"Y-You heard her, folks! Let''s give a big congrattions to Shye Crowley for securing a spot in the semi-finals, where he''ll face off against John Oni. Now, onto the next exciting match-up in the quarterfinals: Almira ck, ranked fourth and known as the battle priestess, will be squaring off against Lin Zi, the fifth-ranked archer. Get ready for some intense action!"
After hearing Corey''s words, the crowd was reminded of the scorching hot next match.
Almira ck was amongst the few who took the path of a battle priestess.
However, the priestess ss was widely recognized as primarily a support role, with its offensive capabilities often consideredcking inbat effectiveness.
Furthermore, across the world, only a handful of battle priests/priestesses had achieved significant sess.
Thus, despite Almira''s wless victory record, doubts lingered in the minds of the crowd.
After all, her path to the quarterfinals had been the smoothest amongst the top five rookies. It seemed as if she had been blessed with extraordinary luck by the divinities above.
Unfortunately, this very fact also led people to question the authenticity of the rumors about her achievements as an adventurer.
Their sentiments were understandable though, as battle priestesses were simply way too rare.
They wanted to see how she would fare against someone like Lin Zi, a well-rounded archer who possessed strong offensive capabilities, was nimble, and smart.
If she could at least give Lin Zi some trouble, they would consider her worthy of her fame as they all knew that rumors were usually exaggerated.
Ascending the stage first was Lin Zi, who, contrary to the crowd''s expectations, wore a grim, serious look on his face.
He didn''t dare take Almira lightly as he was aware of her actual capabilities, especially in duels.
Stepping into the center of the stage, the archer offered a slight bow to the crowd before retrieving his mid-grade tinum-tier shortbow relic, summoning frosty winds to howl around him.
He then stared at the opposite end of the stage grimly, waiting for the arrival of his adversary.
In contrast to Lin Zi''s serious countenance, Almira ascended the stage with a serene expression, appearing as though the results of the match had nothing to do with her.
It was fairly evident that Lin Zi didn''t faze her one bit.
Unfortunately, in the eyes of the crowd, her calm appearance was misunderstood as her acting arrogantly.
Hence, around seventy percent of them supported Lin Zi while only thirty percent supported Almira.
The battle priestess was perceptive enough to discern that the crowd favored her opponent, however, she was one of those people who gave zero f*cks about what other people thought.
The crowd could do whatever they want and she would never give a single shit about it.
Realizing that the crowd''s anticipation was at its highest, the referee extended his right arm and jerked it upwards before swiftly jumping down the stage.
"Begin!"
Surprisingly, as soon as the match began, Lin Zi frantically jumped back and continued sprinting all over the stage in a zigzag motion.
It seemed that he was not nning to stop anytime soon.
"Oh? What''s this? Why ispetitor Lin Zi running around like a distressed ostrich? Could it be thatpetitor Almira has already begun attacking?!" Corey''s enthusiastic voice sounded, asking the question in everyone''s mind.
Thementator was a mere mundane folk talented in the art of hosting andmentating, however, his senses were rather sharp.
His guess was, in fact, correct this time, as Almira had indeed already started attacking.
Although it appeared that the battle priestess was simply standing in the center of the stage while doing nothing, the truth was, that she already summoned five almost-transparent balls of me, slowly but continuously floating towards Lin Zi.
This was the reason why Lin Zi frantically ran across the stage.
He wanted to create enough distance from the transparent balls of me which would allow him to start firing back.
Unfortunately for him, Almira wouldn''t allow him to aplish his goal so easily.
Raising her left arm, the battle priestess assumed a knife-hand pose and aimed both the extended arm and her vitality mace at Lin Zi, who was madly dashing all over the ce.
Then, a few momentster, blue mana orbs continuously materialized in front of Lin Zi, generating moderate mana explosions with enough power to heavily wound the nimble archer if hit squarely.
Due to such annoying hindrances, the distance between Lin Zi and the transparent balls of me gradually shrunk.
Had it not been for his past experience, during which he had witnessed Almira employing the same skill, thus enabling him to recognize that the transparent balls of me were indestructible but would dissipate after two minutes, he might have followed the same path as every other victim of the ming orbs: attempting to destroy them with his own skills.
Thus, Lin Zi knew he had no choice but to continue running around, for now, at least.
Unfortunately for him, the battle priestess had long mastered thisbat style.
Carefully watching Lin Zi''s movements as he skillfully dodged all of her skills, Almira suddenly bolted towards the preupied archer, brandishing her vitality mace with unexpected ferocity.
Sessfully dodging another mana st, Lin Zi sensed something wrong and turned around.
''Crap!''
*CRACK*
A sickening crack reverberated through the air as Almira''s mid-grade tinum-tier earth-enchanted vitality mace squarely struck Lin Zi''s left forearm, the limb he raised hurriedly to absorb the blow.
Well, he had little choice. It was either his forearm or his face.
Such a daunting vitality mace made of metal…there''s no way Lin Zi would choose his face as his means of receiving the fierce blow.
Flying through the air for a few meters, the archer struggled for a while to stabilize his footing—his broken left forearm—dangling limply.
"W-WHAT A SWIFT TURN OF EVENTS!! IN JUST A SINGLE MINUTE OF COMBAT, LIN ZI''S LEFT FOREARM IS ALREADY BROKEN!! ALMIRA BLACK, THE FEROCIOUS BATTLE-PRIESTESS, VICIOUSLY STRIKES FIRST BLOOD!!"
"Tch…She got me…"