Chapter 80: Berserk Warrior
Despite Sila coming out victorious in the previous clash, he was, by no means, feeling satisfied. On the contrary, Sila grasped that Fargo was more formidable than he had thought.
Genesis Punch was able to break ice pillars into particles, turn dragon scales into dust, and completely erase a dragon's tail. However, against Fargo who was a lower rank opponent than Dorolia, it could only manage to injure Fargo's arm. Sila had thought that it would obliterate Fargo's arm.
Sila started to understand the difference between players and dragons.
Firstly, dragons are a large creature, making them a bigger target to be hit, while players are similar in size. Also, for players who possess a lot of combat experience, they can think and react faster than dragons. This might be due to the fact that dragons are not familiar with one-on-one battles.
In fact, there is another reason that Sila wasn't aware of yet. That is, all the monsters lower than Lord Rank don't possess basic support skills like Basic Qi or Weapon Mastery. They might possess powerful skills but they always lack the foundations that players have.
In addition, Fargo had Universe Momentum like him but had mastered it to a realm that Sila didn't know of. He had never thought that it could be utilized in such ways. Well, it was more correct to say that Sila had yet to spend time learning his skills seriously. So far, he had only used them when the need arose.
Good grief, the person who was most surprised was Fargo himself. He had never expected himself to lose in a power contest. Now, he started to understand why Shueria decided to leave the guild to train himself over from scratch after losing to Sila. Maybe Sila possessed some quality that made him more special than others. However, Fargo couldn't describe what it was that made Sila special.
"At first, I thought you underestimated me by not being serious at the start of the battle. However, you were actually the one who was underestimated," Fargo said.
"You were also not being serious during the battle. You kept Universe Momentum to use in a deciding moment. It is not weird that I want to keep my trump card too."
"I wonder why you didn't use this punch when I gave you a chance. To be honest, just this punch alone would be enough to kill the defenseless me."
"I have already stated my reason. I don't like exploiting anyone."
Fargo nodded. "Anyway, I don't believe you can use such a powerful move like that freely. Maybe you can only use it two or three more times. Otherwise, you would use it as soon as you realized that your usual attack didn't work on me."
Sila didn't answer. Fargo's analysis was close to precise. Sila could only perform four more Genesis Punches. However, this weakness doesn't belong to Genesis Punch. It came from Sila's own incompetence.
Sila's arm started to heal. The same thing applied to Fargo. Both of them were waiting for their prominent arm to recover to the point that it could be used in combat.
Despite how Fargo didn't possess a qi-type recovery skill like Sila, his Mystic Armor Qi was the evolved form of Qi of Little Turtle so it possessed decent recovery power. Fargo's recovery rate was even as fast as Sila's. As the nameless elder had told Sila, Shapeless Qi is too bland and has no obvious prominent point except its how it was hard to detect. Thus, the recovery power of the Shapeless Qi was weaker than Mystic Armor Qi.
In the VIP room, Ratri was stupefied after witnessed the might of Sila's fist. In fact, it was more correct to say that everyone except Poluk and Bow was very surprised. It was just Ratri's reaction was more apparent than others.
"What was that? How can that guy injure Fargo?" Ratri blankly asked. She didn't expect anyone to be able to answer her though.
"That just now is Uncle Poluk's move that he has taught Big Brother Sila. It is a move developed from Fluffy Slime," Bow answered.
Genesis Punch is Poluk's personal martial skill. It isn't incorrect to say that it is a skill with the same root as Fluffy Slime. However, Bow had misunderstood the sequence of this skill.
At first sight, it would look like Fluffy Slime is the basic skill prior to being upgraded to Formless Soldier. It will later become Genesis Punch once the user has mastered Formless Soldier skill. While, in fact, it is the opposite. Genesis Punch is the skill of Poluk from the start. Afterward, it was demoted to Formless Soldier by the game master. Even with that, it is still too powerful a skill to be able to get easily. That's why it was sealed and became Fluffy Slime until the player can overcome the qi part of the slime trial.
To summarize, Genesis Punch is in fact the origin of the Fluffy Slime.
It was far from Bow's understanding. Well, Poluk didn't bother to fix this misunderstanding.
"Slime skill?" Ratri was startled.
"That's right, Big Sister. Every slime has to learn three basic skills. However, it depends on each of us to find out which skill we are proficient in," Bow explained further.
"So, Bow can do that too?" Ratri asked again. If this cute-looking slime could use such a move, the ranking of the strongest races of Monster Soul might need to be re-evaluated.
"Bow is not as good as Sila. If we are only talking about Fluffy Slime, that's it." It was Poluk who answered for Bow.
"Yeah, yeah, Bow is more proficient in Miss Viola's and Mister Divine's skills. If it's about these two skills, Uncle Poluk has complimented me that I'm better than Big Brother Sila." Bow gave a big smile. She took a deep breath of confident so her body was a little puffed up.
"Well, Sila is not that good at executing this move. The real one should have already taken down his opponent. This brings a shame on my name. My title is Death in One Fist, you know? It seems Sila needs to throw at least two more punches to defeat that kid Fargo. Geez," Poluk sighed.
This much was already beyond people's expectation but Poluk seemed to not be satisfied. Everyone in the room started to wonder which criteria this person used as a milestone.
"By the way, what are the other two skills?" Burapha asked. He had never interested in Sila's racial skills until today.
"They are Colorful Slime and Transparent Slime, Big Brother," answered Bow.
Everyone silently listened to her answer. Although their names didn't sound impactful or overbearing, if they considered the might of Fluffy Slime…
During the talk in VIP room, Fargo's and Sila's arm had finally recovered to some extent. Fargo tried to move his arm. Although it was not completely healed, he could move it normally.
The same thing applied to Sila. For him to defeat Fargo, he would have no choice but to rely on Genesis Punch. Sila could only perform Genesis Punch with his right arm. Thus, this right arm of him was very important to him in this battle.
"Here we go again. From now on, you will know why I'm called Berserk Warrior," Fargo said while closing his eyes. He was about to unleash his renowned skill.
Berserk Orc
Once Fargo opened his eyes, they had turned red. The qi around him stirred, greatly pressuring Sila.
The orcs were a race that specialized in a berserk state. Usually, once one becomes berserk, he or she will experience an increase in strength while suffering a decrease in defense and losing control over the body. However, for the orcs, their qi energy will also power up. Better yet, they can keep their calm even while they are in the berserk state.
This is the reason why there are many qi-type players choosing to become orcs.
More importantly, for Fargo, with the increase in qi energy, his Mystic Armor Qi would naturally become mightier. That was why he could enjoy the increase in offensive power without the consequence of his defense becoming lower. He was also able to maintain complete control over his body despite entering the berserk state.
Fargo closed the distance between him and Sila with a speed incomparable to before. The flow of the battle greatly pressured Sila's movement. If Sila hadn't experienced a warning from his teacher at the Bamboo Hut or hadn't dueled against Sebastian in the Mansion of the Seven Deadly Sins, he would have a hard time moving. Sila was fully aware that just evasion wouldn't be enough. He needed to rely on Twelve Celestial-Travelling-Steps to help him evade Fargo's barrage of attacks.
Having been forced into the corner, Sila performed the stepping technique without too much thought. His feet were stepping there and there eccentrically. Since space was limited, all Sila had to do was shorten his steps. The shorter the steps, the quicker he could move. Sila, who was in the middle of the barrage of punches, was moving so fast that normal people would sometimes see his afterimages.
Despite how Sila seemed to be doing just fine, using such a complicated stepping technique consumed too much of his concentration. Moreover, Fargo's punches were quick, powerful, and infused with the pulling power. Sila had to repel the pulling power form Fargo's Universe Momentum with his own Universe Momentum.
The battle had reached the state where no one dared to blink their eyes. All spectators were holding their popcorn, snacks or beverages without consuming them out of fear they will miss the decisive scene.
Even the two commentators had lost their will to explain the battle. They could only stare blankly at the battle like the rest of people. They had totally forgotten their role.
Sila's qi energy was less than Fargo's so he knew he had to end the battle before his qi was depleted. He guessed that Fargo could continue fighting this way for at least five minutes. It might seem short but any expert seeing this fight would know that only a brief moment was needed for Sila's life to come to an end. Five minutes of Fargo was too long for Sila.
Seeing the chance, Sila's right fist was thrown at Fargo's flank. His right fist was strengthened by Genesis Punch and qi reinforcement.
Although there was no sound, it was obvious that he had caused Fargo an injury. Several wounds had appeared on Fargo's side. His blood was dyeing his brown cloth black.
Meanwhile, a smile was formed on the corner of Fargo's mouth. "Caught you."
Sila, who was about to pull his fist back, realized that he had been tricked. His right fist was transfixed on Fargo's body by Fargo's Universe Momentum. Upon direct contact like this, the pulling power was too great for Sila to resist.
"You can only use that move with your right fist, can't you?" Fargo said while throwing a punch at Sila.
"Argh!" Sila tried to dodge, but he couldn't. He resisted the punch with qi reinforcement and Formless Soldier. However, the punch was still so strong. Sila thought some of his ribs had already fractured or cracked.
In fact, Fargo had noticed from the start that Sila had used Genesis Punch with the right fist. At that time, Sila's right arm was injured. Thus, if Sila could perform that powerful skill using both hands, Sila would have used his uninjured left one.
Although it was true that Genesis Punch was really powerful, Fargo was confident in himself that he could resist one more of it. He was brave enough to use his body as bait to seal Sila's movement.
Fargo's second punch was coming. Sila was throwing several left punches at Fargo but there were all ineffective. Despite Fargo's defense was declined due to the wounds Fargo had taken, it was still far surpassed Sila's attack using the left hand.
*Clang* The sound of Fargo's second fist hitting Sila was resonating. It was unlike the first fist that Sila hadn't prepared so he had a better time blocking against it. However, if he was taken more hits, he would undoubtedly die. Fargo was mercilessly aiming at the same spot.
Sila had to quickly come up with the solution to get out of this predicament. Just a brief moment later, he was smiling. He mimicked Zero's move against Cross, injecting the power of Tortured Soul into Fargo's body via his right fist. It caused Fargo to flinch for a moment.
Fargo's qi came to a halt, so Sila was able to pull his right fist away. Once he had done that, Sila didn't wait for long to throw another qi-reinforced Genesis Punch at Fargo.
Fargo's wounds were torn apart more than previously. But he was still alive. He countered Sila right away.
Sila's ribs were hurting so he couldn't dodge. He was punched at the chest. Surprisingly, Sila could maintain his posture and not fly away from the weight behind the first.
Startling, Fargo looked at what was happening. Sila was mimicking him by using Universe Momentum to transfix himself to Fargo to keep the distance between them.
Sila grinned. His left hand was grabbing on Fargo's right wrist. Meanwhile, he threw his fourth Genesis Punch.
Fargo's body was covered in blood. There were numerous wounds on his body. His legs gave out and, finally, he collapsed on the arena. As for Sila, he was standing still while circulating his qi to regenerate his power.
"I lost. I didn't expect you to be able to use elemental tranquil qi. I'm too naive to think that you're an offensive-style player just because you're able to block against my attack."
"You're very strong, Mister Fargo. I need to show many of my trump cards to fight you."
"Hahahaha, but you still have more, am I right? By the way, I have lost so I don't actually have any right to ask for anything. However, can I ask you one question?"
"Please do."
"The skill that you use to win against me, what is its name?"
"It's Fluffy Slime. It's…" Sila had yet to end his sentence when Fargo interrupted.
"Is it a slime skill?"
"Yes, it is." As Genesis Punch is a martial skill of Poluk who belongs to slime race, it is not incorrect to say that it is a slime skill, especially when it shares the characteristic with the Formless Soldier skill.
"Hahahaha, slime, oh slime. From now on, if someone tells me slime is weak, I will let him try taking my punch. Hahahaha, I hope we will meet again, Sila."
"Yes, me too."
Then, Fargo's body turned into light and disappeared. By the fact that he hadn't died immediately even after taking four Genesis Punches, Sila concluded that Fargo's toughness was even higher than Dorolia's.
The system announcement resonated throughout the arena.
"The second winner of the round-robin is Player Sila!"
Instead of a big commotion, a deathly silence reigned the Colosseum. No spectator had expected Sila to win. Many of them were rubbing their eyes, looking at the arena in disbelief. However, soon, uproars broke out. To be exact, Sila's story was currently being seen everywhere in the game forum.
Sila was still circulating qi while wondering why he had yet to be teleported to his resting room. Afterward, the surrounding arena turned into a muddy swamp. One particular man appeared in front of Sila.
Sila recognized this man. He was the one who Sila had witnessed fighting against Ginny.
The system announcement continued.
"Since there are several matches, there will be no resting time between the matches. The combatant will only get to rest if you finish your battle faster than others. Once your next opponent finishes his battle, the next match will begin immediately. By the way, this explanation was already given to every participant prior to beginning the round-robin matches. Now, let the next match begin!"
Sila in normal condition wouldn't have a very hard time winning against Venom. However, after the match with Fargo, Sila's qi was almost depleted, so whoever would emerge as the victor in this match was anyone's guess.