1026 Meeting Force with Force

The audience still hadn't recovered from the spectacular fight between Ye Xiu and Sun Xiang. The next round had begun, but the stadium was still silent.

However, this wouldn't affect the players on stage. When they entered the player booths, the players and characters became one. This was the mindset that they currently put themselves in.

Shen Jian's character was a Striker, which was a purely offensive type character similar to Sun Zheping's Berserker. The Striker's weapon was their body, so it had the shortest attack range of the 24 classes. However, this class represented the principle that a shorter weapon was more dangerous. When fighting in close quarters combat, their attack speed was ranked the fastest among the 24 classes. Strikers, Assassins, and Grapplers were known as the Nightmare Trio when it came to close combat.

When the match started, both sides showcased the straightforwardness of their respective classes. They didn't move strategically, but headed straight for the center of the map to fight. 

Speaking of character strength, Excellent Era held a clear advantage. Sun Zheping's Another Summer of Sleep didn't have any Silver equipment at all; all of his equipment was orange. This could be considered a disadvantage because all of his stats were known by the opponent. Shen Jian could carry out the fight according to Another Summer of Sleep's stats and bonuses. Although Shen Jian's Striker was a sub Excellent Era, Excellent Era was still a powerhouse team. The subs wouldn't have characters too different in strength compared to the characters of the starting roster. Shen Jian had a set of ten Silver equipment, a number enough to make most players drool. In reality, a powerhouse team might not have a small number of Silver equipment even for substitute characters. The real difference between the God-level characters lay in the quality. This was clearly related to the the distribution of a team's resources. It went without saying that the ace and core characters would get prioritized when it came to using these resources, and naturally, the equipment given to these core characters were much more suited to the players' playstyles.

Shen Jian was promoted to a starter in this season, so his character also received more attention. Since he was better than he was last season, he couldn't wait to use his upgraded character to show a brilliant performance. However, this could only happen after they cleared the Challenger League.

There was a wide gap between the characters' stats, but Sun Zheping showed no trace of being courteous. When the two met, he immediately made the first move. Another Summer of Sleep swung the greatsword in his hand and launched a Collapsing Mountain.

Due to a Striker's limited attack range, they often failed to attack first. However, this didn't mean that they would be stuck in a passive state. Shen Jian's response was very tough. He activated Reinforced Iron Bones, and rushed towards Another Summer of Sleep's Collapsing Mountain with swinging fists.

Sun Zheping? He was famous, but this did not mean Shen Jian would be afraid of him. They were both pro players, so even if his opponent was a God, his opponent's strength wouldn't in another league. If he turned soft every time he faced someone of a higher level, how could he even participate in a match? As a new main roster player, Shen Jian didn't have many chances to show himself. Since he got to meet a figure like Sun Zheping in the match against Happy, it seemed like a good opportunity to reveal himself.

The number one Berserker? Very well, I'll use an even more fierce and crazy way to beat you.

Shen Jian thought to himself and then controlled his character to charge forward.

Reinforced Iron Bones increased his character's physical defense, but more importantly, it also granted Super Armor.

Super Armor made the character immune to all forms of CC apart from grabs. In this way, although he faced a cut from the opponent, it didn't affect his Striker's advance at all. He only lost a bit of health from this attack, but his attack continued as normal. Shen Jian neither avoided nor blocked the incoming attacks, and pushed forward with Reinforced Iron Bones. This revealed his intention to fight straightforwardly.

Sun Zheping unexpectedly reacted extremely fast. He leapt up and cancelled Collapsing Mountain in midair. Another Summer of Sleep then swung his sword. It seemed like an Upward Slash, but this blow from Upward Slash seemed to release magical waves as if ripping apart the air.

This was a low-level Spellblade skill, Wave Wheel Slasher, which used a magic boundary to seal a target before spinning and slicing the target. All four swordsmen classes typically put at least one point into it. They wanted it for its Super Armor piercing effects. 

Shen Jian saw this, but didn't have any other options available. He could only choose to retreat. However, Sun Zheping had reason to not let him escape. After Another Summer of Sleep's jump, he landed and reached out to grab Shen Jian's Fighter. This was a Berserker grab Soul-Devouring Crimson Grip.

The Striker jumped back as Shen Jian chose to give way again.

Another Summer of Sleep wasn't in a hurry to rush up this time and let out a Sword Draw instead.

Shen Jian's Striker was still under the effects of Reinforced Iron Bones, so he wouldn't be beat back by this blow. He rushed forward to smash the sword's light with his body, and swung his fists once more.

However, Another Summer of Sleep held his sword in front of his chest and attacked with the Blade Master's Lunge. 'Tu-tu!' The two blows landed on the Striker. It was true that a Striker buffed with Reinforced Iron Bone wouldn't be affected by the skill effects, but the sword was pointed at his chest. If he continued to advance, wouldn't his character be pierced by the blade? Although this was a game, it couldn't be too illogical. The two lunges held up the person like a stick, and managed to postpone the incoming force of Shen Jian's Striker.

Shen Jian was unwilling to give up; there was no big deal in losing a bit of health after activating Reinforced Iron Bones. However, it would be a mistake to not seize the opportunity to attack. The Striker that was stabbed twice continued to push forward tenaciously. This time, Sun Zheping's Another Summer of Sleep retreated. He jumped back repeatedly without turning around.

"Where are you going!" Shen Jian cried out in his head and forced his character forward even faster. The Striker used Straight Punch to try to close the gap.

Who would have thought that after Another Summer of Sleep's two backwards jumps, he would take out the sword behind his back? As Shen Jian rushed forward, the Great Sword thrust out and slashed straight down.

Demon-Slaying Slash!

Apart from its outstanding damage, Demon-Slaying Slash could also lower the target's defense. When this skill was fully upgraded, a blow could reduce the target's defense by 30% for eight seconds. 

All of this couldn't be avoided when one activated Reinforced Iron Bone. Even if it was activated, the damage from the skill was rather heartbreaking. There seemed to be no convenient chance to attack, so this Demon-Slaying Slash caused Shen Jian to hesitate a bit before finally choosing to dodge.

At this point, even commentators like Pan Lin and Li Yibo were able to clearly see through Shen Jian's hesitation, let alone Ye Xiu. This guy was set on fighting resolutely and tough, but obviously that wasn't his original style. So when he fought with truly tough players like Sun Zheping, he backed down. No one understood why he activated Reinforced Iron Bones and wasted the skill's effect in the end.

Wasting Reinforced Iron Bone was a huge mistake. This was because when Strikers used this skill, they would usually neglect defense and receive a large amount of damage. If a player couldn't find an opportunity to beat the opponent enough to cough up litres of blood in this situation, what was the point of even using this skill? Shen Jian not only had no reason to, he was literally selling his blood too. No, it wasn't even selling blood. By selling blood, there was some profit to be made. Shen Jian was purely giving out blood.

Pan Lin and Li Yibo gave a thorough analysis of Shen Jian's terrible opener. Judging from this aspecte, there was quite some distance between Shen Jian and the top Gods. After all, Pan Lin and Li Yibo could comment on it with such ease. When Ye Xiu was on stage before, the two kept on falling into traps. It's obvious that they weren't skilled enough to the point that they wouldn't even be able to finish a single level of Contra if not given 30 lives.

By failing to grasp an opportunity with Reinforced Iron Bones and taking a lot of damage, Shen Jian knew how badly he fought and immediately became restless. Was Sun Zheping the kind of person to give his opponent any chance to catch his breath? His attacks grew stronger blow by blow. He waved his greatsword around like a windmill and slashed crazily.

Apart from "No wonder he's the Number One Berserker", "As expected from the Number One Berserker", and "Look, this is the power of the Number One Berserker", the two commentators had nothing else to say. They couldn't help but refrain from giving any blunt comments on Sun Zheping's performance. They had fallen into too many traps today, if they fell into another one again, all 30 of their lives would be used up.

On the Excellent Era bench, Tao Xuan's expression was extremely gloomy.

Shen Jian's resolute attitude before he went on stage caused him to feel very much at peace. Although he gave a must-win command, there would always be wins and losses in a match. Tao Xuan obviously knew about this principle. The must-win command was a type of resolution, so the player would feel pressured as well as motivated. Whether it was a win or a loss, Tao Xuan would never bring out the must-win command to criticize a player.

In addition, he clearly knew about Sun Zheping's skill. If Shen Jian couldn't take him down, he wouldn't say much, but he was losing in such an unsightly manner. Tao Xuan was angry at how Shen Jian was trying to appear fierce even though he was weak inside. If he fought like this, it would look better if he had just typed 'GG' the moment he stepped on stage!

Unfortunately, no one could point out anything in this match, and Shen Jian continued to fight with fear. Using a fierce and crazy way to defeat Sun Zheping? This plan was long forgotten. An alarmed Shen Jian even forgot to win at this point. He was too busy thinking about how he could survive as if this were an apocalypse.

Shen Jian lost without any turning points or any glimmers of hope. His performance was worse than Tang Rou's and Mo Fan's. Even though the two couldn't take down much of Xiao Shiqin's Life Extinguisher's health, at least they had a few moments of brilliance that belonged to them. They used their efforts to clearly express their intentions.

Shen Jian? He had intentions when he went on stage, but it was smashed to pieces in two blows by Sun Zheping's Another Summer of Sleep. His thoughts were rather weak.

"Shen Jian was obviously unprepared." Pan Lin said.

"Yeah, he might have expected Sun Xiang to finish everything, so he wouldn't have needed to go on stage." Coach Li expressed his agreement.

"He probably didn't think he would be fighting a strong opponent like Sun Zheping."

"It was quite unwise of him to try to match Sun Zheping with force."

"Yes, Han Wenqing is the only Striker in all of Glory that could use such a method to fight Sun Zheping."

"Even though Sun Zheping retired many years ago, he shouldn't be underestimated like this!"

"Yes!"

"Too careless."

The match ended with this.

Winner: Team Happy, Sun Zheping, Another Summer of Sleep.