187 Round 2: Let’s be safe

...… Celine looked at Shin who was currently sheathing his sword in the battle stage. She didn't expect that this guy was this strong. She got a little curious about him because of his battle against the Nameless Swordsman; and that guy was able to fight against some Titled Rankers on an equal footing. Even if that guy got some help during the war, there was still an evidence proving that the famous rising star of the Saint Heaven Kingdom have a battle prowess that was comparable with a Title Ranker, despite being a player that have a lower level. And this guy in front of her was someone that managed to score a draw against that amazing swordsman. Even if the Nameless Swordsman was holding back during their fight, this guy was also not using all of his strength during that battle based on what she had witnessed, so he must also have some hidden battle prowess that can make him as strong as some Titled Rankers or a Maverick Ranker just like her. On the Kingdom that she came from, even if she wasn't the greatest new recruit on her team because there was a monster girl on their team that was recruited on the same time as her, she could still be counted as one of the best and brightest rising stars too, so she also had some ability that was said to be comparable to some famous Official Titled Rankers. And the ability that got her to become famous was her special talent to be able to do a Silent Casting with most of the Skills that she had. What's more, she belonged to on of the one of the most well-known Adventurer Teams of the Virtual Gaming World, the Secret Society. So, most the other players in that Kingdom were too jealous of her. But one day, the Commander of their Adventurer Team suddenly became interested on the one of the rising starts of this Kingdom, the Nameless Swordsman. What's more, their Commander even said that the talent of this mysterious guys was comparable to the monster girl of their group if not greater, so she suddenly became curious of this swordsman, and that was why she watch most of all of his battle videos. And that was when he discovered this guy in front of her, another guy that could also be considered as strong as the monster girl on their team. But from what she could see, the talents of these two guys were pretty much average compared to that monster girl of their team. She was the one that was always with that girl after all, so she was quite familiar with her strength; she even made that girl as her idol because of her battle style. Given that, she couldn't see why their Commander said that their talent was comparable with her idol. And that was the reason why she asked their Commander regarding that matter, but the answer that she got was pretty much unsatisfying. The Commander said that if she couldn't see the reason behind those words, then her strength and knowledge according to virtual world was still a little bit lacking. And now, it seemed that coming to this place was a right choice. It was majority because of she was now starting to see what her Commander meant when she said that these two guys were comparable to her idol. It was because she couldn't comprehend how strong they were. It was as if they were some ordinary players in the first look and you will never know how strong they were unless you were fighting against them. What's more, this guy in front of her didn't even use his full power to defeat her. And naturally, it hurt her pride a little. And as if rubbing some salt on her would, she didn't even manage to land a single hit on his body. 'Tsk! I didn't expect that this guy is too troublesome to deal with. He didn't even need to use his cloning skills to beat me,' said Celine to herself after that long train of thoughts. And immediately after that, she added to what she said. 'But as if I'm going to bow down without putting up a decent fight.' Then she took a deep breath before climbing up on the battle arena once again. At the same time, Shin walked towards the other edge of the other stage that was opposite to the edge that Celine had climbed into. And Shin was also considering if he going to use his new skills in this battle or not. "Hmm… Should I try using the telekinesis skill this time? And experiment with some of my related skills on it?" One of the good things that the Battle Arenas could give was that all of the skills of the players training inside the rooms of the arena, were going to be cooldowned and ready to be use any time after every battle (Limited only to all of the skills that were used inside the training room with the exception of some special skills). So, while Shin was having those kind of thoughts, Celine immediately started to cast her dark balls as her opening move for another time before quickly setting up her magic net once again. She learned her lessons already and took full advantage of the handicap that Shin had gave her. But too much of her surprise, Shin didn't even move even a single inch from his current position. He just stood there straight, while watching her to cast her magical net. And when she noticed that, she couldn't help but to become even more frustrated at the him. 'Isn't this guy underestimating me too much?' And she immediately became provoked. Well, most of the girls were always like that, when their skills were in question, their competitiveness were suddenly going to get triggered. Given that, she immediately went all-out and activated her berserk skill from the get-go. Then her body started to release some black smokes before gathering behind her while transforming into a bunch of runes that form a black circle that was turning in a slow manner and moving in a counterclockwise direction a little later. 'Sorcerer Skill (Berserk): Chant of Darkness' And when that happened, Celine's casting speed suddenly become even more faster. At the same time, her control over her dark balls became a little more flawless, making her to set up her magic net in an even faster way. Meanwhile, Shin who was calmly watching all of that to unfold, suddenly raised one of his brows when he saw the rotating circle that was made of runes at Celine's back. "Huh? That skill was pretty much similar to the one that Hanzo used whenever he entered his 'Dimension Traveler' state. Should I try using the 'Duplicator's Eyes' and copy it? Hmm… Nah~! It is better to save it for now. I'm planning to use it on the upcoming battle with that guy called Immortal. What's more, this skill falls on that special category of skills that can't be reset after using inside this place." And when Shin saw that Celine was already done at setting up her defenses, he finally started making his moves. He also entered a stealth mode this time, but he didn't immediately charge forward just like what he did earlier. From the looked of it, he was planning to attack just like a traditional assassin at this point. And since Shin let Celine to set up her defense, all of her dark balls were now revolving around her with a quick motion while covering a total of 20 meters radius away from her. And there was a total of 20 dark balls all in all, so it seemed to be hard for anyone to approach her from any direction. 'Epic Combat Technique: Dark Zone' Well, even if that was the case, Shin was still calmly looking at her while circling around her outside the area of her defense and also patiently waiting for her to make a mistake. 'Heh! Controlling this number of dark balls? It was pretty much effective in a team battle or fast phase battle. But on a one-on-one fight just like this, and a prolonged one at that, it was pretty much obvious that it was not a very good choice.' And the reality proved Shin right. It was because Celine just realized her mistake once again, she became rush at her decision making earlier because of her emotions got over her head. What's more, she didn't expect that Shin would be a 'despicable' man just like this. 'D*mn! What a cunning b*st*rd! Luring me in a fast-based battle earlier before going in a patient game later! I guess he also remained standing at the start of the battle earlier with a purpose of provoking me. And here I am being so dumb for falling on such a simple beginner's trick!' Then Celine closed her eyes while taking a deep breath to calm her nerves down. And after a quick moment, she opened them once again before mumbling to herself. "This can't continue. My Mana will run out dry if I keep doing this for a long period of time; same goes for my concentration. So, need to find him fast!" And immediately after that, Celine raised the staff on her right hand, making the dark balls that were revolving around her to spread outwards while maintaining their formation and high-speed movements. At the same time, Shin started moving backwards to get away for the path of the dark balls for as fast as he could so that he will not get discovered. And while moving back backwards, he also found some openings on the movements of his opponent's dark balls. So, without further ado, he immediately rushed forward and passed through those openings to get near Celine. But he didn't jump in just like before, because he didn't do a rapid rush like what he did earlier, he just charged forward with a calm manner instead, and with a couple of some gentle movements. It was for him to not get detected by his opponent. Everything was going according to what he had imagined for a moment, but when he reached the 15-meter mark away from Celine, the latter suddenly stomped her staff on the ground, making the dark balls that she sent earlier to return back to her with a great speed. At the same time, she also waved her left hand upwards as if she was summoning something. And on the very same moment, the ground beneath her suddenly illuminated with a purple light together with a huge magic circle with a radius of 30 meters. The corner of Shin's mouth suddenly twitched after seeing all of those to happen. 'F*ck me sideways for always being too careless! So those dark balls are not only for detection and defense, she can also draw some magic circles with it. D*mn! That was an amazing skill!' And immediately after that, Shin quickly tried to use some of his movement skills to escape his current predicament. Yes, he tried, but also failed to do so. That was because he suddenly realized that he couldn't use any kind of skill; and so, he looked at his skill action bar to see what had happened. And that was when he saw that aside from all of his passive skills, all of his other skills were already been grayed out! 'What the heck? So, this magic circle spell also has some silencing effect?' Then his predicament suddenly gone for the worst. And that was why he urged his head to think faster as he tried to look at his opponent to see if he could interrupt the spell. But unfortunately for him, that girl was quite clever too, for she was able cast another defensive spell to protect her body from any kind of harm during the casting time as there was already a cocoon-like barrier protecting her. And that was when his not so good predicament became even more worse than the worst. Give that, Shin finally ran out of ideas about how he could escape this troublesome situation. It was already too late to escape from the magic circle because his path was now being blocked by the dark balls that were moving in a high-speed manner. At the same time, he also couldn't interrupt the spell since Celine was already being protected. 'Tsk! Looks like I have no other choice but to face this head-on.' And with having no other choice, he was forced to take the full damage of the spell. Shin took another quick look at his skill action bar before mumbling to himself. "Looks like this is going to hurt, but let us still pray that I will survive it in the end." And the accumulation of the Mana on the magic circle on the ground finally reached its peak and released a blinding purple light. And that was when Shin said his final mumble. "Let's be safe" BOOOOOM!!! ...…