1392 Counterattack

"Neither side has made any moves!" Pan Lin shouted. This would usually be boring, but Pan Lin was excited. He was looking forward to what Level 80 equipment could do.

Li Yibo found Lord Grim's info and compared the stats before and after. The four main stats were clearly displayed, so Li Yibo hoped to quickly find something he could analyze.

"Lord Grim is moving deep. Could he be looking for better angle of attack? But the area he's in should be within Song Xiao's line of sight. There doesn't seem to be any location which he can mount a sneak attack from though. Is he going to venture even farther in?" Pan Lin continued to comment. Usually, if it wasn't a deciding moment, these remarks would rarely be said. However, right now, it looked as if Pan Lin would even analyze Lord Grim's thumb movements.　　

"Just as I thought! Lord Grim is going even deeper. He's planning on making a big turn!"

"Ah, Song Xiao has also moved!"

"Receding Tides is moving forward. Song Xiao truly deserves to be called Mister Clutch, he has exceptional mental fortitude! It's quite bold of him to push forward. Lord Grim's already moved away though, so cutting in won't be dangerous. In fact, he might be able to see through Ye Xiu's intentions this way."

"What..." Pan Lin muttered to himself. For a moment, he wasn't able to continue. He had been too ambitious in guessing Ye Xiu's intentions. Ye Xiu didn't move according to his analysis and instead moved in the opposite direction of what he had expected. This surprise caught him at a loss for words.

However, with Song Xiao's Receding Tides moving away, there were now no traces of Lord Grim.

"He calculated everything that precisely?" Pan Lin was shocked. Although it was just small play, being able to read someone so thoroughly was truly frightening.

At this moment, the broadcast cut into a slow-motion replay.

"Oh..." Pan Lin suddenly understood. It wasn't a calculation. There had been an angle from Lord Grim's previous position where he could see Receding Tides.

"As expected of Ye Xiu!" Li Yibo returned to the match, "He's extremely proficient at this map, a trait very few young players possess. Young players lack an attention to detail towards maps, which is a huge advantage for the home team."

"Happy's Qiao Yifan is quite good in this area too!" Pan Lin mentioned his name.

"He's got a good mentor beside him!" Li Yibo sighed.

Pan Lin subconsciously thought of other players on Happy who weren't particularly strong in this area. For example, Steamed Bun and Tang Rou weren't thorough enough in their utilization of the map. Saying all that would tear Li Yibo's praise apart though, so he restrained himself.

Song Xiao didn't see Lord Grim, so instead of having Receding Tides continue moving straight, he circled around in reverse.　

"Song Xiao's very experienced," Li Yibo said, "Even though he doesn't see his opponent, from the distance he's traveled, he has a rough idea of Lord Grim's possible positions. If Lord Grim wasn't in those areas, he wouldn't have been able to disappear from the map so quickly."　　

"Oh, the two sides are..." On the bottom right corner of the broadcast, a bird's eye view of the map appeared. The positions of the two characters were represented as dots as they moved. The camera constantly switched back and forth between the two characters, giving a feeling of tension.

Closer, closer...

The two sides neared each other. At the next intersection, the two would meet. Everyone held their breaths. Suddenly, Lord Grim jumped.　　

The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella's ninjato stuck into the wall. The wall that originally couldn't be jumped was instantly climbed through the usage of the Ninja class's special skill.

That's cheating!!!

That was what Pan Lin wanted to shout. The surprises from the unspecialized still gave off a feeling of cheating even after an entire regular season. Everyone's thought process was different from Ye Xiu's. They needed to spend a certain amount of time and effort to understand what an unspecialized could do. As a result, when they saw Ye Xiu's Lord Grim in a match, they would constantly think "why didn't I think of that?"

The cameraman was also in a fluster. He wasn't sure which first-person perspective he should look at to best display this suddenness. Should he use Ye Xiu's hunter-like view to show his sharpness? Or should he use Song Xiao's confused-prey view to show helplessness?

There was no time to think carefully. The camera instinctively shifted to a viewpoint.　　

Song Xiao's perspective.

Receding Tides was moving.

Then, a grenade suddenly appeared from above and dropped in front of him.

Too awesome!

The cameraman cried out in his heart. Song Xiao's perspective had given this grenade highlight clip. From above to below, the image of the grenade grew larger as Receding Tides moved. Everything was quiet as the grenade fell. It was as if the scene was static.

If only it could be in slo-mo... the cameraman was still obsessed with the shot.　　

Bang!

The grenade exploded, and Lord Grim dropped from the sky.

Roll, roll, roll.

Song Xiao's Receding Tides rolled backwards three times and then shot a Qi Bullet.

The spectators all felt frightened seeing this sudden ambush. However, Song Xiao himself was as calm as ever. He did reacted promptly and appropriately.

Three rolls backwards pull the distance between Receding Tides and Lord Grim, and then a Qi Bullet at the slightest opening.

"Beautiful!" Pan Lin cried out.

Ye Xiu's ambush had been beautiful, but Song Xiao's response was too. This level of play was truly deserving of the playoffs. It was just the first exchange, and Pan Lin felt like it was worthy of the ticket price. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to praise this moment because there was still a battle underway.

The Qi Bullet flew out.

Lord Grim didn't dodge it though, and tanked the hit to stay on the offense.　　

"Even if it's the group arena, sometimes it's necessary to show a tough display!" Li Yibo praised.

By tanking the hit, Ye Xiu maintained the initiative. But because of Song Xiao's calm response, the ambush didn't deal too much harm. The battle had suddenly shifted to a direct confrontation.　　

"An ambush doesn't seem to be a good choice against a player with strong mental fortitude like Song Xiao," Pan Lin said.　　

"Ye Xiu was at least able to gain the initiative through it," Li Yibo said.

No one would have any objections to that. In a direction confrontation, Lord Grim would be attacking 70% of the time.

"But it can't be said that Song Xiao is at a disadvantage," Pan Lin said.

Song Xiao was 70% defending, 30% attacking. Yes, he seemed to be a bit on the backfoot, but his rhythm was steady.

"Such a steady defensive counterattack playstyle is Blue Rain's style," Li Yibo said.

The healer character exemplified the team's style to a certain extent. Of the eight playoff teams, Samsara, Tyranny, Happy, Thunderclap, and Hundred Blossoms all had Clerics as their healers, a show of their overall offense-oriented playstyles. As for the other three teams, Tiny Herb had two healers, an exception. Then, there was Blue Rain and 301, who had Paladins as healers. And these two teams leaned towards defense.

Especially Blue Rain.

Team Blue Rain was a paragon of a defensive counterattack team.　

Defend while waiting for mistakes and capitalizing on them.

This was their team's playstyle, which eventually became many of the styles of the players on the team. To be a part of Blue Rain's main roster, not having beautiful defensive play was extremely difficult.

As a defense-heavy style, being on the passive side was normal because you were intentionally giving the the opponents space. As a result, while it looked like Song Xiao's offense looked rather weak, Pan Lin and Li Yibo didn't think it was mark of him being at a disadvantage. It was just how he played.

So they waited.

Defensive counterattack. The high point was the counterattack. Opportunities were fleeting. Once grasped, it couldn't be let go. That instant required explosiveness and efficiency. For a defensive counterattack playstyle, defense needed to be steady and slow, while the counterattack needed to be fast and fierce.

Everyone stared at the screen. The Happy fans listening to the commentators were held in suspense.

Song Xiao wasn't a stand-out existence during the regular season. His numbers were so-so, but everyone knew he was formidable during playoffs. He wasn't an easy opponent. As a result, even if Ye Xiu was the King of Duels in the regular season, everyone still felt worried.

Straight Punch, Knock Back, Grenade, Shining Cut, Double Stab, Ghost Slash, Floating Bullet...

Skills after skill was released through Lord Grim's ever-changing Myriad Manifestations Umbrella. His speed was so fast that the viewers couldn't even clearly distinguish what forms his umbrella were in. A skill came out, and then the umbrella transformed into a different form.

Without a pause.

The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella never stayed in the same form for more than two seconds.

Bang!

A falling Flower Palm suddenly struck Receding Tides, sending him flying backwards.

"Ah!" Pan Lin cried out in astonishment. The equilibrium had been been broken by the palm.

"Ye Xiu's broken through Song Xiao's defense!" Li Yibo shouted.　　

The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella continued transforming non-stop, but this time, the rate of hits landing on Receding Tides had increased.

"In the end, Song Xiao isn't able to hold on. Let's see if he can turn this around," Pan Lin said.

They still had confidence in Song Xiao because no matter what, this player wouldn't panic. He had the mental fortitude necessary to make a comeback.

So they waited.　

Before, it had been a defensive counterattack style. Now, it had turned into a get-beat-up counterattack style.　

But Lord Grim's offense continued to pour out relentlessly.

As a result, Receding Tides took even heavier beatings.

The expressions of those waiting for a reversal gradually started to turn strange.

"This... is he going to get taken out in one combo?" Pan Lin started questioning. Their hopes for Song Xiao seemed to have disappeared.

"Ambush to start, suppression with attacks, offense breaking defense, one combo kill," Li Yibo summed up the battle with twelve words.

The so-called defensive counterattack playstyle. So we've seen the defense and the get-beat-up part, where's the counterattack?

"Is he not able to find an opening to counterattack?" Pan Lin was still thinking about it.