The King Is Avatar

The 1v3 chants in the group arena were replaced by 10-0s. The loyal fans who followed Wind Howl all the way to their away game were in low spirits. Liu Hao being dominated by Fang Rui wasn"t a small blow to them. They had originally been hoping for Liu Hao to turn the tables with an astonishing 1v3 and show them their team"s might! But they couldn"t see any sort of fighting spirit in their vice-captain. Liu Hao looked completely lost facing Fang Rui"s dirty tricks.

Wind Howl"s fans were quiet, very quiet.

Seeing the excited cheers from Happy"s fans, they felt an unpleasant taste in their mouths. This exhilaration should have belonged to them! Because Fang Rui… didn"t he used to be part of Team Wind Howl? Despite having switched cla.s.ses to a Qi Master, his style was still very familiar to Wind Howl"s loyal fans.

This was someone who had used to bring them joy, and now?

The Wind Howl banners created by the fans always flew in the air whether it was Wind Howl"s home or away game, but right now, it seemed to be thrown aside, drooping in disappointment. Wind Howl"s flag bearer looked dispirited. The others weren"t worried about him though, because they knew that Fang Rui had been this person"s favorite player. Fang Rui had been hard for him, and now, seeing Fang Rui complete a 1v3 against Wind Howl produced a feeling he couldn"t describe with words.

How would the upcoming team compet.i.tion go?

Team Wind Howl"s loyal fans were unexpectedly feeling doubtful towards their own team.

Their captain and core, Tang Hao. The new generation Zhao Yuzhe who they had high hopes for. Lin Feng who they wanted to inherit Doubtful Demon. The super value Liu Hao who the team had gotten at an amazing price… in the individual compet.i.tion and group arena, they seemed to have been crushed by opponents on an entirely different level than them. With these people making up the team, how could they hope to beat Happy? 　

Wind Howl"s teamwork wasn"t anything too praiseworthy! Wind Howl"s own fans knew this point better than anyone else. As for Happy? Starting from Round 9, their team had yet to lose a single round. Was Happy a team their Wind Howl could beat?

The fans were doubtful, doubtful that their team could win this match, doubtful of their team"s claim to be the champions this season. Wind Howl"s win record this season wasn"t as stable as last season"s! Didn"t the team say they would form an all-new team more compatible than before after letting Fang Rui go? An all-new team? Wind Howl could see it. The team had given up on the dirty style. The dirty tricks from before had turned into a more aggressive offensive.

Perhaps this style was more like a champion"s. Apart from Blue Rain"s deviation from the norm, the other champion teams had all given off this sort of grand aura. Wind Howl was trying hard to construct this aura, but did it really fit them?

The former Criminal Partners had never considered themselves as the strongest duo in the Alliance, but the fans always felt steady with them there. No matter how much of a crisis the team was in, they would always be confident about their team. But now? The team"s win record was worse than last season"s. The team was still within the playoffs zone, but how could they not be nervous about why? The current Wind Howl made them feel like there was something missing. This sort of mystery feeling really didn"t feel good!

Wind Howl"s most loyal fans were pacing back and forth. Wind Howl"s players were also in low spirits.　　

In the individual compet.i.tion, their core player Tang Hao was crushed by Ye Xiu and then their other two players lost as well.　

In the group arena, the team sent three strong players, but their former teammate Fang Rui took all of them down with just two thirds of his health.

How humiliating. The player you let go just casually cleaned up three players you had cultivated with the utmost care. Right now, the first thoughts that came to their mind were cla.s.sic idioms like "have eyes but cannot see" or "buying a wooden box and returning the pearls"...

Team Wind Howl"s players felt this embarra.s.sment the most. What should they do? Beating their opponents would obviously be the greatest retaliation. However, Wind Howl"s players had been beaten one after the other. It seemed like they couldn"t break free from their losses. Only the remaining second-string players on the side busily circling around and around.

"What"s going on? Have you guys gone stupid from losing?" Finally, someone spoke up.

Ruan Yongbin.

Wind Howl"s Cleric.　　

Healers were never replaced in any team, so their status in the team was always relatively high. In addition to healers being rarely transferred, healers almost always held seniority.

Ruan Yongbin had been a part of Team Wind Howl for nearly six years. He had joined the team alongside Fang Rui. When Fang Rui left, Ruan Yongbin became Team Wind Howl"s most senior member. He was the type of player who obeyed orders and didn"t like to talk too much. However, seeing how the team"s morale had been shaken and how the main players all looked like they had been swatted down like flies, he couldn"t resist it anymore and finally spoke out.

Healers were only needed in the team compet.i.tion, so the outcome of the individual rounds never impacted them as much as the others. They could always maintain a rational mind and watch from afar the morale of their teammates rise up and down in the individual rounds. As a result, for the most important team compet.i.tion, a level-headed healer could always act as a stabilizing force for the team.

But unfortunately, Ruan Yongbin spoke too rarely in Wind Howl. He didn"t fully utilize the special existence brought by his cla.s.s"s speciality. Everyone looked at him when he suddenly spoke out. Their eyes were completely filled with confusion. They didn"t look like they had been enlightened in any way.

"The team compet.i.tion hasn"t been fought yet! Half the points are waiting to be taken by us. We can do this!" Ruan Yongbin tried his best to say words that he wasn"t use to. Anyone could say this though. The logic was obvious. What was needed was a wake up call to break apart the doubt formed in the players during the individual rounds. However, Ruan Yongbin"s wake up call didn"t have enough power behind it. He was talking, and everyone was looking at him, but… morale? Their morale hadn"t been ignited. Only Liu Hao clapped his hands and squeezed out a smile: "Yongbin, you"re right! The match isn"t over yet. We still have five points to take. Why does everyone look like we"ve already lost?"

Liu Hao was the vice-captain. His popularity among the fans this season wasn"t bad. His relations with other people in the team weren"t bad either. His words were clearly more effective than Ruan Yongbin"s. Ruan Yongbin let out a sigh of relief and looked at Liu Hao with grat.i.tude. He was glad that their vice-captain could maintain a level-head and look at the match with reason.　　

Liu Hao had a smile filled with reason on the surface, but inside, he was feeling extremely annoyed. After walking off stage, he saw the expressions of his teammates and the silence from Wind Howl"s loyal fans and knew his performance had disgusted quite a few people. However, Liu Hao"s strength was his practically cruel ability to fake it. He could cover his true feelings well and then push the most suitable att.i.tude for the situation onto the surface.　

As a result, he had been depressed and silent along with the other players. But when Ruan Yongbin spoke out while the others didn"t respond, he could force himself and wake himself up. He acted like a vice-captain and started encouraging the others following Ruan Yongbin"s example.

"Look, our fans, our fans who traveled so far to support us are feeling bitter and in low spirits! How could we disappoint them? Everyone, hurry up and get your spirits up. Let"s get our Wind Howl"s banner flying into the air again! We lost quite a few points, but it"s just five points. Next, if we win just this upcoming team compet.i.tion, we can win five points. Then, the score will be 5 to 5. Is that a loss? No! If the away team wins five points, shouldn"t that be considered a win? Right now, we still have a chance to win!" Liu Hao put up his thumbs and emphasize that they just needed to win this team compet.i.tion.

"What bulls.h.i.t!" Wind Howl"s captain, Tang Hao, suddenly interrupted Liu Hao very rudely.　　

"Let alone five points, if we can win even one more point, we can"t give it up!" Tang Hao grit his teeth.

"Captain Tang is right, we can"t back down even if it was just one point," Liu Hao didn"t appear to be unhappy with Tang Hao interrupting him. Instead, he immediately agreed with Tang Hao. Tang Hao had raised the team"s morale to the peak.

"Let"s go beat them!" Tang Hao shouted, "Don"t tell me you"re willing to let a certain someone slap our faces!"

It was obvious who he was pointing to. Taking a former hero of Wind Howl and pinning him as the enemy was a bit ugly. When an old veteran of the team like Ruan Yongbin heard these words, his expression turned unnatural. Ling Jingyan and Fang Rui had left the team peacefully, but how could those inside the team not understand? This had nothing to do with what was right or wrong. It was the choice for the team to grow. For this choice, the team should feel sympathy for those that had been given up. Team Wind Howl shouldn"t have these negative feelings towards them.

Fang Rui had won the group arena and had embarra.s.sed Wind Howl, but this was compet.i.tion. There was only victory. Nothing else mattered. It wasn"t like they could hope that Fang Rui would throw the match for them.

Tang Hao unadorned despise made Ruan Yongbin feel quite unhappy. But what about the other players? Zhao Yuzhe? Lin Feng? They had just been humiliated by Fang Rui. Tang Hao"s out-of-line att.i.tude had ignited their fighting spirits.