Dancing Rain fell.w.a.n.g Jiexi was just this type of person. He never failed at crucial moments. He would lose, but he would never make anyone lose confidence in him. As a result, even if he was one against many, even if he were playing against three opponents from Happy like last time, Tiny Herb"s players and fans would still put their faith in him.
That time, it was Happy"s home game.
And this time, it was Tiny Herb"s.
The moment Dancing Rain fell, Chen Guo could only see Wei Chen"s lip moving. She reckoned that he was still cursing at something. As for the the actual contents? He probably couldn"t even hear himself.
The cheers from the Tiny Herb crowd had drowned out all other noise, and this was just the reaction after killing off an opponent with only 21% health left. If w.a.n.g Jiexi was able to win this team compet.i.tion, how excited would these Tiny Herb spectators become?
Chen Guo really hoped a bucket of cold water would splash onto the crowd and cool them down. At this moment, Tang Rou"s Soft Mist sp.a.w.ned onto the field.
w.a.n.g Jiexi was able to beat Su Mucheng using only 8% of Vaccaria"s health. Compared to his incredible skill, this loss of 8% wasn"t even considered as anything by many. The 100% health Soft Mist and the 92% health Vaccaria stood together. Practically everyone favored the latter to win.
"w.a.n.g Jiexi! He truly deserves his reputation!!" After taking down Su Mucheng, who had beat Liu Xiaobie and Liu Fei, Ruan Cheng became ecstatic. His state of mind wasn"t much different than that of the Tiny Herb fans. Pan Lin and Li Yibo looked at him, wondering whether this guy would pounce onto the table and hug the screen.
"As long as w.a.n.g Jiexi is here, Tiny Herb is unlikely to lose the group arena," Ruan Cheng continued to sigh. His tone was extremely similar to that ofXiang Linsao1*, when he said the words "I"m stupid, really stupid."
Pan Lin and Li Yibo was unable to respond to him. They were the official commentators of the match. Communicating with a brain-dead fan was impossible.
Fortunately, Soft Mist and Vaccaria had started fighting.
"Okay! Let"s watch the match," Pan Lin"s spirits rose.
"Dragon Breaks the Ranks!" Ruan Cheng shouted.
Pan Lin and Li Yibo were stunned. Where"d Dragon Breaks the Ranks come from?
"Hahaha, she didn"t use Dragon Breaks the Ranks?" Ruan Cheng sneered.
Pan Lin and Li Yibo continued to be stunned. Tang Rou indeed like to open with Dragon Breaks the Ranks, but this was an official match and the official commentary. Your way of explaining things was a bit too problematic, no?
The two didn"t have the energy to complain. Tang Rou was very direct. Whether or not she used Dragon Breaks the Ranks didn"t affect her style. Pan Lin and Li Yibo were listening to Ruan Cheng"s nonsense as the two players fought. They had unexpectedly missed such a detail...
The commentators were suddenly at a roadblock. The two people glared angrily at Ruan Cheng. Ruan Cheng was watching the match closely with excited spirits. The two characters were going back and forth, but from the switches between offense and defends, w.a.n.g Jiexi held the initiative.
"w.a.n.g Jiexi is worthy of his reputation!" Ruan Cheng praised.
Tu tu tu!
Pan Lin and Li Yibo were feeling like Ruan Cheng was pulling aggro onto w.a.n.g Jiexi, but with his praise, the two started feeling more and more disgusted with Vaccaria.
However, Vaccaria having the advantage was a reality at the moment.
She"s improved again.
After half a season, w.a.n.g Jiexi and Tang Rou fought once again. This was his first thought.
Especially in terms of rationality.
Tang Rou"s eagerness to win was extremely high. Whether she won or lost, she would never compromise or retreat. However, there were always times where compromising and retreating were the better options. These weren"t a part of Tang Rou"s vocabulary though. She would always choose a single path and continue forward. This choice would sometimes surprise the opponent, but it would also sometimes backfire.
However, this time?
As he praised her improvement, w.a.n.g Jiexi could only force a smile.
Her choices becoming more rational wasn"t because she chose to compromise or retreat. It was because her choices became more precise when she charged forward.
Her understanding of skills had become more thorough, and she had acc.u.mulated more experience. She used everything she had to strengthen her always-forward playstyle.
This girl would always press forward when improving her own style. w.a.n.g Jiexi could only give her praise.
However...
Not enough!
While w.a.n.g Jiexi praised Tang Rou"s improvement, Tang Rou once again felt the disparity in skill. Perhaps a part of it was because of the difference in equipment, but Tang Rou would never regard these as reasons.
She only wanted to win. She didn"t want to lose.
A skill gap didn"t necessarily represent a certain win or loss. Compet.i.tion was fought, not compared.
But w.a.n.g Jiexi knew this reasoning even more clearly than her. He wouldn"t relax facing a less skilled opponent.
Bang!
When Soft Mist"s Dancing Fire Flowing Flames swung, it hit the Lava Flask thrown by Vaccaria.
The flask shattered, and lava flew out.
If Lava Flask directly hit a target, the lava would deal bonus damage. w.a.n.g Jiexi had unexpectedly used Lava Flash as an attack.
Lava splattered along with Stardust Extermination.
Dong!
A parry. Soft Mist"s Dancing Fire Flowing Flames blocked Stardust Extermination. However, the lava that splashed onto Soft Mist quickly dealt damage to her.
Sure enough, she didn"t retreat.
Her offense had become more rational, more coherent, and more threatening, but what about her defense?
There were many ways to defend while attacking. Directly eating damage was very bold and aggressive, but the most optimal choice should be the most rational and the most effective. It wasn"t single mindedly pursuing a certain direction.
Excessively using a brute force method might turn out like Liang Fang, who traded too much of his health away and lost because he was unable to get it back.
If she could fight Yu Wenzhou 1v1, she would probably have a clearer understanding of this point. Unfortunately, the chances of that happening were very low. It wasn"t necessary though. Ye Xiu had probably noticed this point too.
Tang Rou didn"t need to practice her offense excessively. She should be focusing her time on her defense. Maybe she didn"t like to defend as a result of her personality, and she didn"t like to spend too much thought on it. But the problem was that the more she improved on her offense, the greater the imbalance between offense and defense.
No matter how great you were, it wasn"t possible to always be the one attacking. There would always be times when the opponent would force you to defend. When one had a big lead, using a brute force method like eating damage was fine, but what about when one had a small lead or did not have the lead? Such an irrational choice would be fatal.
Just like now!
A Star Symbol suddenly shot at Soft Mist"s eyes. Tang Rou had Soft Mist twist her body to dodge it and then stepped forward to close she distance.
But with this step forward, Star Symbol pulled closer. The instant Star Symbol blossomed into Star Ray, the radiating light filled half of Tang Rou"s screen.
The Star Ray didn"t land on Soft Mist, but the following attack did...
Because half of Tang Rou"s screen was blinded by Star Ray"s light, she couldn"t see the attack. It was just an instant, an instant that the viewers would only be able to understand if they watched the replay in slow motion. However, Vaccaria took advantage of this instant to land an attack...
Lost.
Tang Rou fell.
Tang Rou lost again to w.a.n.g Jiexi.
Losing to a top G.o.d in the Alliance shouldn"t be anything strange, but Tang Rou wasn"t willing. She was never content with losing to any opponent.
And this wasn"t her first time losing to w.a.n.g Jiexi. If you counted their fights, she had never won once.
"Hahaha, w.a.n.g Jiexi. He truly deserves his reputation. This hand was too beautiful!" The commentary was overtaken by Ruan Cheng. This guy looked like he wanted to jump onto the table and dance. In particular, when Tang Rou walked down from the stage, disappointed and regretful, Ruan Cheng became even more excited.
"Tang Rou still has a long ways to go before she can reach a G.o.d! Do the viewers still remembers that 1v3 promise? I wonder if she still has such plans!" Ruan Cheng was radiating with delight as he remarked.
"Ahem, it was a splendid match," Pan Lin couldn"t bear letting this guy continue talking.
"Tang Rou performed well today, but w.a.n.g Jiexi was more shrewd," Li Yibo said.
"Yes, Tiny Herb has won back two points in the group arena. w.a.n.g Jiexi didn"t disappoint his teammates, the stadium, and all of the Tiny Herb fans watching this broadcast," Pan Lin continued to stir up the crowd.
"LONG LIVE THE KING!!" The Tiny Herb fans at the stadium shouted out this proclamation. Their respect for w.a.n.g Jiexi had reached such a level. w.a.n.g Jiexi didn"t immediately walk down from the stage like Tang Rou did, after all, this was Tiny Herb"s home stadium and the break between the group arena and team compet.i.tion was rather long. He stayed on stage for awhile longer, waving his hands at the fans all around him.
Tang Rou went back to Happy"s player area and smiled at the players comforting her. She sat down to the side rather dejectedly.
"Your attacks weren"t bad," Ye Xiu turned his head and said to her.
"Not bad?" Tang Rou forced a smile. If they weren"t bad, then why could she still not suppress the opponent?
"However, in a match, you can"t always be attacking. Do you really think your opponent won"t be able use even a single skill?" Ye Xiu said.
"I understand," Tang Rou knew that Ye Xiu"s words were reasonable.
"In this match, how many of w.a.n.g Jiexi"s attacks were able to stop your offense?" Ye Xiu said.
Tang Rou stared at the replay on the big screens. From time to time, it would show her a depressing moment.
"How to maintain your offense without it being interrupted is something you need to be very very very mindful of. If not, your offense will always be stopped. Several times of that, and you"ll be left wondering where your health went," Ye Xiu said.
Tang Rou continued to stare at the replay. Those sorts of moments flashed on screen again and again.
"Starting from next round, you"ll be placed first," Ye Xiu said, "That way you"ll have more opportunities for real combat practice."
"Okay," Tang Rou nodded her head. She understood the reasoning behind Ye Xiu"s arrangements. Going third might be the important anchor for the group arena, but if the other two players before her performed spectacularly, there might not be much left for her to do. Only the person going first in the group arena had the most opportunities to gain 1v1 experience.
"That won"t be a problem, right?" Ye Xiu saw that Tang Rou didn"t mind and asked Fang Rui.
"Of course not," Fang Rui said.
Ye Xiu put on a helpless face: "I originally wanted you to go first, so you would have more chances to get used to the cla.s.s change. I put her as third to be the anchor and now, everyone needs to go first to practice."
"Haha, this suits her the most!" Fang Rui laughed, "In fact, the person who goes first can also practice as the anchor if she still plans on a 1v3.
"It"s too bad there"s only one person who can go first," Ye Xiu sighed.Xiang Linsao is a character from a famous short story Blessing (祝福) by Lu Xun.