Geniuses Popping Off

 

 

 

"Eh?" Diana stopped being embarrassed as curiosity and excitement took over her body as soon as she heard Tongqiu's words. She then added in a girly tone: "Show me, show me!"

Grinning with a clear confidence, Tongqiu took out a pair of boxing gloves. They were pitch-black as if made by some kind of obsidian-like rock and looked strangely solid, as if they couldn't be used for fighting at all. They had a pale-grey wristband below the actual gloves and thanks to the rather small size of the gloves, it looked pretty neat and simple, enough to make a wild Diana be all joyful from being gifted such a treasure!

[Nightmarish Funeral Gaze]: Type: Dual-Handed, Grade: Powerful(pseudo-Magical), Equipment Requirements: LV30, 90+STR, 30+REC and 30+LCK. Attributes: Physical Power+155, STR+29 and LCK+12. Effect: 12% chance of having the left glove inflict Confused state for 3 upon hitting a target and 25% chance of inflicting Stun for 1 second upon hitting a target.

Upon seeing what these beauties were all about, Diana's eyes opened to the point where her eyes, though silly, showcased an impossible to ignore beauty. Taking advantage of her total distracted self, Tongqiu devoured the sight of her eyes with his for a good while, until the dumb girl finally reacted.

"E-ehem, thank you Tongqiu. Thank you, baby." Hugged by this beauty, an incredible feeling prevailed over him as he embraced her shoulders himself, she wasn't as short as Tonkia or human form Irllytia so he had his arms quite up which made him feel that it did not feel right, he then lowered one of his arms to her waist before he nodded in satisfaction.

"Well? How are you going to fight?"

Not responding to his question for about three seconds, Diana then separated from his body as she responded: "I think I'll only use them when I encounter someone fun to beat up? Hm... Oh right, there's only like sixty-something competitors. In reality, there's like hundreds who came but once people saw a lot of other players have actual skill and better gear, they just went off in fear, tsk."

Though her words were spoken calmly and with her unique tone of professionalism, they were obviously somewhat influenced by Tongqiu's views when it comes to dealing with others... Not knowing whether to feel very proud and glad or just prod and speechless, he simply embraced her again, waiting for her turn to enter the stage.

About the coliseum, it was just big enough to hold at least a couple million people and right now, it was filled by hundreds of thousands of players. There was a 64 x 64 stage in the middle of it all while some other 15 x 15 smaller arenas around it. Maybe the one in the middle was designed to be used for the last few something competitors or maybe the final, who knows. But Tongqiu was completely sure that he'd see his cute, fit chick in there, even win!

Not that he was looking down on others, when it didn't came to him of course, but he was rather confident that Diana's abilities were pretty good, pretty nimble yet very, very painful. And from what he saw of her battle style at the Somber Tree region, she was no pushover, amateur or fanatic. She was a goddamn fighter for sure.

Tongqiu's words came to be at this moment, befuddling somewhat a little Diana that was all excited looking at the crowd that couldn't compare to the mere presence of Tongqiu: "Ah, did those organizing this set a fee to enter?"

Staring at him somewhat in wonder, since she already knew he was looking for unneeded trouble, Diana didn't know whether to speak the truth or brush it off for the sake of Tongqiu not wasting his time. After blinking with a blank expression on her face towards him, she finally spoke: "Yes, 2,000 gold. Why? Baby? Ah, baby!"

As soon as she spoke, Tongqiu's eyes became deadly cold and indifference overcame his expression as he really seemed to have just turned off all that warmth from before.

Hurriedly speaking again, Diana threw her little, strong as hell body towards him, successfully being embraced in by his arms: "But if-once I win, I get 200,000 gold! And they will also give back those 2,000. It's okay, okay~?"

Retracting his 'silent schemes for murder' face, Tongqiu looked back at her with an unintentional sigh coming out from his nostrils, he nodded slightly a couple of times before also speaking out: "Once this is over, we'll have good times at the villa, mwah. With Naty, mwah, the maids, mwah and the dark corners of the villa itself, okay?"

First becoming warm to his sweetened words, then becoming rather hot from his constant smooching at her face as well as that last sentence, Diana felt her body and even more so face- become completely hot, with a little tinge of red here and there.

"Wah~, not here you dummy. Yeah, I'm hungry too... mmm... I'll finish my battles as fast as I can, then we go and start that 'good' time, okay?"

Gulping down without a care for a couple of times, Tongqiu silently, and slowly, nodded at her clear show of devotion on even his 'good' time  of spending it together.

'Ah, she has indeed become all mine, no longer shy or overthinking it, eh?'

"Oh that's right, you've seen some of them showcase their skill? How good are they, ah?" Tongqiu asked this question just so that he could check upon her mental state through this, he didn't need his Mental Power to do such a thing as the though of hiding it from him could never cross her mind. So she answered right away with a blank tone: "There was this guy who had a venomous green-like colored scythe, it was of normal size but I don't know much. He killed a 3 Star Elite BOSS in a mere few seconds that was also LV30. Other than that, there is an Apprentice Elementalist boy that can actually play with water! Not just fire, he also used a little bit of wind but who knows; that boy gave me the obvious sense he's hiding his capabilities while the guy with the scythe simply gave a certain sense of danger. Like if I was to fight against him, it'll be a little difficult."

After saying that, she gave him a side and upturned glance, her dark eyes inviting him silently.

"Cough, cough... Er... would you have to use these Nightmarish Funeral Gaze to beat them up, then?" Towards his 'small' response, she meekly answered: "Mn, I would have to, otherwise that scythe would ruin my hands and that boy would just incinerate them or something."

Blink, blink.

Tongqiu blinked a couple of times after Diana blinked suggestively a couple of time, as if saying 'why do you keep asking me that stuff when I just want you to look at me?'.

He then embraced her with a foolish smile, successfully getting the hint after so long yet not too late. Nodding to herself at his improvement and her own at dealing with Tongqiu, she closed her eyes and waited for her turn to step up on stage.

After a minute or so of silence, he spoke yet again: "So tell me, what was your purpose on participating on this? On not telling me?"

Lifting her head to rest her chin on his chest, she had a sweety smile formed on her lips with her crescent eyes as she spoke in a half-playful and half-delicate voice: "Since my man was already so famous, then I just wanted to make it so that when you finally reveal yourself that not only you but even your women are also amazing!"

"Ek-cough, my women, huh? Do I have so many already, eh?" Tongqiu tried to act 'mature' and cunningly against her, but he didn't expected her to respond him back with an even more heart stopping sentence: "Of course! And who knows how many little girls and young, inexperienced women are you gonna trick in the future?"

Blinking twice in wonderment, Tongqiu thought to himself: 'Am I really that evil? I don't mind but... damn, I didn't really noticed.'

He resumed their embrace, her eyes closing in enjoyment while his did as he involuntary snorted in a cheery manner. He then stopped, his head jerking back a little as his eyes wondered from ahead of him, to Diana's hair.

'Reveal myself. Are you really thinking that far ahead already? Diana...' Newfound tenderness was suddenly met at the extreme center of his heart. He found himself unable to even let her go at this moment, even if she had to go up on the stage and beat up people. Time passed slowly, yet quickly.

. . .

 

At this moment, there was a voice that was strangely sounding as if it was being elevated in volume by a megaphone or microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen; 'Journeyers'! We now announce the black horse we previously became so astounded from before~! Fragile. Broken. Eyes~!!"

A sudden outburst of cheering coming left and right, anywhere, from the entire coliseum resounded. Tongqiu had a baffled look in his eyes, his baby Diana became so popular after a mere few fights in here, eh?

He looked back at her and found her still have her eyes closed in enjoyment of his body against hers. After giving her a loving glance once or twice, he shook her a little before softly whispering to her: "Now then, go."

She slowly opened her eyes and looked at him for a good, solid second before nodding with a "Mn." as she then departed.

"Here she comes..."

Another unnecessary round coming from the announcer came to be as his somewhat irking noisy voice started to almost thunder through the entire coliseum. Tongqiu took a seat on the personal space prepared by the system for player's isolation and the like before battles, he very much enjoyed not having to look for a seat or be teleported to a free one already, and instead taking this small, 'silent' seat for himself.

. . .

 

On the stage, a very well geared yet not by much, slim figure moved towards the center. The stage was a 15 x 15 as there were still 32 participants, not even close to deciding the last few competitors. After taking Diana's image with her little mask of a wolf, which made him smile as soon as he saw it, Tongqiu then decided to look towards her opponent before also looking towards other competitors watching. There could be multiple battles at once, but there weren't THAT many of them so there was no point nor profit in making this little tournament a 30 minutes one.

Her opponent was a seemingly edgy, chuuni type of guy with his black clothes and his mask only covering the upper half of his face. He had a couple of black, thin swords and had his arms crossed in front of his chest.

Unsurprisingly, to Tongqiu, once the countdown for the battle to commence -for the system to allow damage to be done-, he instead of getting into a fighting stance, choose to extend his hands as he spoke out: "Miss, I can see it in your hidden eyes that your beauty is too much for these peasants to witness! Allow me to relish upon it and the rest of your beauty as we trav-"

A pity, he couldn't talk any more of his nonsense as his nose was tenderly crunched by her fist and another, quick as lightning, kick to his ribs sent him flying 3 meters away.

Pow! Thud!

-472, -502.

Having half his total HP be downed in less than two seconds, the half-masked man immediately soared to his feet and wielded both his thin swords properly. By the time he did so though, Diana had already initiated her own skill with full precision!

Pow, pow, pow.

-301, -311, -321.

Decisive strikes at his stomach, chest and chin took almost his entire HP as he also staggered one and a half steps back. At this moment, he swung his two swords in a cross before sweeping them at her by forming a square with both of his swords. Diana abruptly took a boxing stance that was rather aggressive and nothing near defensive instead, she dodged all of the attacks with some of them barely making an opening on her skin, yet her face remained glued to the feet of his opponent while her ears picked up every sound that was produced by the swings of his double swords.

-7, -12, -3.

It was so close yet she wasn't being stupidly panicky, overthinking nor rushed. She just calmly allowed his swings to move and move about, as she dodged every single one of them with almost perfection. The man had also sprung up his shit and stopped being fucking awkward. He was not a simply dick-headed moron as his calmness towards her every almost perfectly done dodge was a clear example of his capabilities. Even with his HP being 39 only, he was precisely and dangerously moving around, his feet in coordinance with the swords in his hands, Tongqiu finally had an inkling towards this man's class. Battlefrenzy!

He didn't know whether Diana herself had already become aware of the clues to it, as she and everyone else could only see the competitor's name and level if looking at them with complete focus, like he'd used to do before undergoing that strange 'change' when he saw those globes for the first time. Talking about his Mental Power stat, Tongqiu could very well use his' to figure out that guy's information window, but he didn't bother with such a damn thing. Even telling Diana of this would be just looking down on her and stepping on her pride as an actual expert at body tempering.

Anyways, Diana herself had already figured out how this guy's method for battling was. She had devised her own strategy to put him down, since he was no longer fooling around like a retard, it became a little annoying for her to simply go ahead and use her hands as meatshields to buy an opportunity to take him down in one sole attack. It was not because of pain, but because his precision and quickness was pretty much, good. She was not slow, but she had no way to parry this guy's attacks even if she tried, the man with those double black thin swords was never using his full strength when attacking.

Finally, she moved! Utilizing her right foot all the way back to impulse herself towards her retracting left sword, she had her left foot be the wheel to maneuver the direction of her dash. Her left fist aiming at right below his collar bone, as she 'seemingly' used her right hand to gain some inertia to put even more strength on her left fist.

The man's eyes flashed, he took out a huge shield with his right hand from his bag and struck towards her left arm, meanwhile, his left hand flashed as a long, curved dagger appeared vertically with his arm on his hand. He cruelly thrust it towards between her neck and collarbone.

As expected, a Battlefrenzy can do this absurd change of weapons in an instant even if they are quickly moving around or in the middle of an attack; Diana's eyes widened for a little, they were however, completely calm. Scaringly calm.

Her right foot was suddenly lifted from behind her, her left leg instead bent over rapidly as all of her weight was transmitted towards it; her right fist astoundingly parried the long curved dagger while her left one used the hit of the man's shield to stabilize her body from falling. From falling because, her right leg was in front of her chest in but an instant! As she had her foot go straight towards below his chin.

-948.

Bash! Creak~

The terrible sound of her powerful kick connecting to below his chin as well as some horrible cracking sounds came to be, the entire coliseum was able to relish on the magnificence of such terror as well. Tongqiu himself was involuntarily grinning at seeing her woman go! Allowing the man to get all possible shit on!

*PING* Battle Log: 'Fragile Broken Eyes' wins! MVP: 'Fragile Broken Eyes', as a reward, SP+150 and Fame+150.

'Oh, what an easy way to get SP and Fame, holy fuck!' A bit envious, Tongqiu had his mouth a little open upon seeing this, but it went away quickly, he just threw away almost 4 million SP on one sole skill himself not too long ago. Diana also gained tons of SP and Fame herself when he carried them through Somber Tree region, so.

Cheers~~!!

Innumerable, uncontrollable rumble and clapping sounded as the public became excited hella high. It was her third time fighting and she showed just how incredible this mysterious 'Fragile Broken Eyes' girl is, once again. The fight might have lasted a little more than a minute and a half, but it all went off in mere instants! The first hits being taken from advantage as well as counter-measuring that man's 'last stand' and the way she did it; it was a feast for the eyes!

"There you have it folks! This incredible dark horse keeps advancing~! Who wants to see more?!!..." The announcer went to do his own as a little pinky, sweaty Diana arrived before Tongqiu. Smiling and shying a little as she arrived before him, she didn't wanted to hug him because of her sw- oh, there goes Tongqiu not giving a fuck and embracing her with comfort. The crowd now took notice of him and fell silent in dismay.

Uncaring for it, Tongqiu simply let a few words to his madam: "You did good, eh! Did you guessed his class?"

Shaking her head with a relieving smile, she answered: "Nah, I didn't care. I knew he was acting up, but he was just so easy to take down, like a dog!"

'Yup, I've influenced her, albeit a little. My corruption is that effective, though?' Tongqiu had indeed come to accept how 'evil' he could be, he let it go with a shake of his head as they then both waited for her next battle. They sat down with Diana choosing not to sit on his lap and merely remained at his side, leaning on him.

. . .

 

After some time, Diana fought another couple of times. Now there were only 4 people left of the competitors. Her previous three battles were against a tank cleric, which was somewhat of a surprise. The cleric had two offensive skills only, a magic missile and a long-casting water missile that was somewhat slow and only reduced her Movement Speed for a little which also lasted very short. After a few rounds of give and take, of tiresome trades against this tank cleric, she beat him up by destroying his chin with her fists only, this time.

Tongqiu also had the chance to see that guy with the scythe and the Apprentice Elementalist boy. The guy could easily oneshot anyone as soon as he made his move, and only a guardian had the chance to last half a second more, still oneshot though. The boy would always be quick and nimble enough to dash away from melee enemies, while humiliating ranged enemies instead. His casting and strategical movement were incredible well-thought.

Another of Diana's adversaries was an archer expert; he was trashed the moment he got closed in by Diana's 'not give a fuck' about his arrows coming straight at her stomach and shoulders while avoiding the long-lasting 'Blind' induced effect. After she got close to him, she used Quick Flash Barrage and a few Fast Punch, allowing her to down him almost half HP. The archer expert, however, panicked and tried to brush her off with his bow. He even tried to parry her but resulted on only flaunting his bow at the air nonstop as a Diana with a 'can't you fucking fight?' face said it all. She executed him with a pretty good combo of two punches and a kick after doing a spin. Becoming MVP, though she didn't needed to, taking in consideration how lame her adversary was. He probably didn't had the chance to fight someone like her before.

Her last opponent was a spiritual martial arts master; though she won with ease, her HP also fell below half. That obvious advantage at using those mid-close ranged skills were done perfectly at point, presenting a good amount of danger for her. Nevertheless, those skills were not enough as her adversary had to close in as well. It was a female, but she seemed scared of actual close-combat even though she did her best, cute, but the dumb girl lost once she got close to Diana.

She seemed nice and even seemed to admire Diana a lot after the match.

'Oh? A friend? Nice~...' Though he couldn't care about having a friend himself, he felt warmth seeing Diana form a friend out of genuine feelings, even more so after having fought. Maybe they'll become 'sworn sisters'?!

She came back to Tongqiu after shaking hands, there were only two other people left before the semifinals and those two were the boy and the guy with a scythe.

"And now! Be ready to see one of the two most expected match ups of this tournament! Bloptl and Zbey! These two insane players, give them both a huge welcome to the stage!" Immediately after, countless cheers and obscene, lewd feminine shouts came to be. Most of those thirsty women and ignorant girls were for the big bad boy that Zbey was while only some of the sweetest ones were for the boy Bloptl.

Both of them were Elves, which was somewhat rare in Azure Dragon Sub-Division, where humans were at least 63% of the population of 'Journeyers'. Zbey had pale-silver medium-long hair peined to his sides, resting on his shoulders. Lifeless light blue eyes and a slim yet chiselled body, he was as tall as 1,72 meters or so, looking to be around 26 years old. He was also an obvious grim challenger.

Bloptl, the boy, was surprisingly taller for around 1,80 meters tall. Around 16 years old; from his previous battles and his current posture, Tongqiu could see the boy as well-behaved, quite clever, respectful and even more so, cute. He had a short, almost military haircut yet his black hair seemed to be bright even under the sunlight and his black eyes made it so that he was always standing out. He was the epitome of young women and even more so, mature women's weak spot.

Both on stage, they stared at each other calmly, soundlessly and Bloptl even seemed to have strong respect for the man before him.

Without talking, they waited until the countdown went fully down, as they then moved.

 

...

 

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V2: #1 2/10