It was the final battle of Group A, and the party members on both sides were displayed on the big screen—

Dragon God Temple:

Painting Of My Country LV-106 Soulfire Warrior

Dispute Pavilion LV-105 Mage

In The Name Of The War God LV-104 Magic Knight

Water Dragon Roar LV-105 Mage

Silent Wind And Rain LV-104 Priest

VS

Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls:

Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand LV-109 Undead Swordsman

From Water LV-106 Magic Knight

Beiming Xue LV-106 Dark Archer

Murong Mingyue LV-106 Priest

Legendary Brave LV-106 Dragon Warrior

……

On average, we were one or two levels ahead of our opponents, and our equipment was better than theirs. I had a 4-star Outstanding Spirit-grade weapon and a great suit of armor, He Yi had a Spirit-grade shield, and Li Chengfeng was fully equipped in Outstanding Dark Gold or Purple Gold–grade equipment. He was also more skillful than most people. Just the three of us already outclassed our opponents.

However, we still needed to watch out for Painting Of My Country’s Soulfire passive and Dispute Pavilion’s ice domain magic. It would be ugly to lose a fight where we had the clear advantage.

After Fei’er announced the party formations, both parties entered the battle rooms and put on their gaming helmets. The system then teleported us straight to the competition space. A great battle was about to begin!

……

On the other side of the barrier, Dragon God Temple was discussing strategy among themselves. Painting Of My Country was smiling confidently, and Dispute Pavilion was pretty chill as well. Occasionally, In the Name of the War God pointed a finger at us mid-explanation.

"How should we fight this?" He Yi asked.

Li Chengfeng replied, "Painting Of My Country is too great a threat to us fighters because his Soulfire largely ignores Defense, so he needs to die first. Their two mages also have good teamwork, and they don't stick to a specific attack pattern. It will be bad if we give them the room to focus any of us. In my opinion, we should deal with these three before we take down first before anyone else."

I nodded and said solemnly, "Chengfeng will charge first and distract the two mages. While they’re kept busy, I’ll use this chance to kill that Dispute Pavilion and stop him from using this ice domain of his. Our offensive power will go down drastically if he succeeds in casting his spell, and an offensive party like ours can’t fight a battle of attrition."

"Alright, that’s what we’ll do!"

……

The system began the countdown—

3!

2!

1!

The quarterfinal match begins!

A new entry appeared in my combat log the instant I activated Martial God—

Beep!

Combat Log: Player "Painting Of My Country" has activated the Tactics skill "Encourage IV", increasing all party members’ attack power by 17%. Effectiveness is raised to 31% after factoring in their Tactics!

Holy shit, that was one helluva buff considering that it was no Famous General Skill! It was comparable to that of a high-level Tactician!

Whoosh!

Li Chengfeng rushed them immediately after the countdown hit zero. When he was 40 yards away from the enemy’s formation, he activated Charge and zoomed toward Water Dragon Roar. That wasn’t everything he did, however. When he was about halfway toward his target, he abruptly used Reverse Scale Slash at the nearby Dispute Pavilion and forced the mage to flash to safety. Moreover, the skill caused a thick cloud of dust to appear at the center of the ring, obscuring the enemy’s vision and providing me with the best cover to kill Dispute Pavilion.

My eyes turned cold as I locked onto Dispute Pavilion and activated Thunderous Charge!

Whoosh!

I blitzed across the tournament ring like a lightning bolt and arrived in front of Dispute Pavilion in no time. The mage’s expression changed when I hit his Magic Shield with Ice Ray. "Fuck, how are you so fast?"

The skill failed to shred the mage’s Magic Shield, but a follow-up basic attack did the trick anyway. Backing away from me with a harsh expression and raising his scepter at the same time, Dispute Pavilion chanted, "Ice Domain!"

Crackle crackle...

A sheen of ice appeared on the ground, and the air suddenly turned deathly cold. We immediately lost a great deal of movement speed and attack speed.

I gritted my teeth and continued chasing after Dispute Pavilion. Mages were slow to begin with, and there were very few cloth-armor boots that boosted its wearer’s movement speed. Moreover, my Barbarian War Boots boosted my movement speed by 15%. As a result, Dispute Pavilion was still slower than me even though my movement speed was reduced by Ice Domain!

I swung my sword and unleashed Thousand Ice Slash!

"Shit!"

Dispute Pavilion swore and drank a health potion, but it still wasn’t enough to offset the damage. He collapsed to the ground and died. There were no mages who could survive my skill without the Magic Shield.

……

I turned around to look at the others, and I was greeted by an astonishing sight. Li Chengfeng was trying to parry In the Name of the War God’s Charge, but he failed and got stunned for a couple of seconds. Painting Of My Country immediately pounced on him and hit him three times in a row with a sword shrouded by soulish fire, dealing a huge amount of damage—

2907!

3782!

3193!

He survived because Murong Mingyue had flung an instant healing spell on him, but it wasn’t enough. The enemy mage, Water Dragon Roar raised his scepter and dropped a gigantic, cyan dragon on him—Dragon’s Roar!

4419!

Li Chengfeng shuddered and slowly collapsed to the ground. None of us had predicted that Water Dragon Roar would possess a spell this powerful, so we lost Li Chengfeng as a result!

I hurriedly ran back toward my party while He Yi was busy holding the two enemy warriors back. She swung the Soul Stealing Spear and dealt a sizable amount of damage to Painting Of My Country and In the Name of the War God, successfully increasing their wariness and stalling them just a bit longer.

At the distance, Beiming Xue was running like the wind and peppering Water Dragon Roar with arrows. A couple of shots later, his Magic Shield broke, and Beiming Xue immediately dished out an Evil Spirit Volley and forced Water Dragon Roar to retreat to safety.

The moment an opening appeared in the enemy formation, Beiming Xue immediately changed directions and hit Painting Of My Country with a sharp Shock Arrow. Once he was stunned, she shouted inside the party channel. "Big bro, let’s kill him together!"

She didn’t need to tell me twice. I charged him and hit his head in a Pardon + Desperate Gambit + basic attack combo—

MISS!

6403!

2984!

Beiming Xue also fired a Devil Piercing Arrow that exploded across Painting Of My Country’s chest and dealt ridiculous 4294 damage. Painting Of My Country was powerful, but there was no way he could withstand our combined attack. He let out a groan of pain and died where he stood!

However, while we were dealing with Painting Of My Country, In the Name of the War God had successfully shaken off He Yi and charged toward Beiming Xue. He abruptly plunged his spear into her soft shoulder!

3905!

3467!

It was only a double hit, but being the paper class she was, Beiming Xue had no chance of surviving. Death came so swiftly that even Murong Mingyue failed to heal Beiming Xue in time!

That was yet another thing we failed to realize before it was too late—we had no idea In the Name of the War God’s Attack was this high!

"Eve, stall him!" I shouted.

He Yi stood in front of Murong Mingyue and launched a Flame Thrust at In the Name of the War God, deleting a chunk of his HP.

I charged toward Water Dragon Roar, ignored the magic spells erupting across my body and threw a Dragon Slaying Slash at him!

Thud!

784!

The Dragon Slaying Slash greatly distorted Water Dragon Roar’s Magic Shield and dealt a tiny amount of damage. Before the mage could react, I fired another Thousand Ice Slash!

Boom!

This time, his Magic Shield shattered completely and deleted nearly all of his health!

The enemy priest hurriedly raised his scepter and healed his teammate, but even at full health, Water Dragon Roar only had 4000+ HP. With his level of Defense, there was no way he could take even a single hit from me.

A draconic roar entered my ears as Water Dragon Roar used Dragon’s Roar again. Dragon’s Roar was a Level 100 single-target mage skill that was practically unbeatable at the current stage of the game, but it was so rare that 99.99% of the mages out there didn’t have it yet. Unfortunately, our opponent was one of that 0.01%.

Boom!

The giant dragon descended from the sky, and I had nowhere to run. So I steeled my mind and charged straight toward Water Dragon Roar!

3478!

It was as deadly as I expected it to be. My Magic Resist was slightly higher than Li Chengfeng’s, but not by much. The spell still dealt huge damage to me. Dragon God Temple’s offensive power was seriously incredible!

Pu!

I plunged the Heaven-stealing Sword through the mage’s chest and finally ended his life.

Only two enemy players left. I ignored the priest, Silent Wind and Rain and went after In the Name of the War God first!

Murong Mingyue had almost no health at this point, and I turned around just in time to see her being killed by the enemy magic knight. At the same time, He Yi hit him and put him to red health!

I fired a Dragon Slaying Slash from where I stood!

"Ah?!"

In the Name of the War God watched the cyan energy blade flying toward his head and knew he was about to die!

4194!

The magic knight dropped to his knees and perished as well.

I turned around and annihilated Silent Wind and Rain in a couple of slashes. The round was finally ours!

But He Yi and I couldn’t help but exchange a bitter smile with each other. None of us had expected this battle to be this close, so close that only He Yi and I were the only ones alive at the end of it. This was a small victory at best!

Swhoosh!

We were teleported back to the competition space. For now, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls led 1-0 over its opponent.

……

At the competition space, Li Chengfeng said seriously, "I was careless. I wasn’t expecting to be counter-charged by Painting Of My Country. But even if we ignore my blunder, there’s no denying that Painting Of My Country and In the Name of the War God’s attack power is insane. This really is a national tournament, isn’t it? These people are even harder to deal with than Warsky Alliance’s core players."

I smiled. "Yeah. Still, Farewell Song is probably a greater threat if he fights you one on one in his best condition. Never let your guard down around that assassin."

"Yeah, I know!"

……

He Yi said, "The second round is about to begin. By the way, can you guys hear the crowd cheering? I wonder who they’re cheering for…"

"Who cares? All I want is for us to win!"

"Yeah!"

A minute later, we were teleported back into the ring. We waited patiently for the countdown to begin anew.

3!

2!

1!

Fight!

……

This time, both Li Chengfeng and I targeted a different player. I attacked Painting Of My Country, he attacked In the Name of the War God, and He Yi went after the two mages. Murong Mingyue stayed at the back to heal me and Li Chengfeng. The enemy fighters—especially the soulfire warrior, Painting Of My Country—possessed tremendous explosive power, so we needed to deal with him as soon as possible. The enemy mages were strong too, but they lacked the power to one-shot the tanky He Yi immediately!

Crack crack crack!

We exchanged a couple of blows, and it was clear that Painting Of My Country was at a disadvantage. He might have soulfire, but I also have undead energy. I’m not inferior to him in the slightest!