New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

The loud dong snapped Astaroth out of his musings. He could now see the opposing team, across from them, on the other side of the very large arena.

The other teams were in bleachers all around the arena, which gave it a colosseum feel. Astaroth didn’t enjoy performing before an audience, but he had long since coped with that.

Since his dream had always been to become a pro player, he knew it would happen, eventually. And since he had already taken part in small tournaments with a public in ToB, so he was a little prepared.

That’s when he noticed Morticia side-eying him, and the three other players that were ignoring him entirely. This was to be expected, because of his score, but it made him chuckle.

‘They are in for a rude awakening.’ He thought to himself, grinning.

As the two parties started running towards each other, Astaroth directly used Spirit Melding. His hair turned white as fur grew on his arms and face and he howled to the sky.

The howling wasn’t necessary, but he was using it to garner attention. He had decided that this match was his coming out ceremony.

As all the players in the bleachers, and also the ones in the arena, turned to look at him, Morticia instantly understood her earlier worry.

Since they were playing as a team, she could see his stats when she scanned him. So she instantly fell into shock.

‘So powerful!’ She thought.

Astaroth, meanwhile, dashed straight at the enemy players. The team against him was filled with players he didn’t know.

Even the top-tier player was someone who was probably just lucky enough to pick off weakened players in phase one. He looked weak and brittle.

Astaroth recognized his attire as the equipment of a caster, and directly lunged for him. As he dived through the ranks of the enemy team, they tried taking swings at him, but he was moving much too fast for them.

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That slam alone came with such force that it took away half of the player’s health bar. The rest of which, Astaroth swiped away from him with a quick claw swipe to the face.

The player looked at Astaroth’s furry face in horror as he burst into particles.

Astaroth turned around, grinning madly.

“One down. Four to go.” He threatened.

Immediately after his threat, he used Alpha’s Howl. And with the fear he had already stricken in his opponents, the skill instantly took hold.

All of them froze in terror.

Astaroth wouldn’t lose a second of the fear effect, as he dashed to the next player in the back line, what looked to be a priest. He was running so fast that to most players; he was practically a blur.

When he reached the priest, he pulled out his war axe, and used Severing Strike, causing a critical hit, and emptying that player’s health bar in a single strike.

“And another down.” Astaroth said.

He spun around quickly, but his fear effect was wearing off. The three remaining opponents were front-line fighters, with one of them being a tank.

Astaroth saw the tank face back to the rest of his party, intent on keeping them from reaching him to reinforce him.

‘What a fool.’ He thought, snickering.

His own teammates were also just standing at their end of the arena, in a stupor. He was pretty sure they would not try to reinforce him, anyway.

Astaroth glanced at the three nobodies in his party. The Paladin and the Archer were wearing looks of dumbfounded ness, while Anton was seething in rage.

Astaroth guessed Anton was trying to prove himself here, and he had just stolen his chance. But he couldn’t care less.

With their tank facing the opposition, the two other remaining players of the enemy team were now walking towards him, with looks of total concentration.

They knew he could outrun them, so they were going for a pincer move, trying to pin him down and pummel him to death.

They couldn’t see his health number, just that the bar was full. They assumed by the damage he did, that he had put all into his attack stats, and that his health would be low.

Astaroth played into their game.

As they both split up to get him from the flanks, he didn’t even move. He just looked at them, one after the other, grinning madly.

When they both thought it was now or never, they nodded at each other. Right after that, they dashed at Astaroth, weapons cocked.

As they reached him, Astaroth had still yet to move. He waited.

Both players thought they had stunned him with their pincer move and smiled, as their two weapons collided with Astaroth’s armor.

Or at least they thought they did. But then they saw the slight shimmer off of Astaroth’s body, and the abysmal damage they caused him.

*-234!* *-236!*

The damage numbers felt so small compared to what they were expecting, especially for critical hits! Then they looked up at his bar.

The damned thing had barely budged! They had done only three percent damage!

Fear gripped them, as they understood why Astaroth hadn’t moved. He wasn’t surprised; he was just looking down on them, and with reason.

‘Monster!’ They both thought.

But before they pull back from him, Astaroth put them out of their misery. He swapped out his war axe for his daggers and sliced the two players multiple times in a second.

As they burst into particles, the remaining player on their team saw their names turn grey. He turned around to see what was happening, only to end up face-to-face with a grinning beast-man.

Astaroth had again swapped out weapons, this time to his longsword, which he swiftly stabbed through the tank, shoving it out of his back.

The tank looked in disbelief, as his health bar drained away slowly, after losing an eighth with the stab. He shook himself back to reality, and kicked off of Astaroth, to take some distance.

But Astaroth wouldn’t let him off that easily. He chased him around and sliced at him repeatedly until the player burst into particles himself.

The whole fight lasted only for two minutes, as Astaroth turned back into his normal self, looking at the silent crowd. He went all in and pulled out a quote from a popular movie.

“What!? Are you not entertained!?” He shouted, lifting his arms high.

Not more than a second after, the entire crowd erupted in cheers.

‘And, scene.’ He thought, smiling to himself.