1432 Battle of Connotations

The battle was already occurring, and the spectators could see everything clearly with their omniscient view. However, the scene was more shocking, watching from the player's view.

This was because for both players, apart from mist and trees, they couldn't see anything else.

Yu Wenzhou's attack had been launched while he was completely incapable of seeing his opponent. He had deduced Lord Grim's location purely through the shots the other had fired, yet his attacks were so precise.

The Hexagram Prison descended, and a shield's protection couldn't defend against everything. Hexagram Prison's effect wasn't something that could be negated by a shield.

But, hand seals!

In the close up shot, everyone could clearly see Lord Grim suddenly let go of the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella, his hands rapidly forming seals. The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella had yet to fall when he was done with the seals.

There was only one Ninja skill under level twenty that required hand seals.

Shadow Clone Technique!

Would he make it?

Everyone was sweating like crazy. In the end, this Shadow Clone ended up activating before the Hexagram Prison landed.

The Lord Grim caught by Hexagram Prison, in the end, was a mere shadow clone.

"Did he notice it?" Pan Lin cried out.

"No. He definitely couldn't see or hear this attack coming… It should be a judgement made through Ye Xiu's experience and awareness," Li Yibo estimated. "Did you notice? If it wasn't for Lord Grim squatting, then this Shadow Clone Technique might be a little too late."

Pan Lin startled and the shot was switched to a slow motion replay. The beams of light from the Hexagram Prison were mere millimeters away from the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella in Lord Grim's hands when the latter's Shadow Clone Technique activated. However, if this skill had been activated while standing, then the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella would have certainly been caught by the beams of light already.

"As expected of the all-class Glory Textbook!" Pan Lin's awed voice rang out. This sort of reaction speed and awareness was a perfect display of Ye Xiu's familiarity and understanding with the Warlock class, which was what allowed him to predict the sneak attack via Hexagram Prison.

Thus, the home spectators who had been excited, immediately began to worry for their captain.

This was because Swoksaar's casted curse had already shot forwards. This time, the skill was no longer one that descended from above, so Ye Xiu could already deduce Swoksaar's position. His Lord Grim was waiting, watching, at one side.

A ghostly shadow arrived, darting through the Chaotic Rain and into the Hexagram Prison, into Lord Grim's Shadow Clone.

The audience was heartbroken!

Captain, you fell for a trick!

Ye Xiu's Lord Grim immediately charged in the direction the ghostly shadow had flown in from, careful to not make any noise.

Hurry and run! That was the inner voice of the audience members. This time, it was almost as if their captain had heard.

"Yu Wenzhou hasn't neglected to consider this possibility either!" Li Yibo announced.

Swoksaar was already leaving his original position under Yu Wenzhou's control.

"But if he attacks after leaving, he would still be locked onto by Ye Xiu, no? Considering Lord Grim's movement speed, he should be able to close in quickly!" Pan Lin said.

"He won't move elsewhere and attack," Li Yibo said with surprising confidence.

"Huh? Has he noticed Lord Grim's actions?" Pan Lin was confused.

"He'll notice soon enough enough," Li Yibo corrected with a smile, "Think. What skill did he use just now?"

"Grasping Ghosts?" Pan Lin was saying when the ghostly shadow that Swoksaar had sent out just now suddenly flew back.

"Ah! This…" Pan Lin cried out in surprise. Didn't… didn't this expose Swoksaar's position again?

"So, he now knows that the Lord Grim he trapped was nothing more than a shadow clone," Li Yibo laughed.

Pan Lin froze for a moment before realizing what had happened.

Grasping Ghosts would latch onto a target and deal damage for a period of time. After the skill finished, the ghostly shadow would fly back to the user and restore the Warlock's health by 33 percent of the damage it had dealt.

Shadow clones were very fragile, so Swoksaar's Grasping Ghosts had only latched on for a moment before destroying the shadow clone. After that, the ghostly shadow would naturally come back. No matter if it was from the time the skill had been active or the recovery statistics, Yu Wenzhou could easily determine that Grasping Ghosts had only latched onto a shadow clone.

So this skill wasn't just an attack, but also reconnaissance!

Pan Lin's heart was struck by surprise after surprise. This match was way too deep for him.

However, the ghostly shadow which flew back to its owner was like a guiding light. Ye Xiu seemed to have noticed this as well and immediately adjusted Lord Grim's direction upon seeing the ghostly shadow.

Grasping Ghosts moved extremely fast, but Lord Grim was also putting on as much speed as possible. He no longer thought about executing a sneak attack. Lord Grim's figure seemed like a ghostly shadow as it darted through the forestry as well. Soon enough, Swoksaar's form appeared in his view.

"So fast! He's too fast! How will Yu Wenzhou shake him off now?!" Pan Lin cried out.

Yet that was when, with a boom, a sandstorm arrived on the forest map, enveloping Lord Grim inside.

The stadium was filled with shock, and as for Lord Grim's current status? He was losing health, and had a blind.

"Sandstorm Trap!" Pan Lin exclaimed, stunned.

This was a high level Thief's trap skill that dealt damage and inflicted a blind. Yu Wenzhou had set this Thief skill into Swoksaar's Curse of Destruction.

Now, everyone had a much better understanding of how annoying it was when the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella was set with all sorts of different skills in its many forms. This sort of variation wasn't something one could easily guard against. See, even Ye Xiu himself fell for it here. No matter how familiar he was with the system of skills Warlocks used, it would be too hard to guess what Nightwalker skill was set into the opponent's weapon. If you really took all the possible skills into consideration and stayed on guard for any of them, then you probably wouldn't even be able to play properly.

However, Swoksaar's Sandstorm Trap was only rank one. It didn't do much damage, and the blind lasted for three seconds.

These three seconds allowed Yu Wenzhou to leave a Curse Arrows for Ye Xiu and flee.

"Hey, why doesn't Yu Wenzhou take this chance to try and bring Lord Grim under his control?"

Pan Lin wondered with some disappointment.

However, the Curse Arrows soon gave him his answer.

Though Lord Grim was blinded, he hadn't been otherwise affected. Suddenly, he activated Slide Kick, not only dodging the Curse Arrows, but also closing the distance between him and Swoksaar.

Li Yibo glanced at Pan Lin, knowing that the other had gotten his answer already from his expression.

Yu Wenzhou wasn't careless at all. This was Ye Xiu. Three seconds of blindness was too risky a chance and Yu Wenzhou clearly didn't want to take risks. After quickly casting a Curse Arrows, he chose to flee.

By the time Lord Grim's blind wore off, Swoksaar was out of sight. Ye Xiu hurriedly used what he had last seen and the possible distance Swoksaar could've run in three seconds to deduce the other's approximate direction and whereabouts, but didn't manage to find the other after searching.

The two's first clash ended just like that. Lord Grim hadn't managed to deal any real damage to Swoksaar, but at this stage, it was Swoksaar that people were more worried about.

"He has such an overwhelming and threatening presence!" Li Yibo exclaimed, referring to Ye Xiu.

"However, Yu Wenzhou has managed to deal some damage to Lord Grim, though it's not much," Pan Lin said.

Then they saw Lord Grim cast a Recovery on himself. Li Yibo gazed at Pan Lin without speaking.

"Seems like you plan on dragging things out!" Seeing as he couldn't find his target, Ye Xiu started chatting.

"You can heal. Dragging things out will benefit you," Yu Wenzhou replied.

"Continuing to drag things out like this is just a waste of effort. How about we roll die to decide who wins? Whoever loses can GG*," Ye Xiu suggested.

The audience exploded.

What was even more shocking was that Swoksaar's dice roll soon followed, and then came a "97"!

"Wow!" Blue Rain's home stadium erupted in applause.

Then, in the chat.

"The hell are you doing? Be serious. This is the playoffs," Ye Xiu said.

The audience exploded again.

"Hahaha…." Pan Lin didn't even know what to say anymore.

"It's just a joke. There's no way the referee would allow the two to use die to decide the victor," Li Yibo laughed.

This might be a game, but this was also a professional match!

Imagine in a soccer match where the two teams flipped a coin, and then, heads, you guessed it, ok, you win I guess, and then they just leave?

That was unacceptable. The Glory Pro League matches wouldn't allow such a thing either. Even when people went GG and surrendered, the Alliance would deliberate on the validity of the GG after the match.

Although the two were trashtalking each other on the chat, they hadn't stopped moving.

Yu Wenzhou had shaken Ye Xiu off, but he had also lost Lord Grim's position as well. Right now, the two were carefully searching through the mist, trying to find the other.

This was something they couldn't use logic to figure out. They were pretty much searching blindly, and the visual hindrances made the map seem even bigger.

One minute, two minutes...

The two didn't meet, wandering around in the mist. The audience, with their omniscient view, sometimes couldn't even feel any tension. The two were careful and cautious, but in reality, they were already on practically opposite sides of the map.

The broadcasters were pretty stressed out, too! Glory matches weren't like soccer matches which finished when time was up, so the broadcasters couldn't control the time for their programme. If it finished beforehand, that was alright, but if it took too long, then it would mess up the schedule for the programmes following.

However, what choice did they have? The match couldn't be moved just because they wanted it to be.

"There's no helping it! We can't continue like this!" Ye Xiu spoke up again, and the broadcasters immediately began to adore him.

"What do you suggest we do then?" Yu Wenzhou replied.

"Let's meet up somewhere and end this!" Ye Xiu said.

"Where?" Yu Wenzhou asked.

Ye Xiu sent some coordinates.

Thirty seconds later, no one appeared at the coordinates agreed upon. Both characters carefully hid themselves nearby.

Neither of them successfully tricked the other. The broadcasters were weeping.