Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

'He has very good territorial ability.' Kaizen concluded as he looked around him.

The same room as before was now dominated by walls with ripple effects, like pools of water on the walls, on the floor and now they were on the ceiling as well. And as if this wasn't strange enough in itself, Shadowkiller was able to use each of these strange parts in the chamber to immerse and emerge, meaning he could basically teleport during battle.

Kaizen had already dealt with some strange and some very powerful enemies, but Shadowkiller was without a doubt the player with the most unusual ability he had ever encountered. For that reason, Kaizen couldn't even imagine what Class or Profession could provide a territorial ability like this.

Suddenly, while Psyker was thinking about how interesting this skill was, he had to dodge a sneak attack from Shadowkiller, who appeared from a puddle behind where Kaizen was standing. Kaizen barely had time to react before the enemy disappeared again, reappearing behind his back once more.

The fight continued in much the same way, with Kaizen struggling to keep his focus on his sword and Shadowkiller's bizarre movement.

The enemy's interlacing ability made him unpredictable and difficult to track. Kaizen tried a few times to use <Psychokinesis>, but Shadowkiller immersed himself every time, without giving time to even be grabbed. The strange player continued to disappear and reappear, making life difficult for Kaizen.

'Urgh! What an annoying face...'

As the Shadowkiller moved around the room, he uttered taunts to Kaizen like:

"You're fast, Kaizen, but not fast enough to catch me!" said Shadowkiller, with a sarcastic laugh. "Your power is useless against me, since I can hide anywhere in this room.... I know you are getting tired, while I am still fresh as a flower!"

Shadowkiller's words echoed in Kaizen's mind, filling his patience and further increasing his will to defeat him. He took a deep breath and concentrated, trying to anticipate the enemy's movements. That being the case, when Kaizen turned his back to one direction, he knew that the opposing player would appear on the opposite side to where he was looking, so Kaizen spun quickly and advanced, slicing the air with his sword, but Shadowkiller had just put a bit of his head out of the ceiling, getting upside down and soon teleported away.

"HEHEHE! You're smart, but not as smart as me!" Shadowkiller stated, because he knew that Kaizen would sooner or later create an illusory opportunity for him.

Since the first plan did not work, Kaizen quickly switched to the second.

In this way, he stood even further back and began to use his <Psychokinesis> ability strategically, trying to create a barrier around not himself, but Shadowkiller's possible entry and exit points. He also took advantage of the puddles on the walls and floor to try to identify his enemy's movement patterns, as this was like a mole's game and now the mole had even fewer options around Kaizen to try to surprise him.

The fight soon intensified, with Kaizen moving quickly to avoid the surprise attacks of Shadowkiller, who now needed to use teleportation points away to evade and advance. Kaizen also continued to counterattack whenever possible.

However, Shadowkiller was still an almost relentless challenge. He moved with agility even out of the ripples, making himself almost impossible to hit, and his attributes were so good that Kaizen, without using the <Giant's Lungs> skill, could not falter, or else he would die with two or three hits. On top of all this, Shadowkiller would take any opportunity to attack, testing Kaizen's reflexes and skill to the max.

Despite the challenge, Kaizen remained calm and focused. The fact that he was at a complete disadvantage on all counts was exciting to him. He knew that he needed to find just one opening to defeat Shadowkiller. He adjusted his strategy several times, using his <Psychokinesis> ability to not only plug the holes, but also to create illusions of himself, as he did against the samurai. In this way, he was able to create a distraction in every corner of the room.

By the time the battle time reached fifteen minutes, the second longest fight of the tournament so far, Kaizen had understood what he needed to do and what were the mistakes he had made up to that point. Yes, it had cost him 80% of his mana bar and much of his stamina, and when he understood what he had to do, he thought he was too stupid not to have thought of it before. With the clones scattered around the room, Kaizen commanded them to act differently from each other, and this cost him more than 10% of his total mana. However, this also slowed down the frenzied wave of attacks from Shadowkiller, who remained more hesitant to attack and be surprised. Even so, every thirty seconds on average, Shadowkiller would eliminate one of the clones.

Kaizen needed to use one of his clones as bait, and then put his latest plan into action.

As he silently approached the point where Shadowkiller had teleported earlier and attacked a clone, Kaizen already knew what the next target would be, so when Shadowkiller came out of a wall, grabbing a clone with a quick and precise blow, causing the clone to turn into smoke, Kaizen ran and jumped into the wall, entering the domain of Shadowkiller's ability.

The interior of these rippling puddles was, as Kaizen imagined, pure water. Jumping inside this was like jumping into a lake with very murky and dark water, which caused a strange sensation in Kaizen. He felt immersed in a cold, viscous liquid, and his vision was distorted by the murky water.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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