The first round had been over in just 17 seconds. It was something no one was expecting after all the games that were played in the WEL internationals so far. Vienna's Sorrow and I had gone full aggressive on each other and tried to cut down the other party before otherwise. It was to the point where we almost didn't defend ourselves at all; a true fire versus fire battle where the last man standing would take it all. It was short, but it caused excitement to pump through everyone's veins.

……

Swhoos.h.!.+

Vienna's Sorrow teleported into the arena the second time and laid his cold gaze on me. The fact that he wasn't affected by the result of the first match at all proved to me just how scary an opponent he was.

When the countdown hit zero, and the second round began, we dashed toward each like lightning once more!

Chiang!

Sparks flew everywhere as my Purple Ying Sword and Vienna's Sorrow's Immortal-grade sword clashed. I lowered my center of gravity a bit and kicked out at his calf!

Vienna was even more aggressive than I was, choosing to raise his sword, gather his strength and swing at me a second time. My kick successfully tripped him, but his sword also came down on me like a guillotine!

Bang!

I tried to block it with the Purple Ying Sword, but it had way too much power behind it and it threatened to push me on my b.u.t.t. I hurriedly rolled to my right, kept a hand on the ground to steady myself, and shot G.o.d Binding Art at Vienna's Sorrow!

Pa pa pa pa...

The sound of the divine weapons dropping around him shocked Vienna's Sorrow. He activated War G.o.d Rampage in a hurry and successfully nullified G.o.d Binding Art's effects, but couldn't react in time to defend against my next kick!

Bang!

19882!

After the hit connected, I fired an almost point-blank Burning Blade Slash that forced him to raise his arms and Guard. The impact sent him rolling across the ground.

We moved to the mountain stream and continued our fight there, and it didn't take long for our battle robes and armors to become wet completely. Vienna's Sorrow tried to hit me with Ice Stream Blade, but even though I was standing atop a bunch of round, slippery pebbles I was able to back away in time. A ten-meter-long blade was an insane range advantage against another melee player, but swinging it wasn't as easy as it seemed. For someone of my skill, that tiny bit of lag was all I needed to dodge the attacks.

Pa!

Vienna's Sorrow activated Charge and dashed past me. He stopped just short of a couple of centimeters and used Beast Howl Slas.h.!.+

The effects were not what I had expected, however. An icy energy had enveloped me out of nowhere, froze my legs in ice and even stopped me from swinging my sword! What the h.e.l.l is this?

Vienna's Sorrow laughed. "You don't think that you're the only one with special equipment, do you?"

Beep!

Combat Log: Player “Vienna's Sorrow” has triggered “Desolate Strike” effect of his main weapon “Desolate”. You have been Frozen for 7 seconds!

……

f.u.c.k, karma truly is a b.i.t.c.h...

Beast Howl Slash, Barrier Break, Quadruple Slash and more ripped into my body. The Frozen status effect increased my Defense, but I wasn't defending, blocking or parrying any of the attacks coming my way. There was simply no way I could've survived the onslaught. Long story short, my HP hit rock bottom in an instant, and I was out of the arena before I knew it. The score was now 1:1.

Swhoos.h.!.+

After I teleported back to the girls, I rubbed my nose in embarra.s.sment and said, "It was an accident…"

"We know!" Lian Xin giggled as she checked the forums. "Apparently, Vienna's Sorrow's weapon is also an Archean Immortal-grade weapon like yours. It has a 1% chance of triggering an effect called Desolate Strike that freezes its target for 7 seconds. That's 1 in 100 attacks, Lu Chen! You must've acc.u.mulated a lot of negative karma lately…"

I shook my head. "It's fine. The worst has pa.s.sed, so things can only get better from now on!"

I teleported back into the arena and prepared to duel Vienna's Sorrow for the third time. This was just the first match, but could very well decide the final outcome of this game. We both had a reason to crush our opponent with everything we got!

Thankfully, Lady Luck was on my side this time. Although I hadn't triggered another Broken Blade attack, my Heaven-burning Armor triggered twice and burned a sizable amount of HP from Vienna's health bar, infuriating him greatly.

Chiang!

Every time our swords clashed, the blade shook almost hard enough to fall out of our hands. Our clash was just too intense!

Vienna raised his left fist and punched me in the chest. I retaliated with a swing of my blade. The berserker crossed his weapon to parry, but the blade of Purple Ying Sword suddenly took the form of a purple crystal. Then, a scene that shocked us both happened: the Purple Ying Sword slammed into Vienna's Archean Immortal-grade sword and snapped it in half!

It was Mountain Crush, the Outstanding Property of my weapon, and it had deleted all of his weapon's durability in one go. Archean Immortal-grade or not, it would remain useless until it was repaired.

Vienna's Sorrow stared at his broken weapon in shock. Bad enough that his skill was at best my equal, but now his equipment—at least for this match—was proven to be inferior to mine as well!

That wasn't even the end of the equipment superiority demonstration. When I summoned a flaming cone around my sword and used Universe Break, my Nine Heavens Li Fire Bracelet suddenly triggered its Li Fire of Xuanming effect and sent a surge of orange flames up my sword. Long story short, it allowed me to deal even greater damage to my target!

My final attack proved too fast for Vienna's Sorrow to block. By the time astonishment entered his eyes, my sword was already piercing his chest and tearing him from inside out. He instantly scattered into a shower of white light and teleported out of the arena, leaving behind only the damage number "190727"!

The insane damage number suggested that the attack was a critical hit, but it really wasn't. That was just how much damage the Li Fire of Xuanming added to my skill. The Li Fire of Xuanming had shown up quite often while I was farming mobs and bosses with Yu Tong's party a couple of days ago, but not once had it triggered in the WEL until, well, now. That it one-shot an expert at Vienna's Sorrow's level was just icing on the cake!

……

The score turned 2:1, and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls scored first blood against Hero Alliance!

Swhoos.h.!.+

The moment I returned to the girls, Beiming Xue and Lian Xin immediately gave me a hug to celebrate this precious victory. He Yi, ever the elegant lady, simply stood where she was and smiled at me, but she couldn't hide the emotions in her eyes. I knew that she was just as excited as the two girls.

Beiming Xue smiled while holding Ice Soul Feather. "Vienna's Sorrow is strong, but he's about 0.02 seconds slower than big bro, and that's all big bro needed to leave him in the dust, especially in this third round, hehe. You were practically on top of him from start until the end."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Vienna's Sorrow is about 2% stronger than Breeze and Rain, but 1% weaker than G.o.d of War. He's still a terribly annoying opponent though…"

Lian Xin blinked. "And where did you get these numbers?"

I shrugged. "Do you even need to ask? I'm talking out of my a.s.s, duh! Anyway, it's your turn now, Little Xin!"

Lian Xin: "..."

……

There was a flash of light, and both Phantasm of Stars and Knight of Stars appeared in the battle arena. Beethoven's Joy stared at Lian Xin grimly as he said, "You were a player of the USA when you obtained the Phantasm of Stars cla.s.s. Now, you're turning it against your former comrades. You understand this is a kind of betrayal, don't you?"

Lian Xin pursed her lips and stared right back at him, her eyes filled with determination. "I am Chinese. It would be a true betrayal if I helped you simply because I started my account in your country! Now come at me!"

"Hmph!"

The knight looked angry, but there was nothing he could do about this. He lowered his spear and summoned a pillar of flames from the blade. It looked very similar to Vienna's Sorrow's Ice Stream Blade except that it was fire. It was his Divine General Skill and his best shot at defeating Lian Xin, Blazing Blade. Riding a mount increased one's attack range, and Blazing Blade increased it further. In total, his maximum range was around 30 yards or so. He only needed to take a few steps forward to hit Lian Xin's Telekinetic s.h.i.+eld.

The knight charged, but ran into Lian Xin's Origin Force Field almost immediately. He pulled back, circled around Lian Xin for a bit and tried again, but this time he stepped onto Gravity Trap. Beethoven's Joy gritted his teeth and uttered, "Hmph, you think this is enough to stop me?"

Despite the slow debuff, a sudden zigzag allowed him to slip past three Origin Force Fields in the row. The moment he got within range, he immediately launched a super long-range Armor Break Flurry and deleted 38% durability from Lian Xin's Telekinetic s.h.i.+eld. Another two hits like this, and the girl was as good as dead.

Lian Xin knew from the previous battles that the Knight of Stars cla.s.s had a skill that could nullify several hits no matter how strong they were. That was why she used Fireb.a.l.l.s to waste his Scorching s.h.i.+eld of Stars before unleas.h.i.+ng powerful spell combos like Ice Spiral Matrix + Gravity Trap + Origin Force Fields, all the while kiting the knight like a fiddle!

Bang bang bang...

Beethoven's Joy did his best to avoid the Origin Force Fields, but he couldn't do it perfectly. Every time he ran into an Origin Force Field, he was sure to take a small but significant amount of damage. The battle lasted around one minute or so, and in the end he was killed by Ice Spiral Matrix. The score turned 1:0 in favor of Lian Xin.

The knight went all out during the second round, and he succeeded. He succeeded in catching Lian Xin off-guard with flank Charge and killed her instantly with a critical Star Slash. Star Slash was a skill that ignored Magic s.h.i.+eld, and with a lucky crit it dealt over 170k damage to Lian Xin, so there was nothing she could've done to survive it.

The third round began, and this time Lian Xin took the necessary precautions. Her opponent was unique in the sense that he possessed an abnormally long range, and a skill that was extremely lethal against mages. That was why she took no chances and Blinked away every time her opponent Charged. That was enough. Ultimately, Beethoven's Joy failed to kill Lian Xin before he died because her spells were deadly, and her Origin Force Fields drastically limited his mobility.

The score turned 2:1, and Lian Xin won the second match!

The overall score was now 2:0, an outcome Vienna's Sorrow and his goons probably weren't expecting when the game began. Both Lian Xin and I had performed beyond expectations and disrupted their plans completely.

……

Swhoos.h.!.+

After Lian Xin teleported out of the arena, she blinked at me for a moment before asking, "Big brother Lu Chen, you don't seem surprised at all by my victory."

I replied indifferently, "Why would I be? You're stronger than him in the first place, and Origin Force Field is the bane of all land-bound fighters. Out of all the fighters I've seen today, Breeze and Rain is the only one who can truly beat you most of the time. By the way, a string of celebration parties will be waiting for us when we return to Suzhou, and one of them will be held at our own club's bar. Don't say I didn't warn you, but ain't no one allowed to leave unless they're drunk, understand?"

Lian Xin stuck her tongue out at me. "d.a.m.n, we haven't even finished the game and we're planning for the parties already? Awesome…"

The third match was match point for Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, and it would be Beiming Xue versus Hero Alliance's ace archer, Da Vinci's Code. However, none of us was really feeling the pressure. It felt a bit strange that our semi-final opponent was clearly stronger than our opponent in the final, but sometimes that was how things rolled. Also, credit where credit's due, Cyan Beast—especially Breeze and Rain and G.o.d of War—truly were some of the strongest foes we had ever faced since the beginning of the game!

Not that it was really surprising. The India server had produced many top-tier experts since Eternal Moon. It was also why no one had dared to attack the two India main cities, Elephant City and Cyan Earth City, until now.