After the 24 hours time period, Liam once again stood in front of the tournament floor.
On his hand was the soul sword, and it was no longer rusty or old. It had a brilliant sheen on it. Black wisps enshrouded the hilt, making it look even more mysterious.
Taming this sword had taken a lot out of him, but somehow he was here, and he was still standing. He had successfully broken the seal on the soul sword.
Not only that, the backlash from undoing the seal on the sword helped him make another breakthrough. He now had more control over the sword and his own mana core.
In his previous lifetime, using his mana core was a simple matter but now, he had a red mana core, the best possible mana core. Using this powerful mana core was a challenge in itself.
By pushing himself to withstand the powerful backlash attack from the dragon souls, he managed to get a glimpse of the depth of his new mana core.
Liam clenched the sword tightly as he stepped onto the tournament floor. He looked around to see his opponents already waiting for him.
However, Derek was no longer there at the top of the arena stage.
"What happened? Where is he?" Liam quickly pulled his system interface and saw that everyone's name was greyed out, so he couldn't tell anything from that.
He couldn't see if Derek had died or if he was still alive. Maybe they had moved to a different floor? While the several possibilities were running through his mind, the loud gong sounded announcing the next match.
"I need to finish this soon. Only then I will get all the answers I need." Liam closed the system interface and walked over to the stage.
There were no other players. There was nothing even to guess anymore. The next fight would be his.
He climbed onto the stage and stood steadily. He was ready for this round. He had done everything that he could and prepared to his best.
Liam gazed coldly at the thief, who stood up and waltzed to the stage casually. Somehow, he as well seem to know that it would be his turn to fight. At this point, Liam was not surprised by this.
<Ding. The next match is about to begin>
The displays once again resumed showing the events occurring on the stage, and all the players were able to see the arena.
Since this was the finals, a lot more players stood crowded around the PVP tower. Mia had already resurrected and stood along with Alex atop a building close to the PVP tower.
They had a feeling that Liam might need some help, so they stood as close as possible, even though no one was still able to enter the tower. Everything was on complete lockdown.
With these two girls here, Rey was waiting at the graveyard in case Derek respawned and needed help.
In fact, all the core players from Crimson Abyss were called back from the dungeon farming, and they were all scattered around Yleka city, ready to jump into action if the situation called for it.
<Ding. Player 5 and Player 10 are requested to come to the arena stage>
The announcement rang loudly even though both the players were already ready and on the stage.
"He He He. I was waiting for this. Last time you used the bird and got away easily, but this time it won't be that simple. You will have nowhere to run and hide." The thief's words echoed while the two players were abruptly teleported.
Liam did not even have to open his eyes to know where he was standing now. His skin tingled as the stale air brushed past him. They were now on the same battleground where the thief had previously faced Mia.
"Damn it. Are you serious? How can both times be beneficial to the single player? Shouldn't the battleground be a different one now?" Alex shouted in anger.
Several players who had placed bets on Liam also shouted in outrage. As if fueling this fire, the player on the screen was not silent.
"You should just give up now and surrender. You have no chance of winning here. Did you see how your two teammates were pathetically tossed out? You are going to follow them."
"There is no surprise here. The end of this fight is already decided. You cannot win against me." The guy loudly cackled, his voice coming in and out of the cave from different angles.
Everyone gasped after seeing this because this showed just how fast the thief moved, and it was unimaginable. Was the result of this match truly decided?
Gulp. Everyone couldn't help but start believing this statement. Liam was also standing very silent and still as if he had given up.
It seemed like this time around in this tournament, neither Crimson Abyss nor any of the top guilds were able to achieve anything.
These three mysterious experts would be the winners, and perhaps a new guild might arise from today's finals.
As everyone quietly mulled over this and watched the match in awe, all of a sudden the thief stopped talking and jumped into action.
"Heh. You don't even have the guts to admit when you are bested? The time I gave you is over. You could have conceded, and I would have let you die quickly. But now… He He He… Don't blame me for not going easy on you."
Stephen's speed instantly increased tenfold, and all anyone could see was the darkness. Since Liam hadn't even lit a candle or cast any spell, nothing was visible.
However… there were still sounds, sounds of metal tearing through flesh.
The sharp glint of the dagger flashed every now and then despite the darkness that engulfed everything.
"Ba ha ha ha! Your armor is a joke! Instead of leveling up to show off, you should have really focused and improved your gear a bit. Your stupidity is the reason why you will be losing today!"
It looked like the thief got bored of talking to an unresponding wall, so he directly went for the kill. In the glint of the dagger, Liam's head and neck were visible as the dagger was about to cut his throat.
This, combined with all of the previous attacks, was more than enough to take down a player, especially one that was not fighting back. So this match was really coming to an end.
Everyone could see it. They couldn't even blame Liam here because the opponent's strength was just that high. Even Mia couldn't stand up to him.
He had kicked her corpse like a plaything. Against such overpowered players, one could only feel hopeless and desperate. There was no route to escape.
SLASH!
The thief sneered and slit Liam's throat.
Everyone sighed.
"There goes my gold coins."
"He could have at least put up a fight."
"What a waste! If I had been there, I would have done it better. Useless."
The crowd clicked their tongues in disappointment and prepared themselves to watch the next match, which would probably be more amazing when suddenly they noticed that the players were getting teleported back.
Was the fight not over?
