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Days passed by, since that event. Ken reached the city and began exploring various places and tried different tricks and spells. Moreover, Ken even defeated few more enemies over the past few days, without losing to anyone although his opponents were mostly newbies or those who didn’t know how to use their skills properly.
Eventually, his levels kept on increasing and new spells were added to his list.
“Mmmmm!!….. where to head next……”
Opening the map, Ken noticed that there was another icon the map. Clicking this new icon displayed the position of different players in his proximity, his position to with respect to the other players and the position of the closest player with respect to the final finishing point, the foothold.
“Oh! Shit. How come I forget about it.”
“Shit! Shit! Shit!. I need to hurry now.” Opening the player’s tab, Ken noticed that he was one of the last players in the game and if he did not hurried now, he would never make it to the end, to the foothold and to his goal, because of which he decided to participate in this contest.
“…………..” sounds of night insects echoed in the forest in the night as Ken was walking alone in the dense forest, exploring new things and new scenes everywhere.
From the past few days, Ken noticed that someone was following him. That someone had tracked his moments, his tricks, his skills and especially his weaknesses and strong zones and he knew Ken inside out.
Ken also tracked down the stalker’s activities and he knew when the stalker was close by Ken and when he was not. Keeping that in mind, Ken also showed his tricks and his spells while fighting other opponents.
“I’m getting a bit bored!. What should I do?” Ken said to himself as he walked on muddy, uneven roads, kicking the small pebbles that came his way.
Suddenly, a sound came from the bush on Ken’s right as he moved away from the bush and fired a firebolt at the bush.
“Whoever you are, come out here! I know that you are behind the bush”
As Ken finished, a shadow came from behind the bush to the front, as Ken moved further back and get himself ready for what was to come.
“ So, finally, we meet again……Ken Koshi!”
“After our last meeting, I was eagerly waiting for this moment to finally avenge my loss …to finally beat you in your own cheap game!”.
“Cheap game! ..Tch!…… But in the first place……why are you after me …go wander off somewhere else or find someone of your own taste…I don’t have time to waste “.
“ You know Ken, since the time I was beaten I have realized that in a battle between evens, acuity is what makes the difference. And this time you can’t outwit me with your cunning tricks ”.
“ I won’t mind having a duel with you but you see ,I have very less time to reach the foothold…….so if you don’t mind…can “…
[interrupting Ken in between ] “ I am really sorry but you journey in Porticons will end here itself…”.
Suddenly a group of 10 people jumped out of nowhere on the moonlit mud path and surrounded Ken, completely….”Tch, if you want to play with me …I won’t mind sending a bunch of your comrades back “.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” <<with simultaneous shouts, the group of people jumped towards Ken but he didn’t look too moved by this dire situation…instead he had something else on his mind>>
With his sword in his hands, Ken diligently took the hit of all the ten on his blade as he tried to shook the hit off by bending his knees and adjusting his body posture. “ I may be a rookie in this arena but trust me…..when it comes to hand combat …I may be quiet stubborn”.
With sweat dripping off his forehead, Ken with his full strength repelled the attack and threw the players back. Some fell, some got imbalanced while some others just took some minor hits but the health bar of everyone took a hit.
“Fireball!”, ”Watercannon”,”Lightning!”, ”Vortex hunt!”………..recovering from the Ken’s counter, everyone began to cautiously fire from a distance as Harry had already told them what happened with him during the test…..and how dangerous Ken as an opponent is.
“Nullify” <<chanting spell with his right hand while his left hand was still holding the blade>> with the spell nullify, Ken managed to somehow defend himself from the non-stop simultaneous hits.
<<if this keeps on for long….i won’t be able to defend myself any more…..>> thinking about the current circumstances, Ken tried to figure out something but the frequency of hits was so continuous that he couldn’t focus on anything but defense.
“Everyone stop!” Harry shouted from the rear as the streak of hits finally came to an end, allowing ken to breathe a little. “ His skill is too hard to crack…..don’t waste your energy like this……..instead synchronize your attacks and fire together with the phalanx ray…….as you all share the same NIX “.
During this whole series of events, Harry was closely observing Ken’s movements and based on his observations he came up with this attack.
“ prepare to depart Ken Koshi!”…………..
“ As if I am this weak! <<burying the sword with its tip inside the ground>> came at me with your full power………show me what the strength of ten people can do “.
“Phalanx ray !” in a cluster, the small individual rays combined to form a broad whiteish pink ray which cursed towards Ken at a very high speed.
“ Bloat of annihilation!” with this chant, a massive white envelop developed around Ken which expanded in all dimensions a rate much higher than the speed of Phalanx ray. As the massive sphere kept expanding, it started to engulf and demolish everything that came in his path. From trees to soil and rocks….everything that the sphere touched, turned to dust.
From the view, Harry and the others knew what was coming …..but it was too late for them to do anything as they had already exhausted their power.
“Quick get close to me I have a plan !”, Harry shouted with full power but it was too late by then. The sphere of death, slowly and steadily first took in the Phalanx ray and then took in a large area within himself as the white light covered the whole area converting the midnight black sky into the dusk befitting view.
As the view cleared out, a huge depression with nothing but only plain soil was visible. As Ken said earlier, the whole scenario leads to the annihilation of the ten players, barely leaving Harry with half of his complete health.
[Harry pulled himself together and shouted towards Ken, who was standing in the center of the huge creator, holding his buried sword with his left hand] “ Hey! You….are you a monster or what……! <<pissing his teeth’s off>>…….you will pay for this…for killing the other players !”.
“ For killing the other players!!…..it was you who lured them here….it was your responsibility to keep them into this game…..and because of your failure…they have been eliminated ……So be a man and don’t blame it on others!!”.
“Failure! Failure! Failure!…..why does this keep on haunting me…why …am I that lame or am I not manly enough …why why!” <<Harry held his head and started to blabber this to himself>> .
“ If this was my responsibility, then its time to make things correct !”. [shouting at ken ] “Get ready Ken Koshi, I am coming for you ……….Ahhhhhhhhhh!”. Without caring about his health status or anything else, he charged towards Ken like a running bull covering significant distance between the two <<which may be 10-18 yards>> .
By the time, Harry would have reached him, Ken easily could have regained enough fire power to launch a range attack on the charging Harry <<due to his higher NIX affinity >> but when Ken looked up towards him , he could feel the determination in that man’s eyes and so he decided to respect that and switch to hand combat [which was the best option for him also as after one attack Ken himself would be left helpless due to excessive use of his Nixp].
The cry of metals hitting each other echoed in the silent night forest as Ken and Harry exchanged initial blows. “Clang!”, “Clang!” , “Clang!”….the attacks of both of them perfectly matched each other as both kept swinging their swords towards each other but none managed to land a solid hit on other.
“ You were marking me from the very start …..weren’t you?”.
“ You never failed to amaze me ……..Ahhhhhhh! “Harry said, applying more force to his blade which was resting against Kens’s blade as the Ken tried to wave of Harry’s strength by bending his legs and diverting the extra force to the ground.
Ken propelled back after regaining his posture and their swords finally separated from one another as both moved apart from each other. It was the exact replay of what had happened in the selection rounds. Both were equally matched in every department and none was less than the other.
“ I knew what you were Ken and I respect the thing that what you are today, is because of your own hard work and dedication….but I am no less Ken!… I might have not suffered as much as you but I have seen enough in my life.
All my hard work, my dedication, my skill, people just kept coming and keep taking what’s precious to me………first my position, then my wife and now my confidence …………but that’s it…I have had enough of this world and this scum society. It’s time to regain what was lost “.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!…” with a loud scream Harry collected all his strength and infused his body with it. The magnitude of his power was such that Ken could easily feel that something big is coming towards his way. He looked up at his health bar <<which was nearly full>>, tightened his hands on the blade and dashed towards the all powered up Harry.
Exchanging heavy blows, both of them interchanged their positions while keeping their eyes fixed at the each other. Till now, they were just testing each other but now things were about to get serious. With a stare towards each other both powered up once again and like a cannonball dashed to combat once again.
“Clang…..!!” their blades meet once again but this time the impact of the collision was such their the ground cracked and the condition of the already destroyed ground worsened further. Launching continuous fierce attacks on Ken, Harry found the gaps between Ken’s defense and one hit at a time, kept decreasing ken’s health.
It was not that Ken’s defense was at fault but it was the very fact that Harry’s eyes, his skills and his senses which had reached such a level of distinction that he could easily spot the gaps in Ken’s defense.
Ken wasn’t aware that the minor hits that he ignored initially would lead to such drastic reduction in his health. It was because of Harry’s muscular body coupled with his marvelous skills made him a very difficult opponent to fight against.
<<pointing his blade towards Ken while Ken was still trembling trying to recover from Harry’s hits>> “Hey Ken! Have you ever wondered why are we all alive? Why are we born with such a fate? Why is it that the harder you try to achieve something, the more likely are the chances of your failure?”.
“Why! is it because of one’s lack of dedication?……no it’s because someone higher then you in terms of power and wealth can’t afford to see a commoner from slumps rise above him.”
“ As such despite numerous hardships I trained, day and night to become what I wanted to and to some extent I achieved that also but who would have thought that one day, a mere brat will show up and destroy my Image and reputation which I built after facing nearly everything in life”.
“Ken, you don’t know how long, I have waited to finally regain what I have lost…….Ahhhhhhhhh!”.
“heavenly judgment!”. Putting every last ounce of his energy into the spell, his sword glowed with a fluorescent green flash as Harry moved his sword to cut open him from his forehead. But the killer blade stopped right in mid-air as the hustle in the night forest finally came to an end and the night silence once again engulfed the forest.
“…………..!”
“…………….!” <<sounds of blood drops falling onto the ground>>
“ I don’t from where you come or what hardships you have faced in your life but let me get this straight, if you have so many complaints from your life then either die crying like a baby or face them head-on. Nothing in this world is impossible and nothing depends on fate or so-called luck. You make your rules, your own path, your own methods and you are the only one to fuck your own life.
So either die and get lost from here or be a man, be yourself and fight like the champ Harry!! “.
Harry immediately understood what Ken’s words meant. Withdrawing his blade, he apologized to Ken for acting immaturely and asked him whether he can stay with Ken in this journey. Ken happily agreed to his request as he knew that a man like Harry, who rose through numerous hardships have seen many things in his short life and he would definitely be a valuable asset to him.
“ I was shocked when you stopped that hit with your naked hands! That must be quiet painful <<assessing the deep cut in his hand>> despite being in the game “.
“ frankly speaking your move there had me in trouble for a minute as I was not sure whether I could take that head-on. But luckily, I pulled that off !” <<pointing towards the health bar above his head which was nearly empty>>.
“Luckily this game has less effect of damages on your real body and so this cut won’t affect me too much!” << drinking a health potion which was provided by default in the travel portal>>.
As the yellow colored portion went down his throat, the cut instantly began to close up and within a minute the wound was completely closed. “ So now, where are you planning to go?”
“ I am not sure but it’ll be better if we visit a city! ummmmm!!!!!…..”. opening up the map, he moved the holographic surface from left to right and after assessing the nearby city he replied, “JuJuba village seems to be the closest from here and luckily it lies in line with our game stronghold! ”.
“ It won’t take us long if we take the route from the south, Ken!”.
Having reached a conclusion Ken along with his newest acquaintance Harry started their journey to Jujuba village.
{{Meanwhile out of a million plus players on the server, nearly one thousand were eliminated by the third day out which five hundred were eliminated by a single Japenese player who was wandering somewhere far away from Ken}}.