Chapter 162: Last Match of the Fourth Day Qualifiers

Joshua found himself standing in the arena for his final match of the day. The crowd was of course excited to see him come out for another match. At this point he was one of the most hyped up competitors in the tournament and any time he was on the stage the crowd would get excited. Usually an audience would cheer on an underdog, but every once in a while they'd get behind their "champion" to some degree and that seemed to be the situation Joshua was in. The one other person he had seen getting a similar treatment at this point was Lilly since the crowd was always excited to see which beast companions she would bring out for her fights.

After giving the crowd a bit of attention with a theatric bow and a wave Joshua turned his attention to his opponents for the last match of the day. This time around he could tell that the system had put a bit more of a challenge together for him and all of his adversaries were desperate at this point since this would be their last chance to make it into the final portion of the tournament.

This time around the group Joshua was up against had two tanks in it. One of the tanks was a knight that was level sixty-four and on the shorter side for most of the tanks that Joshua had seen up to this point. He stood just under six feet and held a smaller shield that was a bit more curved than usual. He had a helmet on with a visor that made it hard to see his appearance, but for the most part he seemed geared for trying to hold Joshua down like most other knights. The other tank was a heavy swordsman that was somewhat similar to Abigail or Ivan. She was a little taller than the knight at around six foot and the large sword on her back was long enough to go from her shoulders all the way to the point where it was almost scraping the floor. She was level sixty four as well and what stood out most about her was the mask that she wore with three lines on it that marked her as a member of the Stranger's Guild.

This time around there was only one close ranged fighter that wasn't a tank. It was a dagger specialist that only wielded one dagger, but used his free hand for explosives and other items that Joshua assumed he would use throughout the fight. The guy was a little bigger than most people he had met in the past that went for the more nimble jobs, but Joshua knew that his specialty would still be speed because of his job. He was level sixty- seven and had the highest level of the group. It didn't surprise him that a dagger specialist was having trouble getting into the last portion of the tournament. As long as they didn't have a powerful soul beast like Madalyn did then they would be easy pickings for mages, tanks, and even some other close ranged jobs in a drawn out match.

The last two members of the opposing group were both mages. It was an interesting pairing since one was one of the rare mages that uses lightning magic like Robin while the other was a water mage like Brook. The lightning mage was a young mage covered in golden robes that seemed like he would usually have a more haughty personality, but at the moment he was being more serious thanks to the current situation that he was stuck in. The other mage was also a young contestant that was a water mage. She seemed to be more standoffish from the rest of the group, but she did talk with the other mage to make a plan of attack.

Looking at the group that he was about to face Joshua decided his primary target this time around was going to be the dagger specialist from the get go. He knew that the two tanks were going to work well together as a front line, they most likely both had stunning skills and knockbacks that could slow Joshua down if given the chance. If he was going to take them down without his weapons or his aura he was going to have trouble singling one out while the other one is still right there.

When it came to the mages Joshua knew that it was going to be annoying trying to get to them quickly as well. The elements of the two mages worked well together both type wise and with their styles of combat. If Joshua got soaked by any of the water spells that one of the mages used then the other ones lightning magic would hit even harder and become far more dangerous in the upcoming battle. Lightning magic was also fast once activated and could be shot from a long distance, while the water magic would be able to help slow down Joshua if he tried to go after the mages first.

These were the reasons that Joshua singled out the dagger specialist right away. He was on his own with the current set up his group had, and Joshua didn't want him to be able to put down any traps or use his explosives to throw off Joshua's timing while fighting the mages or tanks. The moment the countdown ended Joshua didn't waste any time as he rushed towards the two tanks before suddenly shifting his direction as they both tried to spread out and force him to go through them instead of going after the others. When Joshua got around the side of the heavy swordsman that tried to hit him with her blade Joshua stomped the ground harshly and leaped into the air. The force of the sudden kick to the ground caused the two nearby tanks to stumble backwards while Joshua leaped up into the air and avoided a sudden sword of lightning that one of the mages had sent over.

Before the mages could start targeting him once more Joshua landed and leaped again towards the thief who had a canister out that he had opened to dispense smoke everywhere. Sadly smokescreens weren't the type of tactics that should be used against someone who could easily sense your presence through aura. Joshua plunged straight through the smoke and before anyone on the enemy team could do anything he took out the thief and dashed in another direction. The smoke cloud lingered for a bit and even spread out giving Joshua a small advantage that allowed him to sneak closer to the two mages before dashing out of the cloud of smoke and charging directly in their direction.

Both of the mages were prepared for this since they knew that it was more likely for them to become his next target instead of the tanks. Taking him out before he could reach them was an impossibility in their minds, so instead they were focused on slowing him down and damaging him until the tanks were able to catch up and hold him in place so that the mages could use far more powerful spells and end the match. Joshua knew this was likely to be the case as well so he didn't worry about any major spells coming his way and was instead worried about several smaller spells that were designed to slow him down. The combination of elements from the two mages worked well together and could easily cause him trouble if he gave them an opportunity.

The closer Joshua got to the two mages the more traps of water bubbles and geysers stood in his way that he had to outright avoid. The more water that was around him the more Joshua had to worry about the lightning mage's spells. He couldn't just narrowly avoid them since if one of those spells hit the water nearby it could stun Joshua without even touching him. This tactic forced Joshua to spend more time avoiding the mages' spells than actually getting closer to them. Not only was this dragging out the match, but it was also doing a good job in buying time for their companions to try to catch up to Joshua.

To avoid getting caught by the tanks Joshua decided to approach the situation in a slightly different way than the mages were initially expecting. Instead of charging directly towards the mages which would make it hard for Joshua to avoid their spells and make his progress slow, Joshua was moving towards the mages in a large arc that forced the knights to struggle to close the distance. Joshua realized that he was actually using the mages' own traps as an advantage in his favor. The traps would trigger when anyone tried to approach the mages which included the two tanks. This situation forced the tanks to follow Joshua's path if they wanted to avoid getting caught by any of the traps and kept them from just cutting directly towards the mages and getting their before Joshua.

The water mage could have put down the traps for the pair of tanks, but Joshua was much faster than them and would capitalize on such a situation and charge right in without a problem. Thus the mages were basically forced to play target practice with an enemy that moved far faster than they were used to dealing with. Joshua continued to loop around the mages as he slowly, but surely got closer and closer while all of the traps went off around him and he avoided them with a wide berth so that the random blasts of lightning wouldn't stun him in place. One mistake would force Joshua to actually use one of his skills to avoid the bombardment of spells and that was what he was trying his best to avoid.

Eventually the drawn out match came to an end as Joshua reached the two mages who tried their best to surprise him with a strong spell once he got within range. The water mage created a large wave of water from all of the spells she had been using throughout the match that was meant to knock Joshua away, but he dived through it rolled into a crouch and kicked off the ground slamming his fist directly into the stomachs of the two mages before the lightning mage could take advantage of him being drenched in water.

With the two mages taken out of the picture the rest of the match became simple since Joshua's opponents no longer had the firepower to be a threat to him. He dodged a couple of the attacks of the two knights before disarming the heavy swordsman and using her own blade to cut down her partner leaving Joshua against one disarmed opponent. Joshua quickly cut her down as well ending the match and finalizing Joshua's position in the last portion of the tournament.