Flashy Adventurer System : Show Off to Get Stronger!

[Congratulations! You've earned 31,500 points!]

Witnessing the intense, fast-paced melee exchanges between a scout and a mage, made the crowd's eyes almost pop out of their sockets—their mouths, agape.

This was simply too unbelievable.

How could a mere mage—a young one at that—master melee self-defense to such a level?

Suddenly, Seira's voice echoed in most of the audience's heads as they remembered the word she always used to describe her boss: invincible.

'D-Damn…Is this Shye Crowley truly…invincible?' Banar inwardly thought, slightly regretting the fact that they bet a sizable amount of their money. 'No, impossible. He's only human just like the rest of us! He's bound to have some flaws!'

Well, Banar was right. Shye wasn't truly invincible.

However, it depends on who he's fighting.

Someone from the same age group? Shye…might just truly be invincible against them—just like what Seira had always been saying.

"S-S-SHYE CROWLEY!! HAVE WE ALL UNDERESTIMATED HIM?! HOW?! HOW CAN A MAGE DISPLAY SUCH BRILLIANCE IN A MELEE BATTLE?!" Corey's voice reverberated, prompting Arthur and Almira, who were watching the match, to narrow their eyes and frown.

They couldn't help but recognize that Shye was indeed a problem, especially for Arthur.

At first, he dismissed Shye as merely a frivolous clown, but now, his absolute confidence in his own victory has definitely diminished by quite a fair bit.

Although he didn't believe he would lose, he wasn't sure if he could win as easily as he expected.

On the other hand, Almira was taking Shye a bit more seriously compared to Arthur.

Why? Well…she doesn't quite match up to the darned mage stylistically.

She could only hope that John would defeat Shye for her, as she was convinced she could better manipulate the battle dynamics facing a scout rather than a mage proficient in both long and close-ranged combat.

Meanwhile, at the center of the stage, the mage and the scout were still at it. It seemed that the two could go on for days.

However, they knew that such an intense pace was unsustainable, hence, both of them started entertaining thoughts of revealing another of their trump cards.

For John, his hesitation stems from the fact that he didn't want to reveal his trump cards before his battle with Arthur.

On the other hand, Shye's problem was much simpler: which skill wouldn't reveal that he was a warrior?

Common-tier skills were well-known to the masses, however, since their effects are very basic, one can easily make it appear as something else.

For example, he could use [Power Slash] right now to smash John's face in, send him flying backward, and people would think that the skill he used was the common-tier utility skill for priests/priestesses and mages, [Knockback].

None of them would assume that he used [Power Slash].

On the flip side, higher-tier skills were way rarer, making it a bit far-fetched for mundane folk to even know what skill one was using, let alone know which class it was from.

However, it was almost impossible to make it appear as some other skill due to its characteristic of having very specific yet ridiculously potent effects.

Hence, the dilemma.

Luckily, John took a brief step back to unveil another of his aces, finally choosing to stop holding back for the finals, which also granted Shye a bit of time to ponder his choices.

Sliding his left hand inside his spatial bag, John grabbed another weapon—a mid-grade platinum-tier dagger that was enchanted with the element of water, complementing the lightning element of his other one.

Naturally, Shye was familiar with both the skill and the element combination as he once used both himself.

Dual wielding...the passive skill John mastered to defeat Arthur.

"D-DUAL WIELDING!! COMPETITOR JOHN PULLS OUT ANOTHER DAGGER!! COULD THIS BE THE THING HE NEEDED TO WIN THIS MATCH?! OR POSSIBLY THE CHAMPIONSHIP?!"

The skill was most lethal in the hands of scouts due to their priority on training their agility and dexterity attributes.

Hence, John's grand reveal prompted the crowd to cheer thunderously, and it also brought a frown on both Arthur and Almira's faces.

A dual-wielding John Oni would definitely not be easy to face.

Meanwhile, Shye gave zero f*cks about John's reveal as he was currently in the middle of an epiphany.

'That's right…even if that Arthur Vermicelli or that battle priestess gets an inkling or two about me being a warrior, as long as the crowd doesn't realize, I'll still be able to earn points!' Shye inwardly thought, not giving a shit about Arthur and Almira learning about his trump cards.

A proof of his absolute confidence in his victory.

Finally deciding on a skill to use, Shye smiled.

'Blades of Despair!'

…Revitalized after hearing the crowd cheering for him, John Oni once more charged towards Shye—his sinister appearance—still present.

At this point, Shye didn't even bother firing spells, fully recognizing that none of them would hit the shadow rage-empowered John.

Still, he had a few realizations regarding the limitations of John's skill. One such restriction was the fact that the scout would never be able to turn as fast as he ran—he was still subject to the laws of inertia.

This was the reason why John didn't use his speed to circle Shye and slit his throat from behind.

[Shadow Rage] simply didn't allow him to do such a thing. Due to this, Shye was confident that John could only engage in a head-on battle.

With focused eyes, Shye struck first, brandishing his elemental staff downwards.

This attack forced John to either block the attack or lean to the side to dodge, of which Shye fully believed that the scout would choose the former between the two options.

Noticing his opponent raise one of his daggers horizontally to defend, Shye couldn't help but smirk triumphantly as his elemental staff, powered by 224 points of strength, phased through the dagger and "slashed" John in half.

This time, his attack was faster as he didn't hold anything back, striking with every fiber of his body.

Shortly after, John fell on his knees.

"W-W-WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! SOMEHOW, SHYE CROWLEY'S STAFF CUTS THROUGH JOHN AND HIS DAGGER!! DUAL WIELDING PROVES INEFFECTIVE AGAINST POSSIBLY YET ANOTHER OF SHYE CROWLEY'S TRUMP CARDS!!"