Chapter 304 - The Simulation
Rudra watched the entire match , chills going down his spine. The last two moves used by nightmare , the blood bullet and the blood dragon , left a deep impression in Rudra's mind. They were absolutely terrifying moves that no tier 2 player should be able to perform . Just thinking about facing these moves , Rudra had to think of the best way to counter them.
Rudra's ace in the whole , was definitely his SSS class tier 2 promotion ability full counter. Rudra knew for sure that blood magic was also considered as a magical attack and not a physical attack , hence he could technically use full counter on it. However, Rudra was unsure about nightmare's ability to dissipate the blood , should it be returned back to him.
Rudra's game plan relied heavily on the full counter move ,and theoritically , no matter how good a mage was , suppose he/ she was a champion of fire magic like Medivh , and specialized in such spells , if Medivh was to use fireball on Rudra , and Rudra used full counter to send back the attack , the attack should hit Medivh nonetheless causing damage.
However what Rudra was afraid off , was that , theoritically if he was fighting a fire giant instead of Medivh who has fire immunity . If a fire giant uses a fireball , which Rudra returns , he would not cause any damage.
What is the class special trait of blood warlocks? Can blood damage a blood warlock? If it can then by how much can it damage? Will the full double damage work? Because it would be game over if it did.
Rudra's brain worked at super computer speed. Thinking of scenarios after scenarios , critically analysing the match between Khabib and Nightmare , he thought of three major takeaways.
First takeaway was that when Khabib speeded up , he was able to get out of the relentless attack from the blood Lance's and was able to counter it , hence technically Rudra with his supremely superior stats should be able to find himself not being bothered by those pesky blood Lance's and would have a proper match-up with nightmare without it.
Second takeaway for Rudra was that nightmare is extremely crafty and has unimaginable mana reserves. His battle style was unique and his assaults were crafty. However from the start to the end , Rudra never once saw his mana reserves bottom out which is very peculiar. Rudra knows that there is nothing like infinite mana , however he does not know for sure where nightmare's bottom line is.
Rudra had a crude assumption , that nightmare's use of the two big moves back to back was because of the fact that he wanted to hide his mana deficit . However it was just a wild speculation with no actual proof to back it up.
The third takeaway Rudra had from the match was that , nightmare had a low defense. The only move where nightmare took damage was a axe throw right to his chest , which is the most well protected area of one's armour. Technically it should not cause more than -500 damage however it caused a -2100 damage. This meant that the allmighty nightmare , had a weak defense overall. This was the only deficit Rudra could find in his character.
Rudra currently had no means to counter the blood bullet move , as it was not a single point attack but a wide ranged attack. Using full counter on it would be useless , also he lacked information on how often could nightmare use that move. Hence he needed to be careful.
The more Rudra thought about the match , the more he realized he was out of his league here , the opponent was a character out of a superhero film , his fighting style and his moveset and damage ratio , far above what any other tier two player could do ... And now Rudra had to fight him!
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( True Elites HQ , real world , the upside )
The atmosphere in the guild hall upto 5 minutes ago was extremely electric and happy . Guild leader Rudra had won his match in grand fashion whereas , vice guild master Karna had won a gold in his event and elder Neatwit had won a silver in his .
However after seeing the match between nightmare and Khabib , the hall was silenced , it was as if everyone collectively came to the consensus that , who the hell can win against that monster?
When the Victorious Karna and Neatwit came inside the guild hall , expecting a grand welcome and rowdy atmosphere , saw the silent crowd , they assumed the worst that Rudra had lost.
However when their eyes laid on the live TV , where the blood bullet and blood dragon move was shown on repeat. The only reaction Karna had was that " WHAT UNDER GODS GREEN EARTH IS THAT? ".
Everyone else had the same reaction seeing it the first time around , soo they turned to see who had the late reaction , only to see that vice guild master Karna was back.
A bit of the energy came back in the crowd , as people started to praise vice guild master for his victory. They also congratulated Neatwit on his silver.
Neatwit was not overly ambitious , he would have liked to win the gold , however he was proud and happy with his silver too. His only desire was to level up and become the flag bearer next Olympic games , he was little worried about the medals.
When the duo was shown the footage of the four minute match between Khabib and Nightmare , only then did they realize the situation. The crowd was silent because Rudra was to face this giant the next match around.
Karna too felt a lump in his throat , however he could not let it show , Karna took the stage in the guild hall as he said " Okay guys , let me spell it out for you , THE GUILD LEADER HAS NOT LOST YET, soo those of you who have given up on him , give yourselves a slap , let me spell it out for the slower ones , THE GUILD LEADER HAS ' NEVER ' BEEN DEFEATED , NOT ONCE , AND TODAY WONT BE HIS FIRST! ".
Energy returned to the crowd .... That's right ... Rudra had never been defeated yet ... Why were they thinking soo negetively .... If anyone can defeat the monster called nightmare it would be guild master Shakuni!
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Rudra's hands were trembling , thinking about the coming fight , as he asked himself ..... Is this fear?
The answer he got was mixed .... It was indeed fear , however fear was just 1% of the equation. It was 1% fear and 99% excitement.... Rudra felt anticipation and excitement to fight the next match.
Finally after all this time , Rudra was not the top dog in a match , but much like his entire career in his past life , a very unlikely underdog.
The odds of him winning this match were against him at 98:2 , he knew it himself. However , that's exactly how it had been all his past life.
This match was just more than a gold medal match for him , it was a chance to proove to himself , that this life .... This second chance ... He was different!
He had no prior knowledge about nightmare , who was not a prominent figure in his last life , he was going in purely based on his own speculations and no cheats or knowledge ..... Without his cheats and without his knowledge , just as a player , how strong was guild leader Shakuni?
He would get the answer in this match.. If he wins he would know that he had actually risen from the ashes after his rebirth , if he lost he d know he was more of the same. Either way , he looked forward to fighting the next match!