The sudden Teleport surprised quite a few of the viewers. But to a pro player, Teleportat was pretty much considered a required skill for Mages. Thinking about it more closely though, since One Autumn Leaf had Teleport, he could have easily combined it with the burst of speed that Dragon Breaks the Ranks provided and chased Fang Rui down. It didn"t seem at all necessary to save it and use it at the last second. So did that mean he didn"t use it just to as a set-up, a set-up where Fang Rui mistook his skill build to not have Teleport, and thus lure him to let his guard down against it? A normal player would not have given a second thought after observing this move. But to a pro player, there was often a deeper layer to things.
A compet.i.tion of endurance?
From the start, this was only in the eyes of the average viewer. None of the pro players considered it to be that simple. It would be looking down on them if you expected a pro player to make a basic blunder like this.
Up until they saw this Teleport!
This skill has lost its element of surprise because too many players added it on their weapons. However, in this situation, it had gained a brand new element of surprise. Many spectators felt a whole new level of respect for Sun Xiang.
Everyone who had played against Sun Xiang, and even those who once called him teammate, clearly felt changes from him. Had he been enlightened during his time at Excellent Era? Had he learned during his time at Samsara? Perhaps both? Whatever it may be, this new generation player did his utmost to continually move towards perfection.
Nice Teleport!
The spectators all praised to themselves. Because Teleport could only be level one, One Autumn Leaf could only move so far with it. But this Teleport finally put One Autumn Leaf directly beside Boundless Sea.
Sky Strike!
One Autumn Leaf used the fastest skill in the Battle Mage"s a.r.s.enal. Evil Annihilation was thrust out the exact same moment that his body appeared.
Roll!
Boundless Sea rolled sideways.
"He dodged it!" Pan Lin cried out in shock. The pro players also all felt that it was odd. Such an unexpected Teleport and such an unexpected attack. Yet Fang Rui managed to react to it?
"The fact that he could react proves he was still prepared!" The statement came from Ruan Yongbin, the Cleric player from Wind Howl, Fang Rui"s former teammate. He clearly had a good understanding of Fang Rui.
"We gotta give it to the king of dirty plays. He always expects his opponent to have the worst intentions eh?" Misty Rain"s Li Hua said.
This didn"t sound much like praise, but it was spot on.
Everyone watching felt like if they put themselves in Fang Rui"s shoes, they would have let their guard down against Teleport after seeing Sun Xiang"s plays. However, Fang Rui himself was still on guard against it, and that could only be because of his personality and playstyle.
Sky Strike missed, but Sun Xiang didn"t look like he was going to be discouraged this easily. At least he had an opportunity right now and was in close range; One Autumn Leaf unleashed another attack straight away.
Draconic Crusher!
Evil Annihilation, which was swung up from the Sky Strike, crashed down and unleashed a Draconic Crusher.
This skill had a knockdown effect and had extremely high priority. It was not possible to answer it with another skill. Boundless Sea had no time to get up after dodging the Sky Strike, and had to quickly roll again.
The magical energies of Draconic Crusher bombarded the ground and immediately smashed out a small crater in the ground. Evil Annihilation shot up once again, not giving Fang Rui any time to catch his breath. Dragon Tooth!
Boundless Sea used the momentum from the roll to take a sideways step. He barely managed to dodge and at the same time, slapped out a palm.
Cloud Pushing Palm!
A low level Qi Master skill. This tiny window was nowhere enough for Boundless Sea to even think about using a strong skill with cast time. He could only use a quick, weak skill to try to disrupt his opponent"s relentless attacks. Cloud Pushing Palm had low damage but also had a knock-back effect. This was a natural skill choice for Boundless Sea in his current predicament, who needed to create some s.p.a.ce for himself.
Circle Swing!
He didn"t expect One Autumn Leaf to not dodge and instead directly use this skill. The grab effect of Circle Swing would send him crashing into the ground. Even though Boundless Sea"s Cloud Pushing Palm would still land and send One Autumn Leaf backwards, it was still unfavorable for him.
Helpless, Fang Rui could only abandon his attack. Boundless Sea flipped backwards to dodge again. But he didn"t expect Boundless Sea to not respond to his input. When Fang Rui suddenly realised why, Evil Annihilation had already pierced his chest, and flicked him skyward.
"What happened?"
The normal players saw it as a whiffed dodge, resulting in him being hit. But in the pro players" eyes, not dodging this attack was inexcusable. Something unexpected must have occurred to cause it.
"Boundless Sea ran out of stamina!!" Someone realized it and yelled it out, no one knew who.
Everyone started. Then their minds were blown. They realised that the answer to their speculation over Sun Xian"s intentions were far simpler than they thought.
Sun Xiang was not trying to set up for a successful Teleport earlier. His main ploy was to whittle away Fang Rui"s stamina.
Because of Fang Rui"s playstyle!
A dirty playstyle meant the player will never seek direct confrontation with his opponent. He would use all sorts of tricks to gain a slight advantage by avoiding bad positions and moving into good ones, meaning a lot of movement would be used. Sprints, rolls, jumps, these common movements are all staminhungry. The vast majority would never feel that their stamina limited their movements, except for when they sprinted without a break. These movements were seldom used so frequently that they caught up to stamina recovery.
Fang Rui"s dirty playstyle would use these movements far more frequently than a normal player. Even so, his stamina had never limited his play. Stamina recovery was very quick, and it was usually more than enough to handle Fang Rui"s pace of play.
But in today"s match, Sun Xiang and Fang Rui partic.i.p.ated in a chase that wore down his stamina. Battle Mages had slightly more stamina, but Qi Masters spent slightly less. In the end, it was One Autumn Leaf who ran out first. Thus, Sun Xiang launched his attacks at that moment. Dragon Breaks the Ranks and Teleportation were used in succession to let him get within melee range. Even though he didn"t hit Boundless Sea, he managed to seize the initiative.
Thus began the close combat attacks. Fang Rui dodged continuously, naturally using the dirty playstyle that he was so used to. After consecutive rolls and sprints, he managed to wear down all of One Autumn Leaf"s stamina, while not having much left himself. As the Circle Swing came, Fang Rui had Boundless Sea forcefully cancel Cloud Pushing Palm.
A forced cancel was an action that expended stamina. Here, it finally depleted Boundless Sea"s stamina. The next roll that was meant to dodge Circle Swing had not been executed because he was out of stamina.
Stamina!
Stamina, which seemed to never run out in a real battle, was depleted by this intense pursuit. The high paced battle that followed meant that his stamina could no longer sustain Fang Rui"s dirty playstyle.
If you were to say before that what everyone felt in Sun Xiang was a sense of growth, you could say that now that what everyone felt in Sun Xiang was a sense of formidability.
He was no longer the kind to rely purely on superior technique and skill to overwhelm his opponent. He had started observing and a.n.a.lyzing his opponents. Fang Rui"s dirty playstyle had brought years of misery and headaches to many pro players. But today, Sun Xiang actually found a way to completely suppress him.
Even though stamina recovered quickly, Fang Rui"s dirty playstyle also expended it quickly. When his stamina bar was near zero, the recovery really wasn"t enough. Sun Xiang just needed to maintain a tight offensive to make Fang Rui constantly feel his stamina deficiency.
Slam!
Boundless Sea crashed into the ground after being swung around by Circle Swing. In these few moments, the pro players have already finished a.n.a.lysing Fang Rui"s predicament. The players who used to be on the receiving end of his dirty playstyle were getting a healthy dose of schadenfreude right now. When the dirty playing Fang Rui couldn"t play dirty, then what would he do? Everyone was about to find out.
Tyrant"s Destruction!
One Autumn Leaf once again swept Evil Annihilation at Boundless Sea, who was currently flat on the ground. Boundless Sea rolled to dodge. Again, he used what little stamina had recovered in the last few moments.
Dragon Tooth!
Another attack followed closely. If it was the regular Fang Rui, he would roll once to dodge, and roll again to end up on One Autumn Leaf"s flank. But right now, he couldn"t even roll consecutively. Boundless Sea"s stamina bar flashed repeatedly as if someone installed a red blinker light under it.