Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
To land the hit, Su Mucheng had Dancing Rain fall down to a low height, a height within a Blade Master’s attack range. When Troubling Rain’s Piercing Form came out, the high priority skill disrupted Dancing Rain’s positioning. She wasn’t able to cancel her attack, and the artillery shell completely missed its target.
Huang Shaotian was unphased. Troubling Rain raised his sword and leapt into the air.
Sky-Plunging Blade, Immortal Guides the Way.
Two skills, one after the other. In a normal player’s hands, using these two skills in such quick succession would be unthinkable.
The Sky-Plunging Blade caught Dancing Rain and swung her towards the ground.
By the time Immortal Guides the Way came out, Dancing Rain was positioned below Troubling Rain. The powerful blow-away effect made Dancing Rain fall even faster.
This sudden push made Dancing Rain crash even harder into the ground, messing up her Quick Recovery timing. She tried to adjust it, but she wasn’t able to in time. Dancing Rain hit the ground, her heavy armor crushing the branches beneath her.
Both players lost a good chunk of health in this short instant.
Troubling Rain had been hit by a Level 75 Hurricane Cannon and then a charged Quantum Bomb. These two attacks had taken away 11% of his health.
Dancing Rain took even more damage.
The exchange started with Huang Shaotian’s ambush to Headwind Strike, Falling Phoenix Slash, Piercing Form, Sky-Plunging Blade, and Immortal Guides the Way. All of these skills dealt considerable damage, and all of them had hit. Dancing Rain had lost 18% of her health.
In the end, Troubling Rain had 37% health left, while Dancing Rain had 71% health left.
When the two started the round, it had been 63% to 100%. In total, Troubling Rain had lost 26% of his health, while Dancing Rain had lost 29% of her health.
Huang Shaotian had a slight 3% lead in terms of damage dealt, but that was meaningless.
He had started out behind by 37%. A 3% lead didn’t even make up for 10% of that number.
Now, Troubling Rain had even less health, making it even more unfavorable for Huang Shaotian.
He could not afford to miss any more opportunities. As Troubling Rain fell, his sword swept towards Dancing Rain.
Because Su Mucheng had messed up the Quick Recover, she had no way of dodging this attack. The strike would be from the back as well. Would she be able to avoid the follow-up?
Shua!
Another sword light fell, but all it hit was branches and leaves. Dancing Rain had rolled to the side, her cannon aimed coldly at Troubling Rain.
Boom!
Smoke rolled into the air.
She was firing at nearly point blank range. It wasn’t possible to dodge it at this distance. However, Huang Shaotian swung his sword faster than she could fire her cannon. He wasn’t able to dodge, but his sword was able to strike Dancing Rain.
Blood blossomed into the air. All Su Mucheng could see was red. Glory used these realistic details to let the players know of their condition.
Dancing Rain was covered in blood, but what about Troubling Rain? The artillery shell exploded in his face. The smoke and fire engulfed him as he was sent flying away.
But as he flew backwards, Huang Shaotian sent out another strike. The sword light from Sword Draw split apart the smoke. By the time Su Mucheng noticed it, it was too late. Huang Shaotian had used the smoke as cover for a follow-up.
Su Mucheng had also wanted to follow-up, but it was interrupted by the sword strike. After steadying herself again, the smoke in front of her had dispersed. She saw as Troubling Rain rolled across the ground and rushed back towards her.
Boom boom boom.
Su Mucheng fired three Anti-Tank Missiles, attacking Troubling Rain while retreating.
She had played aggressively, but it had been done with thought. Playing aggressive didn’t meant that she didn’t care about the distance between the two sides. When there was an opportunity to trade with Huang Shaotian, she would engage in close combat with him. But if there was no such opportunity, she would try her best to pull apart the distance and wait for one to come.
“You’re running again?” Huang Shaotian messaged. He had seen through Su Mucheng’s playstyle and strategy. She had retreated because she wasn’t able to see an opportunity to attack. These were the moments that Huang Shaotian needed to grasp.
Triple Slash!
Troubling Rain used it as a movement skill. He didn’t take a straight path towards her, instead taking a curved path. It was a very smart method of dealing with Aerial Cannon. With Aerial Cannon, the Launcher would be moving backwards. If the opponent gave chase from the front, it would be easy for the Launcher to delay him. However, it was hard for the Launcher to change directions while in the air.
Thus, taking a curved path was effective against Aerial Cannon movements. But taking a curved path had its own problems. It required the player to cross a longer distance, so it took more time. Aerial Cannon was fast too, so it made it harder to close the distance.
As a result, taking a curved path could not always be done. It depended on the distance and the timing.
Grasping timings was Huang Shaotian’s specialty. The Triple Slash path was completely beautifully. The viewers could tell that Dancing Rain was trying to adjust her aim to catch Troubling Rain, but she was always behind all the way until Troubling Rain reached her flank.
Upwards Slash.
Troubling Rain made a simple slash upwards, but it was at a spot which the opponent couldn’t dodge. Dancing Rain, who had been moving backwards with Aerial Cannon, was lifted into the sky.
Su Mucheng had Dancing Rain aim towards him. In reality, being in the air wasn’t too bad for Gunner classes because their firing produced recoil, allowing them to move in the air and disrupt their opponent’s aerial control.
However, as a pro player, just trying to escape wasn’t all. They would always be trying to search for opportunities to injure the opponent too. You couldn’t win a match just by running away.
Su Mucheng moved her cursor, but there was no sign of Troubling Rain.
Sua!
Another sword strike, dealing damage and keeping Dancing Rain in the air. Su Mucheng kept searching, but she was unexpectedly unable to find him.
Vanishing Step!
Vanishing Step was considered a peak Glory technique. It required a player’s intuition and technique to reach perfection to perform. Even in the pro scene, there were few players who could execute this technique well. It had always seemed to be a technique that only existed in theory.
At this moment, Huang Shaotian was using Vanishing Step to keep the opponent in the air, and if it continued, it was likely that victory would be his.
“But it’s very difficult, ” Li Yibo said,” Juggling a Gunner class to death is extremely difficult, let alone a top-tier Launcher like Su Mucheng.”
“Let’s keep watching, ” Pan Lin didn’t seem to want to elaborate. This battle was too intense. The two sides were constantly going back and forth with neither side able to hold a dominant advantage. All sorts of brilliant plays were being displayed. Right now, Vanishing Step had finally appeared. Would Huang Shaotian be able to keep this technique going against Su Mucheng? Would he be able to make up for the deficit with this play?
Everyone looked at the sword in Troubling Rain’s hands, at the sword light flying out from it. The sword light weaved across Dancing Rain, keeping her tumbling non-stop.
But Su Mucheng seemed to have no reaction.
As a Gunner class, even just randomly attacking would make it very hard for the opponent to keep the Vanishing Step going. But Su Mucheng didn’t do this. She just seemed to be looking around.
Was she looking for an opening? Was she waiting until she could counterattack?
Shouldn’t her first priority be to get out of Vanishing Step? Wasn’t Su Mucheng being a bit too confident, thinking of directly going for a counterattack?
Dancing Rain’s health continued to drop.
1%.
2.3%.
0.9%.
4%.
Attack after attack dealing different amounts of damage. High, or low, or perhaps just to keep her in the air. All of them left marks on her character. Damage quickly accumulated as Dancing Rain’s health fell rapidly at a visible speed.
60%…
50%…
The difference between their health bars was closing.
Still not going to move?
Happy’s fans were starting to have trouble sitting still. They had no idea what Su Mucheng was thinking.
Huang Shaotian did though. He knew exactly what she was thinking.
They were only paying attention to why Dancing Rain wasn’t attacking. However, they didn’t notice that although she wasn’t attacking, she was constantly adjusting her weapon angle.
Huang Shaotian saw it very clearly because he needed to predict where Dancing Rain would be, which meant that he needed to see where her cannon was aiming towards so he could react and prevent her from escaping. Huang Shaotian was aware of what Gunners could do to escape from the air.
However, Dancing Rain didn’t attack, and it was making Huang Shaotian feel exhausted.
Su Mucheng had anticipated Huang Shaotian being on guard against her aerial movements. As a result, she kept moving her cannon to have Huang Shaotian keep making adjustments. It had only been a few seconds, but the ordinary person had no idea just how focused Huang Shaotian was. Vanishing Step was an extremely difficult technique that required a lot of concentration. And now, Su Mucheng was making it even harder for him.
This isn’t right! When Huang Shaotian realized that the situation wasn’t right, he had already gone too far. He discovered that he wasn’t able to keep up and adjust to Dancing Rain’s tempo. For a keen opportunist like him, he had sniffed out an incredibly dangerous opportunity for him.
