Chapter 580 - Individual Tournament 9

Noble Soul had the backing of the English behind him, who made their cheers and praise known. Many loved his valiant and driven demeanor, and his aesthetic made him seem like a knight of the round table.

A nickname had already begun circulating for him, which was the 'Red Knight'. Many felt this was quite fitting given his color disposition. The only thing the fellow was lacking was a noble steed to carry him about.

As for Slight Breeze, just like Cold Summer, she was also one of the original 8 Expert members of Umbra, merely one level below the core members. The Epic variant of her previous Aeromancer class was called Syphid.

She was - surprisingly - Indian, and her people loudly cheered for. After all, she was the only other powerhouse from their country aside from Kiran, so they had to put in their all to represent their country.

The two fighters squared off in the arena as Amber declared that the battle should begin.

Immediately, Slight Breeze spread her arms apart as the atmosphere surrounding the arena became turbulent, sharp winds tearing about all over the place while she smiled softly.

｢Sylphid - Epic Class (Rank 3)

Skills: Semi-Perfect Manipulation (Passive), Wind Spirit (Passive), Hurricane (Active), Wind Blade Storm (Active), Aero Sprites Summon (Active).

Starting Stats: Str 10, Dex 10, End 10, Int 30, Spr 25, Cha 10, Lck 10

Exp gain rate: 110%

Rank up difficulty: 65%

Class weapons: None.

Class skills: Any Wind.｣

｢Semi-Perfect Manipulation – Passive skill

Effect: The User is able to freely manipulate all forms of ambient wind and gases with their mind. All offensive and defensive moves created through this skill are buffed by 15%.｣

｢Wind Spirit – Passive skill

Effect: As a spirit borne of nature to control the wind, you possess a 50% immunity to all attacks using the same element. All your wind related attacks are increased in potency by 25%.｣

｢Hurricane – Active skill

Effect: Summon a huge typhoon that spirals at a high pressure, damaging everything within an area of 20 miles and preventing targets with a heavy weight from moving while light targets would be pulled into the swirl.

Duration: 1 minute

Cooldown: 55 minutes.｣

｢Wind Blade Storm – Active skill

Effect: Summon a consistent and numerous amount of large wind blades that strike an area repeated for a period of time, lancing any foes within into pieces.

Duration: 1 minute

Cooldown: 5 minutes..｣

｢Aero Sprites Summon – Active skill

Effect: Summon a group of wind sprites to aid you in battle. They have no offensive properties, but can defend and support you at all times during their existence.

Duration: 10 minutes

Cooldown: 1 hour.｣

Slight Breeze had naturally activated her Hurricane skill to lock down the entire arena. Immediately, the cutting winds forced Noble Soul to lock his legs to the ground in order not to fly off, his right hand gripping the hilt of his great sword that was still plunged into the arena.

Luckily, he had done so upon entry, otherwise, he would really be in a tough spot! He closed his eyes slightly to prevent the wind from blinding him, but his gaze never left Slight Breeze who was floating through the air without any qualms whatsoever.

This made her face harden a little as she really began to worry whether she could actually beat this fellow. She waved her hands, refusing to waste any more skills and rather use this one-minute time frame to harass her opponent as much as she could.

As such, she used her wind manipulation to form smaller wind blades from the depths of the hurricane to hurtle towards the defenseless Noble Soul who could not react at all since he was doing everything he could to avoid getting carried away and ragdolled in mid-air.

Just as they were about to strike him, Noble Soul tsked audibly and a glint flashed through his eyes as he murmured.

"Truly, it is not easy to deceive a member of Umbra."

Immediately, he let go of his sword, and in the time frame before he was about to be dragged away and pulled apart into shreds, he roared so loudly that the entire stadium could hear him.

"I AM THE STRONGEST IN THE UNIVERSE!"

Immediately, a sort of shockwave manifested from his roar that blasted the cyclone and the incoming wind blades apart, also canceling Slight Breeze's ability to fly and sent her hurtling towards the arena floor, where she crashed unceremoniously and screamed as she broke both her legs.

The crowd went silent from shock, not comprehending how things changed up in an instant. The team members of England though, looked like they had expected this and sighed in pity for the lovely lady locked in mortal agony on the arena.

As for Noble Soul, he pulled his greatsword from the arena floor and swung it over his shoulder casually, not showing any particular pity. An opponent was an opponent, whether man, beast, or cat.

｢Hero - Legendary Class (Rank 3)

Skills: Undefeatable (Passive), Unbreakable (Passive), Heroic Valor (Active), Heroic Might (Active), Aura of the People (Active), Ultimate (Active), Stance (Passive), Vessel (Passive).

Starting Stats: Str 50, Dex 20, End 40, Int 10, Spr 10, Cha 10, Lck 10

Exp gain rate: 100%

Rank up difficulty: 65%

Class weapons: Any large.

Class skills: Any Aura, Large Weapon.｣

｢Undefeatable – Passive skill

Effect: Your body is forged by your tribulations and stands in the way of utter destruction and those you want to protect. You draw up energy from your desire to succeed for those you cherish, giving you +100% HP, +200% MP and +500% Stamina, Focus and Concentration.｣

｢Unbrekable – Passive skill

Effect: Your will is iron and will never bend nor break for anyone, especially when your beliefs are on the line. The will to protect, the will to love, and the will to fight course through you, giving you immunity to all mental spells, and skills, as well as full resistance to all status effects.｣

｢Heroic Valor – Active skill

Effect: Shout out a line that boosts the morale of all allies and invigorates them to fight harder and longer in order to save their friends and family waiting for them at home. This skill resets all skill cooldowns for allies in a party, but the caster is unable to use any skill for the next 6 hours.

Cooldown: 7 days.｣

｢Heroic Might – Active skill

Effect: Shout out a line that invigorates the user and highlights their true power as well as supremacy which cows the enemy and leaves them full of fear and regret for attacking the innocent. This skill cancels all active and passive skills of all enemies that are currently in battle with the user and their allies regardless of range.

Cooldown: 1 day.｣

｢Aura of the People – Active skill

Effect: You are the hope of the universe, the answer to all living things that cry out for peace. You are the protector of the innocent. You are the light in the darkness. The people of the world grant you their power, increasing all your stats by 50%.

Duration: 3 minutes.

Cooldown: 3 days.｣

｢Ultimate – Active skill

Effect: Gather the energy of the living and the dead, the corporeal and the ethereal, and unleash it all in one strike. This skill's activation and animation are dependent on the specific situation of the user, their enemy, and the overarching circumstances. It deals 1,000% damage.

Cooldown: 1 day.｣

｢Stance – Passive skill

Effect: As a noble Hero chosen by the world to save it, you have trained under an old hermit sage who was living in a cottage atop a mountain. As such, your skill with the weapon in your hand becomes powerful enough to defeat your final foe, granting you +300% damage to all weapon-based attacks.｣

｢Vessel – Passive skill

Effect: As a valiant hero chosen by the people to carry their will, you have been repeatedly blessed by their love and faith for a long while. As such, your body has developed a unique container within that allows you to store this faith energy within your body that strengthens you at all times as long as you carry the people's will. You gain +300% to defense.｣

Noble Soul had used his Heroic Might skill, which was a trump card he had kept hidden in case he had to deal with troublesome elemental class foes like Silent Walker, Slight Breeze, Cold Summer, and the like.

This skill would cripple them at the opportune moment since they had troublesome active skills that could encompass the whole area, as well as passives that made them able to control their element at will using their mind and mana.

Noble Soul had been baiting the lass to use her active skills in one go so he could cancel them all as they would be sent into cooldown. Since the match had a 3-minute time limit, it would be as good as crippling them even if they regained their passives right after.

However, it had an even better effect on Slight Breeze than he thought. Her elegant nature made her flit about like some fairy had come back to bite her as she had been high in the air.

It had canceled her ability to control the wind for a split second, which had been enough to disrupt her control. Shocked and confused, she had failed to gather herself before she struck the ground, which led to the current horrible outcome.

Noble Soul walked over and planned to behead the lass to end her pain. Opponents they might be, impartial he personally might be, she was still his colleague as a member of Umbra and he couldn't perpetuate her suffering for no reason.

He raised his greatsword up and brought it down, only to be shocked that he cut into the arena. Noble Soul frowned and looked up to see a wheezing Slight Breeze who was drenched in sweat and blood, floating shakily in the air as her legs dangled about uselessly.

Since her crushed bones ground upon each other as she levitated like that, her face was locked into a terrifying grimace as she clenched her teeth to the point where blood leaked from her gums, that that pain was even soothing compared to what she was feeling from below.

Immediately, the crowd were left in horror at this sight, overwhelmed by the tenacity of the lovely young lady who looked so delicate that she might be some Young Princess of some wealthy family.

The core members too displayed shocked expressions, as well as heavy amounts of solemn respect. There was a huge gulf between core members and everyone else in Umbra in terms of standing, but the Expert members were truly something else.

They were in truth, almost at the same level of skill as the various core members. What separated them was the fact that core members had been required to have acquired a hidden class, which, aside from special exception, was only possible through specific stat point allocation that no one could control.

The core members were not essentially better than expert members, but they had been more favored since Umbra started recruiting, so the quality of their existence had made what was previously a thin gap more tangible.

If Cold Summer had a Legendary class, would he have lost to Silent Walker? If Panty King had a Legendary class would he have lost to… okay yeah, he would never beat Kiran.

Noble Soul himself gazed with slack jaws at the hovering woman before him who was still stabilizing herself, forgetting to use this chance to attack before she acclimatized to the pain.

Rather, for the first time in his life, Noble Soul felt his heart that only made space for battle thump in a strange way, as the image of the strangely gentle yet fierce woman imprinted itself there.

Slight Breeze used what little mind she had to cast her Wind Blade Barrage skill, as well as her Aero Sprites Summon skill. The arena became turbulent with winds once more, this time instead of spinning in a spiral, a barrage of large and thick wind blades hurtled towards Noble Soul from all angles, aiming to slight him apart.

The fellow snapped out of his trance and swung his greatsword about, shattering every wind blade that collided with his obviously Epic greatsword with ease. Noble Soul did not feel tired doing this as his passive boosted his stamina by 3 times.

Three greenish fairies made of Wind Energy appeared beside Slight Breeze who was slowly becoming delirious from the pain. Upon their summoning, two of those fairies shone with a whitish light that connected with Slight Breeze's body.

Lifelink!

Immediately, 1/3d of the fairies' HP was sent over to Slight Breeze, while they themselves lost that much. This acted as a sort of pseudo-healing, which restored Slight Breeze HP that was obviously in the red.

With it, her legs magically snapped back into place and looked as good as new, but the trauma on her face told that this would be an experience she would never forget.

Case in point, she didn't dare to fly above 5 meters from the ground. She stuck firmly to that range, and would rather die than take to the skies again even if what happened before couldn't happen again for an entire day.

Noble Soul, who was still being held down, frowned and ignored the next few wind blades, allowing them to strike his body as he was confident in his defenses. Naturally, while they did respectable damage, they were not even able to leave a mark on his skin, and the fellow used that chance to bolt over towards Slight Breeze.

Slight Breeze saw this and gritted her teeth, floating higher so she would get out of his range. Trauma or not, she rose to her feet - or well, floated to it - when she had previously fallen precisely because she had refused to lose this early into the tournament.

What had started to form a mental block in her mind was forcibly suppressed, but it was obviously not enough given that Noble Soul already had the initiative in his hands. The fellow jumped up and activated his skill, Ultimate.

Immediately, Noble Soul soared up into the air where Amber was, making the woman gasp with surprise as he moved away. Then raising both of his hands up into the air, Noble Soul roared.

"EVERYONE, PLEASE! SHARE YOUR ENERGY WITH ME!"

Right then, small motes of light were forcibly removed from everyone in the stands, accumulating into a reddish-gold ball above Noble Souls' hands which was growing larger and larger every second.

Seeing this, Slight Breeze paled and knew it was over. She didn't bother to let herself experience even more unnecessary suffering and admitted defeat with a face full of despair.

Noble Soul canceled the skill and returned to the ground with a heavy thump, cratering the whole area while suffering no damage. He then casually slung his greatsword over his shoulder as he gazed at the downcast Slight Breeze with respect.

Amber declared Noble Soul the winner, and both parties were beamed to the side of the arena at the same time. When that happened, all of the other female core members walked up to Slight Breeze to check up on her, but parted slowly when they saw Noble Soul walking over.

When Slight Breeze saw him, her heart leapt to her throat as she remembered the pain she suffered under his hands. She felt that he might be her to comfort her, but it wouldn't make her pain go away.

However…

"Not bad. Make sure to fight me again after this tournament is over." Was all he said while looking away, a slight blush on his cheeks.

Slight Breeze was left speechless while the other ladies smiled and giggled knowingly. As for the fellows, they all rubbed their imaginary beards as if they had understood something profound.

Tenth match winner: Noble Soul!

11th Match: Deployed Soldier vs Wee Cunt!

The core members had strange looks when this match was called. This was no longer a match-up based on classes, but one based on demeanor and disposition.

There was the disciplined and mature Deployed Soldier on one side and the unscrupulous and hooligan Wee Cunt on the other.

To buttress this, Deployed Soldier climbed up stately on the left side, looking suave as usual. He was a relatively tall fellow at 6"1 with a medium tan, his brown eyes shining with sharpness. He had a light stubble on his otherwise clean-shaven face, as well as closely cropped black hair. He stood in a very formal and disciplined pose, with his back straight.

On the other side, there was a stocky fellow who was at the height of 5'7, making him quite short. He had a rough face that could not be called handsome, but was not ugly either. He was neither plain-faced with his sharp his jaws were, and how slanted his eyes were as well.

He simply had hard features like a block nose, a distinctive jawline, slightly thick lips, and small yellowish eyes. He also had a messy stubble that didn't help with his appearance.

His was a face you would always remember, and when you heard the word 'hooligan' at any time of the day, his face would pop up instantaneously with the word.

He wore a complete set of reddish-brown leather armor covering his body, with many weird devices strapped to his waist, legs, and torso.

(Author's Note: Deployed Soldier looks like Reinhardt from Fire Emblem while Wee Cunt looks like a non-bald and less burly version of Letho from the Witcher 2.)

Deployed Soldier calmly gazed at Wee Cunt who was grinning widely opposite him. The Scotsman then taunted the Great Commander daringly.

"Well, well, if it isn't th' commander his-self.. Ye git any orders fur me, commander? How 'bout ye dae a favor fur yer beloved soldier 'n' forfeit, eh?" Wee Cunt requested while laughing uproariously.