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Chapter 498 - Useless Skill

If I go up and fight, I’ll be stepped on by Ye Qiu.

If I don’t go up and fight, I’ll probably be stepped on by Sun Xiang in the future.

Who would I rather get stepped on by? That was the question at hand.

Could there be a better option? Liu Hao watched the situation unfolding below as he racked his brain. Below, Sun Xiang’s Battle Mage was surrounded by several enemies. The enemies didn’t attack together as one, but rather separately one after the other. As a pro player, Liu Hao knew that this was the only way to pull off a true unbreakable combo.

He was very familiar with this method.

Liu Hao couldn’t help but have this thought. However, he immediately ground his teeth after thinking about it. How could he not be familiar with this method? When Ye Qiu was still Excellent Era’s captain, he had often said these words to them. Now, Sun Xiang was truly helpless against the team’s combo. Fortunately, the enemy team wasn’t well coordinated and Sun Xiang sometimes found small openings in their attacks and managed to survive for a bit longer. However, if Sun Xiang didn’t have such incredible mechanics, a normal player would have died several times already. Moreover, the best Sun Xiang could do was survive for a bit longer. He couldn’t find any opportunities to counterattack.

If I go down there, I might not be able to reverse the tides of the battle, but maybe I can work together with Sun Xiang and break out of the encirclement?

Liu Hao thought to himself, but he also couldn’t help but worry. With Sun Xiang’s pride, would he be willing to stoop so low as to run away? Especially to these people, who he considered weeds.

Running away was shameful, but dying was even more so. He should know that shouldn’t he?

Liu Hao favored one choice over the other. He attached importance to his relationship with his captain. After all, this relationship would still exist in the future. In reality, after causing his team to lose due to his poor mental state from failing to set the dungeon record, he had already made up his mind. Dealing with Ye Qiu would be something he did in his spare time. His work time couldn’t be spent on Ye Qiu. It was just that with the possibility of Ye Qiu turning into their future competitor, taking down Ye Qiu became a public-private joint ventureship. This was why he began interfering with in-game affairs again. If not, he could have simply tossed the task to Chen Yehui to deal with like he had done so in the tenth server.

After quickly weighing the pros and cons of his choices, Liu Hao decided he would have to take the risk. Even if he were stepped on, he would be stepped on together with Sun Xiang. Both of them would share the bitterness and form companionship through this hardship. Being stepped on also had its value. If he had to sacrifice himself in order to break through the encirclement, then that could be another valuable option!

The more Liu Hao thought about it, the calmer he became. Slowly, he saw the benefits of being stepped on.

There was no need to hesitate anymore. Liu Hao immediately began to move. He brandished his sword and started to cast a wave formation. However, a gunshot came out almost the moment he drew his sword. His cast was instantly interrupted. Below, smoke drifted from the tip of Lord Grim’s Thousand Chance Umbrella.

Sun Xiang was used as a training dummy for the others to practice on, so Ye Xiu hadn’t participated in this team-building activity. He directed their tempo, healed them from time to time, and also paid attention to Liu Hao’s movement. As soon as he saw him move, he immediately shot at him.

Liu Hao knew he wouldn’t get any further trying the same move again, so he ran to the other side of the roof and jumped down. He rushed into the empty building and planned on letting out a wave formation from the window, but when he ran to the window side, he couldn’t attack anyone from this angle. The other side seemed to have predicted this might happen and pulled the battle to the side. Attacking from the window wasn’t possible.

Helpless, Liu Hao jumped through the window. Sure enough, as soon as he came out, he could see the battle!

Liu Hao hastily had his Spellblade rush forward and cast an Ice Wave Slash. Ice crystals formed on the surface of the ground. Not long afterwards, the ice crystals began to creep up Loulan Slash’s back.

Liu Hao didn’t think too much about who he would attack. In any case, if he disrupted up one of the enemy’s tempo, there would be an opportunity to break out of the encirclement.

Sure enough, when the Ice Wave Slash flew out, Loulan Slash had to dodge. Because of this sudden movement, their formation was interrupted. Sun Xiang saw the opportunity and immediately swung out a Sky Strike.

“Retreat!”

Ye Xiu’s warning came out faster than the attack. Deception and Night Tide had already leapt out of the way. As for Ocean Ahead, Elementalists wouldn’t attack be in range in the first place.

The amount of space to maneuver around had widened. Sun Xiang’s Battle Mage dashed out. He chased after Deception and stabbed with a Dragon Tooth.

Liu Hao saw this and it had panned out as he expected. Sun Xiang had no plan on running away. Pro players didn’t care about experience or equipment, only victory. Running away or dying was the same as losing.

Liu Hao already had a plan in mind to resolve this issue. He bravely entered the battle and pushed Loulan Slash’s Berserker away with an Earthquake Sword, while saying: “We were careless this time. Let’s retreat for now. Regroup and then return!”

These words didn’t seem like anything special, but they held subtle implications.

First, it pointed out their carelessness, giving Sun Xiang a proper excuse to leave.

Secondly, retreat, regroup, and return indicated that this fight hadn’t ended yet. The winner had yet to be decided yet.

However, Sun Xiang coldly humphed in response. He took the opportunity Liu Hao had created and pursued Deception incessantly.

“Let’s hurry up and run! I’ll protect you!” Liu Hao knew Sun Xiang would back off, so he continued with his plan by showing off his righteousness.

“Hmph, no need!” Sun Xiang refused and attacked even more ferociously. His attacks were no longer just aimed at Deception, but also Loulan Slash and Night Tide. Ocean Ahead’s Elementalist was somewhat far away. Liu Hao wouldn’t just stand there, so he ran over to block Ocean Ahead’s attacks.

Sun Xiang had previously been surrounded and most of his inputs had been for dodging and defending. The magic chasers surrounding his bodies had faded away long ago. After seizing the opportunity Liu Hao had created, his following waves of attacks replenished the chasers on his body. At the same time, a faint golden aura emanated from his body. His attacks suddenly became faster and more ferocious.

“This is.....” Liu Hao saw this and was startled.

“Ha ha ha, you guys probably didn’t think about this, did you?” Sun Xiang was delighted. His incessant attacks struck Deception, Night Tide, and Loulan Slash, continuing to rack up combos. Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim was busy healing them.

“Battle Spirit!” Liu Hao shouted.

Deception was puzzled though. Battle Spirit was the Battle Mage’s Awakening skill. Every Battle Mage had it. What was there to be so surprised for?

Deception’s confusion was because of his unfamiliarity with the pro scene.

The instant Battle Spirit appeared, Ye Xiu and Liu Hao immediately understood why Sun Xiang was suddenly so confident and delighted. As for Loulan Slash’s group, even though they weren’t yet pro players, because they planned on becoming pros, they obviously had a wealth of knowledge when it came to the pro scene, especially with Little Bei maining Battle Mage. Their reactions had been somewhat slower, but they also realized why Sun Xiang suddenly became excited.

This was because Battle Spirit was considered a useless skill in the pro scene nowadays.

This was because Battle Spirit required a certain number of consecutive hits in a combo to activate. The seventh stage for Battle Spirit may be terrifyingly strong, but it required 120 consecutive hits in a combo to fully activate. In the pro scene, let alone 120 consecutive hits, just 10 consecutive hits for the lowest tier wasn’t easy to achieve.

In a one vs one duel, it might be easier. In a team competition, it was near impossible.

In a high paced competitive match, getting Battle Spirit to activate in order to win used to be a viable strategy in the early days, but now, this strategy was way too inflexible and too easy to break. As a result, in the pro scene, Battle Spirit was considered a completely useless. The vast majority of pro Battle Mages only had one point in the skill, which was automatically added by the system after awakening. Afterwards, they didn’t even glance at it.

It was different in the game though. The game had PvE. Against a mob of monsters, it was very easy to reach the max stage of Battle Spirit. By relying on this skill, Battle Mages were easily one of the strongest DPS classes in PvE. As a result, for in-game players, maxing Battle Spirit was a must.

The open accounts raised by guilds were for multiple uses. They weren’t like pro characters, who only focused on PvP, so Battle Spirit was often maxed on open accounts. Thus, the Battle Mage that Sun Xiang was using had a max skilled Battle Spirit.

This is what Sun Xiang had meant when he said “you guys probably didn’t think about this did you?”

His skill was clearly superior to Loulan Slash’s group, so getting to a higher stage Battle Spirit was completely possible.

After the faint golden aura of Battle Spirit appeared on his body, he quickly used the three nearby targets to push Battle Spirit to the second stage.

His attacks didn’t stop and he continued to rack up combos. Attacking three less skilled targets wasn’t too difficult for him.

Stage three!

The golden aura from Battle Spirit grew brighter and brighter. Sun Xiang’s attack speed, movement speed, and attack power continued to increase. Deception, Loulan Slash, and Night Tide began having a harder and harder time keeping up. Ye Xiu only had low leveled Cleric skills, so he couldn’t nullify the damage with his healing.

“Ha ha ha ha, Battle Spirit is still a very nice skill! It’s too bad it’s too difficult to use in real battles. Luckily, I’ve met you weeds.” Sun Xiang shouted in glee. Battle Spirit was now in the fourth tier. He was no longer at a disadvantage in this 1v3 situation and the damage racked up from his combos wasn’t light. Ocean Ahead was struggling against Liu Hao. If it wasn’t for Ye Xiu’s support, they would have probably been defeated already.

Liu Hao was overjoyed. From the looks of it, could they actually turn the tides and obtain victory.

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