Although Shi Feng's movement speed was considerable, the Element Praykeeper, as a Domain Lord, could both amplify its own combat power within the domain and suppress its enemies. The combined effect of one boost and one debuff made the Domain Lord far more formidable than ordinary monsters of the same level.
The instant Shi Feng crossed into the Element Praykeeper's fifty-yard domain, he felt his body grow suddenly heavy, his speed dropping noticeably.
"Gravity increased?" Shi Feng frowned involuntarily.
The one thing that set Domain Lords apart from other monsters was their ability to manipulate a domain, though the specifics varied. Some controlled objects to launch attacks, others debuffed player attributes, and the most troublesome type was environmental manipulation.
Changing the environment within the domain — transforming it into a sea of fire, or an icy wasteland — and gravity manipulation fell squarely into that category.
A dramatic shift in gravity was far more terrifying than simply reducing a player's movement speed, because every action a player took became sluggish as a result.
The moment Shi Feng set foot in the domain, the Element Praykeeper spotted him at once. It immediately began chanting a spell and swung the staff in its hands.
In an instant, more than twenty wind blades shot toward Shi Feng. At the same time, rock spikes erupted from the ground beneath his feet. In the span of a single breath, the Element Praykeeper had executed a dual incantation.
With rock spikes surging up from the ground, Shi Feng had no choice but to leap into the air to dodge. But the wind blades followed straight after him, leaving him absolutely nowhere to evade.
More than twenty wind blades bore down on him head-on, and with no way to change direction midair, Shi Feng could only swing both swords to block them head-on.
Sword Trail!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The instant his blades met the wind blades, it felt like he was hacking into cannonballs. His arms went numb despite himself, and with each collision the numbness lasted longer and longer. Compounded by the high-gravity environment making his reflexes sluggish, after just a few exchanges Shi Feng could no longer keep up with the wind blades' assault.
With another wave of wind blades incoming, Shi Feng had no option but to activate Sword Control Return to Heaven. He barely managed to deflect the Element Praykeeper's volley.
"Strong!" Shi Feng landed and couldn't help but stare at the Element Praykeeper as it began chanting yet again.
The high-gravity environment sapped the player's responsiveness, and when combined with the domain's magical enhancements and the multi-target attacks, even an ordinary expert at level seventy would be instantly killed.
Before Shi Feng could even ease the numbness in his arms, the Element Praykeeper finished its next incantation. Another barrage of rock spikes and wind blades came hurtling toward him.
"Break!"
This time Shi Feng didn't bother dodging the incoming rock spikes. He unleashed Purgatory Five-Fold Slash directly.
Five arcs of sword light shattered the rock spikes head-on. Shi Feng then turned toward the nearby stone pillars. In this high-gravity environment, even with his current stats, dodging more than twenty wind blades in open ground was impossible. Tanking them head-on meant certain death. His only option was to use the surrounding stone pillars to break up the attack angles.
Using the stone pillars to reduce his defensive blind spots made dodging and blocking the wind blades far easier. He slipped past the Element Praykeeper's onslaught cleanly.
"As I thought, these pillars serve a purpose." Shi Feng glanced at the pillars, utterly unscathed by the wind blades, and breathed a small sigh of relief.
If these pillars had been destroyed by wind blades at the peak of Tier 3 power, this fight would have been completely hopeless.
Although the pillars allowed Shi Feng to block the Element Praykeeper's attacks, actually getting close to the creature was excruciatingly difficult.
The nearer he drew, the wider the variety of spells the Element Praykeeper unleashed.
A straight-line Fire Roar channeled down a narrow corridor. A wide-area water column crashing down from the sky. Rock spikes erupting from the ground and wind blades whirling through the air on top of that. The combination of all four made approaching the Element Praykeeper seem like an impossibility.
"Truly worthy of a Domain Lord," Shi Feng muttered with a bitter smile, watching the Element Praykeeper cast spell after spell. "A hundred-man expert party of the same level would get wiped out. Trying to handle this solo is just too much."
Caster-type monsters were most vulnerable up close — once you closed the gap, they became manageable. But right now, forget about getting into melee range; even approaching within forty yards was a nightmare. It was exactly like being besieged by an entire Tier 3 mage squad, with Tier 3 magic raining down one after another. All he could do was circle around the stone pillars. If any other top-tier expert had been in his place, they would likely have been dead long ago.