The King's Avatar

With a Cleric supporting from the side, practically everyone thought of the same thing: kill!

Right now, relying on Little Cold Hands' healing, Ye Xiu was entirely capable of ignoring Flowing Cloud's attacks and focusing on Swoksaar.

Then what about Lu Hanwen? If he wanted to stop Ye Xiu, he would have to first use some attacks with strong effects. Only then could he interrupt Lord Grim's offensive.

In this high-level match, the current situation was so simple that any ordinary gamer could understand it. Blue Rain's fans were all clenching their fists and cheering on Lu Hanwen as hard as they could.

But then Lord Grim used a skill, instantly turning the hearts of Blue Rain's fans to ash.

Reinforced Iron Bones!

Within the Fighter class, the Striker skill Reinforced Iron Bones. A low-level skill, it granted a Defense boost that wasn't anything special, but Reinforced Iron Bones had another effect: Super Armor. At this moment, this became the truly deadly killing move.

Super Armor didn't help a character's Defense at all, but it blocked the effects of almost any attack. At this moment, the only skills that could interrupt Lord Grim's actions right now were those with grab priority.

Blade Master? This class itself didn't have any grab skills, but they would often have one, the low-level Spellblade skill Wave Wheel Slasher.

That was to say, if Lu Hanwen wanted to interrupt Lord Grim's offensive, he could only use this one attack…

A ray of white light had already enveloped Swoksaar's body.

Holy Commandment, a skill that increased the damage that the target took. Using it under circumstances where the target wasn't being attacked from all sides could be considered overkill. And right now, for Blue Rain, this was only pouring oil onto the fire. Swoksaar didn't have much health to begin with, and with this 30% increase in damage, how long could he last?

Lord Grim began his offensive.

Flowing Cloud began his offensive too.

Formless Phantom Blade!

At this moment, Lu Hanwen boldly controlled Flowing Cloud to release this powerful attack.

Lord Grim didn't dodge. He faced forward, and continued his attack against Swoksaar. Flowing Cloud's Formless Phantom Blade landed slash after slash upon his body, sending blood droplets flying everywhere, but he paid it no mind.

His health was plummeting, but no amount of damage would cause any kind of hesitation or interruption of his actions. This was the value of Super Armor. This might not be an equivalent exchange, but Ye Xiu didn't care. Because, Lord Grim would only lose a relatively large amount of health; what Swoksaar would lose was his life.

There's no way…

This was what everyone thought. Even though there was the Wave Wheel Slasher, in such a simple, straightforward, choiceless space, there was no way it would pose any effective threat. Lu Hanwen probably had Flowing Cloud use Formless Phantom Blade because he felt helpless, and decided to use this chance to deal Lord Grim as much damage as he could.

Even the heavy greatsword Flame Shadow was fairly fast with the Formless Phantom Blade. When the opponent didn't defend at all, this Formless Phantom Blade of Lu Hanwen's landed slash after slash, and in the blink of an eye, it had arrived at the final slash.

The final slash, the most powerful one of the Formless Phantom Blade.

But just as the swordlight of this most powerful slash flared, Ye Xiu suddenly stopped ignoring Lu Hanwen.

The swordlight flashed, and Lord Grim rolled.

Dodged!

This slash, Lord Grim had actually chosen to dodge. He didn't mind temporarily stopping his offensive against Swoksaar for this.

He still wanted to dodge? He was making his killing less efficient?

The Blue Rain fans all felt depressed. Ye Xiu controlling Lord Grim to dodge this most powerful slash made them all hold him in contempt.

But then, they watched as this swordlight from Flowing Cloud that had missed its target look like it was splitting apart the very air. Something that clearly wasn't just the slash of a sword cleaved the air and then vanished.

Everyone gasped.

This slash wasn't the final slash of Formless Phantom Blade. It was a Wave Wheel Slasher.

Lu Hanwen hadn't given up at all. He had hidden the Wave Wheel Slasher within the Formless Phantom Blade, to try and catch his opponent by surprise.

But, unfortunately, Ye Xiu had detected it.

Why did he want to dodge this slash? Not because he had wanted to avoid the higher damage of this slash. The reason was simply that this slash truly would have interrupted Lord Grim's offensive.

The only effective attack, missed. With this, hope was completely extinguished, with not an ember remaining.

But everyone was still wishing for a miracle, wishing for a miraculous turnaround. What if Ye Xiu made a mistake?

He didn't. Not at all.

Swoksaar fell. And in the last moments before he fell, Yu Wenzhou gave his final instruction of this battle: Save the healer.

Save the healer.

Huang Shaotian and Zheng Xuan had already been rushing to save the healer, and Xu Jingxi was the one currently being saved. Then naturally, this instruction was meant for Lu Hanwen.

Flowing Cloud immediately turned his attack. And Ye Xiu, to kill Swoksaar once and for all, didn't bother to stop him.

Yu Wenzhou's final message was to subtly make use of a time gap - before Swoksaar fell, Lord Grim couldn't move.

But from the distance came cannonfire.

Flowing Cloud had shifted targets, and so Dancing Rain shifted targets; and so, Lord Grim shifted targets.

Lord Grim's attack stuck to Flowing Cloud, and Swoksaar was ultimately killed by Dancing Rain's long-range attack. Yu Wenzhou's final instruction, the opening that had been obtained from the time gap, ultimately still fell upon his partner of many years, Huang Shaotian.

And the most outstanding opportunist in the entirety of Glory did not miss this opening, the opening for which his close friend and partner of so many years had traded his life.

From the winds, Troubling Rain rushed forward.

A twister of swordlight swept toward Steamed Bun Invasion.

Save the healer!

Lu Hanwen had been given the instruction, but the one who ultimately came to fulfill it was Huang Shaotian!

Troubling Rain, unstoppable.

Even if it could be stopped, what could be done? As long as Steamed Bun Invasion's offensive had a single interruption, Xu Jingxi's Soul Speaker could be saved.

Fang Rui dropped Bullet Rain, and Boundless Sea spun and rushed back.

He was travelling downwind, but would he arrive in time?

It was too late!

No matter what, it was too late to block Troubling Rain. But Boundless Sea thrust his palm forward, sending a blast of qi toward Soul Speaker.

And Steamed Bun Invasion didn't have any intentions of dealing with Troubling Rain.

They were really going for the kill?

They would definitely be interrupted, right? Seeing Troubling Rain's sword energy, this momentum, everyone thought this way.

But then, they watched as Steamed Bun Invasion, Boundless Sea, the two characters' bodies suddenly shook, as though their very bones had suddenly hardened.

Once again, everyone was dumbstruck.

Steamed Bun Invasion, Boundless Sea, the two characters had activated the same skill, the same one that Lord Grim had just activated.

Reinforced Iron Bones!

The Fighter class's Reinforced Iron Bones.

Steamed Bun Invasion, Brawler; Boundless Sea, Qi Master.

Of course they were Fighters, of course they could easily learn the low-level Striker skill, Reinforced Iron Bones.

They wanted not the Defense boost, but the Super Armor.

Troubling Rain's sword could slice the skies, but so what? All he could use to interrupt the offensive was a Wave Wheel Slasher.

Bullet Rain could open fire with all he had, but so what? Those that exploded with knockback would have no effect against Super Armor. Flash Bullet? Freezing Bullet? The effects of these skills weren't blocked by Super Armor, but they wouldn't be able to settle the matter.

Reinforced Iron Bones.

Of Team Happy's characters, three of them had Reinforced Iron Bones. Had anyone noticed this point in the beginning? No.

Had anyone thought, when the battle reached this instant where everything would be decided, that these three low-level skills would explode at once, producing this kind of crude effect? Also no.

Soul Speaker fell.

He had been suffering attack all this time. If not for his plate armor and tenacious self-recovery, he would have fallen even earlier than Swoksaar.

Now, Blue Rain had lost two characters, one of which was their healer…

Victory was already decided.

Only the most loyal of fans would still cling onto hope of a miracle right now.

On the battlefield, Blue Rain's players didn't give up, they were still fighting their hardest. This wasn't simply the victory or loss of a match, this was the victory or loss of an entire season. It wasn't over yet - who could give up?

But, when nothing changed in the end, their efforts could only be viewed as a futile struggle. Perhaps in the years to come, their hard work here would be handwaved as "trash time."

They'd lost.

In their home game, they lost the group arena, they lost the team competition.. The points didn't even need to be counted for this game.

If not for Happy's fans in the west section, Xiaochuan Stadium would have been dead silent.

They'd lost, just like this?

It had ended right before their eyes. But the stadium of Blue Rain fans couldn't believe the reality in front of them.

An entire season of effort, just like that, was lost in the first round of the playoffs, in two matches.

This summer had arrived too early, hadn't it? So early that people weren't used to it!

The players from both teams walked out of their competitor booths, and the players who hadn't been playing joined their teammates onstage. Normally, when Wei Chen won at an away game, he loved to applaud and thank the crowd, the majority of which would be fans of the opposing team. Other players that did this might have been genuine in their thanks, but for him, it was a way for him to gloat. But this time, he was quiet as he walked onto the stage with his team.

To him, Blue Rain wasn't just any team. Even though he was now standing with Happy, he would never be able to mock them. Winning was enough. On this brutal playoffs stage, in front of this team for which he still had many feelings, he restrained himself.

"Congratulations." Blue Rain's Captain Yu Wenzhou shook hands with Ye Xiu.

"Thank you." Ye Xiu smiled and dipped his head, but didn't say more.

Huang Shaotian came up to him next and shook his hand. "You'd better win the championships!" he said sternly.

"What did you think I was planning to do?" said Ye Xiu, amused.

"Good. If you'd beaten us and then lost to someone else, I'd never forgive you!" said Huang Shaotian.

Congratulate the opponents, thank the audience. Blue Rain may have lost the match, but they didn't lose their demeanor. However, there was a hint of disappointment in everyone's expressions.

They would have to taste this bitter fruit for the rest of the summer. But, that didn't mean this was the end. There was the new season to come; they would have a new beginning. Day after day, year after year, everyone chased after this goal.

There was only one championship – this was cruelty. But, there was a championship every year – this was never-ending hope.