Chapter 1204: Fang Rui, Figured Out
Pa pa pa pa!
Boundless Sea’s Flash Burst smashed into the ice. Spider-web like cracks instantly spread, and in the next second, the ice wall shattered into tiny bits of ice.
But by this time, He Ming’s Rullo had finished casting another spell.
Thunder Apocalypse!
Lightning crashed down from above, one bolt after the other. He Ming had calculated Fang Rui’s options and positioned Thunder Apocalypse such that Boundless Sea was perfectly centered inside.
Dodge?
With the denseness and speed of the lightning bolts, dodging was extremely difficult.
Reinforced Iron Bones?
It would increase his defences and give him Super Armor, but lightning bolts produced a short paralysis effect, completely different from the hit stun from physical attacks. Reinforced Iron Bone’s Super Armor would not be enough to move freely inside Thunder Apocalypse.
Qi Guard!
Fang Rui chose to use this Qi Master defensive skill. Boundless Sea’s two hands traced an arc from the top of his head to his sides, forming a defensive qi barrier.
However, with Thunder Apocalypse striking the shield, the Qi Guard wouldn’t last long. It was unable to ward off the destructive might of Thunder Apocalypse. Moreover, this purely defensive position gave He Ming time to cast another spell.
Blizzard!
It wasn’t enough time to cast a powerful spell. He Ming had good judgement and cast a relatively fast spell, layering Blizzard on top of Thunder Apocalypse.
Boundless Sea’s Qi Guard shattered in an instant.
Piercing Lightning!
He Ming didn’t hesitate and threw out an instant-cast. The distance between Rullo and Boundless Sea was extremely close. For an Elementalist with weak close combat abilities, it could be considered a very dangerous distance, but it was because of this short distance that Fang Rui could do nothing about this Piercing Lightning. Lightning element spells were the fastest spells.
A bolt of lightning pierced through Boundless Sea. The knockback from magic attacks should not be looked down upon. Piercing Lightning pushed Boundless Sea back a step, and Thunder Apocalypse and Blizzard had yet to fade away. The elemental spell formation set down by He Ming was giving Fang Rui an extremely difficult time.
He Ming activated Mobile Cast. In the end, Elementalists needed to maintain a distance away from their opponents. Before the two DoT spells completely dissipated, Rullo retreated while casting his next spell.
And Boundless Sea? Paralyzed by Thunder Apocalypse and slowed by Blizzard, Fang Rui didn’t have any good ways to escape from his predicament. However, he couldn’t let He Ming continue casting spells. Forcefully eating the damage and seizing the gap between DoT ticks was one way.
Qi Blade!
He Ming hadn’t expected Fang Rui to be able to find an opening to let out an attack while under the barrage of two DoT skills. Even though he had yet to fully switch classes, his ability to grasp openings showed why Fang Rui was an All-Star.
Having activated Mobile Cast and in the middle of a cast, Rullo’s movement speed was very slow. Qi Blade was a rather difficult skill to dodge too, so He Ming immediately canceled his skill and cast a Teleport.
Rullo suddenly disappeared. However, Fang Rui’s reaction speed was quick. As the master of playing dirty, his first thought was that the opponent was behind him.
Boundless Sea turned around. Sure enough, Rullo was behind his back and had thrown a Fireball at him.
At this point, Thunder Apocalypse had ended, but Blizzard still remained. Although Blizzard’s damage could not be compared to Thunder Apocalypse, the slow effect was a headache. Boundless Sea’s movements were slowed, and He Ming had boldly teleported to a short distance between them and attacked. No matter how fast Fang Rui reacted, with his character unable to respond, he had no way of dodging.
Bang bang bang!
The Fireball struck Boundless Sea and exploded. Fire element spells dealt the most damage out of all four elements. Fireball was only a low-level skill, but its explosiveness couldn’t be ignored.
Rullo wasn’t close to being done yet. He Ming was extremely focused, carefully and attentively watching Boundless Sea’s situation, planning every step of his offensive.
After Fireball was a Dark Missile.
It was a low-level dark element spell. Dark element spells were neither fast nor strong, but they had strange effects.
Dark Missile followed closely behind Fireball and stabbed into Boundless Sea.
The dark element wasn’t Rullo’s main element. This Dark Missile was only at level one, so its damage was limited. However, its effect still came into effect. After being struck by Dark Missile, Boundless Sea spun 180 degrees.
It was just a turn of the body, but in a high-level match, it was an exploitable detail.
Having your back turned to the opponent could be considered as a short Blind as you wouldn’t be able to know the opponent’s next action.
No matter how fast your turned, you would always be a half beat behind. Fang Rui was an experienced veteran though. He wouldn’t make such a rookie mistake. It didn’t matter what was going on behind him; he immediately had Boundless Sea roll forward.
Unfortunately, this sort of experienced response wasn’t outside of He Ming’s expectations.
Elemental Power!
During this tight window, He Ming had Rullo cast the lowest-leveled Elementalist skill.
It was the slowest of all 24 knock up skills because it required a cast time. However, of the 24 knock ups, it was one of two long-ranged knock ups. As long as it was cast and the target was within its range, there was no way of defending against it.
In exchange for the downside of needing to cast the spell, this Elementalist knock up was given a powerful upside. Boundless Sea was inside Elemental Power’s range. As soon as he finished rolling, he was lifted into the air.
Raging Flames!
A pillar of fire erupted from beneath Boundless Sea, swallowing him whole. Rullo continued to wave his staff. From the light gathering on his staff, the next spell had to be a powerful one. Rays of light burst forth, radiating waves of red fire. The magic condensed onto the tip of the staff and then ignited fiercely. The flames danced and swayed, letting out the cry of a bird.
New Elementalist Level 75 skill: Fire Bird!
Bang!
A blazing fire bird flew towards Boundless Sea, who was falling down after being knocked high into the air by Raging Flames, and engulfed him.
Boundless Sea burned as he flew backwards and crashed into a wall behind him. His health fell at a visible rate. The Fireball left an imprint on the wall, slowly dissipating from the burning Boundless Sea. Fire element spells didn’t have much else other than overwhelming damage.
This fight was truly surprising.
Even though Fang Rui had switched classes, he had a shining All-Star title on him. No one would dare to underestimate him. During this period of adjustment, his Qi Master had been doing quite well too. Even though there were comments about his problems here and there, Fang Rui’s win rate during these past eight rounds was quite good.
And now it looked like his honeymoon period was over!
After eight rounds of observation, Happy’s rookies had yet to crash into a wall, but Fang Rui had already been completely seen through. Fang Rui wasn’t able to display his dirtiness this fight and after being caught by He Ming, he was being beaten senselessly. At this rate, He Ming would achieve a perfect win.
The applause from the crowd was thunderous. After losing three individual competition rounds, there was finally a show worth seeing.
I really am a useless dim sum!
Fang Rui was sullen. In the previous press conference, Ye Xiu had given him a snide remark calling him a useless dim sum. He knew that Ye Xiu was just joking, but starting from the previous round, Fang Rui knew that his rhythm had been completely seen through. In face of Wang Jiexi, he wasn’t able to find even a chance of winning. And in this match, He Ming, who was clearly a level lower than Wang Jiexi, was completely crushing him too.
Fang Rui was the master of playing dirty, but just because he was dirty didn’t mean he had no pride. Right now, he was feeling wounded. Switching classes could be a reasonable excuse, but he didn’t want to lower his expectations for himself because of this excuse. If he lost his heart, he would only lose again and again.
"You really have some skill..."
After being roasted into a half-dead state by the Fire Bird, Boundless Sea had dropped to the bottom of the wall, but Fang Rui still typed these words in chat.
He Ming ignored them. After Fire Bird, Rullo drew an Ice Line, trapping Boundless Sea in the center. Afterwards, he calmly started casting a new spell. There was still some distance between his Elementalist and Fang Rui’s Qi Master. Rullo was sitting comfortably outside Boundless Sea’s attack range. If Ice Line wasn’t triggered, it would last for 12 seconds. 12 seconds was more than enough time for any spell, so just obediently sit there in prison!
He Ming felt pleased with himself. His was very satisfied with his playing this fight. This is the way to victory, right?
Bright light gathered onto his staff again, clearly another large spell.
"Are you addicted to high-level skills?" Fang Rui chattered.
"Take a look at this move!" Fang Rui sent a shouting emoji.
What move? He Ming’s mind rapidly turned. He was at a completely safe distance. No Qi Master skill could reach him. Qi Masters had no such skill, nor did any of Fighter classes. He Ming had very carefully considered everything beforehand.
"QIGONG BLAST!!!" Fang Rui shouted the skill he used for morale support. Boundless Sea flipped over his palm and placed it on the wall behind him.
The imprint burned onto the wall by the Fire Bird crumbled. With a boom, an ugly dog hole was split open.
"Come at me!"
Fang Rui shouted in the chat as he had Boundless Sea run through the dog hole.