"This will be quick," said Gaylord and immediately rushed towards her. Right before he swung his sword to attack, she disappeared into thin air. "Heh. Invisibility, huh? You're going to have to appear sooner or later to attack me. I'll be ready for you then."
Suddenly, something hit him. He quickly activated Ground Break to cancel out the Invisibility skill and make her fall to the ground. However, his plan failed. She still remained invisible.
Gaylord was surprised. "What?"
Sphinx recognized the skill Astrid was using. It was Shadow Slingshot, one of the two skills that could be used without cancelling Invisibility. Out of all the set of skills available to the assassin, it was considered one of the most useless skills. It used up one expensive magic stone per shot and did only very little damage. Unlike the close up stun skill Electrify with 90% stun, Shadow Slingshot's stun was at a mere 10%. Because of these reasons, it was extremely rare for an assassin to even have the skill. Thus, the skill was unknown to most players who weren't assassins.
Sphinx checked his notes. The skill set he jotted down was completely different from the one she was using. Did she reset her skills and redo her build?
"Something wrong, Sphinx?" Jasmine asked.
"Did you miss a piece of information?" Yaya glanced at his notes.
Sphinx had a serious look on his face. "I think she redid her skill set and made it specifically for defeating knights."
"What?"
So that's why she wasn't worried about me, Sphinx thought. He was impressed by the strategy.
Suddenly, Astrid began spamming the skill Shadow Slingshot like a machine gun while circling Gaylord to avoid giving away her location. It only took out 5% of his health.
Gaylord laughed. "Give it up and stop hiding behind the shadows! You'll never defeat me like this. At this rate..." His body stopped moving.
Astrid appeared in front of him. "At this rate, what?" She did an Earth Strike to his face, reducing his defense by 20%. He fell backwards. She followed it up with Electrify to prolong the stun and did another Earth Strike.
In the audience seat, Jasmine leaned back. "He's doomed. Once you're in an assassin's stun cycle, you're pretty much done for. Even Endurance won't save you."
No! I can't lose! Gaylord was determined.
Astrid did another Electrify, but Gaylord was lucky enough not to get stunned again. He took this chance and struck her with Defense Break, pushing her away from him.
"There's going to be one winner in this battle and it's going to be me!" he shouted before thrusting his sword into the ground to activate Ground Break. This damaged Astrid considerably and made her lose balance.
At that moment, both their health points were at 30%.
"Let's get this over with." Gaylord's look told her that he was serious.
Astrid smiled. "Very well." She went invisible once more. She had to evade his Defense Break as much as possible. Otherwise, even a single normal strike could kill her. She checked her stock of magic stones. She was down to twenty. It took her one hundred shots just to get a single stun. If she ran out without managing a single stun, she would have to fight him close up, which was a huge risk. She decided to use up the remaining stones.
"This again?" Gaylord said as he was hit by Shadow Slingshot. He ran around and did his best to evade. "Good luck aiming."
"Tch." Astrid's stock ran out. She was out of options.
Gaylord noticed that the shots stopped. "What's wrong? Out of bullets?" He folded his arms. "Come out and fight me then. The clock is ticking."
She reviewed her skills once more. Suddenly, she noticed that she had five unallocated points, just enough to get the ultimate attack, Backstab. She wasn't sure if it could take out 30% of his health, but it was worth a try. She invested the remaining points into that skill.
"I'm waiting!" Gaylord yawned.
Astrid jumped into the air right above him. "Sorry to keep you waiting!"
His eyes widened when he saw her coming down at him from above at an incredibly fast speed. Thirty six consecutive slashes with a high critical hit rate damaged him. He became dizzy as he stood there receiving the attack. Once the attack was over, he was down at 2%.
"Sorry, but I'm winning this round," Astrid said before hitting him with a normal punch.
The valkyrie announced, "The winner is Astrid of Noctis Noir!" The audience cheered.
Two more wins to go, huh? Astrid thought as she walked back to her seat.
"Oh yeah! Great job Astrid!" Luna stood up from her seat to give Astrid a hug.
"Well done, Lady Astrid!" Lyria applauded.
"For the guild!" Amelie raised her pom poms up. She bought a set of pom poms from the robot maids.
Astrid collapsed on her seat. "I'm exhausted." Lyria cast heal on her. "Thanks Lyria."
As they waited for the next match, a robot maid approached her and gave her a slice of strawberry cake. "A present from one of the audience members."
She received it. "A present?"
Suddenly, she received a message from Garth: "Congratulations on your win." She glanced at him from across the arena. He smiled at her while giving a thumbs-up before going back to talking with his guildmates. She blushed as she slowly ate the cake.
The valkyrie announced the next match: "Pio of Black Rose and Frisk of Jupiter!"
Everyone was shocked. A full support priestess is entering the single battle?
"Pio is participating?" Lyria's jaw dropped.
"Daaaayum!" Luna leaned forward to get a better view.
"Against a mage too," Astrid said. "This will be interesting."
Fisk and Pio entered the stage.