Published at 19th of March 2019 08:00:40 PM Chapter 1450
Pretending to get hit . . . everyone was taken aback . There were only things people couldn't think of . There was nothing Fang Rui couldn't do . His genius went below everyone's bottom line .
But then again, successfully tricking someone in a pro match was not an easy task .
When an attack missed, pro players could feel it intuitively . Health loss was also not something that could be faked .
Lu Hanwen must have overlooked both of these points for Fang Rui's trick to succeed .
Lu Hanwen had two years of experience as a main roster player . He had far more experience than most second-year rookies, yet Fang Rui dared to cheat the kid . It succeeded too, and not without reason .
Lu Hanwen had been focused on Boundless Sea's movements . He hadn't been paying attention to Boundless Sea's health . It had been a tense moment, and his offense had been quick . Falling Blossom Form had extremely high priority too . Just getting grazed was enough to knock the opponent down, so the feeling of landing the hit was difficult to notice . Lu Hanwen had been trying to speed up the tempo and had indeed been a bit negligent .
These reasons showed that Fang Rui wasn't just playing dirty for the sake of playing dirty . He was using his brain when making decisions .
The damage dealt by Dragon Wave wasn't low . Everyone thought that given this opening, Fang Rui would have Boundless Sea run away . But to their surprise, Fang Rui had Boundless Sea follow up with another attack .
"Is Fang Rui really planning on fighting Lu Hanwen face to face?" Pan Lin cried out . No one dared to guess what Fang Rui was thinking .
Spiral Qi Rush!
Boundless Sea appeared to be ready for a fight . Qi spiraled out of his hands as his character rushed forward fiercely towards Flowing Cloud .
Flowing Cloud could use a skill like Falling Light Blade to change directions in the air, but Spiral Qi Rush had a wide AoE range . All possible paths using Falling Light Blade were blocked by it . Falling Phoenix Slash covered a longer distance, but Flowing Cloud had just used it and it was still on cooldown .
Without any moment for delay, Lu Hanwen displayed his extraordinary reaction speed . Flowing Cloud stepped on the tree behind him and raised his greatsword up .
Rising Dragon Slash!
Flowing Cloud borrowed the height of the tree to leap up instead of fall down .
Boom!
Boundless Sea's Spiral Qi Rush crashed into the tree . Leaves fluttered down as the entire tree shook violently .
Boundless Sea had turned around . His hands were pressed together, accumulating qi . He waited until Flowing Cloud started descending after the Rising Dragon Slash before pushing his hands outward .
Spirit Reaches to the Rainbow!
The dense qi coming out from his two palms formed a bridge as it flew towards Flowing Cloud .
Lu Hanwen knew that after dodging Spiral Qi Rush with Rising Dragon Slash, getting back to the ground wouldn't be so easy . As soon as he finished executing Rising Dragon Slash, Flowing Cloud swung his greatsword down .
Falling Light Blade!
In the end, Flowing Cloud used this move to rapidly descend from the sky . Fang Rui had predicted Lu Hanwen's reaction . He moved his mouse rapidly, causing the Spirit Reaches to the Rainbow to curve downwards towards where Flowing Could would land .
But . . .
Flowing Cloud dropped down and disappeared .
Boom!
The giant tree struck by Spiral Qi Rush had been shaking violently when it was hit again by the Spirit Reaches to the Rainbow .
When Flowing Cloud had used Falling Light Blade, he had controlled it to position him behind the tree . Although Fang Rui had adjusted his Spirit Reaches to the Rainbow, he had no way of looping the qi around the tree . Before the attack could strike Flowing Cloud, it hit the tree .
Crash!
After being struck twice, the tree swayed even more violently, the sound of rustling leaves seemed to never stop .
Fang Rui wasn't discouraged . He had Boundless Sea step to the side, ready to catch the falling Flowing Cloud . But when he looked from this new angle, he didn't see Flowing Cloud .
How?
Fang Rui was stunned . Flowing Cloud had landed behind the tree . How could he have disappeared? Was it magic?
The audience members were able to see it . Pan Lin and Li Yibo were praising Lu Hanwen's cleverness .
"The Rising Dragon Slash was a set-up for the Falling Light Blade," Li Yibo said .
"The angle of the Falling Light Blade was very precise . After hiding behind the tree, he cancelled the skill and pushed off the tree to change angles again . "
Blue Rain's playoffs seemed to be interconnected with trees . Last round, Huang Shaotian's Troubling Rain had lost half his health due to a tree . This round, Lu Hanwen's Flowing Cloud used the tree to escape from Fang Rui's follow-up . His move was clever and unexpected . Fang Rui didn't know how he had escaped . He was carefully exploring the terrain to try and figure out the secret behind Flowing Cloud's disappearance . When Boundless Sea took his next step, he was met with a sword! Meteor Form!
The sword came towards Fang Rui extremely fast, and he wasn't able to react in time . Blood blossomed in the air .
"Go go go go!" The crowd cheered .
Fang Rui, the master of playing dirty, an expert at ambushes, had been ambushed by their own player . It was too exhilarating!
Fang Rui had no way of dodging the attack, but he had time to respond after getting hit . Borrowing the force of the blow, Boundless Sea slid back, but sword light was already in pursuit!
Sword Draw!
After the maxed Meteor Form, a low-level Sword Draw followed . Both these attacks were extremely fast . The two sword lights intertwined, almost as if the two attacks were a single skill .
"He's using a greatsword too . . . " Li Yibo liked to remind everyone that Lu Hanwen's Flowing Cloud wielded a greatsword . If he was using a tachi or a lightsaber instead, just how fast would it be?
Fang Rui couldn't dodge this follow-up either . A streak of blood flew into the air when the sword light hit . Boundless Sea stumbled backwards .
Had he lost his balance?
No!
He was faking it!
This time, the director saw through it . The moment Boundless Sea began to stumble backwards, qi had begun to circulate around his hands, which then quietly swung outwards .
Qi Blade!
He used a Qi Blade at this distance .
Lu Hanwen had been chasing after Fang Rui, when he saw the dense fog bundle together and fly towards him . He immediately rolled to the side .
Downwards Qi Flow!
The stumbling Boundless Sea suddenly jumped into the air . With his palms directed towards the ground, qi crashed towards Flowing Cloud like a waterfall .
Flowing Cloud, who was mid-roll, slashed across with his sword .
Sky-Plunging Blade!
The skill came out as Flowing Cloud stood back up .
Boom!
The turbulent qi slammed into Flowing Cloud, but at the same time, his bright sword light tore through the sky and struck Boundless Sea .
Flowing Cloud wasn't able to stay standing after getting struck by the force of Downwards Qi Flow . On the other hand, Boundless Sea was knocked down by the Sky-Plunging Blade and rolled twice to negate the momentum .
The two characters were both injured, but after taking each other's attacks, they stood back up and continued to fight .
"Fang Rui didn't run, but his playstyle . . . " Pan Lin said .
"Playing dirty doesn't just mean scurrying around and guerrilla warfare!" Li Yibo said .
"Yes," Pan Lin nodded his head .
The dirty playstyle encompassed many styles . It was similar to direct fights, there were many ways of going about it . The dirty playstyle had many paths branching off from it .
Fang Rui and Lu Hanwen fought . Pretending to be hit, pretending to lose balance and then retaliating were undoubtedly extremely dirty moves .
Playing dirty wasn't a a technique, but a mindset .
And for Fang Rui, as the representative of the style, it didn't matter if he fought face-to-face or indirectly, all of them contained an air of dirtiness .
In this map, Lu Hanwen's acute perception and reaction speed were effective against the usual dirty playstyle . As a result, Fang Rui fought directly against Lu Hanwen, showing off his creativity in this battle . . .
Pretending to fall down, pretending to be off-balance . . . no one knew what other surprising tricks this guy had in store .
"Fang Rui isn't really utilizing the features of this map, making it so that Lu Hanwen's exceptional eyesight and reaction speed aren't as useful," Pan Lin said .
"But by not using the terrain, Fang Rui's capabilities are also restricted," Li Yibo said .
"It's evenly matched!" Pan Lin sighed .
Yes, evenly matched .
Both sides had found their own rhythm and were in their peak competitive states . Both sides were going all out, using all the tricks they had at their disposal .
The two went back and forth, trading blow after blow . The only outcome was damage dealt by both sides, with neither side gaining an advantage . When Lu Hanwen found an opportunity to attack, Fang Rui might retaliate with a weird trick . When Fang Rui tried to combo, Lu Hanwen would often neutralize it forcefully .
Under these circumstances, Fang Rui's 74% starting health became a disadvantage that could not be erased .
In the end, Lu Hanwen's Flowing Cloud was able to win with 23% of his health left . Blue Rain had taken back a point . It was now an even 3-3 .
However, of the two Blue Rain characters remaining, Flowing Cloud only had 23% of his health left, while Happy had two characters at full health .