Chapter 1186: Never Happened Before
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
After finishing their post-match interviews, Happy's group ran into Heavenly Swords' players.
Being swept 10 to 0 was truly embarrassing, and Heavenly Swords was clearly unhappy with tonight's match. However, they fulfilled the words "enemies on stage, friends off stage." They put their emotions in order and showed their hospitality as hosts to Happy.
Around this time, the other matches this round were also finishing up. The highlight matches this round coincidentally ended with the home teams losing as well.
Tiny Herb versus Blue Rain, 4 to 6.
Wind Howl versus Tyranny, 4 to 6.
The powerful young Team Wind Howl tripped up against the experienced old Team Tyranny. The controversy over Tyranny finally eased after this match.
Apart from these two matches, there was also Samsara versus Misty Rain, ending 9 to 1. Samsara continued onwards with their unstoppable march. During the pre-season, people had been worried about compatibility issues between Sun Xiang and Samsara, but from the looks of it, Sun Xiang's addition to the team was an exceptional move. Whether it was in the individual competitions or the team competition, Samsara's strength had improved remarkably. If their momentum stayed, Sun Xiang's and One Autumn Leaf's transfer could definitely become a classic example of an amazing transfer in the history of Glory.
Apart from these powerhouses, the other powerhouse met with misfortune. Team Void had unexpectedly lost against visiting Team Miracle in their home game.
The other new team this season was not as weak as the other new teams in past seasons. The former Team Excellent Era players that made up Team Miracle showed why they had once been in a powerhouse team. After being swept by Team Blue Rain 10 to 0, Team Miracle was able to win a few points every round. This round was even more of an upset.
Although their 17 points at the moment was able to get them to 17th place, fourth from last, because they were a new team and because the other new team was very popular, the amount of attention towards Team Miracle was limited.
When Samsara complained about their demonic match schedule this season, if anyone had taken a look at Miracle's schedule, they would have noticed that within these seven matches, Miracle had already run into Tyranny, Blue Rain, Tiny Herb, Wind Howl, Misty Rain, and Void.
Demonic schedule? Team Miracle's was even worse. Despite their schedule, for their team to not even be in the relegations zone was already incredible. After this upset, Team Miracle finally received some attention. This team consisting of former Team Excellent Era players as the core had some substance to them.
Apart from these matches, the rest were practically all home team victories. Only Team Parade lost as the home team 4 to 6 against Team 301.
After these seven matches, Samsara remained at the top of the rankings with 58 points with Blue Rain in second. Thunderclap once again showed astonishing improvement. Thunderclap used to be a team pacing back and forth at the edge of the playoff zone. Right now, they had pushed their way to third place with 52 points, the same as Blue Rain. Fourth place, Wind Howl. Fifth place, Tiny Herb. Sixth place, Misty Rain. Seventh place, Void. Eighth place, Tyranny. Not much had changed between these eight playoff teams.
Happy crushed Heavenly Swords 10 to 0. With these 10 points, they were ranked 14th with a total of 29 points, one place up from last round. The bottom two relegation teams were Seaside and Bright Green. The gap between them and the other two teams had grown even wider. The distinction between top, middle, and bottom tier teams were becoming more and more clear.
That night, Happy accepted the hospitality of Heavenly Swords, who had suffered a crushing defeat by their hands. Heavenly Swords, of course, wasn't in too great of a mood. Happy didn't lose themselves just because of this long-awaited win though. At this moment, they were all concerned about one problem: Tang Rou. There was only one round remaining for her five round bet, and their opponents for this final round was Team Tiny Herb.
Complete a 1v3 against Tiny Herb?
Unfortunately, looking at past data, the situation was looking extremely unfavorable. Ever since Wang Jiexi joined Team Tiny Herb, Tiny Herb had never been 1v3ed in the group arena, whether this was against the Battle God, Sword Saint, King of Fighting, or the Great Gunner. The teams with those Gods may have won the group arena in the end, but a 1v3 had never been done before by anyone.
Of course, just because it had never been done before didn't mean it couldn't happen in the future. These statistics were also reported to let people know just how much of a challenge Tang Rou faced.
There were obviously people who were rejoicing at her misfortune and quite a lot of them too. At Happy, the most worried was Chen Guo, of course. She was too afraid to talk to Tang Rou, fearing that her uncontrollable nervousness would infect and disturb her. Right now, she really wanted to hear a concise solution from Ye Xiu.
"What do we do?" she asked Ye Xiu.
Ye Xiu only shook his head. "She can only rely on herself."
"There's nothing you can do?" Chen Guo said.
"It's not possible to have a surefire method for something like a 1v3," Ye Xiu said.
"What if… she fails? What do we do?" Chen Guo was worried!
"Then it'll be her choice," Ye Xiu said.
"Didn't you help her choose 5 rounds? Why didn't you say 50!" Chen Guo didn't care about Ye Xiu's previous explanation.
"Be more serious!" Ye Xiu looked at her and said.
Chen Guo was speechless. She wasn't joking though. If Ye Xiu had said 50, perhaps this matter would have just been left as banter. But then again, even if a reporter like Ruan Cheng didn't deny Happy that opportunity to regard it as a joke, Tang Rou herself might not accept it. When she really put her mind to it, she was quite scary. Chen Guo remembered when Tang Rou helped her complete the Heavenly Domain challenge. Once she had decided on doing it, she kept trying again and again, unable to be pulled away.
Chen Guo let out a long sigh. She had thought of too many ifs. In the end, what had to come would come.
October 25th, the eighth round of the Glory Pro League sounded. There were several powerhouse confrontations: Blue Rain vs Wind Howl, Tyranny vs Misty Rain, Samsara vs Void. However, the match chosen to be broadcast was Happy vs Tiny Herb.
1v3 in 5 rounds was the biggest topic of this match. Even though practically no one thought Tang Rou could do it, they still hoped to personally witness this moment. The broadcast team had chosen this match to comply with the popular opinion.
When it was almost 8 PM, the players on both sides entered the stadium. After greeting each other, the first players in the individual competition went onto the stage. But in the commentary, they still hadn't started introducing these two players. They were still discussing Tang Rou's 1v3.
"A poll on whether Tang Rou could complete this 1v3 just closed right before this match started. We can see that among the 65525 voters, 64388 voters thought that Tang Rou will not be able to achieve a 1v3. In other words, only 1137 people believed in Tang Rou, which comes out to about 1.7%, not even 2%. Coach Li, what are your thoughts?" Pan Lin said.
"Uh… even though Happy is a new team, they're quite popular. We can see this from the number of seats filled in their home stadium. 1.7% means that many Happy supporters don't think that Tang Rou can complete it. In addition, fans don't always vote based on a logical analysis. Most of the times, they vote based on their feelings, a show of their well-wishes. However, from looking at how Happy's supporters are voting, we can see that even among their fans, Tang Rou's bold 1v3 promise is unpopular," Li Yibo started speaking.
"Oh, then what are your thoughts, Coach Li?" Pan Lin asked.
"Haha, the courage and confidence of young players is laudable, but they can't be too ignorant!" Li Yibo said.
"It looks like Coach Li doesn't think highly of Tang Rou's 1v3! Okay, then I'll stand opposite to you. I'll support Tang Rou." Pan Lin laughed. His attitude was clearly just to liven up the atmosphere. It didn't mean he was a true fan.
"If she can really do it, it'll be a historical moment! If I remember correctly, according to past data, Team Tiny Herb has never been 1v3ed before, right?" Li Yibo said.
"Yes! I hope we can see this historical moment! Okay, the first round of the individual competition is about to begin. Happy will be sending out their team captain, the former owner of the Battle God One Autumn Leaf. Nicknamed the Glory Textbook, Ye Xiu is using the unspecialized Lord Grim, a character that has received much attention this season. As for Tiny Herb, they sent out their new generation Witch, the genius Gao Yingjie. This could be considered a confrontation between two generations. The map chosen is Red Plum Pavilion. Coach Li, who do you think will win?" When the match went underway, Pan Lin immediately stopped discussing the topic of Tang Rou's 1v3 and started talking about this confrontation. Asking about predictions of the outcome was a common topic for commentators. In reality, the question wasn't simply for predictions on who would win. In order to make a prediction, an introduction and analysis of the two opposing players had to be done, so it always worked as a conversation topic.
"Ye Xiu is experienced, he's familiar with every class, and he uses an unspecialized. These are where his advantages lay. However, Gao Yingjie has grown into a youth that can take charge. He's young. He has energy. And to Ye Xiu, Gao Yingjie is perhaps an unfamiliar player. They have never fought before." Li Yibo was familiar with how to reply to this type of question. He lay bare the advantages that both sides possessed and didn't talk about his actual prediction. When the outcome of the match became clear, he could just follow up: See, I told you guys XX is very XXXX!
As for this fight? Who would be Li Yibo's justification this time? At this moment, the two sides finally started clashing.
Chapter 1187: Carefully Honed Talent
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Magic Missile!
Gao Yingjie's Kind Tree started out simple, testing the waters with a not-so-powerful Magic Missile.
Lord Grim dodged easily. Obviously, he didn't lack in ranged methods of attack. Myriad Manifestations Umbrella raised, three Anti-Tank Missiles seemed to have been swung out, roaring with a fiery tail as they flew at their target.
Gao Yingjie's Kind Tree immediately waved a hand, and a star shaped symbol was tossed out, transforming into a Magic Ray as it darted forth.
Star Ray?
No!
This Magic Ray accurately struck one of the Anti-Tank Missiles, then immediately rebounded towards another, then another, and then sped right for Lord Grim.
This was a variant of Star Ray: Star Refraction. Compared to Star Ray, it wasn't as powerful, but one could utilize the distinguishing feature of this refraction to create unexpected attacks. Currently, after refracting thrice, the three Anti-Tank Missiles had already exploded in midair, light flashing and smoke billowing. As for Lord Grim? He had no choice but to dodge the attack that came refracted at him.
With his sidestep, Kind Tree was already charging out of the smoke and fire, directly at Lord Grim. With a wave of his hand, a Lava Flask was thrown down, and soon after, he was swinging his broom at Lord Grim. Gao Yingjie's flurry of attacks quickly followed swiftly after his Star Refraction, barely giving Ye Xiu any chance to react.
Sword Draw!
The broom was about to hit Lord Grim's head when a blade of light flashed out. Because of the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella's transformative abilities, it often hid a lot of very easily-distinguishable skills in strange movements. This Sword Draw was exactly this. However, the prodigious Gao Yingjie reacted swiftly. Kind Tree's advance immediately stopped and turned into a backwards jump.
The ground had already melted under the Lava Flask, but Ye Xiu refused to give up such a good opening. Lord Grim used a Knight's Charge and pursued Kind Tree against the damage from the lava.
The two figures moved, immediately changing positions. Lord Grim came over with his Charge while Gao Yingjie's Kind Tree avoided the attack by getting on his broom mid-jump.
Gao Yingjie's reaction speed was truly amazing. Even Ye Xiu was a little surprised at his miss. However, a counterattack immediately followed.
Broom Tornado!
Just barely dodging this attack by riding his broom, Kind Tree immediately turned his broom and quickly swung it down at Lord Grim. The entire process looked as if Kind Tree had simply switched directions twice in midair, smoothly and clearly.
This time, Lord Grim didn't have the time to dodge. With the rapid spinning of the broom that Broom Tornado created, it was hard to parry as well. Ye Xiu could only go onto the defensive, raising his sword horizontally with a Blade Master's Guard. What followed was the continuous sound of the broom clashing with the edge of the sword. Broom Tornado battered at Lord Grim at high speed, sweeping him back.
Star Ray!
Gao Yingjie wasn't greedy. Just as the Broom Tornado was going strong, he suddenly canceled the skill and threw out a Star Ray. At such a close distance, there was no way Lord Grim could dodge. The Magic Ray hit, causing Lord Grim to stumble. Kind Tree's broom was already enchanted with Frost Powder. As it was whipped through the air, it left a trail of shattered ice crystals in the air as it slapped down at Lord Grim.
For melee combat, Witches mostly just used normal attacks, but with specialized magic tools, they could enhance their weapon's damage and enchant their weapon with special effects. For example, Frost Powder had the chance of freezing the target directly. Even if you were unlucky, it would still inflict a slow. Everything depended on the target's resistance.
Now, the number of pieces of Silver equipment on Lord Grim's body was slowly increasing, but he still mostly had Orange equipment. This meant his stats were easy to figure out. Gao Yingjie currently used Frost Powder naturally because he had realized that Lord Grim didn't have much of a resistance to ice.
Slap, slap, slap…
That was how Witches attacked. Even with Frost Powder, normal attacks wouldn't do any significant damage, but if he was hit and frozen, that would be dreadful.
Kind Tree started off with three consecutive attacks which Lord Grim barely dodged. The fourth attack, Gao Yingjie knew the other wouldn't be able to dodge, but that was when Lord Grim threw a handful of powder over as well...
This was...
Gao Yingjie recognized it immediately, but Kind Tree's attack was already sweeping forth, he didn't have time to retract it.
A hit!
As expected, Ye Xiu couldn't dodge this attack, but it was just a hit. What could a normal attack do?
Freezing effect?
It was gone… What Lord Grim had thrown just now was something Gao Yingjie was more than familiar with, the Witch's Disperse Powder. The effect of Frost Powder on his weapon also counted as a buff. When met with Disperse Powder, it was immediately neutralized.
However, only the Frost Powder was neutralized, not Kind Tree's attack. This hit was just a normal attack, without the wanted freeze effect, but with the following attack, Gao Yingjie was already attempting to inflict his own effects.
Sweep!
The broom swept up diagonally with the Witch's knock-up skill. Lord Grim was immediately suspended in the air. Gao Yingjie quickly followed after with Kind Tree to take this chance to unleash a combo, but instead saw the suspended Lord Grim facing him, looking straight at him.
A trap!!!
Gao Yingjie instantly realized.
When struck with a knock-up skill, it was impossible to adjust your position so well, so there was only one explanation: Lord Grim hadn't actually been struck; he had merely jumped up. Ye Xiu had predicted his next move and cooperated to create the illusion that he had been struck, and then he would launch an unexpected counterattack...
The light of a blade flashed and Lord Grim plummeted with a Falling Light Blade. Gao Yingjie was already having Kind Tree hurriedly avoid it, but Falling Light Blade...
With this attack, it was clear that Ye Xiu had once again predicted Gao Yingjie's next move. Falling Light Blade's small shockwave was just enough to capture Kind Tree.
Kind Tree, hit by the shockwave, was knocked to the side. Gao Yingjie rushed to Quick Recover, but Lord Grim had already pursued him over, swing down from overhead with a Collapsing Mountain.
Was Collapsing Mountain a hard to dodge attack? No, but the problem was the timing Ye Xiu chose. He attacked right as Kind Tree was in the middle of his Quick Recover. He couldn't really cancel, but continuing wouldn't do him any good, and it was too late to change directions.
Another trap!
What a troublesome opponent….
In the Season 8, Gao Yingjie rarely had chances to play, so he hadn't fought Ye Xiu before. Afterwards, they had come to a few exchanges in the online game. In the new server, at the beginning, they had been crushed by the unspecialized with their low leveled classes. There was no helping that. For the unspecialized, if it wasn't for the lack of skill points, the class would be mature at level 20. But what about other classes? When they were level twenty, they only had five skills for their class. Even if they learned more from other classes of the same type, that couldn't compare to the unspecialized. Fewer skills meant fewer variations, then, considering how they were against God Ye Xiu with his comprehensive knowledge, their attacks would be easily seen through and dealt with. Training with Ye Xiu in the new server was a painful memory.
Back then, Tiny Herb's members all had the same thought. They all believed that their immature characters had crippled their ability, and would naturally be at a disadvantage against the unspecialized. If it wasn't so, then the result would be very different.
Now, fighting Ye Xiu one on one, Gao Yingjie really wanted to tell those teammates the truth. With a mature character, it really was different from using a low leveled character, but if you were to say the result would be different when fighting Ye Xiu, that wasn't necessarily true. Even with Kind Tree, Gao Yingjie still felt that he was using the low leveled character he had once used against Ye Xiu.
All of his intentions had been seen through, his every move predicted. The attacks God Ye Xiu executed weren't magnificent, but they were inescapable, always timed when you were incapable of dodging. How did he manage to hone his awareness and experience to such a degree? Gao Yingjie was suddenly a little envious. He had hand speed; he was quick at reacting; he could switch between playstyles and combinations whenever he wished. He was a prodigy; he was far faster at learning, at mastering anything thrown his way than other people. However, it was impossible for him to gain the carefully honed talent God Ye Xiu had sharpened from who knew how many battles.
It seemed as if everything that he was doing was being discerned and analyzed.
This feeling was so intense. Even against his captain, Wang Jiexi, Gao Yingjie had never felt such an imposing pressure. Shouldn't his captain understand him better than God Ye Xiu?
His usual combinations wouldn't be of any use. He had to do something that the other wouldn't be able to predict!
Gao Yingjie, after losing the initiative, fell into a helpless situation. No matter how he switched up his tactics, he wasn't able to escape Lord Grim's control.
From the outside, it seemed that he wasn't at such a disadvantage. Occasionally, he would still find chances to counterattack. In the beginning, that's what Gao Yingjie thought as well, but soon enough, he realized that while he had accurately grasped these seemingly valuable chances, he never managed to achieve what he had been intending. He could send out a few counterattacks every now and then, but in the blink of an eye, Ye Xiu would have taken back the advantage.
Thus, he came to a realization. These so-called chances were all under Ye Xiu's control as well. No one would dare say that their fighting was flawless, but Ye Xiu was able to keep the openings he revealed under his control. Thus, Gao Yingjie might've grasped chance after chance, but was never able to make anything out of it.
So this was the Glory Textbook? The strongest player in the history of Glory?
Gao Yingjie gazed at the weird character, swinging a strange weapon, and wearing an uncomfortably mismatched set of equipment, with fearful reverence.
He really is strong, but, I can't give up just like this!
Gao Yingjie grit his teeth. Kind Tree didn't have much health left, and he still wasn't able to find an opening to turn the tides. His only choice was to go all out!
Glory!
When the word flashed on the screen, the match came to an end.
So in the end, he still lost?
Gao Yingjie stared at the fallen Kind Tree, stunned.