New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

When Astaroth and Khalor stepped away to have their private conversation, the fight in the arena ended. That was the second fight out of the first sixteen, and the next one would be interesting.

It pitted Gulnur against Blue Peacock. Gulnur was confident in his tanking abilities, but he was no fool. He knew this was as far as he went in this tournament.

He bade farewell to all his friends currently next to him, and asked them to deliver his farewell to Astaroth, too, before being teleported into the arena. Both he and Blue appeared simultaneously in it, face to face.

Gulnur gave her a small nod, to which she responded in kind. There was respect in both parties' gesture, as they both recognized each other's skills.

"I know this is as far as I can go. So I only wish we have a fair fight and enjoy the thrill of combat together." Gulnur said, bracing his shield before him.

"Even though your fate was unfortunate to have you cross paths with me, I shall honor your requests and fight with all I have." Blue replied, pulling a deep and elegant bow, kamas in hand.

Gulnur smiled and nodded again.

*Gong!*

With the resounding sound of the gong, Gulnur started moving forward to his opponent, as Blue Peacock did the same. She stopped her forward movement when she reached ten feet and instead started circling Gulnur.

Gulnur started looking all around himself, as he knew what came next. And right on cue, the first Kama flew in from above.

He deflected it with his hammer, but it was almost immediately followed by another, this one from the left. After blocking that one with his shield, the next came at a diagonal right.

This game of death tennis continued on for a good while, as Gulnur deflected, parried and blocked the incoming attacks as best he could. Blue Peacock had a wicked smile across her lips as her kamas danced around her.

She was fully enjoying this fight, as she had promised Gulnur. And even though the Dwarf posed little a threat to her, she respected his strength nonetheless.

Gulnur was one of few people that had read her attacks so well in a long time, and even if some of his defensive manoeuvres were timely sometimes, he protected himself quite well.

Not that he didn't take damage at all though, as his health ever so slowly ticked away. Even though Gulnur had a massive health pool, he couldn't block the full damage of an attack unless he parried it.

Dodging was the second best option, but his agility was so low, it was practically void against an opponent like Blue. And since he wasn't fast enough to parry all the attack he couldn't dodge, blocking was his other best defence.

Sadly, that came with damage, even if super mitigated by his skills and shield defence. This would be a unilateral fight for Blue as it was.

She eventually gave the man a fighting chance and stopped attacking at a distance. That wasn't to say she would let herself get hit, though.

Since she was so much quicker than Gulnur, getting in melee range meant he could no longer see the attacks coming in advance, and some started slipping through his defence.

His health went down quicker now, because of that, but he was still grinning madly. To him, this was the most excitement he had since the caves with hordes of monsters in the first phase.

And it was the most exciting moment he had ever had in his life, because of his sickness. This made him feel so alive, that he almost forgot that his body outside the game was that of a frail young boy.

He laughed as the fight went on, making Blue's smile go even wider. The people in the crowd sighed in understanding.

This was a fight between two battle maniacs, and most people here could easily understand what they were feeling. Some even envied their current situation.

The odds were overwhelmingly in Blue's favor, but that didn't mean she was not having a hard time. She was doing so minor damage to the defender that she was quickly exhausting herself.

Her attacking speed was gradually reduced because of fatigue. She wasn't out of shape or anything, but she had been at full steam since the first second, and this was not a sustainable rhythm.

Gulnur constantly monitored his health bar, like he was waiting for something. When his health went under twenty-five percent, he opened his guard up wide.

Blue Peacock pounced on the opening and lashed out with five attacks in quick succession, dealing a substantial amount of damage to Gulnur. But that was what he had been waiting for.

While she was deep in her attack pattern, he swung his mace at her in an upward diagonal. The mace was almost emitting bloodlust in Blue's eyes, and she knew she couldn't get hit by it.

She started oscillating weirdly, as she jumped back, and Gulnur's hammer went right through her. Gulnur knew this was just an illusion, though, as there was no resistance in the hit.

But he had been expecting as much from an experienced player as her, so that hit was just a feint. He brought his shield back forward and took five rapid steps forward, performing a Shield Charge.

The skill found purchase, as this time it hit something solid, before making it to the image of Blue. The fake image flickered out, as the real Blue peacock lost balance backwards, almost typing over.

Blue kicked her foot squarely on the shield before falling, propelling herself further back, almost to the wall. She did a somersault in the air, landing back on her feet and steady.

But Gulnur was not done with her. As she landed, Gulnur's humongous shield came flying at her face like a frisbee, threatening to smash her face. Blue had to lift her weapons up to block the hit, which dealt some damage.

But that wasn't all it dealt. She also ended up stunned, with Gulnur running at her, hammer lowered behind him.

He had been waiting for this exact moment. Just as he made it to Blue, he swung his hammer up.

"Retribution Strike!" He shouted, as he swung deftly.