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1027 Words
Susanne could win this.
Carol looked at Luna and shot her the most fiendish smirk she could muster.
Her charge had drawn first blood and had managed to punch through Quill’s ridiculous armor skill.
She corrected herself. Both of the skills. That [Bulwark] was just as incredible, and she couldn’t help but wonder if it was a cracked variant. She hadn’t seen anything unusual about it, which was almost strange in and of itself, but King Frederic’s cracked skill collection was well known in higher Tier circles. If it was in his possession, the skill would have cracked effects so rare, they would be essentially unheard of. And with three people on their team, it was unlikely that they could afford to buy the skill unless they got incredibly lucky.
Still, she had personally taught Queen the modifications to [Hypersonic Edge] so it was even stronger.
The girl had cut through a Tier 15 Earth Rhino with that skill, but it hadn’t managed to break through Matt’s skills.
Luna ignored the smirk she had shot at her, so Carol spoke. “Unlimited mana doesn’t mean much when the fight ends so quickly.”
Luna turned to her and smiled. “Queen is exceptional for learning how to use that Concept ability so early, no doubt. But Matt has all the channeled Tier 14 physical cultivation skills, and [Endurance], which has been modified for healing. Even just [Lesser Regeneration] is a great boon, but when the two are paired…unless she can cut off his head…”
Luna let the statement speak for itself.
Quill was a monster, that wasn’t even a question in Carol’s mind. The boy would only get stronger with each Tier up, and his foundation was rock solid. But she still believed in Susanne.
And she had barely used her Legacy’s spatial abilities yet, let alone touched the two cracked skills King Frederic had given her.
Susanne had a fire under her ass and a goal she burned with desire to achieve.
Carol thought she had a good chance at winning, but seeing the legendary manager so calm, she wasn’t so sure.
Still, she wanted to make a bet.
“Winner gets to make the initial training plan for the kids to get used to each other.”
Luna didn’t take her eyes off the fight, but the smile that spread across her face reminded Carol that Luna never stopped being a cat.
Matt lashed out to block the side sweep attack and sighed internally.
He’d wanted to beat Queen as a swordsman. She’d wanted a rematch against Matt, after all, not Quill, and Matt was very prideful about his skills as a swordsman. The problem was, while she was better with a sword than he was, she wasn’t better enough to actually beat him. At the same time, each time they engaged, he’d make a couple attempted attacks, Queen would block him and strike back, then he’d pull back to recover and plan out his next move. It was a strategy he’d used many, many times before, and he knew how it would end. Eventually, she’d tire out, and he’d win by default, but they’d already been going back and forth for ten minutes.
That was an eternity at their Tier, and he was getting bored. This was meant to be an entertaining spar, after all, but neither of them had done anything new in ages.
So, it was time to change that.
He called on [Cracked Mana Trap], setting it at his own feet before channeling mana through his ring, changing it to a particular brand of holding sub-aspected ice mana as it entered the trap.
Using his other ring, he teleported a few feet back the same instant he armed the [Cracked Mana Trap]. Since he had cast it under their feet, it went off concurrently with his movement.
He was prepared to immediately follow it up and was already casting a [Mana s***h] to catch Queen off guard.
Even then, Queen re-materialized her secondary sword and positioned it between her chest and the trap explosion, while her main blade blocked the [Mana s***h]. Still, even with blocking the rune, the trap was able to freeze her long enough for his purposes. He rushed back in, cutting down at Queen’s frozen body as he pulled out another skill from his new-ish kit.
Liz had been given three upgrade orbs as the first-place winner of the solo and team tournaments. Matt and Aster hadn’t wanted to take any of them, but she insisted on only using one, and Matt had used his on [Sword Twin], it being his strongest Tier 14 skill.
As the skill was already at the Tier of the upgrade orb, it was less effective than he had hoped for, but it did let him accomplish the one thing he’d wanted out of it. He was now able to summon two copies of his blade while one was already infused, though at a higher spiritual strain. Matt summoned a second twin, and then immediately absorbed it into his original blade, empowering it.
When he hit Queen’s second Concept manifestation sword, he shattered it and cut deep into her chest.
Blood splattered, but Susanne seemed unfazed. She landed a hit on his hip that slipped through [Cracked Phantom Armor] and his physical armor. He could feel that there was a skill at play, but he wasn’t sure exactly what skill it was.
If he found a monster able to punch through Cracked Phantom armor in a rift, he’d carry on as he had been doing, divesting most of his resources to defense while Liz and Aster dealt most of the damage. But he was fighting solo now…and besides, he was fighting Queen for fun.
May as well lean into it and take the small damage to dish out even more in return.
He kept his armor going but siphoned most of its mana into his other ongoing boosts, bringing them all up to a full 250 MPS.
Susanne looked up to him and started to glow a dangerous-feeling silver color, with the aura rolling off her and her sword like smoke.
- Writer
