Chapter 582 - Individual Tournament 11

Gentle Flower smiled and observed her opponent. Maple Forest was yet another one of Umbra's original 8 Expert member who had merely been denied the chance of becoming a core member due to her lack of a hidden class back then.

Such a person might feel like no-name when compared to the illustrious core members and the even more amazing Draco and Eva, but they were not to be trifled with. Gentle Flower was not the kind of person to needlessly underestimate her foes, so she watched her opponent seriously.

Maple Forest simply placed one hand akimbo and gazed at Gentle Flower with a severe look. She knew that her opponent today was one that she would have an extremely tough time against, so she didn't waste any time with back talk.

Right as Amber announced that the match should begin, the two women began moving. Around Gentle Flower, and entire forest seemed to grow alive as branches and vines twisted around the svelte girl to form a defense.

What wasn't coiled around her protectively was sent forward at sharp speeds to attack Maple Forest.

｢Naturalist - Legendary Class (Rank 3)

Skills: Nature's Blessing (Passive), Perfect Manipulation (Passive), Nymph Form (Active), Ent Guard Summon (Active), Nature Sprites (Active), Recovery (Active), Unique Body (Passive), Affinity (Passive).

Starting Stats: Str 10, Dex 10, End 10, Int 50, Spr 30, Cha 30, Lck 20

Exp gain rate: 70%

Rank up difficulty: 90%

Class weapons: None.

Class skills: Any Wood, Nature.｣

｢Nature's Blessing – Passive skill

Effect: The User's attributes are boosted by 40% at all times due to the reinforcement of nature, and their health regeneration is activated. All nature-related skills and spells can be used ignoring any mastery requirements.｣

｢Perfect Manipulation – Passive skill

Effect: The User is able to freely manipulate all Wood element existences around them and control nature with their mind. All offensive and defensive moves created through this skill are buffed by 40%.｣

｢Nymph Form – Active skill

Effect: Transform into a Wood Nymph, mildly increasing your attributes and granting you great healing abilities at the cost of offensive ones.

Duration: 10 minutes.

Cooldown: 1 hour.｣

｢Ent Guard Summon – Active skill

Effect: Spawn a group of Ents that form your nature guardians and will diligently fight any enemy for you.

Duration: 1 hour

Cooldown: 1 day.｣

｢Nature Sprites Summon – Active skill

Effect: Summon a group of nature 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.｣

｢Recovery – Active skill

Effect: Gather the energy of the world and infuse it into your body, instantly recovering your HP, MP, and Stamina to the maximum limit.

Cooldown: 1 day.｣

｢Unique Body – Passive skill

Effect: As a Naturalist, you possess a special body that allows you to spawn flora wherever you are, at higher mana costs than usual.｣

｢Affinity – Passive skill

Effect: As a Naturalist, you are being treated as a representative of Mother Nature, Wood element monsters will hesitate to attack you first and might even assist you in various endeavors.｣

Maple Forest opposite her saw the incoming attack and scoffed slightly. She raised her hand and a beam of searing light shot out from her palm, lancing through the oncoming flora and aiming right for Gentle Flower.

The Canadian lady's face became grim as she suddenly manifested even more flora to protect herself, the light cutting through each layer one by one until Gentle Flower finally managed to exhaust its energy.

This cost her quite a bit of mana, but Maple Forest wore a shocked expression as she had used one of her most powerful skills only for it to be blocked with relative ease.

｢Oracle - Epic Class (Rank 3)

Skills: Healer's Will (Passive), Semi-Perfect Manipulation (Passive), Searing Ray (Active), Blessing of Light (Active), Light Ball (Active).

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

Exp gain rate: 80%

Rank up difficulty: 110%

Class weapons: Any tome, staff.

Class skills: Any Healing, Light.｣

｢Healer's Will – Passive skill

Effect: Opting to focus on the offensive path of Light element control, you nevertheless still retain your healing skills and spells. An Oracle does not only act as a vessel for the light, but can also use it to save the weak.｣

｢Semi-Perfect Manipulation – Passive skill

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

｢Searing Ray – Active Skill

Effect: Fire out a solid beam of condensed light energy that has absolute piercing power. This skill deals 150% Light damage.

Cooldown: 30 minutes.｣

｢Blessing of Light – Active skill

Effect: Empower yourself with the power of Light, increasing movement speed and attack speed by 10%, HP and MP by 5%, and Damage as well as Defense by 20%.

Duration: 5 minutes

Cooldown: 10 minutes.｣

｢Light Ball – Active Skill

Effect: Concentrate a large amount of Light energy Into a spherical shape that deals significant AOE damage, amounting to 200% over 20 miles.

Cooldown: 30 minutes.｣

Seeing as her attack failed, Maple Forest immediately activated her Blessing of Light skill, as a beam of light landed on her from the heavens, illuminating her lovely form and granting her a tangible aura.

Gentle Flower also decided to change her tactics, summoning her Ent Guardians right away. Immediately, 5 giant tree men with strange wooden armor, as well as wooden greatswords and a wooden tower shield appeared on the battlefield.

｢Name: Ent Guardian (Gentle Flower) – Major Rank monster

Level: 100

HP: 10,290,000/10,290,000｣

They formed up around Gentle Flower rapidly to envelop her in a protective circle. The Guildmistress released her other defenses and cast her other skill, Nature Sprites Summon!

Six Nature Sprites appeared beside her, and she waved her hand. They rushed forward and bound themselves to one Ent Guardian each while the last one remained with Gentle Flower herself.

The Ents roared and charged at the stunned Maple Forest who was just like the crowd, speechless. This kind of line-up may not be that troublesome when part of a group, but in this Individual Tournament, especially against someone without any summons of her own, this was fucking overkill!

The Latina woman gritted her teeth and used her Light Ball skill. She clapped both of her hands together and raised one up, which spawned a huge ball of white light that shone resplendently.

Maple Forest shot it upwards, where it rose to a notable height before exploding. Beams of separate light shot out in all directions from it as the center, like spears or arrows fired from above.

The Ent Guardians stopped their charge and raised their tower shields to defend themselves, while the Nature Sprites also empowered and buffed them as best as they could. However, Light was an advanced element that along with darkness, was at the limit of such a classification.

The Wood element was weak against the Fire element, much less light which was produced along with fire and fire that was produced with light. It lanced through the defenses of the Nature Sprites and the tower shields held by the Ent Guardians, striking their sturdy bodies painfully.

The Ent Guardians roared in pain but maintained their defensive stance and continued to knuckle down. The smaller Nature Sprites were able to avoid being hit, so they focused their abilities to keep up the healing of the Ent Guardians.

Those who had given up on Maple Forest were shocked and began cheering. Then again, they had no reason to fear, as the AI had tempered with the pairings to guarantee that they would be interesting.

What would be the point if every match would merely end after a single attack?

Gentle Flower herself remained calm. She had become aware as an affiliate of Umbra close to the Evil Duo and a player who had been through many events that this AI was scheming.

It would never take actions that would not lead to its benefit, and she had confirmed this after watching so many members of Umbra battle it out. This was the main reason she didn't hold back against Maple Forest and didn't underestimate her, a very wise choice.

However, what the crowd seemed to forget was that Maple Forest's skill was a one-time thing that didn't have duration. After delivering its payload, it naturally disappeared, leaving the charred Ent Guardians and their accompanying Nature Sprites free.

Maple Forest could only grimace and try to create distance between herself and the monsters, but it was futile. The Ent Guardians numbered five and were limb despite their large frames.

They quickly surrounded Maple Forest and cut off her paths of retreat, forcing the Latina to use her mana to manipulate Light Energy to form spears that would fly towards her foes and pierce them, as well as beams and weapons that he could use to fight or defend.

However, she was eventually blasted out of the arena while coughing blood heavily, barely conscious. Gentle Flower had simply been watching from the side, not willing to reveal any of her other trump cards unless her current strategy would have failed to take down her foe.

Seeing that it worked, she smiled softly and bowed to the collapsed Maple Forest. The two of them were then beamed into the side hale and hearty, shaking hands in a show of sportsmanship.

Twelfth match winner: Gentle Flower!

13th Match: Shani vs Loving Aunt!

The next to come on stage were another set of beauties, but these two were the embodiment of different kinds of attraction. From the left was a caramel-skinned woman with a well-toned body and short curly hair which was spread about her scalp neatly.

Her face was small and angular, and her eyes were a bit larger than most, giving her a youthful look. Her irises glowed with a dark brown hue as her black hair gently swayed in the breeze. Her small nose and cute red lips made her extremely attractive to any who looked upon her.

She was quite tall, but her body posture was unfeminine and very tomboyish, though her sizes and proportions were impressive. She embodied positive energy and tomboy fantasy for most men.

She wore a set of leather armor that was very conservative. She was a married woman after all, and didn't see the need to show much skin to attract any other partner.

Across her though, was the complete opposite.

It was a sensual woman who looked to be in her early twenties. Her body was extremely seductive and her attire was basically a bunch of vines forming a set of bras and a short skirt.

Her naturally black hair had morphed into sickly green color while her formerly green eyes had been modified to take a pale grey hue. Many vines curled around her limbs, and there was a slightly greenish-black mist surrounding her.

This mist seemed to corrode the very air itself, which was quite a menacing sight. In terms of facial features, Loving Aunt looked much similar to Draco, but the change of her looks by her class muffled that greatly.

Shani's expression was grim. She had drawn the short end of the stick by gaining a foe as powerful as Loving Aunt. Even without her standing as an elder of the Lucifer Lineage, her toxic class alone made her into one of Umbra's strongest fighters.

The only one who could beat her would possibly be Essence since his spatial abilities would allow him to avoid it. Loving Aunt may be ranked 13th on the Universal Rankings, but that was taking into account both her PVE and PVP capabilities.

If there had been a Ranking for PVP alone, she would likely be 4th, after Draco, Eva, and Essence Stalker. When she walked up, all the core members wore a solemn expression as no one wished to fight her.

Not only was her power great, but her identity was also sensitive! She was their Guildmaster Draco's only known blood relative and acted like a surrogate mother to him. Loving Aunt was basically the Queen Dowager of the entire Umbra Guild, so offending her was something no one dared to do!

Even Essence didn't want to fight her as she was his relative as well, and also his mentor in the Serpent God Inheritance! This truly put everyone in an awkward spot as to how to deal with her.

Loving Aunt was mature enough to notice their worries, so she chuckled. "Don't think about unnecessary things. Umbra isn't some playground for one to step on the other using background, but our home. During this competition, I am just another core member of Umbra, here to represent Italy in this fight."

Loving Aunt poked a finger at Shani with an amused smile. "You're representing Ghana and dare I say, Africa as a whole. Can you really afford to play around with such a weight on your shoulders?"

Shani's face changed greatly, and the core members at the side felt like thunder had struck them. Of course, this was the truth! They were in an international competition with whole countries rooting for them!

How could they pull an Ao Potian and give up pathetically?

They couldn't be blamed for this though. This "competition" so far has basically been nothing more than an internal Umbra competition with some extra guests, only that it was aired to the public, especially this particular competition.

With this in mind, Shani removed all miscellaneous thoughts from her head as she got ready to fight. Even if her chances were low, she still had to try her best and show her people that she fought hard.

Amber soon called for the battle to begin, and Shani created a huge amount of distance between herself and Loving Aunt straightaway. She shook her hands a little and two large crossbows appeared in each one.

She then fired out an almost semi-automatic barrage of shots out, which surprised many in the crowd. Shani was Boyd's sweetheart and wife, so with the kind of resources and money Boyd had as a member of the Five Generals he had easily been able to set her up.

What was surprising was the fact that Shani herself had a strong talent for combat, and she had managed to Class Up into a Legendary Class called the Deadeye.

｢Deadeye - Legendary Class (Rank 3)

Skills: Energy Bolts (Passive), Reloading Mechanism (Passive), Spray and Pray (Active), Charged Shot (Active), Overload Shot (Active), Energy Shot (Active), Stability (Passive), Technique (Passive).

Starting Stats: Str 10, Dex 80, End 10, Int 10, Spr 10, Cha 10, Lck 30

Exp gain rate: 120%

Rank up difficulty: 60%

Class weapons: Crossbow.

Class skills: Any Archery.｣

｢Energy Bolts – Passive skill

Effect: The User is able to produce an infinite amount of crossbows bolts for their weapons by condensing Worldly Energy into the shape of one. In areas with low energy density, the effectiveness of this passive will be reduced.

Note: If in an area with high energy density, bolts will be significantly stronger.｣

｢Reloading Mechanism – Passive skill

Effect: Any crossbow wielded by the user will possess an automatic reloading mechanism for Energy Bolts. This process is compatible with any and all types of crossbows, even those with similar or conflicting characteristics.

Note: The speed of reloading is 0.7 seconds at your current rank.｣

｢Spray and Pray – Active skill

Effect: Fire out a continuous horizontal wave of energy bolts that strike anything within a range of 30 meters. This deals 120% arrow damage per strike.

Duration: 10 seconds.

Cooldown: 1 minute.｣

｢Charged Shot – Active skill

Effect: Condense and compress energy into a single bolt, making it 300% stronger than the average one. It can hit any target within 300 meters and deal 500% of your normal arrow damage.

Cooldown: 5 minutes.｣

｢Overload Shot – Active skill

Effect: Overload your crossbows to contain bolts that are about to be fired within, eventually forcing them into one single overpowered and explosive bolt that fires out to hit anything within 1 kilometer. This does 1,000% arrow damage to a single target.

Note: Using this skill reduced the durability of your crossbow by 10%.

Cooldown: 1 hour.｣

｢Energy Shot – Active skill

Effect: Gather the energy of the world and use it to fire at your enemy. Since the energy is not condensed into a bolt but fired as it is, it deals attributeless damage to its target, but does not damage to your crossbows nor take time to cast.

Cooldown: 10 seconds.｣

｢Stability – Passive skill

Effect: As a Deadeye, your aim is impeccable. Your archery prowess coined the term 'one shot, one kill', and the bolts you fire have a 5% chance of striking a fatal point automatically when fired.｣

｢Technique – Passive skill

Effect: When using an Epic Crossbow or above, class skills that cause durability damage will be reduced by half with each use. Your weapons are unbreakable and will retain 1 durability point at all times, but repairing it from such a state will cost 50 times more.｣

Loving Aunt watched Shani's greenish bolts pierce towards her with a calm expression. She then waved a hand and a purplish liquid that sizzled the air itself was thrown out, colliding with the two bolts.

Immediately, they were turned into sludge and fell helplessly into the ground, which was eaten away by the corrosive acid easily. This made Shani - and everyone else really - blanch as they tried to comprehend just how potent that viscous liquid must be to have such power!

Loving Aunt didn't stop there and clapped her hands. Immediately, a giant snake the size of a small bus appeared from a black portal behind her, its blue scales gleaming in the sunlight.

｢Name: Blue Water Adder (Loving Aunt) – Major Rank monster

Level: 100

HP: 1,980,000/1,980,000｣

The snake hissed darkly as Loving Aunt caressed its scales gently.. It then spat out an arrow of water that hurtled towards a shocked Shani, who had no idea how or why this snake had just been summoned from nowhere.