Chosen Evolution: I can load the protagonist template

Chapter 200 Popeye's Wild Fists
【巴尔福德：冠军模板。军团指挥官，双剑骑士。HP=1200、MP=180。力量30、敏捷35、精神18、魅力28。】

[Unit Traits - Dual Swordsman, Parry & Counterattack, Aura Storm]

Cheng Tian's sudden combination of the Sun Fist and the Mountain Splitting Technique was undeniably deadly.

However, Balford is not that idiot amphibious Rathalos (Rathalos Soul: damn it!). With an agility value of 35, although he was temporarily blinded and unable to see, his exposed arms, face, and scalp can still very keenly sense the movement of air.

Faced with the heavy blow of the blessed blade, Balford decisively raised his personal swords, one long and one short, bestowed upon him by the Silver Prince, and made an X-shaped cross-parrying motion, parrying with almost muscle memory.

In the world of Knights of the Round Table, it's not just the three knights on the protagonist's side who know how to use weapons to parry and defend; almost any unit involving the "knight" class possesses the relevant abilities.

Lower-level warriors, such as the Minotaur Rider Raider or the Bird Helmet Knight with a duck-shaped helmet, can only parry by wielding a shield. Other well-known and powerful warriors, however, can achieve precise parries using their own weapons such as axes, dual swords, and hammers.

The BOSSes' precise parries not only completely negate the damage from the opponent, but also allow them to launch a fatal counterattack. However, the cost is that their weapons will experience a certain degree of increased durability loss.

Of course, if a precise parry fails, the outcome will be similar to that of a katana user who fails a parry, resulting in double the damage.

Balford, a highly agile unit by nature, could still make the most appropriate response at the most opportune moment, even when blind... However, the sword in Cheng Tian's hand was a sacred blade formed from condensed energy!
Balford, who had raised his twin swords, did feel a weak impact from above, but what followed was a scorching heat that was ten times stronger than the heat of having his skin completely exposed to the blazing sun after removing all his armor and clothing!
The knights' precise parries and counter-attacks are basically only effective against pure physical attacks.

Therefore, while the physical damage portion of Cheng Tian's powerful split-mountain attack was completely negated by the precise parry, the portion of the holy light burst was applied to the dual-sword knight without any reduction!
With a serpentine light and shadow effect of "-333" popping up, Balford's health bar dropped by a quarter!

It was parried, but not completely; it wasn't a failure, but it couldn't be considered a success either.

Balford, who should have launched a counterattack immediately after his precise parry, was instead blasted back half a step by the burst of holy light.

However, Cheng Tian's attack was not over yet. He had already landed successfully after the heavy slash, and with his hands holding the Blessed Blade in front of his chest, he made a full-force thrusting motion.

Staggering, Balford was no longer able to mount any precise counterattacks.

The second stab, imbued with the virtue of courage, struck Balford squarely in the chest!
A very obvious gash pierced through Balford's breastplate, leaving a glowing sword mark in the center of his chest that should have bled but was instead burned away by the holy light beforehand, preventing the blood from spurting out. Balford rolled backward like a gourd.

【-twenty four】

The second strike of Blessed Blade only dealt 50% damage, and Balford's breastplate successfully absorbed about 20 points of physical damage, but his body was once again subjected to the erosion of holy light. His maximum health of 1200 had dropped to nearly half, 692 points; Cheng Tian's smooth combo had taken almost half his life!

Cheng Tian secretly sighed in regret, because the Blessed Blade did not land a critical hit.

In the "Multiple Virtues of the Knight" skill set of the Holy Grail Knight template that he loaded, there is a passive effect called "Virtue of Temperament"—

When an enemy's current health is less than 4 times the critical hit damage, the critical hit will kill the enemy instantly; this effect is halved for Champion Template, Boss Template, and units with the "Large" affix, reducing the multiplier from 4 to 2.

If the Blessed Blade lands a critical hit, the first heavy slash would probably have already taken down the opponent.

Cheng Tian, ​​whose "adding insult to injury" attribute was at its peak, charged forward without hesitation, raising his sword and shield. The Holy Grail Knight template granted him a series of basic combat abilities, including but not limited to blocking, pushing, charged thrusting, charged shield bashing, dodging sidestepping, and dodging retreating knight tactics. Cheng Tian, ​​who had previously loaded and even restored some of the Captain America's physical instincts through training with the wooden dummy, chose to smash his head with a charged shield bash without hesitation.

Even though Cheng Tian's template weapon only has about twenty points of shield bash damage and sword bash damage from the fusion of the blank machete, the resulting stun and stagger will be real.

Cheng Tian's task is to maintain control and buy friendly units, especially Arthur himself, time to recover from Flash.

However, at that moment, in the Silver Cavalry team that had been decimated by the chain-reaction car accident, a small hill piled with human and horse corpses suddenly exploded. Immediately afterward, a figure charged toward Cheng Tian's position. During the charge, his two arms, which should have been covered by armor, suddenly swelled up and broke through the arm armor!

Cheng Tian even noticed that on each of his unusually swollen forearms, there was a very conspicuous tattoo resembling a ship's anchor.

"Popeye Mutant Bloodline", Rank C/Lv-, skill blueprint is Popeye from the FC platform's "Popeye". When eating more than 200 grams of fresh spinach or canned spinach under any circumstances, the forearms will abnormally swell, and the user will immediately gain a temporary 1.5x strength boost, 75% pain reduction, and 50% super armor value, lasting for 1 minute, with a digestion interval of 30 minutes. The boost can be extended by eating spinach again during the effect's duration, but the amount of spinach consumed for extension will double, and the digestion interval will also double. It can only be extended a maximum of 2 times per natural day.

As Cheng Tian transitioned from shield bash to a defensive stance, the opposing player, whose strength had surged by consuming the spinach item, unleashed a flurry of powerful punches, like a child throwing wild punches in a fight—

'Charging Punch', Rank E/Lv4, is a skill based on the rollerblading black child "Sammy" from the Mega Drive game *Streets of Rage III*. During a charge, the user rapidly swings their fists, dealing six consecutive physical attacks equal to 0.5 times their strength. It consumes 10 MP or 15 HP. Each successful attack during the chase adds and accumulates more Stagger points; when full, the target will stagger and become unbalanced, unable to perform defensive actions. (Lv4 additional effect)

The moment the two made contact, Cheng Tian's shield was hit by a tremendous force, and it was a continuous and relentless impact, forcing him to retreat continuously, his feet leaving two skid marks on the ground.

However, despite enduring six consecutive blows, Cheng Tian simultaneously displayed six "Damage Resistance" notifications above his head, and his health bars remained completely unchanged!
The player with the ID "Sailor," who was the one who cast the skill, stared wide-eyed at the "resisted" notification that appeared in his field of vision, his face filled with disbelief.

(End of this chapter)