Vanguard of the Eternal Night

translator: xiin

editor: kara

Before the game began, Cardinal's inner sorrow was exactly the same as Flower Blower's from back then.

--Fight? It seemed that he couldn't win.

--Give up? He was already standing there in the arena. If he admitted defeat now, he wouldn't be able to face himself, the audience, or his coach…

After wavering, he ultimately decided to fight.

--It was said that Odin would leave his opponents with a bit of dignity. For better or worse, he would never deal with an enemy within 20 seconds…

However, whether or not the audience could tell at a glance that 'your opponent had gone easy on you for 20 seconds' was based on the player's own ability.

Cardinal felt that he was spineless. They hadn't even started fighting yet, but he had already thought of things like 'It's great that the other side will let me off for 20 seconds'.

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This was the third round of the group matches and also the second to last match. It would determine the placement of the four-to-two matches.

However, the four strongest contestants were basically already locked in their places for the second half of the provincial competition and didn't need to worry too much about it. As a result, many players would choose to hold back after qualifying. During these kinds of matches, they basically wouldn't use their special techniques or killing moves to avoid revealing too much to their potential opponents.

Cardinal's inner thoughts were like this: He could use some effort to fight, but he couldn't show all his cards… It definitely wouldn't be easy to win against the other party, and he would lose even if he exposed his strength fully or perhaps only be able to barely scrape a win. It was better to keep his cards hidden until the finals and use them to deal with other opponents. In that case, this match was just a matter of making sure not to lose too miserably…

After he made up his mind, the randomized map results came out: The Classic Train.

This map was basically a fight held on a moving train. The train moved at a speed of approximately 200 km/h. For these two squishy, low-defense assassins, it meant that they couldn't fall off the train, and they would probably die directly if they slipped.

The train was made up of five carriages; the last two were full of coal. The first three had seating for passengers, corridors, and a roof that contestants could stand on.

Generally speaking, the map was narrow, and the space wasn't big.

At this time, the commentators discussed, "For these two assassins, there is not enough space to conceal themselves or sneak away--basically, it's a situation of 'the brave win when enemies meet on a narrow path'."

The audience expressed, "It's rare to see a duel between two assassins, and it's even a frontal-attack map!"

"I wonder who will snatch the opportunity to launch the first ambush."

"I'm betting on Lord Four!"

"Stop messing around! Who doesn't know that Cardinal is the most powerful sneak-attacker in Xian Qin District? Odin really might not be able to see through it."

"I bet on Odin… there's no sneaking at all…"

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The thirty-second countdown began.

Tyron’s figure appeared directly on the roof of the train head while Cardinal stood on top of the last coal carriage. The two of them couldn’t be considered too far apart from each other.

Cardinal was a little apprehensive, thinking to himself: Why was it a frontal attack map&#k2026;

He had just finished memorizing the layout of the entire train when the countdown ended.

The match began.

Cardinal instantly entered stealth without saying a word.

Commentator: "As an assassin famous for sneak kills, it seems that Cardinal has no intention of changing his tactics when faced with his peer. Let's take a look at the other contestant… huh?"

In contrast to Cardinal, let alone stealthing, Tyron didn't even show the slightest intention of hiding.

After the match began, he started to walk calmly along the roof of the train. When he arrived at the second passenger carriage, he jumped down, kicking the door open with his long legs and landing steadily inside.

The carriages were much narrower than the roof. Most of the space was occupied with private rooms with seating while the corridor outside the private rooms was only wide enough for two people to pass by each other if their faces were practically stuck together.

Tyron came to a leisurely stop inside.

Cardinal was now in an awkward position--he was still in stealth. What was the most important thing about sneaking around? The element of surprise!

Tyron was playing the waiting game and waiting for his prey to send itself to him in such a narrow corridor. Cardinal could only attack him from two sides. Regardless of which side it was, he still felt that it was unlikely for him to be able to successfully launch a sneak attack against someone of Tyron's level…

However, the match still needed to be fought. The only difference was whether he would steel himself and admit defeat or steel himself to try and win.

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Tyron's short sword hadn't yet come out of its sheath. Because the action of drawing the short sword itself could also cause massive damage, he would occasionally choose not to draw his short sword in advance during particularly short close-combat fights (especially during fights against other close-combat professions).

His left hand toyed with his dagger, tossing it from an upright grip to a backhand grip and flipping the sharp blade back and forth as though he didn't care that another assassin was currently trying to take his life at the moment.

In the third second after the match began, Tyron's gaze moved, landing suddenly on the narrow corridor in front of him.

A very faint, subtle sound emerged from that direction.

Beneath the hood, the corner of Tyron's lips raised up slightly, but he stood still and waited calmly, his dagger slowly moving down behind him.

Suddenly, there was a slight creak from the floorboards in the corridor in front of Tyron--

Almost at the same time, Tyron's dark, golden eyes disappeared under the shadow of his hood, and the dagger in his hand drew out a perfect arc of white light!

An opportunity!

Cardinal was overjoyed, and his figure abruptly appeared in a flash!

His figure wasn't in the corridor at all but rather outside of the carriage. He held onto the window with both hands as he waited quietly

A feint tactic… Precisely for the sake of diverting the enemy's attention.

At this time, he smashed against the carriage window's glass with his knee, his entire person appearing from his invisible state. Two daggers hurtled towards Tyron like vicious fangs!

But, in the next moment, Cardinal was shocked to find that after Tyron's dagger completed its arc, it continued gracefully and transformed into a 300 degree turn until it was directly facing his own daggers!

"… Hmph."

Tyron chuckled faintly. It was almost like he was giving someone of a younger generation affirmation.

When his dagger rang out with two 'ding' sounds and diverted Cardinal, who had pounced over, causing him to roll into the interior of the carriage, his short sword had already come out of its sheath!

Cardinal had already tried to retreat while in mid-air, and he quickly crossed his daggers in front of him after landing and picking himself up--

But, it wasn't fast enough!

By the time he'd crossed his daggers in front of him, the short sword, Song of Triumph, had already left its sheath!

A thin line of blood appeared on Cardinal's throat.

Tyron raised his foot and, with great accuracy, landed a kick where his two blades were crossed, and sent him flying to the other end of the corridor.

Cardinal didn't hesitate to jump up, going straight from the end of the corridor back up to the roof and disappearing from Tyron's field of vision once again.

.

The first round of fighting just now was a very fast one even by assassin standards.

The male commentator was only able to barely catch his breath after Cardinal disappeared again. He left the mode of extremely fast commentary and summed up with, "Cardinal suffered a bit of a loss, but he can still make up for it as long as he's able to launch another ambush."

The female commentator followed up, "I don't really understand why Odin let him go. Based on his attack and movement speed, it seems that he had a chance to chase after him just now…"

In fact, the male commentator had also noticed this. He thought worriedly: Perhaps Odin was already confident about his chances of winning, which was why he was taking it easy in ways that wouldn't be discovered?

There was nobody who was clearer about this matter than the parties involved.

At this moment, Cardinal's inner thoughts: Mom, he looked down on me! He actually had the chance to cut me with his blade, yet he chose not to do so and kicked me with his foot! Fortunately, I got out of there quickly. Otherwise, that foot might not have landed on my blades but my butt instead…

Tyron's inner thoughts: Another cub trying to play with diversion tactics in front of me…

The master assassin had already gotten sick of playing such tricks a few hundred years ago.

Cardinal was extremely unconvinced. He felt that it was time to try the next trick.

This time, he hid in the next carriage, waiting until his stealth skill finished its cooldown before quickly entering the corridor where Tyron stood waiting.

He made sure to make noise as he walked.

Commentators: "Oh! What is virtual is real, and what is real is virtual. Is Cardinal trying to play out a trick?"

If it was someone else in the arena, they may have thought that Cardinal was using the diversion tactic again instead of noticing the way the sounds were being produced.

Unfortunately, he was facing a grandfather among assassins.

Tyron coolly remained in the same place and waited. His arrogant stance seemed to clearly express: Hurry up, don't make me wait.

It was a short corridor, but Cardinal walked in it for approximately three seconds.

It continued until he was within 1.5 meters of his opponent. In order to prevent his stealth from being seen through, he chose to use his own movement technique to appear right in front of Tyron!

This technique, in the eyes of the commentators and the audience, was more than enough for approaching the enemy.

However, to Tyron, who regarded flash as a warm-up exercise, it was still too immature!

Just as Cardinal's stealth ended and in the moment he revealed his figure, Tyron didn't try to dodge but instead met him head-on!

His movements began later, yet he miraculously managed to take the initiative and turned sideways to slide past Cardinal.

Cardinal's attack didn't fail. Instead, it landed on the hilt of Tyron's short sword--and in this instant, Tyron made use of the force from Cardinal's hit to swiftly pull out his sword, slicing off 20% of Cardinal's life in one strike.

Cardinal was originally still able to fight back, but he lost his balance at a crucial moment!

This was because when Tyron made his attack, he still had the attention to spare to shift his leg slightly, moving into just the right position to intercept the path that Cardinal's body had to take in order to maintain his body's center of gravity--and then, he casually lifted his leg, which in turn tripped Cardinal and sent him toppling onto the ground!

Cardinal had never encountered a situation where he was interrupted in the middle of a technique. He executed a roll and left Tyron's melee attack range in a rather awkward maneuver.

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At this moment, there was a series of 'wow' sounds from both on and off-stage: Odin's trip showed both swift judgement ability and physical flexibility.

He was instantly able to find out the weakness of Cardinal's movement technique in such a short period of time and simultaneously carry out a double attack!

Victor, who was sitting in the front row, was stunned for a second before recovering his wits: Tyron's move just now was just like the one he'd used when he taught him how to use flash; a seemingly random step that forced the opponent to lose his center of gravity.

At that time, Victor had even stolen a kiss, laughing as he joked, "Is this the method of following an opponent's path so that they have no way forward?"

Now that he was seeing it in the arena, he felt that this ability was simply too unfair!

It was enough that Lord Four himself had mastered a movement technique that was ranked among the top; now, he didn't even allow others to use other movement techniques!

Cardinal kept getting the feeling that he was prancing around in front of an old boss character. No matter how much he jumped around, he still couldn't escape the boss's one kick…

He'd never before resembled a tragic assassin from ancient times as much as he did now.