174: Chapter 174 Half Blood

As Tang Yao experimented, the damage values from her longsword strikes against the Mutated White Wild Boar slowly crept up, until suddenly, a -27 damage number popped out, giving Hu Gualing and Xiao Niao quite a start.

Hu Gualing thought carefully and remembered that the [scorching sharp longsword] he had crafted for Tang Yao possessed a Sharpness trait. It was said that when using this longsword to attack, there was a certain chance to ignore 30% of the target's defense. Because the longsword's attack speed, along with the speed of the Basic Swordsmanship Tang Yao used, wasn't particularly fast, the number of attacks had been low, and they hadn't triggered this defense-ignoring trait much. Now that it had suddenly triggered, combined with the fact that the Mutated White Wild Boar already had high defense, ignoring 30% of that defense significantly increased the damage, resulting in such a noticeable effect.

However, Tang Yao's own Comprehension Ability was also astonishing enough to surprise anyone; she was actually able to continuously improve her attack method during the boss fight, and had even managed, through this approach, to slowly increase the damage dealt to the BOSS without any changes to her equipment or attack power!

Watching this scene from behind, Xiao Niao gained some new insights into this game...

Hu Gualing, meanwhile, was slightly startled by the damage numbers popping up over the Mutated White Wild Boar while he was rolling. He took a moment to glance over and, seeing Tang Yao's focused expression as she gripped her sword, couldn't help but be stunned for a blink of an eye. He thought to himself that besides him, Tang Yao actually had some talent in the Dao of martial arts. Being so focused, she must have realized something, but... compared to a martial arts prodigy and combat Genius like him, she was still far behind.

Thinking this, Hu Gualing returned his attention to the Mutated White Wild Boar and happened to glance at the White Wild Boar's health bar, only to find that it was already down to half!

He hadn't expected that without realizing it, he and Tang Yao had already depleted half of the Mutated White Wild Boar's health. In contrast, neither of them had been hit by a single attack. At this rate, it didn't seem impossible to kill this Mutated White Wild Boar without losing any health at all.

But why did this battle feel a bit too simple? This Mutated White Wild Boar didn't just have a "Mutated" prefix; its full name was [Vibrant Mutated White Wild Boar]. Could it be that the "Mutated" suffix meant it was different from other wild boars, having mutated into a two-legged animal that stood on its hind legs, while "Vibrant" meant its size was larger than a normal wild boar, and its health was more than double that of other wild boars?

This interpretation made sense, but was the combined effect of the two prefixes just for show? Apart from having higher defense and more health than the elite wild boars they had encountered previously, this Mutated White Wild Boar's combat ability was actually inferior to the elite wild boars. It was already half-dead and still hadn't managed to deal a single point of damage to the players. With such strength, if it were called a BOSS, it seemed a bit undeserving...

Hu Gualing thought about this with mixed feelings, while his actions didn't delay in the slightest; he landed two punches on an area of the Mutated White Wild Boar that he couldn't tell was either its waist or its leg.

-14 (Piercing Damage)! -6.

A left-right combo luckily triggered the inherent piercing trait of Farmers Three Punches, knocking another 20 points off the Mutated White Wild Boar's health.

"Fifty percent! The BOSS only has half its health left! Gualing, Tang Yao, play it steady! Keep it up!" Xiao Niao, holding the line in the rear, was not directly participating in the fight, but he was doing his best to fulfill his role, using his extraordinary eyesight to accurately report the BOSS's health while providing Hu Gualing and Tang Yao with a certain level of tactical guidance and moral support.

Tang Yao remained in a focused state, seemingly not hearing Xiao Niao's shouting. She didn't pay attention to how much health was left on the Mutated White Wild Boar's health bar either, focusing only on the longsword in her hand like a ruthless damage-dealing machine.

Hu Gualing, on the other hand, was feeling a bit conflicted. He was happy that the Mutated White Wild Boar's combat ability didn't seem that great, making the kill just a matter of time, but he was worried that such a weak monster might not be BOSS-tier, but just a tougher elite monster?

Just then, the Mutated White Wild Boar's pig hand swiped toward his head again.

Hu Gualing had long since lost his initial nervousness, but of course, he still dared not let the Mutated White Wild Boar's pig hand strike his noggin. So, he leaned his body forward, and the subsequent movements had already formed into muscle memory; his whole body rolled, dodging out from under the Mutated White Wild Boar's swipe.

After two rolls, Hu Gualing stood straight up and, almost as a conditioned reflex, used the [Farmers Three Punches] skill to strike at the Mutated White Wild Boar's belly. One reason was to deal damage to the Mutated White Wild Boar and continue to hold its aggro, and the second was to take advantage of the gap while the Mutated White Wild Boar's attack missed to squeeze in some free damage. Although Tang Yao was the main damage dealer in this battle, he, Hu Gualing, wasn't bad either; if there were a damage meter, he would definitely account for over thirty percent of the total damage.

Just then, Xiao Niao suddenly shouted: "Gualing, dodge!"

Hu Gualing was startled. In his line of sight, he saw the Mutated White Wild Boar actually using its large pig leg, which it hadn't used for anything other than movement the entire time. The pig leg lifted slightly off the ground, and it swept toward his lower body with a leg sweep.

It was true that Hu Gualing had some talent in brawling, but having fought the Mutated White Wild Boar for so long, it had just stood in the center of the hall like a wooden stake, letting him toy with it left and right. The unchanging rhythm of attack and dodge over a long period had not only made Hu Gualing's body adapt to this fighting style, to the point where it hardly needed to pass through his brain, but his body would naturally perform the dodges and punching attacks.

Becoming increasingly accustomed to this attack rhythm had also caused Hu Gualing's heart to gradually relax. When he suddenly saw the Mutated White Wild Boar uncharacteristically stop using its pig hands to swipe and switch to its pig feet, he didn't react in time. After Xiao Niao's warning, he paused for a moment before thinking to use the Lazy Donkey Roll to dodge, but he had already used the Lazy Donkey Roll several times during the long battle. Although he had stopped to catch his breath after each use and hadn't used it consecutively, the muscles in various parts of his body were still affected, and his whole body was vaguely filled with a feeling of soreness.

Especially his two arms.

When he used Farmers Three Punches to launch attacks against the Mutated White Wild Boar, his own fists and arms would also bear a portion of the recoil force. It was slightly better when he threw punches from the front at the Mutated White Wild Boar's belly, but when he attacked from the side, the solid pig skin and fur on the side of the Mutated White Wild Boar's body not only made Hu Gualing's knuckles burn, but his arms also bore quite a bit of recoil force.