BlackBlaze is not just an expert in name, he is proving even in the early times that he is indeed not just a typical player. He is someone who already calculated things using his existing abilities and trying to make use of them to surprise his enemies. And it seems he caught me in one of those situations.
He took advantage of my vulnerability during the casting time of the [Earthshaker] where I will be in a vulnerable moment and cast a quick [Wind Blade]. However, it was a pity that I am not just going to let them do what he thinks he can do. When the [Wind Blade] is almost going to hit me, the [Earthshaker] casting time also ended however, deflecting it with anything isn't going to help me and the small delay is also a piece of bad news to me. Thankfully, there is one more trump card that I have saved up in my arsenal.
Before the [Wind Blade] hit me, I decided to use the secret skill that I recently obtained after managing to fulfill its requirements.
[Magic Jammer]!
DENG!
The [Wind Blade] that was supposed to damage me or worse, can kill me, didn't do a thing to my body and it was like it hit a rock and disappeared.
"WHAT?!"
BlackBlaze was stunned as he didn't expect his [Wind Blade] to do no damage at all.
"Where are you looking?"
Before BlackBlaze can react the flaming sword in my hand is already pierced on his chest. The flames intensified and his health slowly goes down before he knew it.
"Damn, I didn't expect this but it was my loss..."
"You pressured me enough and is quite clever in keeping me on toes with your attacks. Not bad at all! You are a worthy opponent!"
"Heh..."
I quickly ended the battle by pulling the sword upwards, slicing his torso up to the head into two.
"AND WE ARE DONE! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! AS ALWAYS, OUR WINNER IS NONE OTHER THAN BLADEHEART! HE IS NOW GOING TO BE IN THE SEMI-FINALS!"
I raised my sword as the announcement was made and everyone started cheering, the whole arena is shaking from the cheers alone. And I am also now ready to go to the semi-finals.
The next battle ended quickly than expected and soon enough, six players are left behind out of all the people who participated. We are given a few minutes to rest and the audience also went to "Lunch Break" too. It is a good way to keep the players who played to rest for a bit before the big fight.
I left the Arena for a bit since there are still 2 hours left before the announcement for the semi-finalists are announced. They are making it longer as usual due to all the players who joined. It would be not a good idea to keep the arena running without letting the "gladiators" rest. Even the audience needed some breaks too.
As I get out of the arena, my parents and my friends are all waiting for me.
"As expected of my son! You are not just showing off your abilities! You are quite a badass in that last battle too!" My father praised me a lot and pat my back hard that I coughed a bit after choking from his slight pat.
"Dear, I know you want to pat our son for the show he dominated but you should be controlling your strength. You are a game character and your simple pat might break his in-game character's bones!" My mother scolded my father.
"It's alright! He won't die since we are in town and my character is not that strong yet anyway."
"OH? If that is the case, are you willing to become my sparring partner?~ I really need some dummy that can handle all of my punches. Most of the dummies I have used so far are breaking to pieces, so I assume you can at least substitute to a dummy?"
"H-huh?"
I look away from what is happening to my father. Yep, he is not going to be able to escape this one, I can only just pray that he will survive. Even I can't interfere and I don't want to irk the ire of my mother at all.
I had a casual talk with the others outside the arena. They are supporting me from the audience stand and they also bet on me to win the finals. They are pretty confident I will win huh? But that is not a bad thing in my book.
...
2 hours later, I came back to the Arena and it is much more bustling than before. There are even some players who haven't been able to enter since the arena colosseum is now too full to accommodate more people. People who went to take a break decided to bring other people and now we are overflowing with audiences to watch the fight. As expected. If only the arena management reconstruct this place to at least help the accommodation of all players and NPCs who wanted to watch the fight can also watch live. Too bad that is not going to happen at all.
We stayed inside our respective rooms to wait for the announcement. It didn't take long and everyone including me is called out.
"Finally we are now progressing, ladies and gentlemen! After the arduous battle of different weapons and countless wins and defeats happened, we are now entering the Semi-Finals with the remaining people who remained strong and survive the combat!"
Even though the emcee is not hyping the audience, they are already doing it by themselves. I can also bet that the videos of the previous fights are already published on the video-sharing platforms and have been watched by many people already. So the rowdy place has become noisier compared to earlier. In fact, the audience stand is more jam-packed and no longer has a seat to sit down. It is much worse than earlier!
"Since our warriors have assembled, we are now going to announce the lineup that will be fighting after this announcement!"
If fate brings me closer to the enemy, Kazuki might be the one I will be facing next round. But it seems like the NPCs running the arena have an idea and that is to leave the other players who are excelling a lot and can last long in the finals. With Kazuki's good performance so far, it seems they are planning for me, Kazuki, and another one to do the final battle and perform the Battle For Blood. I wonder who will emerge victorious from the...
My thoughts were interrupted when I noticed someone among the players who are now going to be in the semi-finals. I didn't notice her due to the number of players before and she is not wearing any catchy outfit right now, allowing her to look normal. However, now that the number of players is less than before, I have now noticed who this person was.
The Impenetrable Holy Knight, Sigma.
She looks like a plain Holy Knight right now but she is the player who has had an impenetrable defense in the past. She can even beat a Paladin in defending due to her close to the invincible status that seemed to cause her to be described as someone who will remain standing when others have already fallen. I faced her in PVP before back when I am still a Magic Knight and I lost to her. I couldn't even reduce her health to half and only managed to chip a minor amount of it before I was utterly destroyed.
To think she is here, wouldn't this make matters harder?
The brackets for the upcoming battle were announced. Thankfully, I am not facing her, but it's also a shame I didn't get to face Kazuki either. The next enemy is someone I didn't know. I am not underestimating my next enemy but my eyes are fixated on Sigma right now. She has a cool aura and in the past, she is the symbol of the Hero in the kingdom as she defended a whole kingdom alone from an enemy that tried to decimate the whole kingdom to dust.
She is a Holy Knight but she is much stronger than most Holy Knights I have seen in the past timeline. She didn't even need to heal herself and you can say that she can remain stationary and remain to guard against the enemies in one spot and I can confidently say that no one will be able to move her off on that place and she can't die too.
It was like she built her character to focus more on defense and increase more of her defensive abilities while making her attacks a second priority to getting stronger.
The threat right now in the finals is not just Kazuki...No...he isn't even able to be compared to her.. She is not someone you can easily mess with and leave alive.