Child of Destiny

...

Victory – Angel of Death!

Every spectator of the match was staring blankly at their virtual screens as these words were clearly reflected on their eyes.

Their heads were unable to process what they were currently seeing as they couldn't keep up with the series of events that occurred at the final moments of the round. Everything happened a little too fast for their heads to process all of the information that they saw.

It took them quite some time before they had a delayed reaction.

Uproar!

The spectators of the match suddenly went crazy the moment their minds finally caught up with the scene in front of their eyes.

The chat boxes of the live streams and broadcasts that were covering the match were flooded with exclamation marks and shocked emojis.

Meanwhile, the hosts who were covering the match also recovered themselves at the same time and quickly resumed the discussion about the fight. They started breaking down the details of the match while also showing the slow-motion recording of the round's highlights.

But no matter how busy they were, the main characters of this topic currently had no intention of giving them enough time to their breaths.

For normal matches, there would always be a small window of rest every time the match ended. It was for them to have a brief moment to catch their breath and analyzed the details of the match.

But for the match initiated with 'Godly Challenge Rights', both of the contenders were given a special option to immediately start the next round or take a brief moment of rest. And currently, Immortal suddenly sent a challenge at Shin to skip the resting time and quickly resume the fight.

Seeing that notification in front of his eyes, Shin couldn't help but become suspicious at Immortal's choice. Especially when the dangerous feeling that he felt earlier was still lingering in the air; he was sure that the threat was still present in the field.

"Immediate Restart? If I accept this challenge that means the battlefield will remain in the same state where our match ended. And at the same time, our used skills are not going to reset their cooldowns," muttered Shin to himself while squinting his eyes.

After that, he swept his gaze at the whole battlefield alongside his enhanced senses. And that was when he noticed the overflowing dark elemental mana lingering in the air.

"Heh! So, that was it," sneered Shin the moment he realized what Immortal was planning to do. "So, he did all of those just to scatter all of these dark Mana in the air while his undead monsters were chasing after me all over the place."

After that, Shin fell into deep thought as he was considering whether to accept the challenge or not.

At one point he wanted to accept it as he was curious about what Immortal was planning to do. He also wanted to get another glimpse of the Lich God's real strength so that he could see the current gap that they currently had.

But at the same time, it also meant that his chances of winning on the next round were going to drop significantly if ever he accepted the challenge. And he was also not sure that he could win the next round after that.

Hu!

Regardless, his competitiveness and hunger to have a more challenging battle still emerge in the top. So, instead of choosing the path with a much easier way to win, he chose to accept the challenge and welcomed it with open arms.

"At the very least, I just need to use my cheat card to counter the worst-case scenario," muttered Shin as he stared at Immortal with a determined look at his face while hitting the accept button.

*Ding!*

And right after he accepted the continuous challenge, a loud sound of a bell suddenly resounded in the whole battlefield which also interrupted the live-streamers and broadcasters who were covering the match.

System: Ranker Angel of Death accepted the 'Immediate Restart Challenge' sent by Lich God: Immortal!

System: The second round will start shortly.

Seeing those notifications, everyone seemed to have a tacit agreement as they simultaneously turned quiet and stared at their virtual screen with wide-opened eyes.

They had no time to think about what just happened. All they needed to know was the fact that the match was about to resume. So, they needed to immediately drop whatever they were doing and wait for the next round to start.

No one dared to blink their eyes as they were too afraid that they were going to miss a single detail of the match if ever they closed their eyes even for a split second.

System: The battle will start in 10, 9, 8, …

Then the system started counting down, which made the atmosphere that everyone felt become too tense as they took a silent gulp to swallow a mouthful of saliva. And every time the digital clock ticked down, they seemed to feel that their hearts were beating alongside it.

Meanwhile, both Shin and Immortal took their respective battle positions as they got ready for the upcoming round.

Aside from their health bars which filled back to full, the other buffs and ongoing cooldowns remained the same. In fact, their skills which were currently in cooldown remained frozen and were waiting for the match to start.

…, 3, 2, 1, 0.

Start!

Right after the digital clock hit zero, Shin didn't even think twice as he quickly activated the strongest buffs from his arsenal to strengthen himself

'Equipment Skill (Weapon: Yamato): Nephilim's Ascent'

'Extra Skill (Unique Special): Conversion – From VIT to STR and AGI'

Shin divided his VIT stats and converted them equally on STR and AGI. And due to that, he suddenly gained an immense boost on both his attack and movement speed.

Swoosh!

At the same time, he also used the two charges of this 'Moonlight Steps' consecutively before transitioning it to one of his signature opening skills.

Swoosh!

'Self-Created Skill (Combined): (Modified) Moonlight Splitter'

Shing!

Shin seemed to split the space as he traveled from one end of the battle arena to another end where Immortal was currently standing. And due to that, the streak of light that he left on his path seemed to become a void tear as they linger in the air for quite some time.

Clang!

But despite having a sudden burst of speed and instantaneous movement, Immortal was still able to respond in time as he blocked the sword with this bone scepter. And given the black vapors surrounding his body, it looked like he also activated his own buffs to enhance his battle prowess.

At this point in time, Immortal's eyes were in a hollow state as there was nothing that could be seen on them aside from the pitch-black color that they currently had.

But at the same time, Shin felt that those abyss-like eyes seemed to be able to see through all of his secrets and read all of his movements.

While Shin was looking at that strange pair of eyes, Immortal's figure started fading away in front of Shin as he activated a blink in an instant.

Seeing that, Shin knew that he didn't have enough time to think about the ability of those strange eyes.

So, before Immortal could even fully blink away from him, he immediately used the maximum potential of his 'Sensing Circle'.

At the same time, he also used his 'True Sight' observation skill which made the eyes behind his mask suddenly release a golden glow as he moved his pupils left and right.

This trick was the fruit of his recent progress on his Martial-Art and Mentalism Insights in the real. And since they had a counterpart inside the game, using them in a PvP and PvE battles became much easier for him.

Whoosh!

With their combined forces, Shin was able to read the fluctuation of mana in the air even if they were unseen by naked eyes. And with due to their help, he was able to predict the spot where Immortal was going to blink.

Swoosh!

After that, Shin quickly moved his feet and followed the direction of the Mana fluctuations in the air to chase after Immortal.

But the Lich God seemed to be noticed Shin's movements which were the reason why Immortal quickly summoned a wall of bones in front of the spot where he was heading, blocking his opponent's path and eyesight.

On the other hand, Shin suddenly ignored the wall and quickly adjusted his footwork to change his direction once again before stabbing his sword forward.

Clang!

And that was when Immortal suddenly materialized in front of him while blocking the blade of his sword.

Then the two of them stayed still for a moment, trying to measure each other's current strength.

There were only a couple of seconds on the clock yet these two monsters had already initiated quite a number of exchanges in just a short amount of time.

Moreover, the ordinary spectators of the match had no idea what just happened because everything happened a little too fast for them to comprehend.

All they saw was the appearance of the streak of light and the wall of bones which appeared almost at the same time before seeing Shin and Immortal locked in an offensive and defensive posture at some part of the battle arena.

But in the eyes of the fellow monsters who were watching the fight, the scene that they saw was the detailed exchanges of the two which happened in just a matter of seconds.

It was even more true for the top experts who were watching live from the specialized VIP rooms that were prepared just for the matches like these. And the moment they saw what just happened, they all knew that these two monsters were finally taking this fight seriously after measuring each other's strengths from the previous round.

So, they started wearing a huge grin while muttering to themselves. "Now, the real battle is about to start."

...