Visiting The Clear Mist Restaurant Again

 

 

 

And just like that, the first battle from that dueling arena wasn't a mere extra character or some random to 'test the waters'; but rather, an actual and true battle between the respecting Zbey and the heavily respected Raoundozia!

One man, wearing rusty, tattered clothes and wielding a long scythe that could change back to being short or simply even a chained one with a regular distance for medium-range combat, not very fast perhaps but very agile and experienced for Rising Essence's battling and with skills that complement his already strong point into stronger points.

Either by having an incredible sudden burst of Lifesteal or by simply connecting so many attacks in so little movement and even counterattacks and defensive stances, Zbey easily obliterated Raoundozia as soon as the battle started, ending at the 13th second and amazing the world. That simple.

Not that Raoundozia was washed off, or that his previous wins at his battles with Baston were very situational, but that the especially made features of the Global Tournament did not allowed for one to underestimate a scythe-wielding players, not just a Grim Reaper or Sadistic Master and so on. The plethora of attacks that one can receive before as a simple Grim Challenger were nothing compared to those of a Grim Reaper, let alone one that has mastered the class so perfectly that even the use of such a complicated weapon that can change into extremely close-combat to 'regular' close-combat to even medium-range combat; this alone made Zbey already too difficult to deal with.

And Raoundozia, wielding a long heavy sword and light, thin but heavy armor was just a big ol boss that Zbey got rid off while only losing close to 3,700 HP only. Though he had many chances to use that skill-mimicking shadow of his, and was even furthermore perfected as well as mastered, making him such an unstoppable, mighty foe; against Zbey who was not that agile nor fast but still clever and squirmy as a cockroach, along with that sudden Lifesteal skills and huge Attack/Action Speed. No matter whether it was even a melee fist-to-fist fight or close-combat use of their weapons or even at a slight distance away from each other, Zbey was perfectly prepared and ready!

And so, KOR Team suffered a big time-defeat right as they started, even as they and the crowds believed the first battle of this dueling 'arena' to be then easily passed over to the next and that it was even possible for Raoundozia to win all 8 battles; Zbey made a magical appearance, showed off and became the role model for many unique-weapons-wielders out there who were depressed over their quirkiness.

The second fight, against the extra Hard-Dying Vanguard, Zbey won as well, without even losing a single point of HP and by dominating the not so fast but still dull compared to Zbey- 'dead ass' Vanguard instead. The 3rd opponent of Zbey was a woman with strong and adorable but fierce features, the Dimensional Architect of the KOR Team.

She actually managed to easily take off 4,100 more HP from Zbey's HP bar and left him with exactly that of 7,200 HP by the end of the battle, while she also managed to bait him into getting CC'ed for what was about to be like an hour or so; healers weren't to be trifled with, even more so for times of PVP.

The 4th one was finally Zbey's death, and that was none other than Phetsia, who decided to cut off all of Quintessential Team's hopes once and for all by eliminating the rest of its 7 members even against her darling's, dead darling's, wishes that were resounding through the communication features which were deafening anyone else but Phetsia who then proceeded to ignore them by muting them...

With a pair of blades, a short but sawed saber on her right with bell-like rings attached to it that also had a fur-like addon as decoration that hung from the rings and a katana on her left that was extremely thick but very short while its handle was simply of a regular size; Phetsia quickly rushed to Zbey who was all too prepared and thirsting for battles, huge battles that would bring him the exhilaration of life.

With a bout of almost 2 whole minutes, Zbey was finally defeated with his HP having gone down the shit after being massacred out of cuts, gashes and cleaves that left Bleeding after Bleeding all over different parts of his body, stacking up and even triggering some naturally effected Internal Bleeding by the system which ate away most of Zbey's HP and caused his death without having to expose herself too much; Phetsia then gained thunderous and echoing cheers from all over the crowds and even sudden, abrupt yells from previously calm viewership back on New Earth.

Not that Zbey was a villain, but, with how unprecedentedly amazing he seemed, for Phetsia to defeat him after so much of going around and not risking herself then finally winning with only about 4,500 HP remaining; yea, that was crazy alright.

The 2nd opponent from the Quintessential Team quickly came after her and was... none other than Bloptl! He had immediately after arrived at the dueling spot of the arena and even began waiting for Phetsia's altered effects to wear off, unlike what Phetsia did after their Dimensional Architect, a bit of a burn.

And once time was ready, Bloptl started the battle by making his move, summoning a huge dragon made from earth below the arena's floor and then creating dozens upon dozens of wind snakes with a diameter of 1 meter and a length of at least 70 meters; a crazy start. Phetsia responded by brandishing her blades with each of them pointing 30 degrees to her left and right as she bent her back enormously to even below her own waist level and ran about like this, cutting to shreds any incoming wind snake and blocking as well as sometimes parrying the earth dragon that would bash itself against her own body!

After a little while from that battle, Bloptl who had his eyes closed and the fingers of both his hands touching tips; opened his eyes just as Phetsia calmly sent off to shit the last wind snake. And what appeared from his fingertips as they separated was... violet bolts of lightning!

With only needing a second to complete what he wanted, Bloptl sudden opened his both hands outwards with the center of that opening directed and aimed at Phetsia who was frowning her beautiful face and unaware what exactly was the incoming move; danger. What happened next was, basically more than magical; as Bloptl's violet colored bolts of lightning exploded and danced nonstop for a long time all around them with a diameter of 40 meters before finally stopping and forming a cage that was 20m x 20m big and whose height was also of 20 meters tall.

Then, pale-white spears, javelins, long blades without handles and simply sharp-shaped formed lights rained down from the ceiling of the cage, making the place a hell of an inferno for Phetsia. But Phetsia, with an unique and incredible skill that complemented herself and her class perfectly, created a huge giant image of herself in the form of a shadow without eyes nor any feature on its face that took her own pose that she uses as she moves.

With the blades of that giant shadow cutting in a cross manner, not only did she destroyed the violet lightning cage, but she also instantly deleted Bloptl as her attacks from her giant eyeless shadow weren't just 2 different shaped 'things' but rather, a plethora of different energies that were accumulated from herself. And who in return, attacked the helpless Bloptl a couple of hundreds of times to his death!

Phetsia was, however, already weak by then, and could only breathe regularly while not being able to stand straight. Not that it was so bad, considering her form of moving and attacking while lowering her back so much, she wasn't in that much trouble, but her HP bar was as it only had 1,500 HP left.

The 3rd, 4th, 6th and even 7th opponent, to the worriedly gazing and anxious onlookers from the crowds and from the viewership; was a pure torture as they could only see and watch Phetsia get trashed around, avoiding and blocking with even pieces of her armor breaking and the system covering her perfectly amazing features perfectly as well used all up to block any incoming attack or even AOE skill.

She moved not fast, but she did move like a restless crazy bitch whose husband and entire family were murdered... oh, and her dog too. She even held her own saber in her mouth by biting it harshly up and down with her teeth horizontally once her entire right arm was maimed and even disintegrated on her 5th encounter with the Quintessential Team.

Her skills were not that many, and in fact, besides charging and sudden almost-instantaneous attacks from trigger-type skills with huge cooldown and trigger requirements, Phetsia had mostly passive skills that complemented her just well. Everyone was showing their greatest feats and assets, and there was no one who was better or worse that the other.

The last opponent appeared while a tired Phetsia had only 1,500 HP left, and that opponent of hers was the unkillable Suicidal Vanguard. Even though it died thrice against Can't Catch Me and Hidden Daggers before, nobody saw him use the skill that deals massive damage to any enemy and revives himself at all, so he should still be capable of using it.

And sure enough, after Phetsia's HP lowered down to 1,000; she managed to 'kill' the Suicidal Vanguard, 8th opponent of the Quintessential Team. And sure enough again, Phetsia saw what many and mostly other have already as well, the now then 'dead' Suicidal Vanguard suddenly became a little ball of blood and blood energy, before long, he was already out of his cocoon and even wielding a pair of armored shoulder pads and even had an ethereal image of a spear on his right hand as he went melee against Phetsia.

Big 'pom' after 'poms' and 'pam' after 'pams'; their punches punching and their kicks kicking on all the right places, but only to all be blocked or even sometimes parried, Phetsia's HP lowered down to 500 after so much work and suffering from the Suicidal Vanguard. While the Suicidal Vanguard's HP, however, rose after falling and then once again fell only to raise up again.

Like this, over and over again, on this even more atrocious battle of 'attrition', Phetsia was very tired while the Suicidal Vanguard was not on par to deal with her, let alone killing her and then the rest of the KOR Team's people afterwards as he even already used his most cherished and powerful trump card.

Time. It was only a matter of time, and indeed, it just so happened to be the actual truth. Phetsia, with a last few bouts of attacking, 'blocked' the attack that came right at her by sacrificing the entirety of the left side of her  boy to the incoming hugely strong fist of the Suicidal Vanguard. At the same time, at that moment; the Suicidal Vanguard saw Phetsia proceed to pass her immensely thick katana into her mouth, not to bite down and up with her teeth but rather, in-between her cheeks as it went from her right cheek to the left one.

Right after, Phetsia made insufferable, small-motioned but incredibly quick attacks and actions against the Suicidal Vanguard's body, which ended up not doing big cuts as barely 1cm was cut or 1 millimeter of his skin and body was penetrated by her blades at all, but his HP fell down to 0 rather quickly. At the same time, however, Phetsia noiselessly disappeared while the Suicidal Vanguard was in the middle of doing so.

Such a battle, such pride! Even though their team leader lost so badly and as the first one to fight in the beginning, Phetsia allowed no other KOR Team member to battle for their own and she battled instead for the entire team.

Damn! Raoundozia will be doing hard mouth-working for the rest of the afternoon after the Team vs Team and from the entire goddamn night to the next afternoon.

Oh well, such an unexpectedly engrossing and spectacular battle made so many onlooking pair of eyes of the 2 battles turn serious, hot-blooded and ecstatic for no reason yet again! And as it happened, so did the people with money felt that there was truly a future inside the game, inside the effort of sponsoring people who play it well and gain some revenue in the future!

Of course, such matters weren't just easily done nor even thought about, but that was something that anyone with a brain could think of when they saw the incredible potential of the entire future of the game with just the mere glare at a screen or by sitting in-game on the coliseums of the arenas, and from such small-scale of a battle at that; not even comparable to the previous battle for the first castle of Rising Essence for Associations.

Then, after a short break of 20 minutes, the more than ever expected final of the Team VS Team segment commenced. But it wasn't going to be a mere battle of the Gold-Silver Team and the KOR Team. As there would be the fight for the 3rd place as well at the same time on an adjacent arena!

Like this, Guerilla Team VS Quintessential Team and Gold-Silver Team VS KOR Team started, and at once, all onlookers had both a concentrated arena and an open tab of the other one to keep watch at the 2 arenas at the same time. What else could be so intense and thrilling like this?!

From the Guerilla Team vs Quintessential Team arena, the 3 team leaders, Baston and Zbey and Bloptl respectively, gave each other a slight bow after running up to the center of the arena. They became like rabid dogs and hurried scholars launching all their spells, cooperating with their teammates to combine and even merge skills or simple attacks in coordination. There was even a time were both Zbey and Baston were besieged and successfully assailed by the enemy team players, before being saved by either their trusted ally Zeyan for Baston or Bloptl for Zbey.

Hm, funny, now that people saw those scenes, the combination of 'Zs' and 'Bs' triggered 1 or 2 provoked thoughts as they watched the Guerilla Team seemingly doing well, be suddenly crushed over and over again by the Quintessential Team cruelly and nonstop. The main reason for this was that Zbey took all of Baston for himself as Baston did for Zbey, keeping each other at bay and not allowing any side rush to help the others.

And because of that, though Mort and Delette were more than free and Bellar had a good time sniping down enemies, or trying, the Suicidal Vanguard was full on a strike-mode while Bloptl acted as his guardian instead and, only when Bloptl died for the 4 time and the Quintessential Team's Dimensional Architect also died while the Suicidal Vanguard still had 1 resurrection available just like both Zbey and Baston who had been dueling to death twice already.

Only then was it that Suicidal Vanguard could ignore the rest and help up Zbey to get rid of Baston while the rest of the Quintessential Team went to eliminate the Grand Shaman of the Guerilla Team who was the only one capable of resurrecting their own people.

After dying once more, the Suicidal Vanguard used his unique ability, well-reset by the system for fairness purposes, he immediately went back to life and destroyed Baston along with Zbey but with Zbey also needing to have given up his last life with no more resurrections happening from the death of their Dimensional Architect.

On the other hand, there were still some more members left on the Guerilla Team side with only the Suicidal Vanguard and a random buffer from the Quintessential Team side. However, out of previous humiliation and shame, the Suicidal Vanguard took out the potential out of his brand newly awakened MC sheet and descended his wrath among the arena, creating chaos and... winning the 3rd place for themselves!

Ah, it was really an intense fight, not like the one for the 1st place though; not because of this one fight being much less than that of 'for the 1st place'. But because the Gold-Silver Team vs KOR Team was pretty quick, in fact, people barely got time to enjoy that one battle and then went after to enjoy the one that seemed to be a real finals' battle, that of 'for the 3rd place'.

Because of Gold-Silver Team's means to win on the previous match, KOR Team was very defensive and even passive at time, not even being able to become afraid of the Lunatic Archmage with crazy damage and area-based skills; seemingly.

Naturally, the Gold-Silver Team would expect such a thing, especially when it was being led by such a Clan Head of a Founding Clan of New Earth!

With a simple change of strategy, the KOR Team was easily beaten and thrown off the stage meant for winners. By using huge tons of magical energy to bait the KOR Team sensitive enemy team players, the Lunatic Archmage then used the light-clothed and vulnerable teammates of his to not just give himself time, but to also amass even more power from their every death and even damage dealt to them. This, was of course, not known nor thought about in the moment, but afterwards, experts could easily tell that this was a feature never shown before for the sake of winning the Team vs Team segment.

More specifically, the Lunatic Archmage's skills were empowered to no end, seemingly, and as only he was left on his team, he used a one-way but extremely wide with 40 meters in width skill that instantly killed the KOR Team players, leaving not only those players but even the crowd tasteless. It wasn't like when The Order made their move, and though it was a grandiose move, it wasn't shiny nor spectacular enough; ah.

It was just as simple as that that the Gold-Silver Team became the most powerful one of them all, while KOR Team got 2nd place, Quintessential Team got 3rd place and, sadly, the Guerilla Team got 4th place.

***

 

New Earth, Nascent Herb City. Clear Mist Restaurant's parking lot.

 

Ever since the first day of the 1v1 segment from the first ever held Global Tournament, Yun Beishang had been a little buy dating his darling Sylda and even Yunalesca, coming out twice in the morning and at the evening, one for each magnificent beauty. He later on introduced both girls to one another as the Association vs Association preliminaries were taking place and, now that the Association vs Association 64th placements and even the 32nd placements were now taking place after the Team vs Team segment finally ended with Gold-Silver Team taking 1st place; Yun Beishang was suddenly called by the Clear Mist Restaurant once again.

This time, however, it was not for an askance of forgiveness... but unbeknownst to him, was about to be quite a shocker for him.

 

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Let It Rain's Note: Cliffhanguh .W.; I'm still too much of a baby on this dao, but I'm doing my best. As I write this, I've been awake for 19 hours~~, and my preferred website novel to read tl novels has gone webnovel-and qidian-mode; GG.