"Mages normally need more time to prepare than warriors, especially against assassin’s known for their speed. That distance of a 100 metres was given in consideration for the mage, but if he doesn't take advantage of the distance he will be in for a nasty surprise." said a sombre Melissa.

Assassin type classes were known for their agility and speed, while mage type classes were mostly long range fighters. A good example of this was Merlin. She was a long distance fire and light mage, hence a distance at the beginning of the battle allowed her to chant and properly make her calculations for her spells.

Michael and the others could not help but agree internally with Melissa's words. But one of them said something that caught the others off guard.

Hope's demure voice said, "What if the distance is to help the assassin?"

Sonny wanted to scoff at that outrageous statement. But a voice cut him off."

"Begin!"

Without hesitating, the assassin sped forward, dagger in hand to finish the fight. He had no intention to speak. Everyone in this competition would eventually be teammates, so it wasn't really advised to kill, as you would be weakening the members of the party you will explore with, but humans had their own agendas most of the time. Even if they inflicted a lot of damage to themselves.

'I won't kill him, but I need to make this quick to conserve energy. The pills only help the vessels. They don't actually give you world energy to use. They can't dispel curses, cure life threatening wounds or remove abnormal statuses.'

Will responded by creating two balls of water in each hand. He quickly cast them at Death Calling, who dodged easily.

'That was weaker than I thought.'

But before the young assassin could react, he was assailed by a shock-wave of air from behind. This scared him and caused him to jump into the air with a backflip.

'The water balls exploded into a mist?'

While floating downwards, Death Calling could see that a large cloud of mist had covered the arena, reducing visibility by at least half.

'Those water balls could create so much mist?' mused the dark warrior as he deftly landed in a clear space far away from Will.

The arena was incredibly large. With the grounds the duo fought on being a kilometre in diameter.

'Well then, two can play at that game.'

The assassin gathered a ball of black flames into his palms and slammed the eerie flame into the ground.

"Eternal Night!"

With his chant, a strange darkness spread all over the arena engulfing the entire floor. For those above, it was like a blanket of black had covered anything and everything below.

But to the spectators this only lasted a moment. Thanks to the visual effects abilities of the system, visibility was returned to everyone watching from outside. A mortal's skill, no matter how good, good not outdo the system in a system arena.

The audience could now see Will and the assassin, as the latter slowly crept up to the former. For assassins, the rule is to escape once discovered. They were meant to deliver a quick killing blow that could instantly incapacitate an enemy then run. That is what this skill was made for. To artificially induce a scenario for the killing blow by blinding those within the zone.

Eternal Night was the main Area of Effect skill of the Eternal Night Code. It created an area of darkness that only the caster could navigate. Of course those with affinity to the darkness attribute or those with unique senses and skills would not be affected much. It also did not do much to hamper the visual prowess of an opponent with a much greater cultivation.

Unfortunately for the assassin, he wasn't the only one who used an Area of Effect skill. Water Sense could be categorised as a sensory Area of Effect skill and perfectly countered Eternal Night. Will could see through the mask, but he wasn't primarily relying on his eyes at the moment. He wanted to see just how far he could go by utilizing all of the different ways he could perceive the world around him.

When the assassin was about to lunge at Will, the latter jumped backwards and launched a water blade at the enemy. Except this was not one he created through swordsmanship but one he had cast with magic.

It was sharp and swift, and quickly made it to its target.

Slash!

The assassin activated a skill that covered his dagger in black flames and sliced through the water blade. He had no intention of losing his momentum due to a weak skill. He laughed as he ran. He was quite surprised by the movements of Will, because he did not seem to have been blinded at all, but it did not matter at all. Because Eternal Night had another function. One that only came into play with Night Reinforcement.

Now that he was surrounded by darkness, his physical traits skyrocketed as he picked up speed. Will was already landing when the assassin was a few steps away and ready to stab his enemy.

But the assassin felt a chill down his spine before he attacked Will. He had enough experience to know that in such situations he should stop what he was doing and dodge. Hence instead of heading straight for Will he sidestepped. As he sidestepped, a needle made out of ice cut the edge of his lower face mask.

His face mask was made from a tough material and it was enchanted, so it would not be cut easily. But it could not nullify the kinetic energy of the pencil sized ice needle.

To counter the kinetic energy, the assassin rotated as he dodged and decided to use the centrifugal force to build momentum and counter, but when he was facing Will again, the latter had moved behind the assassin, placed some distance between them and was already launching water balls and water blades.

'How is he so fast?'

Due to being in the process of rotating, the assassin had been unable to see how Will had moved, but others had.

…