Chapter 1414: Double-Edged Bait
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Roll!
Troubling Rain rolled towards the left, dodging the sneaky Qi Bullet from Boundless Sea. In the split second that he rolled, the front, back, left, and right were all quickly swept over by Huang Shaotian as he quickly adjusted his camera angle.
He’d already traversed the terrain before, so he had already visualized possible locations for an ambush, so now, Huang Shaotian only needed to confirm where the enemy was, and where he could break through from.
Of course, informing his teammates of his circ.u.mstances was also of utmost importance.
“Encounter!”
In the short time it took to complete one roll, Huang Shaotian had accomplished many objectives. However, his opponent, Fang Rui, didn’t drop the matter so quickly. Spiral Qi Kill!
Fang Rui’s Qi Master was always in a vulgar-looking half-squat posture, so the angle of his attacks was very different from traditional Qi Masters. Many of his skills were used in an underhanded manner, or from low angles. This time, before Troubling Rain had the chance to get up from his roll, he saw Boundless Sea brandish his fists, surrounded by clouds of twisting Qi, and directly began to attack him.
Roll again!
Huang Shaotian didn’t have any other option, and could only have Troubling Rain roll once more to dodge the attack. At the same moment, he launched his own counterattack.
Sword Draw!
The sword light flew out in the middle of Troubling Rain’s roll. This technique was easy to perform in theory, but if a normal player were to try, the attack would probably end up slas.h.i.+ng into the ground eight times out of ten.
The sword light chopped out.
In the end, what everyone saw was Boundless Sea suddenly flat on the floor, resulting in the sword light harmlessly flying over his head. Afterwards, he raised his b.u.t.t and thrust his hands forwards. Surprisingly, resplendent Qi suddenly gathered on his palms, and in this way, a Flash Burst was sent out.
It was truly unsightly!
Team Blue Rain was very inclusive, and as such, had many bizarre players. Huang Shaotian was calm in the face of such bizarre sights, especially since he wasn’t a particularly tasteful character either. But when it came to this fighting posture of Fang Rui’s Qi Master, he still had some difficulty looking straight at it.
This kind of a posture appearing from a Qi Master was truly too unfitting. It was no wonder that Fang Rui had been quickly tossed aside in this season’s All-Star voting.
The transfer of Boundless Sea was already a painful scar, but to top it off, the transformation of the character was so hideous, making it even more painful to look at!
Whether it was those who enjoyed Fang Rui’s dirty playstyle, or those who had some attachment to the Qi Master Boundless Sea, when they saw this kind of a fighting style, they would tremble uncontrollably, unable to cast such a vote!
But still, no matter how unsightly it was, dealing with it was still extremely troublesome!
Because this fighting style violated all common sense, gauging Fang Rui’s attacks proved to be more difficult. For instance, when he had suddenly went p.r.o.ne on the floor and then suddenly cast a Flash Burst just now, such a move had never been used before by any Qi Master in the ten years of Glory’s history. How could one guard against such a move? Huang Shaotian completely relied on his extraordinary reaction speed and inputs, forcing Troubling Rain to roll one more time to dodge the attack.
In the few moments that these characters had exchanged blows, after the first time that Huang Shaotian’s Troubling Rain rolled to dodge an attack, he unexpectedly not had another chance to stand up, and was stuck rolling on the floor. This kind of rolling left and right was something that Fang Rui was very familiar with, but other people weren’t! Huang Shaotian was suddenly forced into a pa.s.sive position, and on top of that, Fang Rui wasn’t the only person in the area. What about Ye Xiu? Su Mucheng? Qiao Yifan? Just now, he hadn’t seen a single one of them, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t hiding in one corner or another!
What about behind this rock?
As he frantically rolled to dodge Boundless Sea’s attack, Huang Shaotian spotted a huge rock that Troubling Rain had brushed past, and his heart tightened. With their omniscient point of view, the spectators had an even better understanding of what was going on. In the stadium, Happy’s fans were already br.i.m.m.i.n.g with antic.i.p.ation for the next scene, and their cheers had already been prepared, but…
Sword’s Divine Judgement!
Unexpectedly, in the same instant that Troubling Rain brushed past the rock, Huang Shaotian used the Blade Master’s Awakening skill.
Schwing!
A sound like a sword leaving its sheath rang out, and sword qi flew out in a circle around him.
Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim was indeed hiding behind the rock, but Huang Shaotian’s willingness to burn a powerful Awakening skill to protect against a counterattack was beyond most people’s expectations. Any attack would be interrupted by the stun from the sword qi of Sword’s Divine Judgement, so Ye Xiu had no choice but to raise the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella, using the s.h.i.+eld form to receive the stun effect from the skill.
Immediately afterwards, Troubling Rain rolled again, unexpectedly heading towards Lord Grim, who was behind the rock. With this change of direction, he had actually managed to temporarily shake off Boundless Sea, who had been chasing and attacking him the whole way. Huang Shaotian finally had Troubling Rain stand up and straighten himself, but the mountain pa.s.s that stood in his way was not easy to get past.
Falling Flower Palm!
In the same instant that the umbrella was closed, Lord Grim sent a Falling Flower Palm towards his opponent.
In front was Lord Grim, behind was Boundless Sea.
Falling Flower Palm had a long range and significant knockback. If he wanted to dodge, there was no time, and whether he parried or blocked, he couldn’t prevent being knocked back. In this moment, almost everyone felt that Huang Shaotian really had no options left, and in the end……
Immortal Guides the Way!
The Blade Master skill, Immortal Guides the Way, had a strong knockback effect, and if one were to compare, it was significantly stronger than Falling Flower Palm’s effect. But with the distance between the two characters now, and with Falling Flower Palm already being used, could Immortal Guides the Way be fast enough?
It could!
In that tiny window of opportunity, Troubling Rain unexpectedly succeeded in performing Immortal Guides the Way, something that was inconceivable to many people. Even if Huang Shaotian’s hand speed had exploded, there was still the restriction of the character’s attributes and the skill’s properties. At this moment, this move shouldn’t have been completed on time, right?
“Sword’s Divine Judgement.”
At the end of the day, Li Yibo’s insight was still much stronger than that of the majority of people.
The reason why Immortal Guides the Way was completed in time, was because of the Sword’s Divine Judgement before it.
Sword’s Divine Judgement didn’t actually rely on that circle of sword qi to deal damage. Instead, it was a transformation skill, enhancing the state of the Blade Master’s sword skills.
Under normal circ.u.mstances, no matter how fast the hand speed, Immortal Guides the Way wouldn’t have completed in time, but with the support of the state from Sword’s Divine Judgement, everything had changed.
“So that’s what it is!” Pan Lin’s response was a little slower, only reacting after Li Yibo had finished his explanation, and in that moment, he felt heartfelt admiration. Admiration for Li Yibo realizing what had happened before him, and even greater admiration for Huang Shaotian, who had made such a precise judgement in that instant.
But no matter how precise the judgement, it was no match for sheer numbers.
Immortal Guides the Way had broken Lord Grim’s Falling Flower Palm, but immediately afterwards, Huang Shaotian found that the position Troubling Rain was in unexpectedly had Phantom Ghost power pulsing, with faint blue snowflakes falling, it was an Ice Boundary!
Triple Slas.h.!.+
There wasn’t time to consider the situation more, so Huang Shaotian immediately had Troubling Rain use Triple Slash. The enhancement from Sword’s Divine Judgement also had an effect on Triple Slash, making the sword light sharper and faster than normal. Troubling Rain immediately withdrew from that spot, and as expected, an Ice Boundary took form, creating falling snow within its range. It looked beautiful, but Huang Shaotian had absolutely no intentions of letting Troubling Rain get anywhere close to it.
The Phantom Demon had already made his move, but what about the others?
His camera angle spun quickly, and he saw Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim and Fang Rui’s Boundless Sea already charging towards him again, but he couldn’t see where Qiao Yifan’s One Inch Ash was.
What a pain.
Huang Shaotian hesitated a little, wondering whether or not to ask his teammates to rescue him.
Those four had painstakingly surveyed the battlefield, picked an area, and then finished deploying over there. According to Huang Shaotian’s original plan, he wanted to make himself the bait, and lure Happy over to that area, engaging in a decisive battle there. But now, as the bait, it seemed as if he might not be able to escape the net that Happy had prepared for him.
Not being able to find Qiao Yifan’s One Inch Ash meant that Happy could hide away and keep placing Ghost Boundaries, and eventually, Troubling Rain would be tied down by one of them, trapping him in the area. At that time, if he were to call for help, it would be even more troublesome. In order to help him escape, his team would definitely suffer great losses.
But even if he were to call for help now, what good would it do?
If they were to leave the area where they had set up, Blue Rain’s earlier deployment would have been wasted. On top of that, Happy also had the appropriate arrangements in their area. Trapping Troubling Rain was likely meant to force Blue Rain to show themselves, engaging in a decisive battle on Happy’s terms.
The crux of this game was to see who could lead the other team into their own territory.
Huang Shaotian was the bait, but he was the bait for both teams.
Happy wanted to trap him, thus forcing Blue Rain to move to them to engage in a decisive battle, while Blue Rain was counting on Huang Shaotian to be able to escape, instead leading Happy towards the area in which they had set up.
He couldn’t call for help, if he did, they’d be walking right into Happy’s trap!
But even if Huang Shaotian didn’t call for help, someone else had already done it for him.
“Everyone come and help! Huang Shaotian is going to get killed!!!”
Windward Formation? Wei Chen!
Huang Shaotian saw the name of the person who had sent the message, and could only stare blankly.
Was Happy using this tactic again? Swapping out their sixth player when no one was looking, without any way for the opponents to figure out who their last player was.
Lord Grim, Boundless Sea, One Inch Ash, Windward Formation.
They knew for a fact that Happy had these four characters in the battlefield.
Who was the last one? Was it Su Mucheng’s Dancing Rain, or An Wenyi’s Little Cold Hands?
Common sense dictated that it couldn’t be the Cleric that was switched out, especially in the playoffs, where cautiousness was of the utmost importance.
But still, Happy couldn’t be predicted using common sense. What tactics did they not dare to use? On top of that, Happy’s Cleric had always been viewed as their weakest link, and they often used him as bait, designing traps to protect their Cleric while killing off their opponents.
Swapping out their Cleric was a tactic that they were well-accustomed to using. What protection could be better than throwing their Cleric to the safety of the sixth player’s seat?
What on earth was their lineup?
He couldn’t tell just by looking, so Huang Shaotian could only charge forth, using this to determine Happy’s true team composition.
As for the support zone, it wasn’t close by, meaning that they couldn’t change their lineup whenever they wanted. If he could determine that Happy didn’t have a healer, disrupting their formation and having the whole team engage in a decisive battle there was certainly an option.
“What’s the situation like?” At this time, Yu Wenzhou sent a message in Blue Rain’s team chat, probably in response to Wei Chen’s cry for help on his behalf.
“Get ready to attack,” Huang Shaotian said, relaying his coordinates. “They may not have a healer in their current lineup.”
“No healer, they really have guts!” Yu Wenzhou sighed emotionally. As he had antic.i.p.ated, if Happy wanted to have any real achievements in the playoffs, they couldn’t play by the book. If they really had to face against a team head-on in an open field, Yu Wenzhou believed that Happy might not be able to win against any team that had made it into the playoffs.
Any of these team’s tactics and coordination would be far more mature than that of Team Happy.
So Happy had to be extraordinary, and only then could they achieve victory.
So, what’s your extraordinary move? Yu Wenzhou had constantly been thinking about this question.