Vanguard of the Eternal Night

translator: xiin

editor: kara

The first round of the Second Star Province's provincial competition ended one week later.

The remaining 8 players in Group C included 3 contestants from the Earth District (Odin, who had drawn no opponent, was one of them), 3 from the Xian Qin District, and 2 from the Orion District.

Odin finally drew an opponent for his first official match. His opponent was a female mage contestant from the Xian Qin District with the ID 'Geng Chen'. She was an elemental dancer.

She had previously lost in the National Championships and dropped down to the provincial competition. Her highest ranking in the A-League was 35th nationwide. Many people felt that she was one of the two strongest contestants in Group C, and many people had already expressed their regret for Odin, who was facing Geng Chen in his first round.

(Little Vic: You ignorant mortals ╭(╯^╰)╮)

Additionally, Geng Chen's profession, the 'elemental dancer', was a very rare compound profession that was often regarded as a 'melee mage'. In fact, it was actually quite similar to a melee mage, except for the fact that she didn't attack physically despite being in close combat.

The only reason why she was a close-combat profession was: her spells all worked best at close range.

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Before the match, the two contestants drew lots on the stage.

Geng Chen was a rarely-seen female contestant and was very popular within her own Star District. Many males in the audience cheered loudly when she came up onto the stage--it was said that she'd also been given a very high-profile proposal on stage before.

However, this reaction couldn't compare to the hysterical screams of the female audience that rose up when Lord Four finally came onto the stage--

They were going to die! It had already been two months since they'd last seen their War God!

Nobody knew what they'd been through over these last two months! Other contestants would continue to show off and make waves after being confirmed as a God, but why had this iceberg War God disappeared from the scene and refused to show up even during the provincial games? They could only see him in the arena!

Even while the fans were crying over Lord Four's iceberg behavior, they were equally fascinated with his coldness.

It was worth mentioning that the Earth District was the most sparsely-populated district in the Second Star Province, so the audience base was actually very small. However, many of Lord Four's fans were from the other Star Districts. They had been completely stunned by the War God's heavenly beauty and were no longer able to climb out of the pit; quite a few female fans had never watched e-sports before, but because Lord Four's competitions were like watching a movie, they'd come to watch the live version of the movie directly…

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At the same time, the two commentators for the provincial competition had already turned on their mics. As usual, it was a combination of one male and one female commentator: the female commentator was a professional live-broadcast anchor, who had commentated on some competitions before. Her speaking style was very bold, and the audience had strongly requested for her to be chosen; the male commentator was a retired contestant who'd been a coach for several years, had rich e-sports experience, and could make up for some of the shortcomings of the female commentator.

At the moment, the female commentator was saying, "The result of the lottery is coming out, yes! The first map is a plain. This is a very bad map for assassin contestants."

Male commentator: “Indeed. Our contestant, Geng Chen is very good at fighting in flat areas, and she’s one of the best at airborne combos&#k2013;&#k2013;this is another disadvantage for close-combat contestants. We all know that in order to generate power for melee techniques, a leverage point is required no matter what. Even if it’s an airborne windmill combo, the start of it still requires a launch point. Therefore, as long as their time in the air is a little longer, a mage, who can use magic to move around freely, will be much more flexible than an assassin.”

Female commentator: "Our War God also became famous for his aerial combat though!"

Male commentator: "In the final analysis, aerial combat still requires something to support it, if it's not a flying machine, then it has to be wings. Unfortunately, this map didn't provide him with any way to fly, so…"

Female commentator: "A grounded phoenix is inferior to a chicken?"

Lord Four's fans protested right then and there, "You're the chicken!"

The female commentator apologized immediately, "Oh, oh, oh, apologies. I'm the finger lickin' good KFC chicken! I should've said 'dragons in shallow water will be played with by shrimps' instead!"

"……" Geng Chen's fans also protested, "You're the shrimp!!!"

The female commentator quickly apologized again, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'm a golden phoenix tail shrimp!"

Male commentator: "……" I'm hungry now.

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By this point, the two contestants were already in the middle of the map.

As the commentators had just said, this entire map was very flat and dry. There were cracks and ravines threading through it that looked extremely scary. These ravines were very deep; deep enough to kill. There was barely anywhere for contestants to stop themselves halfway through the drop, and it was very difficult for them to climb back up.

There was an old ginkgo tree on the edge of the cliff, its golden leaves drifting down after they fell.

Additionally, there was nothing to block either of their visions, and both contestants could see each other's movements completely.

Female commentator: "How flat! It's as flat as my chest! There's even concave parts!"

Male commentator: "Now then, if an assassin contestant wanted to sneak attack, they would basically have to rely on being able to go into stealth right at the start of the match or the deep trenches in the ground."

He'd just finished speaking when the countdown ended. As expected, the assassin, Odin's figure disappeared.

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To be honest, as an elemental dancer, the thing that Geng Chen was most unafraid of was the combination of stealth and a close-combat attack.

Why?

Because, almost all her spells were close-combat, wide-ranged attacks! Other professions might be worried that they'd have difficulty finding an assassin when they sneak in close, but elemental dancers really didn't need to worry about it.

At the start of the match, Geng Chen drew on the red ribbons around her wrists and ankles and turned in a graceful arc--elemental dancers were very attractive to watch, because they used their dance moves to replace the casting gestures and perform spells.

Using the precious chanting time afforded by the start of the match, Geng Chen released the 'wind travel spell'. A group of invisible hurricanes slowly wrapped around her, and then, her entire body floated up into the air.

Then, in order to prevent a possible close-combat assassination, Geng Chen slowly rotated in the air and launched one of the most basic spells available to an elemental mage: Ice Ring.

Like most of her other spells, this spell affected everything within a certain range. If the enemy was within a 3-meter radius, they would likely be exposed due to being covered in frost and snow. If they were within 1.5 meters, they would be slowed, and if they were within 0.5 meters, they would begin to take damage. It was absolutely effective in seeing through stealth.

This was why everyone said that elemental dancers could resist assassins on flat terrain.

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However, at this time, Tyron was not as eager to try and gain an early advantage as Geng Chen had expected.

He crouched on one of the branches of the ginkgo tree and calmly observed the elemental dancer floating in the air from the gaps between the branches and leaves.

The female commentator had obviously done her homework and said, "As usual, Lord Four is neither too fast nor too slow and shows the demeanor of a general. Will he choose to launch an ambush this time? Or, execute a frontal attack from an unexpected direction? Both tactics have worked very well…"

She hadn't even finished speaking when Lord Four finally moved!

He fell lightly from the tree like a cat, and instantly changed from an extremely quiet state to one of extreme movement as he leaped out like a ferocious cheetah!

The male commentator's speaking speed changed quickly as he said, "Contestant Odin has come down from the tree and rushed at Geng Chen. It's obvious that he has avoided shaking the leaves of the tree, which would have exposed his position. Alright, he's just within horizontal distance of five meters, but there's still a vertical distance of three meters--he leaped up!!! Odin confidently took off at a 45 degree angle and borrowed leverage from the ground in order to attack Geng Chen head-on!"

He didn't even have time to breathe when he saw that Odin's leap took him just outside the area of effect of the ice ring--1.502 meters away from Geng Chen. His grasp of strength and angle was accurate to the extreme!

The female commentator picked up where he left off: "Flash! After arriving into position, Lord Four directly used flash to get close. Now, let's see if Geng Chen is able to escape Lord Four's first assassination attempt!"

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In the instant that Tyron entered the ice ring with flash, Geng Chen had already become aware, and her reaction had also been extremely quick--but it wasn't fast enough!

This was because the flash technique was already almost at the limit of the movement speed that melee contestants were capable of!

At that moment, Geng Chen whirled in the air and shifted her metal ankle ring, just in time to clash against Tyron's dagger with a 'clang'.

It was just that Tyron's short sword threaded through her red silk dance ribbons at the same time, creating a narrow opening and leaving two wounds on her neck!

Geng Chen herself wasn't a melee-combat profession. After blocking the dagger with her ankle ring, she didn't stop but instead quickly recovered and made a graceful dance move--

Her move wasn't finished, but Tyron's short sword had already pulled back.

At the same time, his dagger didn't stop at all. It slid across Geng Chen's ankle ring, then stabbed three times as fast as lightning!

The system determined that this was a five-attack combo made with two weapons, and Geng Chen's health bar immediately dropped to 80%!

However, she maintained her composure and continued dancing!

As she finished her second dance move, the ribbon lingered in the air, and Geng Chen launched a new spell: Eye of the Storm'!

All of a sudden, the wind around her suddenly shifted from lifting her gently off the ground into a whirling hurricane. The powerful wind buffeted the two players and caused them to shake in the air.

Female commentator: "An extremely beautiful assassination! It can be called a textbook approach-and-combo attack!"

Male commentator: "Unfortunately, he fell into the elemental dancer's Eye of the Storm. The storm is the starting move for Geng Chen's famous airborne combo!"

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Almost every spell of an elemental dancer was continuous and attacked a wide area, which allowed them to execute extremely powerful spell combos.

Geng Chen was most famous for a set of aerial combo moves: Eye of the Storm (it trapped enemies in the air and prevent them from moving), Ice Shackle (restrained enemies lost the ability to fight back), Flame Carnival (it combined with ice magic to cause super high damage and simultaneously blow the opponent into position directly above her), Nine Days of Thunder (summoning lightning from the air to attack her current position; the range was very limited, but it would cause damage and paralysis to enemies who were above her).

If Geng Chen's combo was finished completely, some contestants, who had started off with low health, might be sent straight into critical health.

Now, she had already finished her starting move.

Wild storms surrounded her and her opponent. It was practically impossible for any close-combat contestant to escape the control of the storm when they were in mid-air with nowhere to borrow leverage from. They could only be pressured back to the center of the storm by the wind.

Along with her low, murmured chants, Geng Chen's dancing had reached the next stage: Ice Shackles!

Male commentator: "Last chance! Will he get out of this predicament, or will Odin fall from his earlier advantage straight into disadvantage?! But the question is, how will he get out?"