Chapter 1074: Tyranny’s Tempo
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
The spectators could see everything far more clearly than any of the players.
The ten characters had originally been scattered around the map, but after the gunshot, all of them suddenly headed towards the same location. In the blink of an eye, blossoms sprouted all around the map as battles formed. Only now did spectators realize Team Tyranny"s intentions. Team Tyranny didn"t seem to be targeting Team Tiny Herb"s Cleric, Aweto. Their aim was to cut off Aweto"s connection with everyone else. Battles had bloomed all over the map. Yuan Boqing suddenly discovered that there was nothing for him to do. Tyranny had led all of the conflicts away from him.
Where do I go?
For an instant, Yuan Boqing was faced with this question. There were sounds of battle all around him. Which location should he go a.s.sist?
Fortunately, an order quickly came from the team chat. It wasn"t just him. All of Team Tiny Herb was heading towards a single rendezvous point. Since Tyranny had started these waves of attacks, there was no need to question who held the initiative at the moment. Tiny Herb clearly didn"t want to start a fight with Tyranny under these circ.u.mstances. If they did, they would only fall into Tyranny"s tempo.
First, group up. Then, counterattack!
w.a.n.g Jiexi"s decision was clear and precise, but it wasn"t anything surprising.
This type of response was completely within Tyranny"s plans. In a map with lots of dips and slopes like this one, a player"s line of sight would often be blocked. No one could see the entire situation with just a glance. The only ones who could were the spectators, who possessed an omniscient view of the map.
The spectators could see that Tiny Herb"s attempt to convene together would be obstructed because of this. Tyranny cut off Tiny Herb"s characters from each other. They didn"t immediately choose a main target to attack. They made adjustments according to the situation.
Team Tyranny moved quickly. The communication going on in their team chat was also very rapid. They used concise but comprehensive words to communicate. Only the most coordinated teammates could instantly understand the meanings behind their short messages. As for the spectators, they could only see a bunch of letters and numbers being spewed out. They had no idea what anyone in Tyranny was saying.
However, they could still see the results of their communication.
In the end, Team Tiny Herb"s players were successfully part.i.tioned off from each other. Gao Yingjie"s Kind Tree and Liu Xiaobie"s Flying Sword were cut out and pushed towards a location that Tyranny wanted them to be at.
"Attack!"
Another order. This time, Tyranny was truly attacking now.
Dazzling Hundred Blossom"s attacks instantly swallowed up that location. Zhang Jiale never attacked solely to damage the target. Oftentimes, he would provide cover for others. The brilliant lights only hit the ground, but who would be coming out from the light? Would it be Han Wenqing"s Desert Dust? Would it be Lin Jingyan"s Dark Thunder? Or would it be no one?
No matter what the choice was, the opposing players needed to be on guard. The purpose of Zhang Jiale"s Hundred Blossoms Style was to confuse the opponents and have them question what decision to make. This time, under the cover of the Hundred Blossoms Style, Han Wenqing"s Desert Dust shot out.
Liu Xiaobie reacted extremely quickly. Flying Sword brandished his sword and welcomed Desert Dust. Without any hesitation, he unleashed his explosive hand speed.
Against a waning old general at the end of his career, explosive hand speed was a smart way to match his biggest strength against his opponent"s biggest weakness. Liu Xiaobie knew what the current situation was, so he wasn"t polite at all.
The crowd exclaimed in surprise at Liu Xiaobie"s explosiveness. The screen displayed a number. Liu Xiaobie"s APM had surpa.s.sed 300.
In Glory, each player could only control one character. It wasn"t like RTSes, where there was a lot of room to get to a high APM.
300 APM. In Glory, this was already an unimaginable number. For many, it wasn"t a question of whether they could move their hands fast enough, but rather what to do with each action. And right now, Liu Xiaobie"s 300 APM was just a starting point. It was still going up.
Shadow Steps!
The moment Flying Sword clashed with Desert Dust, seven shadows split up. With the level cap increasing along with Liu Xiaobie"s frightening hand speed, what players could only dream of had been achieved in just an instant. Each and every shadow seemed real. Which one was real? Which one was fake? Perhaps not even an experienced G.o.d like Han Wenqing could distinguish them in a short amount of time.
As a result, he simply didn"t bother trying.
Playing rock-paper-scissors with his opponent wasn"t his style. He was always simple and direct. Seven shadows? Desert Dust charged past them directly towards Gao Yingjie"s Kind Tree.
Liu Xiaobie immediately had Flying Sword turn around and chased after him with a sword slash. But when he turned around, a Brick flew out from the cover of Dazzling Hundred Blossom"s light cover. In the next moment, the Hundred Blossoms Style stopped being just a simple cover and swallowed up Flying Sword. The viewers could see Flying Sword"s health rapidly dropping. Liu Xiaobie and his explosive hand speed had been denied by these two seniors simply and easily.
As for Liu Xiaobie, after being engulfed by the Hundred Blossoms Style, the damage was secondary. More importantly, he felt like he couldn"t see anything. Slowly, he started getting used to it and saw Dark Thunder. When Liu Xiaobie saw an enemy, he got ready to rush forward. Suddenly, a white light blazed around his body. A Sacred Fire had been cast beneath his feet.
Dazzling Hundred Blossom"s interference must be stopped!
Liu Xiaobie was still clear-headed. Tyranny was a formidable opponent that they had already fought two matches against in the playoffs. At this point, both sides had a good grasp of each other"s methods. Hundred Blossoms Style must be cut off from the source. If not, they would be harra.s.sed endlessly. It would be delusional to think that this cover was also a cover for him. That type of Hundred Blossom Style would just be a fake. The Hundred Blossoms Style from Zhang Jiale was absolutely a targeted one. It wasn"t just cycling through different skills to produce a dazzling effect. Whatever attack came out and wherever that attack hit had careful thinking behind it. As a result, those who were locked down by a true Hundred Blossom Style would be the only ones locked down. Only Tyranny"s players and the spectators would be able to clearly see the situation when a true Hundred Blossom Style was unleashed.
Liu Xiaobie determined Dazzling Hundred Blossom"s position. He ignored his silenced skills and rushed over. Zhang Jiale obviously wasn"t going to let him come close. He attacked while retreating, maintaining the distance between the two of them. Several seconds soon pa.s.sed, and the silence on Flying Sword wore off. Liu Xiaobie sprinted forward and activated Triple Slash. Sword light flashed in a straight line along with a handful of sand towards it.
Liu Xiaobie"s hand speed really was fast. Without any delay, he was able to tilt his Flying Sword"s head a bit. However, a Brick immediately followed and hit the back of his head.
Liu Xiaobie wanted to cry. This Lin Jingyan hadn"t been so dirty back when he played on Wind Howl. But after coming to Tyranny, his style had changed a lot.
After being put into a Dizzy state, how could Flying Sword be in a good spot? A new wave of attacks suddenly washed over him. His teammate, Gao Yingjie, had noticed that the situation wasn"t looking good a long time ago. He had been trying to come over to rescue him, but escaping from Han Wenqing couldn"t be accomplished with just a sweep of his broom.
Tiny Herb"s other three members had convened without a hitch. But then, they immediately received messages from Liu Xiaobie and Gao Yingjie. And at this moment, the three could still hear sounds of gunfire nearby. Tyranny"s fifth player, Qin Muyun, was a Sharpshooter. He deceitfully misled Tiny Herb. By the time Tiny Herb reacted, the team had already been split into two.
The three immediately went to rescue their teammates. Qin Muyun obviously couldn"t stop them alone. He could only hinder them a bit. But by the time the three rushed over, Liu Xiaobie"s Flying Sword was on the brink of death. Yuan Boqing hastily had his Aweto go over to save him, but to his surprise, Dazzling Hundred Blossom"s attacks instantly enshrouded them. With his sight blocked, Yuan Boqing was unable to find Flying Sword"s location.
On the other hand, Liu Xiaobie"s vision suddenly became clear. His spirit rose. Even though he didn"t have much health left, he still went after Zhang Xinjie"s Cleric, Immovable Rock.
Bang!
A gunshot.
Tiny Herb"s three players arrived. Tyranny"s Qin Muyun naturally returned to his team as well. When he returned, he saw an opening and accurately shot Flying Sword"s head with a Thunder Snipe. Thunder Snipe"s hidden effect: headshots dealt double damage. A spurt of blood flew out from Flying Sword"s head. This attack looked as if it actually blew up his head as Flying Sword fell. In the team compet.i.tion, Team Tyranny won the first point.
Killing Flying Sword gave Tyranny a numbers advantage for a short period of time. They didn"t waste it and immediately began attacking.
With an advantage already established, these old generals definitely wouldn"t let it go to waste. In this instant, they seemed to have forgotten their age. Just like Liu Xiaobie, they disregarded everything else and burst out with explosive hand speed. On the screen, the statistics showed that the APM from the players on the two teams rose and rose. The intensity of the battle could be seen just from these statistics. Team Tiny Herb"s captain w.a.n.g Jiexi had broken through to the 350-400 APM range. His Magician style was originally a style that required a lot of actions.
Tiny Herb was able to get their sixth player into the battle intact, but intact was just in terms of the number of their players. Tyranny still dealt Tiny Herb a huge amount of damage during this time. Tyranny"s old generals knew how to utilize their numbers advantage. Even though they weren"t able to kill off anyone in Tiny Herb, their advantage only increased with this wave of attacks.
Five versus five. Tyranny slowed down their tempo. Competing hand speeds wasn"t their strong point. Seizing an opening to do a single wave of attacks was fine, but if they tried to keep up that hand speed, these old generals would be dying.
The advantage had been established. As a result, Tyranny did not try to end it in one go and instead slowed down to play the long game with Tiny Herb. As the two went back and forth, many viewers discovered that Team Tyranny"s Qin Muyun received a very pitiful amount of healing. It was as if he was being intentionally cast away.
This type of slip-up wouldn"t happen to someone like Zhang Xinjie. This was a tactical decision. Those with a certain amount of Glory knowledge could determine that Team Tyranny was trying to switch out their player. Even though Team Tyranny had slowed down, they did their utmost to maintain their advantage.
Surely and steadily, Qin Muyun successfully swapped out with their sixth player Bai Yanfei. The healing saved by not healing Qin Muyun was effectively distributed to the other four, so their conditions were very good. The full health and full mana sixth player on Tyranny swapped with their dead Sharpshooter, Negative Nine Degrees, and Tyranny"s advantage moved one step further.
In the end, Tyranny didn"t let their advantage go. In the team compet.i.tion, Tyranny beat Tiny Herb 6 to 3, winning the semifinals 10 to 8 and progressing to the finals.