Novel Full Chapter 534: Deterrence
Chapter 534: Deterrence
Moon watched the archer prepare his strongest attack calmly from his own pillar, the corner of his mouth curling slightly.
~Whoosh~
The archer’s mana-infused arrow struck the blue fireball mid-air, his strongest skill committing a significant portion of mana into a single desperate interception.
The two attacks collided with a thunderous explosion, the explosion bright enough to draw camera drones from across the arena as well as the attention of thousands of spectators.
For a moment, the fireball seemed to stop.
The archer’s eyes lit up. He stared at the suspended explosion, the smoke billowing outward, the heat dissipating into the air. His hands hovered in front of him, his mana reserves nearly bottomed out from the previous skill use. But at least the threat had been neutralized.
"Haha..."
A nervous, triumphant laugh escaped his lips.
He had almost believed he had lost the moment Moon raised his hand. The blue crackling fireball was terrifying, menacing in a way.
Thankfully the fireball had been stopped. His skill had worked. He was still standing. His pillar was still intact.
He let out a long, ragged breath of relief. But beneath the relief was something that didn’t quite match the expression on his face.
The archer had begun attacking Moon for a very specific reason.
The archer wasn’t a fool. He had reviewed his own ranking on the leaderboard, alongside Moon’s ranking. As the top ranked contestant of the previous stage, Moon wasn’t exactly difficult to spot.
But the goal had been clear from the start. He wasn’t going to make it far in this tournament. He didn’t have the skill set, the tier, or the depth to advance. Most likely, he would be eliminated during the early to mid stages of this stage.
But there was still value in his remaining time.
If he could put on a performance against the previous top ranker, the audience would remember him. If he was lucky and caught Moon off guard, he might even be the one to remove Moon from the bracket entirely!
His act of defiance would echo through the kingdom’s sponsorship networks for months. Even if he failed, every solid hit he landed on Moon’s pillar would be footage. Footage was what got him noticed by factions looking for fresh talent.
Either way, he won.
But the real reason he had been pressing this fight wasn’t just the audience or the sponsorships.
The previous day, after the tournament’s first stage had ended, he had been in the arena when Moon’s confrontation with Marcus had played out. He had watched the entire exchange. Selene’s mockery and Marcus’ humiliation.
After the venue began to clear, he had approached Marcus and Sarah quietly. Outside, away from the cameras and the others.
In the end, they reached a proposition.
Marcus would pay him a significant sum.
In exchange, the archer would commit during the second stage to harassing Moon as much as possible. Ideally, they would team up if circumstances allowed, splitting the work between them. If circumstances didn’t allow it, the archer would still attack Moon independently, doing whatever damage he could manage. Even a few solid hits on Moon’s pillar would degrade his ranking and increase the chances of an upset.
The archer hadn’t accepted out of any loyalty to Marcus. The Miller heir’s humiliation was his own problem. The archer didn’t care about Marcus’s bruised ego or his desire for revenge. He was doing this for the money, a lot of it. Enough to set him up comfortably for months even if he failed in the tournament tomorrow.
It had been a clean and simple business arrangement.
Even if he didn’t manage to take Moon down completely, he had landed enough harassment to count toward the contract’s terms. Marcus would pay.
The archer narrowed his eyes whilst glaring at the smoke, planning his next move.
Whoosh!
The blue orb of flame blasted through the smoke.
The archer’s face went dead pale.
The fireball hadn’t been destroyed, but simply delayed for a few moments.
What he had taken for a single explosion had been the outer layer of the spell breaking apart under his strongest arrow’s impact. The core of the blue fire was still intact and burning, drifting through the smoke toward him.
The fireball resumed its course towards him.
The archer didn’t even have time to scream before the fireball struck his pillar.
The blue flame detonated against him, the impact stripping his fire resistance entirely thanks to Ignite’s special effect.
The flames burnt his clothes, and his armour. Burning through every layer of defence he had. The blast scorched the top of his pillar in a wide circle, his body collapsing onto the burning earth, his mouth open in a silent shout that never made it out of his throat.
Barely a second passed when a precisely controlled pillar of water descended from the sky. Affecting nothing but the pillar’s immediate area.
The torrent slammed down onto the burning competitor, dousing the flames in an instant. The pillar of liquid had a faint purifying glow, a healing effect. The fire was smothered, and the burns were partially neutralized.
Moon didn’t need to look up to know who had done it.
The water bender – Klein.
The Ascender overseeing the tournament decided to intervene in the first elimination of the second stage, moving in to enforce the safety protocols the moment a competitor crossed the threshold into life-threatening damage.
"The first competitor, Jake Sandy, has been eliminated!" The commentator’s voice rang out across the arena.
The crowd reacted with a mix of cheers and groans. Most applauded the speed of Moon’s victory. The cameras swarmed toward Moon’s pillar, capturing him from multiple angles as he stood calmly with his staff resting against his shoulder.
’This should be enough to deter any more idiots from attacking me without confidence.’ Moon thought, his eyes landing on the second three-star neighbour of his.
The evolver gulped in fear, Moon’s eyes striking fear into his heart.