Dark Thunder was still in the middle of his Back Throw. With his body bent, he fell into the lava along with Dancing Rain. The fiery-red lava rippled across the hazy ash.
Lin Jingyan's heart fell together with Dark Thunder.
Coincidence? Luck?
Of course not. The density of the ash in this area had to be much higher than in other areas to hide the lava like this. It was a smokescreen that Su Mucheng had intentionally set up.
It was a set up.
Everything was a set up.
The continuous attacks had been to hide her and to bait him to come over. The instinctive pause in her attacks and her haste to cover up her mistake had been an act. Everything had to been to lure Lin Jingyan into this trap.
Lava, lava again.
It was obvious that the lava dealt a lot of damage and shouldn't be touched, yet everyone who had participated in this group arena had fallen into it. Lin Jingyan felt like couldn't show his face.
Su Mucheng's Dancing Rain had fallen together with Dancing Rain though. The Back Throw would still take effect, which meant that Lin Jingyan could continue attacking her in the lava.
Fight!
Lin Jingyan came to a decision. It'd be better to struggle in the lava than escape. Similar to the high DPS fight between Ye Xiu and Han Wenqing, the lava was also an opportunity to deal massive amounts of damage.
Touch the ground and twist around.
Dark Thunder moved freely in the lava. The instant Dancing Rain was thrown to the bottom, he twisted his body.
Tyrannical Chain Punch!
Dark Thunder immediately started with a high-level skill.
The follow-up had been perfect. There was nothing Su Mucheng could do. Her original intention was obviously for Dark Thunder to fall into the lava, while Dancing Rain stayed on shore attacking him. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to fully achieve her goal. Lin Jingyan wasn't so easy to deal with. Even though he probably hadn't realized her plan at that time, his Back Throw had forced both of them to fall into the lava.
Su Mucheng wasn't completely unprepared for this possibility, but Lin Jingyan had already decided to abandon everything. After the Back Throw, he didn't hesitate to follow up with Tyrannical Chain Punch. This place happened to be a corner of the map. There was nowhere to run. Su Mucheng's Dancing Rain could only take the attack.
Strike after strike landed, and the lava began to stir again.
Dark Thunder's health was dropping, but Dancing Rain, who was taking damage from both the lava and enemy attacks, was losing health faster.
Maybe he can win?
Some people saw the speed at which Dancing Rain's health was falling, and their eyes lit up. However, the experts didn't think so. Right now, the high DPS was because of Tyrannical Chain Punch. Brawlers didn't have ways to maintain this sort of damage output. This situation would only be temporary. Once the Tyrannical Chain Punch ended, it would end.
If this continued, there was no way Lin Jingyan could win. However, if he did well enough, he could deal a lot of damage to Dancing Rain. Lin Jingyan's firm resolution was quite worthy of admiration.
Boom!
The final hit of Tyrannical Chain Punch created a small crater in the lava. Finally, Dancing Rain was able to escape. The shockwave had knocked her to the side. Dark Thunder was in the middle of the ending animation of the attack. However, during this brief period of time, Dancing Rain was stunned and couldn't act either. It could be considered a sort of protection for the player who used Tyrannical Chain Punch.
It looks like everything depends on what happens next!
The experts in the crowd understood this point clearly. In theory, after using Tyrannical Chain Punch, it was possible to make any guaranteed follow-ups. As a result, whether or not the combo continued depended on the situation and the player.
Lin Jingyan needed to be on the offensive in order to deal as much damage as possible. Whether he succeeded would be the key to the outcome of this battle.
Paralysis Needle!
As soon as Dark Thunder could act again, a needle flew out.
Paralysis Needle paralyzed the target. With the crashing waves of lava all around, the needle was too small to see. After throwing out the needle, he rushed out. But with half of his body in the lava, the amount of resistance from it wasn't small. The difference was that Dark Thunder had used another high-level skill.
Street Riot!
It was an offensive skill, but it could also be considered a support skill too. During Street Riot's duration, all mid- and low-level Brawler skills were buffed. In addition, the usual skill cooldowns were eliminated.
Powerful Knee Strike!
Dark Thunder used another skill. The lava split apart, and Dark Thunder shot towards Dancing Rain. His two hands weren't idle either. He threw out a brick with his left hand and sand with his right hand. In a short amount of time, he threw out who knew how many skills at Dancing Rain.
Hit!
Paralysis Needle hit, Brick hit, Sand Toss hit!
Dark Thunder was almost about to reach her, when a bright light suddenly shined from within the lava. Dancing Rain had quickly lifted her cannon and then fired at Dark Thunder.
It was a Quantum Bomb!
The light crashed towards Dark Thunder. At this distance and that speed, Lin Jingyan had no way to dodge.
The bright light engulfed him and then sent him flying. However, the powerful recoil didn't affect Dancing Rain. As the lava was pushed aside by the shockwave, they could see that Dancing Rain stood firmly on top of a support.
The Paralysis Needle had hit. The Brick had hit. The Sand Toss had also hit. Why did the Quantom Bomb not get interrupted?
Quantum Bomb had a powerful recoil, yet Dancing Rain didn't seem to be affected at all.
Everyone saw the reason for it.
Launcher Level 75 skill: Mounted Gun.
After the skill was used, the Launcher would be fixed to a spot unable to move. In exchange, the Launcher's attack power would be greatly increased and the Launcher's attacks could not be interrupted.
Su Mucheng had sneakily hidden a Mounted Gun underneath the lava. Lin Jingyan respected this play wholeheartedly. After blown back, Dark Thunder focused on Dancing Rain again. He saw the cannon on the Mounted Gun flash again.
Boom!
Another artillery shell shot towards Dancing Rain.
Damage from attacks and lava? That was what Lin Jingyan had been doing to Dancing Rain just before, and the blink of an eye, Su Mucheng returned the favor. With how much health Dancing Rain had, there was no chance for another opportunity to counterattack.
Glory!
Amidst the raging lava, Dark Thunder's health fell to zero. In the third round of the group arena, Happy's Su Mucheng won while losing 29% of her health. The Quantum Bomb parting the waves and revealing the Mounted Gun hidden beneath the lava was the biggest highlight of this match. The broadcast put on a replay of this scene. For the sake of appearances, since this was Tyranny's home stadium, a highlight showcasing the away team's might wouldn't be good to keep looping no matter how incredible it was.
Lin Jingyan walked down from the stage. In this all-important match, his performance was unsatisfactory to say the least. He had only taken out 7% of Lord Grim's health, which could even be considered as just 1%, and 29% of Dancing Rain's health. That was what he was able to achieve in today's group arena. The loss was big enough to lead to Tyranny's overall loss in the group arena.
Was that all?
He had gone all out and even tried to exploit a loophole in the rules. Even so, he had suffered a crushing defeat. Lin Jingyan felt extremely disappointed in the outcome and in himself.
However, the applause from the crowd had made Lin Jingyan feel somewhat astonished.
Tyranny's fans weren't the type to just toss aside the loser. Whether in victory or defeat, the battle was what mattered. As long as the player performed to their satisfaction, it was good in the hearts of Tyranny's fans.
But what about today's match?
Lin Jingyan was quite clear that his performance wasn't great. He had even done something that Tyranny's fans didn't like. Even so, why was the crowd applauding for him?
The applause couldn't be considered enthusiastic, after all, Tyranny's fans were still somewhat hesitant. Lin Jingyan didn't perform the way they liked, and the outcome left much to be desired. However, they still applauded for him because they recognized Lin Jingyan's efforts, especially in his final act, risking his life to try and pave the way for his teammates. Lin Jingyan was a part of Team Tyranny. He had tossed aside his honor for the sake of victory, for the tea's victory. This sort of mentality was worthy of being praised.
Even if he had used a few unpleasant methods, these details could be ignored!
Tyranny fan after Tyranny fan began opening their hearts. The applause became more and more fervent. When the applause thundered across the stadium, Lin Jingyan felt stunned as he walked back to this seat.
"Go Tyranny!" A loud cheer came from the crowd.
Lin Jingyan wasn't someone who was easily moved, but at this moment, he couldn't restrain himself anymore. These two matches had been quite depressing. Right now, no one wanted Tyranny to win more than he did.
"Go Tyranny!" Lin Jingyan suddenly roared to the crowd. It was a display of passion that had never appeared before in his career. On Happy's side, his friend Fang Rui felt surprised seeing his excitement.
"Go go go!!!" Tyranny's fans felt another surge of energy seeing his response. Lin Jingyan waved his hands as he shouted towards the crowd. The atmosphere of the crowd gradually followed along with him.
Tyranny's next player had already stood up from his eat.
Zhang Jiale, Tyranny's third general.
"Go!" As he walked towards the stage, he passed by Lin Jingyan and gave him a high five. They were passing on their desire to win.