Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios#
The commentary from the two commentators appeared timely to introduce the battle.
“The two contestants in this match are Key of Solomon and Frenzied Sword. Demon Mage against Human Mechanical Pugilist. Key of Solomon’s ranking at the moment is seventh place, and Frenzied Sword is at eighteenth place. The win rate estimation is 57% to 43% in favor of Key of Solomon. From their performance in the previous matches, Key of Solomon is slightly advantageous.”
“As you might have noticed, the venue is Planet Aquamarine’s Black Phantom Sanctuary Three. The Chinese contestants come from Planet Aquamarine, so Frenzied Sword should have the advantage of knowing the terrain well. One thing that I would like to mention is that Black Phantom is Black Star, the first NPC to lead the Chinese contestants into space. Since the Chinese players are following Black Star, I have to say it’s quite fated.”
“They have started moving. Okay, let’s look forward to an exciting battle…”
As soon as the battle started, Frenzied Sword avoided fighting head-on. A steel cable shot out from his waist armor and hooked onto a house under the wall. With the sound of the steel cable retracting, he was pulled down and moved away from the wall. He took out a high caliber machine cannon and fired. A string of orange bullets flew toward Key of Solomon.
Hum!
Key of Solomon held a bone staff and activated the standby rune. A translucent blue and green magic sphere surrounded him and protected him; the bullets created a dense scattering of sparks on the shield. The audiences could see that Key of Solomon’s status bar had a shield durability bar, which was decreasing slowly.
At this time, Frenzied Sword had already disappeared between the houses. Bullets were fired at him from time to time, small grenades too, blasting clouds of black and thick smoke on the wall. Key of Solomon squinted and said, “Because of his familiarity with the terrain, he plans to first deal some damage to me through ranged attacks. Hmm…”
As he was speaking, jumped down from the wall as well. He took out a few magic scrolls and tore them. Various colors of magic light then appeared. Many buffs appeared instantly on his status bar.
“Tracking, Stealth, Misdirection, Shadow Demon Cloak, Fake Death…”
“Damn, that is so costly. Magic scrolls are very expensive.”
The Chinese spectators felt nervous for Frenzied Sword. Although they had not come into contact with magic much, they had learned about many magic effects through the forums.
The enemy’s location suddenly disappeared from the radar of Frenzied Sword’s armor. He frowned and thought, Magical stealth, a troublesome ability. I’m at a disadvantage in terms of detection, so I can’t kite him easily…
As he was thinking, he changed the detection method of the radar into detecting air movements in order to relocate the opponent’s location. The detection range was smaller than before.
The two of them moved stealthily and tracked each other, both attacking and receiving attacks. They were mainly testing each other, and as soon as they noticed the opponent’s weakness or mistake, they would immediately launch a thunderous strike on the opponent. The audience could not move their eyes away from the match, and the tension grew as the distance between them became shorter. They were both making micro-movements on each other.
“Huu, huu…”
The sound of breathing echoed in the armor helmet. Frenzied Sword hid behind a house and looked at the tactic screen. The trace of the air movement appeared in his vision, showing a blue snake-like line. The end of the line was the opponent’s position. Frenzied Sword was good at melee battles, but he decided to distance himself. This was because the information on Key of Solomon showed that he was not as paper-like as other Mages; many melee Pugilists had lost tragically because they got too close. Frenzied Sword’s plan was to find an opportunity to land a stealth attack followed by a combo, controlling the opponent and maximizing the damage output.
Although he had an invincible trump card, he was not going to use it easily. If he could win by himself, the Character Summon Card could be saved to use the next time that he faced a strong opponent.
There is a time limit to his magic shield, and it costs him mana. I have quite a lot of ammo left, so I should be able to deplete around twenty-eight percent of his mana and fifteen percent of his health…
As he was thinking, he fired at the enemy’s location, hitting on the magic shield. However, at this time, a new buff appeared on his status bar—[Marked].
Reverse Revenge Mark! Frenzied Sword knew that this was bad. This ability was very rare, and it was the first time that the opponent had used it. There was no information about it in the data that he had received. Its effect was very simple, locating and tracing the attacker if the user was attacked in a certain duration. This was a spell used to deal with stealth attacks.
The next moment, a blaze quickly approached.
Boom!
A Frostfire Ball blasted through the house that Frenzied Sword was hiding behind, turning the environment into a sea of blue flames. Key of Solomon slowly walked over from afar, his face expressionless. He was a Demon Mage trained in both ice and fire. He combined the two of them and formed the Frostfire style.
The spell combining function was similar to the blueprint invention function of the Mechanic class. The difference was that the chance of it succeeding was quite high, but at the same time, its experience cost was much higher as well. The combining method was to put two or more spells together and form a new effect. It also cost a certain material to do so. The Frostfire Ball spell, for example, required the spell [Frost] and [Huge Fireball] as well as the material [Fire Trapping Ice Crystal]. The spells used for the combination would be forgotten. There were two ways of relearning these forgotten spells—one was to separate the new spells that were formed through combining these spells, and the other was to learn it again by spending experience. It cost a lot of experience as well.
The specialty of Frostfire was the ability to quickly reduce the durability of metals, it was an extremely effective way of dealing with the Mechanic class.
At this time, a layer of magic light appeared on the surface of Frenzied Sword’s NCO Class armor. The Frostfire was repelled, and the speed of the armor’s durability reducing slowed down. The enchantment from the Volga brothers gave his armor a certain level of magic resistance.
Frenzied Sword’s armored legs stomped heavily on the ground, and blue fire shot out from the thrusting device on his back. He charged forward like a rhinoceros. A huge foldable alloy shield ejected from his left arm’s armor, big enough to block his entire body. His right hand pulled out a short metal rod from his waist. The metal rod automatically extended and turned into a long, thin gunlance spear.
He entered melee mode instantly!
The alloy shield smashed on the magic shield with a force so huge that it made Key of Solomon take two steps back. This time, Frenzied Sword saw an opening and jabbed with his spear, penetrating into the magic shield. A Concentrated Explosive Bullet slid into the chamber of the gunlance. The next instant, a violent explosion was released from the tip of the spear, exploding from within the magic shield!
Boom!
Black smoke spread out.
“A beautiful attack!” a commentator complimented. “Mechanical Pugilist’s tactics are very flexible; Frenzied Sword changed his weapons again. Speaking of which, he has yet to use the same weapon in all the matches of the Singles…”
“Wait, the health loss is very little. It did not seem to hit completely!”
In the black smoke, Key of Solomon had disappeared, replaced by a stone that had already turned into ashes, while he appeared more than fifteen meters behind Frenzied Sword, not taking much damage.
“He used the Object Swap Spell on himself in an emergency. The cooldown of this ability is very long, five minutes. Apparently, Key of Solomon is very cautious about keeping his health up. That’s right, after all, Frenzied Sword is wearing a mechanical suit, so his health is almost 1.7 times Key of Solomon’s.”
After the stealth phase of the match ended, the two of them entered a tug of war. Frenzied Sword continuously poked Key of Solomon in close range, and Key of Solomon cast Frostfire from far away. It was a back and forth and exciting battle. They looked to be on par, but the status bar showed that Frenzied Sword was at a disadvantage and was losing health faster than Key of Solomon. The battle between two pro players was definitely not just standing still and attacking each other; they were both using very delicate dodging abilities. Obviously, Key of Solomon’s skill was higher.
However, it looked like Frenzied Sword had the upper hand. With his armor, his health was way too high, and he would be able to win even by exchanging hits.
But the commentator was not optimistic.
“Frenzied Sword has eighty percent health and sixty-six percent armor durability left; Key of Solomon has seventy-three percent health, thirty-one percent magic shield, and sixty-eight percent mana left. The situation is actually very disadvantageous to Frenzied Sword. Although he has a lot of health, if the durability of his armor is depleted, he will lose at least half of his strength! He only has one set of armor, but the opponent can create a new magic shield as long as he has mana.”
Boom!
The Frostfire exploded, this time with a repelling effect. Frenzied Sword was forced to back off a few steps. Key of Solomon backed off as well, his eyes sparkling as he thought, Not a bad fight. I underestimated him a little, but that won’t affect the result.
Key of Solomon took the opportunity and started to murmur in the strange Demon language, like a deep whisper. His eyes started burning like flames, countless blue flames gushed out between his scales, and his body suddenly became taller and bigger. He turned into a demon covered in blue flames, and a new buff appeared on his status bar.
Demon Talent—True Name Release Basic Stage!
All attributes increased by thirteen percent! Ten-minute duration! Health and mana recovered by thirty percent! All buffs removed, including positive buffs!
He took a deep breath. The flames around him turned into a blazing current and were swallowed by him. He received an extra twenty percent health, and his health was now at one hundred and twenty percent. This was the [Flame Excitement].
“It appeared,” the commentator said with exhilaration, “Demon Race’s talent ability with a three-day cooldown! In all the regular races on the novice planets, the talent of the Demon Race is the most suitable for real battles. They are born with a self-enhancing ability that’s very powerful!”
Boom!
The situation turned one-sided instantly. Frostfire exploded violently, and Frenzied Sword was being overpowered by the storm of attacks. The power of the opponent’s spells was hugely enhanced, and his health recovered above the maximum, which meant that the health and durability that he lost went to waste. Key of Solomon continued his spell combo calmly, not giving any chances.
As he had predicted before the match, this was a match that had no threat; there was absolutely no need to use his trump card.
The Chinese spectators were shocked. They became upset as they saw how beaten Frenzied Sword was in the live feed.
“How is this even winnable!”
“That’s the end.”
“The Americans really got lucky. They chose Planet Winterfrost as their base. All of the Demon Race have this overpowered ability. They’re like bosses.”
The heat penetrated through the armor. Inside the helmet, a bitter expression appeared on Frenzied Sword’s face.
Damn it, I really can’t beat him. No wonder he’s the captain of such a big club…
With his own skill and combat power, the chance of him beating Key of Solomon was close to zero.
However… he was not alone.
I can’t beat you, but if we’re comparing whose more overpowered, who the hell are you?
Frenzied Sword clenched his teeth and used his trump card.
Character Summon Card — Black Star’s Advent!
Hum!
A four-meter high translucent hologram appeared behind Frenzied Sword wearing black clothes. His looks were very familiar to the audience; it was none other than Han Xiao.
“Isn’t that Black Phantom?” The audience was surprised.
The tall hologram slowly pressed his hand on Frenzied Sword’s head with an expressionless face.
Buzz!
A blinding electrical light suddenly appeared, and rampaging Mechanical Force flowed into Frenzied Sword’s body through the hand of the hologram. The next moment, Frenzied Sword was completely surrounded by violent bolts of lightning.
“What ability is th… What‽” Before the commentator could react, the next scene made his jaw drop.
Frenzied Sword lunged forward, and Key of Solomon’s new magic shield was broken in just one hit!
It was as weak as a bubble.
Then, Frenzied Sword closed the distance and smashed down his shield on Key of Solomon’s still confused face.
Bang!
The demon flew out spinning like a cannon, shattering a house. Key of Solomon’s health decreased by twenty-one percent instantly!
Just a shield slap took more than one-sixth of his health! The overwhelming enhancement dealt tremendous damage!
The tables turned in an instant!
The image quieted down, and only the sound of flames and electric currents could be heard.
The audiences hastily looked at the status bar and were dumbfounded.
_____________________
[Black Star’s Advent]: +247% Machinery Affinity
Duration: 3 mins
Source: Character Summon Card—Han Xiao
_____________________
“Th—This…”
The commentator opened his mouth but could not give a proper description of what had just happened. In the end, he could only say one word.
“Overpowered!”
What he had forgotten was that the compliment ‘overpowered’ had belonged to Key of Solomon not long ago.
