[Nero has entered the Liberation State and activated the Wind Sword Formation. While in Liberation State, Nero's normal attacks and skills are enhanced.]
Siberian Duck read the on-screen prompt word by word. The next moment, the prompt highlighted a small green sword icon on Nero's HP bar below, and next to that icon was a 0/10 counter.
[This is Sword Intent. When Nero enters Liberation State and activates the Wind Sword Formation, any Wind Shear effect applied to enemy targets for any reason will be converted into Sword Intent and accumulated. When Sword Intent reaches 10 stacks, Nero will immediately unleash a follow-up attack—My Sword Art: Heavenfall.]
After all the prompts ended, the story resumed.
It could be seen that Aemdo's HP bar instantly dropped by 70%.
Although Nero used Heavenfall this time mainly to alter the spatial structure rather than to directly strike any specific target, it still inevitably affected everyone within the cave realm.
And since this mirror world belonged to Aemdo, this Mirror Holder naturally took the most damage.
Aemdo propped himself up with his longsword, then slowly stood up. After that, he said to Nero, "Just as your beauty is close to His, the strength of your power is also far closer to Him than ours!"
"I know you have accepted the duel. From your response, I felt a lion-like boldness and an overwhelming, unstoppable force!"
Hearing Aemdo say something like that, Siberian Duck really couldn't hold it in anymore. "No, bro! At a time like this you're still praising him? That wasn't even a response!"
Although Nero's focus wasn't on attacking people, this move, Heavenfall, inevitably affected Aemdo while reshaping the surrounding space.
Especially since the moment Heavenfall descended was exactly when Aemdo had just declared the duel to Nero and was waiting for a reply.
It could only be said that, even if Nero had no intention, from Aemdo's perspective, this was a complete and undeniable sneak attack, the kind that couldn't be explained away no matter what.
[Knight of Pure Beauty: I think Aemdo is thinking something like, "Oh my god, this fragment is infinitely close to Him. Both in beautiful appearance and immense power!" And based on his beliefs, it's hard for him to associate this, whether consciously or not, with something dirty like a sneak attack.]
[Knight of Pure Beauty: Of course, there may be beings who think sneak attacks aren't dirty and can even be considered beautiful, but judging from everything Aemdo has shown so far, he is definitely not that kind of person. Don't forget, he was worried the battle might affect the Xianzhou, and even killed his own companions in advance because they were secretly causing trouble.]
[Aha's Emanator: I get it, I get it. Even though he sneak attacked me, he looks so good, so let's forgive him!]
[Top Laner: I can only say, I rarely describe someone as so upright it feels bizarre. Even though Aemdo is technically a villain from our perspective, his behavior and actions really don't feel like one. If we ever get to learn his story later, I think he probably isn't truly a villain, or at least his story will lean more toward the righteous side.]
[I Use Pantene: I get what you mean. No need to say more. You're basically saying he's someone with extreme beliefs who went down the wrong path, but started with good intentions. It depends on what kind of consequences he's caused. But judging from how cautious he was before the battle, either he caused irreversible damage in the past, or he's always been like this.]
Aemdo's behavior sparked a lot of discussion among the players, while Siberian Duck began preparing for the fight. This time, the available moves were Enhanced Basic Attack, My Sword Art: Jade Dragon Becomes Profound, and Enhanced Skill, My Sword Art: Flowing Clouds Paint Intent.
The former lets Nero attack a selected enemy target, dealing splash damage. The main target takes Wind damage equal to 300% of Nero's attack, while adjacent enemies take 150% Wind damage, and all affected units receive one stack of Wind Shear.
The latter deals Wind damage equal to 200% of Nero's attack to all enemies and applies one stack of Wind Shear to all affected units.
Single-target, AoE, plus the sword formation support, Nero's strength was obvious.
As for the attack animations, Jade Dragon Becomes Profound was the classic jump slash, but now with added effects like surging waves and cracking earth.
Flowing Clouds Paint Intent, on the other hand, gave Nero a close-up shot. The boy held the sword in a reverse grip, twisted his body, and swung it like he was throwing it, using Black Cutter to drive a storm forward in a sweeping horizontal slash.
But from another perspective, both of these moves looked a lot like Great Cleave of Ten Thousand Deaths and Fleeting Grace.
Maybe the kid thought they were cool when he was beating up Blade and just decided to use them.
Compared to Nero, Aemdo's attacks looked rather plain.
This man in silver armor, holding a longsword like a church knight, only had two moves: a downward slash, and a downward slash followed by a kick.
They looked simple and unadorned, with the only visual effect being flames flickering around his sword when he swung it.
On top of that, Aemdo only had 30% HP when the battle started, so before Nero could even trigger Heavenfall, Aemdo was already defeated.
And the game screen once again transitioned into a cutscene…