Chapter 288 - 288 Show No Mercy
"Their strategy is great. And they adapted it quickly to the arena layout. Those people are dangerous," Noah said out loud, making the blessed's attention shift from the scout to him, much to the scout's envy.
Noah's remark only served to tense up the entire group, which was not a bad thing, much to the contrary. They could be the ones going up next.
"Why are you so wary of them, Noah?" Michael also turned, paying attention to what Noah was saying, and making the rest of the blessed who were not paying that much attention stop what they were doing and turn around to face them.
"Their coordination is too good, much better than most groups before. They isolated the highest threat, concentrated all the enemy support fire onto a single target, making all other fights easier, and managed to engage in many small battles where they have the local advantage, even though the blessed on the other team are much more powerful as individuals. Whoever is behind their coordination is an amazing strategist," the bearded warrior nodded to Noah's explanation that left a lot of the blessed dumbfounded. Even though they had fought alongside him in the fortress earlier, Noah had only talked about strategy direcly to Michael for the most part, and they were just now seeing his analytical skills.
"Hey man, you stole my stage," the scout said with a large grin.
"There's no way I would've payed this much attention if you hadn't warned me about it as soon as it started, though," Noah returned his praise, on the same level. After all, it was him who told Noah this wouldn't be the average battle. But in the end, this only improved Noah's standing on the eyes all both the scout and the heads of this group. "I honeslty didn't realize a lot of it until just now."
"The fact that you did is already massive. Most of us didn't even consider it!" one of the mages spoke, making a lot of people voice their agreement.
"In the end, the result was decided before the fight even started," Michael wrapped the whole discussion, as he and a lot of people sideglanced at the screen and saw the battle snowball in the direction the the flying blessed's side. "And they'll put the defeat on the count of the other side having a flying blessed, even though that was not what made them lose."
"Time's gonna be up in a few minutes. This won't be a surrender, it seems," the bearded warrior said while turning around fully and analyzing the match. "We have some time to discuss."
"We are at the semifinals, which is a great achievement in on itself, but do you guys think we can win this?" the leader asked, mischievously, prompting a massive agreement. Noah refrained from joining in on the collective "Yes," though, as did the healer. It was just not their style. "So we gotta first discuss who we're gonna fight from now on." he paused for a second, letting the bearded warrior take the lead.
"We have the despicable Hyu, which we know well how they work, this group with the flying blessed, and those newcomers who are an ordinary fight." he cleared his throat. "Of we fight the newcomers, just do what we normally do, everything's gonna be fine, since Noah can deal with one or two of them to take the brunt of the pressure from straining our healer.'
Noah nodded to him, but not without making a comment. "This time, they've already seen my surprise attack from the first fight, so they'll be warry. I'll need our scout to act first and for the mages to cover him, drawing their attention so I can act." Noah did this with a clear objective in mind. This scout was better than the average blessed of this group. Gaining his trust and friendship would help him use the next fortresses more efficiently to improve the imps and Terrence.
The scout and the mages nodded at him, since some had been injured last fight. Nobody liked to feel pain, even if most of the injuries would be easily healed. "After you deal with them, we can keep pressure with the warriors and take them down one by one." the mage who was a kind of leader among them said. He was the one who took the brunt of the enemy's poke attacks on the first fight, being the most injured too.
"Once we get a footing and advantage, it's just smooth sailing. At least against those guys. But they might have a hidden blessing, so be careful," Michael warned them. "Though we too have our hidden powers. Right, Noah?" Noah merely nodded, since it was obvious he was hiding almost all of his power in the first match.
'',
"So, how far we can show in the next fight?" a female warrior asked, curious.
"Enough to win," Noah brushed her off, with a comment that while rispid also brought some sense into the discussion. "Against these guys, we don't need much. But if they get too important, I might have to bring the imps to the table already," Noah said, making Michael feel like finishing this meaningless battle's subject off.
"Next up would be if we fight these guys," He turned around, pointing to the screen. "In that case, Noah, we may need your flying," he said, with a troubled expression.
"If we can overwhelm her with long range attacks, we might not even need that. I can also try teleporting to her mid-air, but that would be kinda dangerous for me," he said, making the bearded warrior furrow his brows.
"So there are limits to your teleport?" he asked.
"Not limits per se. It's just that I keep my movement when going through, so if I do it while falling, if the attack fails, for example, I'll hit the ground pretty hard when coming out, and that wouldn't feel nice." Noah shrugged.
"I see. If we do that you have to teleport a little under so you can come back very fast... It's gonna take a lot of timing without using flight. But it's an option if you can make it happen," Michael intervened, trying to keep this kind of conversation short. "So, warriors go front, try to stay a bit apart not to become an easy target for their mages, but stay neaby each other to support if needed," he started giving out instructions for this fight. As he saw the time in the screen behind them near zero, he stood up with a very serious expression
While he stood up, Noah checked his status, bemoaning that when he burned that mage he didn't burn him enough to absorb any of the divine blessing.
[User: Noah Stern
Cash: ,196,460
Level: 05, 929/16,000 exp
HP: 18/18
Strength: 57.5
Agility: 54.7
Stamina: 26.1
Mana: 29.2
'Visit (No ve (l)B i n) to read, pls!',
Skills:
(Hell Flames Lv 04, 5.497/12,500 exp: A technique that consists in summoning the flames of hell itself. The flames of hell did not differ from normal flames, but after cleansing so many sins and so many sinners, they became the most powerful flame, having already burned the god of flames himself, making him beg Lucifer to put out those flames before he died.To increase the power of the flames of hell skill, the user must burn sins or sinners.
[Fireball] [Fire Dagger] [Fire Claws] [Ode to Joy] [Healing Flames])
(Hell Tunneling Lv 02, 1.254/1,500 exp: A technique that consists of opening a tunnel to hell and exiting somewhere else in a fraction of a second. The greater the distance, the more energy expended.
Pyakugan: After reaching Lv 02, the user learned to reduce the cost of each teleport, in addition to speed. As the user used the ability to move spatially so much, the user partially received a spatial perception even with eyes closed.)
(Hell's Contract Lv MAX: Only limited by the user's limitation, the skill can develop a contract that binds both parties to comply with everything required in the contract.
After absorbing the 'Blood Control' ability, it is now possible to force the target to accept contracts, as long as the user burns 100% of the target's blood.
For 30 minutes, the target will be required to follow all the commands defined in the contract. After 30 minutes, the target will die.]
(Hell's Summon Lv 02 1.476/1,200 exp: Skill used by great demons to summon armies of artificial inferior imps. Imps life is limited based on energy spent. The more energy, the longer the imp will last. Part of experience gained for killing monsters by imps, even without Lucifer's command, will go to Lucifer.
Lucifer once created an army of over 1,000,000 imps in the snap of his fingers because of the large amount of mana he possessed, in addition to the high skill level.
After ascending to level 02, the limit of imps the user can summon has doubled, although the strength of imps still remains the same.
Currently available imps: 8/30.)
(Devil Form Lv 01: 231/3,000 exp: Lucifer was born as an angel, but he needed to be the personification of evil to meet the requirements God had set for him to "Be the personification of evil." With the beautiful appearance that Lucifer had, no one would fear him, so thinking about it, Lucifer decided to create a form where he would be truly evil, a form that would not only invoke fear in people, but also increase Lucifer's strength greatly by consuming many flames of hell.
The user will transform into Lucifer's "Personification of Evil" image and stats will be increased by 20%.)]
Michael's next words however surprised him.
"However, if we fight those assholes of the Hyu family, I want every one of you to go all out. Work together, don't worry about injuring them too much. Fight as if we were inside a fortress. They don't deserve our kindness." As Michael said this, the expression in everyone's faces changed entirely, especially a few of the warriors. Noah had avoided unecessary lethal blows because he found no benefit in doing so for no reason. Especially since he still couldn't absorb anything good from people with no sins. Those Hyu people, however, looked to be perfect targets. He still wouldn't show all his power here, one because Lilith was home with the kids, and he didn't want to bother her and them. And two, because he probably wouldn't need all his power to deal with them anyways. Just the imps would do.
Either way, he really wondered what the power of that snobby swordsman and shield guy would do when absorbed.