Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking-Chapter 667: Another Match; Hornet Widow

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There are different levels to the viewing experience for the audience of the Virtual Arena. Obviously, the more one pays, the better options they’d have.

As a frequent spectator of matches, Steven obviously paid a lot of bangles to upgrade his viewing experience. His viewing experience was at a level where it’s as if he’s personally there during the match. It couldn’t get any more realistic than this. Moreover, his viewing experience wouldn’t disturb the match. The fighters wouldn’t even sense his presence at all, and that was on purpose.

"Ah! Is he smurfing?"

That was Steven’s initial judgement when he saw the match history of Dawnbringer. That glittering 100% win ratio was especially eye-catching.

"Well, it might also be because he’s new here. Yeah, I think he might be new to the virtual universe. He’s already strong, so it’s normal for him to have a win streak."

"Wait, hold on!"

Steven stared at the match history some more and realized something.

"Does this mean that he, an Immortal Level evolver, has never been exposed to the Virtual Universe until recently? What the hell?"

The match history doesn’t lie. Dawnbringer has won all of his matches so far, and it didn’t take him long to reach the Immortal League in the Virtual Arena.

If his suspicions were true, then right from the very beginning, Dawnbringer was already an Immortal Level powerhouse. However, that also raises a few concerns for Steven, because this shouldn’t have been the case.

The founders of the Virtual Universe had a massive influence, which expands to all five known Chaos Realms! There’s practically nowhere they couldn’t go. And an expert like Dawnbringer should’ve been aware of the Virtual Universe and have long explored it. But that’s not what his history was saying.

’This doesn’t make sense! ’Steven declared inwardly.

"Ah, whatever! I’m too lazy to care." He huffed after feeling a headache coming. "He doesn’t seem to be a shady guy. If he was, then his profile would soon fall into my growing mountain of paperwork. I’d take care of it then. For now, I’ll just watch as usual."

Steven wasn’t the guy who’s too idle to pay attention to things that don’t concern him right away. He also doesn’t feel like spending his rare moments of rest stressing about work. The whole idea behind a vacation was to get away from work in the first place.

Once he expressed his desire to watch Dawnbringer’s next match, he was immediately notified once he queued for the match.

Along with the fighters, Steven’s avatar was transported to the random battlefield generated for them. But of course, Steven existed on a completely different plane so as to not disturb the fight.

He once again saw the modest yet confident visage of Dawnbringer. The dude sure wasn’t all that pretentious in his style, making everybody underestimate him.

"Oh, damn! He’s fighting against Hornet Widow!" Steven exclaimed as he clawed his popcorn in anticipation.

Facing him was a gorgeous lady with skin-tight spandex and leather clothing. She has very long hair in a scorpion braid. She’s also wearing a butterfly mask that only hides the upper half of her face.

"Damn, what a hottie!" Steven felt his throat parched as he ’appreciated’ Hornet Widow’s figure.

And Steven surely wasn’t the only one doing this. He could vaguely sense the presence of other live spectators like him nearby, and they might even be doing more than just appreciating the lady’s figure.

Hornet Widow was one of the more popular celebrities of the Virtual Arena, and to nobody’s surprise, most of her fans were lonely single men like Steven.

From what Steven knew, due to his work as a private investigator, Hornet Widow does this on purpose. She doesn’t mind showing off and doing fan service to earn some bangles on the side, especially since she didn’t really come from a rich background.

Hornet Widow was a front, though. The real person behind her was actually quite modest and honest. The difference was actually staggering, so much so that one wouldn’t imagine that such a modest lady like that would have an online persona like this.

Though, this wasn’t really all that surprising. She’s not the first, nor the last, who’d do something like this. It’s just part of human nature, sometimes.

"Not even a reaction, huh?" Steven chuckled once he returned his attention to Dawnbringer.

The dude stood still. Unlike others, his eyes remained clear and pure. He didn’t leer at the lady or say something perverted. It’s like he didn’t even see her as a provocatively dressed lady at all. Instead, she’s just another person he’d defeat.

With a slight beep, the countdown fell to the 10s, signalling that the match was about to begin. Steven took a deep breath and made sure to behave because he knew that things were about to turn intense.

Beep!

The countdown ended and the match began. Hornet Widow promptly disappeared from everyone’s sight; it’s like she was never there to begin with.

When she reappeared, it was right next to Dawnbringer. Her long finger needle was fully extended and was venomously aimed at Dawnbringer’s neck. This scene was played to Steven in slow motion so that he could follow it.

Steven felt chills running down his spine. He smiled wryly because this was what he expected all along. Hornet Widow, despite her provocative and deluding figure, was especially venomous whenever she attacked. She’s fast, ruthless, flexible, and very sinister when she’s pushed to a corner. This had always been her combat style.

Most of her enemies wouldn’t even see her coming. Hornet Widow was fast, accurate, and very deceptive.

If Steven hadn’t seen Dawnbringer taking down Giant Axe Andrew personally, he would doubt if he could survive this. So, when he heard a loud clang and saw Hornet Widow retreating in shock, Steven wasn’t surprised.

It would’ve been a damn disappointment if Dawnbringer fell just because of one sneak attack.

But even with the slow-motion capture, Steven barely caught Dawnbringer’s move. He didn’t even see when his sword appeared because he certainly wasn’t holding it before this match began.

The replays would give him more freedom to see how the match happened frame by frame, but Steven couldn’t care less about that right now.

After her opponent’s shocking way of deflecting her opening move, Hornet Widow recovered and looked solemn.

Her lithe and flexible figure suddenly twisted like a pretzel, and suddenly, multiple vines erupted from the ground. Each vine was large and oozing with all sorts of poison. There were so many vines that they blotted out the sun, and there was so much poison that it formed pools of it everywhere.

Hornet Widow disappeared once more. The spectators could barely sense her presence hidden amongst the vines and swimming within those pools of poison.

Dawnbringer himself wasn’t all that worried even when faced with this sight. Steven understood why. Dawnbringer wields the Great Law of Sword, one that is unparalleled in sharpness. It would only take him a single swing to completely get rid of all of these gigantic vines; he could even sever their regenerative properties. Moreover, Dawnbringer also wields the Great Law of Fire; poison at this level was useless against him since he’d evaporate it before it could touch him.

However, Steven also knew that Dawnbringer’s advantages aren’t foolproof. There will always be a way to work around this, and that happens to fall under Hornet Widow’s specialties.

So long as there’s a gap, even the smallest one, she would find it and exploit the hell out of it. She’s very good at that. That’s why she’s hated as much as she’s admired.

’She’s observing him,’ Steven muttered inwardly. ’And from what I can tell, he’s also observing her.’

The vines never reached Cedric at all, as expected. Steven didn’t even see how he swung his sword; he just saw that the vines were sliced, and despite their best efforts, they couldn’t regrow. The poison also couldn’t do any harm to him. He was within the smog but was completely unaffected.

Somewhere in between, Hornet Widow hid and observed. She watched Dawnbringer like a predator preparing for an ambush. Alas, it seems that she doesn’t know her ’prey’ was also watching her.

"Oh fuck! What a guy!" Steven exclaimed and slapped his thigh once he realized something from Dawnbringer’s stance. "He’s luring her in!"

Dawnbringer’s stance was open and very vulnerable. Steven himself, despite not being a combat specialist, could see the flaws. And if he could see this, it’s to be expected that Hornet Widow could too.

Anybody could tell that he’s luring her in, but the real question is, where is he actually vulnerable? Which part of his stance wasn’t a trap?

"Mind games." Steven exhaled before clawing at his bucket of popcorn. "All assassin types are proficient in ambushes, but the art of spotting weaknesses correctly is reserved for very few only."

"Hornet’s good at it. But the real question is, against this seemingly unassuming but incredibly powerful guy, can she really spot it?"

"We’ll find out soon enough, I suppose."