Chapter 824 - The Quarter-Finals!
Five minutes later...
Felix"s training session with his team had been interrupted by Selphie"s sudden call.
"Give me a sec." Felix requested while accepting the call.
"Good news, Sir Felix." Selphie expressed, "My mom has agreed to let you bathe in her life essence fountain!"
"You actually pulled it off." Felix"s eyes brightened up in delight.
Although he knew that Selphie was Lady Yggdrasil"s daughter, he still wasn"t confident if she would be able to convince her.
"Though, there is a small issue." Selphie coughed sheepishly, "My mom didn"t set a date. She told me that you can come anytime and wait for her permission."
"Oh, that"s not really too much of an issue." Felix smiled, "I am just grateful for the opportunity."
Felix wasn"t that ent.i.tled to believe that Lady Yggdrasil would go out of her way to please him. After all, he didn"t make a bet with her.
He didn"t mind even waiting a few years until he gets permitted to use the fountain.
He understood that the fountain was always in demand and there was a long reservation list to even see it.
"I am glad." Selphie sighed in relief at his reaction.
"So, when do you intend to come?" She asked eagerly.
"I need to survive the games first." Felix chuckled at her enthusiasm.
Felix wasn"t arrogant enough to be certain about his survival in the upcoming fights. After all, he was against radiant ranked players.
As for his previous fight against fog crawlers? His strategy was simply too potent against them, making the fight seem too easy.
But, he knew that if they were given even a slight chance, he would be played to death.
"I am so sorry, I must be bothering you in your training now." Selphie apologized quickly before wis.h.i.+ng with a cute voice, "Break a leg tomorrow, I will be cheering for you."
"Thanks." Felix hung up and rejoined the training with his teammates.
Tomorrow, the quarter-finals would start at an early morning.
The six qualified teams were Aspidochelone"s team, Cherufe"s team, Siren"s team, Dune"s team, Jorōgumo"s team, and lastly, Manananggal"s team.
Unfortunately for the Darkin faction members, they drew terrible lot at the first round of the tournament, getting them f*cked in the a.s.s by dragons and battle s.p.a.ce worms.
To make matters worse, Manananggal"s team was going to be fighting Dune"s team as well!
Felix"s situation wasn"t any better. Tomorrow, he would be fighting Siren"s team.
He knew that without proper preparation against them, he could be turned into dust with a single soundwave!
...
The Next Morning...
"Welcome back everyone, I hope you had some good night sleep." Micheal greeted as he floated above the six remaining teams.
Felix had still chosen Webor and Rotsp.a.w.n to continue the climb with him. Well, it was to be expected.
Slagwing was still being a d*ck.
Nina was too lazy and only put her entire effort if the situation called for it.
Lastly, Barbyclaw was a.s.signed to be the subst.i.tute, making her unable to join the event unless one of the team members died.
"As you can see from the brackets, today we will be having three fights!" Micheal pointed at the hologram behind him and disclosed loudly, "Cherufe"s team vs Jorōgumo"s team, Aspidochelone"s team vs Siren"s team, and last but not least, Manananggal"s team vs Dune"s team."
"You better bring your "A" game in this fight." Micheal advised as he eyed Felix and the others, "The best performing team will be moved straight to the finals."
Since the brackets weren"t balanced, one team would be left without an opponent in the semi-finals.
Hence, this upcoming fight mattered majorly to every team.
While they would be at their peak state and well rested, the other team would be joining them in the finals in a less well condition.
"How are you going to rate our performances?" A vampire inquired calmly.
The rest of the champions were intrigued to hear the answer too.
"The Queen will be responsible for your ratings." Micheal answered, "She will be including everything; team work, individual performance, clean eliminations, injuries, strategies…etc."
"What if it"s a draw?"
"It"s highly unlikely to end up as a draw." Micheal shrugged his shoulders, "But, if it did, we will leave it to G.o.ddess of luck."
The players nodded their heads in understanding.
"All good?" Micheal clapped his hands and shouted, "Let the festivities begin!"
Felix and the rest of the players were teleported back to their designated areas in the stand.
Meanwhile, Cherufe"s team and Jorōgumo"s team were sent to a mountainous island that would serve as their battlefield.
"This would be a rough one for the spider kin." Felix commentated while chilling above Webor"s head.
"True, they are more specialized in ensnaring, a.s.sa.s.sination, and slow killing." Barbyclaw agreed.
Everyone was finding it hard to see a way for the three spider kin to win this fight.
One dragon was already a nightmare to deal with, don"t even mention three.
The only thing going on in their favor was their silk extreme resistance to fire and its uncanny toughness.
Still, it was doubtful this would be enough to help them defeat three dragons.
"Do we really need to go all of us?" Red Mercy eyed his teammates and requested, "Just chill here and let me deal with them. I will be quick."
"I don"t care."
"Do as you want. Just don"t f*ck up."
The other two dragons shrugged their shoulders, allowing him to go for it.
Whoos.h.!.+
Red Mercy flapped his wings and took off into the sky alone, confusing the viewers.
When they saw that the others showed no plans of following him, they figured out what was going on.
"Arrogant b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!"
"How dare they degrade the Spider kin like this!"
"As expected of dragons, they always act as they pleased."
The Spider kin spectators made the most noise, feeling insulted and degraded by the dragons" action.
They knew that their team stood no chance against three dragons, but they would still prefer having them fighting all of them and losing, then being looked down upon like this.
"Prepare yourself, I am seeing one of them is coming." Dusthand informed while peeking at Red Mercy from underneath a giant boulder.
Fallenstone and Spidermummy were hiding a few kilometers away for their safety.
Dusthand wasn"t left in the open without support.
His abdomen was attached with a thin invisible line of silk that was being held by Fallenstone.
In case he got found out and fired at with a flame orb, they would easily pull him back to safety.
"Something is weird." Dusthand frowned, "I don"t see the others behind him."
"Maybe, they are trying to go around us?" Spidermummy suggested.
"Don"t kid yourself." Fallenstone smiled bitterly, "Those are dragons, they will not think too much against us or bother to plan a strategy."
"As much as I hate to admit it, he is right." Dusthand nodded.
"In fact, it"s more believable that they have sent only one to deal with us." Fallenstone added.
"..."
"..."
Dusthand and Spidermummy went quiet all of a sudden at the sound of that.
They wanted to argue back and disapprove of his theory, but they recognized that it was the only plausible reason.
"Let"s wait and see." Dusthand narrowed his eyes dangerously at incoming Red Mercy and said, "If the other two didn"t appear in the next two minutes, we can a.s.sume it will be a one vs three."
That"s what they did...For the next two minutes, they remained absolutely hidden and kept their eyes on Red Mercy, who was scanning a mountain after another with his infrared vision.
Unfortunately, those three had cold blood running through their veins, making them camouflage themselves perfectly with nature.
"Should I start blowing some s.h.i.+t up to force those pests out?" Red Mercy considered after his patience started to run thin.
"It"s confirmed." Dusthand smiled coldly, "It"s just him."
"Let"s make him regret his choice of coming on us alone." Fallenstone sneered.
"We have only one shot to take him down before the other two come to his rescue." Dusthand stressed, "Make sure that you don"t f*ck your parts of the plan."
"Heh, peak diamond player is worrying about us f*cking up?" Fallenstone scoffed, "Worry about yourself."
Since Dusthand had joined the individual game, it meant that he was a mere peak diamond ranked player unlike his teammates...They were both at high tier radiant rank.
Their strength levels were absolutely incomparable.
"Enough, we don"t have time to appease your egos." Spidermummy ordered, "Dusthand, you may begin."
"Yes, captain."
Dusthand took a deep breath and emerged from underneath the boulder.
Just like Micheal, he had eight long hairy legs, large spherical dark abdomen, and a humanoid upper body.
Though, he was a bit different from Micheal.
His exoskeleton opened up slightly, exposing two sets of thin colorful wings!
Whoosh Whoos.h.!.+
Without a single ounce of hesitation, he took off into the air akin to a rocket, heading towards Red Mercy!
"What a confident little pest." Red Mercy raised an eyebrow in surprise after spotting Dusthand rus.h.i.+ng in his direction.
Knowing that his dragon breath would fail against such a moving flying target, Red Mercy didn"t bother consider using it.
Instead, he activated his flame field, turning the area surrounding him into a heated furnace. Then, he flew down, wanting to meet halfway with Dusthand.
"Dusthand needs to use his armored wet silk!" Micheal shouted, "The temperature around Red Mercy is more than enough to burn him into crisp without it!"