Kael chuckled. "Wizard-boy, are you going to leave on your own, or do I have to throw you out?"
Orion scratched his head, stepping toward Kael. "Boss, don't be so aggressive. How about this, we..."
"Halt!" Seeing him get closer, Kael immediately raised his bow, aiming at him.
Kael knew exactly what the spellcaster was playing at—using the conversation to close the distance and launch a sneak attack.
Seeing his ruse exposed, Orion dropped the act and sprinted at Kael.
In [Fair Play] mode, everyone started with statless starting gear. Kael's bow had an attack range of 20 yards, while Orion's glyph range was only 15. Orion's earlier chatter had worked; when he crossed the 20-yard mark, Kael hadn't raised his weapon.
With his sudden acceleration, Orion easily closed the gap to 15 yards. With a flick of his wrist, a yellow glyph flew toward Kael.
At the exact same moment, Kael loosed his arrows at Orion.
However, just as the arrows were about to hit Orion, a glyph manifested on his chest, blocking the strike.
Combat text drifted up from Orion's body, slightly surprising Kael:
[Blocked!]
The kid had tricks. Meanwhile, Orion's glyph struck Kael.
-102
It actually broke his defense!
Even unequipped, Kael's titles and base stats gave him 2,541 Spirit, equating to 1,270 Magic Defense. Orion's naked damage output was sitting around 1,400. If Kael had been a standard archer without any points in Constitution, that single hit would have one-shot him.
Orion clearly looked shocked by his own damage output—or rather, shocked by Kael's monstrous Magic Defense. That 100-damage hit hadn't even scraped one percent of Kael's health pool.
He had assumed playing naked would narrow the gap, but Kael's base stats were still completely broken. Still, Orion didn't give up. And Kael didn't hold back.
After his first attack was absorbed by that mysterious shield, Kael didn't retreat or reposition. He simply fired a second time.
This time, Orion didn't dare take the hit. He pulled out a small puppet and tossed it aside.
Kael paused. Did Orion think he was an idiot? Why would he shoot a random decoy?
-13021
The arrows struck Orion where he stood. Yet, despite only having a health pool of one or two thousand, Orion's health bar bottomed out, but he didn't drop!
Kael quickly figured it out. Orion had swapped places with the Effigy of Substitution! The Effigy of Substitution had a three-second invulnerability window. Kael had actually shot the decoy.
The kid had surprised him again.
Meanwhile, another glyph slammed into Kael.
-187
Kael's opinion of Orion shifted. The sleazy spellcaster who spent his time hitting on women actually had some real skill. In the past, Kael only brought him along for his revival sigil to increase their margin for error during boss fights. He hadn't expected the guy to be this dangerous in PvP.
He had been underestimating him. He would have to find a way to boost Orion's strength later. Thinking this, Kael fired his third shot.
It was time to end this.
But Orion delivered a third surprise. He activated a skill Kael recognized. The spellcaster suddenly glowed with golden light, forcibly tanking Kael's damage.
-1
It didn't break his defense!
Then, over a dozen copies of Orion materialized around Kael. Kael couldn't hold back his curse. "Shadow clones? Are you a damn ninja?"
For the first time, a thought crossed Kael's mind: Am I actually going to lose this?
At that moment, the dozen Orions threw a volley of glyphs simultaneously, all striking Kael. Over a dozen damage numbers popped up over his head.
Kael didn't panic. He checked his health bar and realized he had only lost about a hundred hit points. The damage from the clones was illusory damage. Just like the damage text on the Effigy of Substitution, it was fake.
The question was, which one was the real Orion?
Kael casually shot one of the copies. No damage numbers appeared. With a soft pop, the fake Orion vanished into a puff of white smoke.
Immediately after, the swarm of Orions launched a second volley of glyphs. Kael watched his health bar closely. He quickly pinpointed the true body.
Without hesitating, he drew his bow and fired.
-13447
The massive damage number erupted. The clones vanished into smoke, leaving only the real Orion dead on the ground.
Kael didn't relax his guard. He kept his bow aimed at the corpse. The guy had feign death and a revival sigil; Kael wasn't going to let himself get played again.
Soon enough, the system flashed a massive, bold red message: [Victory!]
Kael's vision blurred, and he found himself back beside the Arena NPC. He opened his friends list and messaged Orion.
Couldn't you use your revival sigil?
Orion replied, A revival sigil is expensive! I'm not wasting it on a guaranteed loss.
Kael smiled. To test Orion, he had deliberately stood still, not even bothering to use Phantom Barrage. The spellcaster had truly surprised him. If Orion had gone up against a standard archer, no amount of kiting would have saved them. The kid was going to rank high in the Arena.
Closing the message, Kael queued back into the 1v1 Arena.
After that, most players quit the moment they saw him. A few tried Orion's trick of playing nice for a sneak attack. Kael gave them no quarter, one-shotting them out of the match.
He swept his 20 matches, racking up 20 points in just 13 minutes. The next highest player on the board only had 5 wins.
Holding his 20 points, Kael browsed the Arena shop but wasn't impressed. Arena gear was exclusively for PvP. A single piece of Level 40 Ascendant gear cost 50 points.
Winning twenty 1v1 matches gave 20 points. Three 5v5 wins gave 15 points. Winning a 20v20 match gave 15 points. That capped the daily limit at 50 points. Even with a perfect win rate, a player could only buy one Ascendant piece a day!
Level 40, 35, 30, 25, and 20 Ascendant gear required 50, 40, 30, 20, and 10 points, respectively. Players below Level 20 couldn't enter the Arena. Gold, Epic, Rare, and Common gear costs scaled down accordingly. For example, Level 20 Common gear cost 1 point, Rare was 2 points, Epic was 4 points, and Gold was 6 points.
Standard players would typically spend their points on Level 20 Common or Rare gear to bridge the gap, slowly upgrading over time. But Kael didn't need to waste points on stepping stones. He was going straight for the Level 40 Epic PvP gear.
With his 1v1 matches capped, his next target was three wins in the 5v5 bracket.
A party invite chimed.
System: SkyAviator has invited you to join a party.
SkyAviator messaged him, Sir Dawnbreaker, 5v5! Join up!
Kael smiled and accepted the invite. It didn't matter who he teamed up with.
System: SkyAviator, RiverFin, EarthGrub, and WindPetal have joined the party.
Nearby, someone was screaming at the top of his lungs. "Aviator, you bastard! You kicked me! I'm telling my sister! You're sleeping on the couch tonight!"
The player screaming was named [FatRooster].