CH 22

From Fire Barrier’s perspective, a few uneven hills were lined up before him in a horizontal line. The scene of a few silhouettes engaged in combat could clearly be seen through the gap in between. Evidently, he had successfully stayed back and snuck behind the enemy. The location he was in now could be considered the most ideal type of terrain for a Cannoneer.

At this moment, Qin Lei was extremely nervous. After building two cannons behind the scene of the battle, which was some distance away, he selected a slightly sunken crevice in the ice and began to conceal the third heavy cannon within it. For good measure, he checked once again that there were no mistakes in the positioning of the cannons, then said with a strained voice in the voice channel, “I…I’m ready.”

You Jing said, “Get ready to begin.”

As he said this, Dazzling Abundance dodged a strike from Handsomeness that Broke the Heavens’s spear. After that, he cast a recovery skill on himself. In that skill’s duration, he swiftly cast a placement skill on himself as well, enabling him to stay rooted to his current position.

Within just 0.4 seconds, they activated their Ghost Sprints almost simultaneously. He used his peripheral vision to glance at Rain of Time, who had made use of a Flying Leap to dodge Eleventh Son of the Zhou Family’s Phantom of a Thousand Blades. Following this, Rain of Time leaned towards his direction. In the split second that Rain of Time was within the 40 unit casting range, Dazzling Abundance immediately began casting Prayer of Holy Light.

Shit! At this moment, Gao Jun could already sense that things were going awry. Handsomeness that Broke the Heavens decisively chased after Dazzling Abundance, striking at him with his spear. It was obvious that he intended to press the other flat onto the ground. Yet, before his attack reached him, he saw a flash of white light from the other’s staff.

As he finished reciting Prayer of Holy Light, Rain of Time was enveloped by the white light and his health bar that had nearly been emptied rapidly filled up at a speed visible to the naked eye. In an instant, he had already regained a large portion of health.

“Fxxk! How could his casting time be this short!” Gao Jun couldn’t help but cry out in the team channel. He recalled their previous exchange of blows and felt somewhat dumbfounded. He had clearly gotten a decent sense of all of his opponent’s skill cooldown periods. During that one second just now, by right, he shouldn’t have been able to finish casting his spell at all!

“What’s wrong?” Zhou Shiyi frowned as he saw how Rain of Time, whose health he had painstakingly whittled down till he was almost dead, had once again become so lively1. He felt a strange sour feeling, as if he had eaten something weird.

Su Chenjie had been maintaining the health points of his team members all this time and saw all that had happened. In deep thought, he contemplated, “Based on the frequency of the skills You Jing used just now, the cooldown reduction granted by his equipment was indeed not high. But from the look of things now, the previous situation was probably arranged by him to control the rhythm and deliberately incite us. This was to cause us to use the wrong numbers for our calculations…”

Gao Jun understood the implications of his words, and his expression immediately turned rather ugly. “Are you saying that while I was sticking so closely to him in battle that he was quivering, he not only kept his health at a safe level, but even deliberately slowed down his frequency of skill casting? Nonsense! Is this something a human can do!?”

As he thought about the terrifying extent of calculation and the precision of control required for such an operation, he couldn’t help but shrink into his neck, feeling as if his entire body was covered in goosebumps.

Su Chenjie understood how his teammates were feeling, but he could only silently light a candle for them in his heart. “It is impossible for there to be any game errors in this competition. Since the judging panel did not call for a stop, that means that this is the only possible explanation. Just acknowledge the sad truth, you’ve been had.”

Gao Jun’s eyes were teary. “I’m so thankful for your straightforward honesty!”

“To be able to utilize skill operations to such a perfect extent, I bet only a few people in the entire pro alliance can do it, right?” After a period of shock, Su Chenjie sighed in admiration. “As expected of the alliance’s most highly-regarded Priest. I have no choice but to admit that the Dazzling Abundance controlled by You Jing truly deserves to be called a god-level healer…” 

“Stop chatting, we’ve been surrounded!” Zhou Shiyi maneuvered his Shadow Swordsman to roll to the side, dodging the sudden ambush that came roaring in from behind.

As the explosive sound of gunshots came to an end, the place he had been previously standing at had been thoroughly blasted into an enormous cavity of ice.

The program directors pulled up the god’s perspective onto the screen. The audience could clearly see that Fire Barrier, who had abandoned his teammates from the start, had finally finished setting up and aiming his cannons. Then, he began setting off the first round of gunfire.

While the first wave was still firing, the blasts of a second wave of heavy cannon fire sounded.

As he escaped miserably from the gunshots that were so numerous that they filled the sky, Gao Jun couldn’t help but yell, “Fxxk, it’s a 3 vs 3 but they still want to set up an ambush from behind? Black Rose sure is big-hearted2!”

Although he spoke in this way, the reality that he inevitably had to face at this moment was that in the process of fighting 3 vs 2, they had not grasped the opportunity to kill them off completely. Now, they had already fallen into a state where they were entirely passive.

Su Chenjie’s Priest had lost a significant amount of health after getting hit by several bullets. He hurriedly gave himself a few minor heals and frowned as he asked, “Captain Zhou, what do we do now?”

Zhou Shiyi was decisive and did not show the slightest hesitation. “Chenjie will look for an opportunity to harass Rain of Time. Gao Jun, quickly just use your ultimate move and concentrate your attacks on Dazzling Abundance with me! As long as we can take away their healer, they won’t be able to pull any tricks!”

Gao Jun replied, “Understood!”

The previous round of gunfire had ambushed them, blasting the trio till they were battered and bruised. This led to a sudden change in the momentum of the battle. As a barrage of bullets rained swiftly upon them, they individually ran off in two different directions.

After the commentator Xiao Wu got a clear look at their formation, she unwittingly let out a “Hm?” sound as she commented, “Light of Dawn, a healer, has actually chosen to go after Rain of Time, a Summoner? It seems that Team Nine Skies intends to concentrate their firepower to quickly interrupt the Priest’s rhythm! Now there’s not just the Holy Knight, but also the Shadow Swordsman. Having to face this kind of pincer attack, it seems that Dazzling Abundance is in quite a pickle.”

Edamame nodded. “Very clearly, Team Nine Skies has now decided to go all out with a decisive move. The crux of the victory in this battle likely lies in whether Dazzling Abundance will be able to withstand this wave of attacks.”

Xiao Wu laughed as she turned to look him in the eye. “Then based on your opinion, which team do you think will win?”

Edamame knew that she was deliberately digging a pit for him, but did not take it to heart as he laughed it off. “Although You Jing is a first-rate star player in the alliance, the Holy Knight’s ability to suppress a Priest is really too strong. Now that there is also an additional Eleventh Son of the Zhou Family to consider, it will probably be very difficult for him to hold out. What do you think, lovely Xiao Wu3?”

The Black Rose fans on site immediately booed after hearing these pessimistic words. Xiao Wu cleared her throat, smiled and said, “Well I think that’s not necessarily the case. Why don’t we make a bet? If Team Black Rose wins this match, then tonight’s dinner will be on you.”

In a refreshing manner, Edamame replied, “No problem, it’s a deal!”

While the commentators were harmoniously making a bet at the podium, the battle had already developed to a white-hot intensity.

Although Light of Dawn, as a Priest, did not have any substantial damage-dealing skills to speak of, he was able to dish out a lot of harassing skills to control an auxiliary class. A few Weaken, Rooting and Slow skills were cast upon Rain of Time in quick succession. Even though these were all soft control skills (a type of control skill, it is the opposite of hard control skills which forcefully control the opponent)4, that lasted for less than a second, in the current situation where they were used consecutively, he could effectively limit Rain of Time’s movements for ten minutes.

You Jing actively controlled his own positioning, making use of his micro-skills to dodge the concentrated attacks of the two people before him. His fingers danced nimbly across the keyboard,  fingertips barely leaving the keys.

His long and narrow eyes squinted slightly as they focused on his character’s movements, never leaving the screen for even a second. Suddenly, the pools of his eyes flashed, and his calm and mild voice resounded in the team voice chat. “It’s about time.”

Shen Changyu responded with an “En” sound. The movements of his hands did not stop at all. His focus was concentrated on the opposing player who was battling near him. He turned to look at a vast and boundless glacier nearby and his eyes flashed. He said in a serious tone, “(236, -78).”

These two numbers suddenly came out of nowhere. The other two people quickly made their move once they heard it.

Polar Field of Ice’s coordinates, (236, -78).

It was at the moment when the entire audience was focused on the battle, waiting with bated breath for any changes to occur, when Dazzling Abundance suddenly cast a Weaken skill on Eleventh Son of the Zhou Family. At the same time, he turned sideways and dodged Handsomeness that Broke the Heavens’ Valiant Strike.

You Jing’s attention had always been on Handsomeness that Broke the Heavens. His eyes suddenly turned cold and stern. Within the duration in which Handsomeness that Broke the Heavens was casting his Taunt skill, he used Flying Leap to escape from the skill’s casting range and headed towards Fire Barrier, creating some distance between himself and Handsomeness that Broke the Heavens.

After the effects of the Taunt skill ended, Handsomeness that Broke the Heavens decisively rushed forth and gave chase, immediately aiming his ultimate skill Soul Stomp at Dazzling Abundance.

Holy light emanated off his character’s entire body as a hooded figure riding on a horse projected from it, and his armor began to flash with a dazzling gold light. He quickly charged forward, and once again knocked Dazzling Abundance to the ground. While he was pressed to the ground, Handsomeness that Broke the Heavens made use of the two second time frame when all of his stats were significantly increased to swiftly reduce the other’s health to below half.

Seeing that Eleventh Son of the Zhou Family had also hurried over, Handsomeness that Broke the Heavens threw out all of his Knockdown skills at Dazzling Abundance with no gap in between, not leaving him with even the slightest chance of escape.

Being able to stomp on the other like this made Gao Jun happy. However, when he unintentionally glanced away, he suddenly saw that a one minute Disable debuff5, had been stuck to his body without him realizing it.

This was a sustained debuff that could only be caused by a Priest’s Prayer skills.

He felt a mysterious sense of foreboding.

At this moment, a small, pitch-black hand suddenly appeared at Handsomeness that Broke the Heavens’s feet, grabbing onto him and holding him in place.

Zhou Shiyi suddenly yelled in the team voice chat, “What is this black rat doing here!”

The so-called “black rat” was the nickname everyone gave to one of the Summoner’s summonable beasts, the ground traversing beast. Currently, Rain of Time was the only Summoner present, so it was obvious who the culprit was.

Two ground traversing beasts had inexplicably dug out from underground, binding Handsomeness that Broke the Heavens and Eleventh Son of the Zhou Family in place. They were completely unable to move for two seconds, with the skill icons of all their movement skills momentarily greyed out.

At this moment, a large black shadow descended from the sky, completely enveloping the trio in darkness…

“Fxxk, what the hell is this!” Gao Jun howled in a panic.

As he finished speaking, two heavy mech 3ES-D bombs, accompanied by a rain of countless bullets, came crashing down on them. 

There was a thick and heavy smoke, followed by frequent and intense explosions that resounded through the entire stadium. A dense layer of gunpowder rose up, which only began to slowly dissipate after some time had passed. Only an enormous canyon remained in the originally smooth field of ice. Surrounding it was a ravine full of densely packed holes caused by the gunfire. The figures of the trio were especially eye catching in the midst of the messy ruins that resulted from the carnage.

With the ground traversing beast’s Bleed debuff, coupled with the Disable effect he was subjected to earlier, getting hit by the dense gunfire had cleared out Eleventh Son of the Zhou Family’s entire health bar in an instant. All that was left of him was a figure that lay sprawled out on the ground. As for Handsomeness that Broke the Heavens, even if he was a bulky meat shield, after “enjoying” the experience of being baptized by almost all the skills that a Cannoneer possessed, he too had been blasted till he had only a sliver of health remaining.

Before Light of Dawn could hurriedly help him recover, Dazzling Abundance had used the Priest’s extremely limited damage-dealing skills to completely wipe out the last thread of the Holy Knight’s health.

Without any teammates remaining, Light of Dawn had nowhere to run. After being surrounded and attacked, he gave up the third kill in this match within minutes.

At this moment, it was as if the whole world had gone silent.

The sub-team match had ended. Team Black Rose vs Team Nine Skies, 5 : 0.

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The author has something to say:

The competition will end completely after one more chapter, and6 get ready for the face-to-face meeting. ^_^~

(The rest is about the story reaching VIP status and author updating that when it switches to VIP, there will be a triple update.)

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TL comments: Why do Nine Skies’ members have to have such long character names…QAQ

Also, the author’s aforementioned triple update is for chapter 24, which is a monster chapter that’s a whopping 3x the usual chapter length. I’ll be splitting it into 3 parts to not kill myself ^_^;;

Literally living as well as dragons and tigers.

Note that big-hearted here isn’t really the same as the English meaning. It’s more like having a strong mentality and daring to take risks. For example, someone who is willing to gamble in a high risk, high reward scenario.

He addresses her as 美女 or beauty, which is a common way of addressing someone. There isn’t really a good way to translate this, so I’ve stuck with lovely, which is more commonly used in English.

This is the author’s own explanation that was included in the raws

The raws write it as buff, so I’ve changed it to be more intuitive.

“And” is in English in the raws, lol