<h4>Chapter 1539: Beneath the Lava</h4>
<strong>Trantor: </strong>Nomyummi <strong>Editor: </strong>Nomyummi
Underground Tunneling Technique!
The crowd gaped at the sight of Lord Grim emerging from theva, resembling the Human Torch.
Even though they knew this was only a game, to see someone drill underneath theva and then emerge shing out with their whole body on fire was still an awesome sight to see.
Apud him?
We can’t! This was Ye Xiu, how could we apud? Tyranny fans forcibly suppressed their impulses. The apuse that was originally meant for Han Wenqing when he interrupted Shadow Clone Technique turned into background apaniment for Ye Xiu’s retaliation in an instant. Tyranny fans were conflicted.
They had to suppress it. Everyone gritted their teeth. It wasn’t like they could boo such a spectacr y. That would be too heartless.
“Go Captain Han!” Tyranny fans could only change the topic like this. They were determined not to show any appreciation to Ye Xiu’s performance!
Even Han Wenqing, who had been ready for a follow up, did not expect Ye Xiu’s retaliation to be so swift and fierce.
Underground Tunnelling Technique, then a de that went straight for the neck. Blood spurted out, and was instantly turned to steam by the scaldingva.
Desert Dust turned his body sharply and a fist flew out.
Did Ye Xiu want to follow up Underground Tunneling Technique with a Neck Bind Technique? Almost any somewhat-experienced Glory yer would make this assessment, let alone Han Wenqing, who had ten years’ experience. Both Han Wenqing’s assessment and the follow-up strike were reflexive; it was precise and fast, and no Ninja could possibly continue theirbo after his interrupting strike.
But there was no follow-up to begin with.
Han Wenqing’s reaction was followed immediately by distress.
Underground Tunneling Technique followed by Neck Bind Technique was amon Ninja tactic, but the bastard in front of him wasn’t a Ninja. Underground Tunneling Technique was already an additional skill bound to the Myriad Manifestation Umbre. He wouldn’t waste another on Neck Bind Technique just for this simplebo.
Han Wenqing’s second assessment was correct. His reflexive strike had missed. Lord Grim did not use a Neck Bind Technique.
Then what is he going to do?
His mind immediately filled with the hundreds of Glory skills that existed. There was no way to make a judgment call.
He’d have to go by his experience and instincts!
Han Wenqing did not wait for Desert Dust to stabilize his stance, and directly sent out a Stomach Kick. Desert Dust raised his leg and then thrust directly backwards.
Oh oh oh oh!
p p p p!
Tyranny fans were quick to cheer and apud. This kick was perfect! The target was behind him and out of sight, yet he still managed to find Lord Grim’s chest so urately. This was experience, this was awareness.
But they saw a blur straight after.
The Lord Grim that took a Stomach Kick was actually a Shadow Clone. Where was the real one? The real one was directly behind Desert Dust, and the de that came from the Myriad Manifestations Umbre was viciously trusted into Desert Dust’s waist.
From the viciousness and deadliness, you could instantly tell this was an Assassin skill.
Flickering Stab!
The skill only had a range of one unit away and didn’t sound as impressive as Teleporting Stab, which could ambush from three units away. But true experts knew that the one-unit distance of Flickering Stab was far more abrupt than the three-unit distance of Teleporting Stab, and was much harder or even almost impossible to guard against.
Once again, the Tyranny fans’ cheering and apuse became apaniment for Lord Grim’s attack. This time they couldn’t even spare the time to feel peeved. Seeing their captaine out at a disadvantage again made them extremely agitated. They really wanted to just whip out their ount cards, log into the arena and tear Lord Grim a new one personally!
The de slid out, bringing along with it beads of blood. But on this glowing redva, the crimson blood was no longer striking to the eye, and it was visible for a second before it was evaporated into steam.
Backbo!
Ye Xiu would never miss an opportunity like this. Lord Grim continued to strike at Desert Dust’s back.
Theva gurgled and sshed.
The two characters stood in the middle of the field ofva. It seemed unlikely that they would be able to escape. Theva’s damage was not low, and any damage done by attacks on each other was just adding fuel to the fire. Anyone could see that this battle would notst for much longer. Onebo was enough to defeat a character whenbined with theva damage. Victory would be decided within several seconds or even sooner.
Han Wenqing was currently at a disadvantage. Would he just lose like this?
Not yet!
Desert Dust suddenly twisted around.
Double Tiger Palm?
Ye Xiu’s experience was iparably rich. He could tell which skill his opponent was about to use just from the way they squared their shoulders. He quickly had Lord Grim retreat a tiny step.
Bam!
Hit?
Ye Xiu was stunned.
The skill was indeed Double Tiger Palm. But what hit Lord Grim was not a palm, but an elbow!
Compared to the palm, attacking with the elbows would halve the effective attack range. But using the skill while twisting his body would increase the speed at which it was released.
So there was even an effect like this.
Even Ye Xiu was taken aback. He found that Han Wenqing had made many changes, of which there was no shortage of research and reform of the Striker’s battle tactics. However, using Double Tiger Palm like so was never seen before. Ye Xiu wasn’t sure if Han Wenqing was never given the chance, or if under the current life-threatening situation, this creation was forged on the spot from ten years of experience.
One hit to snatch back the initiative. Following the twist of his body, Desert Dustunched his offensive.
Ferocious Tiger Flurry!
Directly following up with a high level skill. Straightforward and valiant.
Would Ferocious Tiger Flurry be enough to finish his opponent,bined with the damage over time from theva?
No one could make this call in this moment. First, the unfamiliarity with the map meant the exact damage of theva was unknown. Secondly, Ferocious Tiger Flurry was simr to a de Master’s Formless Phantom de; they were skills that required continual input to keep unleashing attacks, and the damage would thus depend on both the attacker’s execution and the defender’s reaction. The skill had begun, but the details would decide whether the full damage would be dealt in the end.
Right now, first punch, hit!
Double Tiger Palmboing into a Ferocious Tiger Flurry. The first punch came from quickly extending the bent elbow. The strike was as natural as it was fast. There was no way to dodge or parry it. Han Wenqing did not decide to follow up with Ferocious Tiger Flurry just because he wanted to look courageous or heroic.
After the second hit, a disturbance could be seen in theva. Then, a fist followed and hit again. However, the system’sbo count jumped twice. Three hits, four hits!
What? Many people were confused. How was it a four-hitbo?
“The third hit came from under theva,” Li Yibo was rather quick to notice this time in the broadcast. He realised the third hit was a kick. But because Desert Dust’s body was submerged in theva, which was not see-through like water, most people missed it.
Five hits!
Thebo counter ticked up once again. But this time, there was a collective, regretful sigh from the stadium, because this time, Ye Xiu finally reacted. Lord Grim raised a half-section of the Myriad Manifestation Umbre, and used an attack to parry the hit.
Attacking to parry was to defend with an attack. The damage may or may not be fully mitigated, but regardless, it still counted as a hit for the attacker, and was different from directly avoiding the attack.
Directly after, six hits!
This attack was also parried, this time by the other half-section of the Umbre in Lord Grim’s other hand.
“He’s dual-wielding!” Someone yelled.
Dual-wielding was the counter to parrying. It could also be used very effectively to parry with attacks. In many situations, using a skill to parry while dual-wielding could sessfully parry an attack which would otherwise have much higher priority than the skill that was used. However, Han Wenqing’s Desert Dust unleashed Ferocious Tiger Flurry, his attack speed increased explosively. It was absolutely impossible to dual-wield parry the whole skill. At this point, dual-wielding can only hope to keep up with the increased attack speed. Using only a single weapon would be able to parry one strike of Ferocious Tiger Flurry, and then leave the defender open to a second hit.
Despite this, only using the weapon’s dual-wield attribute inbination with normal attacks, how could he hope topletely stop the priority of a level 70 skill?
Every attack looked like it was parried, but in the end the attack still pressed onto his body. The attack damage was only reduced by tiny amounts.
Tiny amounts would still add up when the attacks came continuously. Right now, the major damage over time did note from the attacks, but rather theva’s burn damage. Lord Grim had the advantage in health from the initiative he gained earlier. Now, Desert Dust was retaliating, attempting to catch up from the deficit. Ye Xiu doing his best to parry was clearly a method to reduce as much of Desert Dust’s damage output as possible.
Everyone was fixated nervously on the two characters’ health bars. Lord Grim had more health, but it was also decreasing faster. Desert Dust had less health, but was only takingva damage right now.
If this continued, who would win?
Their health bars were both depleting, and the values were getting closer.
The attacks from Ferocious Tiger Flurry wereing to an end.
They’re even!
The health bars of both sides were the same right now!
The stadium erupted in joy. Tyranny’s fans were excitedly anticipating their victory! The health bars were even, but there was thest and strongest hit of Ferocious Tiger Flurry left! This final strike will put Desert Dust in the lead. Although the lead was tiny, theva damage would decide who would win, because their health bars were so close to being depleted. As long as Desert Dust avoided taking damage after this final strike, victory would surely be his!
Bang!
The final punch of Ferocious Tiger Flurry sent Lord Grin flying backwards. The distance between the two characters widened, and closebat skills would not have an effect anymore. Theva was about to determine the winner.
A sh of sword light was seen!
Sword Draw!
Lord Grim, who was currently flying backwards, somehow managed to send out a Sword Draw. Desert Dust could not take another hit, and at this moment all the Tyranny fans’ hearts jumped to their throats.
Right at that moment, they saw Desert Dust roll towards the side!
It’s all over!
Tyranny fans cried out in their minds.
In this key moment, how did the captain make such a mistake? Sword Draw’s sh was horizontal, what good would a horizontal roll do? Do you want to hide under theva? That wouldn’t help either! Ye Xiu was crafty, this Sword Draw had an angle to it and maximized its coverage. Even theva had been shed apart.
Eh?
A spark of hope lit up the fans’ hearts. In theva that was shed apart by the Sword Draw, a molten rock was visible!
Ching!
The sword lightnded on this rock. What about Desert Dust? After the roll, he ended up on the other side of the rock. Han Wenqing knew well in advance that Ye Xiu would rush to attack during the knockback and right after thest strike of Ferocious Tiger Flurry. He had an escape route in mind. Sheltering behind that rock would block any attack from the front.
He won!!
Tyranny’s fans were already cheering victoriously. The two health bars were sliding towards nothingness, and Lord Grim’s was shorter, so it would reach zero first. Even though securing a win by that tiny margin wasn’t meaningful for the group arena, a win was a win. More so, this win was against Ye Xiu, who had never lost an individual round yet. Was there any better feeling?
But just at that moment, Desert Dust’s life suddenly ticked down a chunk during the steady decrease due to theva.
Glory!
When therge letters dered the end of the match, thest one standing was... Lord Grim?
WHAT!!
The stadium immediately exploded.
How.. how was this possible?
Where did that burst of damagee from? Didva somehow have burst damage? If so, why would it suddenly happen at this moment in particr? That would be too cruel of a prank, right?
The righteous Tyranny fans all stood up in sync, as if they wanted to charge onto the stage. What the hell was this? There had to be some kind of exnation!!!
What the hell happened? What the hell happened?!
It wasn’t just the Tyranny fans who were confused by this sudden burst of damage. The broadcast team, the referees, the pro yers... too many people were baffled.
This kind of situation called for an instant rey. There had to be an exnation for this. Right now, it hadn’t been found, so everything was being yed back on the big screen. Even the holographic projection technology gave up the usual disy of the winning character’s model. There was no need to draw needless aggro from the crowd – the holograms were also reying thest moments of the fight.
The stadium was quiet as the grave. Everyone’s eyes were fixated on the rey of that single moment.
Once, twice, three times. The moment was very short, and could only be reyed like so. But where to look?
Some people were watching Lord Grim’s actions. Some were watching Desert Dust. Some were watching the change in the flowingva. At this moment, the system’s final damage summary was pulled out. The system would not lie; it faithfully recorded every bit of the match from start to finish. These records would paint a picture and put everyone a step closer to the answer.
Lord Grim’sst damage taken: Ferocious Tiger Flurry’sst punch, plusva damage.
Desert Dust’sst damage taken:va damage, and... Waltzing Wave Sword?
Spellde skill, Waltzing Wave Sword.
The silence in the stadium is still deafening. After the system’s damage summary appeared, the rey could finally zoom in to the area of interest.
Under theva, Waltzing Wave Sword moved soundlessly. Any visible trace of movement waspletely obscured by the intense battle of the two characters, which churned theva furiously.
Waltzing Wave Sword actually happened before the Sword Draw.
Just like Desert Dust’s kick from under theva during Ferocious Tiger Flurry, Waltzing Wave Sword was unleashed silently from under theva. By the time the sword flickered, it was already the sword light from Sword Draw.
The Sword Draw was blocked by the rock. But Waltzing Wave Sword’s attack was not in a straight line; it traveled in an arc. It looped around the molten rock and managed to catch Desert Dust.
Turns out it wasn’t some burst damage from theva. It dide from the yer’s own hand, Lord Grim’s attack.
The silence was crushing...
The long silence was finally broken violently.
“Ye Xiu, you’re fucking shameless!!!”
“Ye Xiu go die in a hole!!!”
“Kill him!!!”