The Two Lives Of Aaron Wade: The Gamer And The Heir

I was under the impression that the Perivocle was a water mage. And for the most part that was true, but it seems like the race was also capable of telekinesis. There was a lack of information about my opponent"s race in the first place, so this was probably as much a surprise to everyone watching as it was to me. The only thing that really annoyed me was that it had to come at my expense.

The moment he first slammed me on the ground, I was so rattled and dazed that I lost my grip over my bow. A huge -50HP floated across my face. It was funny really, given the level of realism this game had, the idea that Hp values would still be shown was weird. But that was not something to worry about at the moment.

My opponent"s telekinesis locked any and all movements of my body, I couldn"t do anything but be held suspended in the air as he brought me down face first to concrete below me.

BANG! CRUNCH!

Whether it was my nose or my skull that cracked I wasn"t really sure; the only thing definite was that, I was hurt really bad. I felt the pressure holding me falter a bit, and I dropped down from the air. The pressure came back again, but this time it"s hold was just on my ankle. Dazed as I was at the moment, I realized that my opponent was probably tired.

Telekinesis was not a simple ability to have, especially since the brain was not like ordinary muscles. As long as you were awake, even when you"re sleeping, there"s always a strain on your brain due to the amount of work it has to do.

Lifting a person of my weight, completely locking my movements, and moving me up and down had to be like bench pressing. The strain would be too much, so the most viable option would be to reduce the weight and pressure.

I felt a hold on my ankles as I was turned upside down. Apparently this guy wanted to drop me on my head. And doing so from ten meters above the ground, especially with the inertia from his telekinetic pull, was sure to kill me. The only mistake he made was thinking I was still out of it, and leaving my hands free.

I whipped out my revolver and fired off a shot. Since I was still using a common gun, the damage was not that strong, and neither was it"s speed good enough. But it did exactly what I wanted it to do.

Sh.e.l.l created a s.h.i.+eld of ice that intercepted the bullet. But he lost concentration and I was released from his telekinetic hold. Hiding behind a s.h.i.+eld would give him time to come up with a plan, but since he can"t see me, I"m banking on him not being able to use his telekinesis.

But I rather not take any chances. My bow was to far away for me to grab, and any number of things could go wrong before I got to it. So I used homing shot. Simple as this skill seemed, it could do some really amazing things when you put your mind to it. The bullet I fired curved around the ice s.h.i.+eld, and slammed into Sh.e.l.l"s shoulder.

There was a m.u.f.fled yell, and almost immediately the ice s.h.i.+eld exploded into numerous pieces that shaped themselves into tiny ice spikes, and came flying towards me.

I unfurled my wings and flapped as hard as I could, taking to the air as I fired two more shots point blank on sh.e.l.l"s body. The damage he receive was almost negligible, but the pain was not. The two shots had him hunched over as he clutched his midsection, I couldn"t help but muse that his build was that of a typical mage. They had absolutely c.r.a.ppy defense and close combat skill, the only reason he was still alive was because the gun was not good enough.

Suddenly he jerked up, eyes glowing and the tip of his tentacle began emitting undulating pulse waves that I could actually see! I felt him yank the gun out of my grasp and squeezed it into a chunk of steel. I didn"t wait to see what happened next as I activated wind stride and shot towards.

My wings began to vibrate, and like the exhaust of a car when a nitro boost has been used, my wings released a stream of visible wind fumes as I picked up speed and drew closer to Sh.e.l.l. As a precaution I fired off a mana Arrow, only for it to bounce of some sort of invisible energy s.h.i.+eld that was close to Sh.e.l.l"s body.

However I noticed something peculiar. The mana arrow actually pierced through the s.h.i.+eld a bit before it was thrown backwards, leading me to the a.s.sumption that mental skills, like telekinesis and telepathy were weak against magical attacks. Luckily for me, I had two such skills.

But Sh.e.l.l was not standing ideal either, as he began to wave his hand, sending telekinetic or some sort of psionic blasts at me. I flapped my wings and dodged left, twirling just in time to feel another one of those blast graze the edge of my nose. It was then that I realized that I was actually flying, really flying! Not relying on my glide skill to do it. Which would probably explain why I was feeling a mild ache from between my shoulder blades.

I used Glide, and flew around the edge of the ring, moving fast enough and just ahead that all the psionic blasts flew into the darkness behind me. I kept a close watch on my opponent, hoping that this super powered mode of his had a very short duration.

My a.s.sumption was correct, barely five seconds later his breath hitched and his tentacles lost their glow. Almost at the same time both my glide and wind stride skill came to an end, but I banked left sharply, heading straight for him. He seemed startled by the sudden action as it seemed as if I wanted to make this a close quarters combat scenario. And as a marksman going up against a mage, it would have been suicide.

Mages were not good at close quarters combat and had a very poor defense. But that didn"t mean they were completely helpless, but long range fighters like rangers, archers, and marksman had a zero close combat skill, unless they had a cla.s.s that allowed for versatility.

This Perivocle was underestimating me, because if he wasn"t, he would have realized that there was a sword hanging on my back.

As I got closer to him, he summoned his ice s.h.i.+eld again to protect himself while he regains his strength for the next round of our battle. The ice s.h.i.+eld his time was different, as instead of a s.h.i.+eld, he was covered by a dome. But I don"t think that would help him either.

"Mana Slas.h.!.+"

Calling out the name of the skill was not really necessary, but it felt really good to do so. I pulled the sword from my back and slashed it"s glowing blue form at the dome in one movement. But I didn"t feel the sword go through anything at all.

The dome was still in front of me, though the Perivocle was eerily silent. Suddenly there was a light crackling sound, and I stepped back a bit, crossing the sword across my chest in a defensive position. Then the dome seemed to developed a hairline crack right at the middle, then it fell apart, like two halves of a coconut, sliced open.

And the Perivocle looked at me with startled eyes, before blood began to seep from the middle of his forehead, and then his body fell to the right and left, both halves split evenly.

The sight of his dead body was too b.l.o.o.d.y, even for me. But this was the cost of victory, I just consoled myself and reminded my mind that even though I had to live in this world, it was still just a game. And what I had just killed was not really a real person, but ones and zeroes.

"Ladies and gentlemen, once again the phenomenon that is seven has triumphed over his opponent. In a very impressive third victory, one has to wonder, can he make it all the way to the very end? Or will he fall during his next fight!"

I didn"t really pay attention to what the announcer was saying. I picked my bow up, and went out of the arena and back to the waiting area. Ignoring the system message that told me I had slain someone and rewards would be deferred until after the knock out stage, I purchased a healing potion with my battle points, and a fifty slot inventory bag.

I needed something to carry my equipment as lugging them around seemed really uncomfortable. I placed the skill disks inside of it, along with the old bow, before paying attention to the message flas.h.i.+ng on the hologram.

[Your have received 200 battle points from your sponsor the elven minister, and one royal elven sword of wind blessed mythril.]

[You have received 500 battle points from your sponsor the tree of Revelations, and one battle suit of draconic prophecies.]

[The Patmosian royal family has withdrawn the sponsors.h.i.+p!]

[You have gained three new sponsors. (1) The Organization Shade has sponsored you. You have been given 50 battle points, and the skill disk Stealth. (2) The Church Of Adonai has sponsored you. You have been given 200 battle points, the skill disk purify, and the accessory holy Ring of protection. (3) The Guild Jupiter Council has sponsored you. You have been given 20 battle points, and a guild invite.]

The guild invite was rejected, but it was sent along with a message. I told the Jupiter Council that I wanted to travel solo for a while, and when the time comes and I feel the need to join a guild, they will be my first choice. I also thanked them for the sponsors.h.i.+p. There was no need not to be polite, but they withdrew their sponsors.h.i.+p a minute after the message was sent. I guess they didn"t do well with rejection.

The Patmosian royal family withdrawing their sponsors.h.i.+p did not come as a surprise to me, I was shocked they waited till now to do it. My connection with the elven minister and tree seemed to be going strong, and now there was a church included. I"m not that religious, my mother raised me to believe in a higher power of sorts, a G.o.d that"s watched out for me and blessed me when I prayed. We just didn"t do other things like go to church, pay t.i.thes or anything that could come off as fanatical.

My mother was a scientist that believed in G.o.d. As a way to honor I did too, so receiving a sponsors.h.i.+p from a church was okay. Hopefully they don"t turn out like the church of 15 to 18 hundreds on earth. Those guys were scary, I mean come on! They burnt women under the premise that they were witches. The world I lived in now, accepted women like that.

Anyway, back to business. Winning my fight got me an extra 60 battle points, and 14 thousand gold dollars. Apparently not everyone bet against me this round. So in a nutsh.e.l.l I was wealthy enough to buy my way out of this compet.i.tion if I wanted too. But I wouldn"t do that.

No matter what, I had to finish the knockout round today! Which means, I"ll be going for my fourth and fifth fight. I refreshed the list of challengers, and was quite shocked to see it had reduced to a measly 11. Seems people were beginning to see me as a threat, and no longer had confidence in facing me.

I picked my fourth opponent, a dwarf like man, without ear lobes and a slitted nose with pink tentacle like whiskers. His skin was a healthy shade of pink, and he had really large hands and feet, each ending with finger nails the size of throwing knives and glinting like sharpened steel. This guy, was Molenhume. Simple translation; a mole man, and expectedly, an earth mage, and unexpectedly a warrior.

Two cla.s.ses, meant this guy was at a very high level, his defenses would be insane, and he was good fighting both at close quarters and at a distance. Taking a look at his previous fights, of which he has had four! Making me his last and final opponent: I discovered that he was also quite fast, in conjunction with his superior defense he was quite a challenge. But for some reason, his attack was not up to par, well the physical aspects anyway.

He was a good fighter, but not a great one. His attacks were rigid and predictable, almost as if he lacked imagination in the ways to use his skill. He has been relying on defense to wear his opponent out, and using his control over the earth element to disturb the terrain and make it difficult for his opponent to outmaneuver him.

This guy was not stupid, but the rigid display of skills, has let me understand that this moleman was a player using his skills in the a.s.sist mode. And to be honest he has done quite a good job, but he"s never fought anybody like me. Going through his defense would be easy, I just needed a high ground and a clear shot. Luckily for me I had wings.

So I picked my next challenger. The moleman with the name I-Am-Supreme-On-Ground. As if I needed any other proof that this was a player.