A week passes and we are in Riverwood's arena.
Tickle and Monster stand on both sides. Poor Sophia, she was taken out in the first round by Tickle. Harry was defeated by Monster without putting up much of a fight, and then Bang who had finally got a chance to fight, lost miserably to both of them.
"Well I knew it would come to this, old vice leader." Tickle stands with a strong back, a bow held firmly in his hands.
"Let us see if the student can truly surpass the master." Monster readies his blacksmith hammer.
"So confident for someone who was the first to die in the Drax Lord of ice hunt." Tickle shoots back.
"Hey!" It seemed to strike a nerve as Monster was the first to charge, stacking Dash and instant movement to arrive before him in a flash.
One would expect an archer to be weak at close range, but that is not how they work in L&L. the moment Monster passes a certain invisible line, it activates Tickle's retreat skill, which sends him jumping back just enough to avoid the swinging hammer. If you think the master at PVP wouldn't see this coming, well you would be wrong, as in this moment Tickle's foot gets caught in a preplaced trap. The blades of which dig into his leg. There was but a grunt, as Tickle draws out a pistol, shooting into the ground, the recoil of which allowed him to soar through the sky. By using the triple shot skill, one arrow multiplied to three mid air, and they all track at Monster. These are all undodgable, and Monster already used his dash skills to close the distance, or at least that is what a noob would think, but it is Monster we are talking about, and he already knew all these events would befall him. He purposely leered the less experienced PVP player into the sky. And if you had to guess, the sky is his domain. His wings burst into flight, activating flying charge, technically an attack that works as a grapple, but due to the games programing, it acts as a dash. The arrows miss him by an inch, Monster closing the distance, at least this time it is at a preservable rate, that is what Tickle is thinking, but he is in the sky. Against other melee builds they would have no way of hitting him, so it wouldn't matter that he couldn't evade, but this wasn't another build, this was Monster's fallen angel blacksmith build. Despite Tickle's effort, the grappling strike lands, and he gets caught in an animation of Monster breaking all his joints, before creating a five foot gap.
50
Effects
Stunned, movement speed reduced by 20%
Pained, attack damage reduced by 15%
Broken bones, movement causes ticking damage.
At this point the fight might as well be over. That is what we all thought, until Tickle also caught Monster in a grab. The animation plays, and he fires ten arrows into his gut.
150
Effects
Pained, attack damage reduced by 15%
Bleeding, if unbandaged you will bleed to death.
It's like the fight got reversed on its head, and proof Monster should have picked a better class. Not just that, as Tickle is a troll he has 2 ticks of regeneration, so the broken bone effect is barely a nuisance.
Even then it seemed Monster was unwilling to give up, activating a stacked grapple.
What is a stacked grapple? Unlike most skills, grapple skills have a check in front of them, to make sure no other skill is activated. Despite this Monster found a glitch in the game, that if you click both skills with exactly a .5 second gap in between, then both the grappling skills activate at the same time. As this is really hard to pull off in combat, he is widely considered to be the only player who can use it.
Seeing it in person is strange, as if he grew an extra pair of arms. He both repeatedly smacks Tickle in the head with a hammer, and pushes him into the ground.
200
100
Effects
Concussion, undodgable attacks can now be dodged.
If he hit him just one more time, then Tickle would be dead, and yet the rest of the fight played out as expected. Tickle taking the role of Vice Leader.
"Now that I am thinking about it." Monster rubs under his nose. "I shouldn't have used the grapple that brought Tickle back to the ground." Monster and I are both drinking tea at the cafe.
It was the moment he let him on the ground, that Monster lost most control over the fight, even then it still felt like Tickle was playing right into his hand, that is until Monster was finally struck down.
Level 122, fallen angel, Mister Monster.
He has lost so many levels, I kinda feel bad for the guy.
"I sure wouldn't want to fight you." I sip the tea.
"Well yeah, your job is tanking, and I am DPS, I have the class advantage." He brings that up for me, but not for himself. It is just the man he is, he didn't lose because his enemy was destined to win, but because he just has yet to become strong enough to defeat them. It is like this that he doesn't place blame for his defeats, but analyzes what he could have done better. Out of all the players who joined the guild, ironically, it is him who respects me the most, and it might just be because of my never give up attitude.
We had more than one reason for coming to the cafe, and the second one come strolling in.
With big cat ears, and a full grown tail, comes Misty, AKA Big sis.
"Well if it isn't the two men I was looking for." She plops down in the open chair, kicking her feet onto the table. The smell of blood oozes off her in waves, it was obviously not human, but a monster's.
Level 175, Mountain Guardian, Misty Hero.
"You evolved?" I don't even recognize that race, it must be unique like Arches.
"Damn right." She flexes. "Spent so much time slaughtering strange creatures under a mountain, the world recognized me as its guardian." In Asian folklore, there are spiritual creatures that guard mountains and forests, they are usually seen as malevolent, not being evil or good, but sometimes they can lean heavily in one direction. Either bringing harm to humanity, or protecting villages from natural disasters.
Even with Sophia leveling up, Misty is close to surpassing her. I guess that's the number two player for you, she kinda makes me look like a joke.
"That is interesting." I place my hand to my chen.
"I can see your thinking." She smiles.
I am, mainly on how such a system could be used. By forcing the world to evolve you in a certain way, we might be able to vastly increase our power.
I glance at my evolution bar, it is nearly full, I woulder what I will evolve into, hopefully something that increases my combat power.
It was at this moment that a pop up flashes before everyone in the world.
One rod has been stolen back, the enemy forces will grow in strength. Unlocked new dungeon, forbidden east. Unlocked new classes, equipment, and evolutions. The world's resistance to other worldly tampering has fallen. New world boss has arrived, if not slain in a year, the world could be destroyed.
It reminded me of patch notes, not all of it is bad, but the jist of it is, so I will have to meet with an old friend.