MMORPG: The Elementalist

The appearance of Demon Faction’s Winged Champions immediately caught Qin Ruo’s eyes. Naturally, this also shocked the others in the area. Inadvertently, they took a few steps back to back away from this dangerous fiend. There were still less than a hundred thousand Winged players in the Mythical Continent; therefore, in most players’ eyes, a Winged Player was essentially one of the biggest threats the world could throw at them.

In just the Second Phase of the Grand Tournament, they were already facing a Winged Champion. What rotten luck they had!

Not many players were willing to brave up and face the Winged Champion head on!

Of course, if these players knew that there was also another Winged Champion in the tower, one that was even more powerful and deadlier than this Winged Warrior here… they might as well just present their necks without hesitation—it would make no difference anyway if they were to die now or later.

***

Unexpectedly however, the Aquamancer was not immediately slain by the Demonic-Winged Warrior…

The ghastly powerful strike had missed its target!

Boooom!!!

The Barrier only shook for a brief moment but the Magic Shield was still intact.

Pooof! Pooof! Poooof!!!

Six eye-catching frost flowers swirled up in the sky and exploded with the Winged Warrior engulfed in the middle of it.

Seeing this, the other players in the vicinity instinctively backed away. If the Aquamancer could fight with the Winged Champion on equal terms, then he obviously wasn’t a pushover either—it’s best for them to keep their distance to not become their fight’s collateral damage.

Regardless, furious battles had already begun at every angle in the bowels of the tower.

No one knew who their opponent was—was it a player? Or an NPC? No one knew. They also didn’t know if a completely different foe had set their eyes on them, and would stab a dagger at their backs when they were fighting an enemy in front of them.

Arrows penetrated the air while swords slashed profusely! Swirls and swirls of Berserk Strikes stormed wildly on the ground while tide over tide of Magic Attacks of all Seven Elements rained down from all angles…

Warriors, who possessed higher HP, Elementalists, who possessed powerful Defense Magic, and Summoners, who possessed the powerful upgrades from their Beastform Fusion, had become the main driving force in the Purge Tower. Nonetheless, due to the halved damage effect in the tower, no one could kill anyone in just one or two strikes.

It was chaos everywhere.

The sole person who was relaxed amidst this chaos—Qin Ruo. Hugging the left side of the tower, he was able to detect everyone in the tower using his Water Elemental Perception.

Intimidated by the speed of how fast his six Frostramparts formed around him, the other players quickly selected other foes and maintained a fair amount of distance from him. After all, not every player knew how to make good use of the geographical advantage that was presented to them in the tower. Most people would want to leave immediately when they were pushed towards the center of the tower. Unlike the rest of the people around him, Qin Ruo had formed a huge towering “Frost Coffin” in the middle of the battle zone and camped in there comfortably—effectively telling everyone that he was a Tier 5 Aquamancer.

Qin Ruo couldn’t care less.

There were already herds of Tier 5 players in “Honor and Glory” after all. There was no reason for him to disguise as a Tier 4 player. It would be a waste of energy for something so inconsequential.

Besides, kill counts didn’t matter at all in this contest. So, Qin Ruo opted to save his energy by not joining the bloodbath outside of his Frost Coffin. He carefully maintained control of his six Frostramparts and arranged them into the circumscription of a Hexagon, placing himself at the very center of it thus blocking off all contact from the outside.

He wanted to prevent the two Bandits from getting close.

No Bandit would dare to approach an Aquamancer’s Frostramparts, at least not within ten meters—they would not be able to escape the Frost Bursts if they got too close to him.

After building up his defense, Qin Ruo relaxed a little and observed the battle zone with his astute Elemental Perception.

All he needed to do now was to be mindful of any enemies penetrating his Frost Coffin. Apart from that, he also needed to keep himself updated with battles that were happening outside.

When the number of the combatants had dwindled enough, he would then act.

***

Meanwhile, the battle between the Demon Faction Winged Warrior and the mysterious Aquamancer was almost over. The Aquamancer was losing.

Although the Winged Warrior had lost his advantage in the first round, the Aquamancer couldn’t effectively hurt the former with any of his attacks. Due to the halved damage, no Elementalist could dish out no more than two thousand damage on the Tier 5 Berserker.

As for the Winged Champion, he was able to follow up with a storm of powerful combo attacks, shattering the Aquamancer’s Magic Shield. As his HP started to dwindle like crazy, the Aquamancer started to slowly back away.

Due to the system’s limitations on communication, no one could utter a single word inside this Purge Tower. No matter how fierce the battles were, no barks and bellows of anger could be heard from inside the tower. The lingering silence amidst the chaos only solidified the increasing pressure and anxiety amongst the combatants.

Qin Ruo watched in silence as the Aquamancer slowly backed away under the forceful push of the Berserker. If this had happened elsewhere, Qin Ruo wouldn’t mind to offer a helping hand to the former to rub some mud onto the Demon Faction’s faces.

Yet, this was the Last Man Standing Contest, and only one person could emerge victorious.

Qin Ruo didn’t want to be killed by the very person he had saved in this contest. And so, he remained completely still as he watched the Aquamancer’s Barrier slowly diminishing… nearing the verge of shattering…

Through his Elemental Perception, Qin Ruo could see the Aquamancer had been gulping down potion after potion as he hastily cast out his Magic Attacks one after another.

This was a sign that he was losing all his edge in combat, a dreadful precursor to his eventual demise.

Eventually…

Boooom!!

The Winged Warrior swung a final blow to the Frost Barrier, shattering it to millions of pieces of Water Elements. As the Aquamancer was about to be finished off; becoming the first combatant to fall in the Purge Tower, a blast of flames fumed between the Warrior and Aquamancer! The flames were so powerful that it roasted parts of the Warrior’s body, stunting his attack.

Qin Ruo was surprised as he saw the fiery monster that was standing next to the Aquamancer.

‘An Aquamancer who possesses a Fire-type Pet. This is new. Nonetheless, it’ll make no difference.’

A pet wouldn’t be able to defeat a Winged Champion!

And… as expected!

As the Aquamancer quickly retreated away and reactivated his Darkfrost Shield, the Winged Warrior saw through the former’s intention and immediately summoned his pet.

A towering four-meter tall Black Bear!

Strong! Muscular!

The jet-black hair on the bear looked almost as dark as the night sky.

A pair of ruby-red eyes burned through its sockets, fuming with a wild murderous intent!

Whoosh!

The Black Bear moved swiftly towards its target, with speed that seemed impossible for its bulky size, and furiously whooshed down a powerful slap with its hefty paw!

Wham!

As the ground shook, a strong visible shockwave blasted out of the bear’s paw! The attack immediately landed on the Aquamancer, who was still trying to prepare his Frost Barrier. For a moment, he stood there… not moving an inch of muscle!

“AoE Stun Attack?!”

Qin Ruo couldn’t help but to yelp out in surprise.

This was the first time he saw a monster discharging out an AoE stun attack that could engulf a target that was twenty meters away. If it wasn’t an Elementalist that got caught in this attack, the victim would have been dead by now.

The instantaneous AoE Stun Attack lashed out by the monster was too much of a sudden! Not even a Warrior-type player could have evaded that!

As Qin Ruo was deep in thought, his Elemental Perception had detected the first player who died in the tower.

However, it was not the Aquamancer; it was a Bowmaster.

Qin Ruo took a brief glance before he pulled his eyes back to the Warrior-Aquamancer battle.

The Bowmaster was skilful—he was able to evade the AoE Stun Attack before he died.

Although Bowmasters possessed great Physical Defense, Movement Speed and Attack Speed, they did not have the protection of Barriers, Combat Auras, Berserk, and Beastform Fusion. It was quite common for a Bowmaster to be the first to die in battles like this.

In mere seconds…

The stunned Aquamancer had finally been fallen by the Winged Warriors’ powerful combo strikes!

The fire-type Pet immediately disappeared after its master died.

Right after the Aquamancer died, Qin Ruo immediately labelled the Winged Warrior as the second most dangerous combatant in the tower.

The most dangerous combatant was, naturally, the Tier 5 Bandit. Ever since Permanent Lock “The Lizard Bandit” rose to fame, there had been an increasing number of Tier 5 Bandits who had decided to keep powerful pets by their side, raising their chances at success when they were assassinating their targets.

It was easy for a Bandit to assassinate anyone in a chaotic battle like this. Qin Ruo didn’t want to take his chances.

It was then, that the Winged Warrior started to scan for his next target. Due to his Demonic Wings, many combatants had been avoiding him. No one dared to get close to him at all.

Therefore, the Frost Coffin, which was merely fifty meters away, suddenly become the obvious target!

Qin Ruo was so bummed out…

This was the one thing he didn’t want to see happening.

Although it was not that hard for him to kill a Winged Champion, he hadn’t heard of any Veteran Champions ever owning a big black bear. And if he wanted to kill this Warrior, he would need to reveal his capabilities—revealing his trump cards like “Lycan Barrages” and “Fatal Frost Crystals”.

If he were to force his hand in front of the “second most dangerous combatant”, it would then be much harder for him to take on the Tier 5 Bandit.

Thus, Qin Ruo laid his eyes on the two Warriors that were battling fiercely.

‘I’m sorry.’

Qin Ruo thought to himself.