"I have mostly gone easy on you since I didn't want to unveil all my cards this early in the game, but it seems I must show a bit of what I can do. That is fine." Tunder muttered with a sigh of acceptance.

｢Stampede – Active skill

Effect: Call out to the beasts of the plains and have them crush foes with their hooves, damaging a specific group of enemies within 5 miles. This deals variable damage depending on location.

Duration: 5 minutes.

Cooldown: 20 hours.｣

Tunder stomped his feet on the ground and made a strange call using his voice. He spun his bow above him while doing so, his body beginning to glow with a greenish-white aura.

Seeing this, the Liger Emperor felt an unprecedented amount of danger and knew that he had to stop whatever this fellow was doing at once! He roared and charged over, raising a paw to pound Tunder Power into paste.

However, Tunder smiled widely at this moment, and the Liger Emperor realized he had made a mistake. The arrow that Tunder had used to hold himself down from being blown out of the stage was still implanted in the ground, and was positioned exactly below the Liger Emperor.

Immediately, Tunder activated the arrow's active skill was used and a wave of electricity shot through the Liger Emperor's body, stunning him in that position of swinging his paw down and dealing heavy amounts of damage as his fur was blackened by the shock.

At this time, the arena began to shake. From the void, many wild animals like deer, moose, elk, horses, buffaloes, and bulls began to appear, charging in a straight line ahead of them at their full speed.

Tunder, who was the summoner, knew that after Update 2 he could be harmed by his own skills. This one was meant to be summoned in open spaces, not a confined arena like this arena, but he had to use it for the battle.

Still, he jumped up and landed on the back of a charging horse. From there he jumped onto the back of another elk deftly and without losing his balance thanks to his high dexterity and his own nimbleness as a Wood Elf.

While he was shifting about, he noticed that the Liger Emperor had long been trampled into the dirt, his body unrecognizable over time as more and more animals stepped over his body without stopping.

Soon, Tunder's skill was forcibly canceled and all the animals stampeding disappeared as Amber called his win for the match. The mighty Liger Emperor had been stomped to death by mere prey animals.

Seventh Match winner: Tunder Power!

Tunder felt like he had seen this plot somewhere. However, it must be an old movie or cartoon if he couldn't remember it offhead, so he lost interest. Rather, he bowed to the crowd, especially the Mexicans who were cheering him.

He blushed when the Mexican mamacitas unhesitatingly removed their tops and shook their breasts towards him. Naturally, he took a good look since it was part of his reward, before leaving the stage.

As for Loli King, he respawned in the waiting area with a pale face. Being stomped to death was an experience he never wanted to suffer again. It might look like nothing, but those animals had weighed far more than a human, and their hooves were made of a hard material that felt like stone.

It would be far better to be stomped on by humans than by prey animals.

8th Match: Panty King vs Gentle Lamb!

At this time, two Titans walked on stage at the same time. On the left as a man who was valiant, brave, charismatic, handsome, and pure-hearted… according to his own statistics.

To the crowd, he looked like a fellow one could not trust at all. Many eyes narrowed, wondering if he was the one who did some prank/lie in their past, but realized it was impossible with how they did not know him personally.

However, the fellow's sketchiness was too great! He had two leaf-shaped green eyes, a slightly twisted nose, wide yet thin lips, and a pointy chin. Coupled with his messy black hair, he really gave off the feel of a scumbag despite not being ugly at all.

In truth, he had a certain kind of 'I am evil' handsomeness to him, only that it was not as 'bad boy-ish' as Draco or Samael, but rather 'I am unreliable'. He wore a set of leather armor with a white swordsman's trench coat.

His leather armor comprised of a vest and a pair of pants that were white with red in-lines. In this particular area, Panty King was really looking suave, like a noble swordsman of an empire.

As such, despite his despicable bearing, many of the Japanese girls cried out for him, shouting 'gambatte' or 'sugoi', among other words that made weebs all around the world swoon.

As for Kiran, he was cool and composed. He had the typical protagonist-like handsomeness, with curly blond hair and bright blue eyes. His serious expression added a levity to his demeanor that made him fatally attractive to young women.

He wore a set of black daoist monk robes, and his arm was covered by a pair of Legendary gloves he had acquired to enhance his power. The people of India also gave him a loud cheer, which made Kiran smile a little.

Right then, Amber called for the match to begin and it did with a bang.

Panty King used to be a Spellblade, an Uncommon class, which had allowed him to climb into the ranks of Basic members. Even though he started out at the theoretical bottom rung of Umbra, it still put him leagues above 99% of the playerbase.

Each Basic member had had the skill to become a notable guild leader of a Rare guild. However, this alone should not have sent Panty King this high in the rankings to the point where he was one of Umbra's top fighters excluding the core members.

In truth, it all started when he ended up as one of the last 10 remaining in the Dragon Slaying Event where Draco fought the Dark Knight in that epic battle. Panty King had used despicable means to keep his life to the end, so he got to reap rewards while other members of Umbra had been turned to dust.

The rewards from that had propelled him so far that he was equivalent of an Expert member in no time, which was like Cold Summer. He did not manage to survive during the Emergency Quest at the end of the First Guild War, and all members of Umbra had survived the Abyss Event.

He had used his accumulated capital to Class Up into the Epic Variant of the Spellblade class line, the Mana Swordsman.

(Author's Note: Somewhere out there, Gula is smiling.)

｢Mana Swordsman - Epic Class (Rank 3)

Skills: Might and Magic (Passive), Balance (Passive), Magic Gathering (Active), Element Empower (Active), Spellcasting Boost (Active).

Starting Stats: Str 30, Dex 15, End 10, Int 30, Spr 15, Cha 10, Lck 10

Exp gain rate: 40%

Rank up difficulty: 80%

Class weapons: None.

Class skills: Any Sword or Magic.｣

｢Might and Magic – Passive skill

Effect: As a Mana Swordsman, you have mastered the ability to use the blade in tandem with magic, allowing for the acquisition or merger of the two during combat. You can also combine the effects of two skills if they are of a sword and magical nature.｣

｢Balance – Passive skill

Effect: As a Mana Swordsman, you must always keep your magical abilities in balance with your physical, lest your entire battle potential dip. For every 1 stat point placed into Str, gain 1 point in Int. For every 1 stat point placed into Dex, gain 1 point in Spr.

Note: Due to this, your exp gain rate has been severely reduced and your Rank Up difficulty greatly increased.｣

｢Magic Gathering – Active skill

Effect: Rapidly gather magic energy into your person, empowering your attacks by 150% and reducing the cost of cast magic by 30% for the duration.

Duration: 5 minutes.

Cooldown: 15 minutes.｣

｢Element Empower – Active skill

Effect: Channel a specific element into your blade, allowing your strikes to contain 40% of its nature as added damage, including the effects.

Duration: 3 minutes

Cooldown: 10 minutes.｣

｢Spellcasting Boost – Active skill

Effect: Enhance the power of your spells by 50% for the duration of this skill.

Duration: 10 minutes

Cooldown: 30 minutes.｣

His class skills were really simple, but that was how they needed to be. After all, the true power of his class came from learning other sword skills and spells from skill/spellbooks. In fact, Panty King had crazily bought the entire of Draco's 360 Paragon Sword skills and learned them.

This was who he was now number 27 on the Universal Rankings of all players. Draco had also sold some unique spellbooks from his Subjective Magic, but Panty King had a harder time getting those as he was unable to compete against titans like Sublime and co who were far richer than he was.

As such, he mostly settled for whatever other spells he could get. Like Sublime, his skill/spell list was so long that it would take hours to go through. However, his was what set him apart from others because he spent entire months in the Training Hall practicing all his skills and various combinations to maximize his class' power.

All of that culminated into this fight which was intense right from the get-go.

Kiran's body exploded in a green light as he burst forth towards Panty King. A brownish energy then exploded around him to accompany it, looking like one of those golden auras from the super monkey dudes in Dragon Ball Z.

The light-brown energy was his Buddha Lineage's Noble Energy, which was a unique form of energy generated by Kiran through meditation. It was able to power physical attacks, boost speed, reflexes, and perception, purify evil spirits, cure sickness, heal wounds, fortify children and the elderly, among others.

The green energy was Internal Force, the legendary energy that all Martial Artists used. It could power physical attacks, increase raw strength, boot speed, reflexes, and perception, heal wounds, fortify children and the elderly, and create a form of defense for the user.

As always, one couldn't help but feel like Noble Energy and internal Force were both sides of the same coin. Whatever the case, having these two energies perform virtually the same functions with the same intensity meant that his power was boosted by x4 at the minimum, since each of them boosted his base power by x2.

｢Attack Rush – Active skill

Effect: Punch furiously at one or multiple targets in a row. Attacks are 6% less accurate, but deal 60% more damage and are 60% faster than the users' current attack speed. It drains 25% more stamina.

Duration: 2 minutes

Cooldown: 7 minutes｣

"Moonlight Purple Overdrive!!" Kiran roared the name of his technique as a flurry of punches were unleashed, numbering so many and being so fast that they left afterimages over the other.

It even looked as if Kiran had multiple hands instead of just two when he whaled away at Panty King. The Mana Swordsman reacted by activating his Element Empower, using the Wind Element.

This increased the speed of his sword greatly, allowing him to react and block every one of Kiran's titanic punches with a slash of his own. The arena turned into the center of a storm, with a minor shockwave blowing all about the place due to the clash of the two.

It was bright and windy, forcing those in the crowd to squint in order to prevent dust or the like from entering their eyes. Many quickly wore the provided visors in order to keep following the match.

The visors automatically enhanced their cognitive functions, allowing them to see the duo clearly as if they were as powerful as them.

Kiran and Panty King's clash soon became more chaotic as they began moving about. Explosions occurred all over the stage as their bodies were no longer visible, appearing and disappearing at random parts of the stage clashing in a titanic blow, and then disappearing again.

The members of the crowd were dissatisfied by this until their visors adapted and allowed them to see what was going on. Some were curious about how those on the field would be able to see it from such a distance, but they were shocked speechless when they saw that the core members all sat there with folded their arms, stoically watching the match without any apparent issues.

Their bodies were not moving, but their eyes were. Their pupil darted about, as if they could perfectly follow the movement of the two on stage. Occasionally, they would move their heads, and it was always in the direction of the next clash.

The normies in the crowd felt envious, developing even more fervor to start playing this game after the competition. I mean, just look at this! This was the kind of stuff you would see in a shounen anime, but they were watching it and feeling its effects in real life!

How great would it be if they were the ones with the power to do it?!

Kiran and Panty King stopped their bout and reappeared in the center of the stage. Kiran still emitted that aura that looked spiky and dangerous, a greenish-brown light that covered his entire body and caused a displacement of air and rocks.

If his hair became spiky as well, it would nail a certain look, but it was still dormant on his head, unfortunately. Panty King had no visible aura, but his blade was coated in minor windstorms, going visible and invisible each second.

｢Unarmed Combat Mastery – Passive skill

Effect: The user can use any form of hand-to-hand combat skills or techniques without draining stamina, and the damage and defense when using such techniques is increased by 40%.｣

Thanks to this passive, he hadn't lost any stamina after that move, and his already boosted powers had been greatly enhanced. In that scuffle, both he and Panty King retained some damage, but the latter was down to only 10% HP while Kiran still had 95%.

Seeing this, the crowd gasped. They were shocked that despite blocking all his hits, the leftover damage was great enough to have breached all of Panty King's defenses and lowered him to a smidgen of life left.

Panty King himself was not even panting, but his face was utterly solemn. That playful and despicable aura was gone as he understood that his chances of winning were close to nil. He was 27th on the Universal Rankings while Kiran was 5th!

In the entire playerbase, apart from Draco who was first, Eva who was second, Essence who was third, and Rina who was fourth, Kiran was the strongest!

Of course, while it was believed that Slim Fatty was stronger than Kiran, that was only in the context of dealing damage. The Universal Rankings accounted for far more than just that, which was why Kiran was 5th and Slim Fatty was 9th, with 6th-8th being the remaining Five Generals.

For Panty King to jump so many ranks was impossible. Heck, he was doing far better than Joker who had been paired with Slim Fatty, as he survived one of Kiran's skills.

Naturally, he had known this before he had climbed the stage, but he couldn't falter before the world and Kiran was his fellow guildmate. Like the other, he would allow Panty King to display his fullest power before the world in order to show why Umbra was supreme.

After all, Panty King's skill lasted 3 minutes, which was the entire duration of the match, while Kiran's Attack Rush lasted 2 minutes in total. Only about 10 seconds have passed so far, so why would they have stopped?

Panty King knew this was his cue, so he capped his hands and used a Healing skill.

｢Instant Healing – Active skill

Effect: Heal 32% or 17,000 HP, whichever is greater, instantly.

Cooldown: 1.85 minutes｣

Immediately, Panty King recovered 65% his total HP as very few players had more than 30,000 HP within Umbra at Rank 3. It was only beasts like Draco who had around 500,000 HP at Rank 3 due to his various buffs and boons.

With a deep breath, he raised his sword up and began using one of Draco's most powerful Paragon Sword Skills.

Sword Skill 359: Overcharge!

｢Sword Skill 359: Overcharge – Active Skill

Rank: Legendary

Effect: Enter a ready stance and gather Worldly Energy into your blade unleashing it as a sword wave with unparalleled might.

Note 1: The damage of this skill is dependent on the amount of Worldly Energy contained within the blade.

Note 2: This skill reduced the durability of all weapons at the Epic Rank and below!

Cooldown: 1 day.｣

Torrents of Worldly Energy were pulled towards Panty King's upraised sword, entering it and making it glow with a mesmerizing blue light. The energy collection caused a minor tornado on the stage, almost dragging those at the sidelines into it.

Kiran was not bothered as he coated his feet with his two energies to make him stay rooted on the ground. He smiled at the attempt of Panty King, feeling him wise for going all out with this strike to try and clinch a hint of victory.

As such, Kiran put his hands together in a Buddhist prayer position. His roaring Noble Energy and Internal Force condensed into his palm from all over his body, coating it in their resplendent light.

Just as Panty King finished charging his attack, he swept his sword forward, sending a huge wave of greenish-blue sword light going forwards as he roared.

"Heaven Star Lunar Fang!"

Kiran's eye burst open with a beam of light as he performed a taichi movement and punched out.

"Kiai Cannon!"

｢Qi Wave – Active skill

Effect: Send out a wave of condensed Qi made through cultivation to damage all enemies within 5 miles. This deals 700% special damage.

Cooldown: 20 hours.｣