The Champion

In a bedroom with sea-blue walls was a PlayStation 5 console, and a black 2015 Samsung LCD television lying in front, Blake.

He was lying on the floor in a puddle of drool with a gamepad in his right hand.

A resplendent ray of light from the window fell on his face and woke him up

"Forgot to close the curtains" he grunted.

He looked at his hand and realized he was still with his gamepad "seems like I dozed off…. What's the time?".

His gaze fell on the wall clock hanging above the television. "It's past 11 already?". Blake got up slowly and performed his routine exercise, then made his way to the bathroom.

After freshening up, he ran downstairs for breakfast. "Good morning mom" He greeted while pulling out a chair.

"Someone was awake all night..." Miriam said with a warm smile on her face.

Miriam was a slim tall woman with fair smooth skin and a duchess-shaped nose that complimented her oval face. She had always put on a warm smile that could melt the heart of many.

"Yeah mom, I can't slack off now, the Zetron gaming competition is the day after tomorrow," he spoke while munching on his bacon.

'It's been a while since I saw Blake this serious, he reminds me of Tom, Miriam giggled, but her smile soon disappeared when she remembered her late husband.

When Blake saw his mother sad, he knew why "When I win the competition…*munch*…we won't have to worry about…*munch*… money again".

"Don't talk with food in your mouth" she chuckled.

Gotcha!!... he let out a low chuckle "Okay".

Tom was a senior engineer in a top construction firm in the USA, with his position, their family was above average financially, but everything changed when he died.

He was one of the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. Ever since Miriam had been working more shifts in the clinic to meet up with their financial needs.

"Thanks, mom, the food was awesome!" Immediately after he was done doing the dishes he ran up to continue training in lords of legends.

...

On the day of the competition…

Blake woke up very early, even before his alarm. He stood up from his bed with a broad smile on his face and ran his daily routine exercise before heading to the bathroom.

As he was taking his bath, Miriam entered his room.

"Oh, you are awake, your breakfast is in the kitchen and I would be handling morning and afternoon shifts good luck in the competition, see you later dear."

"Thanks, mom, have a nice day!" Blake yelled.

....

After he was done with his breakfast, he left the house and boarded a taxi that took him to the bus station.

He resided in silver street in the south of Boston, which was less than 15 minutes away from East Boston, but there was a traffic jam.

C'mon move!!... he stretched his head out the window to see the cause of the traffic jam. It turned out that the other lane was closed due to utility works.

Thank God it's not that serious…

After what felt like forever, the traffic cleared up and he reached the arena in less than 7 minutes.

When he got down from the bus, he looked at his wristwatch and saw that there was still more than an hour before the competition began. "Hehe", seems I was overreacting… He gave a self-deprecating smile.

He was not in a hurry anymore, so he slowed down and decided to take in the beauty of the arena. He made his way past beautifully trimmed hedges and a water-spitting fountain and reached a long staircase that led to the entrance.

He quickly climbed the stairs and got to the entrance of the arena. He walked through the entrance and saw a chubby woman with red hair and a large mole on her nose.

"Tickets?" the woman said with a deadpan face.

He took out his tickets and passed them to the lady.

My eyes!!... he almost screamed out when he saw the mole.

He hurriedly removed his eyes from the woman and entered the lobby, he showed the guards his ID before proceeding to the waiting area.

"It's the time you all have been waiting for, the battle for supremacy in lords of legends. Contestants take your positions!" the voice of the host announced the beginning of the competition as an uproar came from the spectators.

"It's Showtime"...He psyched himself as he stepped out of the lobby.

The cheers of the crowd increased as they saw the players walking down the stage.

The arena had seats similar to a football stadium, all converging to the stage at the center of the arena.

"Pick Your Warriors!" the host spoke with a pumped voice.

As he sat down and selected master Ye, the legendary sword's master as his character, his phone vibrated.

Who is calling me now!? Blake ignored the call as he set his eyes on the countdown and prepared for the battle.

Unlike other Zetron gaming competitions that were based on team efforts, this year's competition was a PVP battle royal that focused on the individual skills of the players.

The battlefield was a large map with dense forests, caves, hills, and lakes. As the number of players decreases the radius of the map also decreases.

The features of the battlefield enabled the players to strategize based on their characters.

....

After two and a half hours of intense gaming and knockouts, Assassin Zeed used shadow slash skill to deal the final blow to Brian who chose Seon a vanguard character, but he didn't escape unscathed.

Castiel's health was at thirty-two percent and his regen items had been depleted. it was clear he was in a pinch and due to the radius of the battlefield shrinking, he was forced to move to the center of the battlefield.

let's pray the last opponent has a lower HP… Castiel prayed silently as he ran away from the 'borders of death'.

They were down to the final two players, Blake and Castiel.

"We are down to the final two" the voice of the host made their hearts beat faster.

Due to the radius of the arena shrinking, they were forced to move to a plain. This gave master Ye who had a high DPS, an upper hand against Zeed who relied mostly on sneak attacks.

When Castiel came to the open field, he saw the player ID ' Blake' on Master Ye and he still had sixty-seven percent of his health remaining!

fuck!... Castiel frowned deeply as he started cursing the heavens for his bad luck.

I have the game in the bag now… a wide grin appeared on Blake's face as he activated Highlander.

Highlander: Increases Movement Speed, Attack Speed, ignores slows and collisions for 6 seconds as he dashed towards Castiel.

Castiel knew that a head-on collision was not ideal, so he activated Shadow slash skill.

Shadow slash: propels the user to give a deadly horizontal slash that deals 70 / 95 / 120 / 145 / 170 (+0.8 per bonus attack damage) physical damage to nearby enemies.

Instead of targeting his opponent, he activated the skill to the left to avoid the incoming attack.

He knew if he went for a head-on collision, he would end up dying due to his low health, so he planned on wilting his opponent's health gradually.

Immediately after he dodged the attack, he locked on his opponent and activated razor shuriken intending to kite Master Ye, but to his utmost surprise, Blake had already anticipated the move.

"I've got you now, die!" Blake yelled and activated Master Ye's strongest skill Alpha strike.

Alpha strike: Master Ye cannot be locked unto and teleports to rapidly strike enemies near him, dealing physical damage to all enemies within thirty meters radius.

He still had his ultimate, fuck me! Castiel cursed as he realized he had entered his opponent's trap.

This ability made Zeed unable to land a single hit with his shuriken and since he was the only one within the area, he received the full damage of the skill.

Blake watched as his opponent's health bar dropped to zero, and then a 'winner' message popped up on the screen.

I did it, mom, I won! We are rich!... Blake stood up from his seat to celebrate his victory, but that was when his phone rang again.

C'mon, don't ruin the moment! Blake ignored the call again.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner and the new lords of legends champion, Blake Wilson!!" the announcement was followed by an uproar that shook the arena.

Wow! The uproar shook the whole place, literally! Blake thought as he waved and smiled at the crowd.

…

There was a twenty minutes break before the trophies would be given to the winner and runner-ups.

Blake was in a lobby that led to the stage.

"let's know the retard that dared disturb me during the match" Blake was ready to curse the ancestors of the caller, but his face changed when he saw the caller ID.

Mom?! Blake was confused.