As for 1 vs 5. Oh please, that’s the Divine Dragon Academy for goodness sake. They weren’t Stuart, or the A rank squadron that was wrecked by Gui Hao. They had two Mo’s List existences, with one of them even being among the 10 great soldiers that stood at the highest peak within the CHF. In a 1-on-1, no one dared to say they held an absolute guarantee to obtain victory over him, what more with 4 of his squadron members by his side.
Furthermore, did they really think that the Divine Dragon Academy was that stupid? Even if Wang Zhong did really propose such an inconceivable request, the Divine Dragon Academy would never accept it. They had the pride as one of the S rank seedling squadrons, and would also disapprove of such an offer. Being poised for victory, there was no reason why they would accede to such a rude and brazen request. That indeed was a far-fetched daydream.
Naturally, if Wang Zhong were to really do it, Gui Hao would feel extremely pleased.
Even though Carolyn had yet to accept himself, in Gui Hao’s point of view, he already viewed Carolyn as his woman. There was no man out there who would be willing for any media gossip or scandal to happen between his woman and other men! It wasn’t acceptable even if it were fake!
If not for the ongoing CHF, and if it weren’t for Tianjing receiving the focused attention of so many people, Gui Hao would have already used some methods to vent his anger and resentment. However, he could only keep it in and simmer. Now, it seemed that he did not need to wait that long after all. As long as Tianjing lost today’s match and fell from the god’s altar, they would no longer be in the spotlight of the millions. Wanting to sort out a mere commoner at that time would be as easy as squashing an ant under his feet.
“What’s the matter with that Grai? Poisoned?” a wrinkle formed on Divian’s forehead as she sent those messages to Carolyn. Although her bosom friend had yet to respond to any of her messages, Divine knew that Carolyn was definitely paying attention to this match. Grai’s peculiar actions during that instant had indeed confounded her. She absolutely refused to believe that it was due to a problem with his body. However, something like poison would be going slightly too far. Once the organizing committee found out about it, even the Zhao Family would be unable to bear the consequences. That Zhao Zimo shouldn’t be that stupid.
“Pollen hyper allergy.”
Carolyn quickly replied Divian’s questions.
“Ah?” Divian clearly didn’t expect a such an answer. Looks like the other great families were truly more incredible on the aspect of intelligence gathering than her own. If that was Grai’s weakness, although it would not result in too spectacular of a win, it was a weakness that could be exploited.
“There’s a record of it on the medical team’s information on participants. What’s more, it’s too easy to obtain information on Tianjing. There’s a record of him being hospitalized in Tianjing’s public hospital to be treated for hyper pollen allergy, and there’s utterly nothing done to conceal this fact. Anyone who wants to find out can easily pull up this information up.” replied Carolyn while shaking her head. “If Tianjing had better luck, they might have been the ones to create history… what a pity!”
Before becoming famous, no one paid attention to Tianjing. However, once they had entered the view of the great families, all the weaknesses of their squadron members would be dug up. If the great families really wanted to be vicious, they would definitely not stop at something as simple as pollen. The only reason why Tianjing could win in the past was due to the various great families not placing them in their eyes. Such an invisible and untouchable counter could be said to be the most frightening of counters.
“Now, it’s time for Tianjing to make their selection! With them losing the right to select later, who will they send up for the next duel!”
At this moment, everyone had focused their attention on the Tianjing squadron preparation area. From the looks of it, Tianjing had already settled on their strategy, as not long after their huddle, a female walked out from there.
“The one going on stage now is their vice-captain, Scarlet!” Wind God shouted out. “The hot 1 vs 5 challenge that many of the fans on Skylink were clamouring about did not happen.”
“That’s a given. Tianjing’s arrogance isn’t that ridiculous, and they would not underestimate the intelligence of their opponents.” said Ruo Zhi with a smile. “Vice-captain Scarlet. I’ve heard a past rumour of her originally being the appointed captain for Tianjing Academy, before she had personally given up her position to Wang Zhong. This decisive choice had allowed for Tianjing to obtain its current results.”
“I’ve also heard that she and Wang Zhong had something ambiguous going on between them!” Wind God spread the gossip with a mischievous look on his face.
“It’s just some unconfirmed media gossip. There’s no need to mention it here, little Wind.” said Ruo Zhi in a faint smile as he put a stop to Wind God’s ridicule. Frankly speaking, Ruo Zhi did not have much of a good impression towards this fellow, who had relied on roasting Tianjing to skyrocket his fame. When one’s popularity shot up too quickly, it would only lead to a worsening bottom line when casting. No one understood this more clearly than Ruo Zhi.
Even after tossing away his neutral standing for this match, Ruo Zhi still had rather good impressions about Tianjing and All Mouthy King, both who had risen up from the commoner masses. “Vice-captain Scarlet plays a rather important role within the Tianjing squadron, and has contributed significantly to Tianjing’s promotion during the elimination rounds, especially in the group battle against Bella Dean. Her control over the combat range is one of the critical factors that allowed their simultaneous multi-target strategy to succeed. With the current situation of this match, if Tianjing chooses to give up on the second duel, they would definitely send a substitute up, and conserve Scarlet’s strength for the group battle. However now, she has come up and participated in the duel phase. Tianjing’s intent is already clear for all to see. They really want to go all out!”
“The Divine Dragon Academy has already made their selection. Seems like there’s no hesitation on their side. From the looks of it, they have already made various sorts of preparations against every member of Tianjing. The person walking on stage now is their mainstay assassin, Zhao Wuying, and she’s also the only female member in the Divine Dragon squadron!” Ruo Zhi felt like sighing in sorrow. “This is a match of an assassin against a ranged soldier…I’ve to say that the Divine Dragon Academy is indeed not leaving any chances for Tianjing after gaining the advantage of personnel selection. They already have the advantage in the duel phase, yet they have actually gone all out to make a counter towards their specific combat roles!”
“An S rank assassin, against a ranged soldier who only managed to obtain a B ranked evaluation during the elimination rounds despite going all out. Frankly speaking, even before the start of this duel, I feel that I can already announce the final results!” commented Wind God with a smile. “Since there’s still a little bit of time before the start of the second duel, let’s review the popularity polls on Skylink for the two squadrons. The portion of audience members who are predicting Divine Dragon Academy’s victory has risen greatly to 84%, and this number is still rising! As for this matchup of assassin against ranged soldier, Zhao Wuying’s personal popularity votes has reached 97%! Everyone, please ignore the remaining 3%! There are all kinds of people on Skylink. However, even the fans of Tianjing can only choose to discard their votes for this duel!”
As the voices of the commentators continued to ring out from the casting podium, the humming din within the arena continued to ring incessantly in everyone’s ears. The increasingly loud cheers for the Divine Dragon Academy had already become the standard background noise in the arena. They had a good opening, and had even dealt with their opponent’s prince. They already seemed to have victory in their grasp; in contrast, the Tianjing fans appeared to be in a slump.
Although Scarlet stepping onto the stage had caused quite a few Tianjing supporters to shout their supportive chants, regardless of how they roared out, all of their cheers seemed to lack confidence. Mixed alongside with the cheers for the Divine Dragon Academy, they appeared even weaker and powerless.
Nonetheless, all of these weren’t able to affect the emotions that Scarlet was currently feeling.
She had made the decision to step out onto the stage for this second duel. Frankly speaking, the chances of Tianjing obtaining victory were rather bleak. Regardless of how much confidence Wang Zhong had, they needed a victory from one of their remaining squadron members in the duel phase for Tianjing to have any possibility of continuing on in this match. Faced with the current situation where they had the disadvantage in personnel selection, wanting to oppose their opponent via an occupation counter was impossible.
Just now, Hymin had proposed for Wang Zhong to snatch the victory for the 2nd duel, allowing them to get back the advantage of personnel selection, in order to obtain a chance to counter the occupation of their opponent’s selection. However, that was honestly quite meaningless.
Firstly, Wang Zhong needed to oversee the duels all the way to the final one, as he was the only one who would be able to endure the humongous pressure that came with protecting Tianjing’s last line of defence. If not, an easy victory by him would result in the massive pressure of “winning would bring us hope, losing would remove us for this CHF” to the other squadron members, which the others were absolutely unable to shoulder. Without even talking about this match, their minds and spirits might instantly collapse.
Furthermore, with their understanding of the other three members of the Divine Dragon Academy’s main lineup, none of them, be it Barran, or Emily, or Scarlet felt they had the capability to counter any of those three.
It appeared that choosing anyone would have the same result. Only by fighting in the face of mortal danger, without leaving anything to luck, and giving their utmost, would they have a sliver of hope for victory.
Now, right before her stood Zhao Wuying.
A ranged soldier against an assassin. This seemed to be the worst of the worst matchups possible for Scarlet. Nonetheless, she was glad, as she was facing the number 3 figure of the Divine Dragon Academy. Be it her genuine strength or strength evaluation by the officials, Zhao Wuying seemed to be ranked above the other 2 remaining mainstay members. Since she had stepped on the stage, that would mean that Barran and Emily would now stand a greater chance of victory.
Anyways, she did not step onto the stage to admit defeat.
Scarlet had already made an ultimatum in her mind from the moment she stepped on the stage. Now, she was no longer Tianjing’s vice-captain, and no longer the youthful girl that was infatuated with All Mouthy King.
She was a soldier, Tianjing’s soldier! Just like what teacher Grace had said to everyone during the training camp, she was a true and true soldier that would put everything on the line all for the sake of Tianjing’s honour and glory!
With a flip of her hands, two Kalam runic pistols appeared in a flash, spinning around in her grip.
It was a rather clean and beautiful action, especially if the person doing it was a youthful and beautiful girl. This added a slight flavour of an unconstrained heroic spirit, resulting in shrieks and applause from quite a few of the Tianjing fans.
However, that had only welcomed a ridiculing look from her opponent.
Weaklings always love to show off these flashy actions, something that Zhao Wuying did not give a care at all. On the contrary, she was much more interested in that beautiful egg-like face of her opponent.
“Ah, what a pretty face.” Zhao Wuying appeared just like a brothel patron inspecting the product she was about to use. She was clearly a woman, yet she was now sending out a peculiar gaze to size up her opponent. Coupled with the long scar that extended from the corner of her left eye to the other side of her mouth, which bunched up in the presence of her smile, this made her appear malevolent and terrifying looking, “I really want to slash it a few times over.”
Hearing that, Scarlet gave a faint smile and chose not to reply. Nonetheless, her opponent clearly did not intend to stop at words. A shiny silvery hook sparkled under the light as Zhao Wuying extended her tongue to give it a lick, giving the appearance as though it had already been coated in Scarlet’s blood. Her peculiar action coupled with her malevolent and terrifying smile caused many within the audience to feel their skin crawl and turn numb. “I really love that serious expression on your face. Haha! Please don’t immediately admit defeat, okay? I want to properly show my love for you, little beauty!”
Scarlet continued to give a faint smile.
Having seen Zhao Wuying’s combat style, Scarlet knew that her opponent wasn’t the kind to flaunt her superiority through words. She was also not the kind who would use words to gain a mental superiority over her opponent, as there was basically no need for her to do so. This was a woman with an actual mental problem, and was cruel, perverted and bloodthirsty. Scarlet had already made sufficient mental preparations for this fight. Regardless of what awaited her, she would give her utmost and fight all the way the end!
“Both parties are in place! When the bell rings, the duel will start!”
Bang!
Right at the instant when the bell went off, Scarlet’s pistols had already started firing, a focused expression plastered on her face.
The Kalam series pistols were universally recognized as the king of pistols. Other than firepower and firing rate, the bullets fired from those pistols were the most outstanding among the countless pistols out there. They were even more stable than a few of the ordinary sniper rifles. The effects of the various arrays unleashed by pistol masters using the Kalam series pistols could be rated as masterpieces that possessed a beauty indescribable with words.
Scarlet’s shooting could be considered as a brilliant display of the outstanding performance of the Kalam series pistols. Frost runic patterns sparkled within the barrels of the ice crystal runic pistols, shooting out ice bullets one after another, unleashing a ferocious barrage in an instant.
The white bullet flight paths visible to the naked eye formed 16 intersecting lines in the air, drawing what seemed like a perfect picture of a giant net which immediately surrounded Zhao Wuying.
In a matchup between a ranged soldier and an assassin, the main focus of the fight would be the battle for distance. A control type range soldier would have a much easier time in preventing the assassin from reaching the distance required for close combat.
Under such circumstances, any assassin would choose to get into close proximity of their opponent as quickly as possible. However, Zhao Wuying clearly wasn’t just an ordinary assassin.
With tens of metres between her and Scarlet, as well as the incoming bullet formation, Zhao Wuying did not choose to make any sudden dashes. It wasn’t due to her being slow, but because of her strange and peculiar body movements, which allowed her to bend and contort into impossible angles. The incoming barrage was evidently some kind of range controlling attack, yet she was able to find loopholes within the bullet screen to squeeze herself through. As for the occasional situation where no loopholes were present, she had only chosen to use her shiny silvery hook to block the bullets.
Her movements didn’t seem fast, and her travelling speed also didn’t seem fast. However, she just so happened to be just a tad bit faster than Scarlet’s movements. Slowly, step by step, Zhao Wuying continued to shave off the distance between her and Scarlet.
Just like taking a slow, idle stroll through a courtyard, every step brought her closer and closer to Scarlet.
Ever since the match started, the malevolent smile on her face had remained unchanged. She appeared to pay no heed to the combat, but instead acted like a cat playing with a mouse!
That familiar method, and anticipatable rhythm! This was a genuine example of how the strong dominated the weak!
Wind God had already started sucking up to the Divine Dragon Academy. “Scarlet should be feeling slightly embarrassed. Faced against her ranged attacks, her assassin opponent, Zhao Wuying had actually chosen to take her own sweet time to “stroll” over… she’s completely treating Scarlet’s attacks as though they are nothing! However, she definitely possesses the qualifications to do so! That fluttering movements are so spectre-like, and are pretty similar to All Mouthy King’s Ghostly Steps. Clearly, captain Wang Zhong’s not the only one who specializes in it! Scarlet’s attacks have clearly been blocked quite a number of times, and yet she’s unable to force an assassin to increase her movement speed. That’s an utter shame for a ranged soldier!”
“Scarlet is really focusing on her attacks.” Ruo Zhi couldn’t stand to hear Wind God blabbering on. ” Her attacks are still rather accurate. Both the bullet groupings or the area restriction capabilities, coupled with her ice attribute special ability, have created a frost array that can be considered tight and precise, while possessing some points of a general’s flair. What’s more, her expression still remains calm and focused, and doesn’t seem to be affected by any fear of her powerful opponent. Only when one doesn’t give up do opportunities present themselves.”
60 metres, 50 metres, 40 metres…
Zhao Wuying’s speed wasn’t fast or slow, as she closed the gap all the way to 30 metres.
As yet another of her bullet arrays was disregarded by her opponent, a flash of brilliance radiated out from Scarlet’s eyes, before a typhoon of bullets came howling out! The density of her attacks had abruptly risen! It wasn’t chaotic; it was a bullet screen, a surprise dual pistol attack, a bullet path control. It had even created an overlapping obstruction of her opponent’s movements after accurate calculations and predictions!