With a shift from his shoulder, the claymore tapped the assassin on the head twice. “Just be ready. It’s not our fault if you’re slow.”
St3alth lunged forward, knife aimed at his throat.
Chewme’s eyes went wide.
The knife stopped before it reached the skin.
Eyes still wide, Chewme pulled the sword in and tapped St3alth on the head once again.
I choked down a laugh.
“You see him,” Destiny confirmed.
Spotting movement of a player moving down the opposite path to the arena floor, I took the initiative and left them to their foolishness. “By the way, would you two kindly back me up? I’m moving in.”
There was no longer any sign of the players that had been at the other end of the arena. That could mean many things, but there was a precaution that had to be taken.
“Possible assassin. Stay back. I’ll be the bait.” I group messaged them so I wouldn’t be audible to others.
Glancing quickly across the bottom of my peripheral vision was an ethereal status bar that kept me updated on our current stats.
Viewers
15,019 Total Viewers
9,475 Guild Viewers
5,544 Group Viewers
2,433 Lucius’s Followers Viewing
Lucius’s Fame
Rank 674 of 263,653,741 Players
Sadly Gravel didn’t show us how many viewers were watching our opponents. Their popularity might give away how good they were.
“Focus, Lucius.” Destiny chided.
“Yes, dear.”
I could feel Destiny’s eyes roll as opposed to seeing them. Normally having her appear in a small window at the edge of my vision let me better communicate with her, but now was not the time for that. We had a job to do.
St3alth wasn’t wrong about my concern for gaining fans. To be a pro you had to do more than play it smart. To be great you had to put on a show. As ridiculous as we acted, all three of us knew what had to be done. Our audience awaited us.
To the assassin, I would look like a delightfully easy target. My rapier was strapped at my waist, fastened over a loose-fitting jacket. I fit somewhere between a mage or a monk with a sword. My cool-green sleeves were rolled up, showing abnormally large forearms for a magic user. There was no visible armor or magic shield. Yet I walked toward the known threat with assured defiance.
Reaching the bottom of the path I stopped when I reached the center and let him come to me. Closing my eyes, there was only one sense that would help me now.
This group that we faced wouldn’t be here if they didn’t qualify as better than good. We were in the legendary class, the highest tier in the arena with only the top 10,000 ranked guilds. There was no chance this assassin would be a pushover or have any less than max level gear. My rarely used Spell-Sword profession gave me an advantage. He would underestimate me. They always did—the first time.
Chewme and St3althL0rd were sitting tight, waiting on the assassin to make his move. We all understood our places in this fight from thousands of similar encounters.
There was only one direction where the sound came unnaturally. The subtle brushing of a boot against dirt, an odd leaf softly crunched underfoot, and only the smallest of twigs snapping. The sound slowly shifted around me in a wide 20-meter perimeter.
Opening my eyes, they didn’t shift but remained forward. Sound was all that existed. It could be said that my approach was a gamble. That it was possible to hear someone approaching, but it was insane to depend upon it when your life was on the line.
The feeling of fear and nervousness had long ago been trained out of me with only anticipation remaining as the invisible assassin stalked me. No assassin would attack me from the front. The flank and rear were too tempting.
To the left came a soft step as he began to close in.
I didn’t flinch from the realization.
He was not just good, but exceptional. By this time even the best assassins would either have rushed in because they thought I was easy prey or have fled because I was acting odd. He stalked me with patience, not succumbing to his own nerves.
Fifteen feet. His pace slowed.
Destiny and I had practiced this same situation a thousand times. It was up to me. She insisted I had ears. Not to use them was idiotic.
Ten. He stopped and awaited any reaction I might have.
At this distance, there were a number of skills that could help him close in quickly. If he activated any of them I would only have a split second to react. After a long number of seconds, he stepped forward.
Five. I was now in danger of not being able to react quickly enough to his assassin specialty skills. The danger was there, but I had faced this situation before. I knew it intimately.
My anticipation grew. I felt he was a step away from driving his deadly knife into my ribs.
Appearing out of stealth, he was behind me, slightly to my left.
The whole time I had been gathering mana in my gut. With a simple exhalation of breath, all of the pressure that had built up let loose. I didn’t direct it. Like a bomb the mana converted into pure force as it left my body, creating a wave of magic erupting in all directions.
His knife shot forward. The assassin was swept hard by the force. Flying back, he cleared over 10 feet of ground.
Throwing out my hand, I cast a grand-master level force field just before he landed. His body accordioned in midair as his skull collided against the invisible wall. His neck snapped.
Bowing my head, I honored him, as well as played to the viewers.
I withdrew the force field. It was a huge mana sink, but when mastered the use for force fields went far beyond defense.
“You left your force field active two-tenths of a second longer than necessary wasting 40 mana,” Destiny stated.
A blur of motion shot toward me. My rapier was out and flicking the arrow aside before it found my chest.
“One archer,” I called.
“One mage,” Chewme added, storming down the path, joining me at the center of the arena.
Crimson fire hurled our way before I saw the player who had cast it.
Turning his shoulder, the bolt easily missed my friend.
Using the foliage to our advantage, we split up, standing to either side of the path they would have to take to join us on the arena floor. Even with their advantage in elevation, they couldn’t see through the greenery. The mage might decide to burn us out, but it would take a while to get a fire started and cost him a lot of mana.
An arrow landed close to where I stood, hinting that the archer had moved down the path to get a better angle.
Chewme noticed as well. “Rush?”
“Give them a moment. I want to get an idea how brave or stupid they are.”
When no more arrows or mage bolts came, I peeked around the corner. The archer unleashed an arrow that I easily pulled back from.
“Three left.” Destiny informed us. “They have a battle ax wielder in full platemail. Be ready.”
“I got him,” Chewme replied.
“I’m behind them at the top of the path. Ready when you are!” St3alth said.
Daring another look, I saw their armored tank bounding our way. Both the mage and archer were a good ten feet behind, ready to attack as soon as either of us engaged. It was a good basic strategy.
Looking to my friend, a nod set him off.
We both rushed forward. I lunged at their tank, my sword doing little against his polished breastplate.
Chewme took full advantage of the split second I had bought him. His sword tore the wind from below, knocking the warrior back two paces. I had already rushed past, leaving the tank to him.
An arrow engulfed in blue light and a fire bolt launched toward me at the same time from a distance that was impossible to dodge. With my empty hand stretched forward, my force field appeared momentarily deflecting the projectiles.