Two masters at the pinnacle, ignited an earth-shattering battle.

The battle began, killing intent surged.

Spiritual Energy blazed, the daylight paled.

But observe…

The Dancing Hourglass split into eight, suspended in the air.

Death Poker gathered but did not unleash, focusing its light on his fingertip.

Shiva, though still, exuded the aura of an approaching storm.

Unfeeling, his foot lightly tapped, already displaying the swiftness of lightning.

In an instant, gazes met, figures flashed!

A storm of offense and defense unfolded with astonishing speed, almost imperceptible to the naked eye.

In a mere breath, more than a dozen beams of light burst forth; the eight stone discs of the Dancing Hourglass, from eight tricky angles, launched dozens of light beams at Feng Bujue.

Jue-Ge, relying on his agile movements, dodged each of those light beams, and used the cards held between his fingers to launch a super-fast close-quarters combo against Shiva.

Feng Bujue's card-wielding hands danced, creating countless afterimages, unleashing exquisite continuous strikes; the seemingly chaotic attack was actually ordered within the chaos, incomparably sharp.

[Name: Card Assassination Art]

[Skill Card Attribute: Passive Skill, Permanently Learned]

[Skill Category: Combat]

[Effect: When using card-type weapons for close combat, speed, strength, and accuracy are increased by 300%]

[Learning Condition: Combat Specialization S]

[Remark: A unique martial art favored by Oswald, a former CArnefeLL member. Upon reaching a certain level, ordinary playing cards can be used to cut the human body, ending the opponent's life with a series of gorgeous and bloody combos.]

This S-rank combat skill was not found by Feng Bujue in any script, nor was it purchased from the Scare Box; instead, it was "comprehended" when his Combat Specialization reached S-rank.

Although he had comprehended this move for some time, Jue-Ge had not equipped [Card Assassination Art] in most previous scripts; after all, there were only twelve skill slots in total, and in team scripts, he preferred to bring some "strategic" skills.

However... this battle was an exception.

This was a close-quarters, all-out battle, with no tricks or third-party factors, so Jue-Ge didn't need to bring skills unrelated to fighting; he brought: [Card Assassination Art], [Ling-Shi Gathering Technique - Modified], [Evil King's Flame Kill - Purgatory Scorch], [Moon Step], [Luan-Jiao], [Flying Sand in the Wind], [Qi Gong Cannon], [Baseball Fist Lv10], [Naughty Kid's Leg Sweep], [Lingxi Finger], [Nanto Flying Dragon Fist], [Summoning Art - Mason].

Perhaps in the eyes of ordinary players, this was already a very luxurious skill combination.

However, as the top player of the Gods' Studio, how could [Shiva] be inferior to Jue-Ge, a casual player, in terms of these overt stats?

Let's take a look at the skills Shiva brought:

[Impervious to Spears and Blades] (Active, gains extremely high physical defense for ten seconds without sacrificing speed).

[One Strike, Two Separate] (Active, a palm strike with immense power).

[Guts] (Active, can only be activated when Stamina and Spiritual Energy are both above 50%; after activation, both Stamina and Spiritual Energy drop to 20%, and all of the user's Survival Value is restored).

[Sharp Fang Divine Force] (Active, focuses force at the fingertips, striking the target's nerves directly through the muscles; a successful hit can paralyze the corresponding part of the enemy's body for several minutes).

[Weightless Contact] (Previously explained, see the skill database).

[Spirit Breaking Expansion Strike] (Same as above).

[Light Smoke Swift Passing] (Active, acceleration skill, short-distance displacement).

[Heavenly Tyrant's Horizontal Sky-Splitting Bombardment] (Active, charges towards the enemy, knocking the target away, and shaking objects blocking the way to both sides during the charge).

[Protective Ashes] (Passive, after dealing damage with Fire-attribute skills or weapons, immediately gains a layer of armor equivalent to 5% of one's maximum Survival Value, stacking up to five layers, with a cooldown of fifteen seconds for each trigger).

[Tyrant's Wild Strike] (Active, can only be activated when using long weapons, initiates an indiscriminate sweep against all targets in the surrounding area, and a certain proportion of the damage dealt is converted into the user's Survival Value).

[Moon-Plucking Flame] (Active, a Fire-attribute spinning rising dragon strike, powerful, excellent for anti-air, but with a slightly slow preparation).

[Flying Flame Fist] (Active, a long-range projectile with low power but high speed. This move and "Moon-Plucking Flame" can both trigger the "Protective Ashes" effect).

The above are the skills currently equipped by Shiva...

Even setting aside his ridiculously powerful Spiritual Energy weapon with eight built-in effects, just looking at these twelve skills is enough to understand how strong Shiva's combat power is.

This set of skills can handle various combat modes such as strong attack, surprise attack, defense and counterattack, control, recovery, and attrition. No matter what the situation or what type of enemy he faces... he will not fall into absolute passivity. It can be said that he has both offense and defense, and knows how to advance and retreat.

And all this information... Feng Bujue knew. In fact, even if Jue-Ge didn't use his "Data Perspective" to observe the other party, he could still investigate Shiva's equipment, skills, and other information to a large extent through other channels.

Because Shiva was a star player, and the kind that was super-first-rate. Given the amount of attention he received, his character data in the game could not be concealed. All the players who had fought with him or entered a script with him, whether they were from other studios or casual players, could potentially release information related to Shiva; moreover, there were also competition videos.

Of course, it cannot be said that... because of this information asymmetry, this contest was unfair.

First, Shiva himself understood the above situation. This was a disadvantage that all star players had to bear, and it was something he was used to. Second, observing things through "Data Perspective" was one of Feng Bujue's abilities. No matter who the opponent was, he could always understand their data.

So, let's talk about the basic skills of the two here. Let's get back to the fight...

"Tch... still careless..." Two seconds after Jue-Ge attacked, Shiva's expression changed slightly, and he cursed himself inwardly.

At the same time, he silently activated the "Moon" effect of the Dancing Hourglass - [Moon Prism], and retreated hastily under the cover of the skill.

The effect of this special ability is: to cover oneself with a layer of Moon Prism light shield, making the user immune to all physical or energy attacks for ten seconds; attacks of "extremely powerful" level can penetrate the Moon Prism light shield, but only deal 50% damage. After use, the Moon Stone disc will shatter and can only be restored upon returning to the login space.

Obviously, Shiva didn't intend to use this move at the beginning of the battle, and it wasn't as if he had no other skills to deal with the current situation. It was just... he really didn't expect that Jue-Ge could reach this level of physical skill without activating Ling-Shi Gathering Technique (Shiva had watched and studied Jue-Ge's competition videos during S1, and knew some of his skills).

To put it bluntly... Shiva underestimated his opponent, and the price of this underestimation was... he was too late to take other measures to deal with the current series of strikes, and could only activate [Moon Prism] as an emergency measure.

"Heh... used up a stone disc already?" Feng Bujue laughed immediately upon seeing this, "I haven't even exerted myself yet..." Jue-Ge naturally wouldn't let go of this opportunity to put psychological pressure on his opponent, "If you're going to fight me with the stereotypical prejudice that 'no one is stronger than me, Shiva, except for Devouring Sky Ghost Howl', then there's no point..." He grinned wickedly, "When fighting me... you'd better put yourself in the position of a challenger and go all out... to avoid both mental and physical destruction."

"Hmph..." Shiva's expression turned serious upon hearing this, "Thanks for the reminder."

He wasn't angry at all; on the contrary, he was very happy that his opponent could say such words to him in a timely manner. Because he was a strong person, and strong people would look for the reasons within themselves after setbacks, and would accept criticism and suggestions, as long as those suggestions were reasonable, even if the opponent's wording was harsh.

"Hehe..." Jue-Ge was very satisfied with Shiva's reaction, he chuckled twice, and continued, "Very well... then this time, I'll let you see me in a slightly exerted state."

Before he finished speaking, his figure moved again.

Feng Bujue's second round of attacks already used the instant-activation skill of [Ling-Shi Gathering Technique - Modified].

Suddenly! The light of the cards bloomed wildly, the fighting spirit surged and rolled up the mad clouds…