Chapter 84: To Conquer
Translator: Double_L Editor: Tehrn
The referee was delegated by the Referee Association, it could be either an IPA or a TPA player who had received professional training.
The match begun!
Solitary Snow was showing a serious expression, he had never been this serious in a fight before. Even though he had the advantages with his METAL Suit, he wanted to treat this opportunity seriously.
This was his first time fighting a strong TPA fighter.
“Deploy!”
Rays of light shot out as the Golden Marksman began to cover Solitary Snow’s body, the coverage was more than 90% and also came with a unique Golden Bow, it was definitely a legendary METAL Suit.
The crowd remained silent, for the first time no one cheered and whistled when they saw an amazing METAL Suit, it wasn’t important anymore as their expectations were more into the match itself.
The IPA players took this match in a serious manner, the TPA players, on the other hand, were looking very disappointed.
The crowd’s attention turned to Einherjar Wannabe as they were expecting him to deploy his METAL Suit too, even if it was only a Level 1 Suit, it was his only chance to enhance his own defense.
But Einherjar Wannabe did nothing; apparently, he had no METAL Suit!
In fact, Wang Tong had no idea how to obtain his TPA METAL Suit.
Solitary Snow didn’t say a word as he channeled his Soul Energy, which was weird because he used to be very talkative in his previous matches; however, he knew actions would speak louder than words in a situation like this.
Solitary Snow’s body was overflown with golden rays of Soul Energy, then he wielded his golden bow and forged arrows which were made out of his Soul Energy.
The fight began!
Swoosh…
Solitary Snow fired a flashing arrow toward Einherjar Wannabe, not many METAL fighters were able to wield ranged weapons, these weapons were capable of significantly increasing their lethality; the Golden Marksman was the best equipment amongst ranged weapon series.
Wang Tong immediately angled his body and dodged Solitary Snow’s golden arrow with the reflex of a jaguar.
However, it didn’t startle Solitary Snow as that was only his warning shot to test out Einherjar Wannabe’s strength. He would have really been disappointed if his opponent couldn’t even dodge that.
At this point, Solitary Snow saw himself as a warrior. His style of fighting had become different to how he fought previously with IPA players.
He aimed the golden arrows again and shot with a burst of Soul Energy. The arrows flew toward Wang Tong in a triangular formation. On the other hand, Wang Tong began to respond, he wanted to see if Solitary Snow was a strong opponent worth fighting for, if that METAL Suit was only capable of performing ranged attacks, then it would be boring and meaningless.
Most of the fighters had problems about dodging ranged attacks, but Wang Tong wasn’t surprised at all because of his experiences dealing with a species of Zergs that were specialized in ambushing enemies with dart-like pins, it made Wang Tong shivered as he remembered how disgusting those creatures were.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Wang Tong dodged the arrows perfectly, and Solitary Snow began to move as well, a professional archer would not fire his arrows in the same position only, a high ranked fighter like him would never make such rookie mistakes.
Somehow, Solitary Snow didn’t worry about Wang Tong dashing toward him, he swiftly moved and widen their distance, then rapidly fired his arrows toward Wang Tong. People might be wondering if his Soul Energy would dry out, but he had tricks up his sleeves which allowed him to regain Soul Energy during the fight.
The archer’s attack got more and more intense as their distance shrunk closer and closer. Solitary Snow might not be a fighter in reality, but he had spent a lot of time in the world of IPA and has already participated in countless battles, which also qualified him as an experienced fighter. Moreover, IPA fighters were not as held back as TPA fighters, their imaginations were not restrained, they could do anything as they pleased and would often create unthinkable battle methods to achieve the best outcome.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Solitary Snow fired two arrows in a jiff and warded off the approaching Wang Tong. He knew what his opponents were thinking, everyone he fought had the same idea of closing the gap to finish him off with hand-to-hand combat.
But of course, he wouldn’t let that happen.
Yet Wang Tong carried on to narrow down their gap, he was having a tough time deciphering the pattern of Solitary Snow’s rapid fire, but he knew it wasn’t impossible since everyone has a habit of doing something, all he needed was a bit more pressure.
Nine shots were fired, and Solitary Snow realized their distance was still getting closer, every single shot looked like a hit, but for some reason, Einherjar Wannabe was able to dodge them and even moved closer. In other words, his opponent’s judgment was getting stronger as the distance got closer, it made Solitary Snow very excited!
He had been waiting for the arrival of this day, everyone who failed their Mind Opening Operation dreamed of being able to participate in fights like this, including himself.
Unlike Wang Ben, he knew he would fail no matter how many times he tried again. All he wanted was a chance for his wish to come true!
This was the distance to attack!
Wang Tong immediately thrust a punch when he dodged the arrow, but Solitary Snow performed a nimble movement and negated Wang Tong’s punch!
The IPA players were getting anxious when Einherjar Wannabe was closing up the gap. They were wondering if Solitary Snow and his “glitchy” METAL Suit would be able to stand against Einherjar Wannabe’s ghastly dodges.
Wang Tong was sure that his punch would hit, but why did it miss?
Solitary Snow began moving his body in a weird rhythm and fired an arrow at the same time. Wang Tong’s instinct moved his body away as he watched the arrow skimmed across his chest. Wang Tong felt the heat instantly, it was definitely a close one.
Wang Tong came to realize that he had underestimated his opponent even though he was being careful, he thought that the IPA players would focus more on their METAL Suit’s ability, but the truth was, Suits required human itself to be utilized.
That was the Steps of the Papillon, a first class battle movements of the Ivantians.
Its elegant movement resembled a Papillon, and it was hard to be mastered; the key of this movement was not the speed, but the total control of its rhythm. The Steps of the Papillon was about making opponents off balance while not letting them catch the user off balance, it would let them stay unfocused as long as they couldn’t predict the center of gravity of the user.
The TPA players were shocked by the fact that an IPA player was able to pull off a military technique, that was unbelievable!
Even though Solitary Snow was only an ordinary person who wasn’t related to any Houses, it didn’t mean that he wouldn’t be successful. He had been putting every bit of effort and time into the Suit ever since he got his hands on it and even developed his own fighting methods!
All he wanted was to achieve his dream of becoming a fighter. Hence he came out with this golden combination: The Steps of the Papillon and the Golden Marksman!
This would be the end of Einherjar Wannabe!
The cheers from the IPA players sounded like a roaring river, they could see themselves in the shadow of Solitary Snow. They were the nobodies, the ordinary folks, and the salarymen in reality, but they all had the same dream. They felt themselves combining as one with Solitary Snow like they were fighting together against Einherjar Wannabe!
His Steps of the Papillon were flawless, even the Ivantians would be pleased if they were able to see this! The standards of his movements were possibly higher than what Ivantians could achieve.
Solitary Snow was able to achieve this with only the help of his Soul Energy; clearly, he had immersed his body and soul into the practices. Moreover, this was his first time using the Steps of the Papillon; he did not even use it in his regular fights, and the reason was simple: this was his first real match after all.
With the help from the Steps of the Papillon, Solitary Snow’s arrows were no longer constrained, like the arrows were given wings. It has become more difficult for Einherjar Wannabe to dodge his attacks.
However, their distance remained the same!
Yet it wasn’t because Einherjar Wannabe was approaching, but Solitary Snow himself got closer instead. It was a great taboo for archers to engage their enemies at close range; however, Solitary Snow found that this was the best method to increase the power of his attacks.
At this moment, he had truly become a fighter who possessed the spirit of a warrior.
As soon as he gained control of the rhythm, Solitary Snow steeply increased his Soul Energy in a burst and began to exert his killing moves. Einherjar Wannabe’s sense of smelling the danger began to tingle; every shot was dangerous, even though it wasn’t fatal, some of Solitary Snow’s arrows did inflict damages to him.
Swoosh…
The firing speed increased as Solitary Snow accelerated the movement of his hands, the acceleration of his firing momentum even created an afterimage of his movements, and countless arrows swarmed toward Einherjar Wannabe like a horde of locusts.
The attack was called the Papillon’s Mystical Arrow Shower!
It was a radius attack made of illusions and real arrows, the user’s body, spirit, and skills had to be fully synchronized in order to pull off this attack!
This sort of imagination, creativity, and even combat capacity had totally exceeded the expectations of the TPA fighters.
The real attacks were well hidden in the illusions created by his Soul Energy.
It was a fast pace attack which left no gap for the opponent to respond, meaning it would be impossible to completely negate the wide radius attack. Einherjar Wannabe had no METAL Suit, if he were to take a hit from an arrow, then it would be game over.
Wang Tong was stunned as the attack reminded him of his terrible experience with Zergs’ aerial forces, but this time Solitary Snow’s arrows were even more appalling and complicated than Zergs’ rain of pins; after all, Zergs had lower intelligence, and mankind was powerful because of its creativity. Half of the projectiles in this radius attack were illusions while the rest were capable of dealing damages; moreover, the kill shot itself was also hidden in the attack.
Einherjar Wannabe had to think of a way to deal with it, or else it would really be game over!
All of a sudden, Einherjar Wannabe closed his eyes in the moment of life and death!
That was insane!
In the eyes of the TPA players, it was a helpless situation. Given the speed and distance, it was already too late for Einherjar Wannabe to save his own ass, all he could do was to close his eyes and accept the fate of his defeat.
A technique like this might be fascinating, but the TPA players just couldn’t do it; even if they could, they would choose not to.
Would there be miracles? Not unless this was a fairy tale!
Solitary Snow knew that was it, it has been the best experience ever, even if this was all just a dream; still, it definitely paid off his hard works.
All of a sudden, Wang Tong, who has been closing his eyes, began to move!
“Good God, he used the Steps of the Papillon too!”
He was floating around like he had lost the center of gravity, his movements were confusing, and the position of his body became unpredictable. What’s more, Solitary Snow’s arrows missed Einherjar Wannabe!
“He made it… He dodged the radius attack! That is truly absurd!”
However, Solitary Snow’s Soul Energy wasn’t stopping, his final attack was still yet to be unleashed!
A single kill shot was still hidden amongst the scattered attack, and it was under the control of his Soul Energy. It was the one and only Golden Arrow, which was also a part of the Golden Marksman METAL Suit.
The real Golden Arrow was about to hit!
Einherjar Wannabe suddenly stopped moving, his body seemed to become unaffected by the force of gravity, then without wasting any time, he put his palms together!
Bang! Wham!
Both of them recoiled by the impact!
Swoosh!
Dead silence…
Solitary Snow was startled as he saw the glittering Golden Arrow was stabbed in his own chest.
Then he gave a smile of satisfaction.
He had lost fair and square!
Everyone went blank as they watched his avatar faded away, no one expected the match to end like this.
Einherjar Wannabe took five steps back from the recoil and stopped, then he turned around and pointed Solitary Snow with his right index finger and gently hammered himself to the chest with his left hand.
Solitary Snow was touched…
It was the sign of a fighter showing respect to his opponent after a match.
The IPA players had never been respected before! Not even once, because they were only a bunch of ordinary people without any talent.
Respects only belonged to warriors.
Einherjar Wannabe left; silence took over the arena and plaza…
It was the glory of being respected!
It was the honor of conquering everyone’s heart!