Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Jarvan used EQ together, and this combo was deadly if Lee Sin could follow up with his own combo. They could definitely take away at least one-third of Graves’ health!
Flash and avoided!
Luocheng had Flashed toward the wall. As long as there was something blocking, you wouldn’t be able to see without a ward.
Lee Sin and Jarvan both lost sight of Graves, and Graves used this opportunity to attack twice!
“Ha!”
Once Lee Sin regained vision, he immediately sent out a Shock Wave! The white wave flew true and straight, carrying Lee Sin’s powerful inner strength!
Luocheng smirked, knowing that the kick was coming. His fingers slammed on the E key, activating Quickdraw. Graves’ cloak flew up, and he sidestepped smoothly. Shock Wave grazed his shoulder slightly.
It missed!
Lee Sin had been confident that his Shock Wave would hit and had already prepared to follow up with Resonating Kick, but instead, ended up immobilized at the spot where he stood.
While he was stuck, Graves’ assault came and was followed up by Collateral Damage, taking away the last bit of health from Lee Sin.
Godlike!
Once Jarvan saw Lee Sin had been killed, his face became black. Most of the damage came from Lee Sin, and Jarvan’s attack on Graves could easily be recovered by Graves’ lifesteal!
Jarvan felt something was wrong and decided to retreat. Graves had yet to activate his Blade of the Ruined King as he had been keeping it in case Lee Sin landed a kick. Once he activated it, Jarvan’s movement speed slowed down.
Graves eagerly hurried to follow up with an assault, several critical hits landing on Jarvan’s body.
Bang!
Once Quickdraw’s cooldown refreshed, his speed increased and Graves’ assault became more terrifying. Jarvan’s defense couldn’t withstand it!
Bang!
The rifle in his hand came up, three bullets fired out. While the bullets flew through the air, Luocheng had already turned back.
He didn’t need to look, the bullets would definitely hit and Jarvan would die.
Legendary!
Following the system announcement, Jarvan could only watch as Graves’ cloak swayed with the wind as he stepped over Lee Sin’s body and headed toward his teammates to regroup.
Even with the two of them, they couldn’t kill Graves. They were definitely losing this fight already.
At this moment, Graves was like a harvesting boss. It was initially supposed to be an easy fight, but the moment Graves stepped foot into it, the tides were immediately turned!
***
“Ace! It’s an Ace!”
Qianqian’s face was red with excitement as she shouted, unable to hold it in.
A mad rifle, a leather trench coat, and tousled hair, the Outlaw Graves gave off an arrogant and domineering aura, unstoppable!
Ping! Ping! Ping!
His teammates were pinging the Baron Pit like mad. His own team only had three champions still alive and the fight happened near Baron Pit. They could take it!
Luocheng didn’t head towards Baron, instead rushing toward mid lane, typing out, “Let’s go all in.”
All in, all the way to the Nexus?
His teammates immediately protested.
“There isn’t enough time.” Orianna said.
“It’s enough, trust me.” Luocheng replied.
In a normal game, once your teammates were against your directions and you were just a mediocre player, then it was impossible to get the trust of your teammates. Everyone has their own way of thinking and their own judgement, as long as your ability was above theirs, only then would you be able to get them to listen to you!
Luocheng was already Legendary and he had gained the trust of his teammates!
“Alright, all in!” Orianna and Xin Zhao followed Luocheng into the opponent’s base…
There was a creep wave already heading toward the inner part of the base. With Graves’ speed, adding on Quickdraw’s speed effect, it would take just a few seconds to dispose of the inner tower.
Bang!
The inner tower was down, straight to the Inhibitor!
Bang!
The Inhibitor crumbled and the creep wave continued their march toward the second inner tower. Orianna, Xin Zhao, and Graves took down the towers fast, and the last two inner tower were about to go down!
“They…They’re resurrecting soon.” Qianqian said from the side, her heart beating fast in her chest.
When everyone was playing, they definitely felt this kind of feeling when turning the game around. The feeling of being overly concerned by the resurrection of the opponent champions.
Because once they had resurrected and you still hadn’t taken down the towers, they could easily overpower and kill you, and it was possible that they could instead go all in and make it to your base!
His teammates were all looking at the countdown of the opponent champions. Luocheng didn’t even use Tab to check, just concentrating on hitting the tower.
His teammates were counting down in the chat.
“Seven seconds!”
“Six seconds!”
“We won’t make it, we can still leave!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
His teammates were pinging him like crazy to retreat and the sounds of the pings made Qianqian panic even more. Was this going to be like the LeCheng final match?
Luocheng on his Lux Support had pentakilled the whole opposing team but due to the Super Minions destroying the Nexus in the end, it had shattered their chances of turning the game around.
And this time, Luocheng was in the opponent’s base and they were resurrecting in a few seconds. Would he fail once again?
This panicked feeling almost stopped her heart, and something felt stuck in her throat. Luocheng’s expression didn’t change however, and he totally ignored his teammates ping for retreat. Even when Orianna and Xin Zhao showed signs of obvious hesitation, he still concentrated on hitting the opponent’s Nexus.
Resurrected!
With Homeguard, the opponent champions rushed out from the fountain.
Orianna and Xin Zhao knew they couldn’t escape anymore, so they were determined to at least land a few more hits on the Nexus.
Bang!
Bang!
With every bullet released, Luocheng moved consistently, and using the opponent Nexus as an obstacle, he managed to obtain a few moments more!
***
Lee Sin was alive again!
Lee Sin still had his ulti and he sent Luocheng flying with one kick!
Bang!
One shot.
Bang!
Another shot.
Two more opponent champions resurrected!
Reposition with Quickdraw!
Bang! Bang!
Attack speed increased, Graves stepped over Orianna and Xin Zhao’s dead bodies to attack!
One last time!
But Lee Sin was already in front of Graves!
One strong kick came his way!
“Hiyak!”
Lee Sin let out a shout, angrily launching a kick at Graves, intending to stop him from that last hit.
Bang!
A bullet flew out from Graves’ rifle just as the kick landed on him and sent him flying. The bullet flew toward the Nexus as Graves flew in the opposite direction, and this felt like it was happening in slow motion…
Suddenly everything halted, only Graves who had some health left was still flying out! The Nexus let out a long screech and after the whirlwind settled down, it broke into pieces!
The pieces of Nexus momentarily filled everywhere…
***
Victory!
Victory!
A thrilling victory!
***
Orianna and Xin Zhao shouldn’t have doubted him…However, luckily they won!
Luocheng’s heart, face and whole body tension melted away, finally relaxing.
“You won! You won!”
Qianqian who had been a nervous wreck was finally able to let loose the tension, joyfully embracing Luocheng from behind. Luocheng felt like he was on cloud nine, turning around to look at Qianqian whose face was flushed with excitement.
Her small face was so close to his, and the small puff of breath coming from her mouth was enticing to him. Gathering the courage brought by the victory game, he leaned forward when she didn’t notice and took her first kiss.
It was wet, slippery and soft all at the same time.
It didn’t taste so bad, but he couldn’t really tell so he did it again. Qianqian was red all the way to her ears, how could this naughty boy steal away her first kiss…at least wait till her eyes were closed!
***
Outside, Lin Dong who was still smoking and having doubts in his heart heard the excited shout from Qianqian.
“Did you hear something?”
“I think I heard something about winning…” Xiao Bei replied.
The two of them halted in their tracks, it wasn’t possible…
Did Luocheng really make a comeback in that last game?
Xiao Bei snapped out of it first, exclaiming, “I told you, Luocheng will definitely make it!”
Lin Dong put out the cigarette he was holding, rushing into the apartment with Xiao Bei. They ran toward the apartment unit, throwing open the main door…
While they were expecting a joyous picture, another scene instead greeted them. Luocheng was still sitting in the chair while Qianqian was licking his neck. Their faces were almost plastered together and they were kissing clumsily, forgetting where they were.
The whole room seemed to be filled with a sweet fragrant smell and behind the couple who were ignoring the world, the sign of victory still floated on the screen.
It seemed like it wasn’t just a celebration of the twenty fifth victory, but also a celebration for Luocheng who had managed to obtain the first kiss from his goddess!
***
After a long moment, the two finally separated, but the sweet scene was not over yet. Only, once they found the two wide eyed people staring at them, Qianqian’s face heated up further all the way to her neck.
“Er…she had something in her eyes, I was helping her to get it out.” Luocheng said, also embarrassed.
He had completely forgotten about the two outside. Really, couldn’t they come a bit later, he hadn’t even gone past first base yet!
Qianqian felt embarrassed as hell, running out of the room like a deer caught in the headlights. Her first time kissing a boy and she had been seen by other people, ah, she needed a place to hide immediately!
“How about we smoke a few more sticks outside?” Lin Dong said, smiling cheekily.
“You’ve already spoiled the mood.” Luocheng sighed. “Whatever, I’m going to queue for the next match. My hands are itching to play now.”
The lingering taste of Qianqian’s lips were still on his, and this was the magic of love, he felt like he was full of power. The next match was the twenty sixth match and also the last one. He would win the twenty sixth match with a bang!
Lin Dong nodded his head solemnly. Boss was boss, thinking back about the times when he lead Team Wings and obtained all the victories in the games that everyone thought was impossible?
The twenty sixth match, he would win, he could do this!
There was only one person in the world who could stop Battle Hawk from achieving victory. However, that person was in England. In this country there was no one else, what more in LoL.
***
Starting the queue for next match!
“Don’t you need to rest for a while?” Lin Dong asked nervously.
“Nope.” Luocheng said, determination in his voice.
Higher elo matchmaking took a longer time, about five minutes, and only after the queue would you enter the ban phase.
It seemed like his teammates knew each other as they were chatting like good friends during the ban phase.
Luocheng was on fourth pick this round and he decided to play ADC. The opponent’s first pick was confident, locking in Vayne immediately.
“Wow, he actually picked Vayne in front of our Luocheng!” Xiao Bei laughed when he saw that the opponent first pick had locked in Vayne.
Lin Dong also nodded, knowing how great Luocheng was on Vayne, he would also be the most familiar and know the weakness of the champion. The lineup for both sides were reasonable, there was crowd control, initiation, and late-game champions. It was basically a national team composition.
There wasn’t much difference in the pros and cons in the line up, so the game would depend on both side’s cooperation, speed, awareness, and the bond of their own team.
Thirty seconds left before entering the twenty-sixth match. Not knowing why and thinking about how crucial this last match was, Lin Dong and Xiao Bei started to get nervous when it entered the loading screen.
If this match was lost, the previous elation they felt would be shattered in a moment.
It really was a situation where you couldn’t calm down no matter what.
***
The screen changed and entered into the loading screen. Ten champion portraits appeared on the screen, their player IDs beneath them.
Xiao Bei scrutinized the opponents IDs, trying to identify if there were any high ranking players from the Ionia Server. His eyes swept across the screen, and while all the names were familiar, he couldn’t tell exactly who it was.
However, there was an unfamiliar ID which was also the first pick from the opponent’s side.
“Lin Dong, do you recognize Shallow Dream?” Xiao Bei asked.
Lin Dong was silent and so was Luocheng. The silence that enveloped the room was quite sudden, and Xiao Bei was startled. Did he say anything wrong?
***
Lin Dong looked at Luocheng solemnly and the latter nodded his head. He knew what Lin Dong was asking without saying it.
“It’s him.”
At this point, Qianqian had calmed herself down and come out from the room. She thought the tense atmosphere was weird and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“The opponent’s first pick is Shallow Dream,” Luocheng said, his voice heavy.
“Shallow Dream? Who is that?” Qianqian asked.
“He was the one holding the record of twenty-five consecutive wins.” Lin Dong’s voice was heavy as well.
Qianqian opened her mouth but no words came out.
“He also played straight on only one account to get the streak, not like us who used multiple accounts,” Luocheng said somberly.
“Luocheng, it’s most likely that his luck was good. To be able to win twenty-five matches consecutively, you have to depend on some luck too.” Xiao Bei reasoned. “There are so many people playing and some of them must have better luck than others, so it’s not certain that his skills are great.”
“Yeah, the records don’t represent their skills, you don’t have to be so nervous.” Qianqian comforted him.
Luocheng shook his head and his face didn’t appear any more relaxed than before.
“I’ve played against him before, he brought down my bot lane. I was solo top then and we lost that match pretty badly.”
“The second match, we were on the same team at bot lane together. I could see his control during the match clearly…”
Pausing for a moment, he continued, “He really is strong, he’s by far the strongest ADC I have ever met!”
The room was plunged into an uncomfortable silence once more. Lin Dong was Luocheng’s friend, and he understood him at a deeper level. In E-sports, it was rare for Luocheng to consider anyone a threat to him.
His failure, although only once, had been an extremely fatal failure.
There were only a few that he felt jealousy and awe toward, and in this country, it was only Hades as the other one was out of the country.
Even though Luocheng was not playing professionally, his heart was that of an E-sports king of the world and it wasn’t easily shaken.
How strong was this Shallow Dream to be able to make Luocheng feel awe and dread about?
***
Deep breaths.
Before this, Luocheng had been hoping that he would once again meet Shallow Dream in hopes that he would be able to make a dream team with him once more. Perhaps even have a match against him to decide who was the better player, but he never once thought that he would meet him again in such a crucial match which was his twenty-sixth match.
It felt like the heavens had arranged this…
***
The screen changed and entered into Summoner’s Rift.
Luocheng bought his items and headed into the jungle, typing a message quickly into the chat.
“Shallow Dream, we meet again. I was the Thresh previously, F-Hawk, do you remember?”
“Yeah…” A short reply came back.
Waiting for another ten seconds or so, Shallow Dream typed out another sentence which made Luocheng freeze.
***
“Why not use Fighting Hawk as your ID? Nevertheless, I’m happy to be able to play against you again even if it’s not DOTA.”
F-Hawk was the name that Luocheng had used as his ID in the past. It was taken from his Chinese ID—Fighting Hawk, the F representing Fighting!
Luocheng only used this ID in the World Championship because they required an English ID. However, he didn’t expect Shallow Dream to recognize him!
Who?
Who is Shallow Dream?!
How did he know that he was Fighting Hawk?!
Yu Luocheng’s eyes widened and he couldn’t help but stare at the chatbox on the screen…
Why did the message give him such a familiar feeling, as though he should know the person, and it was one of those that gave him such a feeling of dread!
The only person who could speak Chinese was only Hades from Team Daemon! However, Team Daemon’s ADC was Asmodai…
***
“Boss, he…he actually knows you.” Lin Dong said, his face also looked shocked.
Luocheng’s heart grew heavier as the moments passed. The last time he met Shallow Dream, and now he had met him again.
He knew that he was Fighting Hawk, and Luocheng was certain that he was one of the people that he feared the most.
He was coincidentally also an opponent in the twenty-sixth match!
It really felt like heaven had arranged this match up.
Shallow Dream had chosen Vayne, and Luocheng had chosen Ezreal. These two champions were once the leading champions in LoL’s ADC era, and they were also fated to be enemies in LoL.
‘So it’s a fated battle huh?’ Yu Luocheng thought to himself.
Although…
How long has it been since he had felt like this?
Nervousness, excitement, and the racing of his heart which was anticipating a good challenge, coupled together with awe from the depth of his soul. All of these feelings made his hands start to tremble and his blood boil with anticipation!
These feelings were only felt when he was on the world’s stage, and he felt nostalgic and somewhat sorrowful.
Asking for a fight?
That’s great, he couldn’t ask for more!
