1005 Missing the Crucial Opportunity

"No wonder Xiao Shiqin is one of the Master Tacticians of Glory. His ability to switch targets is very quick and fluid. All sorts of gadgets are rushing towards Deception again, while Life Extinguisher is not in a hurry to head over. He's just like a general devising a plan. Being such an excellent Master Tactician, wouldn't he be even more outstanding if he were a Summoner, Coach Li?" Pan Lin said. 

"Haha, I know what you mean, but I believe a pro player with qualities like Xiao Shiqin would be able to produce great results no matter what class he picked."

Li Yibo's answer was fairly evasive, so Pan Lin promptly gave a laugh as he caught on. "Haha, that's very true."

"Deception is now trapped by Life Extinguisher's attacks. Does he have any method to escape? The Body Replacement Technique is currently on cooldown. Oh, there's the Shadow Clone Technique! Deception used Shadow Clone Technique. Ah, it's unfortunate... The Shadow Clone Technique didn't allow to let him escape from Life Extinguisher's attacks." Pan Lin said.

"It seems like Xiao Shiqin was ready for all these methods and enlarged the effective area of his attacks. He should be starting to shrink it now." Li Yibo said.

"As expected, the attacks are focusing in on the true Deception. Ay, if Deception's current body is the substitute, while the substitute is the real him, wouldn't this be an opportunity?"

"Ah!" Pan Lin cried out after finishing his sentence because the Deception that was surrounded by attacks was instantly destroyed. It was impossible for any character to be so weak. Evidently, his theory had been correct. Deception actually used a clone to pretend to escape. This was done so he could lure Xiao Shiqin away. His real body would only start to take action when he got into attack range. 

"Haha, Mo Fan actually did it, but the results don't seem to be too good!" Li Yibo said.

"True... Xiao Shiqin's target switching is truly too fluid and too beautiful!" Pan Lin gasped in admiration. In reality, this was because Xiao Shiqin's reactions were a lot quicker than the commentators. When Pan Lin was still talking about his theory, Life Extinguisher had already started to adjust his attacks. When Pan Lin cried out "Ah!", the attacks were already heading towards Deception's real body. The clone was simply taken down in passing as it was still within range.

Deception continued to suffer under Life Extinguisher's continuous attacks. All kinds of gadgets emerged nonstop: ones flying from the sky, ones scurrying along the ground, and even ones coming out from underground. Deception was dodging and running, but he couldn't even find any opportunities to escape, let alone retaliating.

The broadcast gave a close-up shot of Deception's Body Replacement Technique cooldown. Under the current circumstances, apart from waiting for the rescue skill to come off cooldown, there seemed to be no way out.

Everyone looked at the stopwatch and counted quietly in their heads.

Three, two, one…...

The clock flashed, and the Body Replacement Technique went off cooldown. Deception's hands started to form the hand signs. The action was so quick that it seemed like a blur for everyone else. His silhouette shook. After the fog scattered, all that was left behind was a straw dummy. At the same time, Life Extinguisher's focused attacks started to expand and increased in range.

Deception's straw dummy didn't attract any fire power. On the contrary, his real body started to receive attacks the moment it reappeared. . Although the attacks were weaker than before, there were only one or two seconds of peace before the attacks focused on him again. The lonely straw dummy was left in its original spot all by itself, and none of the attacks bothered to strike it.

"Xiao Shiqin was vigilant about this and calculated the opponent's cooldown time. This is one of the biggest differences between a pro player and a normal player." Li Yibo sighed at once.

Even though he had waited for the life-saving skill for so long, it didn't manage to save him in the end. Even though there was only one opponent, Mo Fan felt as if he were surrounded by tens of thousands of troops. No, it was even more serious than that. When he was scrap picking, although he was actually surrounded by many, they might not necessarily attack him. The scrap picking areas tended to be areas of conflict, so the players were too busy clawing at each other's necks. As a result, they didn't tend to scrap pickers as much.

However, there was only one opponent, so the focus of Xiao Shiqin's attacks was extremely obvious. Mo Fan tried to control Deception to break out using whatever methods he could think of, but none of them worked. It only took a single person to create such a impenetrable net. It has been a long time since Mo Fan had felt so nervous.

No one was born an expert. Mo Fan had been a noob before too. At the time, he was constantly put in dangerous situations where he was isolated and surrounded by enemies. Slips happened quite a few times. However, as he continued to improve, he could do as he liked in chaotic battlefields. Even if there were occasional slip ups, there were a lot of reasons for it. At least, he had never felt so nervous or felt a sense of crisis again.

Despite having only one opponent attacking him, Mo Fan felt as if the pressure of being surrounded by danger during his days as a noob had returned: He wanted to leave, but there was no way out.

Was this the end?

Amidst all kinds of explosions, Life Extinguisher's silhouette was faintly discernible, and his whereabouts were still rather ambiguous.

If he couldn't escape, what about attacking him?

When the thought popped up in his head, the silhouette appeared among the lights once again. Mo Fan subconsciously controlled Deception to throw a Shuriken from his hand.

Xiao Shiqin was cautiously controlling his skills. He had witnessed Mo Fan's excellent escaping techniques. Mo Fan could find opportunities at the slightest opening. However... he obviously lacked experience in high-level matches. If he didn't use the Body Replacement Technique right away, and left it available to use, it would have made things much harder for Xiao Shiqin. If a skill was used and it failed, it would be useless, but if it stayed unused, it would always stay a threat. The opponent would have one more option to be wary of. Unfortunately, he used it immediately. Next, the cooldown for Shadow Clone Technique was almost up. What would he do?

While Xiao Shiqin was thinking about this matter, something flashed on his screen. As a veteran, he didn't attempt to work out what it was, and controlled Life Extinguisher to dodge aside. When he spun his view to see what it had been, he saw that it was a Shuriken.

Not good!

Xiao Shiqin's heart tightened, this dodge resulted in a small pause in his attacks. If this was a normal opponent, they might not be able to grab this chance, but this guy was an escape artist. Would he let go of such an opportunity that he had created?

Xiao Shiqin hastily attempted to correct it, but as he expected, dodging the unexpected attack caused a tiny mishap in his rhythm. Mo Fan was able to grab onto this moment, and Deception's silhouette rushed out of the fires of battle in the blink of an eye.

"Sigh! It looks like I'll have to put in a lot of effort again..." Xiao Shiqin thought, but he didn't expect that Deception didn't leave after rushing out of his barrage. Deception flicked his hands and several more Shurikens flew out. Deception himself also followed closely behind.

He wants to attack!

Xiao Shiqin realized that Mo Fan wasn't planning to escape. After looking at the skills he had available, he realized that majority of them had been thrown out already. Deception had left them in the dust.

A skill that was used was equal to nothing! Xiao Shiqin was thinking about it just moments before, but he was now put in a similar situation.

Flame Cut!

Deception slashed down with a Flame Cut from behind the Shurikens. Life Extinguisher jumped aside, and activated the Rotor Wings to start to move. However, before he could move another step, Deception instantly dashed in front of him.

Shadow Clone Technique!

Mo Fan used it to block Xiao Shiqin's path. When he appeared, an attack was launched by a series of quick hand signs. He didn't give Xiao Shiqin any opportunity to guess which was the real character.

Ninja Technique: Hundred Streams!

Several streams of water shot towards Life Extinguisher like arrows. Life Extinguisher dodged, but this was exactly what Deception had anticipated. Deception jumped and stomped on Life Extinguisher's shoulders with a Bird Fall. The moment he pushed down, he swung out the rope's end on his ninjato. He was able to accurately loop it around Life Extinguisher's neck with a Body Bind Technique and threw him into the ground ruthlessly.

"He caught him! Deception caught Life Extinguisher! Xiao Shiqin is unable to get away this time." The commentator, Pan Lin, cried out. The stadium bubbled with excitement, Deception was completely suppressed just moments before, and he was able to suddenly strike back. Audiences loved these quick changes in pace the most. Of course, this wouldn't include Excellent Era's fans as the current situation had shut their mouths. They nervously watched Xiao Shiqin's performance, while they accumulated repelling energy.

"Mo Fan's wave of attacks is splendid, and the way he grabbed that opportunity was quite exciting. With such a counterattack, the situation should... eh? What?" Li Yibo was just commenting on Mo Fan's performance, and was about to give new anticipation towards this match. However, Xiao Shiqin's Life Extinguisher was able to break out within the time it took him to speak.

"Oh no, Mo Fan made a mistake. How could he let Xiao Shiqin break out so easily after spending all the effort to retaliate!" Pan Lin sighed. 

"Flying Cicada Double Sting!" Pan Lin suddenly raised his voice.. His shout clearly contained anticipation. Unfortunately, all hope was lost in his continuing sentence. "The Flying Cicada Double Sting missed, it's too late... If it had been activated just a little bit earlier, it would have been better!"

"Indeed, there seems to be some minor problems in Mo Fan's linking of his attacks. When fighting against opponents like Xiao Shiqin, even the slightest mistake will be punished..." Li Yibo sighed.

"Mo Fan is still controlling Deception to keep attacking, but the chances are slim..."

"Mm, Xiao Shiqin has already readjusted, he's just waiting for his skills to come off cooldown!"

"It's begun!"

"He sent a Predator out, followed by an Air Drop... Mechanical Seeker is blocking the way. Deception has no way of breaking out, he's facing an encirclement once again."

"Sigh, what a pity." Li Yibo shook his head continuously.