How many punches?Not many people had the patience to count, but Song Qiying did.
164!
River Sunset had punched the wall 164 times so far. Facing normal attacks, this wall appeared extremely st.u.r.dy.
But after 164 punches, the wall was filled with cracks. Many parts of the wall weren"t flat anymore.
Song Qiying drew in a deep breath of air.
Almost.
He didn"t know how st.u.r.dy the wall was exactly, but just based on the fights today, their vice-captain, Zhang Xinjie, was able to figure out a rough estimate.
Walls had a health value. Although it was an estimated range, if it came from Zhang Xinjie, then it must be accurate.
165, 166, 167...
After three punches, River Sunset temporarily stopped.
The next punches would be would enter within that range. Song Qiying had no plans of testing what the exact value was one punch at a time. He planned on using a powerful attack to break apart the wall in one strike.
He didn"t know whether Happy"s Qiao Yifan was still on the other side of the wall, but if he was, he would be ready. He pretended that Qiao Yifan was there, waiting for him with a field of ghost formations.
He had used around 160 punches to weaken the wall even though he didn"t know if the opponent was even on the other side.
This method was a bit crude, but it was effective.
This way, he didn"t need to worry about falling into a trap.
Song Qiying knew what cla.s.s his opponent was. Phantom Demons could completely fill the room with ghost boundaries, which was clearly why Qiao Yifan had chosen this room to begin with.
Severals fights had already taken place in this manor. How could Tyranny not have a good grasp of it by now?
Then, the final hit!
He could attack as he moved past the wall!
Song Qiying drew in a deep breath of air.
Attack!
Ferocious Tiger Flurry! He decided on the Level 70 skill, Ferocious Tiger Flurry.
In an instant, countless punches landed on the wall. In an instant, the wall crumbled. In an instant, River Sunset charged through.
After breaking through the wall, Song Qiying could see One Inch Ash standing on the other side with his sword held in front of him.
Ghost Boundary?
With one glance, Song Qiying confirmed One Inch Ash"s position. With a second glance, he confirmed that there were no ghost boundaries nearby.
None?
Even if there were ghost boundaries, Song Qiying"s River Sunset would charge forward anyways, but he felt that it was strange not seeing any.
However, once a young hero of Tyranny made his decision, there was no retreating.
Ferocious Tiger Flurry didn"t stop. River Sunset continued to charge forward, stepping on the broken ruins.
Everyone"s eyes went wide at this scene, but their eyes weren"t on River Sunset. Even the camera wasn"t focused on this ferocious character.
The camera was focused on the ceiling above him.
Right when River Sunset broke apart the wall and rushed forward, the ceiling suddenly began to fall.
The viewers had known about this possibility. They had been observing Qiao Yifan"s One Inch Ash through their omniscient view.
But at this moment, someone suddenly let out a cry.
The ceiling was much less st.u.r.dy than the wall. While Sunset River had been punching the wall, Qiao Yifan"s One Inch Ash had jumped, leaving three deep cuts in the ceiling.
As a result, when the wall collapsed, the ceiling, which had been on the verge of collapse, lost its final support.
The wall crumbled, the ceiling collapsed.
But the noise sounded the same, so Song Qiying hadn"t noticed this point. He didn"t realize it until he saw that a shadow in front of him was getting larger and larger.
Song Qiying immediately figured out what had happened.
Ferocious Tiger Flurry.
River Sunset continued to attack, breaking apart the falling ceiling.
"Yes!!" Tyranny"s fans cheered, seeing Song Qiying"s fierceness.
But at this moment, One Inch Ash"s Snow Stripe flashed with light, and a ghost boundary formed.
Qiao Yifan had probably deduced that Song Qiying"s River Sunset could break apart the falling ceiling, but he didn"t place down a ghost boundary ahead of time.
Because a ghost boundary wasn"t a wall, it wasn"t something that could not be entered. Song Qiying"s aggression showed that even if he had placed down a ghost boundary, he definitely would have entered anyways.
If he had revealed the ghost boundary ahead of time, he would have let his opponent know when to advance and when to retreat, which would not have been good.
As a result, Qiao Yifan did not show his hand ahead of time. He waited until the battle began, and acted when his opponent had nowhere to run to!
This was the air of a pro player. It was the biggest difference between a pro player and a normal player.
Having the ceiling collapse was to scatter Song Qiying"s attention and make it so that he could not move.
Song Qiying"s method was simple and direct.
Qiao Yifan was not polite. He carefully set up a trap to face this simple and direct method.
Indeed, not many people had thought of breaking the ceiling.
Dark Boundary!
One Inch Ash started with a Dark Boundary, which inflicted Blind onto enemies.
After breaking free from the ceiling, River Sunset had lost the opportunity to interrupt the cast. The ghost boundary fell. Apart from hastily getting out of its range, there was nothing he could do.
Charge!
River Sunset continued to charge.
But after two steps, he had lost his sight because of the Dark Boundary.
Song Qiying"s screen was black, but he didn"t stop because of that. River Sunset continued forward, throwing a punch towards where he remembered One Inch Ash being.
Collapsing Fist!
A loud whistle accompanied the fist, but how could Qiao Yifan not be able to dodge a punch that the opponent had blindly threw out? One Inch Ash had quietly taken a step back a while ago.
Qiao Yifan was no longer in the position that Song Qiying remembered. He only knew that his punch had missed. Where was One Inch Ash? Left? Right? Behind? Behind to the left? Behind to the right?
Without any hesitation, River Sunset punched again. He stepped forward, Double Tiger Palm!
"AH!!" The audience cried out.
Song Qiying"s screen was pitch-black, but his step forward and his Double Tiger Palm made it seem like he knew exactly where One Inch Ash was. His positioning and his attack were completely on point.
The two palms covered a wide area. One Inch Ash could not dodge to the left nor the right.
His only choice was to keep retreating backwards!
Pa!
The two palms missed their target. Just the force of the strike alone was able to produce a clear sound.
Neither attack hit.
But these two attacks had been let out while blind. If a normal player were blinded by Dark Boundary, they would fall into a disadvantaged state. However, Song Qiying"s River Sunset continued pushing forward, forcing Qiao Yifan into defensive position.
Qiao Yifan felt a bit annoyed. He regretted not moving far away enough in the beginning and escaping cleanly from Song Qiying.
Song Qiying had guessed his position correctly both times. The first time was from memory. The second time? It was probably only because he wanted to continue pushing forward.
In the darkness, there was no way to know which way was out, so Tyranny"s players would always choose to move forward.
Qiao Yifan should have considered this point from the beginning. Even if he hadn"t escaped cleanly at the start, he shouldn"t have retreated backwards. Retreating was the same as cooperating with Tyranny"s fondness for advancing.
The Double Tiger Palm had forced Qiao Yifan to retreat backwards, but with this retreat, he was finally able to launch a counterattack. Even though he knew this counterattack would reveal his position, if he continued to let Song Qiying pressure him, not only would he be wasting his Dark Boundary, it was likely that Song Qiying would seize the initiative from him despite being blinded.
Moonlight Slash!
Sword light flashed alongside the sound of the wind.
Song Qiying couldn"t see, but he could hear.
It was the sound of a slash.
One Inch Ash was a Phantom Demon. He only had three low-level slash skills in his kit.
Ghost Slash, Moonlight Slash, Full Moonlight Slash.
Three skills. His opponent was directly in front of him. What angle would he attack from?
Song Qiying instantly made these deductions. River Sunset leaned to the side.
The audience cried out in surprise.
River Sunset had actually dodged this Moonlight Slash. He was able to dodge it despite not being able to see.
Whirlwind Kick!
River Sunset jumped, his legs sweeping through the air towards One Inch Ash.
Not only did he dodge the attack, he was able to counterattack too. The audience didn"t know what to say.
Hit!
One Inch Ash was unable to dodge and could only take the blow. He raised his tachi in front of him and hastily used the Blade Master"s Guard to reduce the damage.
One Inch Ash was kicked back. Right when River Sunset touched the ground, he jumped up again.
Soaring Tiger!
River Sunset jumped, chasing after One Inch Ash. It looked as if he wasn"t blind at all.
Again and again, the audience couldn"t help but cry out in surprise, let alone the two commentators.
Song Qiying played brilliantly, but Qiao Yifan didn"t let his spirits drop. One Inch Ash put himself in a steady position, ready to counterattack at any moment because this attack should not hit!
It missed!
Just as Qiao YIfan expected, the Soaring Tiger missed.
Song Qiying"s timing and thought process were precise and accurate, but if he couldn"t see, he couldn"t see. When Qiao Yifan put his his guard, Song Qiying wasn"t able to notice his slight change in position from just the feel of his attack connecting.
As a result, there was a slight error in his judgement.
Song Qiying was calm, but his opponent didn"t panic and stayed calm despite the cheers and shouts from the crowd. In the end, Qiao Yifan was able to make use of the Blind on Song Qiying. He didn"t waste this Dark Boundary.
Full Moonlight Slash!
He attacked the airborne River Sunset, striking him in the back and sending him flying towards a corner in the room. The Phantom Ghost"s power residing in his blade began to flicker. Ice Soul, Ice Boundary.
And then Ash Boundary.
And then Plague Boundary.
Qiao Yifan calmly began his offense.