5 minutes before the battle started, both teams had entered the mock arena. Lone Desert Smoke was represented by the color red and Youthful Era was represented by the color blue.
"Our opponents are mostly physical attackers," said Zhang Yang as he observed the opponent’s team line up and class composition. "Do not underestimate the enemy. To stand here, facing us, they have no doubt earned the spot. We cannot afford to be careless."
"Alright then, what’s the battle plan?"
"Focus fire on one guy at a time."
"You call that a battle plan?!"
Everyone else other than Zhang Yang and Sun Xin Yu rolled their eyes.
"There was never a battle plan to begin with. It all depends on how the enemy reacts and we will react accordingly. I’m just reminding you to be careful. Never let your guard down!"
"You don’t say…"
"They have two Berserkers in their party. My guess is they intend to spam {Blast Wave}. They will prolly split up and fan out. Be careful not to stand in between those two Berserkers, or you will be stunned till kingdom come."
{Blast Wave} was a rare skill when players were still in the Level 40 stage. But three months after that, many players had known about the skill book from Kukulo Centaur tribe reputation shop. The higher the level, the easier it was to farm Reputation Points. Basically, almost all Level 60 players around had already possessed the skill.
"Hey noob tank, you go on and on like an old grandma," said Wei Yan Er.
"This grandma is gonna slap your naughty butt!" said Zhang Yang, pretending to be angry.
"Ayy! You stinky pervert!" cried Wei Yan Er while blushing like a ripe peach.
"Pervert!" Han Ying Xue, Daffodil Daydream, and even the ever silent Sun Xin Yu scolded him in unison.
Zhang Yang cried a river. The way he treated Wei Yan Er was like a big brother teaching his young sister. It was just a sibling-like relation! Nothing more! Even if he wanted to get himself some loli, he would be picking someone else with a curved front! Not this little flat ironing board!
‘Ding! The battle of Team 1 Lone Desert Smoke vs Youthful Era will begin in 10 seconds!’
10, 9, 8, 7 , 6…3,2,1!
The green lights was lit and the invisible wall of air was removed. Both sides started to rush towards each other with the intention to kill.
Zhang Yang and his bear sticked together like bread and butter and rushed, at the foremost of his party like a knife straight through the enemy’s heart.
{Wild Charge}! {Charge}! {Charge}! {Charge}! {Charge}!
Wei Yan Er, Cloud Dancer, Frozen Starburst, and Zhang Yang’s [Gold-Eared Bear King] all activated their {Charge}. Stuns appeared on both sides. Zhang Yang had been taking cover behind the bear and had remained unscathed. He swung the Dark Enigmatic Sword in his hand and struck Cloud Dancer.
‘-2,281!’
His gained some Rage points, enough to cast a {Horizontal Sweep}!
‘-4,452!’
‘-4,890!’
Divinity’s Son was startled. He had never seen anyone with such destructive power before. Zhang Yang, as a Guardian could actually damage Cloud Dancer for more than 6,000 HP! He quickly chanted a healing spell to save her.
In the nick of time, Daffodil Daydream {Apparated} right into range and cast {Counter Magic} to immediately interrupt Divinity’s Son casting of {Divine Ray}, also forcing all of his Holy attribute skills to enter a cool down period.
"I’ve been silenced! Guys, hurry up and target their team’s Spellcaster!" cried Divinity’s Son to his team.
Divinity’s Son was positioned in the rear. He had never anticipated that Daffodil Daydream would actually {Apparate} right in midst of the team just to cast {Counter Magic}! A Spellcaster was naturally weak in Defense, and with Cloth armor, they were extremely weak to physical attacks. That was why they would normally hide behind the team and attack. Her sudden unforeseen action had confounded Divinity’s Son! However, now that Daffodil Daydream had appeared in the mouth of the tiger, she had become the clear target for attacking!
*Poof*
Gentle Flare, the enemy’s Assassin had appeared and stunned Daffodil Daydream with {Ambush}. However, before he could even move the dagger in his hands, Sun Xin Yu appeared behind with a poof as well. Similarly, she cast {Ambush} on him and started to bleed him out. What better way to describe this, than out of the frying and into the fire.
Wei Yan Er, Cloud Dancer, Frozen Starburst, and Zhang Yang’s [Gold-Eared Bear King] all recovered at almost the same second. The two enemy warriors swiftly turn around and headed towards the still swaying Daffodil Daydream. Prosperity Puppet was drawing her bow on the other end, ready to release a volley of arrows towards Daffodil Daydream.
"Kill Cloud Dancer first!" Zhang Yang cried. Right before an enemy’s attack was about to land on Daffodil Daydream, he quickly cast {Sacrifice} and protected her.
Transferred!
Transferred!
Transferred!
Cloud Dancer and Frozen Starburst and struck Daffodil Daydream with {Destructive Smash} and a normal attack. Prosperity Puppet had attacked with a normal shot and a {Take Aim}. Though she might seem to be taking the hits, the damage was all transferred to Zhang Yang.
"What a turn of events! Player Zhan Yu was able to protect player Daffodil Daydream with {Sacrifice} in just the nick of time! Look at that! It was in fact a 0.01 second before the attack had landed! The blue team attackers could not cancel their attacks in time and had just wasted a volley of skills!"
"Change target! Attack Drizzler!" Cloud Dancer and Frozen Starburst communicated in the party channel and they all wheeled around to Wei Yan Er at the same time.
Even though their first attack had failed, it had managed to force Zhang Yang to cast {Sacrifice}. They deemed it a fair trade.
It was hard not to notice two men running to you; Wei Yan Er saw them coming to attack her and grinned knowingly. She activated {Blood Rage} and swung the huge battle axe.
‘-8,016!’
‘-8,212!’
{Tornado Cleave}.
Unlike the other two guys that were about to attack her, Wei Yan Er had a level 60 Yellow-Gold weapon, and also plenty of skill points to spare. She had used those extra skill points and raised {Tornado Cleave} to Level 10, pushing the skill’s attack power to 170% melee damage. It may seem little but the final output was far stronger than their 150% melee damage - {Destructive Smash}.
Zhang Yang charged towards Cloud Dancer and used {Destructive Smash}, dealing a satisfying number of 4,444 damage. Even though Cloud Dancer had consumed a bottle of [Level 3 Healing Potion], he was unable to escape death.
Right then, the {Counter Magic} on Divinity’s Son had just ended. He was halfway through casting a healing spell when the target had dropped dead, automatically cancelling the spell.
He then quickly changed his target to Gentle Flare. Being attacked by Sun Xin Yu continuously, his HP was already dropping down like fully open faucet. She had equipped the new [Blade of Spider's Fang], which gave her a huge boost in attack power, and the blade had a powerful DoT effect.
However, just when he started chanting a spell, the white bear pounced on Divinity’s Son. With a swift blow from the bear’s claw, his spell casting was instantly dragged longer.
In the game, whenever a player receives an attack while casting a spell, there’s a 70% chance that the casting duration would be extended. The limit was that it could not be extended to twice the original duration. Which meant that, a 2 second casting skill could be extended to at most only 4 seconds.
Divinity’s Son was left flummoxed. He could grant himself the opportunity to finish his cast with a {Holy Shield}. But, it was just an attack from a pet! To use an important surviving skill just to cast a healing spell would be a complete waste! But, if he did not use {Holy Shield} he would not be able to save Gentle Flare.
The tide of war has turned, and the atmosphere was filled with confusion. With the healer left there standing unable to do anything at all, Sun Xin Yu’s dagger slashed on swiftly and relentlessly, without giving any chance to Gentle Flare to retaliate. She only stopped attacking when Gentle Flare dropped dead.
5v3!
Youthful Era quickly admitted defeat to prevent themselves from being put through more shame. That being said, losing a match would not mean that they will lose the next match!
With that, the match was concluded with Lone Desert Smoke moving on to the victory team.
"Sigh…What a let down!’ said Wei Yan Er as she removed her gaming helmet while blowing raspberries towards Zhang Yang.
In truth, Zhang Yang felt the same way. Even though everyone had experience with PvP, he had not expected to find such sore losers in such a professional match.
Even though there were preliminary rounds in the city, there were only 16 matches in this event. Back then, random parties were matched with random parties, and players could not come up with solid strategies in time, nor proper team lineups to counter the other parties.
After all, the professional league will only be held after this Soaring Swords competition. That was why the average capability of the players was still low. Unlike Zhang Yang, who had already been fighting in the professional league for at least two years! Recalling back the days when he was actually fighting professional players, it made him feel slightly melancholic.
The second battle started just after 10 minutes, featuring the fight between Angel Wings and Emperor’s Return. The two battle teams were strong, but the that team emerged victorious was Angel Wings. Emperor’s Return was sent off to the losing division, to go through further battles. Lone Desert Smoke will be facing Angel Wings in just the next 10 minutes.
Zhang Yang had spent his time carefully observing each of the team’s equipment and status. "I think they might be using all Vitality type gemstones." Zhang Yang scratched his chin. "That has to be the explanation. How else could they all have more than 15,000 HP?"
"Hey hey! Noob tank! Look! Their Guardian seems very strong!" said Wei Yan Er as her eyes glinted with interest.
In the previous battle between Angel Wings and Emperor’s Return, the Guardian from Angle Wings, Mei Chao Fung performed rather well. With skills executed at precise timing and accuracy, he managed to use {Thunder Strike} to slow, {Blast Wave} to stun, {Sacrifice} to cover a teammate, and other heroic acts that had made him stood out like sore thumb…or a hero to aspire for, depending on whose side you were on. It was safe to say that without Mei Chao Fung, Angel Wings would definitely be far inferior to Emperor’s Return.
Zhang Yang nodded his head and agreed with Wei Yan Er. Zhang Yang could see his past self in Mei Chao Fung. Back then, in his previous life, he was person who led the team. Lacking strong team mates and a good leader, Zhang Yang had to take the mantle and had dragged the team to survive in the Class A Professional League.
He laughed. "Leave this man to me. I’ll personally handle him myself. I’ll leave the rest of his team to you guys, yeah?"
"Hehehe! You betcha! I’ve got no interest in hacking away at an empty turtle shell anyway! I’ll take care of the rest! Leave it to this young lady!" said Wei Yan Er confidently as she patted her flat chest.
"Hey! Stop hitting that spot! You’re gonna iron yourself flat-ter! At this rate, you’ll end up inverted!"
"What!?"
‘Ding! The battle of Lone Desert Smoke Team 1 vs Angel Wings will start in 10 seconds!’
After the 10 seconds countdown ended, Zhang Yang sent the white bear to target the opponent’s healer while he targeted Mei Chao Fung.
{Charge}! {Charge}!
Two Guardians slid through the floor, dragging their swords and clashing into each other, sending both of them into a state of stun. In just 1 second, both of them recovered. Mei Chao Fung felt that it would be rather meaningless, fighting against a hard tank. He might have a strong defense, but his attack was weak. Facing another opponent with a strong defense and attack, it would be a questionable act if he could even damage Zhang Yang.
A Guardian’s main role in a PvP match was rather fixed.
1. To provide {Sacrifice} and {Vanguard Aggression} to help with the survivability of the entire team.
2. To use all crowd control skills to help maintain the tide of war.
3. To disrupt healing efficiency with {Destructive Strike}.
In the end, Mei Chao Fung turned back around and targeted Wei Yan Er instead of Zhang Yang.