Chapter 974: The Choice of Battle Armor
As expected, at the diagonal line, the iron cage was less than twenty arms long. The iron cage was slowly lowered, and the inner side of the cage was filled with sharp blades. The two gladiators were not as flashy as they were in a group battle.
They shouted at the same time and summoned their totem battle armor.
A ball of lead gray and a ball of pale gold liquid metal seeped out of their pores respectively. When it met air, it solidified into a ferocious shape. Strange-looking armor “grew” on both of their bodies.
Different from Ice Storm’s full-body armor, the armors of Poison Stinger, Brute Hammer, and Casanova, were mainly concentrated on their shining tattooed shoulders and chests.
The shoulder shield that looked like a war hammer on the shoulder, greatly increased the lethality of the collision.
As for the tigermen’s totem armor, it was concentrated on the arms, especially the ends of the arms. The liquid metal that was wrapped around the tiger claws continuously extended the shining golden claws, almost dragging them to the ground.
Other than perfectly fitting and outlining the soul-stirring muscle lines,.
The two incomplete totem armors were also engraved with mysterious and complicated patterns and runes.
After the introduction of the ice storm, Meng Chao had a rough understanding of the corresponding relationship between the totem and the characteristic.
He knew that on the left side of the wild boar warrior’s shoulders, there were three overlapping sawteeth that represented the “shocking” characteristic.
The ability to trigger the resonance of matter, to rely on high-frequency oscillations to disintegrate the target from the inside, was similar to the Tyrant Mammoth’s innate skill, War Trample.
On the right side of the tigerman’s arms, there was a pattern that looked like lightning being elongated. It was not an “electric shock” characteristic, but “sharpness.” It could increase the lethality and armor-piercing rate, making the claws wrapped in liquid metal, it would become a real divine weapon.
The two armored warriors fiercely collided with each other based on their respective characteristics.
The wild boar warriors were equivalent to the weakened version of Poison Stinger who was equipped with One Million Steam Hammer. Their tactics were similar. They would constantly sprint and collide to reduce the opponent’s range of movement, eventually forcing the opponent into a blind spot, they would use a series of unstoppable collisions to end the battle.
The tigermen, on the other hand, chose a tactic similar to Ice Storm’s. Through continuous pouncing, they tried to tear open wounds on the opponent’s body that was not covered in armor. They did not want to end the battle quickly, but only wanted to bleed slowly. They wanted to make their opponent sink into a desperate situation where he had lost too much blood before they could think of a way to make the final decision.
Although they did not have Ice Storm’s “frost” and “agility” characteristics, compared with the snow leopard people, the tigermen were born with a larger body and thicker arms. With the enhancement of the “sharpness” characteristic… the golden claw at the end of their arms left a series of afterimages. It could be considered as a tiger giving birth to wind.
The two sides attacked each other with offense. They had no intention of dodging.
Before the blood from the previous battle had coagulated, new flowers of blood bloomed on the hot stage.
The blood of the surrounding audience, especially the clansmen of the two gladiators, was boiling as they cheered loudly.
This battle would determine who would be the strongest in the Battle of Glory, who would obey who’s orders, and who would be qualified to choose the spoils of war first.
This was closely related to their fates. They even spared no effort to cheer them on. It was as if they were about to spew out raging flames from the depths of their throats.
Amongst the audience members who were as fanatical as an erupting volcano, only Meng Chao was as calm as ever.
If one observed carefully, one could see that there were subtle differences in color around his pupils. His iris that looked like a rainbow was zooming in and out.
However, he poured his spirit energy into his retina, lens, and cone cells. With his extraordinary vision, he could see every subtle change in the two armored warriors.
Meng Chao had to admit that Ice Storm was right. Even if it only covered part of his body, the totem armor could still display amazing combat power.
No matter how small a totem was, it would still have magical characteristics. It was equivalent to an instant cast skill that did not require any forward swing or cooldown. The duration of this skill could even last through the entire battle.
Imagine, with the support of the totem power, the armor penetration rate or collision speed could be increased by 30% during the entire battle.
How terrifying was this.
However, this did not mean that the totem warriors were invincible, especially for the armored warriors, when part of their limbs were strengthened. Meng Chao felt that there was a fatal flaw in them as a whole.
The main reason was that there was a subtle tearing feeling between the limbs covered by the totem armor and the exposed limbs in the air.
It was easy to understand—even if it was an ordinary armor, with three layers of heavy armor on the top and only a G-string underpants on the bottom, it was inevitable that it would be heavy-headed and lose its balance.
If one arm was strengthened by the totem power and became extremely thick, but the other arm was still in its normal form and relatively thin, it would not be able to maintain its balance.
Just like the length of the legs, it would have an unpredictable effect on the center of gravity and balance.
“Therefore, as long as I can grasp the tearing feeling of the armored warrior and find the imbalance between the armor-bearing and armor-free parts, I will still have the chance to kill the armored warrior instantly even if I haven’t recovered my battle strength above the Heaven Realm!” Meng Chao thought to himself.
Of course, this was only a theoretical possibility.
It was just like how the dangly-eyed tiger with a white forehead had a theoretical weakness of having a soft abdomen that was easy to be cut open with a knife.
Therefore, a normal person only needed to slide a shovel under the tiger’s belly, put the blade up, and lightly poke it. Then, it would be effortless to kill the tiger.
The reason was like this.
But it was best not to do it in practice.
Otherwise, the consequences would be at one’s own risk.
In a fight between experts, victory or death was only in an instant.
Just as Meng Chao was deep in thought, a large amount of blood gushed out in the arena like fireworks.
Both sides’ totem battle armors had similar coverage rates.
The advantage of having rough skin and thick flesh allowed the wild boar man to laugh until the end.
He forcefully withstood the tigerman’s seemingly ferocious series of sharp claws and finally managed to force the tigerman into a corner.
Seizing the opportunity, his entire body turned into a leaden-colored hurricane. With a crushing stance, he instantly displayed dozens of powerful and savage collisions.
The iron cage, which was made of fine steel and as thick as an arm, was knocked down by the wild boar man with a “clang clang” sound, causing visible deformation.
The place where the iron cage and the arena were placed together was even more crisscrossed with cracks.
The tigerman’s arms, which were protected by the totem armor, were as good as new.
However, his chest and waist, which were not covered by the armor, were smashed into a pulp.
His head, which was covered in a horn helmet, was also as miserable as a watermelon that had been trampled by a Tyrant Mammoth.
Even if the body of an advanced orc was several times stronger than that of an ordinary human…
After suffering such a serious injury, it was impossible for him to stand up again with his own strength.
The tigerman still maintained his “standing” posture. It was only because he had been hit by the wild boar man that his back had collided with the blade inside the iron cage. The blade had pierced deep into his body and gotten stuck his bones. It had only “nailed” him.
The tigerman’s gaze was unfocused. His arms that were covered in totem armor hung down weakly, twitching slightly.
The wild boar men in the audience seats let out cheers that overturned the roof.
The minotaur man let out a loud hissing sound. Disappointment and anger overflowed from his words.
Meng Chao did not care about the outcome of the battle. He stared intently at the totem armor on the tigerman’s arms.
He discovered that as the tigerman was heavily injured and on the verge of death, the totem armor covering his arms actually cracked and fell to the ground, turning back into liquid metal and rolling toward the wild boar man.
It didn’t seem like it had been scattered by the wild boar man.
Instead, it seemed like… it had taken the initiative to disintegrate and throw itself into the wild boar man’s embrace!
The wild boar man was overjoyed. He knelt on one knee and stretched out his arms, absorbing all the remnants of the tigerman’s armor into his body.
His fangs protruded, and his incomparably ugly face immediately revealed an expression of excitement, confusion, and madness that would only appear after he had injected an excessive amount of high-concentration genetic medicine.
His arms twitched violently. Every strand of muscle was jerking crazily, as though they were being transformed by a brand-new totem power.
Not long after, huge gooseb.u.mps protruded from the messy hair on his arms.
As the gooseb.u.mps burst, liquid metal gushed out. The gauntlet that belonged to the tigerman a moment ago was transferred to the wild boar man’s arms.
The “sharpness” feature did not change. It only slightly changed the color and appearance, which further accentuated the wild boar man’s strong figure and rough temperament. Moreover, it was integrated with his original totem armor and inseparable.
Now, the wild boar man’s battle armor could cover both shoulders, arms, and part of his chest. The coverage rate had almost doubled.
He waved his arms that were like heavy war hammers and let out a victorious roar.
“This is the reason why totem warriors often like to gamble on the fragments of their battle armor in a showdown.”
Ice Storm saw Meng Chao’s surprised look and explained, “Because it’s very difficult to renege on a bet like this—when the outcome of the battle is decided, and one side is heavily injured and on the verge of death, it’s very difficult to recover their previous battle strength and fight for greater glory. His totem battle armor may then voluntarily abandon him and choose a new owner who is stronger and more likely to bring glory.
“If it’s a wealthy clan, with the binding of a secret technique that has been pa.s.sed down for a thousand years, the situation might be better. Just like when I knocked Poison Stinger unconscious earlier, I could only tear off a large piece of the battle armor fragment from his chest, but I was unable to take the entire One Million Steam Hammer for myself.
“However, for ordinary warriors without power or inheritance, they are just one of the hundreds of totem armor owners in the thousands of years of battle.
“Unless they show amazing courage and potential when they face an enemy that is far stronger than them, the totem armor will not die with them.”
Meng Chao clicked his tongue in wonder.
The more he listened, the more he felt that the so-called “totem battle armor” was not a real armor.
Instead, it was an extremely strange living creature like what Ice Storm had repeatedly said.
“However, it’s not that easy to absorb other people’s battle armor fragments and totem power…”
Ice storm seemed to have sensed something, and her narrowed eyes were filled with pity.
Following her line of sight, Meng Chao looked at the arena once again.
The next second, the arena that was filled with the joy of victory just a moment ago, experienced a sudden change!