The third match was the first, and possibly last match point of this entire competition. If Beiming Xue won this, we would accomplish the unthinkable and end Hero Alliance’s run with a dominating score of 3:0. It would also be a slap to the face the entire Northern Alliance would be feeling for a very long time, something that none of us minded doing at all. The Northern Alliance had invaded the China server immediately after wars became possible, and was one step away from destroying Dawn City. Practically 65% of all the Chinese players who were online that day had died at least once in Dawn Valley, creating a literal river of blood that stretched for miles. The only way to make up for all the suffering was to make our enemies bleed twice as hard as we did that day!

……

Swhoosh swhoosh!

Beiming Xue and her opponent teleported into the arena at the same time. Her opponent was Da Vinci’s Code the Shadow Archer. According to the earlier matches, the shadow archer had three incredibly powerful one-shot type skills, and they were Shadow Arrow, Berserk Arrow and Dark Meteor Arrow. If he got lucky and scored a critical hit with either one of these skills, there was a chance Beiming Xue could potentially be one-shot.

Result rustle rustle...

The map was a boundless plain with red maple trees. Red cloak flapping behind her back and bow in hand, Beiming Xue trained her obsidian-like eyes on Da Vinci’s Code like a hawk. She was calculating the distance between them because range was critical in an archer versus archer match-up.

A tiny smile crossed Da Vinci Code’s lips. Clearly, he knew what Beiming Xue was plotting as well. He slowly shifted to the right, moved behind a dead tree and waited for the match to begin.

3!

2!

1!

The second the countdown hit zero, a cold light streaked across the air and destroyed that tree into pieces. It wasn’t a direct hit, but the splash damage and the fact that Beiming Xue was so aggressive still surprised Da Vinci’s Code. Boosted by Ice Soul Feather, Spiraling Arrow Blade had felt like a hurricane of death!

The shadow archer backed a few steps and retaliated with Volley. Twelve arrows soon erupted all around Beiming Xue!

Beiming Xue’s positioning skill was excellent, but she still took three hits and lost over 70k HP. The shadow archer’s Attack was nothing to scoff at.

After activating Great Earth Transformation, Beiming Xue dashed diagonally to a nearby tree and jumped onto a sturdy tree branch as nimbly as a fox. Her high perception allowed her to sense Da Vinci’s Code’s Shadow Arrow in time to jump away from the branch. The skill penetrated the tree trunk, corroded its inside and snapped it in half in just a second.

Whoosh!

Still in midair, Beiming notched a couple of arrows and let loose a devastating twelve-hit Evil Spirit Volley!

Da Vinci’s Code was one of the best archers in the entire USA, so he was anticipating something like this. He backflipped into a depression behind a hill and only took four shots out of twelve.

Beiming Xue made the snap decision to use her Divine General Skill. "Well of the Abyss!"

Whoosh!

Unfortunately, the shadow archer anticipated it again and Leaped out of range before it could catch him. Smiling a little, he opened his left palm and cried out, "Sword Flame Meteor!"

Buzz!

The clouds above the sky suddenly turned bright red, and the next moment a couple of meteors and flaming swords fell straight toward Beiming Xue’s location. It was Da Vinci’s Code Divine General Skill and a 20-yard wide AoE skill with incredible power!

Boom boom boom...

Countless dead trees caught on fire, and wood, leaves and stones scattered all over the place. It wasn’t long before the point of impact turned into a disaster zone, and a thick smoke engulfed that part of the arena.

"Heh…"

Da Vinci’s Code smiled thinking that there was no way Beiming Xue could survive his Divine General Skill. Reality defied his expectations, however.

Pa!

There was a soft noise, and a beautiful figure abruptly dashed out of the thick smoke. It was none other than Beiming Xue. Her red cape had caught on fire, but she ignored it and kept charging toward Da Vinci’s Code at high speed. She had changed her weapon to a dagger, and her eyes were brimming with killing intent.

Caught off-guard, Da Vinci’s Code could only retreat and parry the dagger strike with his bow. At close range, there was little to no opportunity for an archer to shoot an arrow.

Beiming Xue wanted to end this as soon as possible, so she attacked again and successfully slipped through the man’s guard this time. Her dagger sank into the shadow archer’s chest and dealt 12828 damage. When her enemy tried to swing his bow in retaliation, she kicked him in the stomach as hard as she could, causing him to stumble about 3 yards away from her. It was also the minimum range required to pull off a normal shot. Fully capitalizing on the opportunity she created herself, she fired one last Spiraling Arrow Blade and sent the man out of the arena.

The score turned 1:0. I knew Beiming Xue wouldn’t disappoint us!

……

The second round began shortly, but this time it looked like Vienna’s Sorrow had given his teammate some advice, evident from Da Vinci’s Code completely changing his strategy. The moment the battle began, he immediately used up a couple of valuable cooldowns—Dark Meteor Arrow and Berserk Arrow—and drove Beiming Xue away from him. Then, he started spamming his Sword Fire Meteor like crazy while being far enough that Beiming Xue couldn’t pull off the same mad dash for victory. Unable to dodge the wide AoE skills, Beiming Xue had no choice but to stand her ground and try to out-DPS Da Vinci’s Code somehow. That was also the moment I realized what Da Vinci’s Code’s, or rather Vienna’s, strategy was. One of Well of the Abyss’ biggest flaws was that it couldn’t be spammed like Da Vinci’s Code’s Sword Fire Meteor or my Ancient Seal. Also, his Sword Fire Meteor was omnidirectional just like my Ancient Seal. Naturally, there was little chance Beiming Xue could turn this around.

The score turned 1:1. As expected, Beiming Xue wasn’t able to find a way to counter this before she died.

Swhoosh!

After Beiming Xue teleported out of the arena, she waved her tiny fists and complained, "Uuuu, that’s cheating! He’s spamming his Sword Fire Meteor like crazy because he knows his Divine Energy Points are going to be restored anyway after the match is over! How am I going to fight him like this…"

I advised her, "It’s easy. Use your Skypiercer and Spiraling Arrow Blade to intimidate him into keeping his distance. He wouldn’t dare to tank a hit knowing how powerful your Windchaser set is. After then, move closer and pretend that you want to engage him at close range, but not so close he can catch you out and infinitely spam his Sword Fire Meteor until you die. It takes 5 Divine Energy Points to use a Sword Fire Meteor, and he may not necessarily have max Divine Energy Points. Remember, it only restores up to their original amount prior to entering the internationals. And even if he did have maximum energy, he can only spam 40 Sword Fire Meteors at most. Keep him at bay with Evil Spirit Volley, and use a +50% speed card so you can toy him to death!"

Beiming Xue’s eyes lit up. "Heehee, I knew big bro was smart!"

Lian Xin shook her head. "Heavens, that is such a shameless strategy. I wonder what Da Vinci’s Code will think if he can hear this."

"So what? A winning strategy is a good strategy!"

"Yeah!"

……

Beiming Xue teleported back into the arena. It was match point, and if Beiming Xue won this, we would have annihilated Hero Alliance 3:0 to win the internationals!

Beiming Xue was an extraordinarily intelligent girl. I knew this from the first time I met her.

The third round was a cat-and-mouse chase where Da Vinci’s Code tried to kill Beiming Xue with Sword Fire Meteor, and Beiming Xue tried to outlast it. Thankfully, Beiming Xue had plenty of powerful skills—especially the super-vast Skypiercer, which always wasted at least a couple of Sword Fire Meteors—that could drive her opponent away from her. There was one time Da Vinci’s Code tried to tank Skypiercer to get close to her, only to be scared shitless by the sheer amount of damage he took from a single arrow of the skill. Ice Soul Feather boosted Skypiercer’s damage by 100% after all. Since then, he cooled his aggression and attacked with a lot more caution than before.

That was the wrong move to make, however. He was the aggressor, and he had just given up his own winning strategy. Not even waiting for him to use up his Divine Energy Points, Beiming Xue dashed straight toward Da Vinci’s Code, used Well of the Abyss to buy herself some cover, and devastated his HP with a Skypiercer + Spiraling Arrow Blade combo. Finally, she ended the match with a pinpoint-accurate armor-breaking arrow through the chest!

The score turned 2:1. With this, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls officially swept Hero Alliance with a 3:0 score!

……

Swhoosh!

Despite my bragging and show of confidence from earlier, my body was shaking, and my palm was really full of sweat throughout the whole match. It was only when Beiming Xue teleported out of the arena that the full weight of the victory settled in my mind. We have actually defeated the best teams of all the servers and climbed to the top! We are the champions!

He Yi grabbed her own hand and stared at me in silence. I could see the tears gathering in her eyes.

I knew that no one was happier than He Yi that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had become the champion of the WEL internationals. She was the one who carried the heaviest burden of us all. Maybe it was because it was her dream, or maybe it was because of her promise to her late sister, but the important thing here was that we did it. Thanks to all our efforts and hard work, we defeated tyrants like Red Maple, new stars like Tear Stain, impossibly strong rivals like God of War and Breeze and Rain, and finally the king of the USA server, Hero Alliance. We were the new champions, and no one could say that we didn’t deserve it!

The system asked us if we wanted to finish the remaining matches, and for the first time ever since we started on this WEL journey, I rejected the request. The MVP of the competition must be a player who maintained an all-win record from start until the end, and I was the only player who fit the criteria. Naturally, there was no need to continue this game any further!

……

When we exited the battle rooms, the applause was louder than anything we had experienced up until this point. There were a lot of Chinese players and exchange students who came to cheer for their team, and so earned the honor to bear witness to Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ ascension to the champion’s throne with their own eyes. Only we knew exactly how much hardships we went through to earn this glory. Beiming Xue had spentless countless days and nights training her running and archery. Many a time she came close to death fighting mobs, just mere mobs, only because she wanted to perfect a simple technique. Lian Xin had often burned midnight oil to make her casting of Origin Force Fields a bit smoother, and minimize the imperfections in her strategy. He Yi was the one who worked the hardest of all of us, having to work during daytime and grind at the champion arena the moment she returned home. She put all the skills and strategies I had taught her to practice, honed them, and improved her reaction speed until she could go up against even the best players in the world. Thankfully, all our hard work was worth it, and we had truly become the champions of the WEL internationals!

……

The host moved the mic closer to Beiming and asked her with a smile, "Is there anything you would like to say about your victory?"

Beiming Xue spaced out for a moment before breaking into tears. Sobbing into her mouth, she replied, "I’d like to thank my big bro, Sister Eve, Sister Mingyue and Lian Xin for fighting by my side all this time. I don’t think I’ll ever forget everything that has happened today…"