Chapter 37: Leopard Shadow Step Revision
Battle space, ruined city.
“Gangzi?”
Blue Enchantress’s Wang Yi Dao looked at Meng Gang, who had just been headshot in the distance, and was stunned.
Among the seven main roster players, Meng Gang’s strength did not reach the very top, but he was around fourth or fifth place. When captain Chen Ya said his evasion was lacking, that was only in her eyes.
To the other team members, Meng Gang’s evasion had no problem at all. They could not see any room for improvement.
Yet Meng Gang had just been triple headshot by a player from a team only in the top 32 in the nation. Who would believe that?
Before Wang Yi Dao could recover from his shock, three flashes of light flickered again from a kilometer away.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
After finishing off Meng Gang, Fang Zhen did not hesitate at all. He immediately executed another triple micro-operation at Wang Yi Dao.
Three bullets shot straight toward Wang Yi Dao’s mech.
“You want to kill me? Not that easy!”
Wang Yi Dao almost instinctively raised his shield to block, then sidestepped to evade.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
At a distance of over one kilometer, Wang Yi Dao had much more reaction time than Meng Gang. Two bullets were blocked directly by his shield, and one only hit his shoulder, slightly affecting the arm holding the battle saber.
“Triple micro-operation?”
“Li Ranxing?”
Hiding behind one side of a building, Wang Yi Dao glanced at his wounded shoulder, his expression somewhat grave.
As a rising star on Mecha Continent, Li Ranxing had always excelled in both saber and spear. In the individual bracket of the last national competition, he had even reached sixth place, fully capable of matching the captains of teams in the national top
He had originally thought Li Ranxing would choose a melee mech to duel with the captain this time, but unexpectedly he was using a ranged mech to ambush people, which made things extremely tricky for him.
“Run!”
After 3 seconds of thought, Wang Yi Dao immediately turned and headed toward the city center. While moving rapidly, he used ruined buildings as cover, and with the agility and speed of his melee mech, he quickly disappeared from Fang Zhen’s sniping sight.
This scene also left everyone in the club’s first floor lobby dumbfounded.
“What is going on?”
“Is the one piloting that ranged mech really Fang Zhen?”
Those present who knew veteran player Fang Zhen well all stared with their mouths hanging open.
One against two, at a distance of one kilometer, facing two melee mechs, and he left one dead and one fleeing. Moreover, the pilots of these two melee mechs were main roster players of Blue Enchantress.
Even at his absolute peak, Fang Zhen had never produced such results.
Most importantly, there was the triple micro-operation in shooting. This was a shooting technique that, in the entire team, only captain Li Ranxing could use.
These two points made Storm Shadow’s players suspect that the person piloting that ranged mech was not Fang Zhen at all.
For a moment, Storm Shadow’s players all turned to look at the coaches of the coaching staff.
The lineup for this simulation match had been arranged entirely by the coaching staff. No one present knew the situation better than the coaches.
But at this moment, even the coaches of the coaching staff wore puzzled expressions, eyes wide open. They clearly did not know what was going on either.
“Triple micro-operation! It’s actually triple micro-operation! Who is piloting that ranged mech?”
“Do any of you know?”
“As far as I know, among the main roster players, the only one with this technique is Li Ranxing. For the other main roster players, pulling this off is hard, far too hard.”
“Could it be a reserve player Li Ranxing found? After all, Fang Zhen’s condition has been off recently. Li Ranxing might have temporarily swapped him out.”
“A replacement newcomer? Looks like our club is going to achieve glory again this year.”
The coaches of the coaching staff looked at each other, feeling that the possibility of Li Ranxing temporarily subbing in a newcomer was very high. This simulation match was incomparably important to Li Ranxing.
And unlike them as coaches, Li Ranxing usually trained together with the reserve newcomers and was familiar with their level. This time, the club had recruited many newcomers to hit the national competition, and there were many among them that even these coaches could not fully recognize.
In the national competitions of Mecha Continent over the years, new faces emerged every year. So it was not strange for one to appear now in Storm Shadow. Otherwise, they would not have re-confirmed the national competition roster.
While the several coaches were chatting in relieved satisfaction, on the big screen Fang Zhen’s ranged mech was quickly pursuing Wang Yi Dao.
In less than twenty seconds, both sides reached a street near the city center.
“I’m being chased by Li Ranxing right now. Does anyone know which direction the captain is in?” While dodging bullets, Wang Yi Dao frantically shouted in the team channel.
Normally, once a battle started, no one used the team channel.
First, because it easily distracted others, causing them to miss key details and get taken out.
Second, because the team channel could easily be monitored and cracked. So after combat began, everyone chose short-range radio communication. That made it easier to locate teammates and harder to be monitored and cracked.
But with “Li Ranxing” chasing him from behind, Wang Yi Dao could not care about that anymore. After all, the captain had already ordered them to notify her immediately once they found Li Ranxing.
“Daozi! What nonsense are you talking about? I can see you right now. You’re only being chased by a ranged mech. How could that be Li Ranxing?” a female Blue Enchantress player suddenly shouted in short-range communication. “The captain is currently in a fierce fight with Li Ranxing. Don’t stir up trouble. Be careful or the captain will use you for real blade practice when we get back.”
“Not Li Ranxing?” Hearing this, Wang Yi Dao was stunned and shouted in short-range communication, “That’s impossible. That guy used triple micro-operation. If it’s not Li Ranxing, then who is it?”
“If you don’t believe me, look to the northwest yourself!” The female player did not bother explaining and directly gave Wang Yi Dao a direction.
Wang Yi Dao did not hesitate. Seizing an opening, he looked northwest through a gap between buildings.
In a plaza five kilometers to the northwest, a red and a blue melee mech were clashing blades in a frenzied duel, sparks flying. Their reaction speed was so fast that even a player like Wang Yi Dao was left clicking his tongue in amazement.
“Damn! It really is.”
Seeing this, Wang Yi Dao completely believed it.
In the entire Storm Shadow Team, the only one who could keep up with captain Chen Ya’s speed was Li Ranxing. No one else could.
Especially since captain Chen Ya was using Eight Leaves One Slash. Such god-level control could only be blocked by Li Ranxing. Anyone else would just die.
“Crap! That punk is pretending to be Li Ranxing!”
“Zi Lan, cooperate with me and let’s kill that punk!”
Seeing the real Li Ranxing, Wang Yi Dao felt thoroughly played. He glared at the red ranged mech chasing behind him, finding it more and more displeasing.
“It’s just a Storm Shadow player. You still need my cooperation for that?” the female player named Zi Lan said disdainfully. “Daozi, have you been going to nightclubs too much lately? Is your mental state messed up?”
“Get lost! When have I ever been to a nightclub? My mental state is just fine,” Wang Yi Dao snapped. “That punk can use triple micro-operation. In a frontal fight I don’t have the advantage. I need your ranged support!”
“Triple micro-operation?” After hearing that, Zi Lan’s expression turned serious. “Fine, I’ll snipe him. You take the chance to close in!”
“Relax. With your cooperation, that punk is dead for sure!” Wang Yi Dao immediately maneuvered, ducking behind a building, preparing to turn and charge.
With a long-range sniping expert like Zi Lan watching, no matter whether he faced Wang Yi Dao head-on or split attention to deal with Zi Lan, that enemy would be giving the two of them huge openings. Even triple micro-operation would not save him.
At worst, they could trade one for one at the extreme limit.
“A companion?”
Seeing Wang Yi Dao suddenly duck beside a building, Fang Zhen sensed something was wrong.
Soon he noticed a flash of fire from afar. He almost instinctively dodged back, narrowly evading the incoming bullet at the last possible instant.
“Ranged support!”
While dodging, Fang Zhen also saw Wang Yi Dao burst out from the building, charging straight at him. His speed was not much worse than Meng Gang’s earlier.
“Act like Li Ranxing, will you! This time you’re dead!”
Raising his shield, Wang Yi Dao charged ferociously, not caring what Fang Zhen intended to do. He knew that whether Fang Zhen targeted him or Zi Lan, one of them would succeed.
At that moment, Fang Zhen popped up and, without hesitation, fired three consecutive shots at Zi Lan in the distance, trading shots with her.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
In the distance, Zi Lan was not to be outdone and fired two shots in succession.
Bang! Bang!
Two bullets hit two of Fang Zhen’s, but could not stop the third.
Boom!
Unable to dodge in time, Zi Lan was headshot on the spot.
“You chose Zi Lan?”
“Then die!”
Wang Yi Dao was not surprised. A melee with a shield was never that easy to snipe. He suddenly raised his battle saber and slashed at Fang Zhen, now less than a hundred meters away.
In less than a second, Wang Yi Dao would be upon him. But Fang Zhen’s clumsy-looking mech suddenly moved as if wind sprang under its feet. Like a leopard, it spun and retreated with flowing clouds and water smoothness, like a real leopard. His speed was actually not inferior at all to Wang Yi Dao’s melee mech.
“How is this possible!”
Seeing the distance between them not shrinking but instead widening bit by bit, Wang Yi Dao was dumbfounded.
Between the two of them, who was the melee mech?
Even with a heavy shield, he should not be slower than a ranged mech.
“Success!”
Feeling his mech sprinting, Fang Zhen was extremely excited. He had not expected the footwork of Leopard Shadow Steps, which he had learned from High Martial Arts Descend, to actually work.
He had only tried it with a mindset of giving it a shot, but it had worked.
Fortunately, he had usually trained Leopard Shadow Steps madly, to the point that it had become instinct. Now he had reached 53% entry level. Every step to take was etched deeply in his mind.
Even though he could not make the mech exert force exactly like Leopard Shadow Steps, which created huge reactive force, the powerful mech did not need to care about that.
With the footwork of Leopard Shadow Steps enhancing it, the mech’s movement speed increased by about ten percent. Compared to the melee mech burdened with a heavy shield, he was just a bit faster.
“Damn it!”
Watching Fang Zhen pull further away, Wang Yi Dao grew furious. Missing by just a little, he threw away his heavy shield. His movement speed soared, not only closing the gap he had lost but bringing the distance down to fifty meters.
For mechs over ten meters tall, that distance was not much different from face-to-face.
“Hit him!”
Seeing Wang Yi Dao discard his shield, Fang Zhen suddenly leaped into the air with a spinning jump and fired three shots at him.
Wang Yi Dao reacted quickly. His battle saber swung hard.
Clang!
One bullet was knocked aside, but their speed was too fast, and at such close range there was no way to block the remaining two.
Boom!
One bullet to the head, one to the chest. Wang Yi Dao was utterly dead.
“Finally took him down.” Seeing Wang Yi Dao eliminated, Fang Zhen let out a deep breath of relief. If he had not luckily used Leopard Shadow Steps: Modified, he would have been killed by Wang Yi Dao.
After taking out Wang Yi Dao, Fang Zhen turned his gaze to the blue melee mech fighting five kilometers away.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three bullets in a row. With incredible speed, they reached the side of that blue melee mech in less than two seconds, almost arriving simultaneously. In the middle of her intense battle, Chen Ya had no way to evade.
“Get lost!”
Chen Ya was enraged.
Divine Skill Eight Leaves One Blade!
In an instant, six of the eight strikes knocked back Li Ranxing, and two deflected two of the bullets. In the end, one bullet hit her neck directly. Her mech shattered and she died on the spot.
More than thirty-five hundred words already count as a long chapter. I know everyone wants to rush into chapter two. Chapter two is coming very soon.
Old Cat once again begs for monthly tickets and follow-up reading!
Follow-up reading!!! This is very important! You only need to click on the latest chapter within twenty-four hours.
