Swhoosh!

A smiling Warsky shook the sword in his hand briefly before pointing it at High Fighting Spirits. "You are a top player in Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, and I respect your strength. That is why I’m not going to hold back. Give me everything you got, High Fighting Spirits, or you might find yourself dead before you’re able to do anything."

Unable to bear Warsky’s ridiculously arrogant declaration, High Fighting Spirits retorted harshly, "Less talking, more fighting, Warsky! There’s nothing that you can throw at me that I’m afraid of!"

"Let’s fight!"

High Fighting Spirits raised Invincible and ran toward Warsky. However, he didn’t use Charge. It was because Warsky’s arena ranking was even higher than Laughing At The Heavens, meaning that his 1v1 skills were at least as good as the CGL Hall of Famer. Warsky wasn’t a man who sat on his veterancy and contributed nothing to his guild. Throughout his many years of gaming, he had never stopped learning and growing his skills. If High Fighting Spirits had chosen to Charge at that moment, Warsky would’ve dodged it 100% and gained the upper hand on him.

"Heh!"

Smiling a little, Warsky met High Fighting Spirits’ rush instead of dodging, thrusting his sword at the Berserker as a fiery, cone-like energy formed around his sword. It was none other than the skill "Barrier Break”. High Fighting Spirits could choose to take the blow head-on, but he would lose at least 10k HP. Moreover, Warsky’s unique Famous General Skill, "Hegemon" was active right now. 40% critical hit chance was absolutely not something to scoff at.

Rustle rustle…

Somehow, High Fighting Spirits was able to halt his momentum before swinging Invincible at Warsky’s sword. The two weapons met, and the Barrier Break resulted in a MISS. The barbarian warrior actually managed to cancel the enemy’s skill! At the same time, High Fighting Spirit thrust Invincible toward Warsky’s chest and used his own Barrier Break!

Warsky’s eyes sharpened. Moving forward instead of retreating, he knocked away High Fighting Spirits’ battle axe with his sword before following up a heavy slash across the shoulder. A tiger’s head appeared at the tip of his sword, let out an angry, beastial roar and bit deeply into the barbarian warrior’s shoulder.

The skill was something Warsky learned not long ago called “Cyan Tiger Shatter”. It ignored almost all of the enemy’s Defense, and it was the skill that helped to place Warsky among the Top 20 of the 1v1 arena. Right now, High Fighting Spirits could do nothing but endure the attack.

13901!

Luckily, the skill wasn’t a critical hit. Moreover, it didn’t even do 15k damage because his current stratagem was Hegemon. If it was an Encourage VII, then the skill would’ve dealt over 17k damage at least.

"Roar!"

High Fighting Spirits wasn’t someone who took a hit without hitting back. He abruptly spun on his feet as the image of a gigantic beast appeared around him. The cyclonic energy surrounding him was of course Xiezhi Howl. Caught by surprise, Warsky tried to move out of range, but he still took two hits from the skill!

7893!

8012!

Shock flashed across Warsky’s eyes, but instead of panicking he zigzagged his way to High Fighting Spirits’ flank and hit him with a basic attack that dealt over 6000 damage. Both their HP had dropped below 50% by now.

Glug!

+3500!

Both warriors drank their health potions at nearly the same time. High Fighting Spirits had taken a hit to the back, but he didn’t spin around immediately like a noob. He ran forward diagonally, spun around and ran back toward Warsky following an S-shaped path. The butterfly maneuver making his orbit somewhat unpredictable, he swung Invincible straight toward Warsky’s head!

"Fuck!"

Warsky groaned inwardly, but he was able to raise his sword immediately and parry the attack. It wasn’t the end though. Letting out an angry shout, High Fighting Spirits kicked Warsky in the stomach before lifting and dropping his axe again. This time, it was Barrier Break.

Shocked, Warsky gritted his teeth and raised his left arm. A blue energy shield appeared above him, and a loud impact later the skill somehow canceled High Fighting Spirits’ Barrier Break!

Freezing Point Guard was another signature skill of Warsky. It could block any attack exactly one time before "shattering" and becoming unusable for a time. I had personally experienced this skill in the arena once. Since High Fighting Spirits’ killing blow was somehow blocked by Warsky, he was the one now who was in grave danger.

As expected, Warsky didn’t let the opportunity slip by and counterattacked with his own Barrier Break, tearing a huge hole at the center of High Fighting Spirits’ chest. Blood flowed out of the wound like a fountain, and a huge damage number appeared above his head—

26788!

It was enough to one-shot High Fighting Spirits. Hegemon truly was a commendable stratagem, and the Berserker wasn’t tanky enough to survive the ridiculous critical hit chance.

"It’s 2-0! We won again!" Not far away, the Pepsi team leader let out a cheer before shooting Farewell Song a faint smile.

The assassin was currently leaning against the wall and wearing a confident smile with his arms-crossed. His lack of reaction toward their good-looking team leader made Laughing At The Heavens wonder if he really was gay.

……

High Fighting Spirits lost, but Warsky wasn’t too well off himself. Their mechanical skills were quite similar to one another. The battle between first-rate warriors normally ended very quickly, and skills like Barrier Break were the biggest deciding factor. Anyone who managed to hit their opponent with Barrier Break first most likely had the victory in the bag.

Creak!

The door to the battle room opened, and High Fighting Spirits walked out with his gaming helmet. He gave us a helpless smile and said, "Boss, Gui Guzi, I lost…"

I nodded. "It’s okay, you did your best. Victory is something you can fight toward, but not always be certain of."

High Fighting Spirits grimaced a bit. "Dammit, I can’t believe that dog shit lucky bastard managed to land a critical hit with his Barrier Break. If I had half a second longer, I could’ve channeled Xiezhi Howl and deleted him from existence. No, wait, maybe I can shorten that time to just 0.2 seconds…"

Gui Guzi smiled. "Then your next goal is to find a way to shorten the channel time to 0.2 seconds through APM and technique. If you succeed, then you’ll be a stronger man than Warsky was."

"Mn." High Fighting Spirits nodded strongly.

Everyone looked at the score on the big screen with a heavy heart in their chest. As much as we hated to admit it, the worst case scenario was looking more and more likely to come true, and judging from the ugly expression on Agi, the ASUS team leader’s face, she was of the same opinion. With a 2-0 lead, Warsky Alliance only needed to win two more rounds and succeed in their challenge. Agi would be lucky to get away with just a resounding scolding from the club manager if that happened. Although victory and defeat was commonplace on the battlefield, no club in the world liked suffering a terrible defeat on the first day of their business.

……

That was why Warsky Alliance’s action today was absolutely abominable in our eyes. It was practically a do-or-die effort to fling mud on the team’s reputation. Poor Gui Guzi and Li Chengfeng.

At the side, Chaos Moon looked like she wanted to skip ahead and fight right away. She wasn’t a bad player and she had the Frost Scythe equipment set, so her chances of beating Lin Bing Dou Zhe was pretty high. Of course, it wasn’t a guaranteed thing. Lin Bing Dou Zhe himself was a strong player, and his Famous General Skill was much stronger than Chaos Moon’s.

The third round was between October Rain and Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun. Again, it was a match that worried me deeply. Everyone knew October Rain as the military councilor of Warsky Alliance and an incredibly intelligent woman, but few remembered that she was also one of the best archers in the entire country. At the very least, her skill was almost as good or even on par with the likes of Beiming Xue and Transient Smoke and Clouds.

Although Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun played a metal-armor class, he was as simple-minded as High Fighting Spirits. His technique and APM were okay, but there was no way in hell he was ever going to beat October Rain in terms of wits and adapting to unlikely situations.

"I’ll win this for us, so don’t worry…" Ironically, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun, the one who was going to fight a possibly impossible match was the one who consoled us.

Chaos Moon curled her lips and threatened him. "If you lose, you will castrate yourself!"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun grinned back. "No way, I don’t have a girlfriend yet…"

I let out a chuckle and said, "Alright, alright, cut the nonsense and get inside the battle room already. October Rain is already inside the game!"

"Got it!"

……

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun slipped into the virtual world, and a while later both participants were teleported into the arena. They were exactly 50 meters away from each other when the wanderer summoned his Dark Gold Rank mount, Earth Lizard. The lizard was very short, but it possessed incredible agility. It was like Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun was driving a luxurious racing car with a low chassis. Earth Wanderer might not be the best secret class in the world, but it was still a threat for sure.

October Rain smiled at Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun from a distance. "Hi, Earth Wanderer. Are you ready to get whipped by me?"

The wanderer’s face turned a shade of green. "Prepare to die, girl…"

The Earth Lizard abruptly pounced toward October Rain, and its rider fired a long-range attack. It was an attempt to slow down the archer if even a little so that he could gain an advantage. It was a smart tactic, but his opponent was October Rain. Normal tactics like this were useless against her.

Thud!

October Rain’s leather armor boots pushed against the ground, and she used Leap to cross almost 10 yards and dodged the attack. At the same time, she flicked a Freezing Arrow that hit Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun in the head and slowed down his movement speed drastically.

She then started moving around the wanderer with him at the center, never allowing him to get close to her. It was the highest level of maneuvering an archer or mage could employ in a map like this.

Swhoosh!

Suddenly, October Rain drew her bow and let loose a cyan-colored arrow. It drew cyclones in the hair and hit Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun squarely in the chest armor!

"Mountain Stagger Arrow!"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun shuddered violently as a damage number appeared above his head—

1892!

……

Gui Guzi couldn’t help but laugh. "Did Miss October Rain lose her mind or something? I can’t believe she’s using a skill that did even less damage than her basic attack…"

However, I frowned deeply and said, "Look at his mount tenacity, you fool!"

"What?!"

Gui Guzi stared at Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun’s mount tenacity and finally realized what was going on. 80% of the bar had been deleted by this one hit, meaning that a second hit was all it took to cancel his mount and force him to move on foot. If that happened, then Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun would have even less of a chance of reaching October Rain!