188 Making Connections

... 'Master Sorcerer Skill (Tier 2): Dark Tempo' BOOOOOM!!! Shin was devoured by a powerful explosion while his HP dropped with a great margin all the way until it stopped at 19% of its total. And that was because of the one of the passive skills of his upper armor. 'Equipment Skill (Upper Armor: Dusk Guard Armor): Super Immunity' (note: Super Immunity: When your HP drops below 20%, you will receive a Minotaur's Blessing for ten seconds. -Minotaur's Blessing: Become Immune to all kinds of damage and any types of CC-skills for a certain duration of time) But even if his HP stopped dropping, the exploding purple flames of the previous powerful spell didn't stop raging and making it hard for Shin to move even for an inch. (The explosions are not CC-skill.) At the same time, Celine also received a notification in her battle log that she had dealt a massive damage at Shin. But even if that was the case, she was still frowning her brows because she still didn't get the notification that she had won the battle. Meaning, Shin was still not dead yet. "What!? He was able to survive that explosion!? That was unbelievable!" "And for God's f*cking sake! That was a triple-clutch skill and the one of best skills that I currently have! Even our sub-tank can't take that kind of damage head-on. Does this mean that he has an HP and defense that is superior to our sub-tank? But he is a Swordsman!" And after a few moments, before the purple flames started subduing, Celine immediately started casting a couple of blinks away from her current location. It was because she was aware that when Shin regain his movements and got away from the exploding purple flames' restriction, she will be in trouble without a doubt. What's more, there were only 15-meters in between the two of them, and that was an ideal range for Shin to attack her the moment he got a chance. When Celine was finally got a favorable location outside the magic circle, the explosions of the purple flames that were restricting Shin already stopped while the flames itself were starting to settle down, and Shin was already about to get out from it. In fact, she could also see his silhouette inside the subduing flames. And since she already got on a favorable situation and in a good position to attack, Celine immediately raise her staff in the air before chanting out a couple of words. "Flamuous~! Infernous!" Then the scattering flames in Shin's surrounding were suddenly gather once again and started accumulating at the swordsman's position. And a moment later, the gathered flames suddenly exploded! 'Master Sorcerer Skill (Tie 2): Exploding Darkness' BOOM! Another explosion devoured Shin's body once again! But even that was the case, Celine was still frowning her brows. It was because the long-awaited notification of Shin's death was still not coming up. 'If two Tier 2 Skills are still not enough, then let's make it three!' And after that brief moment of thought, she immediately started another silent casting by waving her left hand to summon a bunch of black spheres that were made of dark elemental Mana, before sending it towards Shin's direction with a great speed. 'Master Sorcerer Spell (Tier 2): Dark Storm' Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! She did that for as fast as she could since she could already see a moving human silhouette inside the raging flames created by the previous explosion. And because of that, she didn't care about control anymore and just sent the black spheres at Shin's direction; what was in her mind was to send all them forward. But due to that, all of the black spheres were coming on Shin's way in an unpredictable angles couple with their high-speed acceleration. 'If you are still not dead this time, then you are really an odd ball,' thought by Celine to herself as she stared intensely on the human silhouette inside the subduing flames.  Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! The black spheres were only few meters away from the flames when a bunch of small silhouettes suddenly flew out of the flames and rushed straight towards the incoming black spheres. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! And on the next instant, the black spheres started to explode one by one when those small silhouettes came in contact with them. But at the same time, whatever those things behind those small silhouettes were, they were sent flying backwards after encountering the black spheres. But before they were complete thrown away, those things suddenly stopped midair and hover around the subduing flames and giving Celine a clear look at what were those things were; they were a bunch of small daggers; a group of flying dagger with a rhombus-shaped blades to be exact. And that was also the time when Shin walked out of the flames with a calm and composed manner. And when he was completely out of the purple flames, those flying daggers hovering in the air, flew towards him and circled around his body. Meanwhile, Celine was struck dumb at what she had saw. 'What!? Flying daggers hovering in the air? Is this guy for real? Having some telekinetic powers inside the game? I heard about the rumors, but this is still my first time seeing it in my own eyes!' (Then how do you call your control over your dark balls and black spheres together with some similar abilities of the other magical classes? Magic, of course! "I know guys. I'm just writing BS! Kakakaka") Well, Shin didn't care about her thoughts and whatever she felt. All he knew was he needed to end this battle fast, so that he could start training his other skills and experimenting some combos with them. Given that, Shin pointed his right-hand index finger at Celine, ordering his flying daggers to fly towards his opponent. 'Elemental Skill (Shadow/Psychic): Telekinesis' Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! The pupils of Celine's eyes suddenly contracted when she saw the flying daggers coming toward her way; especially when she saw their flighting speed as they were moving too fast! And so, Celine immediately waved her left hand to blink away from her current location. But before she could even take her sigh of relief for getting away, she saw that those flying daggers suddenly changed their trajectory and rushed towards her once again. The Fallen Naga Master Sorcerers gritter her teeth and blinked away once again, but Shin's flying daggers chased after her for another time, making her to become even more frustrated at her current situation. And knowing that she couldn't let this situation continue, she immediately started casting a spell after spell to repel the incoming flying daggers that were coming after her. But that was also when she realized another problem, some those daggers were able to dodge some of her spells and forcing her to dodge once again. And that was when a chasing game between Celine and the twelve flying daggers was started. Celine shuffled her movements between blinking away, blocking the attacks with defensive spell, or repelling them with her spells. Shin was really quite in a rush to end this battle as soon as possible, but that didn't prevent him from observing this new skill of his. And after a few more moments, the testing of his skills and practicing of his control over his flying daggers, were finally done. "I guess that was enough, so it is time to end this." Then Shin put more focus on controlling his the [Spiritual Executioners] to put more pressure on Celine. And due to the sudden increase in pressure, the latter was forced to blink once again using her final movement skill that was not in cooldown. But when she appeared on the spot few meters away from her previous location, she saw a flying dagger was already coming towards her way. Out of her instincts, she immediate wave her left hand to send a dark ball to black the incoming flying dagger. But just like before, the trajectory of the dagger suddenly changed and skillfully curved its way before continuing to come after her. Given the speed of the flying dagger, it was already too late for her to dodge this attack so all she could do was to force her body to lean sideways for as fast as she could to lessen the damage that she would get. And that was when the flying dagger graze her right shoulder before stabbing itself on the ground behind her. -10 232 -4 020(Burning Damage) 'Good thing that I managed to move my body in time,' is what Celine wanted to say but her heart almost jumped out of her throat when she suddenly felt that there was someone unknowingly standing behind her. Shin teleported himself beside the spot where the flying dagger stabbed itself after hitting Celine! 'Elemental Skill (Shadow/Psychic): Shadow Mark' And at the very same moment, Shin wave his right hand forward while having his back facing Celine. And immediately after that, the 11 daggers in the distance suddenly rushed back at him with a great speed. 'Equipment Skill (Hidden Weapon: Spiritual Executioners): Recall' Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Because of shock, Celine failed to react in time. Well, even if she wanted to dodge the incoming daggers, she still couldn't do anything about it since she already run out of any movement skills that she could use to dodge; the same for her defensive skills. As for her attacking skills to repel them, well she already know that it was useless. After that? There was nothing special happened after that, it was just Celine died after being stab by all of the remaining daggers. Each dagger dealt a damage equivalent to 200% Mixed Damage of Shin, and together with the bonus damage given by the 'Resonance' equipment skill of the [Spiritual Executioners], it was not hard to imagine how much damage did she took. And given that, Shin won another round of battle, leaving Celine staring blankly at him after she was revived by the system and teleported outside the battle arena. 'I lost once again!? What's more, I didn't even manage to force him to a quarter of all abilities!' Then Shin started jumping off from the battle stage before saying to Celine. "Alright, that should be enough I guess so I'm going now" while waving his right hand and proceeding to walk towards the door that leads to outside of the room. And that was the time when Celine snapped out of her daze, she immediately rushed towards Shin and said. "Hey! Wait!" That sight immediately made Shin to hasten his steps while saying. "Hey! Our deal was already done! I have not much time to play with you for I am such a busy person." "What are you talking about? I'm not going to challenge again, alright? I already understand that the gap between our abilities is a little too large," said Celine while she continued to chase after Shin. "So why are you chasing after me?" asked Shin as he slowed down a bit. "Let's be friends! Let's add each other as friends!" replied Celine almost instantly. "Eh!?" Shin was gotten off-guard with what she had said and stopped his steps. Then he looked at her and asked confusedly. "What did you say?" And Celine finally caught up with him and said. "Come on~! Let's be friends! You know, having more connection with famous Adventurer Team just like us is beneficial for you too! We are the Secret Society, one of the most famous adventurer teams of the virtual gaming world!" The corner of Shin's mouth twitched after hearing that. Then he said immediately after a slight pause. "Girl. You don't have to trick me; I know what you are planning. Just honestly tell me what you want from me and I might agree with it, if it was a good deal." Celine giggles a little after hearing that and said. "Hehe… Quite a straightforward person, Huh? Alight, this is the deal. You said that you are a VIP member of this Battle Arena, right? So that means, you have some connections with the Guild Leader of the Hand of Midas Trading Firm or the Town's Mayor, right?" She didn't even wait for Shin's reply and immediately added as if she was certain about her claims. "If you managed to set a meeting for us with either of the two, then our Adventurer Team will take it as a huge favor. And we will comply with any of your request. Of course, as long as it is not an unreasonable demand like disbanding the Team." The Shin suddenly fell on a deep thought after hearing that. And in just few seconds, a bunch of ideas were already appearing inside his head. Setting up a meeting with him and his Big Sis? That was pretty easy. But what was the benefits that he will get from them?... As questions after questions kept appearing inside Shin's head, the sudden thought of ideas that he got earlier, were now quickly starting to become a well-thought plan. Then grinned evilly inside his heart and looked at Celine with profound gaze before asking. "Do you have some authority about what you have said?" Celine was taken aback at what he said before replying. "Eh!? About that… I honestly don't have any authority on this kind of matter… But I can bring someone that have that kind of authority!" Shin shrugged his shoulders and said. "Then just contact me once you already with that person." Then he sent a friend request to Celine before turning his body around. "Alright! Time to go." Celine was starring blankly at Shin's back until he disappeared on her sight. And that was only the time when she snapped out of her daze state and immediately contacted her captain. "Captain! I got a news!" ....