Chapter 129 – Vanis.h.i.+ng Step
Zhou Yebai and Liu Fei fixed their attention onto Qiao Yifan’s screen. In fact, it wasn’t just them. Xiao Yun also wanted to see, but he was too far away. Between him and Qiao Yifan were Zhou Yebai, Liu Fei, and Gao Yingjie. If he didn’t get up and walk over, there was no way for him to see.
Xiao Yun didn’t say a word. Even if he couldn’t see, he could still ask. A part of why he urged Qiao Yifan to rush forward was to test the waters. But if Qiao Yifan could speculate that Lord Grim’s party wouldn’t be an easy opponent, how couldn’t he have considered it.
“How?” Xiao Yun asked, not in the least concerned.
In the end, she heard Zhou Yebai and Liu Fei laugh.
“Too stupid, Yifan.” Liu Fei laughed out loud. She clearly didn’t put the attacks thrown at Qiao Yifan’s Ashen Moon in her eyes. If it was her, she would have easily escaped. But for Qiao Yifan right now, his hands were a complete mess. A feeling of superiority swelled up in her heart.
“Let’s hurry. If Qiao Yifan actually died here, then we’d look like a huge joke.” Zhou Yebai said.
Even though those words weren’t very pleasant to hear, to be fair, it wasn’t too excessive. In the game, no matter how you said it, these were just normal players. For pro-players, they really shouldn’t be losing to these normal players. If they died to them, that’d be even more ridiculous. Even if they couldn’t defeat them, then they should at least be able to escape.
Even for Gao Yingjie, who was close friends with Qiao Yifan, couldn’t deny this. He could only furiously tap his keyboard and hurry over to help his friend.
But the first person to arrive was Xiao Yun’s Battle Mage Cloudy Heavens.
Xiao Yun didn’t impatiently advance. He wasn’t like the other three, who had seen what the situation was from Qiao Yifan’s screen, so he could only observe for a bit before acting. In addition, his character could see a more all-around and concrete view of the situation compared to Qiao Yifan’s first-person perspective.
In front of his eyes, he could easily tell the difference in skill levels between the four players attacking Qiao Yifan’s Ashen Moon.
That Soft Mist and Steamed Bun Invasion’s were noteworthy, while Seven Fields and Sleeping Moon weren’t worth mentioning.
Seven Fields!!!!
This name made Xiao Yun at a loss for awhile.
Could he be from Herb Garden? This thought flashed by Xiao Yun’s mind. Even if he was from Herb Garden, it didn’t matter. Even if they all ganged up and killed him, they definitely wouldn’t be punished.
Xiao Yun’s line of sight fell outside of the battle onto that Lord Grim.
He was their goal and their main target. Since those other four players were chasing down Qiao Yifan’s Ashen Moon, wasn’t this the perfect opportunity to attack?
Xiao Yun’s Cloudy Heavens had already formed Chasers from fighting the nearby monsters. Besides relying on Dragon Tooth to form Neutral Chasers, Level 26 Battle Mages had a new Level 25 Chaser: an Ice Chaser that was created when Double Stab was used.
After an Ice Chaser attacked, the character have their Physical Defense buffed. The Level 1 Ice Chaser increased Physical Defense by 2%. Battle Mages could only wear Leather armor and thus their defenses weren’t particularly outstanding. As a result, this additional Defense wasn’t very useful. In comparison, the effects from an Ice Chaser attack were much more valuable.
When an Ice Chaser hits a target, it applies a brief Stun, similar to Dragon Tooth. Besides this, Ice Chasers did Ice Magic Damage and had a 50% chance to Slow the target for up to 3 seconds. The higher the Ice Chaser level, the higher the chance and the more obvious the effect.
Even though Level 26 Battle Mages only had one level into Ice Chaser, the effect was still obvious if it hit the target. At least, enough to make Steamed Bun Invasion believe that it was some sort of “Laxative”.
At this moment, not only did Cloudy Heavens have the buffs from the Chasers, he also had seven Ice Chasers revolving around him, all done through killing monsters along the way. Seven was the max and each one lasted for 30 seconds.
Seeing the situation, Xiao Yun finalized his plan. He ignored Qiao Yifan’s Ashen Moon and directly headed straight for Lord Grim.
Dragon Tooth!
Dragon Tooth was quick, had a long range, and could stun. It was a skill that Battle Mages loved to use as an initiator. Xiao Yun was using it as one as well. He rushed forward, his lance directed at Lord Grim.
At this moment, Lord Grim was also holding a battle lance. Cloudy Heaven’s Dragon Tooth stabbed forward. Lord Grim sidestepped it and counter-attacked with his own Dragon Tooth.
Cloudy Heavens dodged and then slashed up with his lance: Sky Strike.
Lord Grim avoided it and then slashed up, a Sky Strike too.
Cloudy Heavens escaped again and then leaned forward, stabbing with his lance, attempting to use Circle Swing to grab him.
However, Lord Grim did the same thing as before. He dodged and then returned with his own Circle Swing.
“F*ck!” Xiao Yun was somewhat angry. He felt as if he were being played with. He hated how his account was only Level 26. He didn’t have many skills and felt as if his hands and feet were tied together. His hand speed immediately quickened. In game, Cloudy Heavens leaped back, dodging the Circle Swing while stabbing out with his lance twice, a Double Stab.
In this way, if his attack was avoided and Lord Grim once again copied his movements, then he wouldn’t be any danger. This was because he had jumped backwards, distancing himself. If Lord Grim dodged his Double Stab, then Lord Grim’s Double Stab wouldn’t be of any threat to him.
In the end, Lord Grim still copied him and leapt backwards while using Double Stab. Just as Xiao Yun was laughing at him for his stupidity, a cold light leapt at him. It wasn’t Double Stab, but rather an arc of light.
Sword Draw!
Sword Draw’s attack range wasn’t just the sword’s reach. It also included the range of the sword’s aura, so the attack range was much greater than Double Stab’s.
Double Stab wouldn’t be able to hit him, but Sword Draw could.
“F*CK!” Xiao Yun really did curse out loud this time. This Sword Draw was too sudden. He was still in mid-air! HIs Cloudy Heavens wasn’t an a.s.sa.s.sin, so he didn’t have a Double Jump. How could he dodge this?
Needless to say, this “F*CK” immediately grabbed everyone’s attention. Liu Fei, that talkative girl, glanced over and immediately yelled: “Woah! Xiao Yun, you’ve arrived too!”
Even though they had all seen Qiao Yifan’s screen, even Qiao Yifan himself didn’t know that Xiao Yun had arrived. He was being attacked on all sides by four players. His camera was twirling around and around in chaos. How could he have the energy to see what else was going on.
Everyone turned around their heads to look and all saw Cloudy Heavens flying backwards from Sword Draw. Xiao Yun’s face was extremely gloomy.
After a Quick Recover, Cloudy Heavens immediately got up.
Dragon Tooth, Sky Strike, Double Stab, Falling Flower, Circle Swing……
Level 26 Battle Mages only had these skills too, plus a few normal attacks.
Chasers? Cloudy Heavens carried seven of them, but Chasers weren’t something that could be fired as he pleased. The instant an attack hit its target, the Chaser would automatically fire at that target. Cloudy Heavens exchanged blow after blow with Lord Grim, but was never able to hit him. And in the blink of an eye, 30 seconds pa.s.sed and the seven Chasers cleanly faded away. Xiao Yun’s face turned extremely ugly as if it had produced an Ice Chaser.
This account’s level is too low. If not…… Xiao Yun complained, while madly tapping his keyboard and clicking his mouse.
The irritated Xiao Yun finally exposed an opening and was. .h.i.t by Lord Grim’s Dragon Tooth.
Xiao Yun cursed to himself. His Cloudy Heavens had entered a Stunned state. Lord Grim launched a Sky Strike and Cloudy Heavens flew high into the air.
Xiao Yun immediately adjusted his camera angle.
Players weren’t NPCs. A lot of NPCs would be tyrannically oppressed in midair and had no way of escaping. But players could still act in air. Appropriate actions, for example, even a normal attack at the correct moment, could let the player escape from a mid-air predicament. But no matter how it was said, after being hit into the air, the player would be at a disadvantage. Escaping from such a predicament wasn’t easy.
But for pro-players, these were all required courses that they had to learn through intense training. No one could ensure that they wouldn’t be knocked up during a PK battle, which was why players had to practice how to get out of a mid-air predicament.
Xiao Yun’s fundamentals weren’t bad. His camera had already turned and stabilized. However, he was unable to find Lord Grim.
Xiao Yun stared blankly.
Since there were ways to escape from mid-air, of course there were ways to keep the target in the air. Players could still move in the air. However, their movements were extremely limited. For example, the amount the camera angle could be s.h.i.+fted was limited. You want to move your camera angle 720 degrees while in midair? Then your body might as well be a spiraling gyroscope. If someone helped you, then maybe you could pull it off.
At this moment, Xiao Yun turned his camera angle again, but Lord Grim was still nowhere to be seen. He now knew that Lord Grim had already entered his dead angle. Lord Grim was next to him, but was at a place invisible to him!
Only someone with lots of experience and accurate decision-making could do this.
In order to respond to this, the other side had to have lots of experience and accurate decision-making as well.
In an instant, Xiao Yun lost all confidence. Where was his dead angle located? He suddenly lost track. He wasn’t able to make a decision, so he could only blindly make an attack towards a random direction and then pray.
The attack hit nothing but air and Xiao Yun’s prayer was useless.
He received an attack soon afterwards. He basically didn’t know what type of skill he was. .h.i.t with because his opponent was still invisible, still in his dead angle. Xiao Yun spun and spun until he was almost about to vomit. In the end, besides the blue sky, there was only mother earth. And at most, he would catch a glimpse of Lord Grim’s blood-red Vampire Cloak. But every time Xiao Yun attacked in a direction, all he ever hit was air.
Gao Yingjie finally arrived. Right when he was about to rush forward and rescue his good friend, the scene in front of him made him completely dumbstruck.
Cloudy Heavens was rolling around and around in the sky as if he really was like a flying cloud.
Gao Yingjie could clearly see that Xiao Yun was struggling and what he saw more clearly was Lord Grim’s beautiful pathing. He obviously understood what the purpose of this pathing was. In Glory, this type of pathing had a special term for it: Vanis.h.i.+ng Step.
You always knew that your opponent was at your side, but you would never be able to see him. This was Vanis.h.i.+ng Step’s purpose.
But for experts, even if they couldn’t see your position, they could still rely on experience and decision-making to deduce your position. As long as you escaped from a mid-air situation, Vanis.h.i.+ng Step would naturally stop.
This was a compet.i.tion between their experience and decision-making. And as for Cloudy Heavens, who was being completely suppressed up in the air, there was clearly a large gap in both experience and decision-making between him and Lord Grim.
Gao Yingjie couldn’t help but stealthily glance towards Xiao Yun.
In his eyes, he saw a fuming Xiao Yun, who was slamming his keyboard and mas.h.i.+ng his mouse like crazy.