女神归来的夏天

~~~(Location: The City Of Jaerey, The Kingdom Of Laasir, The Islands Of Haestar)~~~

~~~(Time: 12:55 PM)~~~

The 10-minute delay due to Marcus\'s attack is almost over, and I\'m clearing my mind for the upcoming fight. Zaraverd is known to be a terrific fighter who can beat just about anyone close to her in power.

Luckily for me, I\'m a Tier above her and Levels higher than her. That didn\'t stop Bluestone from getting a good shot in at Marcus. I should expect the same skill level or greater from the Guild Leader of Flaming Skull.

I\'m not really sure what to expect other than a tough fight, but one thing is for sure. I don\'t see this being a cakewalk, either. In fact, I\'d be disappointed if it were.

The winner of this match will face off against Plutonium in the next round of the tournament. This means this match is one of the most important of the day. I watch the timer eventually reach zero, and I get the notification to head out to the Arena.

As I do, I look toward the place Marcus used his attack. The damage has been completely fixed, and it doesn\'t look like anything even happened. The only evidence is the angry faces of the Players. He killed a lot of them with that move.

I look across from me, and a woman in high-grade armor is also making her way into the Arena. She\'s got powerful gear and weapons to go along with her Legacy Class. Shouldn\'t expect anything different from a top-10 Guild.

"I must say. I\'m a big fan. I didn\'t think I\'d ever get a chance to fight against someone of Hailey Adamo\'s reputation. You have to understand that I\'ll win no matter what. Showing my Guild that Class power, Tier levels, and Player Levels don\'t matter is important to me."

She\'s striking up a conversation as the timer for the match is going down. There are 20 seconds left, and I\'m convinced she\'s going to be the toughest opponent I\'ve ever faced. A thinking Player with a lot of power is far more dangerous than any NPC.

I can see she\'s looking for a response to her declaration. I\'m unsure whether or not I should say anything. The last thing I was to do is pour fuel on the fire.

"Zaraverd... I look forward to seeing how strong you are compared to the rumors about you. But you can believe me. Anything said about me, has been watered down."

I can\'t help but let the competitive edge in me leak out. There is something about fighting someone else who is strong enough to test you. That\'s awesome to me. I\'m hoping that Zaraverd has the ability to do that.

The timer reaches zero, and I slowly pull out my weapon. My armor isn\'t as good as hers, but that\'s just someone to balance out this fight in the end.

In the blink of an eye, I move at speeds that slow down everything around me. As I make my approach, I can see she\'s barely moving in response. Looks like I outclass her by far in the speed department. With a single move, I thrust my blade forward.

The tip clashes with the center of her armor, and I\'m not able to pierce it. Instead, she\'s sent hurtling back into the wall, and the world speeds back up.

However, after that attack. All she lost was 1 percent of her health. Meaning, she\'s an absolute tank when it comes to taking damage. She pulls herself out of the wall she\'s lodged in, and she dusts herself off. As if it didn\'t even phase her.

"You really are fast. I couldn\'t even see you move. However, I\'ve prepared for such a disadvantage."

She pulls out a few potions, and I can tell they\'re an extremely high grade just from looking at them. Probably around Epic. I watch her take multiple swigs of the potions, and she drops the empty bottles once she gets them.

Before I know it, she\'s in front of me and slashing downward from an upward angle. The world slows down, and I move out of the way. But in this almost frozen world, I watch her move her head and look at me.

"Potions to close the gap in speed between us. You must\'ve counted on the fact we would\'ve faced each other eventually. I\'m impressed with Flaming Skull. I\'m surprised you\'re not a top-5 Guild at this point."

A smirk appears on her face, and she\'s soon right on my tail. I have to dodge, parry, and block her strikes. But some of her attacks are getting through. At this rate, she\'ll win.

I\'ve already lost about 20 percent of my health from her strategy. So it\'s about time I even the playing field. I jump away and create a bit of distance. Then I get into a thrust attack stance.

The world further slows down for me, and she\'s now barely moving even with her potions.

"Diamond Piercing Thrust."

The simple words leave my mouth, and in a flash of light, I move forward and thrust my blade into her chest plate again.

She\'s sent back into the wall, and a new part of it is damaged. The cracks spread to the seats, and the world speeds back up. This time, when I look at her health. She\'s lost 45 percent of it. She\'s almost at 50 percent health remaining.

A struggling cough comes out of her, and she falls out of the crater within the wall. Looking up at me with a strained look.

"That was incredible! Never in my life did I think you\'d carry such speed with you! How fast can you actually go!?"

Weak excitement leaves her voice as she stands and supports herself on her sword. Before I can speak, her armor breaks and falls to pieces on the ground. There are cheers, boos, and other such things coming from the crowd.

She seems to be waiting for an answer.

"My speed is even greater than that of Slayer Zern. I\'m the fastest being alive."

No sense in outing my brother\'s identity. Not if he doesn\'t want it. Many Guild Leaders have put together that we\'re family but not the common Player base. And that\'s who\'s watching right now.

A knowing squint appears in her eyes, and I can see she knows who I\'m talking about.

"Then, I can be happy knowing that I made you use speeds you\'d have to use against Slayer Zern."

I look at her confused, and her eyes widen just a little.

"I have to go much faster to fight Slayer Zern, and even then. It\'s only to a point I can dodge and avoid his attacks. He\'s still able to perceive and move at a similar speed."

I can see her pride is hurt at knowing that I wasn\'t going full power. But she\'s still managed to take 20 percent of my health. She and her Guild should be proud of that fact. Not many Players are capable of that.

Still, I might as well end this. Now that her fantastic armor is gone, I launch forward and thrust my blade into her body. Ending the fight and locking in my next match with Plutonium.

~~~(POV: Cera Adamo)~~~

~~~(Location: The City Of Jaerey, The Kingdom Of Laasir, The Islands Of Haestar)~~~

~~~(Time: 12:44 PM)~~~

"Do you think she stands a chance against Plutonium?"

Sally is asking the right question. That\'s the main obstacle for my sister and brother on this day. All I can say for certain is if one of them doesn\'t beat Plutonium, they\'re not getting far in the tournament.

However, the same logic can be applied to Plutonium. He\'s not looking to get out of this early, either.

"Yeah, I do. But she\'ll have to go all out from the very beginning."

That\'s a fight coming up after this round is done. There are still a few thousand matches that need to be decided. But that shouldn\'t take long since the system is handling everything.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: Below this line, I\'ll be keeping Cera\'s player information. That way, I won\'t have to place it into the story above anymore. It takes about 180 words up.

[Slayer (Zern) Lvl.240][Tier-4]

[Exp: 45/100%]

[Title: The Son of Arch-Angel Michael (Hidden)]

[Stats] [Strength - 7095][Endurance - 7045][Dexterity - 7215][Speed - 8240][Focus - 19,660]

[Mana aura control: 6/100%]

[Health: 76,560,000,000/76,560,000,000] [Mana: 216,600,000,000/216,600,000,000]

[Stat Points: 470] [Armor rating: 500]

[Inventory] [Dice of Wayland (Divine)] [The Witness (Legendary Sword)] [Fenrir\'s Whistle (Divine)] [Camping gear] [Fishing poles 2x] [Festival Garbs 2x] [4x EXP Boosts] [Princess Saliandra\'s Panties (Black Lace)] [Desert Warrior Nomad Set (Rare)]

[Passive Perks]

[Inheritor of the Sword] [Son of Heaven] [Slayer of Evil] [Holy Willow Trees Savior] [Finder of Legends] [The Divine who has Legend] [Destined for Greatness] [Dungeon Diver] [An Overachiever]

[Active Skills]

[Heaven\'s light Lvl.74 325/7400] [Protected by Heaven Lvl.74 225/7400] [Slash Lvl.92 4600/21000] [Parry Lvl.68 85/6800] [Double Strike N/A] [Kingslayer N/A] [Raging Machine N/A] [Winged Glory] [Angelic Flight] [Divine Pressure Exertion] [Divinity Pulse] [Controlled Fun] [Angelic Teleportation (Divine)]