The attack landed in such a simple manner.Splattering blood and cutting down Tang Hao"s rising spirit.
Demon Subduer"s Brick was easily dodged, while he himself took a hit. How could Ye Xiu only attack just once? After Sword Draw, the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella"s shield form retracted, and its numerous other forms were displayed as all sorts of skills struck Demon Subduer.
Unspecialized characters fight fast!
Unwittingly, the crowd had started gasping at Lord Grim"s combo. Even though they had no idea what exactly Ye Xiu was doing in his combo game, they could see Demon Subduer being hit by a bunch of different low-leveled skills. From this, they knew that Lord Grim"s combo had started.
So far, 16 players had lost to these swift attacks. Among these players included nervous rookies, talented rookies, matchups tactically chosen to be thrown away, and strong players who wanted to give him a try. There were also former G.o.ds like Zhang Jiale and Sun Zheping.
However, it was the first time Ye Xiu had encountered a team"s core player.
And what was the outcome?
The people carrying hopes for Tang Hao were quickly disappointed.
He… was no different from anyone else!
Victory belongs to Wind Howl?
Tang Hao"s declaration before the match now just seemed like empty words. The powerlessness he was showing right now indicated that he was being completely overwhelmed.
What"s going on? This isn"t All-Stars.
Quite a few people wondered. They felt like this wasn"t Tang Hao"s true strength.
Tang Hao also thought that this wasn"t his true strength, but the problem was that he wasn"t able to display it.
After Ye Xiu took first blood, Tang Hao had felt a bit defeated. His fighting spirit and willpower had taken a small blow, but they were still there. He was waiting for an opportunity to counterattack, waiting for an opening.
But… there were no openings.
It was just four words, but what level of fundamentals did that require?
No matter how haughty Tang Hao was. No matter how confident he was that he could beat anyone. He didn"t dare believe that he could play on stage without exposing any openings.
No one could do it. At least that was what Tang Hao thought up until today. But right now, facing this opponent, he couldn"t find even the slightest opening.
How is this possible?
Am I just not perceptive enough?
Tang Hao didn"t believe a person couldn"t have any openings, so he started doubting his observational abilities. His confidence had already started to waver.
Tang Hao didn"t know whether this doubt had sprouted starting from today, or from that day at All-Stars. He only knew that he didn"t want to lose, yet he couldn"t find any ways to win.
Keep fighting like this?
Seeing Demon Subduer"s health dropping, Tang Hao started to panic.
What if I really can"t find any openings? Could I be taken out in one go by a near full health Ye Xiu? In Ye Xiu"s sixteen victories, no one had lost this miserably, no? Could it be that I"m worse than even them?
"Impossible!!!" Tang Hao roared. No one could hear him though. Voice communication was only enabled at All-Stars. In regular season matches, the compet.i.tive rules were back to normal.
With this roar, Tang Hao sprung forward. He ignored Lord Grim"s next attack, activating Reinforce Iron Bones, and forced his way over!
Instant defeat.
Tang Hao"s choice wasn"t some sort of magical road out; it looked more like a trapped beast"s final struggle. Ye Xiu saw a hundred different ways to deal with it. He simply chose one of them and knocked down Demon Subduer.
The crowd erupted into loud boos. Tang Hao"s struggle looked like there was zero brain behind it. You want to break through an unspecialized"s combo like that?
"Too naive!" Happy"s fans shouted loudly.
The sound couldn"t reach Tang Hao"s ears, but he knew better than anyone else what he was doing.
If once isn"t enough, then again!
Tang Hao rushed forward again like a brute, continue to charge at him without any thought.
You look as if you"ve got a hundred ways to deal with me? Fine, then I"ll try them out one by one. Let"s see just how many you"ve got.
Tang Hao continued to go for it, but the crowd"s laughter was gradually dying down.
Tang Hao"s playing looked pathetic, so much so that it didn"t look like he deserved his G.o.d status. However, when there was no way out, being able to lower oneself and daring to try such humiliating choices showed just how pure Tang Hao"s pursuit for victory was. Many people thought his All-Stars performance was disgraceful, but right now, his actions showed he didn"t care about that.
He wasn"t playing for honor, he was playing to win.
Unfortunately, victory wasn"t as simple as just letting go of everything. No one knew just how many ways Ye Xiu had to deal with this situation, but everyone could see how Tang Hao"s countless attempts ended with him being beaten back. The crowd stopped laughing. Ye Xiu didn"t let up at all.
Tang Hao might have the energy to keep trying, but Demon Subduer didn"t have unlimited health.
Again and again, he was unable to break through Lord Grim"s offense. All he faced was an even stronger retaliation. Finally, Demon Subduer"s health fell to zero.
I lost!
But he wasn"t as humiliated or embarra.s.sed as he"d been at All-Stars.
w.a.n.g Jiexi"s Magician playstyle had been too abrupt and too unexpected. Tang Hao had been caught unprepared. He was probably more resentful about being cheated by this sort of surprise move. But right now, he wasn"t facing anything surprising. He wasn"t caught off guard. He was being completely suppressed in a real fight. It was because his opponent was better than him.
So there was someone this skilled?
When Demon Subduer fell, Tang Hao didn"t feel humiliated, but rather humbled.
"I"ll win next time!" He was still as stubborn as ever. He seemed to have forgotten that his declaration of victory had been shut down.
"We"ll see next time," Ye Xiu replied.
The crowd let out a sigh of relief.
Sigh of relief? Why did they let out a sigh of relief? Everyone suddenly started feeling a bit strange. Tang Hao was just thrashing around without any brain. How could he win like that? Why were they worried for Ye Xiu?
When Ye Xiu came down from the stage, the crowd clapped and cheered, but there was a trace of hesitation mixed in.
As for Tang Hao? He was the loser, and one who lost miserably, but his steps were firm. Everyone looked at him with complicated feelings. They couldn"t say why though.
Ye Xiu walked down from the stage and returned to his seat.
"Beautiful playing! You really taught that guy a lesson!" Chen Guo went over to Ye Xiu and praised him. She didn"t like Tang Hao. Watching Tang Hao get destroyed by Ye Xiu felt amazing.
"It was well done," Fang Rui nodded. "But it wasn"t easy, no?"
"What?" Chen Guo was puzzled. When she looked at Ye Xiu, she discovered that he didn"t look too happy about his win. Even though Ye Xiu wasn"t the type to show his emotions easily, his expression wasn"t very relaxed despite winning. Chen Guo realized her perspective of the match was too shallow. She looked at Su Mucheng, and from Su Mucheng"s gaze towards Ye Xiu, she could see… worry.
"It wasn"t easy," Ye Xiu said.
"Why?" Chen Guo asked.
"Boss… do you really think completely suppressing a player of Tang Hao"s caliber is easy?" Fang Rui said.
"Ah?"
"The reason he could do it was because he was going all out the entire time! That"s very exhausting," Fang Rui said.
Chen Guo now understood that Ye Xiu had used up much more energy than normal to achieve such a beautiful win. Beat Tang Hao? It wasn"t just that. He had completely suppressed him.
"Why did he have to do that?" Chen Guo was feeling worried. Isn"t a win just good enough? Why did he have to pay such a price to win so thoroughly? Was that necessary? Chen Guo felt distressed.
"Why? Because I didn"t want to lose!" Ye Xiu said.
Not lose?
Chen Guo was stumped. Ye Xiu meant that if he hadn"t completely suppressed Tang Hao, if Tang Hao had an opportunity to counterattack, he might have lost to Tang Hao?
Chen Guo looked at Fang Rui, Su Mucheng, everyone.
Everyone was quiet. No one called Ye Xiu"s words into question.
Chen Guo couldn"t say anything else.
"You… rest well!" She could only say these words.
The match continued. Even though she was worried about Ye Xiu, the match was going well. In the individual compet.i.tion, Happy sent out Mo Fan and Su Mucheng, who won their matches, making the score 3-0.
The entire crowd had forgotten the weird feeling felt from the first individual round and started chanting 10-0. The points in the individual compet.i.tion were the most scattered, so these points were often the biggest barriers to a 10-0. However, Happy had swept the individual compet.i.tion and were on their way to 10-0! So far, whenever Happy won every round in the individual compet.i.tion, they had always gotten a 10-0!
Hearing the crowd"s cheers, Chen Guo unexpectedly didn"t share the same excitement as the crowd. She didn"t forget the exhaustion Ye Xiu felt after the first round and suddenly felt a bad premonition.
The group arena began. Happy"s first player was Fang Rui and his Qi Master, Boundless Sea.
The entire crowd applauded.
Even though Fang Rui had switched to a Qi Master, he was as dirty as ever. His playstyle might not be well-liked and might be spurned by the Qi Master community, but among Happy"s supporters, a lot of people still admired him. For a newly joined team, everyone cared more about winning. As for a good win record and beautiful playing, those goals could be left for those powerhouses who were consistently solid! Happy"s fan base was more practical. Victory was greater than anything else.
A dirty win was still a win, no?
Amidst the cheers, Fang Rui went onto the stage and into the player booth. His opponent was Team Wind Howl"s Zhao Yuzhe.
"Senior, it seems like you"re doing well at Happy!" At the start of the match, Zhao Yuzhe took the initiative to message Fang Rui.