The three arrows flew toward Stark with incredible speed, their beautiful trails of aura adorning the air around them.
Their tips were as sharp as swords and glowed with a malevolent energy.
Stark, however, didn’t seem to be fazed at all, his eyes were locked onto his target, his expression determined and unwavering.
~FWISH~
He avoided the first arrow quite easily, then the second, and finally the third.
“AURA SMASH!” then this time, without merging his fists, he sent all three toward Aoki.
But it was no use…
~DODGE, DODGE, DODGE~
Aoki’s speed was still way higher than Stark’s, and there was no chance a projectile would hit him.
~DASH~
Knowing that, Stark closed the distance between the two, allowing him to fight with Aoki on close-range, something an archer should never do.
But the moment he reached him…
~VIOU, BAM~
He was hit by an arrow from behind.
‘Ah shit… the arrows come back to the target…’ he had thought of this possibility, but was too focused on closing the distance to avoid.
‘Crimson Spears…’ he decided to make use of his spears and hit the arrows with them though.
The moment that happened, the mark above his head disappeared, which meant that these arrows only stopped following him if they hit something, or were destroyed.
Was this why this skill was considered so powerful among archers?
[Hit once!]
~BAM~
While he was thinking of that, Aoki took advantage of this opportunity to spin around and slam Stark’s head using his bow.
“-12817!”
He was sent flying in the opposite direction, and that simple attack (which didn’t even do that much damage to be honest), but…
[Stark HP: 4933/12750]
One more attack and Stark would lose, the sole reason why he hadn’t died because of the ‘Domination Armor’ which blocked 5000 HP.
‘Why does he hit so hard while not even shooting…’ Stark didn’t know it, but the bow Aoki had was from the ‘Mythical’ class, just as good in precision as it is in close-range because of its hard materials.
This did indeed put Stark on one HP, but his confidence didn’t falter either.
“INSTANT ARROW,” Aoki grabbed another arrow, and at a speed so fast pretty much half the people in the room couldn’t see it, he shot it toward Stark.
The arrow also received the [Instant Arrow] buff, which increased its speed so much it reached Stark in less than a second.
~BIM~
[Hit Twice!]
These arrows are extremely strong, and so to make up for it, they do not do any sort of damage to the target.
“Ouch~ one more…”
“Its over…”
People were still interested in the fight, but by this point it was already over.
And yet… many of them wondered… why was Stark still smiling.
‘Alright… should have done that since the beginning…’
He didn’t like to overwhelm opponents at the start of a fight since he wanted to see their abilities and also… make them understand that they can’t win against him.
“CLONE FRENZY!” he summoned his two clones beside him, and they nodded as they understood what Stark wanted them to do.
They traced a circle in the palm of their hands and envisioned where there wanted it to go, then…
“HEAVEN’S WRATH!” they both activated the skill.
Under normal circumstances, an archer as fast as Aoki would have enough space to run away from the beam, but in this case, he was locked in an arena.
“=)”
Stark’s clones positioned [Heaven’s Wrath] perfectly as to not allow Aoki to go to the sides, otherwise he would just be disintegrated.
And so, as the giant crimson sparkles in the ceiling charged up…
“Hey, what are they doing-”
His eyes widened as he felt the intense aura, and he looked up to see that at incredible attack was coming.
‘SHIT!’ due to the lack of time, he couldn’t run to the sides, and so he was forced to dash forward.
But this was a mistake…
“DOUBLE ASSAULT!”
~BOOOMM, BIIEMMM~
The two giant beams erupted at the same time, coming from the sky and converging right on top of Aoki.
The force of the attack was so immense that it created shockwaves throughout the entire arena, shaking the ground beneath everyone’s feet.
“Wow…”
“This is insane…”
As if coming from the heaven’s, the crimson beam fascinated everyone.
“YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD GET ME WITH THAT-?” Aoki almost got hit, but he smiled again as he turned his gaze back toward Stark, “Huh?”
Because of [Double Assault] and his low HP, Stark’s domination made him so fast that he was already right in front of Aoki.
“=)”
~BOOM~
Stark punched his face as hard as he could.
“-84827!” the damage output was something even Stark had never been able to do before, he was also soon reaching the 100,000 damage mark!
Aoki was sent flying in the opposite direction, and he could thank the heaven’s that [Heaven’s Wrath] stopped working right as he was about to enter it again.
‘The duration was cut in half… is it because the two clones were using it at the same time?’
As Aoki landed, his entire body was shaking through the pain.
But he still wasn’t down.
“TARGET LOCK!” he grabbed not 3, not 5, but 10 [Arrows of Sierra] and began to pull the stringer with all of them in his hands.
This was a difficult feat to achieve for most archers, but thanks to [Target Lock], all the arrows would indeed fly toward their target.
~VRIM, VRIM, VRIM~
The 10 arrows flew towards Stark with incredible precision and speed, their beautiful trails of aura adorning the air around them.
But this time… Stark didn’t even bother to avoid them.
He TRULY wanted to show Aoki that he didn’t have any chance to begin with, well to be honest, he would have had a higher chance of winning by simply using his bow as a weapon.
Even though the arrows were flying at him, Stark’s face never changed expression. He stood firm and waiting for the arrows to strike.
And when the first one hit…
[Hit Thrice!]
[Effects of ‘Arrow of Sierra’ activating…]
“GOTCHA!” Aoki laughed, and to add to the fuel, the other 9 arrows also hit Stark, which meant that he would potentially be paralyzed for a few days if he kept him like that.
Not losing a single second, Aoki dashed forward, wanting to step on Stark’s face and proving to everyone present that the Moonless family, and himself, shouldn’t be messed with.
But… while his confidence was at his max… the unthinkable happened.
“Do you know how I managed to defeat this rift,” Stark opened one of his eyes, a burning crimson fire visible in them, a wide smile on his face.
‘…?!’ the fact that he could talk was weird, after all, all his muscles were supposed to be paralyzed by the mist.
Aoki stopped in his momentum at that moment, “No… no way…” but he resumed heading toward Stark, this time walking.
And right as he got close to Stark… a panel that made everyone’s eyes widen appeared above the boy.
[Determination is too strong!]
[Not affected by ‘Arrows of Sierra’!]
Aoki’s jaw was wide open as he read the message, and the moment he gazed down at the smiling Stark, he could see that his aura was almost five times as overwhelming as before.
And so during that brief instant of doubt…
[Aoki Moonless has received the DOMINATED status!]
He knew this guy was bad news.
