Sinking Clouds was able to cast all three magic missiles without any cast time as they whistled through the air towards Izroth.
Izroth reacted immediately and kicked off the heel of his foot, launching himself backward and out of the way of the magic missiles.
Woosh! Boom!
The magic missiles struck the ground where Izroth had stood just moments ago. However, Sinking Clouds attack did not stop there. He was charging the next part of his attack, a magic sphere of mana with sparks of energy flying around it.
But, before Sinking Clouds could even get the attack off successfully, he felt his entire body freeze in place. The second part of his skill that was in the middle of being cast was suddenly interrupted.
Although Sinking Clouds was unable to move, he was still able to adjust his eyesight to the location Azalea was standing, or at least the place she was supposed to be standing. When his sight fell upon that location, he saw that the masked girl was no longer there and had vanished.
A part of him panicked, however, he felt somewhat reassured since he took certain precautions and activated his Mana Barrier beforehand. He knew that something like this had a high chance of happening, however, he could not just sit by and watch his brother suffer any further humiliation!
"You would launch such a despicable surprise attack?" Azalea said with a darkened facial expression. While Azalea was not worried that Izroth would be unable to handle the attack, she felt as though she had let her guard down.
She was so absorbed in watching Izroth's movements closely and observing the way he fought, that she failed to realize what Sinking Clouds was up to until he had already shot off his first attack. How could she have allowed her attention to wander off like that?
Azalea glared at Sinking Clouds with a cold look in her eyes. She drew her arm back and slashed in one swift motion with her dagger, aiming it towards the nape of Sinking Clouds' neck.
Bang!
"Wait a sec, there's no need to continue fighting! Both of you, what's done is done!" Mirage said with quickened words as her fist had met with Azalea's dagger.
Azalea was inwardly shocked. How fast were her attacks? Even without the Dance of Phantoms activated, her speed was still incredibly frightening. Not to mention the fact that Mirage was standing close to Luna just as she was a moment ago. Whatever skill Mirage used to close the distance so fast was definitely at least a B-ranked skill! There was even the possibility of it being an A-ranked skill.
Azalea stared at Mirage and said in a cold tone of voice, "You're in the way, move."
"We can still talk about this!" Mirage said as she furrowed her brows. The last thing she wanted was for everyone to start killing each other. She could not help but blame herself for not being more assertive in her standing.
She should have never allowed Present Order to go through with the fight. Unfortunately, she could not simply abandon Present Order and Sinking Clouds even if they were in the wrong. She still believed that things could be settled in a more peaceful manner.
"Would you have interfered if the roles had been reversed? Hypocrite…!" Azalea said as she reached behind her back and three throwing stars appeared in between her fingers. She brought her arm around to her side and with a quick flick of her wrist, she threw the throwing stars at Mirage forcing her to retreat.
"Yes, I would have! I believe a person is only as good as their word. However, it still doesn't hurt to try and talk things out. Wu Zemin was wrong for his actions, I'll admit that but-" Mirage said as she adjusted her positioning and leaped back, but as she was in midair, Azalea appeared behind her with both daggers in hand.
"Enough words, if you want to interfere then you can die as well." Azalea said as she swept her daggers across Mirage's back, striking her twice in quick succession. Azalea was just about to follow up with a second wave of attacks until she saw small crackles of electricity forming around Mirage's body and right after that occurred, a bolt of lightning crashed into the area she was just in.
Mirage was becoming increasingly frustrated as she tried to reason with Azalea. Her words seemed to be going in one ear and out the other. But, a small part of her understood why Azalea would be furious and why she chose to call her a hypocrite.
It was difficult for two people who had just met to understand one another, therefore, Azalea would not believe a single word she said. At this point, Azalea would only respond to one thing, action!
After Mirage was struck by Azalea's daggers, a current of electricity flowed throughout her body. A few moments later, small sparks of electricity could be seen jumping around within her eyes. In the next instant, flashes of electricity continuously formed and jumped all around Mirage's figure. Her eyes had turned slightly golden in color and the strongest concentrate of electricity formed around her fists.
Her class was the same as Luna's friend Su Cui, an Elemental Fist. However, Su Cui's fire element was one of the four common elements available for that class. with the other three being water, wind, and earth. But, there were also hidden elements available that required a player to complete a set of unique tasks in order to acquire it. One of those hidden elements was lightning.
"Heh, nice assist Tian Suyinrong! I'll focus on helping-" Sinking Clouds was just about to thank Mirage, however, he was met with a death glare.
"You- If you cause any more trouble than you already have then I won't stop her a second time!" Mirage snapped back. With the lightning surrounding her body, Mirage looked like a thunder goddess ready to strike down harsh judgment amongst her foes.
Sinking Clouds was confused by Mirage's words. She had just helped him fend off an attack and now she was saying that she would let him be attacked? Wasn't she on the same side as him and his brother?
Not long after she spoke, Mirage and Azalea became locked in an intense battle. To those observing, it was clear that Azalea had the upper hand and she was still overwhelming Mirage despite the activation of that lightning-based skill.
However, even though Azalea held the advantage, Mirage was still able to stand her ground against assault much better than most others Azalea had faced before, excluding Izroth of course.
Even with Mirage's warning, Sinking Clouds was still not going to just sit back and watch. He started to cast yet another spell, however, before he could finish casting the spell he felt a strong force slam into him.
"Halt." Luna's voice echoed across the battlefield and her voice magic not only effected Sinking Clouds, but it also prevented Azalea and Mirage from taking any further actions. With one simple word, Luna had pacified the entire situation at hand!
Azalea, who came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the fight, was caught off guard by Luna taking action. In all honesty, she did not see Luna as anything but a normal healer. She secretly wondered why someone with Izroth's level of skill and ability would hang around a simple healer.
Even if Luna did have a unique race, she did not show any promising abilities. However, it would appear that Azalea had made one of the biggest mistakes a player like her could make, and that was underestimating someone. Besides, how could someone she called her teacher keep mediocre company in the first place?
Azalea was not the only one who was shocked. Mirage and Sinking Clouds were similarly baffled. How was it that a healer was able to use an AOE crowd control ability? Luna was the last person they expected to stop the fight between them. But, there was nothing any of them could do for the time being since Luna she did plan on attacking and releasing them from their current state.
"You can all stay still for a little while." Luna said as she then turned her attention back towards Izroth and Present Order.
"I lost…?" Present Order muttered to himself. He was still in a state of disbelief and did not even pay attention to any of the chaos that was going on around him a few moments ago. How could he lose to someone with the combat master class? Moreover, he had been completely toyed with and humiliated in front of the last person he wanted to witnessed such a pathetic display.
As for Izroth, after he evaded the three magic missiles from Sinking Clouds, he arrived away three meters away from Present Order. Until just recently, he was simply standing still and observing the fight between Azalea and Mirage.
'Oh? It looks like her voice magic is even stronger than the time she used it back in the Chaotic Dogma Realm.'
As for as he was concerned, Sinking Clouds posed no threat to him with his chaotic spellcasting skills. He was far off from someone like Valentine who practiced near perfect execution of his spells and their correct timing and combinations.
'It's a shame. I would have liked to see a little more of her fighting style.'
Izroth was unsure if Mirage had been purposely hiding her true skill level, however, he could tell that she was quite the skilled player. Of course, she was no match for someone of Azalea's level, but she could definitely hold her own against the likes of someone like Guan Yu in a direct battle from the looks of it.
As Izroth was pondering a few things here and there, Present Order lifted his head up from staring at the ground and saw that Izroth had his back turned to him.
At that moment, it was like something snapped in Present Order's mind. How dare he turn his back on me?! Does this piece of trash know who I am? Does he know who my father is?! I am Fu Chun, how dare he become so arrogant! Those were the type of thoughts that flooded and rushed through Present Order's mind as he gripped the greatsword still within his hands.
Even though he had lost his entire set of equipment, he still kept his greatsword since it was not a part of the set. He took this opportunity with Izroth's back turned to him to launch one final assault! He was determined to kill Izroth where he stood!
"Die!" Present Order yelled as his greatsword descended towards Izroth.
"Fool." Izroth said as he easily sidestepped Present Order's greatsword. Not only was Present Order not discreet, he even had the nerve to yell out as he launched a surprise attack. If he was not a fool, then what was he?
Izroth's hand sped towards Present Order, however, his hand was not shaped into a pam nor a fist. Instead, Izroth rested his middle finger onto his thumb and flicked Present Order directly on the forehead.
Bang!
Izroth's attack was infused with 10% of his Essence. That simple flick that looked as if it would be unable to harm even a fly, tapped against Present Order's forehead and caused his entire head to violently jerk backward.
Since the duel itself had already ended and Present Order was on 1 HP, there was no chance of him surviving the attack. His body started to dissipate into countless particles as he stared at Izroth with a death glare.
"This isn't over! Don't think just because you've managed to beat me within RML, that you'll ever have peace! I'll find you, even if I have to haunt you all the way to reality and when I do, I'll destroy you! You low class piece of trash!" Present Order said just as he finished dissipating.
Clank!
The greatsword that Present Order was using dropped to the ground following his death. Just when his fortunate looked as if it could not get any worse, it did!
'Looks like I've been gifted a small bonus.'
Izroth picked up Present Order's greatsword and tossed it into his inventory. As for Present Order's threats, he was not worried in the slightest. If he really did try anything, there would not be a day that goes by when he did not regret his decision. Besides, he would not allow his status in the real world to stay at its current level forever.
'Now, what should I do about this little mess?'
Now that he had finished dealing with Present Order, Izroth turned his attention towards Azalea, Mirage, and Sinking Clouds who were all still frozen in place by Luna's voice magic.
