Rise (Web Novel CN)

Yu Ping knew that Lin Feng would outplay him. He’d hoped that Rengar’s gank could help his LeBlanc get back into the lane, but he’d played enough against Lin Feng in the last two games and the start of this third game to know that the chance of success was slim. What he didn’t expect was for An Xin’s Lee Sin to be waiting in the brush below the mid lane for a countergank. His eyes grew round and wide and he cursed, “Fuck! Help me!”

An Xin sat behind her monitor and glanced at her right hand. One big play. I got this. She focused back on her monitor and took a deep, long breath. Playtime is over! She clicked on a nearby minion and cast Safeguard! While her Lee Sin dashed towards the minion, her fingers glided across her keyboard and she flicked her mouse towards Yu Ping’s LeBlanc. Sonic Wave! Lee Sin fired a pressurized blast of air at LeBlanc! But instead of dashing at her, he Flashed towards her! He followed up with his ultimate skill, kicking LeBlanc away from her Outer Tower! To close the distance to LeBlanc this time, Lee Sin used Resonating Strike! Lee Sin came in with a strong flying kick! His foot slammed LeBlanc in the face and reduced her health to the last few drops. Then he gracefully landed and slammed his palm on the ground!

《You have slain an enemy!》

Yu Ping’s mouth fell open. He stared at the different shades of grey on his screen and mumbled, “What the…” He looked around the soundproof booth at his teammates and continued, “What the fuck was that?” But his teammates didn’t have the answer. They looked back at him and shook their heads, incredulous.

At the casters desk, FourEyesChan leaned towards his microphone and shouted, “SHE KILLED HIM! LEE KILLED LEBLANC! THAT WAS SO FAST! WOW!”

Cherry clasped her hands over her mouth and said, “Oh my god! That combo!”

“How the fuck did Lee do that!?”“LeBlanc couldn’t do anything! She was dead before it even finished!”“I BLINKED AND MISSED IT! SHOW A REPLAY ON SLOW MOTION PLEASE!”“WOOOOOOO!”“Was LeBlanc bugged? Where is her passive…?”“LEE KILLED HER SO FAST THAT HE BROKE THE GAME!”“GOOD GAME TO TEAM SHANGHAI! JUST FF, YU PING!”

Zou Cheng from Zhejiang University scratched the back of his head and asked Sun Ruinian, who sat next to him, “How did BunBun do that? Why didn’t LeBlanc’s passive work?”

“It did work,” Sun Ruinian replied with a sigh. He shook his head and chuckled, then explained, “You saw how she held her Q second-cast and Flashed towards LB?” He waited for Zou Cheng to nod and then continued, “The Sonic Wave marks LeBlanc, which makes her passive practically worthless. That ultimate kicked most of the health out from LeBlanc’s health bar, which did proc LeBlanc’s passive. But because of the Sonic Wave, BunBun knew exactly where the real LeBlanc was.”

Qiu Yijie leaned forward to look at Zou Cheng and chimed in, “It was really a fantastic play.”

“Watch!” Fudan University’s Jungler interrupted.

Back in the game, Lin Feng had used the time An Xin needed to kill LeBlanc to strike Team Beijing’s Rengar with a Steel Tempest. It was the second one, and the winds danced along his blade. He paused, briefly, just long enough for An Xin to kill LeBlanc. But not so long that Rengar could escape. He then activated Steel Tempest for a third time. Yasuo swung his blade and unleashed a tornado upon Summoner’s Rift! The strong winds chased down Rengar and knocked him up into the air! This was the opening needed for Yasuo's ultimate skill–Last Breath!

The instant Rengar got knocked up, Lin Feng hit R. Yasuo vanished and appeared right next to the Rengar, who was just hitting the peak of the knock-up and about to fall back down to the ground, a leap so fast that it was invisible to the naked eye. Yasuo unleashed a flurry of strikes with his katana into Rengar’s flesh, each one keeping him in the air a little bit longer. Every slice of the blade cut deep into Rengar’s health bar. Then to top it all off, Yasuo unleashed a powerful slice right into the middle of Rengar’s body that sent Rengar plummeting back down to the ground! And into the arms of a waiting Lee Sin, who added a few brutal auto-attacks to Rengar as he staggered back up. Lin Feng’s Yasuo jumped down to the ground and also started auto attacking Rengar. His blade that cut Rengar’s last ties to life.

《You have slain an enemy!》

FourEyesChan clicked his tongue and said into the microphone, “Damn, that’s rough. Team Beijing gets hit again with a massive setback! Their gank in mid ended with both their Jungler and Midlaner dying, and on the back of that Team Shanghai picks up an uncontested Dragon. It’s really becoming hard here to see Team Beijing making a comeback.”

Cherry sighed loudly into her microphone and chimed in, “LeBlanc needs to win those early trades. If she doesn’t have her core build finished by the end of the laning phase, she’ll have a very difficult mid and late game.” She grimaced and added after a brief moment, “I mean, if she can’t burst down the important targets, then what use does she really have?”

“Well, let’s not give up so quickly,” FourEyesChan argued. He moved his head around for a bit before continuing, “Alright, so it’s looking pretty bad for Team Beijing. But, very importantly, it isn’t all bad. Their LeBlanc has a decent creep score and Team Shanghai’s ad-carry isn’t doing all that outstanding herself. It’s gonna be hard. But if LeBlanc plays this perfectly, then she should technically have enough damage to burst down Team Shanghai’s Kalista.”

Cherry giggled and shook her head. She looked at FourEyesChan and calmly waited for him to finish his analysis. When he did, She leaned towards her microphone and said, “And then there’s Yasuo.”

FourEyesChan grimaced and nodded. “Yep. Then there’s Yasuo,” he said.

✹

The game was going for 14 minutes when An Xin turned her head to look at Lin Feng and said, “Come, we’re going for a walk.”

Lin Feng looked back at An Xin and scrunched his eyebrows. He replied, “What? A walk? We’re playing...”

An Xin shook her head and smiled, then pinged on the Jungle entrance right below the mid lane. “Here,” she said. “We’re going to walk here.”

“Oh!” Lin Feng exclaimed. “Why didn’t you say so!” He then had his Yasuo retreat to the far edge of Yu Ping’s vision and started recalling. He timed this perfectly with a new wave coming. They pushed a bit towards Red team’s outer tower and killed the vision of Lin Feng’s Yasuo right before the recall ended. He then cancelled the recall and followed An Xin into Red Team’s bottom side Jungle.

An Xin said over the team’s voice chat, “Push them to their Tower.”

“Already on it,” Zeng Rui replied. He looked at the bot lane. They’d been pushing Team Beijing back for the last couple of minutes already. The new wave that arrived pushed the lane towards the middle a bit, but after Tang Bingyao killed the first few minions with her Kalista, the lane started pushing into Team Beijing’s tower again.

An Xin and Lin Feng arrived in the brush right behind the bot lane outer tower. An Xin nodded at Lin Feng and said, “You wait here and be ready.”

“Aye aye!” Lin Feng replied, grinning. He theatrically raised his finger and added, “Ready to press the button!”

“Good,” An Xin said with a smile. She then focused on her screen and breathed out through her mouth. Another time! For good measure! She smiled a bit brighter as she ran into the bot lane. Team Beijing’s Jinx retreated a step too far behind her Outer Tower. An Xin reacted to this with a perfectly timed and aimed Sonic Wave! She followed up with Resonating Strike! Her Lee Sin kicked Team Beijing’s Jinx in the face, then stepped behind her and hit her with a roundhouse kick! There was so much power behind this last attack that Jinx flew backwards!

Lin Feng grinned when he saw Jinx flying. He didn’t activate his ultimate right away. The reason being that Jinx was on a collision course with Team Beijing’s Janna. “BOOM!” Lin Feng exclaimed, laughing. He then cast Last Breath! Jinx and Janna were in the air right next to each other when Yasuo blinked next to them and suspended them in midair! He unleashed a flurry of strikes on them, slashing away at their already dwindled health! He then hacked them down to the ground and finished his combo off with a Steel Tempest that pierced both Champions!

《You have slain an enemy!》

《Double kill!》

Zou Cheng jumped to his feet and screamed at the top of his lungs, “WIIIIIIIIN FENG! WIIIIIIIIN FENG!” He was so loud that it sounded over all the other cheers and shouts, and then it gained in volume as the other people in the audience started copying him.

“WIN FENG! WIN FENG!”“WIN FENG! WIN FENG!”“WIN FENG! WIN FENG!”

“WIN FENG! WIN FENG!”“WIN FENG! WIN FENG!”“WIN FENG! WIN FENG!”

“WIN FENG! WIN FENG!”

Sun Ruinian looked around him at the audience and shook his head, smiling. “Incredible,” he said. “Simply incredible.”

Qiu Yijie nodded and added, “That’s got to be game.”