The King's Avatar

Is this the end?

Gao Yingjie felt the dejection swelling in his heart as his camera view turned into a screen of darkness.

No!

But another sound rose in his heart, because he felt that he heard that sentence once again.

Shoulder the future of Tiny Herb!

This isn’t over yet.

The Dark Boundary didn’t cause any damage, only the loss of vision. The position he’d been in when he hit the ground, the direction he was facing…

Kind Tree clambered to his feet, turned his body slightly to face the direct center of the Ghost Boundary, and charged through!

What?

Everyone was shocked and had to double-check that that Dark Boundary hadn’t already faded.

No, the Dark Boundary was still there, and there was no way the Blind effect would fade so quickly. In other words, Gao Yingjie’s vision was still nothing but darkness, but he could still make such accurate controls? He had done all of this based on his memory? What incredible instinct and intuition!

Kind Tree flew into the air, riding atop his broom, Morning Dew.

At this moment, there was no way for him to make many precise controls. He could only use a few sweeping skills to try and disrupt the opponent.

Broom Tornado!

Morning Dew swung through the air, Kind Tree spun and a tornado whipped up… To win this match, he was using everything he had, even if his skills had been sealed by the Silence Boundary, even if the Dark Boundary stole away his vision, he still refused to give up.

But the audience couldn’t bear to watch any longer.

They couldn’t bear to see Gao Yingjie work so hard only to fail to accomplish anything in the end.

Dancing Rain had already lifted her cannon. She aimed right at Kind Tree, and shot a Laser Rifle right at him.

Boom…

The midair Kind Tree was instantly sent flying by this Laser Rifle.

In the end, it still wasn’t enough?

Gao Yingjie let out a sigh… This was far from an opponent he could defeat with his eyes closed!

The moment that Kind Tree flew out of the area affected by the Dark Boundary, he recovered his sight. Gao Yingjie immediately adjusted his position. Then, he saw Aweto trapped by countless overlapping Ghost Boundaries, with all sorts of status effects and damage stacking on top of him. Light and shadow intertwined; the occasional flashes were all black in color.

One Inch Ash’s tachi was raised in the air. Those Ghost Boundaries lying upon the ground seemed to hear some sort of call, and the power of the Phantom Ghost became shifting and restless.

Ghost Feast!

In this instant, all of the phantom power exploded! The power flew in chaotic patterns through the air, searching for targets within the range of the Ghost Boundaries. Which Tiny Herb player would dare advance at this moment? But in the very center of the boundaries, where they all overlapped, Tiny Herb’s Cleric was being devoured by all of the phantom power.

Boom!

Another Satellite Beam fell from the sky. Along with the waving claws and dancing fangs of the Phantom God’s power, it swallowed Aweto whole, leaving not a scrap of clothing…

Tiny Herb’s Cleric fell.

In that moment, for countless people, this match was decided. Tiny Herb’s stadium was silent. Only the loyal Happy fans sitting in the away team audience area were jumping and singing, welcoming the crazy victory that was just about to arrive.

”This is really… unbelievable.” This adjective appeared again and again in the commentary of today’s match. And this time, seeing Happy kill Tiny Herb’s healer, Pan Lin once again used this adjective to describe the situation.

Even though Tiny Herb had become somewhat disorganized and depressed when Happy had killed Wang Jiexi earlier, they still had the absolute numbers advantage, and so most people still favored Tiny Herb. Ruan Cheng gritted his teeth as he waited for Tiny Herb to kill Happy, so that he could pick apart Happy’s faults one by one.

But now, it looked like there was no need.

Tiny Herb’s Cleric was killed. This one move was simply too decisive. Now, there probably wouldn’t be any more earth-shaking miracles, would there?

There wouldn’t be.

Enough shocking events had already happened today.

After this, Tiny Herb’s four attackers attempted to kill Little Cold Hands, but One Inch Ash’s Ghost Boundaries quickly gave Little Cold Hands the best protection. When An Wenyi was able to stand at a secure position and focus on healing, then Lord Grim, fighting on the frontlines, could be that much more reckless in his attacks.

No reversals, no comebacks. The battle ended here. Happy won their away game against Tiny Herb, with a final score of 8-2.

There was too much that needed to be digested, and so the stadium was a bit subdued. The players from both teams walked out of the competitor booths and met in the middle, just like they had before the team competition. But now that victory had been determined, one side could laugh heartily, while the other side could only taste bitterness.

Wang Jiexi, the first one killed in this team competition, calmly looked at the players of this team standing before him.

Ye Xiu… Counting from when Wang Jiexi had first entered the Alliance, the two of them had already competed with each other for a full seven seasons. If only speaking of their results during that time, then Ye Xiu, who had never appeared in a season finals after Season 4, seemed a bit inferior to Wang Jiexi, who had played in the finals three times and won two of them.

Over the regular seasons, they had met 14 times, each with his share of wins and losses.

In the playoffs of Season 7, the two teams met in the first round, and Tiny Herb sent home the Excellent Era that Ye Xiu led. It was after that battle that everyone started screaming, believing that Ye Qiu’s era was over for good. But for some reason, Wang Jiexi felt that he hadn’t truly defeated this opponent. This wasn’t only because of the achievements and trophies that both sides had accumulated, this was a feeling closer to the battlefield. The battle strength that Excellent Era had displayed during that playoffs match was so fragmented that even Wang Jiexi, as their opponent, almost couldn’t bear to watch.

That battle became the last time the two of them fought. During the regular season of Season 8, before Tiny Herb and Excellent Era could meet, Ye Xiu announced his retirement.

When he first heard the news, Wang Jiexi couldn’t understand it at all.

The outside world believed this and that. But as his opponent, Wang Jiexi only knew one thing - Ye Qiu’s competitive condition was far from the point where he would need to retire. Some internal conflict must have occurred within Team Excellent Era…

But all of this became unimportant with Ye Qiu’s retirement. Wang Jiexi’s job was to lead Tiny Herb on a road of endless victory.

And now, he had returned. Wang Jiexi didn’t know what was up with Ye Qiu becoming Ye Xiu, but either way it wasn’t important. This player had used that one and half years of time to pull together this team standing here now, and then once again defeated Wang Jiexi in battle.

When was the last time I lost to this guy?

Wang Jiexi couldn’t remember anymore. What he could remember in clear detail was Season 3, when he’d won Best Rookie. He was the so-called king of rookies, but that was nothing in front of God Ye Qiu! The world had likened his Magician style to the sight of heavenly horses crossing the sky, but in front of Ye Qiu there were none of the stunning effects of magic. One Autumn Leaf waved that famed Silver weapon Evil Annihilation, using that Battle Mage style that was everywhere in the player guides, and beat his Witch bloody. The Excellent Era that he had raised was truly invincible in that era.

This time, do you plan to carry such a team once again?

”Congratulations,” Wang Jiexi said, extending his right hand toward Ye Xiu.

”Thank you.” Ye Xiu also extended his hand, and they shook.

”Next time, we will win,” said Wang Jiexi.

”Oh? You guys?” Ye Xiu laughed, and looked at the line of Tiny Herb players arranged before him. Having lost the match, they were of course in low spirits. Gao Yingjie especially seemed painfully upset. His head hung low, and the teardrops were clear to see as they fell from his eyes.

”Maybe if they treated you as a role model, and not a crutch.”

When Ye Xiu said this sentence, he had already moved past, and was shaking hands with the person standing next to Wang Jiexi.

Role model?

Crutch?

Wang Jiexi was dazed. Even when Fang Rui walked in front of him and extended his hand, he didn’t react until Xu Bin reminded him. He hurriedly recovered and shook hands.

Is he saying that I’ve been working too hard all this time? But when you were in Excellent Era, weren’t you also giving your all to carry the team on your shoulders? Wang Jiexi watched Ye Xiu’s retreating silhouette, which now arrived in front of Gao Yingjie at the end of the line.

Gao Yingjie’s head was bowed. He saw that someone had walked in front of him, but he didn’t lift his head, and only extended his right hand.

”You did well.” Ye Xiu took the initiative to speak with him. ”But awareness and determination are far from enough. Who doesn’t have those things?”

As soon as he finished speaking, he was already gone. But Gao Yingjie, surprised, finally lifted his head to look at him. Behind Ye Xiu, the rest of the Happy players walked by, one by one, shaking his hand, until the very last Happy member. Qiao Yifan.

In over a year’s time, young players like them could grow a lot, whether in appearance or character.

Both of them had grown taller, and the childishness had faded from their faces. Gao Yingjie’s face was still streaked with tears, but now that he was facing his old friend, he finally reacted and hurriedly wiped his face.

Qiao Yifan didn’t laugh at him. He pulled some tissues out of his pocket and offered them to Gao Yingjie.

Gao Yingjie took them, but he didn’t use them to wipe his tears.

”Yifan, you’re really amazing now,” Gao Yingjie said.

”So are you, still as genius as ever, being able to play even in the Dark Boundary,” Qiao Yifan said.

”But what use is that? We still lost.” Gao Yingjie’s sadness was still clear when he said this.

”Keep working hard!” Qiao Yifan said.

”Yes. Next time I’ll win for sure,” Gao Yingjie said.

”Alright,” Qiao Yifan smiled, not fussing over how the statement ”I’ll win for sure” had the implication ”you’ll lose for sure.”

With that, the match came to a close. In the post-match press conference, both sides expressed extremely high praise toward their opponent’s performance. In Tiny Herb’s press conference, Captain Wang Jiexi frequently revealed a pensive expression while answering questions, and their genius player Gao Yingjie, after this failure, expressed a strength and determination that he had never shown before.

Ruan Cheng had been so prepared to sarcastically mock Happy after they’d lost this battle, but in the end, he didn’t even show up to Happy’s press conference. But soon, the television broadcasting station received countless calls from viewers, all expressing that they’d rather hear the commentary of someone whose skill wasn’t high enough than the commentary of someone as biased as Ruan Cheng.

At the conclusion of Round 27, Happy’s away game victory against Tiny Herb was one of the more unexpected results. But aside from this, there was another surprise: Team Wind Howl, after stumbling in so many battles, finally found their footing in this match, and won 8-2 against Team Blue Rain.