Tempest of the Battlefield

"Every tactic has its own distinct feel to it as if a unique signature, and given time, one can always tell one tactic from another. For example, the Tactics of Vayu focused on offense; therefore, it feels more belligerent than any other tactics. The Tactics of the Enchantress, on the other hand, are elusive and unpredictable, while the bright flames of the Tactics of the Blaze of the House Lie are also unmistakable. Like I said before, only the Tactics of the Deva King from the House Dower would have the same level of depth that could conceal its unique signature as that used by Einherjar Wannabe.

“That being said, I am confident that this Einherjar Wannabe did not use the Tactics of the Deva King. The Dower\'s tactics require perfect execution of even the smallest movements. However, this boy\'s footsteps were rather careless... I know it sounds crazy, but I felt like the tactics used by Einherjar Wannabe, whatever it is, seemed even to surpass the Tactics of the Deva King."

As the apprentice to the House Li, Ma Xiaoru was more qualified than anyone else to comment on the matter of tactics since she was trained to do so by experts. However, even Ma Xiaoru couldn\'t think of any tactics that would rival the prowess of that used by Einherjar Wannabe.

Many tactics might be able to yield the similar degree of intensity as that used by Einherjar Wannabe. However, no tactics — including the Tactics of the Enchantress that was praised for its elusiveness and deception — could have concealed its unique signature. The mysterious tactics had the all-encompass nature that made it feel like an agglomeration of many drastically different tactics.

"I don\'t think he was as powerful as you think." Samantha sank her body back into the soft cushions and said, "He is not bad though, we should keep our eyes on him."

Ma Xiaoru smiled knowingly. The PA system was the main line of business of the DREAM corp., and despite the hefty profit margin, the government and the military had taken up a huge amount of resources at DREAM\'s expense, which had inevitably driven the cost of operation skyrocketing. In order to increase its revenue from the domestic market, DREAM and Samantha understood that they would need one or two superstars in the public leagues to drive up the sales, but all of their attempts so far had failed. DREAM was not the first one to seek a legend as epic as the Blade Warriors. Many before them had tried and had nothing to show for it in the end.

The origin of the Blade Warriors, the once living God, were the most mysterious riddle in the history of humankind. His influence was on par with the old gods such as Jesus and the Buddha as they were considered the new god of the interstellar age.

Many recent researchers had voiced their doubts about the feats purportedly accomplished by the Blade Warrior, just like the ancient scientists that had questioned Jesus\'s miracles. However, the abundance of evidence had quickly silenced them. The Blade Warrior was worshiped among all human races. Even the Kaedeians who used to be at odds with the Earthling had given up their arms due to their reverence toward the Blade Warrior. The fearsome female fighters of the Kaedeians had believed that the Blade Warrior was the only "God", the master of the universe. Their long-lasting reverence had continued even till present-day.

Wang Tong had enjoyed the fight as he had learned something new: the Butterfly Dash. He found out that while executing the Butterfly Dash, his GN nodes had moved differently than when he had attempted the Fist of the Racing Tiger. He conceded that he had made the right decision to not confined his matches with only the TPA fighters, what happened today had proven to him that regardless of IPA or TPA, a good fight would always be a good fight.

Wang Tong could not bear the loud cheers and scream of the audiences, so he didn\'t dawdle at the virtual cafe and left as soon as he had paid the terminal service fee.

While walking on the street, Wang Tong suddenly remembered that he had some shopping to do. Instead of going to a department store, the frugal student went to a squalid store and picked up a T-shirt on sale for only fifty credits.

Worried that Zhou Sisi might be waiting for him, Wang Tong darted home but right before he had arrived at his dorm, he remembered that he had forgotten to buy the bed sheet.

Wang Tong\'s jaw almost dropped as soon as he stepped into his dorm. Everything was neatly packed and arranged; the air in the room had a clean and fresh scent and a promise of comfortableness. "Is… this my room?" Wang Tong marveled, wondering if he had gone into someone else\'s room.

He then saw his bed, covered in a clean blue bed sheet; it was decorated with a blue kitty in the middle. Wang Tong thought that the bed sheet would definitely look cute and lovely in a girl\'s room.

Seeing Wang Tong standing at the door, Zhou Sisi asked, "Sifu, is everything the way you wanted?"

More than satisfied, Wang Tong smiled joyfully, "How much is the bed sheet?"

"It\'s nothing, think of it as a gift from your apprentice!" Zhou Sisi grinned slyly.

Wang Tong said nothing. He figured that Zhou Sisi was indeed indebted with him since he did not intend to teach her for free.

"Thank you! Well, I guess that I could teach you a thing or two that I have learned. But, it would be up to you to learn as much as you can. Another thing, our pact should remain a secret, so don\'t call me Sifu in front of everyone. Are we good?"

"You bet!"

Wang Tong smiled warily. Although he was not sure what this relationship would develop into, he was relieved that he could finally say goodbye to boredom with this playful student by his side.

"Shall we celebrate?" Zhou Sisi exclaimed.

"Celebrate?"

"Yes, don\'t you want to? You really need to get out of this room and have some fun. Haven\'t you heard of \'study hard, party hard\'? I can help you with your classes later as well. I assure you that my support would be as good as any top student."

Zhou Sisi was very confident with her understanding in all the subjects, plus, she wanted to challenge Ma Xiaoru and to prove that she could do as good a job as a spoiled princess.

The virtual cafes in all corners of Shangjin were packed with players who were waiting impatiently for the release of DREAM\'s official video analysis. They didn\'t have to wait long as DREAM had smelled profit in the air and therefore had cranked up their workload.

Although Solitary Snow had lost the fight, no one had understood how.

"Boss, the IM had reached 3500... it\'s close to the playoffs of official IPA tournament."

(Author\'s note: IM reading: view rating)

Everyone was pleasantly surprised since no one had thought that an ordinary fight could have attracted that much attention.

"Excellent, well done everyone!"

Cameron studied the IM chart. The line indicating the IM reading had risen steadily since the beginning of the fight and plateaued around 3500. Cameron and everyone in the office wagered that this would be the final rating of the match.

Cameron was pleased by the astonishing reading; he was confident that this fight would give his team more bargaining chip at the table negotiating with prospective show sponsors.

Suddenly, the line on the chart wiggled up and down, increasing its amplitude by the second, and in a blink of eyes, it raised again and breached the 3500 point threshold.

"Boss, it\'s 3600 now... Gosh! It went up so quickly!"

"Gee, this is unbelievable!"

Everyone in the office stood up in immense tension and bafflement.

"3750!"

The chart seemed to slow down slightly, but before anyone had noticed it slowing down, it up-ticked again and reached 3800.

People in the control room looked at each other in disbelief. They knew that the reading of 3800 meant that it was as popular as a semi-final of an official tournament.