Chapter 260: Tournament (4) - Planning and their first match

"Alright, now you two are hopefully caught up," Elizabeth said, making sure to mention that this entire introduction was mostly meant for them. Though she had been surprised by Erik's response, and how he also seemed to be fully invested much like Eldrian. Hence it truly wasn't a waste of time.

"Next we should start discussing how we will be fighting, eight people is quite a lot. We can't just go in blind." Elizabeth continued, "I believe at the start we would need to get used to where we are, we have no information on what the arenas are nor what terrain they would be in.'

"Hence I feel the first thing we need to do is spread out to avoid crowd attacks, but not too far to not be able to help each other. Ilmadia what is the largest AOE spell you know?"

"That would be Kafsilos, it is basically a fire ring with around five meters of size at max," Ilmadia replied, wishing she could actually cast the spell to better let everyone understand. "It isn't all that strong, but it does set the ground ablaze even if there is nothing to burn. Hence it can be used to zone people, I assume that this is also one of the largest spells we can expect."

"That isn't bad," Therdul added, "If we move to keep a meter or two between each other then it should be fine." Ilmadia had never really used AOE spells as they required a great deal of coordination with there being no way of preventing friendly fire, other than not getting in the way.

"Right, now then how will we move. Generally, mages and healers should be in the middle or back of a formation, but that is to be expected..." Elizabeth continued, everyone voicing their opinions when they felt it was needed. Or if they simply wanted to talk a little as Elizabeth took complete control of the conversation.

"I think that's good enough," Judith said, having long since zoned out. She did not like tactics and strategy, even though she knew how useful they were. As such once she had said she will be in the vanguard she had started simply starting at the beauty Elizabeth had created.

"Ri-Right..." Elizabeth mumbled, having wondered when Judith would be unable to keep herself entertained while not leaving the conversation. In real life she was always full of energy, much like in the game. The thing was, she did not like talking about normal things, instead she simply loved gossip and sex talk.

"Well, we can't really plan more without knowing what is waiting," Nikki added to Judith's defense, the conversation having basically repeated itself for a minute now.

"Alright, then I'll see everyone tomorrow at ten," Elizabeth said with a sigh, hoping that they would do well. Them gaining number one would not just be nice for the rewards, but could also promote their guild. She had come to grow more and more distant from the true leaders of Flaming Heart.

Even with her and her team being one of the strongest, the leaders wanted to remain the main focus. They even indirectly tried to order her to surrender should they face each other in the matches. That had pissed her off quite a bit, but she had not confided with anyone as she didn't want the others to also start feeling alienated.

With that everyone left Elizabeth's virtual home, after adding Erik and Eldrian as friends. Taking off his headset Eldrian thought back to what they had decided on.

He had offered himself as one of the vanguards, along with Judith. Therdul and Nikki would be behind them and at the far back would be Zyviss. Elizabeth, Ilmadia, and Erik would stay in the middle, hopefully keeping them safe and enabled to help where needed.

I hope it goes well tomorrow. Eldrian thought as headed down for dinner.

...

The next day everyone met up at the agreed time. Elizabeth quickly recapping their plans and then everyone entering the match lobby. As they did they got a number which counted down every few seconds, and sometimes taking as long as a minute or two to move. Finally after ten minutes of waiting their perception darkened and then they found themselves in a grassland.

"This isn't what I was expecting," Therdul said as he started moving to not stay too grouped, though he stopped after a few steps. "Do we still follow the strategy, I mean we can see our opponents."

"No, stay together for now. Eldrian, Judith, you two go ahead a little, but not too far. Let's see what our opponents do." Elizabeth replied, Eldriana and Judith doing just that.

They were all being super wary, but their opponents had no such thoughts. After looking around and discovering the other group, they simply rushed forward.

"Seems like they are just charging, my type of people," Judith said, ignoring the plans and charging forward with little care.

Eldrian, shocked by her rashness, followed soon after. Finding that what he felt lacking in both reality and the virtual home was not there. Quickly he surpassed Judith as he got lost in the feeling he had unknowingly craved for the last few days that the game had been offline.

Their opponents were all human players in random types of plate armor. Three of them had shields with one-handed weapons in hand, while the rest all had two-handed weapons. Not knowing what to expect Eldrian wanted to use Observe, but he realized that he had somehow arrived just meters in front of the enemy.

At this time the leading figure of the enemies sped up, with his greatsword he opened with an overhead swing. The change in his speed slightly shocked Eldrian, but not much. He recalled that Judith had been capable of the same, and so was he now.

Jumping to the side he easily dodged the attack, though the others were quickly closing in. Without much thought, he used Frost Needle and sent it at the leader. This person seemingly thought Eldrian was done for, so he changed his target to Judith who was just a few meters away and now doing her own charge.

His spell landed in the uncovered back of the leader, killing him in one and shocking everyone. Eldrian did not even see the kill as he had only cast Frost Needle from instinct, what he was focused on was those in front of him. Two being within his spear's reach already.

Thrusting his spear out he aimed for the eye of a shield and ax user. The man dodged in haste and Eldrian's spear glanced against the helmet. Having expected the person to dodge, Eldrian moved into the area his shield covered. Making it nearly impossible for the guy to attack him with his ax.

In this movement, Eldrian brought the back of Aoidod and swept the man of his feet while also sticking at another with the front blade. His swift actions caused the others to falter, giving Judith the opportunity she had needed to charge into three of them. All their focus on Eldrian and his insane speed and technique.

Charging into them Judith's massive greatsword started glowing a dark red as she swung at one of the distracted shield users. This person managing to just barely bring his shield up to save his life, though both his shield and Judith's sword shattered upon the impact and he was sent flying.

Judith not bothered by her sword-shattering threw a punch at one of the other guys, while the one she had attacked with her sword was now coughing up blood.

Eldrian on the other hand had used Frost Needle to kill the guy who blocked the front blade of his spear, after which he thrust the back of his spear into the leg of the guy he had tripped. Turning around after confirming his second kill, he ended the third. At this time an arrow flew from behind them and stopped the guy Judith had punched from doing anything else.

From here it was just cleanup as the other four had lost all will to fight. One of them already half-dead in any case from Judiths attack.

"Well, that wasn't all that hard," Judith said as she picked up one of the guy's swords. "Oh seems like we get to loot them, that's awesome!"

Hearing this though the rest all reeled in shock, they had never thought that that would be a thing. It would mean that losing was not just a loss of points, but also a loss of a great deal of their strength.

"This certainly makes it much more cutthroat, most normal players will likely not continue if that is the case," Elizabeth said, though at this moment the sword in Judith's hand turned into particles.

[Congratiolations on your win. As this is the first day and the strength of parties has yet to be tested, the point reward will be determined by Tier difference. As such you gain 1 point.]

"Wait, what!? Just one point, what the hell?" Judith shouted, not at all bothered by the fact that she was back in her barbarian armor and covered in blood. Eldrian on the other hand had started cleaning himself with Nidia as soon as the fight ended.

He was simply glad that their enemies had not been strong, as he had lost himself for a moment when trying to catch up with Judith. He did not understand how, it was not something that normally happened to him. He always managed to keep at least somewhat of a cool head.

[As the winners you can choose to either leave right now, or spend 5 minutes getting used to this arena.]

"Naturally we are going to stay," Elizabeth said, quickly reminding everyone that this wasn't just a fun game of PvP, but a tournament. "Everyone try and figure out how large this arena is."