Chapter 266: The Strongest 4 of White Jade Castle
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Right after the end of round seven, only 2,049 parties remained. 106 parties of Lone Desert Smoke managed to proceed to the upcoming round, still taking the lead in White Jade Castle.
At 8 pm, the eighth round of the Soaring Swords competition followed closely after the previous session, and the opposition standing before Zhang Yang’s party was the second party of The Dominators!
When the enemies come face to face, heads will fly! Zhang Yang and his party ruthlessly hacked away, proceeding to the next round with ease.
There were only two rounds of matches on the third day. Only 1024 parties of White Jade Castle were able to stay in the competition so far, with 61 parties of Lone Desert Smoke remaining, far exceeding the 33 parties of Crimson Rage and the 24 parties of Imperial Sky.
As for The Dominators who fell under the category of larger guilds, only 12 parties remained in the competition thanks to the recent event of members withdrawing from their guild. Their results just barely did them justice as a major guild.
After the forth day of the competition, the 1,024 parties were reduced to only 256 parties, where the chaff had been separated from the wheat, with more parties being similar in strength as well.
As the fifth day of the competition marked it’s beginning, the number of matches that a party needed to take part in had been reduced down to one match only, they only needed to secure one victory to make it to the next round.
128 parties, 64 parties, 32 parties...
The remaining number of the parties were getting smaller and smaller every time, and by the end of the ninth day of the competition, White Jade Castle only had 8 parties remaining in the list of the competition. To make sure that the competition was fair to all, all parties were called upon to draw straws in order to determine their turns for the competition tomorrow night.
The names and who they are going up against among the eight parties were as follow ---
Lone Desert Smoke Second Party VS Sword and Fire Mercenary First Party.
Crimson Rage First Party VS Lost Paradise First Party
Imperial Sky First Party VS Bloodbath Alliance First Party.
Lone Desert Smoke First Party VS The Dominators First Party
"Haha, you are just so unlucky, you’re actually matched up against us!" Humbly Gentleman stepped up to Zhang Yang with an arrogant look that looked like he claimed the sky above him, "What an unfortunate turn of events, if you could just push into another round... Tsk tsk tsk!"
"You ugly piece of octo-pussy! You’re the ones going down!" Wei Yan Er jumped into the scene and waved her small fists furiously, "Tomorrow shall be the day you meet your demise! Sun of the beach, tremble now, noobcakes!"
Zhang Yang couldn’t hold it anymore and he statrted laughing out loud, then he said, "Little girl, where did you learn this from?"
Wei Yan Er raised her head with a smug smile on her face and said, "Was I not cool just now?"
"Cool enough!"
"Humph!" Humbly Gentleman pretended to be the mature one there and lowered his face, covering it with a palm.
Millenial Wanderer, however, smiled and said, "Guildmaster, someone will learn to be a little more obedient after tomorrow’s match!"
"Nicely said!" Humbly Gentleman began to smile.
Both sides were already deep-seated enemies against each other, so there was no need to hide their hatred towards each other. The tension was rising, who knew if they actually started brawling right now!
"Just wait until then!"
After throwing those words out, both sides went away under unhappy circumstances.
On the 10th of December, the final round for the main draw match of the Soaring Swords competition had officially began!
Up to this point, the parties that were able to remain in the competition didn’t just get there by dumb luck, therefore, many players had come to spectate the matches! The official management team had arranged it in such a way that, the four matches shall be held separately so that players will be able to catch all four of them!
It was 7 pm, the first match shall be against the ‘Sword and Fire Mercenary First Party’.
Lone Desert Smoke Second Party members are: Fatty Han, Hundred Shots, Galileo, Fantasy Sweetheart, Lost Dream.
Sword and Fire Mercenary First Party members are: Dominating Blade (Guardian, Level 61), 44 Bandit (Assassin, Level 61), Broken Uranus (Pyromancer, Level 61), Point and Kill (Sniper, Level 61), 7 Feet Boobies (Holy Knight, Level 61).
Five minutes before the match begin, Zhang Yang, Han Ying Xue and the rest of the gang entered the audience stands, eager to witness the beginning of that match. Dream Technology had many ways to earn a fortune, they actually set a fare for this final day! To enter, one must hand over 10 gold pieces! Everyone could see the number of audiences in the audience on their window interface. When Zhang Yang and the gang entered, the number shown on the screen was still 5,118, but in just less than one minute, the number had shot up to 10,000, and continued increasing rapidly!
Millions of audience would mean ten times that number of gold pieces earned, it was daylight robbery by the masses!
Zhang Yang felt totally used. The players who were putting up a good show did not even get a dime, and all the benefits were seized by the game company alone!
"Silly Yu, can Sweetheart and the others win this round?" Han Ying Xue asked.
Zhang Yang shook his head and said, "I have no idea, when we talk about skills in PK, I am afraid that the Sword and Fire Mercenary is slightly better! They take pride as Mercenaries after all, taking on bounties and so on! However, Fatty Han and the party have the advantage in terms of equipment, so it is still very difficult to see the outcome now!"
"I’d say Fatty Han and the gang will definitely win!" Wei Yan Er nodded strongly.
"Watch the match!"
Five minutes had passed, the number of the audiences had reached up to 208,000, and the match had finally began!
The members from both sides were instantly teleported into the arena. The moment the invisible air wall faded, the two parties immediately charged towards each other in different formations.
Both sides were showing off every skill they had, with magic spells soaring over in both directions, and arrows flying. It was just like what Zhang Yang said earlier, the Sword and Fire Mercenary had the advantage in term of skills over the match, but Fatty Han and the party had the advantage in terms of their equipment, the outcome of the match remained unclear for the moment!
Because of this, the match became far more exciting to watch compared to those one-sided matches! They did not just compete in terms their skill and equipment, but also their will!
Two minutes had passed, Fatty Han was the first to die, but 44 Bandit of the Sword and Fire Mercenary was similarly being scratched to death!
Three minutes later, Galileo was surrounded and killed after falling into a trap set up by the opposition, but at the same time, Dominating Blade was slaughtered as well.
3 VS 3, the fire power from both sides had been sharply reduced, the healing effects from both sides undoubtedly became obvious than ever. The two opposition parties went into a stalemate, the circumstances became ‘I can’t kill you, you can’t kill me either’. After shooting at each other fruitlessly for a while, both sides understood that the key to obtaining victory was to kill the opposition’s healer! Whoever kills their opponent’s healer first, would secure the victory of this match!
Lost Dream was indeed the future king of thieves. With a wave of his hand, he vanished into thin air, entering stealth mode by activating {Vanish}. He crept up to the Holy Knight that was hiding behind his team mates and activated {Blur }. Taking the advantage of the time while the skill of 7 Feet Boobies was cooling down, he held on against all the assaults from Broken Uranus and Point and Kill with his {Blur}, and killed their healer with sheer brawn!
Right before 7 Feet Boobies died, an attempt to kill Fantasy Sweetheart was made as a final struggle, however, the attempt was made futile when Fantasy Dream activated {Blind} to hold the spellcaster for a full eight seconds. Lone Desert Smoke managed to shakily claim victory this time!
First round, Lone Desert Smoke Second Party won by a narrow margin!
Five minutes later, the second round of the match had begun!
At the beginning of the match, Fantasy Sweetheart made a fatal mistake, activating {Holy Shield} a little too late, giving their opponents the opportunity to kill Lost Dream! After losing their super thief, it was a landslide loss.
Another five minutes had passed, and the final round of the match has begun!
Both sides were back into the pace of the first round, and finally, they depended on the outstanding performance of Lost Dream, narrowly achieving the victory in the last round!
Lone Desert Smoke Second Party defeated the Sword and Fire Mercenary First Party with the score of 2:1, being the first to secure one out of the four tickets of White Jade Castle to get into the semifinals of the competition!
The next match was closely followed after the first match, ‘Crimson Rage First Party VS Lost Paradise First Party’. Crimson Fire and his party were able to remain in the top eight, partly because they had been rather lucky, for up until this point, they had not engaged with any parties that had been too much for them to handle. However, now that they were up against Crimson Rage, their strength was tested and broken, and they were soundly defeated, losing twice in a row.
In the following match, Imperial Sky also obtained a clean win against the Bloodbath Alliance, acquiring the third ticket to proceed into the Shang Hai Finals.
Lastly, it was the most anticipated match between Lone Desert Smoke First Party and The Dominators First Party!
Both parties were teleported into the arena, separated by the invisible air walls, observing their own opponents and their formations.
The Five members of The Dominators: Humbly Gentleman (Cryomancer, Level 60), Millenial Wanderer (Cryomancer, Level 60), Traveling Piglet (Guardian, Level 60), Top Class Bad Guy (Assassin, Level 60), I'm No Healer (Holy Knight, Level 60).
The Five members of Lone Desert Wolf: Zhang Yang (Level 65), Sun Xin Yu (Level 63), Han Ying Xue (Level 62), Wei Yan Er (Level 62), Daffodil Daydream (Level 62). As Sun Xin Yu had the [Heaven's Pearl], providing a huge 50% experience point boost, she was slightly ahead of the others.
Zhang Yang and his party had the superior equipment and levels. However, The Dominators were pumped with endless confidence over the recruitment of Millenial Wanderer, as they deeply believed that they could rely on Millenial Wanderer to secure their victory over Zhang Yang and his party.
"How do we do this?" although Wei Yan Er looked down on her opponents, but she acknowledged the fact that they were still a major guild, never foolish enough to underestimate their abilities.
Zhang Yang gave it some thought and said, "Icy will go get their thief, if he doesn’t reveal himself, that’s fine, if he ever reveals himself, wipe his face on the dirt! We shall aim for their spellcasters. Whoever charges forward, we shall focus our assault on him and quickly force them to use their {Ice Frame}. They’re as good as dead after that!"
‘Ding! Lone Desert Smoke First Party VS The Dominators First Party, the match will begin in 10 seconds!’
10, 9, 8... 3, 2, 1!
The air wall had faded!
As the tip of an arrow, Zhang Yang led the party and charged forward, while the opposition did the same, with Traveling Piglet leading the front to absorb any damage going their way. Others were following about seven or eight meters behind him.
30 meters, 20 meters, the distance between the two parties was getting shorter by the moment, 11 meters left!
Zhang Yang stopped abruptly, allowing Whitey to pass him and take the front!
10 meters, the maximum range of {Charge}!
Traveling Piglet hesitated for a moment, should he use his {Charge} on that big white bear? {Charge}, could stun an opponent for a moment, it was extremely handy, and to waste it on a [Pet]...
Just as he was hesitating, Whitey had already charged over with a {Wild Charge}, sending Traveling Piglet into one second of stun. Zhang Yang did not use {Charge} on him but instead, dashed over towards Millenial Wanderer. Whitey turned from Traveling Piglet and instead charged at Humbly Gentleman.
Wei Yan Er and Daffodil Daydream ran past the swaying Traveling Piglet and started assaulting Millenial Wanderer!
Guardians had high damage immunity and high health point value. If the party focused fire on him, he could have easily make it through by just activating a {Shield Wall}! Also, they were not as dangerous offensively, so trying to kill them first was folly!
However, one must not leave a guardian unattended, because this profession was not only hard to kill, but also had party-saving skills such as {Sacrifice} and {Vanguard's Aggression}. The area attack skills such as {Blast Wave} and {Thunder Strike} also had crowd control effects, along with {Destructive Smash} which nullified healing! Therefore, guardians played a major role in party battles, especially in the League Championship that was to come in the future!
The opposition ignored Zhang Yang as well, as Millenial Wanderer locked his target on Wei Yan Er and began to cast his {Frost Dragon}!
{Charge}!
Zhang Yang charged at Millenial Wanderer, while activating his {Blood Rage}. However, before Zhang Yang even reached Millenial Wanderer, he had already activated his {Flash Out}, moving 10 meters forward, and resumed casting his {Frost Dragon}!
Millenial Wanderer was indeed outstanding. This {Flash Out} of his had landed him exactly 30 meters from Wei Yan Er, the maximum range of {Frost Dragon}. The {Frost Dragon} would definitely hit Wei Yan Er before she could activate her {Charge}!
{Counter Magic}!
Daffodil Daydream waved her hand and once again interrupted Millenial Wanderer. At the same time, she activated her {Heart of Flame}, emitting out a charge of flame on Millenial Wanderer, inflicting him with a damage value of ‘-2,612’ which appeared right on top of his head! She proceeded to cast a {Explosive Flame}.
Millenial Wanderer had also used the same skill -- {Counter Magic}, interrupting the casting of Daffodil Daydream. After being countered, all his spells related to frost and ice would be forced into a cool down of 3 seconds, so he could only dodge and roll to avoid Zhang Yang.
Traveling Piglet had recovered from stun at that time, and came at Wei Yan Er with a {Charge}, knocking the little girl into stunned state. He followed up with a stomp on the ground -- {Thunder Strike}, further hindering the little girl with a speed reduction effect.
Three seconds later, Millenial Wanderer’s ice spells were available again, so with an instant {Ice Ring}, he froze Zhang Yang who tried to pursue him. Then, he went back to casting his {Frost Dragon} at Wei Yan Er!
{Warrior's Will}!
Zhang Yang shook the frozen state off himself and continued pursuing Millenial Wanderer.
Switch!
‘-5,820!’ {Destructive Smash}, critical attack!
‘-180!’ Regular attack.
The two attacks that Zhang Yang had dealt landed on Traveling Piglet intead! This was because Traveling Piglet had used {Sacrifice} at the right moment on Millenial Wanderer, taking all damage on his behalf instead!
"Focus fire on the hypocrite!" Zhang Yang immediately said.
‘-5,412!’
Humbly Gentleman had been preoccupied with Whitey, he could have finish casting the {Frost Dragon} in 2 seconds, but instead, he took 3 seconds to do it, and finally, he manged to land a heavy attack on Wei Yan Er.
Millenial Wanderer was also trying to recast his {Frost Dragon} on Wei Yan Er, while Traveling Piglet stood in her face, continuously hacking away!
Zhang Yang activated the same skill {Sacrifice} on Wei Yan Er and began to charge towards Humbly Gentleman.
The Dominators instantly switched their fire power towards Daffodil Daydream, setting her as their primary target.
‘-1,832!’
Zhang Yang swung his axe at Humbly Gentleman, hurting him!
Shoof, Wei Yan Er had finally managed to use {Charge}, waving her big-ass axe at Humbly Gentleman.
{Flash Out}!
Humbly Gentleman instantly reacted, befitting of a professional player, and the axe hit nothing but air!
Zhang Yang kept the pressure on, chasing after Humbly Gentleman, activating his {Blast Wave} when within range, causing ‘-830’ damage while at the same time, stunning him for 4 seconds!
At the same moment, Traveling Piglet waved his hand and instantly activated {Vanguard's Aggression} onto Humbly Gentleman, covering him up with it!
This party of The Dominators was obviously well-trained with their cooperation tactics. With the {Vanguard’s Aggression} thrown out, other members of the opposition party ran into the area of the Vanguard, and they began to throw their attacks onto Daffodil Daydream
Sun Xin Yu and Top Class Bad Guy were still sneaking around, playing hide and seek!
"Switch fire on to Traveling Piglet!" Zhang Yang told the party while he activated his very own {Vanguard’s Aggression}. The two parties were in such close proximity now that the two {Vanguard’s Aggression} were more or less stacked on top of each other.
Both parties were forced to focus fire on the Guardians now instead.