Chương 130: Chapter 129: Phantom

The man on top of King's Glade, the apex of Silverwing, one of the most popular players in all the kingdom, wanted to recruit me. It was flattering, honestly. The Guild question was something I had been thinking a lot about lately, and I was running out of arguments against joining one other than the fact that I never liked too much authority over me. If Alice was saying the truth, however, King's Glade was the ideal place for someone like me. Yet something inside me was still reluctant.

If I were to join a guild, I should go to Ace, I thought. Or even Athos and Second Wind. The dilemma of not wanting to get involved with any of the groups slowly changed into me not knowing who to refuse from all the amazing people I have met during these three weeks. Regardless, it was not something I needed to decide now. It's not like I'm going to lose. Phantom differed from every opponent I'd faced so far; his Presence told me that already. And I couldn't wait to see for myself.

"Ready?" he asked, sword drawn. The blade caught my attention immediately. Pure white, with a subtle but ornate golden hilt, and it looked like the air around it was getting distorted, like heat haze. That is a dangerous weapon. Instead of answering, I sent him a duel request, and the countdown appeared soon after. The moment it hit zero, he moved. The strategy differed from Athos's patient style. Where he wanted to observe and build up damage for Rising Tide, Phantom never intended to let me breathe.

He shot out from his position with such velocity it almost felt like a skill, but he was simply running. Agility build, I thought. And a lot of that, too. I quickly realised my movement speed would not be enough to keep up. I nocked and released, aiming for the head to try to slow him down, then sent a Piercing Shot right at center mass. The swordsman tilted his head to dodge the first one, and spun on his heel to avoid the skill, not breaking momentum.

I laid a Web Trap in his track and used Leap Attack to create some distance, and that's when he used Blade Rush to catch up.

"Shadow Travel!" I disappeared from the air and emerged from his shadows, turning. That earned a surprised look.

"Fan of Arrows!" I went for a point-blank shot, unavoidable from such a distance. Or so I thought. I could have sworn the arrows landed, yet his body felt like smoke, curling around the projectiles. Mirror Image? Cyrus's spell came to mind, and Sarella's mirages, but it wasn't either of those. Something about the way Phantom moved seemed to defy physics, which was not unheard of in Godsrealm, but I had never seen it happen to this extent.

"Horizontal Slash!"

"Catapult Legs!" The only reason I used Shadow Travel offensively was because I had already switched my leg armor while falling from Leap Attack. This way I knew I could avoid danger if things turned sideways. He wasn't fazed at all. He came after me with pure running speed, almost keeping up with the skill, not giving me opportunities to keep to long range. I fired three shots, the same pattern I used against Lothras. They all missed. Impossible. The Paladin tanked and blocked them before.

Athos took the damage, using it to his advantage with Rising Tide. Cyrus traded up with his bolts. Phantom simply refused to get hit.

"Verdant Arrow!" I needed crowd control, and the AoE attack delivered. Phantom stopped in his tracks, and first blood was drawn, but that wasn't enough. Even before the shot landed, I already switched to the Emberwood Longbow.

"Arrow of Ash & Flames!" The fully charged skill was aimed at my opponent by the moment the root came to life. He was still Entangled, the damage-over-time from the skill tickling at his health, and the fiery comet was coming for him.

"Sky Steps!" Phantom broke off the root and started running in the air. He stepped on it like there were invisible stairs, or platforms floating all around, effortlessly moving in third dimension. I could use a skill like that. It obviously made him immune to soft CC effects like the root, and he used it effectively to close the distance and dodge my attack at the same time.

I switched to the Threadweaver, firing Silk Shot at a tree to avoid Phantom's Piercing Stab, and although he used Blade Rush to follow me, my superior movement skill still put quite a few meters between us. Spriggan's Will was back in my hands in no time, and I started my combo with a Burning Arrow followed by three basic attacks while backtracking. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. I can't switch weapons anymore, I thought. I have to build up Adaptive Growth.

15% increase in attack power with my numbers was game changing.

"Mark of the Eagle! Nature's Howl!" I activated my buffs just before he caught up, then used Leap Attack combined with an Arrowstorm to zone and reposition. I staggered the rhythm of my attacks and varied the angles of my shots to keep him reacting instead of attacking. He dodged, deflected, sidestepped, but I started landing glancing hits. One scratch on his forearm, one arrow through his thigh, another that nicked his armor at the ribs. Small damage, but it was adding up. After seconds, he was onto me.

Quick Step saved me from a Horizontal Slash, but the attack quickly turned into a Vertical Strike I had to manually dodge. Just as I was out of harm's way, the animation changed once again, and an Overhead Swing grazed my shoulder before I could adjust. The damage was surprisingly high, despite all the high quality items I had on, and I quickly realized why. Sunder activated! Attacks ignore 30% armor for 15 seconds! That hurt. It must have been an effect from his sword.

For a while we were locked in close-quarters-combat, and that obviously favored him. I couldn't fire properly while I was focusing on dodging anything he threw at me.

"Fan of Arrows!" The second shotgun shot wasn't much more effective than the first: one arrow found flesh, but it didn't slow him down, and once again I was confused by how he was dodging point-blank shots combined with my perfect aim. Something's not right. I was certain. It was either a passive skill that was working overtime, or even a hidden class I didn't understand. Maybe he used an Echo already? His body felt like it wasn't real, or solid at all.

"Burning Blade!" He activated the Rare swordsman ability that was pretty much a fan favourite among the class, forcing me to use Leap Attack just as it came off cooldown.

"Sky Steps!" He met me in the air. His foot landed next to me, and he pushed off thin air, changing direction mid-jump to close the gap between us while we were both five meters off the ground. His sword came from the right. I twisted midair, and the blade passed next to me. He stepped again, on air, repositioning above me, and swung downward. I had no platforms to use. No ground to jump from. I was falling, and he was above me with his sword coming down. I fired a Burning Arrow straight up.

The flames forced him to shield his face with his arm and miss the strike, and the impact knocked him upward just enough for me to avoid the damage. I landed rolling and came up with my bow drawn. Phantom hit the ground a second later, swinging. I fired Withering Light. The golden beam crossed the gap, and Phantom sidestepped it, but the beam cut off his path to the right, and the basic I fired immediately forced him to move backward. I was getting low on mana.

I needed some space to drink a potion, so I used Arrowstorm and sent two basic shots at the two sides in rapid succession. He retreated to safety, letting me replenish, but as expected, he did the same. The unspoken rule in duels was that while health pots were considered bad sport, mana potions could flow freely — if you found the time to use one. The Oakenlight PvP tournament had an explicit rule against all consumables, but this time, we didn't face such restrictions.

"Alright, Orion," he smiled.

"You aren't half bad."

"Right back at you."

"Time to start the real duel, then." I grinned because I knew he was not bluffing. He stood at around 70% health, with Verdant Arrow doing most of the damage. I had about 80% of mine left, clearly winning the trades despite his uncanny dodging abilities, however, I also felt like this was just the assessment stage. I quickly checked my cooldowns. My mana stabilized once again, Adaptive Growth was maxed out, and most of my movement skills were at the ready.

"Do that." His stance changed.

"Accelerate." He vanished. Or he might as well have. His speed suddenly tripled. He crossed ten meters in the time it took me to draw. His sword was everywhere: left, right, above, below. Horizontal Slash into Vertical Strike into Blade Spin, chained so fast that the individual attacks blurred together. I Quick Stepped away, then used Leap Attack, but he was already onto me. I used Shadow Travel into a patch of shade, but Blade Rush tracked me perfectly. His speed was absurd.

Accelerate was not a skill I had heard of, and judging by the power up, it wasn't a common one, either. I came out of the shadows, firing a Burning Arrow aimed at his face. He deflected it with his blade without slowing down, unbothered by the flames licking his body. Damage trading began, and he was winning. His sword connected with my side; a clean hit that dropped a chunk of my health.

Before I could recover, he was already turning the momentum into a second strike, and I had to catch the blade on Spriggan's Will's limb to stop it from taking my head off. Figuratively. The impact jarred my arms. He pressed, the blade grinding against the wood, and I could see his face up close. Calm, calculating, not even breathing hard. The Accelerate buff had erased the range advantage. Every gap I created, he closed in a heartbeat. Every dodge I made, he adjusted to.

My health was dropping, and his barely moved. I counted the seconds until the buff wore off, only focusing on survival. It soon became clear to me I could not compete with his speed at the current stage. I had two unique items, absurd stats, and a plethora of rare skills. I didn't feel the same way I had felt at Oakenlight. I wasn't limited by gear or abilities, or the fact that I was still adjusting to my virtual self.

Against Kaelith, Cyrus and Athos, I was just discovering the game, and they were using skills I could hardly comprehend at the time. Flame Hydra, Three-Blade Execution, Shadow's Blade Dance. Epic offensive abilities that made me work for each of my victories. Now I was one of them. A top-tier player with a myriad of powerful abilities. And yet, I stood on equal footing with this man. Not because of his gear or the skill runes he'd gathered throughout the weeks.

Even without Accelerate, I felt it: Phantom, out of all my opponents so far, be it Godsrealm or Valhalla, was the closest to my skill level. He's better than Ace or Ryder, the thought flashed into my mind. Of course, I didn't know what those two were capable of in Godsrealm just yet, but if Phantom had played Valhalla back in the day, that would have been my exact assumption. His speed dropped as Accelerate faded, and Phantom returned to his normal pace, but that didn't mean he'd slow down with his advances.

"Fan of Arrows!"

"Quick Step!" he dodged, then brought his blade upward.

"Fog Blade!" I dodged. But I didn't. I clearly sidestepped the vertical attack, seeing the sword pass next to me with my own eyes, and yet a second later not only did my health drop drastically, but I got launched backward by the powerful attack. What the hell? I tried to keep my composure, landing on my feet, laying a Web Trap and sending a Piercing Shot his way. He deflected, then used Blade Rush to close the distance, and I felt something had changed once again. His attacks were different.

Phantom's sword started from the left and arrived from the right. His body came forward and ended up sideways. The disconnect between what I saw and what happened was messing with my mind. I was forced onto the defensive, trying to figure out the pattern. Because one thing I was sure of: there was a pattern to all of this. His smoke-like dodges, his uncanny movement, attacks that didn't come from where they should have. And if I figured it out, the fight would change.

It needed to change because for the first time, I was losing.