Chapter 80: Queen of the Shadow Dance

Translator: Zenobys Editor: TheRealSeal

Zhang Yang raised an eye brow, intrigued. An unmistakeable gleam radiated from the thief’s equipment. He noticed that Ghostly Leaf was wearing a complete set of Green-Copper equipment, with at least 3 of them being Thief-class specialized set equipment! Zhang Yang concluded that Ghostly Leaf’s guild, Radiance, was much stronger than Sky High or even The Dominators. He believed this due to the equipment that Ghostly Leaf was wearing. Typically, since the equipment could only be obtained from raiding the Hard mode of Marzerway’s Lair, this could only mean that Ghostly Leaf had been part of a group that has already performed the raid several hours ahead or even 1 day before the other two guilds.

The Dominators themselves had only just successfully raided Hard mode today! Radiance must have already, by all means, raided the Lair yesterday! Another testimony to their power was this one member of theirs to run from Crimson Moon City over to White Jade Castle, on foot. It was a journey that would have taken at least an entire day and night, and that was a rather generous estimate! Till now, the actual duration of such a journey was still unclear; since no one had ever tested it out.

This was why it was so strange. Ghostly Leaf was only level 21. For him to travel over a level 30 hunting ground, definitely triggering monsters’ aggro, let alone the level 50 grounds with even higher radius of triggering…how did he manage to travel all the way from city to city in such a short amount of time?

It was truly puzzling indeed…unless…

Destination Teleportation Scroll!

It was different compared to regular [Teleportation Scroll]s since a [Destination Teleportation Scroll] can teleport a player to a specific city instead of the nearest one! However, this little item is extremely rare! There was the Specialized Teleportation Port that allows only level 50 players or higher to travel across any major city, limited to only the specific server!

However, a [Destination Teleportation Scroll] allows a player to teleport to all 64 main cities of all 8 major servers!

F*ck! What a waste of precious treasure! This was once an important key in winning a World War. A bunch of Thief players would use this item to sneak themselves into the enemy main city and built a Teleportation Port for their own army in the cover of stealth! An invisible Trojan Horse!

Just when Zhang Yang sigh in disappointment, Ghostly Leaf had successfully killed 9 Head Hydra. Based on the common player’s playstyle, a Thief, especially Phantom Assassins, had always been the number 1 bane of Guardian or Defender characters. Phantom Assassins had a dagger specialization skill; and out of 10, 9 Phantom Assassin would equip dual daggers since they had short attack intervals and a more consistentt damage output within the damage range (Maximum and Minimum damage as seen in weapon attack stat). There was a chance that a bandit class attack could not penetrate the shield defense.

However Ghostly Leaf was very efficient in moving his position in battle. He managed stick to the back of the Knight throughout the battle and had unleashed his attacks there! He had ignored the shield defense effect and dealt high damage even with just his normal attacks; his skills were even more terrifying to look at!

The battle was over when Hydra surrendered willingly. Everyone, including the audience were moved out of the battle room and back to their places of origin.

“Hur hur! Looks like this is all White Jade Castle has to offer huh! Come on, entertain me now! I want professional players! Not some beginners! I want to fight Zhan Yu! I heard that guy is f*cking strong! He was able to take on 3 dungeon’s First Clear Achievement in one shot! Where are you! Come and fight me!” Ghostly Leaf started to taunt provocatively in the local channel.

Everyone started to respond venomously to his provocation, throwing insults and curses back at him.

“Don’t think that you’re almighty now when you’ve only just beaten a few of us! There are many more professional players here in White Jade Castle!”

“There’s no need for Zhan Yu to come out! I can defeat you with just one finger!”

“The big mouth guy is in room 213!”

“Which guild has lost their mad dog! Quickly make announcements to help them reclaim it back!”

“Stupid dog! Go back to your Crimson Moon City and bark there!”

“…”

The channel was continuously filled with more insults and curse words. The chat log was quickly being overwritten every split second!

Zhang Yang could no longer hold it in. He sent a battle request to Ghostly Leaf but instead of him responding, a system message appeared.

‘Request failed. The player that you have request has accepted another battle request from another player!’

Zhang Yang raised his head to read the huge announcement board on the battle arena. A quick message appeared reading: Room 89 Ghostly Leaf Versus Frost Night (Deathmatch). Battle starts after 5 minutes.

The 5 minutes’ preparation time was to allow other spectator to place their bets and wagers. Typical bets were only between players themselves. However, whenever a top-class players battles, the system itself will host and allow players to place their bets and wagers.

In the future when the Professional League starts, almost all battle bets were hosted by the system.

Huh. Frost…Night!?

Zhang Yang heart sunk! He never thought that he would witness another player who was bound to be famous in the future!

Popularity-wise, Frost Night was even more famous than Ghostly Leaf! She was the top in the China server top 10 Thieves! Players called her “Queen of the Shadow Dance”, traceless, undetectable, and always in the shadows, lurking in the dark. You would never know when she appears! You would never know when she would strike! People who were killed by her did not even see her coming!

This Queen had always been a loner. She had never joined guilds nor participated in any League competition yet she would dominate the entirety of China and had consistently ranked at the top of the Thieves list.

This fight, Frost Night Versus Ghostly Leaf is an extraordinary event! The heat and passion of the audience could rival the even chaos of Mars colliding with Earth!

Zhang Yang raised his eyebrows at the turn of events, brushing his chin like an old bearded man, lost in thought. Since she never joined any guild, did he have a chance of recruiting her?

Since the appearance Ghostly Leaf’s latest challenger, everyone had started to question her origin, her strength. However, since she was a “member” of the White Jade Castle, the crowd naturally cheered for her.

As an audience, Zhang Yang could enter the arena before the fighters could. He quickly sat down and wait for the clash to begin.

5 minutes passed and the two players appeared at the battle field entrance.

Kang Kang Kang!

The chains of the door rang and the cage was closed behind them, sealing all possible means of escape!

This was a Deathmatch! The match could only be over when one player dies!

Frost Night, Female Elf, Level 21 Bandit.

Her face was covered in a thick black cloth. Zhang Yang could not see how see looked like but what he could see was her devilish body. That slim waist, thick butt, those long and beautiful legs, and those bombs on her chest that only rivaled by Little Snow!

Both of the contenders were at the same level but Frost Night’s equipment was inferior to that of Ghostly Leaf’s. She was wearing a mixture of level 10 Green-Copper equipment and level 20 Black-Steel equipment. Stats-wise, she could not possibly equal to Ghostly Leaf and his complete level 20 Green-Copper equipment set!

How could the future Queen of Shadow Dance possibly win this match with that get-up?

Zhang Yang watched eagerly.

Battle starts in 19, 19, 17…

5,4,3,2,1,0!

Poof!

Both of them simultaneously entered stealth mode, vanishing from the field. The entire battle arena was empty and quiet like a graveyard. Nothing but the sound of sand being blown by the wind remained.

1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds…

1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes…

As the clock ticked away, there were still no traces of either of them anywhere. If not for the Deathmatch rule hanging on the announcement board, they could have left the arena for a cup of tea and the players would not even notice! Some of the spectators had started to complain among each other. The good thing was that nobody can post or talk in the local public channel and disrupt the atmosphere.

While everyone else was busy complaining among each other, Zhang Yang had his eyes wide open. Even though he could not see anything in the field, he knew perfectly well that the fight was going on intensely. Everyone knew that whenever a Thief breaks out from his stealth mode, it will be his chance to deal a great burst damage. But when the match was between two Thieves, the tension was even greater than an airplane cable! Whoever gets the first chance to capitalize on the moment to forcefully break the other person’s stealth, they would have the leading advantage while the other would greatly suffer or perhaps even die instantly.

Poof!

Two figure suddenly appeared out of thin air. Ghostly Leaf was staggering about, he had stars circling around his head! He was stunned! Frost Night, lurking behind him, brandished her daggers, dealing a huge amount of damage!

As expected of the Queen, her abilities in stealth and stealth detection was beyond even Ghostly Leaf’s.

Zhang Yang pointed a finger at Ghostly Leaf selecting the interaction menu to check on his status effects.

[Ambush]: Stuns the target for 4 seconds. Can only be activated during <Stealth>, increases combo count by two.

A series of combo attacks had left Ghostly Leaf with roughly two-thirds of his HP, after only 4 seconds of being stunned. He regained control quickly but as soon as he tried to do something, Frost Night quickly reversed the grip of her dagger and jabbed his waist with the other end of the dagger. He was stunned for another time before he could do anything.

[Kidney Shot]: Stuns the target. The stunned duration depends on the combo count. 1 combo count: 2 seconds’ stun. 2 combo count: 3 seconds’ stun. 3 combo count: 4 seconds’ stun. 4 combo count: 5 seconds’ stun. 5 combo count: 6 seconds’ stun.

Frost Night had accumulated up to 5 combo count and Ghost Leaf had been consequently stunned for another 6 seconds! It was another 6 seconds of knifeplay!

However, her Stamina gauge was used up completely. It was slowly filling up again, at about 10 points a second. There was a 4 seconds 20% attack buff that was called the Berserk state, which occurs whenever a thief breaks out of Stealth mode using an attack, but that effect has since expired. Her attack had returned to normal but since she had a luxurious 6 seconds to do as she pleased, she had already taken away another third of his HP.

Frost Night had full HP but her Stamina was drained; while Ghostly Leaf had only one third of his HP left but his Stamina was yet to be touched! However, taking the differences of their vastly different equipment into consideration, it was not accurate to determine their HP based on percentage.

Frost Night, HP: 1020/1020

Ghostly Leaf, HP: 680/2030

There was only a 400 HP difference between them.

Once he recovered from the stun, he quickly moved to a safe distance and consumed a healing potion.

“+100!”

At the same time, a smile was slowly forming on his lips as if the tide was already turning to his advantage.

“Haha! It’s my turn now bitch! You’re quite strong since you could damage me to this extent. BUT! VICTORY IS…”

Poof!

Frost Night flicked her right arm and she was suddenly covered in a smoke screen and disappeared from sight.

Bandit’s forceful stealth technique - <Vanish>.

Ghostly Leaf sudden stopped his speech!

He panicked and quick spun around, wildly swinging his dagger, trying to forcefully break her stealth. However, his effort was fruitless! Ghostly Leaf groaned angrily. How could she have learnt the skill <Vanish> at level 21 when that skill could only be unlocked at level 30!? Was she cheating?!

After he went around trying to search for her in vain, he finally stopped moving to use his [Bandage] to heal. However, he still had the DoT poison effect on him. He could not heal because the healing process would be interrupted by the damage!

He waited for another 15 seconds until the DoT effect stopped and began healing himself. He bent down and carefully listened for any possible movement around him.

Poof! Frost Night suddenly appeared behind him just as stars appeared on his head again! The debuff <Ambush> appeared on his head again!

Shush! Shush! Shush!

Frost Night mercilessly slashed him. Her stamina had already completely recovered and she repeated what she did for the first flurry of attacks she had thrown out in the beginning.

With only half his HP left, Ghostly Leaf could not survive after taking that much damage and crumpled to the ground, defeated without even throwing out a single attack.

With that, the battle between two superstars concluded with Frost Night claiming utter victory!