The King's Avatar

Panda Novel

Five minutes.

A one on one battle that lasted five minutes wasn’t uncommon in the pro circle. However, the problem right now wasn’t that this battle had been five minutes long, but that five minutes in and both characters were at full health. That miniscule amount of damage dealt by Swoksaar’s Chaotic Rain and Sandstorm Trap had long since been healed by Recovery.

Right now, both characters appeared near the coordinates Ye Xiu had given, but neither of them showed themselves.

“Where are ya? Come out!” Ye Xiu yelled.

“I’m here, but I don’t see you,” Yu Wenzhou said.

“Last time I came out first. It’s your turn,” Ye Xiu said.

“Which time?”

“Stop pretending you don’t know. Did you forget when I was shooting and let you hit me?” Ye Xiu raged, as if he hadn’t been trying to trap his opponent before and had revealed his position out of the goodness of his heart. Though it had already been five minutes, the audience hadn’t forgotten Ye Xiu’s little trick of shooting behind him. Was that something someone who was generously giving themselves away would do?

“Oh.” Yu Wenzhou acknowledged his words, then sent another message, “Did you see the curse I just sent?”

“I! Didn’t! See! It! Yu Wenzhou you had better not try anything!!!” Ye Xiu warned his opponent.

Finally, the referee couldn’t take it anymore. “Less useless talk from the two of you! Focus on the match!”

The messages sent by the referee were in the form of system messages. Just like how, in game, no matter how powerful a player was, they couldn’t beat the system, in pro matches, no matter how talented a trash talker, no one dared trash talk the referee. With the referee’s words, the two captains both fell silence. Their team members offstage looked at one another. For Happy, they weren’t caught too off guard because Ye Xiu had led them charging through the online game, so his unprofessionalism wasn’t anything foreign. But for Blue Rain… When had they ever seen their captain talk so much in a match? Because of his hand speed problem, their captain never had any time to chat, but using today’s map choice, he had managed to make up for that.

In reality, these two had never paused in their current actions while they chatted. No one made to actually stand into the area of the coordinates Ye Xiu gave. Both of them were a distance away, and maintained this distance as they circled around the area. The audience could see that one of them was moving clockwise and the other anti-clockwise. They were bound to meet eventually. It all depended on who would spot the other first amidst this dense mist.

Neither side was moving very quickly, careful to make no noise as they stepped forth.

Like that, they approached each other, bit by bit, little by little.

All the audience felt their hearts rising further and further into their throats.

Commentators Pan Lin and Li Yibo were silent now as well. The entire world of Glory had sunk into silence in that moment, as if the slightest sound would affect the two players onstage.

The big screen provided the two player’s views as they turned constantly. Then, at practically the exact same moment, they both stopped.

Charge!

Lord Grim immediately charged out, shockingly accurate, straight towards Swoksaar’s location/ As for Swoksaar, he wasn’t nearly as aggressive. The moment Lord Grim stepped out, he turned and darted behind a tree. The audience had known from before with their omniscient view that Swoksaar had paid careful attention to his pathing, prepared for this sort of sudden meeting.

Gunshots!

After using Charge, Lord Grim began shooting as he ran, the bullets striking the tree Swoksaar had hid behind. However, Swoksaar was no longer behind the tree. Lord Grim stepped two steps to the side, but still didn’t see Swoksaar. Lord Grim didn’t stop moving, continuing to charge as he threw a grenade out.

Boom!

The explosion created by a grenade was relatively more intense. In this mist, it could also light up the area, making it easier to see the silhouettes of other characters. However, Swoksaar still remained hidden to Ye Xiu.

The Blue Rain fans all let out a breath of relief, because these coordinates that Ye Xiu had suggested weren’t random. That guy had wandered about, carefully cataloguing the terrain in this area, familiarizing himself with the environment.

Seeing him call Yu Wenzhou over, everyone had cursed that crafty bastard Ye Xiu, yet Yu Wenzhou hadn’t refused, continuing onwards. Everyone was worried that Yu Wenzhou would fall into Ye Xiu’s trap, but now it seemed…

“Heh. This is Blue Rain’s map, after all! Ye Xiu’s few minutes of research can’t beat Yu Wenzhou’s understanding of this map!” Li Yibo laughed.

Yu Wenzhou’s response to their sudden meeting was confident and decisive. Swoksaar didn’t pause for the slightest moment, his movements making everyone’s hearts skip a beat in anxiety. Yet Ye Xiu, in the end, never noticed him even once. This result was too puzzling. It took a while before the system managed to come up with a simplified video displaying Lord Grim’s movements and changes in view, and then Swoksaar’s movement patterns and the obstacles he used for cover. From this video, the audience could clearly see that Yu Wenzhou’s choice of pathing was in Lord Grim’s blind spot. Yu Wenzhou’s familiarity with this map truly did far exceed Ye Xiu’s. Ye Xiu was skilled enough to have managed to find many useful aspects to the terrain with what little time he was given, he probably wouldn’t be able to improvise such a successful response like Yu Wenzhou could.

“Spectacular! No wonder Yu Wenzhou dared to fight Ye Xiu one on one,” Li Yibo praised.

“But if this continues, how does he plan on beating Ye Xiu?” Pan Lin asked.

Although Yu Wenzhou was good at avoiding the other, he didn’t dare to face Ye Xiu head on. From this perspective, one couldn’t say that he had the advantage. If all you did upon seeing your opponent was avoid him, then there was no way you could beat them. You had to launch some sort of assault!

“Let’s keep watching!” Li Yibo said.

After this, Ye Xiu still lost Swoksaar. He had no choice but to have Lord Grim stop.

“Hey, all you do is hide and run. How are we going battle like this?” Ye Xiu yelled into the chat self-righteously.

The stadium was instantly filled with booing. They couldn’t believe this guy. He couldn’t find Captain Yu so he started going after the referee, implying that Yu Wenzhou’s behavior wasn’t acceptable?

“This is strategy.” That was how Yu Wenzhou ended up replying, also sounding like he was giving the referee an explanation.

“What an annoying guy,” Ye Xiu said as Lord Grim began shoot randomly again.

“I’m right here! Come at me!” Ye Xiu hollered.

“No rush.” Was Yu Wenzhou’s reply. He never stopped inputting commands, but there was no hurry to his actions. From Swoksaar shaking Lord Grim off to now where he was turning back to find an opportunity to attack, his actions were steady and unrushed.

Not long later…

“Hey!” Ye Xiu expressed his displeasure. Another Chaotic Rain? Didn’t he have any new tricks? However, he didn’t use any new tricks to counter this. Again, he opened the umbrella, squatted, then Shadow Clone Techiqued out of there. It was just that this time, Yu Wenzhou didn’t follow up with another Hexagram Prison, the Chaotic Rain steadily falling upon the Misty Thicket.

One couldn’t deduce the caster’s position from these sorts of skills. At most, a range, so there was no way to do anything about it. Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim blankly stood amidst the forestry, watching the rain fall.

And then… there was no more and thens…

Blue Rain’s home stadium was filled with booing. This was Yu Wenzhou fighting, the much adored captain of Blue Rain, and in a one on one match, too, something he hadn’t done in ages. Yet there was booing.

The audience couldn’t help it.

Here we are, our hearts in our throats, and that’s all you’re showing us?

The two on the stage remained unmoved.

Chaotic Rain stopped. The forest sunk back into silence.

Lord Grim suddenly darted out, moving with a Charge skill.

But the direction…

With the audience’s omniscient point of view, they knew immediately that this was the wrong direction, but Ye Xiu’s movements didn’t stop. After Charge, Lord Grim immediately changed directions and used a Colliding Stab. Another high speed movement skill. This time, the direction was far more accurate, but it wasn’t enough!

After witnessing the two exchanges just now, many of the more careful audience members had noted down the distances between the characters back then. Though they probably weren’t as observant as the two players, they knew that the distance was probably the upper limit to the players’ views in the Misty thicket. Lord Grim’s charge was in the right direction, but the distance you travelled with this technique wasn’t enough to bring Swoksaar into view…

Continue forwards! Many people prayed, yet after that Colliding Stab, Lord Grim switched directions again and used a Shining Cut…

You went in the wrong direction!

Many people cried in their heads.

However, those that realized what Ye Xiu was trying perked up.

“There!” Li Yibo yelled.

“Ah?”

With an “ah” from Pan Lin, Lord Grim’s Shining Cut had ended. It wasn’t towards Swoksaar’s direction, but it flashed through Swoksaar’s view. That meant that he also had a moments chance to see Swoksaar’s position.

“He’s using high speed movement to increase the range of his view!” Li Yibo explained to the audience.

“Did he see?” Pan Lin asked loudly.

Lord Grim’s reaction gave him the best answer. Shining Cut swept out, but it was already just a shadow clone. Lord Grim’s real body was near Swoksaar.

Boom boom boom!

Anti-Tank Missiles’s three shells flew out with tongues of flame. The three missiles were very spread out, not aiming to strike their target, but using light to lock onto Swoksaar’s form.

Yu Wenzhou repeated his previous action. Having stood, prepared, he turned and darted behind a tree, but this time, Ye Xiu was prepared as well. Lord Grim stopped to cast and a Goblin appeared beside the tree.

Lord Grim lunged forth. Swoksaar had disappeared from view once more. Yu Wenzhou’s use of his environment was truly ingenious. However, the Goblin was still in Lord Grim’s view. Lord Grim, sprinting forwards, rapidly headed towards the direction the Goblin was unsteadily charging towards.

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