On the big screen was the names of the two teams in Group A — [Dragon God's Temple]: Painting Of My Country LV-106 Soulfire Warrior & Storm Pavilion LV-106 Mage & In The Name Of The War God LV-104 Magic Knight & Water Dragon Roar LV-105 Mage & Whistling Wind and Rain LV-104 Priest VS [Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls]: Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand LV-109 Undead Swordsman & From Water LV-106 Magic Knight & Beiming Xue LV-106 Dark Archer & Murong Mingyue LV-106 Priest & Legendary Brave LV-106 Dragon Warrior...
In terms of overall strength, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had an advantage of 1 to 2 levels. In terms of equipment, we had the advantage as well. My weapon was a 4-star Outstanding Spirit-grade weapon, and my armor wasn't any weaker than theirs. He Yi had a Spirit-grade shield, and Li Chengfeng had a full set of Outstanding Dark Gold – grade and Purple Gold – grade equipment. Just the three of us were enough to make the enemy's fighters stand no chance against us.
However, Painting Of My Country's Soul-fire attack and Storm Pavilion's Ice Domain spell were things that we had to be wary of. It would be bad if we failed miserably.
After the host, Fei 'er, announced the pairings, we entered our respective battle rooms and were teleported to the arena. The battle was about to begin!
… …
Through the barrier, we could vaguely see the enemy players discussing their strategy. Painting of My Country was smiling confidently, and Storm Pavilion the mage was smiling without saying a word. In the name of the War God, he was pointing in our direction as if he was giving out a strategy. Fans of the novel loved to read: The War God.
"How are we going to fight them?" He Yi asked.
Li Chengfeng replied, "Painting Of My Country's Soul-fire attack ignores a lot of Defense, so we need to kill him first. Otherwise, he'll be too much of a threat to us fighters. Also, those two mages have great chemistry with each other. If they attack at the same time, none of us will be able to handle it. That's why we should target these three first."
I nodded and said in a low voice, "In a moment, Chengfeng will activate [Charge] first and confuse the two mages' line of sight. Under your cover, I'll take the opportunity to kill that Storm Pavilion. We can't let him cast [Frost Ground], otherwise our attack power will be greatly reduced. Our team, which specializes in attack power, won't be able to last long."
"Mn, got it!"
… …
At this time, the system began the countdown — "3!
“2！”
“1！”
The quarterfinals began!
The moment I activated Martial God, a notification popped up in my combat log — Beep!
Combat Log: Player "Painting of My Country" has activated stratagem skill [Encourage (Tier 4)], increasing party members' Attack Power by 17%. After adding in Tactics, the effect is increased to 31%!
Holy shit, their stratagems were pretty awesome as well. They were able to buff their Famous General Skills to this extent even though they weren't Famous General Skills. They were on par with high-level Tacticians!
"Whoosh!"
Li Chengfeng was the first to charge forward. When he was within 40 yards of Water Dragon Roar, he activated Charge. Midway, he swung Reverse Scale Slash at the Rippling Storm Pavilion. The Rippling Storm Pavilion reacted quickly, but the center of the arena had already been hit by the Reverse Scale Slash. It became the best cover for Li Chengfeng. Fans of the novel loved to read: "
My eyes turned cold. I locked onto Disturbance Pavilion's position and activated Thunderous Charge!
"Whoosh!"
I arrived in front of the Rippling Storm Pavilion in an instant and stabbed his Magic Shield with Ice Ray. The Rippling Storm Pavilion's expression immediately changed. "Fuck, you're that fast?"
Puchi! I failed to tear through the Magic Shield, so I followed up with another slash and broke it. The Rippling Storm Pavilion immediately retreated with an ashen expression. At the same time, he raised his scepter and shouted, "Ice Barrier!"
Rustle rustle...
Suddenly, the ground was covered in a layer of frost. Icy energy rose from the ground and greatly slowed the movement and attack speed of the Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls players.
I gritted my teeth and used the 15% movement speed advantage of the Barbaric War Boots to give chase. Mages weren't fast to begin with, and cloth armor boots didn't boost their movement speed. Even with Ice Barrier's slowing effect, the Rippling Storm Pavilion still couldn't outrun me!
I flicked my sword and used Thousand Ice Slash!
"Not good!"
Windswept Pavilion growled and hurriedly chugged down a health potion. However, he still couldn't block my fierce attack. Windswept Pavilion slowly fell to the ground under the icy light of Thousand Ice Slash. After his shield was broken, his only fate was to be one-shot by my attacks.
… …
When I turned around, a shocking scene unfolded before me. Li Chengfeng blocked left and right, but to no avail. Suddenly, he was stunned, and Painting of My Country pounced toward him. His longsword burned with soulfire as he attacked Li Chengfeng three times in a row, shaving off a huge chunk of his HP — 2907!
“3782！”
“3193！”
Murong Mingyue instantly healed him, but she still couldn't keep his HP up. The enemy mage, Water Dragon Roar, raised his scepter and summoned a cyan dragon — Dragon's Roar!
“4419！”
Li Chengfeng shuddered and slowly collapsed to the ground. None of us expected Water Dragon Roar to have such a powerful skill. We were completely at a disadvantage!
I hurriedly ran back to where I came from. On the other side, He Yi had blocked off two enemy warriors and deleted a huge chunk of their HP with her Soul Stealing Spear. Painting of My Country and In the Name of the War God didn't dare to underestimate them.
Beiming Xue's eyes were frosty as she roamed the battlefield. Her Milky Way Bow rained arrows down on Water Dragon Roar's Magic Shield, shattering it after just a few exchanges. Beiming Xue's Volley forced Water Dragon Roar to retreat.
Taking advantage of this opening, Beiming Xue abruptly changed the direction of her bow and fired a Shock Arrow at Painting of My Country's chest. After stunning him, she yelled in the party channel, "Kill him together, big bro!"
I was already charging toward Painting of My Country and hitting him in the head with a Pardon + Desperate Gambit + basic attack. A string of damage numbers popped up above his head — MISS!
“6403！”
“2984！”
Beiming Xue also fired a Devil Piercing Arrow that exploded in front of Painting of My Country's chest and dealt 4294 damage. Beiming Xue and I had achieved remarkable results under the barrage of attacks. Painting of My Country, a powerful soulfire warrior, fell to the ground with a groan and died!
On the other side, In the Name of the War God had shaken off He Yi and charged toward Beiming Xue. His spear pierced through Beiming Xue's soft shoulder!
“3905！”
“3467！”
Beiming Xue's two-hit combo was completely unstoppable. Murong Mingyue didn't even have a chance to heal her before she was one-shot!
I was shocked. I had overlooked yet another detail. I didn't know that In the Name of the War God's Attack was this high!
"Eve, stall him!" I shouted.
He Yi turned around and blocked in front of Murong Mingyue. Her Soul Stealing Spear trembled as she fired Flame Thrust and deleted a ton of HP from In the Name of the War God.
I turned toward Water Dragon Roar and faced his magic attack head-on. Then, I raised the Heaven-stealing Sword high into the air and fired a Dragon Slaying Slash!
Thud!
“784！”
The Dragon Slaying Slash distorted the enemy's Magic Shield, but it also dealt a small amount of damage. Before Water Dragon Roar could react, I fired another Thousand Ice Slash!
Boom!
The Magic Shield shattered, and Water Dragon Roar's HP dropped like crazy!
The enemy mage hurriedly raised his scepter and healed him, but even if he was fully healed, Water Dragon Roar only had 4000 HP at most. Moreover, his Defense wasn't high either, so there was no way he could withstand a full-powered attack from me.
Draconic roars reverberated in the air as Water Dragon Roar condensed into Dragon's Roar. This was a Level 100 mage skill that was practically invincible in single-target attacks. I had read about it on the official website, but 99.99% of mages hadn't found this skill before.
Boom!
The giant dragon descended from the sky, and I had no way to dodge it. I had no choice but to take it head-on and charge toward the enemy. Everyone else stared blankly:!
“3478！”
As expected, my Magic Resist was slightly higher than Li Chengfeng's, but not by much. I still lost a huge chunk of my HP. These people from Dragon God Temple were way too powerful!
"Pu!"
The Heaven-stealing Sword pierced through Water Dragon Roar's chest, and he collapsed to the ground with a painful groan.
I killed another one, and there were still two left. Let's save the priest Windy Rain for now and kill In the Name of the War God first!
When I turned around, Murong Mingyue was already at critical health. In the Name of the War God's spear had killed our beautiful priest, but He Yi had also managed to reduce In the Name of the War God to critical health!
From afar, I fired a Dragon Slaying Slash!
"Ah?!"
In the Name of the War God looked up at the cyan blade of light forming above his head and snorted. He knew that he didn't have long to live!
“4194！”
A lightning-fast strike later, In the Name of the War God knelt in front of He Yi and died as well.
I turned around and killed the enemy priest Windy Rain with a couple of slashes. We had finally won!
He Yi and I exchanged a bitter smile with each other. Neither of us had expected this match to be so tragic. Li Chengfeng, Beiming Xue and Murong Mingyue were the only ones left. It was a pyrrhic victory!
Swhoosh!
We returned to the edge of the arena. We were temporarily in the lead.
… …
Li Chengfeng gripped his sword and said seriously, "I was careless and let Painting of My Country countercharge me. I made a mistake, but Painting of My Country and In the Name of the War God's Attack is very high. As expected of a national tournament, every expert is stronger than the last. These people are even harder to deal with than the main force of Warsky Alliance. Everyone else, just watch them."
I smiled. "They're all very strong. Warsky Alliance's Farewell Song, for example. If he fights you one-on-one in his best condition, you'll have to be careful. That assassin is very difficult to deal with."
"Mn, I know!"
… …
He Yi said, "The second round is about to begin. Listen, I can hear the cheers of the audience outside. I wonder who they're cheering for …"
"Who cares? I just want to win!"
"Mn!"
A minute later, we were teleported back to the arena and waited for the countdown.
“3！”
“2！”
“1！”
It was match time. Kill!
… …
This time, both Li Chengfeng and I changed our targets. I targeted Painting of My Country, and he targeted In the Name of the War God. He Yi went after the two mages while Murong Mingyue focused on healing me and Li Chengfeng. A warrior's explosive power was terrifying, especially a soulfire warrior like Painting of My Country. Although the enemy mages were strong, they couldn't one-shot He Yi, a beautiful knight with high Defense and HP!
Crack crack crack!
My sword cut through his armor and created a trail of flames. Painting of My Country was clearly at a disadvantage in a head-on clash. He had soulfire attacks, and I had undead energy.