The King's Avatar

Who should we send to scout out the terrain?

This was Zhang Xinjie’s first thought, but he quickly dispelled it. On paper, Tyranny should be stronger than Happy, but if one of their members left to scout their surroundings, it would be a 4v5. Right now, Happy was on the defensive. A 4v5 under these circumstances wouldn’t be too big of an issue, but circumstances could change. If it became a 4v5, Happy would certainly turn on them and attack. Ye Xiu wasn’t someone who would just stay idle at such a prime opportunity.

We can’t send someone out to scout ahead. We can only see what we can do given our present situation.

Does Luo Ji really have that sort of talent?

When, Zhang Xinjie’s gaze shifted towards Concealed Light, he couldn’t help but think of this question. The vast majority of people considered Luo Ji’s talent at ”seeing through the terrain with a single glance” was a bluff and couldn’t be believed. But it wasn’t as if it was impossible. For someone like Zhang Xinjie, it would constantly weigh on his mind. He even guessed that this might have been Happy’s goal, but there was nothing he could do about it. He wasn’t paranoid about it or anything. He would simply take it into account when he made his plans.

The terrain collapsing was only one of many possibilities. It might not be the case. Perhaps it might just be that the terrain gave Happy certain advantages that they could use against Tyranny.　

Be more cautious and continue with their pursuit?

It would be a perfectly good option under normal circumstances, but what if it was a trap?

In the end, the safest option seemed to be to shy away from Happy’s preferred route.　

Zhang Xinjie concluded after careful consideration.

Increase our aggression!

He gave out an order to Tyranny.

Han Wenqing was the first to understand his intentions. He was also the first to carry out the order.

Desert Dust had just forced Soft Mist back. With a step forward, he followed up with a kick.

Soft Mist blocked the kick with her spear. To Desert Dust’s side, Lord Grim sneakily sent out a Circle Swing.

Cloud Body, Double Tiger Palm!

Desert Dust twisted his body, just barely dodging Lord Grim’s umbrella. Then, he followed with a Double Tiger Palm, one palm towards Lord Grim, and the other towards Soft Mist.

Lord Grim jumped back and dodged it. Soft Mist sidestepped it and then slid forward, stabbing towards Desert Dust with a Dragon Tooth.

Han Wenqing didn’t dodge or block it, striking back with a Straight Punch. Desert Dust avoided the Dragon Tooth using the dash provided by the skill, while simultaneously throwing a punch towards Lord Grim.

But as Lord Grim jumped back, Ye Xiu counterattacked, using a Dragon Tooth as well. The Dragon Tooth collided with Desert Dust’s Straight Punch. Both sides trembled from the impact. Neither skill trumped the other, an even match.

The words ”increase our aggression” wasn’t a buff. It didn’t mean the team’s battle strength would suddenly rise to another level. To be more aggressive, the players needed to make adjustments to the tempo of the match.

To put it simply, it was to shift the balance between offense and defense towards offense. In other words, sacrifice defense for offense.

The outcome would be more aggressive exchanges. When one would normally choose to dodge or defend, one would instead continue to attack. Taking more damage didn’t matter.　

Desert Dust’s Straight Punch didn’t seem to embody this philosophy, but Han Wenqing had made his decisions with it in mind. The main purpose of the Straight Punch had been to deal damage to Lord Grim, dodging Soft Mist’s Dragon Tooth was simply in the passing. It could be seen as a reflection of Han Wenqing’s many years of experience. Even if attacking was his priority, it was best to minimize the damage.

Soft Mist’s Dragon Tooth had missed, but Han Wenqing wouldn’t be able to dodge her next attacks. Soft Mist followed with a Double Stab, both strikes hitting Desert Dust. At the same time, a grenade appeared in front of her face. With a boom, Soft Mist was thrown to the side. Soft Mist immediately rolled to reduce the impact. Lin Jingyan’s Dark Thunder was rushing towards her, when a black shadow cut him off. Concealed Light’s Spirit Cat pounced towards Dark Thunder.

The team competition was closely linked together. As soon as Han Wenqing became more aggressive, the rest of the team followed. In response to Tyranny’s sudden aggression, Happy immediately responded with a tighter defense.

Zhang Xinjie immediately became even busier. Not only did he need to carefully survey the situation, these intense trades were a test for healers. As the team’s biggest support, if the healer wasn’t able to keep up, Happy would likely take advantage of it and find an opening.

Small Heal, Great Cure, Focus, God’s Protection, Spirit Enlightenment, Sacred Fire...

White glow poured out from Immovable Rock’s Backlight Cross. Glory’s number one healer was number one for a reason. Despite such a complex and chaotic battle taking place, his Cleric was the most eye-catching one. When measuring a Cleric’s performance, the easiest way to do so was to look at the health on the respective teams. At the moment, the health on Tyranny’s five members were lined up together, bouncing up and down like a song.

As for the musician?

Immovable Rock was given a close-up along with the movement of the health bars. His movements weren’t nearly as graceful as the health bars. Immovable Rock was traveling back and forth amidst artillery fire, his originally spotless robe had turned into a mess.

How could Happy not have noticed Tyranny’s increased aggression?　

Interfering with the healer was the counter to aggressive trades.

Happy was aware of this point, but Tyranny was aware of it too. As a result, close-ranged fighters like Soft Mist weren’t able to even get close to Immovable Rock.

However, Soft Mist was Happy’s easiest member to block. Su Mucheng’s Dancing Rain wandered around the edges of the battlefield. Tyranny’s three Fighters couldn’t touch her. Only Zhang Jiale’s Dazzling Hundred Blossoms could fire back but the threat he posed to her was extremely limited. Dazzling Hundred Blossoms had consumed an enormous amount of mana setting up light covers in the previous fights. Right now, he needed to play more conservatively. He couldn’t maintain a cover of light, and in terms of attack range, Spitfires lost to Launchers.

Su Mucheng wasn’t the only one Zhang Jiale needed to deal with either. The Wyvern and Frost Eagle summoned by Concealed Light were flying beasts. The three Fighters naturally had a much harder time against these summons compared to a long-ranged gunner like him. As a result, Zhang Jiale needed to keep both Dancing Rain and Concealed Light busy.

Finally, Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim was the most annoying and most nauseating enemy. Lord Grim was both a close-ranged and a long-ranged threat. If you focused on him, he was like a general with a hundred tricks up his sleeves. If you ignored him, he would take any chance he could get to attack Immovable Rock and interrupt his healing.

There were numerous forces trying to disrupt Immovable Rock, trying to destroy Tyranny’s aggression and force Tyranny into defense. During the most critical moments, Tyranny’s vice-captain would keep ordering for Tyranny to maintain the same tempo.

”Keep up the aggression!”

”Keep up the aggression!”

Han Wenqing and Zhang Xinjie would say the same thing.

As a result, Tyranny continued to attack and put pressure on Happy, minimizing their protection over Zhang Xinjie to restrict Happy’s freedom. Tyranny was able to keep up this tempo going, but Zhang Xinjie needed to deal with the attacks coming towards him on his own.

Dodge and tank. Immovable Rock dealt with the attacks this way, while preserving his healing. The difficult situations that he faced along with the harmonious healing that he produced were two intense opposites, making it even more clear just how skilled Zhang Xinjie was.

Attack while ignoring defense!　　

For defense, the others on Tyranny would be relying on Zhang Xinjie!　　

How could this sort of Tyranny lose?

Tyranny had won. Happy had no way to deal with Zhang Xinjie. This was what countless people thought. Tyranny’s fans had already started shouting victory cries. The threat of the Seven Color Springs? Could Happy even hold on until then? Even if they could, how many of them would be left?

What else can Happy do?

The pro players in the chat group were discussing this question.

When they watched matches, they would pretend that they were the ones playing the match. If they were winning, how could they widen the lead? If they were losing, how could they bring it back?

The chat group became a war room. People would put in their thoughts, while others would argue against it. Their words were like a simulation of the battle.

”It’s time to go all in,” Tiny Herb’s Wang Jiexi said.

He was referring to Happy, of course. If Tyranny kept this up without making a mistake, they would win. Happy needed to do something to save themselves.

Everyone knew that interrupting Zhang Xinjie was key. From the looks of it, disrupting Zhang Xinjie was the only way to affect Tyranny significantly.

But doing so wasn’t easy. Happy had interrupted Zhang Xinjie’s healing here and there, but it wasn’t enough. Once or twice would throw off Tyranny’s rhythm. Right now, Happy needed to completely suppress Zhang Xinjie’s Immovable Rock to turn around the situation.

Attack!　　

Forcing their way through was Happy’s last remaining option.　　

Their focus would need to be Zhang Xinjie’s Immovable Rock!

Who would initiate it? The pro players paid attention to this question. They didn’t believe that Happy would just sit there and watch Tyranny defeat them. Happy would certainly struggle. Even if they lost in the end, they wouldn’t go down without a fight.　

Soft Mist!

The camera suddenly shifted over to Soft Mist.

Dragon Breaks the Ranks!

Magic gathered at the tip of her spear. Soft Mist raised her weapon, ready to charge through.

Was she planning on breaking past the surrounding enemies to open up a path? However, Tyranny reacted promptly. River Sunset, Emperor’s Fist!　　

Spear versus fist!

The clash between the two rookies continued. Dragon Breaks the Ranks was slightly stronger than Emperor’s Fist, but not to the point of completely overwhelming the opponent. River Sunset staggered back, but Soft Mist’s momentum had been stopped completely.　

A figure dashed for the opening created from River Sunset’s stumble.　　

Lord Grim! Shining Cut! An arc of light flashed across the field. Suddenly, an arm reached towards him from the side.

Tiger Flips the Mountain!

A Brawler mid-level skill, strong enough to block the Shining Cut. Ye Xiu had wanted to seize this opening to break through Tyranny’s defenses, but who knew how many people were carefully watching over his every move.

Lord Grim immediately stopped.

Lin Jingyan had done his best to time the Tiger Flips the Mountain so that Ye Xiu wouldn’t be able to dodge it, but he hadn’t thought that Ye Xiu could suddenly stop moving. Had he predicted he would be intercepted?

Lin Jingyan could not wait for Ye Xiu to make his next move. If he saw the move and then countered, Ye Xiu would act before he did. As a result, he decided to take the initiative.

Turn, Double Crescent Fang!

He swung his arms in an arc, his claws slicing at all possible openings.　

What could he do?

Lin Jingyan looked at Lord Grim and saw his hands moving.　　

Ninjutsu - Shadow Clone Technique.

It was Shadow Clone Technique again. But isn’t it a bit far? If Tyranny wasn’t even on guard against this move from Ye Xiu, then their years of experience were a waste. They couldn’t guarantee that Lord Grim wouldn’t use Shadow Clone Technique, after all, the hand seals to form it were extremely quick. Ninja seals could be done whenever he wanted to. It was difficult to interrupt it. They couldn’t stop him from using Shadow Clone Technique, they could at least prevent it from being an effective tool.

The shadow clone was destroyed by Dark Thunder, while the real body teleported elsewhere. However, Lord Grim was still a distance of three body lengths away from Immovable Rock. That was the limit of Shadow Clone Technique. Afterwards, he saw a grenade fall one body length away from Immovable Rock.

Does he have a way to get in front of the grenade?

Flickering Stab?

They had seen Ye Xiu use it in the group arena against Han Wenqing, so they knew that Lord Grim had this skill in his arsenal. However, Flickering Stab would only move him one unit forward. He was two units away from the grenade though, so it wouldn’t be able to get him where he wanted.

Ye Xiu had no way to get past the grenade in time. The grenade exploded, Implosion Grenade! The powerful shockwave sent Lord Grim flying back to where he came from. But before he reached his destination, a figure jumped out to receive Lord Grim.

Ferocious Tiger Flurry!

Han Wenqing directly used a high-level skill. Desert Dust began his dangerous dance in the air. Lord Grim also answered back though, fighting until they reached the ground. But under the pressure from Ferocious Tiger Flurry, Lord Grim could only retreat. Han Wenqing focused his attention here, ignoring everything else. For such a huge threat like Ye Xiu, having someone specifically on guard against him was completely reasonable.

Su Mucheng’s long-ranged support? She was too far. She couldn’t put enough pressure onto Zhang Xinjie. Su Mucheng had tried to push forward to pressure him harder and get Immovable Rock into her firing line to completely suppress his healing. But at that distance, Dancing Rain became well into Dazzling Hundred Blossom’s range. Under the threat of a Spitfire’s numerous special bullets, how could she set up her firing line?

Mounted Gun!

Su Mucheng activated another high-level skill. However, many of the pro players saw this move and had their doubts. It was true that while under Mounted Gun’s effects, she couldn’t be interrupted. The problem was that it also restricted her movements. Her goal was to attack Immovable Rock, not to win over Dazzling Hundred Blossoms. Immovable Rocks could simply move away, and Dancing Rain couldn’t follow. Mounted Gun? What use was that? She wasn’t fighting with Dazzling Hundred Blossoms.

Zhang Xinjie did as everyone expected him to. As soon as he saw Dancing Rain use Mounted Gun, he immediately moved away. But after only a few steps, the ground in front of him suddenly lit up. Magic began to flow. It was a summoning formation.

The pro players’ eyes lit up!

So Happy’s had made arrangements here?

Dancing Rain had forced Immovable Rock into the jaws of the beast?

The camera shifted over to Concealed Light. They saw him stick close to a wall, trying to make himself invisible as he waved his staff.

In reality, none of Tyranny had overlooked him. You could see it simply by noticing that Concealed Light had never able to get his four summons to gather together. Tyranny had been on guard against his most threatening move, Elemental Beast King Formation, the entire time!

The present situation showed this. There were three summons: Frost Eagle, Wyvern, Spirit Cat, all surrounding Dark Thunder. Otherwise, Lin Jingyan’s Dark Thunder would have rushed forward to take out Concealed Light or Little Cold Hands. These two characters had constantly been under Happy’s protection, but now that Happy had begun going on the offense, they didn’t have time to take care of them.

Lin Jingyan’s Dark Thunder had leapt into the air to swipe his claws at the Thunder Eagle. Fighting with summons was treating the symptoms but not the cause. Lin Jingyan wanted to quickly break away from these three summons to directly attack the summoner. However, just when he swiped his claws, the Thunder Eagle turned into a bolt of lightning and disappeared.

Hit?

Lin Jingyan knew that he hadn’t. This only happened when the summon was killed, or when the summon was resummoned!

Lin Jingyan heard an eagle cry and turned to look over. A new Thunder Eagle had flown out from the summoning circle in front of Immovable Rock. With a thunderclap, it dove towards Immovable Rock.

Immovable Rock dodged, but a second summoning circle had appeared next to him.

The Wyvern and Spirit Cat next to Dark Thunder immediately rushed towards Immovable Rock.

Lin Jingyan had no one on him now, but his heart began to drop. Two of the summons were moving towards there, and over there was a new Thunder Eagle and and a Frost Wolf. All four beasts were on the verge of gathering together!

He had to stop one of them no matter what.

Dark Thunder twisted his body to attack, but the Spirit Cat was too nimble and dodged it. Lin Jingyan didn’t try again. The Spirit Cat was the hardest of the four to hit. He tapped lightly on his keyboard and Dark Thunder leapt into the air. He stretched out his hand, grabbing the tail of the Wyvern.

His two hands pulled!

Fling!

The Wyvern was thrown as far away as possible, and then Powerful Knee Strike!

Dark Thunder rushed towards Concealed Light. Killing the Wyvern wouldn’t solve the problem. Throwing it far away was the smartest choice.

The Frost Wolf walked out from the summoning circle. As for Immovable Rock? The Backlight Cross in his hands glowed as he fought against the Frost Wolf. Crusader’s Trials. The skill he had brought into the match was being used again to contend with the Frost Wolf.

A third summoning circle appeared. Luo Ji was preparing to re-summon a Wyvern, but Dark Thunder had already closed in. He raised his hands and threw a Brick.

A figure flashed by, blocking it.

An Wenyi had used Little Cold Hands to body block the Brick, preventing Concealed Light’s summon from being interrupted.

The Wyvern would be summoned again, but... he’d better not think of trying to use Elemental Beast King Formation. There was more than enough time for Dark Thunder to reach Concealed Light.

Little Cold Hands?

With a Slap, he swatted him aside.

The healer was always the focal point in a team competition, yet Lin Jingyan had ignored him. Concealed Light, only Concealed Light had the power for Happy to make a comeback!

Four Elemental Beast King...

Concealed Light shook his wand. The four beasts seemed to hear the owner’s command and began to circulate their elemental power. The four elements gathered together, but before the spell could be completed, the summoning circle shtattered.

Interrupted!

A Strangle. Dark Thunder held Concealed Light by the throat. He was pinned against the wall, unable to continue casting.

It’s over...

The pro player chat group fell silent. It wasn’t to say that they wanted Happy to win, but rather that they had hoped for more twists and turns in the match.　　

It was true that Immovable Rock had four summons surrounding him, but he was able to use Crusader’s Trials to protect himself for a bit. Then, he used Angel’s Wings to float into the air, greatly reducing the threat from the Frost Wolf and Spirit Cat. Zhang Jiale’s Dazzling Hundred Blossoms also provided some support, shooting Ice Bullets at the Fire Wyvern, dealing bonus damage. Killing it would take a blink of an eye.

Summons without the Summoner controlling them was easy for pro players to deal with. As a result, the pro players no longer considered them as threats. After Zhang Xinjie’s Immovable Rock used Angel’s Wings and received help from his teammates, he was safe again.

Victory was certain.

Even the pro player chat group were sure of it as well. The camera had switched to Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim. Pan Lin and Li Yibo were already giving him a eulogy as if the match was over.

”Ye Xiu built the team up from scratch, ravaging through the Challenger League, slaughtering their way through the playoffs, playing three close games against Tyranny. These accomplishments could be already considered a miracle,” Pan Lin said.　　

”Yes, even if Happy doesn’t end up making it into the finals and winning the championships, their achievements are unprecedented in the history of Glory. With the Alliance continuing to develop, I doubt that anyone else would be able to ever do better. Once again, Ye Xiu has made history,” Li Yibo said.

”And the team that he formed has endless potential. We’ve seen just how extraordinary each of their members are. They still have a lot of room to grow,” Pan Lin said.

”Honorable even in defeat.”

”Honorable even in defeat.”

The two finished and observed a moment of silence. Desert Dust was swinging his fist towards Lord Grim.

If this punch killed Lord Grim, then it would be timed perfectly with their ending words. Pan Lin and Li Yibo couldn’t help but think this thought. When they looked, Lord Grim had quite a lot of health left. The two sighed helplessly.

In reality, let alone killing instantly, landing the blow wasn’t likely. However, the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella in Lord Grim’s hands didn’t open up to block the strike.

Han Wenqing was startled. Such an egregious mistake shouldn’t happen on Ye Xiu, no? He suddenly felt uneasy.

Hit!

Lord Grim seemed to shatter into pieces. At the same time, the sound of a cat crying could be heard. The black Spirit Cat was sent flying by Desert Dust’s punch.

What happened? Everyone saw it clearly: Lord Grim had turned into a Spirit Cat?

Glory didn’t have transformation skills. There was only one other possibility.

Summoner skill: Switch.

”THE FUCK?!”

”The Spirit Cat had been summoned by fucking Lord Grim?!” The pro player chat group went into an uproar.　

Lord Grim appeared behind Immovable Rock.

”Angel’s Wing! The light has blinded you!” Ye Xiu exclaimed.

Assassin skill: Life-Risking Strike.

”How the fuck, where’d that come from!!!”

”He has two Night Walker weapon forms? I thought he already used both Night Walker skills!!” The pro player chat group was in an uproar again.