Chapter 69: Dancing with Death

“From the way they’re moving, it seems Team Scarlet is intent on a fight. They’re going to have an honest-to-goodness contest of mettle with Team Aviator in the dragon pit!” The MC’s voice boomed across the arena.

Seeing four players from Team Scarlet bounding towards the dragon pit, the chattering in the crowd was quelled. All eyes were fixed on the main screen, unwilling to miss a single moment of this titanic clash.

The mouth of the dragon pit was the tactical high ground. As they were entering the river, the members of Team Aviator looked back and saw Team Scarlet bearing down on them.

There was no hurry to get the Dragon, so they began to dither about the area, drawing in their adversaries.

“They’re picking a fight with us!” Li Sheng, the Jungler who was playing Xin Zhao, was beside himself with anticipation.

“I just don’t get it. They should have straight-up forfeited this game,” Kai Wu crowed in mockery. “Why bother to carry a physically and mentally retarded person through a championship game? They just don’t know their place. They really think they can win 4v5 against us?”

Wu Kai had not forgotten that time when Yin Qin embarrassed him in front of everyone in the Dragon Rising Cyber Café. He could live without everything else, but he would get his dignity back no matter what.

Doing in Huang Yu had been a bit of catharsis for him, but it still wasn’t enough. In this public match, before a live audience of thousands, he’d thoroughly humiliate Team Scarlet. The look he’d see on Yin Qin’s face!

“Olaf, go straight for Twisted Fate. Understand?” Liu Qi commanded.

“Understood!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll grab him!” Wu Kai drawled. “The rest of you just be sure to come in and finish him off.”

***

Both teams met in the river outside the dragon pit.

Ashe’s ulti wasn’t ready yet, so she couldn’t force the fight to start on their terms. It was now a question of when Olaf would use his ulti, or whether Wu Kai would be able to grab somebody with Leona.

Wu Kai knew all the tricks to playing Leona. He positioned her behind the circular walls of the dragon pit, waiting to catch someone from this blind spot.

Twisted Fate was the main damage-dealer on Team Scarlet, so he’d definitely move up to use his skills. Kai’s eyes were locked unwaveringly onto him. One wrong step, and he’d hit E on his keyboard!

***

Razor-sharp Wild Cards whistled through the air, cutting through the brush to reveal Team Aviator’s front-liners, Olaf and Xin Zhao!

In truth, the Wild Cards flew rather slowly, allowing them to be easily dodged with even a modest bit of skill. But with all five members of Team Aviator jumbled together in this section of river, someone was bound to get hit, especially with the cunning trajectories that Yu Luocheng kept finding—there were times when they could clearly see the cards hurtling towards them, but somehow there was no way to get clear in time.

Brand was likewise spamming his own skills, trying to wear down Renekton and Jarvan in front. Although his items were kind of pitiful, and Jarvan and Renekton had both been stocking up on tank equipment, so his damage was nothing compared to Twisted Fate’s Wild Cards.

At fifteen minutes, Twisted Fate had amassed a Lich Bane, a pair of Sorcerer’s Shoes, a Blasting Wand, and a Doran’s Ring. One might as well use ‘extravagant’ to describe the state of his equipment. He was out-damaging both Brand and Ashe combined.

Team Aviator’s captain Liu Qi found this rate of damage to be somewhat preposterous. He turned to Kai, beside him, and motioned for him to take action.

Wu Kai was a little frustrated: Twisted Fate was juking around really well, denying him a clear shot. If anything, those Wild Cards had so far stripped him of one-third of his health!

Since his team captain was ordering him to just get in there and mix it up, he couldn’t dawdle around any longer.

He ignored everyone except Twisted Fate, and when his target moved up for another shot, Kai hit the D key!

Bamf!

He used his Flash, so that Leona appeared out of thin air, resplendent in her gleaming golden armor!

Solar Flare! With a great battle-cry, Leona raised her golden sword into the air!

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Instantly, a blazing beam of sunlight lanced through the river bed, with Twisted Fate right at its center!

The ‘Solar Flare’ caused one of two disabling effects: getting struck by the narrow central beam meant being Stunned; getting caught anywhere else within its vast area of effect would drastically Slow down an enemy.

Obviously, Wu Kai was aiming to Stun the enemy team’s ace, Twisted Fate!

“Leona has forced a team fight! Twisted Fate is in danger!” the MC hollered.

This roused everyone in the hall. Everyone was aware that Twisted Fate was the cornerstone of this 4v5 game. If he fell right at the start of a fight, Team Scarlet would have no hope against Team Aviator… and if they lost this team fight, it would be the beginning of the end, essentially GG!

The view on the screen snapped to Twisted Fate. Everyone watched as the Solar Flare went off right at his feet, almost setting his coat ablaze!

Wu Kai had deployed his ultimate skill perfectly: he’d deliberately placed it slightly behind Twisted Fate!

This meant that if Twisted Fate instinctively pulled back, he’d suffer a direct hit from the ultimate. If instead he continued forwards, that too was fine—Leona was ready to catch him with her Zenith Blade, and pounce right onto him!

Yu Luocheng’s very next step was critical. If he made the wrong move, the enemy would be on top of him immediately!

Backward, or forward?

It was a matter of life or death. Everyone watching had their heart in their throat!

***

Twisted Fate stepped back, retreating towards his teammates!

With this move, he dodged the Stun effect at the center, but there was simply no way for him to get clear of the whole area of effect—he was Slowed down!

With neither Flash nor any mobility skills, being Slowed put him in mortal peril—especially with Leona brandishing her sword right in his face!

A wicked leer spread across Kai’s face. Twisted Fate was already done for.

Zenith Blade!

Leona thrust her radiant longsword forward, and a line of searing golden light shot forth, stabbing towards Twisted Fate!

He’d used the skill at point-blank range. For the average player to evade the Stun at the center of the ‘Solar Flare’ was a rare enough occurrence—but it was impossible to dodge this Zenith Blade now.

As the lance of light cut through the air, Twisted Fate, having just taken a step backward, immediately followed with a step to the right!

This moved him in a perpendicular direction away from the path of Leona’s ‘Zenith Blade’, the most beautiful sidestep in all of the League of Legends!

What does it mean to ‘sidestep’ something ? ¹

A ‘sidestep’ maneuver is best used against straight-line skillshots, such as Lux’s ‘Light Binding’, Blitzcrank’s ‘Rocket Grab’, Thresh’s ‘Death Sentence’, Lee Sin’s ‘Sonic Wave’, and so on.

When an opponent uses such skills against you, advancing or retreating directly will result in you getting hit.

But if instead you move sideways—relative to your attacker—you can dodge these kinds of skillshots completely with just a tiny step to the side!

Becoming proficient at side-stepping requires tremendous amounts of practice, not to mention high-speed judgment in order to predict the probable path of an opponent’s skills.

Stepping smartly to the side, Twisted Fate dodged what would have been a fatal bit of crowd control from Leona!

“Beautiful control!” the MC howled. “Twisted Fate has managed to evade both of Leona’s debilitating crowd-control skills! Wow, do you see that? Even while dodging, Twisted Fate was also drawing a card!”

Targeted by a vicious surprise attack, and Twisted Fate was still able to cut cards on the side… it was skill beyond imagination!