Chapter 75: Not Really Strong
"Good day, everyone. Today, we are given the honor of being the commentators of this month"s Colossia battle tournament. I, Noppakorn, and my co-commentator, Rattana, are at your service," said the plain-looking man who sat beside a black-haired young woman in the special seats above the arenas. In this seating position, they could observe every movement in the arenas. Moreover, there were several large screens showing the different angles of the arenas.
"Yes, h.e.l.lo, everyone. We are members of the Blue Pigeon Information Guild. We specialize in a.n.a.lyzing a player"s skills and fighting ability. Today, we were invited to give the a.n.a.lysis of the fights occurring in this monthly battle tournament. This is our tenth time doing this."
Both of them were invited due to their knowledge regarding player skills. No one was more knowledgeable in skills than these two. They were usually invited to a.n.a.lyze the fight to give joy to the audience.
The Blue Pigeon Information Guild was neutral and knowledgeable so its members were often invited or hired to do this kind of task. It was also beneficial that they were being invited, as they could use this chance to collect information on the dark horses that usually appeared in this kind of event.
"This time, the number of partic.i.p.ants is really high. That must be the reason why there is a preliminary battle that had never taken place before. Miss Rattana, can you tell us which arena is interesting?"
"I personally think that the fourth arena is very interesting. There are many contestants there. Many players wouldn"t have prepared for a battle royale so there must be quite a lot of confusion."
"Okay, so we will start at this arena first." Noppakorn enlarged the screens showing the battle scenes of the fourth arena.
"Oh? There is a new player here." Rattana exclaimed.
"Ah? I wonder how he got lost there. I feel pity for him. He won"t survive. Okay, the fight is about to start. Let"s watch it."
Rattana nodded. All of the spectators" attention fell onto the fourth arena.
At the fourth arena,
There were many things that the commentators incorrectly a.n.a.lyzed. One of them was the antic.i.p.ation that many people wouldn"t have prepared themselves for a battle royale. To prove this point, as soon as the fighting signal went off, more than thirty players went for Sila"s life in unison. They even came at him orderly as if they had practiced together for this kind of event.
Once the battle had started, Sila slightly lowered his center of gravity. His feet were placed in the most suitable position. Sila was very experienced in the sudden changes that happened during battle. For example, for every fight he had against the dragon, he had never prepared himself before the fight. Thus, he wasn"t panicked at all despite seeing many players rushing at him.
There were two things that were beneficial to Sila. Firstly, there were only players who specialized in close-combat. Not even a single one of them was a long-range attacker. This must be because one-on-one battles that would eventually take place, thus, all the player partic.i.p.ating in this fight were close-combat fighters.
Secondly, not every contestant was Sila"s enemy. There were more than twenty players who were put into this arena. Hence, not every attack was aimed at Sila.
It wasn"t clear if Sila was lucky or unfortunate. His starting point was at a corner of the arena. This meant he didn"t need to defend his back while it also meant there was no way for him to step back.
One spear was thrust at him. Sila didn"t hurry. He stepped obliquely using Twelve Celestial-Travelling-Steps while activating Moon Reflecting Mirror using his left hand.
The spear user was shouting, "Die!" at Sila. However, uncontrolled by him, the tip and power of his spear was guided to the left and stabbed at another player next to him.
The one who was stabbed fell into a rage, he shouted, "Your backbiter b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" before slashing his blade at the spearman.
Sila"s method was to lead other players to fight among themselves. He only needed to keep evading and parrying the attacks using Twelve Celestial-Travelling-Steps coupled with Moon Reflecting Mirror.
The fourth arena soon became chaotic. The battle formation that was designed to gang up on Sila couldn"t show half its effectiveness. That was because each player was starting to aim at the "backbiters" first.
Presently, Sila depended only on psychic power. There were many rounds of battle waiting for him so he would like to avoid wasting his qi if possible.
It was his first time using Twelve Celestial-Travelling-Steps within a chaotic battlefield. At that time when he fought against Sebastian, those skeletons summoned by Sebastian had slow movement speed and didn"t have many attacking patterns. When he fought against Dorolia, those ice pillars were a sitting target and the snow fairies were moving in a specific pattern.
Nevertheless, his current battlefield truly fell into the confusing state. Some attacks were aimed at Sila while some weren"t. Sila had walked all over the arena. He stepped past many fights that occurred within the fourth arena but not even one attack could hit him.
Sila"s ability to use Twelve Celestial-Travelling-Steps was growing without him being aware of it. To another people"s perspective, it would seem like Sila was just strolling around the battlefield as the onlooker.
Lone Wolf was the first to notice what Sila was doing. He said, "Sila has indeed become stronger. I didn"t imagine him to be this strong within such a short period of time."
"Although that kid is a practice maniac, he is someone who will become much stronger by experiencing actual combat. Only being on a real battlefield like this could make him shine," said Poluk.
"Huh? I don"t see how that man is strong, though. All he is doing is evading the attacks. He"s yet to attack anyone," said Ratri.
"Sila must be planning to conserve his power and stamina, Ratri. Even if he could win against them all in a one-to-many battle, it isn"t a smart choice for him to take. He would be exhausted that way. The upcoming fights in quarterfinals are not something you should take lightly. The contestants able to win in the preliminary battle won"t be simple," Lone Wolf explained.
"Even if you told me he is someone who grows faster by engaging in real combat, isn"t his speed of growth too shocking? He just started this game two or three weeks ago." Varee expressed her suspicion.
Varee"s statement was not baseless. There were always walls that humans eventually had to encounter. These walls were called limits. Limits of self-practicing. Limits of talent. Whatever it is.
Some people may have fast growth rate due to their talent or expertise. However, sooner or later, everybody would face these walls. The wall that they wouldn"t be able to climb over no matter how they tried or how many hours they spent. Only a handful of people could overcome such walls.Those people are referred to as geniuses.
Lone Wolf silently listened to Varee. He fully knew the meaning behind her statement. For him, when he had just entered this game, his speed of growth also outstripped his peers. However, during this last year, his growth stumbled. Although it was true that he had become stronger than the him of the last year, it wasn"t as strong as he had expected.
"Well, I think that kid was raised in a special environment. Despite that kid telling me that he was raised in a dojo, he doesn"t possess any martial arts. His mentor must have some motive for raising him this way. I guess that his mentor must have only aimed for Sila to have keen senses and combat knowledge. That kid should have only performed self-practice without any real combat experience. I don"t know his mentor"s reason, though," Poluk gave his remark.
Hearing this, Varee added, "My dad once said that he was very worried for Sila who was always practicing. My dad said that although Sila"s teacher was a good man, he hadn"t had a child before so he was sometimes too hard on Sila. When he was young, Sila didn"t get to play around like a kid his age. His main activity was practicing. He also didn"t get to meet many people except the other disciples in his dojo. Moreover, my dad said that Sila hadn"t been taught martial arts. Strangely enough, except for Sila, his teacher taught martial arts to other disciples. My dad had once asked him why but he didn"t answer."
No one would be able to comprehend Mora"s thought.
Based on Varee"s story, Sila really hadn"t had a chance to train any martial arts. He was only allowed to engage in real combat once per month. Hence, after he had entered Monster Soul, the real battles had refined him to reach his current level. All his training in muscle, keen sense, instinct, and mind during the past twenty years were the roots of his growth.
"The fight is about to end," Poluk said. All the eyes in the room focused on the arena again.
As the other arenas had fewer contestants, the victors had already been decided. As for the fourth arena, there were only six people left. The one who stood out the most would be a man in Beginner Clothes who was without a single scratch.
Sila was surrounded by the remaining five. His hands were kept behind his back while he was looking around the arena.
Sila"s strategy was no longer applicable. The fewer the players, the fewer fights occurred. Moreover, these five belonged to the same origin. Although there were injuries on their body, all of them were keeping their cool and waiting for a chance to attack Sila.
Sila couldn"t help but smile. He wasn"t someone obsessed with fighting but sometimes it was fun for him when he got to fight. He quit using Moon Reflecting Mirror and started to circulate qi.
For the record, Twelve Celestial-Travelling-Steps was a profound movement skill, not a skill generated by the system. It was the reason why Sila was able to use Moon Reflecting Mirror together with it.
Sila concealed his qi but secretly expanded Galaxy Eclipse to cover all the five players. The radius of the arena was several times smaller than the area that he had fought against Dorolia so this was nothing hard for Sila to do.
Then, Sila deliberately turned his back to one of the five players.
Seeing the chance, that player immediately rushed at Sila while lifting a psychic-reinforced metal hammer in the air.
Luckily for Sila, even if they were fighting in a group, they were not in the same party. That was why they couldn"t use a wide-area skill that would affect themselves. His opponents thought that Sila had played Monster Soul less than one month so just hitting him with a psychic-reinforced weapon was enough to send him to his death.
Once one man moved, the rest also did the same in harmony. Looking at the scene, ten out of ten people would think that it was a group fight, not a battle royale.
Sila"s smile contradicted with his position as the one being besieged. He lifted his left hand to the sky while releasing a huge amount of magic power. The triangle-shaped ring flashed an intense light.
"Light of Forest." With the skill name being announced, the light soon entirely enveloped the fourth arena.
Sila only had few seconds. He reproduced Varee"s technique that she used on him at the Weapon Shop. Sila didn"t have any chance to clearly witness Varee"s fight but he perceived that Varee must be someone who could deal a powerful blow in an instant. Thus, when the need to kill enemies within the shortest possible time arised, Sila decided to use this technique of Varee.
The hammer hadn"t even approached Sila"s body yet when two of Sila"s daggers that were reinforced with qi were fired at the throats of the two players that were furthest from him. For the record, they were about to lift their hand to cover their eyes from the light.
Sila"s daggers hadn"t hit the target yet, but Sila continued his movement without waiting to see the result. He spun himself halfway and used his qi-reinforced left hand to strike at the nape of the neck of the hammer user. Since the hammer user didn"t defend himself using psychic reinforcement and was. .h.i.t at the vital spot, this single attack of Sila was enough to kill the man.
As for Sila"s right hand, it was imbued with the power from World Crossing Bridge. Sila parried the impact of the metal hammer and migrated the power within it. He also didn"t forget to add his own qi reinforcement into the attack.
The hammer slipped from the owner"s grip and was thrown at the chest of another player. With the impact, his armor was broken and his chest was flattened. He coughed out blood and fell onto the ground.
Using the momentum of the hammer throwing, Sila shifted his body to dashed at the last player.
All of this didn"t happen because Sila was able to see during Light of Forest"s activation time. This skill was a normal item skill attached to the ring and also affected the wearer. That was why people tended not to use it but prefered light spells like Varee. However, Sila was a slime race so he couldn"t learn any spell except Orbiting Cosmos. Nevertheless, within Galaxy Eclipse"s effect, the word "see" couldn"t possibly describe what he currently witnessed.
Sila clenched his right fist. He put his qi reinforcement and the hardening attribute of Formless Soldier within it before throwing this punch at the unlucky player.
The C-grade armor was broken into pieces and the man"s body flew away several meters.
All these events happened way too fast. Simultaneously, the hammer hit the fourth player while Sila"s two daggers precisely stabbed at the first and second player"s throats. Sila didn"t plan to collect these daggers so he deliberately input more qi than usual to make it explode upon contact. At the same time that the daggers exploded, Sila fist connected to his last opponent.
The light faded off. The scene in the arena caused everyone to feel confused. In the fourth arena, there was only a man in Beginner Clothes standing. Well, there was also one man collapsing on the floor. But his chest was flattened by the metal hammer. He would die sooner or later.
After four to five seconds pa.s.sed, that man finally died. The system announced.
"The victor of the fourth arena is Player Sila!"
A cheer echoed throughout the Colosseum. Although most people didn"t know how Sila could do it, they were happy and excited to see a dark horse appear in the tournament.
The two commentators who always kept their eyes open to the fights in the fourth arena couldn"t say anything. Based on what they had seen, Sila had only activated the Light of Forest skill. It was just a trash skill attached to a ring.
"Ermm… Mister Noppakorn, what is your opinion about the fight that just has ended?" asked Rattana.
Noppakorn thought for a moment before saying his mind. "I believe that Player Sila is not as strong as he made us believe him to be. He just got lucky."
"Got lucky? Although it"s true that he didn"t do anything except avoiding attacks throughout the battles, in the end, he was able to win against the last five players, wasn"t he?"
"That is why I said he got lucky. In addition, he is sly."
"Sly? How?"
"Based on the information, Player Sila has been playing this game for no more than three weeks. There is no way for him to win against veteran players that have been playing this game for a year. My guess is, during his usage of Light of Forest, he performed sneak attacks on those five players. Those five were heavily injured from the previous battle so just a light hit was enough to take their life. As for the one that was. .h.i.t by the hammer, obviously, he must have suffered from an attack caused by another player. Sigh. For Colossia"s sacred battle tournament, I don"t think that a coward like him deserves to be here. He won"t be lucky for too long. He will lose in the next round, I guarantee it."
Rattana furrowed her brows. Both of them were representing Blue Pigeon Information Guild and their a.n.a.lysis was supposed to be neutral. She didn"t think it was professional for Noppakorn to talk badly of Sila with such a baseless a.s.sumption.
"Well, as for me, I think we will have to wait to see what he can actually do."
"Though, I don"t think we will be able to see anything. New players usually have very few health points. Just one hit should be enough to take care of him."
Rattana"s suspicions grew. What was happening? Why did Noppakorn talk badly about a player? Nevertheless, as she had known Noppakorn for a long time, she didn"t refute anything and decided to ask him about it later.
Meanwhile, the atmosphere was different in the VIP room. Varee was smiling as she noticed that Sila mimicked her moves.
As for Bow, she was sitting on several pads stacking together to heighten her field of vision to see the arena clearly. Currently, her cheek was puffed up. Next to her was Sebastian who was serving her tea and desserts.
"How can that man talk badly of Big Brother Sila. Bow won"t allow it," Bow said.
"Lady Bow, you are not satisfied? Mister Sila has ordered me to take a good care of you. How about letting me handle this problem?" Sebastian said with a smile.
"What will you do, Sebby?" Bow asked with innocent eyes.
"I have one spell that is very suitable for someone like him. Lady Bow doesn"t need to know the details. You can just be certain that he won"t dare to offend Mister Sila ever again," plainly explained Sebastian. However, the disturbance of black magic power in the air caused Lone Wolf to break out in a cold sweat.
"Hey, hey, don"t spoil Bow too much," Poluk warned.
Sebastian smiled and replied back, "Yes, Sir Poluk."
Poluk could sense that, despite Sebastian saying so, the butler might plan to do it later.
Well, this wasn"t his problem. Thus, Poluk no longer paid it any mind.