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Sky Strike!

Dragon Tooth followed by Sky Strike, a plain and simple Battle Mage combo. Sun Xiang didn’t do anything fancy after sealing shut Fang Rui’s dirty methods. He used this ordinary but very effective combo to knock Boundless Sea into the air.

Seeing Boundless Sea launched tumbling into the air, Fang Rui’s heart turned ice-cold.

Stamina...

He had indeed overlooked this aspect. His playstyle was quite stamina-heavy, but over his six years of pro play, stamina had never been an issue for him. If you had no mana, you couldn’t do anything. If you had no health, you would be dead. If you had no stamina, you just had to wait a bit for it to recover.

It had always been this way.

So it couldn’t be said that Fang Rui had been careless. He had never thought that stamina would ever be an issue. However, in today’s match, he hadn’t been paying attention, while his opponent had. The issue of stamina now limited what he could do.　　

Sun Xiang...

Fang Rui never had any rivalries with Sun Xiang. In Season 7, Sun Xiang had just been a rookie. In Season 8, he had joined Excellent Era midseason and then was relegated alongside them. In Season 9, he had been in the Challenger League. Sun Xiang had never been a player that Fang Rui had particularly cared about. To Fang Rui, Sun Xiang was just another player competing in the pro scene.

Up until this season. Fang Rui’s professional career suddenly took a huge turn, and Sun Xiang brought One Autumn Leaf with him to Samsara. Because of the complicated relationship between Happy, Excellent Era, Ye Xiu, One Autumn Leaf, and so on, Sun Xiang became a rather special existence to Happy.　　

Apart from him, the rest of Happy had played in the Challenger League. At that time, Su Mucheng had been Happy’s enemy as well, but her relationship with Sun Xiang had always been quite unpleasant. Fang Rui quickly got along with the team. As a result, there was no way he would have a good impression of Sun Xiang. What’s more, the two had fought 1v1 in the regular season, and at that time, he had lost to Sun Xiang.

Their next encounter was today in the finals. Happy had lost the first game. If they lost the second game, their run would be over.

Fang Rui beat Du Ming, and he knew that his next opponent would be Sun Xiang. He didn’t care who his opponent was. He would beat him. Happy still had a player left, but that didn’t weaken his resolve. If he won, Happy would go into the team competition with a two point lead. As the away team, this two point lead would be very precious. Fang Rui had performed rather mediocre throughout the playoffs, and he really wanted to be useful to Happy. Starting from the previous round against Du Ming, he had been determined to win Happy this two point lead.

But right now, Sun Xiang was suppressing him, using such an ordinary combo to send Boundless Sea spinning into the air.　

What am I doing?

Fang Rui was angry, not at Sun Xiang, but himself.　　

Stamina had never been a problem for him before, so he had never considered that it could ever be one. Fang Rui was furious at himself for being so careless.

But I haven’t lost yet.

He may be out of stamina, but stamina recovered quickly. It didn’t matter if he was taking damage. As long as he didn’t do anything that required stamina, it would continue to recover.

Fang Rui stared closely at Boundless Sea’s stamina bar.

His health was dropping, but he couldn’t care about that right now. What he needed was stamina, only stamina!

His stamina was recovering bit by bit. Fang Rui felt like it was recovering at a snail’s pace. In the past, he had never felt like he had to wait so long for his stamina to recover.

How much stamina do I need?

Fang Rui was calculating in his mind, when Boundless Sea suddenly dropped down.

He stopped the combo?

Everyone was astonished. One Autumn Leaf’s comboing had been perfect. He could have easily continued it. Why did he suddenly stop?

A mistake? The people who thought that felt surprised because it would be a very low-level mistake.

Boundless Sea fell towards the ground. Out of reflex, Fang Rui did a Quick Recover, but just when he was about to act, he stopped himself.　　

So that’s it!

Fang Rui instantly figured out what Sun Xiang’s motive was. Sun Xiang had intentionally broke off his combo because he wanted to keep him at zero stamina. Juggling Boundless Sea in the air wouldn’t be enough to kill him. During this time, Boundless Sea would recover stamina, which would let Fang Rui respond and counterattack.

As soon as Boundless Sea’s stamina recovered just a little bit, Sun Xiang intentionally stopped his combo to give Fang Rui an opening to react and use up what little stamina he had.

Boundless Sea crashed to the ground.

Quick Recover?

Usually, that was the right call, but if Boundless Sea used Quick Recover to get up, One Autumn Leaf would certainly be ready for him. Fang Rui’s usual methods required stamina, and he would quickly exhaust what stamina he had left. Once his stamina was gone, he would once again be in a passive state. Then, once his stamina recovered a bit, Sun Xiang would give out another opening, so he would use up his stamina. The cycle would just repeat endlessly until he died.

I can’t let that happen. I have to recover enough stamina before I act, even if it means I take more damage!

Bang!

Fang Rui didn’t Quick Recover, and Boundless Sea fell straight to the ground.　

Sun Xiang immediately grasped Fang Rui’s intentions. He couldn’t force Fang Rui into action. If Fang Rui insisted on trading his health for stamina, then he could only oblige and deal as much damage to him as possible.

Tyrant’s Destruction!

Evil Annihilation swept towards Boundless Sea.

The people who had figured out both side’s goals thought that what came next would be a one-sided beatdown. The Happy fans couldn’t help bear to watch.

But Evil Annihilation missed. Boundless Sea suddenly rolled, dodging the Tyrant’s Destruction.

He was using what little stamina he had left? What is he thinking?

What is he thinking?

The people who thought they understood were now completely puzzled again.　

If Fang Rui hadn’t noticed Sun Xiang’s goal, then he would have Quick Recovered before. If he had noticed, then he shouldn’t be using his stamina, instead trading his health for it.

And where was he rolling to? What is he trying to do?

No one understood. Sun Xiang didn’t either. He had already been ready to treat Boundless Sea like a wooden stump, a sandbag. He was planning on using everything he had to deal as much damage as possible within a short period of time. But Fang Rui unexpectedly moved. Boundless Sea rolled away to dodge One Autumn Leaf’s Tyrant’s Destruction.

What’s the meaning of this?

Sun Xiang didn’t understand either. But since Fang Rui made a move, he should force him to use up his stamina and pull him into a cycle of death.

Then...

Then what?　　

Sun Xiang suddenly blanked. He discovered a problem. After the Tyrant’s Destruction, any other attack he made seemed awkward. It seemed as if no skill he chose would be able to perfectly accomplish his goal.

Sun Xiang figured it out. After seeing the ending lag from One Autumn Leaf using Tyrant’s Destruction, the pro players also figured it out.

Fang Rui, that bastard was too dirty!

Everyone thought that his only choice was to trade his health for stamina. Sure, so he pretended like that was his plan. Boundless Sea crashed into the ground like a sandbag. However, this sandbag wasn’t an obedient one. Sun Xiang was determined to give this sandbag a fierce beating, but when he attacked, the sandbag suddenly dodged.

When attacking a defenseless sandbag, what mattered was dealing as much damage as possible. There was no need for defense or for combos. But Fang Rui wasn’t a defenseless sandbag, which meant that you needed to make adjustments depending on the situation. Attacking Fang Rui and attacking a sandbag were two entirely different things.

Fang Rui had Boundless Sea pretend to be a sandbag. For a second, he displayed his dirtiness. Sun Xiang saw that his target was a sandbag, but in the next instant, his target became a dirty Fang Rui. Attacking Fang Rui required a completely different mindset than attacking a sandbag. Sun Xiang needed to make the switch, but he wasn’t ready for it. The fluidness of his offense instantly vanished.

Fang Rui was waiting for this moment, and it was more than enough for him to turn things around. Even if Boundless Sea didn’t have enough stamina, what he needed to do next was to use attacks that didn’t require stamina.

Spiral Qi Kill!

He had narrowly escaped from a crisis. Recover stamina? That wasn’t the goal. Fang Rui only had one goal: to win! Whether he had stamina or not, he needed to win!