As he expected, a different player by the name of Walt Greatsword entered in place of Ward. He had selected a simple arena with a large open ground, not giving much space to hide. He was not playing as an assassin and he had no intention of using those skills. So, he decided that it would best, if he make the arena in a way that would match the strengths of a swordsman and the fight would be open and direct.
He also put the silver sword back in his bag and equipped the axe that he had forged. The axe on his right hand and the horned buckler on his left gave him a weird appearance. Walt also immediately noticed that the player had changed his weapon.
"Oh! You changed your weapon?" he asked. "You want to change to some better armor too?" jeered Walt.
"A silver grade sword would be a waste in handling you. A black iron axe is more than enough," said Balthazar. He did it intentionally to rile up the player that fought him. Any player who came to test him would be wary of him. So, he needed to irritate them.
"You talk a lot of crap," said Walt as he pulled out his great sword and pointed it at him. He was getting angry by the minute.
"I am bored, and you aren't the one that was supposed to fight. I don't want to waste by time on you," said Balthazar.
"You guys can send more people to check me out. But if you want to waste by time, at least put in a decent bet to compensate me for my time," he shouted looking at Walt. The shout was meant for the other guys who spectating. It was him telling that he wouldn't accept fights without decent bet. A player could restrict the fights conditions when he had paid for an arena.
"Isn't he a bit too confident of himself," said one of the players of Foedus Rex looking at Slaine.
"He has the calibre to be that way," said Slaine not giving a care to those players. He also had work to do and it was to get them to bet on Balthazar loosing.
Most of these players haven't been in contact with Slaine much and the only contact was when a team of the guild tried to push out the team that Slaine had been leading. At that time, Slaine had taken out one of their assassins and beaten him up with swinging the unique weapon that he got from the shrine. Slaine's bow had a couple of blades lodged in the bow at the ends and a couple at the centre which allowed him to have melee fights with others.
After Boris' defeat, the guild had decided to not fight with them much and concentrate on the mass quest in Blackrock Town. Foedus Rex never considered a kingdom capital to be too important and there weren't much popular at the place too. So, they decided to put their efforts on empires. With that situation and Slaine always involved in conducting exploration of new areas, hardly anyone knew much about Slaine or his behaviour.
"I also think that bets are the best way to stimulate one's spirit and have a good fight," said Slaine. He had also invited other players of the guild to enter the spectating area and more at the colosseum to talk about the fight. With the two guilds being at loggerheads from the start of the day, the topic wood soon gain momentum among the discussion of the players.
"Do you dare bet?" Balthazar asked Walt. "How many combat points do you have? I doubt you have more than a 50. Why won't I place 50," said Balthazar further goading the berserker.
"Fine. I don't know much about you, but the same is true for you too. Don't get too complacent," said Walt putting in 100 combat points for a bet. Balthazar was a bit stunned on looking at the amount. He didn't expect that Walt who just came to probe him had so many combat points.
He didn't know that these guys had all been individually been fighting others in the colosseum for the major part of the night. So, they ended up collecting a decent amount of combat points. It ended up being a good thing for him.
"Unexpected. I will match it. Hope the others will make better bets the next time," said Balthazar as he started the fight. The countdown started and others were waiting to see what the new player could do.
"He any good?" asked someone appearing beside Slaine. It was Brick. He along with a few others were practicing to fight against one another. Rudra who was told by Balthazar that it would be helpful if they could have training in the colosseum before they make a proper framework.
"He is good. Just watch the show," said Slaine. "You done with your practice?"
"Bah! It isn't going anywhere. We need a proper structure or a trainer for this. Trying on our own would take a lot of time," said Brick.
"Ya. I knew that. We are already trying to arrange such people and a proper practice regimen. Let us wait for Shadow and Rudra to do that," said Slaine.
"We can have a bet with them," said Brick pointing at the players of Foedus Rex. Slaine felt very happy suddenly. He wanted to goad them to betting but with Balthazar's approach they were being a bit apprehensive. He felt that Brick said those words at the perfect time.
"They don't want to. They apparently are not into gambling," said Slaine signalling air quotes. His provocation was quite effective, and Brick could see that were staring angrily at both of them. He also messaged Brick to goad them.
"You sure. They seem to be quite interested," said Brick. "I will check if they are for some fun."
"Hey guys, up for some betting. Gold or combat points?" asked Brick as the countdown was done and the fight started.
Walt started with a charge strike to get close to the Balthazar as soon as possible and followed up with Cleaving Blade attack which made a 90-degree hacking motion to a side that would hit a player, even if he side stepped. Walt expected that his attack would have to be blocked by Balthazar even if he side-stepped. With the small buckler, he was sure that his opponent would be knocked away even if the strike was blocked.
If one didn't know that he had these moves it would be very hard to evade. All his peers agreed that even with a shield, this pair of moves if used properly would definitely provide him an advantage, especially if the opponent didn't know. He expected the same result from their fight but only found him striking air.
Balthazar who had seen a lot of moves had already expected and was guarding against the few moves possible. During the charge strike, he noticed that the blade of the sword was held horizontal, parallel to the ground. That would imply a sweeping attack as a follow up and berserkers had a long range and would have a good blow-back effect that would give a good advantage.
So, Balthazar was already prepared for it. After he side-stepped the charge strike and moved a step towards Walt. He slid down onto the floor to evade the attack. As the sword went past him, he used the horns of the buckler to clasp the hand of Walt restricting him. That was the best time to counter as the sweeping attacks with heavy weapon would require a small amount of time to stop and redirect due to the high momentum of the heavy weapon (two-handed weapon).
Walt was still unaware of his escape, he looked toward the direction he swung his sword and was slightly startled that he felt nothing hit his blade. As he looked in the other direction, he felt something latch onto his arm
The next second, he felt a crippling pain on the other arm as status popped up in front of him indicating that his hand is temporarily in a crippled state. Balthazar had used the time to land a hit on the wrist of the other hand. It was to most common instinct to retreat away to in such a situation with status effects, but the other hand was clasped between the horns of Balthazar's buckler.
Balthazar had already had the advantage and had a hold of him. So, he held Walt in place with the left hand (horned buckler) moved the right hand in an upwards motion striking Walt's neck with his axe. He followed it, with a hack at the other wrist.
Whenever an axe hit its target it is usually bought to a stop are at least its momentum in that direction is lowered which allows a player to redirect it faster. Balthazar also held the axed at the middle of its handle allowing him better control and use it almost like a dagger. This is a common thing for hacking motions with most weapons and using such a common technique, he crippled both the hands of his opponent.
The pain of his neck and hands being injured which happened within a couple of seconds had Walt completely stunned. He had thought Balthazar a swordsman or a guardian, but never saw either fight this way. With his neck injured, he didn't dare to move it much cause of the pain. He still tried his best to jump back. As a berserker, he had more strength and that was always a good move in such situations. He found himself out of Balthazar's grip but the next moment, he felt a familiar pain at his knee and he fell down backwards.
He then realized that he didn't escape due to his efforts, but it was because Balthazar had decided to stop his moments. He felt that he was a monster being trapped by a hunter by attacking the limbs.
"Don't ever burst in with a charge against a person without having any idea about his moves," said Bathazar as he struck to cripple the last limb. After that, Balthazar continued with a few more attacks aiming at the same spots and killed Walt within the minute, ending the fight.
"Next," shouted Balthazar to signal to the others. He had already put a restriction on it as a betting match with a minimum bet of 100 combat points. So, he didn't worry much. He also was sure that he could play well with the somnium headgear too.
The spectators were all looking at the screens in awe. A couple of them already started to buy the videos of the fight. Both the members of Foedus Rex and Crimson Realm were stunned by the fight.
"Damn! He is way better than I expected," said Brick looking at the video he brought and replayed the first part of the fight.
"I told you. He is good. It was foolish of the other guys to close up to him. He is wielding an axe, it can be used both as a small and long weapon due to its handle," observed Slaine.
Ward was red with anger and embarrassment at speed at which his friend was killed. He didn't even manage to get any decent information from the opponent as the opponent didn't use any swordsman or guardian skills. The man clearly used the axe in manual mode without use of any distinct skill that he could recognize.
"Who's next?" shouted Balthazar while they were thinking of it.
In the meantime, a player had already posted the video of the fight on the forum. He put in the title Awesome Axe Man followed by an animated sequence of the first counterattack and then the video. He was an independent player and also put in that the axe man was challenging members of Foedus Rex with a bet.
"Destruction, you try him out. Don't let him get close to you," said Ward calling an elementalist called Purple Destruction. Purple Destruction was the main DPS of Golden Ward's team and had the highest long-distance damage rate among them. The mage nodded and immediately went to the arena.
Balthazar saw an elementalist holding a sceptre arrive at the arena. This was the last thing he wanted. It would be hard to showcase his axe with a mage.
"Dude! You are a mage what are you doing here?" asked Balthazar.
"Huh?" said Destruction surprised. It felt like an extremely stupid question. "Didn't you just challenge for a fight?" he asked.
"Damn! I guess that I have killed the other one too quickly that you forgot why we started this," said Balthazar shaking his head.
"Hey! What are sending an elementalist for? I came here to have a close combat fight. If it was to be such a fight, I would have rather sparred with Slain n Shot. It would be better practice than this low defence class," shouted Balthazar.
"You are of no use to me. Get out," said Balthazar waving his hand. "Send someone can fight close combat. Should have put in a restriction for that too," he grumbled loudly so that everyone in the spectator arena could hear him.
Devastation was feeling extremely offended especially due to the comment that he would have rather fought Slain n Shot. It was clear that Balthazar considered him inferior to another person that he never even fought.
"You talk so big, but don't dare to fight?" he teased.
"You aren't even worth it," said Balthazar calmly.
"I already bet the amount, you can forfeit if you are afraid," said Devastation.
"Who is afraid of you, idiot. I just know that running after you to kill you is a waste of my time. I would have gotten at least 200 combat points in that time by defeating two guys in that time," said Balthazar.
"Ah! That has a simple solution, just increase the bet to 320 combat points. I hope you have enough combat points," said Destruction as he put in all the combat points that he had. He was sure that Balthazar would find it hard to escape his attacks from a distance and he had the advantage. At the very least, he was confident that he could make Balthazar show his skills.
"Fine. That is alright," said Balthazar with a smile as he immediately accepted the bet and started the fight.