Chapter 2851 - 1351: Increased Load_2

It’s a pity——

"Actually, I’m not really opposed to something like a sister hug kill."

Raising the [Enforcer·Azure Wave] in her hand, she nonchalantly used five completely silent and instant-cast [High Frequency Sonic Blades] to sever the puppet’s head and limbs. Double Leaf playfully stuck out her tongue, "But with such an ugly puppet, forget it. If you want to hug me, at least be handsome... huh?"

With a gentle cry, the girl’s figure suddenly soared high (not growing taller, just flying higher), narrowly avoiding a swift arrow. She hadn’t even had time to catch her breath when the puppet, whose limbs had been reattached, blocked her escape route. She had to quickly transform her wand into [Executor·Heiyan], and with no room for error, blocked the following two sniper shots with a three-layer instantaneously stacked [Charged Crystal Curtain].

However, with the wand no longer in wind element form, Double Leaf, who was only high-rank, couldn’t fly freely like the winged ones. Although she could make simple movements, she was still pushed back to the ground by the impact of those sniper shots!

And her landing spot was perfectly in the deadly circle formed by those three freshly set [Illusion Disintegration Barrier] assassins!

"Don’t think you can take me down so easily~"

Double Leaf, whose view had locked onto the entire battlefield long ago, naturally knew those three were waiting for her. But her expression showed no panic. As she fell back, she created an earth element stone platform at her landing site to serve as a foothold, then switched the [Enforcer]’s attributes, seamlessly connecting with an advanced water attribute magic [Reverse Flow], trying to disrupt the three’s positions.

In fact, [Reverse Flow] is a small area attack spell similar to [Fire Dragon Flame Pillar], but Double Leaf already had a preliminary grasp of the second wave of attackers’ strength. She was almost certain they wouldn’t be hit by such a long startup, easily predictable attack.

However, the other party’s reaction speed was also swift. The three assassins wearing ridiculous masks effortlessly evaded [Reverse Flow] with a single move and launched a precision strike at the earth element platform’s support point, directly destroying its balance, presenting a tricky choice to the target.

The first choice is to immediately command the earth element to repair the platform, a maneuver even an ordinary mage with a minor education in earth magic, let alone a top-tier all-system mage like Double Leaf, can perform. But the cost is that during the second it takes her to finish the repair, she can’t use distraction methods like [Reverse Flow], which allows only two breaths of time moved out of the way.

Understand this: even though it’s just a blink for ordinary people, in life-and-death struggles at this level, even half a second of relaxation could cost a life.

The second choice is to continue pressuring the three, but in this scenario, Double Leaf’s foothold would be forcibly shifted from the collapsed earth element platform to the ground. With the height difference reduced by at least a meter, the three melee professionals wielding scimitars would have significant advantages.

No need for a first-moment kill, just a slight delay to form a complete encirclement with the long-range sniper ranger and the puppet-manipulating companion behind Double Leaf. With no way to hide using the illusion technique, no matter how strong the girl is, she’d be crushed by their airtight offensive.

Admittedly, the opposition did take out nineteen third-rate assassins of the same high-rank pinnacle in under half a minute, but third-rate is third-rate due to their lack of professionalism beyond what outsiders might think. Looking at it differently, just choosing a seemingly safe clustered push rather than exploiting their ambush advantage, daring to appear within a mage’s range like they did, they deserved their fate.

When in contention with a mage, especially when fighting few against many and with enemies vastly superior in average quality compared to your own, shortening the distance isn’t the priority. Disrupting the mage’s rhythm is crucial——

The logic is simple: unlike warriors, thieves, and rangers, who always adjust the battle rhythm, mages, sorcerers, and shaman priests are more rhythm-dependent. Why? Because they have to cast spells.

Though it might sound redundant, it’s not. It’s widely known that most physical professionals engage primarily with strength, moves, and techniques, whereas spellcasters, unable to directly convert magic power into combat, must better manage external forces.

Whether it’s a mage’s control of elements, a sorcerer’s use of evil power, or shaman priests wielding natural forces, these are all external energies. Hence, in battles, spellcasters need to maintain a higher rhythm standard than physical professionals.

Closing the distance causes major disruption, yet beyond this, various sophisticated methods exist.

For instance, disrupting their planned actions, increasing battle pace, and narrowing their reaction windows.

Even though many mages could skillfully perform instant and silent spells post-practice, such casting is never as quick as a direct punch. It indeed requires reaction time.

Perhaps a fireball cast on reflex rivals your reactive slap in timing, but not so with substitution by higher-tier spells such as fire dragons, fire walls, meteor falls, or flame storms.

The foundation of instant casting lies in instinctively constructing a magic power model and directly initiating element transformation, while silent casting involves skipping auxiliary methods like chants or gestures through proficiency—it’s a lightweight alternative to the former.

All this demands thinking, making instant casting ever relative.

Provided that an interruption is successful, continually generating ’unexpected situations’ while maintaining threats for the opposing spellcaster, a mage’s combat power significantly diminishes, even if formidable.

One can understand it as rendering the opposing mind incapable of keeping up.

If a warrior’s mind can’t follow, instincts and muscle memory remain. If a mage’s mind can’t follow, death awaits.

Conclusively, the major attribute for spellcasters is often ’intelligence’ in many games because effective magic use requires a keen mind.

In other words, slower reactors facing true strength among openly unmasked absurd men could face life and death disparity, even with inherent strength advantages except for an immense disparity.

Unluckily, Double Leaf differs.

Although theory dictates so, and just like any mage, unable to complete spellcasting like other players by merely chanting the skill’s name, Double Leaf indeed feels the impact, but honestly speaking, little effect arises.

Put simply, as the assassins predicted, Double Leaf does exert extra mental effort to address constant changes. The issue is that such thought burdens her barely, turning almost to zero.

Consider Double Leaf a high-spec computer, whereas they aim to overheat and crash it—nice thinking, yet execution shows the machine tackles minimalist tasks gracefully, unaffected by extraordinary load.

It smoothly transitions from playing Minesweeper to dual Minesweeping.

No doubt the workload heightens, but no matter how, some facts persist.

This machine’s fan doesn’t even bother spinning.

In the next moment, three scimitars swept past the girl’s throat, heart, and twin veins.

The blade’s edge, however, remained unstained with blood...

Chapter 1351: Finale