Roll, another roll.
Lin Jingyan's reacted surprisingly fast towards Lord Grim's point-blank Anti-Tank Missiles. Dark Thunder rolled again, leaving the explosions behind him.
This time, Ye Xiu had encountered an opponent in dirtiness.
Lin Jingyan's style in itself couldn't be considered dirty, but he was extremely adept at dealing with people who played dirty. How could he not? He practice partner had been Fang Rui for many years.
Seeing Dark Thunder dodge the Anti-Tank Missile, the Tyranny players watching on the sidelines felt deeply moved.
"It's up to him," Zhang Jiale was confident.
Lin Jingyan was placed second in the group arena, and part of the reason for his placement was to deal with that 1% health on Lord Grim.
Yes, it was just 1%, but because it was Ye Xiu, Tyranny couldn't underestimate him.
As old rivals of Ye Xiu, no one thought that Ye Xiu would just give up because he only had 1% of his health left. They were certain that he would use that 1% to annoy them as much as possible.
Sure enough, he started healing as soon as he spawned. Then, he even followed by saying "You've won."
Yes, everyone had no doubt that Tyranny would win this fight, but at what cost?
As a result, they chose Lin Jingyan to play. With so little health left, Ye Xiu would certainly play dirty, and Lin Jingyan was the person with the most experience against it.
If it had been anyone else in Tyranny, that little trick of Ye Xiu's might have really hit. But it was different with Lin Jingyan. He had dodged the Anti-Tank Missiles with ease.
When he got up, he launched himself towards Lord Grim with a Powerful Knee Strike.
The counterattack had been fast, but with the current distance between the two characters, the timing of this Powerful Knee Strike wasn't good and it wouldn't pose much of a threat.
This sort of rushed attack was quite good at restricting the dirty playstyle though. Playing dirty required observation, thinking, and set-up. By raising the tempo, it made it harder for the opponent to make these calculations. Although against those who were dirty to their bones, then their instinctive reactions would be dirty too. Just this sort of fast tempo wouldn't be enough to suppress someone like that.
But Lin Jingyan had a lot of practice against this sort of dirtiness.
The Powerful Knee Strike wasn't everything. As he leaped towards Lord Grim, Dark Thunder suddenly opened his hands and threw sand.
The purpose of the Powerful Knee Strike was simply as a movement skill. Sand Toss was the main focus. The Sand Toss transformed from a point attack to an AoE attack. Just moving to dodge the Powerful Knee Strike wouldn't enough now, and it was too late to make any further movements.
Hua!
The sand crashed into Lord Grim. The grains of sand made crisp sounds as they hit. The only thing Ye Xiu could do was turn Lord Grim's head around to avoid the Blind.
But Dark Thunder had already landed on the ground. He took step in the opposite direction of Lord Grim's head turn. It was a subtle detail, but sometimes it was this sort of detail that was fatal. Dark Thunder threw out a punch.
Four sharp claws slashed upwards, but to everyone's surprise, Lord Grim's two hands had also extended out. He was looking in a different direction, but his hands were moving in this direction.
Fling!
Seeing these hand movements, Lin Jingyan immediately deduced what skill his opponent was using.
Perhaps one of their attacks might reach the other first, but either way, the Fling would go into effect. As for the Fling direction, it was obviously towards the lava.
Getting thrown into the lava by a 7% health Lord Grim was something that Lin Jingyan could not accept.
Jump back!
It'd be better if Lin Jingyan didn't go through with his punch, instead of giving the opportunity away to Ye Xiu.
Dark Thunder jumped back to dodge the grab. Then, he stepped forward again to return the favor.
Fling, a Fling as well.
It was a Fling against a Fling, but when was starting up while the other was finishing up. After dodging the opponent's Fling, he would use his own Fling as a counterattack. Lin Jingyan deserved to be someone who had played the game professionally for many years. Even though Fling was a Grappler skill, it was a skill no Fighter class would ever give up.
Unfortunately, Lin Jingyan had encountered an unspecialized, a class that was unprecedented in the competitive scene. What's more, in the hands of that unspecialized was a miraculous weapon that had never been seen before.
Lord Grim was retracting his hands. It was the ending animation for Fling, but the umbrella that had split into two halves transformed back into one piece. The part that was extending outwards made its way past Dark Thunder's hands and into his body.
Myriad Manifestations Umbrella, spear form.
Battle Mage Skill: Circle Swing.
Dark Thunder was thrown into the sky. The only thing that Lin Jingyan could be glad about was that the Circle Swing could not throw him directly into the lava.
However, skills may be fixed, but people were alive. Lin Jingyan suddenly realized that Dark Thunder could move while in the air.
Grab skills locked the opponent's movements while active. Right now, if his character could move, then it meant that the skill had ended.
By canceling Circle Swing midway through, a majority of the damage dealt by the skill was lost. But for Lin Jingyan's Dark Thunder, if he continued following along his current path, he would be thrown into the far more terrifying lava.
Punch, kick...
Without the skill lock, Dark Thunder could do as he pleased in the air. But unfortunately, Brawlers didn't have any movement skills while in the air. By punching and kicking, he could move his character's trajectory slightly. However, the experienced Lin Jingyan already knew that it wasn't enough.
Eagle Stamp!
Lin Jingyan thought of this move. He didn't even need to put the skill on his weapon. All he needed was 20 skill points to learn it. If he had it, he could have turned this situation around.
But he didn't have the luxury of these 20 skill points. His Dark Thunder didn't have Eagle Stamp.
He could only have Dark Thunder throw out a Molotov Cocktail. He couldn't just do nothing!
Unfortunately, this sort of venting didn't pose any threat. Ye Xiu's Lord Grim easily dodged it. He raised his umbrella and fired two times.
Delivery Gun!
He wanted to use Delivery Gun to send him even farther away.
Lin Jingyan continued to have Dark Thunder punch and kick. The Delivery Gun technique required the player to hit the target's center of mass to control the opponent's movements. Only Sharpshooters with their rapid firing capabilities could occasionally grasp a moving target's center of mass. The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella's gun form was a rifle. It could only fire twice before needing to reload and could not display the full effectiveness of Delivery Gun. But then, Lord Grim's umbrella suddenly turned towards the sky. Ta ta ta ta ta, a burst of gunfire. Lin Jingyan wanted to cough blood. That shameless bastard was using Gatling Gun to execute a Delivery Gun.
The firing speed of Gatling Gun was fast to the point that it put the user's aim to the test. How could Lin Jingyan have any doubts about Ye Xiu's skill with it, though? The technique had been invented by him.
Unspecialized, ah, unspecialized. They were just ridiculously annoying.
Blood blossomed from Dark Thunder as he flew in an arc. The lava spread outwards to embrace him, and Dark Thunder cordially accepted it. Then, the lava began to burn away his health. Lin Jingyan turned around. On the shore, Ye Xiu was cordially waiting for him, ready to welcome him back.
Lin Jinyan wanted to cry. It would not be a good idea to challenge him directly. It'd be better to find a place farther away, so Ye Xiu's Lord Grim wouldn't be able to block his escape.
Dark Thunder climbed out of the lava. Flames were still burning, dealing the last bits of damage. The crowd looked at the 48% health on Dark Thunder and were quiet. Then, they saw Ye Xiu's Lord Grim run towards him, while typing out: "Old Lin, how could you be so careless, Old Lin. The lava's pretty strong, no?"
The lava was indeed strong. He didn't even have half his health anymore. How could Lin Jingyan reply back to it?
"You've won" was Lin Jingyan's reply. It was what Ye Xiu had said at the start of the match.
But at this moment, it was the truth. For this fight to have turned out this way, it was a huge victory for Ye Xiu.
"You're still alive. How could I say I've won :)" Ye Xiu even added a smiley face.
"I give you an inch, and you want a mile!" Lin Jingyan replied. Dark Thunder rushed forward to meet Lord Grim.
Technically speaking, Lin Jingyan had won.
But even the generous Tyranny fans found it hard to applaud for this sort of victory.
41%
This was Dark Thunder's remaining health.
To get rid of that 7% from Lord Grim... or perhaps it would be better to say 1%, Tyranny had sacrificed far more than they would have liked.
Ye Xiu walked out from the player booth. Normally, there would definitely be boos being thrown at him. But right now, the Tyranny fans didn't know if that was the right move, so they kept silent.
"Hm, this match... how do we describe it?" Pan Lin and Lin Yibo were having trouble finding words to summarize this fight.
You couldn't really say Lin Jingyan's performance was bad. It was because of the map that the single slip-up had cost him greatly.
"Maybe it's better to say that Ye Xiu found the key point to this map first..." Li Yibo said.
Fuck off!
The vast majority of the people who heard his words cursed at him.
You'd have to be blind not to see what the key point to this map. Found it first? More like Ye Xiu was the first to successfully take advantage of it!