( Quater finals of group A )

This was the last fight , Rudra had to fight in the isolated arena , after which all fights would take place inside the grand collosseum. This was also the last fight where he would probably win without much hassle , as the competition would go up by a notch from the next round.

His opponent for this fight was a knight from Austria named 'Rover'?very much like himself , who had taken a different route to Rudra's golden ratio. He chose the skill the last stand after his tier one promotion , and had failed to gain SSS rating in tier two promotion hence he never saw the second class special skill.

He was confident in beating Rudra because of this very trump card , he had a high damage move called ' Thrust strike ' , that would deal 300% of his maximum damage , if he could couple it with a critical damage bonus , it would be a mighty blow for any opponent , who would buckle before he did.

Hence his only strategy in combatting Rudra early on , was defense. His only wish to chip Rudra's health as much as possible before using his special move the last stand.

He planned on using mind games to bait his opponent in this match , however he made a big mistake there , because you never play mindgames with the greatest schemer of all time ' Shakuni ' himself. Who instantly sniffed out the man's true intentions.

Rover said " Come on then , show me the horrendous distribution of your stats in the knight class , attributing it all to strength and agility , you don't know the basics of the knight class do you , come let me show you the true way to play the knight class ".

Saying soo he banged his shield with his sword , he was openly taunting Rudra to rush at him.

Rudra found this funny , ever since his display of strength in the beat the clock challenge , challengers had formed a misconception about his stat distribution. Not being able to look into his stats because eyes of truth prevented anyone below tier 4 from prying into his stats , he enjoyed a funny misunderstanding.

Rudra naturally did nothing to correct this misconception , he was quite happy to mislead his opponents. However , because of how odd his enemy acted , he was sure he wanted him to close in on him for some reason , Rudra was not one bit scared , but he never underestimated his opponents , since he wanted Rudra to close in soo badly , Rudra would absolutely not go close .

Laughing , Rudra changed his Excalibur for his old and trusted Windcutter sword , and started to lash out windslash after windslash from distance.

Out of every five strikes , Rover was able to block four , but one would end up hitting him , causing -100 damage.

He did not like that Rudra was attacking from range , and tried to close in , only to have Rudra move away , mentaining distance. Rudra used darkness blast , and darkness bind , as he would from time to time cause massive damages of -5000

-7000 points.

After 5 minutes of cat and mouse chasing , Rover's HP bar finally turned red , he was getting desperate , why did the bast*** keep running away? He was frustrated beyond reason.

He kept hurling insults like " You .... Fight like a proper man , a honorble knight , what cowardly way to fight is this? ".

( After a bit more damage )

" You pig .... You swine .... You uncouth barbarian born from the illegitimate affair of a long-range sniper , fight me aghhhhhhh close range damnit , I don't have any long range offensive skills , and I my plan won't work if you keep running away , aghhhh come here!?".

Rudra continually heard his whining with a expressionless face , but when the opponent called him a uncouth barbarian born from the illegitimate affair of a long-range sniper , he could not help but break out in a chuckle. Although he had no intentions of closing in one bit , he gave the man props for his creativity.

Rudra also carefully started to pant , and miss his beat while running to create an illusion that his stamina was running out ,while in reality it was not the case at all , to throw his future enemies off , and hence at one point he even gulped a stamina potion while running away. However after that he was back at full speed.

Unsurprisingly , Rover's HP soon bottomed out at 0 , and his last stand activated , but with Rudra being soo far away his move was useless. He died out of sheer frustration , the entire match he had only made a fool of himself by running and running in circles.

Rudra won the round of 8 and proceeded to the semi finals of the group stage. The match lasting 8 minutes and 22 seconds , Rudra's longest bout yet!

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Derek Ray : Another victory for Shakuni and a very interesting one at that , what are your thoughts on this match Lee

Lee Dixon : yes Derek a very entertaining match , a very different approach from Rudra compared to his general fighting style , as he avoided the close range fight completely , instead choosing to fight from range, what was his reason for doing this?

Derek Ray : Well Rover did try to bait him to come at him , but Rudra never took a bite , he completely changed his fighting style and chose to fight from range instead. While we will never find out what Rover had planned , what's commendable is Shakuni's versatile fighting style. He can fight well at range , which is surprising for his class.

Lee Dixon : Well Derek he is a Favourite to win in this group , however unlike his previous opponents the next round is the semi finals of this event , and everyone who made it this far are cream of the crop , who will compete in the grand collosseum , next match will surely be a treat to watch , scheduled 45 minutes from now , live from the grand collosseum , only on cuber eSports network!

/// Bonus chapter for hitting the powerstone target , good job everyone///