The King

… A loud sound resounded through the hallway

'BOOM!' 

The door flew across the room smashing into the guard, Z who was behind 2 layers of defense just continued curling up as he got launched across the room. The entire castle was on fire, as the explosion had just destroyed most of the structure as well. Z stood up, his ears still ringing from the explosion. It was only a simulation but it was a damn good one it did affect his senses somewhat. 

Offstage the students watched slack-jawed. As they couldn't believe the pandemonium that had happened on stage. 

"What was that explosion?"

"What the heck that worked as well?"

"He didn't do anything but he took out so many soldiers?"

"What do you mean he took out! Didn't you see he almost killed himself too?"

The crowd started to discuss among themselves as they were confused about what had actually happened there. 

---

In the control room, there was a big discussion going on as well. 

"What the hell just happened? How can this be allowed?"

"Boss, it seems it's what the AI deems as fair use, the black powder we saw earlier was actually gunpowder and this kid actually gathered a bunch and put them in the centre of the room. When he locked the door, the soldiers tried to knock down the door but they completely ignored the gunpowder, which led to this happening."

"The AI hasn't made his move yet, right? Is the King's guard still able to move? Is he still able to fight?"

The chief examiner asked while looking at the screen trying to find the HP for the guard. 

"Boss, yeah it looks like it still has some HP left and can still go on… Nevermind. He has no more hp left."

---

Z shook his head as he tried to regain his vision and location. He spotted the king who lost his signature smile, all that was left was a frown as he retrieved a spear from his back. He picked up the spear as he stood up and walked towards Z who was still disoriented. 

Z looked towards the ground as he spotted the door that had been blasted away along with the piece of 8 he had used to jam the door shut, he stepped towards the piece of 8 and retrieved it before walking over to the guard who was still twitching on the ground. With a swift movement of his wrist, he slit the throat of the guard before standing back up facing the king himself. 

A spear strike flew across his chest as it grazed him, reducing his HP by a little bit. Z immediately grabbed onto the spear wanting to toss the King aside, but the AI was too strong, it had predicted Z's course of action and yanked the spear away before Z could get a grip. He swung the spear backwards using the end of the spear to deliver an uppercut towards Z's face as Z beautifully dodged it within an inch. 

The king swung the spear around his neck letting it spin, before retrieving it with his other arm and jabbing it once again towards Z. 

This time, Z used the complete pieces of 8 as a shield and deflected the spear upwards as the thrust completely missed his head creating sparks as it slid past the shield. 

After seeing an opening Z immediately dismantled the pieces of 8 and used 2 pieces as if they were throwing knives and threw it towards the King who was still recovering from his missed attack. 

He calculated the trajectory as he pulled his body in tightly avoiding the blades letting it land behind him. His eyes turned red as he regained control of the spear and started to thrust again, this time using small attacks instead, not wanting to stagger from a missed attack again. 

Z used 2 pieces as daggers blocking the attacks from the King by deflecting it hit after hit, he thrust his blade forward in an attempt to land a blow but the king was too fast and too efficient to get hit. 

Z knew he needed a plan. It was as if he was an NPC fighting against a player. The king had all his attack patterns down, no matter what he did the king wouldn't be surprised. 

Dodging the attacks he threw another 2 more blades towards the king, in an attempt to hit him. As always he managed to dodge an attack by the skin of his teeth, but this time, in the shadow of the first 2 blades hidden another 2 blades. 

This was not within his calculation and he fumbled for a bit, as he immediately calculated the best course of action to take that will minimise the amount of damage taken. He twisted his body so that it would miss its vitals, the 2 pieces of 8 landed on his shoulder and on his arm avoiding most of the damage but also damaging his hp. 

Z smiled, surprise attacks do work, after all, it was a right bet to not show his hand during the earlier fight he still had a trump card up his sleeve and he would use it at the most opportune moment. 

The King seeing that he got hurt, his face contorted into something that was uglier than it had ever been. He angrily charged towards Z as his pace intensified, spear after spear landing hit after hit. Z saw his HP decrease slowly, as he used the remaining 2 pieces of 8 in his hands to divert the attack from the King. 

Z finally decided to make a counter-attack and extended the blade outwards in an attempt to stab him in his neck. Forcing the king to retreat by hopping back. Z threw one more piece of 8 towards him to close up the distance only to be parried away by the spear. Just as the king was ready to go on the offensive Z extended his hands towards the King as he looked on in confusion. The pieces of 8 that were on the floor floated up and pointed in his direction. 

In that instant he had calculated that the best chance for survival was to charge into Z and take him out before he could deal any damage, but alas it was too late, as he charged forward his movement had slowed down.