The King's Avatar

Chapter 1652: No Retreat

Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi

As Pan Lin and Li Yibo discussed the match, Su Mucheng and Zhou Zekai were finally about to come across each other. Zhou Zekai didn’t slow down, but Su Mucheng didn’t either. Dancing Rain was a long-ranged Launcher, yet it looked like she was charging in like a close-ranged character.

Just before the two characters were about to meet, Dancing Rain suddenly stopped.

This is?

The audience was puzzled, but the pro players reacted much faster! With the help from their spectator view, they immediately deduced Su Mucheng’s goals.

The canyon wasn’t a perfectly straight line. There were twists and turns. If Su Mucheng’s Dancing Rain continued to charge ahead like in the previous round, the outcome would be the same as before. The two opposing sides would see each other outside of their attack range. Even if Su Mucheng’s Dancing Rain had a longer range than Lord Grim and Cloud Piercer, the outcome would not change.

This time, Su Mucheng had Dancing Rain stop ahead of time. She was going to guard a tree stump, waiting for a rabbit. Zhou Zekai’s Cloud Piercer would need to pass through a turn. By the time he came into Dancing Rain’s sights, the two sides would be at a much closer distance.

The pro players quickly saw what this distance would be. It was a distance that would allow long-ranged attackers to better display their capabilities. Su Mucheng had given up on steady, drawn-out fight. When she and Zhou Zekai fought, it would be an explosive battle.

No!

It wasn’t just that!

Having seen Su Mucheng’s impressive “Firing Line” multiple times recently, the pro players had started looking into it more carefully. At this moment, seeing this distance, they quickly realized that it wasn’t just a distance that would allow the two long-ranged attackers to fully utilize their firepower. This distance was a firing line distance that Su Mucheng had complete control over. In other words, this distance wouldn’t just let her fully utilize her range, it would also elevate her firepower to its peak!

Mounted Gun!

Su Mucheng calculated how much time Cloud Piercer would need to reach here, and had Dancing Rain set up her Mounted Gun. In the very next second, Cloud Piercer arrived.

Boom boom boom boom!!

Dancing Rain’s artillery fire instantly unfolded. It was almost impossible to tell what her sequence of skills were. The moment Cloud Piercer appeared, the battlefield erupted in explosions and smoke. The explosiveness was even more intense than what everyone had expected. Dancing Rain’s DPS instantly reached a peak.

Cloud Piercer’s situation obviously wasn’t great. No one would have an easy time facing Su Mucheng’s firing line.

However, if he really wanted to get away from Dancing Rain’s firing line, it was truthfully very simple. All he needed to do was back away a bit.

Cloud Piercer had been in the midst of making a turn in the canyon, when he appeared in Dancing Rain’s sights and was bombarded with artillery shells. All he needed to do was retreat a bit, and he would disappear from Dancing Rain’s sights. No matter how strong her firing line may be, if she didn’t have a target she could hit, then it was useless.

But all of the pro players knew that while backing away was easy and effective, Zhou Zekai wouldn’t choose to do it.

Because what he pursued wasn’t the outcome, but the circumstances. If he backed away, avoiding Su Mucheng’s momentum, his own momentum would decrease, and Samsara’s momentum would decrease even further.

It was like a high-speed race in auto racing. Even if they saw an obstacle up ahead, instead of slowing down and going around it, it would be more satisfying crashing through it. Braking and slowing down would kill the excitement. Cloud Piercer taking a step back was equivalent to completely stopping the racecar, going in reverse, and then going back forward. It would be extremely disappointing!

Zhou Zekai wouldn’t retreat, even if it was the safer choice. What he pursued, what Samsara pursued was to push forward, sweeping away everything in their path. Zhou Zekai was the team’s captain, the core of the team. He needed to be strong. He needed to carry out their goals. At this crucial moment, he would never drop the ball because he was someone who used actions, not words. He used his actions to give voice to himself and his teammates.

Charge!

Cloud Piercer charged forward. Facing the explosive Launcher firing line, he fired back. This choice wasn’t wise. If this were the game, anyone who made this sort of bad decision would be seen as a noob, who would be looked down upon disdainfully and then lectured by the veterans.

But now, Glory’s number one had made this choice in the deciding match of the finals. On the stage, there was no such thing as absolutely right or wrong.

An act so noobish that anyone would laugh at the person doing it, but what if the person who did it was Zhou Zekai? Who dared to laugh at him? Seeing Zhou Zekai’s decision, the normal players let out an expression of fear. In their eyes, this was what it meant to make the impossible possible. No wonder he was Glory’s number one! No wonder he was a top player!

The crowd went wild.

Just like the pro players predicted, although this decision was unwise, it was absolutely breathtaking. Everyone loved to see the impossible become possible!

Boom boom boom boom!

Bang bang...

With the buffs from Mounted Gun, Dancing Rain’s artillery fire was extraordinary. Cloud Piercer was firing back, but his gunshots seemed so weak and frail.

But Zhou Zekai didn’t cower.

As soon as the match started, the word “retreat” wasn’t in his dictionary. No matter the circumstances, no matter how unwise it might be, even ten million foes would not bend his will. That was the sort of mentality he came into the match with.

He was clearly a Sharpshooter, a class that didn’t have the ability to charge straight into a trap, but he went for it nevertheless. The people watching couldn’t help but recall that before Sun Xiang’s addition to the team, Samsara had lacked a direct attacker.

Yet even without one, Samsara had still been able to win two championships in a row.

In the finals two years ago, Samsara had eliminated Blue Rain, the team filled with unique yet synergistic players. In the previous finals, they had eliminated Tyranny, the experienced veterans who had put in their all to win.

At that time, who had been their team’s attacker?

Zhou Zekai!

Besides healing, there was nothing he couldn’t do.

These words weren’t just empty words or an exaggerated description. Zhou Zekai had the ability to do what was impossible.

Advance!

The current him was like a brave warrior facing an archer. He had no choice but to press forward.

Cloud Piercer charged ahead.

One step, two steps, three steps. Burns could be seen all over him from the countless explosions. No one could break through a Launcher’s firing line unscathed. A close-ranged class would do everything they could to break past a Launcher’s wall. Most of the time, they would choose to circle around and do something unexpected to get closer to the Launcher. But in this map, it wasn’t possible to circle around. The only path was forward. Zhou Zekai’s Cloud Piercer did what even close-ranged characters would try to avoid, getting closer and closer to Dancing Rain.

He was approaching and attacking.

This was the difference between himself and an actual close-ranged class. He didn’t need to fully close in to attack. As he gradually escaped from the firing line, Cloud Piercer’s attacks became more and more dense, more and more threatening.

But Su Mucheng didn’t cower either. Every time Cloud Piercer took a step forward, Dancing Rain’s firing line would move back as well. She had the ability to create a perfect firing line for quite a range.

But this sort of explosiveness couldn’t last forever. Even a normal player understood this logic.

Because this peak explosiveness required chaining together as many skills as possible in the shortest amount of time. To achieve this firepower, she couldn’t think about cycling her skills or about the aftermath.

Su Mucheng’s explosiveness had been at its peak ever since the first shot. But even this sort of burst wasn’t able to completely suppress Zhou Zekai, how could she hold back?

Su Mucheng didn’t think too much.

She had predicted that Zhou Zekai would push forward in today’s match. That was why she chose this strategy despite it having such an obvious flaw. It was to make things difficult for Zhou Zekai.

Even so, she still wasn’t able to shut down Zhou Zekai. Victory wasn’t so easy to obtain. And although Zhou Zekai had chosen to push forward, he wasn’t charging at her blindly, tanking everything. He was also taking a look at the situation, observing Dancing Rain’s firing line. He knew that this sort of explosiveness couldn’t last forever. Su Mucheng would have to slow down at some point, unless she was confident that she could kill him during this time.

But seeing the situation, it looked to be impossible. Zhou Zekai’s Cloud Piercer was holding on under the barrage of artillery shells. His health was dropping chunk by chunk, but he wouldn’t fall so easily. And because Dancing Rain was using Mounted Gun, when he counterattacked, he didn’t need to worry about her dodging his attacks. Even though the damage he dealt couldn’t compare to Su Mucheng’ firing line, he knew that the turning point was about to come.

Boom boom boom boom.

The explosions continued, but even the normal players could see that Dancing Rain’s firing line was going downhill. The broadcast and the stadium screens displayed Dancing Rain’s skill tree to let everyone see all the skills that were on cooldown.

The crowd erupted into cheers. Samsara’s fans knew that their opportunity had arrived.

“What a pity...” The pro players lamented.

Knowing what her opponent would do, Su Mucheng had created an enormous obstacle for him, an obstacle that couldn’t be avoided. Was there a better set-up? No. Everyone racked their brains, trying to think of a better method. Her strategy fully utilized the strengths of her own class and her opponent’s situation.

If it had to be said that she did something wrong, then it would perhaps be that she had pushed her limits too far. Failure meant death.

She hadn’t left herself any path for retreat either.