The King's Avatar

Mo Fan had previously been playing extremely slow, taking nearly three minutes to close the distance. But suddenly, he sped up. Step back and turn around in one fluid motion. A new offense had begun practically the instant the several shadow clones disappeared.

As for Song Xiao?

Song Xiao was still whirling around looking for traces of Deception. By the time he turned backwards, Deception had reached him.

Flame Slash!

The dense fog seemed to boil as flames leapt into the air. The fiery attack was incomparably fast, slashing Receding Tides directly in the face.

Boom!

The flames clung onto Receding Tides and burned him.

One, two, three, four, five…

Five consecutive hits and then Deception vanished into the fog.

The excitement had just reached a peak, but all of it just collapsed in an instant…

This again! Those familiar with Mo Fan’s style collectively gave out a sigh. The fast-paced burst had revealed his skillfulness, but the display always went away immediately afterwards. Beautiful but brief like fireworks.

“Fireworks Style,” Pan Lin said. He wasn’t the one who came up with this name, but rather a nickname people in the forums had given Mo Fan’s weird playstyle. When Pan Lin found it, he felt that it was a very suitable name, and so when Mo Fan showed it off, he called it out.

“Oh, I’ve heard of this name before, too. It paints a pretty picture,” Li Yibo chuckled.

Two consecutive offensives. The first Shadow Dance had been beautiful, but Song Xiao’s timely response to deal with it had been outstanding as well. But Mo Fan’s sudden change in pace had caught Song Xiao off guard. The five-hit combo performed from five skills had been perfect. By the time Song Xiao readjusted himself, Mo Fan’s Deception went into hiding.

Song Xiao wasn’t going to sit and wait for his death to come. He had Receding Tides chase in the direction that Deception had disappeared into.

Mo Fan simply hid behind a tree and went in a circle around Song Xiao. Deception was behind Receding Tides again. This time, Mo Fan didn’t wait too long before launching his next wave of attacks. The sudden sneak attack from behind had caught Song Xiao in a fluster. But this time, Mo Fan’s combo had been stopped. Receding Tides was able to escape the third wave of attacks from Mo Fan.

Not waiting for the counterattack, Mo Fan had Deception immediately retreat after seeing the attack miss.

“Speaking of which, Mo Fan is much more familiar with this playstyle than Song Xiao is…” Pan Lin said.

“I think it’s quite clear who’s going to win this round. I’m a bit worried for Song Xiao though. He had fought against Ye Xiu for a long time, and he must be quite tired. Now, he’s against Mo Fan, who’s playing this sort of grind game that won’t let him ease up. Song Xiao… will he have spent too much energy in today’s group arena?” Li Yibo said.

“Ah… this is truly…” Pan Lin wasn’t able to find the right words. Blue Rain had tried to tire out Happy’s Ye Xiu. Not only did they fail, Song Xiao had a rough time while trying to exhaust Ye Xiu. And now, he was up against another tiresome opponent, Mo Fan. Not only did it look like he was going to lose, he would most likely be affected in the following team competition by the fatigue from his group arena matches.

“Perhaps Song Xiao should give up,” Pan Lin said.

“But do you think he will, with his personality?” Li Yibo said.

Pan Lin fell silent.

Although Song Xiao wasn’t a God, with the nickname Mr. Clutch, he would often shine in important matches. As such, Song Xiao’s pride was no lesser than that of a God’s.

Facing against a rookie, Mo Fan, and against a grind strategy that Happy was using against them, Song Xiao shrinking back would be admitting that Blue Rain’s strategy today was an utter failure. It would mean that he had given up to a certain extent.

Song Xiao would not give up. It was because he never gave up that he made plays at critical moments and became known as Mr. Clutch.

Shrink back, give up? Never!

Receding Tides traversed through the thicket. After experiencing such a long battle, Song Xiao could still muster up another burst of energy. Receding Tides looked to be even nimbler than before.

Poof! Bang!

Deception launched another sneak attack, which brought upon a powerful counter from Song Xiao. On this fourth wave of attacks from Mo Fan, Receding Tides surged with qi. With a Flash Burst, he completely toppled Mo Fan’s wave of attacks.

“Where are you running!”

Song Xiao would not let this opportunity go and had Receding Tides chase after him. As long as he could stick close to him, he would have the chance to stop Mo Fan from disappearing and attempting another sneak attack.

Despite only having 3% health, he wouldn’t cower. He would continue forward!

This Mo Fan player didn’t seem to like trades. With only 3% health left, Song Xiao felt like he could take advantage of this habit. He couldn’t miss this final opportunity. He had to stick close!

Spiral Qi Kill!

Receding Tides whirled his arms, spinning qi in the air. Because of this map’s dense fog, the traces left behind from this skill was very clear. A spiralling white dragon flew forward.

Boom!

The qi exploded, but it was just a straw dummy that was torn to pieces.

Substitution Technique!

Song Xiao immediately looked around, trying to find Deception. But he didn’t think that it would come from below…

Underground Tunneling Technique!

Deception tunneled out of the ground. The ninjato in his hands, Sixteen Leaves, looked like tree leaves again. But this time, the leaves weren’t floating down. Rather, they seemed to dance with the wind, sending a ribbon of blood into the dense fog.

Dead!

Receding Tide’s health finally hit zero. Song Xiao hadn’t been able to bite at Mo Fan one last time.

Scrap picker…

Song Xiao thought of Mo Fan’s background. In terms of running for his life, Mo Fan was a master. Song Xiao couldn’t help but think of their match against Happy during the regular season. Team Happy’s defeat had been certain, yet Ye Xiu and Mo Fan had frantically played hide-and-seek with them**.

What a troublesome kid!

Song Xiao shook his head. He stood up and then left the player booth.

Right now, only the Happy fans on the west platform were cheering excitedly. The rest of the stadium filled with Blue Rain fans had worry and gloominess written all over their faces.

The home team had the advantage of picking the map and should be trying to take the initiative. But this match? Blue Rain’s plans for this map completely failed. Instead, Happy’s Mo Fan was like a fish in the water as he handled Song Xiao like a worm.

84%.

Deception still had this much health left. Would Blue Rain’s next player be able to deal with him?

It was just a rookie, bur Team Blue Rain’s fans were worried for their team. Mo Fan’s skill was unquestionable, perhaps even feared.

“Who is Blue Rain sending up next?” Pan Lin said.

Song Xiao went back to Blue Rain’s player bench with his head down. Mr. Clutch wasn’t able to clutch it out today.

“You did well. Take a rest!” Yu Wenzhou did not scold him. Instead, he took the initiative to console him.

The Blue Rain fans watching with an omniscient view could grasp the true situation faster than the players playing on the stage.

Song Xiao had fallen for Ye Xiu’s trap. While Ye Xiu was sandbagging, he had been completely focused on defending and tiring out Ye Xiu. During that time, he was no longer tiring out Ye Xiu, but rather, it was Ye Xiu tiring out him.

Afterwards, he was stuck in Mo Fan’s slow and dragged out pace. Song Xiao was truly exhausted. But he could not relax. The more crucial team competition still needed him. He could only follow his captain’s words. He hurried to the sidelines to rest as much as possible before the team competition began.

“Go!” At this moment, Yu Wenzhou called out to Blue Rain’s third player.

Li Yuan, Summoner Eight Notes.

Last round, he had encountered Mo Fan in the group arena, but had lost miserably. He met him again in their game. Li Yuan was pleased. He needed to take revenge for last time.

“Good luck, Li Yuan!” The entire stadium stood up and cheered for him. Their opening wasn’t good, making everyone nervous and worried.

“Watch me,” Li Yuan waved his hands to his teammates and to the crowd as he walked onto the stage.

The match soon began.

Li Yuan finally switched up Blue Rain’s initial strategy and went along the central path.

Mo Fan still took the roundabout route, but he took a rather strange path. He first had Deception move west. Once he moved far enough, he took a path north and slightly to the east.

“What is Mo Fan thinking?” Pan Lin wondered.

“This… it looks like he’s planning on cutting off Li Yuan after calculating his movement speed,” Li Yibo said.

“Cut off?”

“The choices at the start of the match are the central path, the path slightly to the west, and the path slightly to the east. Because of the dense fog, you can’t deviate too far east or west from the central path, otherwise it’s pointless. That’s why Mo Fan is having his character move tangentially. If the opponent takes the central path, the opponent will be moving towards the southern end. If the opponent takes the west or east path, the opponent will move slower south than if the opponent took the central path. If Mo Fan continues along his current route, he’ll come across two intersections on either the central or eastern path. Three possibilities. He’s covering three possibilities before he tries anything else,” Li Yibo said.

“In that case, he’s already succeeded! Will they meet on the central path?” Pan Lin looked at their movements.

“That’ll depend on what Li Yuan does,” Li Yibo said.

Li Yuan’s Eight Notes quickly reached the center of the map. He had Eight Notes stop and look at his surroundings.

“If Eight Notes doesn’t move, Deception might not run into him,” Pan Lin said.

“He’ll probably move!” Li Yibo said.

“Not only does he need to move, he needs to move forward,” Pan Lin said.

Just as he said this, Li Yuan’s Eight Notes continued forward towards the south. In Pan Lin’s eyes, Eight Notes was already doomed.