A smile crept on Travis' face, oh how he missed this feeling.
The feeling of uncontested strength. To be stronger than the opponent, shocking them to their core. His opponents had been some random Abyssal Creatures along with Dimitrin and Flinnder. The Abyssal Creatures had no will or emotion. Dimitrin and Flinnder severely out powered him.
Travis pushed away the greatsword a unleashed several attacks, cuts forming on the champion. The champion wasn't an NPC, for it had a health bar. So Travis assumed it was a humanoid monster, this would explain the lack of communication.
Travis ended his combo with a kick, sending the champion sliding back. He had to admit the champion was tanky. Their health bar only dropped a tenth from all his attacks.
Meanwhile Flinnder was slightly shocked at this, to him all his candidates were significantly weaker than him. So when he tested their strength it felt the same. He wasn't aware of how strong this particular candidate really was. Especially not after partially repairing their sword.
Flinnder grinned, this candidate was full of surprises! He even found himself hoping they became his champion.
Travis and the Champion continued the clash swords, however Travis always had the upper hand. He leaked some sort of pressure, causing the Champion to fear him.
Vernessa was growing nervous, she had spent a lot of effort and resources for this champion. If she lost them now. . . she wouldn't be able to participate in the upcoming contest.
She grit her teeth and spat, "You useless buffoon! Use the that if you must, just do not die!"
The Champion roared in response. White lines began to spread across its body, like roots of a plant. The lines caused steam to rise, and the Champion was breathing heavily.
Flinnder noticed this and rose an eyebrow. The Champion had powered itself with Holy energy? The Abyss and Holy energies were always against each other. So the Champion was hurting itself severely by using this. Normally it would work against other candidates, considering they all are from the Abyss. But this particular one. . .
The Champion swung, their strength greater than before. Travis blocked the blow and was forced to move. His feet slid on the ground for a bit before stopping. Travis noticed the white lines were feeding energy into the greatsword. Yet he noticed that the light was Holy energy.
He smirked, since he was part of the human race he didn't take damage from holy attacks. Meaning the extra damage was rendered ineffective. So he taunted the Champion, "You increased your strength. And for what? To still lose?!"
The Champion roared with anger and swung with a large horizontal swing. Travis jumped over this with an aerial cartwheel. Slashing the throat of the champion before he landed.
He didn't plan to use his Berserk Skill. This was a chance to fully put his skill to the test. He planned to use it well.
The Champion did a flurry of angry slashes. Travis dodged these and parried the last strike. The Champion was thoroughly angered from the pain and Travis' taunts. So it became a beast with speed and strength. No real skill behind the attacks. Similar to how Travis was in the past.
Travis switched to a more agile style of fighting. He slid under the Champion and jumped. Giving a nice slash across their back while simultaneously going back in front of them.
Travis dodged a blow before giving a swift kick to their knee. Causing the Champion to stumble to a knee. Ever since the Champion began to use Holy energy, its health had been steadily dropping. Now it remained at 20% of its total health.
Travis began charging [Depth's Beam], pumping it with a lot of MP. Just as the Champion was standing up he fired it towards their head.
The dark beam shot forward, holding way more power than Travis was used to. The beam completely disintegrated the Champion's head. Their body collapsing onto the ground.
Travis sheathed his sword and made a contented sigh, he enjoyed the battle. However he couldn't be arrogant anymore. He walked over to Flinnder and kneeled, "It is done."
Flinnder's grin was extremely wide, Vernessa had suffered way more than he had. His anger had completely vanished, he was in an incredibly good mood now.
Flinnder looked over to Vernessa, "Well dear sister, it seems like you lost today!"
Vernessa was extremely angry, Flinnder always seemed to be one step ahead! She gave him a death glare and responded, "One day. . . one day you'll pay for everything!"
Meanwhile Travis was shocked, Vernessa was Flinnder's sister?
~ ~ ~
Dang~!
Tilia's shield was severely dented. She was sent further into the ground and her HP dropped drastically. Moreover a system notification provided dire news.
Yielya healed Tilia immediately, Crumb's attacks did a lot of damage. Tilia wouldn't be able to take another hit.
Crumb then immediately turned to Yielya, planning to defeat her easily.
Tilia used a skill she obtained a long time ago from a dungeon. [Blood Flow: Refresh]!
[Blood Flow: Refresh:
You make your blood do a full circulation, ridding of any potential dangers.
Cost:
5% MP
Effects:
Clears all status effects. (Some effects may still remain under certain circumstances.)]
She was no longer stunned and rammed her shield into Crumb. She had given up using the shortsword she will fight like she was used to.
Crumb was stunned that she could move, but he quickly reacted. He swung his greataxe horizontally, aiming to increase the distance between them.
Tilia smacked the axe downwards with her shield, making it crash into the ground. With a spin she slammed the top of her shield into Crumb's chin. Any combat she did was with the shield. Furthermore, she was incredibly skilled at this.
Tilia began to attack several times at Crumb. Every time Crumb attempted to make a move, a well placed attack prevented this from happening.
Why hadn't she used such a fighting style before? Because she had the constant mindset that it was just a game. She had been playing the game as it was intended, her class as it was intended. However as she continued she began to have doubts about this. The rest of her party members played as they like, Akiol fought with hardly any offensive skills. Wrock attacked with power rivaling Berserkers. Kan'na did as she pleased. Even Yielya was currently battering another Priest. So why did she have to play the game as it was intended?
The answer was that she didn't. Tilia came to this conclusion after getting slammed into the ground, why limit herself with nonexistent rules?
Using [Shielding Dome] she limited the movements of Crumb even further. She slammed him against the wall, beating him with her shield. The sudden switch to aggression crippled Crumb's mental focus and he couldn't properly use his advantage in stats.
Meanwhile Yielya had dealt the final blow to Terra. Her damage was most likely the highest of all the priests, but it still couldn't compare to other classes. It didn't help that Terra used a few instant cast healing spells as well.
Without healing Crumb's health slowly decreased. Any attacks he managed to deal would eventually be healed by Yielya. It didn't take long before he noticed his dire situation.
Crumb immediately gave in, "Alright you win! I'll leave, I don't wish to be beaten any further."
Tilia made the dome disappear and pointed at the door, "Then go."
Crumb put away his axe and shook his head, "You're crazy, lady."
Yielya was amused, Tilia hadn't been called crazy before.
Tilia harrumphed as Crumb left. She then turned to the cowering NPC, "You're coming with us. I am interested to know what the officials will say about your betrayal."
The NPC shivered in terror, they would receive nothing less than the death penalty for this!
They began to plead, "Please. . . I haven't given anything yet! I won't do it! I promise!"
Yielya casually mentioned, "Backup soldiers' had their camp location exposed. A supply caravan is being attacked. Messenger birds are being intercepted. Need I say more?"
The NPC was thoroughly scared, how did they know?!
Tilia pointed her shortsword at the NPC, even though she would use her shield for combat the sword held a more threatening manner.
"Give it up, maybe if you plead enough your sentence will be light."
They tied up the NPC and delivered it to a commanding soldier. After explaining the situation the commander thanked the two and took the traitor under custody. Their trial will take place after the siege.
Yielya checked up on the others. It looked like only Jarvis was left, so she and Tilia rested to recover their fatigue. It looked like the sabotage would be taken care of. Meaning that they could continue farming for gear.
Yielya looked at the sky, smoke covered most of it. She wondered to herself why she was playing this game. Why she went through all this trouble. If it was even worth to continue.
However she knew the answer, it was to continue adventuring with her party. With her friends.