Child of Destiny

……

The audiences in both live stand and online broadcast were pretty much confused why Shin and Roger still hadn’t started their fight despite the system giving them the single to begin.

The two of them seemed to be discussing something – and since none of the audiences couldn’t hear what they were saying, all of them suddenly became confused. Especially when they saw Roger started laughing in the middle of the conversation.

The audiences started to become impatient when they saw that more than a minute had passed but the match still hadn’t started yet. Fortunately, both Shin and Roger immediately took their respective battle stances before everyone lost their patience.

*******

Meanwhile, inside one of the spectator’s VIP Room, S.Tigris and his main team were currently having a discussion regarding the two contenders in the middle of the Battle Arena.

“Tsk! How long are these two going to talk before they are going to start their match? This is becoming such a bore,” said Raven while sitting lazily on his seat.

Ara, who always wanted to contradict everything that Raven wanted to say, was currently nodding her head and seemingly agreeing with him for the first time.

In the meantime, S.Tigris turned his head at Black Hand and asked. “What do you think?”

Black Hand thought for a moment before voicing out his thoughts. “Given that guy’s intelligence, I am pretty sure that he is most likely able to notice what Roger had done in the previous round – much less figuring out the latter’s true identity. So, they are probably discussing something about that matter.”

Hearing that, Raven immediately turned his head at Black Hand and quickly asked. “Hey, Old Black! Are you sure about your suspicion? How come that the greatest swordsman of the ?Nemesis Online? is the same person as the greatest gunner of the same game? That is really-… unreasonable!”

Black Hand shrugged his shoulders before smiling mysteriously at Raven. He then directed his gaze back to the battle arena before saying. “We will find out about it sooner or later. And that old friend we have there will surely help us confirm whether my eyes are wrong or not.”

When the others heard what he just said, they immediately nodded their heads before turning their heads at the battle arena with serious faces.

……

On the other hand, the air surrounding the battle arena starting to become heavier as seconds went by. And despite these two not releasing their respective Aura Manifestation, the audiences could still feel the intensity of the battle that was about to come.

After a few more moments, when the heavy atmosphere reached its peak, Roger was unable to hold it any longer and took the first move – he pulled the trigger of his magic rifle, firing a magic bullet that suddenly pierced Shin’s head almost instantly.

Bang!

Swoosh!

But that magic bullet only passed through Shin’s head as if it was passing through the air. A moment later, Shin’s figure suddenly started to fade away before turning into a complete blur.

Roger didn’t bother to look at that fading afterimage as he was already firing a bunch of rapid shots on his front.

‘Epic Combat Technique: Piercing Light’

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Due to the continuous shots that he was firing everywhere, the battle arena became filled with a streak of blue lights which were flying in every direction. Each of them was piercing a bunch of after afterimages that were popping out of nowhere.

Shin was countering an Epic Combat Technique with one of the Epic Combat Techniques from his arsenal.

‘Epic Combat Technique (Movement): Ghost Evanescent’

The sight which was being witnessed by the spectators of this match, was something that was very hard to believe.

Even if everyone felt that the sight in front of them was very similar to how the ‘war of the kings’ had started, they still couldn’t directly compare the two battles since this current match that they were watching was on a whole other level.

*(The previous battle of ‘Sairen’ and Roger)

Roger’s unparalleled aiming was truly a god-like skill; it could even make him a Godlike Player with an official title in the future. But that was not the only edge that he had on this battle. His ability to sense the exact location of his opponent together with the accuracy of his shots, made him a very dangerous opponent. And if you add the speed of his rapid firing, his threat was surely at a very high level.

On the other hand, Shin was also on the same level of threat. Given how fast his movements together with the way he accurately dodged the incoming bullets, the audiences couldn’t help but drop their jaws while watching in awe.

This ‘dodging game’ continued for a few more minutes before Shin decided to change the flow of the battle a little. He changed his footwork according to another set of foot technique, making his movements to change into an entirely different rhythm.

His speed seemed to drop quite a lot since a lot of spectators were able to see his movements now. And naturally, Roger was also able to notice that.

That sight gave Roger an easy time marking Shin. So, he immediately adjusted his magic rifle while pointing it forward. And since his aiming became a lot easier, his rapid firing would surely be going to become much scarier than before.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Unfortunately, not of his magic bullets found their mark. All of them seemed to penetrate Shin’s body but none of them managed to even graze a single part of his body; not even a strand of his hair.

What’s even more shocking was the speed of Shin’s movements; he seemed to be gaining speed as he continued to move towards his opponent.

Roger slowed his firing for a moment, so that he could observe Shin’s movements a little clearer. And after a brief time of observing, he discovered that Shin was actually taking a short but very quick step every time he was dodging an incoming bullet before returning to the path that he was originally taking.

Moreover, Shin seemed to be using the momentum of his previous step to continue gaining speed while rapidly moving forward. This footwork was one of Shin’s Combat Technique!

‘Epic Combat Technique (Movement): Mystic Movement’

*(first appearance chapter 120)

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Realizing his current situation, Roger immediately put his magic rifle away before pulling out the magic pistols holstered on each side of his waist. Then he quickly pointed them forward before pulling their triggers to send a volley of bullets on his opponent.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

‘Epic Combat Technique: Storm of Bullets’

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

When Shin saw the incoming bullets, he immediately understood that it was impossible to dodge them without getting hit. But even if that was the case, he suddenly accelerated his speed instead of slowing it down.

At the same time, he quickly pulled his sword out from its sheath before swinging it at the incoming bullets. Right after those magic bullets entered his attacking range, they immediately deflected away by the [Yamato] which was being swung left and right. 𝙗𝒆𝒅𝙣𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒏𝙚𝙩

‘Epic Combat Technique: Infinity Edge’

Cling! Cling! Cling!

Clang!

None of the bullets sent by Roger managed to land at Shin’s body. It didn’t matter whether those magic bullets were imbued with a lot of mana using a combat technique or were sent as a gunslinger skill – every one of them were deflected away by Shin’s sword as if they were only a bunch of ordinary bullets.

Seeing that, Roger immediately started hopping backwards while firing continuously at Shin. But he quickly stopped doing that since it didn’t take long for him to realize that kiting Shin is going to be impossible.

Given that Shin was continuously gaining more speed as he kept on moving forward, running away from him was going to be a very bad idea. And knowing about this, Roger immediately decided to change his style of battle.

Roger immediately stopped firing his guns at Shin and waited for the latter to enter his idea range. And the moment Shin saw that, he immediately started grinning behind his mask before discharging the accumulated force from his ‘Mystic Movement’ combat technique.

He took a forward step with his right foot while focusing all of the accumulated force on his toes before releasing all of them with a powerful kick on the ground.

On the very next instant, Shin suddenly appeared right in front of Roger not giving any time to react.

But Shin didn’t swing his sword at his opponent right after arriving in front of his opponent. Instead, he used the sheath on his left hand and swung it with a force that was enough to send Roger flying but not lethal enough to kill the guy on the spot.

BANG!

And that was only the time when the sound caught up with Shin together with it was the raging air pressure following his forward dash.

Swoosh!

The wind continued to blow forward and scattered the cloud of dust forming around Shin.

The cloak that Shin was wearing was dancing along with the wind as he put the [Yamato] back to his sheath. After that, he raised his head and looked at the direction where he sent his opponent flying while saying. “That is how your previous battle is going to end if you are using your other identity against the other.”

He paused for a moment and crossed his arms in front of his chest. Standing proudly, Shin suddenly added. “So, are you finally going to show your true strength or are still going to hide on that fake identity?”

…

Meanwhile, the whole audience stand was completely stunned at what they just saw. Dead silence covered the entire place as everyone was too stunned to speak. Even the casters covering the match were in complete silence.

It was the same for the players who were watching the online coverage. Their eyes were almost dropping from their sockets while their jaws were about to ground, showing how shocked they were.

A moment later, an intense shouting suddenly shook the entire audience-stand as if everybody suddenly became crazy with their heads finally able to process what their eyes had just witnessed.

And as if everyone had some telepathic agreement, all of the spectators watching online simultaneously exploded in an uproar as they started spamming a bunch of exclamation marks on the live chats.

It was as if everyone was saying. – “WHAT THE F*CK WAS THAT!” –

……