EFate: An MMO Story Chapter 81: Round Two

Returning to the stands, Eric joined his friends as they watched Rob's match. Rob won without much effort, simply kiting his opponent to death with a mix of water and earth spells as his opponent futilely chased him around the stage.
"Are these fights as easy as they look?" Gio asked as Rob returned to his seat.
Rob laughed, "Easier. They're all scrubs."
"It should get a little tougher in the later rounds. Right now we're probably all seeded pretty high due to our levels," Griffin speculated.
"Or maybe they all just suck. I'm up in a bit, peace," Jun replied, heading down to the stage where a fighter had just slammed a shield into his opponents face.
Watching the bright light envelope the man who'd just received a face full of shield splinters, Eric observed the other fights. Most of the fighters were fairly low level, using common skills such as Shield Bash or Flame Strike to finish off their opponents in a crude fashion. Occasionally, a higher level fighter would appear, mopping the floor with his opponent in under a minute if they were good, or simply relying on the power of higher level skills and better stats to grind out a win if they were not.
From what Eric could tell, Axesmasher had actually been one of the stronger low levels. Certainly, there didn't seem to be very many fighters with as much power and conviction in their attacks as Axesmasher possessed. It was just a shame he'd met someone with more fighting experience than himself in only his first match.
True to his word, Jun finished off his opponent in record time, sending arrow after arrow into the gaps in his opponents armour. His opponent, a young looking elf wielding only a longsword, was teleported away with a bitter expression on his face, having been unable to even close the gap between himself and Jun before succ.u.mbing to the acc.u.mulated damage of five arrows to the chest.
"Easy," Jun said, giving Rob a high-five as he returned to his seat.
The remaining matches of the first round went by in a similar fashion. One by one, they went down to partic.i.p.ate in their matches, easily dispatching their hapless opponents before returning to their seats. Only Gio struggled, facing off against a fellow tank, he defeated his opponent after a somewhat lengthy battle involving more shield bashes than Eric could count.
The last member of the group to go onstage was Griffin. As Eric watched, Griffin used Wild Strike, the illusory claws appearing in midair as his sword cleaved through his foes robes, the magical fabric offering little resistance.
Griffin relied heavily on Wild Strike, using his powerful skill to batter aside his opponent's defenses and inflict heavy damage. Even now, a full two weeks in game since they'd encountered the Swordclaw, the group had yet to encounter a skill stronger than Griffin's Wild Strike. If Mark wasn't so in love with his wolf pup, which he was currently feeding some skewered meat from a nearby vendor, it was possible that he would have been extremely envious of Griffin for obtaining such a powerful skill.
Unfortunately, Griffin's understanding of the skill wasn't high enough for him to teach it to anyone else. From what Eric could understand, it required mana to be infused into the blade, but Griffin's understanding of how this worked wasn't at the level where he could show them how to recreate the technique. Frustratingly for the rest of the group, the skill remained only Griffin's for now, and he used it to devastating effect.
"And Lixra Dawnharp advances to the next round! Fighters, the pairings for round two will appear momentarily. We will begin round two after a brief five minute break," Halfthur announced, his magically enhanced voice echoing through the stadium.
"Is that an NPC fighter?" Eric asked, staring at the tall female adventurer waving to the crowd as she descended from the stage.
"No clue. She's cute though," Gio replied.
"Send Gio to talk to her. If he comes back with a new friend it's a player. If he comes back with a new girlfriend it's an NPC," Ryan suggested.
"Hey! It's not like every female NPC I meet wants to go out with me. I do have NPC friends you know," Gio protested.
"That's not a bad idea actually," said Rob, appearing to give serious thought to Ryan's suggestion.
"Seriously guys?" Gio asked, the picture of wounded pride.
Ryan laughed, "Just kidding, Gio."
"Yeah. We wouldn't actually send you over," Eric added, getting a thankful look from Gio. "We'd probably just invite her over here instead."
This earned him a reproachful stare from Gio, and grins from the rest of the group as they began to plan for round two.
Round two pa.s.sed by in much the same fashion as the first had. Eric's fight this time was slightly easier, while the others enjoyed fights on the same level as the first round. Evidently, there were still more than enough low level partic.i.p.ants to go around, at least this early on in the tournament.
Dispatching his opponent with a pommel strike, Eric watched as the now familiar blue glow surrounded his foe, teleporting them offstage.
"And Erick Kystfyr will advance to the third round! Tony Shadow is eliminated," Halfthur announced grandly, causing Eric to cringe once more as he heard the name of his opponent.
Erick Kystfyr definitely isn't that bad a name, all things considered, Eric thought to himself as he descended from the stage, shuddering at the idea of calling himself Eric Shadow.
Returning to the stands, Eric joined Rob in watching the next match on group B's stage. The rest of the group were all fighting fairly soon, so they'd each left to get ready for their own matches, leaving only Rob and Eric in the stands to watch the ongoing matches.
The group had each agreed to watch the matches in their own division, scoping out the other fighters they might encounter in the upcoming rounds. Due to the fact that none of them had been placed into group A, Gio had been sent to monitor the group A fighters, while the rest of them would observe the fights of group A whenever their own stage was clear.
"There really isn't a lot of talent in group B," Eric remarked, watching a swordsman charge after an archer who was fleeing for her life.
"The guy who fought before you was pretty good actually," Rob replied, watching the two fighters as they continued to play a macabre game of tag.
"True. I wasn't expecting the fight to end so quickly, I wasn't even at the stage by the time it ended," Eric replied thoughtfully.
On stage, the swordsman had finally caught up to the archer only to trip and fall, his sword flying several metres away, clattering uselessly across the stage. Not missing the opportunity, the archer pounced on the swordsman, drawing a dagger as she engaged the fighter in a wrestling match.
As this was happening, Halfthur's voice cut through the arena, with an announcement that caused Eric to snap to attention, forgetting the ongoing fight as he searched the stages below.
"Tamira Copperhair wins! Gerd Steelshirt is eliminated."
Checking the other stages quickly, Eric spied a familiar red-headed spearwoman waving to the crowd as she descended from the division A stage.
Seeing Eric's reaction, Rob followed his gaze, observing the redhead as she made her way back to the stands.
"You know her?"
"Yeah. You've probably seen her around Tonbura at least once. She's part of a party of three with a mage and a tank. I didn't know they'd be partic.i.p.ating," Eric replied.
"Are they any good?"
"Yeah. They're not bad, but unless they've all gotten a lot better, we should all be able to beat them. They're the party I fought last week," Eric explained as the archer finally finished the fighter off, letting out a primal scream as Halfthur announced her victory to the crowd.
As it turned out, Tamira wasn't the only player partic.i.p.ating in the tournament that Eric recognized. Katzy and Alexnir were both partic.i.p.ating in Mark's division, while Seryllia was in Griffin, Ryan, and Jun's group. Astrid had also reappeared, fighting in division A where her arrows made short work of her opponent. Most interesting to Eric however, was the fact that both Aria and Turk were present: Aria in group A, and Turk in group C.
Making an excuse to Rob, Eric was just about to head over towards Aria and Turk when Halfthur's voice echoed through the arena once more.
"And Slygo Leathrum advances to the next round! With that, round two is finished! We are officially down to only two-hundred and sixty-seven fighters remaining, which means there are only three rounds to go before we enter the top thirty-two. Fighters, your pairings for round three will appear above me momentarily. Good luck!"
Making a mental note of their position in the stands, Eric reminded himself to head over and add them to his friends list after the round was complete, settling down to continue watching the group B matches.