Celebration

 

 

 

Surprisingly, both of them dashed with their full strength towards each other, intending to fiercely collide against each other in a brutal act of picking the advantage for themselves!

Zbey had his scythe hack down upon Bloptl's shoulders, the boy however, formed a strange azure water-like shield surrounded by a fiery orange-red like flame!

Ps-Plash! Clank!

Two noises came to be, one was from the scythe's blade abruptly stopping at the elemental shield formed by the boy, and the other was when Zbey tried to pull his scythe and the shield backwards with sudden, unbelievable strength. However, instead of working, the blade once again made a striking noise as if it had touched an extremely immovable substance. The lower part of the blade even seemed to get heated by the second.

Noticing this and frowning, Zbey opted to let go of his scythe as he let his body fall down, quickly spinning on the ground with his left leg barraging the soil as his right leg made a sharp dive towards the boy's knees.

Seeing the extremely, fearful nimbleness of this older by more than 10 years adversary of his, Bloptl jumped as high and quick as he could. Even though he wasn't as good as Zbey, he was still pretty quick himself!

As he had now thrown himself up in the air, he joined his hands before him with his hands extended, his hands pointed towards opposites to each other as a flamethrower was formed, boosting his aerial time even more. Meanwhile, Zbey himself was bathed in these scorching flames for two seconds before he could get away from it, the flamethrower was surprisingly thick and large to the point he himself became shocked, hence his extra milliseconds eating that flamethrower.

-77, -72, -80, -76, -72, -80, -81, -142, -79, -75.

Zbey's hp was taken down from full HP to two third's, he had surprising high HP considering his class was one of the most squishiest of them all. He either had extremely HP stats given equipment or he had found multiple items that could increment it. Either way, his damage was still a source of fear and Bloptl understood this fact, respecting the distance and possible maneuvers that Zbey could employ as he made a circular ring of fire around him the moment he landed on the ground.

But just as he finished doing so, Zbey was already hacking at a top left to low right angle, with the aim to behead the boy from his right!

Just as soon as the blade was mere a few dozen centimeters from reaching his neck, behind Bloptl, there was an already formed fat, huge flamy snake, almost reaching the qualifications of being called a flood dragon composed entirely of scorching orange-red flames! The moment it appeared, Zbey himself new he would die or almost do so were he be hit by it, allowing for a simple skill or even fist from this mage type class to finish him.

He impulsed himself sideways, the flamy snake emitted countless crackling sounds as it lunged towards the stomach of Zbey, this would easily hit him in the next moment and if not dead, he would then be blown away up into the air. Allowing for more time to prepare for the boy.

But Zbey had still not used any skill, this moment was entirely his! His scythe shone with a green, eery light for an instant before a 1,33 meters long and 3 centimeters thick light blade sent itself towards Bloptl's right arm as he had not enough time to send it towards his neck.

Tongqiu was astounded at the sight; from his experience he could tell Bloptl's expertise at his own class, where others took many seconds on accomplishing he did so in an instant. Not only that, but he even had a much stronger version of it! And this was only from his fire control, he still hadn't used water, or wind. Both of them had still not gone all-out.

Seeing the blade reaching his right arm, Bloptl seemingly used Summon of Element of Water to cover his right torso entirely instead of his arm.

Whoofsh!

-800.

Wlsht!

-1,679.

Terribly sound of flesh being torn apart sounded as Zbey was sent flying away at the same time!

Fortunately, none of the had their attacks be critical against each other, otherwise they might've died to each other right then. Bloptl couldn't make any other move as his arm had flown away to the distance of 7 meters, still in the arena; which prompted him to emit a self-derisive snort once he saw it. Zbey was sent into the air and were he to be a normal player, he would've been scared of the 17 meters or so, height, as they would've died at the falling damage for sure, since his HP was now closer to one third of his total HP.

Bloptl recovered first and used Summon of Element of Wind to boost his movement, dashing towards Zbey who was still falling from the sky!

Zbey swept his scythe in response and prepared to make a crushing, destructive smash onto the ground with the other extreme of his scythe. It was seemingly the utilization of a skill found on chests. Bloptl didn't cower however, while still running towards Zbey, he raised his arms sideways, as if a bird.

The moment he did so, a strange luan-like image in form of transparent, grey wind enveloped him as he did; it even raised its head proudly, with its tail extending backwards.

The moment of another clash came as two huge sounds were emitted from their heavy clashing.

STOMP!  Whoo-Whash-Vvshyvvshyv!

-1,003.

-263, -411, 369.

One was the sound that fell upon Bloptl as another huge damage was evoked away at his HP. The other sounds was the rapid, swift noises of wind itself moving as a sharp blade as it cut through equipment and the flesh of Zbey.

With but a tinge of HP, numbering a the dozen or so, Zbey survived. While Bloptl's HP plummeted down once again, he was now clearly below even 1/6 of his HP, yet he was at a better state than Zbey even after having his arm cut off.

Next, was the 'last stand' from the two of them. There was no need for anything else and a direct confrontation was the best way for them both to kill and not be killed while trying, otherwise they'll sorrily allow 'Fragile Broken Eyes' to receive the championship thanks to their idiocy.

Still being enveloped by the luan formed by wind, Bloptl closed in on Zbey; as Zbey had his stance ready with his scythe pointing downwards and having its blade aim backwards.

They lunged at each other at the same time, Zbey was surprisingly being outmatched, his scythe being parried every now and then by the luan-wind form of Bloptl as he swiped his arms, flung them around and used them as shield in front of his chest in the form of a 'X'. Zbey saw himself being overcome this easily by this boy, 10 years younger than himself, which left him astounded.

With no other available coming out from this embarrassing performance, Zbey made a strong clash against Bloptl which prompted him backwards three meters while he himself used it as inertia to also move backwards another 2 meters. The moment Zbey stabilized his body, he took a stance, before strangely flinching his body to the point that the stance broke before quickly going back to that stance.

His body was covered by a red-black aura-like energy, his veins protruding in a fearful manner as if they were being pumped up with raw strength rather than just blood or something else, then he looked up, towards Bloptl, his prey. His eyes were not bloody or veiny, they were rather somewhat light greened and had an eery glow to themselves.

Death's Way!

A skill, core skill, of the Grim Challenger. Boosting Movement Speed and Attack/Action Speed for about 50% for 15 seconds.

Zbey moved as fast as his current Movement Speed allowed him for towards Bloptl at that moment!

The boy's eyes became as big as saucers, for the change from before to now, was too much!

Zbey arrived before the boy in just 2 seconds, the audience became crazy upon seeing him go like a beast towards its prey, he almost became a blur to the eyes of the onlookers and even Diana had her eyes wide open and her pupils constricted for the purpose of catching his movements.

Bloptl had not attained his current strength for nothing, and as soon as Zbey initiated their 'last' clash, he moved up to rival each of Zbey's every move. He did well, and he thought to himself that as long as he resisted Zbey's almost impossible to discern with the naked eye attacks, he'd have room for victory, to course through to the finals!

But it was never enough to simple be as good as others, Zbey didn't use any skill or strategy nor schemes. He simply attacked, and attacked and attacked! The movements of his scythe, though difficult, were for all to witness. They were nimble, they were unexpected and they were even more so bizarre.

When attacking with a crescent moon, it would instead become a full moon and almost tear off the neck muscles on Bloptl's maimed body. Forcing him to take measures for blocking that as well as blocking the next 3 or 4 attacks that Zbey had for his advantage, by merely attacking without a stop.

Bloptl slowly succumbed to the endless amount of attacks, if he was correct, for each second there was at least 6 or 7 attacks from the scythe. He could match that up, but not in the same manner as they came towards him. As soon as he took care of one of Zbey's attacks, another arrived instantly, he was powerless and pretty much aware of his incoming defeat.

Only 8 seconds passed by, and he already felt Zbey come at him like he was about to fall down onto the soil, in defeat. He made a strong attack from nowhere! He parried his scythe as even Zbey's body was slightly sent backwards, but Zbey himself was also already aiming at the boy's chest, he was just about to stab him with his scythe when...

Splash!!

Gurgle gurgle gurgle.

Following the sound of his attack being mitigated by some kind of grey-watery shield on Bloptl's chest, Zbey then heard the sounds of bubbles coming out from inside the boy's body. As another unbelievable thing happened!

+1,165.

+111, +111...

'Shit! Is this a true Apprentice Elementalist?!' With those thoughts, Zbey reached with his scythe towards the right side of his body while his right hand reached out for his left shoulder.

His scythe was parried while the boy's eyes also turned grave, the moment Zbey grabbed at his shoulder, he also healed up some crazy amounts.

+550, +550, +550.

Right after that miserable self-healing, they both resumed their crazy, entranced fighting. The boy had an extremely fierce, heated expression on his face from the tireless fighting. But that did nothing to his cute, adorable boyish face which worked to make most young women and mature thirsty women to change their hearts for him!

Zbey still had an expressionless face instead, and his lifeless eyes seemed to be evaluating the boy before him as a rival! He was invoking the respect of the entire audience, and they were all cheering for both of them!

Some wisps of wind slipped around, hurting Zbey every moment a couple of times, his HP very slowly dying out.

-12, -11, -12, -10, -11, -9...

While Zbey could still not land any hit on the boy's body, but his face was no longer shocked or scrutinizing. Merely, he was studying the movements of the boy.

-13, -10, -9, -8, -11, -11.

Only 2 seconds left of his Death's Way, Zbey suddenly flinched forwards. Which abruptly made him receive two blows from the wind sharp blades encompassing the boy's arms.

-430, -429.

At the same moment, Zbey's hand holding the scythe turned upside down quickly, his scythe crazily began to spin. As Bloptl's eyes became filled with shock.

-331, -311, -299- ,-599...

The insane amount of damage was not coming from a skill, it was precisely the use of magic power and nimbleness to allow the scythe to spin uncontrollably.

But it did not end there; the boy's HP still had roughly 1/5 of his HP, and Zbey wasn't planing on being merciful, at all. He executed a light yet powerful kick at his lower abdomen, before using the other extreme of his scythe to hit him squarely below his lungs. Then, he pried open his stomach, forcing his entrails to come out as some blood gushed from the damage done. The previous hit with the other extreme of his scythe had stunned the boy for 1 second, enough to put him down at one!

-52, -320, -721.

Thud

The boy's hp plummeted down entirely, his body fell backwards with an obvious discomforted face with a little bit of pain.

*PING* Battle Log: 'Zbey' wins! MVP: 'Bloptl', as a reward, SP+300 and Fame+300.

Cheers erupted from the crowd, many of the female audience became pitiful of 'their' boy having lost, some of them already planning the use of their bodies to make him feel better.

Many more cheers sounded out for Zbey, he had shown them that even a genius could fall apart by the simplest of attacks.

"Very wel!! Now, after Zbey has been healed up by priests and his skills reset by the system, the last battle will take place. 'Fragile Broken Eyes' vs 'Zbey', who will be #1 'Journeyer' of 1 v 1 for Azure Dragon CITY??!!~~"

"Waaah!"

"Yeeeeeeeeeh!"

"ZBEY, ZBEY, ZBEY... Z-BEY, Z-BEY, Z-BEY!!!"

"Fragile. Broken. EYES. Fragile. Broken. EYES. Fragile.... Broken!... EYES!!!"

Cheers, cheers and even more cheers resounded. Tongqiu smiles at Diana upon seeing this almost embarrassing moment, if it wasn't because of the natural synchronization coming out of nowhere from the spectators, it would surely be rather awkward, wouldn't it?

Smiling towards each other in clear affection, they then proceeded to rest upon each other's body, muting exterior noise and only allowing for the system's alert to go up on stage to be heard. After five minutes, the stage was ready!

This time, their arena was that 64 x 64 huge area, and the gold-like decorations all around it. It was bound to be slightly spectacular at worst.

. . .

 

"Everyone, for the finals of the 1 v 1 Azure Dragon City little tournament, give a grand round of applause for both; 'Zbey' and 'Fragile Broken Eyes'!!!" As soon as the announcer's voice finished speaking, innumerable claps thundered across the coliseum. This practically made all of the players and even NPCs at the Azure Dragon City, for as big as it already is, to turn their head towards the general direction of the coliseum in amazement.

"Let the fight, begin!" With that, a countdown of 10 seconds commenced.

In the crowd.

"Wow, what are those gloves of hers? They are new right, I don't think I saw them on her before. Weren't hers' rather grey-red and of a lower grade maybe?"

"Yup, it's definitely not her previous ones, was she just ridiculing her other contestants then?"

"Holy shit! My goddess is going serious now, she's gonna... she's gonna beat the shit out of that Zbey!"

The rest of the people near him, amounting to thousands, looked at him in disdain. But after a few seconds of contemplation, those gazes became instead excited, could she beat the unkillable Zbey?!

"Well, we just have to see. But I don't think an inner MAM would be able to take down a grim challenger, there has to be no way her hands or equipment can deal with his damage nor the pain of feeling it, right?"

"Hmm... maybe she can, those gloves however, do not seem that powerful?"

On the stage.

Zbey had his lifeless eyes turn towards 'Fragile Broken Eyes', while she herself had an indifferent face, though no one could see that. He however, unexpectedly opened his mouth and spoke out sincerely: "You're a very formidable opponent, even if I lose, I think it'll be fun."

3...

2...

...

1.

GO!

Whoosh!

Diana didn't answered, not even nodding as her left fist swung towards his cheeks, intending to brutally distort his vision even if it didn't managed to turn his head from the impact.

Clank!

It was, however, stopped abruptly by the sound of Zbey's scythe blocking it. He was slightly shocked however, he had the intention to fully parry that simple attack, yet he had not a chance to even slightly parrying it!

A quick barrage of quick punches filled his other arm of mild yet constant pain as his HP was scarily lowered.

-398, -408, -418.

She then followed up by kicking the other extreme of his scythe that was still affected after having blocked her fist. Though the blade glided towards her speedily from the impact, she nonetheless didn't became scared of being scarred on the face by it or have his arms chopped off by a Critical Hit from it!

With her head covered by the short scythe's blade as it didn't allow him to even see her mask tilt slightly, Zbey lost his only source of knowing where she would strike next, prompting him to think in an instant: 'Who was this person?! Such thinkable yet never truly executed thought and mind course of actions were so easily made without the slightest sign of trembling of her body nor hesitation. This person had to be very well experienced in close-combat, dangerous battles!'

Next, he felt his left knee be violently kicked aside by a foot! Not only that, but even his right foot was swiped away by an incoming, quick slide of what was probably her left leg sliding at his feet.

It was more or less like so, except, it was only one of her legs doing all that damage. As soon as her head was covered by the scythe's blade, she extended her neck backwards and made a small impulse of her hips to the side. Her body moved towards Zbey's left side and to avoid falling off her acrobatics motions, she used her right foot to 'step' on it to impulse her body back towards Zbey's front. Doing that however, made her entire body fall down onto the ground but she did some weird movements of her arms to mitigate the sound. Exactly half a second after Zbey's left knee was almost induced into an 'useless' state, she put her right leg over her body as she glided below Zbey's body. As she was already behind him, she swept her leg as fast as she could towards his remaining 'undamaged' right foot and swiped away, which made Zbey lose balance right away.

-232, -11.

'Shit!' Thought Zbey, as his body was uncontrollably falling down, yet he used his scythe to gain control of his previously 'free' falling, even then his HP was lowered to almost 2/5 still.

'Take her down, quickly!' With some ragged breathes forming at his exasperation from the unimaginable ferocious, clever and nimbleness Diana, he only had the choice to defeat her by using his all at once.

Without glancing backwards, he swung his scythe to the point where it arched beautifully towards whatever was behind him, as a light green shone from its blade before shooting out towards Diana, who was actually dashing towards Zbey with the intention of attacking him while he still couldn't see her!

Seeing that light go at her as if it had eyes of its own, she 'floated' sideways ever so slowly yet it was more than enough to nimbly dodge the scythe's light away. She, however, saw another surprising scythe's light move towards her. It was either take it or parry, and she choose to block it instead. Reason being, Zbey was already waiting for her to take the bait and close in on him so that he could abruptly do the same to her to what he did to Bloptl.

She was smart enough to see the red-black aura enveloping him become barely discernible and as such, she decided to take her time against him instead.

'Fuck,  2 seconds wasted. I need to- FUCK!'

Zbey wanted to dash into Diana's way, but by the time he realized she stopped midway towards her dash, and instead of continuing she actually hopped away. Made him feel really, really stupid; how could he undermine someone who he had already praised sincerely? Human's stupidity at its best.

He did his best to run towards her but Diana's hops around the arena, though not as fast as him, were pretty intelligent and had even a sense of going fully against him with every move made.

Another 11 seconds passed by like this as Zbey was already sweating as he stopped in defeat, he was not able to reach her, let alone fight her!

Seeing his bewilderment, Diana tilted her head a little before actually proceeding forwards towards him at her full speed. He still had 1.5 seconds left! If she was to be killed because of this, then she really had no fucking excuse for her stupidity!

Yet, her resolve at her motions when reaching Zbey were that of a cruel wolf taking down a chicken. She reached for her left fist with another quick barrage skill, she sent those three hits at a rather weird angle. The crowd didn't understood what she intended but then they saw it.

Her first quick attack made it so that it hit the staff of the scythe which was being handled by Zbey's right hand, then it forced it towards the Zbey's left arm before hitting his hand a couple of times. No one, not even Zbey knew what she was doing, that is, except for Tongqiu and Diana herself.

'Tsk!' Seeing how even the couple of hits did not trigger the effect from her gloves, she opted for falling backwards but right at this moment, Zbey once again directed his hand. This time his left hand, towards 'Fragile Broken Eyes' 's right shoulder, her eyes glinted in comprehension.

She was about to fall back towards a safe area, but she gave that thought up, thinking of her stronger Nightmarish Funeral Gaze gloves her man gave her, an extremely risky plan formed on her head at but an instant.

She stopped her movements and rather crouched a little with her right arm extending downwards. Zbey's eyes also glinted in understanding as he made his left arm bend unnaturally a little, reaching towards her shoulder as soon as he could before she could aim at his legs like before!

'Hmph, before you managed to fool me, this time it is impossible to make me fall for it. My turn, your demise!' His thoughts were racing but his mind was still calm, he had the entirety of his being totally 'in control', as he then was mere inches from grasping at her shoulder and gaining some HP!

He may not be able to directly absorb large amounts of HP in exchange of dealing damage, but it was enough as long as he could go back to a safe state with his HP restored.

Ah, but not everything can be as simple or have one way of going down...

Pow... CRACK!

Diana had made a move that though it could be predicted, it could as well, be avoided. But because Zbey was too dependent on his need to restore his HP before continuing the battle -because he himself understood his misgivings when facing 'Fragile Broken Eyes'-, as such, he choose to ignore the defenses of his left arm. A true, reckless yet determined decision; yet it was also the reason from his doom!

-938.

A loud cracking noise resounded, albeit for a moment, as Diana made a powerful looking and devastating uppercut with her right fist, right on Zbey's extended elbow!

His arm was not only completely bent over unnaturally, it even broke free from the rest of his arm as blood gushed out right away.

*PING*... you've inflicted a Stunned state towards player, 'Zbey', for a 1 second.

'Gasp! Good!' With but her eyes brightening, Diana stood up right away by turning around abruptly and using her left leg to raise her body while her right leg soared to the sky. Kicking Zbey's chin with her right leg, she then made a quick barrage of punches with her left and right on his torso as she was falling onto the ground. Then, she sprung up towards him, executing an undershoot with her elbow alone aimed at his left shoulder instead, thinking to herself: 'Payback!!'

THUD

-211, -398, -408, -418, -601.

*PING*... Battle Log: 'Fragile Broken Eyes' wins! MVP: 'Fragile Broken Eyes', as a reward, SP+500 and Fame+500.

"WOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"

Deafening cheers went about right after Zbey's body plummeted to the ground, his body and mind tired, even more that when Bloptl himself lost. Now he felt the feeling of utter defeat, but in an even more painful manner than the boy did.

Without a care for the cheers nor the announcer's irking voice, Diana went towards where Tongqiu was waiting for her. She was done with it so it was time for both of them to go back home, or rather, just disconnect from Rising Essence.

As the crowd kept on yelling out her ID, Diana became flushed from their energetic, unstoppable fanaticism. Oh well, might as well run away at once!

Without worries from not being paid, as there was a system's contract in play here, she simple left the coliseum with a wild, proud Tongqiu in hand.

She was a little worn down mentally; sure, Zbey didn't managed to even injure her but she herself made sure that it didn't happened so. That alone presented huge pressure on her mind, even more so because he was undoubtedly much more faster and nimbler than her. A little of exhaustion was more than obvious to be shown right after such a battle. Tongqiu more than anyone knew of that.

***

 

After a few days, Tongqiu's nameless villa, dinning table.

 

It was already around 10 PM but for some reason every single soul of the villa was reunited at the table; well, the reason were two of them.

One, Tongqiu had completely healed up, his extremely, beyond beliefs of an emaciated body not only came back to 'normal'; it, in fact, had some strange strength to it, and appealing too.

Two, Diana's overwhelming victory at the little tournament of Azure Dragon Sub-Division! Even from all the rest of 7 Regions, she still managed to be one if not the greatest of them all. Such a talent was discovered, and no one knew of her, only downside could be some uncalled for 'groups' trying to recruit her. But she can deal with such meddlesome matters herself some other time.

"Cheers!"

"Cheers! Cheers! Cheers!"

There were many bell-like melodious exclamations going on around the entirety of the dinning room. Tongqiu was utterly silent, but he wasn't annoyed nor somber in contrast to the atmosphere.

The atmosphere itself wasn't crazy nor as illuminated as it would be on other such type of reunion among friends, family or the like. In this case, thanks to Natalia and Itnia's meticulous instructions, things were much more light and even the surrounding decorations were rather simple and roomy.

For drinks, the little maids only had either some yummy juice or soda; while the 'adult' ones had a bit of liquor. They didn't had to work tomorrow, but just because they can drink wouldn't mean that they should drink.

"For Tongqiu's recovery!"

"For Master!"

"Wooo~!" Estel, however, took a little too much.

Cyn had to keep herself besides Zi Fei so she wouldn't ignorantly follow Estel's steps, while some other maids took care of Estel not vomiting nor 'falling to sleep sooner than expected' amidst the party.

"For Little Diana's championship!"

"For Madam!"

"For Big Sister Diana!"

At this moment, Tongqiu raised his own wine glass right after their cheering ended. He then spoke in a still quiet, yet calm and audible tone: "For Natalia, and Itnia on keeping this home in perfect state. For you all taking care of me... For the Peaceful Rain Villa!"

After a few speechless yet gladdened eyes from every single person on the room, they suddenly erupted in blatant, joyful cheers!

"For Madam Natalia! Itnia! Everyone~!!"

Night became peaceful after toasting over and over again. New faces were no longer new and Tongqiu was no longer self-destructive to the utmost everyday. Even his scars on his left arm were almost gone. His eyes were all broken, his heart may have blackened, even its size might have shrunk. But he had no need of it, as long as he had them, as long as he could bring them his all.

 

...

 

---

Author's Note: WOAAAAAH A HUNDRED. Phew, phew, phew. Next chapter will also announce the next volume's name, I don't really know what to feel.

End of: Volume 1 - Metamorphosis.

V2: #1 3/10