Chapter 1227: The Two Towers
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Of course Void wouldn't be in a good mood.
For the group arena, Li Xuan had tried to boost his team members' morale, but when he himself went up, he couldn't find his footing. He hadn't even gotten to see Happy's group arena anchor before being blasted down by Su Mucheng, which made the whole situation quite awkward. The good thing was that all of Void's players were old members, and the newer member Ge Caijie was a mature and stable individual who knew that Su Mucheng was always a source of suffering for this team's captain and vice captain. There was no bitterness because of this.
They were losing 0-5. In the confrontation between these two directly competing teams, Void was completely lagging behind. If they lost again in the team competition, then this round would end with a ten-point difference between the two teams. As soon as a difference reached double-digits, it would always seem rather insurmountable. Even a difference of 10 points would provoke a much different feeling than a difference of 9.
"I think, no one here wants to be swept 10-0 by Happy?" Thus, this is what Li Xuan said to his teammates.
"Lose the team competition and we'll be overtaken; win it and we'll maintain our tie. I won't say any more about what we need to do. Get your spirits up, everyone, this isn't the time to hang our heads in dejection. Remember last round, remember round 11, we have the ability to defeat any team!"
Last round, Void defeated Misty Rain 8 to 2. In Round 11, defeating Tiny Herb 8 to 2 was the highlight of Void's season thus far. Li Xuan hoped to remind everyone of how they had defeated strong teams in the past in order to summon their confidence.
"Let's go! Let's win these five points!" Li Xuan said. Turning his head, he saw that Happy's players for the team competition had already stood and were walking onstage.
Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, the pair that had completely defeated the Ghost Duo.
Fang Rui, who turned the light-aligned Qi Master into a dark and sneaky master of playing dirty.
Tang Rou, who hadn't been able to play in the group arena, had been waiting a long time to go onstage.
An Wenyi had always been seen as Happy's weak point, but after 13 rounds, had anyone managed to target this weak point to create any real danger for Happy? No, not at all, Happy's strategies always carefully created a protection for him. This kind of protection wasn't just a protection of his life and safety, it also protected his development. They tried to prevent any situations that An Wenyi couldn't handle, this was a principle that Happy's strategies always carried out, and it had already been analyzed by many specialists.
After these five, the sixth person was Steamed Bun, an incredible rookie who had demonstrated a level of luck approaching a miracle this round. Would he carry this luck to the team competition as well?
"Let's go!" Seeing that the opponent had already gone out, Li Xuan said this immediately.
Team Void, Li Xuan and Wu Yuce's double Ghostblade pairing would of course make an appearance. Then, there was the healer, necessary for any team competition; Void's healer was called Tang Lisheng, who used a Paladin called Soul Defender. As for the other three positions, Li Xun's position typically didn't change, and Ge Caijie's position was becoming more and more stable as he proved himself. He was even quietly becoming the axis around which Void's tactics revolved. For the final player, Void sent Yang Haoxuan, who had appeared in the individual competition earlier.
In this season, Void more often sent out Spitfire Ge Zhaolan as their sixth player, but in this round against Happy, they made special adjustments, sending out Launcher Yang Haoxuan instead, replacing Li Xun as one of the five players who would go onstage first. The intent of this adjustment was very clear. As expected, Void was extremely wary of Su Mucheng, so they also added a Launcher to their roster, so that both sides could be more equally matched in terms of long-range firepower.
The two teams' players went onstage. The team competition was the main event of each match, and there was a longer break beforehand to allow them to prepare. During this time, the players from each team often would chat while onstage.
"Why didn't you reply to my text?" Team Void's Wu Yuce received Fang Rui's greeting.
"My phone wasn't on," Wu Yuce answered.
"Oh, what time are you guys heading back?" Fang Rui asked. Void was in City X, rather far away from City H. Even though the Glory pro scene was rapidly developing, as of now, there was no team rich enough to have their own special charter plane or whatnot. Because Glory matches didn't have a set duration, it was rather difficult to make post-match plans. In order to let the players focus on the match, most guest teams would choose to spend the night at the city before leaving if their home city was far away.
"Tomorrow." Indeed, Void had made such plans.
"After the match is over, let's play a few rounds!" Fang Rui didn't send another text, and just directly asked for a match.
The others stared, dumbfounded, as they watched these two arrange a private fight before this match had even ended. To the side, the listening judge also felt that there was something wrong with this, but he also couldn't find a rule to prevent this, so he could only glare at the two of them.
Fang Rui was the only one proposing the fight. Wu Yuce, who was dragged under the harsh look of the judge simply because he was the one being invited, felt that he was unjustly wronged. He didn't say any more to Fang Rui, only tossing out a "we'll talk after" before heading with the rest of his Void teammates to the competitor booths.
Soon enough, the two sides were both ready and the countdown began. Five seconds later, the battle officially began.
The map was The Two Towers.
Void spawned at the northeast corner, Happy at the southwest. The two corners were directly opposite each other. The northwest and southeast corners were in a more sunken basin, and each corner had a rock forest. At the center of the map, the directly opposite ten o'clock and four o'clock directions each had a stone watchtower, from which this map took its name.
The two watchtowers were at the same height, and their distance from each other was within the firing range of a Launcher. These high points were clearly designed for a Launcher to use suppressive attacks with their firepower. Seeing this map chosen, Void could only grit their teeth. It was clear that Happy also knew that Su Mucheng was the greatest threat to their Ghost Duo, and they had chosen this map to maximize Dancing Rain's firepower coverage.
But in this round, Void also sent out a Launcher. Who didn't have firepower coverage?
"Go!"
Li Xuan gave his orders and Void's five swiftly began moving toward the map's center, wanting to get to the watchtowers as quickly as possible.
The two watchtowers were equidistant from the two teams' spawn points, for the sake of fairness. Void's players were confident that their movement speed wouldn't be any slower than Happy's, but as they rushed out of the northeast corner and the four o'clock tower came into clearer and clearer view, they suddenly saw a silhouette appear at the top of the watchtower.
Dancing Rain had one foot on the floor and the other propped against the guardrail of the watchtower. Shouldering her heavy cannon, her hair billowing in the wind, how was this such a valiant and heroic sight?
Su Mucheng's Launcher arrived at the 4 o'clock tower cleanly before Void.
How was she so fast?
Void's players weren't too confused. There was only one way she could arrive so quickly: Su Mucheng's Dancing Rain hadn't travelled at the same pace as the rest of the team; she had charged here alone to seize this watchtower. Travelling alone was always faster than travelling with a group. The movement speed of a character didn't just come from equipment - skills that aided movement would help increase a character's speed significantly. And Clerics and Paladins, these two healing classes, didn't have such skills. They were the short legs of the 24 Glory classes. The movement of an entire team, in order to protect the healer naturally couldn't be fast.
Void could have also sent their Launcher to move solo. But if both sides sent out one player in advance, then those two players would meet first. Yang Haoxuan duelling Su Mucheng… Li Xuan couldn't say that he didn't believe in his own teammate, but perhaps because he was always a victim of Su Mucheng, he dreaded her. And Yang Haoxuan was crucial for this team competition, so he didn't dare send him out to take on Su Mucheng by himself. Void moved as a whole team, and Su Mucheng boldly arrived first.
"How brave, everyone forward!" After giving a word of praise, Li Xuan ordered the whole team forward.
If they weren't shocked, that meant that they had predicted this situation. And if they had predicted this, would they have no plan? Void's five players instantly scattered, surrounding the 4 o'clock tower as quickly as they could. Tang Lisheng's Paladin quickly fell behind, and he looked a bit like a stumbling old man as he took the road furthest to the left. But after passing a certain point on the road, this character suddenly increased in speed drastically, starting to run with an unimaginable speed.
How?
After everyone was stunned for a moment, the display screen clearly identified in the close-up that this character was no longer Soul Defender. Void had actually boldly switched characters. The Paladin's sharp leftward movement wasn't to avoid Dancing Rain's attack range, but to reach the support zone. The Paladin left battle, and Li Xun's Assassin Ghost Lantern switched in. With a Swift Run and Swift Movements, wasn't this Assassin's movement speed a solid 1.5 times faster than the Paladin's?
With this, Void's plan couldn't be any clearer. They had guessed that Su Mucheng would arrive solo to claim a watchtower, so they gave her that chance. Then, they directly switched out their healer, five characters would attack at once to try to take Dancing Rain down first!
The two Ghostblades activated Ghost Step, the Exorcist Blue Exorcist used a Speed Talisman, the Launcher Translucent used Aerial Cannon, the Assassin Ghost Lantern felt that Swift Run and Swift Movements weren't enjoyable enough and used a Shining Cut as well. Five characters, through their individual methods, reached their top movement speeds, instantly converging upon the 4 o'clock watchtower. Their positions had also clearly been planned in advance. From Su Mucheng's high ground, she could stop one of them, but she couldn't simultaneously attack all five.
And so Su Mucheng ignored four of the players and focused her firepower on Li Xuan's Phantom Demon, Crying Devil.
Under the firepower suppression, Crying Devil naturally couldn't continue forward easily, and quickly fell behind the other four. But those four had already swiftly approached the 4 o'clock tower, and Yang Haoxuan's Translucent was already occasionally lifting his cannon to fire attacks toward Dancing Rain at the top of the tower.
"Successfully in position!" As expected of the fastest class, the Assassin. Even though he had a late start because of Tang Lisheng's Paladin, he had actually reached the bottom of the tower first. As he reported in the chat, Li Xuan controlled Ghost Lantern to circle around the base to reach the stairs behind it. But when he circled around, Li Xun instantly came to a halt.
This… this… aren't there too many people here?
Behind the watchtower, one, two, three, four… Happy's four players were in formation and waiting for him…