Chapter 1326: Fly Forth
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
"What an intense match!"
Victory had been decided and Tiny Herb's stadium was naturally filled with applause. Pan Lin and Li Yibo were discussing excitedly and Ruan Cheng's smile filled his face.
Liu Xiaobie won and Flying Swords still had 52 percent of his health left. Tiny Herb had established a good lead in the group arena and Ruan Cheng was, naturally, delighted. In that moment, he seemed like a hopeless Tiny Herb fan.
"Liu Xiaobie's performance this round was amazing!" Li Yibo commented, "He managed such a stable performance under this continuous high hand speed, making no major mistakes. Truly impressive."
"Indeed, his grasp over this techniques has become more and more solid," Pan Lin noted.
"Let's see how he performs this next round," Li Yibo said.
"Heheheh," Ruan Cheng started laughing dryly again. Like a noob, he childishly started doing calculations in his head: 48% of health to take out Fang Rui, still 52% left. He totally still had a chance to defeat Su Mucheng. Then, there was still Wang Jiexi for Tiny Herb. Tang Rou 2v1? Haha, it was clear that Tiny Herb would win the group arena.
However, reality soon gave him a harsh awakening.
"Seems like Liu Xiaobie really exhausted himself last round…" Li Yibo observed, watching the match.
"Yeah, he's clearly making more mistakes," Pan Lin added.
"And no matter how powerful his offensives can be with that hand speed of his, he has to be able to close in on his opponent first," Li Yibo brought up.
"Su Mucheng is very carefully not giving him such a chance and even sacrificed a lot of damage for it," Pan Lin said.
"Yes. She's using a very clever playstyle. However, isn't she a little too careful? There's no chance of Liu Xiaobie replicating what he had managed yesterday. Perhaps Su Mucheng can play a little more offensively. What do you think, Mr. Ruan?" Li Yibo realized that Ruan Cheng had stopped speaking again.
Fucking useless!
Ruan Cheng was cursing Liu Xiaobie in his heart.
The possibility of defeating Su Mucheng's Dancing Rain with 52 percent of his health was rapidly approaching zero. Not only that, but Liu Xiaobie hadn't managed to find a single chance to close in on Su Mucheng. Ruan Cheng really was worried that he'd be wiped out without even dealing 1 percent damage.
Good thing was, Liu Xiaobie hadn't lost that badly. In the end, he still found a chance to close in. However...
Ten percent!
That was how much health Flying Swords ended up taking from Su Mucheng. Ruan Cheng's lips were trembling. He wanted to start cussing up a storm in this widely live streamed broadcast.
"Tiny Herb had started out well… But they didn't manage to maintain the advantage they had gained!" Pan Lin exclaimed.
"Liu Xiaobie might've done better in the second position with such a draining playstyle!" Li Yibo suggested.
"Mr. Ruan? Alright, let's continue to observe the match." Pan Lin had wanted to ask after Ruan Cheng's opinion, but seeing how he was barely holding back his anger, he was afraid that the other would pull the quality of the entire program down with his answer.
Tiny Herb's second player, Liu Fei, came onstage. She was another female , Sharpshooter player, ID, Tasselflower.
They were both female pros, both Gunner players, but Liu Fei's renown was nothing compared to Su Mucheng's. She wasn't even on the main roster for Tiny Herb and only had the chance to perform in rotation. In this round, she had been placed in the group arena, and had just happened to meet the number one Gunner amongst female pros.
"Though Dancing Rain is down to 90 percent of her health, there is a skill gap between the two. So long as Su Mucheng doesn't make any major mistakes, she should be able to win." Li Yibo, who was now uncertain about making predictions, was bold enough to make one now. It was clear that no one thought that there would be any suspense as to the result.
No suspense didn't necessarily mean no surprises, though.
The battle between the two female Gunners was spectacular. Liu Fei was no god, not even a member of their team's main roster, but if she could manage to stay in the two time championship team Tiny Herb, then she would definitely be rather skilled.
Her performance was unusually impressive this round. Li Yibo's saying of Su Mucheng being able to win so long as she didn't "make any major mistakes" was a bit of an exaggeration.
It was good that Su Mucheng didn't slap him in the face.
"Liu Fei performed very well, but unfortunately, she was met with an opponent that performed even better." When Li Yibo made such a analysis, there was a lingering fear in his heart. If Su Mucheng didn't perform better, then the tides may have turned.
When Su Mucheng won, Dancing Rain still had 21 percent of her health left. Tiny Herb had reached their third player, their last defense, their captain, Wang Jiexi.
From the 52 percent lead they had at first, until this 21 percent disadvantage, Ruan Cheng had the urge to run away. However, Tiny Herb's stadium was still filled with energy. The impact that being overtaken and falling behind should've had on these fans was nowhere to be seen. It was rather strange.
"This atmosphere really is annoying!" Chen Guo exclaimed.
"Oh?"
"Look at these people. They're falling behind but as soon as Wang Jiexi appears, it's like they're fated to win or something." Chen Guo gazed over the audience in the venue, listening to their cheering.
Yes, that was the feeling the current Tiny Herb gave off. It wasn't like Tiny Herb was falling behind, but that victory was already in their grasp. Everyone was wearing an expression of utmost confidence. They completely ignored their future opponents, as if they were no more than bubbles that their captain Wang Jiexi could pop with a finger.
"Mucheng, crush him! Little Tang, crush him!!" Though she knew that the players in the booths couldn't hear her, Chen Guo still hollered.
Su Mucheng and Tang Rou, the two girls who were onstage on Happy's side were the two who were closest to Chen Guo. Seeing them ignored by the Tiny Herb fans like this, Chen Guo was exceptionally pissed off.
"It's not unreasonable that the Tiny Herb fans have such confidence," Ye Xiu chuckled.
"Who cares what reason they have." Chen Guo clearly wasn't looking for logic or explanations.
Ye Xiu smiled. The match was starting and everyone turned their attention back to the screens.
A simple and straightforward map naturally wouldn't have much of a build up. The two characters advanced, the chat remaining empty.
There was very little communication between players in today's match. Of course, there were some subjective reasons for that. For example, Fang Rui liked to trash talk, but he had been faced with Liu Xiaobie today, so there was no time to type in such an intense battle of hand speeds.
In this match, Wang Jiexi and Su Mucheng didn't seem to have any intentions to chat either. The two soon met in the center of the map and Su Mucheng's Dancing Rain unhesitantly used her attack range advantage to fire the first shot.
Boom!
Missiles flew.
Vaccaria's movement speed didn't dip at all, even riding his broom directly towards the missile. Just as it was about to impact, he swerved and the missile flew past his shoulder. The movement was smooth. Was this missile really an attempt to stop him? Can't feel it!
Clap clap clap!
The stadium burst into applause. Just a dodge and the Tiny Herb fans acted like they had seen the climax of a match.
"Getting excited over nothing!" Chen Guo gritted her teeth.
"It really was rather impressive!" Ye Xiu said.
Chen Guo didn't reply because that voice of truth at the bottom of her heart told her that when Vaccaria narrowly dodged the missile without slowing down, she had almost abandoned her loyalties and cheered with the Tiny Herb fans.
"A technique that can really fan their excitement," Wei Chen commented, but then added, "But he wasn't just showing off."
Of course he wasn't. Wang Jiexi's action was simply to dodge in the quickest, easiest way. He had maintained his character's advance, so how could it be a mere party trick?
Anti-Tank Missiles!
Dancing Rain jumped backwards, launching three anti-tank missiles in a tri-shot formation.
The three missiles came one after the other. Vaccaria once again didn't dodge, charging right forwards.
What was he going to do this time?
"Holy shit!!" As the stadium erupted into cheers, Wei Chen cursed.
Vaccaria had, somehow, flew forwards, spinning his body like a drill, and drilled right into the tri shot. Then, his spin managed to narrowly pull his body out of range of each of the three missiles.
Brilliantly fast, amazingly precise. The broadcast replayed this moment in slow motion over and over again, as if they'd rather play this than the rest of the match.
"He's truly skilled!" Even Ye Xiu couldn't help but praise. This was the one that had almost accomplished a consecutive three championships after he had made history.
Vaccaria charged towards Dancing Rain at top speed, seemingly unstoppable.
Of course, Su Mucheng wasn't that easy of an opponent. As Vaccaria advanced, Dancing Rain was naturally retreating. As she retreated, she attacked, it was just that this didn't do much to stop the other's momentum and the two were slowly getting closer.
Star Ray!
Vaccaria finally entered a range where his Witch could attack. As he flew, he began to throw out magic tools.
The Star Ray that was formed from a Star Card shot forwards faster than its user.
Dancing Rain dodged, and with the effect the movement had, Vaccaria continued to close in.
Stinger!
Su Mucheng attempted to use a large AoE to stop him.
Vaccaria flew a level higher and darted in and out of the falling Stinger missiles, as if the explosions had nothing to do with him.
However, the closer he got, the harder it was to dodge.
Laser Cannon!
This time, Vaccaria wasn't able to fully dodge the attack, and the Laser Cannon struck his side, causing Vaccaria to spin in the air. However, it wasn't able to completely stop his advance. As he adjusted his form, Wang Jiexi took note of the way Vaccaria was thrown; even if he fell, he'd fall as close to his target as possible.
"God fucking shit!" Wei Chen continued to curse. Though cursing wasn't a rare occurrence for him, watching Wang Jiexi's performance today, his cursing had been elevated to a frequency it had never once reached in the past.
Only cursing could express his emotions, because he didn't know how else to express them.
Wang Jiexi and his Vaccaria flew forth, carrying Tiny Herb on their shoulders and unstoppable.