The Grand Duelist

When fighting against numerous players, what was the most common strategy?

It was keeping an appropriate distance and positioning away from their enemies!

Guild Strongest Under Heaven expected that Joseph understood this fact so they kept on rushing at him like a wave.

But Joseph knew what he must do.

Unfortunately, Guild Strongest Under Heaven also knew what Joseph was thinking at this moment.

At the exact moment that Joseph turned to look at the Theologist of Guild Strongest Under Heaven, Ama Namin.

They instantly saw through his plans and converged to surround and protect their main healer.

Joseph leaped backward and revealed a bitter smile on his face.

Yeah, right...

Why did I even think that such a common strategy can possibly work against one of the strongest guilds in Victory?

A light chuckle escaped from his lips as he retreated backward and scanned the cautious members of Guild Strongest Under Heaven.

The Theologist Ama Namin was inside the encirclement of the members of Guild Strongest Under Heaven. The encirclement was quite tight ensuring that Joseph couldn't use any instantaneous movement skill without being caught while trying to attack their main support.

This was quite a smart strategy.

In an even team fight, the death of healers was a must if you wanted to win.

It was impossible to win an even team fight if the healers of both sides were alive.

If a battle like that happened, then the combat would become an incredibly boring battle of attrition instead. Constantly shaving off the health of the members of both sides until their healers ran out of mana to which the healers would immediately become useless.

But in this kind of an informal battle that Joseph created with his Royal Edict.

He actually forgot a single detail to add to the establishment of his decree.

That detail was disabling the usage of Health and Mana Potions.

A bitter smile escaped on Joseph's lips when he saw the members of Guild Strongest Under Heaven's backline casually drinking some Health and Mana Potions to restore themselves. 

But does this mean that it was hopeless for Joseph to win?

Of course, not!

He still hasn't used one of his trump cards!

But since everything had already gone this far and it was clear that Guild Strongest Under Heaven wouldn't possibly let him go near their Theologist, Ama Namin.

Joseph could only let out a sigh as he raised his Rapier and pointed at Ama Namin.

"Careful!" Kristian whispered under his breath and his subordinates turned cautious in an instant.

At the center of their encirclement was Ama Namin who had a light smile on his face.

He didn't feel any trepidation at all.

With how he was protected by his comrades, how could he possibly feel any danger?

With the Legendary Player, Absolute Monarch, Kristian, standing in front of him and serving as his shield.

How could he be afraid of anything in this world?

Ama Namin closed his eyes and started chanting.

From the magical runes that materialized and surrounded his body, it was clear from their sheer number that he was channeling a quite powerful spell. 

Joseph lifted an eyebrow.

He found that he couldn't point the tip of his Rapier at Ama Namin.

The usage conditions of the Grand Duelist's Grand Challenge was that he must be within ten meters from the target. Furthermore, there was also a hidden usage condition and that was he must point his Rapier at his enemy before he could activate the skill.

"Tsssk..." Joseph clicked his tongue, but he still decided to proceed in his plan.

He ran and rushed directly at the encirclement of Guild Strongest Under Heaven.

As soon as he stepped forward...

The Gunner, Une Balle Un Mort whipped out a minigun and started to shower him with bullets.

"Gatling Gun!"

[Gatling Gun]

Summons a minigun to rain bullets upon the helpless enemies.

Skill Usage Conditions: Gunner

Skill Cost: 802 MP

Skill Cooldown Time: 45 Seconds.]

Joseph raised his Rapier and furiously waved it in front of him, blocking as many bullets as he could with his deflect.

But of course, with a minigun's firing rate. It was practically impossible for him to block every bullet that came his way.

[You suffered 201 damage!]

[You suffered 251 damage!]

[You suffered 225 damage!]

Nevertheless, his persistence paid off and he was now quite close to the encirclement of Guild Strongest Under Heaven.

But as soon as the final bullet from the minigun came out.

What faced Joseph wasn't the barrel of a minigun anymore. 

It was now the black barrel of a sniper.

"Snipe!"

[Snipe]

Whips out a long-ranged Sniper Rifle. Takes a moment to draw a bead and then fires in an effort to deal a tremendous amount of damage to an unsuspecting enemy.

*Deals True Damage

*Bullet can go through objects and units

*Bullet can be blocked by another player or living being.

Skill Usage Conditions: Gunner

Skill Cost: 1025 MP

Skill Cooldown Time: 60 Seconds.]

Une Balle Un Mort softly whispered and a thunderous roar followed by a beam of light flew from the barrel of his Sniper.

"He's dead!" Vladimir whispered to himself.

The members of Guild Strongest Under Heaven lifted a smile on their faces as the beam of light collided with Joseph. With the speed of the bullet from a Gunner's Snipe.

It was practically impossible for someone to dodge it.

What's more, Joseph was only about a mere ten meters away from Une Balle Un Mort, how could he possibly dodge his bullet?

However, what they expected to happen didn't occur.

Instead of the splatter of blood and brain matter onto the ground.

What happened was that the moment the beam of light collided with Joseph.

It unexpectedly turned backward and flew towards Une Balle Un Mort's direction?

"Careful!" Kristian's pupils constricted but there was nothing that he could do other than crouch.

"What the..." Une Balle Un Mort only managed to utter these words as the devastating tungsten-tipped bullet of his attack took out his head and made it explode like a watermelon. Blood and brain matter scattered onto the clothes of his comrades as he was instantly killed by his own attack.

"Composure..." Joseph left these words in his wake.

[The Grand Duelist's Composure Lv. Max]

Activate to enter a state of [ Calm and Composed ]

* While in the state of [ Calm and Composed ] every attack sent at you can be reflected back at your enemies with 20% reduced damage. 

* In every successful [ Deflect ] you will gain two points of [ Imminent Counter-attack ] up to a maximum of a hundred. 

* Once [ Imminent Counter-attack ] has reached its maximum capacity. You can deploy it in a single catastrophic strike that deals about 40% of the damage from all attacks that you have deflected, plus 1000% of your Attack Damage. 

* The effects of [ Calm and Composed ] lasts for a minute, or when [ Imminent Counter-attack ] reaches maximum capacity. 

Skill Usage Conditions: The Grand Duelist

Skill Cost: None

Skill Cooldown Time: 3 hours. ]

At the last moment, Joseph was forced to use one of his trump cards that had a really long cooldown of three hours.

Fortunately, he activated the skill in time before the bullet could drill a hole through his head.

Despite being a game, Victory prided itself on its realism. If a head exploded just like that then the owner of that head could be considered as undoubtedly dead. No, he was beyond dead. There were no chances for resurrection apart from reviving back at the player's hometown City.

[Your party member, Une Balle Un Mort has died!]

A system notification notified each and every member of Guild Strongest Under Heaven about the gruesome death of their comrade. 

As soon as the smoke and the cloud of dust settled down. Kristian and his subordinates saw a flash of light and a system notification once again appeared in front of them.

[Your party member, Ama Namin is unreachable.]

"Huh?"

"Ama Namin has disappeared?!"

"Did he disconnect?"

"No! That bastard also disappeared!"

"What?" Kristian uttered in shock.

He waved his hand and cleared the smoke, only to find not any trace of Joseph.

"What the fuck just happened..." Even Kristian who kept on maintaining his dignity and had never cursed in the face of audiences apart from the members of his own guild couldn't keep his calm any longer.

He turned to look at his guild members and sternly declared.

"Find him!"

"He must still be here I'm sure about it!"

"Yes, sir!"

Big Dipper solemnly nodded but as he turned around and swept his gaze across the wide spaces of the Palace Halls.

He realized that there wasn't really anything that someone could use to hide from the eyes of Guild Strongest Under Heaven.

The pillars of the Palace Halls may be quite thick but it was impossible for Joseph to hide behind them along with Ama Namin unless Ama Namin was a traitor and was colluding with him to confuse Guild Strongest Under Heaven which was impossible.

At this moment, someone who didn't speak that much finally spoke.

It was Fuurinkazan, the Blade Master of the team who suggested: "Boss, what if that guy has a skill that lets him take away a single person from an area towards another area along with him?"

Kristian's pupils constricted.

He would be quite stupid if he didn't understand what Fuurinkazan meant.

In other words, Fuurinkazan was saying that it was practically impossible for them to rescue Ama Namin in this current situation.

What they must do right now was to prepare themselves for Joseph's return.

"That is a possibility that we cannot reject. But is something like that really possible? Would P.H Works even allow the existence of such a broken ability?" Big Dipper shook his head.

Among everyone in here, he may not be one of the strongest players but he was the one that had the strongest composure.

Despite the strange event that suddenly happened which sent everyone into confusion.

He still managed to retain his composure and had even managed to counter Fuurinkazan's proposal regarding the current situation.

But just as everyone was agreeing to what he had said.

Kristian suddenly spoke: "There's no use questioning its existence since it already exists and we already know about it. And as for if the P.H Works would even allow the existence of such a broken ability? Did you already forget that he's a Mythical Class player?"

"He's broken for you guys, but for him being broken is normal. In fact, it would be quite strange if he wasn't overpowered at all." Kristian rolled his eyes at his subordinates and they all scratched their heads awkwardly.

Some of them even turned their gaze away. They couldn't help but secretly admit that they were indeed grossly underestimating the might of a Mythical Class.

Big Dipper was astonished when he saw the reactions of the others towards Kristian's words.

A frown flitted across his face as he turned to his friends and said: "Did you guys really think that a Mythical Class is weaker than Kristian? It's a Mythical Class for fuck's sake, don't even try to underestimate it. Just what did I tell you guys earlier?"

Fuurinkazan answered: "We were not underestimating him, Dipper..." 

No Sucker Punch, Big Boss, Slice of Life, and Kristian turned to look at Fuurinkazan as if they were looking at their savior.

Fuurinkazan's unpredictable attitude and his whimsical manner made him quite an eccentric person but whenever he spoke, Big Dipper would always believe him as if his words were the gospel of the seven gods and goddesses.

But at this moment, they were bound to be disappointed as Fuurinkazan glanced at them all and further explained.

"At least, that's what I think... I wasn't underestimating him, but I don't know about these guys."

The others simultaneously froze.

As expected, Big Dipper narrowed his eyes into slits.

He turned to look at them, particularly at No Sucker Punch who had the highest tendency of underestimating his enemies due to his strength.

But as soon as he opened his mouth and was about to speak.

A flash of light once again appeared out of nowhere.

The shockwave brought by the flash of light briefly stunned them all as Big Dipper froze.

Ama Namin emerged from the light.

His slowly darkening consciousness turned to look one last time at his comrades and there was a tragic look on his face as if he greatly failed them on his task.

However, the others didn't even turn to look at him.

Instead...

They had smiles on their faces when they realized the fact that Big Dipper forgot that he was about to scold them.

After all, none of them wanted to through a round of scolding from the stern and tight-ass Big Dipper.

But the poor Ama Namin that knew nothing about what was going on only saw their smiles as smiles born from Schadenfreude.

"You bastards..."

"Why are you guys smiling like that..."

"Are we still even comrades?"

These were the final thoughts that he had as his consciousness finally disappeared and his body vanishing into countless light crystals.