The duel of the titans

By this point, many of the players who were present recognized Apophis's name, and, of course, Ceasar was already a celebrity.

So it was unsurprising that the disturbance between Apophis and Ceasar immediately drew a crowd of onlookers. Some even postponed their own Dungeon attempts to watch the duel! Even White, the Hunter from the earlier duel, looked on with uncharacteristic intensity as the timer counted down.

Ceasar drew his hundred-pound warhammer and waved it around like a piece of lightwood while Apophis got into position a hundred meters away. Despite the fact that Apophis was clearly intending to bombard him with ranged attacks from this absurd distance, Ceasar smiled confidently and didn't follow.

Then the timer hit zero.

Apophis launched a dozen fireballs!

Seeing that the fireballs had an unusual pink-purple color, Ceasar immediately used his ~Light Push~ Skill. This sent him lunging forward at the speed of sound!

A deafening sonic boom filled the air as Ceasar covered the 100-meter gap in an instant!

Though he'd been expecting something similar, Apophis hadn't realized that Ceasar would have focused so heavily on upgrading a distance-covering Skill, and he had almost no time to defend himself.

Ceasar swung his hammer brutally and smashed Apophis into the face, hurling him backwards. This was a critical blow, removing 85% of his HP at once.

This attack also inflicted Apophis with the [Stunned] debuff, slowing all his movements by 90% for the duration.

Since directing Esper Skills required some hand motions, this was very bad! Thankfully, Apophis had already redirected his first fireballs, knowing that Ceasar would leap out of their path and then ignore them, since the Warrior would assume that they landed harmlessly on the ground behind him.

Instead, Apophis's ~Lord of Flames~ Skill had allowed him to reverse the fireballs' direction, sending them right back towards Apophis. Though Apophis could no longer easily manipulate them, since he was suffering the [Stunned] condition, Ceasar would likely stay within their path.

Apophis's strategy paid off! Ceasar stopped in front of Apophis and raised his hammer to charge up a heavy strike, only to make himself a huge obstacle in the path between the fireballs and Apophis, who was their new target!

Ceasar staggered and burst into flames as the shimmering fireballs pelted his back. He received a Damage Over Time (DoT) effect that dealt 6% of his maximum HP in fire damage every three seconds. It was a slow burn, but effective over a long time.

Ceasar spun in place and tried to figure out where the fireballs had come from. Had Apophis used some sort of summon, illusion, or portal? Could he summon turrets?

Since the game was so new, Ceasar had no idea what the full power of the Esper class might be, especially since it was obviously a class with many branches of its Skill Tree.

It took him several seconds to guess something close to the truth: Apophis had used some kind of telekinesis to make the fireballs home in on him.

After realizing this, Ceasar's confidence returned. Since Apophis was still [Stunned], and hadn't launched any more fire, he was definitely helpless.

So Ceasar returned to Apophis, who was sprawled on the ground, and raised his hammer. He activated his Skill ~Unstoppable~, preparing to deal the final blow.

The glowing purple arm of a giant spiritual skeleton appeared in the air and blocked his strike!

Apophis had just used ~Susanoo~.

Ceasar retreated several paces, analyzing the situation, but it was too late. The spirit skeleton threw a lightning-fast, powerful punch at Ceasar, removing 50% of his remaining HP!

Desperate, Ceasar used ~Light Push~ again. His hammer slammed with full force against the skeleton, creating a shock wave that bent the few trees nearby.

But it was all useless. Ceasar simply hadn't had enough distance to build up speed and power.

Apophis rose, free from his [Stunned] condition, and sent a torrent of flames at Ceasar from the right, while the spirit skeleton attacked from the left.

Ceasar managed to block or evade some of this, but couldn't prevent all the damage…

…And then ~Chaos Flame~ burned away all but 1% of his remaining HP.

Ceasar had lost.

Server: Congratulations to the player "Apophis" for defeating the player "Ceasar"

A long silence fell over everyone watching.

Some began to mumble among themselves. "Are these guys really at the same stage of the game as us?" people wondered. "That was so much more powerful than the stuff we can do right now…"

But then, all at once, everyone applauded and began chanting, "Apophis! Apophis! Apophis!"

Several players had recorded this fight, and the videos were quickly watched all around the world.

Some commentators called the event a "duel of the titans," a term in the MMORPG community which meant the confrontation between two of the top players in an MMO. The claim that Apophis and Ceasar qualified for this went completely uncontested.

On the forums, everyone had already been hyped beyond belief about the spawning of the Gravedigger Tower Dungeon, but conversations about the duel quickly sent the forums into a complete frenzy.

In the moments after his victory, Apophis rushed to his opponent's side and held out his hand to Ceasar, who was still lying on the ground.

"GG," said Apophis.

Ceasar still couldn't believe what had just happened. He'd lost very few 1v1 fights in his life, even against WoW II players who were generally better at the game than him.

Nonetheless, Ceasar grabbed Apophis's hand and raised himself up. "Good duel," he agreed, "but I hope you'll give me the opportunity of a rematch later!"

"I was just about to ask the same thing," said Apophis with a grin.

Now it was finally time to challenge the Dungeon itself.

But while Apophis was happy to have a skilled player like Ceasar along, someone who could be trusted to fight effectively as a team, Apophis wasn't sure about the Renovatio Imperii members who had already gone with Ceasar through the Dungeon.

They might be bitter at Apophis for beating Ceasar, and even the slightest challenge to his authority would be disastrous. On Nightmare difficulty, a single mistake would be heavily punished.

So Apophis put out a call for one Esper or Engineer healer, one Boxer or Warrior tank, and one DPS Hunter or Warrior. Snipers would be extremely effective later in the game, but Apophis didn't trust that anyone except an elite player could be an effective Sniper in a group at this stage, so he didn't look for one.

However, Apophis already had one DPS in mind. He sent a private chat message to the Hunter named White from earlier. She had been impressed enough by both Apophis and Ceasar that she was more than willing to join a party with both of them.

Then Apophis adjusted his Looking For Group (LFG) message, announcing that was still looking for a healer and a tank.

He received about twenty proposals, including two people who he recognized from his former life. Knowing from experience that he could rely on these people, Apophis accepted their requests and invited them into his party.

Their tank was a Boxer named Hulk, a former military man who had excelled in PvP arena fights in Apophis's previous life. He took the unorthodox character-building route of focusing on his endurance and using his real-life skirmishing skills, which won him many fights.

Apophis knew less about the Esper healer named Chocolate, only recalling that she'd been pretty active in his former SuperGuild, The War Fnatic War.

Once the party was ready, Apophis queued up an instance of the Dungeon on Nightmare difficulty. The portal, originally green, became red.

The onlookers stared at this spectacle in awe, wondering if even this party could succeed. No one else would even think about trying it on Nightmare difficulty!

Then Apophis led his party into the Dungeon, and they disappeared from sight.