The Grand Duelist

"Vladimir! So you're finally willing to abandon these bastards and join forces with me?"

The moment these words came out of Joseph's mouth. Kristian and William, the Guild Leaders of Guild Strongest Under Heaven and Guild Knights of Justice all turned their heads to look at Vladimir. 

"Fuck..."

Vladimir felt their gaze and he instantly became furious.

How could he not understand what Joseph was trying to do here at this moment?

How shameless!

He can't defeat us all in a fair battle so he's trying to break our alliance by planting suspicions!

Vladimir instantly saw through Joseph's plans.

The alliance that the three guilds made wasn't really an alliance that one could consider as a solid alliance.

This was an alliance done in a race against time and the terms were heavily tilted towards the advantage of Guild Strongest Under Heaven.

Guild Dark Flame was once a part of this alliance, but since they had left.

Of course, they were now considered as enemies of this alliance.

The way their cooperation worked was that in exchange for Guild Crimson and Guild Knights of Justice's help, Guild Strongest Under Heaven would help both Knights of Justice and Crimson in their relocation.

Yes, relocation.

The ambitions of William and Vladimir weren't just limited to the confines of the Abandoned Kingdom of Nether.

They also planned on planting their foot into the bigger and wider playground known as the Kingdom of Burning Heaven.

With Victory's player population, the number of players in that Kingdom wasn't even in the hundred million anymore.

It was reckoned to be in the billions.

After the nobles of the Kingdom of Nether abandoned the Kingdom...

Vladimir and William understood that it was only a matter of time until the end of the Kingdom arrived. Without a King to rule, and without any Knights to enforce the law along with the disappearance of the nobles and merchants who brought with them their riches and the economy...

It was quite easy to foresee the end of this Kingdom.

Joseph's appearance as the First Mythical Class player and the claim that he made regarding the Abandoned Kingdom of Nether didn't change the fact that the Kingdom was heading to ruins.

In the first place, William and Vladimir didn't even believe that a player could run a Kingdom by himself.

These two Guild Leaders thought that it was probably better for them to relocate to the Kingdom of Burning Heaven than to stay here in a Kingdom that's definitely heading for the worst.

But there was something that they couldn't understand...

Why did Guild Dark Flame pull back from the alliance?

Could it be because they knew something about this Mythical Class player, or could it be because they were too afraid of offending both and not gaining anything in return?

Vladimir and William pondered hard about this question while Joseph and Guild Strongest Under Heaven were still fighting.

Of course, they were forced to stop their assumptions when they heard Kristian's command that they must join the battle.

However, that didn't mean that their suspicions weren't there anymore.

They just didn't think too much into it for now while the battle was ongoing.

Despite the fact that their alliance was made impromptu. It could still be considered as a somewhat solid alliance due to the fact that the three guilds had common goals. First, they wanted to recover their weapons, and second...

They wanted to go to the Kingdom of Burning Heaven. 

Joseph's arrival and interference was just a bonus.

The true target of their alliance wasn't even Joseph.

Instead, it was the Unique Boss, Ezreal. 

They had defeated Ezreal in the battle, but Joseph appeared and ruined everything.

Now they were in this strange battle where the three guilds fought against a single person.

That person planted a seed of doubt and suspicions into the minds of William and Kristian.

Vladimir gnashed his teeth.

He rushed towards Joseph's direction, intent on beating him into a pulp.

Joseph leaped backward in order to avoid a punch.

He stabbed forwards with his Rapier and Vladimir raised his hand to block the Rapier and also slap it to the sides. A smile could be seen on his face, it was clear that he intended on disrupting Joseph's balance by slapping the Rapier to the side.

Through that method, Joseph would be forced to prematurely retract his Rapier. But due to its length, he was bound to not have enough time on retracting his weapon.

Taking advantage of that opening, Vladimir was sure that he would be able to suppress Joseph at that moment, however...

When Vladimir raised his hand to block Joseph's incoming attack...

The weapon in Joseph's hand suddenly turned transparent as it passed through Vladimir's defenses and struck him right through his chest. 

Puchi!

Crack!

The sound of meat being penetrated and ribs simultaneously cracking rang out as Vladimir coughed a mouthful of blood.

His figure stiffened, it was clear that he suffered tremendous damage from the attack.

"Protect the Leader!"

"KILL!!!"

Joseph wanted to continue attacking at first, but then the other players had finally arrived. They rushed at Joseph from all directions and Joseph was forced to retreat by stepping into the areas covered by the poisonous pools made by the Biochemical Missiles from earlier.

"Push him! Don't stop!" William cried out and the Knights under his command ran towards Joseph's direction.

"Don't bother using any disables or stuns! He's immune to all of those! Just attack him! Deal as much damage as you can!" Kristian also gave the players some advice.

As a player with a Legendary Class, he knew that Joseph must also have that passive that grants him complete immunity to disables and stuns.

The players had common sense so they understood that much at least. As soon as Kristian's words rang out, space itself distorted as colorful lights filled the air. These colorful lights transformed into a shower of attacks that descended towards Joseph's direction.

With the speed of these attacks, and Kristian's Spatial Lock. There was no way that he could escape.

Joseph let out a sigh and turned to look at the skies.

The myriad colorful lights became similar to fireworks in the starry skies as Joseph softly uttered.

"Parry..."

As soon as these words came out of his mouth.

The attacks raining onto him disappeared as if they were stones dropped into the ocean.

Of course, there were some attacks that managed to land on Joseph's body due to the perfect timing of their arrival to the disappearance of Parry's effect, but it was still a fact that Joseph had indeed absorbed their attacks.

"What?"

The players blankly uttered when they saw the disappearance of their attacks into Joseph's body.

"He absorbed my attack? What's going on?"

Joseph's body emanated a faint glow as the energy of the attacks that he absorbed surged.

He then slowly raised his Rapier and pointed towards the skies. 

"Discharge, Pierce Blossom!"

A shockwave burst forth from Joseph's body.

Thousands upon thousands of illusory Rapiers flew to all directions with Joseph at the center. These illusory Rapiers instantly pierced through the bodies of everyone that dared to block their way and those players simultaneously collapsed from suffering tremendous damage.

Joseph smiled.

His body moved and he started dancing. He flicked his Rapier towards the collapsed players, sending waves after waves of attacks towards their direction through the help of the Grand Duelist's Overwhelming Presence.

[You dealt 30,260 damage!]

[You dealt 26,682 damage!]

[You dealt 25,495 damage!]

The ringing sound of system notifications became like a symphony for Joseph's ears, giving him utmost satisfaction as the lives of his enemies constantly whittled down with a flick of his Rapier. 

Kristian's eyes reddened in anger.

He pushed forwards with his palm and whispered, "Spatial Wave!" 

By distorting the space directly in front of Joseph. He could form an irresistible wave of force that would send enemies away from their original location, effectively zoning them out from accessing an area.

Since the shockwave born from the distortion of space wasn't considered as an abnormal status...

Joseph was sent flying and when he was in mid-air, the Gunners quickly took advantage of this moment to Snipe.

"Snipe!"

Several whispers rang out at the same time as the thunderous booms of high-powered rifles echoed.

Bullets flew as fast as lightning from the barrels of their snipers.

Joseph raised his Rapier in order to defend himself, but his efforts proved minimally effective. He did manage to block some of the shots but since he was in mid-air and the bullets came from every angle possible, it was impossible for him to block every attack coming his way.

Joseph pitifully rolled onto the ground, the dust that stuck close to his clothes made him look quite helpless. 

William clicked his tongue when he saw this scene as he whispered: "Fucking hell! How much Health Points does this bastard have? To think that he can endure through the simultaneous Snipes of several Gunners at the same time! Is this guy's Mythical Class a Tank-Type class?"

Vladimir coldly snorted: "Have you gone senile, William? Have you seen a Tank-Type Class holding a weapon like that?"

William merely glanced at Vladimir, he didn't reply.

It was clear that he didn't want to entangle himself with Vladimir.

But when Kristian heard the banter of the two...

His eyes suddenly brightened and a look of excitement appeared on his face as he cried out.

"I found it..."

"I found that bastard's weakness!"