[Phantom Assassin] Ye narrowed his eyes slightly, gazing somewhat coldly at Lian. Cornered by him on the treetop, she remained utterly calm and composed, and he couldn’t fathom the source of her unwavering confidence.
“Is it not so?”
“Since you just conceded my conjecture, you must also understand…”
Ye drew a throwing knife from his waist, its sharp, cold glint playing between his fingers.
“At this distance, your [Piercing Willow Shot] cannot instantly kill me.”
“You cannot fell me with a single arrow, but I, a throwing knife assassin, can easily dispatch you with a flung knife.”
“Then…”
Lian offered a smile, one that held a deeper meaning.
“Then I shall embrace death to find life!”
Before her words even faded, her longbow spun abruptly in her right hand. The slender bowstring slid seamlessly to her left, and she swiftly drew an arrow from her quiver, nocking it and firing with incredible speed.
She had, in fact, abandoned her usual stance of holding the bow with her left hand and drawing the string with her right! Lian’s unexpected switch-hand shot caught Ye completely off guard!
“What!?”
Ye’s heart lurched at the sudden assault, but he was no ordinary opponent.
Reacting swiftly, he hurled a throwing knife. Before it could travel far, he instantly activated his [Flying Thunder God] skill, displacing himself 5 yards to the left.
His reaction speed was so astonishingly quick that the ambush arrow missed its mark entirely!
“[Lightning Arrow]?”
Ye glanced back at where he had just stood, a shiver of dread running through him as he observed the purple arrow deeply embedded in the ground. He spoke with a hint of trepidation.
“If that arrow had struck me, I fear I would have been frozen in place for three seconds, only to be beaten to death by you.”
[Lightning Arrow] (TL Note: A Tier 3 bow skill that fires a single arrow. Without retrieving the arrow, it can only be used once per engagement.)
Its effect was to paralyze the enemy for three seconds, rendering them unable to move or cast skills, while also slowing their basic attack speed and reducing their damage.
“That was close. I almost forgot archers had such a move.”
Ye gripped the hilt of the throwing knife in his hand, a dangerous glint flickering in his eyes as he squinted at Lian on the treetop.
“With that, you’re completely out of options, aren’t you?”
Lian merely curved her lips into a slight smile, neither confirming nor denying his assertion.
She swiftly drew her bowstring, conjuring several arrows from thin air that shot rapidly towards Ye.
These were an archer’s basic attacks, which did not deplete arrows from the quiver. Otherwise, if an archer’s basic attacks were limited, wouldn’t no one play such a class?
Oh? You say mages have no basic attacks and people still play them?
That’s because, under normal circumstances, mages are the only magic damage class in the entire game, and their skills cannot be nullified by physical damage, making them highly sought after!
Besides, why would mages need basic attacks? Battling with flashy, effect-laden magic skills is the true romance of a full-stealth game!
But let’s set these digressions aside for now.
Facing Lian’s volley of basic attacks, Ye remained unhurried, standing his ground with effortless composure.
At this distance, an archer’s basic attacks were targeted.
Ye absorbed three basic attacks, shaking his head as he checked his health.
“Hmm, only a fifth. Not as painful as I imagined.”
He squinted, speaking with an air of nonchalance.
“While it might not hurt much, if you continue to be so leisurely, I might just ‘A’ (TL Note: Gaming slang for auto-attacking or repeatedly using basic attacks.) you to death, you know?”
Lian offered a faint smile, her tone a gentle reminder.
“Isn’t it about time you attacked, Mr. Ye?”
“I would have done so even without your prompting.”
Ye smiled faintly, returning the throwing knife he had been twirling to his waist.
“Do you know why I’m so at ease?”
“Because a [Phantom Assassin], true to his name, can close this small distance and appear right in my face in the blink of an eye, then easily kill me, right?”
Lian replied with a smile.
“Precisely. It seems you’re quite self-aware.”
Hearing Lian’s words, Ye’s eyes gleamed with satisfaction.
“The most crucial reason I’m called a [Phantom Assassin] is my swift mobility, and this mobility doesn’t just encompass the throwing knife assassin’s [Flying Thunder God].”
He slowly brought his right hand before him, then gently clenched his fist.
*Clang!*
A sharp wrist blade suddenly sprang from his dark sleeve, its keen edge glinting with cold light.
“There’s also the wrist blade assassin’s [Shadow Dash]!”
As he spoke, his figure abruptly materialized before Lian. Instantly activating [Shadow Dash], he soared above Lian in the blink of an eye, moving so rapidly that a lingering afterimage remained where he had just been.
Indeed! This was why Ye was known as the [Phantom Assassin].
His innate skill, Assassin Mastery, allowed him to learn every skill from all assassin sub-classes!
Possessing already lightning-fast reflexes, and now endowed with multiple zero-cooldown movement skills from the assassin class, his movements became utterly impossible to track. His rapid, chained displacements could even create several afterimages in different directions!
Even his earlier pursuit of Lian had merely been Ye toying with her, much like a cat with a mouse, which was why he hadn’t instantly dashed to her face.
Now, Lian stood perilously close to the edge of the arena, and Ye, having used the wrist blade’s long-distance displacement skill [Shadow Dash], abruptly appeared before her.
Lian was familiar with this skill, a common component in wrist blade assassins’ combos. They frequently used it to dash directly to an opponent’s face, then swiftly chain into the [Backstab] skill, instantly teleporting behind the foe to trigger a triple damage bonus!
Lian felt no surprise at Ye’s sudden use of a wrist blade assassin skill. Ye had, in fact, revealed his innate skill during an afternoon arena battle prior to this encounter.
The very reason Lian hadn’t been able to assist An Dong in gathering materials was that Ye had appeared in the arena, decisively defeating the previous champion and thus capturing her attention.
Yet, despite her lack of surprise, the moment the assassin player materialized before her, her defeat seemed all but sealed. If she couldn’t instantly kill Ye with an arrow, an archer simply couldn’t contend with an assassin!
“Farewell!”
Ye, gazing at Lian who was now within arm’s reach, narrowed his eyes and uttered those words. In the very next moment, he intended to unleash Backstab, instantly felling Lian!
“[Spread Shot]!”
Lian, however, did not give up. Instead, she raised her longbow and unleashed a dense rain of arrows upwards. Ye, positioned directly above Lian, had no choice but to activate [Backflip] and displace himself 20 yards backward to avoid taking the full damage from all of Lian’s [Spread Shot] arrows.
‘It’s fine,’ Ye thought. There wasn’t a trace of panic in his heart, for he could simply displace himself forward again. After all, [Shadow Dash] was a zero-cooldown movement skill, whereas Lian’s [Spread Shot] definitely had a cooldown. Now, Lian had no counterplay left!
‘Wait!’
Suddenly, he noticed dense, dark shadows above. Looking up, he saw that the very [Spread Shot] arrows Lian had fired were now raining down upon his current location. Not only had Lian forced him back despite being in close quarters, but she had also possessed the foresight to predict his landing spot!
With barely a moment’s hesitation, his body reacted instinctively. Ye swiftly flung a throwing knife, using [Flying Thunder God] to displace himself another 10 yards backward, thus evading the [Spread Shot]’s area of effect.
“Damn it, you’re doomed to lose!”
Forced to displace himself backward time and again by Lian, Ye finally lost his amusement. He narrowed his eyes, gazing at Lian on the treetop, his gaze filled with murderous intent.
‘It’s decided!’ In the next moment, he would use [Shadow Dash] followed by [Backstab] to instantly kill Lian and end this arena match.
With that thought, he unleashed [Shadow Dash] once more!
“[Bow Break]!”
“[Step Back]!”
“[Backflip]!”
In that instant, Lian’s slender figure leaped from the treetop, lightly touching the air three times as if skipping across water. Like a nimble bird, she soared high from the treetop, flying towards the edge of the arena map, beyond the bottomless chasm.
****
Witnessing this spectacle, the spectators in the event map’s observation area were stunned into silence.
Yan, who had been watching the battle on Arena No. 3, was utterly dumbfounded.
Even his opponent, Ye, who was in the midst of his [Shadow Dash] displacement, was left speechless!
In that single moment, everyone could only watch as Lian flew high from the treetop at the cliff’s edge of the arena map, seemingly flying through the air, displacing herself a staggering 50 yards!
Blue light, indicative of a player’s elimination teleport after leaving the arena, surged around her.
Was she committing suicide?
Indeed, after being pushed to such a desperate plight by the server’s strongest known assassin, voluntarily forfeiting the match seemed like a dignified choice.
This thought arose in almost everyone’s mind.
But Lian’s action in the very next second revealed to everyone that this was not her intention at all!
****
Lian gracefully spun her body in mid-air, not bothering to look back. Instead, guided by instinct, she drew a black arrow from her quiver. Gently gripping the fletching between her index and middle fingers, she precisely nocked the arrow to the left side of her bow. Her left hand held the longbow steady, while the index, middle, and ring fingers of her right hand simultaneously drew the bowstring back a short distance to her cheek.
This entire sequence of actions was completed in but a fleeting instant while she floated in the air!
Just as her “flying” posture was about to succumb to gravity, sending her plummeting towards the bottomless chasm, her right hand, which had been tautly drawing the bowstring, released!
[Piercing Willow Shot]!
Everyone remembered the name of this technique, and everyone understood the profound meaning behind this single black arrow.
In the hands of [Divine Eye Archer] Lian, this arrow signified…
Instant death!
*Whoosh!*
The [Piercing Willow Shot] sliced through the air, flying from beyond the cliff face back into the arena at a speed almost imperceptible to the naked eye.
What it aimed for was neither the afterimage of Ye’s original position when he activated [Shadow Dash], nor the spot where Ye’s displacement was meant to land after Lian’s previous position. Instead, it targeted the entire trajectory of Ye’s movement between those points!
The black arrow struck Ye precisely on the forehead, right in the middle of his [Shadow Dash] displacement!
The victor was decided.
Seeing this, Lian calmly stowed her longbow. Her graceful figure then naturally descended towards the cliff below the arena’s edge…
And plummeted.