The King's Avatar

"Ah!"

The instant the map loaded, quite a few people in the crowd gasped.

Because the map that Ye Xiu had chosen for this round was the Arena.

It was a map used in game when two people wanted a fast match. It was incredibly simple and bare, a square expanse of flat land.

There were no places for shelter, and the area was also very small. When the two characters appeared, their eyes already met, and it would only take a few steps forward before they were within a Gunner's attack range.

"You actually chose this map…" Zhang Jiale said in the chat. The meaning of this map couldn't be clearer. It was a straightforward confrontation, nowhere for the opponent to hide or dodge. Of course, that also meant that you yourself couldn't hide or dodge, either.

"Heh, scared?" Ye Xiu asked.

Scared? Scared? Scared?

Online and offline, it was this same phrase over and over! Scared, my ass! Zhang Jiale fumed, and in an instant he released smoke and fireworks to surround himself, as though it were a small universe suddenly bursting into existence, sometimes shrinking and sometimes expanding.

Ye Xiu didn't hold back either. Lord Grim rushed forward!

The light and shadows shrouded him, an obstruction and an attack all in one.

Lord Grim instantly turned into smoke. What the lights attacked was only a Shadow Clone.

The real body was already behind Dazzling Hundred Blossoms. Cut-Throat! Light flashed from his hand.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms rolled and avoided the attack and simultaneously retaliated with a grenade.

Lord Grim didn't retreat or dodge. With a whoosh, the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella opened up, and the explosion was blocked outside of the umbrella.

The umbrella closed, flames crackled in the air, the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella had already become a spear, and Dragon Tooth thrust forward.

Rolling, Dazzling Hundred Blossoms was still rolling, and he tossed another grenade of another unknown type.

Lord Grim still didn't give way, the spear was retracted, a slide-step, a palm thrust forward.

Falling Flower Palm!

The slide-step allowed him to avoid the newly thrown grenade, but Dazzling Hundred Blossoms was now two rolls away, a bit out of reach of the Falling Flower Palm.

But suddenly, a cold light appeared, it was Sword Draw!

The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella was retracted, this was the ready pose of a Falling Flower Palm, but having the weapon at one's side, wasn't that also the ready pose of a Sword Draw?

Two skills. One pose. But because of the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella's ability to shift between spear and sword, they were completely merged together.

This Sword Draw came faster and more unexpectedly.

The normal way to prepare for a Sword Draw was to notice the sheathed ready pose, but because the Falling Flower Palm pose, it was completely overlooked.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms was hit by the sword, and blood droplets flew everywhere. Lord Grim took the chance to rush to Dazzling Hundred Blossoms' side. The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella was broken apart into two tonfas, one in each hand, and he came at Dazzling Hundred Blossoms with punches and kicks.

Sptifires weren't good at close-combat, and Zhang Jiale fought for his life to dodge and get free. Finally, he seized an opening, and a grenade hit the ground.

Burst Grenade!

A powerful knockback came out, a force that couldn't be blocked.

But before this, Lord Grim stepped once.

One step wasn't enough to escape the blow away effect of the Burst Grenade, but one step could change one's position relative to the grenade.

One step forward, the shockwaves from the Burst Grenade would hit Lord Grim's front.

One step backward, the shockwaves from the Burst Grenade would hit Lord Grim's back.

The damage from an AoE skill sometimes varied by whether or not it hit one's back. The Burst Grenade did not follow that rule. Thus, the damage and effects were entirely the same.

What was different was that, behind Lord Grim there was no one, but right in front of him was Dazzling Hundred Blossoms.

Lord Grim was pushed flying by the shockwave, but since he was sticking so close to Dazzling Hundred Blossoms, he immediately hit the other's body, and so Dazzling Hundred Blossoms was sent flying as well.

"You fucker…" Zhang Jiale wanted to cry. Who knew there were such shameless close-combat tactics?

The two characters were together sent flying. In midair, the Spitfire was still at a disadvantage in close-combat, and the midair Lord Grim was already making his next move.

By the time they were about to land, Lord Grim had already sent out a number of low-level attacks, and ultimately he didn't let Dazzling Hundred Blossoms land freely. Eagle Stamp, Falling Light Blade, Lord Grim was stomping on Dazzling Hundred Blossoms. And this wasn't the end, there was still a Punisher, several bullets sent to Dazzling Hundred Blossoms' head.

The crowd was shocked!

This was the map with which they were most familiar, this was the method of fighting to which they were the most accustomed. But who could fight with such rapid and fierce rhythm like these two?

Zhang Jiale could hold his own in the beginning, but after Lord Grim started close-combat, he was stuck on the defensive and sent into a mess. He'd only dropped that Burst Grenade with difficulty, hoping to send Lord Grim a little farther away, but Lord Grim had managed to take advantage of it, and he was pushed even more closely to Dazzling Hundred Blossoms.

The following nonstop sequence of an unspecialized's low-level skills was frankly dizzying. The viewers couldn't even count the number of skills, they could only watch the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella shifting back and forth, a feast for their eyes.

Attack, attack, nonstop attack. Lord Grim had the advantage all the way. When the occasional attack from Dazzling Hundred Blossoms hit him, it was clearly just his sacrificing a bit of health for a better offensive.

No way, was he really going to kill off Dazzling Hundred Blossoms just like this?

Everyone held this thought in their hearts. And in the end, Dazzling Hundred Blossoms was really killed off just like that.

The corpse fell at the corner of the map. Lord Grim sheathed his blade, opened his umbrella, and lifted it to the air to block the raindrops of blood that scattered down.

"These days, I've been training ferociously." Ye Xiu left this final message in the chat and cleanly exited the battle, collecting the point and leaving.

The crowd was stunned for a long time before they finally reacted.

This battle was already over. This was an entirely one-sided domination. And this opponent was by no means an ordinary person, this was the top God Zhang Jiale. In this battle, the unspecialized class revealed its heretofore unseen dominance, extraordinarily high skill speed and complex variations were used to their full potential. This time it was Zhang Jiale who met this opponent, so what if he were switched with other players? How would they fare? Would they also be ruthlessly beaten up like this?

When Zhang Jiale walked out of the competitor booth, his expression was still a little horror-struck.

Before, he had felt irritation at the difficulty of facing an unspecialized. This time, Zhang Jiale felt terror. That huge assortment of the low-level skills of 24 classes, the feeling of them endlessly striking his body with no opening to break free...

But just because he couldn't find an opening didn't mean that there was no opening. It was only because he was unfamiliar, because he lacked experience, that his reaction couldn't keep up.

This battle was pretty good for gathering intelligence, wasn't it? Zhang Jiale laughed bitterly. This was the only comfort he could take from this. He had actually suffered a perfect defeat. Zhang Jiale shook his head and sighed as he walked offstage and returned to the player area. Over there, Ye Xiu had also just returned. Seeing the other player look over here, Ye Xiu smirked. "Scared?"

Scared scared scared! Fuck off with your scared!

But this time, Zhang Jiale was truly a little scared…

For now, they couldn't fight this class. But it was alright. After this round, they wouldn't face him again for several months. The situation then wouldn't be the same!

Now was now. The future was the future.

Without having fought, who knew the outcome?

Zhang Jiale maintained this attitude. To Ye Xiu's "scared?", he shrugged his shoulders and sat back down in his seat.

The second battle of the individual competition was over. Happy: 2. Tyranny: 0, still.

The fans needed morale as well, and their morale generally came from the team's performance. When the team was low, how would the fans have the spirit to cheer you on?

Zhang Jiale's perfect defeat destroyed the fans' morale, and their lagging behind in the points had them in low spirits as well.

At least there was still the third battle, hurry and win a point!

The fans pulled themselves together to cheery Tyranny on. This was an away game, and so the fans were relatively lacking in numbers. Before, their unity and understanding was enough to knock over Happy's scattered fans. But now, their morale was cleanly killed, and meanwhile Happy was all riled up after such a perfect victory. The atmosphere of the home game was won back. After only a few cheers from the Tyranny fans, they were drowned out by the hollering of the Happy fans.

Round 3. Tyranny's player: Song Qiying, character: Striker, River Sunset.

.

A rookie from Tyranny, onstage for the first time, playing the same class as decade-long core player Han Wenqing. And the name of the character he played was from the same line of the same poem as the name of the King of Fighting, Desert Dust.

Was this the successor to the King of Fighting?

The people couldn't help but make guesses. There were two ways to find successors for core characters. One was to raise someone within the team, and the other was to recruit someone from elsewhere who played the same class.

Once upon a time, Tyranny had raised someone to inherit the character. But Han Wenqing was old and strong, refusing to retire, and the person who was supposed to replace him could wait no more.

A pro player only had so many years to shine, and no one would be willing to passively wait and let their time run out. In Season 6, the Striker player who Tyranny had raised to replace Han Wenqing, named Jia Shiming, transferred out of Tyranny.

As it turned out, this was a wise decision. Han Wenqing continued to play from Season 6 to Season 10 now, and was the ace player for all that time. If Jia Shiming had continued to wait, he would have melted on the bench by now.

But after Jia Shiming left Tyranny, he hadn't managed to earn any big fame.

He had chosen to join Royal Style, and after playing with them for two seasons, he transferred to Void. Right now, he was still on Void, but he still had not made it onto their main roster.

Now it was already Season 10, four years of Jia Shiming's professional career had gone by, and no one still expected him to make any grand breakthrough.

Many people wondered, this player had been chosen to be a core player for his team, how did he end up without even a spot on a main roster? How did Tyranny pick people?

Even when Zhang Jiale and Lin Jingyan joined Tyranny, people brought up this point as ammunition for ridicule. They said that after Jia Shiming, Tyranny no longer trusted their own eyes when picking people, so they could only taken in powerful Gods that had already proven their strength.

This was only a joke, of course. Tyranny's training camp was still very seriously raising young and interested players.

Song Qiying was only 17 years old right now. Whether or not he would become Han Wenqing's successor had yet to be decided for sure.

But as long as he was skilled enough, they wouldn't need to ask Tyranny for any proof.

How would this rookie's first battle play out? As they waited in anticipation, Happy's player had already stepped onstage.

Fang Rui, the master of playing dirty…

Many people were already in mourning. For a rookie, no type of player was more hated.