novelonline Chapter 587: Flowing Thrust
Chapter 587: Flowing Thrust
Chapter 587: Flowing Thrust
On the second day of the world's number one martial arts tournament, the arena was still bustling with people. There were even more people today than yesterday. After all, more than 700 people were eliminated yesterday.
When the time came to ten o'clock in the morning.
“Hehehe————”
Sato Kazuma walked quickly into the venue, holding up a microphone and loudly asking the audience seated around him: "Welcome to the arena. Today is the second day of the martial arts tournament. Do you miss me or do you prefer the upcoming duel? Come and cheer loudly, let me hear your voices."
After saying this, he put his hands to his ears as if he was listening, and the audience below also gave him face and cheered loudly.
“Kazuma! Kazuma! Kazuma!”
"Great! This cheer is awesome! I'm so high!"
Sato Kazuma had a wild smile on his face, and just as he was enjoying the cheers of the crowd with great pride, some people couldn't stand it anymore and shouted:
"That's enough, Kazuma! Let's get started!"
"That's right, don't waste time!"
"Let's get started!"
There were a few sporadic spitting sounds, which made this scumbag who enjoyed the cheers spit, but he still tried his best to do his job.
"Everyone, wait a moment! I know you are in a hurry, but please don't be impatient! Please let me read the sponsor's advertising slogan as usual! What, no one is looking for me for sponsorship? What's going on? Then there is no other way, we have to skip the advertising stage and move on to the next stage!"
Sato Kazuma's humorous and interesting opening remarks made the scene lively.
"Since this is a formal competition, we must at least hold it in a more formal manner. Otherwise, what's the difference between this and a street fight? What, a formal duel is only because there are judges? It doesn't matter, we have already prepared! First, let us get to know our judges! Please look over here!"
He waved his right hand to the side. At the edge of the arena, there was a long table covered with a red tablecloth, where three people were sitting upright.
"I didn't expect that Ms. Aqua, who was my co-host yesterday, would become today's judge! So, Aqua, do you have anything to say?"
"Please join the Axis Church. The Axis Church is a fraternity church. As long as you are not fighting against liches, any XP will be understood. So -"
"Okay, thank you for your speech!"
"Wait a minute Kazuma! I'm not finished yet!"
"Let go, idiot! Don't grab my microphone!"
The two people's jokes and banter made the atmosphere very lively.
Sato Kazuma held down the crazy stupid goddess, and finally snatched back the microphone and came to the next judge.
"Oh my! I didn't expect it to be Mr. Diabel, the president of our Holy Dragon Union! Come, please say hello to everyone!"
This supporting character, who should have died on the first floor to serve as a warning to everyone, survived by chance due to the intervention of Kobayashi and others, and established the Holy Dragon United Guild to join the strategy group, becoming the largest guild after the Axis Cult and the Knights of the Blood Alliance.
"Hello everyone, I'm Diabel."
Diabel smiled and there were warm cheers all around him. His handsome face made him popular among many girls.
Sato Kazuma complained softly.
"Tsk, damn handsome guy."
“I always feel like you’re scolding me”
"How can it be."
Facing Diabel's questioning, he of course shook his head to deny it, and at the same time, he grinned and asked him a slightly sinister question.
"President Diabel, can you please tell me why you didn't make it to the finals? You're a member of the Raiders Team."
"Hahahaha, there's nothing I can do. I'm not good at fighting, so I can only be a tank in the raiders. It just means I'm not strong enough, that's all."
A hearty and generous answer is decent.
It is precisely because of this that Diabel is loved by his guild members, and because of this, it has developed into a large guild with a great reputation in Aincrad.
"I heard that you lost in the fourth round?"
"That's right."
"Then President Diabel, can you please tell me who you lost to in the end?"
"I lost to President Alice."
Diabel admitted it openly.
Sato Kazuma grinned insidiously, as if he had known the answer long ago and was just deliberately trying to trick Diabel into saying it. However, his purpose was not to embarrass Diabel, but he had other intentions.
Turning his head, the sinister expression instantly turned into eagerness.
"It turns out to be our Princess Alice! She is so powerful! By the way, the odds of betting on Alice to win the championship are now 1.5! Everyone, what are you waiting for? Take action now!"
The seductive words continue to stir the hearts of the audience.
"Princess Alice is really strong!"
"I want to bet on Princess Alice!"
"Me too!"
These people left the venue full of confidence, with a lot of momentum like Edward who had bankrupted everything.
Seeing that his goal had been achieved, Sato Kazuma immediately grinned and turned into a scumbag's smile.
"Okay, let's not waste any more time and start——"
“Wait a minute! Kazuma-san, you forgot about me!”
"Ah, Youyou."
Seeing Yunyun with tears in her eyes, Sato Kazuma felt a little embarrassed. Maybe because he was too excited, he actually forgot about Yunyun.
"So Youyou, do you have anything to say?"
"Well, well... good luck to all the contestants!"
After hesitating for a long time, he could only utter this sentence.
Sato Kazuma was a little speechless, but it was better than the stupid goddess who wanted to occupy the microphone to spread the word about shoe glue.
"Okay! Thank you for the blessing from Judge Youyou!"
Sato Kazuma returned to the center of the arena, raised the microphone and said loudly: "Dear audience, our match today is about to begin! ... Although you may have read today's rules before the match, in order to fulfill my job, I still have to repeat them again! Please listen patiently!"
The main competition is the same as the preliminaries, where players are randomly arranged to fight, and the winner will enter the next round. This pattern will continue for three rounds, and the player who wins all three games will advance to the quarterfinals.
But there were only six of them.
The remaining two spots will be chosen from the players who lost in the second round. In other words, you have to make it to the second round no matter what, otherwise there will be no resurrection match.
"So what's next——"
Sato Kazuma deliberately stretched out his voice and shouted as if he was breathing heavily: "——Please welcome contestants Rutte and Andy to the stage!"
There was an exit on the left and right side of the arena. Ruth and Andy walked out of the two exits respectively, raised their hands and waved hello to the people around them amid the cheers of the audience. It seemed that they enjoyed being sought after.
During this time, Sato Kazuma was introduced to the audience.
“Dear audience, both Lute and Andy are members of the Raiders Team. Their strength is unquestionable. I believe they will present us with a wonderful contest!”
Generally speaking, the host also has to introduce the contestants' strengths, fighting styles, and past records to the audience.
However, this was a death game, and many people did not even show their windows to others, let alone their strengths and abilities. In addition, this was the first time that the World Martial Arts Tournament was held, and there was no previous record of outstanding performance.
But as a famous commentator once said:
The audience knows nothing about the game.
Besides, a duel is about who is more powerful and whose moves are more gorgeous. There is no need to say more about such obvious things.
In fact, their professions can be identified from their appearance alone. For example, Root was wearing a relatively light half-body armor and holding a blood-red cross spear, which made him look like a spearman with medium and long-range attacks. And Andy was a knight with a one-handed sword and shield - this was what Diabel called himself and was widely circulated.
By the way, one-handed sword players can equip light shields. Players like Kirito who do not rely on shields and only use one-handed swords are very rare.
"Then, player Root, please send a half-loss duel invitation to player Andy."
Ruth didn't say anything. He quickly slid his finger to invite Andy to a duel. Then a large blue virtual light screen appeared above their heads, showing the number ten, and then counting down every second.
Seeing this, Sato Kazuma left quickly.
At this time, Root took out the spear from his back and said to his friend, "I didn't expect you to make it to the finals. What unexpected luck!"
"Haven't you heard that luck is part of strength?" Andy took a stance, ready for battle.
"Unfortunately, your luck ends here. Even if we were friends, I would not show mercy."
"I couldn't ask for more. But don't forget that I am the one who knows you best. Be careful not to be careless."
Like most Japanese people, Andy loves Romance of the Three Kingdoms very much, so he understands the meaning of some famous sayings and philosophies.
Ruth licked the corner of his mouth and did not answer.
"3, 2, 1! Start!"
When the countdown ended, the two of them disappeared instantly, and the next second the spear and the one-handed sword collided with each other.
"So fast!"
"What a distance these two have just covered!"
"Five meters! A full five meters!"
"is that a lie……"
Many players couldn't help but murmur to themselves when they saw this scene. Most of them were low-level players and casual players. Even though they had heard that the members of the strategy team were very strong, they had never seen them and didn't know how strong they were. With this opportunity, they seemed to be lucky enough to witness the battle between top players.
This is high quality duel!
It would be too much of a fuss to be speechless just because of a collision.
After a simple collision, Root and Andy continued to swing their weapons, raising dust in the arena. At first, the two may have wanted to show off, but as the battle became more intense, they also entered the state, and the long spears with light blue light kept colliding with the one-handed sword covered by red light.
"So, so strong!"
"They won't give in to each other!"
"I thought the members of the strategy team were only strong in level and attributes, but I didn't expect their skills to be so amazing!"
"Oh, of course. Isn't it natural that you can acquire more powerful equipment with technology?"
Just like in many highlight reels, there will always be people saying that it is just the equipment that is overwhelming, but they don’t know that these equipment are all advantages accumulated by players relying on superb skills, and they turn the advantages into winning advantages the moment they obtain powerful equipment.
While they were fighting, Sato Kazuma came to the judges' table.
"Three judges, do you have any comments on the two top players in the duel?"
"That one... is still too weak after all."
Aqua crossed her arms across her chest, looking unfathomable.
Sato Kazuma blinked.
"Who are you talking about?"
"The one-handed sword player."
“Well, you are indeed Ms. Aqua. You don’t even dare to participate in the boss battle, but you have the audacity to comment on the members of the strategy team. Well, let’s hear what you have to say!”
"Look. That one-handed sword player is being beaten back step by step. He's almost being pushed to the edge of the arena. It's obvious that he has no way out and is going to lose."
"No, I don't think so."
It was Diabel who refuted her.
Compared to the stupid goddess who talked nonsense, it is obvious that the words of Diabel, a player with outstanding strength, are more convincing.
"President Diabel?"
"I think the one-handed sword player... No, Andy will win."
"Oooooh~ It appears, a different perspective!"
"There are only two opinions now, and it's a duel between two people."
Diabel complained.
"That's not important! Then President Diabel, who didn't make it to the finals, why do you think Andy will win?"
"Hey, you're deliberately bringing up the fact that I didn't make it to the finals!"
Sato Kazuma waved his hand without comment.
Diabel was very depressed but helpless. After calming down, he explained:
"Please watch carefully, audience. Although Andy seems to be losing ground to Root, this is not actually the case. Root has been drawn into Andy's rhythm. The evidence is that Andy has not lost yet. He is intentionally leading Root to the edge of the arena."
"Eh, are they trying to drain Root's stamina and magic? But as we all know, SAO doesn't have stamina and magic bars, and they can use skills even if they are brought to the edge of the arena. So why are they doing this?"
"wrong."
Diabel shook his head, his eyes became sharp, as if he saw through everything.
"If they were both using one-handed swords, then Andy's move would undoubtedly be a waste of energy and a trap for himself, but Root is a spearman who can attack from medium and long distances."
"I see, that's how it is! After Root uses his skill, there will be a long stalemate, and Andy saw this point, right?!"
Sato Kazuma suddenly understood.
In SAO, there are no long-range attack methods such as archers and magicians, so the task of interrupting the boss's skills and making them stiff falls on medium-range attackers such as spearmen and axemen.
Players who use these weapons all have one thing in common: after using a powerful skill, they will fall into a very long state of stiffness for two or three seconds.
It is also because of this that players will switch spontaneously to offset this stiffness.
"And it's quite difficult to use skills when the spear user is cornered. The only skill that can be used in that situation is, as I remember, called—"
"Flowing Thrust!"
In the arena, Ruth, who was brought to the edge of the arena, shouted and swung his spear with both hands, trying to use this skill to push Andy off the arena in one fell swoop, but Andy's eyes shone with brilliance.
It's now!
Horizontal cross slash!
This is the one-handed sword skill that Kirito used when he killed the Kobold BOSS on the first floor. Its skill effect is to make the player rotate forward and have a powerful attack effect.
Andy stepped on the ground, turned around and came behind Rut. His attack speed was slightly slower than that of the rapier, but its attack power far exceeded that of the rapier. He transformed his powerful sword skills into a powerful sword skill and fell on Rut who was in a stiff state. In the blink of an eye, Rut's health was reduced to less than half!
Toot toot————
The blue light curtain of the duel lit up.
Winner, Andy!
With his intelligence and wisdom, he made Root fall into the trap he had carefully laid, and then fought back at the moment when the other party mistakenly thought he would win, and finally won his own victory!
"I told you, don't be careless and lose Jingzhou."
"Tsk."
Ruth was speechless with reluctance.
(End of this chapter)