Blood Queen Reborn

Chapter 164: Ready For Battle

Taking the offer to fight both Sam and Nate didn’t seem like a bad one, the only problem was that Erin had already fought Sam before, and didn’t get any EXP then. The same couldn’t be said for Layla, it was her first time battling either of them.

"Sure, let’s fight," Erin said.

Nate smirked, "You got it."

Despite his seemingly confident exterior, he was quite excited internally. He knew Erin was an impressive fighter, and respected her for that. With it being a while since the two last fought, it would prove to be a memorable battle.

The four set up a 2v2 match, and were teleported into a gladiator styled arena. Because this was a team fight, they were given a 1 minute timer to talk about their strategies.

[A strong opponent has appeared]

[Defeat Nate Snell]

[Quest rewards: +400 EXP]

[For fighting alongside your blooded family member, additional EXP may be awarded]

Erin nodded approvingly.

"Focus on Sam there, he’s the one with the cape, I’ll rush the other guy. When you’re able to stun your target, support me," Erin commanded, pointing to the people in question, "These two are second years, so they won’t be easy targets. Keep that in mind when you fight them."

Layla nodded, then thought about their gear. The girls were personally first years, which made her worried that they might’ve been under geared compared to the boys. When examining Erin’s new gear made by Logan, she was wearing a full body robe that was an off-white color with dark purple accents throughout the outfit. It had a hoodie and a mask intended to block out the sun, as well as a subtle scale-like texture to the cloth.

Even though Layla’s bow was king tier, that was only an exception. The rest of their equipment was basic to intermediate tier, including her arrows, and even if their equipment was better than the second years, they were bound to have more experience.

As they discussed their plans, a few people appeared on the stands, wanting to see the mysterious IceQueen ’hacker’ play for themselves. She had become a bit of an urban legend on the Power Fighters forum, with some thinking that she was just some random player that others told exaggerated stories of.

"Hey, who’s that new ’Snackydemon’ chick?" a boy pointed at Layla.

"Eh, she’s probably a boy, we all know girls don’t exist on the internet."

"Is she another hacker? Or a normal player?"

Layla stared at all the people watching, a little unnerved.

"When did you become an internet celebrity?" Layla thought out loud.

Erin saw the viewers on the gladiator seats as well, "Honestly, I didn’t even notice them before, so I don’t know."

Layla’s face dropped, of course Erin wouldn’t notice people watching her during her fights. She never really cared about the attention like that.

Taking off her bow, she sighed, ’Calm down Layla, just focus on the fight ahead.’

The timer in the sky counted down, the minute almost up.

"—4, 3, 2, 1."

"Fight!"

Erin flashstepped towards Nate, clearing the distance. Sam attempted to throw wind slashes her way, but by using a second flashstep, Erin was fast enough to weave around each and every one.

Watching closely, Sam prepared another wind slash, when an arrow struck itself in his chest, causing him to fall.

’Crap, that hurt,’ Sam thought, watching his in game health drop down by a 1/4th.

Strangely, when he tried to get up, he found that his muscles were locked together, incapable of moving.

’Does she have some sort of stunning bow?’ Sam guessed.

Sam was able to still move his eyes, and noticed Layla had another arrow notched in her bow.

’If Nate was the one struck by this arrow, he might’ve been happy he was hit by a stunning beauty.’

The moment she fired again, Sam was able to regain his mobility, and quickly formed a wall of wind, catching the arrow midair. He flung it to the side, and it disappeared. Layla had been lucky for the first shot, but she was going to need to think hard how to combat his ability.

Erin thrusted her rapier, taking step after step closer to him, but Nate simply redirected, blocked, and dodged every attack.

She jumped back, then stared at him with glowing red eyes. With how the charm skill was able to make people suddenly gain googly eyes towards her very presence, she was sure it would work without issue now.

[Daze activated]

[Daze failed]

Erin stared at the message in shock, which was enough for Nate to thrust a silvery spiked fist into her gut, launching her a few feet away. Stabbing her sword into the ground, Erin was able to quickly regain her footing.

[-7 HP]

[HP 68/75]

To Nate, the daze skill wasn’t even something he registered. Even though he thought of Erin as a beautiful girl, whenever he was in a tough battle with an opponent he respected, it was the one thing that could override his feelings.

Shifting the silver parts of his skin into his arms, Nate formed the shape of a zweihander, and charged at Erin. She attempted to use two hands to block with her paleneedle rapier, but the weight and force behind the zweihander overpowered Erin.

The blade cut into Erin’s torso, but thankfully, her new armor was able to take most of the damage.

[-10 HP]

[HP 58/75]

’Has he grown stronger since then?’ Erin briefly wondered.

Sensing that Erin was in trouble, Layla shifted her focus onto Nate. Aiming her bow, she both had to watch carefully, and quickly as to not hit Erin before Sam caught up.

In a moment like this, the starlingshot would’ve been perfect, but the game wouldn’t allow Layla to switch between the two weapons like that.

Sam ran up to Layla, flinging 3 wind slices at her. With a slightly improved reaction time, Layla fired and twisted her body to dodge most of the slashes, but one landed into her abdomen.

Realizing this was his chance, Sam threw his daggers, using the wind to extend their distance. She was able to catch one midair, the other hitting her shoulder.

Suddenly, even though it wasn’t a real injury, some part of her brain registered it as a genuine attack on her body, and a swirling sensation of nausea made Layla step back.

’Don’t tell me—’ Layla’s eyes widened, ’It’s the raw animal meat, it’s coming back up!’