1187 Carefully Honed Talen

Magic Missile!

Gao Yingjie's Kind Tree started out simple, testing the waters with a not-so-powerful Magic Missile.

Lord Grim dodged easily. Obviously, he didn't lack in ranged methods of attack. Myriad Manifestations Umbrella raised, three Anti-Tank Missiles seemed to have been swung out, roaring with a fiery tail as they flew at their target.

Gao Yingjie's Kind Tree immediately waved a hand, and a star shaped symbol was tossed out, transforming into a Magic Ray as it darted forth.

Star Ray?

No!

This Magic Ray accurately struck one of the Anti-Tank Missiles, then immediately rebounded towards another, then another, and then sped right for Lord Grim.

This was a variant of Star Ray: Star Refraction. Compared to Star Ray, it wasn't as powerful, but one could utilize the distinguishing feature of this refraction to create unexpected attacks. Currently, after refracting thrice, the three Anti-Tank Missiles had already exploded in midair, light flashing and smoke billowing. As for Lord Grim? He had no choice but to dodge the attack that came refracted at him.

With his sidestep, Kind Tree was already charging out of the smoke and fire, directly at Lord Grim. With a wave of his hand, a Lava Flask was thrown down, and soon after, he was swinging his broom at Lord Grim. Gao Yingjie's flurry of attacks quickly followed swiftly after his Star Refraction, barely giving Ye Xiu any chance to react.

Sword Draw!

The broom was about to hit Lord Grim's head when a blade of light flashed out. Because of the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella's transformative abilities, it often hid a lot of very easily-distinguishable skills in strange movements. This Sword Draw was exactly this. However, the prodigious Gao Yingjie reacted swiftly. Kind Tree's advance immediately stopped and turned into a backwards jump.

The ground had already melted under the Lava Flask, but Ye Xiu refused to give up such a good opening. Lord Grim used a Knight's Charge and pursued Kind Tree against the damage from the lava.

The two figures moved, immediately changing positions. Lord Grim came over with his Charge while Gao Yingjie's Kind Tree avoided the attack by getting on his broom mid-jump.

Gao Yingjie's reaction speed was truly amazing. Even Ye Xiu was a little surprised at his miss. However, a counterattack immediately followed.

Broom Tornado!

Just barely dodging this attack by riding his broom, Kind Tree immediately turned his broom and quickly swung it down at Lord Grim. The entire process looked as if Kind Tree had simply switched directions twice in midair, smoothly and clearly.

This time, Lord Grim didn't have the time to dodge. With the rapid spinning of the broom that Broom Tornado created, it was hard to parry as well. Ye Xiu could only go onto the defensive, raising his sword horizontally with a Blade Master's Guard. What followed was the continuous sound of the broom clashing with the edge of the sword. Broom Tornado battered at Lord Grim at high speed, sweeping him back.

Star Ray!

Gao Yingjie wasn't greedy. Just as the Broom Tornado was going strong, he suddenly canceled the skill and threw out a Star Ray. At such a close distance, there was no way Lord Grim could dodge. The Magic Ray hit, causing Lord Grim to stumble. Kind Tree's broom was already enchanted with Frost Powder. As it was whipped through the air, it left a trail of shattered ice crystals in the air as it slapped down at Lord Grim.

For melee combat, Witches mostly just used normal attacks, but with specialized magic tools, they could enhance their weapon's damage and enchant their weapon with special effects. For example, Frost Powder had the chance of freezing the target directly. Even if you were unlucky, it would still inflict a slow. Everything depended on the target's resistance.

Now, the number of pieces of Silver equipment on Lord Grim's body was slowly increasing, but he still mostly had Orange equipment. This meant his stats were easy to figure out. Gao Yingjie currently used Frost Powder naturally because he had realized that Lord Grim didn't have much of a resistance to ice.

Slap, slap, slap…

That was how Witches attacked. Even with Frost Powder, normal attacks wouldn't do any significant damage, but if he was hit and frozen, that would be dreadful.

Kind Tree started off with three consecutive attacks which Lord Grim barely dodged. The fourth attack, Gao Yingjie knew the other wouldn't be able to dodge, but that was when Lord Grim threw a handful of powder over as well...

This was...

Gao Yingjie recognized it immediately, but Kind Tree's attack was already sweeping forth, he didn't have time to retract it.

A hit!

As expected, Ye Xiu couldn't dodge this attack, but it was just a hit. What could a normal attack do?

Freezing effect?

It was gone… What Lord Grim had thrown just now was something Gao Yingjie was more than familiar with, the Witch's Disperse Powder. The effect of Frost Powder on his weapon also counted as a buff. When met with Disperse Powder, it was immediately neutralized.

However, only the Frost Powder was neutralized, not Kind Tree's attack. This hit was just a normal attack, without the wanted freeze effect, but with the following attack, Gao Yingjie was already attempting to inflict his own effects.

Sweep!

The broom swept up diagonally with the Witch's knock-up skill. Lord Grim was immediately suspended in the air. Gao Yingjie quickly followed after with Kind Tree to take this chance to unleash a combo, but instead saw the suspended Lord Grim facing him, looking straight at him.

A trap!!!

Gao Yingjie instantly realized.

When struck with a knock-up skill, it was impossible to adjust your position so well, so there was only one explanation: Lord Grim hadn't actually been struck; he had merely jumped up. Ye Xiu had predicted his next move and cooperated to create the illusion that he had been struck, and then he would launch an unexpected counterattack...

The light of a blade flashed and Lord Grim plummeted with a Falling Light Blade. Gao Yingjie was already having Kind Tree hurriedly avoid it, but Falling Light Blade...

With this attack, it was clear that Ye Xiu had once again predicted Gao Yingjie's next move. Falling Light Blade's small shockwave was just enough to capture Kind Tree.

Kind Tree, hit by the shockwave, was knocked to the side. Gao Yingjie rushed to Quick Recover, but Lord Grim had already pursued him over, swing down from overhead with a Collapsing Mountain.

Was Collapsing Mountain a hard to dodge attack? No, but the problem was the timing Ye Xiu chose. He attacked right as Kind Tree was in the middle of his Quick Recover. He couldn't really cancel, but continuing wouldn't do him any good, and it was too late to change directions.

Another trap!

What a troublesome opponent….

In the Season 8, Gao Yingjie rarely had chances to play, so he hadn't fought Ye Xiu before. Afterwards, they had come to a few exchanges in the online game. In the new server, at the beginning, they had been crushed by the unspecialized with their low leveled classes. There was no helping that. For the unspecialized, if it wasn't for the lack of skill points, the class would be mature at level 20. But what about other classes? When they were level twenty, they only had five skills for their class. Even if they learned more from other classes of the same type, that couldn't compare to the unspecialized. Fewer skills meant fewer variations, then, considering how they were against God Ye Xiu with his comprehensive knowledge, their attacks would be easily seen through and dealt with. Training with Ye Xiu in the new server was a painful memory.

Back then, Tiny Herb's members all had the same thought. They all believed that their immature characters had crippled their ability, and would naturally be at a disadvantage against the unspecialized. If it wasn't so, then the result would be very different.

Now, fighting Ye Xiu one on one, Gao Yingjie really wanted to tell those teammates the truth. With a mature character, it really was different from using a low leveled character, but if you were to say the result would be different when fighting Ye Xiu, that wasn't necessarily true. Even with Kind Tree, Gao Yingjie still felt that he was using the low leveled character he had once used against Ye Xiu.

All of his intentions had been seen through, his every move predicted. The attacks God Ye Xiu executed weren't magnificent, but they were inescapable, always timed when you were incapable of dodging. How did he manage to hone his awareness and experience to such a degree? Gao Yingjie was suddenly a little envious. He had hand speed; he was quick at reacting; he could switch between playstyles and combinations whenever he wished. He was a prodigy; he was far faster at learning, at mastering anything thrown his way than other people. However, it was impossible for him to gain the carefully honed talent God Ye Xiu had sharpened from who knew how many battles.

It seemed as if everything that he was doing was being discerned and analyzed.

This feeling was so intense. Even against his captain, Wang Jiexi, Gao Yingjie had never felt such an imposing pressure. Shouldn't his captain understand him better than God Ye Xiu?

His usual combinations wouldn't be of any use. He had to do something that the other wouldn't be able to predict!

Gao Yingjie, after losing the initiative, fell into a helpless situation. No matter how he switched up his tactics, he wasn't able to escape Lord Grim's control.

From the outside, it seemed that he wasn't at such a disadvantage. Occasionally, he would still find chances to counterattack. In the beginning, that's what Gao Yingjie thought as well, but soon enough, he realized that while he had accurately grasped these seemingly valuable chances, he never managed to achieve what he had been intending. He could send out a few counterattacks every now and then, but in the blink of an eye, Ye Xiu would have taken back the advantage.

Thus, he came to a realization. These so-called chances were all under Ye Xiu's control as well. No one would dare say that their fighting was flawless, but Ye Xiu was able to keep the openings he revealed under his control. Thus, Gao Yingjie might've grasped chance after chance, but was never able to make anything out of it.

So this was the Glory Textbook? The strongest player in the history of Glory?

Gao Yingjie gazed at the weird character, swinging a strange weapon, and wearing an uncomfortably mismatched set of equipment, with fearful reverence.

He really is strong, but, I can't give up just like this!

Gao Yingjie grit his teeth. Kind Tree didn't have much health left, and he still wasn't able to find an opening to turn the tides. His only choice was to go all out!

Glory!

When the word flashed on the screen, the match came to an end.

So in the end, he still lost?

Gao Yingjie stared at the fallen Kind Tree, stunned.