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Chapter 1199: Team Miracle’s Sacrificial Pawn

Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi

Team Miracle’s home stadium.

After the two teams were introduced, the players on both sides entered the venue and met in the center of the stage, shaking each other’s hands and greeting each other warmly. It looked as if their relationship was friendly and joyous.

He Ming was Team Miracle’s captain. He gave a most amicable greeting towards his former captain Ye Xiu, particularly showing his concern for the recent 1v3 controversy.

"That guy Ruan Cheng is too outrageous!" He Ming said indignantly. "He’s talking nonsense again in today’s issue of the Esports Time. He really is unbearable. Did you guys see it? If you guys haven’t, I have one here. It’s truly infuriating."

He Ming held a copy of today’s issue of the Esports Time and promptly took it out with who knew what motives. He directly opened the conversation with an article about Happy, asking in a concerned manner about Ye Xiu and the rest of Happy’s opinions.

Ye Xiu didn’t brush away his good intentions. Even though he had already seen the article, he still took it.

"Is one copy good enough? I’ve got more, if you guys need more!" He Ming said. The members of Team Miracle seemed to have all conjured up a copy in their hands.

"Team Miracle really likes to read! What a good practice," Ye Xiu said.

"You’re too kind," He Ming said modestly.

"Just one copy is enough. You guys can keep the rest!" Ye Xiu smiled.

"Hey! There’s no need to be polite between us! Take them take them." He Ming signaled Team Miracle’s players to hand over their copies of the Esports Time to everyone in Happy. After handing the copies over, they didn’t give Happy an opportunity to refuse. He Ming led Team Miracle down from the stage, while waving towards Ye Xiu. "See you in the match."

"See you in the match..." Ye Xiu waved his hand and then led Team Happy back to their seats.

On Miracle’s side, the group was stealthily glancing towards Happy’s side.

"They’re reading it! They’re reading it!"" someone yelled out excitedly. Quite a few people from Happy were taking a look at the Esports Time paper that they had shoved into their hands.

"Hehe..." He Ming, Shen Jian, and Wang Ze looked at each other and chuckled as if they had won.

The official match soon started. The first competition would be the individual competition. The players to be sent out by the two teams appeared on the large screens in the stadium.

Happy would be sending out Wei Chen, Warlock Windward Formation.

The three bros in Team Miracle whispering in each other’s ears suddenly froze. Hadn’t Ye Xiu always gone up first? Why’d they change it up today? Their Team Miracle had sent up their Spellblade Xiang Yuanwei. Of their six players in the individual rounds, he was their weakest. Team Miracle’s plan had been employing the principle of Tian Ji’s Horse Race, throwing their weakest to face Ye Xiu. How could they have known the other side would suddenly switch up the order?

Wei Chen?

This player could be considered an elderly person in the competitive scene. He had appeared an extremely limited number of times this season. Why was he sent out against their Team Miracle? Was this contempt?

He Ming and his two bros were furious. After all, they had once been part of a powerhouse. Even though they had fallen, they weren’t about to let others stomp on them as they pleased.

"Yuanwei!" He Ming called out to Yuanwei, "Play fast! Fight fiercely!"

"Okay," Xiang Yuanwei nodded his head. He had originally been their throwaway piece. As the time drew near, he stepped onto the stage.

He Ming and the others had been planning on giving up this fight, so they hadn’t put a lot of thought into it. They just listened to whatever Xiang Yuanwei wanted for a map and didn’t object to it.

The map was Sky Garden.

The terrain wasn’t complicated, but it was an exceptionally beautiful map. Spellblades had a lot of flashy moves, so they would sometimes reap surprising results from this map. Xiang Yuanwei didn’t seem to have given up despite being a throwaway piece. He still put in quite some thought into choosing a map.

The match began. The two characters moved towards the center from their starting corners.

Xiang Yuanwei listened to his captain’s advice. He didn’t play any fancy tricks and quickly went forward to take the initiative. As for Wei Chen, he pretended to charge forward wildly for a short distance, then amidst the crowd’s boos, he shamelessly hid inside a thicket of flowers. But it seemed that he still felt like it wasn’t enough cover, so he had his character lie flat on his stomach. The large screen cut to Windward Formation’s viewpoint. He was carefully looking around from the cracks between the flowers like an evil ghost.

The boos from the crowd intensified.

Team Miracle wasn’t very popular, but they still had fans. In these moments, they obviously had to give their support to the home team. Wei Chen’s despicable ambush was immediately condemned by them. Everyone hated how the referee didn’t just directly red card the guy away for such dirtiness. Happy had previous history for this! The crowd impatiently hoped to see this scene again.

Happy had a previous offense before, so the referee really was paying close attention to them, his demands more strict. The referee saw Wei Chen setting up an ambush and subconsciously started checking the time.

Xiang Yuanwei’s Spellblade rushed forward, but the thicket of flowers chosen by Wei Chen was too thick. Xiang Yuanwei rotated his Spellblade Halis’s viewpoint left and right, passing over Windward Formation’s hiding spot several times, but he failed to notice him. The crowd was feeling even more anxious than the player.

1v1 maps weren’t very big. Sky Garden didn’t have complicated terrain. Since he couldn’t find his target, he had Halis raise his sword in the air.

Fire Wave Sword!

A wave of raging flames rolled forth, leaving scorch marks everywhere in its path. The frail flowers and grass were instantly burned by the Fire Wave Sword and turned into ash.

After this sword came another.

Earthquake Sword!

The magic waves from the sword intent raised up the earth, uprooting the grass and flowers, lifting them up and then pressing down. Even though it wasn’t as clean as Fire Wave Sword, it would still be obvious if anyone was hiding there.

But Windward Formation was still nowhere to be found.

Halis turned around and pointed the tip of his sword in a different direction.

Xiang Yuanwei wasn’t throwing around his skills randomly. His wave swords always aimed at areas lush with flowers and grass, letting him cover a wide range of possible hiding locations. Just from these two wave swords, it could be seen that this player was quite familiar with this map.

The third wave sword was aimed directly at Windward Formation’s hiding spot.

Ice Wave Formation!

A wave of ice surged forth, freezing any plant it touched. The next wave of ice shattered these frozen plants, sprinkling ice crystals onto the ground.

Windward Formation still isn’t going to move?

Everyone looked towards Wei Chen’s Warlock. Sure enough, this time, he could not sit at ease any longer. Windward Formation scrambled to dodge, rolling backwards in an extremely ugly manner.

Ice Wave Sword had a limited range. With this backwards roll, he was able to escape from the wave sword’s range while also staying hidden.

Too crafty!

Everyone thought to themselves. However, Xiang Yuanwei wasn’t just using these wave swords to scout out the area. Whenever he released a wave sword, his viewpoint spun quickly, observing the movements of the grass and wind at every location. The moment his Ice Wave Sword came out, Xiang Yuanwei noticed a rustle from the flower thicket at the end of the ice wave.

Xiang Yuanwei was the weakest in Team Miracle. In the past eight rounds, he had only appeared once in the team competition. However, just because he was weak didn’t mean he didn’t work hard. Even if he was just a sacrificial pawn, he would still try his best, choosing his best map. It didn’t matter who his opponent was. He would strive to win.

Seeing a rustle from the thicket of flowers, Xiang Yuanwei didn’t wait for Ice Wave Sword to finish and immediately moved towards in that direction.

Electric Wave Formation!

After Windward Formation rolled out of the way of Ice Wave Sword, he just happened to be within the formation’s range. The ball of electricity shot out lightning, automatically chasing after Windward Formation, who was still hiding in a bush. The lightning shot through his body, the flash sweeping away the surrounding flowers. Windward Formation, who had been lying in ambush, was completely revealed. He cut a sorry figure, pressed onto the ground by the lightning. The crowd instantly erupted into cheers and laughter.

Too awesome!

Seeing someone so shameless in such a sorry state was too satisfying!

The crowd’s emotions reached a high point, but Xiang Yuanwei wasn’t happy just because of this. He wanted to win, and it was still too early to tell. It was just an Electric Wave Formation, not a serious blow.

What was important was that he had finally located his opponent’s position. Xiang Yuanwei had Halis rush forward, brandishing the shortsword in his hand.

Storm Wave Sword!

This wave sword was the fastest among all wave swords. A powerful whirlwind roared out from Halis’s sword, ripping apart any plants in its path. By the time these shredded plants drifted down, who knew how far away the Storm Wave Sword’s sword intent would be at.

Trapped by the Electric Wave Formation, Windward Formation was unable to dodge this extremely fast attack. The Storm Wave Sword didn’t seem to be striking him; it just looked as if it flitted by him like the wind. But immediately afterwards, numerous thin arrows of blood shot out from Windward Formation’s body.

After these two skills, Halis was finally in position. Spellblades kiting around the target at the farthest range possible wasn’t a good choice because the speed of wave swords wasn’t very fast. If they were too far away, the opponent could easily dodge it. Thus, compared to their skill’s attack range, Spellblades needed to fight at a slightly closer range. As for exactly how much closer, that depended on the player’s hand speed and fighting style.

Xiang Yuanwei’s most comfortable and favorite distance was at two-thirds of his wave swords’ range. At this moment, his Halis had finally reached this position.

Earthquake Sword!

This low-level skill had a short cooldown, allowing him to use it once again. At a distance of two-thirds, dodging this attack would require faster reaction speed and hand speed, and these just happened to be what old generals lacked.

"He’s playing well!!" Down from the stage, Team Miracle’s unfortunate three were grouped together in a very good mood. Even though Xiang Yuanwei was their sacrificial pawn, it didn’t mean they had no hopes for him. Seeing that he was playing well, these three saw this lower skilled player in a new light.

"Sending such an old guy onto the stage, what is Ye Xiu thinking!" Shen Jian sighed.

"Probably to stabilize the situation? Old generals are better at dealing with pressure, after all!" He Ming had been thinking about the meaning behind Wei Chen being sent out the entire time.

"But in the end, he’s going to lose?" Shen Jian laughed.

"Our Team Miracle isn’t that easy to bully!" He Ming was quite excited. When things were going well, he was very willing to be in character, viewing himself as a glorious member of Team Miracle.

But at this moment, the situation suddenly changed.

Xiang Yuanwei had just gotten into his favorite distance and was about to have Halis continue his onslaught, when he was suddenly engulfed by a plume of purple fire.

Warlock skill: Shadow Flames!