The day of the decisive battle between Happy and Tyranny finally arrived, and this showdown was drawing a great deal of attention. The other semifinals match between Samsara and Tiny Herb had already been decided, with Samsara entering the finals. The victor of today's match would be the the team competing against Samsara for this year's championship.

Tyranny was the team that had met Samsara in last season's finals. This season, many people thought that they weren't doing well, but unexpectedly, having curbed their domineering attitude, they were able to quietly kill their way to this level. The other team, Happy, a new team, a new team that had killed its way here from the Challenger League, was already standing at the doorstep of the finals. Even if their path ended here, this was a sight that had never been witnessed before in Glory history.

Ye Xiu, this name with which everyone was both familiar and not. He had left this stage, but he had not vanished, and now, he led this new team to stand once again before the world's eyes.

I'm back!

Just like he had said after winning the Challenger League, he had indeed returned here, his sword pointing toward the highest stage. But now, he first needed to conquer this city.

The final match, Tyranny's home game. There was not an empty seat in sight.

The two teams had only just entered the stadium when the audience rose up in a surging roar, as though this was already the highlight. Tyranny's fans made use of their numbers advantage, rallying and cheering on their team with vigor. The small bit of noise from Happy's fans in the away team section was completely smothered.

Even though this was a life-or-death match, the pre-match customs were still the same. The two teams entered, acknowledged the crowd, and then headed toward their respective player areas.

But those who watched these matches often all knew that one person would stay behind at this time.

Ye Xiu!

Regular season, playoffs, he was always Happy's first player. After the necessary greetings before the match's start, he usually just stayed onstage, directly going to compete in the first battle.

This time was no different. Ye Xiu once again remained onstage. In that short moment, Happy's fans proudly burst forth with especially loud cheers.

Ye Xiu, first to battle, the invincible symbol. From the regular season to the playoffs, not a single person had yet managed to refute that.

But just a moment later, the proud cheers of the Happy fans were once again drowned out by the roars of the Tyranny fans. Because this time, Team Tyranny made a tit-for-tat response.

They, too, had a player remaining onstage.

Their captain, Han Wenqing. After avoiding Ye Xiu in the group arena for two matches of this season's playoffs, this time, he avoided no longer, heading straight forward to stand before Ye Xiu.

"Hehe," Ye Xiu chuckled. "If you backed down from this again, that really wouldn't be like you at all."

"Stop talking nonsense," Han Wenqing said.

The two of them turned around, heading in opposite directions. It seemed as though they were walking away from each other, but in reality, they were both stepping toward that battlefield. That battlefield where one of them would have to die.

First match of the group arena: Happy, Ye Xiu, Lord Grim; Tyranny, Han Wenqing, Desert Dust.

The judge was taken aback.

The roster for this third match was decided on the spot, and after deciding, they were supposed to notify this judge.

Now, seeing the actions of Ye Xiu and Han Wenqing, they were undoubtedly the first players of the two teams, but the problem was, neither of them had reported to the judge!

If this process wasn't followed, then strictly speaking, this match between Ye Xiu and Han Wenqing would be invalid.

But these two people were walking so steadfastly toward their own competitor booths, without the slightest sign of turning around.

And the atmosphere of the stadium had truly been ignited.

These ten year opponents, in this match where the fates of their respective teams would be decided, completely and violently collided together at last. To settle these ten years, there was perhaps no scene more perfect than this. So perfect, that even the judge couldn't bring himself to break the atmosphere over a technicality.

Just let it be

The judge compromised, skipping past this step and treating it as though the two players had already reported to him.

Only now did the giant display screen light up with the names of the first group arena combatants.

Ye Xiu, Han Wenqing!

Even though they had already seen the answer, when these two names were displayed, the crowd couldn't help but become excited once again, especially those old fans who had been following Glory for many years now. For them, there was simply so much weight behind a showdown between these two names.

"Captain! Destroy him!!" Even though that was the case, the manly men of Tyranny were resolute and determined. They weren't hoping for this ten year culminating battle to be interesting enough to live up to the two players' fame or anything. They were most looking forward to seeing their captain's Desert Dust knock Ye Xiu's character to the ground in one punch.

Bang bang bang! Bang bang bang!

A number of Tyranny's fans had brought props to cheer their team on, and they now began drumming them. All sorts of bright sounds mixed together into a cacophony in the stadium. But it didn't matter what it sounded like, it was all to cheer Han Wenqing on.

The countdown to the battle began, and the system began to randomly select the map. The large question mark, representing the random selection, rotated around and around.

Selected.

Group arena map: Lava Arena.

Because it was a map specially designed by the Glory developers for the playoffs, it didn't exist in the Glory map. Just from the name, no one was sure what kind of map this was. Now that the map was announced, they had to give some introduction and description of this map. The large display and the projection in the stadium, as well as the broadcast, quickly gave everyone an overview and described some of the map's features.

The map as a whole was very easy to describe. It was shaped like a tic-tac-toe grid surrounded by a ring, and everywhere else was covered with hot lava. Clearly, this was a map with status effects. Characters that fell into the lava would certainly suffer damage from burns.

The structure could be understood at a glance, the effects could be understood at a glance. There wasn't much new or strange that could be discussed about this map.

When the characters loaded onto the map, the battle officially began. Ye Xiu's Lord Grim spawned in the south, Han Wenqing's Desert Dust in the north. As soon as they entered the map, these two most experienced players in the pro circle looked around, and as soon as they saw the roiling and bubbling lava, they basically understood what this map was about.

The two of them both moved very quickly, but their camera views were in constant motion, observing everything that they passed by. The map seemed as though it could be understood in a glance, but when it came to the details, the length and width of each section of the map could impact any battles that occurred there. The two players were both rapidly gathering all the information that they noticed.

Very soon, the two of them appeared in each other's sights. There wasn't much that could serve as an obstacle on this map, so the players' views were quite unobstructed.

Bang.

Ye Xiu made the first greeting with a gunshot, but at this distance, there was of course no threat. Desert Dust was in fact still outside of Lord Grim's attack range. But in the same moment, Lord Grim was already charging toward where Desert Dust stood.

How could Han Wenqing back down?

He came forth first in the group arena, meeting Ye Xiu head on. Having reached this point, he of course would not retreat.

"I'll use you to test the power of this lava!" Ye Xiu shouted in the chat. Lord Grim opened fire again, and this time, Desert Dust was already within his attack range. But the two characters were separated by lava. A simple jump wasn't enough to cross over. Desert Dust was forced to walk a small semicircle along the path.

It looked like Ye Xiu had controlled Lord Grim thoughtlessly to charge over here, but his final attacking position caused Han Wenqing a great deal of trouble.

Just in this moment, the audience discovered that this map was relatively disadvantageous toward Desert Dust.

Attack range was one part of it, but more important was that the structure of this map, understandable in a glance, allowed Ye Xiu to easily anticipate Han Wenqing's movements. If he wanted to attack Ye Xiu's Lord Grim, there was only that one path he could choose to take. Taking any other paths would be like circling around the other side of the planet to reach his destination.

And in this kind of high-level confrontation, if your movements were seen through, then you would be suppressed.

So as Desert Dust took this roundabout path, he was stung again and again by Lord Grim's long ranged attacks. Even worse, even if Desert Dust managed to make his way through the attacks along this road, Lord Grim certainly wouldn't wait around for him to close in.

But Han Wenqing wouldn't back down just like that, nor would Tyranny's fans waver at seeing this kind of difficulty.

The cheers became louder, Desert Dust's movement became faster!

It was the final match between them, did he have anything to hold back? No! After saving strength for an entire season, if he didn't let it out now, he would have no more chance.

Lord Grim's long ranged attacks came from the Gunner and Mage classes - gunshots, flashes. But ultimately, they were unable to stop Desert Dust's advance.

As expected, Ye Xiu didn't stand around waiting for Han Wenqing. Seeing Desert Dust approach one step after another, Lord Grim began to back away.

Attack and retreat, using the map, Ye Xiu began kiting Han Wenqing.

Han Wenqing still did not retreat. He focused everything on Lord Grim's attacks, dodged, and then advanced.

One step, two steps

He was closing in.

Whoosh!

Lord Grim suddenly pulled a flash of light, Shining Cut! He used this Assassin skill to swiftly move, instantly pulling apart the distance between their characters again.

Those who were keeping track of the distance instantly felt their hearts shatter. And then they thought about how many such skills Lord Grim had, and they thought about how the cooldowns for these skills weren't very long, enough to be used nonstop, and their shattered hearts felt like shattering once again.

But Han Wenqing didn't care. It was as though he didn't understand this principle. He stubbornly, persistently, continued to chase.

Ordinary movement, with the occasional Swift Run. Aside from this, there was the Reinforced Iron Bones that could allow him to withstand attacks, but he did not use it. There were the skills that could give him similar bursts of speed like Soaring Tiger, but he did not use those.

Han Wenqing was chasing him tightly, but at the same time, he was saving up, and also at the same time, he didn't forget to study his surroundings.

The general setting was just this. Now, it was the details of the map that would decide many things.

This was a chase that was extremely disadvantageous for him, but Ye Xiu didn't have it easy, either. In this life-or-death match, both of them understood very clearly the consequences of a single misstep.