RETURN OF THE SHADOW

(Fight Club Chat)

Red Dagger: Ya. I don't want to stay in the city any longer than necessary. Is he going to come anytime soon or I will test him myself.

Red Path: Yes. Red dagger you go test him

Clear Sky: +1

Mass Raja: +1

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King Rex: Please, wait a few moments, he is stuck with a few monsters and is unable to use his hearthstone as he is in battle state.

Star Lord: Please make sure, he attempts it within 10 minutes. Else Red Dagger please administer the test in his Boris Blade's place.

"What is wrong with this Jinx?" thought King Rex as he sent out the message. "Wasn't it his own guild leader that told Boris to test that Shadow Tyrant guy."

He had half a mind to put the same thing in the chat group but before he could do that Star Lord's message stopped him. Everyone who saw that knew that Rex was just trying to get more time and those who were spectating put in similar messages to Jinx asking Boris to come quickly.

"I never thought that you would suggest using someone else for the test," said Nix Maester to Jinx.

"Why not?"

"Cause guild leader was the one who suggested Boris to test Shadow in the first place. Did you even realize that you were crossing him?" asked Nix as he saw Jinx put on a sheepish smile and looked at Oceanis to apologize.

"Leave it. I don't care for such trifles. I am as bored as the rest of you. Even if you didn't, I would have a minute later," said Oceanis as he put in a +1 for Jinx's statement in the chat. With that as precedent the other administrators also did the same for Jinx and Star Lord's statements.

Rex quickly contacted Tristar who was helping Boris level up. "What is the delay. I thought he was quite close to reaching level 12. Is it not done yet?" he asked.

"He is at level 12, we are just browsing through the market to get more equipment," replied Tristar.

"What is wrong with his equipment? We already gave him the best in the guild."

"Well. The ones we sent to check out Shadow all confirmed that he had high attributes. Probably very good equipment. So, we were seeing if we could get any better," said Tristar. Even though he believed that the previous incident was an accident and was confident that Boris Blade's technical skills would be better than a newbee's, he wanted to make sure that the attributes were as close to the opponent's as possible. Even with the best technical skills, one would find it hard to defeat his opponent, if the attributes differed by a significant margin.

"You are unnecessarily worried. Just stop buying and get to the colosseum. They are suggesting that Red Dagger take Shadow's test and Merlin's contract wouldn't be valid if Boris doesn't take the test," said King Rex and cut the call. He also teleported to the city and went to the colosseum to check out the fight.

By this time, Shadow had already fought with twelve players and had managed to secure 130 combat points. He was about to chosoe the next one when Boris Blade's name finally appeared on the challenger's list which immediately selected.

"He finally came," said Oceanis as he noticed the next participant and put in a message in the fight club chat for any other interested parties to join. The last few fights, Shadow didn't use any assassin skills provided by skill books and began to take down his opponents just by using the skills he learned in his previous life. The garnered the interest of quite a few players who were in the fight club

"Care to make a bet?" he asked Boris before starting the match. There was always an option for the players to bet other things than combat points for their fights. Sometimes, they could even put in more combat point that they have other than the 10 that are taken per fight.

"What do you have in mind?"

"You got more combat points?" asked Shadow and found Boris immediately putting up a 100 combat points for the bet and an addition 50 gold which Shadow immediately matched. He had the portal of Cave of Wargs which had been raking money continuously after the upgrade due to the mass quest. He could even bet upto 5 times the amount and not even care about it, right now.

Once the fight started, Shadow did the same as the last few times and decided to confront Boris head on. Boris was quite surprised that his opponent didn't even go into stealth but waited for him near a tree looking out for Boris. As he got close, Shadow who had advanced perception easily noticed Boris' outline and dashed towards him.

"You are very daring to attack me head on," thought Boris. He already knew that Shadow had better attributes than him, but he still thought that it wasn't enough for his opponent to put him at a disadvantage. He also released stealth and used his skill teleportation stab to cover the distance between them and make a quick attack.

As soon as the Shadow saw the flickering visual effect caused by teleportation stab, Balthazar knew the skill that he had used. Though it was a rare skill, it didn't faze him. He simply side stepped avoid the path of Boris Blade's attack and kicked at his back causing him to tumble down.

Boris was quite shocked by the way that his opponent countered him. The skill was a special effect on one of his weapons and was considered a rare skill. Even for a person who was a real-life expert, it was supposed to be impossible to counter as such effects are not physically possible in real-life as there is no magical element in real-life. Apart from him, few others were also surprised as the visual effects clearly showed it to be one of magical nature.

"How did you do that? There aren't many players who can use this skill" asked Boris as he got up angrily. Though the kick caused negligible HP loss, it was clear that Shadow managed to land the first hit which was very important as an assassin could use the first hit to build up a combo. Moreover, the way he countered with a simple kick, he could have easily followed up with a few attacks as Boris fell down, but didn't do so. Boris felt that his opponent was looking down on him for not using the chance.

"I have seen the effects of teleportation before. So, I guessed you would try to get close to and jumped to the side," replied Shadow nonchalantly. Though this seemed to be a valid reason, any player could see that it required perfect timing and wasn't an easy feat to do.

Angry at missing the first atttack, Boris lunged at him again. This time he used another skill which allowed him to rush towards Shadow at a high speed. It was a special effect from his boots as they glowed in a weird light before the skill happened.

Shadow decided to attack with his weapons directly this time. Their weapons struck each other, and Shadow was pushed back when he blocked his opponent almost falling flat on his face. It looked like the skill caused a bit of blow-back effect. He quickly changed one of the talons to the piolet form and swung it on the ground to hold him in place and then using the same as a hold, he lunged forward and the second talon was used to strike at his opponent who was moving towards him.

Boris knew the effects of the skill he used and wanted to capitalize on it to land more attacks on Shadow. So, after his attack was blocked, he continued to run towards the opponent who was pushed away, when he was suddenly struck at his knee by a dagger causing him to lose balance and fall by his opponent's side. Apart from that, he also got a notification that a cripple effect was inflicted on him.

Both Shadow and Boris rolled away from the other, after that bout. Boris realized that Shadow was not a newbee and definitely knew how to fight even if he hadn't played for long. He was no longer careless and began to treat him like any other star player.

The spectators were also quite impressed by the attacks and even the members of the fight club. They understood that it requires very good reflexes and quick thinking to be able land that attack when he was falling down and pushed back by Boris' attack. They were also curious of his weapon that could change forms.

"It is a special weapon," said Thunder ray a berserker member of the fight club as they were discussing the weapon. He had one of the special weapons of the game which could morph form from a Glaive to a Scythe. He had confused the unique weapon with special weapons which could only morph forms and most can't even upgrade. Even his own doesn't upgrade in levels.

"You have seen that kind of weapon before?" asked Nix Maester who was extremely curious about the pair of daggers. He was also an assassin and wanted to get his hands on a pair of such weapons.

"They are rare, but nothing great. It won't be of much use in higher levels. I don't see a point of having those other than to climb some tough locations. Quite handy for a trek," said Thunder Ray joking about those. "Mine changes from a glaive to a scythe," he continued as he showed off his own weapon.

This was quite new for most of the players as they observed the weapon in Thunder Ray's hands as he made it change forms. He even sent its details to them. It even had two different special skills for the two different forms and was a Dark gold weapon and had a very impressive design with shiny metallic l.u.s.tre.

"Still, you can continue to use it till level 20, instead of other weapons right?" asked Nix as Thunder nodded.

At this time, Boris who had a cripple condition was naturally slow and was limping. Shadow knew that it was the best time to take him down and started attacking from the direction of the injured leg, but suddenly Boris helmet glowed as a silver hue appeared before him pushing him back. He realized that he had underestimated the resources of the super guilds. It looked like every equipment of his had a special effect.

He decided to use the skill Void Strikes of his weapon, if he used any barrier again. Boris used the chance to run and go into stealth. It was clear that he had considered Shadow to be a strong opponent to everyone that was watching the fight.

"Well, it is clear that he qualifies. Do we need the fight to finish?" said Oceanis as he got up to leave.

"Wait till they finish the fight. What is the hurry?" asked Nix Maester.

"Dude! You have fun. I got a guild to run. Would be glad if you helped me though," replied Oceanis as he selected to get out of the colosseum and informed his decision on the fight club chat.

Jinx looked at Nix with an inquiring look wondering if they should follow Oceanis.

"We will stay and watch the fight. I want to see who wins the bet. Talking about bets, anyone like to bet?" shouted Nix. "My vote is on the new kid."

"10 gold on Boris," said King Rex.

"Throw another 10 gold for Boris," said Thunder Ray. "I am hoping you fitted with some good equipment."

"Who is going to the bookie and what are the odds?" asked Merlin.

The others were stumped by the sudden question. None of them had an answer to his quest and those that were excited and about to bet all shut up.

"Party Pooper," said Nix Maester looking at Merlin.

"Let us just keep the bettings to the usual competitions and the underground fights. We will have actual bookkeepers and reasonable odds," said Merlin.

"Ya, you do that. I am betting 10 gold each with Rex and Thunder for equal odd," said Nix waving off Merlin. "You two are up for it, right?"

"Ya."

"Of course."

In the meantime, Boris and Shadow had been in the fight for quite some time. They were both in stealth and on the lookout for the other in one of the houses. Finally, a minute later, Shadow managed to find Boris and used a cheap shot against him and also used his clone to deplete half his health before he ran out of the house.

Shadow knew that once the stun wore off, Boris would have a few tricks as soon as he gets out of the stun. He left the clone attacking Boris, so that he wouldn't run after him. The fight had already taken more than five minutes and there is good chance some of the skills on Boris' equipment have already gone to cool-down.

Till now, Shadow had received negligible damage compared to Boris. Most of the spectators were already convinced that Boris would have a lot of difficulty to catch up to the difference in HP. As Boris came out of the house, Shadow jumped off the top of the house performing the aerial assassination skill as he activated the Void Strikes effect of his unique weapons. He aimed his weapons at Boris's neck causing a cripple effect along with bleed.

Boris found his view all tilted to the side and blurry due the hit on the neck. This was his first PvP fight in the vita-nova and he wasn't even hurt in a similar fashion till now in the game. He was frightened by the sudden change and the searing pain he felt in his neck. Moreover, out of habit, he had set his senses to full for the fight. It was common to do that before PvP and field bosses so that they wouldn't actually miss any light slow damage skills used on them.

Shadow managed to use this shock the opponent and continued to aim his attacks on the neck causing more damage. He had to agree that Boris' equipment was very good as it caused much less damage than he expected.

Before the Void Strikes time was done, Shadow morphed the daggers to the form of piolets and stuck them both in Boris' neck from opposite sides and began to use it to hold him as he continued to pull him around. With the two blades stuck in Boris' neck, he was bleeding out HP and unable to move his head around.

Boris could clearly see that the bleeding effect would continue as long the blades were in his neck. He was trying to pull them out with his hands but failed as Shadow's attributes were clearly better than his. With lack of option, he activated the special effect of his boots causing him to dash again and made the bleed effect worse.

The good thing, he could find about it was that he was out of Shadow's clutches. He had been beaten by the new guy whom he didn't even consider to be in the same league as him. It was quitea humbling experience for him. He followed it with the special effect of his weapon to put more distance and tried to run away from Shadow to get a chance to make a comeback.

He decided to let Shadow come to him. With such a high lead it is common for Shadow to seek and finish him. "I can't let it go down like this," he thought as he ran away into a house. While he was waiting in the house, his view suddenly grayed. Till then he didn't realize the bleed effect was still on him causing him to die.