Guild Wars

13th Battle: RamButt wins!

14th Battle: The Showman vs Pedro Sousa, begin!

Both participants came up on the stage at the same time, one smiling eerily, while the other was sullen and had dark clouds over his face.

The Showman couldn't help but tilt his head in surprise, wondering what his opponent had witnessed for him to have the face of a man who had walked through hell and back, having seen the most vile sights the human mind can be subjected to.

"Fellow friend with the large frame, is something bothering you?" The Showman asked with concern.

"Hmph, that has nothing to do with you. Let's just get this over with!" Pedro growled as he snapped out of his partial daze.

The Showman shrugged and smiled. "As you wish."

Now let's talk about this segue to our sponsor, Raid Shadow Legends.

｢Broker - Divine Class (Rank 4)

Skills:

Rank 1: Balance of Probabilities (Passive), Probability Manipulation (Passive), Measuring Scale (Active), All or Nothing (Active)

Rank 2: Careful Teamwork (Active), True Confession (Active)

Rank 3: Eye for Detail (Passive), Studied Combat (Passive)

Rank 4: Misdirection (Active), Divine Illusion (Active).

Exp gain rate: 0.5%

Rank up difficulty: 50%

Class weapons: None.

Class skills: Any Devil or Charisma.｣

｢Careful Teamwork – Active skill

Effect: The Broker uses persuasive performance to keep allies coordinated, alert, and ready for action. All allies within 1 kilometer feet gain +200% to Intelligence and Spirit as well as 30% to Luck.

Duration: 1 hour

Cooldown: 1 day.｣

｢True Confession  – Active skill

Effect: At Rank 4, The Broker can use this skill to trick any entity into revealing its secrets. The entity must be at the Captain Rank for monsters or Rank 4 for NPCs. On players, its success rate is automatically lowered by 50%. The success rate is dependent on the Broker's Spr divided by the Enemy Spr.

Cooldown: 1 hour.｣

｢Eye for Detail – Passive skill

Effect: A Broker gains a bonus equal to 50% on all perception or knowledge based scenarios requiring sudden input. The Broker is also able to identify all valuable items in the world more thoroughly than any system or method.｣

｢Studied Combat – Passive skill

Effect: With a keen eye and calculating mind, a Broker can assess the mettle of his opponent to take advantage of gaps in talent and training. At Rank 4, a Broker can opt to passively scan a single enemy that he can perceive. Upon doing so, he temporarily learns any and all battle techniques of the target and can replicate them against the target for the duration of the battle.｣

｢Misdirection – Active skill

Effect: Shift a target's perception of an attack, making the foe unprepared to defend against a counterattack. The Broker can also trigger this skill when the target makes an attack or uses a spell against him, deceiving his target's eyes into thinking it has struck.

Cooldown: 10 seconds.｣

｢Divine Illusion – Active skill

Effect: The Broker can trap a target in a realm of their making, using elements from the targets own mind and memories to trap them within. The strtenght of the illusion and its duration are calculated by the Broker's Spr vs the target's Spr.

Duration: Variable

Cooldown: 1 hour.｣

｢Nephilim - Divine Class (Rank 4)

Skills:

Rank 1: Demonic Source - Rank 4 (Passive), Devilish Source - Rank 4 (Passive), Magnitude (Active), Mind Blast (Active),

Rank 2: Pulverise (Active), Mind Explosion (Active)

Rank 3: Hellfire (Passive), Blackfire (Passive),

Rank 4: Decimate (Active), Endless Mirage (Active)

Starting Stats: Str 100, Dex 90, End 90, Int 100, Spr 90, Cha 10, Lck 10

Exp gain rate: 0.5%

Rank up difficulty: 50%

Class weapons: None.

Class skills: Any Evil.｣

｢Demonic Source (Rank 4) – Passive skill

Effect: As a Nephilim, you possess the purest bloodlines of the Demons and the Devils. Due to your Demonic affiliation, you gain a Demonic Source Origin that climbs with each Rank. At Rank 4, it gives you a 500% increase to Strength and Endurance, as well as a 250% increase to Dexterity.｣

｢Devilish Source (Rank 4) – Passive skill

Effect: As a Nephilim, you possess the purest bloodlines of the Demons and the Devils. Due to your Devilish affiliation, you gain a Devil Source Origin that climbs with each Rank. At Rank 4, it gives you a 500% increase in Intelligence and Spirit, as well as a 250% increase to Charisma.｣

｢Magnitude – Active Skill

Effect: Stomp the ground with all your power, creating a terrible earthquake and creating a tiny canyon that leads into a pool of lava. This either deals tremor damage or disintegration damage, or both, depending on how it is executed.

Duration: 30 seconds.

Cooldown: 30 minutes.｣

｢Mind Blast – Active Skill

Effect: Send out a wave of mental energy that stuns every single target in a radius of 1 kilometer around the user, and deals 150% mental damage.

Duration: 5 seconds

Cooldown: 5 minutes.｣

｢Pulverise – Active Skill

Effect: Punch a single target with all your strength. This deals 150% blunt damage.

Cooldown: 10 seconds.｣

｢Mind Explosion – Active Skill

Effect: Detonate a psychic bomb in the mind of a target within 1 kilometer, causing them to suffer 300% mental damage and gain the <Disoriented> stats effect.

Duration: 10 seconds.

Cooldown: 3 minutes.｣

｢Hellfire – Passive skill

Effect: As a Demon, you have gained access to the power of pure Hellfire. You can freely emit hellfire as breath or a projectile based attack, or imbue its effects into your techniques and abilities.｣

｢Blackfire – Passive skill

Effect:  As a Devil, you have gained access to the power of pure Blackfire. You can freely emit blackfire as breath or a projectile based attack, or imbue its effects into your techniques and abilities.｣

｢Decimate – Active Skill

Effect: Repeatedly punch a single enemy rapidly with your full force. This deals 15% blunt damage per strike.

Duration: 1 minute

Cooldown: 10 minutes.｣

｢Endless Mirage – Active skill

Effect: Submerge a target with a weaker mind into a never-ending illusion. The success rate of this skill is dependent on the Int x Spr of both the user and the target divided against each other.

Duration: Variable.

Cooldown: 10 minutes.｣

"Well, well, well, we have the honour of being the first two Divine Class holders to face off. This should prove to a fruitful battle, no?" The Showman commented with a smile.

Pedro frowned and began glowing with a mixture of Hellfire which looked like deep orange flames mixed with soot and Blackfire which looked like darkness itself that was lit as flame. Coincidentally, Hellfire burned the souls and the mind of its victims while Blackfire burned the body and lifeforce away from targets.

In essence, getting hit by either was not good.

"Both of us have Control at Tier 4 thanks to our bloodline, but my class is more suited for combat. Your various Spirit based checks are useless since I have both high Spirit thanks to my class and the Dark Angel inheritance of the Incubus like Draco." Pedro pointed out.

The Showman rubbed his chin. "That is true. Our battle will be neck and neck. I do have some class skills that could help, like Studied Combat or Misdirection, but that would just be wasting my time. I have to admit that my class is not very well suited for direct combat."

"Since you know as much, how about you just forfeit to make things easy on both of us? As a Broker, surely you understand the Balance of Probabilities and the chances of success more than I, so you must know the most logical choice to make here." Pedro advised while watching The Showman carefully.

The Showman nodded, then shook his head. "The same could be said for many bloodline holders or Divine Class holders here. Besides, since we're the first two to meet like this, it would be boring to end things without at least having a go at it. We'll just have to do what everyone else will do in the next round and resort to our bloodline to resolve this."

Pedro's heart clenched as this was what he dreaded most. Without waiting for the Showman to continue, he blasted forth like a bullet, far faster than anyone who had come up on stage so far, roaring as he threw a Hellfire infused punch at The Showman.

The fellow himself remained standing calmly, only his eyes turned into a hypnotic kaleidoscope of colors as he smiled at Pedro.

"Luckily for me, I have a slight advantage bloodline wise."

Pedro froze in place, his fist mere inches away from The Showman's skull, the wind from his movement, almost blasting the fellow to the other side of the ring. Despite his seeming calmness, the Showman couldn't help but sweat internally.

This Pedro fellow was a monster. With dual Horned Demon and Dark Angel inheritances, as well as his tailored Divine Class, it was like fighting a weaker version of Draco's Devil Form and Demon Form combined into one.

He had entered the guild not too long ago and since then he had stayed lowkey, though those who knew him would be aware that was only because Perdo preferred debauchery to fame. Now that a competition had been called forth, the other core members could finally gauge him and see this monster who made their hearts palpitate.

More than 80% of them shook their heads, knowing that no matter what games they played, they would not last against this foe. Only the 8 God Serpent Inheritors, Misery, Kiran, Tunder, AP_Berzerker and Armonia could claim to fight him on equal terms.

He was just unlucky that he had to meet one of the few who could suppress him this early in the match.

Pedro's eyes became red as he resisted the mental compulsion from Eden. The God Serpent itself manifested and coiled around The Showman, staring at Pedro with a serious expression.

A God Serpent was infinitely powerful, but against a member of its own lineage, it would naturally be subjected to the limitations and protections Lucifer left in the bloodline. Obviously, if Lucifer was good at mental manipulation, he would leave bloodline 'coding' that would increase the passive mental strength of his descendants.

Eden was currently like a world class hacker, bypassing all these restrictions and defenses to attack Pedro's mind. Against any other bloodline family, he would use less than 10% of his current effort and against a normal member of the Lucifer Lineage, he would use less than 50% of the current effort.

It just had to be a talented youngster with dual Inheritances and a relatively high purity that he was tasked to work on. As difficult as it was, Eden relished the challenge. Cracking Pedro was an exciting affair, and was only possible because he had not yet received formal training in the Dark Angel inheritance from the Lineage trainer, or this would be 5,000% harder for Eden.

The invisible battle continued between the two with their bodies seemingly frozen in time. Both sides were burning Bloodline Energy, one to suppress the other, while the other did it in hopes of resisting.

Alas, the God Serpent Inheritors were the God Serpent Inheritors for a reason. Apart from Essence who was a special and unique case, no other Lineage members could match up to their power, purity and prowess, even less so after Draco had combined both halves of them.

Eventually, Pedro's eyes glazed over as he was dragged into a dream realm where he would relieve his worst memory. The Showman sighed and wiped off the sweat that had formed on his brow, while Eden slumped on his shoulder like a wet noodle.

Having dealt with his enemy, both The Showman and Eden felt like they had achieved something great this time, not to mention that they had both learned a lot from this 'hacking' experience.

Now, The Showman should have less difficulty 'hacking' into Lucifer Lineage members, which was crucial since he would likely be facing other God Serpent Inheritors in the next few rounds.

Not to mention, he felt that his strained and distant relationship with Eden had significantly closed after passing this hurdle. Before, the arrogant and prideful serpent would never coil itself around his shoulders like this.

With Pedro dealt with, The Showman was about to send him off the stage when he paused. Looking at the traumatized and horrified expression on Pedro's face, he couldn't help but wonder what exactly the fellow was seeing.

How bad could it be that such a powerful and fierce fellow showed an expression like that?

Sharing a look with Eden, the two tuned in. But that wasn't all.

The wicked serpent that tricked Eve, Eden, also connected the minds of all the core members in the area so they too could view this spectacle. It was Eden's punishment to Pedro for making him struggle so much, hmph!

Of course, when they actually went in, no one was prepared to witness a visual horror on par with a certain Orator's skills.