Chapter Text
(July)
As morning became afternoon, Xiuer took a moment to look at the leaderboards with a critical eye. The Autumn Empire Guild currently held absolute dominion over the leaderboards – especially the alive individual leaderboard where they held more than half of the top ten rankings. Of course, this was only the case now since they had a few hours headstart before the Pro-League players signed in.
It would be hard to maintain their absolute dominance from now on since the other Club guilds were no doubt going to fully support their teams. To start, they’d likely be practically spoon feeding the pro-players with prey and in a more efficient way than Autumn Empire Guild too. This couldn’t be helped, however, since their staff wasn’t as experienced and… well, this was also part of training~
[Guild] One Leaf Heralds Autumn: I’ll be back.
Xiuer sent off the message then decisively logged out of One Leaf Heralds Autumn in the middle of the battlefield. He heard Muqiu squawk indignantly through his headphones as he swapped his account card for One Autumn Leaf’s and snickered to himself. The monitor’s screen blinked and he was welcomed back by the same scene he’d left behind; the back of Autumn Empire’s battlefield.
As he planned on running wild anyway, this suited him just fine but he was a Captain…
[Guild] One Autumn Leaf: Team, we’re leaving.
Message sent, Xiuer didn’t bother waiting for confirmation and moved onto QQ to leave a notice for the change of plan. Then, he had One Autumn Leaf raise Evil Annihilation up high and tore through the outer ring into the center. But One Autumn Leaf didn’t pause there and rushed onwards to break through the other side of the ring as well, leaving a clear path for Muqiu and the others to follow.
It wasn’t as easy this time without the element of surprise so Xiuer even had the time to look at the youth playing so seriously beside Wu Xuefeng. This promising talent was buried away in the guild while he and the others had been busy cultivating the team but there wasn’t any reason he couldn’t pull the younger over during events. After all, they were destined to be teammates in the future.
[Whisper] One Autumn Leaf: Leave your post and join me.
Da-da-da-da-da!
Bullet sounds let Xiuer know that Muqiu wasn’t far behind him and, presumably, everyone else was doing their best to catch up too. He smiled lazily, happy to finally be roaming freely, and pounced on the next battlefield he saw. There were cries of surprise and also crazed screaming as he fiercely cut into the mass of players, Evil Annihilation glinting madly with every swing and stab. This was Glory!
Excitement thrummed through Xiuer’s veins, his blood surging for the first time since the event began. It was this feeling he’d missed whilst he allowed himself to be protected. It was this that he wanted! Never looking back, always moving forward, and mercilessly sweeping everyone away.
Operated by Xiuer who was the same age as Ye Xiu when the latter rose to Godhood, One Autumn Leaf swept forth with a vengeance and the fearless image of the Battle God was forcibly revived.
The Heavenly Domain was a place which honoured skill above all else and everyone had heard of the Battle God. In this moment, they witnessed the invincible One Autumn Leaf with feverish eyes, so awed they forgot to press their skills and so emotional that they cried happily when they were killed.
It was no wonder Xiuer’s rhythm was slightly off from how perplexed he was to hear sobbing that a Nebula Wave Slash caught him by surprise. Being surprised didn’t equate to being caught however. One Autumn Leaf launched forward with Dragon Rises from the Sea, narrowly avoiding the high priority waves of magic. But Xiuer was on guard because that skill should’ve been random by default.
Only a skilled player could control the shape of the waves to concentrate on his last position.
Xiuer had One Autumn Leaf whirl around. Then, with a few quick taps, Evil Annihilation was stabbed into the ground. BOOOM! Shattering the Lands rumbled the earth before bursting out in a violent show of magic, knocking back the Spellblade that had attacked along with the players around them.
There was no time to relax however as a Striker came streaking forward, feet aimed at One Autumn Leaf. Xiuer recognized the level 60 Striker skill immediately and decided to dodge it. Moving left, he heard a crisp gun shot and knew from the echo that the bullet headed for him was not friendly. He controlled One Autumn Leaf to evade again but was then caught by an Elementalist’s freezing skill.
[Whisper] Autumn Tree: Hey?
[Whisper] One Inch Ash: Captain!
[Whisper] Dancing Rain: Do you need me?
[Whisper] Concealed Light: Captain!
Before Xiuer himself could feel alarmed about being frozen, One Autumn Leaf’s viewpoint jerked and he was flown away from his team’s vicinity. Cloud Grasping Fist. It was fairly obvious that every single skill so far had been executed to get him alone. Realizing that this party was not normal, Xiuer straightened up in his seat and his previously relaxed expression stiffened into a more serious one.
You want to play with me alone? Then don’t regret it.
One Autumn Leaf was released from its frozen state and quickly faced the Spellblade again. But this time, the Spellblade was not alone and chased him with a Battle Mage. The Striker, Sharpshooter, Elementalist and Qi Master were probably not far behind either. A slash hurtled towards One Autumn Leaf, which was nimbly dodged, followed by a Draconic Crusher that occupied a large area.
This one was tricky as One Autumn Leaf was currently in the wild where a large mass of players fought; there wasn’t much room unlike when Xiuer was within the guild’s circle. He made a prompt decision and utilised Dragon Breaks the Ranks to rush towards the Spellblade, narrowly avoiding the attack. The Spellblade used a professional zigzag movement and Xiuer tried to find the patern when –
A dull cutting sound had Xiuer’s ears perking and he belatedly realized that the Spellblade’s earlier attack wasn’t a simple forward slash but was actually the Waltzing Wave Slash which operated like a boomerang! Xiuer’s hand speed burst out and he used a split-second Z-shake movement that Ye Xiu had taught him, making One Autumn Leaf seemingly disappear then reappear behind the Spellblade.
One Autumn Leaf raised its spear in a flash straight away and blocked a Dragon Tooth before moving downwards, the spears grinding against each other. With Evil Annihilation’s tip facing the ground, One Autumn Leaf bent down and swung its weapon in a graceful arc. It was Tyrant’s Destruction which successfully hooked the ankles of the Battle Mage and Spellblade and knocked them up.
While they floated, Xiuer used another second to send the Chasers revolving around One Autumn Leaf at the approaching Striker, Sharpshooter, Elementalist and Qi Master. None hit and Xiuer didn’t expect them to. He had already long deduced that this party was made up of professional players. The composition was a bit familiar to him too but he had studied too many teams to be clear who.
Was it one of the ex-professional teams defeated in the Challengers League? Did Ye Xiu not recruit them all? Or was this party comprised of the reserve players of a current pro-team? Figuring out who might help Xiuer in dealing with them however that wasn’t really Xiuer’s main concern. He was confident that he could clean up this party without using the analysis he had on every team player.
He was just rather curious because he wanted to return the favour in the future. ^_^
Back to the battle at hand though – One Autumn Leaf was whirling round and round in a blur using Shadow Step. He wasn’t as skilled as Ye Xiu in it but he’d be damned if his current proficiency wasn’t enough to deal with these people. He juggled the Spellblade and Battle Mage, taking the precious few seconds it took the rest of the enemy’s party to struggle through the battlefield to reach him.
10 hit combo.
20 hit combo.
25… 26… 27… 28… 29!
The enemy’s reinforcement arrived and One Autumn Leaf neatly dodged the attacks, allowing the Spellblade and Blade Master to fall back down, but one of the skills wasn’t so easy to avoid. It was the Elementalist’s level 75 skill, Fire Bird, which tracked the enemy for a limited number of seconds and dealt fire damage. Xiuer didn’t want to break his combo streak so he could only dance around.
During this occupied state, the Striker and Qi Master rushed for One Autumn Leaf with the support of the Sharpshooter and Elementalist at their back. Xiuer met them with simple attacks and low level skills to keep his combo going, brows furrowed in concentration. 40… The Spellblade came too with a Dark Wave Sword that caused One Autumn Leaf to move right and almost walk into a Double Stab.
“Tsk. Using a Battle Mage against One Autumn Leaf?” Xiuer scoffed. “A hundred years too early!”
One Autumn Leaf faced the Double Stab with a Double Stab and then a Dragon Tooth followed by a Sky Strike to knock the four into the air. He didn’t intend to keep them there since he still had the Sharpshooter and Elementalist to take care of and – he glanced at the corner of his screen – a Cleric.
In this situation, where it was a 1v7 and the opposing side had a Cleric, Xiuer was rather desperate.
Yet he wasn’t so desperate that he was pushed into a corner. No, he just knew that he wouldn’t be able to deal an ace without help. Muqiu would be good for output and Xiuer naturally wanted to call on his partner but he had the team to consider and it was already bad enough that he was missing in action. So then… he could either pull over some of the guild elites or guild experts or… call a Cleric.
“…” Xiuer had nothing against Clerics. They were just… not useful to him aside from healing which he could very well do on his own with potions. But in a messy brawl wherein he was against seven skilled players, even he had to concede defeat and recognize that pulling out a potion was suicidal.
So, Cleric it was.
There was no time to open the QQ group to request for a Cleric when he was busy fending off the skilled party targeting him nor was it feasible to shout loud enough for everone in the room to hear so he went for the easiest option: he sent off a line on the chat box still open on the lower left side.
[Guild] One Autumn Leaf: Dispatch someone to heal me!
A series of sharp sounds alerted Xiuer to the ice crystals shooting out of the ground one after the other and heading straight for him. One Autumn Leaf jumped instead of dodging and – what a coincidence – the Striker came hurtling from above with Eagle Stamp. In the air, Battle Mages had few options and the best would effectively break his combo streak unless someone was below him.
Xiuer hadn’t glanced down yet when he saw purple wisps curl up around One Autumn Leaf. Smiling placidly, he cancelled Soaring Dragon Reigns the Heavens and swung the spear back. Then, he raised One Autumn Leaf’s hand and used Falling Flower Palm at the approaching Striker, blowing them away as well as himself which effectively pushed him out of the Elementalist’s Magic Prison circle.
Pushed back, Xiuer calculated the distance and decided to use Soaring Dragon Reigns the Heavens to completion this time. He carefully controlled the momentum and direction amidst the blurry whirl of One Autumn Leaf’s viewpoint then narrowed his eyes once the spear hit its target and the whirlwind exploded. It was hard to see through the clouds but the glint of an oncoming spear was hard to miss.
Besides, he could still hear.
The problem was – lag.
Soaring Dragon Reigns the Heavens didn’t have animation lag so, strictly speaking, there was no lag. But in practice, there was a very slight lag, almost negligible, due to the spear needing to be unstuck from the target. However, this extremely short lag meant that Xiuer would have no time to parry. So this narrowed his options again and even giving up restarting the combo wouldn’t give him more.
Forget it, then take the damage!
One Autumn Leaf unstuck the spear from the character below which jolted realistically. By the way, the target was the Cleric who had been standing out of the way until the Falling Flower Palm pushed One Autumn Leaf to its range. There was no system knockdown effect so the Cleric moved instantly and Xiuer, having predicted this and given up the oncoming Battle Mage as damage cost, attacked.
Clang!
The simple slashing attack on the Cleric was not a skill and did not have any fancy sound effects. It was only accompanied by the sound of the wind being cut and the wet squelch of blood. Similarly, the low-level skill attack the opposing Battle Mage started with would only be accompanied by the soft twang of spear against armor or the squelch of blood when the target was hit so the clanging – ?
Xiuer stunned the Cleric rolling on the ground and turned his viewpoint with a swish of his mouse.
Occupying his screen was a strong male figure with cropped black hair, black shoulder armor that echoed One Autumn Leaf’s and a maroon-navy leather mix wrapped around their body. Their black spear could be glimpsed over their shoulder grinding against the opposing Battle Mage’s spear until they made a quick move and managed to push the enemy, giving the new arrival time to look back.
“Nice timing, Qiu Fei,” Xiuer greeted casually. “Hold the party for me, will you? I’ll finish the Cleric.”
Without waiting for a reply and with full confidence in Ye Xiu’s chosen apprentice, One Autumn Leaf pivoted and lunged for the Cleric. He didn’t take long and neatly slid next to Combat Form about two minutes later while glowing brightly. It was the effect of a completed Battle Spirit combined with the afterglow of a Great Heal from the Cleric sent by… well, they were probably sent over by Wenyi.
The two Battle Mages moved together, their moves hesitant and their cooperation rough at first before they gradually danced to the same rhythm. Their dual spears clashed against the opponents’ spear, short sword and fists. Their bodies hugged the other or else separated briefly in accordance to the enemy’s bullets and elemental attacks, evading each attack carefully. They seemed to act as one.
Such cooperation was an extremely rare sight in-game so this moment struck the nearby players’ hearts instantly. The battlefield slowly quieted as fights were paused and everyone save a few halted to witness the legendary scene. And with all eyes on the 2v6, it was inevitable that more people recognized the legendary character and Battle God, One Autumn Leaf. Murmurs erupted and then –
A united chant: “YE XIU! YE XIU! YE XIU! YE XIU! YE XIU! YE XIU! YE XIU! YE XIU! YE XIU! YE XIU!”
Xiuer licked his lips and thought wryly, “I am a Ye Xiu.” But he didn’t spare the chanting any more thought than that because there was something more interesting. That was, the six players in front of him weren’t playing as smoothly anymore. In fact, their movements were becoming jerkier as if they were agitated by the chanting yet they were also becoming more aggressive as though triggered.
Perfect time to strike!
One Autumn Leaf slipped behind Combat Form and whirled its spear, gathering the wind. The idling viewers staggered a bit from the increased wind speed and some were nearly sucked in as – Combat Form twisted to the side, One Autumn Leaf’s spear thrusted at the opposing party and the winds hurtled forwards with a magic pulse. It was the level 75 Battle Mage skill, Cloud Whirling Windstorm.
The two Battle Mages switched positions and One Autumn Leaf charged ahead whilst Combat Form raised its spear with both hands and gathered light at the tip before sending a beam just around One Autumn Leaf to hit the Spellblade exactly on the chest. One Autumn Leaf followed up with Dragon Rises from the Sea, eliminating the distance with the other party, and a blue water dragon roared.
Combat Form cancelled Dragon Breaks the Ranks mid-animation, immediately after the attack hit, and skipped the ending lag. Then, pulling the spear back and slanting it sideways, Qiu Fei released a spear-like bolt of lightning at the Spellblade. Seeing the Spellblade being singled out, Xiuer sensed something and One Autumn Leaf bullied the Spellblade with its Battle Spirit speed and strength buff.
But instead of joining in, Combat Form turned its attention to the opposing Battle Mage. With its spear splitting into numerous afterimages, Qiu Fei caught not only his intended target but the rest of the enemy party as well except for the Spellblade miserably entangled by One Autumn Leaf’s spear.
Hundred Dragon Meteor Strike!
Xiuer was very intrigued and the answer he couldn’t quite grasp earlier was suddenly crystal clear.
Battle Mage. Spellblade. Elementalist. Sharpshooter. Striker. Qi Master. Cleric.
Why was this composition so familiar to him?
It was Excellent Era’s composition.
The Excellent Era that betrayed Ye Xiu.
A cool calmness overcame Xiuer and he smiled very blandly as he switched on his microphone. “You are all too stupid,” he said whilst he slashed at the Spellblade who twitched in surprise. “Honestly, did you come thinking you can defeat my brother with numbers? You can barely scratch me.”
Right after he said this, One Autumn Leaf drilled into the Spellblade with a Draconic Crusher and stepped on the corpse on the way to rejoin Combat Form. Xiuer eyed the remaining five with the gleam of a predator. Next to Liu Hao, the one with the most guts to sneer at his brother was Chen Yehui, right? This lousy Battle Mage must be it so, “Qiu Fei, switch. I’ll deal with that Battle Mage.”
Qiu Fei didn’t compete with him and Combat Form easily made way for One Autumn Leaf.
The Battle Mage was let go of and tried to backstab but was countered by Xiuer who went for a Sky Strike followed by a Double Stab, a Dragon Tooth, another Double Stab, a Dragon Tooth, a Double Stab… It was a really miserable state and the exchange was no different to a puppet being bullied.
“You must be blind to think you have any skill,” Xiuer said conversationally as he repeatedly used the two low-level skills in a constant cycle on the floating, struggling Battle Mage. “Come on, escape.”
The Battle Mage twisted around desperately, Chen Yehui’s frustration clear though he kept mute.
“Come on,” Xiuer urged again. “I’m not even trying.” This was true; he really wasn’t trying. If he was, he wouldn’t be using only two low-level skills though they had no cooldown; because there was a gap in timing between the Double Stab and Dragon Tooth. However, the Dragon Tooth had a stun effect.
So, he wasn’t trying but it was rather difficult to escape anyway.
It was anticlimactic in the end and Xiuer didn’t even bother to say any more before moving on to his next target. He didn’t know the details of Ye Xiu’s mistreatment too well aside from a few things here and there from either the rumors online, Ye Qiu and Mucheng therefore he didn’t have much of an opinion about the last four players. Just, they were brainless lapdogs and equally useless.
Because, unlike Liu Hao and Chen Yehui who were specially named by Mucheng, the existence of these four were merely as lackies. They laughed when told, jeered when told and disobeyed when told. Honestly, how they managed to play Glory without a speck of intelligence was a mystery. Were the qualification requirements of professional players so lacking? You only needed reflex to play?
Xiuer sneered briefly and picked on the nearest character – the Sharpshooter. At ease with playing against a Class he was intimately familiar with, he dared to toy with the Sharpshooter and give half of his attention to Combat Form’s 1v3. Anyway, this was his intention when he invited Qiu Fei over.
The younger’s occupation of the 10th ranking made him want to check on the other’s development.
From the get-go, Qiu Fei had impressed Xiuer. The younger was truly worthy of Ye Xiu’s praise; he was very talented and had infinite potential. His only concern was that there would be a period in which they would play duo but judging from their cooperation today, that wasn’t a problem at all. Whether this natural cohesion was because Qiu Fei was taught by Ye Xiu or not, he didn’t care.
All he cared about was that he could see Qiu Fei’s future in Team Autumn Empire.
Combat Form swept the floor with the Elementalist, Striker and Qi Master in a matter of minutes which Xiuer took as his signal to finally put the Sharpshooter out of its misery. He backhanded the Sharpshooter with Evil Annihilation then stepped on the prone character and lobbed all the Chasers One Autumn Leaf had revolving around to finish off the Sharpshooter’s red health but before that –
Xiuer had One Autumn Leaf lean down so his voice would be very clear and remarked, “Pathetic.”
The Sharpshooter seemed to stare blankly into One Autumn Leaf’s golden eyes before disappearing.
Shouting and cheering broke the temporary silence of the battlefield as the onlookers happily cried:
“BATTLE GOD! BATTLE GOD! BATTLE GOD! BATTLE GOD! BATTLE GOD! BATTLE GOD! BATTLE GOD!”
During the chaos, Autumn Tree and the others arrived to form a tight circle around One Autumn Leaf and Combat Form as the latter faced One Autumn Leaf as if awaiting for orders and Xiuer smiled.
In fact, not only could he see Qiu Fei’s future in Team Autumn Empire, he could see Club Autumn Empire’s future in Qiu Fei. This younger talent was destined to be the successor of two Battle Gods and Xiuer knew Qiu Fei wouldn’t shrink away from the daunting responsibility. Just as Combat Form stood tall and proud before Xiuer today, so too would Qiu Fei stand tall and proud as future Captain.
One Autumn Leaf twirled Evil Annihilation. “What are we standing around for? Hunt!” Xiuer ordered.
A chorus of invigorated cheering greeted Xiuer and the battlefield lived up to its name once more.