MMORPG: The Elementalist

Forty five minutes had passed and the Grand Tournament had finally entered the final phase; various intense battles that were happening in the Mythical Sanctuary had now started to subside.

As less and less Champions survive from the battles, the ones left were all, except for the ones who were avoid combats, but formidable Champions!

From now onwards, every single enemy that they encountered in the Sanctuary would be able to eliminate them from the contest. Even then Veteran Champions wouldn’t dare to act hastily.

And yet!

Gallop… gallop… gallop…

The galloping sounds of steeds, almost like they were the sounds of death itself, were heard from all directions in the Mythical Sanctuary.

These were the Fallen Angels’ Dark Flame Steeds. No one else dared to ride on horses and openly move around like this.

Even though there were many Champions that hadn’t encountered these Dark Flame Steeds before or fought with the Fallen Angels, they could feel a thread of danger from the gallops of these horses.

Only people who were confident enough to take on the huge crowd of Champions would dare to invite such attention to themselves.

Besides, in this final round, the player who had the most kill count had already killed over five opponents in the Sanctuary. The other players had, at best, killed three or four men.

Netherclaw felt anxious after hearing these gallops of death. Being the prideful League Leader, Netherclaw chose to not evade them, locking his eyes in the direction where the sound of the gallops came from.

Savior and Sinistress had already been killed and kicked out of the Mythical Sanctuary. There was only one player who could pose any kind of threat to him. Yes, only him. Netherclaw didn’t think he was that unlucky; and he didn’t think Qin Ruo would practice his horse-riding skills in the Mythical Sanctuary.

***

Seconds later, a Warrior swiftly rode his handsome Dark Flame Steed into Netherclaw’s zone of perception.

“Dark Flame Steed!”

Stunned after seeing this, Netherclaw immediately recognized this majestic beast.

“Fallen Angels!”

The League’s name inadvertently clicked in his mind. Surprised, Netherclaw scanned his surroundings nervously; he even had the urge to summon his pet.

However, it was all too late…

“Netherclaw?”

The Warrior was Slayer’s Heart. Indeed, Netherclaw was now being disguised with a unified look by the Mythical Sanctuary so he wasn’t recognizable; yet, that fierce-looking “Daybreak Moonbear” was a telling sign that this “opponent” was no other than Netherclaw himself.

In fact, Slayer’s Heart had an urge to try his hand in battling Netherclaw after recognizing him. He wanted to know just how strong Netherclaw was. He also wanted to know if he could beat the fabled enigmatic Netherclaw in combat.

However, before the contest began, Violet Orchid had told everyone this. “In this contest, it’s best to avoid combat with any of our allies from other Leagues. If it’s possible, just announce who you are and retreat. If they want to fight, then so be it. However, you must tell them who you are before you fight. You can even reveal all your stats and whoever is with you at the moment.”

After all, no matter how strong and huge the Fallen Angels had grown, they still needed friends and allies within the Angel Faction.

Majestic Hero…

Black God…

Scarlet Bauhinia…

And even Netherclaw, this former enemy. Netherclaw had given in at the Black Flame Valley back then; so, it was best to not make enemies.

Of course, if after revealing their identities and strength and these allies still wanted to fight, they would need to give it their all.

Unfortunately, Slayer’s Heart knew Netherclaw wouldn’t lift a finger to fight. He was too smart to ignore whatever that was going on in the battlefield and too clever to fight recklessly.

Thus, he quickly summoned his pet. Then, in seconds, an Earth Enchanted Spider slowly crept into their sights.

Unless Netherclaw had gone blind, he should know who this Warrior was by now.

***

After recognizing Slayer’s Heart, Netherclaw had already started calculating what to do next.

Seeing Slayer’s Heart summoning his pet, it was apparent that he was revealing his identity to him and didn’t intend to fight…

Netherclaw frowned.

‘Could it be that he knew we are both even in strength? So, he’s revealing that we’re on the same Faction to avoid combat?’

And that’s odd—this wasn’t something the Slayer’s Heart he knew would do.

Besides, every opponent would yield only 1 score—killing just one more opponent would mean a lot in rising to top ten. Netherclaw didn’t want to let this opponent go even if he knew this was someone from the Fallen Angels.

‘The Fallen Angels had already occupied eleven spot in the top rankings now. So, even if I killed just one of them… I suppose this Winter Demon isn’t going to be too mad about it, I suppose?”

As Netherclaw was deep in his thoughts, suddenly Slayer’s Heart waved his hand. Then, he could hear another horse coming their way from the deeper part of the Mythical Sanctuary.

‘What? There are more of them?’

Netherclaw could feel that his heart was beating vigorously.

As he looked on nervously, another Warrior had ridden into his view and stood behind Slayer’s Heart. In an instant, Netherclaw’s forfeited his idea to take on Slayer’s Heart.

He was no idiot…

If it was only one Champion, he could still handle it. However, if there were two Champions, Netherclaw didn’t think he could emerge victorious.

There were five fearsome Warriors in the Fallen Angels.

One of them, a Steel Berserker, was basically the embodiment of Fort Knox itself. The other one was a powerful fire-wielding Ignis Swordmaster. And then, there was also the Clan Leader of The Executors, someone whom Netherclaw had also wanted to recruit back then. Slayer’s Heart, one of the best Titanwraith Berserker alive—one who could face off with even the likes like Death Jesus; and finally, there was a Warrior who possessed a Tier 4 Ultimate Boss as his pet—he was also the Champion who had the highest score in the Grand Tournament thus far.

These Warriors were no pushovers…

And now, there were two of them standing before him.

Netherclaw couldn’t help but suspect… could it be that Savior or Sinistress were defeated by the joint attacks from the Fallen Angels? Or perhaps, by these two?

***

Remorseless, Warrior frowned as he saw Daybreak Moonbear.

‘Tsk! It’s him!’

That was another score he had to let slip.

He and Slayer’s Heart looked at one another. In the dozen battles earlier, the two Warriors had now developed some rapport and they didn’t need words to communicate.

Riding their mighty steeds, Slayer’s Heart and Remorseless Warrior rode past Netherclaw casually.

***

Netherclaw sighed in relief after seeing the two Warriors riding past him, seemingly uninterested in engaging in combat. Now, he felt much better about the Fallen Angels and Qin Ruo. The favor he gave in the Black Flame Valley wasn’t all for naught…

If it wasn’t Qin Ruo’s involvement, Netherclaw might have been killed earlier and his career in the Mythical Sanctuary would have ended abruptly—and with a measly two points too, shoving him out of the top ten spots and beyond the reach of the Demigod gears.

Overjoyed, Netherclaw stretched out his Angelic Wings and flew toward the Golden Battle Flag.

***

After flying for half a minute, suddenly another round of horses galloping was heard again…

Surprised, Netherclaw carefully stopped and hovered in the air while looking at his right, where the sounds of galloping came from.

Netherclaw couldn’t help but start pondering again…

‘Damn, could it be that Slayer’s Heart and Remorseless Warrior had regretted and were now coming back for me? No. Horses can’t move that fast. They’d need to ride quite a huge circle to reach here.”

As he was deep in his thoughts, an Elementalist, riding on a Dark Flame Steed, rode into his view.

“Huh?!”

Another competitor from the Fallen Angels! And again, a Dark Flame Steed.

Netherclaw felt quite disheartened seeing this. Even though he hadn’t received news about Snowmelt’s progress, he was starting to wonder if there were no other players than the Fallen Angels in the Mythical Sanctuary at the moment?

He had encountered two waves of their men in just half a minute.

Netherclaw didn’t really care who the Elementalist was and he didn’t want to fight him either. After all, Slayer’s Heart and Remorseless Warrior were not hostile to him earlier. Thus, he immediately summoned his Daybreak Moonbear to reveal his identity.

The Elementalist stopped about fifty meters away, watching him for around three seconds.

Then in a flash, three poisonous scorpion tails emerged in front of him.

Oh, it was a Three-tailed Scorpion.

This must be the Fallen Angels’ Field Commander—Black Rock.

Seeing that this Elementalist wasn’t revealing his identity earlier, Netherclaw thought it was the infamous Homme Fatale or even Qin Ruo himself.

‘Ah, it’s him.’

Netherclaw sighed in relief.

However, suddenly a silver silhouette rushed into view from the airspace behind Black Rock and straight at Black Rock’s back.

Netherclaw was shocked as he saw this. Reflectively, he was prepared to help Black Rock fend off the oncoming competitor. However, he didn’t act—Black Rock didn’t seem to care for the Elementalist that was dashing thirty meters at his back at all…

Yes, of course.

A Tier 5 Elementalist wouldn’t really allow anyone to attack him from behind. Not with such an obvious rear attack.

So, the only explanation for this was…

As he was guessing if the approaching Elementalist was Qin Ruo or Homme Fatale, the Elementalist had landed next to Black Rock. There was a massive eagle above him. Then, he raised his hand and several violet electric sparks rattled in his hand.

It was Homme Fatale.

Netherclaw’s cheek twitched momentarily as he saw this.

Even though he was able to guess the identity of the newly arrived Elementalist, Netherclaw was still shocked to see his guess was correct.

There were Slayer’s Heart and Remorseless Warrior riding past him earlier…

And now, Homme Fatale and Black Rock stood before him.

And they were all in pairs.

Other than that, the all-powerful Qin Ruo had seemingly acquired the Golden Battle Flag.

And that Wandering Soul who possessed the highest score.

Even if the other five opponents had all been killed, the Fallen Angels would definitely be the biggest winner in this Grand Tournament.

Netherclaw quietly hovered in the air as he was stunned by this revelation. He wasn’t even aware that Homme Fatale and Black Rock had left.