However, it wasn't over yet. Even with the sudden intrusion of another player, Payne's mental state barely wavered. As a top-tier player, he quickly suppressed the shock and locked onto his objective with absolute clarity: eliminate this dangerous Blank right here.
"Flame Emperor!"
"Got it!"
"HOLY CHARGE!"
Payne raised the holy sword in his hand and surged forward, golden light erupting beneath his feet as he charged toward Arthur, who was still caught in post-attack stiffness and hadn't even turned around yet. The timing was perfect, or at least, it should have been.
Arthur rolled at the last possible instant.
The holy charge tore past him, missing by a hair's breadth, and in the same motion Arthur pivoted, slipping behind Payne's back with frightening precision. He sprang upward, and the longsword in his hand plunged down once more, driving straight into Payne's back and tearing away 230 points of health.
Payne's eyes went bloodshot.
That was impossible. His armor reduced physical damage by a massive percentage, so how was he still taking hits like this? Did that strike carry more than two thousand raw damage? His HP dropped sharply, yet no matter how hard he tried, he still couldn't keep up with Blank's movements.
What drove him to despair wasn't just the speed.
Blank wasn't relying on inflated agility stats or raw numbers. Every movement was deliberate, refined through positioning, timing, and flawless micro-control. His combat style was both brutal and elegant, like watching a master carve through a battlefield with absolute confidence.
"Flame Emperor—Chain Shot!"
The counterattack came instantly. A barrage of magic projectiles roared through the air like machine-gun fire, forcing Arthur to abandon his pursuit and dodge continuously.
"Payne, give me ten seconds!" Flame Emperor shouted.
Her voice shifted, steady and focused, as she began chanting.
"Root of all things, flame of symbolism…"
He shot a glance at Flame Emperor. She had completely abandoned her nearly ineffective harassment and now stood perfectly still, fully immersed in her incantation.
"Leave it to me!"
The long-forgotten thrill of battle surged through Payne. Even if it meant dying here, he was determined to hold that monster back.
The instant Blank's stance wavered from evading the previous barrage, Payne seized the opening without hesitation. He twisted his body, the holy sword in his hands spinning in a wide clockwise arc as radiant sword energy exploded outward in every direction.
"Whirlwind Slash!"
Yet the moment Payne committed to the swing, Arthur had already read his intent through the smallest preparatory movement. Planting one hand on the ground, he spun like a windmill and slid backward, retreating nearly two yards in a blink.
The holy blade cleaved through the air with terrifying force, brushing past Arthur's chest by a razor-thin margin.
Payne completed three and a half full rotations before finally coming to a halt, his breathing heavy.
Too fast.
Under normal circumstances, Whirlwind Slash was a mid-range, indiscriminate area attack. Even experienced melee assassins often failed to escape it in time.
And yet Blank hadn't been hit at all.
Strangely enough, that failure only strengthened Payne's conviction.
There was no doubt about it now, Blank was running an extreme, all-out attack build.
And judging by his equipment and combat style, never allowing himself to be hit even once, his health and defense had to be extremely low.
No matter what, as long as they landed a single clean hit…
They would win.
The moment Payne's holy sword came to a halt, Arthur surged forward again. The longsword in his hand shot straight toward Payne's throat, a lethal strike aimed at a vital point, giving him no time to recover.
Outside the arena, the watching players were left speechless.
Blank's movements were nothing short of art.
From evading Payne's Whirlwind Slash to launching an immediate counterattack the instant the skill ended, every action was executed with flawless timing, as if measured down to the smallest fraction of a second.
Through Blank, they finally understood what true PK really was.
It wasn't two players mindlessly trading blows.
It was awareness.
Skill.
An instinctive grasp of timing and opportunity, something that could only be forged through relentless player-versus-player combat.
This was real combat.
It made almost everyone watching feel their blood boil, adrenaline surging uncontrollably through their veins.
"By your crimson power.""Capture all, become the shackles.""Hellfire that scorches the earth and dyes the sky red.""Flickering flames within the darkness…""…bind my enemies and become inescapable chains!"
"Fire Cage!"
Flame Emperor's shout rang across the battlefield as a towering crimson cyclone erupted from beneath Blank's feet. Scorching firelight burst outward, and when it faded, a prison of blazing flames had taken shape around him.
A high-tier, single-target control spell.
"Finally… that monster's been restrained…"
Flame Emperor's voice carried a note of certainty as she approached the Fire Cage from a safe distance. Her gaze locked onto Blank, yet her expression showed neither triumph nor mockery.
This opponent was far too terrifying for that. So terrifying that he had forced her to fight alongside Payne, someone she normally wouldn't even consider as an equal.
Even if they won in the end, she intended to offer proper respect to such a formidable foe.
"Blank… you are a worthy—"
Her pupils suddenly shrank.
Payne, standing beside her, turned his head in confusion, unsure why she had suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
Flame Emperor, however, was frozen in place, her face drained of color.
"My… my Fire Cage has mandatory continuous burn damage…"
Yet not a single health bar appeared above Blank's head.
Not even a flicker.
Which could only mean one thing.
He hadn't taken any damage at all.
A chill ran down her spine.
Was his defense absurdly high?Was he constantly consuming recovery items?Did he possess some kind of temporary damage immunity?
Or did he simply have complete resistance to fire?
If that was the case, then Blank was far more terrifying than anyone had imagined.
At that moment, Blank slowly lifted his head from within the cage, finally allowing them to see his expression—and his eyes.
They were filled with a single, unmistakable message.
I've caught you.
From the very beginning, Arthur's goal had been to keep both of them trapped here at the same time.
Flame Emperor had been carefully maintaining her distance, letting Payne act as the sole frontline to restrain him.
If Arthur had revealed the ability to defeat Payne outright, she would have abandoned him without hesitation and fled.
That was precisely why he had allowed her to "control" him.
However, who could have imagined that he possessed immunity to all attributes? Even more unbelievable, who could have imagined he also had the [Overlimite] skill, granting complete immunity to all control effects?
"Danger!"
Payne reacted purely on instinct, shoving the Flame Emperor aside with all his strength. In the very next instant, a longsword tore through what remained of the Fire Cage's confinement and pierced straight through Payne's chest—an instant kill. Payne, the strongest player, was eliminated in a single strike, and the abrupt reversal was so overwhelming that everyone watching fell into stunned silence, unable to process what they had just witnessed.
The Flame Emperor, thrown to the ground, stared blankly ahead, her gaze locking onto Blank, who stood half beyond the Fire Cage's boundary, flames swirling around him as if he were wreathed in fire, yet completely unharmed.
In that moment, everything she believed she understood about the game shattered; the confidence she had built over countless battles collapsed without resistance, and it felt as though something deep within her heart had broken.
"Ugh… Waaah—! What are you?! Why does a player this strong even exist?! This is unfair! I worked so hard for all of this! And then a monster like this just shows up out of nowhere…"
Arthur looked at the little girl sitting on the ground in a duck-sit position, crying uncontrollably, his forehead twitching. The Flame Emperor? Where did that domineering persona go? This was still a live broadcast, did she seriously not care about her reputation anymore? Of course, the world never lacks gentlemen.
The image of Flame Emperor; the cold, aloof genius young woman... completely crumbled at that moment. At the same time, however, a brand-new image was firmly established: that of a beautiful young woman with an absurdly cute gap between appearance and personality. It was easy to imagine that after this event, countless players would rush to join Flame Emperor's guild. As for how much this girl would want to disappear by then… that was anyone's guess. After all, at that age, reputation was everything.
"Ah… how pitiful…"
Arthur muttered under his breath, imagining the future where her guild members would endlessly tease her once her true nature was exposed. Unexpectedly, the little Flame Emperor heard him. Her eyes instantly grew even wetter, tears welling up again, but just as she was about to completely break down, a system notification echoed above the heads of all participating players.
"Beep—time's up!"
"The first event since New World Online's server launch has now concluded!"
It was over.
Arthur looked at the Flame Emperor, still sitting on the ground with a terrified expression. If this were real life, he might genuinely wonder whether there would be a suspicious puddle beneath her right now. Smiling faintly, he spoke calmly.
"Congratulations on surviving."