The Monster is Coming

Chapter 450 The Art of Assassination: A Narrow Encounter (Third Update)
The second round of competition continues with exciting performances from all the major battle groups.

At this moment, the popularity of match venue 2837 is soaring.

Blood sacrifice on the plains battlefield.

The teleportation light dissipated, and a vast, boundless plain unfolded before the spectators.

The grayish-white, cracked earth stretched to the horizon, dotted with giant craters formed by meteorite impacts, and in the distance, several massive stellar fragments, resembling mountain ranges, were embedded diagonally in the earth's surface.

In one corner of the battlefield, a figure appeared first.

He had short blue hair, and chains wrapped around his forearms, extending to the ends of two daggers he held in his hands.

The dagger was entirely black, except for a line of scarlet flowing from the blade, as if it had drunk countless drops of blood.

He raised his head slightly, revealing a pair of dark eyes.

Behind him, the air rippled like water.

One figure after another appeared silently. They were all dressed in dark gray, close-fitting leather armor, with masks covering most of their faces, revealing only pairs of indifferent eyes.

They stood silently behind the blue-haired boy, like sculptures blending into the background, exuding a chilling aura.

Looking across the plain, the opposing battle group had already assembled.

This is a small to medium-sized guild called "Stone Rift" with over four thousand members, known on the forum for its tenacious positional warfare.

Guild leader "Mountain Splitter" shouldered a rune-inscribed giant hammer, and when he saw the game ID "Mist Legion Commander," a hint of solemnity flashed in his eyes.

This ID was popular on the forum for a period of time.

He topped the leaderboard in the previous newbie leveling event and also contributed the famous "devout worship" meme to the forum.

His gaze, sharp as a mountain splitter, swept over his brothers who stood ready behind him.

A steel wall composed of over two thousand heavily armored warriors and tanking players, along with a thousand support and ranged damage dealers.

This is the foundation of their Riftstone Guild; their expertise lies in rock-solid defensive positions and sustained combat.

He believes that although the other party is touted as a god on the forum, his essence as an assassin remains unchanged.

They fear direct confrontation, lack the ability to wage a protracted war, and rely on bursts of speed and surprise attacks.

He admitted that the "Mist Legion Commander" was extremely strong personally, and it was no accident that he was able to make such a name for himself during his rookie period.

However, the opposing battle group consisted of fewer than six hundred people.

Even with their glorious past of controlling the territory, they were nothing more than a group of assassins.

The assassin class boasts top-tier individual combat and decapitation capabilities.

But they are not those second-rate teams with loose formations that can be overwhelmed by one or two skilled players.

He gripped the runic giant hammer tightly, his confidence returning to his chest.

Their formation was layered, with soldiers covering each other and support healing chains tightly linked.

If you try to sneak in, countless restraints and controls await you.

If they try to launch a strong attack on any point, the surrounding soldiers can instantly surround them, ensuring their defeat.

He took a deep breath and said in a deep voice in the guild channel:
"Brothers, the opponent is the famous 'Mist Legion Commander' on the forum, a top-notch assassin. I know many people have used his memes, including me."

A low chuckle came through the channel, easing the tense atmosphere considerably.

"But don't forget, we are the Rockbreaker. Our shields are designed to break the sharpest blades. No matter how strong an assassin is, they cannot pierce our steel defenses head-on. This battle will be fierce, filled with blood and sweat." At this point, his voice suddenly rose:

"But in the end, we will be the ones standing, and we will show them what a true impregnable fortress is!"

"Roar!"

The Riftstone Guild erupted in a deafening battle cry, their morale soaring.

The player in the front row who was taking the hit slammed his right leg heavily on the ground, making a dull thud, like the beating of a war drum.

They stood ready, awaiting the arrival of the Mist Legion.

Kai Shanlie Shi stared intently at the opposite side of the plain, his gaze sharpening.

The outcome of this battle remains to be seen.

He decided to focus on a defensive counter-attack strategy in this battle. If the opponent did not attack, the death circle would force both sides to the center point as time went on.

At that time, the Mist Legion will have nowhere to retreat.

As he expected, the Mist Legion launched an attack at this moment.

A swift decision was made to split the mountain and crack the rocks:
"Everyone maintain defensive formation, keep healing chains running, and support should use Eagle Head to observe. We will remain unchanged and wait for them to run into us, or for the death zone to shrink."

As soon as he finished speaking, the Mist Legion began to accelerate.

With the help of the wind-breaking effect, each flash causes the entire group to instantly lunge forward a certain distance.

In the next instant, dozens of death lotuses bloomed without warning within the tightly packed formation of the Riftstone Guild.

The Mist Legion unleashes the "Shadow Strike" ability by throwing daggers.

One by one, clones dressed identically to the members of the Mist Legion solidified within the healing and mage ranks of the Riftstone Guild.

The clone's dagger traced a cold arc, precisely slicing across the throats of nearby magic-based players or piercing the chests of support classes.

The exclamations had barely begun when the clones who had completed the assassinations vanished like smoke, leaving only the rune daggers stuck in the ground.

This is just the beginning.

Outside the formation, several heavily armored warriors, fully focused on the front, were watching intently when a member of the Mist appeared out of nowhere behind them.

A flash of cold light from the dagger, and the backstab was complete.

Although it did not kill the player, the spirit-sealing property interrupted the flow of the injured player's blood and qi, and the energy supply to the player's body was forcibly cut off.

The assassin's figure blurred instantly after the kill, disappearing as if erased. Almost at the same moment, he reappeared behind another injured player not far away, once again unleashing a deadly blade.

He seemed to be flashing between different coordinates, and each time he appeared, he would interrupt a warrior's protective aura.

The sudden loss of power caused the front-line warriors of the Rockbreaker Legion to freeze, leaving them wide open.

In the instant when the old forces were exhausted and the new forces had not yet emerged, the combined attack of the Mist Legion was launched.

Just as a warrior's protective aura was dispersed by a palm strike from an assassin who appeared behind him, a dagger silently emerged from the shadows to his left, precisely piercing the gap in his armor under his armpit.

The excruciating pain distorted his movements, and almost simultaneously, the air to his right twisted as another cold glint flashed toward his throat.

A wounded player roared as he tried to regroup his health, but magical runes suddenly appeared beneath his feet, and his legs were instantly bound by the "Mist Binding Technique".

In the instant he struggled, a figure descended from above, its two daggers crossed, twisting towards his head like scissors.

The first assassins to appear act as bait and shield breakers, using teleportation and clones to disrupt vision and break through defenses.

The Mist Legion's hunting squads are the ones who actually deliver the fatal blow. Like venomous snakes lurking in the shadows, they launch their attack the instant the target's defenses crumble, ensuring a swift and decisive kill.

The sounds of blades piercing flesh, armor tearing, and dying groans echoed densely in the front row of the Riftstone Guild.

Wisps of mist, like fireworks, bloomed continuously on the front line.

The formation of the Riftstone Guild was torn open, starting from the most solid front row.

"Oath Space, watch me mark the figures and disrupt their coordination."

The mountain-opening and rock-splitting mechanism responded swiftly.

Upon hearing the command, the front-line warriors and tanking players roared and locked onto the flickering Mist Legion members around them, activating their Oath Space abilities to forcibly pull the Mist Legion members into a 1v1 space.

But this moment was just the beginning of despair.

When the warriors of the Shatterstone Chapter face their adversaries in a separate space, filled with the resolve to fight to the death.

What they saw was not the panic of being forced to stop cooperating, but pairs of bloodthirsty eyes.

Those who have been revived in the Night Mist are the strongest warriors of the Mist Clan, who have crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood after experiencing countless life-and-death moments.

Before they became players, every battle they experienced was not about winning or losing, but about life and death.

Their honing of killing skills has long been etched into their souls and integrated into their instincts.

Those who couldn't learn well have already died on the battlefield.

Skills, experience, and attitude towards combat give them an absolute advantage over players in the Riftstone Warband in multiple dimensions.

Within one of the spaces.

Just as a wounded player raised his giant shield, the Mist Warrior in front of him slid sideways into his blind spot.

The dagger struck his elbow precisely, the sealing effect infusing the wound, and a tingling sensation instantly spread, causing the injured player's body to tilt slightly.

In that instant of vulnerability, a second dagger, like a venomous snake, burrowed under the shield and plunged into his throat.

In another space, the Berserker of the Rockbreaker, known for his bravery, roared and charged, his battle axe swirling wildly.

His opponent, however, was like a weightless ghost, his movements so precise that he could easily dodge the axe blade. Every parry or block with his dagger struck the weakest point of the battle axe's power, producing a teeth-grinding scraping sound.

The berserker's attacks were like a storm, yet he could never even touch the hem of his opponent's clothes.

Instead, their full-force swings missed, leaving them vulnerable and ultimately crushed by a series of consecutive attacks. These Mist Warriors, resurrected as players, displayed individual strength in a 1v1 setting that left the Riftstone Guild in despair.

Each vow space quickly shattered and dissipated.

Ye Xie, who was once the Emperor of the Dark Mist, also made his move at this moment, releasing the "Mist of Dissolution" that he had developed by combining the characteristics of the Life Soul.

He slowly raised his right hand, palm facing upward.

Energy, carrying a heavy aura of decay and death, gathered in his palm.

With a deep hum, he gently pushed out this energy, centering on himself.

With its diffusion properties enhanced, the grayish-purple mist seemed to come alive, spreading outwards at an astonishing speed.

Wherever the corrosive mist passed, the cracked earth seemed to lose all its vitality and turned gray.

A chorus of terrified screams erupted from within the Riftstone Guild's formation.

This eerie fog not only caused continuous loss of life and a strong corrosive effect, but also severely impaired their vision, plunging their formation into complete chaos.

However, the dissolving fog had no effect on the Mist members who were flickering around.

Under Ye Xie's Eagle Head Perception Control, the mist deliberately avoided the assassins, but clung to every member of the Riftstone Guild like a leech.

For the Riftstone Guild, the real nightmare has only just begun.

In the corrosive, toxic fog with extremely low visibility, the elusive fog assassins become invisible reapers of death.

"Pfft!" A flash of cold light appeared in the mist, and a support character who was trying to dispel negative status effects collapsed to the ground.

"Damn it." A soldier swung his weapon to sweep away the surrounding mist, but was stabbed in the back by a dagger with critical hit properties.

Screams echoed through the thick fog.

The members of the Riftstone Guild were like insects trapped in a spider web, silently being harvested one by one under the dual torment of corrosion and the unknown.

It was difficult to even find a trace of the enemy.

The guild leader wielded a giant hammer, splitting mountains and splitting rocks, roaring as he charged through the fog, only to strike the air and occasionally leave fleeting afterimages.

The protective aura on the body surface hissed under the corrosive effect of the mist, and the health points continued to decline.

As he watched his dwindling comrades and listened to the agonizing screams around him, a profound sense of powerlessness gripped him.

Their so-called impregnable defenses, as described by the Rockbreaker Guild, are as fragile as paper in the face of absolute power.

the other side.

Ye Ming, as the core figure, performed incredibly simple movements in this battle.

With a flash, he appeared beside a warrior, his chain dagger slithering around the edge of the shield like a venomous snake, striking the warrior's weak point under the armpit with a critical hit, and then his figure faded away.

The next second, he appeared behind a mage who was trying to cast an area-of-effect control spell, his dagger piercing precisely from the back of the mage's neck before disappearing again.

Each of his appearances lasts no more than half a second, and each attack consists of only one strike. After that strike, whether it hits or misses, he never lingers in the fight and vanishes instantly.

The members of the Riftstone Guild only had time to see a blue afterimage and a crimson blade of light before their companions fell to the ground.

Their proud steel defenses and tight healing chains appear incredibly cumbersome under such precise, unpredictable attacks that completely disregard formation logic.

They have power, but nowhere to unleash it.

As the thick fog gradually dissipated, only the nearly six hundred members of the Mist Legion, who seemed to have returned from hell, remained standing on the battlefield.

[Challenger's Announcement: This battle is over. Mist Guild wins!]

The challenger's notification sounded, bringing this crushing battle to a close.

But the live stream chat for match number 2837 exploded like a volcanic eruption:
"Huh??? What did I just see? Six hundred people crushing four thousand people, that's ruthless."

"It's a feast for the eyes, it's practically art, the ultimate aesthetic of the assassin style. The Rockbreaker Guild was wiped out before they could even put up a decent counterattack."

"My mom asked me why I was kneeling while watching the live stream... From today onwards, I'm a fan of the Mist Legion, they're so cool!"

"The defeat of the Rockbreaker was not unjust. Who can withstand such a dimensional attack? I request that the Mist Legion recruit people. I am also a top assassin and hope to join you."

"A textbook-level tutorial on assassin team battles; all assassin players are advised to watch it repeatedly."

The video recording was uploaded to the forum a few seconds after the battle ended, sparking heated discussions.

The Mist Legion's reputation, coupled with this crushing victory against overwhelming odds, has officially cemented their place among the most anticipated dark horses of this tournament.

Although no player believed that the Mist Legion could compete with those top-tier Tier 1 guilds, they all saw the guild's unlimited potential for the future.

Just as the dust settled at Arena 2837 and the forums were flooded with posts about the "Mist Legion," the battles in other arenas remained fierce, and new storms quickly followed.

"This is so exciting! The Tidal Legion's land tsunami engulfed the entire enemy battle group."

Breaking News! The Gold Coin Guild pulls off a miracle of financial power, using money to summon soul beasts that sweep across the battlefield.

"Immortal Chapter: A Detailed Explanation of Arctic Circle-Kill Tactics – This Match Utilized the Terrain to its Fullest Potential."

The forum's popularity rankings are being updated at an astonishing rate.

One act ends and another begins; behind every headline lies a thrilling duel that ignites the passion of supporters and leaves analysts racking their brains.

Video highlights, tactical analysis posts, screenshots of match results, and even memes of the players sprang up like mushrooms after rain, pushing the forum's atmosphere to one climax after another.

Inside the arena, contestants fought fiercely for glory and their dreams, while outside, spectators revelled in this spectacular feast.

Cheers and sighs rose and fell in the tavern, the odds in the real world fluctuated wildly with each upset, and even the regional and world channels in the game were filled with heated discussions about the latest battle situation.

The start of the Stars Showdown has ignited the passion of all living beings on Earth.

After the second round of the competition, the number of participating teams has dropped from over 120 million to just over 30.

Most of the teams were eliminated in the first two rounds of brutal elimination.

The third round of matches will begin in an hour, with a significantly increased intensity of competition.

The importance of luck is being rapidly diluted.

In the first two rounds, there might be small guilds with a hundred or so members who managed to advance by luck and be matched with opponents of similar strength.

But starting from the third round of the competition, the smaller guilds didn't have much luck left.

The upcoming matches, like a rapidly spinning millstone, relentlessly crushed any weaker teams.

In the third round, the number of battle groups exceeding 300,000 was reduced by half again.

Luck has completely disappeared; skill has become the only guarantee of success.

Many small and medium-sized guilds stopped here, their trump cards proving powerless in the face of stronger forces.

The forum was filled with farewell posts from the participating guilds.

The fourth round was at 3 a.m., and the battle was not over. Instead, it became even more intense due to the frequent clashes between the two strong teams.

The 160,000-strong battle force was reduced to less than 80,000 in the darkest hour before dawn.

The average duration of battles began to increase significantly, one-sided victories became less common, and fierce, drawn-out battles and ingenious tactical maneuvers became the mainstream.

Every victory is hard-won, and every qualifying spot is the result of sweat and wisdom.

Spectators outside the game stayed up all night, their eyes bloodshot, but they couldn't bear to miss any of the epic battles.

As the first rays of dawn pierce the night, soft golden light bathes the misty coastline.

The challenger's notification sound, like a morning bell and evening drum, roused the players who had been up all night:
[Challenger's Note: The fifth round of the Summit of Stars competition will officially begin in one hour. Currently, there are 79821 participating teams.]

After a brutal night of trials, nearly 80,000 battle groups stood firm on the new stage.

Having reached this point, no team is weak.

They are either renowned top guilds or dark horses that have made a remarkable comeback; each possesses formidable strength and a unique fighting style.

Matchmaking will begin one hour later.

When the matchmaking list refreshed for the fifth round, all the spectators' attention was drawn to one particular pairing:
[Mist Guild VS Dragon Sparrow Guild.]

Two dark horse upstarts who dominated their opponents in the first four rounds unexpectedly met in the fifth round.

The forum discussion exploded instantly:
"Holy crap, is the government stirring things up? These two dark horses have collided?!"

"God of Assassins VS God of Elemental Mage, I have the upper hand against the Mist Legion Commander. His assassination skills are unmatched."

"Hilarious! With the spatial technology of the Throat of Reversal, how could an assassin even touch someone?"

"Dragon Sparrow's spatial magic is a hard counter to single-target assassins."

"It's hard to say, the Mist Legion's dissolving mist and clone tactics are not to be underestimated."

At this moment, players from two different schools of thought clashed fiercely on the forum.

Which is superior: the ultimate single-target assassination or the ultimate spatial control?
Under the spotlight of countless eyes, teleportation lights simultaneously illuminated two different preparation zones.

The ultimate showdown between shadow and elements is about to begin.

(End of this chapter)