Chapter 387: 387 - A Rookie Paladin"s Shortcomings
"d.a.m.n it!" Noah cursed, as he saw the countdown for resp.a.w.n once again. As he predicted, the battle was a s.h.i.tstorm. The swordsman acted alone, despite his blessing not being related to mobility. As such, his KD was abysmal. And while Noah stayed in his position, defending the mages and the archer, he was just one person, and they started getting ambushed by all five blessed once the swordsman was out.
"This is stupid!" the mage screamed, deeply angered. "I can"t believe I"ll lose ranking because of a troll," he said, everyone covering their eyes.
"Careful!" Noah interrupted them, his shield extending a semi-transparent barrier, and stopping the hunks of stone launched their way by the Blessed of the other team.
"I see him!" the archer exclaimed, closing his eyes and pointing his arrow skyward. Noah questioned what he was doing for a second, but as soon as he let go of the bow, the arrow pierced upwards, turning yellow.
"Is that how his blessing works?" he pondered, until a lightning bolt descended from the sky, crashing where the hunks of stone had come from.
[Enemy has been slain]
Noah was happy. The mode they were playing now was Team Survival, and for this round, they had the advantage. "It"s all about the small wins in life..." Noah thought, as he looked at the score so far, 7x3. They had lost 8 times, this was a 15 game match. They had to win the next 5 rounds, including this one, in a row.
[Enemy has been slain]
"Yo, that a.s.shole has gotten someone down," the mage behind him said, as they walked around the abandoned villa. Yes, to make things even more annoying the map was the ruins of an abandoned villa in the desert. There wasn"t a way to climb the walls and stand on top, unless you could teleport or fly.
"Gotcha!" the other mage celebrated, as he cast his Blessing. It was a simple Ice Dart, but they looked like needles, so thin they were. And he could easily pierce through the enemy, incapacitating them.
[Enemy has been slain]
[An ally has been slain]
"G.o.dd.a.m.n it! Can he not die for a single round?! He"s got 11 deaths already!" the archer complained, Noah scoffing at the remark.
"At least we only have f.u.c.king 7—" he interrupted his sentence, lunging between the two mages, and putting his shield down, using [Selfless Bastion]. "I hope it holds," he thought, before addressing the blessed. "Run! I"m not sure I"ll handle this," he said, the mages and archer panicking, not knowing what to expect.
And almost as if he could predict the future, a cloud of dust headed towards them. It was not something environmental, rather, the dust being lifted by a Blessed.
his feet moved in the rhythm of a bull, his spear pointed forwards as he stomped the ground at an amazing speed. The blessing that caught Noah off guard in the second round, giving the other team a triple kill, Bull Charge.
Noah readied his sword with the other hand, pinning his feet to the ground to not get thrown by the amazing force of the impact.
It didn"t do a clank, or a thud. Instead, it sounded like an explosion, the rumble of a ma.s.sive cliff-side collapsing at once.
"Now," Noah thought, pouring mana into his blade, and swinging it around the shield, towards the blessed attacking him.
"f.u.c.k!" he thought, turning around, as his blade started digging into the man"s shoulder, and a dagger was swung his way, aimed for his throat. "s.h.i.t!" he thought, pulling his sword out to block, his arm absorbing the tremendous strength of the charge, and his hand that tired to kill the other swinging against the dagger, clashing with it without the improved edge, only deflecting the hit.
[Enemy has been slain]
[An ally has been slain]
[Double Kill]
[Triple Kill]
"f.u.c.k!" he yelled, pouring mana into his sword, and slashing at the rogue with a dagger, slicing through his stomach.
[Enemy has been slain]
At that point, his blessing lost to the man"s charge, and Noah was sent flying, tumbling onto the dust.
"You are a fine warrior," the blessed with a spear said, standing up. For some reason, he waited for Noah to stand on his feet once again, coughing out the dust.
"Likewise," he complimented the man, before a.s.suming a battle stance, the man doing the same.
"It"s alway fun to fight someone who can take my tackle," the man said, thrusting his spear, which Noah parried with the shield.
"Same can be said for someone with that strong of a punch," Noah said while lunging forward and under the spear.
"Wha—Suicidal f.u.c.k!" the man yelled, pulling hard on his spear and opening his hand, letting it slide behind him so he had a shorter range.
"d.a.m.n!" Noah cursed inwardly, as he parried the speartip with his sword, letting the Blessed get some distance from him. "You are more experienced than I thought," Noah said, putting his shield in front of himself.
"I can say the same for you. How many years have you been diving?" the man asked, a faint glow appearing on his legs.
"He"s coming," Noah thought, readying himself for the clash. "Two years," he responded honestly, making the man laugh.
"Only that?! Man, the new generation sure is talented," he said, jumping forward with all his might, like a cannonball had been fired.
"s.h.i.t!" Noah thought, stepping to the side, and deflecting the spear, and its wielder.
"Guess this strategy won"t work on you, right?" the man, who landed on his knee, stood up, looking back at Noah, and smiling broadly. "May the best warrior win," he said, before launching a flurry of thrists at Noah.
"He"s fast," Noah thought, hastily fixing his step in order to keep up with the man"s attacks. They weren"t too overpowering, but there were also no gaps to talk of. Noah was in a bit of a pinch. He concentrated all his mana on the sword, as he created an opening.
"You"re done!" the blessed yelled at him, as his spear plunged through the gap in Noah"s defense, aiming at his thigh.
"Nope," but he was already expecting it. With an out of balance swing and a large portion of his remaining mana, Noah struck his sword down, cutting through the man"s spear as if it were made of b.u.t.ter, and lunged froward, before the blessed could react to it at all.
"Blessing?!" the man gasped, as Noah"s sword pierced through his chest while he smiled, and he turned into particles.
"It"s a win, then."
[Round Won]
The fights kept piling without any good battles to talk about. After seeing Noah"s one on one, the Swordsman clicked his tongue, and reluctantly started working together with the team. With a full composition, the fight became a lot more balanced, and the difference came down to a single thing, or rather, person. Noah.
"Through to the left, two mages, go!" he yelled orders as the team, having earned their trust and respect. The fact he could use pyakugan when navigating the villa meant they always had the upper hand in this area with low visibility, and that piled up to increase their chances of winning exponentially.
[Round Won]
The score kept climbing, now, 7x6. They had won 3 rounds in a row. If they were to win two more, they could overcome the bad start and end up winning this ranked match.
"Let"s go!" Noah exclaimed, the other four blessed cheering as they charged towards the villa.
"Wait!" the archer exclaimed, as they approached it. "It"s a trap," he told Noah, who had a faint smile on his face.
"Yeah, I know," Bob—Noah—in armor, said while smirking.
"You"re saying we should fall into their trap?" the archer said, furrowing his brows.
"Why would we do something this stupid?" the swordsman from earlier asked. Despite having agreed to working together, he still disliked the mages and Noah, so it was a given he would take this position when push comes to shove.
"If we fall into it, reading what they want to do, we can overpower them," Noah said, shrugging, as he turned back towards the villa, "Now let"s go, before it gets too late," he said, jumping head onto the closed s.p.a.ce, only to be welcomed by a barrage of magic and arrows.
"See it"s a bad idea!" the swordsman said, jumping sideways to avoid the attacks, while Noah just waited im place. "What are you doing, we"re gonna lose!" the swordsman exclaimed angrily at Noah, whoo to him seemed to be commiting suicide.
"Falling into the trap," was all Noah said, putting his shield in front, and blocking all the attacks, leaving the swordsman dumbstruck. "Time for the pushback!" he yelled, running forward with his shield ahead, blocking all the frontal attacks. "Mages, left!" he yelled, as he saw the enemy archer run into an alley to grab them from the side.
"Done!"
[Enemy has been slain]
The mage with Ice Needles shot towards Noah"s target, killing the enemy arches as soon as he made the turn, taking him down.
"Next, G—" Noah was interrupted, as he felt the presence of the warrior change locations rapidly. "Did he use charge?!" he asked himself, confused by the man"s strange actions, as he felt him further away. "Wha—" he thought, as he felt something approaching closely from the side with pyakugan, something faster than a person.
"Just what in the—" And without enough time to react without using the flames, the spear pierced through the heads of the swordsman and a mage, taking both down at once.
[An ally has been slain]
[Double Kill]