"Hey gayfag, let's duel."

"..K.."

A few days passed since Artjem has been hit with the nerf hammer and since then he has been quite gloomy and less of a cunt than ever, which was nice to have but also honestly boring... Out of nowhere while having a break, Artjem came over to Ben and asked him with a smirk after he kicked him from behind as Ben was seated and ate. Now Ben had his head turned behind him and looked at Artjem with a blank stare that seemed to say: sure, why not?

"Who do you think will win?" Elena asked me as she was seated right next to me and the distance between us was none, her knees would constantly lean on my legs and she would pretend that nothing was wrong sigh..

"Hard to say. Artjem has a by nature pvp oriented class and as such he has an advantage there, he is the weakest in a large battlefield and the best in a close combat duel, or at least this is what one might think.

The truth is that his class is probably one of the hardest in game, he has to completely rely on his speed and mobility to avoid damage and can not like Ben just take it head on with his bad defense. His damage is higher, yes, but the ultimate truth that most players seem to forget is that you need to be alive to deal damage.

Naturally Ben has a much higher chance to stay alive longer and as such has a clear advantage here. Ben has the tankyness, he has he raw damage, he has mobility and crowdcontroll and he has probably the most retarded amount of sustain that is implemented in game.

The other side of the coin is of course Benjamins weapon choice... Such a giant weapon is just not suited for close combat and Artjem will be extremely close with his short daggers. Also this is not an old school game where potential damage means everything, here one actually has to hit for the damage to count and otherwise your number can be as high as you want it to be and it won't do shit, so Artjems mobility might be his biggest advantage. There is also the thing about Bens two ultimates... they are useless in duels. Berserk will make him loose all rationality and the other needs a long time to be prepared, I don't even think Ben has used it once yet while Artjem has two amazing ultimates at his disposal. Maybe if Ben uses his stronger bleedings wisely...

Hard to tell... If Ben can get of a good combination, then Artjem will loose."

The others also listened to what I had to say. Especially the new girl seemed very interested in my description and looked almost as if she noted every single word of mine..

"Mhh." My sister nodded and laid her head on my shoulder. "All I care about is that there will be a nice show to watch now." She gave me a playful grin and we both watched the spectacle unfold

In the meantime Atjem was preparing himself for the duel, it looked like he was playing around with the settings as his fingers were clicking around on air before him.

“Come on dude..” Ben was feeling bored and called out.

“Hey, what is the difference between first blood and last man standing?” He asked, still in the duel settings.

From my knowledge first blood means that the first one to reach 1 hp will loose while last man standing means, well.. the last man that stands wins, a subtle difference that can mean the world.

“Oh, nothing, just pick last man.” Ben at first was startled by this question but then had a strange gleam in his eyes and called out with a small smirk. At first I did not get it but then started to chuckle.

A countdown started to tick down from ten and the both of them stood across from each other. Artjem quickly applied his poison to his daggers and placed his [ Last Resort ] and Ben just stood with his giant sword in his hands.

“Ima fuck you up boii!” Artjem called out and started to laugh obnoxiously.

“Good luck with that.” Was all that Ben answered.

“Ima do you as hard as I did your mama last night!”

Ben rolled his eyes. “Your mama jokes? Really? Also you are kind of late for that, she has this thing that is called death, soooo...”

“That sure did not stop me last night!”

“Wow, really classy, as always..” Ben freed his hands and applauded.

“pff, what does a guy that uses woman for his pleasure only know about class?” Artjem asked with a face full with ridicule.

The countdown hit 0 and Ben no longer spoke, only his expression became much colder.

“Yes, who would want to fight the boring calm Benji anyway hehe!”

Before the fight starts, let's talk about armors.

Maybe you have noticed, maybe not, but heavy armor brings a lot of advantages with itself.

Well, duh, first of all you don't die as fast, it also restricts you far less than you might think and the armor can have all the specs that you might need. About the only disadvantage that it brings is that you use far more endurance than in a lighter armor, pretty self explanatory.

Endurance in itself is a hidden resource, it could be considered mana for physical activities only that there is no bar and it is hidden. There is no stat to raise it and it depends on something in your brain, your willpower of sorts.

Now, why would anybody use the leather armor? An armor that provides far less protection and leaves you open in the middle of the battlefield?

The moment the fight started Benjamin used his [Battle Cry] and shouted his lungs out to debuff Artjem, right afterwards he used [Blind Charge] and ran in a straight line with his impressive body at him.

As for Artjem? He did not use anything, with just his highest speed he ran at Ben and even surpassed his speed without anything.

While they ran at each other, Ben had his sword behind his back, ready to hit with a wide swing while Artjem held his daggers behind his back and watched carefully.

It took only seconds for the both of them to reach each other. Ben got ready threw his big body in a tackle towards Artjem, would he hit then it would cause a stunned status effect plus damage and with Artjems low defense it would cost him at least half his health depending on how much damage Ben can deal while stunned.

But Artjem was prepared, as soon as the tackle was about to hit, he threw his own body to the side and evaded it.

Of course as Artjems body was flying to the side, Ben's sword already fell down right at him, it was all within his calculations.

Only, as the sword fell down, something else flew from Artjems hands and managed to impale Benjamins neck. Just as the sword was about to heavily wound Artjem, he used his [Blink] and appeared in the air, holding the Benjamins impaling dagger in his left hand. Not even within a fraction of a second Atjems second dagger flew towards Ben's left eye and embed itself right inside of it while Artjems Body naturally flew forward from his momentum.

It happened much to fast and the others could only hear a loud “Arghh!” From Ben's side an a giggle from the other.

Back on earth, Artjem put all of his might into moving back to Ben and countered the previous momentum. Within moments he was back and swung his left dagger to use [Shadow Stab].

Meantime Ben still had to deal with the excruciating pain and the loss of about 40% of his eye sight and just as he turned in anger around, he saw Artjem back at it again and could do nothing with his giant heavy sword and its slow attack speed.

Artjem immediately turned invisible and one could only see the light bend where he moved, it was a nice way to see an invisible person during the day but one could hardly see the fast moving and much slender arms and legs, it was still a nice way to see the overall position but one could not defend himself from just that, especially not from someone like Artjem.

If anything Ben knew that Artjems next target would be his back, as such he already started to swing his sword and as he noticed the bending light go behind him, he rotated his body and swung his sword around where a torso would be.

The giant sword already passed where Artjem was supposed to be, when he noticed that he felt no resistance and saw the almost invisible figure of him in the air. Next he fell a kick on his shoulder and saw Artjems body as the invisibility was canceled. With a backwards salto he landed on the ground and jumped right back at Ben.

As Ben saw it, he had no chance to strike Artjem when he was in an extremely close combat and did something differently, with his gauntlets he took the sword blade in his hands and just as Artjem was about to strike Ben in a vital area with his dagger, Ben swung the other side of his sword and much quicker hit Artjems in the left eye with his pointy guard.

“Fuck!” Was all that Artjem screamed and tried to still land a few hits on Ben, but the later send out a punch towards Artjems face and kicked him away afterwards.

In a roll he flew back about ten meters before he came to a stop. Without a sound he stood up and touched the damaged eye, or more accurately the lack of it.

With a cold smirk and while rotating his sword in a provocative manner, Ben taunted. “An eye for an eye, cunt.”

Artjem looked coldly and him and spit something out. The others needed a few seconds to identify the blood and teeth. Coldly Artjem taunted back. “My turn.”

Without further words the both of them ran back at each other. This time Ben learned his lesson and did no swings, he held his sword pointed at Artjem before him in a protective manner.

When they came back at each other, Ben of course stabbed at Artjem, which was evaded easily but this time he did not leave himself open and retreated his blade quickly for another attack.

Precise movements and quick evasion allowed Artjem to still arrive right next to Ben and use [Shadow stab] but as Artjem was about to get behind Ben, but Ben already seemed to have planned this and quickly body slammed into Artjem, canceling his invisibility and sending him backwards. At the same time Ben also slashed upwards and managed to hit Artjems whole right side of his body from torso up to his shoulder and across his arm.

“Fucking bruisers!” Artjem called out and stormed back. Both of their health were around 20% right now and Ben quickly used his healing skill [Blood Bath] which restored him around 25% of his health.

As Artjem was about to go into attack range, he to used his [Hide in Shadows] and restored 25% health and got invisible.

Instantly Ben saw this and got ready to attack his back as it was the most likely place Artjem would attack, but this did not happen, instead Artjem came right from the front and did a few swift stabs after which he used [Shadow Stab] and evaded an attack from Ben as he tried to retaliate.

This time he did jump quickly behind Benjamins back and stabbed his tow daggers in his back, dealing massive damage.

Just as Artjem grew a bloodthirsty enjoyment out of his successful attack, an elbow came from the left side and almost managed to hit his head, but the swift and agile body of Artjems quickly ducked under it.

While Ben was still overwhelmed by the situation, Artjem straightened quickly his body and kicked with all his might in the behind of Ben's left knee, which send him stumble and fall down on his knees.

With a grunt Ben was ready to slash behind but to his shock the next attack came far to quick and unexpected.

He barely was able to look behind him and saw a leg fly with astonishing speed and precision right towards his mouth.

A loud boom and squash, Ben's body flew away and left 3 teeth and blood float in the air behind for a second, before they too descended to the ground.

Artjem did not leave any time for Ben to collect himself as all he said was. “Told ya, bitch.” And ran up to him to deal more pain and damage.

Ben only had less than a second to stand up and manged to do so in his anger to then only find Artjems dagger stabbed in him again and see Artjem right next to him, in his most vulnerable distance.

He could only react in a very limited fashion as Artjem used his advantage perfectly and did not allow for Ben to do much against it, wide swings were not possible to begin with and with his weapon being so huge, it was really not suited for 1 on 1 pvp, rather suited for player vs enemy and larger scale battles. There was also the factor that Artjem knew what he was doing, both of them had their advantages and disadvantages and at the beginning there was no way of knowing who might win, but now Artjem seemed to turn it all around.

With a stab into Ben's left armpit, Artjem managed to deal another big hit in a place not covered by plate armor and now it looked like the fight was coming to an end.

A rather huge smug grin was on his face when Ben seemed to get enough and looked with resolution at Artjems next dagger as it flew with high speed and precision at his neck. With the arm that had been stabbed into the armpit, he let go of his massive blade and swiftly moved his hand where the dagger would land, just when it was about to hit, the dagger stabbed right trough the unexpectedly arriving at the hand and was stopped before hitting the critical area.

As the pain and anger went trough Benjamins head, he found a new motivation and eagerness to win this rather pointless duel. As his face showed an ugly scowl, he grabbed the dagger that was sticking out of his hand together with Artjems hand and pulled him while in the meantime gathering all of his pent up anger and releasing it in a slam of his head onto Artjems head.

Now Artjem was in a dire situation, he was still held by Ben and suffered quite some damage coupled with a heavy headache and a loss of orientation, but of course this was no the end.

Still fired up and with one hand fucked, and the other holding his weapon, Ben followed up by slashing From underneath and across Artjem with an awkward strike that send him stumbling back.

Quickly sizing the opportunity with Artjem loosing his orientation, Ben tried to use his [ Chains of Blood ], a skill that sent out chains to capture the enemy and pull him back, a skill that he thought would be very hard to use against a mobile enemy like Artjem, so he waited for such an opportunity as was presented before him right now.

Unfortunately for him Artjem quickly exchanged places with his clone as he used [ Last Resort ] and managed to escape while receiving minimal damage.

As he reappeared further away and where his clone previously stood, it took him a few seconds to regain his footing, after which he grinned and started to slowly turn invisible. “Time to die, big boy.” He used his ultimate skill, [ Certain Death ], a skill that gives him a giant buff to his movement speed while invisible, makes his first hit deadly and leaves a death mark on the target if he is under 10% of health that will kill him after 10 seconds. All this while also receiving far more damage while invisible, a high risk high reward type of skill.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

6 seconds later he turned completely invisible and one could again only see his overall body vaguely by the light being bent when he moved.

“Huh Huh!” he called out seemingly not worried at all about giving out his position and started to circle around Ben with his amazing movement speed.

At the same time Ben was well aware of his dire situation and that all would come down with the next attack, he would either be obliterated with one stab or he would counterattack and be victorious. With his eyes glued on the overall position of Artjem, he quickly managed to pull out the dagger that was still sticking out of his hand to grasp his weapon with both hands, even if he had to suffer some pain and bleeding trough it.

Not even a second later and just when Artjem got behind Ben and stepped into his blind point, Ben could hear fast approaching steps and knew what was coming. As fast as possible he rotated his body and swung his weapon behind him with more force then normally because he activated his [ Decimate ] skill.

Unfortunately for him, he was by far not fast enough.

The first thing that happened was Aretjems only remaining dagger going right trough Ben's back and dealing massive damage, in a matter of a few seconds his last remaing hp dropped down to 1.

However in the meantime and while steal not defeated, his weapon too arrived at Artjems body. The giant sword pierced trough Artjems thin leather armor and severed his flesh and bones, one of his arms instantly dropped to the ground no longer being held by anything while the blade went further trough and damaged his body.

“Whoo! Get shit on!” Artjem screamed filled with schadenfreude as he had to vomit blood from all the damage done to his body and lungs.

Ben went to his knees but did not look to sad, he only turned his head to look at Artjem and grinned.

“What?” Artjem asked but then looked at his health bar. “Wait, why am I not being announced as the winner and why is the bleeding still eating my live away?” He asked because his last remaining few percent of hp were swiftly being drained.

Slowly he realized that something might be wrong and started to look panicked at his health bar. “no no no!”

“Last man standing. Even after the fight poisons and bleedings might kill you, which still counts.” Ban grinned, also filled with schadenfreude and enjoyed the desperate look on Artjems face.

Only a few seconds later his health too dropped down to one and a voice announced “Drawn.”

“Ahh! God dammit! I want a rematch!” He pointed his finger angrily. “Mofucking gayretard, what was that lame shit? It was my well deserved win!”

Ben merely shrugged it off. “Hey, not my problem. I used the resources available to me as to secure my win, one of those resources I so masterfully used was your retardation, or inability to do even the tiniest bit of research into anything.” He flipped him off. “Moreover, if in your head you would have won without that, why even care? At least I know I don't.”

“So we can both agree that you suck? Objectively speaking, you really pulled a dick move, right?”

To that Ben looked as indifferent as ever and did not even bother to give him another look, which only seemed to infuriate Artjem.

With a dejected look on his face Artjem looked around. At first his eyes fell onto me and Elena and he muttered “not really good in pvp either... most likely even worse”, then onto Daisy “probably to strong for me right now, also far to cute to hurt...”, he did not even bother with Jordan and his gaze fell onto Isabelle. “Hey, you! What kind of class are you? Want to duel?” He asked with an evil grin.

She did not look very affected at that and her previously interested face from watching the fight, became annoyed. “I am a special kind of class, a spy. Not really suited for head on confrontation in a one on one. “ She made a few hand movements that wanted Artjem to go away.

“Bitch.” he muttered and then turned his head back to me and Elena. “Whatever.. Hey big fuck, let's duel, I ma only use one dagger, how about it? I am still salty from our last little duel. Not gonna happen again, this much I can tell you.” Now that he spoke of his second dagger, he quickly went to pick it up.

I mused with myself and considered this for a few seconds. Why shouldn't I? It is always good to show people where they actually stand and to “shit on them” as Artjem would put it.

I stood up and pulled out my weapon and shield. “You know what? You were right , I am really not suited well for a one on one duel. Not only from my class but also from the way I am. But let me tell you something, do a two on two with me and you won't have a single chance!”

Artjem thought about this for a second and seemed to like it a lot. Quickly he called out to Ben. “Hey gayretard, how about it?”

To that Elena laughed. “Artjem, darling, you sure you can handle two losses in a row?”

Now Ben looked at her amused. “Calvin, Elena, not to be disrespectful, but you know... You are essential parts of our team with your supporting abilities, but in a fight, given I have another capable teammate on my side that won't die to fast and my win is guaranteed.”

Artjem nodded his head to that. “Right, right! Gayretard right here won't die to fast on me, which is the only thing I ask for while I myself will deal with the both of you.”

Elena laughed again with mockery. “Ohhh, aren't they cute haha?”

I also chuckled. “Okay, here is the deal: You are far from using your skills to their fullest potential. I have seen most of them already and got a full understanding of how to counter them, unlike the both of you. You might be not all that bad, but what can you do against someone that can counter all of the things that you are so proud of? In reality you both will be obliterated against the both of us.” I gave them both a provocative look. “So what? Do you still dare.”

Now arrogance mixed with anger was on both of their faces even if it was far subtler on Ben's.

Artjem turned towards Ben and warned him. “You better not screw it up, fag.”

Ben looked very annoyed at that. “Listen, chances are higher they will go for you, since you know, you are far easier to get rid off, so--”

Artjem showed him the middle finger and looked even angrier. “Let's go, can't wait.” He giggled in his retarded manner.

Like this we stood about 25 meters apart from each other and were about to start the match.

“Wait!” Artjem called out. “But this time I want it to be first blood!”

“You idiot...” Ben facepalmed. “It is us that have poison and heavy bleedings this time, not them...”

Looking at the both of them I could not help but laugh out loud. “I will give you that, do whatever you want. Won't make a difference at all.”

Artjem giggled and configuration the rules of our match, which apart from being last man standing was generic.

Before the fight all of us used the abilities we could and got ready. Poisons were applied, I put down my banner and as it was not against the rules, Elena charged her heaviest hitting basic damage spell.

As we stood and waited for the countdown to run down, Artjem suddenly started to laugh out loud.

Something about this laugh seemed to piss me off, maybe it was the way it seemed to mock me, as if Artjem was a master in this art as this sound entered my deepest parts and steered my deepest insecurities. Or maybe it was the way he looked at me, no idea.

“What are you laughing at, cunt?” I asked him a little angrily.

“Nothing, nothing haha.” He continued but then answered. “It is just, look at yourself. You are what, like 2 meters tall and really buff, pretty intimidating, even I got to admit that. Looking at you one could see a heavy plate armor, far heavier than normal I guess. A big ass shield, but... then there is your gay little mace haha!” He continued to laugh. “It is only a little bigger than your hand, it looks like a normal hammer in your hands god dammit haha!”

To the side Ben also started to laugh. “Sorry, but it is kind of true though haha.”

I then looked at my mace and pursed my lips, they weren't exactly wrong...

before I could answer, to my side Elena also started to giggle, but before I could get any wrong ideas she spoke. “What Ben, he isn't the one that needs to overcompensate heavily...” She pointed her finger at his giant weapon.

Standing to the side and quiet till now, Daisy spoke off all of a sudden with a mocking voice. “Wow, dick jokes, how original..” And rolled her eyes.

With an offended and bitchy stare Elena shouted back at her. “Fucks sake Daisy, can't you not be a cheeky little cunt for once?”

At that moment the countdown hit zero and Artjem called out. “Let's fuck em up Boii!”

At that moment Artjem used his second ultimate [ Shadow Clone ] and it appeared some distance away from him, while Ben used his [ Battle Scream ] and charged at Elena.

Elena instantly fired off a quick and accurate [ Lightning ] at Artjem and followed up with some fast variations of the same afterwards.

Artjem dodged the first by rolling to the side but got hit by the next few. His face showed annoyance and quickly threw his dagger at Elena.

I still stood back and quickly blocked the dagger with my shield. Now without a second dagger on him, Artjems abilities were very limited. At least he could not use 2 of them. Can't believe he fell for that so easily...

As my next move I charged at Ben. With his [ Blind Charge ] he ran with high speeds towards Elena. I made it look as if I wanted to meet him head on and prepared my shield to block him, however as we met each other all I did was step to the side and kicked one of his feet. Not having expected this, Ben stumbled to the ground and I even used my shield bash on the back of his head. He rolled a few times having all of the momentum turned against him all of a sudden and stayed on the ground for a few seconds.

In the meantime Artjem was already near Elena and was about to stab her, he did not bother to pick up his dagger and prioritized Elena.

Right when he was about to hit her, I used [ Stand behind ] and appeared in between them with his attack blocked. With my mace I wanted to bash his skull but this sneaky son of a mother and father did not looked troubled as he evaded it easily still while getting hit by Elena's quick attacks from behind me. She moved further and further away from the both of them and maintained a healthy distance all the while attacking.

Quickly Artjem noticed that the situation was not very favorable for him and as such he used his clone to exchange positions.

Meanwhile to the side Ben already stood up and already ran up to Elena.

Sizing the situation, I jumped up high into the air and used my [ Unbreakable Will ]. As Artjem would not be able to switch places with his clones in the next few seconds, it was the perfect chance to take him out now.

As I was high in the air, I watched Artjems face go grim and descended upon him and dealt quite a chunk of his health as damage.

In the next few seconds, that which happened was very graphic and cruel: Artjem was stunned from my ultimate. Following it I hit him with my “gay” mace in the head a few time, leaving his head quite swollen and uneven in some places. When he was about to go out of his stunned status, Elena used a special effect of her spells, her [ Lightnings] build up a charge inside of Artjem which then was used to stun him again. Using this chance I and Elena fired off a few more attacks.

All the while Ben finally arrived before Elena and was about to strike her. Just when his blade was about to splite her head into two, she used her Ultimate [Engels Blessing ] And became surounded by a golden sphere. The blade deflected from it and Ben could do absolutely nothing fro the next 5 seconds.

When Artjem went out of his stunned effect, he instantly used [ Last resort ] and escaped from me.

However what he did not expect was that when he appeared there, Elena had already used her simple but very effective skill [ Roots ] and roots from the ground attached themselves to Artjems legs, not willing to ever let go.

“Get chain stunned, bitch!”

“Ohh, come on!” Artjem called out desperately and started to slash at the roots.

I did not give him any chance and jumped at him with my [ Crush ], crushing him under my weight.

“Deja- vu” I said with mockery and smashed my mace into his head, not giving him any chance at all.

“Ohhh! Come the fuck on!” Arjem could only call out as he died a dogs death as his hp reached 1.

All the while Ben still tried to hurt Elena with his blade but could do nothing against the golden shield.

Immediately Elena used [ Archangel ] to call me back to her and together we started to attack the last enemy of ours.

With her attacking from behind and me going straight at him, I did not even have to be aggressive, I just blocked him with my shield and deflected all of his oncoming attacks.

Suddenly I had to chuckle. “You know, “bloodthirster” takes it really literally. I wasn't sure, but now I am, if you can not injure till blood, then you won't regenerate any health either.“ I said while blocking another one of his strikes. “Your choice of weapon is really not suited for combat against experienced people. You should learn a hit and run tactic or something. Maybe pay attention to your timing, like this it won't go anywhere.” I taught him in the middle of our fight.

What happened afterwards was not noteworthy at all. This was a battle of endurance that Ben had no chance of winning, only a few times did he manage to land a hit as I paid my utmost to my defenses and as such could only regenerate a few percent of his health at most. A minute later his health too fell down to 1 and we won.

Smugly I went to Elena and we fist bumped each other.

“Good job.” She smiled sweetly.

I snorted. “Nothing noteworthy.”

And as one could expect while our small conversation went this way, the other side went like this.

“Good job gayretard! Embarrassing!”

“Shut up, cunt! Wasn't me who got taken out the first and in such an embarrassing way!”

“Hey, I could not even do anything, I would like to see what you would have done in my place!”

“Oh, yeah? Well how about you go---”

They both continued on in that fashion for some time and we continued our little adventure but now having established a few things: Talk shit, get hit.