The Grand Duelist

"What is it, sir Kris?" William was the first one to ask.

Kristian turned to look at him and Vladimir before saying in a voice that sounded more like an exclaim: "It's his Health!"

"His Health?" William replied with a frown.

He then turned to look at Joseph and saw that there was a pale look on his face.

"Wait, his Health?" Vladimir also pondered. A moment of silence ensued and when it was shattered. It was destroyed by Vladimir's shout.

"That's about right! Yeah! His Health is indeed his weakness!" Vladimir's eyes brightened as he declared. 

William had a look of confusion on his face, but his doubt didn't last long when Kristian suddenly pointed out.

"Have you noticed him ever take out a Health Potion to consume?"

It was at this moment that William finally understood what was going on.

Enlightenment flashed across his face and he almost exclaimed: "That's right! How did I not notice that?! Ever since the battle started, he had never consumed any Health or Mana Potion. I can understand why he's not consuming a Mana Potion..."

"He may have a different gauge, such as the Barbarians having Stamina Bars instead of Mana Bars. But Health? I have never heard of a class that has something in substitute for Health..."

"After all, Health is a universal concept here in the world of Victory. Even though he's the first Mythical Ranked player, I don't believe that he doesn't have any Health Points."

Kristian nodded his head and lightly smiled, "That's right." 

He began to look at these Guild Leaders in a different light.

He thought that these two were quite stupid at first since they were willing to offend a Mythical Class player just for the sake of relocating away from the Kingdom of Nether. But when Kristian received his subordinate's report regarding the circumstances of the two guilds.

He finally understood what was going on inside their heads.

Vladimir was once an enemy of Krid, the Legendary Blacksmith.

Furthermore, the disciple of that Legendary Blacksmith was Vladimir's enemy and Krid's disciple was now Joseph's comrade. It was easy to see why Vladimir decided to go against the Mythical Class player instead of establishing relationships with him.

It was impossible for them to form any kind of friendship with what happened between both sides in the past.

Kristian let out a sigh.

He decided that if this alliance really did succeed.

He'd help them achieve their goals of relocation.

Of course, he would add some terms that were advantageous to Guild Strongest Under Heaven. Guild Crimson and Guild Knights of Justice would have no way of refusing his terms once they were at Burning Heaven.

Kristian secretly formed some plans before placing those schemes in the back of his mind. He then swept his gaze at the two and said: "Vladimir, William. It's time for us to do this seriously. Both of you are the number ones here in your respective classes so I suppose that the two of you are quite confident in your abilities, right?"

A frown simultaneously appeared on the faces of Vladimir and William. Even though they were instantly killed by Joseph with a single attack back then. That didn't mean that they were weak. In their respective classes, they were the number ones. Of course, they were capable! Of course, they were confident in their abilities!

What the hell is this guy talking about?

Despite their irritation, the two didn't speak up.

They just stared at Kristian, seemingly urging him to continue speaking with their eyes.

Kristian paused for a moment, but he then let out a sigh and spoke: "I'll go and focus on zoning him out. Both of you should know what you two are supposed to do when I zone him out, right? Also, don't forget to constantly shower him with attacks. I suppose that both of you provided enough Mana Potions to your players, right?"

Vladimir nodded his head and coldly replied: "Of course, we know that much at least. Does sir Kris really think that we are that stupid as to not prepare enough Mana Potions for our subordinates?"

Kristian was taken aback by Vladimir's sharp words.

A strange expression appeared on his face, but his reply came quickly as he said: "That's not what I mean, I'm just saying that we may need to keep up our attacks on him for the next ten minutes or so without stopping. I want to know if your players can handle such a thing."

Vladimir raised his head to stare at Kristian. After a moment of silence, a determined look appeared on his face as he said: "They can do it. Just trust them. We, the Crimson Guild had never failed even once."

At this moment, William rudely interjected: "Crimson Guild has never failed? Why do I seem to remember that time when you tried to lure us into the Forbidden Region but miserably failed? Hahaha..." 

Vladimir's eyes narrowed into slits, "Watch your mouth, William. Are you sure that you want to talk like that while standing beside a Grappler?"

"Oh?"

William was astonished.

But he didn't cower in front of Vladimir's attitude as he said: "You want to fight?"

"Stop!" 

Before Vladimir could even reply, Kristian had already interfered.

"Save the playfighting for later! We still have to beat that bastard to submission!"

William and Vladimir awakened from their trance, but they still stared at each other with hostility evident on their faces.

Meanwhile back at the battlefield...

Joseph danced around like some kind of a brain-damaged ballerina in order to dodge the attacks coming his way. 

Strangely, despite consistently doing all of these in the past few minutes. Joseph didn't feel that tired. However, not being tired didn't mean that he was calm. It was clear from his erratic footsteps and panicked evasion measures that he wasn't as calm and composed as before.

Offense was the best defense, but Joseph couldn't be aggressive anymore.

He kept on dodging the attacks coming his way.

Of course, this didn't mean that Joseph was truly in a passive state in this battle.

If an enemy with a melee-type class approached him.

Joseph was quick to dispatch several attacks in order to kill that enemy. He was only dodging those that he needed to dodge such as attacks that looked like they would deal a lot of damage. 

But what about the attacks coming from the Gunners whose projectile attack travels too fast for the naked eye?

Joseph could only shake his head and bitterly smile.

Against those attacks, he really didn't have a way of blocking nor defending himself against them. Thankfully, bullets, although fast didn't deal as much damage as the attacks from other classes such as Elementalists and Pyromaniacs.

As for the attacks from the other classes except these two, they were slow enough that Joseph could block them with deflect...

Unfortunately, Joseph understood that what he was doing was a mere stop-gap.

He may be able to consistently block attacks from these bastards, but some of those attacks would inevitably slip past his defense and deal damage against him. In other words, eventually, this battle would become a battle of attrition and Joseph would definitely lose.

However, this wasn't the right time for him to attack.

Joseph was waiting for something.

And before that opportunity came, he couldn't use all of his cards yet.

[Your skill, The Grand Duelist's Dash is now available for usage.]

A barely imperceptible window of system notification appeared in the periphery of Joseph's vision.

A smile that looked more like a smirk appeared on his face as he swept his gaze at one of the Gunners from a distance.

He readied his Rapier and was about to teleport towards that Gunner, when suddenly... 

Bang!

A Knight descended in front of him.

Joseph frowned but he still continued his attack. The only difference was that instead of teleporting beside that annoying Gunner from earlier. He attacked the Knight in front of him instead.

"Point!"

Joseph uttered his breath and a dazzling light covered his Rapier. 

The Knight had a placid look on his face. The heavy armor that he wore didn't seem to restrict his movements at all as he took step sideward and slapped Joseph's wrist aside.

The slap came so suddenly that Joseph had no time to prepare.

He couldn't stop his Rapier as the Knight raised his knee and attacked Joseph's abdomen.

Bang!

[You suffered 25,160 damage!]

Joseph flew backward and he struck one of the pillars that supported the ceiling of the Palace Halls.

"Leader William is giving us this opportunity! Attack!"

"KILL!!!"

Joseph was still struggling to stand up when attacks suddenly rained down at his location.

"Fuck!" Joseph violently cursed as he forced himself to roll backward.

But when he was about to stand up...

A purple-colored grenade suddenly rolled in front of Joseph.

"Gravity Flux Grenade!" Joseph instantly recognized this Grenade.

[Gravity Flux Grenade]

Hurls a grenade towards, upon explosion. A shockwave will appear, sending enemies away from the center of the shockwave.

Skill Usage Conditions: Gunner

Skill Cost: None

Skill Cooldown Time: 9 Seconds.]

Bang!

The grenade exploded and Joseph flew into the air.

He hurriedly adjusted his pose so that he could deflect the attacks of his enemies, but at this moment...

The Assassin, Slice of Life emerged from his Concealment and leaped at Joseph.

"The Wolf Leaps To Its Prey!"

[The Wolf Leaps To Its Prey]

Blinks to a nearby airborne enemy to deal devastating amounts of damage in a series of consecutive attacks.

*The consecutive attacks of The Wolf Leaps to Its Prey can be canceled by any form of debuff.

Skill Usage Conditions: Assassin

Skill Cost: 605 Stamina

Skill Cooldown Time: 45 Seconds.]

Slice of Life's movements were quick and following him were the missiles from the Gunners. They all descended onto Joseph at once and Slice of Life reckoned that it was impossible for Joseph to dodge any of these attacks.

Furthermore, Kristian also sealed the space around Joseph at this moment so that he wouldn't be able to use that strange teleportation ability of his.

"You're dead!" Slice of Life wore a look of excitement on his face, but when he stabbed forwards. What he got was nothing but dull feedback. He didn't get the feedback that he expected from stabbing his daggers into flesh.

"Parry!"

At the very last moment, Joseph's Parry went off cooldown and he managed to activate it on time.

Absorbing each and every attack coming his way.

Joseph raised his Rapier, anger could be seen on his face as he uttered.

"The Grand Duelist's Graceful Swordsmanship..."

"Discharge..." 

Joseph prepared a stance and stared right at Slice of Life.

Slice of Life gulped a mouthful of saliva. He hurriedly leaped backward a great distance to dodge the attack. But his pupils constricted when he realized that...

Joseph's target wasn't even him in the first place!

It was Kristian, the Absolute Monarch!

Joseph concluded that Kristian's spatial locking abilities and his incredibly strong burst damage were extremely dangerous so he decided to execute him first.

Vanishing and reappearing beside Kristian through the use of The Grand Duelist's Dash...

Joseph activated the third form of the Grand Duelist's Graceful Swordsmanship.

"Grace!"

A magnificent sword dance was then displayed.