Vanguard of the Eternal Night

Chapter Ch131 - National Competition – Druid 1

translator: xiin

editor: kara

Sure enough, this competition was very distinctive right from the start.

Of the two contestants, one was an assassin, and the other was a druid. The system had arranged them to be at the furthest corners away from each other, and the width of the temple made of those eight pillars covered in carvings was between them. Without exception, they all held an oil lamp that lit up the dark space for a few yards around them.

However, the temple was too tall, and the scene was too dark. Except for the total of nine lights, almost everywhere else was covered in shadow. The high ceiling could barely be seen.

The druid stood in the innermost part of the temple beneath the statue of the sea god. Odin stood at the entrance of the temple beneath a mermaid carving.

At the end of the countdown, the druid immediately transformed into a cheetah––the cheetah transformation had innate concealment skills. He jumped into the darkness in the corner of the temple and disappeared immediately.

Odin, who was at the entrance, went into stealth at the same time.

Both contestants disappeared at the start, leaving only a draught of air pouring into the temple. A few of the oil lamps on the pillars shook, and the quivering, dim lighting flickered in the dark temple, occasionally leaving hoarse crackling sounds.

The commentators were prepared. They’d known that the assassin and druid would start the fight like this and held their hot tea. One of them spoke slowly, “Alright, we see now that both players have gone invisible and made their way to the walls on both sides of the temple.”

“Now, there are two kinds of situations for the first encounter. One is that one player will first discover traces of their opponent, then make an instant move in order to obtain the advantage. Another is that both players will feel around blindly like elephants, and there won’t be any fighting until 30 seconds from now, when the system uses a yellow card warning for ‘negative performance’ and deducts 10% of their health, forcing them to show up at the same time.”

“Coincidentally, the routes they’ve chosen are the furthest distance from each other. It might take them more time to meet.”

After such a leisurely commentary, the first ten seconds had already passed.

The audience had already started to feel an unknown premonition and spoke on the public screen, “This kind of waiting game is really not fun to watch...”

“Damn it, it’s a complete contrast with Lord Four’s fast and direct style!”

“To hell with this ‘all for the sake of survival’, this is clearly ‘muddling along and waiting for benefits’...”

At this time, the two oil lamps on the two outermost pillars went out simultaneously.

“......” The commentators expressed, “Oh, there is only a 5% chance of having the lights go off in the first wave. This... Well, it’s quite rare.”

There were seven lights left, and the corners of the ruined temple had darkened further. The cold of the deep sea outside seemed to be slowly soaking into the hall from the entrance.

At a distance of about 15 meters away, Odin had discovered Green Dumpling’s trail first. He had snuck closer extremely accurately up to a distance of 10 meters––Green Dumpling had detected that something was wrong in the next second, but there had been no time for him to react!

What had arrived in front of the druid in cheetah form was a dart.

He had leapt up into the air to dodge the dart. At the same time, he adjusted his claws and charged directly at Odin in his beast form. In terms of his ability to react and aim at his enemy, it could be said that he had a solid foundation in transformation––not all human players could adapt to a beast form.

And, not all players had experience with wild animals.

However, Odin was undoubtedly a special case.

After tossing out the dart, he hadn’t even looked to see what happened after and immediately used Flash. It wasn’t used to attack or dodge and had instead moved him to a spot that allowed him to directly escape the cheetah’s biting range.

In the next moment, another dart made perfect use of this opportunity and position to hit the cheetah’s hind leg.

The druid also hadn’t turned back immediately. After having missed the initial attack, he threw himself onto the stone pillar in front of him, using it for leverage. His flexible waist twisted, completing its turn in an instant, and then, he had leapt towards Odin again.

In this moment, Song of Triumph and Deep Silence had both come out of their scabbards at the same time!

Two long, snow-white sword lights suddenly lit up the darkness.

Odin hadn’t dodged. Instead, he had gone forward, his eyes cold as he aimed at the beast’s claws.

The contact between both sides caused sparks to fly!

Just before the attack had landed, Odin’s knees suddenly bent, his body shortening slightly. With the help of inertia, his entire body had glided under the cheetah!

By the time the man and the beast had finished switching positions, there was a long and narrow wound on the cheetah’s abdomen.

The cheetah had rolled on the ground to counteract the momentum from the leap, then jumped straight into the shadows, running away at a vigorous pace.

This first round of the fight had just ended. Just now, the commentators, who’d been forced to make a sudden effort and speed up their commentary by 10x, had also just finished speaking. They concluded, “Green Dumpling didn’t gain any advantage in this exchange at all. He lost a third of his health and ran away. For him, this health level can be said to be quite dangerous.”

“Odin hasn’t played head-on with any beast-type characters in the competition arena before, but it can be seen that he’s very experienced. Their heads and tails are fierce, but their waists are their weak spots. Generally, attacks on large felines should be aimed at their waists.”

“Alright, now that they’ve exchanged a round of attacks, Green Dumpling is attempting to get out of the fight quickly.”

Cheetahs were creatures of high explosive mobility and attack power. Odin frowned and tried to chase after him.

In the past, there were many players who attempted to chase after Green Dumpling, who ‘muddled along’. However, Green Dumpling spared no effort when it came to escaping. Not only were cheetahs good at running and escaping, but they also had many other movement skills.

Odin sped up in order to catch up, and Green Dumpling immediately used the cheetah’s ‘Adrenaline’ skill to run even faster.

Odin tried using Flash twice, and Green Dumpling was unstinting in his use of the life-saving dash skills.

The two of them covered over 100 meters in just five seconds, going directly from the statue of the sea god to the entrance to the storm temple––they had covered the entire diameter of the map.

As soon as Green Dumpling saw that he’d run to the edge of the map, he became even more straightforward. He turned into an eagle and flew up to the ceiling, turning 180 degrees to run back.

“Tsk.”

The master assassin felt that he instead was chasing a mouse, who was running for its life, everywhere. He stopped, then pulled out his darts to shoot down some bird feathers.

Outside the arena, the commentator sighed soundlessly, his voice slowing back down into retirement pace, “It can be seen that Green Dumpling has played out his speed advantage once again. Although Odin has the opportunity to attack, there is no chance for him to stick close until he kills his opponent.”

“Odin is still testing. He hasn’t used any big ultimate moves like Shadow Jump yet.”

“He should have been attempting to attack Green Dumpling’s legs just now, but as soon as a druid transforms, their ‘disabled’ state will be reset, and it doesn’t affect his ability to escape at all.”

Indeed. The eagle flew back to the sea god statue and landed on its shoulder, turning back into human form. He tried to heal himself with druid magic, but when Odin chased after him again, he suddenly turned into a cheetah and ran into the shadows.

This time, Odin had even put away his weapons and walked to the middle of the temple with his long legs. He was calm and unaffected like a royal or noble who was attending a banquet in the hall.

In any case, everyone knew about Green Dumpling’s fighting style. This rogue would definitely heal himself and then come back to fight again.

––Odin now fully understood why everyone disliked this druid.

It may be rare in the interstellar e-sports arena, but this kind of guerrilla playing method of ‘I just like to think about you every day, fight and harass you every day, and if you can, you can defend against me every day’ was common in real battlefields. After all, in reality, there were many battles in which the weak must defeat the strong, and the weak could only use such tactics in desperate situations.

Odin felt no prejudice against such people, but this didn’t prevent him from continuing to chase after him.

Thirty seconds flashed by, and only one other small encounter had broken out.

The druid scurried and worked like a hamster, running around the map while healing himself back up to full health.

At the same time, Odin’s play style seemed to be mainly exploratory, and there was no loss in health. His stealth skill had already finished its cooldown.

The two players were still in the same state they’d been at the start of the game––it was no wonder most of Green Dumpling’s matches lasted at least 10 minutes.

Unfortunately, this map wasn’t suited for procrastination. This was because, by the 40th second, six of the lamps had already flickered out.

At this moment, everyone from the commentators to the audience were stunned, “Oh, heavens! This seems to be coming close to the record for bad luck! There are only three lamps left!”

Most of the temple was already shrouded in darkness!

Just as the darkness intensified, another wave of fighting broke out in the corner.

The two players, who’d snuck into the shadows, met again by chance. This time, Odin had only pulled out his dagger. When faced with the cheetah’s attack, he was even more fierce than he’d been in the first fight––

He held off the beast’s claws with Song of Triumph and then grabbed one of its hind legs!

The fast-running cheetah was actually quite light. Green Dumpling had originally been focused on protecting his belly, and he’d been caught off guard. This time, Odin had directly caught his leg––

And then, he tossed him into the air!

“... Hmph.”

Odin used a burst of strength, and a low grunt sounded out in the temple.

Then, the cheetah whirled around until it smashed into one of the pillars on the side. At the same time, the cheetah was stabbed straight in the carotid artery by the dagger.

The commentator’s speed quickly soared, “Alright, Green Dumpling has been caught! I really didn’t expect that Odin would come up with such a move in order to catch him. Lord Four is just like a crazy warrior! This attack is really too fierce!”

Contestants at this level had incredibly quick reaction speeds. Green Dumpling had only been attacked once, but he didn’t waste any time adjusting his posture and immediately switched into a fighting bull form.

Odin dodged the attack with a Shadow Dance, then saw that the bull, which had created a pair of sharp horns within 0.5 seconds, roared as it charged from beneath the pillar, heading straight to the other side of the map without looking back.

Green Dumpling wanted to run off again!

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