Hearing Alex's response, his opponent paused for a moment, then smiled with a hint of resignation. "I can speak French, Italian, and Yamato, but your language is too hard. You should check your game interface. There's a language setting where you can choose 'Universal Language' to communicate in the game's common tongue."
Surprisingly, Alex understood every word, even though he hadn't studied or recognized the language before. It seemed that the game's system was automatically translating for him. After realizing that there were more options in the interface than he'd originally thought, Alex responded, "Oh, thanks. I had no idea that feature existed."
His words sounded normal to him, but the syllables coming out were unlike any language he knew. The experience was both strange and fascinating.
The blond man across from him, however, seemed a bit disappointed. He waved dismissively and summoned a pair of radiant white wings, saying, "It's no big deal. If you didn't even know that, you're probably just an amateur. Too bad for you—your luck's run out. Let's end this quickly."
Clearly, the white wings were part of the **Holy Angel Wings** set, one of the legendary gear sets from the event. It was obvious that anyone qualified for this global tournament had considerable strength.
"Remember my name—I'm Carey Frohl!" With that, Carey rushed toward Alex, closing the ten-meter gap in an instant, his **Holy Angel Wings** allowing him to accelerate at an impressive speed. Just when it looked like he was about to collide with Alex, Carey pulled up sharply, ascending into the air while unleashing a powerful attack.
Despite his dismissive tone earlier, Carey wasn't underestimating Alex. His quick approach was a feint, meant to mislead Alex while setting up his true finishing move—**Holy Angel's Judgment**—a devastating skill he had purchased earlier.
Carey had wisely chosen the **Holy Angel Wings** and **Holy Angel's Judgment** because they were the best combination for his playstyle, given his limited points. The wings allowed him to fly and evade attacks, while the **Judgment** skill provided him with a powerful offensive option. Although **Holy Angel's Sword** offered higher attack power, close-range combat was risky. The **Holy Angel Armor** and **Shield** provided great defense, but Carey believed that with the wings, he could avoid most attacks altogether, making them unnecessary. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough points to get the ultimate piece, **Holy Angel's Light**.
Even so, with **Holy Angel Wings** and **Judgment**, Carey was confident he could defeat most opponents, even those with similar gear.
As Carey ascended, a massive white sword, two meters wide and six or seven meters long, materialized above Alex, slashing down with incredible force. The sight of such a powerful attack would have been enough to make most players panic.
But Alex remained calm. His agility stat was clearly superior, allowing him to keep up with Carey's supposedly lightning-fast movements. As the giant sword descended, Alex didn't bother dodging. Instead, he decided to meet the attack head-on.
For this battle, Alex was only equipped with his **Champion's Set**, the **Belos Star**, and the **Dragon God's Heart**, deliberately holding back his strongest gear. He hadn't even taken out his **Shadowblade of Ebonfire**.
As the white sword crashed down, Alex summoned his **Champion's Shield**, positioning it above him and activating its special effect. A brilliant blue light erupted from the shield, momentarily stunning Carey. The glow from Alex's shield was just as dazzling as the pure white light of **Judgment**.
"Boom!"
The massive sword clashed with the shield, causing a thunderous explosion that shook the arena. Carey looked down and saw a damage number appear over Alex's head: -1200.
A four-digit number. Carey felt a wave of relief. Although spells didn't deal as much damage as physical attacks, breaking 1,000 was still impressive. After all, Carey himself only had 600 HP as an R-level player. He estimated that Alex, even with a tanky build, wouldn't have more than 1,500 HP. Plus, **Judgment** inflicted a paralysis effect, so with one more follow-up attack, Carey was confident he'd win.
But what Carey didn't realize was that Alex's **Champion's Shield**, enhanced to R+9 and boosted by the **Champion's Will** set effect, had just reduced the incoming damage by 98.5%. The remaining damage was so minuscule that the shield's SSS-grade defense reduced it to a mere 1 HP.
In the end, all Carey had managed to do was knock Alex's shield back a few inches and force him to lose 1 point of health.
The immense defensive power of Alex's equipment was the reason he and his teammates had been able to decimate monsters so easily. While the **Dragon God** set was even stronger, Alex had decided to hold back to avoid overwhelming his opponent.
Just as Carey was about to dive in for the finishing blow, believing Alex was nearly defeated, he heard a soft step behind him. Startled, he turned to see Alex, having dismissed his shield, leaping toward him with a gleaming blue longsword.
A flash of blue light was followed by a burst of golden flames erupting from the tip of Alex's sword, expanding outward and filling Carey's vision.
-77,500!
The colossal damage number floated in the air as Carey's body was engulfed in golden flames. He didn't even have a chance to speak before he was vaporized, instantly eliminated from the match.
Even Alex was taken aback by the sheer power of the strike. Yesterday, his damage output had been close to 10,000, but now it had jumped almost sevenfold. And this wasn't even with his strongest gear—the **Dragon God** set would have increased his damage by another 50%.
With over 100,000 damage output, even the 4% splash effect from **Blazing Explosion** would deal over 4,000 damage. No wonder Alex had been effortlessly wiping out entire waves of monsters.