In the subsequent matches, every player who was paired with Jack forfeited. Even The Man, when it was his turn to fight Jack, he said, “Although it would be great for me to experience fighting you, I will never be able to bring myself to raise my weapon against my boss, so I surrender.”
As a result, Jack mostly sat on the waiting bench through the selection tournament. He continued sitting even when it was time for everyone to step in front of the wall plates because his opponents would just forfeit again. Until one time, the staff called for him, “Storm Wind! If you don’t arrive in the next ten seconds, you will be considered forfeiting!”
“Eh? Someone is not forfeiting against me?” Jack uttered with surprise. He hurriedly went to the wall. As he approached, he understood why the person was not forfeiting.
“I forgot you are in the tournament as well,” Jack said to the person waiting in front of the wall.
“You forgot your own grandfather?” Domon said.
“Hehe,” Jack simply laughed.
The staff asked them to enter. The two did. They soon appeared inside the empty constructed space.
“Should we fight for real?” Jack asked, flexing his arms.
“Sure, we never do that, do we?” Domon said. “We don’t lose anything by dying here, right? So, this is a perfect chance for me to see how good you have become.”
“You sure I should go all out? I don’t want you to lose your dignity. People out there are watching, after all.”
“Hahaha! If you can beat me, I have nothing to complain about.”
“You are still underestimating this world’s game skills,” Jack said.
“And you are still underestimating our world’s martial arts,” Domon replied as he took a fighting pose. “Come at me with all you got! Let’s see if your game skills or my martial arts that is better.”
“Tell you what, I will use everything except my divine skill and summons,” Jack uttered. He then cast Magic Weapon, turning into a dual-swordsman. His swords swung, three green and sharp energies shot at Domon with incredible speed.
Domon jumped but his body was a little bit at an angle, he also spun a bit. Jack felt strange seeing that weird jump. He then saw his three Wind Slash’ energies fly beside Domon, missing the old man by a hair-breadth. One passed next to his head, cutting a little bit of his hair, one passed below his back that was on the air, the last one flew past in between his opened legs.
“F*ck! How did he dodge them with such accuracy?” Jack uttered with shock. Such an uncanny mana sense and body control.
While Jack was still shocked, Domon landed and immediately lunged forward. His glaive thrust out, leaving a trail of energy in a straight line.
“One Word Thrust!” Jack recognized the move that he had learned himself. His left magic sword immediately formed a Magic Shield. The thrust struck the Magic Shield and broke it to pieces, Jack reeled backward from the impact.
‘Such a powerful hit!’ Jack thought with alarm, and that was not even a game skill.
“He used mana manipulation with his attack!” Peniel informed. She was allowed inside this space. Unlike the space in League of Champions’ challenges, this space didn’t restrict Jack’s other classes.
“Exactly, now that my body is stronger. I can do it more frequently,” Domon said as he got into a low stance.
Jack felt dense mana accumulating on the blade of Domon’s glaive. This move his grandfather was about to unleash was not less dangerous than a high-leveled game skill. Jack used Flash Step to move back, but he still felt the danger, so he made his super-human jump when he sense Domon was about to strike.
“Heh, don’t think you can escape!” Domon uttered as he slashed vertically. A dense and straight energy line went up to Jack who was in the air. It was Domon’s One Word Slash, the last time he used it in a horizontal slash, this time he did it vertically adjusting to his opponent’s position.
Jack who still felt the danger had been casting a spell while he was in the air. A Magic Wall appeared in front of him. The one-line energy hit the magic wall, causing it to tremble for a sec before shattering.
‘Shit! Only one hit to destroy my magic wall? He is not kidding about the power of mana manipulation,’ Jack thought. But as the danger had passed, he was ready to take the offensive.
“Now is my move! Watch my swords!” Jack uttered as he fell back down towards Domon. His two swords blurred as forty-eight burst slashes targeting Domon’s whole body.
“You managed to reach phase two this fast, impressive!” Domon said.
Domon’s glaive whirled at high speed in front of him. Jack saw as if the air in front of Domon became compressed. All of the sword energies Jack sent get deflected to the side. None of Jack’s burst slashes touched Domon’s body. Jack recognized this martial art, it was the same one Jason was proficient with, Reversing Heaven and Earth.
Jack’s swords which got deflected give his body an opening. Domon’s palm came then. Jack saw in his vision as if Domon’s palms broke into eight palms, it was the Eight Gates Illusory Palms. Every palm hit Jack’s chest successively. Each palm made Jack feel as if a small detonation happened inside his chest. These palm hits also generated more than 300 damage each hit, resulting in almost 3000 total damage. Jack flew away from the hits.
Jack skidded to resist the force. For an attack that didn’t calculate the weapon’s stat, such damage was very high. Domon was not even a Battle Monk. Jack made the right choice by not relying on his defense to tank through Domon’s glaive attacks.
His lost HP slowly went up again due to his exceptional body recovery ability. Jack aimed his left magic sword at Domon. Mana Bullet and Energy Bolts shot out.
Domon easily swatted those magic attacks with his glaive, such basic spells were meaningless against him.
But those basic spells were only distractions, the ground underneath him started to glow. Domon quickly jumped to the side, he used his glaive to push him further, bringing him out of the danger zone as Arcane Turbulence took effect.
When he landed, the ground glowed again. This time, thirteen crimson chains came out.
Domon’s body turned into multiple images. It was as if the old man shook with high speed at the same spot. The chains came but all they hit was the afterimages. Several of the chains were smacked by Domon’s glaive. Domon’s shaking body moved slowly to the edge of the area as the chains failed repeatedly to grab Domon.
“Hey! Why are you gaping? It’s the perfect time to shoot,” Peniel said.
Jack was indeed planning to attack once Domon was incapacitated by his chains. But seeing how his grandfather constantly dodged his chains, he couldn’t help but be entranced.
Domon finally stepped out of the area where the chain could grab him.
“What was that just now?!” Jack asked.
“You don’t recognize it? It’s the Eight Diagram Illusory Steps. Didn’t I teach that to you as well?” Domon asked.
“The Eight Diagram Illusory steps?” Jack muttered. He thought he had become quite proficient with that movement art. But after seeing Domon’s display just now, Jack understood then that he had only touched the surface of that martial art.
*
Outside, everyone was transfixed by the scene showing Jack and Domon’s fight. Everyone had been expecting Jack to finish this round instantly at first. Domon had swept the other challengers as well, but they didn’t truly see anything special. Only after this fight did they see his real ability.
“Who is that person?” Yellow Death asked.
“My former master, Domon Fei,” Red Death answered. The two of them were coincidentally the fifteenth players who had no match at that moment.
“Oh, that is the other expert you said residing inside Everlasting Heavenly Legends?”
Red Death nodded.
“I felt like I have heard that name before,” Yellow Death said while pondering.
*
At selected venues, most of the top guilds’ high-ranking had paid to watch the competition. Everyone had wondered the same thing about Domon’s identity. Despite clashing two times with Everlasting Heavenly Legends, they didn’t clash much with Domon. The first time, Domon was absent until they used the disaster items. The second time, Domon mostly clashed with the mercenary players they hired.
In one of the VIP rooms inside Raven’s Den, General Manager Ironfist and Director Forcelabor were watching with the other Corporate United’s brass.
“That person…” Ironfist muttered.
“Do you know him?” Forcelabor asked.
Ironfist nodded. He said, “That is Domon Fei.”
“Domon Fei…? That Domon Fei…?!” Forcelabor uttered.
“Who is Domon Fei?” Steelhand who was also in the room asked.
“Your generation might not know him. But he was a legend during our time. I heard he retired and opened a martial art school somewhere obscure, but then any news about him disappeared completely some years ago. We thought he had gone to live as a recluse or even pass away… Never expect to see him here. How did that guild even recruit a legend like him?”
“Is he really that famous? I never heard of him in the gaming community,” Steelhand asked.
“He never plays a game. He also didn’t promote himself even in the martial art community. But even without promotion, no true martial artist of our generation not knows his name. He was recognized unanimously as the best martial artist of his generation. He held the world championship title ten years in a row, never suffer a defeat.”
“Send people to find out about him.. If there is any possibility. We must bring him to our side!”
