Chapter 298: chapter 298 - Victory! (2 in1)
It was extremely rare for these people to choose to stay behind and watch the replay of a fight after it ended. But right now, everyone looked very earnest as they did so, including Divian. Truthfully, even she didn't understand exactly what had happened in the last moment. In that situation then, there was absolutely no doubt that All Mouthy King had lost. During a giant eruption like what had happened in the Ground of Descent, unless one was a Heroic Soul Soldier, one would be instantly killed by the hot magma spewing out from the ground. That was way outside the limits a man could endure, unless...
Divian thought of a few possibilities. One could be by relying on unique soul weapons, or possibly even the legendary Blaze Immunity. That was different from the usual fire resistance, and was considered an awakened special ability on a higher level.
However, none of this could be confirmed. Even if it were one of the two possibilities, they themselves were already somewhat inconceivable concepts, as they required further conditions to satisfy the many questions they would bring. Perhaps the truth of the matter greatly differed from the possibilities she had come up with. The world was too big, and mankind's abilities were too complex. Not mentioning Divian, even those in control of the Federation didn't dare proclaim they themselves knew the entirety of mankind's capabilities.
As she thought about this, those in the VIP room were already starting to leave one after another. Not mentioning exchanges, the only interaction between them wasn't anything more than a greeting. Perhaps none of them had the same leisurely mood that they had earlier when they entered the room.
Seeing this, Divian smiled faintly, she knew these guys too well. From the look of it, All Mouthy King's performance put some pressure on these heavenly gifted sons. This was something that the Federation should hope to see. Once these heavenly gifted sons got serious, the OP's quality in the future would be even more worthwhile to watch.
Compared to the wordless, non-communicative atmosphere in the VIP room, the Skylink discussion forums and other places had exploded. There were combat analysts and brainless fans spewing comments everywhere.
Naturally, the most cursed person was definitely Ruo Zhi. Compared to other villains, brother Ruo Zhi's exposure was too great, making him the target of the masses, a star shining bright in the universe. The numerous titles placed on his name made all of brother King's fans lock on to him as their target.
"Who was the idiot just now who was shamelessly boasting that our brother King's chance of victory was less than 10%?"
"Don't hide, Ruo Zhi! Crawl over here and eat your own shit!"
"Don't say that we're bullying you! Choose either one, kneel on a washing board or kneel on a keyboard!"
"You should respond to the audience's requests, brother Ruo. How do you view this victory?" as noisy roars and cheers rang out, a faint smile appeared on Chen Yu'er's face as she used a soft, gentle way to start their dialog.
The internet trolls would look at things their own way. From the moment he had bad-mouthed All Mouthy King, Ruo Zhi already prepared various things. Regardless of the fact that All Mouthy King's victory had almost blinded his omnipotent eyes, being the number one brother of the analysis world, he had a considerably strong skill in coming up with plausible explanations.
"Victory and defeat are commonplace in combat," replied Ruo Zhi with a chuckle. He wasn't even slightly flustered, nor had any sweat on his face. "The only thing I can say is that All Mouthy King has indeed exceeded my expectations today. Naturally, I'll say the same thing again, there's no such thing as an invincible existence in the OP. There hasn't been one in the past, and there won't be one in the future."
Hisses immediately rang out from the viewing gallery and people watching via Skylink. Furthermore, he still dared say he was 100% confident. This fellow's skin was truly thick.
"Ha ha. The audience doesn't seem to buy what you're saying, they want to hear something slightly more realistic." Having learnt a lot about collaborating with Ruo Zhi, Chen Yu'er teased him a little before asking a question. "Brother Ruo Zhi, what's your view on the effigy of the Blazing Angel in the very last moment of the match?"
"I believe that it wasn't some effigy of the Blazing Angel, but an illusion created by the flames. There's no need to delve too deep into this," Ruo Zhi replied, finally starting to become a little more serious. Although he would bad-mouth All Mouthy King for the sake of fame so he could be in the spotlight, when it came to analysis, he would alway be a big brother to others. Compared to Chen Yu'er, his level of astuteness and analysis abilities were far greater than hers. "Naturally, I would've never guessed All Mouthy King possessed a fire attribute special ability. This was one of the reasons why I didn't favor him in this match at the Ground of Descent. Furthermore, from the looks of it, his fire attribute special ability has reached a very high level. Now I'm absolutely sure that he's a secret weapon nurtured by a great family. I find it very hard to believe in the possibility that such a powerful special ability user relied on his own strength to climb all the way up here. That would be absolutely impossible."
"As for All Mouthy King's real identity, this is where our opinions differ." Speaking up till now, Chen Yu'er only half agreed with his statement. She still leaned towards the possibility that All Mouthy King was of common birth. The video of the King's path was made with this point as its key element. "Nevertheless, in today's match All Mouthy King has indeed displayed considerably high accomplishment in his fire attribute special ability. However, during the last extreme fire attack, even fire attribute special ability users can't resist it, right? Even Papada was burnt to ashes in an instant."
"I'm not omnipotent. This is something that I indeed don't know." Faced with this question, Ruo Zhi could only hold his hands out helplessly. "I won't be irresponsible and carelessly say my speculations. However, I believe that no one can block that final eruption. All Mouthy King might've used some kind of special technique. At this point, I hope any experts can help everyone dispel our confusion."
Ruo Zhi's final statement had provoked everyone into thinking. Exactly how did All Mouthy King achieve that?
Whether it was the various great academies OP rooms, Skylink or OP discussion forums, where there were people, they were all squeezing their brain juices dry in an attempt to analyze this mystery.
There were quite a lot of explanations thought of. However, they were mostly delusional deductions that didn't fulfill the situation's criteria. There were also some who placed their hopes on getting the answer from the Blazing Angels Heroic Soul Academy. Where the Ground of Descent and fire attribute special abilities concerned, those of the Blazing Angels Heroic Soul Academy would definitely be considered as experts on them.
The Flaming Squadron were also in a frenzy as they discussed this. Not only was their captain Sharmie and vice captain Mario present, even the other squadron members were present. With the Blazing Angels Heroic Soul Academy being their Southern rivals, the two parties were rather familiar with each other, and their members privately communicated and had exchanges.
Having just ended his call with the other side, a rather splendid expression appeared on the member's face as he said, "Fuck, everyone from the Blazing Angels Heroic Soul Academy have gone mad! They're saying that All Mouthy King isn't human, but actually a reincarnation of their God! That can't be true, right?"
"Ignore those madmen. How could that be possible." Mario had always been a staunch atheist. In regards to theology, he was more biased towards using scientific reasoning to explain this mystery. "Captain, have you figured anything out?"
"I think it's a little like immunity. If not, regardless of how resistant he is to fire, faced with those life threatening temperatures, even Heroic Soul Stage soldiers would instantly die." Sharmie was currently replaying the match from all the available camera angles. Being a fire attribute special ability user, she clearly had a far greater understanding of the strange and weird branches of fire attribute special abilities than others.
Special abilities are also differentiated into many categories. Apart from the large elemental categories like water, fire, wind, and lightning, there were quite a few sub categories under this general classification.
An example would be the fire attribute special ability. There were some special ability users who excelled in the aspect of raising the temperature of fire, which had a significant effect in their offense. Papada, Sharmie and Emily were classified under this, the most common of the sub categories. There were also some who excelled in the materialization of fire, being able to even condense a flaming set of armor or weapons for themselves. Having used the radiance of fire to substitute the broken part of his greatsword during the match, All Mouthy King could be said to be slightly inclined to this sub classification.
As the name implied, fire immunity meant that no type of fire was able to cause even the slightest bit of harm to him. This was a unique talent, having a completely different concept with how great one's resistance to fire was. However, the truth was that there had yet to be anyone with absolute immunity, as it would only show its extraordinary use in special circumstances.
"It's an extremely unique sub category of special abilities. There are records of similar abilities in the past. At this moment, I can only think of one who could withstand the attack from the magma that happened at the very end of the match. However, I'm still unable to explain the flaming wings that he unfurled at the very end...I've never it before, but is that really only a illusionary effect caused by the refraction of light?" Thinking about this made Sharmie develop a headache. Even though she was a fire attribute special ability user, she was unable to get the the depths of this mystery. However, what she indeed knew was that All Mouthy King possessing immunity to fire was absolutely the nightmares of all fire attribute special ability users!
"I don't wanna think anymore! My head hurts!" Sharmie finally decided to toss this answerless mystery to the back of her mind. In the next moment, she suddenly thought of an extremely interesting matter.
The current question was whether All Mouthy King was an expert from an earlier generation. If that was the case, it would be all too easy to solve this mystery, since they were not on the same level. If he was a student of a heroic soul academy, however, this CHF would really be lively.
When he had entered the OP training room, he felt that the large hall was still quite empty with not many people present. Yet when he left after completing his match, the interior of the training room was packed to the brim with people.
A portion of them were students who were previously engaging in matches, and naturally left hastily to observe All Mouthy King's match in the large hall. There was also the greater portion who were in their dormitories or within vicinity who had quickly rushed over upon hearing the news of their brother King starting a match.
To those students, All Mouthy King's match was like the World Cup. Not only were they there to watch, they also wanted to experience and feel the enthusiastic and feverish atmosphere. Blending into such a crowd was the most exciting for them. The brother King's phenomenon were not empty promises.
Currently, all the students were discussing about the match fervently, with their noisy chatter reverberating across the entire large hall. Brother King's matches had never disappointed them once, and today was no exception.
Someone was unable to resist sighing in sorrow as he said, "How good would it be if our squad could have all Mouthy King? There'll be no one in the whole wide world who could beat him!"
"Lower your voice, will you! Captain Wang Zhong's over there! You're speaking as if our current squad isn't good," someone else reminded the person.
It had to be said that after defeating Adolf last time coupled with the news of defeating Saxon in the Copperfield City being announced here, the higher ups and the general mass of the academy were quite satisfied and proud with the performance of their academy's squadron. By now, the lack of confidence with Wang Zhong being the captain at the very beginning had been completely squashed and flipped around.
"Captain Wang Zhong!"
"Captain Wang Zhong, you're also here to watch All Mouthy King's match?" Everyone enthusiastically greeted Wang Zhong who gave his replies with a smile.
Barran was the undoubtedly undying fan of brother King. He definitely would not miss any of brother King's matches. Being in a match right when All Mouthy King came online, he hastily shook hands with his like minded opponent before watching brother King's spectacular match from the start to the end.
Compared to the fervent fans who were present in the large hall, although he was also a fervent fan, Barran's fervor was present within his heart without being shown on his face. Thus, he was exceedingly earnest and attentive while watching the recap of the fight shown from the different camera angles as well as listening to the explanations and analysis provided by Ruo Zhi and others.
His senior Wang Zhong had said that the goal when suffering defeat was to learn from the loss and absorb the important things from within, not to lose for the sake of losing. Watching All Mouthy King's match was also the same. He should not be watching just for the sake of watching or for enjoyment, but to learn even the slightest bit of something useful.
He wasn't able to see through and understand those mysterious fire attribute special abilities, with it being extremely hard for him to form an observable image of the second half of the spectacular match. On the contrary, the unshakable defense that All Mouthy King had deployed when he was faced with Papada's overflowing flaming quick sword causing Barran to sink into a state of intoxication, as those images became clearly imprinted in his mind.
Barran seemed to have comprehended something new from that method of using slow movements to suppress fast movements, the seemingly perfect individual tempo. After seeking advice from Wang Zhong on some of the questions he had on this aspect, he quickly hopped into the OP training room once again.
Although the questions Barran asked were extremely general and superficial, all of them aimed towards curbing the self damage caused by the problems he was currently facing.
Although he had only watched a match, Barran, who had always been lacking in his comprehension abilities, was actually able to show such understanding. This caught Wang Zhong slightly off guard, so he chose to stay behind and observe Barran's match.
Barran chose a specific type of opponent, one who was not high in the rankings being in the middle level of the Hero Division. He was an orthodox assassin who relied mainly on his mobility and speed to launch attacks.
Although Wang Zhong had been unable to personally watch Barran's duel with Sully, he knew from the narrative by Scarlet that due to Barran being momentarily flustered, his clumsy actions made him a target for an assassin like Sully. From over a month of training that Barran underwent, Wang Zhong had stressed once again about "being unchanging to contain the myriad of changes". From the looks it, Barran appeared to understand that logic. However, he had yet to display any changes in his performance in combat.
However, this time around, it seemed that he had truly gotten it straight, using a solid defense to lead the Hero Division assassin into a battle of attrition. Although he still gave of a feeling of being somewhat clumsy and flustered, and quickly sank into the inferiority of being passive in combat, at the very least Wang Zhong felt that Barran had finally understood what he should do when faced against this type of assassin.
Barran's special training was not merely just letting him slam repeatedly. Wang Zhong's idea was to provide a starting point for Barran. In an orthodox formation, a powerful heavy soldier was the most crucial factor in stabilizing the greatest strength of the entire squadron. Barran needed to improve in all of his aspects.
He had many issues in his combat abilities. He was not nimble enough, unable to deal with the unexpected, and rather monotonous regardless of his offense or defense, with his exceedingly poor foundation being one of the reasons for this. However, there was also another reason stemming from his character.
He was too reserved, which made it hard for him to commit fully in combat. Simply speaking, he was slow to warm up. There were times when he would display an extremely explosive show when he was emotional, however, there were also times when he was unable to warm himself up before being pierced full of holes by his opponent's attacks. This weakness of his was especially evident when faced against assassins. With their high speed attacks that leave no visible target to track, it was extremely easy for assassins to deceive and hoodwink him. This was not merely the suppression due to an advantage in speed. Comparatively, those heavy soldiers that wielded heavy shields and roared loudly whilst charging towards him was more than enough for Barran to mentally prepare himself.