The King's Avatar

Cloud Grasping Fist didn't have mountain-splitting power. When One Inch Ash came over to block it, the qi landed upon his body and instantly pulled him toward where Chaotic Cloudy Mountain was. This skill only pulled the target toward the user, it didn't restrict the target's movements. One Inch Ash, who had purposely taken the attack to help Little Cold Hands, was of course prepared for this. As he was pulled away, he also sent an attack.

Ghost Slash!

The blade light arrived in front of Chaotic Cloudy Mountain a second before the person did. But Lu Boyuan had seen that the opponent had taken the initiative to serve as a meat shield, so an attack like this was within his expectations. He dodged to the side with precise timing, already thrusting a hand toward One Inch Ash's shoulder.

Lu Boyuan had predicted Qiao Yifan's actions, but Qiao Yifan had actually also guessed that Lu Boyuan would respond. The problem was, Chaotic Cloudy Mountain's hand had arrived in the last second before Cloud Grasping Fist wore off. Cloud Grasping Fist didn't restrict the character's skills, but movement was undoubtedly locked. Even though Qiao Yifan knew that Chaotic Cloudy Mountain's attack would arrive, he simply had no way of controlling One Inch Ash to dodge. Lu Boyuan's hand flashed out with incredible precision, and his positioning was beautiful. Helpless, Qiao Yifan tried to change the direction of his Ghost Slash, but he still couldn't catch up to Chaotic Cloudy Mountain's movement.

Qiao Yifan was already out of strategies, but fortunately, this wasn't an individual battle. A Laser Rifle was accurately fired toward Chaotic Cloudy Mountain, forcibly splitting the connection he had tried to establish with One Inch Ash. Even though it failed to cause any damage, Qiao Yifan's One Inch Ash had already recovered from the movement-restricting effects of the Cloud Grasping Fist.

Moonlight Slash, Full Moonlight Slash!

Two slashing attacks one after another instantly leapt toward Chaotic Cloudy Mountain. The slashing attacks of a Phantom Demon didn't cause much damage, but Lu Boyuan of course wouldn't just let his character be chopped up. He quickly backed up two steps, avoiding these two attacks. One Inch Ash quickly withdrew, as he had no intention of getting tangled with him here.

Even though Happy hadn't taken too much damage for now, their formation had unquestionably been thrown into chaos by Samsara's continuous disruption. Over by Little Cold Hands, Dancing Rain's X-1 Extruder had already exploded, and One Autumn Leaf was rushing forward. Dancing Rain again tried to block him, but he didn't dodge or retreat. Over there, Fang Minghua's Cleric Laughing Song was already casting, clearing covering for One Autumn Leaf as he forcibly killed off Little Cold Hands.

Happy was now completely on the defensive, all starting from when Sun Xiang's One Autumn Leaf had broken through with a Dragon Breaks the Ranks. Once upon a time, Samsara's weakness was their lack of a close-range, brute-force attacker. But after obtaining Sun Xiang and One Autumn Leaf, they finally had a character who could charge through, forcibly carrying the whole team into the offensive.

Samsara's weakness had been fixed with a transfer, but what about Happy's weakness? Right now, he was suffering under One Autumn Leaf's furious attacks, helplessly waiting for rescue by his teammates.

"It really is hard to understand Happy's actions." Pan Lin and Li Yibo, in the television broadcast, were discussing this topic instead of the events going on in the match.

They'd originally thought that Happy had gone to all this effort to update Little Cold Hands' equipment because An Wenyi had some special talent that would allow him to control this character very well. But just looking at this ongoing match, they couldn't tell. All they saw was, as usual, the weakness of An Wenyi's slow reactions. And this weakness was directly causing trouble for Happy in this match.

"If he had used Sacred Fire a little faster to restrict One Autumn Leaf's movement space, then One Autumn Leaf's formation-breaking charge might not have been successful."

"If his reactions were a little faster, he should have been able to dodge that Shattering the Lands. He shouldn't have been hit and then directly exposed in front of One Autumn Leaf. Now the whole team has lost the initiative."

"Team Happy's team roster here relies on the Phantom Demon's support and control to strengthen the battle ability of the whole team. So, as soon as the battle begins, they need to let the Phantom Demon successfully cast his boundaries. And the Launcher is the core of long-distance attacks. In other words, Lord Grim and Boundless Sea are the only ones directly controlling the situation from the front. This arrangement requires the team's Cleric to give a certain amount of support. An Wenyi has failed to do this, and so Happy was quickly scattered by Samsara…"

The two continued to discuss and analyze the problems. And An Wenyi was the core of this heap of problems. The simple conclusion drawn was that if Happy changed their Cleric player, even if it couldn't be said how the battle would ultimately play out, at least Happy wouldn't be so quickly broken by Samsara in a battle where they had the map advantage.

Yes, broken.

By this time, Happy had already been broken for good.

The Ghost Boundaries hadn't been set. The healer had been stolen away and was being beaten up. Only under Dancing Rain's desperate supporting were Lord Grim and Boundless Sea able to struggle out of their situation and turn around to try and save the healer. But Samsara instantly turned fire, with Sun Xiang's One Autumn Leaf throwing away Little Cold Hands and attacking Lord Grim and Boundless Sea. Zhou Zekai's Cloud Piercer took over for him, continuing to rain damage upon Little Cold Hands.

Inside-Out Tactics.

One of the basic strategies in Glory. Close- and long-range attackers exchange positions, continuously outputting damage.

And now, Inside-Out Tactics were being used by Sun Xiang and Zhou Zekai, these two pinnacle attackers in the Alliance, with One Autumn Leaf and Cloud Piercer, these two pinnacle characters. One could only imagine how powerful it was. Because of the restriction caused by the inside-out exchange of these two players, Happy had no way of interrupting their offensive. Over the course of this season, Samsara had used this method to swiftly wipe out who knew how many crucial characters on the opponent side. Even if it didn't succeeded, this method greatly restrained the opponents, preventing their strategies from effectively playing out.

The situation Happy faced now was even more disastrous. Their healer was directly kicked out of the match by the opponent.

Happy lost, but no one expected that they could lose so quickly.

11 minutes and 58 seconds, that was how much time this team competition ultimately took. This was only a little over two-fifths of the average team competition duration of 25:47. Anyone could tell that this was a match where the healer was immediately killed off.

Samsara's fans were jumping and laughing. Who cared if they lost the individual rounds? The ultimate victory still belonged to them. Happy's fans, meanwhile, were quiet. When they'd seen Tang Rou's performance in the group arena, when they'd seen Little Cold Hands flashing new Silver equipment, they had held high hopes for this team competition. They truly felt that their team was about to defeat the champion team Samsara. But in the end, the team competition was such a swift and brutal defeat.

An Wenyi disappointed everyone. Although he had always been called Happy's weak point, thanks to the team's intentional protection with their strategies, he had never affected Happy's victory. But this time, it was exactly as Pan Lin and Li Yibo had analyzed. An Wenyi's weak point left a gaping vulnerability in the match, and it was this vulnerability that led to Happy's rapid loss to Samsara.

"Just switch the Cleric player!" The supporters in the stadium, the supporters in front of the television, even Pan Lin and Li Yibo in the live broadcast were giving this suggestion to Happy.

"Increasing the character's strength won't help! The character is dead, the player is alive! You have to start from the player!" At the end of this match broadcast, this was Li Yibo's exclamation.

In the post-match press conference, this issue became the focus. And An Wenyi, at the center of this whirlpool, hadn't been sent out by the team for this press conference. He sat in the prep room, silently staring at the television as Ye Xiu was swarmed by the media, the reporters firing question after question about An Wenyi.

An Wenyi took off his glasses and buried his face in his hands.

He'd really screwed up this time, he knew. The team had built this Cleric character just for him, a character specially catering to his playstyle, but his performance was still like this. It looked like he really wasn't suited to be a pro player. Everything he'd hoped for, dreamed of, they were no more than soap bubbles bursting in the air, right? Maybe this was the final chance the team would give him, and now they were probably going to find a new player. The transfer window still hadn't closed…

"Do you think An Wenyi is even at the professional level?" An Wenyi had taken off his glasses, but he couldn't stop the sound from reaching his ears, and he heard from the television a reporter asking such a direct question. Unlike many commentaries where they tried to tactfully express that An Wenyi's skill wasn't good enough, this reporter bluntly questioned whether he had a chance as a pro player…

An Wenyi wasn't the only one left in the prep room during the press conference. After hearing this brutally direct question, Qiao Yifan reflexively began searching for the remote to turn off the television. But then, they heard Ye Xiu's clear and certain answer:

"Of course. Without a doubt."

Qiao Yifan froze, and then slowly, the hand holding the remote slowly fell back to his side. He looked at An Wenyi, and saw that his teammate had lifted his head, a shocked expression on his face. But soon, he put his glasses back on and stared attentively at the television.

"Then how do you explain his performance today? There were several moments that I don't think were because of accidental mistakes or such reasons. They happened because he's not good enough, right?" a reporter asked.

"No." Ye Xiu shook his head with a smile. "That was because he's only had this new character for two days. He needs to adjust to the character, and at the same time, he needs to adjust to a few responsibilities that he hasn't taken on before."

"Responsibilities that he hasn't taken on before? What is that referring to?"

"Just like in today's battle, a Cleric standing directly at the front of the battlefield," Ye Xiu said.

"But he didn't do very well."

"This was his first time, and this was against Team Samsara. How well would you hope he'd do?" Ye Xiu asked.

"That is to say, Happy won't look for a new Cleric player, and will continue to believe in him?"

"Absolutely," Ye Xiu said.

"What's so special about him, that Happy has such faith in him?"

"Special? He is a member of Team Happy. That's what's special about him," Ye Xiu said.

A member of Team Happy…

An Wenyi stared blankly at the screen. When he once again doubted himself, when he once again lost confidence in the future, Ye Xiu appeared in front of everyone and clearly emphasized his identity.

He was a member of Team Happy.

Was all of the faith just from that? An Wenyi was extremely moved. But clearly, the reporters weren't touched by such an answer. To them, this was too idealistic, this was belief for the sake of belief.

"If An Wenyi repeats his performance today, will you still say that statement?" one reporter asked.

"I think that he won't give me that difficulty," Ye Xiu said.