Chapter 31: "Queen
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Under the gaze of hundreds of millions of spectators, Tower Selt took a deep breath and then a blue light flashed in his hand.
...This strike might directly decide who would be the winner.
A sphere of light emerged.
That halo was extremely bright, continuously emitting light in all directions, and in the instant it flew out, the trailing light tail was incredibly dazzling, like a rapidly falling meteor.
This halo was much brighter than the light from ordinary attacks and much more blinding.
Such a beautiful swathe of light would deliver a fatal blow to the opposing King.
Eni let out a sigh of relief, Selt exhaled, Hubert relaxed, and even Qiao Liya, still with cold sweat on her back, revealed a smile of someone who had survived a disaster.
—It was a critical hit.
The damage met the mark; surely it would take away all the remaining life points of the opposing King in one fell swoop, a complete critical hit.
The barrage chat was fused into a single mass, all filled with compliments for Eni and shouts for the victory in the match.
Su Ming'an looked up.
In front of him, that beautiful blue halo that seemed to fall from the sky was rapidly approaching him.
At the moment it hit the ground, his life bar would be completely depleted.
He was not the Chosen One; he wouldn't have the chance to reduce the probability of suffering a critical hit even by half.
Instead, it seemed like improbably low odds for a critical hit had struck him twice.
Su Ming'an thought a lot, but no matter from which angle, he saw no way out—not even loading a previous save was an exception.
As long as he faced Eni, this situation would arise, even if the last strike wasn't a critical hit—his Cloning had the chance to strike with the sword, and would most likely not be able to take out Eni in one hit.
Then, if he were to load a previous save now and avoid facing this group...
He remembered the SS rank completion evaluation.
The barrage chat went dead silent:
[It's over.]
[Is this... even the heavens don't want Ming'an to win?]
[Why do I feel like the streamer is being targeted by the Organizers? First, that inexplicable matching mechanism, and now a miraculously timed critical hit?]
[Ah, this...]
[Do we have to say goodbye to Ming'an, when I actually liked him quite a bit...]
[...]
Su Ming'an looked up, watching the light that leaped over.
"The Queen," he muttered to himself, "can block the Tower's attack..."
He was still thinking, when the next second, he saw Yuanyuan's real Shadow suddenly appear before him.
"—Teammate Yuanyuan, joining the battle, accepting the role of [Queen]."
The figure became more solid, even making a sound.
Her voice told him this wasn't an illusion.
Armor plates silently emerged and automatically fitted to her body, a crimson cape fluttered behind her, and she grasped a silver longsword in her hand, dazzling with a light as blinding as snow in the daylight.
Unlike the opposing Queen Qiao Liya, Yuanyuan's Queen attire was not a complicated and elegant noblewoman's dress.
It was a battle skirt, covered with scalloped armor revealing her lean waist and straight legs; the armor reflected light, and even the gemstones adorning it carried Sharpness.
Confronting the incoming blue light, she raised the ice-like Sword of Caeneus in her hand.
She was awake.
...
[Tower] had a long range of attack, able to strike any enemy Chess Piece at will, but could not attack the King directly if bypassing the Queen.
...
"Swoosh!"
The sword flashed.
[——HP-300!]
Yuanyuan as the [Queen], blocked the attack from [Tower], which was meant for their own [King].
Yuanyuan had never added any Four Dimensions Attributes points, her Spirit was a normal person's five points, and she had almost no resistance to magical attacks.
A sword could pierce through flesh, block iron weapons, but could not withstand such a light-like magical attack. She arched her body, her health bar rapidly dropped to 200, and another hit would kill her.
"You're awake?" Su Ming'an looked at her.
Blood dribbled from the corner of Yuanyuan's mouth, the corners of her eyes drooping slightly, her beautiful almond-shaped eyes smiling:
"—Now, I share the same fate as you." She said, smiling.
...Both had health points low enough for a single strike to be fatal.
But the difference was, the Tower couldn't attack the King directly; it would prioritize attacking the Queen.
"Another one has come..." Eni's gaze trembled as he looked at the girl with black hair and a snow sword, inexplicably feeling a hidden explosive power emanating from that frail body.
Despite looking docile with her snow-white fluffed attire, when her sword pointed at him, he felt a piercing sharpness coming through the distance, as if her blade would cross thousands of miles the next instant and brutally plunge into his chest.
However, right now, he should be worried about his own situation.
Because it was now the Red King's turn.
And the [Guard], that Cloning, was standing right in front of Eni, within striking distance.
"Guard." A cold light flashed in Su Ming'an's eyes: "—Directly attack the enemy King!"
Flames erupted from Eni; he couldn't attack and could only resist with all his might, trying to block the oncoming assault. His usually steady Emotions shook violently as if even he couldn't understand how this game, which had always seemed so simple and boring to him, had escalated to this point.
The Cloning with a Combat Power of three hundred raised its sword.
The blade slashed down—
Desperately, Eni twisted his body, feeling the icy sword momentarily break through the barrier of flames, scraping his shoulder for an instant before descending. His eyeballs shook violently as he saw the blade passing close by his neck, bringing a bone-chilling pain before it dug deeper, hit his bones, and slid along his flesh—
Causing a pain that nearly made him faint.
[——HP-445! (Flame weakened! Dismemberment! Heavy bleeding!)]
"Eni—!"
"Eni!"
Cries of alarm came from his teammates.
Eni's vision suddenly filled with a mirage of water, everything became blurry, and all that was left in his senses was a series of stabbing pains emanating from his left side of the body, almost suffocating him.
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