MMORPG : Ancient WORLD

'He is a lot tougher than I thought,' Alex thought, firmly gripping his sword and covering it in sword intent and null energy.

Alex heard a primal roar and then saw Molgrird zooming through the cloud of dust toward him, with the majority of his body covered in patches of burned flesh while his health was down to thirty percent, which was relatively higher than what Alex expected to remain.

Alex understood that he couldn't summon another lightning bolt or use any damage dealer skill in time before he would get forced to engage in a head-on battle.

Alex couldn't use the Dark Maiden because after getting the temporary Rank upgrade, the skill required 200K mana to execute, and he couldn't use it with his current mana reserve.

Alex couldn't use the Dark Lightning skill because the lightning would get locked onto the target, and in the time it would descend, he would be engaged in close combat, making it do more harm to him than good.

'Bell of Unholy Curses' Alex activated the only skill he could and vanished from his place, leaving behind a phantom.

'Phantom Sword Flash'

Alex executed the sword flash aiming to do critical damage, but he underestimated Molgrird's defense and senses, as even in his injured state, he barely lost a bit over a quarter of his remaining health while avoiding every critical slash.

Molgrird roared into action, swinging his claws that raged with chaotic aura, and in mere moments, Alex completely healed body got covered in shallow and deep gashes oozing with blood while his health was down to 60% and was going down at a rapid pace.

Alex parried and defended to the best of his ability while trying to make a safe distance to buy the thirty seconds needed for the cursed bell to manifest, but with Molgrird's agility being close to twice his own, he was getting dominated.

After ending the sword flash, Alex could not use the phantom walk skill for ten seconds, leaving him no means of creating distance.

So with no viable choice left to him, Alex took the risk and instantly used the 'Mage Focus' skill, using half of the remaining stamina to boost his mental capability by 40% for forty seconds to engage in close combat.

Alex somewhat bridged the speed gap with his heightened senses avoiding the barrage of attacks, but he was losing stamina much father than normal, which was a concern as he only had 20% stamina left.

After ten seconds, Alex regained his ability to use phantom walk, helping him keep a safe distance from Molgrird and avoid the frontal clash.

After chasing him all over the arena for a few seconds and failing to hold him in one place, Molgrird stopped moving, and with the thundering roar, the chaotic aura around his gauntlet started to expand, taking the form of beastly claws made from chaotic red energy.

Molgrird slashed his claw sending forth five giant energy slashes that tore through the ground as they made their toward Alex at incredible speed.

Alex avoided the energy slashes, and as he expected, more slashes were zooming toward the location where he appeared, making him realize that he could only avoid two or three more times before he would be forced to defend.

Molgrird could easily sense the location Alex would appear, but he couldn't physically react in time to keep him in place, but the same was not accurate with long-range attacks.

Alex dodged the energy slashes twice before appearing before Molgrird, engaging in a head-on clash while he waited for the seven seconds to pass and the cursed bell to manifest.

Alex's health was down to the last 30% when a small illusionary bell appeared above his head, and without wasting any time, he used the phantom walk to appear at the opposite edge of the area.

'Let's get this over with,' Alex thought, looking at the transparent window with a long list of curses.

After the Rank upgrade, the skill allowed Alex to use curses of his choice from the thirty available curses, with the maximum number of curses he could use simultaneously on a single target in a minute being three.

Alex could also simultaneously affect a single target with ten random curses with a cooldown of five minutes, but he chose the quality route rather than quantity even though each curse will be of peak fourth Rank.

"Curse of Blindness"

"Curse of Ringing Ears"

"Curse of Blistering Skin"

Alex selected the three curses he felt fit his situation best, and instantly the bell floating over his head moved three times, manifesting three unique-looking dark symbols around it, which slowly vanished into thin air.

Alex used a darkness slash to counter the incoming energy slashes while keeping his eyes on Molgrird, waiting for the curses to take effect.

'Air Jump,' Alex jumped into the sky, seeing Molgrird's eyes turning unfocussed and his skin tone paler and slowly filling with blisters.

Alex used the air jump to move through the air to avoid the incoming attack while he covered his blade in mana, focusing it on its edge and following it with sword intent and then with the superior version of null energy.

Molgrird's senses were disturbed by constant ringing in his ear and stinging pain from his skin, making it difficult to precisely target his attacks while making it easier for Alex to avoid them.

After a few seconds, when Alex felt that the energies on his blades were stabilized, he pulled his arm into a slashing motion.

Alex vanished from his location, appearing before Molgrird swinging his sword diagonally, the blade slicing through his torso and sending forth a wall of darkness with a rich purple hue.

Alex used the phantom walk to avoid the two claws aiming to take off his head, and watched as Molgrird's body slowly split into two halves and crashed onto the ground.

'If I could keep the energies stable and perform a phantom sword flash using them, then that would be an attack with devastating power,' Alex thought as he stopped using the Ruler pride skill.

The spectators were silent, seeing the unexpected turn of events, but after a moment of silence, the spectators erupted into a frenzy of cheers celebrating the victory of the unknown rookie.

The Elf announcer appeared back into the arena near the half-dead body of Molgrird, who had recovered from his enraged state and was looking toward the sky with drained eyes, but he had a wide bloody smile.

Alex walked toward the arena exit while his head rang with telepathic messages with invitations to meet with high-authority individuals from the guild and famed mercenary groups.

Alex ignored everything, as the only thought on his mind was finding the reason for the failed Rank promotion.

------------------

"The Boy is an abnormality, to say the least, for him to be capable of winning the battle against Molgrird, but more importantly, he holds some very unique secrets,"

"I want to ask him about his secrets, but the chances of that happening is zero without me needing to take some measures, and seeing how his strength evaluation test was handled, I know it will not end without me paying the price for my curiosity," A cloaked figure seated in one of the VIPs rooms of the arena said, keeping his eyes fixated on Alex as he walked toward the exit.

"So Riniya, Did you find out why Manager Erasmus used his position to spread the news of this battle?" The man asked, and instantly a flickering shadow appeared behind him like a ghost.

"Great Elder, It was user the orders of an Elemental Ruler who belonged to the Vampire Royalty but other than this, I failed to acquire any more information," The shadow replied.

"I expected an Elemental Ruler to be involved, and knowing his Race is good enough because now I do not need to put my life on the line to get my answers," The man said, sounding slightly relieved by the shadow answer.

"Great Elder, Please don't die on us. The guild still needs you," The shadow said before vanishing back into the shadows.

'I hope I do not need to die to receive the answer as to why that boy's soul doesn't truly belong to his body,' The man thought as he looked toward the empty sky before vanishing from the room.

"I am a Great Elder in the mercenary guild, and I belong to the clan of Mystic djinn, and I will be grateful if the fellow Elemental Master can satisfy this old man's curiosity," The man said as he removed the cloak revealing his face.

"Aleister Zaff, You want to ask why Aeon's soul and body are not synchronized naturally," Lady Margaret said as she appeared before the old man.

The old man kind elderly expression vanished, getting replaced with surprise, and without hesitation, he bowed his head.

"Lady Margaret, It is my pleasure to be graced with your presence," Aleister said, keeping his head down.

"You can ask your question from Watcher, and he will answer it but know this that the answer will be more disappointing than satisfying," Lady Margaret said, vanishing back into thin air.

'What is up with that kid for him to be connected to the Blood Moon Empress while his secrets are linked to the mysterious Watcher,' The old man thought as he vanished from his place.