Chapter 254 - Battle For Blood (I)

The arena is filled with people, players and NPCs alike, they are all here to witness the birth of the first annual competition that players are looking forward to. The Arena has never been this lively in this current timeline so the seats are all jam-packed with players and NPCs trying to get a seat. 

"Master, can I also compete here? I saw lots of strong people I wanted to clash swords with and I wanted to at least do something like this even once,"

"If only I can do that, I wouldn't be participating in this contest at all. They will easily find you as a summon or a follower. NPCs like you are not permitted to participate."

"Damn..."Atlas is disappointed.

Yeah its a pretty disappointing thing since you can't use them at all to fight in the arena due to their abilities and unlike players, they can be pretty broken which is why they are not allowed to fight in the arena replacing the players to fight as this will break the battle system.

As I was talking to my followers, the brackets on all the players are now decided and they are displayed for everyone to see. For the players, they are given their individual display via a pop-up, revealing where I am and who I will be competing against. Basically, this is just an elimination round on who will be able to continue until the quarter-finalists are decided.

The player I will be competing against is someone I don't know so this guy is probably a player who didn't get enough recognition for me to know much which is expected in elimination rounds.

...

...

Soon, the elimination rounds have begun. The enemy is a Ninja and although he uses the tactics pretty much like how a ninja would, it was a real bad day for him to face me who already knows how a ninja would act in a PVP and easily overpowered him before he can even land a single strike.

I managed to win the first round of the elimination much easier. After the first round, half of the participants dropped out after they lost, they can't hope to be able to move to the qualifiers after they lost.

Now, the remaining players will once again compete together and will have to fight against each other once more. Just like how it happened earlier, the battle was boring and short so my battle ended with my win.

After a few more battles, the Qualifier rounds finally rolled in. 24 players are now left and I am one of those players left. I also saw Kazuki and he seemed to notice me as well. Since I cleared the last dungeon he was targeting last time in Solo, he didn't forget me at all. He should be really pissed by that and knowing him, he doesn't forget grudges so I can tell he is also aiming to fight against me and he wanted to wipe the floor with my face.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! After a few bloody battles that happened the past few hours, we finally got our qualifiers that will be fighting against each other to see who will be able to grab the final laugh and stand on top of everyone, proving they are the strongest!"

The arena's screams reverberated the whole place. It could be said this is already a big scale that players would want to be one of the qualifiers so that they can at least imprint their names on the hall of players that will be recording all of the achievements a player has created in the arena and brag it to others who will admire what you have achieved. It will also set as a good way for other players to surpass your achievements and take over your spot. It's a very competitive thing.

After the MC explained the remaining rules, the lineup is once again announced. This time, I am up against someone I know in the past timeline and is one of the players who managed to clear a few dungeons and make a name for herself. She is Aquila, the Chronomancer.

Aquila is not that strong regarding her defensive capabilities since she just has the same defensive numbers as a normal Magician so she has a pretty much low defense value. However, she didn't need defense if she can easily defeat enemies in a few rounds.

Now I can finally go serious on this battle as I wouldn't even dare to lower my guard against her. She is a formidable opponent.

With the opponents decided, this time, they didn't create multiple stages for players to fight, the whole arena is now the battleground in the qualifiers. With this, the battle will be a huge spectacle since only two people will be wreaking havoc in the arena and they will be unleashing everything they can to defeat the enemy.

...

The first match is between Kazuki and someone I don't know.  It lasted for at least 10 minutes before Kazuki emerged victorious though it's not a one-sided match as Kazuki struggled a bit on pushing the other guy back as he is good at controlling the aggro on Kazuki and taunting him from time to time. Too bad, Kazuki is capable of bypassing that so when he did it, he failed on his tactic and he was defeated, resulting in Kazuki moving to the Quarter Finals which is expected.

The next one is between Andrea the Necromancer and Lilybeth, the Alchemist. It was an interesting fight since the audience didn't expect to see Lilybeth win. Andrea lost despite managing to summon some strong undead to help her in the fight. She was under a large amount of debuff that her undead summons didn't get to actually get good damage against Lilybeth and perished before she can even land a good hit.

Finally, my battle with Aquila is finally here and it's our turn to fight in the arena. Due to my reputation in the last battles in the arena especially during the registration where I overwhelmed Odaka, they are now expecting a  good match and are already betting on who will win. I can tell it is 50-50 bets since some of the audiences also saw Aquila's capabilities and they believe that Aquila also has a chance to best me on this battle.

"The next battle will be a blast! The red team is one of the uprisings and strong chronomancers that seems to control time to defeat her enemies with ease! With that said, let's welcome player Aquila!"

The audience began to shout and cheer on Aquila as she goes out from the opposite side of the arena with a composed look on her face without a sense of worry.

"If the other side is a big shot person, then this one is a famous guy who already has proven quite a good amount of what he can do. If anyone remembers the first Deathmatch that occurred here in the arena, then you probably know who he is! Of course, he is none other than the player who wears a Wolf Mask, Bladeheart!"

The gates on the other side of the arena opened and I also went out. The players who know me started cheering and of course, those who don't know me but have decided to bet on me started to cheer along with them.

"LET THE BATTLE BEGIN!"

Aquila didn't waste her time and started casting skills immediately to buff herself up. What I did first is to keep a bit of distance from her and pull out my weapon. I don't want to get attacked in a combo by her as the Chronomancer's [Slow Motion] skill is pretty much hard to retaliate with unless you are capable of fighting with surprise attacks and melee.

She quickly litters the surroundings with [Time Bomb] in which it will explode and render the enemy to be slowed down and their movements will be in slow motion too.

But I am not just going to let her do that and hit me with those nasty things.

BANG BANG BANG!

Quick and decisive shots from the pistol echoed around the place and the placed bombs exploded. The one that Aquila was just about to drop also exploded and her attack backfired to her.

The moment she got slowed, I dashed forward, changed the pistol form back to a sword form, and engaged her in a melee battle.

PENG!

She blocked the attack. I hit her again and it was blocked by her once more. Of course, some of my attacks were not blocked easily as she can't react as fast as she can do and only predicted some of my moves.

When the duration of the slow debuff came to an end, I immediately distanced myself from her before she release a debuff attack on me. I don't want to just get wrecked by that tactic. Seeing her first tactic that defeated most of her opponents failed, she decided to proceed to tactic number 2. 

She pulled out her weapon which is a pocket watch and created a mini domain. In this domain, her slow attacks will be amplified and in short time period during the duration of this skill, she will be able to cast skills without using Mana and experiencing cooldown on skills.

"[CLOCK WORK!]"