Debuff Master

Chapter 1260

This was Siegfried’s plan.

‘I’m playing it too safe like this. He’ll just keep absorbing my energy, and I’ll dry up in the end.’

He decided to change his strategy after seeing that Lee Geon could use the Devouring Grand Art with nothing but his bare hands. His new strategy was to pour out every skill in his arsenal, forcing Lee Geon to rely even more on the Devouring Grand Art.

Overload.

The backlash would surely become even more terrifying as Lee Geon absorbed more and more energy.

Thus, Siegfried intentionally bombarded him with skills.

And the result of that was Lee Geon’s current state...

By absorbing all of the skills Siegfried had unleashed in such a short period of time, the backlash of the Devouring Grand Art finally arrived.

“A-Arghhh!” Lee Geon groaned.

He clutched at his chest and staggered a few steps backward, writhing from the backlash.

Badump! Badump! Badump!

His heart pounded like a drum, as though it would burst at any second.

Just as Siegfried had planned, the backlash of Devouring Grand Art tore Lee Geon apart from the inside.

‘I knew it,’ Siegfried thought with a grin.

Lee Geon was a monster, but it was impossible for him to fully withstand the backlash of the Devouring Grand Art. Every mana hall had a limit to how much it could store, and Siegfried had experienced having his mana hall overloaded firsthand.

Using that experience, Siegfried deliberately spammed his skills and stuffed Lee Geon’s mana hall to the brim, causing the recoil exactly as he intended.

‘Time to pull back.’

Siegfried moved back away from Lee Geon, who was now rampaging after suffering the backlash from his skill.

At this point, Lee Geon was a ticking time bomb.

Once his mana hall actually exploded, then Siegfried, too, would not make it out alive.

Both of them would go down together, causing even this duel to end in another draw.

“You bastard... Do you think you can beat me with your petty tricks?!” Lee Geon snarled, his face twisting like a demon from the side effects.

He roared and lunged at Siegfried with insane speed.

Now that his mana hall was filled to the brim and overloaded, his strength was exponentially stronger than it had been before. His movements were far faster than before, and his strength was now unparalleled.

He could also explode at any moment, making him far more dangerous.

‘I can’t let him get close to me!’ ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

Siegfried activated Pesky Brat and ran away as fast as he could.

Whoosh!

The effect of the title that he had not used in a long time was nothing short of amazing.

“You son of a bitch!” Lee Geon roared. He spat every curse known to man and chased Siegfried, but the distance between them would not shrink at all, no matter how much he chased.

Pesky Brat was just that effective.

‘I should hit him from range.’

Siegfried conjured tens of thousands of aura blades and unleashed Transcendent Torrential Flower Rain. Each aura blade carried the freezing chill of Absolute Zero, and they struck Lee Geon one after another.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Every time an aura blade landed, it would detonate and leave behind a white frost that slowed Lee Geon down.

“You bastard...!”

Lee Geon’s movement grew sluggish, as though his legs now weighed a thousand tons.

‘Oh?’ Siegfried raised a brow.

Lee Geon’s slow movements told him that the ice-attribute aura blades were finally taking effect. Siegfried had been waiting for this moment—the moment when Lee Geon could no longer absorb skills with the Devouring Grand Art.

His mana hall was already filled to the brim; attempting to absorb any more would cause him to explode. Lee Geon instinctively knew that, so he couldn’t use the Devouring Grand Art anymore.

‘Now’s my chance.’

At last, it was Siegfried’s turn to go on the offensive.

With the Devouring Grand Art rendered unusable, Siegfried was free to use his skills without holding back.

It was finally time for his counterattack.

***

Shhhhhk!

Siegfried unleashed Embrace of Despair in full force.

“Arghhh!” Lee Geon groaned and flailed helplessly after getting caught in the slowing debuff.

Thanks to the tens of thousands of aura blades unleashed by the Transcendent Torrential Flower Rain, his movements had become so slow that he looked like he was trapped in quicksand.

‘Not enough.’

However, Siegfried was far from over...

Ssseuuu...!

He unleashed Frozen Hell, causing a blizzard of chilling frost to surround Lee Geon.

“A-Aaghck!”

Lee Geon writhed to break free from the frost, but it was futile.

Without the Devouring Grand Art, he couldn’t nullify Siegfried’s skills and had no choice but to take them head-on. Even after getting layers and layers of debuffs stacked on him, Lee Geon stubbornly forced his way out.

His stats were inflated to absurd levels from the energy he had absorbed earlier, which allowed him to break through the freezing slow by sheer brute force.

‘What? He’s breaking free from that?’

Siegfried clicked his tongue at Lee Geon’s tenacity before unleashing Karma Flare.

Fwooooosh!

The flames burned away Lee Geon’s defenses.

‘Perfect.’

Now that the debuffs were set, Siegfried immediately followed it up with Wave of Annihilation, Infernal Hellscape, and Splitting Heaven and Earth.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Krwaaaang!

The skill combo he unleashed was so powerful that the entire underground ruin shook, causing stones to tumble down everywhere.

The bombardment was nothing short of overkill, but Lee Geon survived.

[Beowulf]

[HP: ■■■□□□□□□□]

His HP had been reduced by a whopping seventy percent by the combo.

“Y-You vermin...!” Lee Geon roared, trembling with fury. This was the first time he suffered such humiliation. He was being beaten like a sandbag, yet there was nothing he could do about it.

Lee Geon had always been the predator. He was the one hunting, tormenting, dominating, and killing his prey.

Now, the roles were reversed. he was the helpless prey being toyed with.

The Devouring Grand Art? His mana hall would rupture and explode the moment he used it. Without the Devouring Grand Art, Siegfried’s absolutely filthy debuff skills would crush him.

He briefly considered pulling out a sword from his Inventory, but Siegfried would immediately destroy it.

A checkmate...

Lee Geon was cornered with no escape.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Siegfried continued the onslaught, as he kept his distance and rained down aura blade after aura blade.

Instead of closing in and taking the risk to unleash Seven Steps to Invincibility, Siegfried chose to outbox his opponent.

Lee Geon could choose mutual destruction, and Siegfried was not willing to take that risk.

Thus, he attacked from a distance and chipped away at Lee Geon’s HP. Every aura blade was imbued with cold energy, and each hit stacked freezing effects on Lee Geon.

“H-Han... Tae... Sung... Y-You... bastard...!”

Soon, Lee Geon was completely frozen, locked in place like a statue. The debuffs stacked on him had rendered him immobile.

‘Now’s my chance,’ Siegfried thought, seizing the opening.

Wooong!

He charged up Touch of Death and imbued it at the tip of his +10 Sky Piercer.

This time, he judged that he did not need to rely on the Seven Steps to Invincibility.

Lee Geon was frozen solid, and all he needed to do was use his most powerful skill from range. After charging up the Touch of Death, he hurled his +10 Sky Piercer straight at Lee Geon.

Shwiiiiiik!

Like a bolt of lightning, the spear pierced Lee Geon dead center in the chest.

“...Huh?”

Siegfried blinked a few times, tilting his head in confusion.

Though the Touch of Death had skewered Lee Geon’s heart, nothing happened.

The attack ought to have triggered a cataclysmic explosion, but the weapon stuck in Lee Geon didn't explode.

Silence filled the area.

“What’s going on...?” Siegfried muttered under his breath, still baffled.

Rumble!

All of a sudden, a radiant light burst out of Lee Geon.

“...!” Siegfried’s eyes widened in horror.

There was no time to think.

‘R-Run! I have to get away from him!’

Siegfried spread his wings and flew away at maximum speed.

And it proved to be the right decision...

Flash!

A crimson red light flashed and—

KABOOOOOOOOOM!

—An explosion on the scale of a nuclear bomb detonation engulfed everything. The destructive power of Touch of Death collided and resonated with all of the energy Lee Geon had absorbed using Devouring Grand Art.

Once combined, the result was a cataclysmic explosion beyond measure.

***

Boom!

Krwaaaang!

The explosion was massive. Its destructive power was so overwhelming that it reduced everything to mere rubble.

The ground collapsed, and the trees were uprooted as if nature itself had attacked. If the explosion had occurred aboveground rather than underground, then a third of the jungle would have been wiped off the map.

“Argh!”

Siegfried barely survived the blast thanks to his quick thinking. The force of the blast had flung him far away. He crashed down hard and rolled across the ground.

[Siegfried von Proa]

[HP: ■□□□□□□□□□]

He barely had ten percent of his HP left. The blast was so powerful that even his high Defense was useless.

“Ugghh...” Siegfried groaned in agony upon sustaining a grievous injury.

“Kyuuu! You did it, owner punk!”

“Master!”

Hamchi and Plague rushed over and helped Siegfried to his feet.

“Kyuuu! Are you okay, owner punk?”

“Master! Are you all right?!”

“Hehe... Hehehehe...”

Siegfried was laughing.

“Kyu...? Why are you laughing like that, owner punk?” Hamchi tilted his head in confusion.

“Hehehe...”

“Kyuuu...?”

Siegfried simply lay sprawled on the ground, grinning.

“Ah, I guess you’re that happy you won against him. Kyuuu...” Hamchi said, shaking his head with a sigh.

Siegfried was not merely laughing because he won against Lee Geon. Yes, he was delighted by the victory. For someone like Siegfried, who had clawed his way up from the very bottom, defeating a genius like Lee Geon was a tremendous achievement.

However, he had a different reason for grinning and laughing like he was right now.

What delighted him the most was Lee Geon himself.

‘Keke! Just thinking about how furious he must be right now is enough to make me laugh.’

The thought of that proud and arrogant man seething in rage filled Siegfried with glee. Someone as proud as Lee Geon would never be able to withstand the humiliation and stress from being defeated by Siegfried.

Lee Geon spent his entire life trampling others and treating them like vermin, so to give him a taste of his own medicine was enough to make Siegfried laugh, regardless of whether he was in pain or not.

But that was not all...

[Alert: Recording Complete!]

Just like Lee Geon, Siegfried had recorded their battle from start to finish.

He had evidence of his victory secured, and he fully intended to upload the video on G-Tube for all to see.

Once the video was uploaded, Lee Geon’s mental suffering would only worsen. For someone so obsessed with power and pride, having his humiliating defeat feature on the front page of G-Tube would be intolerable.

‘I’m going to give you a taste of your own medicine. You will feel what those people you crushed felt.’

Siegfried had not even an ounce of sympathy for Lee Geon. Considering what Lee Geon had done to Daytona, this barely even counted as revenge. This battle would be considered a legendary battle by most, but it was only the beginning for Siegfried.

He was far from done.

This was the first blow against the so-called once-in-a-generation genius gamer.

Siegfried planned to kick Lee Geon, who was drunk on his superiority complex, off his high horse and drag him through the mud.