1352 A Battle of Awareness

Cast!

Without a trace of hesitation, Crying Devil's blade flickered. 

One shouldn't be fooled by the idle chatting and banter in the public channel. In reality, the two of them were carefully controlling their characters while relying on their wealth of experiences to determine the other's actions.

In the instant that Li Xuan had stopped chatting, he already knew that Lord Grim was nearby, and without the slightest hesitation, Crying Devil called forth a Ghost Boundary. But halfway through the cast, Lord Grim's figure suddenly flashed in front of him.

So fast!

Li Xuan was startled. This speed was a fair bit faster than what he'd predicted. With the cast halfway done, could he complete it?

Bang!

Lord Grim opened fire, sending bullets precisely towards him.

He couldn't complete it!

Li Xuan made an accurate judgement in a split second, cancelling his previous Ghost Boundary cast. Crying Devil jumped to the side to avoid the gunfire as the Silver Weapon, Four Heavenly Wheels spun one round next to him, casting a Shadow Image.

Shadow Image was a Ghostblade's protective skill. Within 1 minute, the player could activate it any number of times to offset the damage that they took. In a head-on fight, especially against a veteran like Ye Xiu, Li Xuan didn't make Crying Devil summon a Ghost Boundary, instead casting Shadow Image before immediately retreating.

Lord Grim had appeared at a speed which exceeded his expectations, but if one were to say that moment had decided the difference between victory and defeat, it really wasn't so simple. Crying Devil retreated, and in just a few steps, he had already turned another corner. Without hesitation, he began to cast his Ghost Boundary once again.

Crying Devil's cast speed was very fast. Li Xuan was confident that Lord Grim had no way of once again appearing before him so quickly that he couldn't finish his cast. But this time, an explosion rang out. The wall in front of Crying Devil had been blown up by Lord Grim's cannonfire, immediately sending fragments flying inches away from Crying Devil, who was now worried that he wouldn't be able to get out unscathed.

Interrupt!

Before even being able to see Crying Devil's situation, Lord Grim used such a method to indirectly interrupt his Ghost Boundary cast.

The two of them were carefully analyzing each other. The back-and-forth combat so far had been completely reliant on their snap decisions and conjectures made from their awareness. Apart from the time when Lord Grim had interrupted the cast with his gun, the two people hadn't seen each other's movements directly at all. This was purely a battle of awareness and experience.

Retreat! 

Li Xuan, who once again had his cast interrupted, had no choice but to retreat. Crying Devil continued to retreat frantically. On this map that Li Xuan chose, he didn't even need to look to know what the next street would look like. But before he could even retreat two steps, Li Xuan heard heard another gunshot before hearing the sound of Rotor Wing being used.

Chasing from above!

Li Xuan quickly raised his camera angle and adjusted Crying Devil's movement accordingly.

In the end, what the audience saw instead was Lord Grim using Aerial Fire, with the Rotor Wings only being used for hovering at a low elevation. Ye Xiu was too crafty!

The crowd was awed. Ye Xiu had made use of the sound effect of the two skills, managing to cloud Li Xuan's judgement. In reality, he controlled Lord Grim chase on level ground at first before suddenly popping out from a corner and charging straight towards his opponent.

As he had to defend from aerial attacks, Li Xuan had chosen to turn a different street corner. But at this time, he was suddenly face-to-face with Lord Grim, who had charged straight over, creating an extremely awkward situation.

Run!

Upon seeing the distance between the two of them, Li Xuan knew that he had no time to cast his skills, and could only run away again to find a better position.

But this time, it wasn't so easy for him to escape. Lord Grim's various movement skills were put on full display, and in that instant, his explosive speed wasn't something that a Ghostblade could compare to at all.

His once faraway opponent had very quickly begun to latch on to him.

Li Xuan immediately realized that Lord Grim's earlier burst of speed that had exceeded his expectations could really end up being the factor that decided victory and defeat! Because of that one moment, he had been passive at every step, and Ye Xiu had never given him the chance to summon his Ghost Boundaries again. And now, Ye Xiu had already succeeded in latching on to him. In this battle, as the number one Phantom Demon, Crying Devil had surprisingly not laid down even a single Ghost Boundary.

Wasn't this just too laughable?

Earthquake Sword!

Crying Devil suddenly turned his body, sending an Earthquake Sword towards Lord Grim, who was chasing him from behind.

Lord Grim jumped lightly, dodging the attack.

Moonlight Slash, Full Moonlight Slash!

The two skills slashed out in succession.

"Stop struggling!" While controlling Lord Grim to dodge, Ye Xiu still had time to send this message in the global channel. Evidently, this attack really didn't pose much of a threat towards him.

But at this time, Crying Devil unexpectedly started casting. Surprisingly, he was trying to forcefully summon a Ghost Boundary.

In the end, Ye Xiu completely ignored it, and Lord Grim charged forth!

The Ghost Boundary was summoned.

Crying Devil had unexpectedly managed to summon a Ghost Boundary, but…...

Sword Boundary... It raised the Strength and Intelligence of characters, but it didn't have any direct effect that restrained an opponent. At the same time as the Sword Boundary was completed, Lord Grim's sword had already reached Crying Devil's head.

"You're too obsessive!" Ye Xiu sighed.

"Yeah, if I couldn't even lay down one Ghost Boundary, that would just be too outrageous..." Li Xuan replied.

The Sword Boundary that he laid down was the only Ghost Boundary he'd managed to cast the entire match, but it didn't have any real influence on the battle. Afterwards, Lord Grim latched onto Crying Devil like glue, not giving him another opportunity until he finally fell.

It looked as if Ye Xiu had taken the first victory effortlessly, and it seemed as if the so-called "First Phantom Demon" didn't pose any real threat to him. Yet, real experts wouldn't have that kind of opinion.

In this round, it had really been one move that decided victory or defeat. Now, because Lord Grim had managed to latch onto Crying Devil, it looked as if he had effortlessly obtained victory. But if at the very first step, Crying Devil had managed to use Ghost Boundaries to restrain Lord Grim, it could very well be that everyone would be watching Crying Devil effortlessly dispatch Lord Grim.

And the real factor that decided that one moment were the countless actions that the two sides had taken before that. The essence of the match was the decisions that the two had made without seeing their opponent at all, instead relying purely on their awareness and experience to make all kinds of judgements. But to most of the audience, a match like this, with no real head-to-head combat wasn't worth watching at all.

Void's supporters in the stadium were evidently somewhat dissatisfied with Li Xuan's performance. But this was their captain, their core player, so everyone still gave him a bit more face. When Li Xuan stepped down from the stage, sparse clapping could still be heard from the crowd. But Void's so-called "Plan of Counterattack" really wasn't off to a good start, the very first point had already been lost. In a matter of minutes, Void's home stadium, which had originally been a flurry of excitement and energy now had a slightly depressed mood to it.

At this stage, every single point was extremely valuable.

Quite a few spectators were listening to the outcomes of other matches while watching the competition unfold in front of them. For Void to enter the playoffs, it was no longer purely dependent on their own effort. They also needed to rely on the misfortune of other teams in order to snatch a place for themselves.

As their first individual round finished, there was some news about the other matches going on at the same time.

Team Wind Howl was already up 1-0 against Thunderclap, Hundred Blossoms was up 1-0 against Misty Rain, and 301 was up 1-0 against Miracle. Everyone else was winning, only Void had lost this one point.

Was there no hope left?

Everyone silently watched the players go onstage for the second round of the individual competition, and rigid applause filled the air. To the fans of Team Void, losing this one point was as bitter and painful as losing ten points. Even if they saw that they had a better chance of winning in the second individual round, they still weren't able to drum up much enthusiasm.

In the second round of the individual competition, Happy's Luo Ji was against Void's Ge Caijie.

Their ages weren't too far apart, and they could both be considered young in the Glory circle. But where Luo Ji had only just begun to temper himself in real competitions, Ge Caijie had already displayed the air of a general in the last season, cementing himself as an important member of Team Void.

Ge Caijie very calmly entered the player booths, but what about Luo Ji? His facade of calmness was only to cover up the nervousness he felt in his heart.

It really could be said that he had to summon all his courage to take up the responsibility of competing in this round. He had already begun feeling some anxiety in his heart from yesterday, and until now, it hadn't subsided at all. He didn't know when he would be able to get rid of these feelings of nervousness. All he knew was that upon understanding that Happy's situation was somewhat dire, his heart began jumping even more fiercely.

It was a pity that the referee didn't care for such things. Upon seeing the two players enter the player booths and the characters loading in, the second round of the individual competition quickly began.

The moment his character loaded in, Luo Ji promptly examined the map.

Hamlet was a map with nice scenery, with red clouds floating in the horizon. In the middle of the map, there was a main street, and at the end of the street, he could see Ge Caijie's Blue Exorcist already walking over steadily, at a pace that was neither fast nor slow.

Luo Ji immediately controlled Concealed Light to take a roundabout route, hiding behind a straw house. He still didn't have any confidence when it came to taking on a professional player in a head-on fight, so he persisted with using tactics in every round. If he was playing a home game, with the ability to choose his map, things were a lot smoother, but in an away game, where he was faced with a map that he wasn't familiar with, it only made him more flustered.

Unfortunately, this map happened to be one that Luo Ji wasn't familiar with. After temporarily having Concealed Light hide, Luo Ji momentarily had no clue as to what to do next.

He controlled Concealed Light to sneakily stick out his head, taking a look at the main road, only to realize that Blue Exorcist had already disappeared. At this moment, Luo Ji had even less of a clue as to what to do next.

Go out?

Stay at his position and wait?

Opponents that could fight directly and tactically created a lot of difficulties for Luo Ji.

His calculation skills were not bad to begin with, but when his opponent had adopted a pace that was neither fast nor slow from the start, he had no way of determining how quickly his opponent would arrive. Now that his opponent had clearly opted to take a tactical approach, Luo Ji also had no way of figuring out which corner of the hamlet his opponent had hidden in.

It seemed as if he could only rely on careful observation and thorough preparations now.

Luo Ji started to line up his Summons. He definitely wasn't a player that didn't use his brain. Seeing as he wasn't familiar with the entire map, then he would have to understand it one part at a time, and then use those parts to establish his battlefield, making full use of the map's features.

Luo Ji controlled Concealed light, quickly and carefully observing this corner of the map.

His Spirit Cat was the first to be sent out, moving and hiding in an underbrush in front of him.

Afterwards, the Devil World Flowers were planted behind a tree. From the direction that Blue Exorcist was coming from, it probably wouldn't be within his field of view.

Afterwards, his Young Wyvern and Thunder Eagle split up and flew to the roofs of the straw houses to his left and right.

Afterwards, Concealed Light himself holed up in the straw house on the left. The house didn't have a window, and Luo Ji's actions were as if he wanted to dig a hole for Concealed Light to hide in.

The entire audience was stunned.

Wasn't this supposed to be a fighting game? Why was it being played this way?