BXBX NOVEL Chapter 1279: Cowards
"Win!" With Tang Hao’s final shout, although the mentality of Wind Howl’s players weren’t yet in unison, their low morale had reignited to a certain extent.
"It seems to be quite lively over there at Wind Howl." At Happy’s side, the players were finishing up their strategy prep for the team competition. Chen Guo liked to listen on the side, but every time she listened, she would feel dizzy and her attention would run astray. Trying to follow their discussion on strategy was hard. The poor Chen Guo could only look around and noticed Wind Howl suddenly fire up, yelling and shouting fervently.
Everyone in Happy had noticed the shouts from over there too, and when they looked at them, they just happened to meet gazes with Wind Howl. Compared to Happy’s relaxed and casual glance, Wind Howl seemed to be focused on a certain individual.
"Hm, it looks like our last minute changes were very necessary," Ye Xiu said.
The others looked towards Fang Rui. Happy’s changes in the team competition were on Fang Rui. Today, he was the main character.
"No problem." Fang Rui gave two thumbs up to everyone.
"Then... let’s get ready!" Ye Xiu nodded his head and said.
After the break was over, the referee called for them, and the players participating in the team competition started walking towards the stage.
Team Happy: Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, Fang Rui, Qiao Yifan, An Wenyi, and their sixth player, Steamed Bun.
Team Wind Howl: Tang Hao, Liu Hao, Zhao Yuzhe, Lin Feng, Ruan Yonbgin, and their sixth player, Guo Yang.
Team Wind Howl’s roster had undergone a transformation within these past two years. Just looking at the current line up, apart from Ruan Yongbin, no one else in the team had played on the team for three years yet. From this perspective, Zhao Yuzhe was actually the most experienced among them. Tang Hao and Guo Yang had only been a part of the team for two years. Liu Hao and Lin Feng had joined the team last summer. After this season, they would complete their first full year with the team.
An entirely new player roster meant a change in Wind Howl’s original tactical style, which included their class composition. Both Brawler and Thief were still important, but their stable Knight position gradually fell to a secondary position this season. Liu Hao’s Spellblade entered the team. Guo Yang’s Qi Master joined the team last season and his position hadn’t been too stable until this season, where he finally became a part of the main roster. Guo Yang rejecting Ye Xiu’s invite to join Happy didn’t seem to be a bad choice. He had at least established a firm position for himself in Team Wind Howl.
Of the total twelve players between the two teams, three of the classes were repeats.
The Brawlers, Tang Hao and Steamed Bun. The Qi Masters, Fang Rui and Guo Yang. The Clerics, An Wenyi and Ruan Yongbin.
But because Steamed Bun and Guo Yang were the sixth players, the starting lineup only had Clerics as repeats. As a healer class, two Clerics weren’t anything rare.
The two teams walked onto the stage and greeted one another. The Wind Howl players, who lost in the individual rounds, clearly wanted revenge. The smell of gunpowder was heavy. The referee watched the two team’s players closely. After confirming that neither side said anything out of bounds or made any violent physical contact, he gestured for the players to go to their player booths. The team competition was about to start.
Wind Howl’s loyal fans had lost all hope, but after noticing how their team had suddenly spirited up, their energy returned too. Wind Howl’s banner began flying around in the Xiaoshan Stadium again. The needs of the fans were quite simple. They didn’t need to see any crazy results. Just their attitude alone was enough to make them feel like their support wasn’t wasted.
After the countdown, the two teams loaded into the map, and the team competition began.
The map was the Peili Town Market.
Peili Town was a small town in the Glory continent. And this marketplace had been taken straight out of this small town as a map. In reality, around ninety percent of the Glory PvP maps were taken from places on the Glory continent. The map’s design already existed, so when taking the map, only its usage needed to be evaluated.
The Peili Town Market was considered a city map. Streets, different height buildings, and indoor and outdoor playable areas were common in these maps. The Peili Town Market had relatively fewer outdoor areas. Just the market plaza took up nearly half the map. This plaza wasn’t just an empty field, and the market naturally had all sorts of booths and goods scattered around. The durability of these goods were rather low though, so the entire market could be seen as destructible.
The starting five characters of the two teams spawned at opposing corners.
Happy - Unspecialized Lord Grim, Launcher Dancing Rain, Qi Master Boundless Sea, Ghostblade One Inch Ash, Cleric Little Cold Hands.
Wind Howl - Brawler Demon Subduer, Spellblade Absent Sun, Elementalist Beautiful Light, Thief Doubtful Demon, and Cleric Soul Healer.
As soon as the match began, Wind Howl displayed their reinstated spirits. The entire team went into formation and ran straight for the center of the map.
The Wind Howl fans nowadays were no stranger to this scene, but in the past, when the Criminal Partners were there, Wind Howl rarely chose such a direct opening. However, the current Wind Howl would almost always rush at their opponents to crush them no matter who their opponents were.
In truth, the fans had also liked this sort of bearing in the beginning. Who didn’t like to see their team destroy the opponents? In the first five rounds this season, Wind Howl had crushed everything in their path, dominating their opponents each round. However, their opponents these five rounds were Conquering Cloud, Radiant, Lightly, Bright Green, and Miracle... not a single one of them were strong teams. Wind Howl’s beautiful opening was somewhat stifled by their schedule.
In Round 6, Wind Howl faced Samsara. Their momentum suddenly hit an iron wall.
Then, in Round 7, they were decimated in the team competition by Tyranny.
Round 8, wrecked by Blue Rain in the team competition.
Round 9, wiped out by 301 in the team competition.
Round 10, Wind Howl faced Seaside and swallowed them up.
Of these ten rounds, Wind Howl immediately became the bad name among strong teams. They won against weak teams, but as soon as they met against anyone strong, they crumbled...
Luckily, in Round 11 and Round 12, Wind Howl beat Misty Rain and Void, proving themselves. But in Round 13, Hundred Blossoms washed them. In Round 14, Thunderclap stomped on them again. Round 15, they suffered an embarrassing defeat to Royal Style. Round 16 and Round 17, they matched against Heavenly Swords and Parade, and Wind Howl once again stood back up.
Wind Howl was among the top eight because they were clearly superior to the weaker teams, not losing points they shouldn’t be losing. However, as soon as they faced anyone even a tiny bit strong, their team instantly collapsed. Were they a strong team? Right now, this title had been knocked off of Wind Howl. Players were calling them cowards, their knees turning soft as soon as they encountered a strong team.
This round, they had run into a strong opponent after bullying two weak teams. It was time to prove that they weren’t cowards. But right now, the team had been swept clean in the individual rounds. If they lost the team competition, they would have zero points. It wasn’t possible to go any lower than that.
Even so, Team Wind Howl displayed their usual tyrannical and dominating bearing. The five characters formed a standard offensive formation and headed straight for the center, the Peili Town Market Plaza.
With the plaza taking up half of the map, all sorts of booths and goods were scattered and smashed apart. Even the player cameras became messy.
Zhao Yuzhe received an order and immediately had his Beautiful Light jump towards a pile of bags to the side. With a few hops, he reached the top, and before he could look down carefully, gunshots rang.
The gunshots were loud and clear. Wind Howl instantly figured out the general location of the gunfire and immediately pushed towards that direction, including Beautiful Light, who had jumped onto the pile of bags to lure in the attacks.
Zhao Yuzhe’s offensive prowess was exceptional. As soon as the gunshots rang, he quickly adjusted his character’s line of sight and instantly Teleported in that direction. He escaped and pushed forward. The one being attacked instead became the attacker.
"How fierce!" At this moment, the dirty master Fang Rui’s trash talk popped up mysteriously in the chat.
Wind Howl’s offensive had considered the surroundings too. Seeing the sudden trash talk, the five characters split the work and surveyed the surroundings to ascertain Fang Rui’s position.
However, he wasn’t there... there was only one person in their sights, Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim.
An ambush!
In this situation, anyone would have thought that. Lord Grim was just bait. Happy’s other characters were probably lying in wait in this complicated terrain.
However, Wind Howl didn’t retreat. Continue forward!
To be able to set up such an ambush this quickly meant they didn’t bring their healer.
It was a very logical deduction. Wind Howl had rushed here very fast, but if Happy could set up an ambush before they arrived, it could only mean that Happy had let go of the healer, who would slow down the team.
An ambush without a healer? What’s there to be scared of!
Wind Howl’s captain Tang Hao thought like this, so their momentum didn’t falter. Liu Hao had his misgivings though. He had wanted them to slow down a bit and be more cautious, but seeing Tang Hao’s firmness, he didn’t much more of it and followed along with his captain’s pace. But at this moment, a spinning blaze of fire fell towards the center of Wind Howl’s formation.
Heat-Seeking Missile!
"Dodge!" Liu Hao typed a warning instinctively. His Absent Sun scrambled for his life towards outside of this Heat-Seeking Missile’s range. Tang Hao’s Demon Subduer raised his arms and threw a Brick, which looked weak, in comparison to the missile. However, a Brick was still much bigger than a bullet, so it was much easier to hit a target with it. And as it turned out, the Heat-Seeking Missile was smacked aside by the Brick.
None of the other Wind Howl players had moved. Only Liu Hao’s Absent Sun had sped out of there. Seeing the danger averted, his face turned burning hot, though he didn’t forget to call out in the public chat: "Our captain is mighty."
"If you’ve got the time to spout useless words, why don’t you use it on moving your character instead?" The praise that he had typed into the public chat was only met with Ye Xiu’s disdain.