felt a bone-chilling cold and a stagnation in his heart…
The flowing blood added a touch of crimson to the blade.
The fatal blow also allowed Takeda Tomo to breathe a slight sigh of relief.
But before she could even exhale half a breath, she heard…
Da da da da…
In the distance, the sound of footsteps was rapidly approaching like a gust of wind.
Hearing this sound, Takeda Tomo's first reaction was to draw her knife, turn around, and slash to meet the enemy.
Unexpectedly!
"What…" At this moment, Takeda Tomo couldn't pull back her knife.
It was not until she watched the replay later that she understood… the reason why she couldn't pull back her knife at this moment was that Zhao Yingwang, who was about to die and had not yet completely turned into white light, stubbornly relied on his vague consciousness to direct the low-health Platinum Stone Golem to grab the tip of her knife.
For Takeda Tomo, who had already entered the Blood Rakshasa (Xue Luosha) transformation state, this last-ditch counterattack could only restrain her for a moment.
But, it was this moment… that changed the balance of victory…
Whoosh—
The sharp edge of the long halberd swirled into a dragon, and majestic battle qi descended from the sky.
Takeda Tomo, who was a beat slower, was struck head-on by the long halberd coming from behind… the halberd's edge pierced through her armor and body, unstoppable. Driven by a steady and powerful force, it surged forward without end, even piercing through Zhao Yingwang and the Platinum Stone Golem in front of Takeda Tomo…
In a short breath, three figures from small to large were strung on the long halberd like skewers of mutton.
"Lao Zhao, thank you for your hard work." As Juan Menghuan's voice fell, Zhao Yingwang had completely turned into light and dissipated, and his Platinum Stone Golem naturally disappeared along with its master.
However, Takeda Tomo had not completely died yet; although she was also about to turn into white light and be teleported away, her corpse, which had not yet disappeared, would still be strung on Juan Menghuan's long halberd for a few seconds before this transformation process began.
And during this time… Chonglou would absorb her blood.
As mentioned earlier, Chonglou can be temporarily strengthened by absorbing blood, and the specific degree of strengthening is related to both the "quantity" and "quality" of the blood.
Takeda Tomo's Blood Rakshasa (Xue Luosha) transformation had similar activation conditions to Uesugi Jin's Sixfold Ghost Meditation (Guichan Liuduan), namely "can only be activated when near death"; although this transformation could only increase her damage and speed and could not help her recover health, the principle of Blood Rakshasa (Xue Luosha) was indeed closely related to blood… roughly an ability to demonize the blood and increase its flow rate.
In short, the blood of this Rakshasa… was of very high quality.