bullyxtreme Chapter 13 : Darkness
Chapter 13 : Darkness
DarknessIn the end, it was Cecilia who sensed something was off. She approached the flustered female mage, added her as an in-game friend, and thus helped Gu Yanxi out of her predicament.
Seeing this utterly ordinary female mage so easily become Cecilia's friend, the crowd broke out in another wave of envious exclamations.
At that moment, many people fell into deep regret—regretting not taking the initiative to ask for Cecilia's friendship slot first.
In fact, even if they'd gone to ask, Cecilia definitely wouldn't have given it to them.
This time, the only reason she agreed was because she was interested in the female mage's identity as a forger.
Cecilia wanted to know how many forgers there were in this game besides herself, what level their Smithing had reached, and how their skills differed from her own [Vampire Artisan Forging].
The female mage's username was "Mujinmian," which was actually a rather literary name.
After bidding farewell to the female mage manning her stall and wrapping up that brief interlude, Cecilia led Gu Yanxi into the lively arena.
Along the way, the pair attracted countless stares once more.
In the real world, Gu Yanxi was already a first-rate beauty, so she'd long since grown accustomed to such looks.
Cecilia, however, was much more reserved. Even though she'd been watched like this plenty of times before, her expression remained stiff, her fair little hands tightly clutching the hem of her skirt.
Arriving at the NPC responsible for registration at the arena, Cecilia was just about to teach Gu Yanxi how to sign up when she looked up and spotted a head of striking fog-blue short hair in the crowd.
Who else could it be?
Besides Yuewu and herself, Cecilia had never seen another player with such a distinctive hair color.
On the other side, Yuewu had already noticed Cecilia and Gu Yanxi, feeling secretly lucky to have withdrawn early. She came over and greeted them both.
"What a coincidence!"
"Mm."
Cecilia nodded slightly.
"Hello,"
Gu Yanxi replied politely while sizing up Yuewu.
It was only then that Yuewu noticed Gu Yanxi's brand-new set, and after looking at Cecilia's outfit as well, she quickly formed a theory and kindly reminded them:
"Are you two planning to go into the arena together? The 2v2 lobby is next door."
As she spoke, she pointed in the direction of the other lobby.
It was an entirely reasonable question. Any player with a little game sense knew that for a priest to enter the solo arena was basically suicide.
That left only one possibility.
Cecilia, this top-tier player, was planning to enter the ring herself and take her "little sister" along to stomp weaker opponents.
Yet to Yuewu's surprise, Cecilia shook her head slightly and poked the adorably blank-faced Gu Yanxi standing beside her.
"No, she's going in alone."
"Huh?!"
Yuewu stared in disbelief for quite a while before she reacted, widening her eyes at Gu Yanxi. "Sister, are you out of your mind?"
Gu Yanxi said nothing, blinking innocently up at Yuewu.
She had no idea what was happening—Cecilia had just dragged her over, saying she wanted to test some new skills Gu Yanxi had learned.
After a moment, Yuewu finally understood a bit more.
Although "Blooming Smile's" class was priest, she was also the first player to have teamed up with Cecilia, and her level was now absurdly high. Coupled with a set of top-tier blue level 5 equipment and stellar stats, she could probably overwhelm 99% of other players.
But even so, a priest's lack of attack capabilities was a glaring flaw.
It was like an enchanter with no ADC—no matter how tanky you were, what good was it if you couldn't fight back?
She wondered how Gu Yanxi intended to make up for that shortcoming.
While Yuewu was still thinking, Cecilia had already signed Gu Yanxi up.
When Gu Yanxi, eyes bright with anticipation, pressed the confirmation button, the system began matching her to an opponent.
"System notification: A suitable opponent has been found. This process will take about five seconds."
The voice echoed in her mind. The world went black for Gu Yanxi, and her figure vanished from the lobby.
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself standing on a strange new ring.
"So this is the arena?"
She tapped her staff lightly on the ground, glancing around curiously at her surroundings—utterly lacking any sense of impending battle.
A few seconds later, there was a soft sound from across the ring, and an assassin player was teleported in.
The instant his feet touched the ground, he reached for the dagger at his waist. Though there were still a few seconds before the fight officially began, he was in the habit of drawing his weapon early, feeling more secure that way.
This was his nineteenth solo ranked match. He'd had great luck so far, always matched up against mages or sharpshooters—both classes that assassins naturally countered. That had let him rack up a win streak; one more win and he'd hit his twentieth consecutive victory.
He hoped this time would be another sharpshooter or mage.
As he materialized in the ring, the assassin player thought, if it's either of those squishies, this will be easy. Sharpshooters are the easiest. Mages are similar—just dodge their first skill with Shadow Step, go into stealth, circle behind them, and hit them with Backstab, then a combo to finish them off.
But when he looked at his opponent, he froze.
The girl's gear looked unfamiliar... Never seen it in the arena before...
Wait, is she... a priest?
The moment he recognized Gu Yanxi's equipment, the assassin player inwardly rejoiced.
He never thought he'd get this lucky—matched against a newbie priest, and a beautiful girl at that! His twentieth win seemed firmly in the bag.
The pre-match countdown ended, and the fight began.
"Hey, sis, you're a priest, right? First time in the arena?"
The assassin player sheathed his dagger slowly, not attacking right away, but maintained a calm demeanor and tried to strike up conversation.
How often would you get one-on-one time with a gorgeous girl in such a private setting? Had to chat a bit before ending the match.
Besides, there'd be no such chance in real life.
"How did you know?"
Gu Yanxi asked curiously, studying her opponent as she inwardly pondered.
I just have to defeat that guy, and I win, right?
Her innocent reply only delighted the assassin all the more.
She really was a clueless rookie—this match was in the bag!
Still, wanting to show off a bit in front of the pretty girl, he acted the gentleman: "Since you're new, I won't bully you. I'll let you have three moves first."
Priests were famously bad at offense—everyone knew that.
Letting a priest have three skill uses up front? What could she possibly do—heal me to death?
No need to worry. This would be a breeze.
His mood was infectious; seeing how relaxed the assassin was, Gu Yanxi also grew cheerful.
"Really? Thank you!"
She hadn't expected to meet such a kind person her very first time in the arena.
Turns out, good people really do outnumber the bad.
With that, Gu Yanxi opened her skill list and began reading descriptions, learning what they did as she went.
"Shadow Form... active skill... for ten seconds, all healing effects... are converted to an equivalent amount of magic damage... all targets you damage... pain simulation... increased by 20%?"
"Soul Scourge... used on any single target..."
"......"
After a few seconds of reading, she finished going through the skill descriptions and did a quick mental calculation. As expected, shadow Form paired with Divine Healing would yield the highest damage.
With her current equipment and stats, a Divine Healing could heal over 700 HP. If she used it under the effects of Shadow Form, it would inflict over 700 magic damage instead.
For context, even the highest-leveled mage in the region, Yuewu, couldn't inflict that much damage in one go with her level 10 major skill.
Having decided, Gu Yanxi decisively raised her staff, black light spreading out from beneath her feet, suddenly wrapping around her entire body.
The assassin player had been feeling totally confident—until he saw the black light welling up beneath the girl. Suddenly, he was beset by an overwhelming sense of despair.
That black light was utterly eerie—just a glance and it felt as though his soul was being sucked into an endlessly spinning vortex of darkness, an abyss at the center of which was some twisted, monstrous otherworld, radiating indescribable terror.
He instinctively tried to dodge, to get as far away as possible from the girl radiating such an ominous aura, but he found himself unable to move a single step, forced to watch helplessly as she slowly raised her staff and a black moon shimmered ominously behind her.
"Heal your wounds—Divine Healing!"
With a delicate shout, a pillar of black light crashed down from above, engulfing the assassin completely!
What should have been holy, restorative light became, in that instant, a cold wind out of hell. The assassin felt as if he'd plunged into an ice cavern, his blood freezing solid—the next sensation was of his body being shredded by countless sharp claws.
But I don't even have pain simulation turned on—how is this happening?!
Terror filled his heart. Before he could even cry out, a deep purple damage number appeared over his head as his HP dropped instantly to zero.
-706!
A split second later, his body exploded into a cloud of light particles, slowly fading from the ring.
The ten-second skill duration ended. Gu Yanxi, now back to normal, stood alone on the ring, staring blankly at the empty space before her, a big question blooming in her mind.
Where did he go?