Vanguard of the Eternal Night

translator: xiin

editor: kara

Of course, Old Friend hadn't simply levitated on the spot nor was it because of any spell.

He seemed to have been suddenly picked up by an invisible, giant hand around his neck. He dangled helplessly in mid-air for a second before smashing against the wall.

He struggled to reach for his neck as he hung there on the wall. His feet were only a few centimeters off the ground and scrambling for purchase.

Only then did the audience see that a ring of steel wire had been wrapped around Old Friend's neck. It was this steel wire that was pulling him up to hang on the stone wall.

Behind the stone wall, Tyron's left hand held the other end of the steel wire, pulling it tight--

He looked a little bored, just like how he looked every time he ended his opponent's life.

Male commentator: "My mistake. I didn't see the steel wire just now--when did Odin do it?"

The female commentator replied, "It should have been in their last exchange. There wasn't enough time to set it up otherwise. Odin approached and pulled away from Old Friend multiple times earlier. The steel wire should've been wound around his neck when he wasn't paying attention."

.

By this time, the match had already entered the 20th second.

The system judged that Old Friend was suffering continuous suffocation and bleeding injuries as he hung like this.

When he had only a sliver of health left, the mage finally resolutely pulled out his dagger from its sheath at his waist and cut the steel wire around his neck, leaving himself with only four points of health left.

Female commentator: "Oh, there's only a bit left! He almost died, this is the ultimate control over his health!"

Male commentator: "No… What is Odin doing?"

While Old Friend was desperately trying to refresh his shield, Odin on the other side of the wall was putting away his steel wire while face-to-face with an NPC.

The NPC was a five-year-old girl who held a dustpan in her hand as she watched him break into her yard. After a while, her mouth turned flat.

Tyron stretched out his index finger and put it in front of his mask, gesturing for her to be quiet.

The little girl instead hollered, "Daddy!" She cried as she threw down the dustpan and went back inside to look for the adults.

Tyron: "……"

.

The master assassin had frightened another little girl into tears. After pausing for a moment, he could only go back and continue killing people.

He flipped over the stone wall and wasn't very happy as he pulled out his short sword and dagger--

Two flashes as he fell from the sky!

Male commentator: “It broke the shield directly! Windmill combo! Three&#k2013;&#k2013;”

Even before he had finished speaking, Old Friend’s new mage shield had already been broken!

How could he hold on with only four points of health?

Tyron’s dagger had practically just touched Old Friend’s skin when he turned into a streak of white light and flew away!

When the system had judged that the game was over, and the settlement interface popped up, both commentators subconsciously took a look at the game time:

21.01 seconds.

Both commentators: "……"

The audience also immediately noticed this bizarre time, and the public screen was full of comments about it: "Hahahaha it must be the NPC. 20 seconds belong to Old Friend, and 1 second is the little girl's!"

"So cute I'm dying! The War God's index finger gesture! It was simply like a tender iceberg, hahaha…"

"I didn't think that Lord Four would be a sucker for lolis, I'm no longer alone!"

"Old Friend was really tricked too miserably this match, I can't bear to watch on."

"Odin is full of tricks and routines. Where is the most basic trust between people?!"

.

The two contestants returned to the stage.

Old Friend let out a long exhale and said, "I've fought against quite a few assassins, but you have the most skill with tactics that I've ever seen."

He held out his hand as he said this.

When he was in the competition arena, other than not speaking, Tyron would generally follow the rules. So, he shook Old Friend's hand.

At this time, Old Friend took advantage of their proximity to say in a low voice, "I hope you won't take it easy on me in the next match. Can you play with all your strength against me? Regardless of whether or not it can go on for 20 seconds, I only hope that my opponent will use their real strength and not give me false respect--respect is earned by oneself and not given by others."

Tyron said expressionlessly, "Oh."

.

Five minutes later, the computer released the randomized map for the second match: Water Mirror City.

As long as anyone was a fan of Tyron, they would be familiar with this map. This was because it was already the third time he'd drawn it. The mirror city in this map was really complex, and last time, when Tyron and Flower Blower had entered the mirror city to fight, it had caused multi-faceted damage to the contestants, commentators, and the audience. They all had to go see an ophthalmologist after the match.

This time, Old Friend's thoughts when the two contestants first transferred on to the map was: Tsk, he seemed to have won the district championship match in the mirror city. It's clear that he has some experience on this map, so I won't go in unless it's necessary.

Tyron was thinking: Full strength?

The two of them looked at each other across a distance of about 30 meters as the countdown slowly fell to zero.

Then, the match began!

Tyron started with a flash, drawing out a beautiful streamer on the surface of the water!

The female commentator also spoke very swiftly, "No stealth once again! Exactly how much does Contestant Odin detest opening with an ambush?!"

The male commentator added, "A better way of saying it is that he really dislikes routines! Odin is a contestant who never takes the traditional route!"

As soon as they had finished speaking, Tyron had already used a second flash to arrive in front of Old Friend.

At this time, Old Friend had already prepared his mage shield and ice wind, waiting for Tyron to arrive so that they could exchange moves for the first time in the match.

When Tyron arrived in front of Old Friend, he started off by breaking his shield. At the same time, his left hand was inevitably covered in ice once again.

Old Friend's eyes brightened, and he reacted at the fastest possible speed as an ice wind blew out, trying to freeze Tyron in place.

However, a third flash suddenly appeared.

Tyron had used flash to avoid the ice wind in front of him, arriving directly behind Old Friend. He immediately launched a backstab!

Old Friend had been prepared this time. He knew that the speed of his turning couldn't keep up with Tyron's Shadow Dance, so he simply took this backstab and simultaneously used an instant-cast spell--

Ice Sword Array!

The female commentator was dazed, "Too fierce! Both sides are going straight at it in this match. How large is the grudge between them…?"

Male commentator: "The outside of this Mirror City map is so flat that there's no place for them to hide or set up traps. They have to attack straight on!"

.

The two commentators didn't have time to say anything else when they saw Tyron carrying his frozen left hand with him as the short sword, Song of Triumph, in his right hand cut through the cold wind, suddenly arriving in front of Old Friend!

Male commentator: "Knife fight!!!"

Old Friend's Ice Sword Array specifically targeted an assassin's close-combat combo--he could use it to resist combos, turning a one-sided attack into a mutual fight with blades!

At this time, everyone watched as streak after streak of sword lights flashed outwards like a series of miniature meteors falling rapidly through the air, all heading towards Old Friend.

Behind Old Friend were small icicles that constantly gathered and shifted, following the mage's will to swiftly clash against the opponent's sword lights!

For a time, it seemed as though meteors and icicles were clashing against each other, the flashes of light as stunning as fireworks. The icicles would break into tiny particles of ice that spread out, causing countless blue ripples on the surface of the water across the entire map as they landed like a lake's surface in the rain.

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Old Friend was very fast at clashing with blades. Unlike assassins, he didn't need to maintain his body's balance all the time, let alone think about how to link up his current move with his next. His icicles could form directly by his side and fly out at any angle he wanted in order to fight against the enemy's blade--

As long as his thinking could keep up with the speed of the attacks!

In the third second of their knife fight, the frost on Tyron's left hand had started to melt away, but Old Friend was already horrified.

This was because Song of Triumph was still moving faster and faster, and it seemed to still be increasing in speed. When Old Friend reached the point when he didn't have time to be distracted and think about how to get out of this blade fight, Song of Triumph finally sent out a joyful sound!

At this moment, the female commentator was staring at the data being sent back by the system and shouting, "Six attacks per second, seven… It's already reached the fastest continuous combo speed of a single-handed sword!"

An assassin contestant's fastest blade-wielding speed was precisely the maximum speed that Old Friend had encountered when fighting against peak-level opponents.

After reaching the upper limit of this speed, Old Friend's icicles also seemed to make sharp, shattering sounds when they flew through the air, and his dynamic vision had already reached its limit. The blade that passed by in front of him constantly tested his fastest response time, and there was sometimes only 0.0x seconds of response time left before he blocked the next attack with ice.

At this time, Old Friend's brain was already buzzing, and all of his concentration and energy was focused on this shocking knife fight.

Then, in his line of vision, a distinctive arc suddenly appeared--

The dagger, Deep Silence had been unsheathed!

This blade appeared in the sword net created by Song of Triumph, totally outside of Old Friend's expectations, like an assassin hidden in ambush amongst an attack from all sides. To his horror, it arrived directly in front of him and swept across his neck--

The first injury during this knife fight had occurred.

It also served to foreshadow the outcome of this fight.

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At this time, the two contestants in the arena had no way to hear the voices of the commentators, "A double-blade speed of 9.4 attacks per second! This is record breaking! And, it directly surpassed the record by another 0.2 hits per second!"

On the public screen, the comments area had already been divided into four parts. Even so, each part was still blurred due to the fast scrolling speed, becoming a long string of black-and-white pixels. The audience didn't know what the comments were about, but they were still frantically contributing to the frenzied comments on the screen.

The male commentator spoke excitedly, "I never thought that the records would be broken in today's competition! Or, that it would appear in a direct knife fight between an assassin and a mage! Contestant Odin is really a War God among War Gods!"

The female commentator was also in a hurry as she said at the same time, "They've already been fighting with blades for nearly 8 seconds. He only started to use both blades at the 4th second and reached the fastest record in history by the 7th. It's now the 9th second, the…"

She hadn't finished, but her words suddenly stopped.

This was because Old Friend had turned into a streak of white light and was flying away…

Everyone experienced a moment of blankness. They just watched as the flash of light suddenly stopped as though all their passion had also died at this second, and they couldn't continue their frenzied excitement.

The speed of the blade fight had been too fast. From the moment that Old Friend had been no longer able to continue blocking the blades, his health points had also collapsed. It wasn't surprising that he was killed in this blade fight in just a few seconds.

The second match was over in 12 seconds.

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On the map, Odin re-sheathed his two weapons, took a deep breath to adjust his breathing, and was transmitted back to the stage.

Old Friend was also transmitted back, but he hadn't even stood still when his entire figure disappeared again.

The entire scene was in an uproar as the audience all asked, "What's going on?" "Where's Old Friend?" "What happened to him?!"