MMORPG: The Elementalist

As Psycho Demon ridiculed Gorfer of the Executors and shot him out of the arena, Qin Ruo felt the same towards Remorseless Warrior—he originally thought he could bait the prideful Remorseless Warrior out and crush the Executors’ naïve arrogance, ending the battle swiftly once and for all. Yet, Remorseless Warrior did not bite the bait, and he sent out a Berserker.

“Not giving up yet, huh? That’s fine too.”

Qin Ruo stood still with his arms crossed in front of his chest, as though he did not care about Psycho Demon’s trespassing at all. Nonetheless, he did see how Psycho Demon slammed Gorfer out of the arena earlier, and Qin Ruo felt that sudden surge of power within him.

More importantly, there was a glimmer of excitement in Psycho Demon’s eyes as Gorfer landed on the ground outside of the arena.

‘This jerk is such a pain in the ass.’

If he found any strong fighter in his way, he would always have the impulsive itch to pick a fight without considering the time and place. It was the same back then… and it was also the same now as he interrupted the duel between the Executors and Fallen Angels. The guy had not changed one bit. Qin Ruo could not help but feel puzzled.

‘How could a guy like this survive until today… and not get his ass hunted down by bounty hunters all over the place…’

It was unthinkable!

***

“Heh, are you pissed? I bet you’re pissed, huh? If you’re pissed, give me all you got. You’ll be a good warm-up before I fight the Winter Demon…”

Psycho Demon was indeed a psycho. He kept taunting the Executors, seeing them as nothing but small fries! And that behavior from him was expected too. When he turned his back on the Unruly Clan, he single-handedly defeated Unruly Clan’s leader, seven Field Commanders, and forty Tier 4 elites… He was also merely at Tier 4 back then. Now he was a Tier 5 player and he had acquired a pair of Angelic Wings. Why would he bat an eye at a new, rising MVP Clan?

***

Clang!

Gorfer slowly pulled out his hatchets, which were half-buried in the ground, and stood up. He involuntarily looked at Psycho Demon, who was flapping his Angelic Wings mockingly, and said, “If you have a score to settle, then sure, you two go ahead and fight first!” From his facial expression, it would seem that he said it under the order of his Clan Leader, Remorseless Warrior.

Remorseless Warrior came up with a plan the very moment he recognized who the arrogant Psycho Demon was…

Psycho Demon—one of the more adept players from the Angel Faction. Even though his name was not as popular as Qin Ruo’s, he did make a lot of enemies with countless Champions. Being a Warrior himself, Remorseless Warrior had studied online videos on Psycho Demon. Thus, he knew full well that Psycho Demon, who could have finished off Gorfer in just mere seconds, had unmatched combat aptitude.

Psycho Demon versus the Winter Demon…

It was also a great opportunity for Gorfer to learn more about Qin Ruo’s strategies against Warriors. Therefore, he quickly sent a private message to Gorfer to stop him from retaliating, and asked him to allow those two to duel first.

Not expecting Gorfer to back down, Psycho Demon was a tad bit disappointed as he threw a scornful glance at the pathetic Executor member.

Well, it could not be helped. He was the one who asked them to let him fight the Winter Demon first, and they conceded. It would be rather inconceivable for him to just start biting anyone who was present; he was not a mad dog after all. Besides, he was eager to settle his score with Qin Ruo and find out who was the stronger “Demon”—the Psycho Demon or Winter Demon?

***

Slowly hovering forty meters away from Qin Ruo, Psycho Demon suddenly turned and proudly said to him, “Six seconds! I’ll give you six seconds to prepare your magic.”

As he spoke to Qin Ruo, a one-meter-long moth appeared next to Psycho Demon. It had six eyes, which looked like shining rubies, on its three heads. It filled the ruins with a strange air the moment it arrived.

A Six-eyed Moth?

Qin Ruo frowned as he quickly charged up his Mana and deployed his Frostbarrier as well as Darkfrost Shield. Then, without waiting any further, he swiftly cast his AoE Magic Attack—being disappointed in the Executors was one thing, but facing off against Psycho Demon was quite a different story…

The madman may have displayed a flamboyant arrogance in his temperament, but he was not a fool.

“Shameful!”

Qin Ruo quietly cursed. Even if Psycho Demon said he would give him six seconds to prepare, Qin Ruo noticed that the Level 50 Six-eyed Moth had already begun to charge up a Tier 5 AoE Magic Attack the moment it showed up—it was obvious that he wanted to use that magic to pin him to the ground. Once the Tier 5 AoE was released, it would break his Elemental Perception, and he would be forced to remain on land while his opponent flew in the air. After that, all Psycho Demon had to do was launch another long-range AoE Magic Attack and dive down to finish him off with a melee strike.

“What a well-planned scheme!”

Yet, there were two weaknesses in that little plan of his…

Pets required a long time to charge up Tier 5 AoE Magic Attacks. And even if his Pet successfully charged it up, if he did not activate his Angelic Wings in the first place… what good would it do?

***

Just as Qin Ruo had predicted, Psycho Demon indeed came prepared and was sharp in playing mind games. Psycho Demon was able to see that his taunts were not garnering the intended reactions from Qin Ruo. Not only that, Qin Ruo had completed raising his double defenses within three seconds and also started charging Tier 5 AoE Magic.

Psycho Demon waited for only six seconds, then he stretched his Angelic Wings and activated Berserk as well as Berserker Shell. Raising his speed to its limits, he dove towards Qin Ruo.

He knew an experienced player like Qin Ruo would only need five seconds at best to charge up a Tier 5 AoE Magic Attack. Therefore, he only had less than two seconds to act!

Time was running out, and he should not waste his chances to strike…

Whoosh!

As he dove within thirty meters away from his opponent, Psycho Demon’s heavy broad sword released a streak of scarlet beam as it shot towards Qin Ruo.

The scarlet light landed on Qin Ruo’s magic shell.

Hoot!

Another bolt of golden lightning also landed on Qin Ruo’s magic shell, almost at the same time as the scarlet beam…

The latter was an offensive magic skill while the former a defensive skill—it was Shadow Break.

Poochie, who had responded to his master’s call, appeared and blocked Psycho Demon’s attack before it was able to take down Qin Ruo’s shield.

The scarlet beam was disintegrated a few millimeters away from the magic shell while the golden lightning quickly splintered back into Qin Ruo’s shoulder. Those two skills touched only for a mere instant, therefore, it seemed as if the scarlet beam had hit Qin Ruo earlier. Only an experienced and keen eye could see that Qin Ruo’s Frostbarrier was still unharmed.

Even though the attacks were calmly exchanged in the first round, an immense sense of danger lurked within the tense rivalry between the two of them… It especially obvious in the timing of Poochie’s summoning. The excitement in the air was so thick that one could cut it with a knife!

***

Even though his first attack was not successful, Psycho Demon was thrilled.

“Again!”

As he yelled, Psycho Demon, threw another long-range Warrior skill at Qin Ruo…

After a loud boom was heard, a bolt of lightning shaped like the letter “Z” shot out of his sword!

The spectating players around the arena could not help but exclaim.

“F*ck!”

“What skill is that?!”

“Sh*t! He has two different types of long-range attacks?!”

As the crowd hollered in astonishment, the Z-shaped lightning landed on Qin Ruo’s Frostbarrier…

Boom!

This time, Qin Ruo could not evade it.

From the moment Psycho Demon raised his heavy broadsword a second time, Qin Ruo realized something was off—he could have more than one long-range Warrior-type attack.

However, it was all too late…

Qin Ruo, however, was not about to stop charging his Frozen Realm—it was almost done. He could not give up just yet. As for Poochie, it just blocked Psycho Demon’s attack mere moments ago. After casting Shadow Break, it could not head out and block again within that short period. Besides, he also did not know how long Psycho Demon’s Six-eyed Moth needed to charge its magic. So, all he could do was just tank Psycho Demon’s attacks.

Yet, that was not all…

Boom!!!

Received damage from Psycho Demon. Darkfrost Shield has been broken!

Frostbarrier is damaged. Defense lowered by 28; player receives 98 damage!

The system message sent a chill down Qin Ruo’s spine…

How did Psycho Demon completely obliterate his Tier 4 Magic Shield with just one hit? How on earth was that possible!!

Qin Ruo did his Math earlier. His Defense was 230; coupled with his equipment and defense magic, he should have been able to take at least two hits… Unless… Psycho Demon’s attack earlier dealt more than 510 damage, or…

“Curses! It was a Defense Piercing attack!”

Qin Ruo finally understood.

“Frozen Realm!!”

As Qin Ruo bellowed out his attack, the temperature in the Ruins rapidly dropped! Then, a furious gust of freezing wind swept through the place, covering an area of a few hundred diameters…

In the meantime, the Six-eyed Moth also released its attack.

Psycho Demon was not intimidated by the wave of attack though, as expected from an experienced Warrior like him. If it had been other players, they would have ordered their Pets to start dealing damage to the enemy.

Psycho Demon shrugged off the damage dealt on him while the Six-eyed Moth released its Tier 5 AoE Magic almost at the same time as Frozen Realm. An enormous glowing black cloud suddenly appeared above the Ruins!

Then, the entire dimension turned dark!

At that moment, Qin Ruo felt a sudden dread and an immense threat, as though he was falling straight to hell…

His eyesight was gradually fading away, a direct result of the Moth’s Tier 5 AoE Magic Attack…

It was not only Qin Ruo—everyone within a hundred meters felt the same.

Everyone’s Elemental Perception was broken, and as that black cloud burst above them… everyone lost their sight except for Psycho Demon.

After successfully blocking the Frozen Realm attack with his Berserker Shell, Psycho Demon dashed towards Qin Ruo like a bolt of lightning and waved his heavy broadsword—a glaring scarlet beam sparked out again and raced towards Qin Ruo, who had now lost both his Defense Shield and Elemental Perception.

“It’s over…”

***

A heavy metal thud surfaced amid the silence on Level 2 of the Aricus Underground Ruins…

“…It’s that sound again.”

Remorseless Warrior clutched his fist tightly. “His attack missed.”