...

After testing the mental strength of their opponents during the staredown, both Archimedes and Sildra immediately start making their respective moves.

Archimedes quickly spread his wings and flapped them forward, propelling himself towards the opposite direction. At the same time, he was also shooting his magic-enhanced arrows in a rapid succession.

Swoosh!

Meanwhile, Sildra immediately kicked the ground beneath him to launch himself forward, chasing after his opponent. And when he saw the valley of arrows flying towards his way, he immediately executed a strange footwork which made his movements unpredictable.

Each time he swayed his body left and right, an arrow would miss its target. Despite dodging them with a very small margin, not a single arrow managed to graze his body much less land a clean hit.

But even if he was able to dodge those attacks without problem, his speed was still greatly reduced, and unable to close the distance between him and Archimedes.

Seeing that, he immediately adjusted his footwork and decreased its speed a little. But instead of slowing down, his movements seemed to become much faster than before since he was able to shorten the distance that he needed to cover little by little.

He sacrificed some of his speed in exchange for better mobility on his movements. Due to that, he was able to reach the optimal distance that he needed to execute some of his range skills.

First, he made a couple of signs with both of his hands, summoning a group of snakes that suddenly sprung out from the ground and shot straight to Archimedes. And using them as a distraction, Sildra was able to further lessen the space between him and his opponent.

But Archimedes was naturally not going to let himself get outperformed by his opponent. He immediately executed a series of dodging maneuvers the moment he saw the incoming snakes.

He performed some tumbles, flips, hops, side steps, and other dodging movements in an unpredictable manner, avoiding each of the snakes flying at him. And every time he found a window to strike back, he would always grab that opportunity and fire some arrows at either the snakes or Sildra who was quite persistent at chasing after him.

Archimedes could easily escape this predicament if he wanted to by just flying up in the air. But his rich experience in battle was telling him not to do it. He could also sense it – there was a hidden trap waiting for him to use his wings and fly up in the sky.

Due to that, Archimedes chose to face Sildra with this chasing game even though he was aware that he was slightly at a disadvantage.

From the sideline, Leonard was currently enjoying his relaxing time while watching a great show; he was even eating some snacks on his hands that no one knew where they came from.

He was even nodding his head from time to time whenever he saw Archimedes and Sildra execute a beautiful move that was hard to counter – and alongside it was another satisfied nod when the opposing side countered that attack with their own unexpected move.

But that was just the start, their battle was slowly getting more intense the more they exchanged blows. They even started mixing some of their skills and combat techniques on their moves as their battle progressed.

The clash between Archimedes and Sildra ever reached a much higher level to the point where their surroundings were starting to get affected. Not physically where their attacks were destroying everything around them.

They were affecting their surroundings for a different reason; it was as if the air around them seemed to become humid and heavy.

They were not sure if it was because of the residual mana from their respective skills or due to the killing intent that they were currently releasing, but both of them knew that their bodies were getting much heavier as more time passed. Though, their concentration was also becoming more and more focused at the same time.

Archimedes was starting to feel strange the more he continued exchanging blows with Sildra. He clearly felt that moving his body at his point in time was quite hard but he also felt that movements were becoming more and more fluid.

'What's happening?' he even started knitting his brows as he was quite confused at the current state that he was in. But regardless of those thoughts, he still let himself got carried away and continued what he was currently doing.

Due to them being too focused on their battle, they practically had no idea how other people saw their battle.

Whistle~ ♪

"This is interesting! To think that I'll be able to witness such a degree of battle from players who are not even a Godlike Player? These two sure have a lot of bright futures ahead of them in the Virtual World," said Leonard as he watched the ongoing battle in front with a huge grin.

Looking from his point of view, he seemed to be seeing a pair of mythical beasts clashing against each other; a divine owl with a massive size and a demonic snake that had a body as long as the height of a skyscraper.

Meanwhile, the previous mountain peak where they were battling now had a flat surface. The ground where they stood was still elevated from the foot of the mountain, but its originally sharp peak was nowhere to be found. They practically transformed the sky-high mountain into a mesa.

"Tsk! Too bad, we can only keep one of them to our side," muttered Leonard while watching the pair of lights chasing one another in the midst of clouds of smoke and dust.

*********

While Leonard was enjoying his time while watching a great show, the group who were left in the floating cast was somewhat having a rough time.

"Tsk! Where did these filthy snakes come from?" cursed Chaotic Luck as he controlled his undead monsters to battle a large group of Black Nagas.

"Beats me too! We are together since the time we get in here, so don't ask me some stupid question! I should be accompanying Shin instead of taking care of these guys!" shouted Cloe from the back, clearly showing her annoyance.

'I'm not asking you, Big Sis. I'm just mumbling to myself. And how come you can hear me when you are way too far from me?' complained Chaotic Luck as he looked at Cloe who was casting her buffs and heals from a distance.

Hiss!

Then a Black Naga broke through the blockade of undead that he set up for defense and started charging at him.

"No, you ain't!" shouted Chaotic Luck as he raised his hand in the air while gathering the surrounding mana on his palm.

Boom!

But before could even complete casting his spell, a thunderclap suddenly exploded beside him, breaking his concentration.

"Ah!?"

He then jumped out of fright for being off-guard. And due to that, the sphere of fire that he was trying to form on top of his palm suddenly lost its balance and exploded. It was supposedly a powerful spell, so its explosion sent flares of fire in every direction.

Coincidentally, snakes suddenly emerged from the ground and were trying to bite him. But instead of catching their target off-guard, they were the ones who got surprised instead due to the flares of flame that immediately greeted them right after their appearance.

Meanwhile, the Black Naga who was supposedly charging at him suddenly halted its tracks when it saw the scene in front of it. And due to the sudden pause, the surrounding undead around it devoured the poor Naga without any resistance.

"Eh!?"

On the other hand, Daulla who was about to apologize for what happened was staring at the sight with a stupefied expression on her face.

She was trying to cast a wide-ranged spell earlier to wipe out the snakes that unexpectedly emerged from the ground around her. One of the snakes managed to slip through her attack and charged at her.

She was able to avoid getting bitten by that snake by swinging her electrified staff on it. But at the same time, that move also affected her focus and made her control over her spell slip a little.

Due to that, one of the lightning bolts of her spell suddenly went out of control and flew towards Chaotic Luck's position.

Fortunately, it only landed at the space beside Chaotic Luck and didn't strike him.

"I thought he was quite clumsy and just an ordinary player without his strange undead summonses, but I guess I was wrong," muttered Daulla to herself after seeing Chaotic Luck 'displayed' his battle skills 'amazingly'.

"He is able to keep his calm despite a stray lightning bolt almost landing on him. What's more, he also strikes each of the snakes hidden underground accurately despite the ambush on top of dodging my spell," she added before casting three different spells at once and firing them towards different targets.

"I can't let myself be outshone by them!" she said to encourage herself after she successfully took down her targets.

...