Worldwide Class Change: Minimal Effort, Maximum Reward!-Chapter 158, The Watcher (3)

Lin Yi activated Second Wind.

The skill restored thirty percent of his maximum HP instantly and cleared all active debuffs, the recovery arriving in the specific way that instant healing arrived, not gradual but immediate, the cut’s damage partially addressed in the fraction of a second the activation required.

Not healed. Addressed.

The depth of the wound was real and would remain real until proper recovery time was available, but the functional impairment was reduced enough to continue.

He pressed forward.

Cang Yutian did not wait for him. The watcher moved at the same time Lin Yi did, the convergence of their approaches producing a contact point that neither of them had fully controlled the terms of, the space between two people closing when both are moving toward it resolving faster than either predicted position would suggest.

Lin Yi activated Eclipse Slash, the darkness attribute component releasing alongside the physical strike, the three second skill suppression on contact meant to interrupt Cang Yutian’s follow up activation cycle.

The Eclipse Slash landed.

The skill suppression did not activate.

Cang Yutian’ s skill framework did not operate through the standard activation channels that Eclipse Slash’s suppression was designed to interrupt. The Deity class existed at a level of system integration that the standard suppression mechanics did not reach. Lin Yi registered this from the absence of the suppression effect confirmation in his panel and adjusted his approach model accordingly.

Eclipse Slash was off the table as a utility tool against this opponent.

He activated Void Severance instead, the spatial energy blade bypassing conventional defense, the Spirit scaled defense penetration percentage his best option for reaching through the armor that had absorbed the Resonant Strike’ s secondary burst without visible response.

The Void Severance connected.

Cang Yutian shifted. A partial rotation, the armor presenting a different surface geometry to the incoming strike, the rotation timed to the arrival with a precision that spoke to a perception speed that made Predatory Instinct’s advance identification less useful than it was against lower-tier opponents because the gap between identification and execution at this level was narrow enough that identified weak points could be covered before Lin Yi could reach them.

The Void Severance hit the rotated armor surface at an angle that reduced its penetration to approximately forty percent of the calculated value.

Cang Yutian’s counter was a horizontal slash at mid height, the blade covering the retreat angle that the Void Severance approach had left open.

Lin Yi then activated Void Walk, the five-second partial spatial phasing carrying him into a state where the physical component passed through him. The energy component of the strike, the Deity-class output that accompanied the physical cut, was reduced by eighty percent by the phasing.

The twenty percent that remained registered against Celestial Armor.

Celestial Armor held. At a cost.

He came out of Void Walk in an advantaged position relative to Cang Yutian’s post-strike positioning, the brief window between the watcher’s strike completion and his repositioning giving him a two-second window of approach angle. He activated Convergence Blade, the three-second accumulation phase drawing ambient spatial energy into the blade for the release multiplier.

Cang Yutian watched him charge.

He did not interrupt the Convergence Blade’s accumulation phase. He waited.

When Lin Yi released the accumulated strike, the watcher stepped inside the release arc. The same technique he had used in the first exchange of the engagement, the approach angle chosen to pass between Lin Yi’s attack positioning and his defensive coverage, exploiting the specific gap that an offensive commitment created.

The blade caught Lin Yi across the left shoulder.

Not as deep as the chest cut. But added to the chest cut and the cumulative cost the passives had been absorbing since the engagement began, the total damage picture was not favorable.

Lin Yi stepped back with Phantom Void Step and assessed.

Celestial Armor was operating below seventy percent of its original capacity, the sustained engagement having depleted the regenerating layer faster than Eternal Spirit Core could replenish it at the intensity of this combat. Iron Body Fortification’s threshold was intact but the damage above it was accumulating. The chest cut and the shoulder cut were both drawing on Second Wind’s restored HP, and Second Wind was on cooldown.

He activated Attribute Surge.

The temporary attribute multiplier elevated his Strength, Agility, Constitution, and Spirit within the thirty-second window, the exponential scaling at his base values producing a significant temporary enhancement. Into the Attribute Surge window he activated Dragon Sovereign simultaneously, the combined effect stacking both multipliers.

He committed fully.

The next four exchanges happened within the Dragon Sovereign and Attribute Surge window, Lin Yi pressing with the full combined output of both temporary enhancements running simultaneously.

Celestial Sword Qi in concentration mode. Absolute Slash with its defense-ignoring property, the full Strength-scaled output applying without reduction. Heaven’s Judgment, the two-second charge producing the celestial energy column that ignored all resistance types. Final Cut, the assembled maximum output release.

Cang Yutian countered every one.

Not by blocking. By reading the approach and positioning to neutralize the angle each technique required.

Celestial Sword Qi’s concentration mode was met with a spatial repositioning that moved him outside the cone. Absolute Slash was countered with a strike that arrived before Lin Yi’s strike reached its target, the watcher’s perception speed and execution speed combining to put his blade in Lin Yi’s path before Lin Yi’s blade reached his.

Then, Heaven’s Judgment’s two-second charge time was met with a physical strike during the charge that disrupted the accumulation. Final Cut’s five-second charge was met with a strike at second three that broke the compression before the release.

The counter to Final Cut put three new cuts across Lin Yi’s torso.

He activated Barrier of Heaven, the defensive barrier absorbing the threshold and then shattering, the absorbed force releasing outward. The shatter pushed Cang Yutian back two steps, the only backward movement the watcher had produced in the entire engagement.

Two steps.

Just two steps.