Chapter 187: Evenly Matched
Translator: Double_L Editor: Hitesh_
Students of Capth remained silent as they began to feel the immense helplessness of losing.
Wang Tong sat still as well. To be honest, he had never practiced that technique before, and this was his first time using it. As soon as Wang Tong mastered the Cloning Technique, he had immediately noticed a flaw in the technique itself, yet no one had ever thought that it needed to be improved because it was already mighty. Also, the technique itself was already quite difficult to be mastered.
In fact, this idea came to Wang Tong from nowhere as soon as he saw Bisu unleashing his killing moves, most probably because of his superb sensitivity, understanding, and talent in this category. Unlike the mastery of Soul Energy which had to be achieved step by step, Battlecraft Combat focused more on the player’s flexibility and the ability to control.The consumption of Soul Energy would be higher during battles in reality, while the required output of Soul Energy during training would be forty to fifty percent lower compared to real battles, in order to ensure the convenience of training. It wouldn’t be much of a problem since Soul Energy would become stronger as one’s age increased.
Wang Tong was gifted indeed. Together with his Tactics of the Blade which had been supplying him with more than enough amount of Soul Energy to fortify his controlling maneuvers, no doubt he was extremely pleased with the excitement within!
All thanks to Bisu’s amazing performance, Wang Tong was able to get the idea of Axis Cloning. Somehow, his instinct against crisis had enabled his hands to react faster than his brain.
Honestly speaking, Wang Tong was surprised by his own performance as well.
Fate played an extremely important role today in his mastery of this ultimate Cloning Technique.
Everyone was left speechless by their superb performances. Their astounding battle strategies and techniques were definitely enough to cause an uproar amongst academies. This match was definitely a clash of titans.
There was no loser in this match.
Both Wang Tong and Bisu then stood up and shook each other’s hands in silence; the feeling at that moment was truly beyond words.
Halmond sighed, yet he kept his cool and smiled towards the winner, "I believe there’s no need for me to compliment on anything else. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s give a round of applause to our candidates for their mind-blowing performances!"
Everyone in the arena got up and applauded to the two of them. No one was screaming or cheering; the whole arena was only filled with the sound of thousands of clapping hands.
Bisu’s feeling was complicated. Somehow, it was beyond words, and perhaps this was the heaviest round of applause he had ever received.
"The fourth match will begin shortly after a ten minutes break," Halmond announced.
No one was expecting Ayrlarng-Bernabeu Alliance would be leading by 2:1 in Battlecraft Combat KOF.
The other students of Capth were shocked by Bisu’s defeat. At first they assumed that Bisu lost because of some careless mistakes, but then were blown away as they got their hands on the match summary. They couldn’t believe that there would be someone else with a stronger APM than Bisu!
It was completely absurd to think that someone like that existed in Earth Confederation! Not to mention that person was one of the students of a dying A-Ranked academy!
The arena was completely flooded with spectators during the past ten minutes.
Li Ruo-Er might have seemed like not paying much attention to Ayrlarng’s side throughout the match, in fact, she had been paying close attention to every reaction of Ma Xiaoru. Things were not going on as planned for Capth, yet Li Ruo-Er remained calm and did nothing but observe in silence.
Aside from Li Ruo-Er, Wang Ben was also remaining calm despite Capth’s critical situation. He had been keeping a straight face throughout the tournament.
Capth had always been unrivaled in Battlecraft Combat ever since the emergence of Bisu and Flash. Both geniuses had been dominating every competition across Earth Confederation for the past two years. Flash and Bisu were the only ones that were qualified to comment on anything in this category. In fact, aside from Earth’s ranking, both of them were even crowned as top players in the ranking of Ivantians, Martians and Kaedeians.
However, Capth was now on the edge of getting defeated.
The whispers of the crowd died down as Flash walked towards the center stage. Flash looked steady and calm, even though he would be facing a real tough opponent. After all, this young second grader who had been under the military’s recruitment radar was Capth’s ultimate final fortress. Flash was their savior in every critical situation.
Fellow students of Capth immediately regained their confidence as soon as Flash stood up. He wasn’t called "Control-Killer" for nothing.
Flash was so perfect that even the finest controlling maneuvers would never stand a chance against him. He was an all-rounder with an outstanding perspective, that was unrivaled across Earth Confederation, not to mention he was also a very experienced player.
He was indeed an opponent to be feared, as Flash was the guarantee of an absolute victory.
Everyone from Capth laid their hopes on Flash for this upcoming crucial match. They even kept quiet and tried not to affect his performance.
Wang Tong might have owned Bisu in the previous match, yet it would still be useless if he couldn’t defeat Flash. According to the agreement, the only way to win this category was by obtaining three victories.
Before the match began, both players walked towards each other and shook hands, their grips quite firm! After that, they walked back to their control room to get prepared and warm up.
Everyone was curious as to whether it would be the almighty perspective that would be dominating, or would Flash be crushed by Wang Tong’s insane controlling maneuvers.
The arena was completely packed with students of Capth, as everyone was dying to witness this ultimate final showdown. This was definitely the climax of the day.
The fourth match had begun!
Both players immediately began their operating maneuvers. Since most of the spectators were also Battlecraft Combat players, they were immediately able to tell that the setting up of both players were close to perfection. It was like watching someone competing against his reflection. As the match progressed, Flash began to implement his elegant and absolute dominance.
As for Wang Tong, he somehow seemed to be chickening out and focusing only on defense instead.
However, playing defensive or not, Flash would still never be bothered by it as he would only make the right decision based on the situation. Clearly, Wang Tong would choose to play it safe because he knew that his high APM would be useless against him.
But did Wang Tong really think that he could win by playing defensive?
Flash’s key strengths were his perfect sense of timing and his ability to seize the slimmest chance. Yet this time, he wasn’t planning on unleashing any massive attacks, because Wang Tong had been developing his ultimate defense at the very beginning. Any sort of taunt was basically useless against him.
Wang Tong’s hands were speedy enough to handle those kinds of attacks while using the gap times to expand his troops.
Not only did Flash’s two rounds of taunting attacks end up useless, those attacks had even helped Wang Tong at some point. Flash began to sense something weird. Judging from the current situation, Wang Tong had already obtained a little advantage, and his advantages were increasing.
Just as Flash had planned.
However, Wang Tong showed no signs of attacking, and continued to expand his base and also increase his operating maneuvers. His recon troops were constantly circling around his base area; he had set-up a flawless defense.
This was not the first time Flash fought against a defensive opponent, and he had no problem handling this sort of opponent as he would strike during his opponent’s deployment vacancy period. Flash was very good in terms of operating maneuvers, yet his operating maneuvers were different from the others as it would be based on his opponent’s battle strategy. His method of playing was to observe and counter accordingly. Most people had their own ways of thinking and reacting to the situations, yet Flash was amazingly able to make the right move at the right time.
Flash’s strategy to counter Wang Tong’s ultimate defense was to expand his army by developing an anti-defense force. Yet, Flash didn’t go full force on that, because Wang Tong’s defense was really tough. If he were to expand blindly, he wouldn’t have enough troops to defend if Wang Tong chose to ambush. Most importantly, Capth’s victory would be doomed.
Of course, Flash would never be making such mistakes. He immediately began to expand steadily while increasing the number of his troops. He was also keeping an eye on Wang Tong, and would strike at once if he were able to find any flaw in his defense.
After all, the greater the defense, the easier it would fall apart during crisis.
Unlike the previous matches, both players seemed to be pressuring each other this time in a chilly atmosphere.
The first one who made a mistake would be the one who would lose.
Everyone seemed to wonder if Wang Tong was trying to drag the match into a war between Battlecraft fleets.
Flash might be in trouble if this match was really dragged into a space dogfight. After all, Wang Tong had single-handedly crushed Bisu, and even created the insane Axis Cloning. Basically, he was almost unrivaled in this part.
Halmond knew that Flash was well aware of this, and obviously knew better than anyone else. Wang Tong was trying to deplete and exhaust his army and strike back when he had established a difference between their military might, which would be fairly dangerous to Flash himself.
Flash was still waiting for a chance to strike. He had been provoking Wang Tong since the very beginning, yet his opponent remained still. He really needed to draw out Wang Tong’s troops in order to find out his weakness. However, instead of attacking Flash after gaining the advantages, Wang Tong maintained his defense and was still continuing to expand.
Students of Capth began to look anxious. Clearly, Flash had more time to develop his army and maintain the advantage of his troops in terms of quality and quantity, since Wang Tong was playing defensive. Yet, it was still not enough to destroy Wang Tong’s "iron fortress", not to mention the fact that Wang Tong also possessed insane controlling maneuvers.