Terra Nova Online : Rise Of The Strongest Player - Chapter 798

Chapter 798: Conclusion Of The Rankers Event
Four hours passed by in a breeze, and Luke managed to solidify his lead at the top of the charts by over 200 points. A massive gap, considering the number two spot was held by PinkLotus with 1,800 points, already 400 points ahead of the number three, DarkEmperor.

As Luke wiped the sweat from his brow, panting from his relentless streak of battles, a familiar system notification appeared in his vision.

[System Notification: Attention Rankers! The preliminary round will conclude in 5 minutes. Prepare yourselves for the final tally!]

Luke exhaled deeply, stepping back from the carcass of yet another venomous wyvern he had slain. He glanced at the leaderboard displayed in the system menu and felt a surge of satisfaction as he saw his name, SkyLion, firmly at the top with 2,000 points.

“What the… I’m in the lead?” he muttered, genuinely surprised. He hadn’t expected to dominate the preliminary round so thoroughly, but the scoreboard didn’t lie. While his relentless efforts accounted for much of his success, Luke remained blissfully unaware of the subtle intervention that had steered high-value monsters his way throughout the event.

The last five minutes passed without much incident, as most rankers focused on securing their positions rather than taking unnecessary risks.

When the final system notification rang out, the hunting grounds dissolved into golden particles, and the surviving rankers were teleported to a new location.

Luke blinked as his surroundings changed to a grand coliseum-like space, its architecture a blend of medieval and futuristic designs.

Standing amidst the top 100 qualifiers, he took a moment to scan the crowd.

[System Notification: Preliminary Round Complete! The top 100 rankers have been seeded into the tournament brackets. Match pairings will now be determined.]

As the notification flashed, a massive holographic board appeared in the sky, displaying the names and ranks of all 100 qualifiers. Luke noticed his name at the very top, followed by PinkLotus, DarkEmperor, and other familiar names.

“To ensure fairness,” Raya’s voice rang out, addressing the rankers, “the top 100 players have been seeded into an elimination-style bracket. The number one seed will face the number 100 seed, the number two seed will face number 99, and so on. This ensures the strongest rankers do not clash prematurely.”

Luke smirked as he realized the advantage of being the top seed—he would face the weakest qualifier, someone who had barely scraped into the top 100.

The match-ups began populating on the holographic board, and Luke’s opponent was revealed: ShadowHawk, a name he didn’t recognize. A quick glance at the stats showed ShadowHawk had finished the preliminary round with just 400 points.

“Perfect,” Luke muttered under his breath, gripping his sword. “Let’s see if this ShadowHawk can even last five minutes.”

As the match-ups were finalized, Raya’s voice echoed once more: “Prepare yourselves, rankers. The first round begins in ten minutes. Good luck.”

*********

Luke vs Shadowhawk was a brief fight that ended with Luke defeating his opponent in just under 30 seconds in a one sided beatdown.

Although he was not a ‘Master’ warrior yet, Luke was far stronger than an average ranker, with much faster reflexes and moveset thanks to his daily practice of the ‘Mind Meditation Manual’.

His opponent, an Assassin Class player, was at a significant disadvantage against him with his high defence and balanced build and his strategy of wearing opponents down.

ShadowHawk barely managed to get a few strikes in before Luke countered with a perfectly timed [Blazing Cyclone], sending the Assassin flying across the arena.

The system notification confirmed his victory:

[System Notification: SkyLion has defeated ShadowHawk. Time: 27 seconds.]

Luke sheathed his sword and left the arena with a calm expression, his mind already focused on the next round.

The second round proved to be slightly more challenging. His opponent, IronFang, was a tanky Berserker who relied on brute force and relentless aggression.

The fight dragged out for almost five minutes as IronFang’s near-impenetrable defense tested Luke’s patience. However, a calculated use of [Heaven’s Strike] broke through the Berserker’s guard, and Luke finished him with a clean slash to the torso.

[System Notification: SkyLion has defeated IronFang. Time: 4 minutes, 52 seconds.]

By the quarterfinals, Luke’s confidence in his own skills and abilities had skyrocketed.

His opponent, FlameCaster, a Mage Class player, posed a unique challenge. The battle was a spectacle of fireballs and shield parries, with Luke gradually closing the distance to neutralize the mage’s ranged advantage.

However, once within striking range, Luke unleashed a flurry of attacks, forcing FlameCaster to concede.

[System Notification: SkyLion has defeated FlameCaster. Time: 6 minutes, 18 seconds.]

This victory for him meant that he was poised to face ‘DarkEmperor’ in the semi-final round next, who had also advanced through the tournament nearly untested, setting up the stage for an exciting rematch between two of the game’s best players.

Despite having won their last bout, Luke did not underestimate Cervantez at all in the semi-finals when the two of them clashed, as he knew that Cervantez must have learned and evolved a lot from their last fight.

And just as he expected, Cervantez had indeed evolved significantly since their last fight, with him having found a solid way to counter Luke’s suplex, by ensuring that he never got caught in it.

Continuously fighting at an arm’s length away, he stayed away from Luke’s grappling range, ensuring that Luke had to work hard for his victory.

However, win he did, as after a lengthy battle that lasted over 1 hour 23 minutes, it was Cervantez’s endurance that proved to be inferior to Luke, who finally managed to land a critical blow on his slow and tired opponent to secure the win.

“Good Fight!” Luke commented once they were done, as netizens throughout the global forums applauded this fight as the best they’ve ever seen in the world of Terra Nova Online.

It was the most evenly-matched and tactically genius bout that showed the peak of the knight class versus the magic swordsman class that was probably never going to be recreated again.

Finally, for the finals, contrary to Luke’s expectations, PinkLotus decided to forfeit the match right at the start, choosing to kiss him at the centre of the battleground instead, as she gifted him the eventual victory of the fourth and final rankers event.