Chapter 277: Traitor

“It’s like Blood Eagle has always been a Top main! Look at that impeccable farming! He’s five CS ahead, and Kennen seems helpless to do anything about it!” Zhang Aijing continued to lead the commentary.

According to her Individual Ability Index (IAD), Zhao Tinghua held as much as eight points. As a main-line Jungler, he should be having some trouble in the Top lane, so that his performance should only appear to be worth approximately seven points on the Index.

Da Luo himself had only ever gotten six points on Aijing’s IAD. A difference of one point would be seen in each player’s gold totals.

It seemed there would be no need for her to revise her estimates.

At ten minutes, both players were drawing close to 100 CS. Da Luo could see that Tinghua was still calmly farming. The way things were going, his Darius would undoubtedly be the first to reach the goal.

He had to do something. If he couldn’t regain control of this game, then it would be his defeat.

Both champions were at Level 8, and well on their way to Level 9. Neither had yet to use their ultimate skills.

It wasn’t that Da Luo was losing control over his patience—the problem was that he was losing the game.

He watched Blood Eagle closely, searching for his chance. Tinghua’s farming skills were solid, and he largely ignored Kennen’s harassment. Those defensive Runes of his were working too well. Kennen was mediocre at both Attack Damage as well as Ability Power, so it was hard for him to deal any real damage to Darius. Furthermore, if he was any more aggressive than this, Darius could very well hook him in and get off another skill combo!

At last, Da Luo could hold back no longer. This next wave of minions would definitely give away that 100 CS!

Circling around to the side, Kennen managed to pull off a Stun, and then he immediately activated his ulti!

Activating ‘Slicing Maelstrom’ after his opponent had already been Stunned, it was perfectly possible to trigger a second Stun. If he could do that, victory would be within his grasp.

Already burning from Ignite, Darius’s health plummeted within the howling lightning storm. Barely a moment later, he was suddenly down to his last quarter of health.

Glancing at Darius’s health bar, Da Luo’s expression turned grim. He’d done a lot less damage than he’d expected.

Darius was packing too much Magic Resist—he’d even bought a Hexdrinker! Revising his estimates hurriedly, Da Luo gauged that after all the damage he could deal over this double-Stun duration, Darius would still have five hundred HP left. From there, Da Luo could only hope for the best.

The shield from Hexdrinker sprang up, absorbing a portion of the incoming damage. Darius didn’t retreat, even though his health had now fallen to the last five hundred points.

Q: Decimate!

Then a basic attack, followed by W to deal a ‘Crippling Strike’, and then another basic attack!

That was two stacks of ‘Hemorrhage’, inflicting continuous damage.

(Translator’s Note: ‘Hemorrhage’ is Darius’s innate skill, which grants extra bonuses at five stacks. Yes, I know it should be at four stacks now. You’ll see in a moment where the mistake is coming from.)

E: Apprehend!

This pulled Kennen over to him. Another basic attack, and Hemorrhage was at three stacks now!

Yet another attack. Four stacks!

Decimate! Darius managed to hit with the outer edge of the area-of-effect—the axe blade—dealing a bonus 50% damage!

“Four stacks! Darius adds another stack of Hemorrhage for each basic attack he lands, and each stack raises the damage of his ultimate skill ‘Noxian Guillotine’ by 20%! Four stacks means a damage increase of 80%, so if Darius uses it now… and Kennen’s already expended his Flash…”

As Aijing prattled away on rapid-fire to keep up with the action, Darius suddenly Flashed forward, catching up to the fleeing Kennen, and hit him with one more basic attack!

Five stacks!

That was five stacks of Darius’s innate skill, bringing the Hand of Noxus to the apex of his might!

Five stacks of Hemorrhage!

Da Luo glanced at Kennen’s health bar. The color drained out of his face.

Despite only having five hundred health left, Darius hadn’t retreated, and had instead managed to inflict five stacks of Hemorrhage on him!

Da Luo knew there was no longer any hope of escape for him. After ‘Noxian Guillotine’ came out, the following Ignite and Bleeding damage was guaranteed to finish off what little health remained. The only thing he could do was hurl another Shuriken, and try to bring Darius down with him!

“Hah!” The massive battle-axe was hoisted high into the air, and then came whistling down towards Kennen.

Da Luo knew there was no point in trying to dodge that. Kennen boldly stood his ground and unleashed all his skills at Darius!

Every skill hit, but Da Luo had still miscalculated the damage slightly—he still needed to land one more attack in order to kill Darius!

But he had already run out of time.

As Kennen drew out that final throwing star, he succumbed to the Bleeding and the Ignite.

Darius had less than fifty HP left, but he stood in place, unmoving—as though he already knew that last attack could never be made.

First Blood!

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The burst damage from Kennen had taken away three-quarters of Darius’s health. Fighting on with that last scrap of life, Darius had done even worse in return over a short few seconds. With a single combo, he’d taken Kennen down for the count, everything perfectly calculated.

It had been so close…

Just one attack short.

But that was all the difference between victory and defeat!

“That was a close one! Both champions very nearly ended up killing off one another. Both players really know how to bring the pain with their respective champions, how to get the most effect out of all their skills. Blood Eagle was one step ahead in the end, but it had been a near thing. If Kennen had gotten off just one more attack on him… it leaves one in a cold sweat, just thinking about it!” Qi Qiao commented.

This solo duel hadn’t been a scene of constant battle. Tinghua had used an unexpected strategy to gain control of the lane, and then patiently waited for Kennen to lash out, so that he could unleash a deadly counter-attack!

“I’m sure everyone noticed that after he used his ulti, Darius just stopped moving completely. He didn’t even bother to get himself away from Kennen. If I’m not mistaken—and you’re probably all thinking the same thing—Blood Eagle probably made the precise judgement that he would have enough health to survive, and that Kennen wouldn’t be able to get out that last attack in time.” This was from Aijing.

As a professional analyst, she could catch even the tiniest details. She refused to believe that Tinghua would have just stood there and let Kennen bring the duel to a draw!

Playing in the Top lane necessitated exact judgements of health and damage.

However, after Aijing highlighted this fine little detail, many in the audience were stupefied: Could pro players really predict the outcome of combat to such a degree? It was a notion that beggared belief.

***

Da Luo stepped away from the computer with an ashen face.

Tinghua’s professional gaming career revolved mainly around Jungling. He hadn’t expected him to be this good a Top-laner, too.

He’d lost, by the difference of one basic attack. He’d been too hasty. If he’d waited a little longer, things might have turned out differently.

But there was no denying that he’d been defeated, after all.

***

Lin Dong patted Da Luo on the shoulder. “Hey, don’t mind it. He’s never taken a break from professional-level training; meanwhile, we’ve been away for a long time.”

Da Luo nodded, but he didn’t have anything to say. He knew full well what an amazing player Tinghua was. They’d met before in the Ionia server. When Tinghua didn’t get the Jungler position, he’d play Top.

Moreover, if Da Luo wasn’t mistaken, Tinghua played all the roles in high-tier Ranked games.

“He’s formidable in the Top lane as well. Watch out: He doesn’t play Mages. He usually goes AD in Mid,” Da Luo warned.

Lin Dong nodded. He usually played in the US region, so he’d never faced Blood Eagle in the Middle lane before, while playing in the upper tiers of Ranked.

***

“No doubt everyone knows that Blood Eagle is a skilled player. For Team Skycrown’s Lone Gull to be able to force such a close fight against him is proof that they’re not small-time themselves. Of course, dueling ability is not everything. Let’s ask our analyst, Zhang Aijing: From your own point of view, how much does victory in a solo duel say about an individual player’s abilities?” Qi Qiao was stirring up the mood in the arena.

“Individual combat ability is only one out of four fundamental pillars of a player’s abilities,” Aijing replied. “To truly judge the worth of a player, one must consider all these elements.”

“Alright. Now, the Blood Eagle is preparing to take on the second challenger from Team Skycrown,” Qi Qiao prepared to resume the show. “We’ve talked about this guy already, the one who has a spot in the Hall of Fame in the US region’s Ranked play. That should tell you everything you need to know about how good he is.

“We all know that Blood Eagle is the best Jungler in the nation, and we’ve just seen how good he is in the Top lane as well. How well does he play Mid? Let’s all find out together!”

As he stepped onto the stage, Lin Dong turned back to address his teammates: “It sucks to be used as a punching bag, just for one guy to show off how good he is at everything.”

And then Lin Dong made his way across the stage.

Indeed, Team Skycrown had just been victorious, claiming their place within the LPL. It felt like Tinghua was doing this on purpose, issuing them this challenge so that he could utterly humiliate them in their moment of triumph.

It was a terrible sensation.

And yet, although they knew that they would be no match for Zhao Tinghua right now, retreat was absolutely out of the question.

***

“Are you just going to let him have his way like this?” Zhou Yan asked Yu Luocheng.

Luocheng had been silent all this while.

Did Zhao Tinghua really want his crown so badly? If it mattered to him so much, why had he been so ardent at defending Luocheng’s throne back then, never brooking the slightest provocation?

What he was really after was some means to well and truly hurt Luocheng.

Tinghua needed to do something wicked to him, something to appease the vengeful fire burning within his heart.

Faced with the unabashed ferocity of his wrath, Luocheng’s mind was in turmoil.

He couldn’t make sense of it. Zhao Tinghua used to be his most trusted, most faithful friend. Now he was strutting about, carrying himself like some kind of villain, seething with fire and brimstone… Had he forgotten that the one thing Luocheng couldn’t abide by was seeing his own teammates being insulted?

Or perhaps that was exactly where his intentions lay—he was deliberately aiming to incite Luocheng’s fury.

Luocheng couldn’t deny it any further: Seeing Da Luo leave the stage beaten and dejected, with Tinghua sneering after him… it filled his heart with rage!