Chapter 395 – A Dangerous Balance
In a high skill leveled fight, only looking at mechanics and hand speed wasn’t enough to fully appreciate it. In the match with Huang Shaotian against w.a.n.g Jiexi, the two reads made it looked like w.a.n.g Jiexi was already going to lose.
Rising Dragon Slash split the air as it rose towards w.a.n.g Jiexi’s retreat path. But this time, w.a.n.g Jiexi reacted in time as if he had expected this would happen. Vaccaria leapt off his broom and switched directions. He didn’t fly out and instead waved his broom twice. The stream of air created by the two waves made Vaccaria move a tiny bit. This miniscule movement was enough to cause Troubling Rain’s Rising Dragon Slash to miss, brus.h.i.+ng past Vaccaria’s side and into the air.
Huang Shaotian knew that the situation wasn’t good. It seemed like he could see w.a.n.g Jiexi’s two disproportionate eyes flas.h.i.+ng out a calculating glint despite Vaccaria’s expressionless system face. This time, he had been caught in w.a.n.g Jiexi’s trap!
Two crashes sounded in the air and on the ground. Two magic flasks had been shattered one after the other.
Acid rained down from the sky and lava burned on the ground. Vaccaria turned his broom around and headed towards Troubling Rain with the Witch skill: Broom Tornado.
Huang Shaotian didn’t want to take a hit. However, w.a.n.g Jiexi had already calculated all of his possible moves. The two flasks had been thrown down very quickly. That small window of time wasn’t enough for Huang Shaotian to do anything, when the Broom Tornado flew forward. The huge area of effect magic storm spread out as w.a.n.g Jiexi spun. This skill covered an extremely wide area. Even though Huang Shaotian wanted to quickly use a Falling Light Blade in order to get to the ground, but just like how w.a.n.g Jiexi had tried to escape from his Formless Phantom Blade before, Huang Shaotian was swept away. Vaccaria’s broom slapped him around like a tornado all the way from the air to the ground.
The combined damage from the three skills to Huang Shaotian’s Troubling Rain was greater than the damage from the single powerful skill to Vaccaria. Even worse, w.a.n.g Jiexi had the initiative. Being slapped to the ground wasn’t the end……
Huang Shaotian didn’t have any problems using Quick Recover. The instant his character hit the ground, his character rolled backwards and then jumped away. Vaccaria had to Quick Recover as well when he hit the ground after using Broom Tornado. If not, he would also crash to the ground. Even though there wouldn’t be any fall damage, being knocked to the ground would be a huge opportunity for the opponent. w.a.n.g Jiexi rarely made mistakes for something as basic as this. His character also rolled backwards and jumped away.
The two characters’ movements looked like they had been rehea.r.s.ed beforehand.
Following afterwards, a sword light flashed from Troubling Rain, while a black mist rolled out from Vaccaria.
During the jump backwards, the two players each executed a skill, a Sword Draw and a Shadow Cloak. But because the two chose to roll and jump in opposite directions, they instantly pulled away from each other. The two skills both missed, neither side was injured.
With the distance between them, the Blade Master didn’t have anything he could use. But the Witch had a few ways to attack from mid range. Immediately, Magic Missiles began shooting towards Troubling Rain. Huang Shaotian couldn’t do anything to retaliate, so he straight up used a big skill. Troubling Rain’s silhouette flickered, instantly creating six images. He had used the high leveled skill, Shadow Steps.
This skill relied on the controller’s experience and technique. Huang Shaotian was considered to be at the top of Blade Masters. When this skill came out, even w.a.n.g Jiexi couldn’t tell which was the real body. If not, then the skill would be completely useless.
Six Troubling Rains rushed forward.
w.a.n.g Jiexi had no way of directly distinguis.h.i.+ng the real from the fake, so he could only test them with attacks. However, Shadow Steps was much stronger than the Ninja’s Shadow Clone Technique. The Ninja’s Shadow Clone was only a clone that didn’t move and also only had limited health, so a few attacks was enough to make it disappear. Shadow Steps was different. The afterimages created didn’t have health and couldn’t be destroyed. However, because they were afterimages, if an attack connected, the attack would go right through the afterimage. By testing each afterimage one by one, the real one could be found.
w.a.n.g Jiexi quickly threw out a few mid ranged Magic Missiles and immediately figured out two afterimages. However, Huang Shaotian wouldn’t be found out so easily. The six characters s.h.i.+fted positions with each other in a blur. The commentator and honored guest gasped in amazement. With such complex movements, it was hard to say if w.a.n.g Jiexi could locate which of the two afterimages he had tested out.
Indeed, w.a.n.g Jiexi had no way of following the two targets he had tested out with such movements. But he had known that Huang Shaotian could do this, so from the very beginning, he had only tried to follow one of the two afterimages he had tested out. This was something that he was capable of doing. Next, he did another wave of tests, naturally avoiding that afterimage and only attacking the others.
It had to be known that Huang Shaotian wasn’t going to simply get hit by w.a.n.g Jiexi’s attacks. He was also constantly dodging. In the end, only one of the Magic Missiles. .h.i.t and it hit an afterimage.
w.a.n.g Jiexi knew that it wasn’t possible to find the real one by testing. An attack towards the real one would definitely be dodged. Huang Shaotian wasn’t stupid.
The two waves of testing had only figured out two afterimages. During this time, the six Troubling Rains were able to envelop Vaccaria. The six characters maintained a distance away and spun around Vaccaria.
“Which one’s the real body?” Chen Guo couldn’t tell and asked Ye Xiu.
“I don’t know either.” Ye Xiu shook his head. Huang Shaotian’s mastery of Shadow Steps was already at the peak.
However, Shadow Steps couldn’t be used forever. It was only a skill to confuse the opponent. In a match, a victory could only be obtained by killing the opponent.
The instant the afterimages faded away, a ma.s.s of sword light gathered together.
Even though w.a.n.g Jiexi had been extremely careful, he was still hit by the attack. If the attack had missed, then Huang Shaotian’s efforts in using Shadow Steps would have been for nothing.
“Who do you think will win?” Chen Guo was impatient. She liked to know the result beforehand.
Ye Xiu slowly shook his head without saying anything.
Chen Guo was helpless. She could only continue watching the match. This match between two G.o.ds was truly spectacular. Finally, those Internet Cafe customers who had originally been watching Excellent Era’s match couldn’t help but take a glance at the projection screen from time to time. In the end, everyone became traitors and they all began to watch who would win this match.
None of the two G.o.ds were able to pull a big advantage over the other. The two sides fluctuated between who was on the offensive and who was on the defensive, two evenly matched adversaries. The health bar on the two characters also dropped very equally. It was impossible to tell who would win until the very last moment.
“w.a.n.g Jiexi has a slightly higher chance of winning.” Ye Xiu suddenly made a prediction.
“Why?” Chen Guo hastily asked.
“w.a.n.g Jiexi is good at these types of even match ups. Huang Shaotian is good at chaotic fights. The more chaotic the fight, the easier it is for him to find opportunities. However, this match is certainly intense, but it isn’t chaotic at all. You come I go. The one on the offense and the one on the defense keep switching. It’s all very orderly. In other words, if things keep going on like this, Huang Shaotian isn’t going to be able to seize an opportunity to win. If the fight continued at this even pace, in the end, w.a.n.g Jiexi will make the final attack.” Ye Xiu said.
“Really?” Chen Guo liked to ask, but after asking, she wasn’t so sure.
“Just watch!” Ye Xiu said.
As a result, Chen Guo began to count. This time, Huang Shaotian was attacking. Next, w.a.n.g Jiexi was attacking. Then……
She continued to count all the way until the match was about to end. The two sides were both in red blood. Chen Guo had counted all day and had a bit of experience now. Seeing the situation, she gasped in astonishment: “It looks like……. It looks like it really is going to go like how you said.”
Ye Xiu stayed silent, staring at the match.
“Huang Shaotian doesn’t have any hope?” Chen Guo asked. She felt a bit disappointing for things to steadily go like this.
“There is.” Ye Xiu only said two words.
“What is it?” Chen Guo asked.
“Watch.” Ye Xiu pointed at the screen with his head, indicating Chen Guo to watch.
Chen Guo had been counting the entire time. Now that she looked at the scene, she immediately realized that something wasn’t right.
“It’s not right! It should be Huang Shaotian’s chance to attack, why is it…….”
After muttering for a bit, she suddenly realized something and immediately exclaimed: “Right! He purposefully gave the chance to attack to w.a.n.g Jiexi. This way, he’ll be the last person to attack.”
Chen Guo’s excitement had only lasted three seconds because she already saw Ye Xiu looking down on her. After thinking again, she suddenly understood: the two sides only have a certain amount of health. Letting one chance go means that it won’t progress in the same way as before. If they go back and forth, Huang Shaotian will still be the first to die because he’ll have lost more health.
“Huang Shaotian only wants to break the even situation, so he intentionally put himself at the disadvantage.” Ye Xiu finally explained.
“Putting himself at a disadvantage is an opportunity?”
“Compared to continuing on like that, it’s at least a chance. Of course, it’s not a good chance. I still believe that w.a.n.g Jiexi will see through Huang Shaotian’s intent. To be able to direct such a scenario, I think that he has some way of controlling it so that Huang Shaotian won’t be able to find a way to kill him in one move.” Ye Xiu said.
“Huh, if w.a.n.g Jiexi wins, then Tiny Herb will have four points and Blue Rain will only have one.” Chen Guo calculated.