Chapter 1701: Unspoken Understanding

Steamed Bun Invasion charged forth.

What attack would he execute? Everyone was rather curious and eager to see what he would do, all turning their attention to him. Even Sun Xiang didn’t dare let his guard down. Steamed Bun’s skill level was very volatile, hard to gauge or comment on, but it wasn’t someone anyone should ignore. Currently, One Autumn Leaf was airborne, but being airborne wasn’t the same as being stunned. He could still attack and move to an extent.

He was getting closer… and closer…

Steamed Bun Invasion lunged forwards with his fists raised, yet, under the eyes of the watching crowd, he didn’t strike.

What was he waiting for?

Everyone wondered to themselves, watching as Steamed Bun Invasion rushed closer and then… Street Riot!

What the fuck!

Everyone cursed in their hearts.

What was he waiting for? He was waiting to close the distance! A powerful skill unleashed just like that, in your face, with no cover or prep. He just ran up to his target and used it.

The pro players were completely speechless. How… low-level, how… noobish! However, this was exactly what the players of Samsara had not been watching out for. They focused on Steamed Bun Invasion, wary of his next move, yet he didn’t make a move. He just ran and ran and then when he got close, he used a powerful skill.

A low-level move, yet on this high-end stage, it had become a feint that managed to trick everyone. No one would’ve guessed that Steamed Bun Invasion’s movements were so simple and straightforward, actually just running up and unleashing a powerful skill.

What an embarrassment…

All the pro players held their heads in their hands. It was they who had let such a player appear on this ultimate, final stage! It was their fault for not managing to eliminate him in an earlier round.

“When up against this guy, you can’t face him with the same state of mind you would have in a normal match,” someone was saying. Steamed Bun had played quite a few matches this season, and there were many of pro players that had the experience of facing him. His unpredictability was something known and tested.

However, not using the usual state of mind you’d have towards matches was an easy thing to say, but if not your usual state, then what state should you use? Steamed Bun’s strange thought processes weren’t something you could deal with by finding the right state. If you treated him as a noob, then that would be a mistake you’d definitely regret making. But if you treated him like a pro player… just look now, he managed to get the advantage through a distinctly non-pro action. This guy switched freely between playing like a noob and like a pro. There really wasn’t anyone who could keep up with his rhythm.

“Follow your own rhythm, don’t focus too much on his actions.”

“Isolate him.”

“Mark him.”

“Pincer.”

The pro players were all talking amidst themselves, as though how to deal with Steamed Bun’s weirdness were an academic discussion topic.

Steamed Bun wasn’t exactly a top-tier player, but he also wasn’t someone easy to deal with either. Many had fallen to his unpredictability. Though his instability might negatively affect his team, in a life and death match like this, they couldn’t place their bets on an unknown. What if he was hiding a secret weapon or something just for this match? It wasn’t like that hadn’t happened before.

The pro players had yet to come up with a conclusion from their discussion. Meanwhile, Steamed Bun Invasion’s Street Riot was taking the spotlight on the field. All sorts of low to mid level Brawler skills being unleashed in a mindless torrent. From the rate at which he was dishing out attacks, it was clear that his technical skill was nothing to laugh at.

Zhou Zekai’s Cloud Piercer could still pull away and avoid it, but Sun Xiang’s One Autumn Leaf wasn’t so fortunate. Originally, being airborne wouldn’t have been much trouble for One Autumn Leaf. He had kept his focus on what Steamed Bun was going to try when he ran over, yet the other didn’t do anything. When One Autumn Leaf finally landed, quick recovering and about to get up and continue fighting, Steamed Bun Invasion’s powerful skill was launched.

Bricks, Sand, Inject Poison, Paralysis Needle…

All sorts of skills and items came raining down on One Autumn Leaf, with punches and kicks interweaved between. A level 70 skill wasn’t easy to deal with, and Sun Xiang was rapidly beaten back. After One Autumn Leaf’s quick recovery, he didn’t manage to actually get up, rolling on the ground to try and dodge the assault.

Zhou Zekai, having pulled his Cloud Piercer out of the way, looked back and realized that his evasive maneuvers had been a little too excessive! Steamed Bun had been completely locked on to One Autumn Leaf, and Street Riot’s skills were all directed at him. Not a single one came for Cloud Piercer.

However… if Cloud Piercer had been in his original position, then that might’ve been a different matter.

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Zhou Zekai knew to look at things from different sides, and didn’t underestimate Steamed Bun’s decision. No matter if it was a coincidence or chance, he would treat it as it if it were intended.

However, he wasn’t able to support Sun Xiang at the moment. As soon as his Cloud Piercer stepped back, Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim immediately darted in, cutting him off from One Autumn Leaf. Then Lord Grim closed in, attacked, not giving him an opening to come to Sun Xiang’s aid.

By now, Tang Rou’s Soft Mist had managed to recover from the impact of that snipe. She threw herself back into the fray without hesitation, charging at One Autumn Leaf.

For a moment, the players of both teams were paired up in one on one fights, without any cooperation happening. It seemed to have no tactical elements. However, from what the players were attempting to do, it was possible to find tactical intent. Su Mucheng’s Dancing Rain kept trying to edge over to this side. She clearly didn’t want to continue dueling Jiang Botao one on one,. She hoped to play on her strengths, using her abilities to support the entire team in combat.

Jiang Botao, responsible for marking her, felt a little helpless. Empty Waves’ attacks weren’t able to lock Dancing Rain down completely. It wasn’t to say that Jiang Botao’s mechanics or ability wasn’t good enough, it was a limit of the class he played. Spellblades did high single target damage, but it was hard to chain skills. So against him, Dancing Rain still had room to maneuver. All Jiang Botao could do was to try his best to stop Su Mucheng from reuniting with her teammates, but he couldn’t lock her down completely so she was still managing to slowing edge over.

The cannon swung around; Su Mucheng’s Dancing Rain had finally entered the range at which she could provide support. Immediately, she sent a missile over to help Tang Rou and Steamed Bun’s offensive, making things even harder for Sun Xiang, who was fighting one against two.

One against three, huh?

Dancing Rain’s offensive support cannonfire was a nightmare for Sun Xiang. He wasn’t having a good time against his current two opponents. One was fierce and fearless, the other unpredictable and strange. The two had completely different styles, and didn’t even attack with the same rhythm. They were basically ignoring each other as they fought. Even so, it wasn’t easy for Sun Xiang to deal with. The two weren’t consciously attempting to synchronize and act cooperatively, but they seemed to have a kind of unspoken understanding between them. Tang Rou and Steamed Bun had started from zero and gotten here fighting and growing side by side. They had never purposefully tried to develop any sort of tacit understanding and cooperation. It had formed naturally. It was something even they themselves probably couldn’t describe or explain: why did they have such habits in combat? It was because they were used to having each other present when fighting. Their understanding and tacit teamwork was all completely subconscious.

If even they didn’t realize it, then how would their opponents be able to see it? So it seemed like the two weren’t cooperating at all, yet they were just extremely hard to deal with.

“This duo is a rather… strange one…” The pro players started thoughtfully discussing amongst themselves again as if the doors to a new land had opened for them. Tang Rou and Steamed Bun, a duo that seemed to have no method or organization to their teamwork, yet there was a strange, indescribable feeling there. For a moment, none of them knew how to explain it.

“Usually, for a team offensive, you would try to mess up their rhythm, thus reducing their combative ability. However, from the very beginning, they never had a shared rhythm to their actions,” Wang Jiexi said, primarily aiming to share his observations to his Tiny Herb teammates.

“That’s why Sun Xiang can’t find an opening right…?” Yet that when Blue Rain’s Huang Shaotian butt in.

“Not at the moment, but who knows what will happen?” Wang Jiexi said. Tang Rou and Steamed Bun’s teamwork was vague, uncertain, so he wasn’t sure if they would be able to keep Sun Xiang suppressed, or if Sun Xiang would soon find an opening. However, currently, it seemed like Sun Xiang no longer needed to find any opening. Samsara’s sixth player, Du Ming’s Moon-Luring Frost had arrived.

Triple Slash!

Moon-Luring Frost charged in, slashing thrice with his blade, once at Soft Mist, once at Steamed Bun Invasion, and with the last, he changed directions.

Moon-Luring Frost left!

The first two slashes of Triple Slash seemed like he was just harassing them as he passed by while the last one had Soft Mist, who had turned to attack him, striking air.

Dancing Rain!

Moon-Luring Frost ended up charging in her direction, standing in the way of her cannonfire.

Su Mucheng rapidly regained her supportive maneuvers, but Samsara wasn’t willing to let her do as she wished. Though Jiang Botao’s marking was effective to some degree, it was still limited and full of openings due to his class. If they wanted to properly lock Su Mucheng down, then they would have to do as they were doing before and have a melee class close in and keep her occupied.

This was the reason why Du Ming only spent a moment helping Sun Xiang. However, he did pull off a successful feint. The two attacks from Triple Slash had everyone thinking he was about to fight at Sun Xiang’s side. However, no one had expected him to dart away as Tang Rou went to deal with him.

He’s coming at me!

Du Ming’s true intentions were exposed and Su Mucheng immediately prepared herself. However, while Happy only just found out about Du Ming’s intentions, Samsara had already discussed it. Jiang Botao had already made preparations. The skills that Empty Waves was saving were suddenly unleashed in a torrent.

Why did Spellblades have a hard time chaining their attacks? On one hand, their skills weren’t as fast to activate as close-ranged classes’ skills were. Another point was that their skills had relatively longer cooldowns. It wasn’t impossible to unleash a rapid barrage of skills, but after you were done, all the skills would be on cooldown, and how would they defend against their enemy’s counterattack then?

However, Jiang Botao didn’t care about that at this moment. He used this wave of skills to try and lock down Dancing Rain’s movements, giving Moon-Luring Frost a chance to close in.

Under each team’s tactical efforts, the two sides finally launched into a much more tactically minded face off. Lord Grim and Cloud Piercer’s battle was also slowly inching closer to the center of the action, preparing to welcome even more complex variation into the battle.

However, in another area of the map, the ongoings seemed to have no relation to this area.

Wu Qi, Qiao Yifan.

These two were currently locked in a one on one fight, but it had been a long time since the broadcast had paid them any attention.