With a groan, Gio fell, his health having been exhausted over the last few minutes of chasing his opponent around the ring. As the blue light enveloped him, his opponent cheered, raising his spear over his head as Gio was teleported away.
"Byril Glaivewind wins! Gio Misael is eliminated!" Halfthur announced.
"d.a.m.n," said Ryan, sinking back into his chair.
"Yeah," Eric echoed sadly.
"Looks like Gio"s not coming with the elite platoon," said Jun with a conflicted look on his face.
"This just shows how we all need more PvP practice. Gio wasn"t used to fighting spear users and he suffered for it. His opponent wasn"t necessarily better than him. He just knew the matchup better," said Mark, feeding Ulfir a strip of jerky he"d bought from a nearby vendor.
"So you"re saying we need to go out and kill more players?" Eric joked, attempting to bring some levity back to the conversation.
Flashing Eric a wilting glare, Mark shook his head, "No. We need to find experts and start training seriously for PvP. Ryan"s sword group is the right idea, but we need more than just swordsmen."
"Hey, the rest of us are still doing fine. Gio"s the only one that"s lost," Jun protested.
"Yeah. I mean, I totally agree with doing more PvP practice, but don"t you think you"re being a little hasty here? The rest of us are all still in the running," Ryan added.
"I"m just saying it"s a good idea. What do you two think?" Mark asked, turning towards Griffin and Eric.
"Griffin, you have anything to say?" Eric asked, turning to his friend who"d been unnaturally silent so far.
Griffin looked pensive, "I think it"s a good idea honestly," he said slowly. "You and Jun both have it easy. You"re basically smurfing, stomping on noobs and winning your matches without taking much damage. But the rest of us are having a bit more trouble. If I didn"t have Wild Strike, I"m not sure I"d have won my last fight. I can"t rely on Wild Strike forever, I want to become better at PvP, not just better at using OP skills."
"Well said Griffin. We all need to become better at PvP if we really want to set our eyes on the championship. I"m not trying to suggest that anyone isn"t taking this seriously. But we could all improve how we"re training and leveling," said Mark.
"So what do you suggest. Should we just make the guild now so that we can start recruiting people? Not bother waiting for someone to get a rare skill first?" Eric asked.
"That"s not a bad idea. I know a few guys who"d be willing to join if we did create a guild," said Ryan, a thoughtful expression crossing his face.
"Did any of you guys choose to represent Riptide as your organization? I was told it wouldn"t matter until the top thirty-two. But I registered myself as representing Riptide," Eric asked.
"Yeah, I did."
"Me too."
"Yup."
"Same."
The rest of the group echoed their confirmation.
"Well. At least we won"t have any problems on deciding a guild name," Mark said with a smile.
"How do we create a guild anyways?" Griffin asked curiously.
"I think you need to be level thirty or higher. That"s what they"re saying on the forums anyways. That would also explain why we haven"t seen any so far," Mark replied. "What do the rest of you think? Jun? Rob?"
"I"m fine with whatever you guys wanna do," Rob replied.
"Yeah sure. Just make me guild leader," said Jun.
"We can discuss who"s going to be guild leader later. But I think it"s agreed that we should create a guild ASAP after the tournament. Now then, my match is starting soon, so I"ll see you guys later," said Mark, putting Ulfir down on the seat as he made his way down to the arena.
Reaching over to pet Ulfir, Eric absentmindedly began to consider Mark"s parting words. It was true that none of them were practicing specifically for PvP, with the possible exception of Ryan, and perhaps Jun if one wanted to consider griefing as a form of PvP practice.
While they"d all been hard at work leveling up, was it a better idea to focus on leveling than pure combat skills? It was pretty obvious by now that levels didn"t matter anywhere near as much in Fate as they did in previous games. Levels were more a measure of the number of skills a player had, rather than a measure of their overall combat power.
Then again, if they levelled up properly, they would gain more chances to earn skills and other rewards from quests such as the militia expedition. In the end, it really wasn"t such a clear-cut choice.
Sighing to himself, Eric continued to pet Ulfir, who"d curled up on Mark"s chair and gone to sleep, totally ignoring the fact that his master was in the middle of an intense battle right now."Hey guys," a voice broke Eric from his reverie.
Looking up, Eric saw Gio, a small smile etched on his face.
"Hey Gio, how are you doing?" Ryan asked, standing up to allow his friend to get back to his seat.
"I"m good. Sorry I lost."
"It"s not your fault. You tried," said Eric, attempting to console him.
"Yo Gio you f***er. Why didn"t you listen to my advice," Jun demanded.
"Aha, sorry. I only realized what you"d said a little while afterwards. I was really focused on the fight," Gio apologized.
"Well at least you tried it at the end," Jun conceded, not wanting to push his friend too hard.
"Yeah. I also got to meet a pretty cute priestess afterwards," Gio replied with a grin.
"Oh yeah, I was wondering. Where do people go when they get teleported away?" Griffin spoke up.
"There"s a teleport array just underneath the arena. They"ve got a bunch of healers down there, as well as a souvenir shop," Gio explained.
Quizzing Gio, the group slowly regained their morale, cracking jokes as they watched Mark dominate his opponent, fighting like he was trying to avenge Gio"s loss through the sacrifice of an unfortunate swordsman.
The rest of the fourth round pa.s.sed without any further upsets. Each member of the group winning their respective fights and advancing to the round of sixty-four. Just like that, the group minus Gio had come to within a single match from the top thirty-two, which would guarantee them entry into the elite platoon.