The King's Avatar

This wasn’t the first time Li Yibo had dug himself into a hole like this. With the experience he gained in all these years, his mastery of digging out was top notch.

”Wei Chen leaving Windward Formation there wasn’t just a psychological battle. He even took that time to familiarize himself with the environment. Now he’s able to utilize the environment to his advantage and grasp the upper hand firmly.” Li Yibo was composed as he continued talking, still not denying the idea of a psychological battle as he explained his new discovery.

”So that’s how it is!” Pan Lin was enlightened. He hadn’t manage to notice that. As for Li Yibo’s thick skinned eisegesis, he was long since used to it and couldn’t be bothered to say anything about it.

”In fact, from the beginning of their exchange, Xiao Shiqin’s Life Extinguisher has been continuously suppressed. The few times that he attempted to take the initiative back, he was easily thwarted by Wei Chen. These few counterattacks have fully utilized the environment.”

”Ah! Life Extinguisher has taken yet another blow! Once again, the terrain was fully used to his advantage. The Curse Arrows struck from a dead angle and a Soul Slice from the right. Xiao Shiqin made the decision to let Life Extinguisher take the better of two evils, the Curse Arrows, but he never noticed that there was a Binding Curse in the shadows of those Curse Arrows!”

”Xiao Shiqin is in a very passive situation right now, but he’s already understood where the problem lies. Look at his actions. He isn’t trying to counterattack anymore, but turn and retreat to regroup,” Li Yibo said.

”However, he’s taken a Binding Curse, so taking another wave of damage is certain.”

”Death’s Door, Wei Chen has directly activated the powerful move Death’s Door. He wants to trap Life Extinguisher in this corner! It seems like he’s noticed the change in Xiao Shiqin’s intentions and is willing to bet all his chips on this powerful skill, Death’s Door. The duration of the Binding Curse is just enough for Death’s Door’s chant. Just this skill might not be enough! However, if this Death’s Door hits Life Extinguisher, then he can use a round of attacks to deal massive damage to Life Extinguisher!” Li Yibo, who was usually composed and talking like a master presiding over the rivers and mountains, had now become excited as well as the match crescendoed. Everyone stared intently at the progress of Windward Formation’s cast time. What would happen once this skill was unleashed?

”Ah! Life Extinguisher moved first!!!” Pan Lin suddenly yelled. ”He’s managed to struggle out of the Binding Curse early. Windward Formation’s chant seems a step too slow.”

”This is simply a character advantage! This is an All Star level character’s advantage. Usually, the duration of a Binding Curse is more than enough time to cast a Death’s Door, but Life Extinguisher’s spirit resistance has allowed him to escape the Binding Curse earlier. Windward Formation’s Death’s Door.... Huh, this Death’s Door….” Li Yibo suddenly came to a halt in the middle of his sentence. Windward Formation’s chant ended a little too late, and this lateness was meant to be the crucial opening for Life Extinguisher’s successful escape, but in reality, that wasn’t what had happened, because this Death’s Door had a larger range. Life Extinguisher might’ve been able to get the chance to run earlier, but he was still under the control of this Death’s Door.

”Life Extinguisher didn’t manage to escape! He’s still within Death’s Door’s range. How come this Death’s Door seems larger than the usual Death’s Door we’re familiar with? Coach Li?” Pan Lin said.

”Yes, this Death’s Door does have a larger range indeed... at least two levels higher than the usual Death’s Door,” Li Yibo said.

”Two levels higher, how excessive!” Pan Lin was shocked. For a powerful skill like Death’s Door, one level would cost an immense number of skill points, and for this skill, it’s crowd control was more important for Warlocks who specialized in control, not damage. So, for this powerful skill, usual skill builds wouldn’t max it out, only upgrading the skill to meet their needs. Especially for pro characters, they would be built according to their team’s style, strategies, so they went for an efficient build. After all, skill points were limited, if it really was possible to max out all skills, then this problem wouldn’t exist. For Warlocks, a maxed out Death’s Door? That was common amongst most normal players, but in the pro scene, you couldn’t even describe it as being like phoenix feathers and qilin horns, because it didn’t even exist.

”This… is probably a habit from Wei Chen’s years in the online game after retirement! Having gotten used to it, he probably finds it hard to change his habits,” Li Yibo explained weakly. How would he know that the main reason for the grandiose Death’s Door was that Windward Formation had more skill points than most pro characters. For many characters, investing in this skill would have been a burden, but for Windward Formation, two levels up was nothing, and his Silver weapon Death’s Hand added a level, too. For other Warlocks it maybe excessive, but for Windward Formation, this was an economic build for him.

”Ok, though Life Extinguisher used his higher spirit to get out of the Binding Curse earlier, Windward Formation used his higher level Death’s Door to keep him within the area of control… Windward Formation is now on the offense again, and Life Extinguisher… Life Extinguisher is continuously using gadgets, but within the range of Death’s Door, this is simply a waste! Life Extinguisher hasn’t just gotten on the field, this is already his third battle. Why would Xiao Shiqin waste so much mana?” Pan Lin was dumbstruck, staring at the match.

Originally, there was only one target in Death’s Door, but Xiao Shiqin’s continuous release of mechanical tools caused more and more miasma to coil out from the Death’s Door, dancing across the field. However, these mechanical tools were fragile and and couldn’t be controlled to dodge like the character itself could, mostly being swiftly caught and destroyed by the miasma. Even so, Xiao Shiqin continued to make Life Extinguisher throw them out relentlessly and black streams flew all over the area Death’s Door covered, explosions everywhere, coming from the gadgets that Life Extinguisher was throwing out. Soon enough, the reason for his actions became crystal clear. Using this chaos, Life Extinguisher somehow managed to escape from Death’s Door’s range.

”Ah… Life Extinguisher escaped! The attacks Windward Formation sent in combination with the Death’s Door didn’t manage to hinder him at all. The field was too chaotic and this was all caused by Xiao Shiqin’s willingness to sacrifice his mana to create this opening.”

”Sacrificing mana to keep his health. This is probably the only thing Xiao Shiqin could do. Actually, this isn’t the first time he’s used this method to escape a Warlock’s control,” Li Yibo said.

”Oh?”

”He’s done this in a match against Blue Rain before,” Li Yibo clarified.

”Oh? Against Yu Wenzhou’s Swoksaar?”

”Of course. Since Yu Wenzhou isn’t as up to task regarding hand speed, he didn’t manage to keep pace in such a chaotic situation like this and Xiao Shiqin’s Life Extinguisher managed to escape. For Wei Chen, he is no longer in his prime, so his reaction speed and mechanics can’t keep up with a situation like this either. Blue Rain’s ex and current Warlock players were both thwarted by this method of Xiao Shiqin’s, this coincidence…” Li Yibo sighed.

”However, Xiao Shiqin still isn’t a good position!” Pan Lin pointed out.

”That’s true. He used a great amount of mana and doesn’t have much left. If he can’t consume it efficiently, his mana probably wouldn’t last for the duration of this match,” Li Yibo agreed.

”However, this is already his third round. What he’s done so far is already enough of a victory!”

”Of course, it’s almost a one versus three. Xiao Shiqin has already done his best.”

The two were analyzing the match, talking one after the other. From their words, it was clear that they didn’t think Xiao Shiqin had a chance to win this match anymore. Though he had successfully thwarted Wei Chen’s plan to trap him, he had used up too much mana, and next, unless...

”Ah, Xiao Shiqin hasn’t left. After a strategic repositioning, he turned around and went on the offensive!!” Pan Lin yelled in surprise. He and Li Yibo had both thought that after escaping, Xiao Shiqin would have Life Extinguisher leave the area that had been the target of Wei Chen’s thorough research. They never expected him to turn after escaping and mount an offense.

”Uh, it seems like Xiao Shiqin feels that there’s no point in stalling any further, hoping to use this wave of attacks to deal as much damage as possible to Windward Formation and pave the way for the next player on his team!” Li Yibo guessed.

”Air Drop! However, this time Windward Formation has no cover within reach… Just escaping from Death’s Door, Xiao Shiqin has already used up a lot of skills, so most are still on cooldown. However, he’s using what he can to initiate attacks. He added a lot of normal shots, making up for the lack of skills to combo! Wei Chen doesn’t seem to be dealing with this round of attacks very well! That first Air Drop forced him to move and stop his attacks.”

”Self-propelling Artillery! This cooldown ended just at the perfect time to be used there.”

”Huh? There seems to be a Cruiser over there. When did he summon that? Windward Formation is retreating, trying to find cover against the Self-Propelling Artillery. Aiya, he’s been trapped. Windward Formation’s path was blocked by that Cruiser so he can’t get to the cover he needs and can only face the Self-Propelling Artillery head on. Aiyou, he’s not dealing with those blasts well!”

”The Hunter is in pursuit, too. Life Extinguisher’s offense is very consistent. He’s seen through Wei Chen’s use of the environment. Windward Formation retreats, ah! A Mechanical Seeker darted out from around the corner and he didn’t see it either. He didn’t see it and was hit… Windward Formation was hit by the Mechanical Seeker’s explosion and the Hunter has lunged for him… Coach Li… This…”

Li Yibo, who had been making a calculated guess about Xiao Shiqin paving the way for the next player on his team, was stunned by Xiao Shiqin’s relentless offense and immediately opened his mouth to express a new opinion. ”Is Xiao Shiqin planning to wipe Windward Formation out in one wave? Let’s see if he can do it.”