Terra Nova Online: Rise of The Strongest Player

Chapter 238: DarkSky Dominance

After activating Body Reinforcement, Luke felt like he could finally fight against Troy on even terms, as there was nothing separating the two once his stats got artificially buffed.

Troy’s advantage over him was his longer range of attack and unorthodox fighting style that he wasn’t accustomed to facing.

While his own advantage over Troy was his technical training, as he kept his shield and sword close and did not let his opponent exploit any openings at all.

Being well trained at the academy on how to deal with enemy aggro, Luke felt confident in defending himself proficiently, which was why although Troy tried his best to establish an advantage by becoming overly aggressive, he had no breakthrough in opening up Luke’s defenses.

In such a fight, stamina became the decisive factor as when skill and strength became evenly matched, the outcome of the fight hinged on who would exhaust their energy first.

*ROAR*

*ROAR*

The beastmen section of the crowd roared loudly in support of Troy, prompting him to go harder at Luke as they encouraged him to break through.

“DON’T LET HIM GET YOU SKYLION! SHOW HIM THE MIGHT OF PASSIVE FIGHTING-”

“SUMMON THE GRIFFIN! MAKE BEAST EAT BEAST”

Luke’s supporters on the other hand, prompted him to hold strong, which was exactly what Luke did.

Between them both, Luke tactically conserved his energy while his opponent expended it wildly, as while the effects of this dynamic were not apparent at first, once a couple minutes passed and fatigue started to slow Troy down, the effects of running out of gas became apparent.

His attacks became more sluggish…. It was almost like he was trying to throw the most powerful slash, the most lazy way possible, as while he still slashed against Luke’s shield ferociously, the arc of the slash wasn’t correct and the follow through to recover attacking posture post the slash was slow as well.

His defense became full of openings for counterattacks, as it was only after it was too late that Troy realised that he had fucked up on the front of energy conservation.

Driven by the cheers of the crowd, he had become overhyped, leading to faster depletion of his stamina tank, however, by the time that he realized his mistake it was already too late.

Once his posture became full of openings, Luke went from tactical defending to tactical attacking as he started to thrust and weave around Troy like a demon who was possessed.

*Shua*

*Shua*

*Shua*

*Block*

-150

-169

*Shua*

*Shua*

Thrusting and blocking in a tight formation, Luke not only neutralized any attempts of counterattack by Troy, but also managed to graze him around his limbs, as unlike himself who could move at full speed, Troy felt difficulty moving as fast as he felt tired and sluggish.

Not having equipped a defensive weapon like a shield and never having received proper defensive training, Troy could not defend himself as well as Luke could when he was on the offensive, leading to him picking up more injuries than Luke, when his opponent went wild.

-170

-120

-120

-150

Picking up a chain of injuries, Troy started to limp and whimper, as for the first time since the fight started, the advantage in the fight decisively began moving in Luke’s favor.

*CHEEERS*

“Yeah that’s it! Cut that kitty up! Butcher it-”

“Yeahh! This is why I paid for a ticket to the stands….this fight is epic!”

“KYAAA- MY SKYLION IS SO CUTE WHEN HE FIGHTS-”

The human crowd went bonkers for Luke when he finally established dominance in the fight as they felt extremely satisfied in watching their preferred candidate dominate their common enemy.

Finally, as Luke went for a thrust to Troy’s abdomen, the tiger beastman promptly blocked the attack using both his tiger claws, however, he never expected it to be a feint.

Immediately dropping his sword and shield, Luke ducked under his wild swing to reach his back, as the second Troy missed his swing, he knew that he had lost the fight.

*BAM*

Being picked from the waist up, Troy saw the earth spin before being planted head down into the soil as Luke gave him a terrifying suplex.

-77.

While in itself the damage done by the suplex wasn’t much… It was the nature of the damage that made it much more threatening than any cuts.

A suplex on the head stunned the opponent taking it. Which made them more prone to taking more suplexes and hence Luke’s suplexes were more threatening than any sword slash as while one could still be on their feet moving when they received a sword cut, they could not do the same when being planted headfirst into the mud.

*BAM*

*BAM*

*BAM*

*BAM*

.

.

.

.

*BAM*

After the first suplex, Luke continued to give his opponent a flurry of fifteen more suplexes, until his opponent was knocked unconscious from the assault and went completely limp.

“YEAHH! SUPLEX DEMON!”

“Hohoho, he sure knows how to entertain”

“Hahaha, did you see the last four suplexes? The way the beastmans arms were flopping…. Hahaha, too funny”

The crowd went absolutely bonkers for Luke’s suplexes, as when Luke knocked his opponent unconscious to win the fight, the entire arena broke into collective chants of “Suplex Demon”

“The winner of this fight…. Via incapacitation…SKYLION-” The match announcer said, as the referee raised Luke’s hand in victory.

*Claps*

*Cheers*

*Incomprehensible shouts*

Having his hand raised, Luke soaked in his moment of glory as he basked in the cheers of his supporters with joy.

He had fought hard to win in the quarterfinals, which made the victory feel just that much sweeter.

From the upper stands, his principal and the students of the Royal Knight Academy seemed to be clapping and cheering wildly for him, as for them it was a matter of great pride that one of their academy students had made it to the final four.

Hailed as an unprecedented genius…. Everyone had expected him to reach this stage, however, for him to fulfill their expectations still felt extremely satisfying.

“Huh? Where am I?” Troy said, after regaining consciousness as he found himself surrounded by medics tending to his wounds.

It took him a few moments to recall how his fight ended, however, once he realized that he had lost the fight, tears began to streak down his face as he felt like he had let his fans down big time.

“Hey… it was a good fight. Maybe if you conserved your energy better, the outcome could have been different -” Luke said as he extended his hand for his opponent to shake, who took it sportingly.

“While I’m sad I lost, I’m not sad to lose to you…..you’re a beast of a man SkyLion, I have nothing but respect for you-” he said, as the heartfelt moment between the two strong contestants made many in the audience smile, but many other frown as just like Leo before him, they did not wish for Luke to show sympathy to a non-human fighter either.

However, just like Leo, Luke did not care about their opinion either and continued to be a class act which he truly was.

**********

( Meanwhile Cervantez )

When Cervantez heard the announcer say that the winner of the bout was SkyLion, a wave of relief washed over him.

SkyLion reaching the semifinals meant that the DarkSky guild already had a 25% probability of winning this tournament, while him winning his fight could make it a whopping 50%.

While these probabilities were not realistic and did not factor in the strength of their opponents, it still felt good to think about as Luke was the only individual that gave Cervantez hope in his DarkSky guild project.

Time after time, Luke exceeded his expectations and performed exactly how Cervantez wished he did, as of all the guild members, Cervantez found him to be the most reliable.

‘I made the right choice to add his name to the guild name and make him vice guildmaster…. He deserves it-‘ Cervantez thought as a soft smile spread on his face and he nodded his head in excitement.

“Guess it’s time for me to show some of my skills too….. can’t let the vice guildmaster look like he’s better than the guildmaster-” Cervantez murmured to himself as he began to warm up and get ready for his name to be called out as it was his fight that was to follow Luke’s.

His opponent today was the Ranger class NPC Adam, the same guy who had won the grand tournament in his past life.

He was an extremely strong fighter with nearly no openings to exploit, however, unfortunately for Adam, Cervantez already had knowledge of all his hidden cards.

While Adam truly believed that nobody could anticipate the moves he had under his belt, because he had never shown them before, Cervantez already knew what exactly he could do, which was the source of his confidence to win this fight.

“Introducing next….” The match announcer said, as he introduced Andy first, much to the joy of the nobles seated in the crowd.

Compared to Luke and The Boss, the reception that Andy received was much colder and the one that Cervantez received was colder even still, as while they were both popular and well recognised contestants, their popularity amongst the masses was not nearly as much as Luke and Leo’s.

As their fight began, Cervantez controlled every aspect of their bout from the start to finish, as he practically forced Adam to use his hidden move, the curving arrow shot and used it against him in an unexpected turn of events to win the fight rather spectacularly, devastating Adam and the Royal Ranger Academy, who could not believe that their prodigy lost.