Chapter 172: After So Long

Shen was a bull of a man. After his Taunt came out, he didn’t appear as a champion so much as a super-soldier.

Riven didn’t waste her burst damage on Shen, and went instead for Lee Sin, who was streaking wildly across the battlefield.

In fact, everyone was attacking Lee Sin, who soon followed Ryze into oblivion. Shen advanced fearlessly, pushing deep into their ranks while enduring an appalling amount of damage.

The blue team had a high-damage champion like Vayne, with Shallow Dream controlling her, no less. The longer Shen could draw the enemy’s attention, the more devastation Vayne could lay down. Once Jarvan was defeated, the red team’s formation would be broken.

Both Xiao Bei and Lin Dong frowned in dismay. Things were going poorly. At the rate that Vayne was busting out the pain, Jarvan would be the next corpse to hit the ground, but Shen meanwhile seemed like he’d be able to remain on his feet for a while yet. Concentrating their fire on Shen was a bad idea.

Another Mystic Shot streaked past Shen, striking Orianna as she moved to take down Riven.

Luocheng was fighting with an ‘Iceborn Gauntlet’ in hand, so when the Mystic Shot collided against Orianna, frigid mist poured down over her mechanical body, slowing her to a standstill!

(Translator’s Note: Typically, the Iceborn Gauntlet only enhances basic attacks immediately following the use of a skill – not the skill itself. However, Ezreal’s ‘Mystic Shot’ is one of those skills that can apply the same effects as a basic attack, which is especially useful because Mystic Shot has a longer range than his basic attacks.

Whether you consider 30% Slow to be a ‘standstill’ depends on the situation, I guess.)

Nice Slow!

Seeing an opportunity, Riven immediately turned and pounced upon Orianna, her blade whistling through the air.

This, along with Ezreal’s damage output and Slowing effect, meant that Orianna had no hope of escape, and ended up getting taken down instead.

“Gah!” Before Riven and Ezreal could begin to smile about eliminating the enemy APC, they heard Jarvan’s pained cry from nearby, and when they looked over, his body already lay in pieces on the floor.

(Translator’s Note: Sorry if I’ve already explained this before, but ADC stands for ‘Attack Damage Carry’, while APC refers to an ‘Ability Power Carry’. The lion’s share of the glory generally falls to the one with the most kills, who often puts on airs about ‘carrying’ the rest of the team.

ADC specifically refers to the champion in the traditional Marksman position, even if there are other Attack Damage-based sustained-damage champions in the team.

APC, on the other hand, can refer to any Mage or Assassin in the team – even one in the Support position, like Zyra or Lux, who are occasionally also referred to as SPC, meaning ‘Support Carry’.

And no, Jarvan generally doesn’t burst into giblets when killed.)

While Shen was tanking the full might of three champions, Jarvan had fallen to the pairing of Vayne and Sona alone. Yet, he had been the first to go down—a testament to Vayne’s terrifying damage output!

Vayne was still in excellent condition, and she had Sona by her side providing support. If she was allowed to rejoin Shen, they would all fall before her in short order!

Luocheng hurriedly brought Ezreal up to high ground, so that he had vantage to intercept Vayne, Sona, and Shen as they moved to regroup.

A mana-focused Ezreal had little hope of standing toe-to-toe against Vayne, so Luocheng made sure to keep a safe distance away, while he unleashed a barrage of Mystic Shots against Sona and Vayne.

Thanks to the Iceborn Gauntlet, Sona and Vayne both found their movements greatly hampered by Ezreal’s unceasing harassment. After several direct hits from Mystic Shot, Sona’s health was now dangerously low!

Seeing that his teammates were in danger, Shen turned back, clearly intent on catching Ezreal with a Taunt.

Ezreal’s ‘Arcane Shift’ was still on cooldown. He couldn’t dodge it, and the duration of the Taunt effect allowed Vayne to get within reach of him!

In truth, a mana-based Ezreal couldn’t prevail in a face-to-face duel against any other ADC. Seeing Shallow Dream’s expertly played Vayne now in range to attack Ezreal, the three spectators behind Luocheng sucked in a sharp breath, eyes glued to the screen. It was the feeling of finding yourself before a ruthless, unfeeling huntress, raising her crossbow to point it straight at your throat!

Were they finally going to duke it out again?

From Lin Dong’s perspective, a team fight of this magnitude could only end with heavy losses on both sides. They would have to fight to the end!

Xiao Bei saw things differently. If his estimations were correct, even with only half her health remaining, Vayne could nevertheless easily win a straight-up fight against Ezreal, although he was still at two-thirds himself.

The Iceborn Gauntlet activated yet again, this time at Shen’s expense. A frigid mist rose up around him, catching Vayne in its effect as well, just as she hit Ezreal with her second shot.

With his opponents Slowed down, Ezreal hastily backed away.

Duel?

The point of a mana-based Ezreal was to kite his enemies, whittling away their health before they ever got within striking distance of him. If Shen and Vayne were determined to give chase, that was exactly what he wanted!

Mystic Shot, another area-effect Slow, cooldown reduced by one second, and then 1.4 seconds later Mystic Shot was ready to fire again. He wasn’t even using his basic attacks here, but he was already dealing tremendous damage and disruption to both Shen as well as Vayne!

Slowed, Slowed, and then Slowed yet again… whenever they got close, he’d use Arcane Shift to slip away once more, and then resumed the onslaught of Mystic Shots and basic attacks. Besides dealing damage and Slowing down his enemies, each hit with the Mystic Shot also sped up the cooldown on his E-skill, Arcane Shift. This was the fundamental concept behind a mana-based Ezreal!

They sought to catch him? Dream on!

Shen led the chase, pursuing him doggedly. However, he couldn’t even catch hold of the hem of Ezreal’s jacket, to say nothing about securing a kill.

Vayne followed behind Shen. Patient as a hunting panther, she could see that this would not be easy prey, and she was already scanning for alternate targets.

However, she was careful to keep her true intentions hidden. Playing the part of the fool, she bumbled after Ezreal along with Shen.

Snap! That was Ezreal’s Iceborn Gauntlet again. Another cloud of freezing mist billowed outwards from Shen, catching Vayne in its effect, the frigid air pulling at her movements.

This was the moment when a dashing female warrior suddenly appeared, blade in hand!

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It was Riven, the Exile!

Her gaze was locked onto Vayne. In this moment of weakness, she would vanquish their hated foe!

As Riven approached, Vayne dropped her façade at last, her eyes flaring with cold light!

Turning to face Riven with neither alarm nor panic, but rather the quietly savage air of one who has caught their prey in a trap!

Foom! The power of the ‘Blade of the Ruined King’ had been unleashed! It raked across Riven’s skin, and the cursed blade drank deeply of her life essence, transferring it to Vayne!

Now her enemy had been Slowed down, while she herself regained her normal speed. With the Blade of the Ruined King in hand, it was like Vayne had five skills at her disposal—it was like adding wings to what was already a fearsome beast!

“Huh!” Vayne tumbled out of the way of the last stroke from Riven’s ‘Broken Wings’ combo. She launched a bolt, and then another, and then a third bolt to seal the curse of her Silver Bolts!

Never known for prodigious health in the first place, Riven was cut down below half health in one fell swoop!

Never in a thousand years would Riven have predicted that, so far into the team fight, Vayne had still yet to use her Blade of the Ruined King!

Slowed as she was, Riven could no longer disengage. It was fight or die, and she desperately used her skills to close in on Vayne.

Thwap! Condemn!

With that Knockback bolt throwing Riven back, after all her efforts to reach Vayne, she’d lost all hope of being able to win this fight.

With all her skills expended, Riven could only watch helplessly as Vayne, always with another ace up her sleeve, fired the final crossbow bolt at her!

Resistance was futile. Riven let her weapon fall to the ground. Even if she was to die, she would die with honor, looking her opponent straight in the eye!

The silver quarrel pierced through Riven’s heart. As blood gushed down her breast, she sank gently to her knees.

Shutdown!

Her kill-streak had ended. Riven had put on an exceptional performance throughout this battle, but she’d met with misfortune in the end. It should have been her triumphant defeat of Vayne, but the Blade of the Ruined King had turned the tables, and ultimately spelled her doom.

Still kiting Shen, not far away, Luocheng saw what had transpired, and his expression became even more severe.

Riven couldn’t have timed that attack any better. It was just bad luck that she hadn’t accounted for Vayne’s trump card.

Furthermore, Luocheng knew for a fact that the Blade of the Ruined King had not been the last card Vayne had to play!

She still had her Flash and Barrier!

Witnessing Riven’s hapless demise, as well as the cold manner in which Vayne wrenched the crossbow quarrel out from the still-spurting wound, Luocheng’s heart began to hammer with excitement.

(Translator’s Note: Whether or not Vayne actually does that sort of thing in the game is a question of imagination.)

He had a pretty good idea, now, of who Shallow Dream really was.

During the international invitational, there had been an amateur player who had risen to fame in the world of DOTA. Their style of gameplay combined flawless precision with uncanny predictions, as well as the discipline to always retain another card to play, another avenue to escape from danger.

Many a vain-glorious challenger had tried to add to their own fame by getting close and taking that player down, but after straining themselves to the limit just to get through one layer of their defenses, as they were standing upon the verge of triumph, that player would calmly use something completely ordinary to utterly foil their attempt, and in the end they’d be nothing more than the latest one to fall before the upstart.

When Luocheng won first place in the solo demonstration event of the invitational, that player had been his greatest rival.

However, as Luocheng prepared himself for a decisive showdown against that player during the final round of the event, his opponent had chosen to forfeit, ending the highly anticipated duel with a disappointing anti-climax!

Luocheng hadn’t recognized the player right away because everyone had been using English IDs during that global tournament, as standard for the World Cyber Games.

Everyone has their regrets in life. For Luocheng, his greatest regret was missing out on this monumental duel, back when he was at the height of his skill, for all the world to see!

After taking down a whole slew of world-class players, why had that player given up at the end?

Had they judged themself unable to win, or had they been leaving the professional gamers some last shred of dignity? After all, this was an amateur contender who’d just humiliated the pre-eminent pro-gamers of the world!

This sense of disappointment had remained coiled around Luocheng’s heart for far too long, now. On the day that he walked out of the world of professional gaming, he’d sighed inwardly, thinking he’d never get another chance to face off against that player.

And yet, after so long—after he’d quit being a pro-gamer to be a university student instead—during this crucial attempt to gain a twenty-sixth consecutive victory in Ranked, he’d come across this player again, who’d once left him in such confusion and regret.

He was fully awake now, overcome with a glee he couldn’t contain!

***

‘Excellent. Wonderful. Simply brilliant!

‘I recognize you, though I still don’t know who you are.

‘What I want is to find out which one of us is better, and I’m going to get an answer during this twenty-sixth game!’

Luocheng’s eyes were no longer calm and focused. Instead, they were blazing with a fire that arose from the depths of his soul, tinged with the manic gleam of a man who could no longer be dissuaded.

Let’s decide this!

The duel they missed, more than two years ago… they’d finally settle it today!