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She’s so fast! No wonder Liu Xiaobie lost.

Xiao Yun had Euphorbia dodge. Although he had been mentally prepared for this situation, when it actually happened, he became a bit nervous.

Indeed, this was not an opponent he could take head-on! With this, Xiao Yun’s prediction was confirmed. And since he knew this long before, of course he had prepared a strategy.

If she wants to be fast, then I can’t let her be fast. With my understanding of the Battle Mage class, I can definitely suppress her rhythm!

In a battle between two players of the same class, each side had a greater understanding of what changes could be made in battle. If Tang Rou weren’t a Battle Mage, Xiao Yun wouldn’t have this confidence, but since she was a Battle Mage, he believed that he could control the flow of battle. After all, his opponent was still a rookie, with limited understanding and control of the class. In this same-class battle, he had a slight advantage, Xiao Yun believed.

He calmly controlled his character to jump backward and avoid Soft Mist’s Dragon Tooth.

Another jump let him avoid Soft Mist’s subsequent Double Stab.

After the Double Stab, Dancing Fire Flowing Flame suddenly flipped up to a Sky Strike, the skill’s cooldown having just ended. But Euphorbia stuck his spear downward and this Sky Strike was suppressed. None of Soft Mist’s consecutive attacks managed to succeed.

The corner of Xiao Yun’s mouth twisted into a cold smirk. He felt like a cat toying with a mouse.

But a Magic Chaser was already flying toward him, a Light Chaser accumulated from the earlier Sky Strike.

As expected, not a second of rest!

This Light Chaser wasn’t outside of Xiao Yun’s expectations either, and he very calmly dodged it. Soft Mist immediately came with another attack, even faster, with the speed bonus granted after firing a Light Chaser. This, too, Xiao Yun had accounted for, and after he dodged the Chaser, he was already defending against the sudden attack that would come next.

And his responses to her attacks weren’t just ordinary dodges, as that would just give Tang Rou more space to increase her speed. Xiao Yun relied more on parrying attacks, limiting her ability to chain attacks and ruining her rhythm.

He did fairly well. After all, he was a member of Tiny Herb, and he had trained with the Battle Mage class for several years now. He was very clear on where and how to attack to maximally interfere with her attack rhythm.

This again…

Tang Rou was no stranger to this current situation. In fact, it could be said that she had just experienced this.

Last round against Heavenly Swords, even though Happy had won the two points from the group arena, Tang Rou, who was the first to come out, was defeated by the second person on their team. Heavenly Swords’ second player, Wen Kebei, was a Battle Mage.

Tang Rou had just experienced a same-class battle last round, and this round she once again fought against a same-class player. Xiao Yun and Wen Kebei both fought with this interference style that could only be executed by someone familiar with the class. But Xiao Yun, compared to Wen Kebei, was more practiced, and Tang Rou was suppressed harder than she was last round.

It was harder, but she knew it better.

Tyrant’s Destruction! Tang Rou still refused to give up on attacking.

That smirk continue to hang on the corner of Xiao Yun’s mouth. With a practiced motion of the mouse, his Euphorbia also unleashed a Tyrant’s Destruction, crashing toward Soft Mist’s.

An instantaneous control, an instantaneous attack, and in an instant, the spears were about to collide once again. But suddenly, Dancing Fire Flowing Flame suddenly shot upward.

In the last moment, just before the two skills were about to hit, Tang Rou adjusted the direction of her skill. No time to delay, the timing couldn’t be off by a hair.

She did it!

Dancing Fire Flowing Flame and the spear that Euphorbia swung toward her slipped past each other. And Soft Mist jumped into the air, and in the same way, with hardly a second to spare, she just barely dodged his attack.

Barely, but she managed to dodge it. And Xiao Yun? After discovering this change, it was already too late to react.

Tang Rou pushed her change all the way to the end, leaving no time for Xiao Yun to make any follow-up move.

Not just him, even someone with ten or a hundred times the hand speed wouldn’t have been able to keep up with Tang Rou’s change at that moment.

Shit!

Xiao Yun only had time to shout in his mind. He didn’t even have the chance to retract the smirk on his mouth when Euphorbia was hit by Soft Mist’s Tyrant’s Destruction. At the same time, flames burst forth and landed upon Euphorbia’s body, as Dancing Fire Flowing Flame’s special effect ”Flowing Flame” was activated.

After one attack succeeded, things got easier. The next skills came one after another in a combo.

This was a combo. If this offense could be casually broken, then it wouldn’t be called a combo.

Xiao Yun’s Euphorbia and the Dancing Fire Flowing Flame in Soft Mist’s hands met over and over again. Tang Rou was completely immersed in the controls. Of course, she hoped with this one chain of combos she could defeat her opponent, but sadly, things didn’t turn out that way.

Xiao Yun, who understood Battle Mages well, quickly found a flaw in Tang Rou’s combo.

Furious Dragon Strikes the Heart!

Seeing the flaw, Xiao Yun directly used a powerful attack. Tang Rou hastily responded, Soft Mist drawing back her spear, but she had no way of completely parrying such a high-level attack.

Soft Mist’s offensive came to an abrupt end, and Xiao Yun used this Furious Dragon Strikes the Heart to retaliate with a new high of attacks.

Tang Rou’s response to this offensive was completely different from Xiao Yun’s. Xiao Yun would observe, anticipate, search for an opportunity. But when she faced each of Euphorbia’s attacks, she would always try to make a move, she controlled her character nonstop, as though Euphorbia’s attack sequence contained flaws everywhere.

But in reality, Euphorbia’s attacks were not interrupted. Tang Rou struggled endlessly, but to no avail.

But her struggling like this gave her opponent a lot of pressure. Xiao Yun felt a strong sense of danger, as though if he made the tiniest slip, it would immediately cause him to lose this match.

This state was unexpected for Xiao Yun. He was nervous, he didn’t dare become careless, but the more he felt this, the more flawed his controls became, often scaring himself into a sweat. Thus, Xiao Yun was unable to maintain his offensive for long before he, too, finally revealed an opening. The unrelenting Tang Rou instantly seized the opportunity. Even death wouldn’t have stopped her as she surged forward. One attack landed, and immediately a chain of attacks followed. If Xiao Yun seized a chance and interfered again? No worries, she’d just come again!

The two sides traded the initiative back and forth, but whether or not she was attacking or being attacked, Tang Rou’s Soft Mist always maintained an offensive stance. When attacking, she was always moving forward; when being attacked, she caused a constant fear of counterattack in the opponent, like a thorn in the back. The sweat on Xiao Yun’s forehead accumulated, and the string in his heart was wound tighter and tighter.

The tighter he was, the more he didn’t dare relax his hands or legs, and Xiao Yun’s apprehension only increased. The more he didn’t want to make a mistake, the more often a mistake would come find him. The battle seemed like a continuous exchange of attack and defense positions, but Xiao Yun’s attack periods grew shorter and shorter, and Tang Rou was seizing opportunities and attacking for longer and longer periods of time.

Under these exchanges, Xiao Yun watched as Soft Mist slowly closed the gap between their health levels. He grew panicked, and he started making more mistakes. He once again reminded himself to stay calm, stay stable, but his two hands were so stiff, so unresponsive, it was as though they were no longer his own. Where did his normal casual and easy controls go? Xiao Yun wanted to stuff his hands in his mouth and bite down hard.

His 43% health lead was pulled to a tie, and then, he started losing.

The more Xiao Yun played, the more chaotic he became. He no longer had a fraction of the confidence he’d had at the beginning of this match. All he had was overwhelming panic.

How could it be like this?

Xiao Yun didn’t understand. He had prepared thoroughly to face Tang Rou, he was confident, so how come as soon as he was onstage, he couldn’t perform? How was his condition today so bad?

Xiao Yun couldn’t stabilize himself or control the situation. He could only lose.

Tang Rou completed the 1v2, successfully entering the third battle of the group arena.

The crowd was silent.

1v2. This result was already valiant, but because Tang Rou promised a 1v3, she wasn’t done yet. Tiny Herb’s next player onstage was their captain Wang Jiexi. And Tang Rou? Soft Mist, after this battle, only had 16% health remaining.

”Coach Li, what do you think… this…” Commentator Pan Lin spoke haltingly. To challenge Wang Jiexi with 16% health, it was very difficult for anyone to have hope!

”Haha, the wonder of competition is its unpredictability! Perhaps we will witness a miracle!” Li Yibo laughed.

”That’s to say, Coach Li still looks favorably on Tang Rou?” Pan Lin said.

”We’ve already reached this point. Tang Rou is a player full of energy, so who knows, she might achieve the inconceivable!” Li Yibo said.

”Alright, let’s look forward to the result of what has been the focus of the past five rounds! Team Happy’s Tang Rou versus Team Tiny Herb’s Wang Jiexi!” Pan Lin announced.

The television broadcaster made this announcement, and the live screens in the stadium displayed the next player from Tiny Herb who was about to play. But Wang Jiexi didn’t hurry to go onstage, and instead waited for Xiao Yun to return.

Seeing the captain looking at him, Xiao Yun lowered his head, and looked for a corner in which to hide.

”What’s most fearsome about Tang Rou is not her technique, nor her hand speed, but her overwhelming determination.” After Wang Jiexi spoke, he stepped toward the stage.

Happy versus Tiny Herb, third match of the group arena.

The final opponent in the 1v3. Win this, and she would complete her promise. Just one last step.

However, Tang Rou was already powerless.

Vaccaria slid down from the sky, trailing behind him the glittering remnants of starlight from the dance of Star Extinction.

”A 1v3 is not so easy!” Wang Jiexi said.

In the third battle of the group arena, Wang Jiexi won. No damage taken.

The audience was once again silent.

If Tang Rou’s 1v3 had succeeded, they would have been dissatisfied. But seeing her defeated so swiftly by Wang Jiexi, everyone felt a bit disappointed.

They themselves couldn’t say for what sort of outcome they had hoped.

In Happy’s player area, everything was even more still. Failing to complete a 1v3 was nothing. In fact, in terms of the match progression, for their first player to meet the opponent’s third, they held a great advantage. But, the outcome that this 1v3 failure implied…

At this moment, no matter how hard Chen Guo tried, she couldn’t squeeze out even a half-corner of a smile.