The King's Avatar

Lord Grim and Flowing Cloud took their own paths. Neither side was facing each other but from the omniscient view of the spectators, it could be seen that the two characters were closing in on each other, even if there was stuff between them.

Lu Hanwen’s Flowing Cloud moved in a straight line and reached the center of the map first. Seeing that his opponent wasn’t within sight, he didn’t hesitate and continued charging forward.

“Wow, Lu Hanwen is very decisive!” Pan Lin was pleasantly surprised.

“Oh, this way Ye Xiu won’t be able to find a place in the center of the map to mount a sneak attack. Lu Hanwen’s Flowing Cloud has already left!” Li Yibo said.

“Is this the advice Song Xiao gave? It’s simple, but effective!” Pan Lin said.

With just these few words, Flowing Cloud had already crossed through the center of the map towards Lord Grim’s spawn point.

“But what’s Lu Hanwen going to do next? He’s not hoping that he’ll find Lord Grim at the spawn point, is he?” Pan Lin questioned.

“Lu Hanwen should have a better understanding of this map from the first fight. I’m guessing his plans are based on this understanding. Or perhaps, someone gave him some pointers,” Li Yibo said.

“Song Xiao?” Pan Lin looked at Flowing Cloud’s movements.

“Song Xiao may have played on this map, but his understanding might not be better than the players off-stage,” Li Yibo said.

“Yu Wenzhou!” Pan Lin realized. Why would the off-stage players have an easier time grasping the map? Because they had spectator control, allowing them to get a full view of the map or cut to different perspectives. This control gave them a much more complete picture than what the broadcast could give. Song Xiao had never traversed to Lord Grim’s spawn point, however, those off-stage could see the terrain Lord Grim passed through and his spawn point via their spectator view.

Team Blue Rain obviously wasn’t very familiar with the map chosen by Team Happy, but a tactics expert like Yu Wenzhou could easily find numerous strategical points from the map in this amount of time. What areas should be avoided, what areas could be utilized, the following Blue Rain players could already start reflecting on how to take advantage of these points. Perhaps Lu Hanwen had been given a suggestion by Yu Wenzhou.

“Let’s see what he’ll do!” Pan Lin suddenly became excited. But at this moment, Lord Grim suddenly changed directions.

Because he was taking a roundabout route, Lord Grim hadn’t reached the center yet. Even so, he suddenly turned left, making his way towards the path to the center.

“This is!” Pan Lin yelled. For a moment, he couldn’t figure out Lord Grim’s goal. Li Yibo was also thinking about Lord Grim’s decision. After awhile, it looked like he was planning on charging out from the right flank to meet with Flowing Cloud.

“No way! Switch to Ye Xiu’s perspective!” Li Yibo shouted.

The camera immediately switched views. The scenery was rapidly changing. Lord Grim was moving very fast, traversing through the map with great familiarity. Not far from his position, Lu Hanwen’s Flowing Cloud was following the main central path towards the south.

Slide Kick!

Lord Grim suddenly did a Slide Kick, not as an attack but as a way to move at a low height. He slid across the ground through the gaps of several thick tree branches.

Jumping over the tree branches or circling around them were possible options, but Ye Xiu choosing to use a skill instead wasn’t just to look cool.

Lord Grim and Flowing Cloud were very close. Everyone felt like the two would soon be within each other’s sights.

But after the Slide Kick, Lord Grim immediately hugged the ground.

The camera reacted quickly this time. With a snap, the perspectives of both players were shown simultaneously on the big screen.

Lord Grim hugged the ground as he moved, while from Lu Hanwen’s perspective, there was no one in sight.

He’s hidden himself!

Everyone gasped in surprise. Then, they saw Lord Grim roll, without standing up, to behind a shrub.

Nothing abnormal could be seen from Lu Hanwen’s perspective, but Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim had quietly approached him.

There was no time to reflect on this scene though.

Lu Hanwen’s Flowing Cloud continued to dash forward. From the bush Lord Grim was hiding behind, the sound of footsteps could be heard. Everyone in the stadium could hear it, let alone Ye Xiu.

Just as Flowing Cloud passed by the bush, Lord Grim jumped out.

Lord Grim hopped over the bush instead of leaping through so that he wouldn’t be heard.

The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella also jumped out, transforming into a spear.

Dragon Tooth!

A back attack against Flowing Cloud.

Whoosh! Tap!

Two sounds rang out simultatenously.

The sound effect that came with Dragon Tooth could not be eliminated by player control, but when Lord Grim let out the Dragon Tooth, the sound effect coincided with the Flowing Cloud’s footstep.

Was it a coincidence?

Or was it skill?

There was no time to analyze it. The two sounds were different, neither was covering up the other. But because of the mix between footstep and skill, Lu Hanwen reacted a beat slow.

Pu!

This sound was incomparably clear. Flowing Cloud’s back had been pierced through by Lord Grim’s spear.

Dragon Tooth inflicted a Stun. A follow-up combo didn’t need to be said. After being struck in the back, Flowing Cloud’s health rapidly fell.

“Lord Grim’s attack power must have been improved,” Li Yibo didn’t make this comment for nothing. Even though he couldn’t see the exact numbers, he was confident in what he had said.

Pan Lin didn’t follow up. Li Yibo had said these words before! Why would you repeat yourself? His equipment are all Level 80. It would be weird if his attack power didn’t improve, can’t you say anything meaningful?

“Lu Hanwen’s on the defensive!” Pan Lin described the state of the fight.

“Who would have thought Ye Xiu would do something like that? Could he have seen through Lu Hanwen’s intentions?” Li Yibo said. The two sides had started fighting. There was no way to switch perspectives to analyze Ye Xiu’s previous string of movements.

“It’s not going to be a one hit to death, is it…” The combo had only just started, and Pan Lin was worried. Although Lu Hanwen had been voted into All-Stars twice, which made it seem like he was better than Song Xiao, in terms of emotional control in a match, how could this young player compare to Song Xiao, the player nicknamed Mister Clutch?

Even Song Xiao had been crushed in a direct confrontation by Ye Xiu, now that Lu Hanwen had been attacked from the back, turning the situation around would probably be even more difficult, no?

In the blink of an eye, 15% of Flowing Cloud’s health had been taken away. A back attack increased the damage by a considerable 20%. Assassins had a class advancement skill “Art of Assassination” buff, which buffed that number to 40%. Unfortunately, class advancement and awakening skills could not be attached to a weapon.

“I hope Lu Hanwen can stay calm and search for opportunities to fight back,” Pan Lin continued.

Fast!

This was the impression Lu Hanwen got from the fight. From the first Dragon Tooth to now, he had lost 15% of his health. The unspecialized didn’t have class proficiency or armor proficiency, so their stats couldn’t compare to real class. Plus, their skills were low-level, so their damage wasn’t high. That was the objective opinion towards the unspecialized. But Flowing Cloud had just lost 15% of his health in an instant, low damage? Then use speed to make up for it! Lu Hanwen could tell how closely linked the attacks were. He didn’t know how an unspecialized could attack so fast. Did his attacks not have start-up and end animations? Was it his Myriad Manifestations Umbrella was transforming again again and again?

Lu Hanwen couldn’t tell. He was trying his hardest, but Ye Xiu was more experienced. He kept adjusting his position, so Lord Grim was behind him.

It wasn’t Vanishing Step, but it was the same reason.

But in this case, he didn’t need to be troubled over his eyes blurring.

This energetic and hopeful youth could still find good points in this situation. Even if these good points had no value, it still made him feel gratified.

Now, he needed to find a way to break out of this predicament.

Lu Hanwen didn’t panic, although he wasn’t that calm either. He had courage though, the courage to try. Failure after failure, he would scratch his head and then try again!

Bang bang bang!

Flowing Cloud was using his sword too, but some of his attacks looked pretty poor from the lens of an expert. It was as if he was panicking without any thought behind his attacks, hoping to luck his way out.

“This sort of recklessness probably isn’t going to work on Ye Xiu, is it?” Li Yibo said.

You can do it!

Many people were cheering for Lu Hanwen, especially Blue Rain’s fans.

Although it looked like he was just randomly doing things, it wasn’t necessarily that there was no thought behind his attacks. Lu Hanwen was at the very least never doing the same thing twice. In other words, what looked brainless wasn’t actually brainless. He was testing different methods. He couldn’t think of any certain-success methods, so he could only gamble on the probable ones.

If one didn’t work, he would try again. If that didn’t work, then a different one. Another failure? Again…

Bang bang bang bang…

The “brainless” Lu Hanwen continued to struggle, sword light dancing randomly.

“Good child!” Huang Shaotian praised.

Yu Wenzhou chuckled, but didn’t say anything.

The percepting Blue Rain players could see it. Lu Hanwen’s attempts might have carried a lot of energy, but none of them succeeded. However, his constant attempts may have failed again and again, but they were taking a toll on Ye Xiu. And this effect, through Lu Hanwen’s brave tries, was slowly accumulating and expanding.

Ye Xiu was trying hard to get rid of it, but Huang Shaotian and Yu Wenzhou could see that he wasn’t able to completely eliminate it.

Having Lord Grim keep up this insanely fast offense was extremely difficult in itself. It required extraordinary precision. Lu Hanwen’s ineffective methods were converging into a whole, transforming into what could be an effective solution.