...…

The current battle was a ruined city with a lot of broken structures. At the center of this place was an open space with a broken fountain in the middle.

Two players were summoned in the middle of the battle arena. One of them was a hooded figure with twin swords hanging on his back. The other player, on the other hand, was a player with a pair of magic pistols holstered on each side of his waits with a sniper's magic rifle hanging on his back.

With these two players facing each other, the atmosphere in the entire battle arena suddenly turned heavy. The match hadn't started yet but these two players were already each to battle each other.

Meanwhile, Shin couldn't help but raise his eyebrows the moment he saw the two players in the middle of the battle arena. Despite being inside the VIP room, he was still able to feel the pressure that was coming from their bodies.

"Looks like these two are really not that simple, huh? I wonder how they are going to fight when facing against someone with the same strength," said muttered Shin while observing the crowned kings of the virtual game called «Nemesis Online».

...

Going back to the battle arena.

Silent Blade: Sairen, the Sword King of the «Nemesis Online», removed the hood of his cloak and looked at the man standing not too far from him. "Looks like we finally meet in the end. Though, I rather want to see you at the final stage of this tournament."

His rival, the 'Unrivalled Sniper: Roger', didn't give any reply. Instead, he just stared at Sairen with crossed arm in front of his chest. And when the latter saw that, he couldn't help but click his tongue and shake his head.

"Tch! Looks like you still haven't changed. Remaining calm and quiet no matter what," said Siaren.

And after a slight pause, he immediately added. "So~, are you sure that you are not going to look for a good place to take cover? Looks like this stage is more favorable for you."

Just like earlier, Roger didn't respond to his question and just shrugged his shoulders. From that gesture, anyone could see the amount of confidence that he had.

Sairen clicked his tongue once again before pulling out the swords hanging on his back. And right after unsheathing those swords, he immediately took his battle stance while releasing his Aura Manifestation at the same time.

From Roger's perspective, a huge bird with golden feathers was formed right behind his opponent. The head of this bird looked like an owl with a glowing crimson crown on its head. Its tail was blazing with a red flame which danced along the air.

At the same time, its round yet sharp pair of eyes were looking fiercely on his opponent. It seemed to be a look of a hunting bird looking at its prey.

Seeing that his opponent didn't plan to have a roundabout fight and wanted to have a direct battle instead, Roger also took his magic rifle from his back and pointed it at his opponent. And the moment he took this stance, the air around him suddenly got a massive change; he turned from a harmless cub into a hunting beast.

Together with that was the appearance of his Aura Manifestation. The figure that formed behind him was a giant snake with the appearance of a cobra. It was releasing a repeated hissing sound while standing up.

Despite having that ordinary appearance, this snake seemed to be more threatening than the huge owl-like bird behind Sairen.

The two contenders remained standing on their places while waiting for the arena clock to hit zero. But despite the system not giving them any signal to start the match, these two kings were already exchanging blows in their metal battle.

*Ding!*

And when the sound that signaling them to start the fight rang, the two of them simultaneously made their movements.

Roger immediately pulled the trigger of his magic rifle right after he heard the notification sound. And at the same time, the magic bullet was sent out of the barrel and sent flying towards his opponent with a great speed.

From the spectators' perspective, his magic rifle seemed to release a laser beam on that shot since its bullet left a trail of a blue-colored trail of light on its path while traveling in the air. And in just an instant, that beam of light pierced through the head of his opponent.

But the figure that it hit was only an afterimage since it was already fading away right after being pierced.

But that was just only the start. Because on the very next moment a barrage of 'laser beams' were sent by Roger. And given how fast he was sending those magic bullets, he seemed to be using a machine gun rifle instead of a sniper rifle.

But even if that was the case, Sairen seemed to be unaffected by those barrages of magic bullets as he kept on leaving a lot of afterimages behind while dodging each of those

At the same time, he was also rapidly closing the gap between him and his opponent while dodging all of those.

Seeing that, Roger started moving backwards while continuously firing at Sairen; he was starting to have the common kiting strategy.

But no matter how fast he fired his bullets, the latter seemed to be unaffected by the barrage of attacks that he was sending. And after seeing the rapidly shrinking distance between him and his opponent, Roger stopped using his magic rifle and the magic pistols hanging on each side of his waist.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The number of bullets that he was sending now was obviously much larger than his previous assaults. And due to that, Sairen was forced to stop his advance from time to time so that he could block and deflect some of the bullets that he couldn't dodge.

Because of this, the gap between the two started to widen once again. And when Sairen saw that, he couldn't help but squinted his eyes as he knew that his situation was going to worsen if he didn't use one of his movement skills.

Left with no other choice, Sairen was forced to be the one to use a skill on this match. It was not a big deal for the ordinary spectators, but in the eyes of an expert player, that move was going to have a huge impact on the flow of the battle.

Swoosh!

Sairen's movement speed suddenly went up in a greater degree after boosting it up with his movement skill. This time, he didn't just leave a bunch of afterimages behind; instead, it was a group of moving figures.

'Swordsman Special Skill: Phantom Sword Movement'

Because of those moving figures, any opponent would surely be going to get confused on which was the real target; including Roger. But he didn't panic and just calmly responded with a skill of his own.

Roger stopped firing for a moment as he relaxed his arms while raising them on his front. At the same time, he loosened his grip on each of his guns a little before pulling their triggers in a rapid manner.

'Gunslinger Skill: (Modified) Random Firing'

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Because of the loosened grip, the barrels of Roger's guns kept on bouncing due to the recoils of his rapid firing. And due to that, the path of the bullets that he was sending became a little random which also made it hard for his opponent to guess the major directions of his shots.

Due this, it became too hard for Sairen to properly dodge the incoming bullets. And because of that, he was forced to use another skill to prevent getting ward off once again.

He enfolded his entire body with a bunch of Sword Qi while crossing his arms and swords in front of him. After that, he started moving forward; ignoring the incoming bullets that were coming his way.

'Dual Blader Skill (Tier 2): (Modified) Sword Will'

Swoosh!

Clang! Clang!

Cling! Cling!

Sairen was getting hit by the random bullets but he was completely not being affected by them. Instead, those magic bullets were just deflected away while creating some metallic sounds and metal sparks in the air.

Roger immediately ended his 'Random Firing' skill the moment he saw that his opponent was advancing with a steady manner.

He then held his magic pistols in front of him with one being on top of the other. This time, he strengthened his arms and held his guns firmly, making them steady.

After that, he quickly pulled the triggers of the gun with the same rapid manner while sending all of the bullets on a single direction.

'Gunslinger Skill (Tier 2): Rapid Firing'

Bang! Bang! Bang!

That attack seemed to be too simple on the surface and would not going to affect his opponent no matter what. But while everyone was thinking about this, what came next shocked everyone to the core.

Clang!

Ding! Ding! Ding!

The first bullet to arrive landed at the open gap left by Sairen's crossed arms and swords. With such and accurate aim, that bullet should have pierced his heart if not for covering Sword Qi prevented it from advancing forward.

But it didn't that didn't end there yet. Because the second bullet finally arrived and landed right on the back of the first bullet. Then the third bullet came and landed on the second bullet, further pushing the previous bullets forward. Then the fourth arrived with the same fashion which was followed by the preceding bullets.

All of the bullets landed on the same spot, pushing the bullets on its front!

Due to that, the Sword Qi surrounding Sairen showed signs of collapsing because of the cracks created on the spot where the fist bullet had landed.

With that, Sairen immediately halted his advance and quickly hopped to the side to prevent the worse from happening.

The preceding shots followed after him but he just deflected the incoming bullets this time, making the match back to square one.

...

Meanwhile, Shin saw everything unfold with a very surprised expression on his face. Especially when he saw the last attack that Roger did just earlier. "What a crazy level of aiming!"

Now that he saw how the King of Guns of «Nemesis Online�� had defined himself, Shin couldn't help but want to exchange some blows with him. "This is becoming more and more interesting, huh?"

After that, he looked at Sairen and muttered himself. "So, how is the King of Swords going to introduce himself?"

...…