Chapter 7 : The Crown Game - Part III

"My name is Endorsi. Would you mind sparring for a bit?"

"I don't really have an option now do I?" Jinwoo deadpanned.

"Nope."

"Then why bother asking?"

"Because it's polite." She replied with a smile while attacking with her needle at the same time. Jinwoo managed to block all of her attacks, but he could tell that she wasn't putting her all into it.

'As I thought, she's probably stronger than even Anak. This won't be easy.' He was beginning to sweat a little.

Jinwoo was having a tough time defending against her attacks. He didn't even have time to counterattack. While there was an obvious gap in their strength, another factor was also in play.

While Endorsi was using a long needle to attack, he was defending with a dagger. She had a longer reach and therefore could pressure Jinwoo into defending.

'Tch.' He was growing restless.

[Skill Activated: 'Sprint' ]

With the burst in speed, he parried a stab aiming for his gut, closed the distance and swung his dagger. But Endorsi jumped back to avoid it.

She felt a slight stinging sensation on her arm. On observing, she realised that his attack didn't entirely miss. There was a small cut.

'That dagger might be a problem. Where in the tower did he manage to get such a weapon?'

Jinwoo wasted no time and rushed at Endorsi, delivering a horizontal slash. Endorsi jumped over him and delivered a solid kick, which he blocked with one arm. But due to the impact of the attack, he skidded away a little. Endorsi dashed towards him with a punch, to which he responded with a punch of his own. Their fists collided and recoiled.

'Damn it! What the hell is this girl made of?! I think my knuckle is broken...What is she, a tank?!'

Suddenly, Jinwoo felt danger coming from his right side. He leapt away just in time to avoid a large cleaver from cutting him in half.

'What the?!'

It was a hooded figure that attacked him. Not only that, but it was also wearing the same type of cloak that Endorsi wore.

"Hey! What's the big deal? I told you not to interfere!!" Endorsi shouted at the figure.

"Grrr.." The figure simply growled and removed its hood, revealing a red-skinned hulking figure with long black hair. It also wore some kind of helmet that covered most of his face, except his nose and mouth.

As if on cue, another figure appeared out of nowhere and attacked Endorsi. This one appeared to be a girl wearing a skin-tight black suit, a jewelled mask and wielded a long golden staff.

"Fine! I'll deal with you first!" Endorsi got ticked off and started attacking the girl.

Jinwoo focused on his own opponent and started attacking him with his dagger. His opponent despite his large size was surprisingly agile and evaded his attacks almost effortlessly. Jinwoo tried hitting him with his left fist but he caught it. With a light chuckle, he raised his cleaver and brought it down directly at Jinwoo. But he twisted his body and barely avoided it.

While the cleaver was lodged on the ground, his opponent still didn't let go of Jinwoo's left arm. Focusing his strength on his legs, Jinwoo leapt from his position and delivered a right knee to his opponent's skull, momentarily dazing him. This also allowed him to free his left arm from his grasp.

"Jinwoo! Move!!" A voice shouted at him.

He moved right on time to see a large blast of Shinsu hitting his opponent. Looking back, he saw it was Lauroe who attacked the guy, and Ho who had warned him. He nodded at them.

'There's no doubt about it.' Jinwoo thought as he readied his dagger.

'This guy in front of me is the strongest regular in this room right now...'

**********

'Damn it! This is ridiculous...' Khun was in a tough spot right now. The regular he was facing was a skilled swordsman. 'Why are these two aiming to attack Bam? He is not even a threat...'

Two regulars were now fighting Rak and Khun. More precisely, they were aiming to attack Bam for some reason, and Rak and Khun had their hands full trying to hold them off.

'Did they use a similar strategy like me? Are these teams and ones sitting on the throne allied for some reason? There are too many variables.'

Khun was parrying the attacks of the swordsman with a knife, while Rak was busy with a guy who seemed to be a martial artist.

Overall, despite this being the crown game, only one of the attacking teams seem to be actually after the crown.

**********

'Something feels off...' Lero Ro was deep in thought while viewing the entire match.

'The sudden request of the floor director to keep such a 'bonus' round, the arrival of a new team from a separate area, the behaviour of some of the teams in the final round... I get the feeling a lot of stuff is happening in the background. Should I try digging deeper?'

**********

*CRASH*

With a loud thud, Jinwoo crashed into the wall. From the beginning of the second round till the current round, he's been actively involved in the game facing off against high calibre opponents. He was getting tired by the second.

'Damn it... Probably should have used the recovery potion before this round started.' He had injuries all across his body. But the most troublesome issue was his stamina.

[Fatigue: 76]

[Since 'Fatigue' has risen above 70, speed will be halved.]

Opposite to him, the red giant also didn't seem to be in his best shape. Numerous cuts and lacerations were visible across his body.

Jinwoo had managed to injure his opponent thanks to the support provided by Lauroe and Ho. It was essentially a 3 vs 1 situation.

And yet, the red giant kept standing. Jinwoo's earlier analysis of him being the strongest regular in the room seemed true. And all this time not once did he target any of his teammates. His attention was solely on Jinwoo.

Jinwoo wanted to use a recovery potion, but he got no chance to do it.

'Think Jinwoo! How can you defeat an opponent that is stronger and faster than you?' Jinwoo was having an inner monologue with himself.

He looked around to see if there was anything that could be of help in this situation. There were a lot of cracks on the floor and wall as a side effect of their fighting, but there were no items or anything of the sort that could be of any use.

'Hmm, Maybe. Just maybe...'

"So, Jinwoo. Got any more surprises left? We could really use one right now..." Ho asked him wearily.

"Nope. But I think I have an idea on how to take this bastard down." Jinwoo replied, panting.

"What is it?"

Jinwoo whispered something in his ear. Ho's eyes widened on hearing this.

"Are you sure you can pull it off?" He asked him.

"Nope. But it's worth a shot."

"Alright. Good luck." Ho then ran away to Lauroe's side and whispered something in his ears.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, big guy." Surprisingly enough, Jinwoo unequipped his dagger which disappeared into thin air. He put both of his hands forward in a fighting stance.

"Let's do it."

"Grrr..." The giant gave a low growl as a response. Both of them rushed at each other for the final round.

Jinwoo went for a right hook. But the giant sidestepped to avoid it and brought down his cleaver. Using his momentum, Jinwoo rolled on the ground to avoid the attack. His opponent kept pressuring him with more and more attacks, but Jinwoo somehow managed to dodge them by a hairbreadth.

Eventually, the opponent got a little restless and went for a horizontal slash. But Jinwoo surprised him by leaping over the cleaver. Then he leapt to grab his opponent's head with both his hands and smashed it onto his right knee.

Or at least he was supposed to.

Surprising Jinwoo, the red giant let go of the cleaver and caught his knee using both his hands. Without wasting a second, he began thrashing Jinwoo onto the ground repeatedly.

*SMASH*

[HP: 452]

*SMASH*

[HP: 390]

*SMASH*

[HP: 334]

*SMASH*

[HP: 289]

[HP has dropped below 30%]

[Skill Activated: 'Tenacity']

Finally, he tossed Jinwoo at the wall.

*CRASH*

[HP: 264]

'I don't even want to know what would have happened if I didn't have that skill.' Jinwoo thought to himself as he coughed up some blood.

The red giant meanwhile started walking towards Jinwoo while dragging his cleaver through the ground. He stopped in front of him and growled menacingly.

Jinwoo had already sat on the ground, leaning himself on the wall. He looked up at the figure standing in front of him.

"Do... Your... Worst." The words slowly escaped Jinwoo's mouth.

The giant raised his cleaver and brought it down on Jinwoo with tremendous force. But at this point, a smile slowly escaped Jinwoo's mouth.

[Skill Activated: 'Sprint' ]

Jinwoo did not use this skill a little while ago against his opponent to make it seem as if he couldn't use it anymore. And the trick worked. With the sudden burst in speed, Jinwoo managed to dodge the oncoming strike.

*WOOSH*

*CRASH*

The cleaver missed its intended target and got lodged on the ground. Capitalising on this moment, Jinwoo brought back his dagger and stabbed his opponent's palm with it.

*STAB*

"GRRR!!!" He cried out in pain.

"LAUROE!! DO IT NOW!!" Jinwoo shouted out.

"Took you long enough." Lauroe simply commented as he blasted a large wave of shinsu at the red giant.

<Eurasia Style Shinsu Control Skill: Tidal Wave>

The blast was powerful enough to deal some heavy damage to the giant since Lauroe managed to gather enough shinsu to do so. This was part of the plan Jinwoo had in mind. The giant landed a few meters away from Jinwoo. He capitalised on this moment.

[Item consumed: Small HP potion x 1]

[Item consumed: Stamina Recovery Potion x 1]

The giant got up from the ground, but the damage was visible on his body. But now, it felt a sense of danger coming towards him. Looking above him, he saw why.

Jinwoo was now coming down at him, holding an oversized weapon in his hand. Lauroe had used shinsu to move him upward. But it was the weapon in his hand that caught his attention.

His own cleaver.

Purely by instinct, the giant tried to block the attack with his hand. But he severely underestimated Jinwoo's strength and stamina which had recovered by now.

*SLASH*

With a clean strike, Jinwoo cut off the giant's forearm and left a huge gash on his torso. Landing on the ground and using the momentum of the swing, he rotated and delivered another slash on the giant's torso.

*SLASH*

*THUD*

With a resounding thud, the giant fell back on the ground, with an 'X' shaped wound on his torso and an amputated arm.

[You have levelled up.]

[You have levelled up.]

**********

'So ghost failed huh?' Endorsi was locked in a fight with the masked figure.

"Sorry, but I am ending this right now." Endorsi rushed at her opponent. But something unexpected happened.

*SNAP*

"Eh?"

The heels of her shoes broke at the worst time possible. She slipped and fell to the ground. The masked figure took this chance to get away from Endorsi and rushed towards another target.

The third member of Endorsi's team who had stayed out of combat since the beginning of the round.

That person was taken aback by the surprise attack. With one swing of her staff, she hit the hooded person on her head and sent her flying. This also helped remove the hood, revealing a blond girl whose hair was tied in a ponytail.

Another person who happened to be near her saw this. A single word escaped his mouth.

"...Rachel?"

The masked figure however didn't stop her assault. She leapt into the air to deliver another attack with her staff. But someone jumped into the way of the attack and took it instead.

*WHACK*

"...Bam?"

The brown-haired boy fell unconscious onto Rachel, who caught him. The masked figure didn't stop and raised her staff high to deliver another attack.

Lauroe was the first to notice among the regulars, that something was happening to the shinsu around Bam.

Jinwoo too sensed a disturbance in the shinsu around Bam.

And then, it happened.

*BOOM*

A colossal amount of shinsu enveloped Bam and spread out around him. The brunt of its force was focused on the masked figure as her mask shattered and she was sent flying.

Everyone in and around the arena was shocked by this development. Soon an announcement came which broke everyone out of their trance.

"The final round of the crown game is over. The winner of the game is the team of Sung Jinwoo, Phonsekal Lauroe and Ho."

_________________________________________________

[Name: Sung Jinwoo

Level: 10

Class: None

Title: None

HP: 1192

MP: 167

Fatigue: 24

<Stats>

Strength: 24

Vitality: 20

Agility: 19

Intelligence: 19

Sense: 19

Available Stat points : 0

<Active Skills>

-Sprint

-Dagger Throw

<Passive Skills>

-Tenacity ]

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