I rubbed my eyes in disbelief as I stared at the score on the screen. A bit of bitterness leaked into my voice as I muttered, "Is it over…"
To think that I didn"t even get the chance to fight my match...
Gui Guzi clenched his fists tightly. High Fighting Spirits punched the wall beside him. Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun was clenching his teeth in hatred, but couldn"t find a place to vent his emotions.
I could see the deep regret etched onto Chaos Moon"s features as she walked out of the battle room. Before she could say anything, I said, "It"s not your fault. Lin Bing Dou Zhe was far stronger than we thought, and we had all underestimated him. It wasn"t an undeserved loss…"
"Mn."
Chaos Moon nodded, but her eyes were full of sadness.
……
It was at this moment Warsky walked up the stage with a mic and a hearty chuckle, "Thank you for cheering for us, everyone. This friendly match had been most interesting, and on behalf of the Pepsi e-sports club I would like to thank everyone for your support. Besides that…"
He looked at me and said, "I hope that the vice leader of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand will honor his promise. If a new territory appears in Sky City, they must stay away from it and not contest for it!"
I replied solemnly, "Don"t worry. My word is my bond!"
"Good, you really are the 7th-place CGL Hall of Famer, hahaha! Thank you for your generosity; the third territory of Sky City is ours for sure!"
I gritted my teeth, but didn"t know what to say.
It was at this moment Laughing At The Heavens chuckled. "You have Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand and Beiming Xue, but you still lost. Is this all Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls got? Candle Dragon must"ve been dreaming when they lost to you at the Nine Lost Dragon Domains. What a joke…"
"Shut up, Heavens!" Warsky abruptly looked back and growled at his player.
Our nerves were already fragile in the first place, and the provocation snapped it completely. Gui Guzi pointed straight at Laughing At The Heavens and shouted, "Who do you think you are, Laughing At The Heavens? You have no right to talk down on Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! The CGL Hall of Fame committee must be blind to include trash like you in their ranking when there are at least seventy people at your level in Sky City!"
I hurriedly stopped him. "Are you trying to kill your own reputation, Little Gui? There are a ton of media people here!"
Gui Guzi clenched his fists and forcefully swallowed his anger.
Unfortunately, it was too late. Some of the cameras had to have captured the hostile exchange. In the end, the "friendly" match had become decidedly unfriendly.
……
Suddenly, a man with a dirty face and a bag behind his back burst through the entrance. He looked at us and shouted from afar, "How did it go? What is the result?"
The man was none other than Li Chengfeng. Heaven knows how many red lights he ran through to get here this quickly. When he saw the score on the screen, he let out a shout of anger and disbelief, "We lost? How is this possible?"
I gave him a nod. "We lost."
Li Chengfeng ran up the stage. "But you and Beiming Xue are here. How on earth did we lose this?"
I replied, "We lost a lot of rounds at the beginning, so the match was over before I even got to partic.i.p.ate…"
……
It was at this moment Warsky said with a smile, "You are too late, dragon warrior. The match is over. That being said, it was still a pleasant spar, wasn"t it? Hehe!"
"Pleasant your sister!"
Li Chengfeng abruptly turned toward Warsky and pointed a finger at him. "Warsky, I challenge your guild to a KOTH match right now! Do you dare to accept my challenge? If you don"t then f.u.c.k off back to where you came from! This isn"t the place for second-rate guilds like you to embarra.s.s yourselves!"
Caught off-guard and angered by Li Chengfeng"s provocation, Warsky retorted, "Li Chengfeng, that is uncalled for! If you want a KOTH, then a KOTH is what you"ll get! Warsky Alliance isn"t afraid of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! We will both send five players to battle, but if you lose I want you to kneel on the ground and apologize to my guild! Do you dare to accept this?"
Li Chengfeng raised his eyebrows and replied arrogantly, "Why would I not?"
……
Most of the audience thought that the match was over, and they were about to withdraw from the venue after getting their free mineral water bottle. No one was expecting Li Chengfeng to start a bloodbath the moment he arrived.
The KOTH match format was a pretty cla.s.sic PvP format. Each side sends one player to the stage, and the winner of the fight stays behind to fight the next challenger. The team of the last man standing would become the winner of the match. Unlike most match formats, the KOTH match format was way more biased toward an individual"s strength. It was entirely possible for an ace player to solo the entire enemy team by themselves!
It was why people said that KOTH matches were where heroes were born. It was always exciting to watch a single player sweeping the entire team by themselves!
The reason Warsky requested a five-player limit was to remove their weakest player, Hundred Battler, from the equation. Everyone else in the team was an incredible player in their own right, not to mention that Lin Bing Dou Zhe"s strength was mostly a mystery to all of us. He was probably the main reason why Warsky had dared to answer the challenge.
Li Chengfeng said with a growl, "Warsky, as mentioned earlier, I will kneel to you and say "I"m sorry, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls is inferior to Warsky Alliance" if we lose. But if you lose, I want you to kneel on the ground and say, "I"m sorry, Warsky Alliance is inferior to Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls" as well! You"re not going to chicken out, are you?"
Warsky replied with explosive anger, "Like h.e.l.l! If you want a fight, I"ll give you one!"
Beneath the stage, the crowd was positively exploding with excitement. Well, it was understandable. The friendly match had turned into personal attacks after all.
Warsky was counting on Farewell Song and Lin Bing Dou Zhe to carry his guild to victory, whereas Li Chengfeng was counting on me.
After the match format and partic.i.p.ants were confirmed, the player order of both sides were displayed on the screen—
Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls: Legendary Brave, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, Beiming Xue, Chaos Moon, Gui Guzi
Warsky Alliance: Farewell Song, Lin Bing Dou Zhe, October Rain, Laughing At The Heavens, Warsky
……
Li Chengfeng and I wrangled with each other for a long time before I finally relented and gave up the first slot. The dragon warrior was clearly angry as h.e.l.l and hoping to enact vengeance upon Warsky Alliance by defeating all five enemy players by himself. Should he fail, I would go next as the central pillar of the team. Gui Guzi was put at the last slot as our last bastion.
Warsky Alliance"s player order was just as direct as ours. Farewell Song went first because he was their best player, and he had the skill to sweep five players by himself. Lin Bing Dou Zhe went next because he had unorthodox skills that gave him the ability to act as a sweeper. Warsky was their last bastion. Overall, it was a pretty logical order.
"Let go already!"
Still carrying his bag, Li Chengfeng went into the battle room like he couldn"t wait to begin. The dragon warrior was so eager to redeem his team and guild that he couldn"t even spare the effort to take a sip of water.
Farewell Song went into the battle room as well. Soon, both players appeared inside the arena.
Both Li Chengfeng and Farewell Song were super top-tier players. None of them had a clear advantage over the other, so victory could go either way. It all depended on who had the better mentality and state at the time.
……
Agi couldn"t help but smile as he watched Li Chengfeng"s back. "Haha, this Li Chengfeng is quite a hot-blooded guy, isn"t he?"
I nodded in agreement. "That is why I believe that your choice of signing Li Chengfeng is perfect!"
Agi chuckled. "True, though to be honest you and Beiming Xue were the players we wanted to sign the most. Unfortunately Lenovo got to you first before we could do anything…"
I grinned. "Let"s watch. This one"s guaranteed to be an intense and exciting fight."
"Right!"
……
Just as we predicted, Li Chengfeng and Farewell Song fought for five full minutes, pitting the full breadth of their equipment, skill and technique against each other. We saw all sorts of techniques such as aggressive defense, b.u.t.terfly maneuvers, helix maneuvers, combos, knockback-and-recovery and more, and they were all well-timed and controlled. Forget the others who looked like they were fighting the battle themselves, even I was fully engrossed with the match. Both players were incredibly skillful, and I noticed many minute details that I could use to improve my own skills. As a professional player, it was my habit, no, my duty to refine my existing combat skills and tactics and pick up new skills constantly. If I stopped trying, then it was only a matter of time before I rusted and fell behind my compet.i.tors one day.
In the end, Li Chengfeng was able to bait Farewell Song into a bad move and kill him with just 3% left in his health bar. The entire fight had been extremely precarious, but it was beautifully won nonetheless. When Farewell Song finally dropped to his knees, a thunderous applause and cheer erupted from below the stage. Most of the audiences here idolized Li Chengfeng and Gui Guzi, so of course they were pumped up by his amazing victory.
First blood was ours, and the score turned 1-0. Li Chengfeng"s HP and MP automatically returned to full as he awaited his next challenger, Lin Bing Dou Zhe!
……
Chaos Moon approached me suddenly and said worriedly, "Lin Bing Dou Zhe"s Berserk Fury Strike and Fire Prison of Heaven are incredibly powerful, and we forgot to tell Li Chengfeng about them. I"m worried that…"
I gave her a rea.s.suring smile and replied, "Don"t worry, Li Chengfeng is a top-cla.s.s player, so he has a well-honed sense of crisis. Just wait, Li Chengfeng will find out these skills even without our warning!"
"Mn!"
……
The battle had already started while we were chatting with each other. Both players had been circling each other for half a minute and probing each other to find an opening. Li Chengfeng was in the zone right now, and he didn"t seem to be in any hurry to rush down the enemy.
However, Lin Bing Dou Zhe couldn"t quite suppress his patience. He abruptly charged toward the dragon warrior and kicked off with Barrier Break. He was planning to repeat the same move Chaos Moon had used on him previously!
Swhoos.h.!.+
Li Chengfeng slid to the side and dodged the attack with ease. When he looked back at his opponent, he noticed that flames were surrounding Lin Bing Dou Zhe"s sword all of a sudden. The next moment, the flames were just inches away from Li Chengfeng"s head. If the hot iron were to hit its target, Li Chengfeng would be shackled and immobilized where he was!
"Heh!"
However, Li Chengfeng saw this coming and rolled on the ground, somehow dodging the Fire Prison of Heaven perfectly. The move looked a bit ugly and hasty, sure, but overall speaking, it was a beautiful dodge!
"Fool!"
Lin Bing Dou Zhe turned pale as Li Chengfeng"s voice came from beside him. Li Chengfeng hadn"t underestimated his opponent, but Lin Bing Dou Zhe did!
Thud thud thud thud...
The sounds of metal hitting flesh resounded four times in a row. It was Barrier Break and Dragonbone Flurry.
Lin Bing Dou Zhe collapsed to the ground just like that. Just like that, Li Chengfeng had swept two of Warsky Alliance"s best players, Farewell Song and Lin Bing Dou Zhe!
……
A smile crossed my face as I said, "Interesting. I wonder if Li Chengfeng will achieve a perfect sweep? If he does, I won"t get to partic.i.p.ate again. Am I fated to be just a glorified spectator today?"