Round of 16 (1)

[Infinity Arena Main Tournament Round of 16 – Match 11]

[Battlefield: Where the Storm Sleeps]

[vs Qingyun Club Ape(Fighter)]

The outstretched fist tore through the air.

A moment of silence as the heavy rain suddenly stopped.

I took advantage of the quiet to leave a wound on the sturdy wrist.

This opponent isn’t weak enough to stop attacking just because of a small injury.

After all, the trained body of a fighter doesn’t easily stop.

The blood washes away in the returning rain.

As the dense fighting spirit seemed to move, the muscles like hard armor moved roughly.

A swift and accurate straight punch. A kick accompanied by massive air pressure.

Short and fast attacks continued in succession.

The air pressure spreading like a shockwave suggests a dizzying power.

If I took that roundhouse kick head-on, the game would probably flip in an instant.

But that’s only if I got hit.

Whatever it is, it only has meaning if you can hit the opponent to deal damage.

[‘Artery Cutting: Additional Damage’ effect successfully activated.]

[Enhanced bleeding poison effect applied to the enemy.]

Each of the fighter’s attacks is fierce.

Yet their body is stupidly sturdy, and their combat endurance is quite high.

Even their agility is exceptional, making them one of the best classes in this game in terms of overall stats.

The problem was that their attacks were too intuitive.

Even sword fighters wielding weapons have several skills that can twist the situation.

When adjusting their stance, they break the ground, or create swords with magic power to use sword techniques.

For assassins like me, it goes without saying.

But uniquely, fighters don’t have such things.

Whether they wrap their hands in fire or ice, a fist is still just a fist.

Most of the fighter’s techniques don’t go beyond the level of ‘hitting fast’, ‘hitting hard’, or ‘not getting hurt when hit’.

So the battle structure becomes monotonous.

In a situation like this, there was no reason to dive in close.

The opponent is an ape swinging their body as if it were a weapon.

When sword meets sword, there’s a deadlock, but when a blade meets a fist, wounds are created.

All I had to do was avoid the timing that would result in a parry judgment.

If I just follow this rule, they’ll readily offer up parts to attack.

I just had to slowly target from the extremities.

There’s a reason humans created weapons to use, after all.

[‘Tendon Cutting: Paralysis Poison’ effect successfully activated.]

[Paralysis (Medium) effect applied to the enemy.]

They did try to overcome this problem in their own way.

A prime example was the constant mixing of feints.

However, from my perspective having faced Reaper, it wasn’t very threatening.

Why on earth are they shirtless?

It seems fighters, in particular, have many exhibitionists among them.

Could they possibly think that’s stylish?

If so, it would be lamentable. The style and etiquette of a martial artist should start with a neat uniform.

That outfit with the upper body fully exposed might be fine as a man, but as a martial artist, it was the worst.

All the muscle movements are blatantly visible.

How do you expect to win when you show all the movements of your back, chest, and arm muscles?

It’s not easy to escape my eyes even when covered with clothes.

“Phew.”

I thoroughly maintain distance.

A distance where the opponent’s fist barely can’t reach.

Just enough to dodge a kick if I pull back, and not get caught on the ground if I throw myself.

Having already inflicted bleeding and poison, time was on my side.

All I had to do was see the opponent’s attacks with my eyes, dodge, and then feed my daggers to their arms and legs.

Just like this.

“You keep stretching out your hands. Doing this makes me feel like an old-time teacher. They say they used to hit the palms with a switch back then. I saw it in a movie.”

“Urgh…!”

Ah, seems they’re angry.

When I let out a slight sneer, the opponent’s movements became a bit larger.

A roundhouse kick aiming for the midsection. My target point is the inner gastrocnemius muscle of the calf.

A turning kick adapting Taekwondo movements. This time, the Achilles tendon.

Greedily, an axe kick aimed at the head. Since you’re being overambitious, I’ll take the thigh and side.

[‘Vital Point Attack: Internal Organs’ effect successfully activated.]

[‘Enhanced Bleeding Poison’ effect has been applied multiple times.]

[The damage of ‘Unstoppable Bleeding’ increases.]

[‘Paralysis Poison’ effect has been applied multiple times…]

To be honest, I’m quite disappointed too.

Didn’t I show how to handle gunlance in the match against Rime?

Did they think they could catch me with fists when even bombardment couldn’t?

This is you underestimating me.

Then isn’t it okay for me to play around a bit too?

You should have brought some machinery skills like in the previous match.

Then we could have at least had some back-and-forth.

Thinking that the lack of overall combat ability was the downfall in the previous match, bringing a physical enhancement build became the root of the problem.

“Ahaha. Didn’t you almost slip just now?”

When a kick comes flying. I sweep the ankle to trip them.

While the opponent is getting up, I play with my dagger, and when they rush at me, I throw it towards their eyes.

I jump up and kick the back of their head hard.

I was planning to play along like this.

After a few minutes, the opponent declared surrender.

How boring.

That’s how my Round of 16 match came to an unsatisfying conclusion.

《 It seems this match didn’t need much complex commentary. They just saw with their eyes and dodged. It looks like an overwhelming result came from using their physical abilities well without mistakes. 》

《 Actually, top players have often shown this kind of match structure in the past. Characters as straightforward as fighters eventually reach a limit. It seems they targeted that limit point well. 

《 That’s right. Although Ape has held out well with their unique physicality until now, Gawol is not a player who lags behind in physical abilities either. In a way, this might have been an expected result. 》

《 I have some doubts about Ape’s preparation… 》

The commentators busy with sugarcoating seemed pitiful.

The opponent just came up because of good draw luck. And now it’s time for them to go down.

I guess official commentators can’t say such things.

With my personality, it would be hard to hold back negative comments.

I erased ‘commentator’ from the ‘Things I Want to Try Someday’ list in my head.

* * *

I finished the boring match and completed the interview.

The Chinese reporters showed quite sharp reactions, but who cares.

I answered just enough to avoid causing problems.

The articles should be up by now.

When I searched the strategy sites, my interview was quickly at the top.

– Gawol defeats Ape 2:0. Advances to quarterfinals with undefeated streak

– What’s different about Blink’s magic swordsman?

– Gawol: “The opponent’s arrogance decided the match”

[Title: Ape: “An unpleasant match lacking professional consciousness”]

[Author: Reporter Myojiki (myojiki@novelpia.com)]

Infinity Arena Main Tournament Round of 16.

Qingyun Club’s Ape expressed dissatisfaction, saying it was an unpleasant match.

While acknowledging their defeat, it’s interpreted that they claim the opponent conducted the match without professional consciousness.

On this day, Ape was kicked in the back of the head more than 5 times while blinded.

In Gawol’s interview, it was reported that they said, “The opponent was arrogant beyond their skill level” and “I had no choice but to win because the opponent hadn’t prepared properly.”

To this, netizens reacted with comments like, “What are you talking about, Gawol isn’t even a pro?”, “Lots of talk after a poor performance.”, “I would have been angry if it happened to me.”

It seems the fighter who was my opponent is very angry.

Since I probably won’t meet them again, I didn’t bother to find and read the full interview.

If I have time for that, it would be better to watch Luche or Traveler’s matches.

I should start analyzing Cerberus soon too.

Although he’s an unpleasant guy, he’s undisputedly one of the strongest in Europe. Looking at his reputation and career, he’s definitely not inferior to Reaper.

Since the rules change to best of 5 from the semifinals, I should prepare bit by bit.

In the last Round of 16 draw, I faced the worst possible outcome I could imagine.

In this match, I had to fight the player considered the weakest, and the next opponent is also relatively weak.

I should still prepare thoroughly, but… honestly, I didn’t feel threatened.

Right. The problem wasn’t my side of the bracket.

This side got to face fairly manageable opponents, as good as it could be.

At this rate, I might advance to the semifinals or even the finals without major variables?

However, things going well on my side means the opposite side is hell.

Assuming both win, Traveler is matched against Cerberus in the quarterfinals.

Similarly, Luche will meet Cerberus before me.

Even Reaper is likely to face Luche in the quarterfinals.

I… couldn’t do anything but watch their matches.

I should have brought Luche from the group stage.

I wanted to hit my past self hard on the back.

《 The next match is between Sigma e-Sports’ Luche and Blink. 》

《 What a coincidence, right? It will be a battle of spear and shield. 》