The first match of Group B of the eighth-finals was Snowy Cathaya versus Olympus. Snowy Cathaya was one of the strongest guilds in Sky City, and Titan God was the strongest guild in Titan City. Moreover, they shared a grudge with each other. During the War of Dawn City, Titan God had ambushed Sky City with an army of cavalry. Lin Yixin had marched forth and fought him to a draw. It was one of the battles that marked him as a true legend, because anyone who could fight the Fruit Knife Goddess to a draw could only be a top-tier expert.

It didn’t take long for the match-up to appear—

1v1: Purple Marquis LV-186 Warrior VS Fairytale Killer LV-186 Hitman

1v1: Shadow Chanel LV-185 Dark Tongue Mage VS Grief of the Dark LV-187 Mage

1v1: Wind Fantasy LV-187 Light Wanderer VS Titan God LV-187 Thunder Warrior

1v1: Clear Perfume LV-185 Archer VS Wight LV-185 Magic Knight

2v2: Wind Fantasy LV-187 Light Wanderer & Purple Marquis LV-186 Warrior VS Titan God LV-187 Thunder Warrior & Grief of the Dark LV-187 Mage

……

I snickered the moment I saw the match-up because I knew it was exactly how Beauty Lin wanted it to go. With her improved strength and a weapon that was in no way inferior to Titan God’s, this was her chance to finish what she had failed to do during the War of Dawn City!

The first match was Purple Marquis versus Fairytale Killer. Fairytale Killer was a skilled player with great character skills. During the War of Dawn City, he had killed countless Blazing Hot Lips mages and pissed off Stranger of Three Lifetimes majorly.

Swhoosh swhoosh!

Purple Marquis and Fairytale Killer appeared on the battlefield at the same time. The warrior watched his opponent with a grim expression, while the assassin crouched a little and vanished into thin air during the countdown. In the Assassin versus Warrior class match-up, the assassin cannot miss the first, stunning, strike of their combo if they were to have any hope of beating a warrior. If they failed, then chances are the warrior was going to win the match.

Rustle rustle...

Purple Marquis stepped on a fallen leaf and observed his surroundings with calm eyes. As the strongest fighter in Snowy Cathaya, Purple Marquis’s skills and tactics were flawless. There was barely a handful of people in the entire China server who could beat him. That was why Lin Yixin valued him a lot.

"Come out!"

Purple Marquis abruptly dashed forward and slashed the air in front of him. A loud clang later, Fairytale Killer reappeared as he rolled away from Purple Marquis. If the assassin had been anyone else, the strike would’ve landed and cascaded the battle past the point of no return already.

"Vacuum Slash!"

Purple Marquis had no intention of letting his opponent live, so after using Vacuum Slash he Charged to Fairytale Killer’s right side and executed Chaos Universe!

"Ah?!"

Caught off-guard, Fairytale Killer just barely raised his daggers in time to parry Chaos Universe. However, Purple Marquis simply knocked his weapons to the side—opening him wide—and kicked him in the stomach!

Bang!

21020!

Skill wise, Fairytale Killer was no match for Purple Marquis at all. Before his opponent could recover his breath, Purple Marquis stabbed his sword right through the abdomen and pushed him to the ground!

The score turned 1:0. The fight had ended in less than 30 seconds, and Purple Marquis had looked as dominant as he could possibly be, suppressing Fairytale Killer practically the whole round. Obviously, his teammates didn’t look very happy with this. Fairytale Killer was one of the strongest assassins in Titan City, but his opponent had totally schooled him. This would’ve been embarrassing enough in a private match, but the WEL internationals were broadcasted across the whole world right now. There was enough shame here to drown a man alive.

The second round began quickly, and this time Fairytale Killer kept his patience and waited for a good opportunity. He also rolled an excellent map this time. They were in a hilly terrain where the walls were stone, and the ground was tough granite. Unless the assassin slipped up really badly, there was practically no way to detect them after they entered stealth. The opposite of this would be a grassy field where even the slightest step was visible.

Purple Marquis himself was aware that the map was absolutely disadvantageous for him. After widening his eyes and doing his best to sense the surrounding activity to no avail, he gritted his teeth and decided to take a huge risk: closing his eyes to sense the air and his opponent’s killing intent better. Unfortunately, killing intent wasn’t an easy thing to catch, and Purple Marquis was no mystic. A red flash hit his back, and...

Pu!

Fairytale Killer successfully Ambushed Purple Marquis and stunned him for 3 seconds.

The hitman reappeared with a smile on his face and ravaged Purple Marquis’s armor with a Blood-maddened Assault + Deadly Blade Sweep combo. Despite being a metal-armor class, the combo still deleted a ton of HP from Purple Marquis’ health bar.

"Purple Marquis is in danger now…" Beiming Xue said.

But I shook my head and said, "No, not necessarily. Fairytale Killer was too impatient and made the critical error of executing triple-hit Blood-maddened Assault and Deadly Blade Sweep in one go. He used up too much energy and must wait at least 0.5 seconds after the stun is over before he can use Gouge. That is enough time for a top-tier warrior like Purple Marquis to turn the tables!"

Just as I had predicted, Fairytale Killer failed to kill Purple Marquis in 3 seconds, and he had to wait at least 0.5 seconds after the initial stun was over before he could execute Gouge. By the time he thrust his dagger forward, Purple Marquis had already activated War God Rampage and made himself immune to the stun. Not even bothering to turn around to face his opponent, Purple Marquis bent his waist and kicked backward at Fairytale Killer!

Bang!

Fairytale Killer blocked the kick with his daggers, but was sent stumbling to the back. At the same time, Purple Marquis turned around, ran like lightning and hit the hitman with an Absolute Zero. Frozen, the hitman could only watch as Purple Marquis hit him with Chaos Universe and killed him where he stood.

The score turned 2:0, and Purple Marquis successfully scored first blood on behalf of Snowy Cathaya. At this stage of the competition, there was no such thing as an easy victory. After all, even the weakest player in the world championship was still a player who qualified to fight on this international stage. Every one of us was a top player in our main cities, a living legend in our own right, and a god in the eyes of those who looked up to us!

……

"Well done, Purple Marquis!"

Shadow Chanel praised him while giving him a slap on the shoulder, to which the warrior accepted with a blissful expression on his face.

In fact, we all knew that Purple Marquis had joined Snowy Cathaya entirely because of Shadow Chanel. However, Shadow Chanel either didn’t know or pretended that she didn’t know about his love. For now at least, she simply treated him as another companion and didn’t try to turn the sparks of romance between them into a blaze.

Lin Yixin said, "Chanel, it’s your turn now. Your opponent is Grief of the Dark, a tough guy who gave even Little Cheat and Li Chengfeng a hard time, so be careful. He won’t go down easily."

"Got it, boss. Here I go!"

Shadow Chanel teleported into the arena, and once again the map was Creek Valley. Grief of the Dark stood calmly at his corner of the map. It was less of the calm of a naturally calm-minded person, and more of the calm of a person completely assured by his superiority—that is to say, he didn’t think of Shadow Chanel as a threat at all.

When the battle began, Shadow Chanel took the initiative to slow her opponent and chip at his Magic Shield with Arctic Rain and Ice Arrow Spells. Grief of the Dark focused on dodging the spells and firing Touches of the Dragonkiss at where he predicted Shadow Chanel would go. His tactic was a lot smarter than Shadow Chanel’s because one Touch of the Dragonkiss was worth at least five Ice Arrow Spells in terms of damage. As a result, Shadow Chanel quickly fell into disadvantage. The moment her Magic Shield broke, Grief of the Dark showed off his ridiculous ability to predict his opponent’s actions once more by landing an Ice Blast right beneath Shadow Chanel’s feet. It immobilized her and stopped her from recasting her Magic Shield. One last Touch of the Dragonkiss later, the dark tongue mage was killed where she stood!

The second round went more or less the same way. Shadow Chanel was completely outclassed both in terms of skill and magic power. Everyone was stunned by how big the power gap was. Grief of the Dark belonged to a league entirely above Shadow Chanel where giants like Stranger of Three Lifetimes and Lian Xin resided.

The overall score turned 1:1. It was a draw for now.

The third match was a battle between the ace of the teams and a battle between true gods of the game, Fruit Knife Goddess versus Titan God. It felt like the roof would fall off the stadium when Lin Yixin and Titan God appeared in the arena at the same time. It showed just how popular both players were!

……

Swhoosh swhoosh!

On the battlefield, both players stared at each other with obvious hostility. Blade set casually on his shoulders, Titan God smiled and said, "Say, you’re one of the top five players of the CGL, right Wind Fantasy? How disappointing. What you showed me at Sky City that day wasn’t anything special. The world is much wider than you think, you know. A god of CGL is but a small fry on the world stage."

Lin Yixin replied coldly, "Looks like someone needs to teach you a lesson, and it might as well be me!"

The countdown began—

3!

2!

1!

The moment the countdown ended, Lin Yixin and Titan God activated Great Earth Transformation and surrounded themselves in gusts of power. I knew that Lin Yixin’s God’s Tear was an AoE attack skill, but Titan God’s Earth’s Fury was a mystery to me.

Thud!

Both players charged toward each other at almost the same time, clashing blades at the speed of lightning. Titan God raised his right foot and attempted to kick Lin Yixin in the stomach, marking himself as a brute who didn’t know how to care for the fairer sex.

Unfortunately for him, the Fruit Knife Goddess was no gentle woman. She moved even faster than he was and landed a kick on his right thigh first, causing the swirl of energy in that area to dissipate a little. Then, she rotated around his person like a butterfly, scored a lightning-fast hit with her dagger, and left his side before his counterattack could land!

Thud!

60992!