Leopard Shadow Steps: Revised

Duel Space, Ruined City.

"Gang?"

Wang Yi Dao of Blue Enchantress stared at Meng Gang, who had been headshot from afar, and was utterly stunned.

Meng Gang's strength among the seven main roster members might not have ranked at the very top, but he was at least fourth or fifth. When Captain Chen Ya said his evasion was lacking, that was only lacking in Captain Chen Ya's eyes.

To the other team members, Meng Gang's evasion had no problems at all. They simply could not see any room for improvement.

Yet Meng Gang had just been headshot by three shots from a player ranked among the nation's top thirty-two. Who would believe that if it got out?

Before Wang Yi Dao could recover from his shock, three flashes of light flickered again from a kilometer away.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

After taking down Meng Gang, Fang Zhen did not hesitate in the slightest. He immediately unleashed another Triple Micro-Control at Wang Yi Dao.

Three bullets shot straight toward Wang Yi Dao's mech.

"You want to kill me? It won't be that easy!"

Wang Yi Dao almost instinctively raised his shield to block, then twisted aside to evade.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

The distance of over a kilometer gave Wang Yi Dao far more time to react than Meng Gang. Two bullets were directly blocked by his shield, while one merely struck his shoulder, slightly affecting the arm holding his saber.

"Triple Micro-Control?"

"Li Ranxing?"

Wang Yi Dao hid along one side of a building and glanced at his struck shoulder, his expression turning solemn.

As a rising star of Mecha Continent, Li Ranxing had always excelled with both blade and gun. In the individual event of the last national tournament, he had even reached sixth place. He was absolutely an expert capable of contending with the captains of the nation's top four teams.

He had thought Li Ranxing would use a melee mech to fight the captain this time. He had not expected him to use a ranged mech to ambush people instead. That made things truly troublesome for him.

"Run!"

After 0.3 seconds of thought, Wang Yi Dao immediately turned and charged toward the city center. As he moved swiftly, he used the ruined buildings for cover. With the agility and speed of a melee mech, he quickly vanished from Fang Zhen's sniper sights.

This scene left everyone in the club's first-floor hall dumbfounded.

"What is going on?"

"Is the person controlling that ranged mech really Fang Zhen?"

Everyone present who knew Fang Zhen, this veteran player, stared with their mouths hanging open.

One against two, at a distance of a kilometer, against two melee mechs—one dead and one fleeing. More importantly, the pilots of those two melee mechs were both main roster members of Blue Enchantress.

Even at Fang Zhen's absolute peak, he had never achieved such a record.

Most importantly, there was the shooting Triple Micro-Control. Throughout the entire team, aside from Captain Li Ranxing, no one could use that shooting technique.

Those two points alone made the Shadow of the Storm players unable to help suspecting that the person controlling that ranged mech was not Fang Zhen at all.

For a moment, the Shadow of the Storm players all turned to look at the coaching staff.

The rosters for this simulation match had all been arranged by the coaching staff. It could be said that no one present understood the situation better than the coaches.

Yet even the coaches on the coaching staff wore suspicious expressions, their eyes wide. Clearly, they did not know what was going on either.

"Triple Micro-Control! It's actually Triple Micro-Control! Who is driving that ranged mech?"

"Do any of you know?"

"As far as I know, among the main roster members, only Li Ranxing possesses that skill. It's difficult—far too difficult—for the other main roster members to use this move."

"Could it be a reserve player Ranxing found? Fang Zhen's condition has been off these past few days. Ranxing may very well have temporarily replaced him."

"A replacement rookie? It looks like our club is going to create another glorious year."

Several coaches exchanged looks, feeling that the possibility of Li Ranxing temporarily swapping in a rookie was extremely high. After all, this simulation match was immensely important to Li Ranxing.

Unlike coaches like them, Li Ranxing usually trained alongside the reserve rookies and knew their standards well. To make a push for the national tournament, the club had recruited quite a few newcomers this time, and among them were many whom even the coaches could not recognize.

At every Mecha Continent national tournament, newcomers emerged every year. It was no surprise for one to appear in Shadow of the Storm now. Otherwise, they would not have reconfirmed the roster for the national tournament.

While the coaches chatted with the comfort of old men watching promising successors, Fang Zhen's ranged mech on the big screen rapidly pursued Wang Yi Dao.

In less than twenty seconds, both sides reached a street near the city center.

"Li Ranxing is chasing me from behind. Does anyone know which direction the captain is in?" Wang Yi Dao shouted frantically in the team channel while dodging bullets.

Under normal circumstances, once battle began, no one would use the team channel.

First, it could easily distract others. One careless moment could make them miss countless details and get taken out as a result.

Second, the team channel could easily be monitored and cracked. Thus, after battle began, everyone chose short-range radio communications. It was easier to locate teammates that way, and it was also harder to monitor and crack.

But with Li Ranxing chasing him from behind, Wang Yi Dao could no longer worry about any of that. The captain had ordered them to notify her immediately upon finding Li Ranxing.

"Daozi! What nonsense are you talking about? I can see you. There's only a ranged mech chasing behind you—how could it possibly be Li Ranxing?" A female Blue Enchantress player suddenly shouted through the short-range comms. "The captain is fighting Li Ranxing right now. Stop making trouble out of nothing. Be careful, or the captain will use you as a living target to practice her blade when we get back."

"Not Li Ranxing?" Wang Yi Dao was completely bewildered. He shouted through the short-range comms, "That's impossible! That person used Triple Micro-Control. If it isn't Li Ranxing, who is it?"

"If you don't believe me, look northwest yourself!" The female player did not explain further and simply gave Wang Yi Dao a direction.

Wang Yi Dao did not hesitate. He found an opening as he passed through a gap between buildings and looked toward the northwest.

On a plaza five kilometers to the northwest, a red and a blue melee mech were furiously exchanging saber strikes. Sparks flew everywhere, and their control reactions were so fast that even a player like Wang Yi Dao clicked his tongue in amazement.

"Damn! It really is." Seeing this, Wang Yi Dao completely believed it.

In the entire Shadow of the Storm team, only Li Ranxing could keep up with Captain Chen Ya's speed. No one else possibly could.

Especially since Captain Chen Ya had used Eight Leaves One Sword Slash. To block such godlike control, only Li Ranxing could do it. Everyone else would simply die.

"Damn it! That kid was actually pretending to be Li Ranxing!"

"Zilan, work with me and kill that brat!"

After seeing the real Li Ranxing, Wang Yi Dao immediately felt as though he had been played. The more he looked at the red ranged mech pursuing him, the more displeased he became.

"He's just a Shadow of the Storm player. You need me to cooperate?" The female player named Zilan said disdainfully. "Daozi, have you been going to nightclubs too much lately? Has your mental state gone bad?"

"Get lost! When have I ever gone to nightclubs? My mental state is perfectly fine!" Wang Yi Dao snapped. "That kid knows Triple Micro-Control. I don't have the advantage in a head-on fight, so I need your ranged support!"

"Triple Micro-Control?" Zilan's expression grew serious after hearing that. "Fine, I'll snipe him. You use the chance to get close!"

"Don't worry. With you working with me, that brat is dead for sure!" Wang Yi Dao immediately turned with a maneuver, ducked behind one side of a building, and prepared to wheel around for the kill.

With a ranged sniping expert like Zilan watching him now, whether Fang Zhen confronted him head-on or split his attention to deal with Zilan, one of the two would have a huge opening. Even Triple Micro-Control would be useless.

At worst, they could force an extreme one-for-one exchange.

"Does he have a companion?"

Seeing Wang Yi Dao suddenly hide beside a building, Fang Zhen sensed that something was wrong.

Soon, Fang Zhen saw a flash of fire in the distance. He almost instinctively dodged backward and evaded the incoming bullet at the very last instant.

"Ranged support!"

As Fang Zhen dodged, he also saw Wang Yi Dao charge out from the building and rush straight at him, moving nearly as fast as Meng Gang had earlier.

"Pretending to be Li Ranxing, are you? You're dead this time!"

Wang Yi Dao charged with his shield raised, completely unconcerned with what Fang Zhen intended to do. He only knew that whether Fang Zhen dealt with him or Zilan, one of them would succeed.

Fang Zhen immediately exposed himself and fired three shots at distant Zilan without hesitation, directly exchanging fire with her.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Zilan showed no weakness either, firing two shots in succession at the same time.

Bang! Bang!

Two bullets struck two of Fang Zhen's bullets, but they could not stop the third bullet he fired.

Boom!

Zilan, who no longer had time to evade, was directly headshot.

"Picked Zilan, did you?"

"Then die!"

Wang Yi Dao was not surprised. A shield-bearing melee mech was not so easy to snipe. He immediately raised his saber and slashed at Fang Zhen, who was less than a hundred meters away.

Just as Wang Yi Dao was about to reach Fang Zhen in under a second, Fang Zhen's cumbersome mech seemed to have wind beneath its feet. Like a hunting leopard, it swiftly turned and retreated. The entire movement flowed like drifting clouds and running water, like a true leopard. Its speed was actually no less than Wang Yi Dao's melee mech.

"How is that possible?!"

Seeing that the distance between them was not shrinking but slowly widening instead, Wang Yi Dao was completely stunned.

Which one of them was the melee mech?

Even if he was carrying a heavy shield, he should not have been slower than a ranged mech, right?

"It worked!"

Watching his mech race forward, Fang Zhen's face filled with excitement. He had not expected the footwork of Leopard Shadow Steps, which he had learned from High Martial Descent, to actually work.

He had only tried it on a whim, yet it really worked.

Fortunately, he had practiced Leopard Shadow Steps like mad in ordinary times, until it had become instinct. It had now even reached 53% beginner proficiency, and how each step should be taken was already deeply etched into his mind.

Although he could not make the mech exert force as Leopard Shadow Steps did, resulting in tremendous recoil, the powerful mech did not need to care about that at all.

With the footwork of Leopard Shadow Steps enhancing it, the mech's movement speed increased by roughly ten percent. Compared to a melee mech carrying a heavy shield, however, it was only the slightest bit faster.

"Damn it!"

Watching Fang Zhen pull farther and farther away, Wang Yi Dao grew furious. They were only separated by the tiniest margin. He immediately threw away his heavy shield, and his movement speed instantly surged. Not only did he make up the distance he had lost, but the gap between them also narrowed to fifty meters.

For mechs over ten meters tall, that distance was hardly any different from standing face-to-face.

"Hit!"

Seeing Wang Yi Dao throw away his shield, Fang Zhen suddenly spun and leaped through the air, firing three shots at Wang Yi Dao.

Wang Yi Dao reacted quickly as well, fiercely swinging the saber in his hand.

Clang!

One slash knocked away a bullet, but the bullets were too fast. At such close range, he had no time to block the remaining two.

Boom!

One shot blew apart his head, while the other struck his chest. Wang Yi Dao was dead beyond all doubt.

"Finally took him down." Fang Zhen let out a deep breath as he looked at Wang Yi Dao, who had been eliminated. If he had not luckily used Leopard Shadow Steps: Revised, Wang Yi Dao would have taken him down by now.

After taking down Wang Yi Dao, Fang Zhen turned his attention toward the blue melee mech fighting five kilometers away.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three shots fired in rapid succession. The bullets were so fast that in less than two seconds, they reached the side of that blue melee mech. The three rounds arrived almost simultaneously, leaving Chen Ya, who was in the midst of fierce battle, with nowhere to evade.

"Get lost!"

Chen Ya was furious.

God-tier skill, Eight Leaves One Sword Slash!

In an instant, six of the eight slashes knocked Li Ranxing back, while two slashes deflected two bullets. In the end, one bullet struck her neck directly. Her mech disintegrated, and she died on the spot.

Over three thousand five hundred words counted as a big chapter. I know everyone wants to see the second chapter quickly, and the second chapter will be here soon.

Old Cat once again asks for monthly votes! Please keep reading!

Keep reading!!! This is very important! Everyone only needs to open the latest chapter within twenty-four hours.