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As long as he landed one more Normal Attack, even without using Magic Swordsmanship, he could finish off that arrogant mage. However, things were not as simple as he had imagined.

In the brief gap between consecutive attacks, the enemy in front of him suddenly turned around. Bouncy burst into laughter. “I thought I wouldn’t need to use this thing…”

As he spoke, the ring in his hand erupted with a crimson flash that shot straight toward the Mana Blade.

‘What?’ The instant the red light touched the blade, the Mana Blade was forcibly unequipped and automatically returned to the inventory!

Zane froze on the spot. Seriously, getting your weapon stripped away halfway through a Normal Attack would leave anyone dumbfounded.

The mage immediately swung his staff, launching a mana sphere straight at him.

The defense of a Beginner class was truly pitiful. The only reason the damage had not exceeded a thousand was because of his equipment. Even so, one-fifth of his HP vanished instantly.

The enemy looked even more shocked. “You’re this tanky??” Even while stunned, he continued gathering energy for another spell.

Zane shook his head sharply. ‘I can’t remain this passive!’ Even if he temporarily could not use his weapon, he could still evade attacks through movement. The distance between them was barely over a meter, so Zane easily closed in on the mage.

The spell was already nearly complete, on the verge of being unleashed.

Suddenly, Zane’s foot slid sideways. Using the momentum, he slipped behind the enemy, causing the magic attack to miss naturally.

The mage reacted quickly, instantly turning around while condensing another spell. Yet there was no one in sight! ‘Did he reposition again? No, I can still clearly hear his footsteps, right behind me!’

The mage abruptly spun around, only catching a fleeting afterimage. His expression darkened.

This was an extremely common technique in the individual championship tournaments of Glazed Lycoris Radiata. By constantly moving, one remained locked within the opponent’s blind spot at all times. It sounded easy in theory, but the actual execution was far more difficult than people imagined. After all, there was no way to predict whether the opponent would suddenly change direction the next moment.

“Dammit, don’t think just any random nobody can pull off a trick like this!” the mage roared as he spun around again. Another afterimage swept past, stirring a faint breeze.

But Zane never responded. From beginning to end, his eyes remained fixed on the back of the enemy’s head. The slightest movement would make him instantly shift in the opposite direction. Under such intense concentration, he could no longer even hear Bouncy’s voice.

“Stop playing tricks and get out here!” The mage kept spinning frantically, yet no matter how hard he looked, he could not catch sight of his opponent. Only the rhythmic footsteps clung to him like a shadow.

“Over here!” No figure.
“Here!?” Still nothing.

Before they realized it, the two had spun around long enough for the disarm duration to end, yet Zane remained completely unaware of it. He had immersed himself in his own world, doing everything possible to stay inside the enemy’s blind spot.

‘Left… No, he’s going to change directions, right! Now left again!’

“What are they doing? Playing hide-and-seek?” DumbCitrus could not make heads or tails of it.

“I think…” Shiu pondered for a moment before saying, “Zane’s probably trying to stall out the disarm timer by abusing vision blind spots.”

The surrounding spectators also began discussing it among themselves. “Emberveil knows how to blind-spot kite? And that level of combat awareness… he doesn’t look like some newbie carried by experience farming. Wonder why he still hasn’t changed classes.”

“Damn, it’s been ages since I’ve seen moves like this. This takes me back!” someone exclaimed.

10 seconds.
20 seconds.
30 seconds.

Even Pyrestorm’s cooldown had already refreshed, yet the two people in the arena had completely forgotten this was a death match, numbly circling each other over and over.

Finally, Bouncy stared blankly at the afterimage. “Heh… heh… I caught… you…” Then he collapsed face-first onto the ground.

Zane stopped behind him and remained motionless for a long while. One minute later, he opened his exhausted eyes. The Mana Blade came down in a slash, taking away the enemy’s final sliver of HP.

He had accidentally gotten too into spinning around and nearly lost his own balance. Fortunately, the opponent passed out first. Honestly, hearing about someone getting so dizzy from spinning in a game that they knocked themselves out was a first.

The mage’s corpse dissolved into white light and disappeared, leaving behind a pitch-black shoulderpad. After checking the stats, he saw it was merely a level 12 Rare equipment with trash attributes. Probably nobody would want it, so he decided to toss it into the auction house instead.

At the same time, the system declared Zane the victor, and the Epic equipment they had wagered earlier naturally fell into his hands.

The feature description was short, but the actual effect was anything but ordinary. No wonder that guy could chain Flameburst into Pyrestorm so quickly. If Zane had not possessed Blink, he might really have been one-shot.

No matter what, the item belonged to him now, so he immediately equipped it.

The white cloth shoes gave off a clean and refreshing vibe, instantly making his overall appearance seem far more stylish… until his gaze drifted toward the Decayed Bone Armor on his chest and the Shadowfiend Shoulderpads strapped over it.

Yeah… forget he said anything.

His stats rose by another noticeable margin. Incidentally, even without transforming now, his HP had already reached 5500.

After looting the equipment, the surroundings shifted once more, and everyone returned to their original positions as discussions erupted all around them.

Suddenly, two tiny hands stretched out in front of his face, swaying back and forth.

“Stupid Orange, what the heck are you doing?” Zane asked in confusion.
“Huh? You’re seriously not dizzy yet?”
“…”

Within Starry’s line of sight, Birchfall slowly walked over.

“You here to avenge him?”

He took a deep breath. “No. I came to apologize. I attacked you over the Wolf Alpha boss before. That was entirely my fault. The death match is over now too… I hope you can let the others off.” Birchfall pointed toward his former teammates.

Starry spread her hands helplessly. “Doesn’t matter to me. You guys didn’t exactly get the better end of things anyway.”

“Thank you.” Birchfall lowered his head before turning and leaving.
“Leader! Aren’t we going to try again?”
“Leader!?”

The swordsman gave no response and disappeared into the crowd.

***

Outside, things were lively as ever, while the Adventurer Party’s channel was even noisier. Nangong and Endless Sea’s miserable screams and wails occasionally echoed through the chat.

“Hahaha, we finally cleared phase one!” Endless Sea shouted ecstatically. “Didn’t expect us to clear it in one try. Oh right, Emberveil, how far are you guys now?”

“Huh? We also cleared phase one not long ago,” Zane replied seriously.

“Impressive. Guess high DPS really does make a difference. You guys cleared phase one that fast? If I remember right, this was your and Stardust’s first run too, wasn’t it?”

“Mhm.” Starry nodded as well.

Zane continued, “Oh right, let me tell you this, Stupid Orange is seriously cursed. The treasure chests she opened were full of—”

“D-Don’t listen to his nonsense! My luck’s insanely good!” DumbCitrus protested guiltily.

“Treasure chests? What the hell? I heard chests only appear after beating the boss and completing the interaction mechanics?” Nangong asked in confusion.

“Actually… we already finished the dungeon…”

“???”