1538 The Boiling Lava

Desert Dust looked like an eagle spreading his wings as he used Eagle Stamp. The stadium erupted with applause. They might not understand Han Wenqing's true intentions, but the scene in front of them was showing Desert Dust repeatedly stepping on Lord Grim, forcing him into the lava. So what if Desert Dust would soon fall into the lava too! It was more than enough to make the Tyranny fans feel like they had the upper hand.

"It's not going to be so easy!" The more perceptive viewers had already noticed that there were movements coming from Lord Grim. How could Ye Xiu be so easy to deal with? Of course not, just a second ago, he had the time to type out some trash talk!

Hand seals!

Hidden by the waves of lava from the fall, Lord Grim's two hands moved in a blur. A Ninjutsu seal was instantly completed.

Even though Lord Grim would certainly fall into the lava, he had been able to escape from Desert Dust's range, allowing him to use other skills.

Poof!

With a gentle poof, Lord Grim turned into a cloud of smoke. The shadow clone had been instantly destroyed by the heat from the lava.

Shadow Clone Technique!

Lord Grim had used the Ninja skill commonly used for movement.

Where was his real body?

Pa! Splash!

Two sounds one after the other. Lord Grim appeared where the shadow clone had just disappeared from...　　

What's going on? Everyone was confused.

That obviously couldn't have been where Ye Xiu had planned on moving to. There was only explanation, his Shadow Clone Technique had somehow been interrupted.

A replay. A replay was needed. No one understood what had happened in that instant.

Only the two players on stage knew.

Eagle Stamp... number six!

After the five kicks from Eagle Stamp, Ye Xiu immediately used a Shadow Clone Technique. However, he hadn't expected a sixth kick to follow, and this sixth kick had interrupted his Shadow Clone Technique. The shadow clone destroyed by the lava had been a failed clone. The real body hadn't been able to escape and was stepped on again.

A sixth kick from Eagle Stamp had indeed been outside of Ye Xiu's expectations, but he didn't think it was impossible.

Eagle Stamp's limit was five kicks. After the Level 75 level cap increase, the max level for Eagle Stamp had increased as well. The number of times it could be used was still five, but this max level increase was only the max level that could be added using skill points. Equipment that increased skill levels could break through this max level limit and continue raising it.

Evidently, Desert Dust had equipment that raised Eagle Stamp's level, and it looked like it raised it high enough for him to use six kicks.

Unless you saw it in action, there was no way to know. Silver equipment stats were hidden. After ten years, the current Desert Dust had no Orange equipment.

The viewers still didn't know what had happened, but they did see that the Shadow Clone Technique had been interrupted. In any case, applause first!

Amidst the applause, Lord Grim swung his Myriad Manifestations Umbrella out of the lava like a dragon flying out from the sea. The lava slid down from it, creating a rain of fire.

The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella was in its original form as it swung towards Desert Dust.

The original umbrella form was considered a Priest weapon. As a result, some people were able to determine what skill Lord Grim had suddenly used.

Knight skill: Heroic Leap!

There was nothing Han Wenqing could do! Nothing. He could predict the Shadow Clone Technique because it was a sub-Level 20 skill. It was a skill that was a part of an unspecialized's toolkit. Shadow Clone Technique was extremely useful in his situation, which was why he had paused after five kicks from Eagle Stamp. He had left an opening for Ye Xiu. When he saw Lord Grim form the seals, he had Desert Dust kick a sixth time, interrupting the Ninjutsu art.

But a Heroic Leap...

If it was Level 20+ skill, it meant that it was a bonus skill added onto the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella's Priest form. Apart from class advancement and class awakening skills, any mid or high level skill of the same class could be added to a weapon. Teams frequently took advantage of this point. They made changes to the skills attached to their weapons to give a surprise to their opponents. However, there had never been a weapon like the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella before. It had 12 different forms, which meant 12 different high-level skills encompassing all six superclasses. The surprise was too big and couldn't be eliminated.

Han Wenqing could predict the Shadow Clone Technique, but there was no way he could have predicted a Heroic Leap.

Han Wenqing had made some precautions though.　

Reinforced Iron Bones!

Before Desert Dust had used Eagle Stamp, he had activated Reinforced Iron Bones. The buff was still active on him. Han Wenqing had the Super Armor active in case that Ye Xiu did something outside of his predictions. He hadn't thought that he could truly completely suppress Ye Xiu. If not, the legendary dynasty established in the early years of the Alliance wouldn't have been by Excellent Era, but Tyranny.

Lord Grim jumped high out of the lava with a Heroic Leap. The strike from his umbrella looked extremely imposing too. But Han Wenqing knew that the strike was flashy but not threatening. The attack priority from Heroic Leap didn't come until the user landed on the ground. No matter how fearsome Lord Grim may look, just one punch from his Desert Dust would be enough to send him flying.

But Han Wenqing didn't want to do this.

Send him flying away? Ye Xiu could take the opportunity to get back onto the land. And then with Desert Dust in the lava, wouldn't that just be suicide?

The plan stays the same!

He wasn't afraid of falling into the lava, but no matter what, he needed to drag Lord Grim with him.

Desert Dust readied himself. Han Wenqing stared closely at the path of Lord Grim's weapon.

Shua!

The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella changed forms!

As expected!

Han Wenqing hadn't been surprised at all. He had guessed that Ye Xiu wouldn't actually use Heroic Leap to attack him. The attack wouldn't even be able to break Desert Dust's Super Armor.　

Ye Xiu will definitely use a different attack.

Han Wenqing had guessed right. His line of sight never left the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella.

As the umbrella quickly changed forms, it swung towards Desert Dust.

I've been waiting!

Desert Dust's two hands clapped together, Empty-Handed Blade Block!　

Locked in place!

He locked the umbrella in place firmly. A Dismantle skill. A block and then a throw.　　

Go down!　　

Desert Dust wanted to use the umbrella to throw Lord Grim back into the lava, but to his surprise, his throw failed.

How?

In all his years as a Striker, he had never seen Empty-Handed Blade Block miss after blocking an attack. A Dismantle skill had two parts, a block and a throw. Although it consisted of two parts, they were linked together. After the block, it shouldn't be possible to avoid the throw.

At this moment, although the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella had been blocked, it hadn't finished transforming. The umbrella pulled open, and the ribs of the umbrella squeezed together in the form of an arc. It hung there as if it would fall off at any moment.

This form is... a scythe!

From Knight sword into scythe. A scythe was a Priest weapon, so it wouldn't affect the Heroic Leap because it was Priest skill too.　

Priest skills...

Lord Grim pulled back on the umbrella. The form changed again, and the umbrella split into two halves, which flew back to Lord Grim's hands as if they had grown wings.

Fly back...

Han Wenqing realized what had happened.　　

Spirit Guidance!

Exorcist skill, Spirit Guidance. It was an attack, where the weapon flew towards the target. In other words, when the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella transformed from Knight sword to Priest scythe, it was considered as a flying weapon and not in Lord Grim's hands.　

Dismantle skills worked on flying weapons, but in that case it could only block, not throw. The other person was more than ten steps away from you, how were you supposed to throw him?

Although Lord Grim was extremely close to Desert Dust, that was how the system judged it. Empty-Handed Blade Block had blocked a flying weapon, so the block hadn't locked Lord Grim in place. As a result, Lord Grim could dodge the throw.

After dealing with Desert Dust's attack, the umbrella split into tonfas. A cold light glinted.

Brawler skill, Poison Needle!

Another skill attached to a weapon. At this close of a distance, there was nowhere to run.

The Poison Needle hit. The damage wasn't high, nor was the DoT threatening. However, Poison Needle broke Super Armor!

Lord Grim's Poison Needle was only level one, even so, it removed Super Armor for up to five seconds. For the current situation, it was more than enough. Five seconds was enough for the two to fall into the lava eight times.

The moment Poison Needle came out, Lord Grim took a step forward.　

There was nowhere to run to in the air, and with his Super Armor broken, Han Wenqing's Desert Dust could only try to parry the blows.

Pa pa pa... splash... pa pa...　　

Eagle Stamp!

Lord Grim also used an Eagle Stamp. It didn't matter if it dealt damage or if Han Wenqing parried it. With three Eagle Stamps, Desert Dust fell into the lava. Lord Grim finished it with two more stamps.

The applause was still going...　　

Tyranny's fans obviously didn't want to give Ye Xiu applause. Happy's fans were in Tyranny's home stadium and weren't able to make such loud noises. The applause had been for Desert Dust breaking Lord Grim's Shadow Clone Technique, sending him into the lava again.

But the reversal had happened too quickly. While the crowd was still clapping, Lord Grim used Heroic Leap, Soul Guidance to cheat Desert Dust's Empty-Handed Block, Poison Needle to break the Super Armor, and then Eagle Stamp to send Desert Dust into the lava!

This was how fast top pro players played. Using seconds to count was too slow. Tyranny's fans hadn't been able to stop their applause when Ye Xiu finished his series of inputs. Their captain was now the one in the lava.

Words couldn't describe how fast the reversal had been. How long could characters stay in the air? Even in this short amount of time, several back-and-forths had occurred.

In the end, Desert Dust had fallen into the lava. Lord Grim used Eagle Stamp to get into the air, and then with the skills available to him, who knew if he would be able to get back to land.

There was nothing Han Wenqing could do. However, he knew that if he let Lord Grim get back to land, the fight would be over!

He had to drag him down no matter what!

Desert Dust flickered in the lava, Cloud Body! His hand moved in a blur to grab Lord Grim's retracting foot at a tricky angle.

Just a bit off!!!

Desert Dust hadn't fallen to the bottom yet. His body was still sinking. Although he could stretch his hands out, the sinking made him miss just by a bit.

Suddenly, Lord Grim dropped down into Desert Dust's hands.

How?

The more vigilant spectators thought that this was some sort of trap from Ye Xiu, but the experts could immediately tell that Ye Xiu hadn't intended for this to happen. Ye Xiu couldn't have done anything about it. The grab from Desert Dust hadn't been a normal grab.

Grappler skill: Overhead Toss!

In today's life and death match, Han Wenqing had given Desert Dust this skill.

Overhead Toss. It was a grab with extremely high priority against those in the air. It was through this high priority that he was able to reach his target.

Toss!

Lava splashed everywhere.　　

This time, Lord Grim didn't just drop into it. After being tossed by Desert Dust, Lord Grim split apart the lava. The lava fell back and swallowed Lord Grim whole.

Everyone was dumbstruck. They didn't know what happened when the lava swallowed someone completely. From their intuition, shouldn't the person be burned into nothing but bones?

Han Wenqing didn't dare relax though. He stepped forward, relying on his intuition to continue attacking Lord Grim. But before he could take a second step, a figure suddenly appeared from behind Desert Dust. It was as if a mass of flames had crashed into Desert Dust.

Ninjutsu - Underground Tunneling Technique!