This was Leo's first time clashing with an Amazon. To be safe, he first activated Holy Shield and the Defiance aura, stacking his defense to the limit.
Thales was very graceful. She held her bow in her left hand and gripped an arrow in her right, resting the arrowhead downward diagonally against the bow while waiting for Leo to make the first move.
Seeing that his opponent was a Bow-specialized Amazon, Leo made a prompt decision. He immediately swapped the defense-boosting Defiance aura for the Vigor aura to increase his movement speed. Holding his shield to protect the vitals of his upper body, he quickly closed the distance.
Seeing Leo attempting to close in, Thales retreated rapidly. With a flick of her hand, she fired a Cold Arrow; powerful ice elements enveloped the shaft, making it fly several degrees faster. After firing the arrow, she immediately cast a spell. A cloud of magical gas containing countless sparkling stardust-like points flew toward Leo, arriving even before the arrow. It instantly adhered to him, making Leo's entire form become glittering and bright.
Leo saw that the arrow's speed was incredibly fast and carried a powerful elemental damage; it was unlikely to be a simple Cold Arrow and was probably its advanced skill, Freezing Arrow. The magical light shimmering on his body was likely Inner Sight, which could lower his defense.
He raised his shield at a slight angle, parrying the arrow away, his feet never stopping as he continued to approach Thales. If this were an open battlefield, it would be uncertain who would emerge victorious, but on such a narrow arena, the archer's shortcomings were ruthlessly magnified.
Thales saw Leo proactively block the Freezing Arrow, and a victorious smile appeared on her face. However, after parrying the arrow, he surprisingly wasn't slowed by the freeze effect. Her expression turned serious, and she immediately summoned a phantasm; two Thaleses ran toward opposite sides along the barrier, firing Multiple Arrows as they ran, attempting to confuse Leo's senses through a barrage of projectiles.
Leo stood in the center of the arena, knowing that Thales was using the Decoy skill; the summoned phantasm dealt no damage. Unfortunately, she had miscalculated one point: on a circular arena, as long as one occupied the center, the distance to any side was the shortest.
He didn't blindly give chase but instead decided to stand his ground and take a hit from the Multiple Arrows to determine which Thales was the real one. Multiple Shot was an area-of-effect skill, but when attacking a single target, its damage was very underwhelming because all the arrows split from a single original arrow, and could only deal damage to a single target once.
He silently switched his aura back to Defiance. Soon, the arrows from the right struck his shoulder, and a flash of golden light triggered a Deadly Strike. After taking several dozen points of damage, he immediately switched to Holy Freeze and initiated a Charge, rushing toward Thales' true body.
While running, Thales couldn't effectively utilize her defensive field. Seeing his short mace about to strike Thales' chest, Leo knew the match was decided.
With a dodge maneuver that defied the laws of mechanics, Thales directly interrupted her own run and evaded Leo's attack. Leo knew she must have triggered the Amazon's Evade skill, which has a chance to dodge attacks while moving. The Amazon's three major dodge skills were very overbearing, but their weakness was also obvious: the dodging motion would interrupt the current action, which could either save one's life or lead to one's downfall.
Although she dodged the attack, she had entered the slow-down range of Holy Freeze; this woman couldn't escape now. Showing no mercy, Leo directly initiated Zeal, swinging his mace five times in succession at her. With five vigorous dodging motions, Thales evaded Leo's attacks one after another.
Leo felt a bit confused; was this his own bad luck or her incredible luck? Refusing to believe it, he continuously initiated Zeal. The green short mace swung into countless afterimages, yet Thales' dodging motions also became lightning-fast, resulting in a one-hundred-percent evasion rate.
Seeing that Zeal couldn't land a hit, Leo brought out his trump card; the light shield in his right hand smashed toward Thales like a bolt of light. Unexpectedly, her evasion was at a "bugged" level; with a flash of her body, she even dodged the Smite.
One attacked while the other dodged, and thus they reached a stalemate, both becoming breathless and drenched in sweat. Finally, Leo couldn't take it and took the initiative to speak: "Thales, this can't go on forever. How about we call it a draw?"
Thales, who had been gritting her teeth and persevering, let out a sigh of relief: "Alright, let's do that. You're the first man to ever fight me to a draw."
Leo was speechless. With such freakish luck and a one-hundred-percent dodge rate, what kind of beast could actually beat her? Unless a group surrounded her and wore her out to death.
The previous voice and horn sounded again, and the light curtain forming the arena quickly dissipated.
"Leo, Hero in Green, and Thales, Hero in Green—the duel is a draw."
Thales adjusted her breathing, then directly hooked her arm around Leo's shoulder, slapping it heavily while laughing heartily: "Leo, I've taken a liking to you! Become my man and come back to the island with me. I guarantee you'll have endless wealth and honor. We will surely give birth to the strongest girl and become the kings of the Amazons!"
Leo felt the situation was extremely awkward. Did this count as harassment?
Majesty's face turned bright red, and she yanked Leo away: "You... you hooligan! What a shameless woman, stay away from my brother!"
Thales' face was full of question marks: "I was being very graceful! The men we Amazons take a liking to are pursued directly. If they don't agree, we knock them out and take them away. I originally planned to get your brother drunk last night and take him, but I failed. Today I wanted to show my strength through battle to conquer your brother, but that wasn't successful either. To think that I specifically left the island to find a mate and it would be this difficult."
"That's so cool, Thales! You're simply a role model for us women. The Captain doesn't deserve you at all!" Shika's eyes sparkled, her excitement making it seem as if she had seen her ideal self.
Different values are truly terrifying. An Amazon was basically a "stinky-footed man" wearing the skin of a beautiful woman! Leo was so scared he backed up several steps. No wonder Master Sanzang was so determined to leave the Land of Women; it really was because of the difference in values.
"Great, you're all here. Saves me the trouble of looking for everyone."
As the group was bickering, a voice very familiar to Leo came through. He turned his head and saw it was none other than Inceyste.
"Teacher Cain has a very dangerous mission right now that requires a full squad to complete, and we're still short a few people. Leo, Thales, would you like to consider it?" Inceyste remained in her old style, directly stating the purpose of her visit without any fluff.
"If you're interested, come along. It's getting late, and the others should already be at Teacher Cain's place."
Her lobbying skills were truly terrible, but a mission issued by Cain should be related to Tristram. He happened to be heading to a new map to level up, so he might as well go and see; what if it turned out to be another main quest?
Seeing Leo's squad follow Inceyste away, Thales also followed along nonchalantly, shouting as she walked: "Wait for me, Inceyste! Only dangerous missions can demonstrate my strength. Leo, you'd better watch closely!"
Leo arrived at Cain's small house and found that other squads had already arrived before them.
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