Chapter 589: Individual Tournament 15

Slim Fatty dug a groove in the stage as she flew back, her armor cracking slightly as she did. She grimaced heavily and spat out a wad of blood before pushing herself to her feet. 

Despite looking like she had taken a loss in that encounter, Slim Fatty was not bothered. She knew that every single action Silent Walker made cost him mana. He may have items that enhanced his mana capacity and regeneration, but Slim Fatty was burning next to no stamina in comparison to him. 

Silent Walker knew this too, which was why he had attempted to finish this fight as soon as possible, going for broke by summoning this large scythe. He jumped forward, rapidly heading towards Slim Fatty by controlling the shadows beneath his legs to drag him forward before lashing at her. 

Slim Fatty gritted her blood-soaked teeth and tried to parry with all her strength. Here, the weight of her sword didn't help her much as it was good for typical combat. 

Unfortunately, Silent Walker was using an elemental attack, so just having a heavy weapon would not negate its damage. It certainly negated the physical force, but a few shards of darkness separated from the blade of the scythe and pierced through her. 

Slim Fatty quickly retreated and glared at the solemn Silent Walker with seriousness. The Lord of Shadows went full ham, slicing and slashing at the Sword Maiden like she was the one who had slaughtered his village. 

(Author's Note: Quick tidbit. Slim Fatty has the same voice as Artoria/Saber from the Fate series in my head.) 

Slim Fatty grunted and tried to defend herself continuously, but was continually struck about brutally. The crowd had gone silent at this intense fight which was far more intense than those in the earlier rounds. 

The core members at the side too were watching with rapt attention. Both Slim Fatty and Silent Walker were seen as the two strongest core members in Umbra after the Five Generals, and their Universal Rankings showed it. 

Slim Fatty was 9th while Silent Walker was 11th, so this match was destined to be one that came down to the wire. Even though Silent Walker was suppressing her now, Slim Fatty only needed to create space and use another bunch of skills to reverse the situation. 

Clearly, she was choosing to play defensive like this in order to exhaust Silent Walker and secure a stable win. Her opponent was also aware of what she was doing, yet he had no other choice but to go along because he was truly the one with the shorter hand in this exchange. 

There was a reason why, even though the two were seen as strong, Slim Fatty ranked slightly higher. It was that advantage that was going to be her crux, but Silent Walker was not going to go down easily, aiming to break through before she could do him in. 

Even if he were to lose - and that was still up in the air at this moment - he would make sure to take a pound of flesh on his way out. Silent Walker called back his Shadowguards and had them flank Slim Fatty on all sides, trying to pin her down. 

However, this would turn out to be a terrible mistake, as the act of holding down her extra swords had been what had provided Silent Walker with a chance to even fight her at melee range. Allowing her to recover them to defend herself while being this close… 

Slim Fatty revealed a rare smile. "It's over, I win." 

Silent Walker furrowed his brows, understanding that things were critical, but he was not one to panic. Rather, he combined his three Shadowguards into one, greatly increasing their power to the max. 

He then had it take the fore against his fight with Slim Fatty while he attacked from the back. Slim Fatty showed marked ease defending herself as one of her three extra sword would step in and release a sword wave that would counter the attack from the core member. 

At times when one wasn't enough, a second would come in to help out. Meanwhile, Slim Fatty directly faced the sole Shadowguard and was causing damage to it using Swordblade. The summon was simply unable to deal with the force of that freight train of a sword being swung about. 

One also shouldn't forget that Slim Fatty had four swords in total. 

Swordblade; the offensive sword that weighed more than an entire ship full of tonnes of cargo. 

Seeker; the speedy sword that was light as a feather but faster than a bullet. 

Forte; the defensive sword that was slightly heavy, but mostly durable enough to tank hits. 

Wilde; the support sword that had all all-around design and featured enchantments that were extremely useful to Slim Fatty. 

She wielded Swordblade to fight while Forte and Wilde handled the defense against Silent Walker. In the meantime, Seeker was skittling through Silent Walker's attacks, trying to find an opening to tear into the fellow. 

The chance came when his Dark Barrier elapsed after 90 seconds, hitting the limit of its duration. Seeker, which had been biding its time, suddenly burst forth like a missile, aiming towards Silent Walker's throat. 

The caster had naturally been aware of his Barrier's timer and his subsequent opening, so he countered by forming a manual barrier made of Darkness Energy. However, this was not enough to stop Seeker which was a Legendary Sword and a creation of Draco, just like Forte and Wilde. 

It pierced through the defense, much to the shock of Silent Walker, and plunged itself into his chest, since the fellow concentrated a huge amount of Darkness Energy around his throat in that last second. 

However, his reaction speed was far slower than an autonomous sword created with swiftness in mind, so it was able to divert its path at the last second, and he was unable to respond to that in time. 

As such, Silent Walker was run through by the blade, creating a huge hole in his chest that one could look through. The fellow looked down and slowly began descending to the ground from his position in the air, while his Shadowguard wailed and dissipated. 

Slim Fatty maintained a defensive stance and didn't dare approach Silent Walker, not even to finish him off, because you could never underestimate an Umbra member's cruelty and wittiness. 

Silent Walker's Darkness Energy slowly disappeared as he looked up at Slim Fatty with a calm expression and sighed. He then fell to one knee, but did not collapse to the ground as he closed his eyes in death. 

Slim Fatty watched his body turn into pixels then sighed with relief, sheathing her swords. She then coughed out another wad of blood and climbed down the stage where her injuries were healed. 

The core members graciously welcomed both parties with respect. Apart from very few in the guild and in the world of Boundless, that was the peak of combat power among players. 

The two fighters shook hands and commented on each other's prowess while waiting calmly for the next match. 

Eighteenth match winner: Slim Fatty! 

19th Match: Dreary Traveler vs Alpha Male (Uno)! 

Dreary Traveler snickered as he climbed up the left side of the stage while Uno hefted his shield and bell hammer as he came up on the right. The two faced off silently as they waited for Amber to make the call for the match to begin, which came 5 seconds later. 

Immediately, Uno charged forward like a battering ram as he activated his Shield Charge skill which he had used against Hera. 

Dreary Traveler simply sneered and opened a portal to his Netherrealm, calling forth the entirety of his army in bulk, starting from the highest quality. He wanted to punish Uno for smashing his woman into meatpaste previously. 

Dread Knights, Wight Lords, Death Knights, Skeleton Kings, Lesser Liches, and more rushed out of the portal, all of them charging towards the oncoming Uno with eyes filled with hate and murder. 

Uno was not worried, as his skill granted knockback on any foe he collided with. This meant that unlike the idiot Kicked Bucket who got trapped by Boyd's skill, Uno would basically push anyway who came before him, allowing him to continue onward unimpeded. 

However, the important thing was that he was not invincible during this as the undead swarmed him from all sides, magic spells crashing into him from various sources that dealt almost shockingly negligible amounts of damage since Uno had an insane Endurance stat and his passives enhanced his survivability so much that only about 0.2% of any persons' full damage would actually make it onto his person. 

Couple that with almost 200,000 HP, and killing Uno was just a task that was beyond difficult unless you could either ignore his boons or deal enough damage that all manner of tricks became useless. 

Uno broke through as he reached the side of Dreary Traveler, raising his hammer to smash him down just as he had done to Hera. However, the Lich just tsked as he gazed at Uno with chagrin. 

Uno frowned at this but was rendered shocked when he found he could no longer move. He looked down and noticed that from his legs and still climbing upward was a thick film of ice. 

The ice originated from the feet of Dreary Traveler which had frozen the area in a 5-meter radius around them, and it had already reached his thighs. This also prevented Uno from swinging his hammer down as he needed to moved his legs to properly convert the momentum into force. 

Besides, it was pointless now as Dreary Traveler could easily dodge. Uno frowned and gazed at the fellow who was snickering opposite him and smirked. 

He then raised his shield before his body and banged it with a great amount of force. It created a shockwave so strong that it made the entire arena tremble. The ice that had been climbing Uno's body shattered into shards while Dreary Traveler and those near him were blown back by the force. 

Uno grinned further and threw his shield forward, using the active skill of the shield itself called Shield Toss. 

｢Active 1 – Shield Toss: Throw the item like a boomerang, dealing 200% blunt damage and stunning the target for 10 seconds. The Shield will return to the arm of the user. Cooldown: 4 minutes.｣ 

The shield struck Dreary Traveler who was far too close to avoid it. He sustained a low amount of damage thanks to his Undeath passive which also reduced incoming damage greatly like what Uno himself had. 

However, the stun was inescapable. Uno used this chance to rush forward to try and knock Dreary Traveler off the stage since killing him was impossible as Liches didn't die, just going into a sleep state for a while. 

However, although Dreary Traveler got stunned, his undead army did not. They quickly moved to defend their lord, preventing Uno from making his way through. Uno was madly confident in his defense to simply ignore their attacks and waded through the attacks to reach Dreary Traveler.

Swords, axes, and spells landed on him continuously. Even with his high defense that reduced damage to a mere fraction of its total, there were enough of them to make a difference. 

Uno's face changed when he noticed that his HP had hit 70% in just 7 seconds. Knowing that things had become critical, he took in a deep breath and decided to invest it fully into this match this time. 

He used his strongest defense skill so that he could get some breathing space. 

｢All-out Defense – Active skill 

Effect: Forgo all personal defense to create a huge barrier covering an area of 20 miles that protects all allies within. 

Note: Barrier has 70% damage reduction but no reflection. It also has a damage threshold of 12,000,000 at Rank 3. 

Duration: 3 hours. 

Cooldown: 20 hours.｣ 

With it, Uno reckoned he would be able to tank the attacks and reach Dreary Traveler in the remaining 3 seconds he had left. However, Uno - and the entire audience - were shocked to the core when they saw Dreary Traveler and his army pushed out of the stage the next moment. 

Soon, it dawned Uno, as if should have been obvious. The dome shield sprouted from his position and covered 20 miles, so it obviously could not let enemies within it, otherwise it would be pointless. 

So those who were within that range would be pushed backward until they were outside the range of the barrier. 

Of course, it made sense when you thought about normal battles, but this seemingly defensive skill turned into an ultimate one-hit kill when used in a setting like this due to a technicality. 

Dreary Traveler, who recovered from the stun, shook his head and gazed around with shock. When he remembered what happened, his lips twitched, but he sighed as he accepted his loss cleanly. 

Uno relaxed and canceled his skill as he went down to the side, still wearing an expression of pleasant surprise and contemplation. The other core members wore such expressions as they realized that their thinking had been limited. 

They cycled through their various abilities to see which ones had unique or special executions that could allow them to clinch a win similar to this. 

Nineteenth match winner: Alpha Male (Uno)! 

20th Match: Tunder Power vs Gentle Lamb (Kiran)! 

Tunder Power climbed onto the stage with a serious expression as Kiran came up opposite him. The Ranger knew that this match would be a tough one since he was facing 5th place on the Universal Rankings while he himself was at 18th place. 

When Amber called for the match to begin, Tunder Power immediately unveiled his main skill, Stampede! 

A herd of wild animals appeared on the stage and charged through the small arena, creating dust clouds and the sound of hooves crushing upon the earth. 

Kiran, who was on the other side, calmly released a deep breath as two forms of energies coated his form like an aura, greenish light from his Internal Force and brownish light from his Noble Energy. 

Knowing that his enemy was one with a Legendary Class like himself and even had Legendary Arrows in reserve just waiting for the right moment to be unleashed. Taking the spirit of the previous matches, Kiran decided to end it quickly. 

His body exploded with an inflamed aura as the entire arena shook. Tunder and co were shocked and had to plant themselves down in order not to be blown away. The stampeding animals were slowly pushed back until they couldn't even come near Kiran who was still radiating an intensity that created continuous sharp winds and shockwaves. 

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" Kiran roared intensely as he bent down slightly, his short blonde hair rising up and beginning to shift color to red as it went from calm to spiky; back and forth. 

Everyone watched in shock as the fellow slowly transformed, his two energies mixing together to form a reddish-gold aura that charged around him with spiky edges. 

Kiran himself rose up and opened his eyes. His blonde hair had turned scarlet and stood up on its ends, with his eyebrows turning red as well. His eyes color became a lovely shade of purple and his body produced a great amount of windy that made his robes flutter. 

｢Eight Inner Gates - Gate of Opening – Active skill 

Effect: Unlock the first Inner Gate. This increases Strength by 120% at the cost of 10% of your maximum HP. 

Duration: 2 hours 

Cooldown: 22 hours.｣ 

Kiran had lost 10% of his HP which was locked behind a patch of grey, indicating that it would be inaccessible while he remained in this form, but would be returned to him once he exited it. 

This was the risk that came with the Eight Inner Gates, and it was said that opening all 8 at once would lead to instant and irreversible death at the end of it. Looking at the power they gave but the price they took, this made sense. 

Tunder Power was shocked as he gazed at Kiran, because none of the core members had seen him change like this. When they fought against Draco back then, Kiran had opened both gates to fight Draco, but this had never occurred. 

Could it be a change that came with Rank 3? Or was it due to that mixture of strange energies he had? 

Whatever the case, Tunder Power sensed death and demise from the current Kiran in a way that made him serious. As such, he unhesitatingly unlocked his genes and transformed into a Wood Elf. 

His ears became longer and black markings crept across his handsome face. He became slightly shorter and his body became more muscular. Most importantly, his body radiated an aura of nature of perfection that made many non-Lineage and non-Supernatural members feel inferior. 

Kiran breathed out a mist of bloody red air that caused space itself to tremble, then stomped his foot on the stage and blasted forward like a bullet, leaving a red streak in the air. 

Tunder Power's eyes narrowed as the sense of death Kiran gave him had drastically reduced when he took his true form. Like this, his speed and dexterity were beyond anything any human could comprehend and Kiran moved at an average speed in Tunder Power's eyes. 

He simply used two of his skills in tandem, Lock-On and Snipe! 

Lock-On did as its name stated, allowing Tunder Power to place his sights on a target that would allow him to track them no matter where they went and would allow his shots to reach his target regardless of where they hid. This included Essence's personal void among others. 

As for Snipe, it was the natural follow-up to this skill. 

｢Snipe – Active skill 

Effect: Nock an arrow in your bow that contains all your focus and concentration. The arrow will become unavoidable, but the user will be unable to strike at the same target for 50 seconds. This deals 200% ranged damage. 

Cooldown: 25 minutes.｣ 

His arrow of choice was one of his five Legendaries, the Arrow of Destruction! 

That's right, this special arrow made by Draco possessed some of his Destruction Energy and Destruction-related abilities, which was Tunder Power's true trump card!