Blighted Cut

*Corner. Seal. Devour.*

## Summary

Blighted Cut is a peak-quality skill Zac received for his level 76 Skill Quest for his Epic E-Grade Fetters of Desolation Class. It is a toggled infighting skill and counts as a finisher skill even though it requires setup to use.

In its basic use it inflicts venomous-like corrosion on those it hits that is supremely deadly, especially to those of weaker power. This aspect worked with both the chains of Love's Bond and Verun's Bite. It did not work with the chains of Profane Seal, but did with the upgraded Pillar of Desolation. It worked with the bardiche of Vanguard of Undeath and latter with the chain of the evolved Arbiter of the Abyss.

If he restrains a target with his chains he can activate the finisher element of extremely potent corrosive blades that cut apart the target; although using the finishing strike puts the skill on a cooldown, and even the basic corrosive attacks are no longer available. If the finishing strike fails to kill a final surge of corrosion will be released into the environment. The number of blades in the finishing strike was initially three and increased to five at peak proficiency.

The skill gained in potency as his death-aligned Dao improved and when Love's Bond evolved to E-Grade.

Zac manually evolved Blighted Cut off-screen into Inexorable Subjugation.

## Skill Quest

Blighted Cut (Class): Kill an evolved being of equal or higher level with a single nonlethal cut. Reward: Blighted Cut Skill (0/1). **Book 5, Page 526**

* However, it was still not a free win by any means, as it seemed to put very high demands on the corrosive effects of his Dao. **Book 5, Page 526**
* He had been walking around the jungles surrounding the former volcano over the past five days, fighting for a couple of hours while spending the rest on cultivation in his cave. **Book 6, Page 212**
* This effect solely came about from infusing his blade with the Fragment of the Coffin, as this was the only method he could think of to complete the quest. **Book 6, Page 213**
* Zac strained his mind to connect to the wound instead, trying to impose his will upon it. It actually worked, and the wound kept getting worse instead of closing itself. **Book 6, Page 213**
* The Mental Energy infused into his strike was only so strong, and it would be slowly whittled down by the natural defenses of his target. So he couldn’t just run out the clock, but he needed to proactively push his skill forward. **Book 6, Page 215**
* A small headache throbbed in his head as he pushed his concentration to the max, and it look like a surge of death stormed toward the innards of the beast. **Book 6, Page 220**
* Finally, he succeeded in what he had tried so many times before. The corrosive energy managed to take hold in the cat’s heart, and its heartbeat rapidly started getting erratic before the whole organ ruptured. **Book 6, Page 223**
* Zac quickly opened his quest screen and sighed in relief when he could confirm that the quest actually actually had been completed even with the abrupt end to the cat’s life. **Book 6, Page 223**

## Skill Location

**Left Forearm**

Zac smiled with anticipation as a fractal appeared on his left forearm. **Book 6, Page 223** *This corresponds to his level 76 Edge of Arcadia skill, Rapturous Divide.*

## Skill Window

[E] Blighted Cut - Proficiency: Middle. Corner. Seal. Devour. Upgradeable. Discord (2021/09/10 day of Chapter 745)

[E] Blighted Cut - Proficiency: Late. Corner. Seal. Devour. Upgradeable. **Chapter 898**

## Early Proficiency

* His first skill, **[Blighted Cut]**, even required him to use chains. **Chapter 1.022**
* He activated it since he was in a perfect spot to try it out, and he was surprised to find that it was a toggled skill just like **[Deathwish]** or his mental defense skills. **Book 6, Page 223**
* A small but constant stream of energy entered the skill fractal, ... But he soon heard a corrosive sizzling on the ground, and he found that his axe was slowly dripping a gray liquid that seemed to seep out of the weapon itself. **Book 6, Page 223**
* Zac quickly walked over to the closest tree and simply pushed the edge toward the bark. The sizzling sound of corrosion quickly emerged from the point of contact, but that was the least of what happened. Ashy-gray tendrils spread across the tree with impressive speed, and it only took four seconds before the tree fell apart. **Book 6, Page 224**
* The whole coffin had gained a temporary upgrade, ... **[Love’s Bond]** still looked like a coffin, but instead of being child-sized, it turned into a rugged box that reached almost three meters tall. It was a lot wider as well, and it completely blocked his whole back like a turtle shell. **Book 6, Page 224**
* It meant that the skill acted more like a venom than an acid, which had an important distinction. **Book 6, Page 226**
* However, that wasn’t the real surprise, as Zac felt a startling feedback from the skill the moment the beast was caught. Zac followed his instincts and infused the skill with more Miasma, and his eyes widened when three blades of the corrosive liquid appeared out of nowhere around the rhino, each shooting into the beast from a different direction before it had a chance to react. **Book 6, Page 226**
* The blades had not only cut the animal apart into six pieces, but they had infused every piece with a terrifying amount of corrosive liquid. **Book 6, Page 226**
* Zac quickly looked inward at the skill fractal, and he wasn’t surprised that the skill went on cooldown after activating the final strike. **Book 6, Page 227**
* First of all was the discovery that **[Blighted Cut]** worked just as well on inanimate objects as it did on living beings. **Book 6, Page 540**
* But there was actually a hidden feature of the skill, and an eruption of the extremely corrosive liquid doused the whole area, and a storm of death started raging. It was like the skill just dumped all the liquid it had stored after seeing that it wouldn’t be able to kill its target. **Book 7, Page 473**

## Peak Proficiency

* By this point, almost all of his skills were already pushed to E-grade Peak Mastery, **Chapter 978**
* The sword mistress had managed to block four out of five executions of **[Blighted Cut]** with her swords and defensive talismans, but the final one had struck true. **Chapter 1,007**

## Synergy

* He couldn’t combine **[Blighted Cut]** with skills like **[Deathwish]**, **[Profane Seal]** or **[Winds of Decay]**, though it was fine together with **[Vanguard of Undeath]** and **[Unholy Strike]**. **Book 6, Page 225**
* The chain [*from Pillar of Desolation*] had wound itself over ten times around the beast, and managed to endure just long enough for him to unleash **[Blighted Cut]**. **Book 8, Page 556**
* Of course, if hit by that dismantling skill while inside **[Deathmark]**, you’d be flooded with corrosive damage, making your remaining life short and painful. **[Chapter 802]**
* t was the finishing blow of **[Blighted Cut]** that had suddenly become available thanks to **[Arbiter of the Abyss]**. It allowed for instant judgment, and the Hegemon was almost dismembered into four chunks. **Chapter 905**
* The only downside of the spectral chain [*of Arbiter of the Abyss*] was that it only lasted around 10 seconds, ... and it turned out he could even activate the finisher of **[Blighted Cut]** through the link. **Chapter 905**

## Commentary

* The scene made him worried for Verun, as the Tool Spirit had shown some apprehension about some of his skills before. However, there were no complaints from the Spirit Tool at all, meaning it wasn’t hurt or uncomfortable. **Book 6, Page 223**
* Nothing under E-grade could withstand a single strike, even when he didn’t empower the corrosion even further with the Fragment of the Coffin. **Book 6, Page 225**
* The concentrated power was perhaps only matched by Zac’s final strike of **[Blighted Cut]**, but it took everything of Thea to launch it. **Book 6, Page 639**
* A ball of extremely concentrated poison shot toward the old lady as Slither unleashed one final attack before it fell unconscious. ... It contained a corrosive effect of a magnitude that rivaled **[Blighted Cut]**, and even Zac felt some pressure from it. **Book 7, Page 171**
* However, they formed a storm around his target, preventing Zac from binding the creature to activate the finishing blow of **[Blighted Cut]**. **Book 8, Page 132**
* Her body emitted sizzling sounds as the corrosion of **[Blighted Cut]** empowered by his upgraded Fragment of the Coffin rapidly corroded her body. **Book 8, Page 297**
* Five chains shot forward, each empowered by **[Blighted Cut]** to give them greater penetrative force. **Book 8, Page 392**
* Meanwhile, **[Blighted Cut]** was technically a finisher, but it required a few steps to set up. It was also quite cheap, with its finisher being even below **[Rapturous Divide]** in raw damage output. Of course, if hit by that dismantling skill while inside **[Deathmark]**, you’d be flooded with corrosive damage, making your remaining life short and painful. **Chapter 802**
* Finally, he discovered that **[Blighted Cut]**, his base skill that had been somewhat underutilized lately, had almost been reborn with a proper weapon [*evolved Love's Bond*]. With **[Blighted Cut]** activated, both his axe and the chain attached to turned even darker than black, and the gleaming edge of the axe started releasing such potent toxins that even Zac was appalled. **Chapter 849**
* If **[Gorehew]** was good at taking out weaker enemies, then **[Blighted Cut]** had become a terror for infighting, which was perfect for Zac who had spent years working on his technique. **Chapter 849**
* The mere touch of the Qriz'Ul was rapidly eroding the viscous coating of **[Blighted Cut]**, and Zac could sense that not even the reinforced links beneath were immune to the corrupting nature of the Lost Plane. **Chapter 924**