Martial Online.

Ambrose let out steam from his muscular body, which made the entire room foggy and hazy. In the same moment, his muscles reduced in size, and his skin color turned normal from the previous fiery red.

"Whoo…" He breathed out steam like a steam machine and felt his stamina recover at astonishing speed.

In ordinary circumstances, using two skills simultaneously would drain the stamina at incredible speed, but that wasn't a problem for Ambrose, as he could recover his stamina indefinitely.

Ding.

The metallic gate again reappeared to separate the room in half, and the countdown clock was reset. It started to tick down from thirty seconds once again.

Foxbreath looked stunned.

"How can he block my attack with just his body? It felt like I attacked a humanoid statue made out of steel, but it felt like his body was even stronger than steel!"

"No problem, bro." Penguinstrike and again enveloped them behind the Shield of the Dying Dreams.

It had visible cracks, but Penguinstrike didn't think that the spear-wielding man would be able to do as much damage as his teammate.

In his and Foxbreath's opinion, they already had their own beliefs that Ambrose was the stronger one of the two. After all, he already attacked first and defended.

They thought it was because Ambrose was clearly the stronger one.

Now, since he defended, he couldn't attack.

Moriarty twirled the spear in hand.

The spear's sharp blade narrowly missed the ground, and during the twirl, the blade almost also touched the ceiling of the room, but again narrowly missed.

He didn't have any intention to hit the ground or the ceiling. It instead showed his expertise with the spear and his ability to control it with precision.

In the wide world of Martial Online, there weren't many players who had as good weapon control as Moriarty. In that field, he was one of the strongest.

There were only ten seconds left in the countdown clock.

'You know what attack to use, right?' The knight's soul spoke inside his mind. 'I have taught you the skill.'

'Yeah, I know.'

Moriarty responded and then stopped twirling the spear. In that instant, his aura underwent a drastic change, and the pressure around him intensified.

'Oh?' Ambrose's eyebrow jumped, and he backed off slightly. 'That's powerful aura.'

Penguinstrike lowered his stance and held the holographic shield firmly in his hand.

'Come on! No one can break through my defense!'

Moriarty moved his spear into a thrusting stance and leaned forward like a wild beast. Then, he moved his leg slightly forward, put all of his weight into that foot, and squeezed the spear's shaft powerfully enough for it to creak under the pressure.

Tick, tick, tick…contemporary romance

The countdown clock reached zero, and the metallic gate disappeared yet again.

"Raaah!" Penguinstrike pumped himself up with a powerful war cry.

"Basic Stab."

Moriarty whispered and thrust the spear forth in a very ordinary stance. It didn't look threatening, even the slightest.

'This attack…' Ambrose frowned. 'Is this one of the basic attacks? I think I've seen this attack before.'

The spear glided through the air with ordinary speed and strength.

It soon reached the territory of the Shield of the Dying Dreams.

As soon as it landed straight in the middle of the holographic shield, where most of the cracks were, the spear went straight through the shield as if it didn't exist and landed on Penguinstrike's chest.

"Ah!" Penguinstrike gasped in shock and looked down to see the spear's blade stabbing through his chest, blood pouring out and staining his clothes.

"…"

Moriarty pulled back the spear and left behind the spear blade's-sized hole in the Shield of the Dying Dreams.

It was as if the holographic screen was made of a layer of fragile ice as it was broken so effortlessly, which made everyone wonder if the shield was malfunctioning or something.

"Penguin!" Foxbreath screamed, and at that moment, he saw their combined health dropping drastically.

[Team: Icefire - 55%]

The metallic gate separated the room in two again, and the countdown started to slowly tick down.

"How did you do that?" Ambrose asked in disbelief, his eyes wide with astonishment.

In that moment, he realized that he might've underestimated Moriarty's capabilities.

He didn't think he was weak by any means, but this was ridiculous just how easy it was for him to break through the shield, which he couldn't do.

"It wasn't about strength." Moriarty said and cleaned the blood off the blade.

'It wasn't about strength?' Ambrose frowned and, soon, started realizing what he was meaning.

'Good job.' The knight's soul spoke inside Moriarty's mind. 'You found the weakness and punished him.'

Moriarty nodded with a calm look, as if he didn't do anything special.

In the first round of the challenge, Ambrose caused a great deal of damage to the shield. If he hadn't done that, he would've been equally helpless.

However, the Knight inside his mind had been teaching about identifying the weakness and about the ultimate defense.

There was a weakness in the shield, thanks to Ambrose. Those cracks had a small gap between them, barely visible to the naked eye.

Moriarty discovered it, stabbed right into that gap with the spear, and therefore was able to easily bypass the shield's strongest capabilities.

It was something that no one else would've been able to notice. Not even Ambrose.

Even if someone did, they wouldn't have been able to attack that small area that was barely the size of a grain.

However, Moriarty was able to do so because his accuracy and control with the spear were unmatched.

It was a perfect situation for him!

'I have greatest control with Basic Stab.' Moriarty thought. 'If I had tried using any of my more powerful skills, I might have missed the target.'

"I'll do the defense, if you don't mind." Ambrose stepped forward with a smile on his face.

"You do you." Moriarty nodded in agreement and stepped aside while thinking about the following round.

He wouldn't have to worry about the Shield of the Dying Dreams anymore, as it was broken.

'I guess I'll use one of my stronger skills then.'

On the other side of the metallic gate.

"M-my shield…" Penguinstrike whispered in shock. "It was irreplacable!"

"Calm down!" Foxbreath screamed. "You still have better defensive capabilities than I do. So calm yourself, prepare to defend while I attack!"

"O-okay…" Penguinstrike looked at his broken shield in pain, as he didn't think he would be able to protect himself without it.

"Crimson God's Everlasting Bloodbath and Muscle Defense!"

Ambrose turned back into the muscular monster, with skin as red as a blazing inferno. The steam danced around his enormous figure, emanating an intense heat that made the air shimmer with fiery energy.

As Foxbreath saw the return of the muscle monster, he clicked his tongue in annoyance. He was truly shocked about how this creature managed to survive their previous encounter.

In that moment, he had to agree that he didn't think he had any chance of creating damage unless there was some kind of weakness.

'Is there weakness?' Foxbreath frowned and scanned the muscle monster from head to toe.

The countdown clock slowly ticked down, and there were only ten seconds left until the next round.

Foxbreath realized that their team was in a very poor position right now. At first, he thought it would be an easy victory because of Penguinstrike's powerful defense.

Now, without the shield, he didn't know how they would be able to survive.

'I guess there is no other choice than to use that…' Foxbreath opened his inventory and pulled out a whistle!

'Whistle!' Ambrose's expression widened in shock.

done.co