Chapter 1708: Reward for Perseverance
Translator:Nomyummi Editor:Nomyummi
The situation was laid bare for Samsara to see. How would they respond?
They had to chase after One Inch Ash. Just because he only had 6% of his health left didn’t mean that he was no threat. If they let him go free and he placed down a few ghost boundaries, the situation would take a turn for the worse.
But if they gave chase, how many people did they need to send after him?
One? Two? If they sent too many, what would happen to Moon Luring Frost? They couldn’t let Happy complete this trade. A character with 6% health for a character with more than 50%? That trade was too lopsided.
They had no time to carefully analyze the situation. During the small window when One Autumn Leaf and Cloud Piercer shifted their focus to One Inch Ash, Soft Mist and Lord Grim were about to reach Moon Luring Frost.
No matter how fierce Du Ming may be, this time, he didn’t dare face them directly. But Happy had made ample preparations for this play. Tang Rou and Ye Xiu sent attacks to help One Inch Ash and to pressure Moon Luring Frost.
The turn onto Moon Luring Frost looked as smooth as butter. In an instant, the two formed a pincer, trapping the retreating Moon Luring Frost.
Mounted Gun!
Satellite Beam!
Su Mucheng was as decisive as always. As soon as she saw Ye Xiu and Tang Rou surround Moon Luring Frost, she immediately used her high-level skills, sending out her most powerful attacks. With Ye Xiu and Tang Rou blocking him, where was Du Ming going to escape to? Moon Luring Frost was engulfed by the Satellite Beam.
Against this sort of encirclement, no matter how amazing Du Ming might be playing, there was no way he could escape on his own. He needed help.
The closest to him was Jiang Botao’s Empty Waves.
When Cruel Silence had been Taunted away, when Zhou Zekai and Sun Xiang tried to interrupt One Inch Ash, Jiang Botao remained calm and collected. He didn’t think that Samsara needed to pursue an almost dead enemy with full force. He stayed at his position and continued what he was doing. And now, Moon Luring Frost was closest to him. Helping him was quite convenient. His wave slashes would easily reach that side of the battle.
But what about the enemy he was facing?
Jiang Botao had been enduring Steamed Bun’s harassment for this entire time.
Yes, endure.
To Jiang Botao, this was the word that best described his situation.
In the deciding match of the finals, you needed to be cautious and steady. But Steamed Bun didn’t seem to know what these two words meant. He was the same as ever, erratic and impossible to predict. Neither thinking too deeply nor acting too shallowly was appropriate. Samsara had already suffered from making these mistakes.
Steamed Bun was reckless. To Jiang Botao, it was a form of extreme provocation. A few times, Jiang Botao had to restrain himself from fiercely retaliating.
But...
Cautious! Steady!
For the sake of the big picture, he didn’t dare be hasty, especially against Steamed Bun. Being careful against him would never be wrong. Keeping him suppressed and preventing him from disturbing the other parts of the battle was Jiang Botao’s mission. Otherwise, once this guy went wild, who knew if he would harm them or harm his own team. For this deciding match, Happy put their double-edged sword out on display. Perhaps their intentions were to win by banking on his randomness.
Jiang Botao saw the change in situation. He didn’t need to worry too much about how Qiao Yifan’s side would be handled. It shouldn’t affect him in any way. But he took on the main burden of rescuing Du Ming. How should he deal with Steamed Bun? That guy was too erratic. Even when he fully focused on him, there were holes. At present, Jiang Botao was suppressing him, but if he had to split his attention to help Du Ming, who knew what that guy would do? Steamed Bun’s unpredictability was particularly grievous in these kinds of situations.
How should he handle this?
Jiang Botao thought carefully. A shadow suddenly flashed by him.
He was thinking, but Steamed Bun didn’t think!
Ye Xiu, Tang Rou, and Su Mucheng. All three of them were focusing Du Ming’s Moon Luring Frost. Steamed Bun Invasion wasn’t far from Moon Luring Frost, and he immediately joined in with the crowd.
Fuck!
Jiang Botao didn’t think that during this moment of distraction, Steamed Bun would slip away. He had yet to figure out how to handle Steamed Bun, when Steamed Bun made the first move.
Opening!
Jiang Botao saw numerous openings on Steamed Bun Invasion. This simplified matters. Follow after Steamed Bun Invasion!
Ice Wave Slash!
Steamed Bun Invasion stopped fighting with Empty Waves, giving Jiang Botao all the freedom he wanted. Ice crystals swept forward in pursuit of Steamed Bun Invasion, while also spreading towards Lord Grim and Soft Mist.
Powerful Knee Strike!
Steamed Bun also used a skill. Steamed Bun Invasion launched towards Moon Luring Frost with a Powerful Knee Strike.
There was still some distance between the two characters. If this were a 1v1, Du Ming could have easily dodged it. However, right now, he was under attack in three directions from Lord Grim, Soft Mist, and Dancing Rain. There was no room for him to dodge. The knee strike struck the side of Moon Luring Frost’s face. Blood splattered across the ground. It was quite gruesome to look at.
Moon Luring Frost stumbled to the side. Ye Xiu and Tang Rou didn’t stop him. The two attacked, keeping pace with his stumble. With this displacement, all of them just happened to dodge Empty Waves’ Ice Wave Slash.
A coincidence! This had to be a coincidence!
Ye Xiu and Tang Rou moving along with Moon Luring Frost while also dodging made sense, but Steamed Bun using Powerful Knee Strike to neutralize his Ice Wave Slash? Did that guy even have the brain for such a smart play?
Even though Steamed Bun was unpredictable, from what people saw, most of his unexpected plays leaned on the stupider side. Jiang Botao didn’t think that he had thought of so many things with his Powerful Knee Strike.
But whether he had done it on blind luck or not, the Ice Wave Slash missed. Steamed Bun Invasion landed on the ground and followed with a Strangle. His movements were smooth and practiced. In the beginning, when he first started clearing dungeons, Ye Xiu had explained to him that using this skill would increase the entire team’s DPS. This concept was rooted deeply in his mind. Even in the finals, as soon as he saw that the team was focusing on a single target, Steamed Bun’s first thought was to use this skill to help them.
With the attack buff from Sword Boundary and the defense debuff from Strangle, Moon Luring Frost’s health instantly fell by 17% from their combined attacks.
This efficiency made Jiang Botao start to panic a bit. Steamed Bun had a high amount of synergy with the others on Happy. His addition brought a frightening increase in their DPS. With just this single move, who would dare say that he would bring trouble to his own team? He was Happy’s DPS insurance.
I have to hurry and bring him away!
Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, Tang Rou... all three were important targets. But right now, Jiang Botao’s attention was entirely on Steamed Bun. He noticed how much Happy’s DPS increased with his addition.
Fire Wave Slash!
Empty Waves stepped forward and swung his sword.
Spellblades were mediocre in terms of crowd control. Fire Wave Slash had astonishing knockback though. If it hit a target up close, the knockback would send the target flying away. Even if it didn’t, it would at least break Steamed Bun Invasion’s Strangle. Fire Wave Slash had a fairly large hit box too. This attack could also hit Lord Grim and Soft Mist.
Boom!
Flames burst forth in the blink of an eye, enveloping Steamed Bun Invasion.
But Steamed Bun Invasion didn’t budge.
Reinforced Iron Bones!
Steamed Bun had unexpectedly activated a Super Armor skill, making it impossible for Steamed Bun Invasion’s Strangle to be interrupted by ordinary attacks. As for Lord Grim and Soft Mist, Ye Xiu and Tang Rou easily evaded the Fire Wave Slash. All it did was delay them a bit.
Both attacks had failed to be of any use. Samsara’s response towards One Inch Ash had also been revealed.
Samsara had given Qiao Yifan quite the focus. Zhou Zekai and Sun Xiang, the Alliance’s new Best Partners, were working together to finish off One Inch Ash.
Sun Xiang’s One Autumn Leaf closed in, while Zhou Zekai’s Cloud Piercer sealed away One Inch Ash’s escape routes. The two wanted to eliminate Qiao Yifan as fast as possible.
Qiao Yifan knew that he wouldn’t be able to escape, but he also knew that his current attempt at escaping was a chain, holding back Samsara. If he could last even a second longer, it would be a huge help to his team.
His efforts weren’t being wasted at all. Qiao Yifan was glad. Previously, when he had been chased by Cruel Silence, he hadn’t given up. He had tried everything he could to survive, carefully observing everything around him, seeing which terrain he could take advantage of.
However, Cruel Silence had stuck to him tightly. Nothing he tried worked. He wasn’t able to make anything out of the terrain that he noticed.
But right now, he was being pursued by different enemies for a different purpose. The combined forces of Zhou Zekai and Sun Xiang were much greater than Wu Qi alone. However, One Autumn Leaf was still closing on him. He hadn’t reached him yet. Cloud Piercer was long-ranged. Even though their offense was extremely fast, Qiao Yifan’s response was even faster than theirs.
Because he hadn’t given up when Wu Qi had been chasing him. Because he had always been searching for an opportunity to escape. He hadn’t been able to break free from Wu Qi, but what he observed gave him the information he needed to instantly come up with a plan against Samsara’s new pursuit.
He used the terrain, turned, rolled...
Against the Best Partners on Samsara, the 6% health One Inch Ash was able to survive for 6 seconds.
6 seconds sounded like nothing, but it was the reward for Qiao Yifan’s previous efforts. Six seconds, One Inch Ash had fallen. Six seconds, Moon Luring Frost was on the brink of death.
Cloud Piercer and One Autumn Leaf turned fire.
Jiang Botao had been trying his hardest the entire time. Wu Qi’s Cruel Silence had rushed over as well.
But Steamed Bun Invasion and Lord Grim had activated Reinforced Iron Bones. The six seconds that Qiao Yifan had gained for his team was put to good use.
Moon Luring Frost fell.