*𝘒𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘨* *Crunch* *Rippppp*

Night recalled his previous fight, as far as he can remember it was with someone whose name started with an S, it was an awfully boring match for him, Night had a strong urge to just stab himself considering the fact that his opponent wouldn't even attack him with might.

"How bout this, I'll let you get a free shot, please just please come close and stop running from me," Night pleaded.

"Piss off, I don't trust you!! I'll die if I come closer, both of us know that!

'Why am I stuck with this guy?? he doesn't let me kill him and he's running away, stupid cockroach guy!'

"You know what both of us know? that you're going to die anyway, so let's make this easier on us, okay? please," Night said as he slowly put his Glacial Balance down, "see I'm putting my weapon down as well, I'll simply use my hands, okay?"

"I don't care!! stay away! I'm thinking, besides we don't know who'll win!"

"Alright that's it, I'm killing you," NIght said as he equipped his bow and shot down his opponent.

'What a pain that match was, I was looking to have fun but bah,'

"Oy-" a voice snapped Night out of his daze, "stop dreaming, last time it was a lucky shot, this time it's not going to end the same way,"

'This guy...he's actually serious?'

"What??! say something, stop just looking at me like that, it is creepy!"

His current opponent was obviously Jet Sky, ever since Nate's match got over, the audience felt the matches go by in a flash, both Nate and Night's second match was done and it was now Night vs Jet Sky. The previously most anticipated match but ever since Jet Sky was literally slaughtered like an animal, nobody expected him to win, even those who worshipped him didn't hold onto that hope too much.

In the eyes of the general audience, this match was pointless and nothing worth watching. It was an unusual occurrence, a match between two rankers, they were both one of the best players, one was arguably the top assassin-class player in the game while the other was known as "The anomaly", who played around with rankers. Under normal circumstances, this would've been huge, especially considering the drama revolving around them. It would have been a feast for the news reporters and the E-sport blog writers.

"Let's finish this nice and easy alright?"

"Who are you to decide that? I will say that, let's finish this nice and easy okay?" Jey Sky said as he sharpened his blades.

'Wow...thankfully I killed him off early last time, I don't want to hear too much of this stupidity,'

"Whatever" Night replied casually.

.

.

.

A few minutes. That's all the time it took for Night's playtime with Jet Sky to conclude, not that anyone expected any different, other than Jet Sky who was grumbling at how unfair the game was and how his capsule 'lagged', however, nobody paid him any attention. Around 2 hours went by and both the leagues now had only 4 participants each.

League A had: Eve vs Ken and Elion vs Night

League B had: Layla vs NotYourTypicalMage and Mocha vs Everzone

An interesting set of matches, every single one was interesting, even though nobody knew who exactly Elion and Everzone were but considering that they've come so far, they must be good. Aurora vs Ken was a match that was the most awaited one, perhaps it's because of the specialized and focused they were, Just like how Ken was obsessed or focused on the Tachi, Aurora felt somewhat similar when she used the fire element.

It wasn't easy to specialize in something, especially to push one's limits to such an extent that their entire identity is associated with something. Specialization required dedication, training only one type of skill was mentally taxing, especially with an element as violent as fire. It was common knowledge that the more you level up certain skills, the harder it gets to train and further progress them. Some skills are even difficult at level 1, it was unfortunate but this was what made the game as popular as it was. People enjoyed being the best at something but most of them wouldn't enjoy working for it. Only the best of the best, the cream of the crop, Aurora, Layla, Luke, Nate, and Valerian were undoubtedly peerless individuals. Nobody knew who some of the individuals were, for example, the public wasn't aware of the fact that Mocha was Valerian.

It was a hilarious sight for Luke and Nate who knew his real identity. Valerian cosplayed as a ninja from a famous anime, he didn't really have to change his hair color or wear a wig considering the fact that, he shared the same hair color as the character. His black mask covered most of his face and the bandana he wore was tilted in a way it would cover one of his eyes.

"He truly is something else ahah," Luke laughed as he recalled the crowds' reaction when Valerian first stepped out like that.

".....I'm very invested, to be honest, I wonder who is going to win between Aurora and this Ken guy, how is the match going to go? so far he's shown immense skill but nothing the rankers wouldn't expect, especially someone like Aurora....both of them are quite similar, they represent something, everyone here would agree that as soon as the word Tachi is mentioned Ken is the first person to come to mind...." Nate wasn't wrong, it was natural to hold mixed feelings about such a matchup.

"You should be more worried about your match with Layla," Luke reminded him. Layla was a combat archer and not much of the stand and shoot-type, she would definitely be his hardest fight so far. Zane's arrogance was his weakness, one that could easily be exploited, he was far too proud and looked down on everyone. Nate's other matches weren't anything special, after he fought Zane, he only faced off against Mages, it was unfortunate for those rankers to match against Nate. He was literally the bane of all mages, Three Moons Dispersion was more than enough to render them useless.

" I guess for now let's just enjoy this match,"

"...." Ken just looked at Eve, this was a ritual of his before the fight began he would calmy analyze his opponent. A possible explanation could be due to his training, nevertheless, Eve more than returned the look. She snapped her fingers, summoning fire in both her hands, her fiery red hair, and lustrous golden eyes made her look like a mythical creature of some sort.

"Let's do this," she said in a monotonous tone.

"...." Ken simply nodded and unsheathed his sword. At this point, nobody expected him to say a word, he was a believer of actions speaks louder than words, perhaps he took the saying a little too literal.

A mage vs a warrior, usually it never ends well for the warrior class, 90% of the warriors wore heavy armor and focused on strength and health. They misunderstood the meaning of the class and simply put all their stat points into VIT and STR. However, Ken was smarter than that, he focused on maintaining his STR and DEX equally. They were always the same, with the ten stat points he would usually allot four to each and save the remaining two points for future use. OF course, Ken made sure to always have enough INT and VIT, after all, what was the point of being the strongest warrior if you were dead?

With a single step, he shot towards Eve and sliced horizontally, the swift and smooth motion shocked even Luke, so far Ken only his control over the Tachi but never anything pertaining to his speed and technique. A clean and error-free cut, his stance was perfect as well, his knees were bent slightly and he leaned forward which helped the smooth flow of his attack.

'B-beautiful.....' Luke thought as he looked at the screen with wide eyes.

It was indeed a beautiful scene. Eve, who everyone thought was probably beheaded reacted in the best way possible, she shot a fireball without hesitating which pushed her back enough to avoid a fatal injury. However, the attack connected with laser-like precision even jumping back didn't save her fully.

"I knew it," Ken muttered as he literally cut through the lingering flames.

Eve was panting, the cut was almost fatal, she lost more than 20% of her health with a single strike. Ken noticed her confident demeanor shattering, he couldn't help but let out a demeaning scoff.

'That...was perfect...his technique over the weapon... it is beautiful...I...I want it... I want that control over the Tachi...' Luke was literally on the edge of his seat. Unbeknownst to Ken, he now had a large set of purple eyes, that were ready to devour him any second.

Ken slowly stepped towards Eve and rotated his weapon, he finally emerged from the smoke and snickered,

"Yo wai mo....you're weak kehehe,"