New Active Skills

"Everyone's fighting style is unique in some way."

"Some rely on their natural physical abilities to win."

"Some on their reactions and experience."

"But the ones to truly look out for on the battlefield are those who can analyse their opponent's fighting style standing at the back of the enemy and only committing themselves once they felt sufficiently prepared."

"Of course, this was no easy feat, as you had to look after the overall battle situation while looking at an opponent's fighting style, and as a result, only those with a towering intellect were able to fight like this."

"But each one who did was able to achieve this ended up being gods of the battlefield with their names inscribed into the annals of history."

"Amulius Lunaris, Drusus Dardinius, Ranier Lantier and Railius Aurellion are perfect examples of this."

"With each person possessing the ability to change the fate of entire nations."

Publius Pollius, a historian in the Empire of Chavaria

….

The fight started under the watchful eyes of the crowd. Bron began by sending a horizontal cut at Railius' waist that was blocked, the dulled blades crashing against each other, but Bron didn't stop there. He kicked Railius in his stomach, sending him flying backwards. Then he used a skill and, in a flash, appeared above Railius, his sword already half swung down, bearing down on the young player.

Railius barely managed to defend himself, blocking the strike with his sword when it was only inches away from his chest before kicking Bron away and standing up, taking up a basic guard stance.

The difference in skill between them was evident for anyone to see, but still, Railius held on trying to find any possible way to counterattack. Bron, for once, was surprised, for he did not expect Railius to be able to defend himself from his fast attack even after he used a skill to quickly appear in front of the fallen Railius to try to end the fight there and then but it was blocked by the youth many had already written off as the loser.

It also revealed another aspect of Bron's fighting style that made him a troublesome opponent for all but those of immense physical stature and strength like Norfaelor or with overwhelming individual power like Jordis.

Bron was skilled at incorporating punches and kicks into his combat sequences!

Each time he attacked with his sword, it was almost certain that a punch or a kick was coming your way, which forced people to get used to his style first.

The duel continued for 10 minutes, with Bron enjoying every moment as he kept his opponent on the back foot. After failing to end it quickly, he decided to see if Railius had any strength, but seeing he did, he chose to slowly break down and torture Railius into surrendering, punching and kicking Railius, but never to the point of him collapsing from the pain. There were even times that he didn't take advantage of openings so he could continue to torture Railius, who seemed to focus on him more and more as time went on.

While Railius' reaction speed was not the best, he had one thing that few others did.

An uncanny perception and insight ability with a strategic mindset!

This allowed him to predict some of Bron's moves before they even happened, allowing him not to be as surprised when he was on the back foot, and it was also this ability that allowed him to block Bron's skill, allowing him to continue fighting.

While he went into the arena, Railius quickly brought up all that his character knew about Bron's fighting style, so from the beginning, he was expecting to be a bit battered and bruised, but he would never get used to a pain and damage system in DO that emulated real life something unique to the game alone nor was he expecting to be beaten black a blue.

A punch to the chest here, a kick to the leg there. Bron made full use of all of his abilities, sometimes following up with an unarmed attack after a swing of his sword and sometimes not.

Bron wanted to beat Railius in such a way that he would fall into despair and leave but was surprised when he saw this person who people thought could only strategise be so stubborn and hold on.

By now, Railius's vision had nothing in it but Bron. Everyone and everything else was ignored, and his surroundings seemed to become nothing but a blanket of black with Bron shining in the centre.

While in this trance-like state, Bron seemed to Railius to be moving in slow motion. The attacks, once fast like a blur, could be seen through clearly by the young plater surprising him.

Unknown to him, Railius' brain was working at a breakneck speed, his intelligence and wisdom combining together seamlessly to boost his brain power that had been stimulated by the exercise he had undergone in the game, and silently, Railius' mana long unused began to disappear quickly like the flow of a river.

But all it took was a few system notifications for all his confusion to evaporate as, for the first time, he saw what his fighting style would be based on, and it suited the cunning lord of Aurellion to a tee.

[Active skill acquired 'Combat Concentration]

'An active skill! I have actually gained an active skill!'

Railius thought happily for a second before concentrating back on the fight, not wanting to waste these precious few moments that he had seemingly been under the effect of a powerful skill.

Both he and Bron seemed to be moving like snails, each movement and even muscle bulge being seen clearly by the young lord of Aurellion's eye, but this allowed Railius to analyse where Bron would attack from quickly.

Railius then made his move. Seeing the trajectory of the coming strike, Railius managed to duck under it, seeming to miss him by a hair as if it were predicted, and at the same time, the blade of his sword curved upwards, hitting Bron's stomach with a strong force that sent him kneeling onto the ground even if the dulled swords could not cut through the training gambeson that each participant wore the impact still sent pain shooting through the body.

Until now, Railius had been gritting his teeth, having to endure being battered and bruised by his opponent for 10 minutes, but in one move, he changed the tides completely, using a combination of active skills to defeat his crumpled opponent.

"Quinten Amberguard wins!"

Master Ral announced with a smile, his eyes shining with pride as he saw Bron crumpled on the ground, groaning in pain because if a skill is blocked or parried, then its effects can be negated, but if it hits, then the damage it can do is far more significant than any average strike with only strikes at vital points of the body like the head, throat, groin or heart being as dangerous as skills were.

While others may think that Railius won by pure luck, both he and Leon knew better. While they were not master magicians who could sense an opponent's mana, they were at the pinnacle of the martial path, having each created their own distinct fighting style to become true masters of their craft.

Railius' last strike was not luck like many of the spectators thought. No, that strike was pure skill! Their young lord has precisely calculated the trajectory of his opponent's swing, managing to dodge it by the smallest margin to allow him to counterattack effectively and with the lowest chance of a reaction from his arrogant opponent. In fact, using active skills like that to complement each other perfectly is not something that an average intermediate swordsman would be capable of.

After eight years of diligent tutoring, the young lord of Aurellion had finally created an active skill of his own, having embarked on his first step in building a style that fit his personality.

Looking at how Railius' fighting style was coming about, the two thought that it could not be more suitable for him as it fully maximised the benefits of the young lord's stats. From a young age, both Leon and Aldorus knew that when it came to physical stats, their young lord could only be considered to be average, even after all the training he had gotten throughout his lifetime.

It did not help that Railius had a lazy nature, and only when he was forced into a corner did his true abilities begin to shine, so it was only now that he was fighting with his all against Bron that he managed to awaken his latent abilities.

This meant that unless he was interested or wanted something, then teaching him about things he had little interest in at that moment was useless.

Kneeling on one knee and panting heavily with his blunted sword stuck into the ground, Railius calmed himself down as he looked at his mana and the other surprising system notification.

[Mana: 10/50]

[Active skill 'Calculated Cut' acquired]

[Intermediate Swordsmanship skill changed to Intermediate Calculated Swordsmanship specialised skill]

40 mana Railius had used 40 mana in his fight against Bron, which he narrowly won, but he was still pleased with the results as his character had gained a lot from this fight and tournament that would help it in its growth.

The crowd cheered at the unexpected outcome as everyone liked it when an underdog prevailed. However, there were still a few people who tried to distract from the achievement of House Aurellion's lord, with his friends cheering the loudest, except for Jordis, who just coldly clapped, though people knew that even this small gesture was massive when coming from the cold best fighter of the dojo.

"Is that guy blessed by the god of luck or something? He must have all the luck in the world. Not only has he managed to get the most training and favour from Master Zhou, but he even managed to win with it when his fights."

One of his detractors said it was evident that it was not only Bron who held the opinion that Railius was unfairly favoured as he did not have the physicality or skill to warrant such preferential treatment from the respected master of the dojo.

But the exhausted Railius, who had used all his physical and mental power in that last fight, had a vacant expression while looking at the two skills he had acquired without any energy to focus on anything else.

….

Combat Concentration: (Active skill)

Unique Requirements: Calculated Swordsmanship skill.

Description: Using your naturally high latent intelligence and wisdom for a short time, you can quickly perceive and process a combat situation. This can sometimes give you the feeling that the fight is going in slow motion if you are concentrated enough.

This skill is the foundation for a fighting style that fits you and your personality. As others have also used such a fighting style, it cannot be said to be unique yet.

Effects: increases your brain processing abilities, allowing you to see an opponent's moves more clearly. Those of a similar level to you in fighting ability will noticeably slow down.

Cost: 5 mana per second (Can change as stats and specialised skill 'Calculated Swordsmanship' increases.)

…..

Calculated Cut: (Active skill)

Description: A calculated cut designed to break through an opponent's defence and hit a weak point increases the damage of the attack and, if used correctly, can almost guarantee a hit on an opponent.

Effects: Increase damage of the attack by 20%

It can easily incapacitate instead of kill opponents by hitting critical non-lethal areas such as thighs and knees.

If calculations are correct and the opponent fails to make appropriate changes, the attack is almost guaranteed to hit.

Cost: 5 mana

….

Calculated Swordsmanship: (Intermediate) (Passive) (Specialized Skill)

Unique Requirements: Intelligence and Wisdom stats at 10 or higher.

Must be awakened or gained when the player has a swordsmanship rank lower than the master rank.

Description: A special kind of swordsmanship that is favoured by strategists. It uses intelligence, calculation, perception and prediction to win fights. Unlike other fighting styles that rely on experience, physical attributes or instincts of the user, this type of swordsmanship is much more logical in nature, with practitioners being very proficient at defending themselves until an opportunity presents itself to be exploited.

Because it needs to analyse an opponent's fighting style to attack, this style's main weakness is that it is easy for the practitioner to be overwhelmed by attacks from an unfamiliar opponent, so it is common for people to kill them quickly before they get the chance to analyse an opponent's style too much.

Effect: Increase damage of attacks done by swords by 30%.

This skill has no rank limit.

Fighting style will become very logical and analytical.

Allows active skills to be created that rely primarily on mental stats rather than physical ones.

….

After looking at his new skills, Railius' attention was then moved to his friends who had surrounded him as the young player made a mental note to ask the friend system about specialised skills once he was alone and had some time to himself or was travelling and had little to do.

If there was one thing that the players of DO hated the most about the game, it was the travelling! Unlike other games where you could fast-travel to different locations because it was a persistent world where you could be attacked randomly on the road by bandits or opponents, Dynasties Online did not have this feature, making travelling from place to place a massive pain as you had to spend days if not months getting from one place to another.

The most that someone could do was set up a teleportation formation or portal and use a large amount of magic to teleport from one place to another to replicate a fast travel system. Eventually, a network could be created, but creating a public network that anyone could use to get from one place to another quickly ran the risk of both players and NPC's using them to transport large armies to somewhere instantly as, unlike in other MMOs whatever a player could gain and use in-game an NPC could gain and use too!

The only difference is that, unlike the players who mainly treated Dynasties Online as a game and are used to faster travel, the NPCs see it as nothing else than the cost of doing business like in the medieval era, where it took months at times to get from one place to another.

Even if they were on the other side of the world, such a teleportation network could be used to march armies through it, which, as explained earlier, was something that almost no leader of a country was willing to do.

As a result, players, even with the time difference between the game and real life, would need a month to in real life to travel 6 months in the game, making international trading around the world of DO a very tedious endeavour at times even if it can bring ludicrous profits.

Of course, they could leave the travelling to the AI if they desired, but they could only blame themselves if something terrible happened on the road and they lost their character.

Because of this, players tended to use the large amount of downtime while travelling to ask questions about the system, relax by taking in DO beautiful scenery, or think of different ways they can upgrade their character skills.

"Quintus, that was an impressive match! Are you okay? Need me to help you up."

Norfaelor, the large half-elf said as he bent down to pick up Railius. Seeing this, Railius, whose heart had just calmed down, stood up shakily as his options were this or being carried in the big half-elf's arms, so he chose to stagger towards the little spot their friend group had found to rest.

"Seems you have found your style!"

Jordis said due to being more skilled than the others and gauging from Leon's and Aldorus' reactions; he realised that Railius gained much more from this match than just the honour of a win and the slap of Bron's face, who so arrogantly played with Railius only being defeated by him in the end.

The tournament ended soon after, with Railius winning his last two matches using his new skills, and once the day ended, he got the notification that he had been waiting for ever since he managed to gain his new skills.

[Congratulations to player Rising Pelican of Loyalty for completing the C rank quest 'A Tournament For Improvement!']