Child of Destiny

……

Cloe was humming joyfully as she hopped her way towards the Adventurer Guild to register their team so that it could finally be officially established.

The foot traffic in front of the Adventurer Guild’s Building was quite high given that there were a lot of solo players and adventurer teams that wanted to shift their operation in the Saint Heaven Kingdom, especially in Holy City in particular.

But despite seeing how busy the place was, Cloe seemed to didn’t mind because of her excitement. In fact, she was even willing to fall in line and wait for her turn patiently due to her good mood.

Processing their application took quite some time due to the number of applications that were being processed. She needed to wait for at least a whole day (in-game time) before the application was finally approved.

She walked out of the Adventurer Guild with a bright smile as she immediately headed to Teleportation Hall, planning to go to Calderock Town so that she could meet with Shin and the others as soon as possible.

But while she was on her way to the Teleportation Hall, a group of hooded players suddenly blocked her path which also made her tracks.

“It seems like you are in a good mood, Arielle,” said a member of the group as he took a step forward.

Cloe was startled at first because of them suddenly. But she immediately became calm as she was able to recognize the voice of the player who just talked to her.

She then slightly raised her head to reveal a smile at the group before saying. “So, it was you guys. What are you doing here? Do you have a mission in the area?”

But her bright smile was immediately replaced by a frowning look on her face when she heard the next words that the man in front of her had said. “We come to pick you up.”

“What are you talking about, Justin?” asked Cloe while maintaining the deep frown that she was wearing.

The guy who had the name Justin forced a smile, trying to act as composed as possible. “We are here to get you back.”

Hearing that, Cloe couldn’t help but take a couple of backward as she didn’t like where this conversation was heading. “I don’t understand what you are saying, Justin.”

“Why are you being like this, Arielle? Aren’t you suppose to be a part of our team?” asked Justin as the expression on his slowly became desperate.

“Isn’t it supposedly a casual party?” asked Cloe with a knitted brow which also made the expression on Justin’s face turned solemn.

Seeing that, Cloe started to feel uncomfortable as the thought of leaving this place crossed her mind. “I’m sorry guys but I am quite busy right now, so I will be going for now. Let’s meet again later.”

Swoosh!

But before she could even leave, the female Dark Elf on the other side suddenly appeared behind Cloe and blocked her path.

“What do you think you are doing, Elise?” asked Cloe as the deep frown that she was currently wearing further deepened.

Hearing that, Elise refused to give any reply as she casually flipped her cloak before taking out the flying daggers from her combat belt and holding them in between her fingers.

“Why are you doing this to us, Arielle? I thought you wanted to join our team but why are you creating a team of your own now?” said Justin as he walked closer to Cloe.

Seeing that, Cloe couldn’t help but take a few more steps backward, trying to distance herself from the man. And when she saw that Justin didn’t have any intention of stopping, she desperately looked around her, trying to see how to escape this situation.

She even tried to signal Hannah, her friend from the other side, to help her get out from here. Unfortunately, the latter could only avoid Cloe’s gaze as she also knew that she wouldn’t be able to help her currently since their captain was really serious about pulling Cloe back to their side.

But when she was about to reach the end of her ropes, a pair of players suddenly appeared a few meters away from the group before attracting the attention of everyone. 𝐛𝐞𝗱𝗻𝐨𝐯𝗲𝗹.𝐜𝐨𝐦

“I am quite confused as to why the famous ‘Silent Night’ goes through all the trouble coming here. But who would have thought that they are here to bully a female priest?” said Arthur as he walked closer to the group.

“I knew that this was going to happen sooner or later. We should have paid them a visit earlier to make things clear to them,” said Leonard as he walked side by side with Arthur.

Seeing them, the faces of the members of the opposing party became slightly serious. But they still managed to remain calm despite facing such legendary figures within the game world. In fact, they seemed to be eager to fight these two right now and see which ‘aces’ were better.

“Stay away from this, Siegfried. This is not your business,” said Justin with an arrogant tone while flashing a sharp look at Arthur.

Hearing that, Arthur couldn’t help but feel skeptical before refuting. “Can you hear yourself, Justin? You are telling us that this is not our business when you are bullying our team’s priest right in front of us?”

“Do we look like pushovers to you?” he asked while releasing a powerful pressure that was trying to crush the opposing side.

“Heh! Do you honestly believe that you guys can take us on with just the two of you?” said Jugo as he took a step forward while also taking out his huge spiked club and resting it on his shoulder.

“We can always give it a try to see if we can do it or not,” said Leonard with a smirk as he was also taking out his weapons at the same time.

With both sides getting ready for a fight, the players started to notice the commotion and started creating a crowd a few distances away from the two groups.

“Hey! Isn’t that Dragon God Siegfried and War God Simba?”

“Holy Sh*t! you are right! But who are those guys that are trying to provoke them?”

“Wait! That guy with the spiked club! That is Jugo, the Annihilator God!”

“F*ck! Look at that guy in front of the Gentle Goddess! Isn’t he the Commander of the ‘Silent Night’? The Demonic Arm Justin?”

“What are you saying Demonic Arm? He was already a Godlike Player ages ago! He is now known as Demon God Justin – ranked number five in the Godlike Ranking List!”

“Wait! The whole Silent Night is here, why are they here? And why are they confronting the Dragon God Siegfried and War God Simba? Don’t tell me they are being challenged right now?”

“A confrontation between the Silent Night and Empyrean Talons? This is going to be crazy!”

While the spectators were murmuring with each other, another pair of players suddenly walked through the crowd and made their way towards Arthur and Leonard’s sides.

“Here I thought that we are going to start the quest right away, but who would have thought that you guys want to do more ‘tune up’ before doing it,” said Akailu while wearing a huge grin.

“Silent Night, huh? I wonder if they really live up to their reputation for being one of the best adventurer teams of the game,” muttered Alucard while sweeping his gaze at every member of the opposing side.

Then Archimedes and Daulla also arrived and stood silently behind the four as always. But given the look on their faces, it seemed like they were pretty unsatisfied with what was currently happening.

Not long after, Owen made his way through the crowd alongside Ithilien and Charlotte before asking. “We are not late to the party, are we?”

Seeing the arrival of the other members of Empyrean Talons, the bystanders became even more sure that this was going to be a confrontation between the two adventurer teams. And adding the fact that these teams were composed of the most elite members that the players could ask for, this matchup was going to be even more entertaining to watch for them.

In the meantime, Cloe was suddenly caught in a difficult dilemma as she really didn’t like how things were developing. On one side were her friends and her current time while on the other side was the previous team that she used to party with, which she also treated as her friends.

Naturally, she didn’t want a conflict to emerge between these two groups. But from the looks of it, it was now impossible to happen.

On the other hand, Justin ignored the opposing side as he was confident that they were not going to lose, especially that they had more numbers on their side.

He turned his attention back to Cloe before saying. “I know that you are also friends with them in the real world, but so do us. Our families are even close with each other. Are you sure that you are going to do this to me?”

His words made Cloe even more uncomfortable before saying. “Why are you being weird right now, Justin? You are making me uncomfortable.”

Justin suddenly frowned quite deeply when she said those words, clearly showing that he didn’t want what he just heard. “Weird? Uncomfortable?”

This time, he extended his hand, trying to grab Cloe’s wrist to prevent her from moving away while choosing to call her by her real name as he asked with a desperate look on his face. “Cloe, aren’t we supposedly-…?”

But before his hand could even reach Cloe, another hand suddenly grabbed his wrist out of nowhere as a cold voice suddenly said to him. “Where do you think you are putting that filthy hand on?”

…