Chapter 189 – Illusion Swordmaster Ahong
Illusion Swordmaster Ahong, red-clothed, red-haired, with a red sheath; there was even a red scar that ran across his face. His two red eyes stared at the five players.
“Pay attention to the Swordmaster’s eyes. The redder his eyes the stronger he’ll be.” Ye Xiu told the new players.
“If you want my life, come at me!!” The Swordmaster was anxious, even more than Steamed Bun Invasion, who was holding a Brick in his hands. The Swordmaster jumped into the air and his sword whirled a gust of air, starting off with a Collapsing Mountain.
“Pay attention! The shockwave from his Collapsing Mountain will be bigger than usual.” Ye Xiu hastily warned.
This meant that you would have to jump high enough to dodge the shockwave.
The shock wave from normal Collapsing Mountains could be dodged by jumping over it. But the Swordmaster’s Collapsing Mountain was different because the height of the hitbox was different, which was why Ye Xiu had warned them so that Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion wouldn’t treat this Collapsing Mountain as normal.
Unfortunately, his warning was a bit too late.
Tang Rou reacted too quickly. Before Ye Xiu was able to finish his warning, she had already jumped up into the air to try and avoid it. And as she jumped, she also had her Soft Mist send a Dragon Tooth over at the Swordsman. Tang Rou was just that type of an aggressive girl.
As for Steamed Bun Invasion, he hadn’t jumped. When he saw the Collapsing Mountain arrive, he hastily ran to outside of the shockwave’s range and then threw a Brick flying over. Steamed Bun Invasion was just that type of a thuggish guy.
When she heard Ye Xiu’s warning, Tang Rou knew that she was in trouble.
She hadn’t jumped at full strength. A perfect jump was to not use a single ounce of strength more or less than what was needed. Her jump to avoid what she thought would be a normal Collapsing Mountain was in an attempt to do this, but unfortunately the Swordmaster’s attack wasn’t normal……
The shock wave from the sword slash emitted a faint red glow as if the slash had created a blood mist. Soft Mist was unable to dodge the shock wave and was hit spiralling into the air.
The BOSS seized this opportunity to follow up and combo. The Swordmaster immediately jumped and used the Blade Master skill Rising Dragon towards Soft Mist.
Even though Tang Rou had strong mechanics, she wasn’t able to stabilize her camera. All she saw on her screen was the camera spinning round and round. Under this situation, she was unable to perform any precise movements. Tang Rou randomly attacked not knowing if she was hitting the target or the air.
Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim rushed forward. He stabbed forward with his lance and threw out a Circle Swing in order to pull down the Illusion Swordmaster. However, he was met with the unique skill the Illusion Swordmaster possessed: Left-handed blade.
A cold light flashed.
It wasn’t anything flashy. It was thin, quick, and instantly disappeared. But this blade clashed with Lord Grim’s lance and the Circle Swing was smashed to the side.
Bang bang bang. Three gunshots.
At the same time the left-handed blade blocked the Circle Swing, Cleansing Mist shot Anti-Tank Missiles, hitting the BOSS. The three explosions blew the Illusion Swordmaster away. But a BOSS was still a BOSS and so the Anti-Tank Missiles that had a strong knockback effect normally was only capable of shaking the Illusion Swordmaster a little bit. Hence, the Rising Dragon wasn’t interrupted and the sword light flashed up, cutting Soft Mist.
The spiralling Soft Mist spun even faster. Her body smashed into the cliff. The blood from the cut sprayed down from the air. Soft Mist bounced off the cliff before dropping to the ground. It looked as if she had already been defeated. But the instant she hit the ground, she suddenly turned alive and used a Quick Recover to stand back up. In game, as long as the player controlling the character didn’t lose hope, there was no such thing as being seen as dispirited.
The leap of the Illusion Swordmaster’s Rising Dragon was much higher than when the skill was used by players. This was one of the more troublesome reasons about meeting a BOSS. Even though many of the BOSS’s skills came from the in-game skill trees, the effects were different from the players’ and the majority of them had stronger effects than the players’ skills.
The high-up Illusion Swordmaster suddenly pointed his sword while descending and used Falling Light Blade directly towards the closest target, Lord Grim.
Ye Xiu swiped his keyboard and had Lord Grim step to the side. Not waiting for the Falling Light Blade, he drew out a sword from the Thousand Chance Umbrella. A silver light arced into a semicircle. At the same time, a similar arc of light flashed from the opposite side of Lord Grim. The two sword lights weaved together, merging into a brilliant moon.
The one who acted was Qiao Yifan, who had moved at the same time as Ye Xiu. They had used the same skill, the Ghostblade’s knock-up skill, Moonlight Slash.
“Good!” Ye Xiu shouted. The Illusion Swordmaster’s Falling Light Blade was interrupted by these two attacks. The two sword lights slashed across his body in midair, keeping him from falling. Two sword arcs flashed again at the same time, following the same path as the previous Moonlight Slashes. This time, they slashed in the other direction, creating a perfect circle.
Ghostblade Level 20 skill: Full Moonlight Slash.
This skill had a strong blow away effect, but because Qiao Yifan and Ye Xiu were on opposite sides, the two skills counterbalanced each other, keeping the Illusion Swordmaster in place. The sword lights faded. The moment the Illusion Swordmaster hit the ground, a laser flew forward, hitting him square in the stomach and caused him to stumble back a few steps.
This was Cleansing Mist’s Laser Rifle.
“Ice Boundary!” Qiao Yifan had already begun casting the spell when Ye Xiu yelled towards him. Frost formed on the tip of his sword. The Ice Soul created a boundary that spread out. Ye Xiu utilized this opportunity to use Sword Soul and created a Sword Boundary.
The wily Steamed Bun Invasion cheered them on as he ran past them and tossed a handful of sand at the Illusion Swordmaster.
Blind!
The Illusion Swordmaster had clearly lost his sense of direction. He couldn’t find his opponents and walked around in a circle twice. The Ice Boundary’s effect had been set and ice had begun corroding his body. With a crackle, the Freeze effect triggered and the Illusion Swordmaster turned into a large block of ice.
Tang Rou, who had just taken a beating, quickly rushed forward. The instant the Swordmaster was frozen, she chained Double Stab, Dragon Tooth, and Falling Flower Palm together followed by three Magic Chasers that flew out.
After the three skills hit, the Freeze wore off. The Illusion Swordmaster then used Gore Cross. The scarlet Cross didn’t look like two sword lights, rather, they looked like two blood arcs. The Cross flew towards Soft Mist, who immediately leaped back to avoid it. But just as she was about to counterattack, she unexpectedly realized that a smaller Gore Cross was hidden behind the original one . In that instant, Tang Rou saw the left hand of the Illusion Swordmaster move to his waist and realized that the Illusion Swordmaster had used his left-handed blade to use a Gore Cross at the same time. A big one to hide the small one, extremely smart.
The unfortunate Tang Rou was directly hit by the small Gore Cross. When she looked down at her body, fresh blood continued to flow from the cross wound formed by the attack. This Gore Cross had caused a Bleed to take effect. Her bad luck continued again.
The gloomy Tang Rou didn’t dare to advance forward for a second time. She immediately used a health potion and retreated. The Bleed effect from the Illusion Swordmaster was very strong. Her health continued to drop even after using the health potion. Tang Rou began to panic. She didn’t know how low her health would drop to or how to stop it.
“Rest for a bit.” Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim said as he rushed forward from beside her to block the Illusion Swordmaster. Tang Rou immediately relaxed. She believed in Ye Xiu’s judgement and knew that she at least wouldn’t die.
The low-health Tang Rou temporarily became a spectator, while Steamed Bun Invasion continued to act sly. He didn’t dare get too close to the Swordmaster. Sand Toss and Brick became two long-ranged skills, which he used whenever there was a chance to. As a result, the only two who were left to face the Illusion Swordmaster directly were Ye Xiu and Qiao Yifan. Su Mucheng’s Launcher naturally couldn’t rush forward and fight in close-range.
Ye Xiu saw everything. A pro-player was still a pro-player. Whether it was him, Su Mucheng, or Qiao Yifan, none of them had any trouble dealing with the Illusion Swordmaster. The reason Tang Rou was half-dead was because of an old problem of hers: she lacked experience. As for Steamed Bun Invasion, he was currently wandering outside of the team. The usefulness of this type of performance was quite limited for a team.
Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion, actually weren’t very suited to be team players.
Tang Rou was too stubborn and aggressive. Her performance practically revolved with her as the center. Her problem was actually similar to that faced by Sun Xiang in his first match, when he had just joined Excellent era: stubborn individual performance causing the team to come apart.
However, in their current team, there was Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, and Qiao Yifan. Their strength was far greater than Tang Rou’s, so they still had enough strength to suppress this problem. However, as Tang Rou became more and more skilled, this problem would be exposed sooner or later.
As for Steamed Bun Invasion, this guy was too carefree. He had too much of an individual style. As an individual, he might become a player who was impossible to copy, but as a team player, this type of player wouldn’t be able to completely merge because his style was simply too unique.
There were predecessors of this type of player.
Wang Jiexi. Team Tiny Herb’s current captain, Wang Jiexi. His Magician style was the strangest and most graceful style in the Alliance. In the individual competition, Wang Jiexi had an extremely high win rate. But in the team competition, his individual performance was limited. Assimilating this style into the team was a problem Wang Jiexi hadn’t been able to resolve. In the end, he made a sacrifice for the team and changed his style to fit in with the team. It was only because of these changes that Team Tiny Herb was able to become Champions twice in the past three years.