Chapter 1280: Not Focused Enough

Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi

Liu Hao’s eyes twitched a few times, and even a few old fans of Team Excellent Era felt some deja vu at that moment.

Ye Xiu, Liu Hao, this pair of old teammates had already become enemies, but their back-and-forth in the public chatl was reminiscent of their time back in Excellent Era.

Liu Hao would never forget the icy contempt that Ye Xiu showed towards his well-meaning compliment.

To Liu Hao, calling out a beautiful play by a teammate was a way of boosting the morale of the team, but Ye Xiu maintained that his praise was too excessive.

Praise was also a form of encouragement, who would feel that such things were excessive? On top of that, it wasn’t as if he didn’t have any situational awareness. He’d never left an opening because of it, so wasn’t it fine?n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

But even if this was the case, Ye Xiu still maintained that he wasn’t focused enough.

Yes, not focused enough, this was the flaw that Ye Xiu always pointed out when it came to Liu Hao. From the time he became a player in Team Excellent Era, to the time when he became vice-captain of Excellent Era.

"If you’ve got the time to spout useless words, why don’t you use it on moving your character instead"

When he saw this line, Liu Hao was infuriated. He hadn’t delayed his inputs at all due to these few words that he’d typed, what did Ye Xiu expect from him?

Liu Hao exploded with fury, and Absent Sun pounced towards Lord Grim more violently than anyone else. He was originally someone who could control his emotions well, but deep in every person’s heart, they had certain inviolable taboos. These words that Ye Xiu said had effectively stabbed at a scar that had lasted many years. In the past, he could only brood about it silently, but now, he could finally use his actions on the battlefield to speak for himself. He wanted to tell Ye Xiu: controlling or not controlling your character for a moment isn’t anything important!

Earthquake Sword!

Absent Sun swept out with his sword, directly destroying a merchant’s stall in front of him. Upon clearing this path for himself, Absent Sun trampled on the wreckage and charged forwards.

Demon Subduer and Doubtful Demon, the two strongest characters in Wind Howl, followed behind Absent Sun and advanced through the trail of wreckage.

Once upon a time, they had been called the Criminal Partners, but now, this name was on the verge of becoming history. In the Alliance’s voting for Best Partner, these two characters that had fought side-by-side for so many years weren’t even grouped together. Being partners wasn’t something that could be achieved simply by being in the same team, if not, the Best Partner selection would be selecting an entire team of five people at once.

Partnership wasn’t something that the Alliance had ever clearly defined, but going by the results of previous years, these "partners" were usually the pair of core players in a team who had the most rapport, and their teamwork had to be extremely outstanding.

In today’s Wind Howl, Demon Subduer was a core character, just as before, and he was just as outstanding as before, but Doubtful Demon’s place in the team had gotten weaker and weaker. Brawler and Thief, this pair was no longer the centerpiece to Wind Howl’s playstyle. Nowadays, who stood beside Demon Subduer as his greatest helper?

Fire Wave Formation!

Absent Sun slashed out again, directly cutting a path through the obstacles in his way. After sending out consecutive skills, Absent Sun’s movements slowed down. Demon Subduer overtook him from the side, stepped in the middle of the flames of Fire Wave Formation and charged forward.

An extremely beautiful covering play.

Anyone would admit as much.

The timing of Fire Wave Formation and the charge of Demon Subduer was coordinated beautifully, and the enveloping blaze gave Demon Subduer a temporary layer of protection. At this time, anyone who wanted to attack him from close range would first have to suffer the damage of Fire Wave Formation.

But if it was from a long range......

Boom boom boom!

Three shots sounded out, and Su Mucheng’s Dancing Rain once again joined the fray.

When the Heat-Seeking Missile had been sent out earlier, everyone in Wind Howl had more or less figured out her position. She was very far away, and as such, was unsuitable as a breakthrough point, so everyone continued to focus on Lord Grim. As for Su Mucheng’s continued harassment from afar, Wind Howl could be said to have foreseen it. When the cannon shots rang out, Zhao Yuzhe’s Beautiful Light had already pointed with his staff, instantly creating an Ice Wall at the side of the Fire Wave Formation.

The brilliant combination of fire and ice gave Demon Subduer complete protection from all sides. The Anti-Tank Missiles that Dancing Rain fired over were a low-level skill, without enough power to shatter the Ice Wall, and if Su Mucheng were to use another skill, Demon Subduer’s charge would have been completed.

Following the flames of Fire Wave Formation, Demon Subduer had rushed close to Lord Grim, and reached the effective range for a Brawler’s control skills.

Sand Toss!

Demon Subduer flicked his wrist and threw the skill out.

Lord Grim simply opened his umbrella to block the attack.

Screensaver!

When Lord Grim opened the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella, everyone immediately thought of this point. The Myriad Manifestation Umbrella’s Shield Form was so large it was borderline criminal, to the point where it could not only hide attacks, but could even hide another player who could attack from the side.

Tang Hao had obviously seen that there was no one at Lord Grim’s side at the time, but he still didn’t dare to attack head-on. Instead, he moved horizontally and adjusted his angle of attack, leaving the head-on assault to Liu Hao.

Liu Hao quickly grasped his intent, and Absent Sun walked forwards a few steps before attacking. As he directly faced Lord Grim’s open umbrella, he sent out an Ice Wave Formation without any hesitation. He was able to maintain a more mid-ranged distance when fighting, so he didn’t have to worry as much about what kind of tricks Ye Xiu was hiding behind that umbrella.

At this time, Lin Feng’s Doubtful Demon had already activated Stealth, creeping behind enemy lines. Even though he was a Battle Thief, he wouldn’t completely abandon the sneaky skills of a Thief.

What about Zhao Yuzhe? At this time, he had spotted a cargo crate and was controlling Beautiful light to jump on top of it. When looking down from an elevation, he would have a wider field of view and a larger area which he could attack.

When he’d jumped halfway and his field of view had expanded a little, he spotted a Ghostblade behind a pile of cargo sacks, the Taichi in his hands already charged with a Phantom Ghost’s power.

"Careful, there’s a Phantom Demon!" Zhao Yuzhe shouted as Beautiful Light casted a Piercing Lightning towards him.

But at this time, Qiao Yifan’s One Inch Ash had already completed the cast for his ghost boundary and an Ice Boundary instantly formed, protecting Lord Grim. Of the three characters from Wind Howl that had charged up, two were already inside the Ice Boundary.

Tang Hao’s reactions were swift, directly using a Powerful Knee Strike to leap out of the Ice Boundary. On the other hand, Lin Feng was humiliated; after leaving Stealth, Doubtful Demon’s movements were slowed, and he was unable to escape the sudden Ice Boundary in time, immediately being frozen into a large ice block.

One Inch Ash had successfully casted his Ice Boundary, but he couldn’t avoid Beautiful Light’s Piercing Lightning in time.

Piercing Lightning hit, and as it did damage, it also informed everyone in Wind Howl of the Phantom Demon’s whereabouts. Just as Zhao Yuzhe was preparing to attack once again, there was already cannon fire incoming. Su Mucheng’s Dancing Rain had gotten control over a high vantage point and started to interrupt his attacks.

In the team competition, the players would all suppress each other and interrupt attacks, so there was rarely a situation in which a player could capitalize on one successful attack and complete a combo, unlike in the individual competitions.

Beautiful Light’s attack was interrupted, but Tang Hao’s Demon Subduer had already started rushing over to the spot where One Inch Ash was concealing himself, while Liu Hao’s Absent Sun continued his assault on Lord Grim.

In terms of their positioning, Absent Sun was actually closer to One Inch Ash than Demon Subduer was. But at that time, Lord Grim was under the protection of the Ice Boundary. While the Brawler did have ways to attack at a medium range, if he was unable to attack at close range, the control that he could exert was insufficient. It was incomparable to the Spellblade, which was specialized in mid-range fighting, and so Tang Hao abandoned the closer target to seek the one that was farther away, attacking One Inch Ash while leaving Lord Grim to Liu Hao.

Doubtful Demon was frozen by the Ice Boundary, Demon Subduer had gone to attack the hiding One Inch Ash, Beautiful Light had been suppressed by Dancing Rain’s firepower...... As he looked at Lord Grim, not far away from him, Liu Hao suddenly had a bad premonition. He could smell the prelude to a violent storm!

The Myriad Manifestation Umbrella... dipped down very slightly.

Was it about to come!

Liu Hao opened his eyes wide. For now, disregarding what attack Lord Grim was going to use, he sent out a Wave Formation, but immediately afterwards, an arrow of blood spurted out from Absent Sun’s neck. Absent Sun was then lifted from the ground and thrown into the Ice Boundary.

Fling was a grab skill, and there was no way to prevent the character from being thrown. Absent Sun was thrown into the Ice Boundary and his speed immediately dropped. As he raised his camera upwards, he saw Lord Grim, who had appeared behind him.

Shadow Clone Technique?

Liu Hao had already realized it at this point, but if it was Shadow Clone Technique, it required hand seals to be cast. Lord Grim was holding the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella in front of him the whole time, how did he manage to form the hand seals?

Liu Hao only held his suspicions for a moment, before immediately thinking of the time when the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella dipped down very slightly.

That motion wasn’t the hand seals. Instead, Lord Grim had momentarily let go of the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella, finishing the hand seals in the blink of an eye before grabbing the umbrella again...

To be able to instantly think of this after the situation had occurred, Liu Hao could be considered to be very skilled. Ye Xiu also immediately praised Liu Hao, "Your ability to read the match is extremely outstanding, but you’re always unable to put one hundred percent of your attention into the match. There are far too many other things you’re concerned about..."

It was these cliché line again!

Liu Hao was infuriated, but his character was in danger and he really had no ability to type something out to fight Ye Xiu verbally. The Spellblade clearly had a stronger Spirit stat than the Thief, so his Absent Sun had only been slowed upon entering the Ice Boundary and not frozen solid unlike Doubtful Demon. He had to think of a plan to quickly escape the boundary, but with Lord Grim eyeing him so closely, would he have the opportunity to do so?

At the end of the day, Lord Grim suddenly turned his head.

Liu Hao froze.

Crap!

He suddenly realized, Cleric, their Cleric! After the sudden attack earlier, they had been ambushed by Happy in the east. The west was completely barren and had eluded all of their attention. Cleric, they had completely forgotten to protect their own Cleric.

But... where was he?

Liu Hao froze again. Ruan Yongbin’s Soul Healer should not have been far behind them, but how come they couldn’t even see a shadow of his figure now?

Had he hidden somewhere? That guy was really dirty!

Liu Hao thought about it, this Wind Howl, they truly deserved to be called a dirty team, this attitude had affected everyone on the team, aside from their new players. Ruan Yongbin, he might only be a Cleric, but he still had a dirty playstyle. The only thing was, the master of dirty play who had influenced everyone in Wind Howl was now on Happy! Where was Fang Rui? Where was Boundless Sea?

Liu Hao suddenly realized, aside from trash talking once at the start, this guy had never appeared at all.

"!!!"

Just as he thought that, in Wind Howl’s team chat, a cry for help from their Cleric suddenly appeared......