Chapter 116 Cleaved at Nothing

The sword fell, but… it struck empty air!

Following that, Feidao Jian's figure was already flying out.

Ba Sui (Overlord Break)!

Liu Xiaobie's triangular three-stage operation was already extremely fast, but what about Tang Rou's side? With a speed that wasn't inferior, she turned Dragon Tooth into Ba Sui (Overlord Break), keeping up with Feidao Jian's change of direction during this three-stage slash. Before the sword landed, the battle spear sweeping out horizontally had already struck Feidao Jian, instantly sending it flying to the side.

Good heavens!

Liu Xiaobie was quite surprised. During Happy's challenge match against Excellent Era, he had a particularly deep impression of Tang Rou's hand speed. Xu Bin had asked him how it compared to his own, but Liu Xiaobie hadn't answered.

And now, Tang Rou's change of move after his triangular three-stage, actually arrived first, hitting him first…

Although, comparatively speaking, he needed to perform more operations to complete the triangular three-stage, there was another point that couldn't be ignored: the attack speed difference between the battle spear used by Han Yanrou and the light sword used by Liu Xiaobie's Feidao Jian.

Usually, the attack speed of a battle spear was at the lower end of various weapons, mostly at 2; while the light sword of a swordsman was the peak of attack speed among weapons, generally at 10.

In Glory, weapon attack speed was leveled from 1 to 10. However, 1 and 10 weren't necessarily a tenfold difference. In fact, the difference between attack speed 1 and attack speed 10 was about 20%.

And Glory as a game emphasized practical operation. The true determinant of attack speed was the player's hand speed. But a weapon with attack speed 1 and a weapon with attack speed 10 had a system-forced difference, which meant that to reach the effortless speed of a weapon with attack speed 10 when holding a weapon with attack speed 1, one's hand speed needed to be 20% faster.

Thus, it was evident that having a faster weapon attack speed was generally not a bad thing. However, in the game's settings, weapons with lower attack speeds had more powerful physical attacks. So, figuring out how to balance this was something every player had to consider. Swordsman classes mostly used light swords and katana, but there were also greatsword and heavy sword builds.

Han Yanrou's and Feidao Jian's weapons:

Han Yanrou's battle spear, Fire Dance Flowing Flame, had an attack speed of 4, considered one of the faster weapons among spears. Plus, with the +1 attack speed in its additional attributes, its final attack speed reached 5.

Feidao Jian's light sword, Soul Chaser, had an attack speed of 10, and its additional attributes also included attack speed, specifically +2.

In the end, Soul Chaser's attack speed of 12 exceeded Fire Dance Flowing Flame's attack speed of 5 by 7 points, a 14% difference.

Under this difference, if Han Yanrou's spear thrusts were as fast as Feidao Jian's sword strikes, Tang Rou's hand speed would definitely be above Liu Xiaobie's. However, during battle, the two sides couldn't possibly wave their weapons at the same time to see who reached the finish line first. Various skill operations, various skill changes, and the attack speed bonuses of the skills themselves meant that it was impossible to make such simple calculations and comparisons in the end. Most players, at this time, used their intuition to judge.

Liu Xiaobie's intuition made him feel surprised. He had been quite mentally prepared to face Tang Rou in this match. Because of the One Versus Three Promise, Tang Rou had been the first to appear in the individual competition for several rounds in a row. This unchanging arrangement made it easier for the opponent to prepare. For example, Liu Xiaobie had basically confirmed that he would face Tang Rou in the first battle, so the main target of his solo research was naturally her.

Indeed, it's very fast, completely keeping up with me.

But, if you think that's my peak hand speed, then you're greatly mistaken!

Knocked away by Ba Sui (Overlord Break), Feidao Jian was still attacking. A string of sword light shook out. Feidao Jian was knocked away, but a sword mark was instantly left on Han Yanrou's body.

What fast sword, Tang Rou saw, wanted to dodge, but her hand speed couldn't keep up.

Good heavens!

Tang Rou couldn't help but marvel inwardly. Knocked away by Ba Sui (Overlord Break), in such a brief moment, this person could still leave an attack.

However… this strike was mostly done out of spite, right? The initiative for the attack was still in my hands!

Fire Dance Flowing Flame danced, drawing afterimages in the air.

Dragon Tooth, Continuous Thrust, supplemented by ordinary attacks, Han Yanrou launched a fierce attack on Feidao Jian with thrusts as the main focus.

Clang clang clang!

Clang clang clang clang!

The weapons of the two sides collided continuously. The two fought fast against fast, sword light, spear shadows, colliding, separating, scattering specks of blood.

Everyone was stunned. The commentators and guests of the ongoing live broadcast remained silent together.

What else could be said?

At such a fast pace, by the time they finished commenting on one detail, the two might have already determined the victor, making it impossible to speak.

This was one of the difficulties of commentating on Glory matches. When two sides attacked each other, there were many subtle changes, but the pace was too fast, leaving no room for the commentator to carefully analyze any one place. And right now, the speed of Tang Rou and Liu Xiaobie's battle was so fast that the commentator couldn't even use the skill name call-outs to fill in the gaps.

By the time he called out a skill name, the two sides might have each used three skills.

"Too fast…" Pan Lin still managed to squeeze out three words. It would be too awkward not to say anything.

"Too fast." Li Yibo was experienced and had professional experience. Unable to talk about details, he talked about the big picture. He didn't look at the details of their fight, but instead pulled up the skill trees of the two characters.

On the skill tree, it was as if clocks were hanging all over, with more and more skill icons showing cooldown timers.

Rhythm?

There was no rhythm anymore. These two, you're faster than me, I'm faster than you, chasing each other, it had become a pure contest of speed. The consumption of skills was shockingly fast. If they continued to race like this, it wouldn't be long before they both reached the point where they had no skills left to use, or rather, only low-level skills were available…

Li Yibo was not mistaken.

Fight fight fight!

Slash slash slash!

Liu Xiaobie operated frantically, but he still couldn't completely suppress his opponent. At this moment, after an operation, the expected attack didn't happen. Feidao Jian's offensive suddenly stalled.

How could it be?

Liu Xiaobie only wondered for a tenth of a second, then immediately realized what was going on.

The skill was on cooldown, so he couldn't cast it.

But, the skill was still on cooldown?

Terrible!

Liu Xiaobie immediately realized that his hand speed was out of control. Only a mindless pursuit of speed would create this kind of awkward situation where skills couldn't be connected due to cooldowns. Losing the balance of rhythm due to excessive release of hand speed was a common mistake he had once made, and he had been considered by people to be a player who only knew how to squander his talent.

Fortunately, he realized it, he corrected it, he began to learn how to effectively use his hand speed, going all out when he needed to be fast and suppressing himself when he needed to be slow. The balance of rhythm would no longer be disrupted by his subjective consciousness.

After the change, Liu Xiaobie had a big improvement and was almost one of the 24 All-Stars last season. This season, he hoped he could make such a breakthrough. But in this match, he actually relapsed, recklessly pushing his hand speed to such an extent?

What an opponent who makes it impossible to stay calm!

But fortunately, this opponent was also pursuing such a rhythm and, like him, had squandered skills due to excessive hand speed. So, what would have been a major mistake and a major opening could not be talked about in this match, because both of them had made the same mistake.

"Haha, really…" Liu Xiaobie was just about to say something in the chat when Fire Dance Flowing Flame flashed over.

Ordinary attack?

Liu Xiaobie casually swung his sword, and Feidao Jian deflected the blow. Han Yanrou didn't interrupt her attack because of this and attacked again, this time with a Dragon Tooth. At this time, most of the mid- and high-level skills were sealed due to skill cooldowns. The two sides mainly used ordinary attacks and low-level skills below level 20 with fast cooldowns.

At this time, you still want to continue attacking, how stubborn! Liu Xiaobie thought as he continued to parry the continuous attacks from Han Yanrou, but gradually, he realized that something seemed wrong.

Ordinary attack, no cooldown, use it anytime, change moves anytime.

Low-level skills, short cooldown, once a move was used, it could be used again soon after a few exchanges.

Han Yanrou's offensive relied on these to support it, as before, dense and fast.

So Liu Xiaobie suddenly realized that when he realized the problem of over-bursting hand speed and was preparing to control the rhythm, Tang Rou was stubbornly continuing to make this mistake.

She was still continuing her previous hand speed, or it could be said that she was still burning, still trying to play faster.

This…

Liu Xiaobie didn't know how to evaluate it. He only knew that at this time, he seemed to be a little overwhelmed.

What is this woman thinking?

Liu Xiaobie was surprised, but he also seemed to have discovered something.

There were some shadows of his past in this. It was just that after he didn't achieve the expected results by blindly releasing his hand speed to speed up the rhythm, he made adjustments and changes, and then he made great progress. And Tang Rou was like him before he realized the problem, still rushing forward wildly on this road.

If this continues, what will happen in the end?

Liu Xiaobie realized that he had never thought about this problem. He had quickly adjusted after his playstyle didn't bring him satisfactory results.

But what about Tang Rou? Did she not know? Or was she persisting?

Liu Xiaobie didn't know. He only knew that he was a little overwhelmed at the moment. He had a feeling that the two of them were flying side by side, but in the middle of the flight, he suddenly discovered a way he thought was more likely to win, so he stopped flying and ran to study. The guy who persisted in flying surpassed him all of a sudden…

Was this surpassing just this one match? Or… was it his entire professional career?

In the end, would the one who continued to fly or the one who ran to learn a better way be the one to achieve victory?

With a trace of confusion, Liu Xiaobie's Feidao Jian fell. It didn't fall under Han Yanrou's wave of ordinary attacks and low-level skills, but under the overwhelming rhythm established by this wave.