From the feet of Silent Walker, a pervasive darkness spread over the entirety of the stage. It stretched itself out to around 3 meters around him, in which some forms clambered out like undead coming from the earth.
The difference was that these forms were completely made out of Darkness Energy that was refined, allowing them to have semi-corporeal features. Three of them came out in a triangle formation around Silent Walker, and the crowd was able to see their stats.
｢Name: Shadowguard (Silent Walker) – Major Rank monster
Level: 101
HP: 3,455,000/3,455,000｣
Many gasped with surprise, but those in the know remained unfazed. After all, the rankings worked differently for summons, and Silent Walker had many buffs that enhanced his darkness attributes.
Not to mention, his skill worked better the fewer he summoned. Three was just enough to simultaneously defend, attack, and support, which was the perfect ratio.
Immediately, five water dragons rushed towards Silent Walker – two of them tack on by Cold Summer who was uncertain – in which his three Shadowguards defended against one each, striking them with weapons made of Darkness Energy.
This clash destroyed the water dragons, but two were left to hurtle towards Silent Walker. The man himself swiped a hand, releasing a huge scythe of Darkness Energy that cut both water dragons in half.
The remaining halves crashed onto his Dark Barrier, dissipating without being able to do anything.
The crowd was frenzied by this amazing battle, cheering loudly. The previous fights had been far too straightforward, with a clearly stronger party and an obvious weaker party. Here though, although both parties were not equal per se, their control was very refined.
Cold Summer's face beneath his mask was solemn. He knew very well that Silent Walker was not going all out, giving him the chance to display his skills so that his countrymen would not be able to point fingers at him if he lost.
Grateful to the Englishman for the consideration, Cold Summer did not hold back. He had already consumed about 1/5th of his mana with those previous maneuvers in controlling water, so it was time to do something big.
Since the flood's duration was not up and the huge water body was still present, Cold Summer tapped into the full remainder of his mana reserves. The entire body of water that had been crashing against the barrier formed from dark tendrils rose up into the air slowly, as if being lifted by superman.
Cold Summer rose up along with is as he stepped on the back of a water dragon, both of his arms outstretched and moving like a pianist working on a resounding melody. When he reached a height that was above the stands, he paused.
Then the huge body of water under his control immediately split up into portions, like a lake being divided into water droplets. However, the issue here was that instead of droplets, what was formed were lances made of pressurized water.
Hundreds of thousands of such lances were formed and floating in the sky, spinning on themselves due to the pressure. Struggling to hold onto them due to his depleted mana, Cold Summer simply swung his hands downward, unleashing the torrent upon the arena which was far too small to bear all this.
Silent Walker saw this and smiled slightly. Since the other fellow was going all out, he too would oblige. It was only fair to do so.
As such, he activated two of his passives that he had disabled from the beginning to make this fight more even.
｢Noctis – Passive skill
Effect: The night is no longer something you have to wait for, for you are the night. Wherever you tread, shall be treated as a night/darkness zone no matter the time of day and weather, increasing darkness related skills by 50%.｣
｢Nightwalker – Passive skill
Effect: The User is completely intangible during the night, possessing 150% damage immunity. They are immune to all darkness damage.
Note: Damage Immunity is turned into Damage Susceptibility in the case of light or fire-based skills or spells.｣
Since his current foe was a water user, he did not have to worry about his damage immunity being turned on its head. Also, Silent Walker knew that while these two passives synergized with each other, it didn't make him invincible.
Damage Immunity in the context of this passive meant that he would suffer the damage of an attack as the equation of 1n x (m/10), where n was the total damage value and m was the percentage of damage immunity.
Basically, 1% damage immunity = 0.1% damage resistance. Apart from being fully immune to Darkness Energy, other elements would hurt him just fine, just a lot less. When paired with his Noctis passive that boosted all darkness-related skills by 50%, this further increased the 150% value by 75%.
However, it did not end there. Silent Walker went all out and used one of his special active skills he rarely touched due to how precious and powerful it was.
Endless Night!
｢Endless Night – Active skill
Effect: Cover an Area Zone in a veil of darkness, buffing all darkness skills and techniques by 400%.
Duration: 15 minutes
Cooldown: 16 hours.｣
The sky darkened immediately, almost all light being cut off. It looked like a thunderstorm was about to fall, but rather it was just a mass of swirling black clouds. Many looked up in shock, not understanding what was going on, but the core members of Umbra became grim.
It seemed the fellow was really going all out! Very well, let us see what you've got then!
Silent Walker's Shadow Tendrils that were thrashing about grew almost five times their current size, becoming more powerful and vibrant thanks to the boosts. His Shadowguards also became far stronger, unable to go past his level or rank, but their HP and stats grew exponentially.
The tendrils reacted and began thwacking many of the water lances away, though some ripped through them before being stopped by other tendrils. The fight was brutal, with both sides losing out in this regard.
The water lances were just too numerous, like droplets of rain in a storm. Soon, the Shadow Tendrils were piercing into nothing even after being buffed, and only 40% of the attack had elapsed.
At this time, the Shadowguards rushed into the air, swinging their weapons as they deflected and destroyed many of the attacks. One might think their actions were futile, but interestingly, the entire arena apart from a small area where Silent Walker stood was razed into dust by the high-pressure lances.
The HP of the Shadowguards kept dropping as they fought back against this onslaught crazily, forsaking their own defense to make sure Silent Walker remained unharmed. By the time all three of them were destroyed, only 10% of the rain of lances was left.
However, this amount was enough to turn Silent Walker into mincemeat with ease. The fellow though, simply smiled and raised a hand. A huge amount of energy gathered at the center of his palm which he stretched out, facing Cold Summer in the air.
Silent Walker channeled the entirety of his mana into his hand, which turned out to be almost twice that of Cold Summer. It couldn't be helped, this was the disparity between a Legendary Class and an Epic Class, not to mention as a core member Silent Walker was also decked in items that were of a higher quality than what Cold Summer got for himself.
When the entirety of his mana was invested in his next attack, Silent Walker spoke softly towards Cold Summer.
"You fought well."
Unfortunately, the crowd did not get to enjoy his amazing manly voice for much longer as their minds were blown by what occurred next. From Silent Walker's palm, a huge ray of dark light was blasted out.
It was so huge and pervasive that it felt as if they had watched an orbital cannon fire from close range. The size of that ray was enough to cover a whole small village, so one could just imagine its scale when viewed from a close angle like this.
Cold Summer, his water dragon, and his remaining water lances were all consumed by the darkness, assimilated into it, and destroyed by it. There was simply nothing left.
Fourth match winner: Silent Walker!
Cold Summer respawned to the side with the other core members and remained silent. His body language showed that he was calm as always, and his mind was currently focused on comprehending his flaws in battle so he could improve.
The English cheered on Silent Walker for his win, Lucia in the crowd blushing heavily as she swooned at the charming nature of her man. She was practically bursting at the seams with pride, wishing she had a microphone to declare to the world that Christian was hers!
Canada also clapped encouragingly for Cold Summer, who had fought valiantly. His final attack was especially burned into their minds, though the counterattack was obviously burned in everyone's souls.
Then, Amber called for the next match to begin.
5th Match: Warm Spring vs Dreary Traveler!
On the left side of the stage, the cute and lovable Warm Spring climbed onto the stage solemnly, her face locked in a serious grimace. On the other side, the creepy Dreary Traveler climbed up with a slight smirk on his lips, chuckling menacingly.
"Kekeke, little thing, you actually dared to come onstage against me? Your bravery is truly commendable!" Dreary Traveler stated with a smile.
Warm Spring harrumphed and folded her arms. "Why wouldn't I come? I'm not scared of you!"
Dreary Traveler nodded in agreement, his smile fading away. "With good reason. Beating you will be tough, but I will give it a try."
Warm Spring also got serious and placed her hands together. "I will defeat you and prove myself to Big Sis!"
Immediately, Warm Spring used her only offensive ability.
Mercy!
｢Mercy – Active skill
Effect: Cleanse an enemy of their evil, edifying their soul and turning them into a devout follower. Each follower increases all stats by 0.1%.
Note 1: Can only be used on sentient beings.
Note 2: Can only be used on NPCs.
Note 3: Only a maximum of 90 followers at Rank 3.
Cooldown: none.｣
Immediately, 90 men and women of various colorations and backgrounds appeared in the arena. Each of them wore a white robe that was kept firm by a single belt at the waist. Each of them had devout looks in their eyes as they gazed at Warm Spring, and they radiated a good amount of power.
These were NPCs of Rank 2 to 4, various criminals and ne'er do wells that Warm Spring had purified during quests, exploration, and from Vita City State. They formed her offensive powers since her class was not allowed to attack directly so each and everyone had been carefully chosen and they were all special due to their skills, power, and abilities.
Without them, fighting in this tournament would be pointless, and she would likely have to forfeit if she came on stage, as she would be wasting everyone's time in that case.
The reason why she could not learn any offensive skill was due to one of her Legendary Class passives.
｢Damage Immunity – Passive skill
Effect: The User is immune to all forms of damage beneath the Divine Rank.｣
There was no confusion here, the words literally meant what they did. Unless your attacks contained either Divine Energy, the one attacking possessed a Divine Source Origin, or you had a Divine Combat Rank, it would deal 0 damage to Warm Spring in all cases.
Interestingly, Dreary Traveler was cleverly picked as someone to face her off, for he was in a similar situation. While he could still be damaged through various means, he could not be killed and sent to respawn due to his own passive.
｢Undeath – Passive skill
Effect: The User is resistant to all forms of damage by 90%, except for light or fire-based skills or spells which deal 170% damage. The User is also unable to be sent to respawn, and will only be put into a short period of recuperation upon defeat.｣
Putting aside his crazy damage resistance that made it hard to shave away his HP, this passive made it so that he could never lose a level when dying nor drop his equipment, only enter a sealed hibernation for a while.
Interestingly, this created a sort of bizarre situation between the two. It was clear that neither could really attack or kill the other, so the winner would be decided solely through their minions' fight.
It was unknown whether their match-up had been entirely the result of RNG or whether the AI might have had any influence in that. However, most agreed that this was going to be a very interesting match-up, although it would surely last the entire three-minute duration.
Dreary Traveler licked his lips and used his Netherealm skill.
｢Netherealm – Active skill
Effect: Permanently create a special sub-space full of Death Energy to store owned undead when not in combat. Armies can be deposited in and withdrawn at will.
Note: only up to 150,000 undead can be held within at Rank 3.
Cooldown: none.｣
A large black portal formed before Dreary Traveler, showing a desolate world with blighted land. From the horizon of this portal, one could see hundreds of silhouettes rushing over, the sound of the approach almost deafening the arena.
Warm Spring's expression became solemn as she flapped her angelic wings and took to the sky, leaving her followers down below. For that matter, they only displayed scorn on their faces towards the oncoming undead, then began using their own powers to strike preemptively.
Huge fireballs, sword waves, wind blades, lightning strikes, and searing light beams were fired into the portals, all but rendering the first row of undead into ash. This made Warm Spring smile, while Dreary Traveler frowned.
He realized that majority of her followers used elements that were super effective against his undead like Light, Fire, and Lightning. He doubted that the lass could predict that they would face off against each other in such a manner, as he knew she had chosen her followers for general purposes.
Alas, Dreary Traveler could only click his tongue at his bad luck. It seemed he could only win this battle by swarming his foe with overwhelming numbers. After all, he had dutifully raised and collected of 150k undead, of which 100k were fodder undead, 30k were normal undead, 19k being semi-sentient undead and the remaining 1k being elite undead.
Against her mere 90 followers, the number disparity was enough to make more than a difference. Dreary Traveler licked his lips while laughing eerily, excited to win such an easy match.
He didn't have to worry about any dead killed, as they would be revived by the AI after the battle. The Lich would never dare to sacrifice his painstakingly collected army so easily otherwise.
Warm Spring seemed to have realized this as her complexion became pale, but her followers were unrelenting in their attack, they burned all their stamina and mana beating back these foes, which heartened Warm Spring.
She then used her passive skill Recovery Aura to boost her followers!
｢Recovery Aura – Passive skill
Effect: The User emits an aura of wellness and convalesce, giving all allies within the range of 10 kilometers +5% HP, Mana, Stamina, Focus, and Concentration recovery while unlocking their ability to regenerate HP during battle.｣
With their ability to regen HP during battle unlocked, the 90 became fearless as they traded blows with the fodder undead. Most undead of this category were so weak that they dealt little damage, only that their numbers were so numerous that had the space of the stage not been limited, it would be impossible to fight back easily.
Warm Spring also used some skills that replenished the mana and stamina of her allies directly, recovering them over time. Without this, her followers would easily run out of fumes since potions were not allowed in the competition.
Seeing the turnabout by Warm Spring's followers, Dreary Traveler was slightly irked. With her numerous healing and recovery spells, it would be exceedingly hard to kill any of those 90 the easy way.
Well then, it's time to show one of my hands, kekeke.
With that evil thought, Dreary Traveler also activated one of his passives that was an aura boost.
｢Lich's Aura – Passive skill
Effect: The User gains the ability to fortify and empower undead minions. All minions within the range of the Lich will benefit from a 70% increase to their HP, Stamina, and Mana, as well as a 150% increase in Damage, Defense, and Resistances. However, they now take three times damage from fire, light, or lightning-based attacks.｣
He had hesitated to use this earlier because of the countering nature of Warm Spring's minions, but as long as they could take down any one of them, it would be enough. After all, they were already one-shotting the cannon fodder undead. To have that damage increased to x3 on them made no difference.
Rather, giving them better stats and higher damage meant that their previously weak strikes were not able to tear off chunks of flesh slowly but surely. Even though Warm Spring was continually using small-scale and simple healing spells to recover them, these were NPCs, not players.
It would eventually take a toll on them to fight so many foes at once. However, an undead army suffered no such weakness due to psychological issues. They were indefatigable and tireless, ready to take on anyone and anything as long as they could move.
However, Dreary Traveler's smile faded as he took stock of what was going on, his face becoming uglier and uglier by the second while Warm Spring's face became shyer and shyer as well.
Even the crowd was looking on with speechless and shocked expressions. The core members who stood by the side of the arena were watching with strange expressions, occasionally glancing at Warm Spring furtively, which made the lass even more embarrassed.
