929: Wild Exchange of Skills

Wild Exchange of Skills

The Wild Blood Strikes hit and both characters entered a short stun from the impact. Then in the moment that the stun ended, the characters attacked at almost exactly the same time. With a woosh, the two Berserkers both sent out a Gore Cross. This skill consisted of one horizontal strike and a vertical one. For two characters, that was a total of four strikes, yet only two clashes sounded out. The two had attacked at exactly the same time, even the sound effects were simultaneous.1

Clang! Clang!

The Gore Cross clashed again, throwing sparks out. There wasn’t much an an impact from these low level skills, so the two characters didn’t pause in their movements. However, after this strike, Loulan Slash’s broadsword’s durability had gone down by a point.

It wasn’t like durability fell quickly, otherwise under this sort of design, who could be able to afford maintaining their equipment? It was because these too fought too wildly, meeting attack with attack that their equipment would take so much wear. In a game like Glory, there were many small details like this. If you considered the addition of Another Summer of Sleep’s Edgeless’ bonus effect, Shatter, Loulan Slash’s weapon’s durability was draining rather quickly.

This one point drop in durability had Lou Guanning’s heart in his throat. Like a scaredy-cat, Lou Guanning silently opened up a calculator. He wanted to calculate how long this battle could go on according to the time it took for this one point drop in durability.

Yet, before he even finished calculating, the situation changed. The two stopped meeting attacks with attacks, but instead started a fierce exchange of skills. However, this exchange of skills was a little too wild. There was little to no dodging or parrying, just exchanging hit for hit. Blood spurted from the two characters uncontrollably, and both Berserkers’ broadswords were stained crimson with realistic blood. When they paused, there would be drops of blood that fell to the ground.

Though the two characters were both Berserkers, they had different equipment. That meant their health, defense, attack, etc would all be different. However, after this exchange, the percentage of damage each character had taken about the same. That was enough to show that there was a method to this seemingly crude exchange of blows. If it wasn’t for the fact that they could maintain this balance, one side might’ve broken off from this exchange. Their silent agreement allowed both characters to reduce their health to 50 percent. The two Berserkers paused in their attacks.

Half health was a special point for Berserkers. Their passive skill, Blood Awakening, would be activated at half health. From this point on, the lower health the Berserker had, the higher their damage would be. From now onwards, how to exchange health for power was all a test for the player.

Lou Guanning was also a Berserker player, and seeing the pause between the two, immediately understood what was going on. These two had probably realized in their first few tryouts of their opponent’s ability that the other wasn’t an easy opponent, so they had decided to simply skip the first half of their health and entered the Berserker’s Blood Awakening state to settle this.

The two’s true ability would only be shown in the following clash!

Lou Guanning was extremely curious who this person was who could go toe to toe with a god. He wanted to stand up and take a better look, but he was currently pretending to fight a match, so he could only wait impatiently.

Everyone was focused on watching this match, and as the two paused in their movements, silence reigned in the room for a moment. The two Berserkers slowly raised their broadswords and began to circle each other step by step. Every action was extremely careful.

Fwooosh!

A bloody streak of energy shot out. Another Summer of Sleep was the first to attack. Slashing his left hand on the edge of his sword, he made a Blood Sword.

Ye Xiu had Loulan Slash quickly sidestep it. Another Summer of Sleep had already began another attack, a Colliding Stab bringing the character charging over with his sword. Ye Xiu almost seemed like he couldn’t react in time, Loulan Slash standing still in place. Yet, in the moment they came into contact, he suddenly acted and the two swords collided once more.

Clang!

The loud noise caused Lou Guanning’s heart to stutter again. These two weren’t going to start again, were they?

Yet the results weren’t so. In this collision, Loulan Slash was definitely at a disadvantage. Though Ye Xiu had also responded with a Colliding Stab, in that instant, to resist Another Summer of Sleep’s, Another Summer of Sleep had a running start, so the momentum of the attack was very different from Loulan Slash’s. This clash of similar skills was Another Summer of Sleep’s victory, and Loulan Slash skidded backwards. Not only did his weapon durability take a hit this time, his shoes probably lost quite a bit, too.

But with the current situation, Lou Guanning couldn’t spare any heart to care about that. This action by the god was an obvious error. At times like this, what you needed was a purely defensive move like Guard. Parrying wouldn’t be able to neutralize the charged energy from Colliding Stab. How could such a mistake happen with this god?

Did he have a plan?

Lou Guanning quickly thought of this. As expected, Loulan Slash, who had been pushed back, swiftly countered with a Collapsing Mountain. Another Summer of Sleep took this hit full force, from head to toe. He had no way of avoiding it, because he was still in the ending lag for Colliding Stab’s animation and was locked in place for a moment by it. This was the timing Ye Xiu used to strike back.

Nice one!

Lou Guanning almost yelled aloud.

Using Colliding Stab to defend, Ye Xiu couldn’t neutralize the impact from his opponent’s Colliding Stab, but managed to neutralize the small stun the last impact would have on him. This allowed him to counterattack immediately. A Collapsing Mountain was timed just right, making his opponent incapable of avoiding it. With this, their exchange of skills had become two for one, with Ye Xiu obviously at an advantage. Collapsing Mountain hit full on, dealing much more damage than what little Another Summer of Sleep had dealt using his higher priority move.

In addition, analyzing this from a Berserker’s point of view, Ye Xiu’s choice to react with a Colliding Stab was a way of trading a little bit of health, allowing his attack to increase in strength.

How spectacular! Lou Guanning was, after all, a player of this class, and was able to instantly organize the information within the situation. In comparison to those who weren’t familiar with Glory and just here to spectate, he was able to obtain way more information.

This Collapsing Mountain was just a start. When had a pro player’s combo ever only consisted of one skill? Any time you managed to hit your opponent, you should always follow up with a flurry of attacks. That was a part of being a pro player.

As soon as the Collapsing Mountain hit the ground, a Back Slash following immediately. Then his body began to glow with a bloody light, using Berserk, Gore Cross, Heavy Hit… A string of skills landed. When Berserk neared its end, a Wild Blood Strike came down and sent Another Summer of Sleep spinning through the air. Loulan Slash didn’t let up, slashing his left hand on the edge of his blade and activating a Blood Sword, getting one last strike in. After this, Berserk came to an end and Loulan Slash didn’t keep chasing after, watching as Another Summer of Sleep landed, rolling to his feet.

This torrent of attacks directly chunked 15 percent of Another Summer of Sleep’s health. Lou Guanning wasn’t here just for fun, he was also analyzing as the battle went on. If it were a normal player, they would try to get in as high of a combo as possible after the first hit, as if that would maximize the damage. However, the torrent of attacks unleashed by that god didn’t pursue that. He had accurately utilized Berserk’s period of effect, and his choice of skills was all focused on control; they were all skills that made it hard for his opponent to break his combo.

The combo wasn’t long, but its effects were impressive. Berserk’s period of effect had been used to its fullest potential, taking 15 percent of health with it. If it was a normal player, they probably wouldn’t be able to do as much damage even with a longer combo, and that was disregarding the possibility of their opponent breaking out of their combo.

So smart, so much depth!

Lou Guanning thought in awe, but at this moment, Another Summer of Sleep adjusted himself and immediately began to counterattack. His character didn’t use a skill, but rapidly approached Loulan Slash.

Ye Xiu, of course, wouldn’t back down. Loulan Slash charged forth to meet him. The two Berserkers still had quite a bit of distance between them when Another Summer of Sleep attacked first again. Colliding Stab, it was Colliding Stab again.

Was this guy’s style so simple? Lou Guanning mumbled to himself. This skill again; wasn’t he afraid of getting beaten the same way again?

Yet this time, Ye Xiu didn’t use the same method as last time, but instead had Loulan Slash dodge this attack.

Why? Loulan Slash was confused. Having struck air, Another Summer of Sleep immediately cancelled the skill and his left hand grabbed out, crimson as if blood were pouring from his grasp.

Soul-Devouring Crimson Grip!

This was an AoE control skill, and all the characters in the range of Soul-Devouring Crimson Grip would be gripped by the aura of blood and dragged towards the character that used the skill.

However, this skill only took control of the target’s movement, and not any other actions. Being pulled over didn’t affect the other’s ability to mount an offense. So, this skill would usually be used against ranged characters. For melee characters, it was just like giving them an accelerator.

Another Summer of Sleep’s atypical decision confused Lou Guanning. As for Ye Xiu’s Loulan Slash, he used this to power up a Colliding Stab, charging at his opponent.

Clang!

This was the sound of weapons colliding that made Lou Guanning’s heart ache the most. Another Summer of Sleep didn’t back down, but swung his sword to meet his opponent, using a Whirlwind Strike. The two swords clashed and though Whirlwind Strike was a higher level skill, it couldn’t neutralize the impact of Colliding Stab. Another Summer of Sleep was knocked to the side, but he would’ve never thought that after sliding back two steps, Another Summer of Sleep would forcibly take a step forwards and strike Loulan Slash with another hit from Whirlwind Slash.

Slide back, advance , strike...

Another Summer of Sleep continued to use this strange routine to attack and Loulan Slash quickly understood that he was using Whirlwind Strike’s controllable movement effect to neutralize the impact of Colliding Stab.

This, it was too confident...

Loulan Slash was secretly shocked. If you had him go and complete these mechanics, he wouldn’t have the confidence to do so.

Then, Another Summer of Sleep made another action that Loulan Slash couldn’t understand. After Whirlwind Strike neutralized the knockback, Another Summer of Sleep resolutely cancelled this skill and activated a new skill. By then, Whirlwind Slash still had at least a third of its time left. Why would he give up on the damage of the rest of this attack?

Gore Cross, Back Slash, Destruction Slash...

Another Summer of Sleep began a series of attacks as well, but Lou Guanning didn’t think much of it. A god could easily break this sort of combo, right? Yet the combo was never broken and Loulan Slash took it all. Lou Guanning was shocked. What was this? Trading health?

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