A rather large crowd gathered around us since most of the Players were resting. As the seconds ticked down for the duel countdown, I stared at Dove. Dove stood about six meters away from me, pointing her sword at me. The sword Dove held was Icebrande, which was Hawk’s sword.

  Swan’s Death Lance, Purge’s Aurafist, Zoe’s Alchemist’s Staff, Hawk’s Icebrande, and Blitz’s Flametongue were the five Artifact Rarity Equipment reported in Naut City. According to rumors, they were acquired by performing a complicated series of events. According to the Player’s reports, Artifact Rarity Equipment would not let people except for their owners wield them. They explained that it was not the system preventing others from using the equipment, but the equipment themselves refusing to be used by others.

            As such, the scene of Dove wielding Icebrande surprised me. Judging from the whispering from the audience, not only I was surprised.

            As soon as the countdown ended, Dove rushed at me at high speeds. Not as fast as the Goblin Knight, but faster than Hawk’s movements. I readied myself for her attack, but as I entered into her attack range, she disappeared.

            It was obviously an Invisibility Ability. During these times, I wished Mirrored World could counter invisibility, but it unfortunately did not.

            As I prepared for a backstab from Dove, the sight of a translucent blade swinging down towards me entered my eyes. Unable to react, the hit struck diagonally through my chest for 12% of my Health. Dove relentlessly swung back upwards a soon as she could. This time I blocked it with my right shield; however, Dove did not flinch at all and immediately rotated her body clockwise and slashed at me from the right side since my shield was still lowered from blocking her previous attack. I managed to soften the attack with my left shield; however, there’s no way I could properly defend an attack from the right with my left shield and lost 9% of my Health.

            Anticipating an attack from the left side, I withdrew my left hand. The shield blocked my sight of Dove for a moment and I was greeted by a kick to the face. While this only dealt 2% to my Health, Dove capitalized on this and attacked me twice from behind as I recovered from the kick. I managed to block the following slash with my right shield. Dove somersaulted without moving the pushing Icebrande to lock down my right shield. Dove punched me with her left hand. I immediately blocked with my left shield to deal recoil damage (although this was irrelevant) and stagger her. To my surprise, Dove did not punch but instead pushed down my shield with her palm and used it as a platform to land behind me.

            At this point, my right shield was no longer locked, so I turned around to prepare for the next attack. Dove took advantage of her higher speed and circled around me as I turned around and once again cleanly struck me for 14% before I blocked the following attack.

            Dove suddenly crouched down and cleanly slashed my foot, dealing 6% damage. I immediately reacted by crouching down as well, but as I crouched down, Dove already leapt upwards. Unable to immediately get back up, Dove barraged me with her sword as I desperately blocked as many strikes as possible as I got back into position. I lost 37% of my Health from that exchange and was down to less than a third of my Health. I checked the time and felt worried as the half-way point only just passed.

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            As I checked the time, Dove capitalized and attacked me once again. She managed to hit the edge of my right shield from the side away from my hand as I put it up horizontally on my chest and push it away, leaving me defenseless. Of course, Dove mercilessly slashed my open body, leaving me one clean hit away from losing.

            With over twenty seconds left on the clock, Dove stopped attacking and looked at me with disappointed eyes sighing.

            “Don’t look down at me!” was what I wanted to shout, but in the current situation, I was disappointed in myself.

            At exactly the forty-fifth second, Dove charged towards me once again. I managed to block the first three strikes before being unable to cope with her speed. As the fourth strike fell towards me overhead, I grasped for anything to defend myself.

            In desperation, I headbutted Dove as the overhead swing was slashing down and placed my head directly in the swords path.

            The sword was millimeters away from my head and I could feel it on my hair as our heads connected. Pushed back, Dove immediately recovered and began attacking even more tenaciously than before.

            It was only a matter of time before her precise attacks broke my defenses. With the game-ending swing coming from my left, I made one last play. With a last ditch effort to delay for time, I purposely fell down. The purpose of this plan was to delay the last attack and surprise Dove enough to spend the remaining time.

            But there she was, Dove dove after the falling me. My eyes couldn’t believe this scene as her sword drew closer to me as we both fell towards the ground. The sword cut through my face, and as in my heart I conceded defeat, the timer rang.

            In the end, the time ran out before Dove’s sword could penetrate deep enough to defeat me.

            “Looks like you pass.” said Dove with a smile as she held out her hand to help me stand up.                    

            I grabbed her hand and she pulled me up. I received a message whether to join Azure Rain Forces. Without hesitance, I accepted it.

Dove POV

            I was greatly disappointed with Kiwi initial performance. While her skill and experience were definitely up there, her fight style was boring. If Hawk and I were to find a low level tank and train him/her properly, the person could probably replicate what Kiwi did. Fifteen seconds before the time ended, I planned to finish her off and not let her join. However, those desperate plays she changed my mind and showed that she could be something unique.

            As the crowd dispersed after the Duel, I noticed Hawk watching with a grin. After exchanging a few words with Kiwi with her joining, he whispered to me, “Losing on purpose, did you want Kiwi to join so badly?”

            “Not really. Only towards the end this she interest me.” I replied. Yes, I did lose on purpose. At any point during the last thirty seconds, I could have activated Fade Walk a split second before my attack landed just for the bonus damage.

            “Kiwi is a normal girl usually; however, she doesn’t react normally when cornered. While I don’t know her background, she probably lived most of her life as a normal girl until something drastic happened and she was forced to adapt to it.”