I am the Arcane Archer, and all my skills are self-created.

The second contraction of the arena is not over yet, but the public channels are already in complete chaos.

"How many points are there for 'Seeing Flowers Through the Fog'?"

"Three hundred and ten, far ahead."

Does anyone know what skill he used?

"Judging from the way the domain unfolds, it should be some kind of area-sealing skill, but I've never seen that collapse before."

"Arcane Archer? Isn't the Arcane Archer the worst class? How come they're so strong!"

"That crater-destroying skill was definitely not a preset skill given by the system; he created it himself."

"Created skills?"

"Yes, I heard that Arcane Archers have a rune system that allows them to combine skills themselves. That Collapsed Domain should be what they call a self-created skill."

"How many of these self-created skills does that 'Seeing Flowers Through the Fog' possess?"

No one can answer that.

Because in that massacre, they only saw one, and that was enough.

……

On the east side of the ruins, a player dressed in a black robe sat cross-legged on the broken wall.

His ID is "Knife Size", and he comes from the 8th district.

He wasn't a well-known guild leader, nor had he ever appeared on the server-wide leaderboard, but he had something that others didn't.

A pair of very sharp eyes and a very calm mind.

Before the match began, he found a high vantage point and marked all the major powerhouses in the ruins of the entire arena. Caesar, Raymond, Flora—he recorded them all.

Then the person called "Seeing Flowers Through the Fog" appeared and scored sixteen kills with a single arrow.

While others were calling out from over there, he was taking notes from over here.

He replayed the details of that arrow three times.

On his first viewing, he observed the angle and speed at which the field was expanded.

The second time, he looked at the color of the internal energy changes as the domain collapsed.

The third time, he looked at why Caesar's sword aura shield failed to form an effective block before the collapse.

Then he pieced together the three versions of the content in his mind and came to a general conclusion.

The core logic of that skill is not explosion, but "devouring".

A normal explosion skill involves the energy spreading outwards, and the impact on defense is direct and can be blocked.

But that field is different; its energy contracts inward.

The direction of destruction against a defense is from the outside in; it involves pulling the defense itself in and swallowing it up.

Any shield, regardless of its form, is meaningless in the face of this logic, because the design premise of a shield is to "resist external impacts," not to "resist internal engulfment."

I noted down this analysis of the tool dimensions and then thought about the next question.

What are the weaknesses of this skill?

There are three directions.

First, the skill has a charging time. Before the singularity lands, it has a flight path; if you destroy it before it lands, the skill will be useless.

Second, the area is limited to a radius of fifteen meters. As long as you are outside this range, it is safe.

Third, the user is stationary during the skill activation, meaning that he is vulnerable during the few seconds he is charging up.

He wrote down these three points, glanced at the points, compiled the analysis into a document, and shared it on the internal channel of his small circle.

The small group he belonged to was called the "Countermeasures Group".

This is a cross-regional, informal player research group that specializes in studying how to counter various special classes and skills.

The document was sent out, and someone replied within ten seconds.

"Can we interrupt his charging up? That makes things easier; we just need to disrupt his charging process."

"Then use remote control; there's no need to be close."

"Remote control also needs to reach the target. His Flash ability allows him to instantly teleport. If he Flashes out of the control range..."

……

The channel went silent for a moment.

"So that means, theoretically, the chances of winning in a direct confrontation with him are very low?"

He stared at the question about knife size for a while, then replied with a single sentence.

"It's not very low."

"It's close to zero."

There's only one way to get a chance.

"What method?"

"It's not about killing him, it's about forcing him to run out of mana prematurely."

There was a moment of silence on the channel.

Then someone asked, "What's his maximum mana capacity? Does anyone know?"

no one knows.

Because no one has ever seen him run out of mana.

……

Li Wu stood on a section of abandoned city wall and scanned the area with his "Energy Falcon".

The battlefield continues to shrink, while the player density is increasing.

He could sense that the atmosphere around him was a little different.

It wasn't the excitement of "discovering prey," but rather a more detached feeling of studying him from a distance.

This feeling was familiar to him.

It took him a very short time to figure out what this meant.

People have started analyzing him.

This is both a good thing and a bad thing.

The good thing is that the more seriously the opponent analyzes the situation, the more it shows that he has established a sufficiently high level of deterrence in this competition.

The bad thing is that once someone finds his weakness, the subsequent confrontation will be more troublesome.

However, trouble is not the same as threat.

He currently has 310 points, far ahead of the leader. Even if he stays completely inactive in the following stages, as long as his final score isn't caught up, he will remain in first place.

But he doesn't intend to hide.

He's standing here, waiting for someone to come.

He glanced down at the score again.

He still holds the number one spot.

He tightened his grip on the arcane bow and continued walking towards the center of the arena.

……

Another twenty minutes passed.

The battlefield shrank for the third time, and the activity area of ​​the entire arena has been reduced to less than one-third of its original size.

Player density has increased dramatically.

At this stage, there's nowhere to hide.

Li Wu stood on the ruins of a high platform, overlooking the chaotic battle below.

The intensity of the battles at this stage was significantly higher than before. Players who were previously fighting individually began to form temporary alliances, cooperating with each other in small groups.

After observing for a while, he roughly figured out the main groups currently on the field.

The largest group, about twenty people, had flags from various districts, but the person standing in the very center caught his eye.

Tall, wearing a long black robe, with no obvious professional markings, he made everyone in the crowd automatically take a half step back.

His ID is "Knife Size".

Li Wu didn't recognize the name, but he could tell from the person's positioning and command style that this was no ordinary player.

This is a player with a very calm and systematic playing style.

He stared at the size of the knife for about three seconds. The other person seemed unaware that he was being observed and continued talking to the people around him.

Li Wu withdrew his gaze, took half a step back, and moved himself out of the other party's possible field of vision.

He wanted to observe for a while longer.

Then his [Fate Perception] stirred.

It's the kind of fluctuation that "malice is approaching," but not the kind of impulsive feeling of wanting to confront it head-on.

It's a very restrained feeling, like you're measuring and calculating.

Li Wu raised the Arcane Bow, but did not launch an attack immediately; instead, he waited for a second.

A second later, a slight disturbance appeared in the air to his right.

He took half a step to the left, and a throwing knife flew past his ear and embedded itself in the stone wall behind him.

The movements were swift and the angles were tricky; if I hadn't sensed it beforehand, I could have easily been hit.

But this was just a test.

The real question is, from which direction did the throwing knife come?

Coming from directly right, three meters lower than him, with a parabolic angle between twenty-five and thirty degrees.

This means that the other party is currently positioned to his right and slightly behind, at a distance of approximately forty to sixty meters.

Li Wu neither turned around nor moved.

He stood there for another two seconds.

Here comes the second throwing knife.

This time it was from the left, at a lower angle, clearly fired from behind cover, trying to suppress his movement.

Li Wu took a step forward, and the throwing knife grazed past his shoulder.

His mind was racing.

The two throwing knives came from two different directions, and their angles and forces were calculated.

It wasn't done by one person.

It's a collaboration between two people.

They are testing his reactions and figuring out his movement habits.

Li Wu understood the general situation.

This was not an impulsive ambush, but a premeditated and systematic probing attack.

The other party wants to figure out his movement patterns before launching a formal attack.

This tactic is much more troublesome than the group that impulsively attacked him earlier.

He stopped, slowly lowered the arcane bow, and spoke a few words. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried far through the ruins.

"Is the testing almost complete?"

The surroundings quieted down for a moment.

Then, the knife emerged from behind the ruins on the right.

It wasn't just one person, there were seven of them in total, spread out with each person more than five meters apart, clearly to deliberately avoid being wiped out by area-of-effect skills.

Dao Chi walked in front and stopped 30 meters away from Li Wu. He just stood there and didn't make a move immediately.

He glanced down at the notebook in his hand, then looked up at Li Wu.

"Your reaction was a third faster than I predicted," he said, his tone flat, as if he were checking a data report. "And your perception goes beyond just being highly agile."

Li Wu glanced at him.

"Have you finished your analysis?"

"Almost there," said the knife-sized figure. "I need to know your maximum mana."

"You're planning to beat me by wearing me down with mana?"

"Theoretically, this is the optimal solution to counter your current combat mode." Knife Size's tone was devoid of any emotion, as if stating an objective fact.

"Your skill is Arcane Construction, and large Arcane skills consume several times more mana than regular skills. If you can be forced to continuously cast high-mana skills, theoretically you could run out of mana."

Li Wu did not answer immediately after hearing this.

He mentally reviewed the analysis of the knife's dimensions.

The analysis itself is not problematic, and the logic is correct.

The problem is that this analysis has a flaw.

His [Siphon Arrow] and [Mana Tide Arrow] are two methods that can almost infinitely restore mana.

The opponent was unaware of the existence of these two skills.

Or, to put it another way, the opponent knows there are ways to regenerate mana, but doesn't know how efficient they are.

Li Wu looked at the size of the knife, thought for a second, and then said, "Your analysis is logically sound."

"But you missed one variable."

The knife's size and size shifted slightly in his eyes.

"What variable?"

"I don't lack blue."

After Li Wu finished speaking, he raised the Arcane Bow.

……