The King's Avatar

Step by step, Liu Hao carefully approached. Absent Sun moved steadily, his eyes unwavering, with no openings in sight.

The viewers yawned. Lord Grim wasn’t in the direction Absent Sun was moving in. After Lord Grim hid behind that stone pillar, he backed up in a straight line until he reached a different stone pillar and then switched to it as a new hiding spot.

Having an omniscient view sometimes made things quite boring. The viewers all felt bored. They regretfully could not experience Liu Hao’s nervousness and could not sympathize with Liu Hao’s extreme caution.

Earthquake Sword!

Absent Sun threw out a fierce attack, and a wave of earth surged forth. The whirling earth crashed into that stone pillar and sliced it in half. The Earthquake Sword had split into two paths and then converged towards the center of the stone pillar.

Liu Hao had been waiting for this moment. Absent Sun slid to the side to get a better line of sight and sent out an Ice Wave Sword.

“Haa…”

The audience once again yawned. There was no one behind that stone pillar. What was the point of making so much noise? Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim was quite a distance away and wasn’t within the attack’s range. A fight wasn’t going to break out. Everyone could see that clearly. It was only Liu Hao alone, with his spirit trembling with excitement, who couldn’t see it. His two skills ended up hitting nothing but air.

He’s not there!

Liu Hao was shocked to discover that Lord Grim wasn’t behind the stone pillar.

However, with his experience and his familiarity with the map, he immediately determined how Lord Grim had disappeared from right under his eyes.

Absent Sun moved precisely along the route Lord Grim had chosen. The audience noticed Liu Hao’s precise judgement and shook excitedly. Applause suddenly poured down.

This time, he was truly closing in. However, this time, Liu Hao wasn’t certain of Lord Grim’s exact location.

The audience didn’t know that though! All they saw was Liu Hao chasing after Lord Grim with extraordinary precision. They thought he had completely ascertained Lord Grim’s position. How could they know Liu Hao only had a rough idea. He was still picking from A, B, or C as his final answer!

Seeing Absent Sun getting closer and closer to Lord Grim, the crowd became increasingly more excited. All sorts of cheers and excited shouts exploded. Then, they watched as Absent Sun sweep out an Earthquake Sword towards a stone pillar with no one there.

Fuck!

What a letdown.

Everyone’s hopes were instantly crushed. The crowd immediately went silent.

Liu Hao did the same two attack maneuver as before and once again saw that there was no one behind that stone pillar.

Okay, so A’s been eliminated. There’s only B and C left.

He should be… behind those two stone pillars, right?

Liu Hao was suddenly unsure again. He had been confident in his pursuit. Even though he hadn’t seen any signs of Lord Grim, he was certain Ye Xiu was dancing in the palm of his hands. If there were any strange movements, he would definitely notice them.

But there were none.

That meant Lord Grim should be in front of him. He just couldn’t confirm whether A, B, or C was correct.

Liu Hao believed choice A was the last likely. He still chose it in the end though. It was actually bait. When he attacked A, his attention was more focused on B and C. He thought Ye Xiu would act as soon as he guessed wrong, so he wanted to beat him at his own game.

But Ye Xiu did not act. As a result, he safely eliminated A as the correct choice and now began pondering over the other two choices.

The audience suddenly became quite lively.

Lord Grim’s over there! If your first guess wasn’t right, try again! Why’d you stop?

Absent Sun raised his shortsword and suddenly started casting a Wave Formation. With just one move, he could cover both options.

At this moment, Lord Grim casually stepped out from pillar B.

Liu Hao was greatly alarmed and hastily cancelled his Wave Formation. Shining Cut! Lord Grim cut across and appeared right in front of Liu Hao.

“You haven’t changed. Your playstyle is always so… fake,” Ye Xiu said as Lord Grim let out two slashes in the shape of a cross. At this distance, a vertical and horizontal slash was truly difficult to dodge. Liu Hao reacted quite fast though. Absent Sun shielded his head with his shortsword, using the Blade Master skill Guard to block Lord Grim’s attack. Borrowing the momentum from Lord Grim’s attack, he slid back.

“You clearly know where I was hiding! Why not directly attack me? Why did you insist on running in circles?” Ye Xiu didn’t have Lord Grim urgently rush over and followed up on the conversation.

“You call that fake?” Liu Hao sneered. “Are you saying you’ve never done this?”

“I have, but no one is so fake through and through,” Ye Xiu replied.

“Do you really think words like those would shake me up?” Liu Hao said.

“If you really did get shaken up, that would be great,” Ye Xiu said.

“Shut up!” Liu Hao was finally unable to hold back. After all, letting it accumulate was quite tiring as well.

“Alright!” Ye Xiu responded. Lord Grim moved again.

Liu Hao sneered. In his eyes, Ye Xiu had made a mistake. Lord Grim suddenly leaping out, while his Absent Sun was casting a spell, came out of nowhere. Lord Grim instantly closed in on him too. It had been such a perfect ambush opportunity. But instead of continuing his assault, he just chattered. Liu Hao was truly laughing from head to toe. He had truly been panicking whether or not he could block Lord Grim’s direct attacks. That distance wasn’t a Spellblade’s ideal distance.

Instead, Ye Xiu stopped, giving him a chance to breathe. This was simply letting a tiger return to the mountains! Liu Hao had adjusted himself. If another attack came, he wouldn’t be afraid. He had originally planned on directly fighting with Ye Xiu. Why else would he have charged directly to the center of the map at the start of the match?

You’ll pay the price for trying to preach to me!

Liu Hao shouted inwardly. Absent Sun raised his sword. A frenzy of fire surged towards Lord Grim. Fire Wave Sword!

Bang!

The raging flames left Lord Grim nowhere to dodge. The fire blazed turning Lord Grim into smoke.

Humph…

Liu Hao laughed coldly. Shadow Clone Technique. Ye Xiu had used this old trick who knew how many times by now.

Absent Sun had already leapt up. At practically the same time as the Fire Wave Sword, he twisted his body in the air and released an Earthquake Sword!

The land quaked and violent sword intent flew forward, but all that it hit was a thread of Lord Grim’s clothing.

Absent Sun had missed. Lord Grim hadn’t been standing directly behind him, but rather to the side a sliver. The Earthquake Sword grudgingly whistled by him.

“Who told you I always went behind my opponents?” Ye Xiu asked as Lord Grim unsheathed his sword.

Sword Draw!

The sword light swept over. The airborne Absent Sun had no way of dodging it. He had just Guarded previously; its cooldown wasn’t up yet. All he could do was swing his sword as a normal attack to parry it.

However, a normal attack had lower priority than Sword Draw. It couldn’t completely block it. The Sword Draw pushed Absent Sun’s shortsword back towards him. Absent Sun crashed to the ground; the flames from his previous Fire Wave Sword had yet to extinguish.

Even though he wasn’t able to completely block it, it still had some effect. Absent Sun didn’t go into a tumble as a result. Liu Hao adjusted his character, so he would land on his feet.

Clack!

The instant he fell, a clack came from beneath his feet. Liu Hao lowered his head and saw spikes through his character’s feet.

Thief skill Spike Trap rooted the target.

Liu Hao’s face suddenly paled. He hadn’t noticed when Lord Grim had placed the trap down. From its location, could it have been the instant he sent out the Fire Wave Sword? Could he have used the light from the flames as a cover?

In any case, Liu Hao had been hit by the trap, and his Absent Sun couldn’t move an inch for the duration of Spike Trap. And this time, Ye Xiu had no plans of chatting with him. Grenade, Sand Toss, Disperse Powder… Lord Grim rushed over and threw a bunch of things. Unable to move, the only thing Liu Hao could do was look away to avoid Sand Toss’s Blind effect. Every other projectile had hit. Then, Lord Grim’s sword glowed dark purple as a ghost soul flashed out. A boundary had appeared on the ground: Sword Soul, or Sword Boundary. All allies within the boundary would have their Strength and Intelligence greatly buffed.

The real offensive had only just begun: Unspecialized Blitz.

With Spike Trap in effect, Absent Sun could only stand there and get beaten. When Spike Trap’s root effect dissipated, Absent Sun could still only get beaten up.

Liu Hao wanted to cry. He had been waiting to use this map for a long time. He had been waiting for the key moment to use it to improve his popularity. This crucial match against Ye Xiu and his 35 round win streak were once in a lifetime opportunities to win huge amounts of fame. Liu Hao had sacrificed his treasure and released his treasure’s full might. He had utilized his familiarity with the map to give a precise chase and received the audience’s applause.

But there was nothing after that.

He received no more chances to utilize this map. Ye Xiu had used a Spike Trap to seal his movements. Then, after making a few setups, Ye Xiu didn’t give him a single opportunity to counterattack or use the map as cover.

Am I going to lose?

Lose like this?

I was so meticulous and precise with my preparations, yet I’m going to lose like this without any chance of retaliation?

IMPOSSIBLE! It doesn’t make sense! I worked hard and put in the effort! Victory? Why can’t I see any shred of victory? Will I truly never be able to beat him?

Liu Hao felt fear.

He had exhausted everything at his disposal in this match. He thought that he had a huge advantage, but he hadn’t even been able to hold the upper hand for even a minute. It was like he still a trainee at the Excellent Era training camp. That Battle God from up above strolled into the training camp, picked a random map, and just casually crushed him.

He thought that he had grown strong, but in the end, he could see no difference from the past. He was easily and casually defeated.

Why?

Why did it turn out like this?

When Absent Sun fell, Liu Hao collapsed in his seat and roared furiously. But no one could hear him.