Child of Destiny

“Final Round: Team Competition – Hien Workshop (Home) versus Empyrean Talons (Away)!”

Hien Workshop:

-Starting Members:

Sky King Cielo (Maverick God)

Strong Lord Griff (Maverick God)

Young God Thirteenth Massacre (Godlike Player)

Twin Heavens: Faith and Grace (Peak Titled Rankers)

-Sixth Man:

Sung Jae (Unclassified Player)

Empyrean Talons:

-Starting Members:

Battle God Sickarius (Godlike Player)

War God Simba (Godlike Player)

Gentle Goddess Arielle (Godlike Player)

Elemental Goddess Charlotte (Godlike Player)

Dark Knight Owen (Peak Titled Ranker)

-Sixth Man:

Archer Queen Ithilien (Peak Titled Ranker)

…

Seeing the respective lineups of the two teams, the players could not help but heave a sigh of relief for not seeing too much strangeness from both sides, particularly the Empyrean Talons as they seemed to be a ‘fan’ of odd strategies.

At first glance, the lineup of the Empyrean Talons was quite intimidating, especially after seeing that almost all their starting members were Godlike Players.

Moreover, Owen was standing on the borderline between a Peak Titled Ranker and a true Godlike Player, making the lineup even more stunning.

But the lineup of the opposing side was something that could not be underestimated either, especially when they put Sky King and Strong Lord together.

A powerful marksman with scary precision and a top-class tank with almost impenetrable defense was a combination that could cause anyone a lot of trouble, especially when they were among the top and most experienced veterans in the game.

They were even stronger than most of the ‘Old Gods’ of the virtual world, who were from the previous Godly Ranking Lists.

Adding the young talents such as Thirteenth Massacre, who was also a Godlike Player, and the twin sisters, who could rival – or even surpass – a top-notch Support or Healer together, their lineup was quite solid as well.

What made everyone curious was the person who was acting as the sixth man of the team. Sending an unknown and unclassified player to such an important match was not only a mystery but an oddity as well.

Regardless, those who were watching this match still felt that there was a reason why Cielo had sent this person given his rich experience.

Whatever it was, the other experts watching the match felt that this was going to be interesting. They shared the thought that the Hien Workshop would most likely be revealing another trump card of their team, which was another talent that they had nurtured just like Thirteenth Massacre.

Shin, who appeared at a random spot alongside the others, was also having the same thought after seeing the names of the participants of this round.

He could tell that the opposing side was planning to catch them off guard by sending such an unknown factor for the Team Competition. But this did not change the plan that Shin had already drawn for this match.

He turned to the others and warned them. “We don’t have any information about that guy, but this does not affect our plans that much.”

“Let’s proceed as per our strategy,” he added before leading everyone toward a certain direction.

The group quickly gathered and formed a battle formation as they advanced on the battlefield.

Aside from Shin who separated himself from the group to scout the surroundings, the remaining four members of the team gathered and formed a rhombus-shaped formation.

Owen was positioned at the forefront of the group, firmly holding his shield and mace and fully prepared to respond to any situation.

Cloe and Alice were adjacent to each other and a few distance away from him. They were strategically positioned at a safe distance where they could both support Owen when they encountered any unexpected situation or retreat further away as soon as a hint of danger threatened them.

Meanwhile, Leonard was right behind the girls, guarding the rear. His job was to protect the two from any harm, particularly from any form of ambush, by relying on his ‘Bestial Instincts’ innate talent.

He was to respond to any unexpected situations that could risk the safety of these two, especially when they were the current core of this formation.

Shin was still bold enough to let the girls research combination spells and techniques, seemingly ignoring the fact that the two did not get along that well for obvious reasons.

Leonard was not sure if Shin was purposely ignoring it to let the two build enough trust and bond with one another or if he was just too ignorant about the reason for their ‘grudges’ with each other.

Regardless, the thought of these girls working perfectly together still convinced everyone, especially when they could become another trump card that the team could rely on in the future.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

While they were advancing, Shin gathered as much information as he could from the surroundings – recording all the things that he saw and getting familiar with the terrains of the map.

He was also taking note of the special places that could be an unexpected factor during the battle and looking out for any possible traps that could be used against them later.

While Shin was drawing a map of the entire battlefield, the ‘home’ team was steadily advancing with their great familiarity with the place.

“They are most likely to be sent to the eastern side of the map since we have spawned at the western side. But since it is random, we can’t be sure if they are in the northeast or southeast part of the map, so we must be careful during our advance.”

Cielo was giving out a series of instructions while leading the ground through the forest.

At he same time, he had summoned his Spirit Hawk to scout the place in the air, looking for the signs of their opposition from the sky.

The battlefield setting that they had chosen was a forest-type map but with a less dense environment. The trees were not that big, only enough to fill the forest, and varied from all kinds of sizes such as thin and slender ones up to thick and compact trunks.

The denseness of the forest was enough to make covers for stealthy movements, but also a little wide to see the other people if one was observant enough.

This was a perfect environment for someone like Cielo, who was an Elven Archer. With his superior eyesight and natural connection with the elemental mana, he was able to scout such places better than the others.

Unlike the traditional Hunting Archers, who took beast pets as their companions, Elven Archers were known for using spiritual beings as their partners.

These spiritual beings might be inferior to Elemental Spirits that the Transcendent Races had contracted, but they were still efficient enough for different situations due to their unique points.

Cielo had contacted a Spirit Hawk to be his aerial scout and a Spirit Wolf to scout on the ground.

These two spirit pets also possessed a high sensitivity of mana signatures, so they could perceive things that normal people could.

Nothing could easily escape their sharp senses.

With the help of these partners of his, he was able to ‘see’ further while advancing alongside the rest of his team.

He was slightly ahead of the others he was scouting the path just like Shin. But unlike the latter, who had to move a little slower due to his unfamiliarity with the map, Cielo was able to move freely and only focused on fighting their opponents.

A distance away, the rest of his group was advancing with the standard cross (+) formation, having a reasonable space away from one another.

Griff was at the forefront of the group followed by the twin sisters, who were standing opposite to each other. Then there was Thirteenth Massacre to guard the rear.

It was similar to the formation of the Empyrean Talons. The only differences were the positioning of their frontline and the space they had apart.

The Hien Workshop favored using the formation with equal space away from one another while the Empyrean Talons had a slightly complicated formation as Owen and Leonard were a little farther away from the girls as the two in the middle were somewhat close to one another.

At the same time, the scouts of the two sides were from different classes with different specialties.

Due to the nature of his class, Cielo was in a more favorable position. It was perfect for scouting the path ahead and spotting their opponents at a decent distance.

Meanwhile, Shin was an odd swordsman, who possessed a variety of stealth skills and techniques meant for assassins.

This did not include his elemental powers and magical techniques incorporated in swordsmanship.

Adding all the other factors together, Cielo was supposed to have some advantages against Shin in terms of scouting.

But if it was about sneaking to the backline, Shin had an overwhelming advantage given the variety of tricks that he possessed.

This was the reason why Cielo did not dare to scout too far from the group, making sure that he did not let the other party bypass him and ambush their backline to create chaos.

He was taking note of everything despite his fast advancement, not daring to overlook anything.

In the meantime, the people watching the match could not help but feel a little excited as they could see from their point of view that the two sides were about to meet one another.

The moment when the two sides crossed the slightly denser part of the map and the small hill respectively, both sides would spot their opposition within in an instant.

When that happened, the main event would immediately erupt.

……