CHAPTER 552: CHAPTER 62 SHADOW DANCER

Actual combat training was actually nothing surprising.

The holographic technology of online games was not originally applied in gaming but in military and economic fields.

For example, the ultra-hardcore "Simulated Flight 2077," which features a variety of planes from Boeing, Airbus, and Comac, has dashboards and operating systems indistinguishable from the real thing.

As long as you could fly a plane in the game, you could almost do the same in reality. The only problem was that in the game, if you crashed, you could start over, while you couldn’t in real life...

Aske had originally thought that if you died in this world, you probably couldn’t be resurrected, so he had been particularly careful to control the intensity of training.

But now, with Peggy’s "Death Deprivation" and Nora’s "Limb Regeneration" greatly reducing the risk of serious injuries to team members, couldn’t he just... not treat them softly... no, he should say, wasn’t he able to set a more rhythmic and tension-filled growth plan for professional players?

Aske had already decided that next, he would explain one-on-one, and then let them directly go to lure monsters for practice.

Peggy and Eleanor had already been taught in advance and could be sent out first. The remaining six girls drew lots to determine the order of instruction.

Mia, Miel, Sigrdrifa, Thira, Medea, Nora.

So those who had not yet had their turn returned to Lysine Building and took a brief rest by the cover near the entrance.

"How well have you mastered the Dual Sword Assassination Skill?" Aske stood in the middle of the street and asked Mia.

"Absolutely no problem." Mia patted her chest and assured.

"Show me," Aske said.

So Mia drew two short knives and began to show off her skills rapidly. Forehand to backhand, backhand to forehand, same frequency slash, different frequency slash—it was dazzling to the girls.

"Hmm, that’s enough," Aske nodded. With her current hand speed, she could already confuse the vision of most people.

"You haven’t mastered the Ripple Sword yet, so we’ll leave that out. Have you thought about how to combine your ’Shadow Dancer’ bloodline with your ’Dual-Handed Assassination Technique’?"

"Huh?" Mia looked puzzled, "Do I even need to combine them?"

"Go pull a monster and show me how you fight," Aske said.

Mia nodded and ran off. Soon, she led a Spiritual Essence Polluter back, followed by a few Temple Knights trying to kill it.

"Nora, hold them off for a moment; we’ll handle this one," Aske commanded.

So Nora stepped forward to negotiate with the Temple Knights. Hearing their intent, the Knights had expressions of confusion and bewilderment.

What? You want to borrow it for combat training?

Of course, whether they liked it or not, the Spiritual Essence Polluter was already focused on Mia and completely ignored their shooting taunts.

The Knights couldn’t take the monster back, so they could only stand by and see how these mercenaries would deal with the Polluter.

"Go, Mia!" Aske gestured broadly.

Mia, with her twin blades, charged forward and began hacking wildly at the Polluter’s Spiritual Body from behind.

The girls: .........

After a moment, Mia retreated in disarray and said:

"Aske, I forgot his Spiritual Body behind him is immune to physical attacks, what should I do?"

"Your Shadow Dancer bloodline?" Aske said, sounding incredulous.

"Ah, I forgot about that," Mia smacked her forehead.

The Shadow Dancer bloodline’s Sequential Ability could actively use "Shadow" and "Weakness." Mia usually used the former for defense or escape and the latter for offense.

However, since this guy was immune to physical damage, "Weakness" was pretty much useless. "Shadow"... How to use the Shadow Ability?

She was only dazed for a moment when the Spiritual Essence Polluter charged at her, its huge Spiritual Body lunging down, forcing her to hastily evade and retreat.

"I can’t do it!" Mia cried out in panic, "Aske, save me!"

"Just put out an ability for me to Plunder," said Aske.

If he directly plundered the person, the ability he plundered would be random. Hence, Aske could only let Mia actively use her abilities first, then he could precisely plunder them, temporarily gaining "Shadow" and "Weakness" abilities.

"Watch closely." Aske reached out his hand into the void, and the Spiritual Essence Polluter’s shadow beneath his feet suddenly began to wriggle like vines, locking him firmly in place. No matter how the Spiritual Body on his back lashed out with tentacles, it was unable to affect his own shadow at all.

"It can be used like this?" Mia was astonished.

"Nonsense, the Shadow Ability is very versatile in the early stages of a Sequence," Aske replied. "Its characteristic is that, since most enemies have shadows, as long as you manipulate the shadow under their feet, you can attack them instantly regardless of distance."

He waved his hand again, releasing the control over the shadow, and the Spiritual Essence Polluter stumbled and ran towards them again.

"Now for the Weakness Ability," Aske said calmly as he faced the oncoming enemy.

"Once the Weakness Sequence reaches a high rank, you can easily spot an opponent’s flaws, even actively force them to expose weaknesses."

Vines from the Polluter’s Spiritual Body lashed out swiftly at Aske, who easily sidestepped. When the vines missed, they quickly swept across, but Aske had already grabbed the Polluter’s arm.

He pulled forcefully on the arm, spinning the Polluter around and with them, their Spiritual Body, which failed to hit Aske.

"The so-called active creation of weaknesses means knowing how to move in a way that deforms your opponent’s actions," Aske spoke as he clutched the Polluter’s shoulder and tripped their leg. The Polluter fell forwards to the ground, the Spiritual Body also crashing down.

"A mature Shadow Dancer can even skillfully use their own movements and shadow’s restraint to make the opponent ’dance’ to their will."

The tripped Spiritual Essence Polluter attempted to get up, thrashing wildly, but Aske had already twirled his own shadow beneath his feet, wrapping it around the Polluter’s waist and hoisting him up before snapping it back abruptly.

The opponent spun like a top, flying through the air with the Spiritual Body behind spinning like a wheel, the vines thrashing in disarray.

The girls watching were still okay, but the Temple Knights were already dumbstruck.

This guy... he must be a Transcendent, right?

The Transcendent of the Lixini Family was naturally not something the Temple Knights would dare to provoke, but they had fought Transcendents before. Yet, they had never seen a Transcendent who could play around with a Spiritual Essence Polluter so effortlessly.

Moreover, given the leisurely tone of the other party, it seemed that this high-end manipulation didn’t drain much of his energy, so much so that he still had time to teach and explain:

"See? When judging the strength of an enemy, the focus isn’t on their level but on their combat awareness. Creatures without intelligence like these are just our playthings, no matter how many there are."

"Next up, Mia. Your training goal is to use the Dual Sword Assassination Skill and hit this guy’s Spiritual Body behind a thousand times. Of course, it won’t stand still for you as a live target."

"How to use the Shadow and Weakness abilities to control the enemy and create enough openings and opportunities for your Dual Sword Assassination, that’s what you should consider in this training."