The King's Avatar

Xiao Shiqin, having seen Ye Xiu’s well prepared boxout, he began to feel nervous about the current situation. Seeing Sun Xiang’s message in the chat, his heart thudded even louder.

The Cleric was fast? What did that mean? How fast could Happy’s Little Cold Hands be?

Since Happy’s characters had more Orange equipment than anything else, it was easy to see their stats. There was no reason for Little Cold Hands’ movement speed to cause One Autumn Leaf and Combat Form surprise.

Unless… he was wearing a completely different set of equipment!

Little Cold Hands had two sets of equipment?

Xiao Shiqin was completely correct. In the broadcast, as well as the statistics given, Little Cold Hand’s equipment page was displayed for all to see. As expected, his entire body was covered with equipment bearing movement speed buffs. It completely ignored the stats that Clerics usually needed and focused solely on movement speed alone.

Another set of equipment would definitely increase the weight of character. Clerics were a cloth armored class though. Cloth armor was the lightest of all types of armors so holding onto another set had minimal influence on weight. However, the speed this reckless movement speed buff gave Little Cold Hands really was something that even a God level account like One Autumn Leaf would find shocking.

Had such a strange Cleric ever appeared in the pro circle?

This Cleric had lost everything that made him valuable as a Cleric. His only ability was running. Yet that was exactly what Excellent Era hoped he lacked the most.

Sun Xiang and Qiu Fei had already calculated Little Cold Hand’s movement speed in comparison to One Autumn Leaf and Combat Form: neck and neck.

Under these circumstances, there were only two possibilities if they wanted to catch up. One was to use something that would buff their movement speed or debuff the opponent’s movement speed. Battle Mages did, in fact, have such techniques. Among Magic Chasers, Ice Chasers could lower the target’s speed and Neutral Chasers could buff one’s own movement speed. The problem was that you couldn’t just make Chasers whenever you wanted. You had to hit a target to create one, but the two of them couldn’t even catch up to the target, so how were they to create any Chasers?

The other possibility relied on pacing. The fastest movement speed relied on Sprinting and Sprinting required stamina, and stamina could only be recovered under certain situations. This pacing would affect the resulting average movement speed. There was no need to worry about Sun Xiang and Qiu Fei. These pro player foundations were solid enough that they definitely had a solid grasp of pacing. What about their opponent? After chasing for a while, Sun Xiang and Qiu Fei despaired. As experts, it was clear to them how good the other was once they had began chasing. Little Cold Hands’ switching between the different movement speeds told the two immediately that this person had put a lot of effort into training this area. Wanting to catch up through mechanics wasn’t going to be easy.

Faced with hopelessness in their mission to kill the Cleric, the two briefly informed Xiao Shiqin of the situation. In that moment, Xiao Shiqin’s heart sunk to rock bottom.

The thought of dealing with the Cleric reminded him of a problem: in this match, had Team Happy’s healer done anything that a healer was expected to do?

No! Not at all.

He had been part of the starting lineup and then given some insignificant healing in the exchange between the two sides. Since Team Happy didn’t need much healing back then, Little Cold Hands had been more valuable in providing DPS buff support with his Holy Commandment than in healing. Then, he had silently left the match to let in Steamed Bun Invasion and maximize Happy’s DPS.

.

What a transparent character.

Yet, he was also a character that couldn’t be ignored. This was because he was the healer, the very healer that was a decisive factor in most Team Competitions. Especially after Excellent Era’s healer had been killed, Little Cold Hands’ absence was, in itself, a powerful presence that kept all of Excellent Era on their toes.

Xiao Shiqin naturally had tactics to deal with healers, especially since Happy’s healer Little Cold Hands was, in his eyes, one of the biggest weaknesses in Happy. As a character that couldn’t not be part of the team competition, his skill level wasn’t good enough.

For this, Xiao Shiqin also had a set of tactics. However, he never got the chance to utilize them. Happy didn’t give their Cleric very much to do before having him leave silently. Then he had suddenly become the player that would decide the victory of this match. Even knowing that this person wasn’t all that skilled, Xiao Shiqin had to place a heavy focus on him at a time like this.

Even after realizing that they should place killing Lord Grim above all else, killing Little Cold Hands was still something that Xiao Shiqin placed equal tactical importance on. So, against a Ye Xiu playing dirty, Sun Xiang and Qiu Fei had received orders to switch targets and go to pincer Little Cold Hands.

Yet, what they found was a Cleric that knew nothing but running...

”Come back…” Xiao Shiqin said helplessly into the chat. If Happy dared to make such arrangements, he believed that this player would have been specially trained in this area. Even if it was Sun Xiang and Qiu Fei, they would probably need a lot of time to deal with it. If they stalled for too long, then all that this would end with was these three going forth to support their healer after killing Life Extinguisher.

Another check.

Little Cold Hands had barely done anything a healer should, but managed to pin them with just his status as a healer.

In this moment, a well-known saying in Glory somehow came to Xiao Shiqin’s mind: an unused skill is the most terrifying skill.

That’s right. This saying had been put into practice as a tactic by Ye Xiu, using Little Cold Hands.

Xiao Shiqin could deeply feel that Happy’s tactics for this match was a dense web. Every character, every stage, every detail entangled with one another. Even if you found a way to cut one string, another connection would immediately swarm forth, embedded within one another, uninterruptible and unfathomable.

It seems that… that’s it for me...

Xiao Shiqin, in a one versus three, was doing his best to hold on, seeming to want to endure until Sun Xiang and Qiu Fei returned. However, it was unfortunate for him that Ye Xiu, having made so many tactical arrangements, knew how important it was to finish this as soon as possible. Apart from Lord Grim, who was a little more careful, the other two went all out in an effort to kill him.

Kill Lord Grim with disregard to all else?

A few minutes earlier, Xiao Shiqin had just given such an order. Yet, in the blink of an eye, it had switched to Happy killing his Life Extinguisher with disregard to all else.

”I’ll leave it to you.”

These were the last words Xiao Shiqin left to his teammates. Then, Life Extinguisher fell.

Xiao Shiqin was, without a doubt, a very important member of Team Excellent Era and left the most impact on this match. However, this wasn’t any sort of good memory for him. In the tactical battle between him and Ye Xiu, he had been completely defeated. Then, when he had fallen, he had left a terrible situation for his teammates.

Two versus four and their opponents had a healer...

They were in this terrible situation yet he still said ”I’ll leave it to you”? Shouldn’t these words be said when leaving his teammates a winning chance? But did Excellent Era have that now?

The Excellent Era fans were displeased by this. Their boos, for the first time, were aimed towards their own team, their own players. They were displeased and also afraid. Was Excellent Era really going to lose here?

One Autumn Leaf and Combat Form arrived, saw Life Extinguisher fall and the message Xiao Shiqin had left them in the chat, as well as the situation he had left for them.

Two versus three plus a healer?

In this sort of situation, some teams might have already typed GG, but would Excellent Era?

”Of course not.” In the audience, Xu Bin of the Tiny Herb trio said this with confidence, seeing the situation, because Liu Xiaobie was guessing if Sun Xiang and Qiu Fei would GG.

”The situation Xiao Shiqin left them with is still possible to win.” Xu Bin continued.

”Oh?”

”Don’t you think that to kill Life Extinguisher, Happy’s Steamed Bun Invasion and One Inch Ash lost a lot of health?” Xu Bin asked.

”So you mean…” Liu Xiaobie seemed to realize something.

”If Xiao Shiqin really wanted to, I think he could’ve held on until One Autumn Leaf and Combat Form arrived.” Xu Bin explained.

”So you mean to say that while Happy was trying their best to crush him, he was also doing his best to deplete Happy’s characters of their health. This accelerated Life Extinguisher’s death, but he also managed to deal a lot more damage.” Liu Xiaobie said.

”That’s right, that’s why he left such a message. It was because he used all he could to set the situation up for Sun Xiang and Qiu Fei.” Xu Bin said.

”This situation is better than keeping his Life Extinguisher alive?” Liu Xiaobie questioned.

”That’s what he thinks.” Xu Bin said.

”He probably… felt that he couldn’t beat Senior Ye Xiu in tactics so left a situation where pure combative strength would decide the victor, right?” Gao Yingjie suddenly cut in.

”Combative strength to decide the victor?” Liu Xiaobie repeated to himself. The current situation was a two versus four and Happy had a healer. This sort of absolute advantage didn’t require any tactics anymore, right?

”I never expected that Xiao Shiqin would get a chance to use the tactic he’s best at in this situation.” Xu Bin said.

”The tactic… Xiao Shiqin is best at?” Liu Xiaobie was confused. He was someone who focused on mechanics. In regards to tactics, he didn’t really pay much attention.

”Being underestimated.” Xu Bin explained.

”Being underestimated?”

”That’s right. He’s making his opponent underestimate them.” Xu Bin said.

Liu Xiaobie suddenly understood. Xiao Shiqin had come from Thunderclap, which wasn’t very strong. If they intentionally had their opponent underestimate them, they would be able to find a lot of opportunities. Yet now, he had come to Excellent Era and they were in the Challenger League nonetheless, so the one tactic he was best at had never had a chance to be used. Just the name Excellent Era was enough to make some opposing teams surrender.

Yet now, Xiao Shiqin had used the death of his own Life Extinguisher to send Excellent Era to an absolute disadvantage. Two versus four and the opposing side had a healer. Even pros like Liu Xiaobie would feel like you could just type ’GG’ in this situation. It was clear what Excellent Era’s chances of victory were.

If they had an absolute grasp on victory, then they had the right to look down on their opponents, which naturally meant that there was the possibility that they would underestimate their opponents.

In this final moment, Xiao Shiqin had finally used the one method he was best at to set the scene for his teammates.

I’ll leave it to you!

This wasn’t something said lightly.