The King's Avatar
chapter-1009

Eh, does Life Extinguisher have enough mana to wipe him out in one go?" At this time Pan Lin raised a question, one that almost everyone was concerned about. Life Extinguisher's mana was indeed very low, especially after it had been squandered in order to escape from the clutches of Death's Door. It looked as if it could run out at any moment.

Li Yibo didn't immediately reply. After carefully examining the situation for a moment, he finally responded. "Xiao Shiqin is currently using many normal attacks to connect his offense and suppress his opponent. He is being extremely careful."

"From their mana..." As Pan Lin looked at Life Extinguisher's mana consumption and Windward Formation's health decrease, he was momentarily stumped.

Li Yibo once again didn't reply. However, when he carefully examined the situation again, he too couldn't figure out the problem. From his observations, there was definitely insufficient mana. However, Life Extinguisher's attack rhythm was very steady. At this moment, when his mana had been completely exhausted, he had suddenly started holding his fire. Li Yibo thought that this kind of thing shouldn't happen when fighting against a peak pro player.

Digging himself into a hole was something that Li Yibo hadn't done infrequently. However, when he could avoid it, he always did. Now, he didn't dare to recklessly come to a conclusion, because he was very aware of the fact that players at Xiao Shiqin's level couldn't be completely understood by him in this day and age.

Life Extinguisher's assault continued, yet many of the spectators had already forgotten to watch the battle, instead focusing on Life Extinguisher's mana bar. They wanted to see when the light blue bar, which showed the character's fighting strength, would reach its limit.

Still not there, never there!

Life Extinguisher miraculously continued his attacks, fighting very conservatively. It wasn't at all like the previous two matches, especially not like the one with Deception, large-scaled and ostentatious. If the match with Deception could be called indiscriminate bombing, then Life Extinguisher's current offensive could be likened to driving a train, car after car cleanly crossing in front of you. Every car accomplished its mission, never failing once.

"A very efficient offensive . . ." After a long period of silence, Pan Lin finally jumped out with this line.

"Indeed," Li Yibo nodded. So far, Life Extinguisher had landed every hit without fail. Each blow had managed to achieve its purpose, something that was almost unbelievable on a professional stage. It wasn't as if his opponent was a corpse.

Except, at this moment Windward Formation seemed to be a corpse, being rigidly suppressed.

"Wei Chen ... has fallen into a trap." Li Yibo suddenly came to this conclusion.

"What?"

"Xiao Shiqin just reversed the situation, utilizing the terrain. Everything Wei Chen relied on before has suddenly become a trap. See ..." Just as Li Yibo said this, the screen showed Windward Formation backed into a corner from trying to evade the attacks. However, just as he turned, a land mine suddenly exploded. Wei Chen had nowhere to hide, because he was being attacked from all sides.

"When was that landmine placed?" Pan Lin suddenly yelled out. "Since Xiao Shiqin began his offensive, Life Extinguisher hasn't had a chance to visit this position."

"What about before?" Li Yibo asked.

"Before ..." Pan Lin suddenly had a vague impression, "It appears that he had come over, but at that time ..."

"At that time he was still being suppressed by Windward Formation's use of the terrain," Li Yibo continued.

Pan Lin was shocked. Absolutely and thoroughly shocked. He even forgot that he was currently providing live commentary. He had no words to describe the amazement he was currently feeling in his heart. Xiao Shiqin had actually placed a land mine at this spot at that time. This meant that he had already planned his attack at that moment.

Xiao Shiqin wasn't at all unaware of Wei Chen's strategy of utilizing the map. He had simply beat Wei Chen at his own game, using himself as an experiment to reveal Wei Chen's plans. In fact, he had already made plans to counterattack at that time. Every move he made now had been precisely calculated. This was how his highly efficient offense had come about.

Master Tactician Xiao Shiqin. His fundamental grasp of Glory had only truly been revealed at this moment. He had this sly old fox in the palm of his hand, completely reversing everything that Wei Chen depended on. The following offensive had pretty much followed a defined sequence of events. Every move pressured Wei Chen, giving him no choice but to respond as expected. And each of these responses unfortunately gave Xiao Shiqin more opportunities to make things difficult for him, to the extent that basic attacks became the main method of reducing Windward Formation's health. This could be easily seen in the statistics outputted by the system.

In terms of effectively injuring Windward Formation, the percentage of damage done by basic attacks was an astonishing 41.12%. This was indeed an extremely unusual circumstance, and as a result the broadcast specially cut to an image of the statistics to display to the viewers.

There wasn't another explosion nor another mistake.

Xiao Shiqin's movements truly seemed like those of a Mechanic, highly efficient and accurate.

Excellent Era was victorious. Xiao Shiqin had completed a 1v3, bringing Excellent Era a beautiful opening in the group arena, one that couldn't possibly be more perfect. The Excellent Era fans in the stadium couldn't control their excitement. The cheers they made drowned everything else out. Even words said face-to-face needed to be shouted to be heard.

In this situation, Wei Chen could only imagine the treatment he would receive. Yet, he was already past the point of caring about these things. As he returned to his seat on Happy's side, his face was grave, to the point that Chen Guo almost couldn't recognize him. His face was full of disappointment and concern, disappointment about this match, and concern for how the following matches would play out. This ... where was the shameless Wei Chen that they were all so familiar with?

"With Xiao Shiqin's successful 1v3, we can pretty much guarantee Excellent Era's victory in the group arena. The real question is how many points can they obtain."

"Under the new system of calculating points based on the number of players, even with this big of a lead, the team in the lead can't relax. Of course, Happy is even less likely to let their guards down. So, who will Happy send onstage next?"

The camera pointed towards Team Happy's preparation area. The person who stood up was completely unfamiliar to the camera, because prior to this, he had never allowed himself to appear on screen, refusing any coverage. Except this time, after coming out of retirement, he didn't seem to resist at all.

"It's Ye Qiu!!" Even though Pan Lin didn't recognize him, he could see who it was from the competition's lineup. "Now he ought to be called Ye Xiu, but simply changing a name doesn't erase much. Happy's fourth player is indeed Excellent Era's former captain, the founder of Glory's first dynasty, God Ye Qiu. After announcing his retirement, he suddenly established the grassroots Team Happy to return to the Glory scene. Throughout the Challenger League, he has brought us many surprises. And now, he and his team have reached the Challenger League finals, but blocking their path now is his old mother team, the team with which he won endless glory and countless cheers with. Now, Ye Xiu is representing Team Happy onstage. Team Happy has had a very unfavorable beginning in the group arena, while Excellent Era resolutely sent out their God Xiao Shiqin, showcasing his might in the group arena. Even though his character's mana is mostly depleted, I can't imagine that he'll back off easily. In the previous round, Xiao Shiqin also had this miniscule amount of mana, using basic attacks to dish out 50% of his damage and achieving an ultimate victory. How will he perform this round, facing against Ye Xiu?" As soon as he saw Ye Xiu onstage, Pan Lin was also excited. Why had this year's Challenger League received so much attention? Wasn't it just for this very moment?

"Ye Xiu is walking towards the competition area. Communicating in the stadium is very difficult now. If I took off my headphones right now, all I would hear is booing. That's right, sounds of booing. The audience is currently booing Ye Xiu very loudly. The following match is, in reality, one that many are unwilling to watch. Especially the Excellent Era fans; this booing is their protest. Their former hero has now become their enemy. For a long time now, this has been a type of cruelty in the pro scene. Ye Xiu had once borne the weight of far too much of Excellent Era's troubles. Now, his animosity is something that many fans are unable to accept. This type of attitude is something we can all understand. However, a competition is still a competition. No matter what, we're still hoping to see an exciting round."

"At present, Ye Xiu has already entered the competition booth, and both characters have already been loaded. The match is about to begin. From the data on-screen, we can see that Life Extinguisher truly has very little mana left. If he still wants to kill his opponent like this, then I think his normal attacks would have to make up for more than 95% of his damage output, right?"

From the moment Ye Xiu appeared, Pan Lin had remained excited. Even as Ye Xiu walked over to the player booth, he had talked incessantly, not pausing until this moment when he had finally given Li Yibo a chance to get a word in.

"He he, there's really no point in calculating this. Life Extinguisher's remaining mana really isn't enough to launch any kind of offense. Even during the last round, although normal attacks did a significant amount of the damage, the things that truly suppressed and controlled Windward Formation were still his gadgets. With Life Extinguisher's current mana supply, there's really no suspense to this match. Let's instead watch in anticipation for the dialogue these two will exchange!" Li Yibo said.

Dialogue?

There was no dialogue.

As the fourth round of the group arena began, Xiao Shiqin finally stopped relying on tactics to open the match. Instead, he directly controlled Life Extinguisher to move towards the center of the map, directly meeting Lord Grim in the middle. The two sides clashed without hesitation. Life Extinguisher's mana level was indeed too low to back up his attacks. After a few exchanges, Life Extinguisher's mana ran out completely, and afterwards, the match concluded in the most straightforward way possible: after typing out a GG in the public channel, he directly withdrew from the match. (Author Note: GG is a polite phrase used in esports meaning Good Game. If you don't know this, let me spread the word).

Withdrawing meant admitting defeat. In the esports scene, this had always been allowed, and Glory was no exception. Although Life Extinguisher still had some health left after his mana ran out, Xiao Shiqin decisively used this method to withdraw. No one in the audience felt much regret about this. Rather, they exploded in enthusiastic cheers and applause.

At this, even Excellent Era's boss Tao Xuan smiled in satisfaction, standing up to applaud. In this manner, he showed his support for Xiao Shiqin's decision to directly withdraw.

Continuing to skirmish and tiring out the opponent a bit would also have been okay. However, with this kind of dominating lead, continuing to fuss over small amounts really wouldn't be proper for a former dynasty team. Tao Xuan felt very gratified that Xiao Shiqin had not brought his habits from his previous team over to Excellent Era. This kind of relentless fighting really didn't suit Excellent Era, especially against this kind of opponent. As for Xiao Shiqin's performance, Tao Xuan was truly pleased. He had integrated into this team well, possessing the style that the team should have.

At this moment, Excellent Era's second player had already stood up, a youth that was unfamiliar to many people. Under the cover of the stadium's cheers for Xiao Shiqin, he silently walked towards Excellent Era's player booth.