Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

When Leohorn began to run towards Kaizen, everyone in the arena rose from their seats.

Even the NPCs had heard rumors about this mysterious masked player, thanks to the organic fame system created by the supercomputer 'Odin'.

Leohorn was smiling even more cheerfully than when he was beating Ravastine.

All the spectators were expecting an amazing battle, but there was this problem: the difference between the two of them was more than 60 levels.

While Kaizen was at level 22, Leohorn had already reached level 85.

In statistics, the Viking had dozens of points in advantage on all attributes, and in combat experience and game mechanics, there was a gigantic abyss between the two players.

Moreover, what differentiated a high-level player was not only the number of attribute points in the stats window, but also the titles obtained, quests completed, class skills, professions, and equipment. Leohorn was probably used to fighting at the highest level quite often, but Kaizen was still only a beginner with almost a week of play. If the most optimistic analysts knew all these factors and analyzed them, they would say that Kaizen would only come out of this situation alive with a miracle.

Leohorn ran quickly towards Kaizen, who watched his opponent shorten the distance between them instantly.

The novice's opponent was so fast that he could hardly see the Viking approaching. As soon as Leohorn launched his first attack, Kaizen showed the whole world that devilish smile again. This smile conveyed a single message to everyone watching: he was not afraid of Leohorn's ferocious attack.

This sense of fearlessness made Kaizen's enemy hesitate to attack him as if Kaizen was giving him a signal that he could strike back even harder. Then, with bulging eyes and compressed pupils, Leohorn locked his left fist inches away from Kaizen's face.

"W-what are you?"

Kaizen could sigh with relief, but chose to laugh with excitement that his bluff had worked. That was his only card on the table.

"Puahahahahahahaht!"

"What are you laughing at?" inquired Leohorn.

"It's nothing, man, but move a little closer, I have a message for your boss." Kaizen called out to the man with his right index finger.

"Hargh! A proposal? Do you think I'm some kind of carrier pigeon? If you want to talk to him, go pay him a visit at our guild headquarters. I bet he's more eager to meet you than I am."

That statement made Psyker very relieved, because it meant that Taznaar was not present in the Arena.

"Fine. If you don't want to settle things normally, let's do it publicly." Kaizen spread his arms and said, "You have made it known to the public that I have stolen your hunt, the mythical creature called the Centaur Druid.... However, you didn't tell everyone that you were even capable of killing it. Should a wolf apologize for killing a deer while a lembre was trying?"

Kaizen ran his eye over the stands of the arena.

"No, I shouldn't apologize. If it weren't for me, the centaur would have run away, but it's time to settle this disagreement... I challenge the Desert Lions to a three-on-three fight. Not today, not tomorrow. I will be fair and give you a chance to prepare. Two weeks from now, we will face each other to the death in this very spot, at this very hour."

The audience exploded with excitement, both in the Arena and throughout the live broadcasts of this moment on the Webnet.

"He really did it!"

"No fucking way..."

"That's it! The only way to solve your disagreements is in violence!"

"I don't care about anything else that happens that day, I've already set aside the whole day to watch this fight live!"

"Kaizen versus the Desert Lions!"

"That must be marketing for some product..."

"Kids should go to bed early that day, because the adults are going to show you what outright porradery is all about."

Leohorn looked at Kaizen with disbelief at first, as if he couldn't believe what the masked man actually said. Soon, it was clear from the elation of everyone in the audience that there was no turning back.

Just as many respected Kaizen enough to not stop him from interfering in Leohorn and Ravastine's duel, the Viking also admired him for having managed to practically solar a Mythic Rank Boss, so with a serious countenance, Leohorn turned his back to Kaizen and spoke:

"Generally, I can't speak for Taznaar, but I think this is too critical a situation to wait for his orders... I accept your challenge, Kaizen."

After that, Leohorn left the battlefield through the same door through which he entered.

Before the door behind him closed behind him, he had already sensed a presence approaching, so he just waited for whoever it was to reveal himself, and surprisingly, this person was not Taznaar or another member of the Desert Lions, but Dathan, with his perfect skin and moisturized hair that irritated Leohorn.

"You... What do you want?"

"She is waiting for you. Before you go explaining yourself to your boss, you owe her an explanation. After all, she was the one who spent the most money on that raid."

"All right. Show me the way."

Meanwhile, Kaizen was still on the Arena battlefield.

He held back his sigh of relief as he watched Leohorn retreat, and when the Viking finally left, he finally gasped.

'This was probably an even riskier decision than facing that centaur head-on, because that time at least I had a plan. Now all I had was the confidence that Taznaar's authority keeps his dogs on a leash, and also the excitement of the public.'

Then the rookie remembered why he had jumped into the arena and looked to his right.

Ravastine was getting up with a little difficulty. Her constitution was zeroed out. Thus she was very tired. Not to mention the tremendous amount of HP she had lost.

Kaizen approached her and held out a hand with a friendly smile to help the woman up.

She looked at his large hand and blushed a little despite always trying to keep a more stable expression in public.

"Thank you for... you know." She said, a little embarrassed, both by the public humiliation she had and by being slightly attracted to a masked man.

"There's no reason to thank me. Can we talk away from the public eye?"

"C-course, let's go."

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

If you want to see original illustrations of Rise Online characters, consider helping me on pa treon: Pa treon.com/NandoFalske

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