1418 The Familiar Swoksaar

The curse runes shimmered in the air, swiftly forming a prison. Lu Hanwen had been too hasty in his chase, and by the time he saw Yu Wenzhou's warning, it was already too late. Flowing Cloud was instantly trapped by the Hexagram Prison.

Seeing that the attack landed successfully, Wei Chen let out a sigh of relief. After all, there was a reason this player had made it to the All-Stars even at such a young age. If Wei Chen hadn't fully taken advantage of the map surroundings, he really wouldn't have been able to get rid of this kid.

Hexagram Prison, the number one Root skill. When maxed at Level 75, the effect lasted nine seconds, and even more frightening, there was no way to dispel this curse. It wasn't considered a status skill, so skills like Purify, Expel, Focus, and so on all had no effect. Similarly, no matter how high a character's Spirit stat was, no matter how good their Resistance, they had no way of breaking out of the Hexagram Prison early.

There was only one way to get out of a Hexagram Prison early: kill the caster. But right now, that didn't look to be possible. Lu Hanwen's Flowing Cloud would be spending the full nine seconds sitting in the Hexagram Prison.

For Wei Chen, these nine seconds were extremely precious. At last, he had nine seconds free from the youth who'd been furiously chasing and killing him all this way. But it didn't look like he'd be able to take it easy, because Yu Wenzhou's Swoksaar was already beginning to move.

Eight years.

It had already been a full eight years since the last time Wei Chen used Swoksaar.

In eight years, Swoksaar had risen from Level 55 to Level 75. New equipment, new skills. Wei Chen shouldn't be familiar with this current Swoksaar - and yet, he was very familiar.

Because, in the end, this character was the part of Glory he cared about the most. Even though he hadn't touched him since then, he still paid attention to Swoksaar's growth. In every match, Wei Chen could always pick out any adjustments that had been made, no matter how small. Just like this, Wei Chen watched as the character's new controller slowly erased the traces that he'd left behind, and replaced them with his own stamps. 

"Idiot!"

Every change that Swoksaar went through would provoke another round of disdainful cursing from Wei Chen. He would often turn to the guys next to him and look down on these changes for being so noobish, for not understanding Warlocks at all.

His little followers all revolved around him, so of course they believed whatever he said.

But what about himself?

When there were many people around him, Wei Chen would curse like this. But when he was alone? He could only smile bitterly.

In his heart, he knew all too well that he was simply unhappy to watch the traces he'd left on Swoksaar slowly get wiped away.

And in the end, even the weapon in Swoksaar's hand had been changed.

Curse of Destruction?

The name of the new scepter sounded both arrogant and cultured. With this, the final trace that Wei Chen had left on Swoksaar was erased, and he could sit still no longer. After that, Windward Formation gained the weapon Death's Hand.

Death's Hand. This was the Silver weapon that Swoksaar had used in the very beginning. And now, Wei Chen had revived it.

He picked up the weapon that Swoksaar had abandoned. To many people, this made his Windward Formation seem like a cheap knockoff of Swoksaar.

But Wei Chen did not care. If the character ID "Swoksaar" hadn't been locked to the original character, he would have called his new Warlock "Swoksaar" as well.

Wei Chen didn't completely understand why he felt the need to compete like this. He probably still just felt unfulfilled!

And now, it was time for all this to come to a close.

Wei Chen knew very well that with his current condition and skill, there was no way he could appear in all of the intense playoff matches.

Facing Blue Rain, this might be his final performance on this stage. And this battle was one in which he could show his strength to the fullest. 

Because he understood Swoksaar.

Even if it wasn't the one that had been built for him, he still understood this character, better than anyone else.

Swoksaar was casting.

It was Curse Arrows.

This low-level skill, given to Swoksaar, whose cast speed was +34, was so fast that it was practically an instant-cast.

So fast!

But this wasn't all.

If it was just a cast, then Swoksaar's Curse Arrows should be even faster than this.

The slight delay was because he let the skill charge for just a moment. Curse Arrows was a skill that could be charged, and the longer it charged, the balls of light would multiply, and more arrows would be fired in the end.

If the skill was used immediately, there would be thirteen arrows; if charged to the fullest, the number of arrows could reach twenty-six. And Swoksaar's pause just now to let the skill charge would push the number of arrows to fifteen.

Wei Chen knew all of this too well. Windward Formation calmly dodged this attack from Swoksaar, and even the controller now behind Swoksaar, Yu Wenzhou, was slightly surprised.

Because the opponent had dodged too calmly.

Such a slight charge, producing two extra arrows, was normally very easily overlooked. To wait until noticing the extra arrows and then dodging would be an on-the-spot reaction and movement, whether or not they actually managed to dodge. But Windward Formation's calm movement clearly revealed that he knew the attack would be like this from the very beginning.

He saw through it!

Just from the way in which Windward Formation had dodged the attack, Yu Wenzhou could make judgments to this extent. And at this moment, all of the members of the audience, including commentators Pan Lin and Li Yibo, hadn't even noticed that this Curse Arrows had hidden such a trap. The two of them only praised how fast Swoksaar's cast was, without even realizing that slight charging delay.

The attack had been unsuccessful, but Swoksaar stopped moving.

Yu Wenzhou still had doubt in his heart. He couldn't tell what Happy's plan was, nor could he guess Wei Chen's intention. Was he really trying to stall two players by himself? It wasn't that Yu Wenzhou didn't respect Wei Chen, but the fact simply was that Wei Chen couldn't manage that.

The Hexagram Prison trapped Lu Hanwen for nine seconds, but what did that accomplish? Without the firepower of other players to support, these precious nine seconds were slipping by without Lu Hanwen's Flowing Cloud suffering any damage. After these nine seconds, how would the situation change?

Yu Wenzhou decided to watch a little longer.

As expected, still so calm.

Over these eight years, Wei Chen had never stopped paying attention to Swoksaar, and so at the same time, he gained an extremely clear understanding of the player behind Swoksaar. Furthermore, he had interacted with this new controller early on. He would never forget that laughable presence in the training camp, who had, during one ordinary day of training, defeated him. 

This calm youth would become the foundation of Blue Rain's future.

From that day on, Wei Chen acknowledged this, and reality proved that he hadn't been wrong. Even though Huang Shaotian was the top attacker of present-day Blue Rain, Blue Rain's strategy, Blue Rain's style and rhythm, were all decided because of Yu Wenzhou's presence.

Perhaps it was precisely because he could maintain calm and clarity at every moment that Huang Shaotian's opportunistic style could become so refined and exciting. Because of this foundation, Huang Shaotian could walk on the blade's edge with complete confidence.

At this time, Huang Shaotian was already leading an assault, Lu Hanwen's Flowing Cloud was trapped in Hexagram Prison, but Yu Wenzhou was still unhurried as he continued to analyze the situation. If he couldn't understand, then he wouldn't make any rash movements.

Curse Arrows!

Wei Chen fired back with the same skill. His Windward Formation couldn't cast as quickly as Swoksaar, but a low-level skill like Curse Arrows couldn't take too much time. He didn't let it charge, instead releasing it immediately. Death's Hand swung outward, the purple spheres of light spun and traced an arc in the air, and just like that the Curse Arrows fanned outward.

"Wei Chen's technique really shows off his experience!" Li Yibo exclaimed. Maybe the old generals couldn't compete with the youths in terms of hand speed, but in terms of technical control, that was something that was truly refined over time.

Actually, reasonably speaking, Wei Chen wasn't an old general in the typical sense, having retired for N years before returning. To return after having a large blank space in his career, calling him an old general was less accurate than calling him a rookie. 

Wei Chen had to readjust to the rhythm of the Pro League matches like a rookie. But everyone knew that in the regular season, he'd appeared pathetically few times. Only until the end of the season did he appear in consecutive matches. Even though he hadn't had many appearances, it had been enough.

Because an old general didn't need to adjust to the rhythm. They simply needed to rediscover it.

Rediscover the rhythm, rediscover victory!

"Beautiful!" Pan Lin offered his own praise after Li Yibo's exclamation. The Curse Arrows spread out evenly in a fan shape, like a peacock opening its tail. No Warlock player could do this any more perfectly.

But was that really the case?

In the eyes of the audience, it seemed so.

But in Yu Wenzhou's eyes…

There's an opening!

In practically the very instant that the orbs fired the Curse Arrows, Yu Wenzhou already saw an opening.

The Curse Arrows were evenly distributed, but the rhythm wasn't entirely even. They were spaced evenly on the left and right, but what about in front and behind?

In front and behind, that meant before and after.

There was a difference before and after, leaving an opening that could be traveled through.

Turn, move horizontally!

Yu Wenzhou's controls couldn't be fast, but they would always be that accurate.

It clearly looked like he was about to be struck by the Curse Arrows, but in the end, he seemed to pass right through them. Swoksaar remained standing, and that fan arrangement of arrows maintained its shape without a single arrow going missing. Not a single one had hit.

"He dodged them?" Even Li Yibo was dumbfounded.

Yes, he dodged it, but he only dodged the Curse Arrows.

Windward Formation's new cast was already beginning, magic energy swirling around his Death's Hand.

Death's Door?

Yu Wenzhou was stunned. He wanted to use Death's Door, facing an opponent head-on like this?

Even if he had the cast speed of his Swoksaar, this bit of time wasn't enough!

He had to interrupt it. Swoksaar tossed a Soul Slice in that direction. But Yu Wenzhou wasn't about to sit back and relax. Wei Chen, no matter what, shouldn't be playing like this.

Yu Wenzhou turned his camera view, and quickly discovered another Windward Formation, casting a spell.

It was Shadow Clone Technique!

Yu Wenzhou instantly understood. The one that was right in front of him was obviously a clone. Just when Swoksaar had turned his body to duck through the Curse Arrows, Windward Formation had used this Ninja skill.

The Windward Formation over there was the one he truly needed to interrupt.

But, not enough…

The range wasn't enough!

Windward Formation's cast range was extremely large, even larger than that of Swoksaar's. If he wanted to interrupt it, Swoksaar would have to walk forward a bit.

But it was too late.

The distance of two body-lengths decided the success of a skill.