Volume 6: Fighting for the World Chapter 292: Insidious Preemptive Strike
I also felt bad when I saw Jefferson, who was stubborn and gnashing his teeth, and looking like he wanted Khufu to get the retribution he deserved. Perhaps the combination of the three giants might not necessarily prevent Khufu from defeating them one by one and becoming the Pharaoh, but in order to ensure victory as much as possible, I would at least have to spend a few more "Millennium Fire Lotuses" or even "Ten Thousand Years Fire Crystals", which would inevitably affect the expansion progress in the "Hell Volcano" and would cost a greater price. I didn't want Jefferson to feel too good about himself. If he maintained a high morale and was too confident, he might be able to exert his strength beyond his level, making it more difficult for Khufu and me to deal with him. This was definitely not what I wanted to see, and I felt that his words had a certain impact on Khufu. After all, he was a rising star who had just debuted not long ago. Compared with these thousand-year-old pharaohs, he was indeed a little immature and his self-confidence was increasingly insufficient. Fortunately, it was not fighting alone. I, its master, was here to cheer it up in time through the power of the "Soul Contract". After a while of hard work, I finally stabilized Khufu's emotions and regained his fighting spirit. Whether it was intentional or unintentional, it made me even more angry. He wanted to play a desperate psychological tactic with me, a player, and both sides would suffer losses. You are a NPC monster and you are too young. I might as well use your spear to attack your shield to see which side has better psychological quality. If I can weaken Jefferson's fighting spirit before the battle and shake his confidence in defeating or at least severely injuring Khufu, it should directly affect his strength and further increase Khufu's chances of winning.
"Great Pharaoh Jefferson, have you ever fought against a fire-attributed Great Pharaoh before?" At my command, Khufu launched a counterattack, his demeanor calm and steady, showing that he was not at all moved by Jefferson's false threats. In sharp contrast to its hysteria, Khufu could not lose momentum in his words, or it would have the upper hand.
Although Jefferson was furious and hated Khufu, he was still a senior Great Pharaoh after all. Moreover, it was he who initiated the conversation with Khufu, so he did not violate basic etiquette. Hearing this, he suppressed his anger and shook his head. "I have only heard of the existence of Great Pharaohs with different attributes. I have never seen one in the more than a thousand years since I became the Great Pharaoh. You are the first one."
"Then have you ever had a great pharaoh who was conquered by the necromancer and participated in the challenge with the necromancer master?" Khufu asked immediately.
"No, to the Great Pharaoh of our generation, the Undead wizards were also just a kind of mysterious existence that existed in legends. Their traces were only discovered in the Lost Continent recently. However, at most they have only touched the level of the Pharaoh and have not yet challenged the Great Pharaoh. Khufu, you are also the first." Jefferson was very honest. This was a matter of principle. As an independent NPC monster, he would not allow it to lie and deceive.
Hufu immediately sneered, "Hehe... then this is really ridiculous. Great Pharaoh Jefferson only sees his own advantages, but seems to have ignored our strengths. You don't understand the characteristics of the Great Pharaoh of Fire Attribute, and you don't know the actual combat power that the Great Pharaoh can exert when fighting together with the Undead Wizard Master. At most, you have only got a rough impression by watching the challenges I have carried out before. That is just a half-understanding, and what you know is just a little bit of the surface. Just like when I was young, I was not able to comprehend the full function and power of the 'Soul Burning Wand'. You also don't know my true strength. You know nothing, so why do you think you have already won? You look like you have defeated me. Let me tell you honestly, not to mention defeating me, even if you want to injure me so badly that it takes a month to recover, it is impossible. With the help of the master of the necromancer, the role that can be played is far beyond what you, an outsider, can imagine. Not only you, but also Kurthaber and Vilenzov will be defeated by me one after another. I will definitely be the Pharaoh. "Khufu's tone was more arrogant than Jefferson's, which made Jefferson's face more angry, and his eyes seemed to be spewing fire, as if he wanted to grind Khufu to ashes right away and vent his hatred. I just wanted to piss it off. If I can't keep calm in the battle, I will definitely make more mistakes and the threat to Khufu will be relatively smaller.
However, Jefferson was indeed a thousand-year-old pharaoh with rich experience and high wisdom. After a burst of rapid breathing, he suddenly calmed down quickly and regained his composure, as if nothing had happened before. He looked at Khufu calmly and said, "The agreed challenge time has come, Great Pharaoh Khufu, can we start this decisive battle?"
Such a big contrast between before and after really made it difficult for me to adapt. It seemed that my plan to rely on Jefferson to lose his composure in anger was not going to work. He was indeed rich in practical experience and would not easily make mistakes in battle. If I wanted to defeat Jefferson, I had to rely on Khufu and my true strength. After getting my instruction, Khufu nodded, "Then let's start the battle, Great Pharaoh Jefferson."
The "Soul Burning Wand" hurts others and oneself at the cost of burning one's own soul. As Jefferson said, Khufu has too little experience in actual combat, and does not have a deep understanding of specific applications, so it is difficult to exert too much power. Therefore, seeing that Jefferson's bone staff did not emit a faint black light and showed no unusual changes, it should be a conventional attack method. I did not let Khufu use the "Soul Burning Wand" first, but first made a tentative attack to test Jefferson's bottom and see what kind of strong strength the famous top pharaoh has. Anyway, there is a "Ten Thousand Years Fire Crystal" in Khufu's body that is working, slowly releasing the fire attribute energy it contains, which can effectively replenish Khufu's mental power consumption and speed up the recovery of injuries. In addition, I cast the "Intermediate Puppetry" magic to help fight from the side to contain him, so such a direct confrontation should not be too disadvantageous.
Jefferson is indeed worthy of being the strongest top pharaoh. His own strength is far above the several pharaoh followers defeated by Khufu before. Obviously, he is much stronger. Even though my "Intermediate Puppetry" magic has reached a four-star proficiency after continuous hard practice, the effect it can play is still much smaller. It can only make it slightly distracted, and it will soon return to normal, leaving Khufu with little opportunity to use. The royal family with special equipment given by the system originally has a high IQ, and although the level of the general pharaoh is fixed at the upper level of the ninth level, they are a very special kind of existence with very unique growth characteristics-because after winning the challenge of the pharaoh, they can absorb a small part of the opponent's energy for their own use, so that the ever-victorious generals such as Jefferson or the pharaohs who have won more times will have stronger strength, can break through the level limit, and exert the combat power of the tenth level with the level of the upper level of the ninth level. The two Great Pharaoh followers that Khufu defeated before were obviously not weaker than those lower-level undead spirits of level 10, and even stronger than Khufu. From the perspective of the setting, this is also necessary. After all, if you want to launch the "Great Pyramid Sky Cage and Earth Locking Array" in the human world, in addition to the Pharaoh, the other eleven Great Pharaohs must also be summoned without any difference. If their levels are too high, it will inevitably consume more mental power. In this way, it is difficult to gather them in the shortest time through one or two "Undead Summonings". It will definitely not be very convenient to use, and the role that can be played will be discounted. However, these are all things that happened after Khufu was successfully elected as the Pharaoh. At the moment, it is quite disadvantageous to me. It is difficult to accurately judge Jefferson's true combat power. I always feel a little bit restrained. I dare not let Khufu let go and attack. I can only deal with Jefferson patiently and try to test out the strongest strength it can exert.
I don't know if it was because he was shocked by what Khufu said before, and he was too cautious in his attack. Or maybe he really regained his composure and took caution as the top priority. Jefferson's attack was also very cautious. He did not use a violent attack to show his strength as the top pharaoh. It seemed that he was mainly testing us. His attack was sometimes fast and sometimes slow, and his strength was sometimes light and sometimes heavy. He wanted to find out our specific strength first. It was completely different from his previous hysterical performance. It seemed that he was definitely the most difficult and cunning opponent to deal with. Not to mention expecting him to make mistakes on his own initiative, Khufu and I had to be doubly careful not to let him take advantage of us. At the moment, we were more cautious and never took advantage of the enemy . For the time being, we patiently fought with Jefferson for a while to see if he could not hold back and change his tactics first, increasing the pressure on us. After all, if we deduct the effect of the "Ten Thousand Year Fire Crystal", in terms of strength alone, it is indeed far superior to Khufu and should be in control of the initiative in the battle. There is no doubt about this. We are just planning a protracted war, making full use of the advantage of the "Ten Thousand Year Fire Crystal" that can continuously provide fire energy to effectively supplement Khufu's combat losses, and use a long battle to drag down Jefferson, so that its soul can no longer support it and collapses first.
But the following battle was beyond my expectation. Jefferson did not change his tactics and fought with Khufu patiently. Both sides fought back and forth, and both suffered a lot of blows. They were all external injuries, not serious, and did not affect their strength. This kind of battle was really too strange. I have experienced many challenges, big and small, and usually I only ordered my men to show weakness to the enemy to calculate others. I have never seen an undead who obviously has the strength to strengthen the offensive and gain the upper hand in order to defeat the enemy as soon as possible, but chose to endure and not use his full strength, as if he wanted to stalemate with his opponent. What the hell is Jefferson doing? Why is he not willing to attack with all his strength? Could it be that it saw through the biggest weakness of my cooperation with Khufu - Khufu can fight for a long time, but I, a necromancer player, have limited energy in reality and cannot stay online for too long. It deliberately used delaying tactics to wear me out of the battle first and then strike back, and then concentrate all its efforts on dealing with the isolated Khufu? But Jefferson is just an NPC monster. Does it have such a high IQ and is qualified to know the secrets of our necromancer profession?
If Jefferson really adopts a delaying tactic, Huff and I must launch a quick attack. Even if we cannot completely defeat Jefferson before he is forced offline due to lack of energy, we must try to inflict heavy damage on him, so that Huff, who has to fight alone for a period of time, can successfully support himself with the effect of the "Ten Thousand Years Fire Crystal" and will not be defeated by Jefferson. Of course, while actively attacking, it will definitely reveal a bigger flaw, allowing Jefferson to get more attack opportunities, which is more likely to lead to a lose-lose situation. For Huff, who is at a disadvantage in strength, it is not a very good choice. Adopting a defensive counterattack tactic is more suitable than an active attack, which makes me hesitate for a while. Do I need to change my tactics? Should I continue to patiently wait and see the development of the war for a while, or launch an immediate attack to disrupt Jefferson's attack rhythm?
"Bang", Hufu and Jefferson exchanged sticks again. Hufu's "Thunderbolt" was powerful and heavy, and with the "Ten Thousand Years Fire Crystal" as a backing to continuously replenish the consumption of mental power, he could pour more mental power into the attack whenever he had the chance. With Jefferson's tyrannical strength, he was also shocked back two steps. This result was also normal. Jefferson's attack inadvertently attracted my attention, who was a little annoyed and always felt that something was wrong. The stick he swung was not too powerful, but it seemed to have almost no power. Hufu's body did not even shake. Even if Jefferson did not use the skill attack of "Thunderbolt" or "Mad Stick Technique", with its strength, a normal stick attack would not be so powerless, right? Is it necessary for it to show weakness to the enemy when it is obviously superior in strength? Even if it is using a delaying tactic, it is a bit too much. Its ultimate goal is to defeat Hufu, and it will definitely not take the initiative to let it go. There is no way it will give up the opportunity to hurt Hufu. What effect will such a light and powerless attack have? What exactly is Jefferson planning?
Hey, wait, a light attack, a thought suddenly flashed through my mind, isn't it that when the "Burning Spirit Wand" is used, it is a light attack without any power, without the ability of physical attack, and only hurts the opponent's soul, and only after a certain number of stick hits have accumulated will the effect of being hurt appear. Before that, the attacked person will not feel anything strange. With this thought, I thought carefully, although Jefferson had hit many bone sticks with power before, they were mixed with weak stick hits, and the combination of the two was mixed, and the attack power shown was not strong enough, even worse than Khufu, and more importantly, he had never used other skills to attack. All these signs seemed to indicate that Jefferson's previous attacks were not simple. Could it be that it had quietly used the skills of the "Burning Spirit Wand" when I was inadvertently?
I looked at the bone staff in Jefferson's hand again. It was still the same as before, without any changes. It did not show a layer of faint black light like when Khufu cast the "Soul Burning Wand". I have been paying attention to it, so it should be impossible to miss it. However, this cannot overturn my judgment that Jefferson has cast the "Soul Burning Wand". It will not cause any harm without any damage. It will be a waste of effort, and even at the cost of being hit by Khufu, it will make some useless attacks. There must be murderous intentions behind it. Thinking of what it said before that the "Soul Burning Wand" has other mysteries, which is not something that a beginner like Khufu can fully understand, it deepened my premonition that the situation is not good - perhaps Khufu has only understood and cast a part of the functions and characteristics of the "Soul Burning Wand", not all. If the "Burning Soul Wand" is practiced to the extreme, it may be possible to hide the faint black light and not show any unusual signs. It can also be controlled more freely. Although it cannot be stopped, it can add a certain amount of force to enhance the stealth of the "Burning Soul Wand" skill and make it more difficult for the opponent to notice any abnormality. Even an enlightened person like Khufu, due to lack of more relevant experience, falls into Jefferson's calculations without being prepared.
Once I noticed this problem, I felt that Jefferson was using the "Soul Burning Wand". Khufu got my reminder. Although he lacked experience fighting against the Great Pharaoh who had also comprehended the "Soul Burning Wand", and didn't know what it felt like to be hit by such a stick, he thought that it was very likely that Jefferson had already used the "Soul Burning Wand" just from the fact that Jefferson was doing it with ease, especially the constant fighting with Khufu. Now it is still impossible to detect it. By the time I find the abnormality, the injury has already occurred. Khufu's soul has suffered a lot of damage, and it is even more difficult to resist Jefferson's attack. This guy is really insidious. He actually took the initiative to attack from the beginning and secretly killed him. If I am careless and confused by his performance and fail to wake up in time, I am afraid it will bring me more trouble. Maybe I will really fall into his hands.
Fortunately, it is not too late to notice it now. In order to keep the attack concealed, many of Jefferson's stick strikes contain force, which does not conform to the basic attack principle of the "Burning Soul Magic Wand". The damage to Khufu's soul must be relatively mild. In addition, the effect of the "Ten Thousand Years Fire Crystal" in Khufu's body should not have accumulated to the point where it can attack. I can't continue to stalemate with Jefferson like this. The soul strength and energy of the thousand-year-old pharaoh must be far above the new generation like Khufu. If I use ordinary attack methods to deal with its "Burning Soul Magic Wand", Khufu will definitely suffer in the end. Only by attacking it, giving full play to the characteristics of my cooperation with Khufu and the "Ten Thousand Years Fire Crystal", forcing it to fight hard and consume, can we have hope of defeating the enemy.
Having made up his mind, he dared not delay any longer and immediately asked Khufu to use the "Burning Spirit Magic Wand". The Fire Bone Wand emitted a layer of faint black light and attacked Jefferson. At the same time, he was careful to dodge its counterattack. He dared not to think that its attack had no power as before, and was easily hit by it carelessly because he relied on the "Pyramid" to strengthen his defense. Such an obvious change naturally could not be hidden from Jefferson. It seemed a little surprised, and also did not dare to let Khufu hit it easily, and began to consciously strengthen its dodge. However, its attack still did not change. It was still so light and powerless, which further confirmed that it had used the "Burning Spirit Magic Wand", so I did not change the tactics and take targeted attack methods. Moreover, comparing the two, it is even clearer that Jefferson and Khufu's attack methods are very similar. It's just that Khufu's attack is more obvious, and one can tell at a glance that he is using the "Burning Soul Wand", while Jefferson's control is more skillful and perfect, with greater concealment. Apart from the fact that no force can be felt when it touches the body, there is almost no difference between it and an ordinary stick attack. It is indeed a rookie fighting against a master, and there is a big gap in strength. If it is a one-on-one contest, there will be no suspense at all about the outcome.
Unfortunately, Khufu is not fighting alone. With me, the master of the necromancer, as its solid backing, and the "Ten Thousand Years Fire Crystal" it swallowed, it can fully exert stronger combat power and have the strength to fight Jefferson. Casting the "Soul Burning Wand" requires constantly burning one's soul as a price. In addition, if the stick hits too much, once the injury occurs, it will also weaken the soul energy. The longer the battle lasts, the weaker Jefferson's soul will be, and it will be more susceptible to my "Intermediate Puppetry", which can give Khufu more attack opportunities. Therefore, although the effect of casting "Intermediate Puppetry" is not ideal at the moment, I am not in a hurry. I simply reduce the number of times it is used, and invest more in the use of "Soul of the Dead", and cooperate with the effect of "Ten Thousand Years Fire Crystal" to reduce the damage suffered by Khufu as much as possible. Repair its injured soul bit by bit, delay the time of injury onset, and further increase the ability to fight for a long time, to see who has more capital to last to the end with Jefferson.
At the beginning, Jefferson continued with his previous tactics, but he slightly dodged and refused to intensify his offensive. His performance was too obvious, and he obviously wanted to continue to paralyze Khufu and implement his plan of secretly killing him. However, after a period of fighting, under Khufu's careful precautions, Jefferson's attack effect became less and less ideal, and his hit rate dropped significantly. Instead, Khufu took advantage of him and always dodged when he was about to fight hard. A light touch of the Fire Bone Staff could also hurt its soul, and he took advantage of the situation. Jefferson probably realized that his tactics might have been seen through by Khufu, and gradually stopped deliberately hiding, and began to let go and attack, fully demonstrating the attack method of the "Burning Soul Magic Wand", intensifying the offensive, forcing Khufu to fight hard, and delusionally defeating Khufu with his much stronger soul energy.
Beforehand, I had designed many tactics for Khufu, imagining how to dodge attacks and increase damage to Jefferson at the same time. However, when we really started a decisive battle with Jefferson, the big gap in strength made many of my ideas impossible to realize. Facing its strong attack, it was difficult to dodge in time many times, and I had to fight it hard. It was obvious that the attack method of the "Burning Spirit Wand" was more proficient, and the rich practical experience was beyond Khufu's reach. The battle between the two sides with the "Burning Spirit Wand" was much more dangerous than I imagined. There was almost no room for turning around, which was more beneficial to the party with a stronger soul. In addition to me, the master, Khufu could only rely on the "Ten Thousand Years Fire Crystal" swallowed into its belly. He might be forced into a desperate situation at any time. He dared not hold back and pushed the "Ten Thousand Years Fire Crystal" to the top of his head with all his strength, and directly refined it with the power of the "Pyramid". This could speed up the release of fire attribute energy and replenish his own consumption more effectively. This is an ability that other fire-attributed undead do not possess. Khufu did not know this before. He discovered it after I let it swallow the "Ten Thousand Year Fire Crystal" and urged it to try its best to "digest" it. As the general rules of the "Tianxia" game said, only through actual combat can more new things be discovered.
Khufu still suffered from the attack he had suffered before. Even though his injuries were alleviated by the magic of "Soul of the Dead" and the effect of "Ten Thousand Years Fire Crystal" I cast, as Jefferson intensified his offensive, he did not hesitate to exchange injuries with each other, fighting with each other, but in the end, he was not as strong as Jefferson's soul energy, and his injuries broke out early, his soul was seriously damaged, and his state was damaged, so his strength was reduced. Jefferson immediately attacked more vigorously, wanting to take the opportunity to increase the damage to Khufu and establish his victory in one fell swoop, but he also underestimated Khufu. The "Soul of the Dead" magic I cast may not be very effective and cannot reduce much damage to the soul in a short period of time, but the "Ten Thousand Year Fire Crystal" accelerated the release of fire energy under the full stimulation of the "Pyramid". The effect was somewhat beyond my expectations. It played a good nourishing function on Khufu's soul, offset a lot of damage, and greatly prolonged Khufu's fighting time, allowing him to hold on longer. Even if Jefferson's offensive was fierce, it could not be completely defeated in a short period of time.
Khufu survived the most difficult period with great difficulty. Thanks to the dual effects of the "Soul of the Dead" and the "Ten Thousand Years Fire Crystal", he was not defeated by Jefferson. Although his soul was seriously injured, he still had strength to continue fighting. On the other hand, Jefferson was strong at first, then weak, and finally exhausted. Under the dual consumption of burning himself and suffering injuries, and without other supplies, he seemed to be running out of energy and was slightly tired, no longer as brave as he was at the beginning.
