218: Chapter 218 Countdown

That was it. The exploit he thought of was timing—remembering the cooldown of the BOSS's skills.

By knowing the interval between each cast of the BOSS's combo skill, he would know when the next one would occur. Even if there were no warnings, he would already know the precise timing for the BOSS's next attack, and with Hu Gualing's reaction time, he could surely prepare in advance and dodge.

Holding onto this thought, Xiao Niao had asked Tang Yao to take the Sharp-toothed Piglet and temporarily leave the engagement, leaving Hu Gualing alone within the BOSS's attack range. This way, if the BOSS truly cast the skill as he anticipated, the target would have to be Hu Gualing.

Judging from the interval between the previous two times the Millennium Tree Demon BOSS used its combo skill, Xiao Niao deduced that the cooldown was likely exactly thirty seconds. Therefore, after the Millennium Tree Demon BOSS last used the 'Vine Entanglement' and 'Earth Spike Technique' combo on Tang Yao, he counted the seconds, and upon reaching 'twenty-nine', he immediately shouted for Hu Gualing to use his dodge skill.

Hu Gualing had guessed Xiao Niao's intention, so he didn't dare hesitate and immediately executed the Lazy Donkey Roll. Unexpectedly, halfway through the roll, he suddenly felt like he had hit an obstacle. Upon closer inspection, a 'Damn it' slipped from his lips; the elusive vines had appeared around him again, not only interrupting his roll but completely wrapping him up, like a basketball caught in a net with no way to escape.

Xiao Niao, who had been watching the battle with intense focus, pulled a long face, his expression turning grim. He hadn't spotted the vines appearing much earlier than Hu Gualing, but because he was standing further away, he had witnessed the entire scene unfold.

It turned out that just as Hu Gualing was halfway through his roll, the cage woven from green vines had suddenly appeared. It hadn't appeared where Hu Gualing was standing, nor at his landing point, but right when he was in the middle of his roll—moving so fast that his body was almost a blur—the cage manifested precisely around him without the slightest deviation, perfectly enclosing him.

This cage of vines seemed to have a limited size. Just like the previous time the vine cage had appeared around Hu Gualing, due to its size constraints, it had only wrapped around his lower body, leaving his upper body exposed. While this didn't serve much practical purpose, at least his face remained exposed to the air, preventing him from falling into a state of total panic.

However, because of Xiao Niao's command this time, Hu Gualing had used the Lazy Donkey Roll before the vine cage appeared. His body, curled into a ball mid-roll, had been caught perfectly by the cage, trapping him from head to toe.

Now, not only was Hu Gualing's roll interrupted, but he couldn't even stand on his own two feet. His entire body was wrapped into a bundle by the suddenly appearing vines. As soon as he made the slightest movement, the countless vines tightened like they were shrinking, squeezing him so tightly that there was no room to move. In this moment of despair, a solid Earth Spike erupted from the ground and struck Hu Gualing without fail.

-72! A large critical damage number popped up, accompanied by Hu Gualing's scream, as nearly half of his health bar vanished instantly.

Xiao Niao hurriedly cast 'Recovery Spell' on Hu Gualing, his movements appearing flustered. This sudden turn of events was completely different from the outcome he had anticipated.

Originally, Xiao Niao had expected that since the Millennium Tree Demon BOSS's 'Vine Entanglement + Earth Spike Technique' combo could not be predicted via the surrounding game environment, calculating its cooldown and dodging one second before the BOSS unleashed the skill should give Hu Gualing a high chance of evading it, given his physical stats and dodging ability.

The reality matched his prediction; the cooldown of the BOSS's combo skill was indeed thirty seconds, and Hu Gualing's response of using 'Lazy Donkey Roll' at the twenty-ninth second was flawless. However, what he hadn't anticipated was that the 'Vine Entanglement' portion of the BOSS's combo wasn't like the 'Earth Spike Technique', which required a brief moment before it could take effect on the player; instead, it was an instant-cast skill that locked onto the player.

Against an instant-cast skill with a lock-on effect like this, no matter how fast one's reaction speed was, it was impossible to dodge.

So it was no wonder that even though Hu Gualing had anticipated the timing and executed a 'Lazy Donkey Roll' in advance, he was still caught dead-on by the suddenly appearing vine cage.

Xiao Niao cast several 'Recovery Spell's in succession, restoring most of Hu Gualing's health. By then, the vines wrapped around his body had vanished. Only after Hu Gualing crouched, pushed himself up from the ground, and resumed attacking the Millennium Tree Demon BOSS did Xiao Niao finally stop casting 'Recovery Spell', lower his hands, and shake his head with a sigh.

It seemed his earlier plan had completely fallen apart in the face of the BOSS's instant-cast, lock-on skill.

Although, thanks to his 'Recovery Spell'—a healing skill with no cooldown—failing to counter the BOSS's combo didn't seem like a critical issue. After all, as long as Hu Gualing and Tang Yao weren't instantly killed, he could continuously use 'Recovery Spell' to heal them back up.

However, using 'Recovery Spell' wasn't without a cost. Each cast consumed ten mana points, and his total mana pool was only 140, meaning he could only cast it fourteen times in total. Now, whether it was Hu Gualing or Tang Yao, whenever the thirty-second cooldown ended, they would be struck by the Millennium Tree Demon's combo. Since each hit dealt seventy or eighty points of critical damage, he had to cast 'Recovery Spell' three or four times to restore their health. In just over a minute, a large chunk of his 140 mana had already been depleted. Relying solely on sitting on the ground to rest and drinking water to regenerate mana wouldn't be enough; he could hold out for five or eight minutes at most!

As for speeding up their damage output to finish off the Millennium Tree Demon BOSS within those five to eight minutes? That was something Xiao Niao didn't even dare to imagine.