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    In the meantime, before Shin and Leonard had made their coordinated moves, the side where Diablo and Florence were fighting was getting more and more heated as time went by.

    The battle between two sides with opposite styles would only be decided by the skills of the respective players.

    Diablo, who possessed extreme speed but was restricted by the environment, particularly by the water resistance underwater, was clearly in a disadvantageous situation. But his techniques and Ancient Shadow Powers greatly helped him in the battle.

    In the meantime, Florence, as the Warrior Goddess, was a very skilled Godlike Player. She was even ranked seventh in the latest issue of the Godly Ranking List, so her skills were something that could not be underestimated even if her style of fighting was meant for a vanguard position.

    She might be slow, but her steadiness in battle and tanky style of battle greatly countered Diablo’s, especially when she had the advantage when it came to underwater battle given her racial traits.

    The two sides were in a complete deadlock despite the intense exchanges that they were throwing at one another. Discover exclusive tales on novelhall.Co?m

    Diablo refrained from using any of his Shadow Equip Skills and just relied on the tricks that he had learned from fighting against the monsters of the Forgotten Sea.

    Clang! Clang! Clang!

    Bang!

    Florence had to admit that she would have most likely lost if they were fighting on land, especially after seeing how Diablo utilized that unique combat state that he had – his version of Hyperactive Simulation.

    Moreover, she kept having a bad feeling whenever she saw that dangerous glint in Diablo’s eyes. She felt that all the secrets she had in terms of fighting were slowly being disclosed by those cold eyes whenever they flickered with purple lights.

    She had no idea about Diablo’s unique skill – the Demon Eyes – but she somewhat had an idea of what those eyes were hiding given that she had also experienced fighting against other geniuses with similar abilities.

    Arthur, widely known as Dragon God Seigfried within the virtual world, was one of them. Even if the effects of his special abilities were not as direct as Diablo’s Demon Eyes and Shin’s Battle Genius talent that could continuously evolve during the battle, his ability to adapt to situations and improve still surpassed most of the players of the game.

    This was one of the reasons why Arthur was one of the current legendary players of the game.@@@@

    Even if Florence was ranked fairly high in the Godly Ranking List, her talent was somewhat on the mediocre side, especially when compared to those absolute monsters of the game.

    What made her what she is today was her extreme persistence, unbreakable will, and countless of time invested in hard work.

    She was among the type of people with stubborn personality and would never give up once they put their minds to it.

    Fortunately, her efforts had paid off, which was why she was standing at the peak of the virtual world at this moment.

    She wanted to have an honest battle against someone like Diablo, who she found had a similar personality to her to some extent.

    On the other hand, the battle between Florence and Diablo was only getting more intense, which made Shin and the others somewhat reluctant to interfere.

    But since Stella, the last member of the Seven Seas Alliance, was not thinking of leaving the summoning zone, it was concluded that she had already given up on the battle.

    Taking the current situation into consideration, the system notified Florence, asking her if she still wanted to continue.

    This made her regain her senses and remember what was going in. She first distanced herself away from Diablo before sweeping her gaze at the surroundings.

    Realizing that it was finally time to end this match, Florence felt a little pity that she could not fight to her heart’s content this time.

    She looked at Diablo, who also stopped his actions, before saying. "You are strong. I hope to see you again in the next Hegemon Cup. I am looking forward to how you will perform there."

    She had little hope about whether they would meet again in this tournament, especially after their performance.

    She was sure that they would never have a chance to meet again despite the double-elimination format given how tough the entire bracket was. If they could not even win against the Empyrean Talons, then their chances of winning against the other top contenders would most likely be the same.

    In response to her, Diablo just shrugged his shoulders. "I don’t think I will be participating in that one, though."

    Hearing his response, Florence looked at the people, who she was familiar with such as Leonard, Alice, and Cloe. Her questioning gaze seemed to be asking them what he meant by those words.

    Leonard also shrugged his shoulders, leaving it to Cloe to answer. With a helpless sigh, the latter explained. "Our Adventurer Team is quite free and easygoing. Things like requiring our members to have a quota when it comes to participating in any professional and official tournament are unnecessary."

    "We are not a club, after all," she added, seemingly emphasizing something.

    Florence seemed to have realized something before nodding her head. "I understand. But it is a pity that such a decent rival will not compete in the most competitive stage."

    "Well, this is not the first time. There are plenty of apex experts with such a lowkey personality," responded Leonard before quickly urging her to concede the match. "Come on! Concede already! You will not be getting anything from extra exposure anyway."

    The corner of Florence’s mouth suddenly twitched when she heard those words, especially with his annoying tone.

    She waved her hand as she conceded. "Let’s meet again some other time."

    With that, she was sent out of the battle arena as the system had finally announced the final results.

    – "Victory – Empyrean Talons!" –

    – "Final Result! Empyrean Talons 10:0!"

    ...