Anomaly! The Young Vice Hall Master Goes Crazy!
Tlkckl.
The sound of a weapon colliding against the ground with the counter shock coming from the hardness of the ground into the weapon's body resounded.
Turning his head to look at where the sound came from, Tongqiu saw a beautiful young woman who was a Human race player and had her ordinary looking long spear with its spearhead against the ground, looking at him with recklessly uncaring glance.
'So this is the Vice-Hall Master of the 'Hundred Flowers', huh? And this group... seems to be for hunting purposes...' As Tongqiu read out the Vice-Hall Master's information window, he then shortly after turned around while raising his right hand to squeeze Zyv's left cheek of her face adorably with a sly little grin.
Wearing a ferocious, 'serious' face; Little Zyv was forced to change her face as she scrunched her nose up in disgrace, exclaiming in indignation: "Wuo-ho-hooo! Stop it! Don't touch me! Grr..."
Step, step.
Managing to finally get away from the monster's clutches, Zyv then opened her previously slit eyes at the sight of her big bro already walking towards the young woman. Knowing that he couldn't be possibly smitten by her, she merely asked him in a low, husky yet soothing voice: "Big Brother Wolfy, should I dispose of her, or together?"
Turning his head backwards while still moving forwards, Tongqiu devilishly grinned at his Little Zyv before saying: "Eh, no need. I want to dust off my body, too many easy mobs might get me all rusty, okay?"
Not saying anything in response and merely nodding twice completely, Little Zyv remained with Little Rosey in her arms as she sat down on the ground.
"Brr, brrr!" With her arms wide into the air, Rosey cheered for her big bro!
Back to Tongqiu, he got as close at 7 meters before her, her information naked to the extremes unbeknownst to her.
"Why are you hunting us? We did nothing!"
'Huh? Trying to act?' Thinking like this was normal, after all, who hadn't seen Tongqiu's battles all around a few Regions? And along with that other young girl as well, even that thing in her arms was supposedly Tongqiu's pet! As such, after scrunching her eyebrows together, the Vice-Hall Master answered: "Enough playtime, you're surrounded and in a battle state, can't use scrolls to run away I'm afraid. Duel me, do you dare?"
"..." Feeling that he was just slapped away from an act to gain time for the impatient surrounding players to come closer, Tongqiu dropped his silly 'act' and casually responded, as always.
"Oh, okay. Mhm."
Step-swish!
Right after speaking, Tongqiu stepped hard on the ground as he impulsed himself towards the long spear-wielding young woman in front of him, a silvery flash passing through as if it was contrail left by a missile wherever his right arm passed by.
-2,377.
"!!" Opening her eyes wide, the Vice-Hall Master of the Hundred Flowers Hall couldn't even react as her chest was already pierced by the opponent's edge of the sword. Reacting by instinct, she could only avoid the entire blade from penetrating into her body by raising her long spear in a horizontal manner. Even then, the impact of both forces continuously coming off sent her body downwards as she was then seemingly dragged away by an invisible hand.
"Uggh, this..." Thinking to herself that she has never seen anyone be this fast, not even the extremely well known pair of assassins 'Can't Catch Me' and Phetsia, the Vice-Hall Master Immediately after took out a potion while starting to get slightly serious. Her HP only went down for less than 15%, it was a strong Physical Power but still lower than that of even a Spear Master or a Defender of Nature; which were the two First Class Advancement classes with the most elevated base Physical Power and STR.
'LV70, good amount of HP but not tanky, a Duelist Lord, huh? Also, her long spear is just a Powerful graded thingy, yet she was still able to fend off against an all out basic attack of mine, hm.' A small grin appeared on Tongqiu's lips, a small desire for battle arousing within him. This bout, he merely used 150% Movement Speed, not even close to his almost 200% Movement Speed. Yet he did went all out, without the use of any skill, to probe the progress of players. Still, there was something that irked Tongqiu, there were a couple of [???] skills on her information window. He didn't know if it was either because of her specialty or because his low level; but, the second was less likely since he could see the descriptions and skills of BOSSes 20 levels higher than him back at the Mysterious Hidden Grounds, so, that was that.
+500, +20, +20, +20...
With her HP being recovered much more than the potions that Tongqiu had contact with before, long ago, she decisively stood on her feet; firmly and seemingly uncaring as she gazed at Tongqiu silently.
"Not much for a previous star of the ga-HMM!" Amidst her words, she was suddenly forced to eat back up her breath from her words as she once again hurriedly moved her long spear horizontally to block Tongqiu's right-handed sword.
Clank! Fooh, clankclankclank! CLANK~.
Brandishing his Light-Absorbing Flaming Gladius, Tongqiu made a quick jump backwards before actually making another double jump in midair and going back down against her! Hacking down at the blocking Vice-Hall Master, he did a quick series of simple attacks before finalizing with a strong one, which propelled his body backwards as his feet dragged across the ground.
"Gasp... Huff, huff." Frowning in slight terror at the monster she's just witnessed not use a single skill yet almost make her bend in submission at the powerful heaviness of each of his blows.
'I gotta take this guy seriously-' Yet, even as she thought at an unimaginable speed, even faster than heavily well trained experts; her thoughts were also interrupted midway as Tongqiu once again arrived before her with his right-handed gladius wielded horizontally and his back lowered to the Vice-Hall Master's waist-level.
No longer holding anything back, not even her thoughts; the Vice-Hall Master seemingly activated a skill or a talent even, as her arms and long spear were encompassed by an electrical violet energy. Upon noticing this, Tongqiu realized that the Vice-Hall Master 'Sash' had her Attack/Action Speed boosted by a lot at the exchange of some of her total HP, perhaps or perhaps not- by percentage.
Then, as her eyes were surrounded by a dark purple hue as if the shadow of her eyes, it gave her azure eyes a new mystic feeling along with a weird fusion with her orange long wavy hair.
Suddenly, the tip of her long spear's spearhead started to emanate a strong, white-purple energy until it formed a ball of light that turned dark purple instead once finished. Right after, she move towards Tongqiu as he also closed in on her, deciding to use his right-handed Light-Absorbing Flaming Gladius, Tongqiu went to parry her attack before deciding to change it into a block.
Zzz-ZZzzz-ZZZ!
Electrical currents went through his right hand after the muffled, strange sound of their weapons colliding against each other resounded almost inaudible. Yet, before they could get to Tongqiu's right wrist, the electrical energy was absorbed by Tongqiu's Light-Absorbing Flaming Gladius!
+492!
At the same time, the special property from blocking a Light-based attacks which granted him Light Resistance+120%, was activated!
"Huh? What!" But before the Vice-Hall Master could say anything about it and even to be shocked, Tongqiu made an impossible change of action with his right-handed sword as it was now aimed at the Vice-Hall Master's left side of her neck!
'Shit.' The Vice-Hall Master tried to move her body back and to incline it to her right, yet, Tongqiu's speed was so quick that by the time she barely moved back a couple of centimeters, her neck was already oozing strong amounts of blood.
-3,106.
Clearly, the absorption of the Light Core Element coming from the Vice-Hall Master's attack was enough to allow Tongqiu's next attack to be triggered as a Pierce Attack. Dealing just a little bit of damage to the poor and clueless Vice-Hall Master. She was, nonetheless, still LV70 and more than 10 levels above Tongqiu's. So she could ignore a lot of the damage coming from one of his Light-Absorbing Flaming Gladiuses, let alone the fact that her full set of Powerful equipment seemed to be perfect for her. At the same time, the strange properties that this young woman had were seemingly either helpful against a Light Core Element or a Dark Core Element. Hell, if judging by looks, she might even have Lightning Core Element attached to her specialty or something.
"Hm~." Humming a little, Tongqiu kicked her out of the way before diving deep onto the ground with the intention of impaling her with his right-handed gladius on the ground. For these kinds of actions, he wanted to test whether negative altered effects would be inflicted immediately, with a percentage or simply ignored by the system.
MISS.
Yet, what he got in response was the seemingly dematerialization of the Vice-Hall Master's body as it turned to illusory dark purple energy-like electrical currents. Turning around, he was in time to see the spearhead from the Vice-Hall Master's long spear merely a few inches before his face!
Clank!--... Clinkclink-clank-clink-CLANK!
Perfectly parrying the attack as he would've been probably, pretty much, sent backwards in destabilization instead if he were to block it and heal up the damage that she hasn't even had the chance to inflict upon him; then, granting her another one or two free attacks to this young woman. Tongqiu cleverly chose to no longer hide his remaining, little Light-Absorbing Flaming Gladius in his bag as he summoned it with a thought and, while the Vice-Hall Master was busy with her strength trying to overthrow Tongqiu's body, she suddenly felt a sharp pain on her ribs while a shocking notification appeared.
-5,662.
*PING*...you've been Paralyzed for 0.1 seconds due to strengthening your upper body too much and receiving a heavily blow easily by that fact.
0.1 seconds seemed like a joke and a mock from the system to a player but, to the Vice-Hall Master and Tongqiu, that was enough.
"Huup!" Parrying away the long spear by its shaft towards his left, Tongqiu then made a cross with his double-handed Light Absorbing Flaming Gladiuses before sending them out to cut off the Vice-Hall Master's chest, collar bone and even some of her neck!
Bvreee-Vwlsht! Bvreee-Vwlsht! Bvreee-Vwlsht...
-2,377, -2,377.
-52.
-2,377, -2,377, -2,377.
Following the tearing and bloody sounds of the Vice-Hall Master's flesh, which were effectuated in less than 2 seconds altogether, the sounds of cheering vulgarities, catcalls and even supporting their own Vice-Hall Master 'fervently' were heard.
"Woooohoo! Cut off her clothing!"
"Go, Vice-Hall Master! Fuck him into oblivion, hahahahaha!"
"Die, vile scum! Give us back our Vice-Hall Master, but with more bloody cuts if you can!"
Frowning, Tongqiu watched the face of their own Vice-Hall Master remain indifferent, uncaring as her long spear finally came back to her hands. Though a player needed to go out of direct, and/or intense combat, if one didn't had a weapon on their hands they could just summon one instantly. The fact was, they couldn't do so only if they already had one equipped, for as light and small as it could be.
Meanwhile, the only reason that the Vice-Hall Master 'Sash' was taken into this crucial point of just about to be killed off was because according to the forums and general information, Tongqiu was at most, an archer even if not a Hidden Class. Yet, he almost behaved like a Battlemaster right then when she was suddenly pierce by another of his swords.
But now, now she was becoming used to Tongqiu's attacks and form of thinking. Her eyes darted slightly, seeing the edge of his left-handed sword come closer and closer to her nose, Sash moved forwards, took the brunt of the blade's yet she actually went through it as if she did not matter nor existed at all!
Cr-crack~~.
With more electrical sounds about to be going off, Tongqiu found himself a new notification system while also seeing the blade of a pole arm weapon get close to his face from his right, directly aiming at the right side of his head!
*PING*...you've been paralyzed for 10 seconds by 'Sash'; Great Petal Armor Set grants you tenacity against this effect in accordance to your Mental Power, duration lowered to 1.2 seconds.
'Shit. Holy shit and crap.' Directly right after, Tongqiu felt the wind being distorted by the Vice-Hall Master's long spear as it became infinitely close to his face.
Slam!
-2,460!
*PING*...player 'Sash' attack on you has extended the total duration of Paralysis by 0.1 seconds, cannot be dispelled nor effectuated by the Great Petal Armor Set.
Bvreee-Vwlsht, Bvreee-Vwlsht, Bvreee-Vwlsht!!!
-2,457!, -2,458!, -2,451!
Making a quick set of moves by first slashing open Tongqiu's neck, before following with a quick-short thrust to his chest and finalizing by jumping backwards and actually sending her own long spear down towards Tongqiu's stomach as she was almost 5 meters up in the air, Sash actually created a rare sight of Tongqiu being suppressed by a player -and by a CC effect at that- as she quickly took off a large chunk of Tongqiu's HP!
At the same time, each time he was attacked by her after he was initially paralyzed by her as well, Tongqiu would receive a notification that would bring forth even more terror to him!
*PING*...player 'Sash' attack on you has extended the total duration of Paralysis by 0.1 seconds, cannot be dispelled nor effectuated by the Great Petal Armor Set.
*PING*...player 'Sash' attack on you has extended the total duration of Paralysis by 0.1 seconds, cannot be dispelled nor effectuated by the Great Petal Armor Set.
*PING*...player 'Sash' attack on you has extended the total duration of Paralysis by 0.1 seconds, cannot be dispelled nor effectuated by the Great Petal Armor Set.
With his HP reaching a scary amount of 1,716, Tongqiu's figure disappeared as a little bit of smoke was elevated by the last, bombarding assault from the Vice-Hall Master's attack from up in the air.
"Huff, huff, haah..." Becoming a little tired and slightly pained, Vice-Hall Master Sash presented herself with a little bit of pain on her face while her bar HP went almost down to 40%.
Silence, strangely, after not receiving a signal that Tongqiu was still alive; she remained on her spot without summoning her long spear back from within her bag while attentively watching the spot where all the dust had been set off.
'Hmm? Where is he-' Yet, before her thoughts could be implemented into this world, she felt a familiar sensation as she was then interrupted by the sight of a blurred shadow going straight towards her direction, at 'its' sides where two pointy yet not that dangerously-looking sticking out shapes that were moving along with the blurred shadow.
"!!!" Realizing her situation, the Vice-Hall Master's eyes opened horrendously big, her body bending backwards as if having been punched on her lower belly with brutal strength. Being propelled backwards, she could still feel the world around her as it slowed to an strange and unbelievable degree, looking at her right side while moving ever so slowly her own head; she was mesmerized by the fact that an almost 40% full HP bar Tongqiu was standing two heads before her, looking down at her with an indifferent face while his hands moved at a 'casual' speed towards her. In his hands, there was no sight of his swords yet, she felt that she was about to be cut off from existence.
Gasp~~~...
As her mouth, throat and lungs sucked in deeply, she lifted her right hand into a beautiful grasping motion while her right arm extended slightly outwards from her body as a blue-marine glow started to barely emanate from the palm of her right hand.
Silence. And before long, that silence turned deafening as speed was returned to normal. A long spear appeared on the Vice-Hall Master's right hand while her left hand went to cross over the front of her chest, another two silvery glints passed through the air as the image of 'someone' was materializing to the side of the flying backwards- Vice-Hall Master.
It happened in less than a second and, by the time the onlooking players saw the two silvery glints go by between Tongqiu and their Vice-Hall Master 'Sash', they suddenly heard an unthinkable combination of sounds without even being able to see what was going on!
CLANK! Bvreee-Vwlsht!!! Bvreee-Vwlsht~!
+492!
-2,377, -6,156.
First, Tongqiu's right-handed Light-Absorbing Flaming Gladius was blocked by the spearhead of Vice-Hall Master's long spear; then, his left-handed Light-Absorbing Flaming Gladius was instead first 'blocked' by 'Sash' 's left hand as she raised it over to her chest, only to be cut off at an instant. Following right after the severing of her left hand and wrist off from her body, Tongqiu's left-handed gladius was sent towards the Vice-Hall Master's sternum!
"Uh-kagh, uh-..."
Thud!
"Mgh, errgghh!!!" Standing up right after being sent back down to the soil, Vice-Hall Master Sash used her own blood to cover her long spear in its entirety.
ZZZZZZZZZ!!!!
As soon as she did, crazed, innumerable and fearful striking shocks of electrical dark purple energy danced about eerily all over the Vice-Hall Master's long spear, first from its shaft before moving on to the spearhead where it seemingly got piercingly terrifying as the sounds coming from that part alone were deafening even to the farthest away player a kilometer or two away from Tongqiu's and her's battleground.
Then, as if that wasn't enough, her body was next to be engulfed by the tremendous painful and horrifying electrical shocks of dark purple energy all around her entire body. It was even to the point that her eyes were being grazed off by the electrical energy and even her hair was burning. Fuck! Even her bones were cracking from one time to another!
Looking at her less than 10% HP go crazily lower to even below 1%, Tongqiu grew crazed at seeing this unique, self-harming and fearless move of hers. Yet, he did not care, as he brandished both his weapons and stepped forwards to the further and beyond humanely possibly enraged young lady about to finish off her last few breaths of air.
Step. Step. Step.
Firm footsteps and fearless expressions, from both parties, as they then made a harsh stomp against the ground with their bodies dashing forward!
Swish. Swish~.
An eerie silent sudden atmosphere prevailed overlord-ly for an instant before the crushing sounds of their blows heard out one after the other.
CLASH! Clinkclinkclank! Clank! Clank! Clink-clank-CLENG~!!
Cleaving his dual gladiuses towards her, the Vice-Hall Master would instead use her pole arm like a fragile and light tender stick of a broken branch from and old tree to swipe it left and right while also placing it upwards and inclined towards any possible angle to block Tongqiu's incoming blows. Her previous failures at parrying his attacks were enough even though it only occurred a couple of times as she then just simply focused on dealing with Tongqiu's attacks in the simplest of ways, only choosing to 'counterattack' when her long heavy spear's spearhead ended up almost against the ground. To this 'strategy' of hers, Tongqiu would sneakily use Unparalleled Angle to fend off her all-out counterattacks with ease instead, but she didn't know this.
CLANK-CLANK-CLANK!!!
Taking three strong blows from Tongqiu one after the other with only one of his Light-Absorbing Flaming Gladiuses, she felt her head dizzy, looking at her own unique skills and their duration, she bit her lower lips in resolve before launching another desperate attack.
"UG-gghoaaaah!" As a distance was made from her strongly pushing off of Tongqiu's and of her own body dashing backwards, she finally had the time to properly wield her own weapon to take her turn in assaulting Tongqiu instead.
From her top right corner of her body facing Tongqiu, she sent a quick swipe with his long heavy spear's shaft almost bending from the force, she felt that her own weapon was too slow and the cracking noises become more and more frequent. Time was short; for her.
Clankclank-clink~~. Clink! Clank... Ripple~~!
The Vice-Hall Master was giving it her all, it was as if she was presenting her own doubts to herself right at this moment and, as her results on this battle were coming to an unplanned end -not to her desire-, she felt herself growing lower and lower. Not only in self-esteem, but in her own image about herself, her potential being naught and her 'remarkable' achievements leading her to only mediocrity. The thoughts of 'maybe being send off to a man's bed for good or bad was my only end' and 'only being sent to be used could be useful for as someone like me'.
Her head flung to her chest, she effectuated three incredibly, amazingly and well implemented quick-almost flashing flurry of attacks with her already about to break off long heavy spear, making cracking sounds more scarily.
Her first three attacks in a flurry were made perfectly and even Tongqiu had to use both his Light-Absorbing Gladiuses to be able to block them off with ease. Then, her following two attacks after a non-purposely paused flurry were very powerful and extremely precise yet... The Vice-Hall Master was now clearly and visibly exhausted, for as her third attack in a flurry after an non-purposely pause made before, never came to be in a flurry like the previous two; and was instead sent out alone and in solitary. Yet, even that seemingly normal and pathetic attack made actual ripples in the air as familiar sounds -for Tongqiu- emitted from her long heavy spear, the desire to parry at the perfect synchronicity of them all made him give up the chance to finish her off completely once and for all; this little monster he just found out after a long time of seclusion in the wild.
Pkan-Ling~!!
Then, as the parried was made, the Vice-Hall Master seemingly was also slightly parried away in a slightly comical way as her body strange straightened all up and stood before Tongqiu.
Without giving it a thought, Tongqiu tilted his head to his right before inclining his chin slightly forward. Then, her eyes turning extremely ferocious and extremely calm, he went in with his dual-handed Light-Absorbing Flaming Gladiuses in a conjoined attack with their blades against each other, directly at her heart.
-6,157.
*PING*...you have killed player, 'Sash', Vice-Hall Master of the Hundred Flowers Hall.
'Huh, seems like the people in charge of well-known Associations can get this little perk, as well as those who kills them would have the nice satisfaction of their kill getting even more validated. How trash.' Lifting his eyebrows, Tongqiu ignored the sorrowful sight of the Vice-Hall Master's azure eyes and her purple eyeshadow become sickly and deathly instead, as her broken eyes gazed half at his face and half at the beautiful almost clear blue sky.
Thud-tong.
Her back being the first to reach the ground, followed by her head harshly hitting against the ground, her body then started to disappear slowly from the spot in a white common glow.
'Hm?'
ZZz-crack~...
Yet, Tongqiu's attention was gained by her disappearance animation as a dark purple and whitish purple made their slight and invisible-to-the-naked-eye manifestation right before the white glow where her body's heart was located at, disappeared.
Everyone: "..."
Zyv and Rosey: (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ ✧ﾟ･: *ヽ(◕ヮ◕ヽ)
After a good moment of silence for their 'precious' Vice-Hall Master 'Sash', the players all around themselves started to finally speak up about it.
"Well... wait, what? She-sh-she died, just like that? She died?!"
"Fuck, even though... damn, fuck!"
"Eh, what-what do we do? I don't wanna die in clear disadvantage, I don't want to be bombarded dude!"
"Wait, if we stay in one place, it'll be easy for him to bombard us! Quickly! Move forwards, and and-and engage him! Just like we have been told."
"Yes! Let's go, even that slut almost finished off that braintard, let's go get him! Come on."
"W-w-w-w-w-wait!!! Look above!!!"
"What?! Fuck, lo-look at him! Since when did he start to-"
"Goddammit, he is still doing it! Fuuuuuuck~~!!!!"
As they were conversing about the fact that after so long, their 'precious' Vice-Hall Master was defeated, that she had failed. Some of the players remembered their 'training' -theoretical and strategy educational- as they proposed to go ahead and finish off the all-so famous Tongqiu once and for all, claiming both; reputation and prestige for their Region, the playerbase of Rising Essence and their starting Sub-Division!
Yet, some other players were even more clueless as only a few of the tens of thousands bunch barely managed to realized about the incoming volley of arrows towards their own very heads.
However, it was too late, too much time has passed since Tongqiu started to casually nock two arrows with his Short Azure Wind Bow that, although short- it could very well travel through the air even up above almost 50 meters above the every player's head without a problem.
And as Tongqiu kept on pouring more and more arrows up to the sky, namely Falling Rain Arrows. He nocked two arrows into a wideshot everytime, without the use of his Mental Power!
Even without his Mental Power, after countless training, trial and error; he had finally mastered up some more of his own unique and his own path!
To the point that even without using his Mental Power, he could make the Falling Rain Arrows all move perfectly to the designated area without overlapping with one another like he had made use of them before. Not only that. Even then, if the players were so 'normal' -intelligent- as if to move in all directions, with just his intention alone he would be able to skillfully 'make' those falling volley of arrows move at his will. With 'intention'. No use of a skill, nor use of his one and only hidden stat; Mental Power.
"Let's go. My two Littles Zyv and Rosey, come on, let's fight!" While turning around to his Little 'Sisters', Tongqiu spoke to them in a pampering fashion, his own vocal cords -however- also turning trembling in anticipation.
"To kill!"
"Brr-BRRR!"
As Zyv made her own little battlecry with her left fist up in the air after swinging it up and her other right fist at her right side of her body with his right arm bending, Little Rosey followed Little Zyv's steps and mimicked her, but more cutesy and adorably.
"Mn, let's go~. Rosey, no more holding back, destroy everything." Of course! How could Rosey not be encouraged to kill, kill and destroy now? Even if she was the most depressive being in existences, with her big bro's words alone, she would jump back to be the most joyful one instead!
And so, it began...
SHCK-BBPAM SHCK-BBPAM SHCK-BBPAM SHCK-BBPAM SHCK-BBPAM SHCK-BBPAM SHCK-BBPAM...
...it began to RAIN.
...
Let It Rain's Note: Yes, I've decided to go by 'Let It Rain' as an Author, sigh. Anyways, longer chapters = making up for my long story that almost made it impossible for me to finish the volume with what I intended it to Q_Q .
