World of Kings
The applause and cheers were thunderous, but Picke was still able to keep himself calm and composed. He was already used to this kind of occasions, even showing a relaxed smile on his face as he waved to his fans below the stage.
"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the annual fan signing event for Team Star World!" the emcee yelled enthusiastically into his mic. "As per the practice in the past few years, before the event starts, we will have Team Star World's ace player, Picke, and his Swordmaster, The One, play an online exhibition match to show off his unrivalled skills for all of us here!"
The people in the audience had quietened down a little when the emcee started speaking. But upon hearing his words, they immediately broke out into cheers once more.
"Picke! Picke! Picke!"
"The One! The One! The One!"
Picke laughed casually as he moved to sit behind the computer prepared for him on stage. His smile was dazzling and his movement was full of grace, resulting in excited screams from some of his fan girls.
But it was no wonder that they reacted so fervently.
Picke was, in every sense, the complete package.
He had both the looks and the skills, plus his mannerism and speech were all top-notch. The management recognised this as well, and had pushed hard for Picke to become the face of the team so as to raise their popularity to greater heights.
Once seated, Picke immediately swiped his account card to log into the online game World of Kings, or WoK for short. The familiar loading screen seemed to take forever to the fans below, all eagerly anticipating the show that was about to come.
When he finally entered the game, the avatar of his character immediately showed up on his monitor, which was in turn projected onto the large panel on the stage's backdrop.
Name: The One
Class: Swordmaster
This was core of Team Star World. In every match, this was the ace character that they could always see fearlessly leading the charge against their opponents!
But this time, there was something about his avatar that caused it to look a little different from usual.
"Do note that the original equipment on The One has been switched out for weaker equipment so as to ensure fairness. After all, with his usual competitive equipment, there is no way any public players would stand a chance against The One!" the emcee immediately explained.
"However, do note that players will generally be matched against others of similar skill level in the game. Considering that The One is a character ranked near the top, his opponent today will definitely be someone who is at the top of the game as well. But still, will Picke and The One ever lose?"
"No!" the crowd yelled out their response immediately.
"That's right! Looks like we didn't have to wait too long, WoK has already managed to match The One with an opponent!"
Name: Dis Pear
Class: Swashbuckler
Gasps instantly sounded out among the crowd upon seeing the arranged opponent, and some fans could not help but grin in excitement.
In WoK's Arena Leaderboard, Dis Pear was not ranked among the Top 10, Top 50, or even the Top 100. Normally, such an opponent would not have been too much of a threat against The One.
However, what made everyone shocked was that the twin swords in the Swashbuckler's hands were glowing with a bronze light.
Star Ranked Equipment!
One of the ultra-rare equipment of the game that even provided a random improvement to one of the character's skills!
In comparison, The One's current equipment were definitely lacking…
However!
That kind of disadvantage only served to make things more exciting!
The fans had no doubt that with Picke's skill level, he would be able to control The One to steamroll this opponent who was merely built with high ranked items. They only hope that the opponent's skills would be able to live up to his equipment, so that he could at least put up a decent fight.
After all, how could the show go on without a decent opponent?
After the matchup was decided, the two characters quickly loaded into the Arena map. The map chosen was the standard Arena Platform, where the two characters simply faced each other on a plain fighting ring. This was also the most popular map, with nowhere to hide and no map elements to abuse, allowing for a direct showdown of skills.
As expected, with no map elements that they can utilise to their advantage, both characters charged straight towards the centre of the map after spawning at their respective ends.
The Swordmaster and the Swashbuckler were both secondary classes that belonged to the Weapon Master primary class, and both wielded swords as their main weapon.
However, the Swashbuckler was more focused on speed and elusiveness, while the Swordmaster was the more versatile and balanced class.
Naturally, Dis Pear's attack as a Swashbuckler arrived faster than The One's.
Picke had expected as much, and calmly controlled The One to swing his sword.
Parried!
After the first clash, The One immediately swung his sword again, threatening to draw first blood.
Rapid Slash!
Secondary classes were still able to use skills from their primary class. The One had opted for one of the Weapon Masters' go-to skills, allowing for multiple attacks in quick succession. The damage was not as high as compared to other skills, but it was fast and had a relatively short cooldown timer.
Mirage Strike!
In response, Dis Pear went for a Swashbuckler skill that allowed him to strike simultaneously from three different angles.
Seeing this, The One immediately adjusted the angle of his sword strikes to block the three attacks in quick succession.
Parried! Parried! Parried!
There were some 'oh's and 'ah's in the crowd as they were awed by Picke's mechanical skills, evident from the preciseness of The One's defence, but what they saw next made their mouths hang open in disbelief.
With each clash of their swords, another figure of Dis Pear appeared beside him. By the end of the exchange, there were already four identical opponents standing before The One – Dis Pear along with three of his clones.
The Swashbuckler's iconic skill – Clone World!
After this skill was activated, for the next 30 seconds, every contact with the Swashbuckler's weapons would spawn a clone of the Swashbuckler that dealt 10% of outgoing damage and received 10 times of the original incoming damage.
Despite the extremely short gap between the first and second clashes, the opponent actually managed to activate a skill without anyone noticing!
The Swashbuckler army began their assault!
Even with four figures attacking him, Picke kept his eyes fixed on the main one, making sure that he did not lose sight of him as he fought back valiantly. But as time passed, more and more clones appeared. No matter how skilled he was, it was simply impossible to keep up an airtight defence against the ever growing army of Swashbucklers.
The people in the audiences watched with worried hearts as The One's HP gauge dropped at a far faster rate than that of the opponent. He was able to sneak in a few attacks of his own from time to time, but he could not let things carry on like this!
If he did not do something to salvage the situation, then he would lose for sure!
As a professional player, Picke naturally knew that better than anyone else. But there was a reason why he was not doing anything about it – the time was not yet ripe for it.
In his heart, Picke was silently counting down.
28…
29…
30!
It's time!
At that very instant, The One immediately leapt up into the air and freed himself from the encirclement, even if just for a moment.
Blessings of the First Sword!
This was one of Swordmasters' highest level skills, granting a great increase in attack speed and damage, as well as allowing for the use of the strongest attack of the Swordmaster. As expected, The One used the newly available skill immediately.
Dimensional Slash!
The One resolutely swung his sword through the air and even the very fabrics of space was torn asunder, forming cracks in the air as the attack travelled through the void!
The sound of metal cutting through flesh immediately sounded out as every single Swashbuckler figure that was surrounding him received a powerful slash right in the chest!
Domineering and unblockable!
Those were the characteristics of the Swordmasters' Dimensional Slash!
With the exception of the main one, every Swashbuckler clone instantly broke into golden particles that dissipated into the air.
Picke could not help but let out a smirk at this point.
What he did was by no means anything impressive. It was simply the standard counter for Swordmasters against Swashbucklers. But no matter how many times he did it, it always felt satisfying to take out entire armies of Swashbuckler clones with a single move.
On top of that, he did not rush into using the counter like most casual players would. Picke made sure to wait out the effects of the Swashbuckler's Clone World before doing so, ensuring that his opponent would no longer be able to spawn anymore clones after this!
Not intending to give his opponent any time to breathe, The One charged forward. Right now, with the buff from Blessings of the First Sword still in effect, he was actually even faster than the speedy Swashbuckler.
Blood repeatedly spurt out from his opponent as The One landed slash after slash, skill after skill, trapping him in a seemingly unescapable combo!
The fans immediately burst into cheers upon witnessing this glorious scene.
Do you see this? This is the level of a professional player!
This is the level of their idol, Picke of Team Star World!
The opponent tried to defend, but it took a while before he was finally able to parry The One's attack.
The sound of metal striking against metal sounded out, causing the fans to moan in lamentation as the brutal assault was halted by the opponent's well timed parry.
Only a mere 5 seconds had passed since The One's counterattack, but his initially lower HP was now already leading his opponent's by far. This was testament to how ferociously he had struck!
Despite having his combo broken, Picke was not intending to stop here. He controlled The One to raise his sword and was about to swing down when he was faced with an unimaginable sight.
A clone had spawned beside his opponent!
What the f***?
How is that possible?
The effects of Clone World only lasted 30 seconds, so it must have ended by now!
But no matter what, he still could not lose his momentum here!
Parried!
His next attack was once again blocked by the Swashbuckler, and yet another clone appeared!
Picke felt cold sweat forming on his forehead as he repeatedly tried to advance. He managed to slash his opponent a few more times, but the frequency of his attacks being blocked rapidly increased, along with the number of clones on the opponent's side.
It got increasingly more difficult as the number of clones increased, and then it was finally time for the opponent's counterattack.
Once again, he was overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the opponent.
Even though each clone did not deal much damage individually…
Even though he was being buffed by the effects of Blessings of the First Sword…
But as the number of Swashbuckler clones increased, there was simply no way for him to deal with it!
No, he refused to believe this!
There must be some way out of this predicament!
As long as he tried, he might just be able to take out his opponent before his own HP gauge emptied out!
20%...
10%...
5%...
1%...
The One finally fell motionless to the ground.
0%.
Picke felt his hands go cold as he stared speechlessly at his empty HP gauge.
What is this situation?
Why did the duration of the opponent's Clone World last for so long? Is he a hacker?
At that moment, he finally remembered the bronze glow of the opponent's weapon.
Star Ranked Equipment provided a random improvement to one of the character's skills. The duration of Clone World must have been increased because of that!
Damn it, what are the chances?
This is supposed to be an exhibition match for me to show off my skills! Where did this bastard come from?
Dis Pear?
What a lame name! Such poor naming sense is fully compatible with a sneaky bastard like him! I will definitely pay him back for this in the future!
"Hahaha! With The One's equipment suddenly all changed to lower tier ones, it must have felt completely unfamiliar to Picke! Looks like even our star player needs time to get used to an all new character! What a rare sight, even if it is a completely non serious match, it is not every day that we get to see The One being defeated! A round of applause for Picke, please!" the emcee walked up on stage immediately.
With a few simple words, the emcee had put the blame of the loss on Picke not being serious, as well as him not being used to the new character stats. His professionalism as an emcee could be seen from that fast reaction, or perhaps he had already planned out what to say in the off chance that Picke lost.
In any case, Picke was now able to smile once again.
"Hahaha! Even though it was not a serious match, the opponent truly did well! I only have heartfelt praise for him!" Picke acted humble as he let out his signature laugh, charming the fans into cheering for him once more.