Child of Destiny

…

Boom!

While Alucard was showing off how powerful he was, along with the broken race that he possessed by suppressing his opponents alone, the battle on the other side of the map was taking a slightly different turn.

Vulture, who specialized in taking and creating opportunities in chaotic battles, found it a little hard to deal with Owen and Ithilien.

The individual skills of these two were already not battle, particularly Owen, who had already reached the absolute borderline between Peak Titled Rankers and the gods of the game. Adding their top-notch coordination, Vulture was having some trouble in this match.

Even if he was quite skilled and could be ranked very high among the Maverick Gods of the game, he was still unable to showcase his area of expertise in this match.

Unlike what was happening on the opposing side of the battlefield, where Alucard was ‘casually’ flexing his class, race, and skills, this side was somewhat going in the opposite direction.

With Owen utilizing the ‘Thunderbird Divine Tattoo’ to the fullest, perfectly warding off every attempt of ambush that Vulture tried to throw at Ithilien.

The tank-type classes were supposedly slow due to the set of heavy armor that they were wearing. But at this point, such a class was currently moving with high mobility, matching those with agility-type classes such as assassins and thieves.

This was the greatest headache that Vulture was currently facing. Adding that Ithilien could repeatedly put a mark on him with the help of the surrounding trees, plants, and even grasses, the situation had become a bit trickier to deal with.

The combination of these two people had already been studied by quite a lot of people, but countering their coordination was much harder than what had been formulated with theoretical knowledge alone.

The members of God’s Paradise had also analyzed Owen’s cards for quite some time, particularly Lia and Ashura, who first realized the threat that Owen could pose to them in Group Battles and Team Competitions.

But they had somewhat overlooked Ithilien’s abilities due to her being repeatedly overshadowed in the previous matches.

It was not on purpose, as those who fought alongside her on the field were much brighter than her when performing on the field.

Now that the arrangement that the Empyrean Talons had prepared centered around her, she started to showcase her true talent and real capabilities.

She usually paired with Owen whenever they were sent on the field, so quite a lot of people were aware of what they were capable of doing together.

Most people only gave all the credit to Owen, who was always outdoing himself in every battle and proving to everyone how strong he was.

But now that Vulture was directly standing on the opposing end of the matchup, he realized that the abilities of this elven archer were more than just what they could see from the surface.

Her connection with the surroundings, particularly with nature itself, far surpassed most of the players of the game with the same race.

An elf with such a high connection with nature should be someone with at least Transcendent Race or top-notch Ascended Race at the very least.

The fact that she was able to hide it from everyone was more than enough to make Vulture wary of her, especially when he just realized that they barely had any information about this elven archer despite the initial data that they had about every member of the Empyrean Talons.

“Tsk! It seems like we have fallen quite deep into the trap,” he mumbled after realizing something.

The plan that they had was to somewhat drop the first round, which focused on two Single Matches. It was in exchange for saving more of their key members for the next two rounds, the Group Battle and the Team Competition.

Sheryl and Berit were long-time partners and were quite well-known even from the previous games that they had played before.

Both might have changed their current in-game names right now due to certain reasons, but they were still known as one of the top duos within the virtual world.

But from the look of it, Alucard seemed to be suppressing them to a certain degree, especially when Vulture could tell that those two were forced to use their respective trump cards based on the loud explosions that were coming from a distance.

Those two somewhat expected this outcome, which was why Vulture was also sent out for this round, filling all the gaps and weaknesses that the two had.

Moreover, he could also take advantage of his key expertise to put more pressure on their opponents.

Unfortunately, the opposing side seemed to have already seen through their plan and made certain arrangements ahead of time.

The double marksman, plus a highly mobile tank, greatly countered the lineup that they had.

With Alucard and Ithilien working together, Sheryl and Berit would receive a lot of pressure, especially when Alucard was very familiar with them.

This was the main reason why they had sent out Vulture to target Ithilien to lessen the pressure that the two would be having in the match.

Unfortunately, such a response was what the opposing side wanted them to do, catching them in a trap that was specially prepared for them.

He was still doing quite well against the two of them despite all of this, but he knew that he was not the deciding factor in this match.

It was that battle on the other side of the battlefield!

Thinking about this, he began considering whether he could simply return to that place to assist the two, thereby creating more chaos on that side.

Unfortunately, Owen and Ithilien would not let him go now that he was already trapped here, and he understood this very well.

Moreover, he also had to consider that Ithilien would be free to provide long-range support, further adding to the suppression that Alucard was already pressing on Sheryl and Berit.

If Alucard alone was more than enough to suppress the two, then it was not that hard to imagine how much more Ithilien could add if she joined in as well.

It was at this moment that Vulture realized that there was no escape from their current situation.

“Tsk! This is not going to be a problem if we just send either Dio or Keir in this round,” he mumbled as he continued to dodge the arrows fired by Ithilien while also keeping Owen away from him at the same time.

However, he swiftly rejected the idea as he recalled the other two troublesome opponents from the Empyrean Talons’ side.

“But it will be a problem for us because those two are the only ones who can keep Diablo and Charlotte in check for the Team Competition,” he clicked his tongue after realizing that.

“Tsk! Tsk! This will not be a problem if the twin or even the mad alchemist is here. Unfortunately, they are currently on an important expedition in the real world,” he complained a little before dropping the subject altogether.

…

The match continued, and the two sides of the battlefield continued to intensify the more time passed.

However, it was clear to everyone that the tides of the battle were leaning toward the Empyrean Talons’ favor, making it more obvious how powerful Alucard was.

The ‘brokenness’ of his Vampire Race was only known to those top guilds and huge organizations within the game.

Some of the top gods of the game, who remained solo up until now, might also have some idea. But they still did not know about its true significance.

Regardless, the people started to see that this match was almost in the bag for the Empyrean Talons.

So long as no accidents were happening, the Empyrean Talons would most likely gain the first big advantage of the Grand Finals.

…

“Tsk! It looks like we have lost the bet,” said Lia, sighing a little.

“Well, there’s nothing we can do about that,” smiled Ashura as he stared at Alucard, who was almost completely suppressing Sheryl and Berit all by himself.

“We have already expected this to happen, but it was still quite unexpected that Alucard’s abilities are this broken,” Lia pursed her lips a little after seeing the Sanguine King showcase a variety of vampiric abilities throughout the battle.

“Well, it is still quite worth it. We are now at least aware of his abilities and can find a way to counter most of them for the rematch later,” said Ashura while squinting his eyes.

“Eh!? Now that you put it like this, then I think that it is quite worth it,” she said, clapping her hands along with sparkling eyes.

“If it is like that, then I think that those guys have lost something in exchange,” Susanoo chimed in with a slight frown on his face.

Ashura shook his head when he heard that. “It is. But it is not that much of a big impact since Alucard’s abilities will be revealed to everyone sooner or later.”

“Tsk! Tsk! If only the twin or mad alchemist is here, then things will be more interesting,” said Kallavan after realizing something.

“Those three, huh?” Ashura paused for a moment before nodding. “You may be right.”

……