( The DarkSky Guild Headquarters )
Cervantez was furious with how things were shaping up to be once he returned to the DarkSky guild headquarters.
After being cornered in an alley and fighting the street thugs off without fatally hurting any of them, Luke and Cervantez got a bit of breathing room when Brown Pudding reached the alley and scared their attackers off.
Jumping on her back, the duo successfully evaded all the spies and onlookers deployed to keep an eye on them as they safely made it back to the guild headquarters, however, they were met with some very concerning news once they returned.
Jex's battle in the round of 64 concluded in defeat today, a setback that could be attributed to the ambush that he and Cola encountered en route to the arena in the morning.
Being stabbed by paralyzing poison laced daggers, even after staving off his enemies and drinking potions to stop the bleeding, Jex faced a 40% stat debuff due to the poisons effects leading to him losing the round.
However, the bad news did not end there as on their way back, Tor and Lysa met with a tragic accident as well, losing their lives in an unforeseen incident.
Members of the same street gang that cornered Cervantez and Luke went after Tor and Lysa as well, as after Tor won his match in the round of 64 he became a prime target for their heckling.
On their way back, the duo were surrounded and ruthlessly killed by the street gang, causing both players to lose two levels each.
"It's not just my levels that I lost either, I've lost my greatsword as well, my epic ranked weapon was dropped upon my death, so I have no suitable weapon left for my fight with The Boss tomorrow" Tor said in frustration, as Cervantez felt furious at this turn of events.
"The Uprising and ChaosBringer have crossed a major line this time. As if the threat we faced from a rogue assassin organization like the night guild wasn't enough, we now need to worry about a player leading the underworld being after us too.
This is unacceptable….. when facing an opponent like The Boss, every stat point, every level, every equipment matters.
You losing levels will impact your chances to win big-time" Cervantez said, as the atmosphere within the guild became incredibly tense.
Despite all the advantages that the DarkSky members had with Cervantez's future knowledge and guidance, only three players of the DarkSky guild had made it into the round of 32 and with Tor scheduled to face The Boss in the next round, Cervantez had little hopes of him advancing to the round of 16.
At this rate, Cervantez feared that the only two members representing the guild in the actual grand tournament would be him and Luke, which was not how he hoped the Grand Tournament would play out at all.
While the rounds before the quarter-finals were good to gain acknowledgement from the crowd, Cervantez knew that the real battles that mattered were the ones that would be spectated by the bigshots in the quarter-finals and onwards.
Cervantez's initial plan was for him, Lysa, Tor and Luke to all reach the quarter-finals and shock the world by having one member of the guild fighting in all four quarter final matches, however, that plan seemed like a pipe dream now.
If he had been successful in achieving his initial goal, Cervantez was confident in securing a lucrative defense contract with the West Duke Family, however, those plans were now on the brink of ruin because of unexpected interference by third parties.
"Oh god I'm pissed. I want to teach the uprising a lesson, but we don't have time to focus on anything but the grand tournament for now.
We still have two rounds to fight for two consecutive days and we can't afford to be distracted now" Cervantez said, as the guild members could hear the frustration behind his voice.
Cervantez was so pissed right now that should his schedule had permitted him to, he would have declared a war on the uprising right this moment.
However, the grand tournament certainly took first priority for now, as Cervantez was forced to swallow his anger and focus on the match that was to happen tomorrow.
Luke felt like this was a wise decision by Cervantez, as while he too felt frustrated at this turn of events, just like Cervantez he too acknowledged the fact that the grand tournament took precedence over everything else at the moment.
"So what is the arena that we are going to be fighting in tomorrow?" Luke asked Cervantez who took a moment to steady his breath before answering.
"Tomorrow's fight will take place in a quicksand arena, one of the toughest arenas to fight in" Cervantez said, grasping the attention of everyone as he took up a pen and paper and began drawing a construct.
"Tomorrow's arena will be 70% quicksand that's impossible to stand on for long without sinking into and 30% a water pond.
At the center there will be a circular pond with a terrifying level 150 crocodile monster within, however, the edge of the pond and the pond itself will be the only two safe places to fight from if you don't want to sink into the quicksand.
While technically there will be no safe areas within tomorrow's fight. It will be a fight to incapacitation or surrender as for there will be no arena outs.
It's a dirty arena, designed with the sole purpose of entertaining the crowd and there is not much in terms of strategy that can help you win.
It's a dog-fight to the win, however, almost every time the stronger fighter will win in this arena as the chances of there being an upset are slim to none". Cervantez said, as Luke frowned upon the arena layout.
He was no stranger to quicksand, it was one of the terrains that he extensively trained on as an academy knight. However, because he was accustomed to it, he understood just how stupid it was to fight in an arena full of it.
Fighting on quicksand drained one's stamina fast and while dealing any big blows became hard with the ground absorbing a lot of shock and impact. Those same big blows caused one to sink deeper within the quicksand making it a nightmare for defense type builds.
"Isn't this perfect? If it's a dog-fight I can take down anyone. If there was ever an arena where I had a shot of taking down The Boss, this has to be it" Tor said after thinking for a while, as although Cervantez did not agree with his analysis he said nothing for the sake of keeping Tor's confidence intact.
While this arena favored no-one, being a nightmare for both agility and defense type builds, what Tor seemed to misunderstand was the importance of long ranged attacks in such an environment.
While Tor was a strictly close ranged fighter, The Boss could launch attacks from range with his dagger throws which could be the edge that could guarantee him victory.
Had Jex made it to this round, then Cervantez would have felt confident that his archery skills could help him propell to the next round, however, unfortunately both Jex and Lysa had been eliminated from the tournament now.
********
( Meanwhile Leo )
Leo and Ben spied on the arena layout for the next day, as for the first time ever even they frowned looking at the type of ground the match officials were constructing.
"Add more sand here! It's too thin and watery. We need to make it thicker"
"Has someone fed the crocodile monster? We need to feed it well so that it doesn't unnecessarily leap out of the pond and disrupt fights tomorrow"
The match officials said as they prepared the ground, as Ben especially felt disgusted by this layout.
"I want to find out which sick freak is incharge of ground selections this year. What are these dangerous layouts that can lead to loss of life?
All the contestants who have made it to the round of 32 are the future of the empire, there is no need to expose them to such unnecessary risk for public joy" Ben ranted, as Leo silently agreed with his analysis.
Whoever designed this arena was undoubtedly a sick bastard, however, that did not change the fact that Leo still had to fight in it the next day.
—-------------
/// A/N - Apologies for the longer than usual author note today, but I have no other choice but to discuss this topic on popular demand.
How to get a mass release?
Many of you have been asking me to do one, so I've decided to do a mass release event, however, it's contingent on one of two conditions.
1) If there are patrons willing to donate to me directly via PayPal, then for 100$ I'm ready to do 4 chapters mass release.
( Upto 12 chapters maximum)
2) If we break into the top10 of power stones weekly rankings, under the all-time category, I will do a 4 chapters mass release as well.
( Every week till the end of the month )
Although I have proposed these two methods, if you guys have a third idea feel free to drop it in the comments below, and if you wish to donate to me via PayPal, also comment down below and I'll drop you the link.
Thank-you ///