1520 Unavoidable Exhaustion

Lin Jingyan fought like a hero and fell like a hero.

He had expected this outcome. Having chased after the footsteps of those geniuses for so many years, he knew that these geniuses weren't like the lazy hare in The Tortoise and The Hare. They wouldn't leave any room for others to surpass them.

"You can't let me win once?" Lin Jingyan said jokingly.

"You've won before, no?" Ye Xiu replied, "Season four, Round 21."

Lin Jingyan stared blankly for awhile before saying: "I lose to you even in memory."

The first round of the group arena ended in 1 minute 48 seconds. Between two players with abundant experience, it could be considered an extremely fast battle. In the end, Ye Xiu won with a huge lead. Lord Grim had 63% of his health left.

When Lin Jingyan left the stage, the crowd didn't hold back with the applause.

A loss was a loss, but Lin Jingyan's attitude was what they wanted to see. Even though it might not have been the smart thing to do, Tyranny's fans liked to see this sort of hot-blooded fervor from their heroes.

'Go Tyranny!!" It was as if Tyranny was winning. Their fans seemed even more excited than Happy's. Tyranny's second player appeared on the big display: Zhang Jiale - Dazzling Hundred Blossoms. Another old general from Tyranny.

Amidst the applause, Zhang Jiale walked towards the stage and met Lin Jingyan midway over.

"Nice job," Zhang Jiale said.

"The rest is up to you," Lin Jingyan said.

"Watch me take him down," Zhang Jiale said. The two bumped fists, and Zhang Jiale walked onto the stage.

Soon, the second round began.

"Go die!!"

Zhang Jiale typed into the chat as soon as he loaded into the map. Then, his hundred blossoms bloomed. Dazzling Hundred Blossoms seemed to explode. The shimmering light spread throughout the Arena with him as the center.

Offense, another aggressive offense.

Just like Lin Jingyan, he went for direct attacks without any tricks. The wave of blossoms swept over Lord Grim. With this small Arena, there was practically nowhere to hide. Zhang Jiale's strategy couldn't be considered a group arena strategy. In the group arena, no one would be as wasteful as this because your opponent was never just one person. If you only cared about a win over the opponent in front of you, if you lost the group arena, then that win wouldn't matter.

"Tyranny... are they planning on giving up on the group arena?" Pan Lin couldn't help but blurt out.

Li Yibo furrowed his brows, unsure what to say.　

Exhaustion. He had a grasp of Tyranny's intentions. He wasn't certain about it though, so he didn't say out into the broadcast. But by the looks of it, if their intent was to exhaust Ye Xiu, wouldn't the price be too large? The Spitfire was a mana-hungry class. With Zhang Jiale not caring about his mana and using everything he had to display his Hundred Blossoms style, even if Ye Xiu lost, how much mana would Dazzling Hundred Blossoms have left to deal with Happy's next player?

Engulfed by the wave of light, Lord Grim's figure turned blurry. For Ye Xiu, this was a difficult problem.　　

He was obviously aware of Tyranny's intentions to exhaust him, but in this map, the other side didn't care that Ye Xiu would notice because their arrangements were such that even if he knew, there was nothing he could do to avoid it. Unless Ye Xiu gave up on winning and let Lord Grim stand there for them to kill, in which case, that would be great too. Otherwise, in such a small map facing such experienced players, there was no way for him to kite around and relax.　　

Last round was like this, and this round would be the same.

Team Tyranny didn't hide their intent. If you don't go all out, then you'll be killed instantly. If you go all out, then you will certainly expend quite a bit of energy. It was true that Tyranny's side had old players too, but they were taking turns fighting Ye Xiu.

On Happy's side, after listening to Fang Rui's and Wei Chen's analysis, Chen Guo suddenly became worried. But after thinking about it for a bit, she suddenly thought of something.

"In any case, Ye Xiu has taken down Lin Jingyan. We're already in the lead! He can just do play casually and use up the other side's mana. We'll still be winning in that case!" Chen Guo said.

"Oh is that so? Boss, what a good plan," Fang Rui said.

"Of course," Chen Guo was delighted. But a second later, she discovered that Fang Rui's reply had been somewhat sarcastic. The others on Happy didn't think much of her "good plan", did they?

"What's wrong with it?" Chen Guo's ideas were often demolished by Ye Xiu, so she was very self-conscious.　　

No one immediately replied. Everyone's focus was on the match.

Ye Xiu didn't retreat. Instead, he faced Zhang Jiale boldly just like in his fight with Lin Jingyan.

Everyone's expression was solemn as they watched the match. Chen Guo didn't keep asking what was wrong with her "good plan". It was unlikely that Ye Xiu wouldn't have thought of her plan, so there must be a reason why he wouldn't choose to use it.

The battle was as intense as the previous round. Both sides knew each other well, and the intense, fast-paced battle didn't lack caution either.

The entire stage was a chaotic mess of light. If last round, people couldn't tell what each player was doing exactly, then this match, with Zhang Jiale's all-out light blossoms, there was very little left of what they could see.　

The only thing they could clearly see were their health bars. Fast. Their health bars were dropping very fast. The difference was that Ye Xiu's Lord Grim was dropping steadily. He clearly wasn't ever able to cleanly escape from the grasps of the Hundred Blossoms style. As for Dazzling Hundred Blossoms? His health dropped intermittently. It was just that each drop in health was quite considerable.

Bite him to death!

Happy's players and Happy's fans were praying with all their might.　　

If Lord Grim could stick close to him, he might be able to interrupt Dazzling Hundred Blossom's fierce assault. Then, in close combat, Spitfires would be at a huge disadvantage. In the regular season, Zhang Jiale had been burst to death this way.

But this time, it clearly wasn't going to be so easy.

Zhang Jiale, who was going all out, had blocked off everything!

"Too crazy," Huang Shaotian felt his heart tremble.

"With the way he's playing, let alone the next player, if Lord Grim had started with over 70% of his health, Dazzling Hundred Blossoms might not even have had enough mana for this round alone," Yu Wenzhou replied.

Zhang Jiale had let go of everything. His eyes had been set on Lord Grim, who hadn't even started out with full health. Lord Grim had started with only 63% of his health left. His energy, his decision-making, and his attacks were all concentrated on that 63%.

Only by doing this could he give Ye Xiu the most pressure. It was only by doing this could he make it so that Ye Xiu would not be able to afford to relax.

This round could not be defined as simply as who won or lost. Tyranny's strategy was being carried out in this forceful way. As for Ye Xiu? Since he couldn't avoid getting exhausted, then he could only do his best to win as much of a lead as possible for Happy.

As for what the outcome would be, it wasn't just this round that had to be looked at, but the entire match.　　

1 minute 24 seconds!

The battle between Ye Xiu and Zhang Jiale had been even faster than the battle with Lin Jingyan. In the end, the first to fall was Ye Xiu's Lord Grim. However, Zhang Jiale's Dazzling Hundred Blossom was useless as this point. He only had 9% of his health and 2% of his mana left.　

Ye Xiu wasn't able to complete a 1v2, but it was very close. When left the player booth, Happy's fans applauded wildly.

This was Tyranny's home stadium. Happy's fans knew of Tyranny's enmity with Ye Xiu. They had no way of suppressing Tyranny's fans in their home stadium, so it was only by taking these openings could they show their support to Ye Xiu.

Unexpectedly, boos didn't come immediately from Tyranny's fans.

"This despicable guy has his decent moments!" Tyranny's fans were in a discussion. Ye Xiu fought head-on against the aggression put out from Tyranny. It was what Tyranny's fans liked to see. As a result, even if Ye Xiu was their mortal enemy, they hesitated.

"His playing today is pretty okay. Let's boos a bit softer?" Someone suggested.

As a result, the boos still came, but they were light as a feather. 

"What's going on?" Ye Xiu wasn't used to it. As he walked down from the stage, he saw that Tyranny's fans weren't putting in much effort to boo him like usual.

"Now you know what fear is!" Ye Xiu smirked as he said these words to the audience members nearest to him.

"Fuck!" The audience members heard him, and their boos immediately intensified. The reason was soon spread throughout the stadium.

"Fuck, and now he's proud of himself!" Tyranny's fan leader and Tyrannical Ambition's guild leader, Jiang You, felt the urge to flip a table.

"BOO HIM! BOO HIM!" Jiang You roared.

The boos once again echoed loudly throughout the stadium. There were even some "KILL HIM!" shouts mixed in.

Ye Xiu was as calm as ever. Happy's next player wasn't affected by these sudden boos from Tyranny's fans.

Happy's next player was Mo Fan. He had already become an important chess piece in Happy's group arena.

"Good luck," Ye Xiu said as they passed each other.　　

Mo Fan didn't stop. He simply nodded his head and kept walking.

Ye Xiu returned to his seat. The others looked at him.

"Almost a 1v2," Ye Xiu grinned.

Chen Guo immediately noticed the weariness in Ye Xiu's smile. He couldn't hide his exhaustion.

Chen Guo had seen this appearance before. It was the same as when he had fought against Wind Howl's Tang Hao.

And today, Ye Xiu had fought a fierce battle against two players back-to-back. His opponents, Lin Jingyan and Zhang Jiale, were experienced players too. Since they came in with a purpose, they naturally knew how best to wear Ye Xiu down and make sure that Ye Xiu couldn't avoid it.

The second round of the group arena ended. Ye Xiu left the stage. Tyranny had a practically useless Dazzling Hundred Blossoms, yet Chen Guo felt a bad premonition in her heart.