1435 An Incomprehensible, Godly Turnaround

After Shadow Trap triggered, the user would immediately appear at the trap's position.

If one were to ask what use this skill had, the short answer would be just one word: Ambush.

This was because the skill allowed the player to abruptly engage in close-quarters combat with his opponent, and at the same time, it also referred to the skill that Thieves most commonly used along with it: Ambush. If the skill Ambush connected, it would deal double the damage to the target while stunning them for three seconds. It had considerable benefits when paired with the Thief's Stealth, or with Shadow Trap.

But to Ye Xiu, he didn't he didn't need Ambush at all, all he needed was an opportunity to latch on to his opponent.

What latching on to his opponent meant was something that everyone was very clear about.

The moment Shadow Trap appeared, the jubilant atmosphere in Blue Rain's home stadium immediately died down. It was as if someone had hit the mute button on the whole stadium, sending it into absolute silence.

But very quickly, the jumping and cheering and laughing began again. In the West wing of the stadium, the Happy fans suddenly became spirited again!

"Godly turnaround!" They shouted loudly.

Indeed, it was really a godly turnaround.

But how this godly turnaround was created was something that no one understood.

How was the Shadow Trap placed? How did he know that Yu Wenzhou would step on it at that precise moment?

Pan Lin stared at Li Yibo, Li Yibo stared at Pan Lin, and the commentators fell into an embarrassing situation. Even if they wanted to escape, this question was something that they couldn't run away from.

It was fortunate that Lord Grim was engaging in an intense offensive, so Pan Lin put on an act and commentated on the current situation, while Li Yibo hurriedly reviewed the replay.

By staring unblinkingly at the replay, he really did manage to find the moment that Lord Grim placed the Shadow Trap. The problem was, finding it was finding it, but Li Yibo couldn't figure out the reason why the Shadow Trap was placed at that location.

Li Yibo was so frantic that he began sweating. The television directors had sent word that the hotline for the broadcast even had many viewers calling in to ask what on earth had actually happened.

Li Yibo's cheeks streamed with tears. He really wished that he too could make a call to find out what had happened.

In the past, even after being made a laughing stock for his wrong predictions, Li Yibo was still able to come up with roughly the right answer after looking closely at the situation afterwards. This time, however, he was wracking his brains but couldn't come up with an answer. How could he explain it? He couldn't just say it was all luck, right?

Swoksaar fell.

This result came as no surprise. In a close-quarters fight, Yu Wenzhou's disadvantages were obvious. Even though he had the awareness, the experience, and the judgements, Ye Xiu wasn't lacking in any of these aspects either. On top of that, the Unspecialized Blitz had an extremely fast tempo, amplifying Yu Wenzhou's shortcomings even more. Towards the end, everyone had clearly seen his struggles. The die-hard fans in Blue Rain's home stadium almost couldn't bear to watch it any longer, but Ye Xiu had no such qualms. From start to finish, the Unspecialized Blitz had an even tighter tempo than usual.

In the first battle, Happy emerged victorious. Nonetheless, when this result became clear, the mood in the stadium had actually become more stable. After all, when that Shadow Trap had been triggered, everyone had already prepared themselves for the worst. The fans of Blue Rain knew that no matter how it appeared, their captain would definitely be fighting an arduous battle. If he could easily take away half the health from Ye Xiu's character, would their captain really be avoiding the individual competitions?

Applause.

When Yu Wenzhou left the stage, he still received applause. Sure, he had lost, but the fans of Blue Rain were already more than satisfied by what he had managed to achieve. "Fight on!" they shouted, hoping that the players from Blue Rain wouldn't be discouraged by this loss.

Indeed, Blue Rain's players weren't discouraged. They stood up, welcoming their team captain.

"You played well!" Everyone said in succession.

"Being swept away by a single combo is still considered playing well?" Yu Wenzhou laughed bitterly.

"It was nearly you sweeping him away with a single combo," Huang Shaotian replied.

Yu Wenzhou shook his head. The actual circumstances were something that he understood more clearly than anyone else.

"When was that Shadow Trap placed?" Yu Wenzhou asked Huang Shaotian.

"When he summoned that Goblin to chase you," Huang Shaotian said.

"It was at that moment?" Yu Wenzhou thought pensively. In his heart, he already had a general idea of what had happened. Nevertheless, this wasn't the time for careful thinking. Blue Rain's second player had already prepared to leave and was looking at him, waiting for his command!

"It's a shame, I fell into his trap too quickly. Do your best!" Yu Wenzhou said to the second player who was about to go onstage.

Song Xiao, the key player who would always shine during the playoffs. 

In the end, in the last round's group arena, he had been firmly suppressed by Ye Xiu. The team competition was an even sadder affair. Despite his confidence, he didn't have any time to put on a good performance before being killed by a slash. 

"Watch me!" Song Xiao roused his spirits and entered the stage.

In the group arena, the map didn't change, so it was still Misty Thicket. In the time that it took to change players, Pan Lin and Li Yibo thoroughly discussed the map, going back and forth as if they had an inexhaustible amount of things to say. This chatter was actually a sign of their lack of confidence. In the end, the two of them still weren't able to explain how Ye Xiu knew where to place that Shadow Trap from the last round. At this time, discussing the map was a way for the two of them to embarrassedly change the topic!

The second round of the group arena soon began.

In the previous round, Lord Grim had half his life taken out in one wave of attacks, and when he forcefully killed off Swoksaar, he had suffered a little more damage, putting his total health at thirty-nine percent. As such, when the round began, Ye Xiu first had Lord Grim cast a few healing skills, bringing his total health to fifty percent and causing the entire stadium to begin cursing at him. Only after this did he unhurriedly have Lord Grim set out.

Similarly to the last round, Lord Grim directly took the middle road. What about Receding Tides, who had set out first? Song Xiao had chosen to take a roundabout route to the east. When Lord Grim reached the center of the map, Ye Xiu stopped moving, but he couldn't find any trace of his opponent. Had he taken a tactical route?

Ye Xiu was simple and straightforward. He stopped guessing, instead directly asking in the public channel, "You want to ambush me again?"

"If not to ambush, then what's the point of choosing this map?" Song Xiao was self-righteous and confident. As an important core player, Song Xiao's resistance against trash talk was outstanding, not needing to avoid chatting here and there with others.

"You have a point! I'm at 24, 58, come and ambush me!" Ye Xiu sent simply.

"Please wait a moment, I'll be there soon," Song Xiao replied.

"The left side or the right side?" Ye Xiu asked.

"Both the left and right side," Song Xiao replied.

"Alright!" Ye Xiu replied. Afterwards, under everyone's watchful eyes, Ye Xiu had Lord Grim leave the spot where 24, 58 was.

Walking straight, towards Blue Rain's respawn point. After charging out for a distance, Lord Grim turned right.

All of a sudden, the crowd was sent into an uproar. With this one turn, Lord Grim had looped behind Receding Tides!

"This… this..." Pan Lin said "this" twice. What he really wanted to ask was "How did he do this," but after failing to figure out the godly turnaround from earlier, Pan Lin forcefully swallowed his question.

How had he managed to make such a precise decision? At this moment, Li Yibo was similarly flabbergasted.

Was it from their conversation earlier? Pan Lin carefully pored over every single one of Ye Xiu's lines. Was there some kind of probing nature to them?

"He guessed it." From Blue Rain's player seats, Yu Wenzhou's conclusion was extremely simple.

"Guessed it?" Some of his teammates were doubtful.

"If not left, then right. A fifty-fifty, just like taking a penalty kick. If he made the shot, then it would be a great success, if not... even if he missed, he wouldn't lose anything. Of course it was worth a shot," Yu Wenzhou said.

"Then his luck is just too good!" Blue Rian's players were depressed, as if they'd just missed a penalty kick.

As they spoke, Song Xiao had already reached those coordinates, but he didn't walk out of the mist to expose himself. Instead, he stopped moving, taking the initiative to call out to Ye Xiu.

"I've arrived," Song Xiao said.

"Liar, I don't see you," Ye Xiu replied.

"I also don't see you, why don't you shoot once or twice and let me find you," Song Xiao said.

"That won't do. That's a privilege reserved for team captains, I can't simply break the rules," Ye Xiu said.

"Then there's nothing to be done, the two of us can just slowly drag things out!" Song Xiao said.

"By selecting this map today, it really seems as if Blue Rain's intentions are to drag things out!" Li Yibo suddenly said.

"With this map, if they don't drag things out, there aren't many other things they can do..." Pan Lin said.

"If they wanted to fight head-on, there's still the option of going directly to the center of the map. But both of Blue Rain's players have been playing tactically, purposefully making use of this map's special features, dragging the tempo of the battle until it annoys everyone, this..." Li Yibo felt as if he had grasped some important point, wanting to organize his thoughts before speaking again, when Pan Lin suddenly shouted from beside him, "He's got it!"

In Ye Xiu's field of view, a faint silhouette of a person had appeared. After wrapping around, he had finally found Receding Tides.

In the end, it was as if Song Xiao had also heard Pan Lin's loud shout, because that faint silhouette disappeared in the blink of an eye. With a Charge, Lord Grim rushed forwards by several body units, but he still couldn't find a trace of Song Xiao. With an omniscient point-of-view, the crowd could clearly see that when Lord Grim had quietly appeared, it unfortunately wasn't a wraparound, but instead, he had circled around Receding Tide's front, and both players had seen each other.

Afterwards, as if he had no intention of fighting whatsoever, Receding Tides hid behind a tree.

Lord Grim charged out, but Receding Tides took a long detour behind the tree, running far away from Lord Grim.

"This..." Pan Lin didn't quite understand. Song Xiao hadn't been ambushed, the two players had noticed each other at the same time. If you were to say that Yu Wenzhou immediately ran after being discovered, everyone would be able to understand that. But Song Xiao? He had indeed been suppressed to death by Ye Xiu in the previous round, but when all was said and done, he didn't draw as short a stick as Yu Wenzhou, he could still put up a fight! If he still wanted to run under these circumstances, then what did he plan to do? Do the same as Yu Wenzhou, and wait for an opportunity when he had complete control over his opponent before making a move?

But Swoksaar was a Warlock, with many controlling abilities, allowing Yu Wenzhou's plan to come to fruition. Song Xiao was a Qi Master, so wouldn't it be difficult for him to create such a beautiful opportunity for himself? Could it be that this guy was planning to play dirty and launch ambushes non-stop?

Just as Pan Lin thought this, Song Xiao really did have Receding Tides move up for an ambush again.

Ye Xiu had a rich amount of experience, so even after charging over and not seeing Receding Tides, he still remembered where his silhouette had been, and after taking a look at the position, he already had some inferences about where Song Xiao might be hiding, so Lord Grim had already begun striding in that direction. In the end, just as everyone thought that Song Xiao was ready to run, he suddenly had his character strike a sudden blow.

Sky Piercing Strike!

Just as Ye Xiu had Lord Grim wrap around that tree, trying to guess where Song Xiao had run off to, Receding Tides sent out a Sky Piercing Strike towards him.