"This just got rough."
WE's bot lane duo both felt a little deflated.
Once a champion like Kalista got ahead, she could snowball incredibly easily.
Plenty of people knew about Draven, but few realized that Kalista could snowball just as hard.
Draven's pick rate was at least respectable.
Kalista's pick rate? 0.43%!
With a pick rate that low, most people were bound to know very little about the champion.
And things played out exactly as they feared.
After Lu Chen recalled, topped himself up, and bought Berserker's Greaves, he returned to lane and started hopping right into their faces without a care!
Once Kalista got ahead, anyone who knew how to play her could stop the enemy from farming altogether!
Especially after buying Berserker's Greaves, which made the rhythm of her auto attacks and hops incredibly smooth.
If you dared step up to farm, she dared hop into your face!
Worse still, WE's duo were down both summoner spells. They had absolutely no hope of winning a fight.
That made farming increasingly miserable for Mystic. Varus's Q had a fairly long cooldown early on; trying to farm with Q alone was wishful thinking.
Within just five minutes, he was already more than a dozen CS behind!
For a moment, Mystic once again remembered the terror of being dominated by that same player in Ranked!
"I'm coming to gank him!" Condi stared hard at his screen. "Just hold on!"
He had been stewing ever since that level-one play!
It felt awful!
He was playing Gragas, yet the enemy ADC had stolen his blue!
Not only was it humiliating, it had also utterly wrecked Condi's early jungle tempo. Ning Wang kept invading his jungle, and he didn't even dare fight back. All he could do was turn away and farm other camps.
"I'm here! I'm here!"
Condi guided his potbellied Gragas from his own Blue Buff jungle into the Tri-brush to the left of the Outer Turret.
Ever since Blast Cones were introduced in the S7 preseason update, skilled red-side junglers had liked waiting in this spot when ganking bot.
It was difficult for enemy wards to spot them there, and they could use the Blast Cone to hop down into the river for a surprise gank.
Kalista's W Sentinel was patrolling toward the Dragon Pit at the time, so naturally, it couldn't spot Condi.
Just as expected.
The enemy Kalista kept pushing without restraint, as though she had completely dismissed the possibility of a jungle gank.
Mystic and Ben also pretended to be terrified, backing away over and over.
When the minion wave was about to reach the turret-
"Kill him!"
Condi shouted, then immediately hit the Blast Cone to jump into the river and circle behind them.
Mystic only had time to offer one warning. "Xiang Renjie, watch out for this guy's movement."
Ben had learned his lesson too. He no longer considered empowering Q with R, since it would miss anyway. Instead, he empowered E, shielding both himself and his teammate and giving them a movement speed boost, then turned and charged toward the enemy Kalista.
Lu Chen and Baolan were surrounded in an instant.
"I've got TP. I can TP," TheShy called.
"No need," Lu Chen said calmly. "Three of them can't kill us."
"Oh, IG have pushed much too far forward here," Miller chimed in right on cue. "They'll have to sacrifice one of them, won't they?"
Wawa added, "If Kalista dies here, all that pressure she applied earlier will have been for nothing!"
As the casters finished speaking-
Condi's Gragas made the first move, thrusting his huge belly forward with E!
As expected, Kalista launched an auto attack and hopped to the right.
At this rate, Gragas's E would miss completely.
"Hit, damn it!" Condi was utterly focused and immediately pressed Flash.
He was at the peak of his career, after all. He still had the reflexes for this.
Before the eyes of every caster and spectator, Gragas used E-Flash, instantly appearing in the direction of Kalista's hop!
If he landed the hit, Kalista was dead!
Even both summoner spells wouldn't save her!
Yet in that split second, a golden light flashed around Kalista too-Flash!
"Holy shit!" Condi's expression turned to utter disbelief. "It missed?"
He could react to even that?
"Gragas with the E-Flash! Kalista gets-huh?"
Miller's eyes widened too. "Kalista Flashed as well! Gragas missed his ability!"
Wawa sounded equally incredulous. "What a reaction from Chen Yu! He can even dodge Gragas's E-Flash?"
"Baolan, turn! Engage on Varus first," Lu Chen ordered. His hands never stopped moving as he turned and auto-attacked Varus.
"On it!" Baolan's Alistar charged in with a Q-W combo, then activated E.
Condi could only take a frustrated swig with W and try to poke and slow Kalista with Q.
But after dodging the crucial crowd control, Lu Chen had already begun his show once again: endless hops!
Gragas's Q missed!
Karma's Q missed!
Varus's Q missed!
Even after Kalista had landed several auto attacks, Gragas could only chase behind her, still unable to land his W-empowered auto attack!
In just a few seconds, Mystic dropped below half health.
As Varus, he had no mobility and neither summoner spell. Even if he wanted to run, he couldn't!
Once Alistar's E had charged up, Baolan landed an auto attack on Varus, stunning him and triggering Kalista's W passive. The hit knocked two whole bars off Varus's health!
He was in execute range.
Lu Chen first planted a spear in the Gragas trailing him, then pressed E to rip the spears out.
Shhk!
Varus died on the spot. Gragas also lost a little health and was slowed, while Kalista's E reset once again.
"IG Chen Yu has slain WE Mystic!"
Lu Chen refused to let up, turning to chase Gragas with more auto attacks.
Condi gritted his teeth. Right now, all he could do was curse this lousy champion's slow movement speed.
That was what made Kalista so terrifying.
After using E-Flash, Gragas had no mobility left. He could only watch helplessly as Kalista hopped around nearby, planting spear after spear in him.
It was like having his flesh sliced with a dull knife, that gradual approach toward death-
That feeling left him utterly powerless.
"Leave him! Leave him!" Mystic called immediately.
Ben could only put a shield on Gragas before turning and running back toward the turret.
By the time Condi's Gragas finally made it beneath his own turret, he had fallen to a quarter health, with a mass of spears still sticking out of him.
Shhk!
Another E ripped the spears free, emptying Gragas's health bar too.
"Double kill!"
"Killing spree!"
As the system announcements rang out, the gank centered on bot lane finally came to an end.
As though nothing had happened, Lu Chen calmly turned back and continued pushing the wave.
"Wow, that outplay made my scalp tingle, man," 957 remarked with an amused laugh as he laned up top.
Xiye smacked his lips too. "Bot lane is completely unplayable now."
That was the atmosphere on their team. They spoke freely, without worrying about what they said. It was something of a long-standing tradition.
"This opening is pretty rough," Xiye said with a shrug. "Try to hold steady down bot. Stall for late game, and I'll carry."
If Kassadin could make it to level sixteen, that would practically spell the end of the enemy Nexus.
But first, they actually had to survive that long.
The jungler and bot lane duo fell silent, as though their souls had left their bodies.
In the end, Condi managed to squeeze out, "I'll farm up first. Bot lane, just try to hold the turret."
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(End of chapter)
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