“Neither side is making any further moves!” Pan Lin shouted. This kind of scene would normally be quite boring, but Pan Lin's tone was particularly excited, all because of the anticipation for level 80 equipment.

Li Yibo, meanwhile, had found a copy of Lord Grim's data and was comparing the changes in his attributes. The four-dimensional attributes had clear data displays, and Li Yibo hoped to quickly glean something useful from these comparisons.

“Lord Grim is moving deeper. Will there be a better attack angle over there? But this side should also be within Song Xiao's field of vision. It doesn't seem like there's any angle for a sneak attack. Will he move even deeper?” Pan Lin rambled on and on. This kind of process, if it weren't the moment to decide the outcome, would usually not be paid much attention to, but at this time, Pan Lin couldn't wait to analyze every movement of Lord Grim's finger in detail.

“Sure enough! Lord Grim is going to move deeper, to make a big transfer!”

“Ah, Song Xiao also has made a move!”

“Flowing Cloud is moving forward. Song Xiao is worthy of being a famous clutch player. His psychological quality is quite steady! This forward movement is quite bold. But now that Lord Grim has moved away, his entry won't be in any danger, but it can break through Lord Grim's intentions.”

“Eh…” Pan Lin muttered in confusion. He couldn't pick up the thread for a moment. He had spoken too confidently when explaining Ye Xiu's intentions. At this time, Ye Xiu didn't follow his analysis but instead cut in the opposite direction, which left him surprised and at a loss for words.

But with this reverse movement, after Song Xiao's Flowing Cloud entered, Lord Grim completely disappeared.

“Is he calculating that accurately?” Pan Lin continued to be shocked. Although it was just an uneventful little process, this level of insight was a little scary.

But at this moment, the director cut to a slow-motion replay.

“Oh…” Pan Lin suddenly understood. It wasn't calculation. When Lord Grim had passed the previous position, there was an angle where he could see Flowing Cloud's actions.

“Worthy of being Ye Xiu!” Li Yibo temporarily returned to the match at this time. “The use of the map is very thorough. This is something that many young players lack. They don't scrutinize the details of the map enough. You need to know that this is a big advantage when fighting at home.”

“Happy and Qiao Yifan seem to be doing well in this regard!” Pan Lin mentioned a name.

“Having a good senior by your side!” Li Yibo said with emotion.

Pan Lin subconsciously wanted to say that Happy also had some who weren't doing so well, such as Tang Rou, such as Baozi, who hadn't fully utilized the map, but he was afraid of undermining Li Yibo, so he quickly restrained himself.

Song Xiao, who hadn't seen Lord Grim upon entering, didn't have Flowing Cloud chase straight down that road but instead detoured in the opposite direction.

“Song Xiao's experience is also very rich,” Li Yibo said. “Although he didn't see it, he roughly judged the possible direction of Lord Grim from this distance. If he hadn't gone this way, Lord Grim wouldn't have disappeared from the map so quickly.”

“Well, now both sides…” A bird's-eye view of the terrain appeared in the lower right corner of the live broadcast screen, with small dots representing the two characters moving on the map. The main screen constantly switched between the two's perspectives, creating a sense of tension of unexpectedly encountering each other.

Approaching, approaching…

The two sides were constantly approaching on the small map. At the next intersection, they seemed to be about to face each other directly. Everyone held their breath. Suddenly, Lord Grim jumped up.

The ninja blade in the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella was thrown out and stuck into the wall. An obstacle that would normally be impossible to jump over, Ye Xiu used the ninja's special climbing method with the ninja blade to instantly flip over, silently.

Foul!!!

This was the cry in Pan Lin's heart. This kind of unexpectedness from the unspecialized class still gave people this feeling of fouling after an entire regular season. Everyone's thinking still couldn't be like Ye Xiu's. They needed to spend some thought to carefully count what the unspecialized class could do in order to fully understand. So, when watching Ye Xiu's Lord Grim play, the psychological experience of "Why didn't I think of that" was the main focus.

The director was also flustered at this moment, not knowing which side's perspective would best express this sudden moment. Should he use Ye Xiu's perspective of a hawk catching its prey to show his sharpness? Or Song Xiao's bewildered perspective to show helplessness?

Without time to think carefully, the director subconsciously switched the screen in that instant.

Song Xiao's perspective.

Flowing Cloud is moving.

Then, a grenade fell from top to bottom, appearing right in front of him.

Fantastic!

The director shouted in his heart. Song Xiao's perspective ultimately seemed to be a close-up of this grenade, from top to bottom, and then enlarged with Flowing Cloud's forward stride. All around was silent. The grenade was falling, but it seemed to be a static presentation.

If only the slow-motion could be shown… The director was still engrossed.

Boom!

The grenade had exploded, and Lord Grim's attack descended from the sky.

Roll, roll, roll.

Song Xiao's Flowing Cloud rolled backward three times in a row, and with a wave of his hand, a qi emission!

Such a sudden attack, even the spectators with God's perspective felt frightened. Song Xiao, who directly received it, didn't panic and made the most appropriate and stable response.

Three backward rolls allowed Flowing Cloud to maximize the distance from Lord Grim. In the instant of a slight gap, a qi emission was already launched.

“Beautiful!” commentator Pan Lin shouted.

Ye Xiu's sneak attack was beautiful, and Song Xiao's response was also beautiful. Worthy of being the playoffs, worthy of being the highest level of competition. With just this one exchange, Pan Lin felt that it was worth the price of admission. He only regretted that he didn't have time to praise such a wonderful moment, because the battle was still continuing.

The qi emission flew out.

But Lord Grim didn't dodge, forcefully taking this hit, but still had to maintain his offensive.

“Even in a team competition, sometimes you need a tough performance!” Li Yibo immediately praised.

Because of his toughness, Ye Xiu maintained his offensive, but Song Xiao, because of his calm and composed response, didn't suffer too much damage from this sneak attack. The battle immediately turned into a head-on confrontation.

“Sneak attacks don't seem to be a good choice for Song Xiao, a player with such a strong heart,” Pan Lin thought.

“But at least Ye Xiu got the first move,” Li Yibo said.

No one would disagree with this. In a head-on confrontation, Lord Grim's attacks accounted for 70%.

“But you can't say that Song Xiao is already at a disadvantage,” Pan Lin said.

Song Xiao defends seven parts, attacks three parts. He is a bit passive, but you can't say he's at a disadvantage. His rhythm hasn't been disrupted.

“A very steady defensive counterattack style, Blue Rain style,” Li Yibo said.

The healer character can reflect the style of a team to a certain extent. Of the eight teams in the playoffs, the healers of five teams—轮回 (Samsara), 霸图 (Tyranny), 兴欣 (Happy), 雷霆 (Thunder), and 百花 (Hundred Blossoms)—were all priests, which is a reflection of an aggressive style. Of the other three, Tiny Herb had two healer characters, which was an outlier. Then there were Blue Rain and 301, whose healers were both guardian angels, and these two teams were indeed more defense-oriented.

Especially Blue Rain.

The Blue Rain team is a very standard defensive counterattack-style team.

In a steady defense, find flaws and seize the opportunity to act.

This was their team's style, and it eventually became the style of many players on the team. To gain a foothold in the Blue Rain team, it's difficult without a beautiful defensive skill.

Defense-oriented, it's normal to be suppressed on the field, because that's the space he actively gives to his opponent. So, at this time, seeing Song Xiao's offensive being slightly weaker, Pan Lin and Li Yibo didn't think this was a sign of being at a disadvantage. It was just the player's style.

So they were looking forward to it.

Defensive counterattacks, the climax is all in the counterattack. Opportunities are fleeting. Once you seize it, you can't let go. This moment requires extremely strong爆发力 (bàofālì, explosive power) and efficiency. Defensive counterattacks, the defense must be stable and slow; the counterattack must be fierce, ruthless, and fast.

Everyone stared at the match, and the Happy supporters, who understood the commentator's words, suddenly felt their hearts hanging in the air.

Song Xiao didn't have much presence in the regular season, and his data wasn't great, but his strength in the playoffs was well known. This was not an easy opponent to deal with, everyone knew. So even though Ye Xiu won the title of one-on-one king in the regular season, everyone was worried about him.

Charging punch, knockback, grenade, Arc Flash, Twin Slash, Ghost Slash, Rising Shot…

Skills were unleashed one after another from the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella in Lord Grim's hands. The rhythm was so fast that sometimes people couldn't even see what form it had changed into before a skill was unleashed, and then the form changed into the next one.

No pause.

The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella almost never stayed in one form for more than two seconds.

Boom!

A Falling Flower Palm suddenly pressed against Flowing Cloud's chest, instantly sending him flying.

“Ah!” Pan Lin exclaimed in surprise. The balance that had been maintained all along was shattered by this palm.

“Ye Xiu has broken through Song Xiao's defense!” Li Yibo shouted.

The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella continued to change in countless ways, but this time, it greeted Flowing Cloud much more often.

“Song Xiao finally couldn't hold on. Let's see how he can salvage the situation,” Pan Lin said.

At this time, they were more confident in Song Xiao, because no matter what, this player would not panic. He fully possessed any psychological qualities a reverser should have.

So they were looking forward to it.

Before, it was defensive counterattacks; now, the rhythm had become getting beaten and then counterattacking.

But Lord Grim's offensive was uninterrupted.

So Flowing Cloud's beating became uninterrupted.

The faces of those who were looking forward to it gradually became strange.

“Is this… is he going to take him down in one wave?” Pan Lin hesitated. Their expectations for Song Xiao seemed to be completely falling flat.

“Sneak attack, preemptive strike, suppressive attack, break through defense, take him down in one wave.” Li Yibo summarized the course of this match in sixteen words. So far, it had been exactly like this.

The so-called defensive counterattack, the defense was seen, the beating was also seen, but what about the promised counterattack?

“Can't find a chance to counterattack?” Pan Lin was still thinking about it!