【The match will begin in thirty seconds】

As the system prompt rang out, the four players were already teleported into the arena.

As soon as they stood still, the two from [Deities] took action. Yama turned and ran, heading into the distance, while Brahma stood his ground and activated a self-buffing skill.

"Ho~" Even in this crucial match, Meng Jingchan was still in his usual state, with a cigarette in one hand and a wine bottle in the other, smoking and drinking non-stop. Seeing the opponent's positioning and movements, he commented, "Are they really going to go all out like that..."

"Considering the combination of Brahma and Yama..." The next second, Ye Zhi picked up his train of thought, saying, "...that is indeed the most logical battle strategy. If successful, they can win instantly."

From the conversation between these two from [Order], one could tell that just this opening scene was enough for them to deduce their opponents' tactics.

But some tactics, even if you can guess them, are not necessarily preventable.

"Yeah... if successful, they'll win immediately, but what if they fail..." Meng Jingchan said, taking another puff of his cigarette, exhaling a white smoke ring. As the smoke ring slowly rose, he blew on it, "Whoosh—" dispersing it into nothingness.

"The opponents have definitely considered the risk of failure more thoroughly than we have... daring to use that kind of tactic shows that they're also willing to bear that risk..." Ye Zhi continued, "In any case, no matter what they do, we'll just have to adapt."

"Ah... got it." Chan-ge responded and took another swig of his wine, "Glug... I'll do my best..."

The thirty-second preparation time was not long and passed in the blink of an eye.

With the system's countdown and a final 【fight】 sound, the barrier in the arena disappeared.

Immediately afterward...

Bang!

A deafening explosion.

A pillar of divine light soaring into the sky.

A wild and unrestrained figure.

A fierce and merciless killing move.

As the battle began, Brahma's fighting spirit erupted, and his powerful force struck first.

This opening move was an extremely dangerous, life-threatening attack!

Brahma's target was clear: the support player in the enemy's formation.

His fist wind was like a shadow, transforming from illusion to reality, reaching the extreme of speed, and capable of shattering mountains and rivers.

Clang—

In that instant, before the fist arrived, the sword went first... Meng Jingchan dropped the wine bottle in his hand, spat out the cigarette butt in his mouth, and swung his sword to intercept.

The sword blade intercepted the fist wind, actually eliciting a metallic clang.

"Damn... my hand is numb..." Meng Jingchan hadn't expected that after exchanging a blow, the opponent's arm wouldn't have a single scratch, while he, the one wielding the sword, had his hand numbed, "Is that a titanium alloy Qilin arm you've got there?"

"It is not." Unexpectedly, Brahma, whose attack was blocked, actually turned his head and replied to Chan-ge's retort, "This is called 【Divine Fighting Qi · Armament Haki】... undoubtedly, it's a type of ability that hasn't been recorded in your intelligence."

As he spoke the word "force," suddenly, his figure flashed, bypassing Meng Jingchan, and once again closing in on Ye Zhi, launching a fierce and rapid attack.

"Hey, hey... you're not going to let up, are you..." Meng Jingchan seemed to have seen through what the opponent would do, reacting in advance once again, sidestepping to respond and using his sword to parry the fist storm, "With me here, don't even think about touching a hair on our support."

"Tch..." Brahma was somewhat displeased that his sudden attack was blocked again, "So using words to distract you really doesn't work..."

"That depends on who's using it, and how." Meng Jingchan shrugged, "If Feng Bujue were here, he might really be able to distract me with his words... but you... pulling this half-finished sentence trick..."

Clang—

Chan-ge wasn't exactly a saint either; as he said this, he suddenly unleashed a cold sword strike, trying to attack Brahma's lower body.

But unexpectedly, his slash, which was enough to split mountains and shatter rocks, landed on Brahma's leg, yet still didn't leave even a single scratch, only eliciting another metallic clang.

"...this kind of tactic of saying half a sentence and attacking when the opponent's attention is distracted... you're pretty good at it too." Brahma continued the unfinished sentence of the other party, while speaking, he also launched a series of attacks.

"Likewise, likewise... we're just returning the favor..." Chan-ge raised his sword to meet the attack, fighting with the other party, his words also not losing ground.

These two, one with fists like fierce tigers, using force to overcome skill; the other with a sword like a dragon, combining strength and flexibility.

Fists and swords flew, creating a rustling sound.

Tit for tat, a dragon fighting a tiger.

At first glance, the two seemed evenly matched, and it would be difficult to tell who would win in a short time, but don't forget... Chan-ge also had a support here.

Under Meng Jingchan's protection, Ye Zhi, who had successfully dodged the opponent's first two surprise attacks, had already activated her skills; she first gave Meng Jingchan a HOT (heal over time, a term commonly used in MMORPGs, generally referring to the effect of continuously healing a unit for a certain period of time) skill—【Holy Restoration】, and then took out a not-too-large sketchbook and a pen from her bag, and began to draw on it.

【Name: Time Difference Sketch】

【Skill Card Attribute: Active Skill, Permanently Mastered】

【Skill Category: General】

【Effect: Stun (cooldown time one hour, locks the target for 30 seconds after successful application, requires paper and pen to activate)】

【Consumption: Spirit Energy Value 200】

【Learning Conditions: General Specialization S, Mechanical Specialization B】

【Remarks: After the death of the Lord of Time, the power of time became one of the freely shareable forces in the universe; this skill was created by a master who could sense and connect to the power of time, and those who have mastered it can capture the afterimage left by the target in the flow of time in the form of a sketch, and affect its main body.】

This was undoubtedly a very rare skill. From the description, one could see that before the "Twilight of the Gods" event ended, this... or rather, "this kind of skill"... simply did not exist.

Although there were not few control-type skills that could be used on "players," those with long duration, strong effect, and the ability to achieve "complete suppression" were extremely rare.

One could imagine that if the skill was successfully activated, no matter how high Brahma's defense was, he would undoubtedly die...

Of course, such a strong control skill would definitely have certain limitations. The problem with 【Time Difference Sketch】 was that... the caster had to spend a certain amount of time drawing the figure of the target (this drawing behavior was regarded as part of the skill effect, and had nothing to do with the caster's own drawing level) at a certain moment. During this process, as long as the caster's drawing action was interrupted for more than three seconds, she would have to start drawing all over again.

At this moment, although Brahma didn't know what Ye Zhi was drawing for (before this match, Ye Zhi had never shown the 【Time Difference Sketch】 skill to anyone outside the studio), based on his experience and common sense... such a troublesome preparation process must be preparing for some kind of very troublesome skill.

Brahma would naturally not sit idly by, even though the offense and defense with Meng Jingchan were in full swing, he was also looking for opportunities to interrupt Ye Zhi's actions.

On the other hand, Chan-ge... although he still maintained that calm and unruffled appearance on the surface, he knew very well in his heart that this wave of offense and defense was extremely dangerous for him.

Brahma, who had activated 【Divine Fighting Qi · Armament Haki】, had offensive and defensive capabilities that surpassed Meng Jingchan by several levels. The reason why Chan-ge was able to resist until now was because Ye Zhi had already given him a melee enhancement buff that could last for ten minutes before the barrier disappeared. Relying on this buff, as well as a tiny bit of advantage in speed and moves, Meng Jingchan was barely able to deal with the opponent until now.

However, as the battle deepened, Brahma gradually probed out the approximate limit of Meng Jingchan, which made the former's attack become more and more fierce, and grasped the dominance of offense and defense.

"This armament color's duration is quite long..." Being suppressed to a disadvantage, Meng Jingchan immediately thought in his heart, "But Ye Zhi's skill should be effective soon..." While thinking, he also glanced at his teammate with his peripheral vision, "The problem is... when will Yama's 'that move' fall..."

Some things... especially bad things, can't be mentioned.

Whoosh—

Just as Chan-ge was muttering, a red beam of light suddenly lit up in the distant sky and came whistling.

This was the core of the "tactics" formulated by 【Deities】 for this 2v2 match—the "Permanent Edition" 【Dragon Strike】.