The Grand Duelist

Instant-kill!!! 

Yes, an Insta Kill! 

The word Victory that floated above the air and displayed on the monitors that the spectators were staring at indicated that a winner has been decided. 

But that winner wasn't Clarisse... 

It was Joseph! 

Clarisse who used her Ultimate Skill: Meteor Descent hadn't won!

She was instantly killed by her enemy and lost! 

Silence... 

No one spoke within the room. It was eerily silent. 

But the silence was eventually broken by a shout from one of the spectators.

"Replay! Manager! Use the replay! Let us see what happened!" 

His shout awakened everyone from their reverie as they simultaneously turned to look at the tournament manager. 

The tournament manager who was also a player of Victory was also flabbergasted by what happened.

He looked as if he had lost his soul, but the shout of one of the audiences directed towards him awakened him from his trance. He regained his spirits as he madly dashed towards the remote control and after pressing a few buttons...

The monitors above flickered and the replay was shown. 

"Unbelievable..." 

The replay which was also the Play of the Game only lasted three seconds at most. 

The first second was Joseph staring towards Solar Equinox wrapped by the light of her magical runes. 

At the two-second mark, the spectators were astounded to see that Joseph had teleported behind Clarisse. He was holding his strange weapon whose blade looked as thin as a cicada's wings and there was a brilliant light on the tip of his weapon...

His stance indicated that he was about to do a thrust and that was what he did. 

In the three-second mark, Joseph pushed forward with his weapon and penetrated Solar Equinox's heart. 

His attack definitely caused tremendous damage, but tremendous damage only took twenty-five percent of the character's health. It shouldn't directly kill the enemy instantly. Just what had happened? 

The tournament manager pressed a few buttons once again and the answer that everyone was looking for was finally answered. 

The moment the weapon penetrated Solar Equinox's heart. It took twenty-five percent of her Health due to the tremendous damage that she suffered from her vitals. However, that wasn't the end of it all. Aside from that damage caused by the penetration of the vitals. 

Joseph's attack itself caused a whopping 252,693 damage! 

Such damage was extremely high, it was unbelievable. 

Everyone had their eyes widened into saucers while the others had their jaws dropped onto the ground. 

They couldn't believe what they were seeing. 

But it was the truth. 

Joseph really did deal 252,693 damage in just a single attack, ending the entire battle in just three seconds at most. 

Priii... 

The sound of Gaming Capsules being opened rang out and a distraught Clarisse walked towards the audiences.

Her face was still pale as she stared at the tournament manager and said...

"Replay..." 

"Huh?" The tournament manager subconsciously mumbled. 

"You didn't hear me? I said replay!" 

"Y-Yes!" 

The tournament manager pressed a few buttons.

The monitors flickered to show the replay of what had happened before the end of the battle. 

"T-Three seconds?!" Clarisse saw that the length of the replay lasted only for three seconds.

But her shock and astonishment quickly turned into speechlessness and fear when she saw what happened within those three seconds.

At the first second mark, Joseph was staring at the skies, at the two-second mark... 

He mysteriously appeared behind her Solar Equinox and at the three-second mark, his weapon had pierced through Solar Equinox's heart, dealing a tremendous amount of damage by piercing through a vital and when that was added on top of the damage that Joseph's attack dealt...

The damage reached six digits, instantly annihilating her character. 

"252,693 damage... I-Impossible... Six digits? What kind of attack did he use? Was that an ultimate attack? But why... Why it isn't..." Clarisse wanted to say flashy since most, if not all Ultimate Attacks that could deal six digits of damage at once were flashy and showy.

But Joseph's attack clearly didn't look out of the ordinary. 

Except for that brilliant light that shone at the tip of his weapon, there wasn't really anything strange to that attack. 

But the fact was that it dealt six digits of damage. Just what was going on here? 

Clarisse, Ethan, and Stafford, along with the audience members were flabbergasted about what had happened. An audible sound of a Gaming Capsule being opened rang out and everyone quickly turned to look their heads towards the direction of Joseph's Gaming Capsule. 

Joseph emerged from the capsule with a languid smile on his face. 

"Convinced, yet?" 

This was the first question that he asked and this question also served as a reminder that he annihilated Solar Equinox within the first three seconds of their encounter. 

Clarisse promised that she would log-out Joseph from the game within the first ten seconds of their encounter, but Joseph reversed the tables and logged her out within the first three seconds instead.

These words that he said was akin to nothing but a fierce slap on Clarisse's face as she stood there, trembling from the anger and humiliation. 

Stafford had his head hung low while Ethan deeply sighed, complicated emotions flashed across his face and it was unknown what he was thinking. 

"..." 

Clarisse was unable to speak. 

"I'll take that silence as a yes, then..." Joseph turned around and didn't bother about her anymore. 

"Manager, can I get my reward now? I did complete that Boss Rush so I think I have that fifty-thousand in the bag, right?" Joseph made a sidelong glance at the tournament manager. 

The tournament manager still had a look of shock on his face as he shivered and hastily replied, "Of course, of course, you won the tournament so you are entitled to that reward along with a trophy..."

"Please wait here for a while, I'll fetch your rewards..."

The tournament managers quickly left the room. 

At this moment, everyone finally remembered what was important.

The incredible duel made them forgot about the fact that they were here for the Arena of Slaughter; Boss Rush tournament. 

But now that they remember why they were here. They also remembered that Joseph had in fact, won the tournament and they suffered another bout of shock and speechlessness.

Yes, that's right... 

Joseph won the tournament. 

Stafford had a tragic look on his face.

Clarisse seemed to be hesitating about something, while Ethan had an indifferent look on his face as if he wasn't concerned about anything that was happening. From the time that he found out that his gut feeling was right, he had already distanced himself from his so-called longtime friends. 

He was even slowly approaching Joseph with slow and unassuming steps. 

The tournament manager then returned along with the owner of the establishment. The owner had a cool expression, and he looked to be in his mid-thirties. He handed over the crystal trophy to Joseph along with the fifty-thousand pesos reward in cash. 

"Congratulations on winning the tournament and defeating the twelve overlords of the Arena of Slaughter; Boss Rush!" 

The boss said with a light smile on his face. 

Joseph nodded his head and smiled. He stretched his hand over to the trophy and received it.

After holding the trophy firmly on his left hand, he stretched his right hand and went for the bundle of cash.

But when he was pulling it over to his side...

He met resistance and he couldn't help but stare at the owner in doubt. 

Joseph's smile turned bitter when he found out that the owner was actually heartbroken.

He really didn't want to give Joseph this fifty-thousand peso at all!

Joseph realized that the kind-hearted owner was actually a really stingy person.

After all, why would he place the difficulty at the maximum against those twelve BOSSes? 

He wasn't actually trying to let anyone win the tournament and he was just using this tournament for the sake of publicity. 

Joseph furrowed his eyebrows and whispered into the owner, "Boss, let go of the money. I will let you use that replay of the duel earlier for the sake of publicity. I think that replay is worth more than fifty-thousand pesos, right? In terms of public exposure that you would get from it of course..." 

The owner's smile quickly turned into shock.

He obviously didn't expect that Joseph would catch onto his plans, but since Joseph had already caught his schemes.

There was no use on hiding anything anymore as he let go of the fifty-thousand pesos...

He even handed over a Diamond Card for the Grand Internet Cafe to Joseph. 

"This card will give you a forty-percent discount to everything within the Cafe... For your generosity, you deserve this at least." The owner revealed a smile that was finally sincere.

Afterwards, he made Joseph sign an agreement that he would give them exclusive rights to the replay without even consulting Clarisse who was also a part of that duel.

Then, Joseph also had to pose with the crystal trophy in hand.

According to the owner, this step was necessary since they were planning on renting out a nearby billboard to show to everyone that someone had won the tournament and defeated the twelve impossible to beat BOSSes of the Arena of Slaughter; Boss Rush within the maximum difficulty. 

Joseph didn't immediately leave the establishment after all the formalities.

He stayed for the buffet and finally had the time to eat to the fullest, or so he thought...