Blaze looked at Ezekiel, his skills and mastery over his moves. The way he was not wasting even a single moment, utilising everything he had in his arsenal. And lastly, how he reduced the Boss's health to less than half within 40 minutes.
All by himself.
He didn't even lose a single health point. Blaze thought in amazement as he looked at Ezekiel observing the screaming boss with a calm smile on his face.
"Get ready! We are entering the second phase of the battle!"
The voice of Ezekiel echoed throughout the area, tensing Blaze and Link a bit as they tightened their grips.
A few seconds after the boss started screaming, a strange hue began spreading all around. Moments later, dead zombies with their rotten flesh sticking out of their body, began rising out of the ground.
"So the second phase will have zombies, huh? This could get tricky," Blaze spoke out to the crowd watching Ezekiel. They were excited to see what would happen next.
Whether this first quest would succeed or fail? Will they be able to defeat the boss? What kind of rewards will they get? Everyone in the stream had a huge anticipation towards the result of the quest.
[Live Views: 1,560,121]
[New Subscribers: 102,121]
[Total Subscribers: 104,512]
And the views and subscriptions kept rising without showing any signs of stopping at all.
This is more than enough to pay for tuition. Blaze had a relieved expression on his face. With this, all his monetary problems would be solved, with enough money to spare even.
But deep down, there was something else brewing in his mind. A certain feeling that he once had, forgotten for a long time, now beginning to bloom once again.
[Ezekiel: Stop the zombies from reaching me!]
Ezekiel's voice echoed in his mind as he saw the white haired man getting ready to fight with the witch once again.
He is trusting me to watch his back. Blaze thought as he took a step forward, his expression far more serious than before.
I should repay that trust.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Raven moving fast like the wind, killing the zombies at an insane speed. Each hit was Critical Hit, each attack was aimed at their neck.
[RavenFan01: RAVEN!!!!!!!!!]
[RavenFannumberone: RAVEN!! SHOW THEM WHAT YOU GOT!!!]
[TristanBear: Our Raven isn't gonna get overshadowed by Ezekiel at all!!! GO RAVEN GO!!!]
Her moves were equally polished as Ezekiel. They were refined as if she had practiced them for ages.
Blaze's brave steps halted for a few seconds.
Am I really needed? Aren't I just leeching off them at this point? He thought as he looked at a few comments that were saying the same thing.
Even though he wanted to contribute, there was little he could do. He knew that more than anyone else. And it made him wonder if it was all right for him to do so?
"It's always the same, isn't it?" And he heard Link's voice from behind, smiling at him. Hearing those words, Blaze calmed down for a few seconds, and then chuckled before answering,
"At this point, it's more of a natural state of mine."
Blaze has seen desperation before.
I am not skilled enough.
When he lost his parents.
I can barely kill a few zombies here and there.
When he dropped out of college due to financial issues.
Even hitting their weak points all the time is not possible for me.
And even when his sister was on the verge of dropping out of college due to the same reason.
At the very least, let's at least make each hit count.
So he did what he could do best.
Let's keep moving forward and at least do what we are capable of.
[Endurance: 10 -> 15]
[Stamina: 30/30]
Increasing the endurance with Attribute points he was saving, to increase the stamina he had.
And then…
[Throw!]
[-25 Stamina]
-Pierce!
The spear pierced through the skull of the zombie just behind Raven, giving her room to breathe, while Blaze himself rushed to pick his spear again.
Dodging the slow zombies, he ran towards his spear and picked it up.
The Stamina recharge rate is 1 Stamina/second, which means I can use this skill once every 25 seconds. He calculated as he then began killing the nearby zombies.
And while doing so, he kept an eye on Ezekiel and Raven, and the surrounding zombies that could potentially reach them from their blind spot.
…
Location: Minnesota Cafe, Harriet City
Her neatly combed purple hair reached below the waist, touching the chocolaty-orange cafe seats, as she gracefully sat there.
Wearing a white uniform with the emblem [Iskia University] on its left breast-pocket, she sat there gracefully with three of her female friends.
She was Angelica Roosvelt, Joshua Roosvelt's, that is, Blaze's elder sister.
Normally she wouldn't be joining such occasions, but since it was her college roommate's birthday, she took some time off to spend time with her in this cafe. And since she was 'dieting', she wasn't going to eat anything from this cafe either.
At first, the conversation was about college studies, which then shifted to shopping and finally landed on the new game Arcadia.
Somehow, one topic led to another, and one of the members opened up the stream of her brother, showing Ezekiel's fight against the Witch.
Josh's stream? Interested in the stream, she also paid attention to the contents.
The fights were cool, and the comments were also funny. But what Angelica was focused on was her brother Blaze's words.
Was my brother always this good? She thought as she saw her brother cracking jokes, making everyone laugh. Handling the stream properly, making it even more interesting than it already was.
Angelica loved when her brother smiled, laughed when he cracked jokes. She hated when the comments berated him, felt sad when small moments where he seemed desperate.
"Whoa! I thought he was just good at streaming, but he can fight well too, huh?" One of her friends spoke out with admiration.
"That streamer? I guess so. I don't think I would have been able to handle the pressure against that girl, Raven, and Ezekiel," one more spoke out.
The last one, one of the avid gamers, explained to the other two then," You may not know, but these two are an anomaly. Honestly, I don't think many would be able to catch up with them. The fact that he, Blaze, can actually keep up with them is actually an amazing feat."
The other two friends, understanding that, looked at Blaze once more, this time with more admiration than before.
"Even on his own, he would now be famous enough to be scouted by many high end guilds. Hmmm… I wonder if I should send a request to him as well?" The gamer girl spoke with a pondering expression.
Meanwhile, Angelica just looked at her three friends, stupefied as she once again looked at the stream, at her brother.
He dodged the zombies carefully, killed them one at a time. And then occasionally, he threw his spear at a Zombie that was just about to attack the other two players, saving them from a sudden attack.
A proud smile formed on her face as she continued looking at her brother, this time focusing on each of his moves that he was making.