( Cervantez's POV )
Cervantez sat alone at the DarkSky Guild Headquarters with his head between his hands as he could not figure out how TheBoss beat him.
In his mind, his strategy had been perfect. He had hidden his strength right up till the semi finals.
He had forced TheBoss into an awkward pose with his strong winds and he had ensured that the lightning strike hit its mark.
Everything had happened exactly how he wanted it to happen, however, the end result was still not in his favor.
'How? How? How?' he wondered, gritting his teeth, as it stinged his heart every time that he thought about the forums and how the whole world was now convinced that 'TheBoss' was better than him.
This was his moment…. The one chance for him to prove to the world that he was not the number two player, but the best player, however, he failed on capitalizing on that chance.
'It's impossible for him to have taken 5000 damage points and survived. No matter what his class is, it's simply impossible for him to have taken that hit and survived' Cervantez thought as he paced around the guild headquarters which was his chosen respawn point after having lost two levels and his precious sword after dying.
'How? How? How?' He tried to brainstorm, utilizing all the knowledge of the game that he had to try to solve this mystery.
"THE DEATH EVASION TOKEN" he said, eventually slapping his head, as he had completely forgotten that 'TheBoss' had gotten a death evasion token early into the game.
Recalling how he saw TheBoss's HP hit 0 before shooting back up to 20%, Cervantez finally felt as if all the pieces of the puzzle started to connect as he figured out the reason behind TheBoss's rebirth.
"Fuck he had not survived my attack…. He was deader than dead…. The lucky bastard just had a death evasion token in his inventory" Cervantez murmured as he felt incredibly jealous of TheBoss's luck.
The death evasion token was one of the most broken items in the game and Cervantez had tried his best to claim it early into the game, however, unfortunately it fell into the hands of TheBoss.
Now, many months later, he used that item to beat him in the semi-finals, as his own inability to outcompete TheBoss months ago, came to bite him back in the ass.
"If only I was a bit faster back then…." He sighed, as he wished he could re-do his life once again.
"But that still doesn't explain how he was able to copy my skill" Cervantez wondered, as that was the part which perplexed him even more than Leo surviving the lightning strike.
"It's impossible to copy class exclusive skills…. Then how?" Cervantez wondered, as he hypothesized that TheBoss might have a skill that helped him copy any attack, however, Cervantez had never heard about the existence of such a broken skill in the game at all.
"If there was a skill that allowed one to copy others moves, it would have been incredibly popular in my past life and there is no way I would not have known about it.
So unless it's a skill unique to him…. I don't think copying a skill is even possible" Cervantez murmured to himself as he internally rejected the possibility that The Boss had copied his skill and tried to search for other solutions.
Unfortunately for him, however, no matter how much he brainstormed he could not figure out how TheBoss was able to do what he did, as in the end he was forced to quit and just accept things for the way they were.
"Just like his identity, his abilities are unknown too-" Cervantez said eventually, as he was forced to admit that just like in his past life, in this life as well, information on the player named 'TheBoss' was limited.
************
( Meanwhile Luke )
Having won his semi-final fight, Luke was escorted back to the castle where he was given the VIP treatment by the greeting butler and maid.
Having made his way to the finals of the Grand Tournament, Luke was treated with extreme respect and politeness as he was presented with the finest luxuries that a man could imagine during his stay.
While Leo was also offered the same luxuries, he bluntly rejected them all and locked himself in his room, while Luke took his time enjoying the cuisine and the massage that his attendants had organized for him, as he spent his time leisurely scrolling through the Global Forums comments section.
"The fight between 'TheBoss' and 'DarkEmperor' was the greatest thing I've ever seen…."
"Is there even a need for us to conduct the finals? I mean just give 'TheBoss' the crown, because there's no way 'Skylion' beats him"
"Frankly I don't see how any contestant can survive the lightning strike…. It's too strong of a move and can end the fight instantly.
I don't know how 'TheBoss' survived it, however, if he uses it against 'Skylion' the match is bound to end that very second"
"The only way for 'SkyLion' to win this fight is for him to get 'TheBoss' in one of his suplexes.
Somehow, once he starts with the suplexes, nobody can escape the train midway.
So the only way I see him winning this fight, is for him to somehow get the boss into a German suplex, however, with TheBoss's insane strength and speed it's going to be hard"
Luke spent a good half hour scrolling through the netizens' comments, quickly realizing that everyone expected him to lose tomorrow.
Not a single person on the forums believed he could win, and deep down, Luke shared their sentiment.
Part of him had hoped that if the guildmaster won his fight against TheBoss, he would face the guildmaster in the finals, giving him a real shot at victory.
However, with Cervantez losing his fight, that dream was now shattered, as even if he did not want to… his opponent for tomorrow was 'TheBoss'.
"He's so strong…" Luke murmured, as he thought of a weakness that he could exploit in TheBoss, however, he could unfortunately find none.
Speed, strength, weapons mastery, technique, special moves, resilience. He had everything a fighter could hope for, leaving Luke with nothing to leverage for dominance in the fight.
"My best bet is to stick to defense and wait for my chance to hit a German suplex. The guy on the forums is right... My only shot at winning is if I can land a single German suplex," Luke murmured to himself as although he didn't like to admit it, he knew this was his only chance at winning.
Unlike an amateur, Luke's suplexes were executed with precision, dropping his opponent on their temple as hard as possible.
Regardless of who he faced, once they were dropped hard on their head, they became dizzy and disoriented with Luke being able to capitalize on this momentary weakness by immediately hitting a second suplex.
This chain continued until the opponent weakened and eventually passed out as regardless of whether his opponent was 'TheBoss,' 'DarkEmperor,' or any other human, as long as Luke could hit his suplexes, he had a fighting chance.
"But will I be able to get him into a suplex hold?" Luke wondered, as while he knew how to attain victory, he wasn't sure if he could even take the only road that might lead there.
**********
( Meanwhile Ben )
Ben felt his heart jump out of his chest when he saw the lightning strike hit Leo.
For a moment, he was so overcome with grief at losing his beloved disciple that tears streamed down his eyes and his breathing stopped.
The grief was so intense that his mind blanked out momentarily, with him turning deaf as the sounds of the crowd around him turned mute.
Thankfully, his breath came back when he saw his disciple's body move and revive as only after he realized that his beloved disciple was okay, did he dare stop crying.
His instincts were to jump into the arena and stop the fight at once so that his disciple could receive some much needed medical attention, however, he held back the urge as he saw his boy cracking his neck as if ready to fight back.
"Oooh yeah….. that's my boy-" he thought, as he now began crying tears of joy, as he felt his blood pump with excitement when he saw his disciple standing unfazed even after being struck by lightning.
"Give it to them son! …. Show them the might of Mt.Faulkner" Ben said out loud as the people around him looked at him as if he were crazy.
The surname 'Faulkner' was a borderline taboo amongst the commoners now with the crazy reputation of Ben Faulkner, which was why Ben using that name drew many frowns towards him.
However, soon, everyone's attention was captured by Leo's retaliatory strike, as at that point even Ben felt surprised to see Leo cast that move.
'Did he really learn that attack after just watching it once? What sort of freak does that?' he wondered for a second, before bursting out laughing as he felt even more proud of his disciple than ever before.
Scanning the crowd, he looked at the shocked expressions of every master warrior in the crowd as he felt his nose point upwards in pride.
'You will never get a disciple half as good even if you search for two lifetimes….' Ben thought, as today he felt truly happy to be Leo's master.
—-----
/// A/N - Alright guys that's it from my side for the month of May…. Thankyou for all your support! Hopefully, I see you all in June too~ ///