Attracting could feel the intensity of his stare as he laid eyes on the blonde-haired priestess. His utter awe compounded with a tinge of fear was causing his heart to beat faster and faster as he viewed a figure that in his past could only be seen in videos and national competitions.

[Yanti: Level 45.]

She had hidden her class for the fighting, just like she had in his previous life. But he knew what she was. It was impossible for him not to considering he had decided to become a priest within the game. The divine of the light, the golden-haired goddess and the best priestess in the game. These were just some of the titles she had once held. She had only obtained two classes within her lifetime but used them so well that they had brought her the power that priest players all over the world could only dream of.

Her first class, [Holy Maiden of Battle].

Her second class, [Divinity of the Light].

Both were powerful enough to be considered top classes even towards his final days and were comparable to the current and future classes held by Violet, TidalWave, and Ji-Woo. And she had the power to back up the responsibility of holding these two classes in her hands. Ever since entering the professional scene she had never once been disputed in her battle prowess or her position as captain of the French nation’s top team, the Golden Lions. She was so high above him that he could never have dreamt of even getting her attention for a second.

‘But that was then. And now this is another time.’ Attracting shook his head to clear himself of his awe as he viewed the other players.

Each was still a powerhouse even in this time when the game was still new. He eyed their positions cautiously and carefully calculated the best way to play this round. He needed to find a way to die early. Last time he’d been lucky enough to run into an enemy that wanted him dead. These players would not be as gung-ho with their attacks, for fear of drawing the reprisal of the other players in return.

“So, you’re Attracting.”

But with a flash of golden light from behind his back, his issue seemed to resolve itself. Attracting’s spine stiffened as a spearhead was brought around his shoulder and climbed up to his neck, the edge coming to a stop at his adams apple. Another centimetre and it would penetrate his throat, landing a critical hit.

It was the holy maiden of battle, Yanti.

‘When did she get behind me?’ Attracting took a deep breath to calm down and analyse the situation.

The other players were still content to watch them fight it out as they waited for someone else to make the first move. But if he played this right he could end the fight without earning any points. Even if they all made their moves they weren’t going to put a dent in Yanti. He wasn’t even sure he could beat her despite having knowledge of almost all of her skills.

“Yanti. An absolute honour to meet you.” Attracting sincerely meant it, she was a living legend and had been his idol back when he was striving to rise in the rankings as a fairly ordinary rare-class priest, “I take it you got my letter?”

He could feel the spear’s edge quiver as he mentioned the letter he’d sent to all the major players he knew would be attending this tournament. Of course, they had all been fairly insulting and challenging but such a thing was actually fairly common among professionals and upper rankers. Besides, he didn’t just want to make them remember his name. He had more than one purpose for riling up these skilled players before the competition. A ploy within a ploy, and a plan within a plan.

That was how he planned to make his way up in this world.

“A wonderful reason to kill you.” Yanti’s voice was like silken honey, and as calm as the breeze, “But that’s why you sent it to us, isn’t it? You couldn’t have known how the competition would go, but you guessed that there would be something else involved. You have put together quite a sleight of hand, I will give you credit for that, but I have been tracking the progress of your team. You have all come last on purpose, the power of your friend Violet has told us that. And I can guess why.”

‘Dang it Violet.’ Attracting felt a flash of dismay but quickly dismissed it.

Even he hadn’t been able to avoid fighting TidalWave when they’d met. So he couldn’t blame her. There was just something mesmerising about fighting against such a gigantic figure. But these people weren’t professionals for nothing. They’d already worked out that he was planning to lose.

“I will give you one tip before I end you.” Yanti’s voice floated through his ears as she slid the spearhead across his neck, “When you pick your opponent, make sure you avoid me.”

‘Ah damn it.’ Attracting died with a smile on his face despite his thoughts, ‘She worked out the plan.’

He knew it wasn’t pride, or an inflated ego, that had caused the priestess to kill him in an instant despite knowing he wanted to die. Instead, she was simply skilled enough that she could overcome any and all plans and difficulties with sheer power. He had no doubt that when it came to planning and fighting she was his better in every way. An almost insurmountable obstacle that he would have to overcome if he ever wanted to be the best in Zodiac Online. One that he would definitely face again and again. Until now nobody had managed to work out his plans. But now someone had. And they were watching him closely.

It was a surprisingly refreshing feeling.

****

“Grand Thunder. I didn’t expect to see your players participating in this tournament.”

Gyro eyed his final opponent of the round warily. The wizard was the strongest opponent he had encountered so far in the competition.

[Pascal: Level 45.]

“I could say the same for the Golden Lions.” Gyro cocked his bow and did some calculations in his mind.

It wouldn’t be too much of a loss if he died here and ended the match as second place. But that wasn’t the kind of person he was. He let loose his arrows and prepared for a retaliatory attack from the wizard, only to see his arrows hitting the stone floor and coming to a halt. Then he felt cold steel hit his side as a dagger was plunged into his ribs.

-130

“Ugh.”

Gyro stretched himself thin and he tried to avoid a second hit. Somehow Pascal had managed to get behind him and stab him in the side. A wizard that could teleport and use daggers.

‘Teleportation of some kind?’ Gyro’s mind swirled with possibilities and he smiled.

His opponent had already given him information far more valuable than a win.

“Damn it.” Pascal’s eyes tensed up as he saw Gyro’s response, “This is why I don’t like fighting you guys. You always act like you’re one step ahead.”

Gyro fired off more arrows and the wizard knocked them out of the air in a display of unparalleled skill with his dagger. The Frenchman didn’t need to use magic to fight against this archer.

Pascal grinned as he viewed Gyro’s stunned expression.

“This time it’ll be our team that dominates the game.”

****

‘Oh. It’s her again.’

Archy flitted in and out of his target’s range as he lifted his bow and fired arrow after arrow against his fellow ranged opponents. Roxxy and the others had warned him not to use any skills just in case, and he agreed with them completely. If these placement matches were leading to even more fights then he didn’t want his opponents to eliminate him before he could pull up his bow. He couldn’t bear to see the mocking look on Third’s face if that happened.

But this player was making it difficult for him to maintain his no-skill policy.

[Bonnie: Level 40]

From the start of the second round he hadn’t been able to focus on killing off his opponents as he encountered Bonnie for the second time. This time the girl knew from the beginning that he was the most skilled player of the group and so instead of avoiding him like a normal person she had gone after him with a vengeance.

And she wasn’t holding back at all.

-Miss

-Miss

‘See, this is why we need Nastin.’

Archy’s arrows missed as he fired at the zig-zagging archer. She was not only good at aiming but she had a solid grasp on footwork as well. She wasn’t nearly as skilled as Grenda or Gyro but she was a different kind of annoying. She had already grasped the basic timing of his arrows so that she could dodge them from a far range and she was utilising the bodies of the other five players to keep Archy from getting close. If he tried to get near her then she would make sure that there were players between them so that he would be attacked if he tried to run in a straight line towards her. Of course, it worked both ways, so she had to avoid being attacked in turn by someone else.

-53

-66

They simultaneously fired at a single opponent that had unfortunately been in the way of their chase. The eyes of the magi that had been shot widened in surprise. He had turned around to fire at the roaming Bonnie and before he could react two arrows had hit him from in front and behind.

Archy and Bonnie had taken him out like a common fly.

“Yeah. You’re definitely skilled.” Archy grinned.

Even if it would cause trouble in the long term this was the kind of fight he could get behind.

The steady thrum of arrows leaving his bow turned into a steady rhythm of battle as they circled each other like a leopard and tiger eyeing a juicy piece of meat. The other ranged players slowly began to be picked off one by one as Bonnie continued to force them between her and Archy in order to avoid his arrows. Each opponent was skilled in their own right but it was clear that these two were a cut above the rest.

Archy was happy that he could finally meet someone to give him a workout.

She was pissed that he still hadn’t used any of his skills.

-66

-66

-53

‘Damn.’ She watched with worry as the last enemy went down.

She didn’t want to team up with anyone else to beat this monster of an opponent she’d run into, that wouldn’t be fair. But she still wanted some meat shields. The archer was clearly holding back as well, he’d been much faster in the first round in firing and just now he’d gotten off two arrows before she’d even fired one. It was like he was holding back on purpose because he knew it would be a longer fight. He was taking his time to learn her movements and patterns before finishing her off.

It was a sign that he was taking her seriously.

On the one hand, she was kind of flattered, on the other, she was feeling a deep sense of inevitable doom as she slowly realised she was only delaying a lost battle. So before he could fully discover all her techniques she decided she needed to try and end this on her terms.

She charged straight at him.

“Holy Symphony.”

The ting of a bell resounded through the air as she activated her strongest skill. She smiled as motes silver light fluttered into the space around her from wherever her feet touched the platform. Her entire body was slowly beginning to glow and she could feel herself growing stronger and faster. Her speed was incomparable to before, and so she knew that there was no way for her opponent to adjust to the sudden change so quickly. Even she wouldn’t be able to adapt that quickly.

She aimed her bow at her surprised opponent as he stood still. He hadn’t expected her to simply charge at him and close the distance she’d been fighting so hard to keep the entire round. She fired off arrow after arrow, slowly gaining speed and moving from side to side so quickly that she knew he couldn’t possibly hit her.

-66

-66

‘Damn.’ She saw the arrows flying into her face before she could react, ‘How the hell did he manage that?’

She had been killed again.

****

The five players stared at the person sitting down with fear and apprehension. The pressure coming off this single girl was no joke. They could feel their palms sweating as they brought out their weapons and carefully approached her.

[Violet.]

The girl wasn’t doing anything that seemed outwardly threatening. From the beginning she had jumped into the middle of the platform and simply sat down from the moment they’d started the new round. But the pressure they felt came from the fact that they had all seen the long fight she’d had with that other skilled warrior. This girl was fast enough that all five of them were confident they couldn’t beat her if she went after them.

‘So why is she just sitting there?’ They gazed at her in confusion, shuffling closer and closer.

All five of them had come to a single conclusion, check out what Violet was attempting to do and then fight each other. If push came to shove they would jump her the moment they were all in range and then think of a plan of attack after. Even though they were all skilled players they had no qualms about throwing away their dignity to gang up on a single person. She was simply that big of a threat.

When they finally moved into her range they saw that she was just staring at them with bored eyes. She didn’t have a hint of the excitement or battle frenzy she’d shown in the previous round. The players slowly grew more confident as they raised their swords against their opponent.

-85

-85

-85

-85

-85

The players with their swords raised let out shouts of surprise as they were suddenly cleaved in two without warning. They hadn’t even been able to see what had hit them.

‘She’s that fast?’ The only warrior to survive looked at the girl in horror, he was the only one with enough health to last against a single attack.

Then he saw that she was just as surprised as he was. She stared with her mouth agape at him. It was as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

‘No,’ The warrior hesitated, ‘She’s looking at something behind me.’

The warrior turned around finally realised what he’d missed.

It was the seventh player that had been dropped in with them.

[Nastin: Level 45.]

The warrior brought his sword up to defend as Nastin cleaved his blade at him again.

-85

And promptly dropped dead as the paladin walked by his corpse calmly.

“Man.” Violet’s gaping mouth slowly formed into a grin, “You awesome guys just keep coming out of the woodwork one by one.”

Nastin’s chest puffed out at the compliment, but he didn’t lower his guard, “Lovely to meet you. I am Nastin.”

“Violet.” Violet smiled and flicked her hand dismissively, “I’m not really supposed to be fighting at the moment.”

“Ah, I see,” Nastin nodded.

It wasn’t surprising at all to him. He just assumed that her team had arranged a similar strategy to his own team, and all the players were forbidden from revealing their skills. Fortunately, this worked out well for him as well. He knew from the matches he had watched that he was already guaranteed four points for being one of the final two alive, and he wasn’t confident in fighting this girl without revealing the entirety of his skillset to the world.

“A bit of a waste. How unfortunate.” Nastin used his sword as a crutch and pushed his large body to the ground as he sat in front of Violet and faced her at eye level, “So I guess we wait for now. Although I am sure we will fight eventually.”

“Oh definitely.” Violet’s eyes sparkled at the thought, then she decided not to waste the small amount of time she did have with the paladin, “So Nastin, I’ve been curious about something for quite a while. Who do you think would win a fight between you and TidalWave.”

‘Quite a while?’

Nastin tilted his head as he was hit by the unexpected question, “I see. You have done your homework.”

He grinned as he realised this girl knew far more about him than he had realised. After all, even if he and TidalWave were in the same city’s team it wasn’t as though they had to know each other. He doubted most of the players in each city’s team had met each other before today.

“Well now.” He took the question seriously, “I believe I would win every time. At least, for now. But who knows what the future holds for that man. He is constantly improving because he is a genius, and I find myself losing more and more ground every day that passes.”

He spoke honestly and without holding back. He sincerely believed that as he was TidalWave could not defeat him. It was nothing to do with pure skills, but his abilities as a paladin were simply not a good match for the warrior to try and defeat him. His holy wall and buffs, as well as his skill that increased attack range, made him a deadly opponent for close-range fighters.

‘At least once I get to know them.’ Nastin chuckled to himself as he remembered his first encounter with TidalWave.

He’d had his ass handed to him firmly in that fight.

“Ohh.” Violet’s eyes shone with hunger and jealousy, “It must be so damn good to always be near each other. I can’t imagine how much you improve just by fighting each other.”

“Ah.” Nastin nodded at her appreciation, but then shook his head, “I think you are mistaken. I do not fight with TidalWave every opportunity I get. I couldn’t even lie and say we fight every time our teams see each other. Although our teams do meet up frequently to duel.”

“What?” Violet couldn’t hold back the disbelief in her voice, “Why not?”

Nastin’s thoughts immediately turned to a certain blue-robed magi that had been getting closer and closer to killing him lately.

“Because there is someone far more monstrous than TidalWave in that team.”

Nastin grinned at Violet’s expression.

“And I wager that you’ll soon be meeting her too.”

****

“Oh-oh-oh.”

Roxxy felt her hands quivering in excitement as she gathered more and more data on the players fighting inside the arena platforms. Seven and TidalWave had finished their second rounds without a single setback but a lot of the groups were just beginning to get into their finale. Spark Joy was streaming the fights next to her and the iron guardian had even managed to convince her new friend Troy to record for them as well.

They would make sure that not a single ability was missed so that they could report it to their team and then post it for the world to see.

“Quite the show isn’t it?”

Roxxy’s shoulders stiffened as a face appeared beside her. Quite a cute one at that. She turned to the left slightly only to find a smiling head grinning at her.

[BL Uri.]

“Ah hey, don’t go scaring her with your creepy child face like that.”

A mirthful voice sounded out from her other side and she turned her head again to see another person resting his chin on the back of seats neighbouring the ones she was sitting in.

[GM Marcus.]

“Uri. Marcus.” Spark Joy’s dry voice was accompanied by a cough as she remembered she had to record the show.

She was extremely familiar with both the players and knew that Roxxy could deal with these two.

“Uri. Marcus.” Roxxy copied Spark Joy’s tone and leaned back as she tried to get both the players into her line of sight.

For some reason they had both chosen to approach her from the row of seats behind her so they were actually stretching out to greet her.

“Ugh.” Uri’s face scrunched up as he spotted Marcus trying to grab Roxxy’s attention, “Don’t you have better things to do than bother us, French boy? You’re falling behind in the popularity rankings a little too much lately to be concentrating on such minor events.”

Marcus was about to say something but the mention of his popularity falling seemed to strike a chord in him, “I’m sorry. I didn’t realise the boy love team was here. I thought you guys would be too busy putting on all your makeup to make it to this kind of thing.”

“Black Lightning.” Uri gritted his teeth and Roxxy smiled, the skinny little guy was too cute to look angry.

“Hey-hey-hey.” Roxxy giggled slightly as she saw Uri was starting to get steamed, “You’re both interrupting my day and my recording. What do you want?”

“Wha-”

Roxxy saw Troy holding his hands to the side of his head in surprise at her casual and blunt words, only for Spark Joy to cover his mouth as he began to talk. The look on the Colt’s Crew player's face was priceless as he watched the two professional players quieten at her words and then smile in compliance.

‘Good.’ Roxxy smiled, she enjoyed the dynamic those two had, but they could bicker for ages if they got on a roll.

“What I want-” “I’d like to-”

Uri and Marcus glared at each other as they both interrupted each other’s sentences.

“Oh-my-god.” Roxxy felt like smacking both of them, lightly of course, “if you guys can’t get a few words out of your mouths without fighting then go flex your virtual muscles somewhere else. I have work to do.”

“Fine.” Uri conceded after seeing Roxxy begin to turn back to the screen, “You go first.”

Marcus puffed up as he took in the slight victory.

“So you’re playing Zodiac Online now.” Marcus grinned as Roxxy brought her attention back to him, “And I see you’ve got a new team.”

“You’ve got that right.” Roxxy nodded, clearly Marcus had seen TidalWave fighting and watched her recordings of him on the blog and put two and two together, “You want information on my teammates?”

“God no.” Marcus was quick to shoot down her question, “I just wanted to congratulate you.”

His gaze softened for a split second and she could see he genuinely meant his words.

“I’m glad you’ve found some players to have fun with.” Marcus continued and then coughed as he suddenly felt that he was coming off as a little too cheesy, “But now Game Masters are coming over to take over the professional scene of this game. So maybe we’ll be able to meet up sometime and play a bit? Just like old times.”

“Oh crap.” Roxxy flipped her body to face the area behind her and scrutinised the seats, “Are the others here too? All of them?”

“No-no” Marcus laughed as he saw her panicked expression, “None of them cared about this little gathering, but I saw on the forum the player names of the guys you’ve been putting on your blog and thought there was a good chance you’d be here. Did you know one of your teammates is the Magnolia?”

‘Of course I know that.’ She gave him a disappointed look and he chuckled.

“How nice of you to drop by.” Roxxy meant it but couldn’t help but keep some sarcasm in her voice, “Is he here?”

“Yes.” Marcus shifted his eyes downwards, “He’s still a valuable teammate.”

“I’m sure.” Roxxy turned abruptly to Uri, leaving Marcus to wallow in his thoughts, “So, to what do I owe the honour of having a player of boys love come over and greet me?”

“Black Ligh-” Uri was about to correct her when he saw her mocking grin, “Ack. Come on Roxxy you know what our name is.” He tilted his head and stared at her with his wide almond eyes, “We’re curious. We saw the information you posted on the forums and were wondering if you wanted to make a deal. They sent me to talk to you.”

He gestured his hand towards the other Black Lightning players who grinned back at him. BL Youren and BL Truesky were sitting back and relaxing as they watched the various fights. Despite their laid back attitude, their eyes were darting from screen to screen without pause as they seemed to take in the information of several fights with ease.

Roxxy would give anything to be able to crack their minds open and see what kinds of strategies they were thinking up.

“Sending the young hamster to butter me up.” Roxxy chided them with her expression and they waved back at her, “I always did find it hard to refuse cute things.”

“H-hey” Uri stuttered at her words, “I just…” He floundered about and Roxxy laughed at his sudden change in attitude.

He had never been able to handle compliments very well.

“Roxxy stop teasing the poor guy.” Marcus butted in, walking up to the stumbling Black Lightning player and placing his arm around him, “Can’t you see how hard of a time he’s having, trying to be professional?”

“Fine-fine-fine.” Roxxy giggled again and motioned with a finger for Uri to come closer. He was more than happy to break free of Marcus’ grip and walk up to her.

“So you want information.” Roxxy thought of what she knew and what she’d learned, “It's going to cost you guys.”

“Yes. It is.” Uri nodded and his demeanour drastically changed as they began to talk business.

He had worked with Roxxy enough times before to know when she was serious and when she was playing around.

“Well, as long as you’re clear.”

Roxxy silently brought up a private message to Third as she thought about how she wanted the deal to go. As long as they could exchange their information for something even more valuable she doubted her team would care. In fact, she sincerely hoped other teams didn’t approach her other teammates at all. Every single one of them had no benchmark for how valuable their knowledge was. Especially Seven and TidalWave.

Those two honestly gave away all their secrets to whoever asked them first.

“Tell me what you want to know.”

****

“Hoo. Not bad.”

Cheshire pursed his lips as Ji-Woo praised him.

He had managed to block two attacks from the avatar of lightning. Both had been thrown at him at full force without holding back. Unfortunately, all the others on the platform had died before they even knew what hit them. Cheshire could empathise with that.

He was so motivated by the sheer pressure of the potential humiliation he would feel at dying without a fight that it had spurred him above his usual skill threshold. He was determined not to go out like the others had. But this was the extent of what he could do. He blocked another attack that seemed to come at him faster than his eyes could see...

… and the next attack after that ended his life.

Cheshire respawned after his second match into the room where players that had maintained their four points or higher streak were. In the corner he could see Ji-Woo appearing in a flash of light and the korean gave him a friendly nod despite having massacred him completely only a second before.

His friend Arnie was surprisingly here again as well, and it wasn’t hard to see the guy because the number of players had dwindled down considerably. Not many people won consecutive second or first places, even if there had only been two battles.

“Arnie, just don’t.”

He tried to pre-empt his friend’s praise for him.

“But holy crap! You were fighting THE Ji-Woo!” Arnie was looking at him with star-struck eyes.

To the audience and early battle finishers it had looked like a one sided massacre, but even in that horrific battle, Cheshire had managed to die last and succeed in defending where others had failed. He had even withstood a few of Ji-Woos attacks. None of the others on that platform could say the same thing.

‘If only I didn’t feel so crap.’ Cheshire frowned.

He still had his personal pride and his confidence in his own skills. He didn’t want to win this way. He didn’t want to be praised for surviving a fight when he should be winning them. He wanted to fight a glorious battle of equals but so far the only opponents he had been able to fight were powerhouses that were completely above him.

Everyone else around his level had died within seconds to those powerhouses before he could even launch an attack on them. He thought he would normally be filled with confidence even in these weird situations but the reality was a tremendous blow to his ego and mind.

“No.” Cheshire startled Arnie by vehemently denying his praise, “That wasn’t a fight. Not yet. But I’ll show you a real fight.”

He could feel the blood rushing through his body as he gazed at the countdown that signified the start of the next fight. It was the final placement match. In a minute there would be a new batch of opponents to fight and he would make sure that he got the first attacks in. He would go down fighting and killing his opponents or he would leave this competition in shame.

‘Top one thousand in several games. A genius that is praised by others. Confidence to shake the skies.’ Cheshire stirred his heart and flamed his emotions with his thoughts to give him the strength and confidence to fight at his full power.

He could feel the strength flowing into his flesh and bones. Every swing of his sword and every use of his abilities would combine to become his deadliest attacks yet. This battle would be his greatest.

‘I am Cheshire.’

He would make sure that his name was carved into his opponent’s hearts by the time this fight was over.

They would all fall beneath his sword.

[Final Placement Match beginning in 5… 4… 3...]

A low light glowed around his body and he took in a deep breath. The next battle was beginning and before he had even fully teleported into the arena platform he was taking in his opponents. Their positions, their weapons, and their potential attack range. Unfortunately, he hadn’t had the mindset to look at the other fights while in the waiting room because he was lamenting his losses, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t take in information on the fly. In a split second he made the decision that out of the six players enemy players the two grouped to his right were the easiest targets.

Then he made his move.

“Grand blade.”

A stream of sword-mirages appeared in front of him and they flew at his enemies.

-65

-65

-65

-65

The two nearest opponents were skilled, it was clear from the way they brought out their weapons to block his attack. But he was too fast for them and despite their attempts, his attack went through and killed them both. He hadn’t wasted any movement or time, there was no hesitation in his footwork and his ability had been a perfectly aimed hit.

‘I knew it. I am strong.’

Cheshire’s face broke out into a grin. Those two players had also been in the same lobby as him. They were two players coming second or first in their previous two battle royales. And he had killed them in seconds.

“Not bad.” A deep voice called out to him.

Cheshire looked back to see that out of the four other opponents three were turning gray. Each one of them had been killed by the sole survivor standing among them. But Cheshire wasn’t going to let this man rest and regain whatever cooldowns he had.

Without another word they charged at each other.

His sword clashed against his enemy’s blade and they locked in a stalemate of strength. But his opponent was too strong. His feet were already shifting back under the weight of his opponent’s brutal charge and his hands were slipping as the sword’s hilt was pushed back against them.

‘No.’

Cheshire clenched his fingers over his sword hilt and refused to budge.

‘This isn’t how it’s going to be.’

He smashed his body against his opponent and with a final push he won the clash, swiping his sword into the warrior’s chest.

Only to hit thin air.

‘Another skilled person.’

Cheshire could tell from the way that his enemy had dodged his attack. It took some serious footwork and skill to be able to react so quickly to a lost clash of blades. But it didn’t matter how skilled his opponent was, he would kill him. He looked up at his opponent and gazed at the warrior’s name.

[TidalWave: Level 43]

‘Good.’ Cheshire smiled, he didn’t recognise this person.

This was one fight he refused to lose.