Chapter 16.1 – Without any suspense, the party had been annihilated

editor: pidgon

proofreader: musk

After hearing this command, the other members of the party paused purposefully. On one hand, they immediately threw aside the emissary boss and rushed towards Laughing Sky’s location. On the other hand, someone in the channel asked, “Sky, weren’t there only two people from the enemy team? What, have the reinforcements arrived?”

Laughing Sky said, “Just the two of them, both are experts.”

When the others heard this, they were all stunned. To cause the leader of their fixed team to voluntarily admit this was no mean feat.

After the 3 seconds in which he had been chained down had passed, Laughing Sky pushed through the Blood Poisoning effect placed on his body and brandished his claymore, slashing it towards Adorable Ghost. The opposing side immediately hit him with a Stun effect.

After getting close to them, he made use of the advantages he had in close combat. Using a sudden burst of quick hand speed, he suppressed the Ghost Priest, not giving the other party any opportunity to cast their skills. 

There were many passerby experts among the players in the First Division of the arena ladder. There was no shortage of skilled players among them who were at a level that might even exceed that of professional players. It was just that these people were not interested in becoming professional players, hence they did not accept the invitations of the various professional teams. Instead, they remained active in the various major guilds within the online game.

As the hottest passerby king that everyone had their eyes on, when it came to combat alone, Laughing Sky was definitely a top-notch player. At this time, with an explosively fast hand speed, he interrupted Lin Xiao’s skill casting bar¹This bar indicates the time taken to cast a skill. Normally, when a character is hit before the bar fills (thus casting the skill), the skill casting is interrupted and the player must recast the skill. a few times consecutively. He stuck closely to the front of his body and kept up a flurry of piercing cold attacks.

He noted the position of the Priest standing at the side with a glance, confirmed that the other party was not within casting range, and released a deep sigh.

He took a deep breath and focused, his maneuvers quickly speeding up. With precise accuracy, he grasped all of Adorable Ghost’s planned movements and prepared to clear out the rest of the opponent’s’ health bar in one move.

At this time, the Adorable Ghost before his eyes once again tried to create a distance between them and cast a skill. Immediately, Laughing Sky dished out a Shadow Slash, wanting to cut him off. Unexpectedly, the other party’s movements suddenly became strangely erratic, and a blue light appeared abruptly out of thin air.

He felt a sense of foreboding and wanted to make a quick retreat, but it was already too late.

The red-hooded shota suddenly drew closer until he was practically right in front of him. He had directly used a Freezing Curse on him without giving him any leeway. Adorable Ghost took advantage of the moment in which his entire body was frozen, to meet him head on. Brushing past his shoulder, he created a safe distance between them in the blink of an eye. As he was outside the range of all the Spellsword’s skills, the attacks were cut off.

Adorable Ghost’s state at the moment was quite tragic. After all, he had been suppressed by a close-range fighter for such a long time. He only had half of his health left. However, to Lin Xiao’s credit, he had used his positioning to avoid a large portion of the damage. If it had been someone else, they would probably have been flattened to the ground long ago. It was inevitable that someone who could be dubbed as a passerby king would indeed have a couple of tricks up their sleeve. If they were talking about hand speed alone, he would be ranked highly even among the players of the professional alliance.

Judging by his operations alone, this person was indeed talented. If he were to receive professional training, he would definitely become even more terrifying. It was truly a pity that he did not become a professional player.

A strange feeling of pity due to appreciating talent rose in Lin Xiao’s heart. He retreated backwards while taking note of his surroundings. Then, he caught sight of Hello Kitty, who was standing by the side not too far away, once again not moving. It was as if the startling movements that he had glimpsed just now were just a figment of his imagination. When he looked back yet again, he saw a distant silhouette that was flying towards him.

Sensing that the opposing side had already called for reinforcements, Lin Xiao made a swift decision to fight and end the battle quickly. He ran a few steps backwards, turned, and started to unleash his skills.

At this moment, Laughing Sky was urgently closing the distance between them. He made use of his positioning to dodge the Blood Shura Curses that sprang up from beneath his feet. When he was about to draw close once again, his field of vision suddenly turned pitch black.

This was, Blind! He was taken off guard, and yet his hand maneuvers did not stop. He continued to control the character on his screen to rush forward, even amidst the darkness.

Lin Xiao saw that the other party had actually continued pushing forward without any hesitation and couldn’t help but feel some admiration in his heart. However, the corners of his lips were slightly curled up as he saw this.

The staff in his hands was suddenly enveloped in an eerie black and red aura. One skill after another was released with seemingly no pauses in between.

Although these skills all required casting and were utilized in advance, almost all of them accurately fell upon Laughing Sky’s body. It was as if both sides were cooperating to act out a script. Everything was right on target.

However, owing to the differences in equipment, the damage was slightly lacking. In the end, Laughing Sky still had a quarter of his health remaining. In the split second in which his vision became clear, he saw that the red-hooded shota was standing within reach right in front of him. Without further ado, he swiftly closed the distance between them in one fell swoop.

At this moment, Adorable Ghost just happened to finish casting his Blood Poisoning skill. In a flash, a red light closely followed the Spellsword’s body, and his health slowly began to decrease under its effects.

Laughing Sky did not show any hesitation in this situation. He directly used his ultimate move, Traceless Shadow of the Sword, and got ready to completely clear out his opponent’s health in one strike.

At this moment, a barrier was suddenly erected between them right before his eyes.

This barrier was in a position that lay very specifically between the two people, who were barely one space apart.

—— The Ghost Priest’s ultimate defensive skill “Buddha’s Gate”, which could absorb all damage targeted at oneself for 5 seconds.

After the period of time where the blade’s silhouette continuously flashed with light, it was as if Adorable Ghost’s health bar had been frozen. His health had not decreased at all.

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Translator’s comments: Sorry to have to split the chapter, but I had a busy week and couldn’t really do much translating (it doesn’t help that each chapter is at least 2k words after translating…) I tried my best to not leave you guys with a cliffhanger though ><

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  This bar indicates the time taken to cast a skill. Normally, when a character is hit before the bar fills (thus casting the skill), the skill casting is interrupted and the player must recast the skill.