Chapter 460: Fish
Sylas immediately eliminated several things.
Using <Arctic King's Domain> would be foolish. They would just end up dying to the poison in a few seconds. The attacking spells were a decent option because the Arctic Emperor Cobra had never had great attacking ability. They would only do 100-200 Damage a piece, and so long as he controlled them well, it might be fine...
But the problem with that approach was that the Damage of the Arctic Emperor Cobra wouldn't stop there. He had even made it far too strong. The residual Ice-Poison effect would accumulate after the fact. So unless he used Rune Soul to expel the attack every time, they would eventually die to accumulated Damage as well.
Sylas hadn't thought that he would ever run into a problem where his cards were too powerful for the situation, but here he was. If he was careless, he could ruin everything.
Even if he tried to use the Arctic Emperor Cobra to bulldoze its way through everything, just its Physical stats alone were too ridiculous. He would have to ask it to hold back. But if he did that, then it would be obvious that there was a scheme or ploy at hand here. There was no way an existence like the City Lord wouldn't be able to tell a beast wasn't using their Physical to its full potential.
That was doubly so considering this City Lord definitely had experience outside the bounds of what Sylas could understand. After all, he was a Sylph.
All of these thoughts flashed through Sylas' head in an instant.
Since he had dared to do this... he had his own plans.
Suddenly, the aura of the Arctic Emperor Cobra dimmed considerably, before shooting up again, and then being repressed once more.
The wild fluctuations of the Arctic Emperor Cobra's aura caught the experts off guard. Although they didn't understand what was happening, they realized that this beast wasn't nearly as dangerous thanks to this.
It was then the Arctic Emperor Cobra let out a bellow, the confusion in its eyes disappearing as it charged forward.
...
Sylas sat in perfect silence on the rooftop of a building in the distance. His eyes were closed and he was in a perfect state of focus. From time to time, his own aura would fluctuate as well and his control became more finely tuned.
At the moment, he seemed to become the Arctic Emperor Cobra. Its sentience was far beneath that of the Basilisk King. As such, it practically let him step into its body like a puppeteer.
He subconsciously used <Madness Control> before he could even realize that it likely wouldn't work... only to be shocked when it actually did.
A part of him realized that this might very well be the breakthrough in <Madness Control> that he needed. After all, he still hadn't forgotten the mission he received to create a better version of it.
Unfortunately, now wasn't the time to consider it.
The wild fluctuation of the Arctic Emperor Cobra's aura was, of course, due to the Beast Totem.
His Beast Totem could now suppress Serpentes beasts by 85%. With the Arctic Emperor Cobra's current prowess, that meant that under Sylas' suppression, it would barely be able to exhibit around 370 Physical.
However, that was only if one ignored the fact that the reason the Arctic Emperor Cobra had such high stats to begin with was because of the 160% boost he could give it.
When Sylas flipped the switch from buffing to debuffing, the Arctic Emperor Cobra couldn't even muster up 150 points of Strength!
And that was exactly what Sylas was doing now. He was carefully controlling the Arctic Emperor Cobra, buffing and debuffing it at a rhythm that seemed erratic on the surface, but was actually a series of perfectly timed maneuvers.
Every time the Arctic Emperor Cobra was about to suffer a great blow, he would bump up the buff, allowing it to benefit from its full 2660 Constitution. Or when he needed it to carve through some distance or an opening bubbled up, he would allow it to use its full 2135 Speed. However, every time he had it attack someone, he would perfectly control the descent of its stats. Giving it just enough power to deal a strong blow, but not enough for a lethal one.
Everything was within the purview of his calculations, and he found that he could perfectly fine-tune the Effectiveness of his Beast Totem, measuring exactly how much he wanted to suppress the Arctic Emperor Cobra and exactly how much he wanted to buff it.
As expected, around this time, City Lord Orciulius was observing every little thing. He already had his own conclusions about what was happening here, but most importantly... there was a light of greed in his eyes.
Such a powerful Level 19 beast with such an odd curse-like affliction wasn't something you came across every day. The odds that it had Silver Genes were also quite decent.
However, the City Lord didn't make a move immediately. The battlefield was a mess because of the Arctic Emperor Cobra, but there were a large number of other beasts pouring out as well. Although he didn't fear them, there was no easy way to take down the Arctic Emperor Cobra.
By the same token, Sylas was patient. So patient, in fact, that it didn't even seem like he was breathing very frequently at all.
He bided his time like he was playing a game of chess, slowly pushing the Arctic Emperor Cobra up the board until it seemed like it was being lured closer and closer to the City Lord.
Then the fish bit.
Rolland gave out a command and two of his Generals swarmed toward the Arctic Emperor Cobra.
They were certainly no joke. They were both Level 36s and had eye-watering stats.
For the first time, Sylas began to allow the Arctic Emperor Cobra to suffer some wounds... mostly because he didn't even have a choice in the matter. These Generals were certainly strong enough to deal Damage even if the Arctic Emperor Cobra was at its best.
However, with the Hibernation Realm in his back pocket, Sylas went all in.
Beneath his closed eyes, two slits seemed to split his irises apart.