Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Electric Wave Formation, Waltzing Wave Slash.
The weakest summon, the Goblin, couldn’t resist these two powerful attacks, but so what? The viewers could clearly see that Lord Grim wasn’t inside the Electric Wave Formation’s range. By the time the lightning struck the Goblin, Lord Grim had finished forming the hand seals for Shadow Clone Technique, launching a sneak attack from Empty Waves’ side.
But!
After drawing out a Waltzing Wave Slash, Empty Waves’ Silver weapon, Divine Chain, didn’t stop and headed directly towards his side. Killing intent emanated from the edge of its blades as it tore through the air. A Wave Wheel Slasher flew directly towards Lord Grim.
Ye Xiu was caught off guard. His Lord Grim had only just landed when the Wave Wheel Slasher arrived. There was no time for him to dodge. Guard? Parry? It would be useless. Wave Wheel Slasher was a skill with grab priority. Even if he tried using his shield to block it, the Wave Wheel Slasher would still tear aparts its defenses, locking him in place and dealing damage. A Dismantle skill could work, but Dismantle skills required the proper timing. Using it now would be too late.
There was unexpectedly nothing he could do?
All of the viewers including the pro players thought that the Wave Wheel Slasher was inescapable. Suddenly, Lord Grim swung his arm, sending out a flash of sword light. Magic waves specific to Spellblades swirled around the light. It looked exactly the same as Empty Waves’ slash. It was also a Wave Wheel Slasher. Wave Wheel Slasher against Wave Wheel Slasher.
The two streaks of sword light intertwined.
In a collision between two of the same skills, the outcome would be decided based on attack power as well as factors such as timing.
Lord Grim’s attack had been hasty, and the magic emanating from his sword couldn’t compare to a true Spellblade’s. The Level 20 Spellblade class advancement skill “Killing Intent Wave” specifically buffed wave skills. Unspecialized could not learn class advancement skills, so his wave skills would naturally lose to a Spellblade’s.
Lord Grim lost the priority battle. The undulating magic swallowed him, forcing Lord Grim to stagger back. However, the imprisonment from the Wave Wheel Slasher was shattered by the collision. Lord Grim’s Wave Wheel Slasher fell short compared to Empty Waves’, but it couldn’t be considered useless. It had nulled Wave Wheel Slasher’s grab effect, achieving Ye Xiu’s goal. After staggering back two steps, he immediately steadied himself and rushed forward again.
Although Spellblades were part of the Swordsman superclass, their strengths lay in mid-ranged combat. Close combat wasn’t their class’s expertise. The moment Empty Waves swung out a Wave Wheel Slasher, Jiang Botao had Empty Waves step to the side to pull away. Lord Grim was able to negate his Wave Wheel Slasher’s grab effect, but the shockwave still pushed him back two steps. Even though he was able to immediately steady himself and rush back, Empty Waves had already followed with his next attack. A streak of scarlet fire roared towards him, a Flame Wave Slash.
Fire Wave Slash was the strongest of the Wave Slashs and had the strongest knockback. Forcing your way through it wasn’t possible. It wasn’t just flames. It also contained powerful undulating magic.
Unable to get past it, he could only dodge. However, Ye Xiu knew that this attack was just the beginning.
Fire Wave Slash, Ice Wave Slash, and Light Wave Slash. These three Wave Slashs containing fire, ice, and light were often used together. This combo was nicknamed “Three Fold Wave”. The Fire Wave Slash had already put Ye Xiu in a fluster. How could ice and light not follow?
And the ice and light quickly followed!
Lord Grim turned and used the Assassin skill, Shining Cut. Cold light flashed as the Fire Wave Slash brushed past him. When he looked towards Empty Waves again, as expected, it was the “Three Fold Wave.” The second Light Wave Slash had arrived next.
As the name implied, Light Wave Slash was extremely fast, but Jiang Botao had underestimated the speed of Lord Grim’s movement skill. The Light Wave Slash flashed past him, missing Lord Grim!
Thunderous applause.
Ye Xiu didn’t know, but the viewers watching did. The Waltzing Wave Slash from before hadn’t hit the Goblin behind the stalactite, instead circling around it before returning like a boomerang. To dodge the Light Wave Slash, Lord Grim had used Shining Cut. However, although he was able to dodge the Light Wave Slash, the Waltzing Wave Slash had looped around, striking him in the back.
Lord Grim lost his balance and stumbled forward.
Naive? Pure?
Sure enough, none of those traits had any relation to Jiang Botao. How could a naive and pure person set up such a tricky and crafty trap?
Ice Wave Slash!
The third wave of the “Three Fold Wave” swept towards the stumbling Lord Grim. Jiang Botao had calculated how he would follow up and was about to go through with it, when he saw Lord Grim suddenly raise his umbrella. With a whoosh, the umbrella opened. Lord Grim used his shield to block the Ice Wave Slash.
Jiang Botao felt a tremble in his heart. He had calculated the distance and timing of these consecutive Wave Slashs. Even a machine wouldn’t have been able to react in time. For Ye Xiu to do so, he must have been prepared ahead of time.
The thought flashed through his mind. The Ice Wave Slash hit the canvas of the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella. The shards of ice seemed to come alive, shooting back towards Empty Waves.
He really was ready for it!
This wasn’t just a block, but a skill: Shield Counter!
Shield Counter absorbed and reflected damage depending on the level of the skill. Lord Grim’s Shield Counter could only be level one, so the reflected ice shards was very sparse. However, the speed of the ice shards was no less than before. Jiang Botao had wanted to chain together his attacks, so he positioned Empty Waves as close as possible to Lord Grim. But that only made it more difficult for him to dodge the reflected Ice Wave Slash now.
The reflected damage from a level one Shield Counter was insignificant, but the threat from Ice Wave Slash wasn’t the damage but rather its Freeze effect. The Freeze effect would be drastically reduced from the Shield Counter, but it still couldn’t be ignored and had to be dodged.
Spellblades wore plate armor, so their movements were slow. Dragged down by the heavy weight of his armor, Empty Waves was just barely able to dodge the ice shards, but by this time, Lord Grim had closed in.
With a bang, Lord Grim’s Myriad Manifestations Umbrella struck Empty Waves’ armor. Knights also wore plate armor. With their heavy weight, the knockback from a Charge could send a Spellblade flying. But Lord Grim’s Charge was much weaker. Against a plate armored Spellblade, all it could do was send the opponent stumbling back a few steps.
But this was what Ye Xiu wanted. He wanted to take the initiative, not send Empty Waves flying away.
“What do you think? Have you gotten a taste of this senior’s fearsomeness?”
As he typed, Lord Grim rushed forward. His Myriad Manifestations Umbrella transformed into a spear, stabbing towards Empty Waves’ head.
Jiang Botao didn’t have time to reply back to Ye Xiu’s message. Empty Waves held up his weapon, Divine Chains, in an attempt to parry the Dragon Tooth. Suddenly, the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella transformed. The canvas retracted, and the parry missed. All that remained in Jiang Botao’s sigh was the muzzle of a gun.
Boom boom boom!
Three Anti-Tank Missiles fired. How could Empty Waves dodge something at point blank distance? Blast after blast, Empty Waves was swallowed by smoke and light.
Flash!
A sword was unsheathed. Two streaks of light followed, creating a cross in the air.
Empty Waves was still inside the smoke and light from the explosions. However, he was able to swing his shortsword, Divine Chains, downwards from the previous parry position. Ghost Slash!
Ghostblades and Spellblades primarily dealt magic damage. As a result, when one class used the other class’s skills, the skills were quite powerful. This Ghost Slash collided with Lord Grim’s Gore Cross.
Ghost Slash had a blow-away effect and impressive attack priority. The slash shattered the sword light from Gore Cross, and Lord Grim was forced to jump back to avoid the blow.
The Divine Chains swung back up, using a Spellblade skill: Earth Wave Slash*.
The earth was swept up as it headed towards Lord Grim. By this time, the flames from the explosion had yet to completely disperse. From Jiang Botao’s screen, only a fuzzy haze could be seen, but even so, he was able to push out two attacks.
With a turn, Lord Grim dodged the Earth Wave Slash. The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella swung horizontally, while changing forms into a scythe, a Priest weapon. Using an Exorcist skill “Hook”, it went straight for Empty Waves’ throat.
Jiang Botao’s vision had returned to normal. He rolled on the ground, dodging the attack. He slashed upwards with his sword, counter attacking with a Storm Wave Slash.
The two began fighting back and forth. Lord Grim had too little health. Even though he had been furiously healing himself at the start of the match, he wasn’t able to heal too much. No one had expected him to win this fight. It was just a question of how much damage he was able to deal to Jiang Botao. In the end, he was able to take down 24% of Empty Waves’ health before falling.
Using 4% health in exchange for 24% was a very good result. Happy was happy. They got up and welcomed Ye Xiu down from the stage. Of course, in reality, their applause was mainly for Ye Xiu’s win in the first round against Zhou Zekai. That had been a huge boost to their morale. Ye Xiu had been in the player booth the entire time, so he didn’t know. However, the others remembered how quiet the stadium had been when Zhou Zekai lost.
Mo Fan was Happy’s second player for the group arena. He clapped very mechanically alongside everyone else, waiting for Ye Xiu to come back before heading onto the stage.
“Be careful, that guy’s got a very black heart,” Ye Xiu reminded.
No one knew if Mo Fan heard him or not, but he was on his way towards the stage now. On the side, Fang Rui booed at Ye Xiu: “Is there anyone with a blacker heart than yours?”
“Of course not! Boss is the best at everything!” Steamed Bun replied back for Ye Xiu.
