Fighting a close-ranged battle?
Honestly speaking, the Summoner’s common weapon of choice, the Wand, had a very high attack speed, usually having a rating of around 9 to 10. Because of this, there had even been some Wand users among Battle Mage players, focusing their playstyle on their magic abilities. When it came to Summoners, their close-ranged fighting power was pretty much close to zero. If they relied on themselves to fight in close quarters, they could only use some superficial skills that any class had access to, and if they really had to, they could use Lash, which was normally used to buff their minions. Evidently, these few skills weren’t enough.
As such, some Summoners would opt to learn some of the Battle Mage’s initial skills, like Dragon Tooth, Falling Flower Palm, Circle Swing, all of which were very popular. This would let the Summoner have at least some capability of defending themselves in an unexpected close-ranged battle.
However, skill points were precious, and learning these skills wasted too many points, making many Summoners very reluctant to use this method. As such, there was now another more sketchy method of dealing with the problem: putting a skill on their weapon.
Teleport!
This high level skill from the Elementalist class was undoubtedly a strong option for escaping, and Li Yuan’s Summoner, Eight Notes, had chosen this path. The moment he saw Deception charging towards him and instantly dispatching the Devil World Flower, he cast Teleport without hesitating.
Teleport was an instant cast spell. It wasn’t impossible to interrupt, but the window of opportunity for doing so was extremely short, making it very difficult to interrupt. Deception had yet to properly latch on to his opponent, and in such a scenario, interrupting the spell was pretty much impossible.
Zap……
A sound like an electric current sounded out, and Eight Notes had already been teleported several units away from his original position, leaving only a trace of magic power behind.
But then, Flame Cut!
The flames frantically swept towards Eight Notes. Li Yuan looked over, and Deception was clearly still back there, but then how was the attack already so close to Eight Notes?
Shadow Clone Technique……
Running into a Ninja was Li Yuan’s misfortune. Using Teleportation could indeed instantly create some distance between the characters, but the Ninja could use Shadow Clone Technique in this way to immediately close the distance. A Summoner’s Teleportation could only be level 1 at best, meaning that the distance travelled was the shortest possible.
Li Yuan hadn’t overlooked the fact that Deception was a Ninja, but he had no other options. His usage of Teleportation was just an attempt, trying to see if Mo Fan’s reactions were fast enough to catch up. Unfortunately, Mo Fan did catch up. He wasn’t just an expert in escaping, but also in pursuing his target.
The distance moved by Shadow Clone Technique wasn’t enough to let Deception completely close in on Eight Notes, but Flame Cut, a skill with some range on it, was already enough to reach Eight Notes.
Eight Notes turned over and rolled.
Summoners were only lacking close-range skills, but these basic movements were obviously something that every character possessed. Some Summoners with excessive self-confidence would choose to use their basic movements to dodge attacks, a method even more economical than putting Teleportation on their weapon.
However, within the professional scene, no Summoner would choose to use this ‘economical’ method. Simply put, there were no noobs for them to bully in the Alliance, so purely relying on sidestepping attacks wasn’t going to cut it against an offensive from any pro player.
Shining Cut!
Mo Fan used a low-level Assassin skill, and in a flash, Deception had completely latched on to Eight Notes.
Ninja Arts: Cicada Shell Double Slash!
With this skill, after the Ninjato was unsheathed, both the blade and the scabbard would attack together, crossing and attacking enemies to the left and right of the character. But Glory’s mechanics allowed for a great deal of freedom in controlling the character, and as such, when there was only one opponent, there was obviously no need to attack on both sides. When Deception used this Cicada Shell Double Slash, the Ninjato and scabbard both slashed towards Eight Notes.
Once one hit connected, the offensive immediately began. When fighting against a Summoner, Mo Fan didn’t need to attack too explosively. After just two or three moves, Eight Notes had already been thoroughly suppressed.
Even when a Summoner was under siege, the commands that they issued to their summons couldn’t be interrupted. But in order to control their summons, they still needed to be within the Summoner’s field of view in order for them to select the unit to control. At this time, Deception had already forced Eight Notes into a corner, cutting off part of his vision, and the attacks afterwards caused his camera to shake and sway non-stop. The broadcast cut to Li Yuan’s point-of-view, and it was really a tragic sight: the summons roaming around freely in the distance had become fragmented on his screen, intermittently cutting in and out of view. Under these circumstances, it was exceedingly difficult for Li Yuan to control his summons to come over and save him.
“Player Mo Fan seems to have a lot of experience in fighting against Summoners!” Li Yibo said surprisedly. He was just a rookie, and he hadn’t appeared much on stage in this season, but at this moment, he showed incredible adeptness at the techniques used to fight against Summoners.
At Happy’s player bench off-stage, upon seeing Li Yuan’s point-of-view, Luo Ji had a traumatized expression on his face.
Why was Mo Fan so used to fighting against Summoners? Because there was one in the team! When it came to their skill levels, there was quite a gap between Luo Ji and Mo Fan, but Mo Fan held nothing back when he played with opponents weaker than him. Mo Fan was earnest in every practice session, and as such, Luo Ji had been beaten into a pulp by Mo Fan hundreds or thousands of times. At one glance, the spectacle unfolding from Li Yuan’s point-of-view was just too familiar. When he fought individually against Mo Fan, he had similarly been forced into a corner and killed an untold number of times.
However, Luo Ji’s Concealed Light was a Elemental Beast Summoner, primarily making use of those four summons, but Li Yuan needed to control roughly ten spirits. United against a common enemy, Luo Ji involuntarily felt a sense of kinship with Li Yuan, unexpectedly feeling worried on his behalf.
Li Yuan was obviously suffering greatly. Now that he had been latched on to, there was definitely no room for him to finish a summoning spell. He had his back against the wall, and the summons in the distance were completely uncontrollable. At this time, seven of the spirits would flicker in and out of his view, but Mo Fan’s offensive tossed him from side to side, making commanding the spirits nigh impossible.
However, everyone could see that there were three spirits coming over in succession to protect him. Even under such restricting circumstances, Li Yuan had still managed to complete commands for three of his Spirits, showing off his significant caliber as a pro player.
But, only three of them……
Upon seeing the three Little Spirits charging over, the more knowledgeable viewers could only silently mourn. Spirit summons relied on creating an army of sheer numbers to achieve victory, so evidently, their individual attack power wasn’t too powerful. Whether it was in terms of Attack, Defense or Health, the spirits didn’t have particularly impressive stats. Spirits were more notable because their duration was long, and their attacks had a chance to proc elemental effects. But if it was just Little Spirits, they’d be easily dispatched in two or three hits by other players. Would the spirits charging over really be able to do anything, especially given that Li Yuan wasn’t able to arrange and deploy them properly?
Li Yuan was completely aware of this point, not taking Mo Fan as an opponent that could be easily harassed by a few Little Spirits. The three Little Spirits didn’t charge over and immediately attack, instead stopping and waiting at a point that Li Yuan had indicated earlier. This point was in a far more convenient location for Li Yuan to control the Spirits. Evidently, Li Yuan was arranging his Spirits against Mo Fan constantly tossing him from side to side.
“Not bad, Li Yuan is very prudent. Don’t think that he’s just taking a beating. His response to the situation clearly displays the defensive skills that players from Blue Rain possess,” Li Yibo exclaimed in admiration.
At Happy’s player bench, Luo Ji’s eyes flashed with understanding. He could see the wisdom in Li Yuan’s tempo. The three Little Spirits going up to attack was only a minor irritation, not serving any real purpose. But now that he had the three spirits stop at a convenient place, he had once again put himself in a good position relative to his spirits.
Mo Fan’s harassing attacks were mainly meant to disrupt the stability of Li Yuan’s field-of-view, but now, no matter how his vision was disrupted, Li Yuan would always have an option, and given his hand speed, as long as he had an option, it would be a cinch to grasp it. As expected, another Big Spirit was controlled from afar, beginning to move over and rescue him.
“It’s a Fire Spirit!” Pan Lin said.
“Mm… After all, Li Yuan doesn’t really have much of a choice. If he could choose, I think he would have prioritized the Ice Spirit or the Light Spirit,” Li Yibo replied. The Big Fire Spirit’s attack was Flame Blade, a close-ranged attack. On the other hand, the Ice Spirit’s Falling Ice and the Light Spirit’s Lightning were long-ranged attacks, and on top of that, there was a chance to freeze or paralyze the opponent with the attacks, something that would be of great help to Eight Notes. The Fire Spirit had high offensive power, but it needed to get close to attack. In the worst case scenario, Deception could easily beat it up along with Eight Notes.
“Let’s see what Li Yuan plans to do,” Li Yibo said.
“At this point, there isn’t much duration left on the Little Spirits either,” Pan Lin mentioned.
The broadcast immediately displayed the duration remaining on the Little Spirits, since there was a difference in when the spirits were summoned, and as such a difference in remaining duration. The spirits that were far away weren’t taken into account. Of the three that were close by, one had 9 seconds, while the other two had 14 seconds and 19 seconds.
The Big Spirit still had 2 minutes worth of duration, so at this point, there was no need to worry about it disappearing by itself. However, the Little Spirit with only 9 seconds left looked as if it wouldn’t be able to make any real contribution.
Li Yuan clearly understood this, and a convenient opportunity arrived to control the three Little Spirits, so he commanded the one with 9 seconds remaining to charge over. If it was going to disappear by itself anyways, it would be better to bring it over and cause some irritation for Deception.
This was a Little Ice Spirit. All the Little Spirits had to be close to the enemy to attack, and while they had a chance to inflict an effect on hit, the probability was much lower when compared to the Big Spirits. The Little Spirit floated over, but Mo Fan completely ignored it. When it was almost in range, he suddenly used Neck Bind Technique, and Eight Notes was flung over his shoulder, crashing into the Little Ice Spirit. Immediately afterwards, he used Flame Cut, slashing towards both the Little Spirit and Eight Notes in one swing, and the Little Spirit died. And Eight Notes? Li Yuan used this opportunity and continued to tenaciously control his Spirits. One Little Spirit had died, but two more rushed over to take its place. At the same time, one Big Spirit finally rushed over to surround him.
“Is this enough?” Pan Lin cried, betraying his concern. Everyone could clearly see that Mo Fan was an expert at dodging and escaping. With how little duration there was left for the Little Spirits, Mo Fan could just put in a little effort to contend with them, and they would disappear by themselves.
“There’s already no other options,” Li Yibo sighed. As time went on, the Summons’ duration was extremely disadvantageous, meaning that Li Yuan no longer had time to continue waiting.
One Big and four Small, five Spirits advanced, and Deception jumped out of the way.
“As expected!” Pan Lin shouted, Mo Fan was indeed planning to wait out the duration. The spirits that had encircled him hit nothing but air.
However…
“It’s a sacrifice! Spirit Sacrifice!” Li Yibo cried out.