Spiteful Healer-Chapter 317: The 'Big Bad Villain'

Spiteful Healer-Chapter 317: The 'Big Bad Villain'

The chanting had already begun before Aegis and the others stepped out of the waiting room and entered the sunlight. The audience's cheers caused the ground beneath his feet to vibrate. Unlike moments ago, though, no one in his party was waving or smiling at them. All five glared straight ahead across the arena at Seraxus and his party, who had entered on the opposite side.
“You really think he’s going to go for this?” Darkshot whispered to Aegis, his words barely audible over the cheers.
“We haven’t given him much of a choice, have we?” Aegis replied confidently. They arrived at the blue wall a few moments later, and the chanting continued. Hae-won tried casting and hyping up the match, but she didn’t need to do much anymore—the crowd was entirely on Aegis' side.
Match begins in
3… 2… 1…
The announcer’s voice finished the countdown, signaling the removal of the blue walls that separated the two parties inside the combat arena.
Hajax waited for the audience's cheers to die down before calling out to them. “Beatin’ us with overpowered gear isn’t provin’ anything.”
“Ironic, coming from you guys,” Darkshot replied.
“Come at us then, show us how strong that mithral is.” Seraxus rolled his eyes at them before wagging his fingers beckoningly.
Aegis lowered his shield, his arms going slack at his sides. Lina, Darkshot, and Pyri did the same. “We’ve shown you what we can do now with the item difference. But if we win like this, it won’t change much for you, right? You’re still gonna think you are the best and won’t apologize for anything.”
“Damn right, I won’t. ‘Cause I am the best. You got lucky by pullin’ a trick I ain't ever seen before. It wouldn’t work twice.”
“I believe you. You’d probably beat us nine times out of ten on equal footing, but who is to say that’s true for the real PvPers out there who that sword has outshined for months?” Aegis replied while motioning to the audience in the stands.
“I’m sayin’ it. Ya’ll can keep comin’. I’ll get me some mithral and be back on top for the next tournament. I’ll crush you and take back the title,” Seraxus declared, pointing his longsword at Aegis.
“I’ll do you one better than that. We don’t have the title yet, so how about you prove your words right now?” Aegis asked.
Seraxus tilted his head with curiosity. “What are you talkin’ about?”
“I’m talking about the whole reason we fought our way here. I promised Rakkan when he joined my party that I’d help him get revenge on you for what you did.” Aegis stepped to the side and motioned to Rakkan, specifically the weapons he had equipped. “He’s only got iron weapons. He put the mithral away. So fight him, 1-on-1. We won’t interfere if none of your guys interfere,” Aegis explained, and a big grin grew over Seraxus’ face.
“Hah, seriously?”
“Rakkan, c’mon man. You know you can’t beat him,” Zuon replied, speaking across the arena at Rakkan rather than to Seraxus right in front of him. His tone was sympathetic rather than mocking.
“I ain't a sage anymore,” Rakkan stepped forward. Lina, Darkshot, Pyri, and Aegis took a few steps back and crossed their arms.
“Why you doin’ this?” Gambit asked with concern.
“You know why. You all do. I helped you get that sword, and I’ve regretted it ever since. And if I win, you’ll apologize for what you did.” Rakkan glared across the arena at them. Sylvia looked somewhat bewildered by the exchange, eying her companions, who glared back at Rakkan.
“Rakkan, y-” Zuon started to speak again, but stopped when Seraxus held up his hand to stop him.
“Alright. Are you sure you want this?” Seraxus asked as he stepped forward and drew all his weapons. Five hovered behind him, while two he twirled around in his hands.
“Damn right,” Rakkan answered.
“Okay. Sit back, guys. I’ll get us the win.” Seraxus spoke to his party members, who obediently took a few steps backward and sheathed their weapons.
Rakkan created his echoes with a few flicks of his hands, arming them with iron weapons. He kept the voidspear equipped, but all of his mithral was gone. He fanned the echoes out around himself, one going left and the other going right, while his crossbow-wielding echo moved behind him.
The tension that the one-sidedness of the previous match had removed had abruptly returned, with the threat of Seraxus’ skill becoming the primary focus rather than his sword of hatred. The cheering and upbeat mood from the crowd died down more and more with each step that Rakkan and Seraxus made toward one another.
“Aegis, are you sure this is a good idea? You know what they’ve been through…” Pyri whispered to him as they stood far back from the impending clash.
“If we don’t let him do this, he’ll never get over it,” Aegis replied as calmly as he could, but his face showed worry.
“A Warmaster and an Eldritch Knight. Neither class can heal itself by normal means, so this match could be over fast. Don’t blink, or you’ll miss it. These are two of this gameworld's most highly skilled martial combat players.” Hae-won’s voice carried over the arena just as Seraxus and Rakkan got within 50 feet of one another, and both stopped.
Their eyes remained locked on to one another as if trying to read what the other was thinking.
“Apologize,” Rakkan spoke coldly.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Seraxus answered in kind. Rakkan kicked off from the ground, opening with a charge-strike with his main body that shot him forward to Seraxus like a bullet. He covered himself with a rapid-fire barrage from his crossbow-wielding echo.
Seraxus answered the charge strike with his own, causing a violent clash between the two once they collided. Both had a spear and longsword in hand, and both parried each other's strikes with incredible precision, allowing the sound of their weapons clanging against each other to ricochet off the walls of the stadium.
Immediately after the first clash, blue runes appeared on Rakkan’s weapons, causing them to deal additional frost damage. Seraxus’ floating weapons went for the echoes, attempting to flank Seraxus’ main body, while his crossbow retaliated with bolts fired at Rakkan’s crossbow-wielding echo. Rakkan could maneuver his echoes to avoid the strikes while continuing to duke it out with Seraxus, resulting in repeated clashes between the two.
Some attacks were perfectly parried by both sides, resulting in no damage, but a few hits were getting through, and both were slowly losing hit points.
Seraxus was the first to add kicks and headbutts into his attack rotation against Rakkan, but having just fought Seraxus, Rakkan could anticipate and avoid them.
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“Apologize.”
“No.”
“Rune: ENLARGE!” Rakkan cast the rune on his maul-wielding echo, causing the echo to gigantify. As it grew, the echo dropped its maul and grabbed the hilt of Seraxus’ weapon that was striking out at him, holding it tightly in its enlarged fist.
The echo then swept across the arena with his other gigantic hand as it began to tower over Seraxus and Rakkan’s central bodies by several meters. Seraxus saw the easy target and turned on it, but Rakkan moved to cut him off.
A few bolts hit the echo, as did some swings from the other floating weapons, but Rakkan took the hits as he swept the freehand of the gigantified echo overhead and grabbed the floating weapons out of the sky, clutching them in its oversized orcish palm.
“Tch, you think that big target’s gonna be able to hold my weapons down for long?” Seraxus commented as he prepared to charge strike upwards at the echo looming over him, casting a shadow on himself and Rakkan’s main body.
“Class Rune: Ranger,” Rakkan turned to his crossbow-wielding echo and imprinted the rune on him. This got Seraxus' attention and caused him to quickly jerk his head to the side to look at the echo, but before he could react, it fired a bolt from its crossbow that was glowing green.
Having fought hundreds of Rangers, Seraxus could immediately recognize the pinning shot coming at him. Despite being caught off guard by Rakkan’s use of his class rune cooldown, he was prepared to dodge the bolt and jumped backward.
Waiting for him to cut him off, though, was Rakkan’s fourth echo. In addition, the class rune allowed Rakkan to redirect the pinning shot bolt just as he’d seen Darkshot do so many times, allowing it to pierce into Seraxus’s ankle. Vines shot out from the point of impact and locked him in place, and before Seraxus could cut himself free, an onslaught of attacks was unleashed on him by Rakkan and his 4th echo.
The crossbow-wielding echo joined in while the gigantified echo pulled away, Seraxus’ other weapons still clutched in his bulging hands. Red damage numbers began to add up above Seraxus’ head quickly.
“APOLOGIZE!” Rakkan shouted angrily, unsatisfied despite the situation being in his favor.
“I said,” Seraxus roared after two more attempts to cut the pinning shot vines were thwarted by parries from Rakkan. “I DIDN’T DO NOTHIN’ WRONG!” Seraxus waved his hands to activate his Essence of War skill, causing all his weapons to glow orange.
Immediately after he’d done it, he swung his weapons towards the gigantified echo, causing waves of orange energy to cut through the air over Rakkan’s shoulder and into the echo, killing it and transferring part of the damage back to Rakkan.
Rakkan quickly disengaged from Seraxus and resummoned his dead echo at a standard size just as Seraxus regained control of his floating weapons and began bombarding the arena with orange waves of energy.
Rakkan was quick to react by dodging the strikes with his main body and his echoes, but there were many close calls and some attacks that hit.
“You destroyed the fun for everyone on Puagas. You killed thousands of NPCS!” Rakkan shouted as he continued to dodge.
“I was just’ playin’ the damn game!” Seraxus shouted back angrily.
“I asked you to stop!” Rakkan replied as dust and debris from the impact of the orange waves exploded around them, chunks of broken tiles littering the ground.
“So what?” Seraxus yelled.
“You piece of shit!” Rakkan lost his cool and rushed at Seraxus, despite the dangers of his essence of war cooldown. He focused on dodging and began retaliating against Seraxus and his glowing orange weapons, catching Seraxus off guard. After a few strikes from Rakkan’s main body against Seraxus, though, Rakkan was surprised that under the circumstances, he was managing to not only dodge Seraxus’ strikes but get a few hits himself.
“What’s wrong? You are finally starting to feel guilty?!” Rakkan yelled.
“I ain’t guilty. I said I did nothing wrong! You’re the one who left us!” Seraxus roared at him in frustration, somewhat regaining focus and landing several hits on Rakkan. Both players were now dipping below 40% health, slowly being whittled down by the weaker iron weapons, despite both being well-equipped with voidsilk armor.
“What did I do to you that was so bad? Huh?!” Rakkan sent his echoes in, masterfully maneuvering them around Seraxus as his aim wavered, missing his orange waves that fired from the swings of his hovering weapons above. “We were friends, weren’t we? So why is it so hard to say sorry?!”
Seraxus continued to defend to the best of his ability, but he saw the tears swelling in Rakkan’s eyes between the strikes. Seraxus decided to attempt to disengage despite him having his offensive cooldown active. He blocked a pinning shot from Rakkan’s crossbow-wielding echo by intercepting it with one of his floating weapons just as the class rune faded, signaling the end of Rakkan’s class rune cooldown.
Rakkan pursued Seraxus regardless, using a charge strike to prevent him from disengaging.
“I told you, I didn’t do nothin’ wrong!” Seraxus yelled.
“You killed my grandpa!” Rakkan retorted as they clashed from the charge-strike. As they did, the glow of Seraxus’ weapons faded to signal the end of his essence of war cooldown. Seraxus sent his floating weapons down to create a wall between himself and Rakkan, echoes included. He jumped backward to create distance again, but saw the look of blind fury on Rakkan’s face and his intent to charge at him again.
“I didn’t kill shit!” Seraxus shouted in frustration as loudly as he could. The words he'd been holding in gave Rakkan pause, causing him to hesitate in his next charge strike. Seraxus used the time to pull his floating weapons back to himself.
“You attacked Pellagrove and killed everyone there. Tinsel and him included.”
“I didn’t,” Seraxus replied as calmly as he could.
Rakkan growled, preparing to charge by lifting his weapons and motioning his echoes forward. “You liar!”
“He’s not lying,” Zuon said from across the arena, causing Rakkan to look up at Zuon and his other former companions, who were all looking back at him with sympathy.
“What’re you talkin’ about?” Rakkan asked.
“There’s no footage of our attack on Pellagrove ‘cause Seraxus asked VGN to delete it. Seraxus wanted you to believe he killed him, but he wasn’t in Pellagrove when we got there…” Zuon explained.
“Shut it, Zuon,” Seraxus shouted.
Zuon shook his head in response. “Nah, it’s time to tell him.”
“You said you just didn’t stream it,” Rakkan yelled at Seraxus, getting his attention back.
Seraxus let slip an ethereal sigh. “Yeah, well, I lied.”
“Why?”
“So you’d have someone to blame. You thought I was a bad guy for using that sword, right? So I played into it.”
“I don’t believe a word you’re saying!”
“He’s tellin’ the truth,” Hajax confirmed.
“You’re just avoiding responsibility. You still won’t say sorry…” Rakkan mumbled.
“I told you, I ain't done nothin’ WRONG!” Seraxus screamed at the top of his lungs, tears building up in his eyes as well. “YA’LL WANTED A BIG BAD VILLAIN? YA’LL GOT IT. But I didn’t camp anyone, two kills per player max, unless they came at me. NPCs are just NPCs; I played the game the way it was supposed to be. And Ya’ll LOVED TEAMIN’ UP TO BEAT ME, EH? Real fun, gettin’ the whole world riled up to take me on. Hate me as much as you want, but you’d have nothin’ to watch if I wasn’t here. Because I AM the best. I deserve to be number one. And I WONT APOLOGIZE FOR SHIT!” Seraxus finished by finally recomposing himself, charging at Rakkan and catching him off guard.
“If all that is true, then why couldn’t you just say sorry!?” Rakkan shouted back at him while trying to defend himself, but failed to do so as he became increasingly flustered.
“Would you have listened? You already hated me for usin’ that sword.” Seraxus became relentless with his attacks. “Besides, I don’t apologize for things I didn’t do. Think about how sim-boxes work next time. Try listening to your parents, and stop bein’ so angry at me for nothin’.” He landed the last few strikes on Rakkan that were needed to end the fight.
Combatant
Rakkan
has been defeated.
Seraxus took a few moments to catch his breath and pull his weapons in, watching Rakkan’s body vanish from the match. He eventually straightened himself out and looked around at the audience shouting down at him, most of it inaudible. He turned to see Hae-won, speechless, looking in Aegis’ direction.
“Come on. Anyone else wanna take a shot at me? Wanna blame me for something I didn’t do? Y-”
Combatant
Seraxus
has been defeated.
In an instant, Aegis, Lina, Pyri, and Darkshot jumped in and landed several Bless-enchanted attacks on the weakened Warmaster.
“You might not have done that, but you’ve done plenty. Don’t try to make yourself noble. You’ve still caused unimaginable harm and hurt countless people for fame,” Aegis said to Seraxus’ fading body as he stood over it, but as Aegis spoke, he was not talking towards Seraxus. Instead, he looked up at Makaroth in the stands.
“What the hell? You said it was a one-on-one!” Sylvia roared at them.
“Huh? Yeah, but I didn’t say we’d forfeit after or anything. I want the rewards for getting first place,” Aegis turned to her and shrugged nonchalantly, which was followed up by an onslaught of attacks from Lina, Darkshot, and Pyri.
Combatant
Sylvia
has been defeated.
Combatant
Zuon
has been defeated.
Combatant
Gambit
has been defeated.
Combatant
Hajax
has been defeated.
The winner of the Gladiator tournament is
Aegis'
team! The award ceremony will begin shortly!

.
!
Chapter 317: The 'Big Bad Villain'