Dove POV

In the middle of the plaza, Razor and I stood. The crowd gathered was a lot larger than the previous fight, even Liza came to watch. I readied myself, Icebrande at hand as the scheduled time approached.

“Why can you use Icebrande? Most Artefact Rarity Items could only be used by the owner only.” asked Razor.

“I don’t know. I just can.” I replied honestly. Hawk did mention that he did have suspicions, but he had yet to confirm them.

The countdown began. I recalled what Hawk said about Razor’s Ability: Lightning Cloud. Lightning Cloud would target me and reveal my location even when I am Invisible. Also, I learned from training with Hawk that getting hit would break my Invisibility. While I never gave importance to it before, the Duel circle was approximately twenty-five meters in diameter. This previously unimportant detail came to me as Hawk explained the strategy. The base plan was to run around in Fade Walk until Razor ran out of Mana or deactivated Lightning Cloud.

As soon as the countdown ended, Razor and I immediately rushed at each other. Thanks to my higher speed, our swords clash at a location closer to his end of the Duel circle; however, he did not activate Lightning Cloud.

Hawk knew that Razor would likely not use Lightning Cloud. Instead, he would only use it if activated Fade Walk to deal extra damage. Due to our Abilities having the same cooldown, I there was no opening to found. With neither side knowing the exact Mana and Mana cost of the other, neither was willing to gamble on making the other run out of Mana first. In other words, neither of us would use skill until the final moments.

Pushing away each other’s blade, Razor attempted an overhead strike. I avoided by utilizing the momentum of the push to rotate my entire body and struck the right side of his torso. He promptly blocked, but I swept kicked him as soon as I felt contact. Razor hopped to avoid the kick and without delay struck down at the crouched me. I raised my sword to block but was greeted by a kick to the face for 4% of my Health. I backflipped to land better, and immediately transitioned to leap at him. Razor blocked my high attack, but I used his sword as a pivot to flip myself to his back. Instead of striking at his right flank, which was faster, I spun my body and struck him from the left. Razor attempted to guard his right and was directly hit by my attack for 18% of his Health.

If Hawk’s estimates were correct, I should take around the same damage from Razor’s blade since his higher Attack was offset by Icebrande. Factoring in Regen, it should take approximately 6 shots to beat him and 7 if the battle lasted longer.

Not startled in anyway, Razor resumed fighting me and struck four times, all of which I blocked or evaded. As our swords continued clash, Icebrande’s value dawned more and more to me. Without it, blocking Razor’s attacks and breaking his defenses would’ve been significantly more difficult. Due to our comparable power, my higher speed allowed me to squeak out a minimal advantage. After a minute of sword fight, I forced an opening which he could not dodge and broke his defense to land a second strike at him for 17%.

Razor retreated two meters away from the momentum of my strike, but I wasted no time in pursuing. Suddenly, a circle of lightning appeared around his body like a hula-hoop and expanded outwards at a meter a second. I reflexively guarded.

The force of the circle was more powerful than any of Razor’s attacks and pushed me back as I desperately tried to stop it with my sword. After six seconds, the circle retracted back, but I was greeted by a sword to the face by Razor, taking 19% of my Health.

The crowd cheered as Razor revealed a second Ability. Not hesitating, I immediately ran after Razor, who was six meters away. Razor ran away. After a few seconds, I caught up and resumed attacking. Razor fended off my strike. I circled around him and attacked again, but he rotated along with me and had no difficulty blocking. I attempted a lot more attacks but was blocked each time. Ever since using his second Ability, Razor played a lot more defensively. He no longer looked for openings. On the eleventh second after using his new Ability, he suddenly counterattacked. I reflexively blocked, but my choice was wrong. On the twelfth second, his Ability was used again, dealing 15% damage to my Health. I noticed in my peripheral vision that the circle passed through me and continued expanding. Razor and I clashed blades a few more times. Based on the relatively low damage, I would be hit again as the circle contracted, so I jumped upward backflipped to avoid the circle; however, the circle tilted at a speed faster than the eye can discern and hit me for another 15%, leaving me at half Health.

I leapt at Razor once again as the circle was still retracting. After striking twice, I swung at his legs forcing him to jump to avoid and allowing me to connect with another strike for 18%, leaving the both of us at half. I contemplated using Fade Walk for additional damage, but decided against it. Was it possible he was faking the cooldown of his circle? I doubted it. Abilities of Players held synergy. Assuming the activation of Lightning Cloud and this circle together immediately, the third lightning, which was on the twelfth second would strike at the same time as the second circle.

My running speed over Razor was around a meter every three seconds. To avoid his circle, I would have to be slightly less than four meters away from him during its activation. Razor likely computed this as well and won’t activate it at that distance.

We clashed swords a handful more times, but neither successfully connected. I began making a distance between us to create a three-meter gap to avoid his next circle. I kited around and entered in-and-out of the range of getting hit by the circle. He aggressively tried to corner me, but I continued maintaining a distance of three meters.

After a few seconds of weaving back and forth, I realized that he was not getting baited. My movement costed a lot more stamina than his, so I activated Fade Walk and waited for thirty seconds invisible. Our Health regenerated to around 60% during this time. The moment I attack him, he would activate both his Abilities. At best, I would take a physical attack and a bolt from his Cloud.

I attacked him and things went as expected. I struck him for 30%; he activated both his Abilities. I let his strike and the first bolt hit me in favor of blocking the circle. This took 43% of my Health, leaving me one hit from losing. His reaction was too fast for me to avoid the first bolt. The circle pushed me back, but I managed to avoid the second bolt. I activated Fade Walk.

As I was pushed back by the strike, I chose between two options. I could kite around while Invisible outside Cloud range, but he would deactivate it at the 30th second leading us back to the same scenario, but with more Health. My other option was too finish the Duel now with a Fade Walk attack. Of course, this meant entering cloud range.

I wasted no time and acted upon the second option. I immediately ran at him. Realizing this possibility, Razor ran away as well. Being six meters away and the dimension of the battlefield making you unable to run in a straight line forever, I, with improved speed due to Fade Walk, would reach him in around twelve seconds. Unfortunately, this was also the time he would have his circle off cooldown. I smirked to myself and went full dive mode on landing the strike before the bolt and the circle.

Victory!

Those words appeared before my eyes. Applause and cheers from the audience washed away my fatigue. Razor stood still for a few seconds, seemingly shocked at by his lightning. My hit landed 0.17 seconds before Razor’s cooldown ended.

After a few seconds, Razor smiled and said, “That was a great match. Good luck further.” Despite his smile, I could see the sadness in his eyes as he said those words.

“Thanks, it was a great experience for me as well… Oh!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. This reminds me, what was the name of your new Ability?”

“Lightning Ring.”

“Thanks!” I replied and ran back towards the Azure Rain Forces.

Kiwi POV

Dove delightedly ran back to us after her victory. Excitedly leaping up and high-fiving Hawk, Dove said, “I got it as well after the Duel.”

“Good job!” Hawk replied in a happy tone. With both Hawk and Dove in the top 4, we were already guaranteed to receive some price at the very least; however, I could see in Dove and Hawk’s eyes, they paid no heed to this as all but instead only aimed for the top.