On TES's side, everyone was likewise staring intently at their top laner. Though his HP was low and his dual resistance had been reduced, as long as Qing Tian's Kennen could land a solid ult, they might still have a chance to wipe them in one team fight!
Luo Zhen could no longer determine where the enemy Kennen was.
There was simply too much information on the battlefield right now. He fired his ult toward his own top laner and jungler, gave a heal to the Azir standing beside him, cast his W skill on the nearby Leona, then locked his attention firmly on the center of the battlefield.
He had to enter the fight.
But before that, he had to trigger his passive.
TES had too many Control Skills. Without the speed boost from his passive to smooth things over, a Jinx entering the fight at normal speed would be nothing but a target. So he used every possible way to Steal Assist, then suppressed every impulse and waited.
Waited for his teammates to create an opportunity for him to clean up.
Rookie could no longer hold back and started dealing damage. V5's two Big Carries could not both stand by and watch. No matter what, one of them had to join the damage output; otherwise, their top laner and jungler trying to hold the enemies down would just be a one-sided sacrifice.
At the same time, he was watching the enemy HP bars.
At the moment, the easiest enemy to kill seemed to be the opposing Leona. But Leona had still not used her ult. Thinking of Kennen, Rookie's expression darkened.
Where was he?
Where exactly was Qing Tian's Kennen?
Every second counted. If they let the enemy Kennen slip in because they were too focused on the pressure of the frontal battlefield, this team fight would end in a crushing defeat. Rookie was getting anxious, but he could only keep attacking the enemy in front of him.
Zhuo's Leona raised her hand and cast her ult, setting its landing point beneath the distant Jinx. Luo Zhen, who had been watching the frontal battlefield for a chance to enter, failed to react in time. He moved instinctively, but only avoided the stun at the center.
The slow landed!
Seeing that, Qing Tian went in.
Flash, Lightning Strike, Stirring Rod.
With acceleration and two mobility tools at his disposal, he was confident he could charge into the enemy Backline and unleash a perfect ult. At the most heated moment of the frontal battle, Qing Tian decisively pressed all three skills.
His target was the Jinx at the very back.
This time, no damned bomb would stop his entry.
Just as Kennen transformed into lightning, used Flash Over Wall, and attempted to unleash a sky full of thunder—
"Clang!~"
A Dark Green grappling hook shot out from the shadows and firmly halted Kennen's advance.
Q—Death Sentence.
No one had expected that, at the brink of collapse, it would be the support PPGOD who pulled V5 back from the edge.
"Holy shit, Diao Shen!!!"
Seeing Kennen caught by the hook, Luo Zhen's heart truly skipped half a beat. Fortunately, he reacted quickly, throwing his E skill at the spot where Kennen had been hooked before immediately switching weapons and beginning to Kite.
"Stop shouting. When you're playing AD, just look forward. Leave everything else to us, understand?"
PPGOD followed with the Second Q. He had decided to tie down the enemy top laner completely. Twenty-eight full minutes of silence—Luo Zhen was not the only one suffering under pressure. PPGOD himself had also failed to produce any standout performance until now.
This hook was called redemption!
"How is that possible?!" Qing Tian's eyes widened as he stared at the scene before him in disbelief.
When Leona's ult had successfully slowed Jinx, he had practically believed this entry was guaranteed. But why was there a Thresh hook waiting at the spot where his Flash landed?
Then something even more terrifying happened.
Accepting that his entry had been controlled, Qing Tian decisively activated his ult the moment he broke free. This ult was no longer for engaging; it was to protect his own low-HP support, Leona.
As long as Leona did not die, and he still had Zhonya's Hourglass, Jinx's passive would not trigger. Their teammates would definitely be able to escape this Baron fight unscathed.
Qing Tian had already prepared himself to make the sacrifice.
Yet Jinx, who should have been his target, showed no intention of dealing with him at all. Instead, she kept running toward the center of the team fight.
She looked as though she were waiting for something.
What was he doing?
Did he not know he could no longer catch his own Backline?
Without triggering your passive, how could you possibly catch your teammates?
Wait!
Triggering the passive?
He seemed to realize something, and the disbelief in his eyes grew even heavier.
That was it.
A Gwen without her W skill and an underfed Trundle had no way to deal with TES's Backline in a two-versus-three.
And Kennen and Leona's Combo Skill had indeed successfully prevented their composition's core from getting started.
But there was still hope, wasn't there?
Just when everyone thought this team fight was about to settle, Rookie, who had been holding the battlefield together from the middle, suddenly turned his blade. He used an EQ Combo and flew straight toward Leona within the Heavenly Thunder zone.
"Rookie—what is Rookie doing?"
Watching this incomprehensible scene, the commentators outside could no longer restrain their emotions and leaned on the desk as they shouted.
"That's Heavenly Thunder!"
Amid the commentators' roars, he charged straight into Kennen's Lightning Cage.
Then, the Sand Soldiers struck!
V5's Rookie killed TES's Zhuo.
When the Kill Prompt finally appeared above Summoner's Rift, Rookie's heart, which had been hanging in the air all this time, finally settled.
Let this be enough.
It may have been a little rushed, but I did everything I could as well as I could. So next...
It's up to you.
Chapter 52: One Battle to Fame!
The moment Gleeful Pleasure's passive triggered, Luo Zhen charged forward without hesitation.
One astounding play after another from his teammates had stunned countless viewers both inside and outside the arena, including Luo Zhen himself. But precisely because of that, he understood even more clearly what those outrageous plays truly meant.
At 175% Movement Speed, he quickly caught up to the three TES players ahead.
Zoe was low on HP, Jhin was in decent condition, and only Viego still looked relatively healthy. It seemed that even though the enemy top laner and jungler had posed no real threat to their lives, they had still dealt considerable damage before dying.
It seemed like the perfect stage for Jinx to clean up.
But Luo Zhen knew that chasing the enemy down was merely bait meant to make them appear weak. If he remembered correctly, Viego had not even used Flash, while Jhin still had a Heal Summoner Skill that he had not used earlier.
The commentators outside had gone completely wild. At last, they understood Rookie's resolve.
He had tried everything, even facing the thunder head-on, all just to trigger Jinx's passive speed boost.
But was it worth it?
"Jinx is running! AK is going in! Can he clean up?!"
In a Street Fight, machine guns, grenades, and rocket launchers were the three ultimate weapons. Though they were in the river rather than an alley, the environment was probably not that different. At least, Luo Zhen did not think it was.
He switched to Cannon Form, aimed at the closest Viego within range, and followed up with Auto Attack fire.
One shot... two shots... three shots.
The damage from a Jinx with a Three Item Set against Viego was considerable. But as she kept firing, the Movement Speed and attack speed granted by Gleeful Pleasure were gradually fading.
Just a little more.
Wait a little longer.
Xiao Tian watched his HP and calculated the timing, his fingers slowly resting over his W skill and Flash. The instant Jinx's passive-enhanced Movement Speed vanished—
"Whoosh~" Flash!
The Control Time did not matter. As long as his W skill landed, the two long-range artillery tanks behind him would definitely be able to follow up with damage and control.
But the instant he landed and swung his weapon, Jinx, who should have been controlled in front of him, quietly vanished, leaving only a patch of white light behind.
Could it be...
Xiao Tian looked at the screen in shock, only to see that Jinx, who should have appeared along her original route, had suddenly appeared on the other side of the river.
Flash for Flash!
Having watched Viego's every move from start to finish, how could Luo Zhen not have anticipated this?
Of course, if he remembered correctly, professional players often liked to calculate their timing and throw out lethal skills in waves. Even at the instant he landed, Luo Zhen maintained the sharpest possible awareness.
Jhin's range was insufficient, Viego's Flash and W skill were gone, so the only thing left that could threaten him was Zoe's little poke.
Yet ahead of him, Knight's Zoe vanished from sight once again.
Did he hide?
Thinking back over the entire game, Kngiht's Zoe had always played the role of an assassin picking people off. Over the twenty-something minutes of the game, he had given Luo Zhen several deadly threats.
Should he gamble?
He could give up the chase and stay to deal with Viego. There was still a risk of Zoe ambushing him, but with Baron Buff, the enemy was more likely to abandon their jungler and preserve the buff. Even in the worst case, stopping here meant he only had to face Viego rather than risk being Counter Killed by the enemy Double C.
Luo Zhen pressed his lips together, his grip on the mouse in his Right Hand growing tighter and tighter.
Though he had always played the cowardly, useless role of merely surviving until now.
This time—
I don't want to live, and I don't want to lose!
Gale Force activated.
This trump card Luo Zhen had kept hidden all along finally showed its worth at the last moment. Its direction pointed straight toward the bend by the upper river Dragon pit.
As he dashed forward, a blue Control Ward dropped into the Tri-bush.
The low-HP Zoe, who had vanished earlier, was completely exposed in Luo Zhen's vision. Knight froze. He clearly remembered that there was no vision around here, and before entering, he had confirmed that he was beyond the enemy Blind Spot. But why... did they know he was here?
Snapping back from his panic, Knight hurriedly threw out an E skill in an attempt to stun him. But without a wall to use as a medium, Zoe's E skill was simply too slow. Far too slow.
He sidestepped it, fired an Auto Attack, and the low-HP mage could not withstand the damage of a Three Item Set Jinx. Before dying, he could only force out a short-range Paddle Star and deal his final burst of damage.
V5's AK killed TES's Knight.
Gleeful Pleasure triggered again!
Not enough, still not enough.
Leona and Kennen were dead. Viego was being chased by his teammates, and those who had entered the fight late would help hold Xiao Tian's Viego down. They needed a full wipe. If they killed them all, then at thirty minutes, with nearly fifty seconds of Respawn time, they might have enough time to push straight down mid and finish at the crystal.
Where was he?
Where was JKL?
Where was that half-HP Jhin?
From beginning to end, everything had happened in only a few seconds. The enemy could not have gone far, so... the place he might be—
There was no time for extra hesitation. Luo Zhen fired a Shockwave into the Blind Spot along top lane. With a sharp "zzt," the Shockwave struck Jhin, who was hiding there and recalling at high speed.
"Found you."
Accelerating, advancing, firing Auto Attacks.
Seeing that he could not escape, JKL simply chose to trade shots with Luo Zhen on the spot. A Three Item Set Jhin—if he could land even one critical shot, this one-versus-one was not impossible.
So JKL pressed Heal.
A duel with their fates on the line had begun.
From long-range bombardment to close-range shooting, from cannon to machine gun, from full HP to low HP.
Unfortunately, this time, the god of critical hits no longer favored JKL.
It favored Jinx.
When Jinx took the last three hundred HP with a red critical damage number, JKL felt his vision go dark. He was not dwelling on the outcome of the critical-hit mechanic, but rather... ashamed that, for Baron Buff, he had given up on joining his teammates in the first counterattack.
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