Chapter 1036: Bypass
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Poor Zhang Jiaxing played a Cleric. In this situation, he could only support Shen Jian and help him endure, but couldn't turn the tides. If he wasn't careful, he might even get caught up in it himself.
The hesitant Zhang Jiaxing didn't dare have his Cleric, Woven Shadow, get any closer. Right now, all he wanted was for Xiao Shiqin's Life Extinguisher to hurry back over. However, considering Happy's detailed strategic arrangements, there was little chance that they would've neglected to think of such a situation. Although Ye Xiu wasn't here, Tang Rou and the other three still fought methodically. After Shen Jian's Striker was sent into one of One Inch Ash's ghost boundaries, Qiao Yifan didn't hesitate to sent a relentless barrage of attacks. In an instant, Qiao Yifan's One Inch Ash shot up on the DPS charts to first place. Somehow, the one who headed Happy's offensive as the main DPS was a Phantom Demon. This was something that was completely unforeseen to most people.
No matter if it was Zhang Jiaxing or Shen Jian, the two were more focused on Soft Mist, who had led the charge when ambushing. They had neglected the Phantom Demon, which was usually a supporting role, and now they were paying the price. After falling into One Inch Ash's ghost boundaries, Successive Strike's health had immediately plummeted. When One Inch Ash then triggered Ghost Feast, Happy's Cleric, Little Cold Hands, had even given Successive Strike a Holy Commandment. Tang Rou's Soft Mist and Wu Chen's Dawn Rifle took this instant to strike with their strongest skills as well.
Boom!
The explosions created by Launchers had the most impressive sound effects, and spirits wrecked havoc amongst the flashing light. Soft Mist's valiant figure was blurred and engulfed by smoke, and Shen Jian was at a loss as to where to strike, only able to clearly see his character's health falling rapidly.
As for Woven Shadows?
In that moment, Shen Jian had even forgotten that Woven Shadow was someone he should protect. Instead, he was just hoping that Woven Shadow could hurry up and save him.
Clerics were rather helpless to prevent this sort of offense, but they could help hold the situation steady. To Zhang Jiaxing, it looked like Happy was pulling Shen Jian's Successive Strike to one side while attacking. It looked a little like a street brawl, where you first pulled your victim into an alleyway to beat up.
The reason for pulling a victim into an alleyway was to avoid witnesses. Happy's current actions were, naturally, to get for as much time as possible before Life Extinguisher came to support.
Taking a careful look, Zhang Jiaxing realized that if he just let Shen Jian endure on his own, he'd probably get killed. There was no room for further consideration; he hurriedly had Woven Shadows step up to heal Shen Jian.
Yet the healing spell hadn't been finished before a missile exploded in front of him. Having seen Woven Shadow's actions, Wu Chen immediately swung his canon around to interrupt the healing Zhang Jiaxing had been trying to give.
Interrupting healing was basic knowledge in team competitions. As a player, Wu Chen didn't have any striking talents, but he had great foundations. Since he knew that his natural talent was limited and he wouldn't make any high-end breakthroughs, he made sure he had a solid of a grasp on these basics as possible. His current healing interruption was giving even Excellent Era's healer a hard time. After all, Zhang Jiaxing had no cover right now and was casting heals while completely exposed to the other's canonfire.
Again and again, Woven Shadow's casts for healing were interrupted rhythmically by Dawn Rifle. In the blink of an eye, four casts had already failed.
Zhang Jiaxing felt a deep-seated helplessness and, in the end, could only send out the instant cast Cures. Cures didn't need casting and healed for quite a lot, but consumed a lot of mana and also had long cooldowns. Usually, healers would save them as a last resort, leaving them for when they were truly and direly needed during the match. However, Zhang Jiaxing was helpless in the current situation. If he didn't help Shen Jian hold on, this might become a critical point that would lose them the match. Though, originally, with Zhang Jiaxing's belief that they would have no problem fighting three on four, losing a person first wasn't a problem, he wasn't so optimistic after seeing how much damage Happy could and did deal with their tactics.
Wu Chen had little ability to interrupt the Cures that came down. Though you could focus fire a single target in team competitions, it was hard to take down a character in a single wave of attacks because of healers.
Tang Rou and the others had done their best, but in the end, they didn't manage to wipe out Shen Jian's Successive Strike with this wave of attacks. Xiao Shiqin's Life Extinguisher arrived as support with a hail of Air Drops.
Even so, Team Happy was still fighting four against three with an advantage in numbers. However, they didn't loiter and hurriedly fled before Xiao Shiqin's Life Extinguisher got too close.
Team Happy had launched an offensive worthy of a powerhouse team. Their ace player had stalled the main force of their opponents while the others fought fewer with more. Yet in the end, they had retreated in a very un-powerhouse-like manner. In a situation where they had the advantage in numbers, they chose to retreat.
"Ah…" Commentator Pan Lin thought that this was quite the missed chance, "Successive Strike doesn't have much health left…"
"However, Xiao Shiqin has already come back. Under the cover he can provide, Zhang Jiaxing can heal better. The situation will be pulled back to a head on fight. While Happy has the advantage in numbers, what about in skill and character strength? Especially since healing is a huge factor in team competitions. Happy's healer isn't all that skilled!" Li Yibo commented.
"That's true," Pan Lin agreed with a nod, "If this was a powerhouse team of a similar strength to Excellent Era, this tactical ambush might've became a decisive point to the match!"
"Not necessarily," Li Yibo said, smiling, "If this really was a team that matched Excellent Era in strength, they probably wouldn't handle things the same way. Look, after the ambush, only Xiao Shiqin ran to support, but Qiu Fei and Sun Xiang are still there sticking to Ye Xiu!"
"Seems like Excellent Era feels that the three of them are enough to deal with the four of Happy!"
"That's one of the reasons. Another is that Excellent Era doesn't want to waste this chance where Ye Xiu is alone and without support! Who is the largest threat in Happy to Excellent Era? It's, of course, Ye Xiu. If they can send him out of the match early, then the ending of this match would be set. I think Happy has neglected to consider this aspect. All they thought of was how Ye Xiu could be a diversion, but forgot that this was also giving their opponent a chance!" Li Yibo said.
"Alright, let's have a look at the situation over there…" Pan Lin said.
For the broadcast, this sort of situation was rather troublesome. This was because the battle had split into two. They might have cut to Happy's ambush, but Ye Xiu's exchange with Sun Xiang and Qiu Fei had never stopped!
"Seems like Ye Xiu's situation isn't looking good!" Pan Lin said when the shot switched back to the battle over there.
This was originally a very interesting one versus two. Weren't Sun Xiang and Qiu Fei both Ye Xiu's successors? It was rare that there would be a chance for them to brawl undisturbed like this in a team competition. However, when the shot switched over, they saw Ye Xiu's Lord Grim curled up into a ball shooting out from between One Autumn Leaf and Combat Form with an Aerial Fire. The sight of such an incredibly precise technique made Pan Lin's scalp tingle. He didn't even have the time to play up this face-off. They had already fought for so long. The climax might've already gone by.
Furious Dragon Strikes the Heart!
Right after Lord Grim darted out through the gap, Combat Form followed with a powerful technique, his spear heading directly for Lord Grim's chest. The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella immediately changed forms and Lord Grim used a Guard in midair, accurately blocking the attack. Then his umbrella swiftly returned to gun form and fired to add momentum to what Dragon Breaks the Ranks had given him. Lord Grim flew backwards lightning fast and the stab One Autumn Leaf had tried to give after Combat Form's attack hit air.
After landing, Lord Grim didn't bother engaging the two any longer, turning and fleeing. Everyone could see that in Happy's team chat, the four had informed Ye Xiu that their offensive was over. Thus, Ye Xiu naturally wouldn't continue playing with the two. He had never thought of dealing with these two alone.
"Lord Grim has retreated and now on both sides it's Happy retreating while Excellent Era is in pursuit. It was Happy that was on the offensive just now, yet it seems like Excellent Era has the initiative now," Pan Lin noted.
"It can't be helped. If Happy's attack just now had managed to wipe out one of Excellent Era's players then it might not be like this. However, they had managed to do so, letting Excellent Era turn the tides," Li Yibo explained.
"Then that means… the attack by Happy was a failure?"
"Having not achieve what they planned, it should count as a failure. I believe that Happy didn't just aim to deal some damage to Successive Strike and have Woven Shadow expend some mana, right? Such a grandiose set up, even putting Ye Xiu in danger, it wouldn't be worth it."
"Ok, so now Happy is trying to throw their pursuers off on both sides," Pan Lin said as the shot switched between the two sides.
"At the moment, the four over here aren't doing so well! They have the advantage in numbers, meaning that their movement is more restricted, and their movement speed as a whole has dropped."
"In this situation, Happy probably won't be able to throw off their pursuers. I'm afraid that they'll probably have to go all-out to hold on," Li Yibo said.
"Now let's check on Ye Xiu… Ah, he threw them off! Lord Grim's movement speed shouldn't have such a big advantage against One Autumn Leaf and Combat Form… How did he do it?" The switching of the shot somehow managed to miss out on Lord Grim escaping from the two Battle Mages, surprising Pan Lin greatly. It was a good thing that there wasn't anything substantial happening currently, so they had the time to playback. Thus, the process of Ye Xiu throwing off his pursuers was replayed.
"Seems like it's still old ginger that's more spicy*..." After watching, Li Yibo sighed.
Ye Xiu hadn't raced with the two, but instead used the environment to his advantage. He had clearly known where to go when first retreating. As expected, after running into an area with a lot of cover, Lord Grim vanished from the two's view with a few turns. And now, Lord Grim had already skipped town while One Autumn Leaf and Combat Form were still running in circles back there!
Even at hide-and-seek, God Ye Xiu's skill was at the top of the top, making people awestruck. Sun Xiang might also be a God at the top, but in this situation, he stood no chance.
"Ye Xiu's escaped." Sun Xiang and Qiu Fei had to inform the others through the team chat.
Hearing this, Xiao Shiqin's heart stuttered.
Could it be… Xiao Shiqin hoped that his guess was incorrect.
"Stop the pursuit! Coordinates, regroup," Xiao Shiqin hurriedly ordered in the team chat.