Dream Avenue appeared in an arena above the Northern Desert. Despite the heat, a large number of fans ca to watch their match, invigorating every mber.
After two consecutive wins they had already advanced to tier 1. Yet their opponents had also beco more powerful. Just like the guild they were facing now. They were going by the comical na of 'Ten Thousand Dogs'. But it one would underestimate this guild because of their na, they would be in for a surprise.
Ten Thousand Dogs was one of the famous guilds from Stella Beta System, a large solar system close to the central star system. As it was among the earliest systems populated after humanity explored past the central solar system, Stella Beta naturally had a lot of ti to develop, and their gaming scene was also quite mature.
Dream Avenue was prepared for a difficult fight. Since reaching tier 1 they had already received a small reward of ten uncommon items, but this was far from enough to satisfy their ambitions. However, for the upcoming fight it might be of a little help.
The two guilds faced off against each other. The surroundings turned into a large grassy plain, which didn't offer any obstacles to take advantage off.
Both guilds had one hundred people, their formations rather standard.
As soon as the fight began it beca apparent that there were no grand strategies involved in the fight. It was a pure contest of strength, very much to the audience's joy.
Warriors clashed with each other while thieves tried to reach the mages, who prepared their powerful AOE spells.
For a long ti, the fight was in a delicate balance with casualties on both sides. Only towards the end did Dream Avenue gain the upper edge when Ten Thousand Dogs failed to handle Hotpot.
The power of Liam and his friends made the decisive difference and finally led Dream Avenue to victory.
When everything was over, the guild had only thirteen mbers remaining, proving the difficulty of the battle.
After the match everyone felt rather exhausted. All mbers of Dream Avenue were sowhat apprehensive as they checked the schedule of their next fights.
Luckily C seed to favour Liam and his friends. Cyclone was the only one who had another match on the fifth day of the tournant, but it was towards the afternoon.
With so much ti left the friends ca to the decision not to watch the tournant today. Instead, they went to farm so EXP while completing so minor quests.
Only when Cyclone had her match did the friends enter the arena again.
Feeling refreshed the young woman boasted to her friends, declaring that she would definitely win. However, Liam cringed as soon as the caster announced the class of Cyclone's opponent.
It was a powerful assassin class, which perfectly restrained Cyclone. Many in the audience were worried for the mage. Only Cyclone remained fully confident as she faced the figure in indistinct black clothes.
The battle started and Cyclone's opponent instantly entered stealth, giving Cyclone no chance to stun her.
Imdiately Cyclone appeared baffled, not knowing how to react. After a mont of indecision, she quickly began casting [Static Domain].
Naturally her enemy wouldn't allow her to finish the cast. Cyclone felt a sharp sensation at her back and instantly used flash step to get away.
Unfortunately, she couldn't continue the beautiful performance from her last fight. After the flash step, her cast was interrupted.
Her opponent had only attacked with a throwing dagger, using a skill which didn’t break his stealth. Now that Cyclone had used flash step he appeared by her side for real. With flashing daggers, he took away more than 7000HP in one rotation, frightening Cyclone half to death.
All of Cyclone's fans were at the edge of their seats, hoping the young woman could still turn the match around.
Cyclone gritted her teeth, using [Lightning Strike]. To her delight she managed to paralyse the enemy. She planned to down a health potion before rapidly throwing out another attack.
But she didn't expect that when she had just opened the potion bottle, the assassin freed himself and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
Cyclone managed to heal herself, but her situation was still terrible. If she tried to start a longer cast, her enemy would appear to interrupt her. But if she didn't do so the assassin could wait for his cooldowns to recover.
Cyclone's fans were angered, clamouring that the assassin's stealth was too overpowered, demanding that C should work on the balancing.
Hearing this, Liam could only sigh. This fight only felt so difficult because Cyclone was not skilled in detecting stealthed enemies. If it were him or Bloody Edge in her place, they might be able to spot the assassin and develop counterasures.
Sadly, this was not sothing Cyclone had trained before. Thus, she was now caught in this incredibly passive situation and could only wait for the opponent to make a move.
Everyone could tell that it needed a miracle for Cyclone to win the match. Unfortunately, even her incredible luck didn't produce a miracle this ti. The fight ended just like everyone expected.
The assassin waited for so of his cooldowns to recover before he silently appeared behind Cyclone and delivered the young woman her first defeat.
The arena erupted. Cyclone's opponent also had a huge number of fans present. Of course those would be exhilarated as their favourite player won against Cyclone, who was currently the topic of many conversations.
When Cyclone returned to her friends, she let her head hang low, sighed dejectedly:
“Sorry everyone...”
All the guild mbers imdiately looked at her with surprise. Silver Blade caressed her bestest friend's shoulder, trying to cheer her up:
“What are you apologizing for? Everyone can lose a match. No need to be sad.”
“But... I said we would win. So many people know this...”
Cyclone's friends frowned. The realized that the unlucky interview was still nagging at Cyclone's mind. Everything was alright as long as they were undefeated, but now that Cyclone lost her first match the pressure got to her.
“Don't beat yourself up over it! There are at least ten different guilds who have made similar statents. No one takes those serious. Just give it your all and the fans will be happy.”, said Silent Acacia waving his hand dismissively.
“Still... it feels bad losing in front of so many people who support you. I want to do better...”
Liam patted Cyclone's back, advising her calmly:
“You can't be good at everything. Your class is really powerful but with long cast tis you are simply not made for PvP.”
Cyclone frowned sceptically. She raised her head staring at Liam:
“But aren't you good at everything?”
“Eh...”
Suddenly Liam was stunned. Seeing him like this laughter broke out among his friends. Serena cheekily added her opinion:
“He's not good at everything. He can't cook!”
Serena's words only caused even more laughter and even Cyclone's spirits were lifted sowhat as she laughed along.
The rest of the day was uneventful. Dream Avenue stuck together, watching their potential competitors, trying to learn sothing from them.
Each match at this point was highly anticipated and the clashes were brutal. But so guilds clearly stood out.
There was Kings and Queens, with the famous strategist Pri. Not only did they have top equipnt but also outstanding tactics, always able to strike at the enemy's weak spot.
Another tournant favourite was Ouroboros, whose mages were capable of all kinds of weird and tricky skills, causing their opponents a headache.
Additionally, so unknown dark horses made their nas know like Templar Society, who showed unreal levels of coordination, always able to perfectly help each other out if soone was in trouble.
As Dream Avenue watched these matches, they felt the increasing pressure, taking a hit to their confidence. Cyclone and Balm did their best to assure their guild mbers, stabilizing their emotions.
With mixed feelings the guild entered the next day. Liam had his personal match early. He was startled as he faced a fanboy, who acted even more enthusiastic than Cyclone when she saw Pri.
As the fight began, however, his opponent instantly got serious as if a second personality had taken over. Liam didn't underestimate him, fighting seriously, carrying the win ho in a convincing manner.
Despite the expected and sowhat boring outco, an audience of millions was exploding. Now that the finals were getting close, the tournant had entered its hottest phase.
Liam was already expected to be one of the tournant favourites and his matches drew an exceedingly large number of spectators.
For matches like these, C even began to assign multiple arenas. The feeling was quite magical. The arena floors of multiple arenas showed the exact sa scenes, and no one could tell where the fight was actually happening.
This change once again amazed countless tech-loving people, who tried to figure out how the ga was operating. Many hoped for explanations from the governnt officials responsible for the ga.
Those, however, didn't have an answer either and gave the questions upwards to their superiors. This chain continued until it reached Director Enurey, the researcher working on C's server.
The poor woman was so stressed out after not making any progress for months that she was a single signature away from quitting her job. Only her stubbornness to crack the server one day allowed her to keep going.
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