The King's Avatar

Pan Lin and Li Yibo stared blankly. The audience members misled by the commentators were stared blankly.

Break out from an encirclement? That didn’t seem to be the right direction! If he goes in that direction, won’t he crash into a spirit?

Li Yibo started thinking. But this time, the development came too fast. Before he could think it through, Fang Rui’s Boundless Sea ran into a Little Spirit.

Boom!

It was another low-level skill into a normal attack, extinguishing the Little Spirit. Then, he continued.

Li Yibo finally understood: ”He’s going around the circle, killing them one by one!”

Li Yuan didn’t have an omniscient view like the spectators. When the Little Spirit was killed, he could deduce the general area where Boundless Sea was located from the pathing of the Little Spirit. He didn’t have a precise grasp of Boundless Sea’s position. The spirits that he had placed far away weren’t within his command range, so he could only make adjustments for the spirits within range.

Fang Rui was targeting this point through forceful attacks. Even though his initial actions were rather dirty, Fang Rui was now attacking like thunder and moving like the wind. After killing two Little Spirits, he finally encountered a Big Spirit.　

Hua!

Ice Fall. This Big Water Spirit threw a cube of ice at Boundless Sea. Boundless Sea rolled to avoid it and then shot out a Qi Bullet.

The Big Water Spirit unexpectedly moved to the side, dodging the Qi Bullet. Fang Rui realized that this Water Spirit was under Li Yuan’s control. Although he couldn’t see Eight Notes, this Big Water Spirit just happened to be within both players’ field of vision.

The situation immediately became tense. Should he continue forward, or retreat temporarily?

Pan Lin and Li Yibo had just brought this point up, when Boundless Sea rushed forward decisively.　　

Spiral Qi Kill!

With a wave of his hands, spiralling qi tore through the dense fog, making it increasingly more visible. The Big Water Spirit wanted to run, but this Spiral Qi Kill chased after it. In the end, a Summoner couldn’t control its summons as well as his own character, and the attack landed.　

Gelala...

The Spiral Qi Kill struck the Big Water Spirit, giving off a strange sound. The Big Water Spirit shot backwards along with the rotating qi.

Spiral Qi Kill didn’t have a blow away effect. Li Yuan had decided to retreat, controlling the Big Water Spirit to move backwards borrowing the knockback from Spiral Qi Kill to reach such fast speeds.

Qi Flowing Cloud!

Boundless Sea activated Qi Flowing Cloud, buffing his movement speed. His steps quickened like moving clouds. In the blink of an eye, caught up to the Big Water Spirit and slammed into it.　　

Qi Break!　　

Qi poured into the Big Water Spirit. The qi circulating inside the Big Water Spirit could be seen due to its transparent body. Then, with a ”bo”, a crack appeared inside the Big Water Spirit. The crack spread until it spread throughout the entire surface of its body. Finally, with a shatter, the Big Water Spirit crumbled into several pieces.

At this moment, Li Yuan’s Eight Notes and his countless spirits were now inside Fang Rui’s line of sight. After Fang Rui killed the two Little Spirits, Li Yuan immediately had Eight Notes replenish and send them out again. He had also recalled the wave of spirits he had spread out previously. Eight Notes had summoned a Big Fire Spirit too with numerous Little Spirits beside it.

Seeing that Boundless Sea was nearly within reach, Eight Notes commanded the spirits to form a line.

Spirit Style combat relied on numbers and cooperation between spirits. Besides a Spirit King, a single big spirit couldn’t even compare to a Death Knight or one of the Four Beasts.　

LI Yuan’s attempts to surround Fang Rui’s Boundless Sea with spirits had failed. At this distance, trying to surround him would require even greater precision.

But Boundless Sea unexpectedly stopped there. As soon as he saw the line of spirits formed by Eight Notes, Fang Rui typed out a smiley face in the chat and then ran away into the dense fog.

Li Yuan wasn’t going to let him go so easily, sending out several spirits to give chase.　

The spectators had a clearer grasp of the battlefield because of their omniscient view. Boundless Sea’s retreat was a fake one. After retreating, he circled back. Fang Rui had played boldly for a bit, but then switched back to playing dirty.

Not long afterwards, a Little Spirit found Boundless Sea. Fang Rui didn’t hesitate to kill it.

He continued to wander.　

Fang Rui seemed to be doing what Mo Fan had done, but in fact, there was a difference in purpose. Mo Fan had been trying his hardest to escape from the notice of the spirits. However, Fang Rui was actively seeking to kill the spirits. As soon as he found one, he would quickly destroy it and then continue on with his hunt.

Li Yuan’s army of spirits started to dwindle in numbers. Seeing this scene, Pan Lin couldn’t help but sigh: ”Couldn’t Mo Fan have done the same?”

”It’s different,” Li Yibo said.

”Ah?”

”Fang Rui is able to do it, but Mo Fan could not have.”　　

”Why?”

”Because of Eight Note’s mana. If you take a closer look at the situation, you’ll notice that Li Yuan’s spirit formation doesn’t have the same compactness as when he had deployed it against Mo Fan. Fang Rui is able to play in this way because of the foundation that Mo Fan had built. Because of the mana Li Yuan had used up in the previous round, he cannot play as boldly as he did before. If he did, his mana wouldn’t be able to last this fight.”

”But if this continues...”

”He has no way of catching Fang Rui right now. I think he should give up on beating him and instead try to take out as much of Fang Rui’s health as possible...” Li Yibo said.

Li Yibo was correct. Li Yuan currently faced a difficult situation. Those who played dirty were masters at digging into wounds. They’d take your weak spot and then mercilessly stab at it again and again. Whether it was playing boldly or playing dirty, Fang Rui had always been targeting Li Yuan’s weak point.

Whether it was the unfavorable terrain for Summoners or the mana issue created by Mo Fan’s efforts, Fang Rui took advantage of both.

”He’s not wasting the foundation that Mo Fan lay down for him. What a reliable guy!” Ye Xiu sighed. Everyone looked at Mo Fan. They wanted to see if he would put on a face of gratitude after seeing the advantage that he had built up being used. But all they was him continue staring at the screen.

”There shouldn’t be any problems with this round, right?” Chen Guo asked Ye Xiu.

”No problems,” Ye Xiu said with certainty. Li Yuan’s Eight Notes had almost no mana left, ”At this point, Li Yuan will most likely try for one final all-out burst. We’ll see how Fang Rui deals with it.”

Ye Xiu analyzed it deeper than Li Yibo.

None of Li Yuan’s attacks could reach his opponent. He knew that he couldn’t let his time on the battlefield go to waste, and if this continued, it would be a waste. As a result, he decided to make use of all his remaining mana. He didn’t think too much and immediately sped up the pace, increasing the density of summons, forming new spirits to make up for the missing ones.

Fang Rui immediately noticed the change in pace. He knew Li Yuan had no choice but to bet his all to win as much as possible for his following teammate.

”Come! Let’s decide it!” Fang Rui shouted in the chat. Boundless Sea rushed forward, not towards Eight Notes, but towards the outer perimeter...

”It’s match point! What is Fang Rui planning?” Pan Lin yelled excitedly.

”He’s... running away?” Li Yibo said weakly.

”Fu...” Pan Lin nearly cursed but caught himself in the end. When he checked the map, Boundless Sea was heading straight for a direction away from all of the spirits. Wasn’t he running away?

”Mo Fan’s skill at escaping is truly outstanding. But Fang Rui is more experienced in comparison. He immediately noticed the sudden change in pace from Li Yuan...” Li Yibo said.　　

”Then, he ran...”　　

”Yeah...”

Their voices gradually became gloomier as if they felt embarrassed about reporting this reality.　　

At the deciding point, Fang Rui ran, quite successfully too. Because at that time, Li Yuan had just readied himself to go all out. Just when he sped up the pace, before he could spread out his new summons, his opponent smelled the air and ran.

Yes, smelled the air and then ran. It was an unglamorous description, but it fit Fang Rui’s style. The outcome was even more infuriating. Li Yuan’s Eight Notes was now out of mana. A bunch of spirits roared as they chased after him. Then, as time went by, spirit after spirit crumbled. Finally, Fang Rui’s Boundless Sea showed up majestically.

”Are you going to GG, or do I need to help you out?” Fang Rui typed out arrogantly.

The entire stadium was filled with boos!

”His way of doing things is too ugly to look at. But from a practical standpoint, his plan was extremely effective... for such a dirty plan, even if you had the capability to think of it, you might not be able to do it,” Li Yibo tried his hardest to justify Fang Rui’s actions.

”Yes, for example, if Fang Rui didn’t have an extremely acute sense of awareness, he might not have succeeded in the final escape, right Coach Li?” Pan Lin said.

”Yeah...” Li Yibo said.

”Then... I guess that’s it?” Pan Lin said.　

”Yeah...”

A Summoner with no mana had practically zero combat ability. What’s worse was that he still had 18% of his health left. Apart from the Shuriken thrown by Mo Fan last round, he hadn’t taken any damage. Now, he had no mana, and attacks would certainly come his way.　　

”Watch me destroy you!” Fang Rui became bold, facing this manaless Summoner.　

”Fang Rui’s history is quite rich...” Pan Lin tried to look at things from a different perspective as he explained the origins of this master of playing dirty.

”Yes... when he first started playing competitively, he had created a random team with a few friends and participated in the Challenger League...” Li Yibo said.

”A bunch of very dirty-playing friends and a team that played very dirty,” Pan Lin said.

”Their win record wasn’t anything amazing, but Fang Rui had caught Team Blue Rain’s eyes...”

”Blue Rain has always been good at digging out people with personalities.”　　

”Then, Fang Rui joined Blue Rain’s training camp...”

”Afterwards, he was dug out by Wind Howl.”

”Now, he’s gone to Happy...”

”And he’s changed classes several times during this time.”

”Truly a genius.”