Child of Destiny

...

"Alright! Ladies and Gentlemen! Good day!" said by Arthur right after he started his stream.

He was currently inside a special virtual world to hide his real identity. His current disguise was a young man in his mid-twenties. And naturally, it was a hot and handsome guy.

"For those who are new to our channel, I am your most handsome and the one and only Love Expert in the gaming world and all of the beautiful girls' secret lover, Mr. Casanova," said Arthur while giving a wink at the camera.

That gesture made Leonard, who was currently watching the stream from his Advance Watch, coughed quite hardly. "What the? This guy is not only crazy but also delusional."

Going back to the stream, Arthur or Mr. Casanova rather, cleared his throat a little before saying. "Anyway, let's skip the further introduction. How about we discuss our main subject now?"

With a snap of his fingers, a virtual screen suddenly appeared right behind Mr. Casanova which showed the empty battle arena where Shin and Immortal were scheduled for their battle.

After that, he immediately said. "As for today's stream, we are going to host a live broadcast of the most trending topic on different online platforms."

He trailed his words for a moment before continuing while nodding his head. "That's right, we are featuring the battle between the Guild Master of the Undying Guild – the Lich God: Immortal"

"And the famous rising star of the Saint Heaven Kingdom, the mysterious Nameless Swordsman who bears the Ranker's Title of Angel of Death."

After another pause, he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

At the same time, the virtual screen behind him showed Immortal and his previous battles before resuming. "The battle is about to start now in any minute, so I am going to give you a quick recap of the strengths and weaknesses of our fighters before proceeding."

"As you all of us know, Immortal is famous for having godly control over his undead monsters and great strategic thinking. These two are the only factors that every one of us needs to know to understand how strong the Lich God is."

"And these are the reasons why the top-ranked experts of the game are calling him the perfect necromancer. After all, those two factors are the perfect weapons that every Necromancer is dreaming for."

Reaching this point, Mr. Casanova turned silent for a moment as the virtual screen displayed Shin's previous feats and amazing battles. And that was when he continued talking. "On the other hand, our challenger this time is quite a good player too."

"The Nameless Swordsman may be new to the others but he solidly builds his reputation with his consistent performance. As for his main weapon in this battle? I guess it is the unpredictability of his battle styles."

"Based on the achievements that he achieved in the previous Shadow Ranking Cup, he has a lot of battle styles. From high-class stealth abilities to amazing control over his summons, then those crazy aerial battles couple with his melee capabilities and magical skills. This guy seemed to be a total all-rounder."

"But what really made him stand out from the crowd, is his amazing grasp over the game mechanics. And I can assure you that it was the only weapon that he needs to become a top-ranked expert of the game."

After that, he continued briefing his viewers about the odds of winning on each side. He was not biased at his comments as they were enough to pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of Shin and Immortal alongside the things that might determine the outcome of this battle.

While he was doing that, the number of players who were hopping in his stream was continuously increasing. And it was due to the preparations that Arthur made earlier.

Before starting his stream, he contacted the famous Godlike Players who were slightly close to him to host his stream. But at the same time, he only chose those players who knew about his second identity to prevent his cover from blowing up.

Regardless, those guys had their own fans who were watching on their personal channels. And since Arthur was known for having an ability to properly explain the things going in a duel, partially because of his 'Foresight' talent, those players that he contacted chose to comply.

Though, most of them only did it because they were too lazy to hold a live broadcast of their own. And since there was someone who was willing to do the hard work for them, they were more than willing to give him the job.

Moreover, they preferred watching the live broadcast of a fellow expert than listening to the biased and useless comments of the 'famous' hosts from the entertainment industries.

Due to that, Arthur's viewers were rising steadily as time went by. In fact, he was even stealing the viewers from live broadcasts of the other online platforms.

And because he was throwing some odd-ball comments and jokes while doing his broadcast, a lot of viewers chose to watch him instead of listening to the boring commentators from the entertainment companies.

After all, watching a clown who seemed to both know and didn't know what he was doing, was more entertaining to watch than the scripted comments of the hosts from those entertainment companies. And due to that, the ratings of those guys dropped drastically which made them frustrated.

Naturally, Arthur didn't have the time to care for them. He just continued doing his job and entertained his viewers all the way until the battle finally started.

"And~! Here we go, my dear viewers! Please hang in there with me and I will do all of the hard work and explain the things that you can't follow," said Arthur before enlarging the virtual screen behind him so that his viewers could watch the battle properly.

*******

Meanwhile, Shin and Immortal were teleported to the battle arena at the same time. They were standing on each end of the arena opposite each other.

As usual, Shin swept his gaze at his surroundings out of his habit. Then he pursed his lips a little and slightly shook his head after learning that there was nothing special in this particular arena.

After that, he cast his gaze at Immortal who was currently looking back at him with a mocking look on his face.

The area of the arena was quite huge despite its simple and basic features. And due to that, Shin immediately understood that he was practically at an immediate disadvantage since they were standing at each end of the arena.

If it was a normal duel, then Shin was surely going to start walking or even running to lessen the distance between him and his opponent. Unfortunately, an invisible force was preventing him from moving forward.

"Tsk! Maybe this is another advantage that the default mode has," muttered Shin to himself while looking at the timer floating in the middle of the arena.

But at the same time, Shin also discovered that he couldn't use any kind of skills from his skill bar which was good news for him since it also meant that Immortal was also unable to use any skills from his arsenal.

After all, the most dangerous advantage that a Necromancer could have was a time where they could cast a high-leveled summoning skill – which was practically the most troublesome to deal with.

The atmosphere surrounding the arena was becoming heavier and heavier as the digital clock ticked down. The temperature was even dropping drastically as if a winter storm was right around the corner.

And when the countdown hit zero, both Shin and Immortal immediately made their moves without any hesitation.

Shin started charging forward while executing the 'Mysterious Movements Combat Technique'. And due to the effects of this footwork, he was constantly gaining speed as he continued accelerating forward.

Meanwhile, Immortal quickly slammed his bone scepter on the ground and channeled a large amount of mana on it. And due to the strong force that he used, a powerful ripple traveled along the ground as if a little earthquake was passing by.

Not long after, a large number of undead monsters crawled out from the ground before creating a blockade on Shin's path.

At the same time, these undead monsters were starting to fuse with each other while they were getting into a defensive formation. And it didn't take for them to transform into a group of strange human-like undead that he fought earlier.

After that, they immediately pulled a bone from their shoulders which transformed into a longsword made of bone.

"Go!" muttered Immortal which made his undead monsters start rushing towards Shin while maintaining their formation.

Roar!

Seeing the incoming undead monsters, Shin took a deep breath before stomping on the ground while releasing all of the accumulated force that gained from the 'Mysterious Movement Combat Technique'.

Crack!

Due to that powerful stomp, the ground beneath his foot suddenly sunk before creating spiderweb cracks that extend outwards. And right after he released all of the accumulated forces, his body suddenly shot forward like a cannonball.

Swoosh!

At the same time, his body transformed into incorporeal form while he was flying in the air. And due to that, he created an illusion that he left a streak of silver light behind. And alongside it, he was also pulling out his sword from its sheath before swinging it in one swift motion.

'Basic Combat Technique: Second Drive'

Shing!

'Class Fighting Style: (Modified) Moonlight Splitter'

In an instant, Shin reached the incoming horde of undead monsters and passed through them before stopping right in the middle of their ranks.

All of the undead that he passed through suddenly stopped moving as they all died in an instant. As for the surviving undead monsters, they were not that lucky either. Because something stunning happened right after Shin stopped his charge.

A sudden explosion occurred at his previous location which created a powerful shockwave that followed along the path that he took earlier.

Boom!

Then all of the undead blocking its path were thrown up in the air as if they were swept away by a raging tornado.

Shin stood steadily in the middle of that chaotic storm as if surpassing the speed of sound was not an amazing feat. He then raised his head a little to reveal his signature mask before muttering to himself.

"It's showtime!"

...…