Chapter 79: Slime
Silence covered the arena with the only sound heard being the qi emission from Fargo"s body. As for Sila, his qi was surging silently and invisibly with the help of Qi Concealment and Soundless. Even Fargo was surprised by the fact that Sila"s qi had reached this state.
Sila was more proficient in offense than defense. Once he acc.u.mulated qi to some degree, he decided to launch the first attack to probe his opponent"s strength. His right fist reinforced with qi was thrown directly at Fargo.
Fargo was surprised that Sila was the first to initiate an attack so he clenched his right hand and threw a punch at Sila"s body in return without moving from his spot. Sila wasn"t surprised. This meant Fargo was very confident in his own defense. Rather, Sila calculated that once his fist hit Fargo, Fargo would stumble and Fargo"s fist would lose its effectiveness.
Sila"s fist was faster than Fargo"s so Sila wasn"t afraid of Fargo"s counterattack. However, once Sila"s fist actually connected with Fargo"s body, Sila realized that he had made a mistake.
*Clang*
The sound and sensation of Sila"s punch striking Fargo"s body was like punching an iron wall. Fargo didn"t flinch even a single millimeter while Sila felt numbness in his fist.
Sila was startled but he couldn"t afford to stay that way. Fargo"s fist was about to hit him.
Sila realized that there was no way for him to avoid Fargo"s punch, so he gritted his teeth and prepared to block by activating the power of Formless Soldier. His skin was as hard as steel while his internal organs were soft like rubber. Sila was quite confident in its defensive ability in a melee combat.
The sound of grating metal echoed once more as Fargo"s punch connected with Sila"s body. Sila was pushed three steps away.
"Splendid. It is beyond my expectation that you could resist my punch," Fargo gave his compliment while being somehow surprised.
Fargo was quite certain that Sila was the type of player who specialized in dealing high damage and possessing a high speed. Logically, defense shouldn"t be Sila"s forte. However, from the previous punch, Fargo realized that Sila"s defense was rather solid.
Similarly, Sila was surprised. Since he had obtained Formless Soldier, except for when he was dealing against high-leveled monsters, he could even take on the weapons of ordinary players. Unexpectedly, Fargo"s punch caused him to suffer.
There was also the factor of Fargo"s unusually high defense. It was as strong as a dragon"s scales. This was the first time Sila experienced a player who his fists didn"t work against.
"Just now, we were just probing each other"s strength. If he was serious, maybe I would be unable to resist his punch," inwardly thought Sila.
The outcome of the previous clash shocked the spectators. A new player had blocked Fargo"s punch and only ended up being pushed back three steps. Moreover, the sounds of the attacks were weird. Many of them stared at Sila"s clothes, wondering if he was wearing hidden high-grade steel armor. However, no matter how they looked, Sila was wearing only Beginner Clothes.
Even Noppakorn and Rattana, who specialized in player a.n.a.lysis, were confused. They didn"t know how Sila could accomplish such a feat. Noppakorn hurriedly checked Sila"s information.
Sila"s information wasn"t something secret. His information that was spread by Bluebird contained more than 70% of the fact. Bluebird just twisted some logic in the information to make it appear that Sila was weak.
While Noppakorn was summarizing Sila"s information, Rattana did her job by explaining Fargo"s information to the audience. For the record, Fargo"s information was also not a secret.
"While we are waiting for Mister Noppakorn to double-check Player Sila"s information, please allow me to tell you about Player Fargo.
"Player Fargo is a qi-type player. His rank and level are estimated to be Knight Rank, level 1000. He is one of the four vice-leaders of Royal Armament Guild and his t.i.tle is Berserk Warrior. He is a member of the orc race and possesses Mystic Armor Qi. With this qi and the orc racial skills that focus on offense, we can conclude that Player Fargo has both a strong attack and a solid defense.
"About Mystic Armor Qi, it is one of the Ten Supreme Qi. Its forte is its superiority in defense. If we are talking about defense alone, Mystic Armor Qi is even superior to Sun G.o.d Qi of Lone Wolf, the Qi Emperor.
"With him choosing to be a member of the orc race, which specializes in offense while lacking in defense, the Mystic Armor Qi could completely cover this weakness of the race. Player Fargo must have put a lot of thought into his race selection."
While Rattana was explaining, in the arena, Sila didn"t listen to her at all. He was busy coming up with ways to fight Fargo.
"You won"t come at me anymore? Then, I will." Fargo firmly walked forward. Due to the nature of the narrow battlefield, there was no place for Sila to keep the distance.
Fargo"s movement was simple, but his punches were quite fast. Sila depended on his keen sense and intuition to dodge them while throwing his fist back to counter.
Sila"s barrage of fists was faster and every one of them connected to Fargo. However, Sila could feel that each of his attacks didn"t bring any harm to Fargo.
As for Fargo, he had thrown more than ten punches at Sila but Sila was able to evade them all even in this narrow arena. Nevertheless, Fargo was starting to get used to Sila"s speed as time pa.s.sed.
Sila was wondering. Although Fargo was strong, Fargo"s only strong points were his powerful attack and firm defense. How could Fargo hold his ground if he faced an opponent who could deal high damage and was quick enough to dodge his punch?
Anyway, Sila didn"t let his guard down. He was very certain that Fargo would have some trump cards left. He was bound to possess something that allowed him to reign as the vice-leader of the Royal Armament guild.
"Light of Forest." A light flashed from the ring. Meanwhile, Sila consecutively fired four qi-reinforced daggers without delay.
Normal people would be panicked upon suddenly being blinded. Their qi resistance might be lowered for a moment. Sila was aiming for this.
But Fargo didn"t panic at all. Once his eyes couldn"t see, he calmly strengthened his qi reinforcement throughout his body while lifting both of his arms to cover his face.
All four of the daggers connected to both arms and the heart area of Farco. However, they immediately broke into pieces upon coming into contact with the power of Mystic Armor Qi.
Sila was slightly startled. His strategy to use Light of Forest with hidden weapons always worked. Nevertheless, in front of Fargo, this strategy was like child"s play. Fargo"s defense was way too firm.
Once the light subsided, Fargo neatly continued his attack. He could switch from defense to offense flawlessly, causing Sila to end his attack.
Giving it some thought, Mystic Armor Qi was a combination of Qi of Little Turtle and Qi of Little Fish. Thus, it wasn"t strange for Mystic Armor Qi to possess dexterity that allowed Fargo to move flawlessly.
"Try evading this punch," said Fargo. He was slowly throwing a punch reinforced with qi forward.
Sila furrowed his brows. No matter how he looked, this slow punch had no way to touch him so why had Fargo challenged him to evade it? Well, Fargo might just be spouting nonsense to distract him. Hence, Sila no longer paid it any attention and performed his usual evasive movement.
Nonetheless, something unexpected happened. Sila felt his body moving slower. There was some unseen force that pulled him to Fargo"s punch.
*Bang!!*
A loud sound echoed. Sila"s body flew away and heavily crashed into a stone wall.
"Cough," Sila spat out blood. That one had caught him off guard. Fortunately, the punch at least came at his right side, allowing him to lift his right arm to block against it.
Despite how the Right Arm of the Sealed One malfunctioned and returned Sila"s right arm to its original human state, its power still lingered. Sila had noticed that, although he could feel pain, the wounds on his right arm always healed at a faster rate. Moreover, the bone within his right arm had never fractured.
As if to prove that Sila was correct, Sila"s right arm that was used to guard against the attack was torn apart. A lot of blood was spilling on the floor. The bone behind the skin of his right hand was visible, but its color was silver. Not a single scratch was on it.
Although the bone was fine, the muscles that were torn apart caused Sila a tremendous pain. He could no longer move his right arm. Sila hadn"t experienced this level of pain for a very long time.
Sila hurriedly circulated Immortal Qi. He didn"t expect for his right arm to be completely healed. He just wanted to be quickly relieved from the pain. Anyway, as his body was in a critical condition, the Shapeless Qi that he couldn"t control moved alongside Immortal Qi to tending his wound.
Sila took several deep breaths to relieve the pain. His right arm was tended at a pace faster than Sila had ever experienced. This must be the synergy effect of the Right Arm"s high recovery rate, Immortal Qi, and Shapeless Qi.
Fargo looked at Sila with amazement. This Sila not only specialized in offense, defense, and speed; he was also proficient in healing. All of these powers should hinder each other and shouldn"t be trained together. No, it was possible to be good at all of them. But a new player shouldn"t be able to do that. Fargo wouldn"t think it was weird if Lone Wolf was the one who did all of these.
Fargo started to realize that he should stop playing around.
Fargo pulled his right fist toward his side and activated qi reinforcement. Meanwhile, his left hand was pushed forward and used Universe Momentum, his trump card, to pull Sila to him.
Sila"s body was pulled toward Fargo. Now he realized the reason he was. .h.i.t by the last punch. If he was someone else, he would feel confused. But Sila also possessed Universe Momentum so he knew which power Fargo was using.
Apparently, Fargo had pulled Sila to Fargo"s fist. This was the first time that Sila had faced someone who possessed the same skill as him.
Even Cross wasn"t aware that Fargo had this trump card. Universe Momentum was a special skill that Fargo had gone through a lot of trouble to obtain. He had spent almost a year to be proficient in it.
The powerful yet slow fist of Fargo was effective thanks to the power of Universe Momentum. No matter how fast his opponents were, their speed would be rendered useless when they were pulled to his fist.
Out of all of the eight skills that Sila had obtained from the Right Arm of the Sealed One, just mastering one of them would let someone to be called an expert. Each of them had many ways to be utilized.
Sila had obtained all eight of them at the same time, which was why the nameless elder had warned him that getting many high-level skills won"t always be a good thing. With Sila possessing too many skills, he wasn"t proficient in any of them, unlike Fargo.
Sila calmed down. Since Fargo used Universe Momentum, this time he used it too. Sila pulled his body to the ground. Both of his feet were glued to the floor.
"You can use Universe Momentum too?" Fargo looked at Sila with disbelief. The skill that he had worked hard to obtain was being used by a new player. What else could Sila do? Fargo didn"t dare imagine.
Sila didn"t reply. He put his concentration into activating Universe Momentum and healing the wound on his right arm. Fargo"s power exceeded his so he couldn"t afford to lose his focus. If he opened his mouth to speak, he would surely be pulled to Fargo"s fist.
Nevertheless, Sila"s proficiency was lower than Fargo"s. His fighting experience against skilled players was also lacking. Fargo no longer paid any attention to what else Sila could do. He decided to focus only on the battle.
Fargo stomped his qi-reinforced foot on the arena floor. The floor broke apart and the impact caused Sila"s body to be slightly off the ground.
Just slightly was enough. Fargo increased his power input and quickly pulled Sila who was floating toward him.
Sila changed the way he used Universe Momentum from pulling to pushing. He pushed himself away from Fargo. The result was his body being fixed in mid-air. However, if one looked closely, one could witness that Sila was slowing being pulled toward Fargo.
Anyway, that was fine. Sila knew that the basic of using qi reinforcement was activating it instantly upon contact. Fargo had been activating qi reinforcement into his fist for too long already. Sila just had to wait for Fargo"s qi reinforcement to lose its effect.
Fargo grinned. He could easily predict Sila"s thought and came up with a countermeasure. He switched pulling power to pushing power.
Now, coupled with Fargo"s power, Sila"s power worked against himself. His body was driven away and slammed into the wall behind him.
"Argh!" Fargo was able to switch between powers at a faster speed than Sila had antic.i.p.ated. Sila couldn"t resist in time. With him crashing into the wall, Sila lost his concentration in maintaining Universe Momentum.
Fargo hurriedly pulled Sila"s body to him again.
Sila realized that he couldn"t win against Fargo in a Universe Momentum"s showdown. Instead of pushing himself away, he decided to pull himself toward Fargo. This way, the timing of Fargo"s punch would be off and the power behind the punch would be diminished.
Anyway, even with that, Fargo"s fist was too dangerous for Sila to ignore.
The spectators were thrilled at the upcoming result. No one dared to blink.
Sila"s right arm was finally able to move. Sila reinforced qi into his fist and activated Genesis Punch for the first time against a human opponent. His right fist clashed against Fargo"s right fist.
There was no sound.
Sila didn"t take any damage. This meant Genesis Punch was obviously stronger. Sila stared at Fargo.
Fargo didn"t make any sound. He looked blankly at his right hand. Blood spilled from his arm. Fargo"s right arm was torn apart and wounds began to take place. It dangled towards the floor as if Fargo couldn"t use it anymore.
Exclamations resonated throughout the Colosseum. With this scene, anyone would realize that in the previous clash, Fargo"s fist was weaker than Sila"s.
Fargo, the Berserk Warrior, was inferior to a new player in a contest of power!
Noppakorn switched between looking at the information in his system window and looking at the scene in the arena. He hesitated for a long time before deciding to continue commentating.
"Err… We don"t have much information about Player Sila. However, it is certain that he is at Knight Rank, playing qi type, and is a part of the slime race."
"Slime!?"
"That"s crazy! How can a slime be this strong?"
"Surely… you don"t mean those gelatinous slimes around Beginning Town?"
"Is this information wrong?"
A commotion was happening all over the stadium. However, before long, after the information was confirmed, the name Sila and the race slime began to be under observation from every player in Monster Soul.