MMORPG: The Elementalist

Qin Ruo had guessed it correctly—right after the Demon Faction’s Winged Warrior “Noodle Prince” defeated the Aquamancer, he immediately set his eyes on Qin Ruo, also an Aquamancer.

However, after seeing the gigantic hexagonal Frost Coffin, which hummed to the tune of a grim mysterious essence from within, Noodle Prince had a hunch that this Aquamancer was much stronger than the one he defeated earlier!

Even though the previous Aquamancer too possessed the strength of a Tier 5 Champion and was able to put up a fight for more than half a minute… sometimes, a “hunch” was really a difficult thing to grasp.

Suddenly, Noodle Prince noticed something!

The Frost Coffin, which had remained static and silent fifty meters away, suddenly began to move!

Hmmm?

As the Frost Coffin moved, Noodle Prince then noticed the prey that the mysterious Aquamancer was targeting…

The direction that the Frost Coffin was heading… there were two Warriors that were fighting and butting heads furiously.

One of them was a Steel Berserker—the other was a Zephyr Swordmaster. As they were fiercely exchanging blows while gulping down potion after potion, their pets were also giving their all by going at each other’s throats. They were so engrossed in their battles that they didn’t even notice the approaching Frost Coffin.

This Aquamancer was surely a weird man. When he decided to not move, he would stay still like a tree. Yet when he decided to act, his movement was as quick as lightning!

In mere seconds, he had now gotten real close to the two Warriors—encasing them straight into his attack range!

And yet, the two Warriors didn’t seem to notice a new threat was closing in—they were still fighting head to tail, unremittingly crossing their blades like there were no other living beings existing around them!

And it was then, when the Frost Coffin had stopped moving.

Noodle Prince watched in awe as ten crystal bright Frost Arrows suddenly shot out in two waves, slashing through the air and, like bolts of lightning, struck directly at the backs of the two Warriors!

Whoosh!

Whoosh Whoosh!

When the two Warriors realized something was off, the arrows were already meters away from them! Their battles suddenly halted as their bodies were dragged off the ground by the ten Frost Arrows, pinning them to two different walls.

The two fighting pets vanished into thin air the instant their masters’ fight was over.

After this… Qin Ruo let out a sigh of relief as he saw, using his Elemental Perception from within his Frost Coffin, the Winged Warrior’s cautious gaze.

Great! His strategy—attacking the two Warriors when they were recovering their HP with Potions, to create an “instant kill” effect, actually worked! This was enough to stun the Winged Warrior for now—making him eliminate the other opponents first and afterwards end the battle royale with a one-on-one duel.

After the Winged Warriors and other players backed away and swirled into their own battles again, Qin Ruo relaxed and settled down in his Frost Coffin comfortably. Now, he only needed to wait.

It was a long wait indeed.

It was then… that Qin Ruo pondered on one weird thing.

‘Just who were NPCs amongst these combatants? Many of them seemed so bright!’

***

Well, there were a lot of bright fellows in “Honor and Glory” indeed, and Black Rock was certainly one of such people!

Right after the game developer revealed the first battle video and announced their plan, Black Rock had been scheming to join this second round of the Grand Tournament.

The First Phase was over, and it didn’t really eliminate many players out of the Tournament…

As for the Last Man Standing Contest, there were at least billions of players entering the Purge Tower. There must be something unique about this contest that the developers didn’t openly reveal. So, he did not head straight into the Second Phase of the Grand Tournament. He decided to venture to Savis Town clad in a full set of newbie armor, and waited next to the town’s Resurrection Portal.

Clan Leaders and Veteran Champions had already gotten their battles recorded and made into battle videos and then uploaded into the Official Website. Oh, what an honor to be immortalized like this! Perhaps he would get the same chance too in the Second Phase…

A few more minutes passed…

And it was as expected… several players had limped out of the Resurrection Portal. Some of them were still excited at the battle they had just experienced… while some were wounded by disgrace and regret… these were, as Black Rock suspected, the first ones to suffer defeat in the Last Man Standing Contest.

“Hehe!”

After letting out a wry grin, Black Rock rushed over to acquire some first-hand insider intel on the “Last Man Standing Contest”.

However, no one paid him any attention—they either rushed to the nearest Potion Stores or Markets, or they quickly disappeared right under Black Rock’s nose—hopping right back into the Last Man Standing Contest.

After waiting for so long, Black Rock still hadn’t acquired any useful intel on the contest at all!

“Damn!”

Upset by this, Black Rock furiously sat on the ground as he watched the players who headed back to the Contest, “These newbies! What’s wrong with spending a wee bit of time to exchange information? Right, just go back in! Just go back in and die again! What a bunch of suicidal crazy bastards!”

“….”

Still no one paid him any attention, which upset Black Rock even more. Left with no option, he decided to ask in the League’s chat channel…

However, Black Rock got it wrong yet again. The Contest had only just begun mere minutes ago—and who would admit that they had been killed and eliminated from the first round of the Contest? Yet, after yelling in the League’s Chat Channel for half a minute, there was no reply at all. Nothing but silence.

“…”

Surely enough, Black Rock quickly realized the reason behind this silence. Of course, he couldn’t rant about all that happened at Savis Town’s Resurrection Portal earlier. So, all he could do was to just sit in a corner and pout.

Suddenly!

Someone familiar walked out of the Resurrection Portal. He didn’t head towards the Potion Stores and Market—he didn’t teleport out of the town right away too. All he did was drag his feet out of the portal in defeat towards Black Rock.

Black Rock was overjoyed.

“Old Remorseless?”

***

Not every Veteran Champion was like Qin Ruo; not many of them knew how to cloak themselves in mystery and observe the other combatants from afar.

Remorseless Warrior, the Clan Leader of the Executors, were definitely one of the unluckier combatants.

Not even a minute had passed since the Last Man Standing Contest started and yet, Remorseless Warrior had already limped out of the Resurrection Portal in defeat…

Although he could hear someone calling to him, Remorseless Warrior didn’t have the mood to respond at all. With a sour face, he dragged his feet to a corner next to the Resurrection Portal and slumped down.

“Hello?”

Black Rock lightly pushed Remorseless Warrior who seemed to be completely dead, and looked him in the eyes for ten straight seconds.

Black Rock then realized that he had been completely ignored by this lifeless Clan Leader.

“Old Remorseless? My man!”

“Huh?”

Remorseless Warrior finally came to and saw this weird perverted-looking man warmly greeting him by his side. In response, Remorseless Warrior shrug him to a side and asked, “Do I know you?”

Even though this “newbie” did sound familiar, Remorseless Warrior, being the Clan Leader of the famous Executors, was shocked when a weird man, clad in full set of newbie gear, dared come and talk to him so candidly.

“Oh, come on! It’s me! Black Rock!”

Black Rock finally revealed his identity. Remorseless Warrior let out a sigh of relief and then rolled his eyes at Black Rock.

“Why are you here? And why are you dressed like this?”

“Ugh.”

Black Rock originally wanted to proceed with his plan. He however, couldn’t bring himself to ask Remorseless Warrior about the Contest after seeing his dejected looks.

Seeing no response from Black Rock, Remorseless Warrior didn’t have the mood to inquire further too.

He was almost as powerful as the Veteran Champions yet, he was defeated by the combined might of several newbies in the Contest. He was so pissed that he didn’t even have the energy to throw a tantrum.

***

Remorseless Warrior had planned to show his hand from the start in the beginning of Last Man Standing Contest in order to quickly win the fights without wasting any of his potions.

However, it did not go well at all…

Due to his appearance changing into the Silver Warrior’s disguise from the Purge Tower, his abilities and true identity were completely unknown to other players. From the first second the battle started, he was already surrounded by three different Elementalists all at the same time.

If it was the usual situation, he wouldn’t have cared about these three…

Yet, everyone’s damage was halved in the tower, so Remorseless Warrior was unable to instantly shatter the Elementalists’ shields and kill them with his one-hit attacks.

Even though he could evade the trio’s first wave of attacks using the skill “Charge”—he even knocked one of the three Elementalists into the air, Remorseless Warrior wasn’t quick enough on his feet and had allowed the trio to best him again with their superior synchronicity in attacks and rapport.

The trio knew they couldn’t show an ounce of fear in front of this Berserker. If not, he would be able to retaliate with an immensely powerful scourge. This was especially true for the Elementalist that was knocked back by Remorseless Warrior—after regaining his composure, he immediately shrugged off his wound by waving a Magic Shield in front of him and gulping down a bottle of potion.

Three Elementalists and three pets!

After being bombarded by a series of Magic Attacks, Remorseless Warrior not only had his defense utterly destroyed, his HP was depleted, like water which had drained down the gutter. All he could do was to keep defending and defending…

There was nothing he could do when faced against three Elementalists, who were cloaked in their Barriers. There was no way a Tier 5 Berserker could stand up against three Elementalists like this.

After biting the dust, the prideful Remorseless Warrior left the Purge Tower with a bitter taste in his mouth.

He was bummed out enough when he lost the First Phase in the Mythical Mirage. Nonetheless, it was easier for him to shrug it off because there were plenty of other Veteran Champions that were defeated too. Yet, he didn’t think he would be defeated this pathetically in the Second Phase…

After ranting all these out to Black Rock, Remorseless Warrior felt much better—as though a heavy weight had been lifted off his heart. As for Black Rock? He felt a string of uneasiness as he heard this.

If a formidable Warrior like Remorseless Warrior could be defeated so quickly by the hands of three people, what more him, a mere Terramancer… he wouldn’t fare any better in this… Perhaps it would be safer for him wait it out until most Veterans had advanced through the Second Phase before he tried his hands in the Purge Tower?