Child of Destiny

.....

Credo pulled out his sword from its sheath before pointing it to Faker. "Let's see if you can back up what you just said."

Faker shrugged his shoulders before putting both of his hands on the hilt of each the daggers sheathed on each side of his waist. Then at the next moment, he suddenly disappeared on where he was standing and reappeared on the left side of Credo while swinging both of his daggers forward.

Credo held his longsword horizontally in front of his chest before moving it up and down and successfully blocking both of his opponent's daggers. After that, he suddenly twisted his wrist in a counterclockwise motion along with his sword. Then he threw a diagonal slash at Faker in an upper-left to lower-right motion.

Faker suddenly disappeared once again. Then he reappeared behind Credo's back while swiftly shifting his reverse-hand grip on both of daggers into a forehand grip before stabbing both of the forward.

Credo borrowed the momentum of his previous slash to turn around while throwing an upward diagonal slash towards Faker in a lower-left to upper-right direction.

But before Credo's managed to hit Faker, the latter already disappeared for the third time and reappeared on Credo's blind-spot once again. This move is one of Faker's Combat Technique.

'Advance Combat Technique: Shadow Waltz'

But Credo didn't get overwhelmed, he calmly respond at it with his sword swings, forcing Faker to dodge for another time. Credo is using all of his counterattacks to defend on each of Faker's moves, making his defense into an impenetrable fortress that can't be breach no matter what.

'Advance Combat Technique: Sword Fortress'

Faker kept disappearing and reappearing while circling around Credo. The latter, on the other hand, is continuously swinging his longsword while repeatedly turning around to ward-off the former's attacks.

...

Shin, who is watching on the distance, can't help himself but become at awe at what he is witnessing. Faker's speed too fast to catch his movements, his silhouette kept moving, flickering and circling around his with an unpredictable tempo, but his opponent is to be trifled with either.

From what Shin can see; Faker's opponent is a Paladin who is wearing a plate-armor which is quite heavy, so the movements that he can do should be limited. But this guy is always able to respond at Faker's every move even if that was the case. His moves are slow but steady. What more; each of those moves are interconnected with each other, as if his previous move was prepared for the next move that he is about to use.

The swordsmanship of this Paladin is quite the opposite of Shin's sword style, since the swordsmanship that he was using focused on speed and unpredictability.

Shin ignored the other battles for now and just focused at Faker and Credo's battle. He felt that he can learn a lot from this guy and it can make his swordsmanship to grow even further.

First, he tried to put himself being in Faker's place, and did an image-training; battling Credo. But he felt that no matter what kind of moves he did; this guy is always able to counter it with the simplest move possible. 

And after few more moments, Shin can finally see the difference of his strength and these guys. The gap in their abilities is massive just like the heaven and earth. What he saw before is just the tip of the iceberg. Lawless and the others are not even being serious when battling those Rankers' groups; they are just toying with them earlier. 

Shin clicked his tongue and muttered to himself. "So my vision of catching their backs is just an illusion in my mind, Huh?"

­******

While the Lawless and the others are busy dealing with their enemies. Some of the higher-ups of the different Powerhouses are already in the Shunkai Forest and watching the battle through the projection of the spying stones in front of them.

In one of the temporary camp, there is a group three players sitting around the table, where the battle was being projected. There is a winged-dragon emblem on their chest, indicating that they from Dragon Pavilion.

One of the guys had a Naga as his race but from the equipment that he was wearing; you can see that his class doesn't belong to any of the class that should a Naga Race have.

He is wearing a full-body heavy-armor with a blue-colored cape on his back. There is also a greatsword beside him. The helm that he should be wearing was placed on the table; this helm looked like a dragon's head when someone looked at properly.

The aura that he is emitting is quite heavy if someone looked at him. This guy is `Miracle Dragon` one of the Pavilion Deputy Masters of the `Dragon Pavilion`. The masses addressed him as the `Commanding God` as he is a Godlike Player and one of the great-commanders that never lost war.

Sitting across him is a guy of a Beastman Race. He doesn't belong to any of the current available races of the game as he looks like someone that belongs to lizard race. Well, in fact, he really is from the LizardKin; a sub-race of the DragonKin(Dragon Race).

And it is quite obvious that this guy belongs to knight-related classes as he was wearing a full-body plate-armor coupled with his huge round-shield and double-edged shortsword placed on table.

This guy is the chief-tank of the `Dragon Pavilion`, the `Unbreakable God: Martial Dragon`. He is the elder brother of Miracle Dragon who is sitting across him.

And the third person of the group is a Human. No, he only resembles someone that had a Human Race. Because most of the features of this `Human` were almost the same as a real Human, but if someone looked at him closely, then they can discovered his had same scales around his neck that were extending all the way his chin.

Those scales were divided into two sections. On the left side of his neck are red-colored scales while there are blue-colored scales. Now, you can guess that this guy have a rare hybrid race.

On the other hand, the equipments that he was wearing are just some cloth-armors, but his weapon is a spear with a pair of coiling dragons on its shaft; one of the dragons is colored red, while the other had blue color.

This guy is the real officer-in-charge of `Dragon Pavilion` branch in the Saint Heaven Kingdom. He is not a Godlike Player or a Peak-Titled Ranker that can rival Gods, but his battle prowess is as strong as the two for he is a rare type of player that is called a `Maverick God`; a player that is comparable to Godlike Players but unknown to public. And most of the time, they are the hidden aces of the Powerhouse Guilds or a hermit that are roaming all around the world.

This guy is `Monroe`, and the core members of the Dragon Pavilion addressed him as the `Heavenly Raging Dragon`.

Monroe is carefully watching the battle on the virtual screen with the other two. After a few moments, he turned his head to Martial Dragon and asked. "What do you think, Martial?"

Martial Dragon thought of a moment before replying, "The Miracle Guild is quite clever for joining hands with Skyline, and I can say that it is a good idea for them attack now since everyone else are holding their horses while keeping an eye on each other."

"But that is only if they succeed. Because if they failed; they are just going to become some guinea-pigs that were used to measure the strengths of those guys on the other group." 

"As for the other side, they are strong without a doubt; especially those three that were suspected as Godlike Players. I don't even have the confidence to say that I can beat them, if you ask me."

Monroe nodded his head before turning it to Miracle Dragon and asked. "How about you?"

Miracle Dragon shook his head and said. "Little Brother is right. But I am more incline to say that Miracle and Skyline miscalculated this time. Maybe they became confident on their strengths since the arrival of Credo and Rayford, but they underestimated those guys on the other side too much; especially that Elementalist and Berserker. So I'm pretty much sure that those guys are going to lose."

"But Kashino haven't appeared yet." Rebutted by Martial Dragon. 

Miracle Dragon smirked at his little brother and said, "Of course! Because from what I can guess that woman should be keeping an eye on the others that might attack them from behind."

Monroe nodded his head and asked. "So from your perspective, which side should we take?"

"The mysterious party," said Miracle Dragon without a slightest bit of doubt.

Monroe raised one of his brows while looking at Martial Dragon with interested expression on his face. "Oh~♪, Why did you say so?"

Miracle Dragon thought for a moment before replying. "I feel that those guys are still hiding something under their sleeves. We already knew the area of their movements, but I can still feel that there is something amiss."

This time, Martial Dragon agreed at his elder brother and added. "Actually, those guys are moving like some trained military experts or assassin agents; especially that Gunslinger-guy. He is doing some basic moves that a normal military person would make. So it is better to give a helping hand on our fellow military men, am I right?"

Monroe thought for a moment before saying. "Then our first choice for now is to take those guys' side. But we should wait and observe a little more to see how things would develop; it is still too early to make our moves after all. And we should also be wary of those 'snakes' from the Hydra Guild; those guys are not going to let us do what we want after all."

******

On another temporary base camp in the Shunkai Forest.

Another group of three players are sitting around a square table while watching the battle that is being projected by a spying stone on the middle of the table. And these guys are wearing a coiling serpent emblem on the left side of their chest.

Hydra Guild is the number one Powerhouse Guild known for the public and that majorly because of the guild having the most number of known Godlike Players.

If the Dragon Pavilion have their famous `Seven Talons`, then the Hydra Guild have their `Nine Heads` as their leading figures . And each of these Heads had a very powerful battle standard. And since the number of the Godlike Players of the Hydra Guild exceeds the other guilds in the surface, the guild had gained control of an Empire and 2 Kingdoms; they controlled one more Kingdom than the Dragon Pavilion.

And because of the position of the Saint Heaven Kingdom in the World Map is quite special, the Hydra Guild also wants to conquer this Kingdom; especially since the Evermoon Empire below the Saint Heaven Kingdom and the Glacial Plain Kingdom on the northeast of the Kingdom are the territories of the Hydra Guild. So if the guild managed to gain control of this Kingdom, those two territories of theirs are going to become connected, and it is going to become easy for them to conquer the other neighbouring Kingdoms and Empire.

Those are the reasons why these three people sitting on around the square table were assigned on this Kingdom and they are the fifth, sixth, and eighth Heads of the Hydra Guild. Given this line-up, they should have an easy time conquering the Saint Heaven Kingdom. Unfortunately, their number one rival guild, the Dragon Pavilion, sent two of their `Seven Talons` and one `Maverick God` to hinder their progress.

And since their guilds are keeping each other in check, the other Powerhouse Guilds have taken advantage of the situation and gain their own foothold in the Kingdom. And that frustrated the Heads very much.

But time had change. It is because of this current special event. If the Hydra Guild won this event, then they can get a Guild Residence in the Holy City; which also the placed on the heart of the Kingdom; and this City is suspected to be the closest City that can be upgraded into a Capital City from Major City, all it needed is time to increase the player population a little further.

"These guys that we are going to hunt are quite strong. Good thing that these idi*ts from Miracle and Skyline are going to test the waters for us," said by a WolfKin Master Hunter while watching the battle on the battle on the screen. This guy is the eight Head of the Hydra Guild, `Python`, the `Fatal God`. He is famous for being a thief that is going to kill every enemy on his sight the moment he appeared on the battlefield.

Sitting across Adder is a Spectre Master Assassin. His legs were crossed on top the table with while both of his hands are supporting the back of his head. He seems to be watching the battle being projected by the spying stone on the table, but the look on his eyes are quite blank; as if his thoughts are roaming somewhere. 

This guy is the notorious `Deadly God: Adder` and the sixth Head of the Hydra Guild. And he is known for being someone that can assassinate anyone as long as he wanted to; no one can escape his grasp the moment he desired his target. Even some of the Godlike Players are afraid to be targeted by him.

On the other hand, the remaining guy was shaking heads the moment he saw Adder dozing of once again. Then he shouted at the latter after some moment. "D*mn it! Adder!!! For f*ck sake! At least listen to what I'm saying before dozing off!!!!"

This guy is the fifth Head of the Hydra Guild; the `Toxic God: Cobra`. He is a Dark Elf Master Twilight. He is famous for being a thief that is expert of using different kinds of poisons and hidden weapons.

Python laugh at Cobra and said. "Hahaha… Let him be for now, Cobra. That might be doing another image training on his mind. I can't blame him; those guys on the screen are some fat chicks after all. Let's discuss the plan in between the two of us instead."

Cobra sighed helplessly and said. "Fine. So what do you think we should do for now? If we want to win this event, we need to do something regarding those guys sent by the HeadHunter Guild."

Python thought for a moment before replying while pointing on the screen. "In my opinion, it is better if team up with other guilds too; just like these is idi*ts, since those lizard-men on the Dragon Pavilion will hinder us for sure. What's more, the HeadHunter Guild had the numbers so it is going to be difficult for us. Well, same game for the others."

"But from what we already know, the opportunist of the Wing's Alliance will bid their time for as long as they can to rip the most benefits. The Titan Guild, on the other hand, is out of the question since they are such a hypocrite saying that they are not going to bully the weak; or not going to gang up on these guys since they are some men of honours or something like that. "

"Meanwhile, the money-grabbers of Golden Dawn and the fame-seekers of Credit Republic, are acting suspicious since they are not acting since the beginning the event. For what I know, those guys might already form an alliance since they are too close to each other to begin with, So-..."

Before Python managed to compete what he were saying, Cobra finished it for him. "So what you want to say is we should also watch on the sidelines while waiting for what is about to happen."

Python just shrugged his shoulders and said. "You already said it."

"But I have a better idea," said by Cobra mysteriously.

Python raised one of his brows before asking. "Oh~♪. What is it?"

Cobra formed an evil grin with his lip before whispering something at Python, making the latter to get an intense shiver on his spine. Then the WolfKin looked at the former with astounded eyes before regaining himself.

After that, he also formed an evil grin before agreeing. "That might be work. And it can also catch the others off-guard. I like it! Let's go with this plan!!!"