821 Terrain Features

"Team Everlasting is doing pretty well!" Chen Yehui pretended to blurt out, but he had actually thought long and carefully before attempting to start a conversation with this sentence.

"They are doing well." Tao Xuan nodded. In reality, after Team Everlasting had been eliminated from the Pro League and undergone several adjustments in players, their ability was far from being able to impress Excellent Era’s boss, but since Team Everlasting was helping them deal with an annoying problem, they weren’t as strict with their judgements. Seeing that Happy was at a disadvantage, they all praised Everlasting’s performance.

"Ai... It’s too bad!" Chen Yehui noticed a critical part, drawing out his words and expressing his pity.

Tao Xuan could no longer keep ignoring him with his attempts at making his presence known. He didn’t call Chen Yehui here to watch the match, after all.

"Ye Qiu seems to have been doing well in the Heavenly Domain recently?" Tao Xuan distractedly asked as he watched the match. Even though this was an arbitrary question that he didn’t seem to care for much, it revealed Tao Xuan’s attitude to the situation. Ye Qiu! He had only mentioned Ye Qiu, not Team Happy. It was clear that the threat of Happy came entirely from Ye Qiu. The only thing he was concerned about was Ye Qiu’s presence. Ye Qiu’s very existence represented everything.

"Well… it’s like this!" Chen Yehui took a moment to formulate a response. "If it was just Ye Qiu causing trouble, what he has managed to accomplish would be very impressive, but he utilized the power of four guilds along with his own. A total of five different guilds working together. So when they manage to steal a boss, they have to split their gains. If we look at it from that angle, their profits are just that."

"What do you mean, ‘just that’?" Tao Xuan was a little annoyed at the use of such vague phrasing, but the way the match was going was satisfying, so he didn’t get onto Chen Yehui’s case, and just glanced at him, hinting that he wanted an explanation.

"Since they haven’t become a strong competitor for very long, and weren’t always very stable, there’s no way to make an accurate estimate. If we talk about their current profits, then they get about what the top guilds get after splitting their spoils between all five parties, but we don’t know how stable they’ll be in the future," Chen Yehui hurried explained.

"Then what about our profits as of late?" Tao Xuan asked.

This was the question Chen Yehui was most afraid of because Excellent Dynasty’s profit wasn’t a pretty sight. If they were a small to mid sized guild then it would make sense, but they were a guild with glorious history. Alhough their team had been kicked out from the Pro League earlier this year, Excellent Era had no problems in continuing to function. If they could transfer over an All Star like Xiao Shiqing when they were eliminated, then there shouldn’t be any negative effects on their guild. Yet, it was just coincidentally at this time that Excellent Dynasty was struggling with fighting for bosses. The good thing was that they weren’t the only guild struggling. Chen Yehui quickly relayed what had been happening during the summer holidays, how many pro players started interfering in the fight for bosses along with Ye Qiu active role...

Tao Xuan was speechless after hearing this. He couldn’t help but think of the very first few years of the Alliance. Back then, there was no such thing as a holiday for pro players. The Alliance wasn’t 20 teams like it was now, and the competitive season was much shorter as well, making the holidays a lot longer, but once the holidays started, almost all the pro players would rush to the online game, fighting to gain materials and equipment for their teams. In the beginning, Silver equipment was rare and everyone used Orange equipment as their go-to choice for matches.

Excellent Era’s era of three consecutive championships was in part thanks to the foundations built through fighting for this equipment. The captain who had once spared no effort or expense for Excellent Era was now the most painful thorn in Tao Xuan’s side.

Thinking about this, Tao Xuan became distracted by his upsets. Chen Yehui seemed to say something, but he didn’t hear. However Cui Li went along with him, bringing over the documents that Chen Yehui had given him. Tao Xuan picked them up and quickly flipped through them, not seeming to have a care in the world. "Let’s watch the match first! I don’t think this round will be easy for him."

Him, not them. Team Happy. From the beginning Tao Xuan only took notice of that one person.

"Team Everlasting seems very familiar with this map." Cui Li added his opinion of the current topic. "Using the the banners to cover their positions and movements, though they’re at different places, they have cohesion between them. With a range of AoE attacks, they can cover their opponent with firepower and successfully surround them."

"Actually, they could be a little more daring. They could even switch their Cleric with their sixth member, adding another DPS. Happy’s members are currently unable to focus due to the topographical features of the map," Chen Yehui entered the discussion.

"I think that’s exactly what they’re planning on doing." Cui Li looked towards the screen. With an omniscient view, they could see Team Everlasting’s cleric moving under the cover the banners provided in the support zone, and the Cleric was switched out for the sixth member, the Elementalist. Like Chen Yehui had said, while having the upper hand, they could give up their healing and add a DPS to maximize the damage they would be able to deal to their opponents.

Five DPSers, all good with AoE attacks, Team Everlasting’s firepower coverage was instantly top notch. As the attacks flew, some would definitely hit the banners, triggering the terrain effects. This way, there would be more and more springs and fire pits on the map. After these areas were uncovered, they wouldn’t become hidden again. This would make it easier to tell where you could and couldn’t step.

Team Happy was struggling under such a situation and had lost any semblance of teamwork. Each character was fighting to take cover for themselves. Ye Qiu’s Lord Grim also had to be responsible for healing, having to send over a heal from time to time, but an Unspecialized’s healing was incomparable to the healing of a class that specialized in healing. The trade off in MP for healing wasn’t an affordable one for the Unspecialized class.

"This Cleric isn’t very good." Chen Yehui concluded. He couldn’t help but feel satisfied at how Ye Xiu was being forced to make up for his teammate’s shortcomings.

"He’s healing wherever Ye Qiu is. What use is he with such poor judgement?" Chen Yehui said with a smile.

Who would’ve thought that Tao Xuan and Cui Li’s expressions would change as soon as the words left his mouth.

He healed wherever Ye Qiu healed.

Even the dumbest healer wouldn’t need someone to guide him step by step. Pulling a player like that into the core position of a team wasn’t possible unless Ye Qiu’s brain had short circuited.

So there was only one possibility, and that was that their actions were intentional. Ye Qiu had planned for the healer to heal at his tempo.

This Cleric was, indeed, not the best, but he wasn’t as bad as they originally thought. Were Ye Qiu’s actions the most effective way of supporting their team?

Thinking of this, the three started to take notice Cold Hands’ healing.

Positioning, healing targets, it was all following what Lord Grim did, but his choice of skill was, in the end, up to him. Maybe Ye Qiu could give him tips, but the team chat was clear of Lord Grim’s words.

He could be verbally giving instructions...

Their thoughts involuntarily drifted to this. There was no one keeping an eye on everyone in an online match. Sitting together, they could treat it just as they treated the online game, yelling out hints and discussing plans.

The reason why they thought of this was because this Cleric’s healing method was flawless. The choice of skill, timing, it all maximized the healing output. All the input had been converted to effective healing, not missing or wasting anything.

This Cleric was very good at calculating, or rather… extremely careful and precise.

This was the feeling that the three heads of the club had.

This support could definitely draw out the match, but what was the point of prolonging it? Just to keep struggling futilely?

None of the three believed that, because that person was in the arena.

Maybe other grassroots would be unfamiliar with this map, but how was that possible for him? Though there were many, many maps in Glory and even the most experienced players couldn’t know all of them like the back of their hands, it wasn’t every map that had very unique characteristics. Through the propagation of terrain effects, with other adjustments made, Glory created so many maps. For veterans, what they were familiar with wasn’t every map, but each setting and the features of the different terrains. With that, even to a map they had never seen before, it wouldn’t feel completely foreign to them. They could always easily figure out the map’s features and how to use them, or at least how to make sure they weren’t disadvantaged.

Had Ye Qiu already found a way to deal with Flame Flagged Springs?

Tao Xuan, Cui Li, and Chen Yehui hoped this wasn’t true, but somehow, in the depths of their hearts, they seemed to already believe that this was inevitable. Was it even possible for that person to lose so badly?

Even if he died, that guy would definitely give his opponent a good scare before succumbing!

Boom!

Wu Chen’s Dawn Gunner guided a howling rocket to its target, making another two areas collapse and creating a mushroom cloud. The mud that fell was quickly submerged by the bubbling spring water. In the other area, it was incinerated by tongues of flames, turning into lava.

Causing another two marked areas to activate wasn’t surprising for the fierce offense Team Everlasting was mounting.

Wu Chen prepared to attack again, but upon taking a good look at his surroundings, he froze.

The ground was full of holes and ditches, with so many water and fire pits uncovered. The terrain was much less even than it had been before, but how come it seemed a lot more open?

Wu Chen was a real pro player with three years of experience in the Pro League. In regards to experience in high-end battles, he had much more than He An. 

Something was wrong! The unease buried within Wu Chen suddenly erupted.