Chapter 201: The First Esports Tournament — Seventh Division (7)
I Come In Peace was right.
Jake was partially immobilized.
His right leg was broken after he'd decided to stubbornly gamble. He bet on being able to use The Feather Step without having it as a skill in his game system.
It can be said that what Drunk Jake learns dwells within him forever.
Jake, however, never picks up skills like a player. He always practices his skills manually to the bone and acquires them through his training and hard work.
His drunk self is the opposite.
He can grasp the potential of Jake's stats, skills, and everything else with a single glance. Given the right conditions, he can learn what Jake sees and studies on the first try.
Jake's Rapid Release Skill was unlocked in its entirety because of that unnatural state.
Jake doesn't even need to glance at the skill's icon to be able to use it.
It's in his blood and bones.
Contrary to his muddled self, Jake still needs the help of the game system to use his other skills. It's, however, a matter of time before Jake can instinctively use the first skills, just like The Rapid Release Skill.
'I used The Feather Step for a few seconds. I failed at the end,' Jake thought as he clung to the forest floor. He received a system message about his broken leg and that he couldn't use it until it was healed.
It wasn't that much of a problem.
Fishing out an arrow from his inventory through The Rapid Release Skill, Jake chucked it behind before any enemies converged on him.
He teleported away. He could finally use it because the chains broke as he plummeted.
In the meantime, Last Coin, El Boss Queen, and Prince landed.
These three immediately got to work.
Last Coin shouted, "I'll limit their angles! Thirty-two earth walls!"
The common earth walls surged from the forest floor. They were so prominent that the trees couldn't stay in their way and were forcefully pulled away. He created a circle and labyrinth inside.
Casual Clowns' perception skills flooded the corridors.
At the entrance of this base, Prince stood still, his colossal frame enough to clog the door.
His hollow eyes represented the abyss of death.
"You've made me mad, little girls," he said as he stepped forward. "I'll cut through as many times as I have zeros on all my bank accounts. And I have lots of them—accounts and zeros."
The Raven Guild's tank ignored his words.
She muttered under her nose as she couldn't wrap her head around Casual Clowns' survival, "How could all of them survive that? We're low-level players! The laws should apply to all of us!"
Maria replied, "I don't know… I was sure their mage and archer would survive our combination, but this is too much."
"Don't be discouraged, Miss! We just have to repeat it! These guys won't be able to survive the same combo twice! There's no way!" Iga encouraged the pillar of her team.
That was when Prince forced her to look at him.
"Stealing Spotlight!" he screamed. "It takes two for a tango, woman!"
He rushed to the tank. The enemy's tank blocked his taunt but was still forced to face him. She raised her shield and entered a steady pose enough to block an avalanche!
Alas, Prince proved to be more than an avalanche.
BANG!
His black shield kicked the woman away, hurling Iga to Maria's side.
Damien Twice sneered, "And it takes more than a man to tango with two ladies."
"W-what's this strength?!" Iga screamed as she lost the ground in less than a second. It wasn't even a contest of strength between her and Prince. It was a total defeat!
While raising her staff, Maria whispered, "He's no longer a human. He's just bones."
"Race change?!" Iga widened her eyes in surprise.
"I heard being undead doesn't fall under the race change category. He's an undead. His physical strength and endurance must have been raised beyond standard means. Our combination forced them to reveal their cards… which they seem to have much more."
Ignoring Maria's comments, Prince swung his heavy sword at Iga.
Her shield started losing its luster as he slashed through its surface, leaving deep dents. Sparks continuously ballooned between them as Prince relentlessly lowered his broad sword at her.
He'd not stop until her shield split into two pieces!
Maria tried to assist Iga by disturbing Prince's weapon with her gravity control. It would have worked well before Prince's Undead Transformation.
He was so much stronger now that her reverse gravity zone wouldn't even lift him.
Prince took a long swing before horizontally slashing his foe.
His higher strength blew away Iga at Maria.
The tank's wider frame consumed the mage.
'Oh no! Miss Maria's health points fell so much! I must quickly stand up!' Iga thought.
That was when Prince put his foot on her stomach and pinned her down.
He shifted his weight onto his boot and added as much strength as possible. The cries of the pitiful mage bounced off her tank's steel armor.
Iga's face crumbled into despair. 'The Guild Master will kill us. She will kill us! Miss Maria can't die in this way! It must be an honorable death, at least! Not under my armor!
No, I can't be the culprit!'
"STOP IT!" Iga screamed out of her lungs.
Prince raised his sword and shoved it into her stomach. "Get your first million before trying to request something from me."
"STOPPPPPPPPPPP!"
The broken pieces of her armor were getting peeled off as Prince thrashed his sword deeply lodged in her stomach. He kept sneering beneath his unique helmet, drawing the entire potential of its design.
That crooked smile was such torture!
It was so prominent that it soon dwarfed Iga's fear of her Guild Master.
She could only despair that she had lost against someone so annoying!
Soon, Maria died.
Following her demise was Iga, who died with the most twisted expression she'd ever drawn.
Prince hollered, "That's an art of death!"
-
"This lance chick is mine!" El Boss Queen shouted as she threw herself at one of the three remaining foes.
It was a lance wielder that Shaw had fought before.
Since he could hear her voice through the voice chat, he clicked his tongue and told her about the lance woman's pattern and sneaky moves.
He explained, "She likes to cut from below the most! Her speed matches mine, so you'd better overwhelm her with strength and obnoxious skill!"
"Your voice is obnoxious!" El Boss Queen retorted.
"Shut up!" Shaw replied.
At the same time as this reply rang out, the lance woman thrust her weapon at El. She didn't bother avoiding it as she knew this weapon couldn't hurt her.
She threw a punch she'd learned in her childhood.
As an orphan, El Boss Queen knew how to fight from as far back as she could remember. Unfortunately, she grew up in one of the worst orphanages, where caretakers had their favorites and even egged on their charges to commit crimes.
She never was a favorite.
Her tanned complexion also made a few caretakers look upon her and force others to mistreat her.
She never had a chance to speak a proper language.
A language of strength shaped El Boss Queen into what she is today.
'Why am I so pissed?!' El Boss Queen thought as she exchanged moves with her opponent. The lance had landed on her numerous times, but none of the strikes had done anything to her.
On the other hand, El was throwing wide punches.
She remained loyal to her true nature, hoping for a lucky punch.
'It can't be because of that guy! This loser failed to land properly!' El Boss Queen thought about Jake. Next, she recalled Prince and how he swore to pay back for throwing him around.
El Boss Queen's heart heated up.
'Damien is so cool! I can't disappoint him! The loser did his best to help me be useful to the team, so I gotta reciprocate him! I will defeat this chick and our next opponents on our way to take over the mountain's top! I'll do it for Damien!'
That was when she recalled her lucky encounter.
In The Warmonger Empire, various masters dwelled.
Some of them were commoners whose dreams were to stand on equal ground with royalties. Those were known as Martial Artists in the empire's lands.
One of them had saved El Boss Queen from the capital's guards.
[You remind me of the young me! Hoho! I will pass you the skill I'm most proud of! This skill is known as The Martial Artists' Skin Skill, which works similarly to The Perception Skill. The more you get beaten, the more your skin gets used to the melee weapons! Once you activate the skill, you can ignore any physical damage!
The more experience you have, the harder it is to overwhelm The Martial Artists' Skin! I can't pass you my cumulative experience, as it's important for you to hoard your own! Hoho! I can pass you a few martial arts skills, though! This is my old rival's punch—The Void Punch! It's the strongest art I obtained in the life-and-death battle against him.
Have fun, and keep playing around!]
El Boss Queen suddenly changed her flow without even thinking deeply about it. Instead of throwing punches left and right, she crumbled into a proper form and thrust her punch forward.
The wind around her twisted like an entrance to the void!
It was such a sudden change that the lance player didn't have any means to block that punch!
El's fist sank into the woman's armor.
The invisible force spun the armor into a gaping hole. Its force was so powerful that the lance woman's vest was also obliterated into oblivion, exposing her milky flesh.
El drove her fist even deeper, sinking her hand into her foe's stomach.
Once lodged in, she rushed forward and rooted the woman to the wall.
"Now, every punch is a lucky punch," she growled.
After freeing her dominant hand, El pummeled the poor opponent to death. The wall beneath the woman cracked numerous times; the same happened to her armor. Her face was worse, as El didn't seem to feel compassion toward other females' beauties.
She broke the lance woman's nose and knocked out a few teeth.
There was no room for fan service.
It was simply a brutal fight.
At the end of it, after the lance woman disappeared, El appeared like a mad but satisfied hound. Blood dripped down her face and fists as she heaved her chest.
She stood still, silent and excited—a broad smile said so.
The crowd loved it, and so did Damien Twice.
He whistled, "Such a crazy art."
El gasped and blushed. She stared at The Dark Knight, her lips parted.
Prince sneered, "Two left. Our boy Coin has caught the ninja in his walls. The thief ran away."
"Ugh… so we didn't get them all?" El Boss Queen asked.
Prince chuckled, "Leave the thief to my dark horse."