Child of Destiny

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Swoosh!

'Earners Combination Technique: Blooming of the Blossom Storm'

The Earners Mercenary Group had finally started using their combination technique, trapping Alice, Cloe, and Owen within it.

The storm of the sakura blossoms formed by the combined techniques of Sakura and Yamamoto swallowed the trio while the barrier created by Wang Zhou and Matilda trapped them inside and preventing them from going anywhere.

Seeing this, Alucard could not help but lower his sniper rifle a little, looking at the battle with his Sanguine Eyes. He was looking for a way to break the barrier. He thought that targeting Wang Zhou and Matilda would be the answer, but he realized that the two were also under the protection of the said barrier.

Without a choice, Alucard could only trust the trio and focused his attention on aiding Leonard and Diablo, who were dealing with Crimson and Sylas, respectively.

But as he was doing that, Leonard suddenly turned around while sending a message through their team channel. "Kept this guy occupied for a moment. I'll let the others lend a hand."

Swoosh!

After that, Leonard swiftly underwent a series of transformations, activating a dual possession. He fused with the Divine Mammoth and Dusk Bear Elemental Beasts, which were the epitome of absolute strength.

Under this elemental possession, his destructive power reached the highest level, giving everyone the impression that he would be able to destroy everything with a single swing of his war axes.

Seeing that Leonard was charging straight to the dome that his teammates had created, Crimson swiftly aimed at the latter's back, planning to stop him from whatever he was planning.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

But before he could even pull the trigger for his huge cannon, a series of gunfire rang in the distance, which was immediately followed by a rain of crimson bullets pouring down at him.

"Tsk!"

Crimson knew that he could not afford to face those attacks; he was forced to lower his cannon and retreat.

He executed a series of movement techniques to dodge the raining bullets, showing everyone an amazing pathing as he approached the other party.

His Cannon Master Class might have a very destructive firepower, but his range was greatly inferior when compared to snipers. He had to approach Alucard at a decent distance to be able to exchange fire.

Another confrontation between a Cannon Master and a Vampire Gunslinger took place right after the two sides met.

But this was different from the Group Battle during the match between the Empyrean Talons and the Wild Brothers from the Seven Seas Alliance.

During that match, Alucard was a cut above his opposition, fully oppressing the latter. But in this battle, despite having a rapid fire rate and advantage in range, he was still forced to repeatedly retreat by his opponent.

Crimson was not just a simple Cannon Master; his gunfighting techniques were not inferior to the ones that Alucard was executing.

Adding the fact that a Cannon Master had a natural advantage when it came to firepower and destructive prowess, Alucard had to be careful not to exchange fire for an extended period. He had to constantly move while exchanging fire, keeping enough distance away from his opponent.

After all, it would be terrible to get swept in the explosions caused by the Cannon of his opponent. He also had to be wary of the shrapnel that the cannon shells produced during the explosions.

Realizing that he would lose in a prolonged battle, due to the rapidly shrinking area that he could maneuver in, Alucard finally decided to show everyone the special abilities of his Vampire Race.

He started conjuring some blood arrows through 'Blood Alchemy' and fired them at his opponent along with every shot that his sniper rifle fired.

At the same time, he had also summoned a pair of huge bat-like wings, which carried him into the air as he fired at his opponent.

He had started regaining the upper hand right after he secured the vantage point. Along with his blood techniques that harassed Crimson from time to time, the tide of the battle started to lean toward his favor.

But his opponent was not an ordinary player either. Realizing that he would be losing in the exchanges due to Alucard gaining a vantage point in the air, Crimson had suddenly equipped a pair of jetpacks on his back, which propelled in in the air and let him fly as well.

Their mercenary group was ranked number one for a reason. Not only did they have access to hidden quests and missions, gaining themselves some unique and special abilities, but their technology within the game was among the most advanced and had a lot of success.

In the technological area, perhaps, only the Engineering Department of the Hand of Midas could match them.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Boom!

The two fly across the 'sky' over the Starlight Bridge, exchanging fire against one another.

Alucard was using his Blood Control and similar techniques while Crimson relied on his advanced tools to match the former.

With their unique yet equally strong gunfighting techniques, their match far surpassed the standard battle between gunners.

In the meantime, Leonard had also reached the energy dome where Alice, Cloe, and Owen were currently trapped.

He did not even hesitate to leap into the air and slam his war axes on the dome, executing one of his most destructive techniques.

Boom!

But the energy dome proved to be quite sturdy as it only shook for a moment before steadying itself.

However, Leonard was not done yet as he repeatedly swung his war axes down and strongly pounded the dome, making it tremble with great intensity.

Cracks quickly appeared right after, but it was being repaired by Matilda's spell at the same rate, putting both sides in a deadlock.

Unfortunately for the side of the Earners Mercenary Group, these little cracks were more than enough for the opposing side to break the dome.

Boom!

Then a huge figure suddenly broke through the dome and showed everyone its stunning and majestic appearance.

'Empyrean Talons Combination Technique: Elemental Guardian of Sacred Heavens'

The familiar guardian appeared once again, brandishing its elemental spear to scatter the flood of cherry blossoms that was attempting to swallow it.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Sakura and Yamamoto were forced to return to their physical forms right after suffering some elemental damage from the Elemental Guardian.

They swiftly retreated, attempting to get away from the effective range of the Elemental Guardian's attacks.

During this time, Matilda had suddenly issued some commands. "Sakura, Blossom Tides. Wang Zhou, summon the ancient stele. Yamamoto, hold Simba for a moment."

Right after that, she quickly threw her wooden staff in the air, which then transformed into an apparition of a Divine Tree.

This Divine Tree formed a domain where all her allies received a series of buffs while the enemies suffered from a weakened state.

'Guardian of the Divine Tree: Divine Forest'

At the same time, Sakura turned into petals of cherry blossoms once again, but on a much larger scale. She summoned a huge tide of blossoms that spread in every direction and melded with the domain that the Divine Tree had summoned.

Along with her actions, Wang Zhou was suddenly enveloped by an ancient aura that overwhelmed the entire dimension.

In the next instant, a huge apparition of a stone stele suddenly appeared in the middle of the forest domain, which started assaulting the Elemental Guardian with its powerful pressure.

'Guardian of the Northern Heaven: Ancient Suppression Stele'

With all these together, the Elemental Guardian started to suffer some weakening. It was as if it had suffered a deadly illness that could not be cured by anything.

To counter this, Alice, Cloe, and Owen poured more of their powers into the Elemental Guardian, preventing it from collapsing.

But make sure that they would not be spending that much energy to counter the power of the domain surrounding them, they reduced the size of the elemental guardian into a much stable state, which was only as tall as a three-story building.

Seeing this, Wang Zhou, along with the aid of the fusion domain, initiated the battle.

He transformed himself into a tall figure, almost reaching half the size of the current Elemental Guardian.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A series of intense exchanges immediately erupted as the two sides started fighting.

Meanwhile, Leonard, who was originally planning to attack Matilda to disrupt her from maintaining the domain, was locked in an intense battle against Yamamoto.

Yamamoto was also under a special state where a powerful Ancient Ghost possessed his body. His overall battle prowess might still be under what Leonard was capable of, but he was still able to hold his ground with the assistance of the fusion domain that his teammates had summoned.

The battle continued to intensify as the members of each group started to reveal their cards one after another.

The clashes between these teams had also far surpassed the previous matches, perfectly fitting for being the opening act of the playoff rounds.

The spectators did not know where to put their eyes as each battle was more than enough to blow their minds.

They could only shout to their hearts' content and flood the live chat with emoticons to express their feelings.

Adding how Miss Bunny and David dissected the details of the match to further explain how amazing the responses of each side were, the match had far surpassed the expectations of everyone.

This match had already proven itself to be worthy of being a battle between the top eight teams of the United Cup!

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