Chapter 116: Challenging Hurdle, Getting Hunted
The third round started with 179 participants.
The battlefield was a frozen wasteland with strong ice and blizzard. Everyone saw that the battlefield had become smaller yet again.
The chance to encounter other people was high in this wasteland, and it only took five minutes for the round to conclude.
Erix had to use his set's ability to fight against a bald guy who was after him, had the same set, and used the same ability that increased his stats by 10% + 50.
But Erix was superior in his combat abilities despite the bald man having higher stats and Earth affinity, so Erix won the fight that lasted two minutes.
The good thing was that everyone's mana and vitality would recover after passing each round, so Erix always went all out by using his set's ability every time he faced a participant.
Another good discovery was that Erix had killed a participant in the 2nd and 3rd, both of whom were above level 80, and he leveled up both times.
The same was not true with monsters, but killing a participant five levels higher than him immediately leveled him up. However, this was not true outside, so Erix concluded that this was only possible during the Death Circus event.
The effect of Ignis Ed Intimacy was also ongoing since it would last for an hour, and only half an hour passed.
In round four, Erix and Rin had their toughest challenge in the volcanic region, bustling with cracked ground spewing out lava and monsters.
The life-threatening situation was both of them being chased by two people each, who were none other than those four remaining people that Frandel and Spena sent to kill them.
One vs. two was a clear disadvantage to them, so they had no choice but to use the hit-and-run tactic, the best solution aligned with their combat abilities.
They could dodge well due to their experience, martial prowess, and heightened senses of martial artists, so they used hit-and-run tactics in which they ran more than they hit their enemies.
After crossing a certain distance while running away from their enemies, Erix and Rin unexpectedly saw each other as one was coming from the north and one from the south.
With the danger of death looming over them, the duo exceeded their own expectation as they fought two vs. four.
Erix dodged and tanked some attacks with his Metal Shield and Water Dragon Barrier. At the same time, Rin used the opportunities to shock, paralyze, and injure them while also dodging their attacks with her superior Lightning Dash, thanks to her Lightning Affinity.
But the difficulty went a bit higher as those four became somber and went all out after sensing that their targets were not as easy as they imagined despite having stats and number advantage.
'Damn it. They are making up for their power with their superior combat abilities and giving us a hard time killing them despite having 100 stats less than us.'
"Let's play it safely."
The enemies glanced at each other, ceased their attacks, blocked Rin's Lightning Blade Wave, and quickly created distance from them.
Rin and Erix didn't immediately pursue it, as this was a chance for them to take a breather.
'Fuck…'
Rin and Erix had severe, darkened expressions because things were not looking good for them. They immediately chugged a mana potion when the enemies distanced themselves, but their focus was still on the enemies.
The problem they faced in battling this tough fight was that they had to kill two people within the time frame of a few seconds together to pass the round.
If either Rin or Erix killed one, one of them would immediately pass the round while another one would remain behind for one vs. three, which would be bad.
"You cockroaches. Why don't you two just die so we can complete our tasks?" the woman spoke with an annoyed expression as she wiped the blood from her mouth and drank a mana recovery potion.
Healing recovery potions were useless during the rounds, so they wouldn't heal even if one drank them.
On the other hand, Rin and Erix didn't say anything. They just glanced at each other with a maddening gleam in their eyes and shot forward.
Enemy talking meant that they were buying time! Generally, most people would choose to escape for better chances in place of Rin and Erix when the enemy themselves gave such an opportunity to run, but Erix and Rin… decided that attacking was their best option to survive and win!
Rin used her Lightning Dash to immediately arrive a meter over the man with long blond hair, their toughest foe due to his quick wind attacks empowered by his Wind Affinity.
"You…"
"You mentals!"
The squad expected the duo to RUN after they distanced themselves, and then they would pursue them with a specialized skill of the blond man and kill them with a planned attack; alas…their plan was jeopardized.
With a thundering rumble, Rin slashed her sword downward as it glowed with dark blue condensed lightning.
She was executing Blade Sheen the moment she dashed, so when she reached the blond man, her maximum empowered katana bearing all of her powers immediately made the blond man feel a sense of doom and panic bursting from his soul.
*Chree…Slash!*
The slash split the man into two, shaving off the entirety of his vitality as he died.
"You bitch! Die!"
The woman grinned at being given such an opportunity to hit Rin since she was close. Her attack was already going towards Rin before she spoke as a red-ish emerald crystal orb filled with potent wind and flame energy in a tie-2 level magic skill formation shot towards Rin.
Naturally, Erix was not dancing or singing at this time. He had already started manipulating some metal pieces on Rin's leather armor set and her katana as he shot her upward from mid-air since dodging a projectile attack was hard for Rin without wings.
The timely intervention of Erix helped Rin dodge and caused the woman's attack to hit the dead blond man's falling body and blast it into pieces within a tiny tornado with a flame explosion empowered by the wind.
If that attack of Tier-2 skill had hit Rin, she would have died!
But the battle was not over yet!