Song Xiao finally stopped his hit-and-run tactics and prepared for a head-on fight, but Ye Xiu wouldn't cooperate. Instead, he started employing hit-and-run himself, dragging the match into a monotonous repetition.

"Shouldn't Ye Xiu want to end this quickly? Why is he stalling instead…?" Pan Lin said.

"By stalling like this, he maintains the initiative and is mentally more relaxed. If he fought Song Xiao head-on, he'd inevitably have to compete in reaction speed and APM again. For Ye Xiu, who's already been fighting for over ten minutes, maintaining the intensity and precision of a quick-paced unspecialized style would probably be difficult, and it would also cause greater stamina drain. Blue Rain's intention to exhaust Ye Xiu in the individual competition is obvious, and Ye Xiu won't let them succeed…" Li Yibo said.

"Wouldn't it be difficult to defeat Song Xiao with such a reserved approach…?" Pan Lin asked.

"It seems so…" Li Yibo also noticed Ye Xiu's several sneak attacks. He was like Song Xiao before, not wanting to attack too deeply. After making brief contact, he immediately retreated if things didn't go smoothly, not trying to force the situation with his APM. As a result, the damage dealt by both sides was very low. Like how Song Xiao messed around for five minutes before each of them lost only 10% of their health, even though Ye Xiu now had the initiative, it wasn't much better than their earlier game of hide-and-seek.

"Continuing to drag it out like this is also a form of exhaustion!" Pan Lin said. Even with a less taxing style of play, fatigue would obviously build up if it continued for too long.

"Yes… Song Xiao has clearly noticed this as well," Li Yibo said.

Song Xiao initially expressed surprise at Ye Xiu's sudden retreat from a frontal engagement, but after realizing Ye Xiu's tactics, he calmed down. He didn't seem to want to reverse the situation, instead adopting a steady defensive posture, carefully responding to Ye Xiu's every attack. When Ye Xiu retreated, he let him, not rushing to pursue him. However, he didn't overindulge him either, maintaining constant pressure on Ye Xiu. A certain level of intensity had to be maintained in the match; otherwise, if he allowed Ye Xiu to find a place to sleep, then there would be no point in talking about exhaustion.

"Pan Lin is saying that he's using defense as offense!" Pan Lin said.

Steady and meticulous defense prevented Ye Xiu's repeated sneak attacks from gaining much of an advantage, so he could only continue to repeat the process. The more he repeated, the more exhausted he naturally became.

"But Ye Xiu still has the initiative, I think he must have a plan?" Li Yibo said.

Time passed second by second. This scene lasted for nearly ten minutes. The second match of this individual competition had lasted a total of over ten minutes. Adding in the first match between Ye Xiu and Yu Wenzhou, Ye Xiu had been in the individual competition for nearly twenty minutes…

"Ye Xiu is… hoist with his own petard!" Pan Lin exclaimed. In his opinion, Ye Xiu's choice was too much of a failure. Did he completely underestimate Song Xiao's resilience? Song Xiao was known for being a clutch player! He never dropped the ball in the playoffs. To wait for him to make a major mistake, only to wait for over ten minutes and accomplish nothing. Repeated attacks only whittled down 20% of Tao Luoshaming's health, but under Song Xiao's tenacious defensive pressure, Lord Grim himself lost 15% of his health.

Song Xiao was very satisfied with this outcome. He felt that he had not only achieved their tactical goal, but that by continuing to exhaust him, he would also smoothly win this round.

Seventeen minutes…

Song Xiao glanced at the time of the match. This singles match had actually been going on for so long, and at the current rate, it seemed like it could last for 20 minutes. 20 minutes! Song Xiao found it unbelievable. Before today, he could never have imagined how a singles match could last for 20 minutes.

Such a long time, regardless of whether it was intense or not, just maintaining normal match intensity would be tiring, right? Even he was feeling a little tired just from defending. What about Ye Xiu? Was he planning to continue exhausting himself like this? He was probably stuck between a rock and a hard place now, right? He must not have expected that he could persist for more than ten minutes without revealing any flaws with this style of play.

A clutch player wasn't just someone who said it casually. He had never dropped the ball when it came to important missions entrusted to him by the team.

Whether it was 20 minutes, 25 minutes, or 30 minutes! As long as you can still fight, just keep exhausting yourself!

Song Xiao didn't slack off at all, he focused his attention even further. But this focus suddenly made him feel a little dazed.

That's not right… Why did he suddenly need to strengthen his focus? His attention had always been very focused! There was no reason for him to need to strengthen it further. Could it be that just now, his attention had been somewhat distracted?

"Hey, how long can you last?" Just then, a message from Ye Xiu suddenly popped up in the channel.

"As long as it takes!" Song Xiao immediately replied.

"Is that so? That's a shame, I can't keep exhausting myself with you like this," Ye Xiu said.

What? Song Xiao was stunned. Was this guy giving up? Was he going to just gg?

"One last time, here it comes!"

As the message was sent, Lord Grim charged out again. Song Xiao reacted quickly, and Tao Luoshaming immediately moved to meet him.

Was he trying to go all out? Song Xiao didn't think that gg was very likely. Looking at Ye Xiu's actions, he finally realized that there was no way to continue exhausting himself like this, so he was preparing to end this round quickly?

What a pity! He only made this decision now. But even so, he wouldn't let you succeed so easily!

Song Xiao had already planned it out. From the moment he prepared to fight Ye Xiu head-on, he didn't think about ending it quickly. He would play as slowly as possible. This was his ultimate strategy for this match. Whether he used hit-and-run tactics to delay, or fought head-on, he would try to make the match as long as possible. Now that Ye Xiu wanted to end it, Song Xiao wouldn't end it so easily. He would continue to defend stubbornly, exhausting as much as he could.

Come on!

Song Xiao perked up, but suddenly a flash of light appeared in his vision, sword light!

So fast?

Song Xiao was immediately shocked. This sword came so quickly that he felt like he hadn't fully prepared himself mentally.

Roll!

Song Xiao made an instinctive move, and Tao Luoshaming immediately rolled backward, but immediately afterward, Tao Luoshaming's rolled-up body suddenly rose into the air.

How could this be?

Song Xiao opened his mouth wide.

The attack came faster than he expected. He wanted to counterattack as soon as he finished rolling, but he was launched into the air before he could even finish rolling.

"Ye Xiu suddenly exerted his strength! He broke through Song Xiao's defense with just two hits! What's going on?" Pan Lin was dumbfounded, unable to believe what was happening before his eyes.

Eleven minutes, a full eleven minutes.

In those eleven minutes, Ye Xiu had launched offensives like this countless times, but each time Song Xiao had steadily defended, and then Ye Xiu would choose to retreat. Repeating it so many times made him seem so helpless.

But this time… Why did he suddenly break through Song Xiao's defense?

"Take a look at this," Li Yibo suddenly said, and then the broadcast screen showed a picture-in-picture again, but the small picture wasn't any replay, but a curve, a curve that went from high to low, low for a long time, and then suddenly rose sharply.

"This is Ye Xiu's APM curve in these eleven minutes," Li Yibo said.

"So low!" Pan Lin immediately noticed a long section of the curve, a trough that lasted for about seven minutes. And before that, the curve had fallen very smoothly from a high value, falling to such an extent.

40!

In a professional match, an APM of 40 was obviously shocking, especially for a sustained 7 minutes. It was simply unbelievable.

With an APM of 40, no matter how superb your skills were, it would be completely insufficient to cope with a professional-level match. A guy with such hand speed should have been kicked off the stage long ago, but he actually showed off 7 minutes of 40 APM in the match?

What was his opponent doing during these 7 minutes?

Everyone knew the answer very well. During those 7 minutes, Song Xiao continued to defend as diligently as ever, defending against the offensive played with 40 APM.

"How is this possible?" Even looking at this data, Pan Lin couldn't understand. They had been watching the match from God's perspective, had Ye Xiu really been slacking off to this extent? Just looking at the scene, he hadn't noticed it at all!

"Song Xiao was completely fooled," Li Yibo said.

"The first four minutes can be said to be the anesthetic that Ye Xiu injected into him. Using about four minutes to gradually decrease the intensity of the offense, subtly adjusting the rhythm, so that Song Xiao didn't feel it at all. After four minutes, Lord Grim's attack was actually much simpler than it was four minutes ago, but Song Xiao had been putting in 100% effort in defense… He thought he had been exhausting Ye Xiu, but he didn't realize at all that Ye Xiu had been slacking off. What he was really exhausting was himself…" Li Yibo said.

"Is that even possible?" Although Li Yibo had explained it very thoroughly, Pan Lin still found it unbelievable. But thinking about it carefully, it wasn't just Song Xiao who had been fooled, they, the audience, had also been anesthetized by these four minutes.

Slacking off…

When could this word ever appear in the professional scene? And in a one-on-one match, slacking off for a full seven minutes.

Pan Lin didn't know what to say anymore. He focused on the following match, Lord Grim's continuous offensive, killing Tao Luoshaming and making him fall all over the place. From this hit, Pan Lin felt that Song Xiao's reaction was a bit slow. He initially thought that Ye Xiu's words had distracted him, and that he would be able to adjust quickly. But now he knew that Song Xiao's reaction was slow, first, Ye Xiu suddenly sped up, and Song Xiao, who had been anesthetized by slacking off for seven minutes, was a bit unaccustomed. Secondly, Song Xiao really didn't slack off, he had diligently and earnestly defended for eleven minutes, he was tired…

"However, I'm afraid Ye Xiu still won't be able to win," Li Yibo suddenly said.

"Why?"

"Mana, Lord Grim doesn't have enough mana," Li Yibo said, "But Ye Xiu has already completed everything, not letting Blue Rain exhaust him, giving Tao Luoshaming as much damage as possible here, and then leaving a tired Song Xiao to Happy's next player… Ye Xiu is really too terrifying."