Chapter 66: Dark Omen

(Translator’s Note: Sigh. Now what will I do for Chapter 666…)

Sure enough, as the Stun from Twisted Fate’s golden card wore off, Jarvan came charging in from maximum range, slinging Xin Zhao up into the air.

First a basic attack, and then his W-skill, ‘Golden Aegis’, to slow Xin Zhao down. Hit by multiple disabling effects in a row, now he was the one suffering a double Slow instead—Jarvan had the Red Buff, too.

Twisted Fate and Jarvan continued with only their basic attacks. Having already expended a full skill combo, Brand could only watch helplessly as Xin Zhao was beaten into a bloody pulp.

As his health dwindled away to nothing, Xin Zhao struggled desperately to get away.

One last card—the red one—flew from the Card Master’s fingers, striking Xin Zhao right in the hollow at the back of his head!

One final step away from the safety of his tower, this last, blood-red card from Twisted Fate cut him down in mid-retreat.

A golden ‘300’ floated up into the air. Yu Luocheng accepted it graciously.

Twisted Fate was the wild card of this game, and when he took the kill, the entire hall erupted into deafening cheers.

The MC had been watching the whole thing, and his voice trembled as he exclaimed, “Beautiful! A masterful demonstration of the art of counter-ganking! The Team Scarlet Mid-laner pushes his lane ferociously, exposing himself to danger—and inviting the enemy Jungler to attempt a gank on him, since Twisted Fate has no mobility skills!

“Anticipating the ambush, his own Jungler lay in wait beside the Middle lane as well… and when Xin Zhao made his move, they sprung the trap, catching him unprepared!

“By the way, I don’t know if anyone noticed that particularly sweet move: Xin Zhao Flashed in with E, and Twisted Fate dodged with a Flash of his own—and immediately pulled out a golden card!

“That’s right, it was an instant draw! I remember it vividly! I don’t know if that was luck, or intimate familiarity with the champion, to be able to instantly draw a golden card while under such overwhelming pressure, and then team up with Jarvan to take down Xin Zhao!

“What a pity… if that battle had happened ten seconds earlier, it could have been First Blood—just now, while we were watching the fight in Mid, Leona dove the tower down in Bot-lane, giving her life to take down Renekton.”

The MC was obviously a skilled LoL player himself. After he’d pointed out this particular detail, even more hooting and howling arose from the thousands-strong crowd.

Instantly drawing a golden card! To many, it was proof of ultimate mastery over the champion!

When playing Twisted Fate, one had to know the order of card rotations: red, yellow, blue, and then repeat. Selecting the card you wanted was a required fundamental.

With a little more practice, you should be able to pick the right card within four rotations at most, even while under enemy attack.

Neither of these techniques were thought to be particularly challenging, and were easily mastered through regular play.

But the ‘instant draw’ demanded superhuman reflexes, because each card would only appear for half a second. In the alarming event of a gank upon yourself, it was a tall order . ¹

And yet, during the gank and counter-gank that had just occurred, Yu Luocheng had produced a golden card with an instant-draw, demonstrating the highest level of mastery over Twisted Fate.

“Hot damn, this guy plays AP like a god, too!” Wang Qin’s admiration of Yu Luocheng had suddenly grown several times over!

Seated amongst the audience, Yang Qianqian watched Yu Luocheng’s puissant skill with AP champions with delight. For a moment, she wondered if asking him to play Support for her might be some sort of terrible injustice.

***

That three-hundred gold bonus was a big deal to Yu Luocheng. Even better, killing Xin Zhao meant that he was now enjoying the benefits of a Blue Buff!

This would allow him to use his skills even more profusely!

Back at base, besides getting himself an 860g Blasting Wand, ¹ he was also right upon the cusp of achieving Level 5. Combined with third-tier Wild Cards, the minions would be falling before him like wheat before a scythe.

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Previously, he hadn’t bothered aiming any of his skills at Brand. No matter how confident he was in his juking, Brand had the advantage in any straight-up duel against him. If he managed to get off a single skill combo on Twisted Fate, a single Ignite might be enough to finish the job.

Now, however, Yu Luocheng’s magic damage had surpassed Brand’s. With the Blue Buff in hand, there was no need to face him head-on—as long as he kept pushing the minion wave in his face, Brand would soon be hurting for mana!

“Yu Wong, could you ward both sides for me?” Yu Luocheng said.

Yu Wong’s Evelynn was doing nothing else besides placing wards.

At the moment, Evelynn was only Level 2, and even that was because he’d gone down to absorb some Experience Points from the Bottom lane after Renekton had been slain.

With a ward on either side, Yu Luocheng would be able to push his lane safely. He no longer had Flash on him, now.

He returned to the lane just as a fresh wave of minions was approaching.

Getting up to Level 5 easily, his new third-tier Wild Cards allowed him to clear off the minions handily. What’s more, with the Blue Buff on his side, he could just select red cards to take down the minions even quicker . ¹

Brand had clearly run home to buy items. Sadly for him, by the time he returned, he had already lost out on a half-dozen minions, and had fallen behind by one whole level.

Sha sha sha!

The three Wild Cards spread out as they spiraled gracefully through the air, slashing a path through the minions, and nicking Brand as well . ¹

Each time he flung out his Wild Cards, Yu Luocheng tried to find a good shot to whittle away some of Brand’s health.

Brand was just using his skills entirely on the minions. A few times he’d made to attack Twisted Fate, but the Card Master had cunningly maintained a cautious distance from him. Brand had managed to score a few glancing hits, but it was nothing compared to the damage he was taking from those Wild Cards.

“Let’s take a look at the Creep Scores…” the MC decided to look at things from a financial perspective.

“Kayle’s got 43 up Top, and has obviously been putting pressure on her opponent Olaf, who’s only picked up 30 so far.

“Down in the Bottom lane, Renekton’s only gotten 19 minions so far—it’s a sad sight. On the other side, Ashe has 45, putting her parallel with Kayle.

“As for Mid—wow, this Twisted Fate knows his basics! The game is approaching its seventh minute now, and he’s already got a Creep Score of 60! If I’m not mistaken, there will only be a total of sixty minions down the Mid-lane by the seventh minute. Including the Raptors camp he cleared out earlier, this suggests that he hasn’t missed more than a handful of minions so far!

“Although I’m not absolutely certain I’ve got the right numbers, we can see that Brand has only got 43 CS in comparison—to be 17 minions ahead of Brand, just seven minutes into the game, it’s astounding!”

Many players don’t pay much attention to the Creep Scores, nor do they keep track of expected tallies at various points in the game.

The fact of the matter was that a lead of 17 minions was roughly equivalent to a champion kill. In addition to the kill Xin Zhao had given him not too long ago, even if neither one of the Mid-laners scored a kill against the other for a while, Yu Luocheng’s Twisted Fate had already secured a tremendous economic advantage over the enemy Brand.

“And now, Twisted Fate has his ultimate skill. Perhaps he’ll go help out one of the other lanes,” the MC suggested. “Sigh, playing 4v5 is a real dilemma, otherwise he could casually stroll down to the Bottom lane and pick up a kill for himself; as it stands, all he’s got to work with down there is a stunted runt of a crocodile.”

***

At seven minutes and a half, Yu Luocheng kept eyeing the two-thirds of health Brand had remaining.

Clearing off another wave of minions, Brand now moved to the right, and disappeared into the fog of war.

Yu Luocheng’s eyes lit up, scanning the long, narrow path between the enemy’s Blue Buff and their Mid tower.

7:30. In truth, Yu Luocheng had been eagerly awaiting this point of the game! One could even say that the moment he selected Twisted Fate, he’d prepared a card which bespoke the darkest omens!

It was a card which would come into play between the seventh and eighth minute…

… and spell the doom of the enemy’s AP champion!