Silent Field.
Silences everything in a one kilometer radius for 5 seconds. Skills, spells, manifestations and even abilities are included.
In Zerø, being a fast-paced game, a momentary pause, or even a second of delay can make the game's flow to tilt.
And now, this was happening.
After that Silent Field, which hit both Dragon Scale and Faustin, Sarin made his move, and without a hitch, gave Faustin a massive combo.
With each and every attack, Sarin has 50% chance of inflicting the Silence again. And with 5 seconds of duration, he can do it again and again, until Faustin dies.
Yet, although spells and skills are silenced, movement is still there.
If he is the "Stun Knight", maybe he can give the headache to Faustin; but that's why Faustin is called Rookie God.
Sarin continued on pressing forward, but Faustin dodged all the attacks. Like a fish in the water, his moves looked like he was floating, and every attack was almost a miss.
5 seconds is not long, but that was the longest 5 seconds in history of the game.
Will Sarin Silence Faustin again, or will he recover first?
As the people watched, the anticipation climaxed. In just a span of five seconds, the whole world aimed their attention on the screen before them.
Counting in their heads, the watch the 5 seconds go by.
00:05
Sarin lunged at Faustin.
He used his greatsword to Slash, Faustin evaded it; but Sarin did not stop, he spun around and kicked Faustin, but it did not connect.
00:04
Faustin saw this opportunity to counterattack, but he was too late. Sarin used his sword as an anchor and slammed the shield towards Faustin.
Faustin dodged to the side, only to be met by the greatsword, coming from where the shield is. The slam was made to hide the swing of the greatsword.
00:03
The swing connected, but it did not proc the Silence, yet it slashed away almost 20% of Faustin's health.
Seeing this, Sarin used his shield to attack again, but this time, Faustin knows what to do. Instead of dodging, he created distance, yet Sarin read him again and attacked again.
00:02
With a sudden lunge towards him, Faustin was surprised to see Sarin reading his tempo. He then dodged again, and created another distance, yet Sarin followed him.
Faustin was surprised, yet again, and they went into a chase.
00:01
Sarin pushed all his gaming cells into movements, and he followed Faustin with no hesitation. This battle is the anchor of everything, and if he can win against Faustin here, he can create a foothold for his team.
He then slammed his shield towards Faustin, and when he did, he hit him.
00:00
Or more likely, he felt like he hit something, and this proc his Silence.
Yet, he was met with a force that sent him back, flying. His body destroyed a few of the rooftops, and he almost fell down a gap.
Faustin's Dragon Scales came back to life.
And in this moment, cheers came to the stadium.
The longest five seconds erupted like a volcano waiting for a thousand years.
"It's over." Thom's voice rang out as the Dragon Scales came back to life.
Like a serpent, wise enough to coil it's body to protect itself; like a lion, with it's might being displayed; like an eagle, spreading it's wings, and like a fox, cunning and grinning menacingly at its prey.
Sarin, who was on the offensive, began using his shield like a tortoise' shell. The bombardment of the blades came, and he was pushed back again and again.
He tried to counterattack a few times, but it was futile, as the blades just found weak points in his defence, which crumbled down easily.
And, without further ado, the once lively Stun Knight, become particles, as the last point of health dropped.
Second victory, for Faustin.
As the crowd went wild with excitement, Thom and Gheri were also bewildered.
The one who stood up from La Flora is none other than Michael Han, the captain.
The crowd cheered for this moment, and all of the fans in the online platforms were also cheering for another historical video.
As Michael went inside the pod, his character, Mikey, is another pure class.
He chose the Swordsman Class, from start, to finish, and was able to wield swords for in it's own glory.
That is why, he was called "Chrysanthemum", the tiny flower but beauty and different hues color each petal.
The Chrysanthemum Blade, Mikey.
As the loadout happened, Faustin took his stance, and got ready. It was a battle for a fifth trophy, and of course, Faustin wants to win.
And Mikey, is the captain, so he wants to show the world, how a captain must look.
[3]
[2]
[1]
BOOM!
The sound of collision was louder than he sound of the starting phrase.
The crowd was blanketed with the strong sound that some of the speakers burst through. Some of the technicians' wires also got burned.
The game only just started, but the media team were already getting antsy.
But, as the bright flashes appeared, the panoc turned into admiration.
Though without a good sound, the fight was well documented.
Faustin, who has almost half health, was running, kiting, and poking Mikey, but the two have almost the same kind of ability.
They don't let others hit them, unless they can hit them too.
Mikey, who was chasing the slippery eel, casted some skills here and there, and small spells such as Burst and Step spells to run faster, and close the distance.
Faustin, who is also running, threw some spells such as Blink and skills such as Dash to run away.
But, these fights are decided through the timing of skills and spells. So, although he was the one being chased down, Faustin must poke and abuse his spells and skills to get the perfect timing when Mikey uses his own kit.
And so, the chase went down, but the two created a symphony of skills, wits and strength to oust the other.
But, one will always out-hit the other.
Out-hit: the term used when two opponents, has same skills, but different level of skills.
Let's say, for example, in boxing. Two people box, has the same height, weight, arm reach and physique; it will all come down to their experience in the battlefield.
And the truth can be said in the game. Inside 3 minutes, the two had many exchanges, but Mikey was bruised all over.
Faustin's healthis down to 20%, while Mikey has 40%. From the initial 50%, Faustin just lost 30% but Mikey lost twice as much.
This time, it was the crowd who chanted the magic words.
"3v1!"
As one voice shouted, the others chanted it like a mantra they were waiting their whole life. A legendary achievement, of fighting three opponents, while saving their health and skills.
Maybe, one of the Mighty 10 will be changed today, and the crowd is getting hyped up for this.
Seeing this, Ghery dropped the bomb. It's simple, a stone in still waters, bread in the midst of a lake of koi fishes, a bullet through the forest, or a hot water in the midst of the desert.
"The team that gets this might win the game today."
As he spoke the snippet, the uproar went loud, enough to rumble the whole stadium. People who were outsideee felt the earth trembling by the voices inside the colosseum.
It was an epic battle that people will tell, and as long as Project: Zerø lives, they will say that they were ones of the people who shouted that day because of excitement.
A 3v1 by the player Faustin, against the Captain of La Floras, Mikey.
As the two were eyeing each other, the room went silent from the uproar, but it did not last long.
The Dragon Scales moved like serpent slithering its way towards the prey.
But, Heroes are always swordsmen, fighting the said dragon.
In this battle, the dragon may be overwhelming, but the hero is also a man that fought many battles to train his mind. It was a typical fairy tale story, but the representation is more intense.
Pulling the second sword on his back, Mikey took his stance and ran towards Faustin.
In response to this, Fausting divided the scales into small pieces where he can step on it, and almost "flew" towards the incoming Mikey.
With two swords in hand, Mikey dodged the other pieces of the scales that Faustin sent, making him look like dancing while parrying some.
Many people knew, that the Dragon Scales, wherever they may be, can be controlled by Faustin, but against the dual-wielding Mikey, this problem is a bit solved.
His two swords - Raven and Dove - has distinct characteristics.
Raven, which is a Black Weapon that they got in clearing the dungeon "Odin's Hideout". This was a Raven that wanted to help Odin, but was rejected because there were two who were stronger than him.
Seeing the treatment, the raven decided to go to Helheim, the dark side of the Yggdrasil. In his journey, he saw how weak he was, compared to the two other ravens, which were the subject of admiration from others.
In the end, he went and made a deal with Hel, the ruler of Helheim, to help her in Ragnarok, Hel only laughed at him. This in turn, made the raven attack Hel, and cause a wound.
The blood that flowed out, which he drank, created a series of mutations in his body, but he was killed by Hel, only to be taken by Brokkr and Sindri, and created a masterpiece from the failure of Heaven and Hell (Asgard and Helheim) but drank the blood of God.
From his bones, claws, blood and talons, came the sword, Raven, but it was incomplete. Raven, yet again, was considered a failure, and was set aside.
Thus, the story of the sword, became a legend.
And Mikey, when he saw the sword, was smitten by the story, not because it's a sob story, but he saw the power of Raven.
Energy Absorption - absorbs every energy of the enemy when struck. Energy conservation is only 10%.
It means every time he parries a part of the Scales, he can absorb their power, and boost him up. In this way, he can push Faustin in a corner.
Faustin, seeing this, made a split-decision, and jumped up to the sky.
Using the scales in his possession, he decided to use these to be stepping stones for him. He lunged towards Mikey, and Mikey responded with his own skills.
Sparks flew as the two fought with their weapons.
Mikey, using Dove, slashed towards Fausting. Being a White Weapon, Dove's skill, Energy Release, compliments Raven's Absorption. With these two, Mikey drains Faustin, but the other is no pushover.
Using the Scales, he created his own two swords that went to fight Mikey.
When the swords will match Raven, it divides so Raven can't Absorb, and Faustin dodges the atack.
When the swords match Dove, they will make a stronger offense to meet the attack.
As Mikey was pushing Faustin back, Faustin also hits him in angles he did not expect.
In Mikey's mind, if he gave up the momentum, Faustin will definitely win in no time, as he was being hit again and again, and going back right now can make the fight end.
In Faustin's mind, if he won't stop attacking, Mikey will definitely back up and he will pick up some space for himself to breathe.
Both players were at the ends of their wits, but only one will prevail.
As their health bars dropped to the red zones, Faustin decided to break the stalemate.
With one move, he slithered away and pulled all his scales back. Meanwhile, Mikey saw this as an opportunity. With that in mind, Mikey then made his move.
"Sword Flash - Lightning Strike..." This is his first Spell, the spell that made him a champion.
"...Absolute Domain." And now, adding thr next syllables made the move stronger. Electricity gathered in his sword.
On the other end, Faustin took his scales and formed wings from it.
"Kingdom of the Dragon God - Full Descent!". With this, the two has their spells clashing for the final moment.
As the attacks went for each other, the screens shook, and dust covered the cameras.
"VICTORY!"
It says as the crowd went silent.