Chapter 15: Snatched from the Fountain

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Where once Graves stood, there was now only a scene of tragedy. When Lin Xu’s team saw that their enemies were now lit up with the Baron Buff, their faces turned as sickly green as the Baron’s venomous bile!

No one even had the mood to scold Feng Xiaoqing anymore. The question now was whether they’d even be able to survive the incoming siege.

The enemy was at their gates. A wave of minions were now within reach of their third-tier Tower. Master Yi, Annie, Miss Fortune, Garen, and Blitzcrank, wreathed in the swirling Baron Buff, were so formidable that the surviving four enemy champions could only keep their distance.

Blitzcrank was a team fight initiator. With the enemy team outnumbered, and Baron Buff on their side, there was every reason to press the attack!

Yu Luocheng activated his Overdrive and dove right into the fray. His target was neither Jax, Garen, nor Xin Zhao—the one he wanted was that fiendish Kha’Zix!

A buffoon like you presumes to court the rose of our generation? Save your airs and graces, your unwelcome advances—I’m going to start by crushing you!

Ignoring everyone else, Yu Luocheng charged the enemy formation, hurling a rocket-propelled claw at the insectoid creature!

Using a hook in such a direct manner was a bit more challenging, because most players would do their damnedest to dodge it. However, today Yu Luocheng had washed his hair with the good stuff, and nothing could tangle him up right now!

The Rocket Grab shot out once more, unerring as destiny!

Although he’d shot it from maximum range, Kha’Zix didn’t manage to use his E-skill ‘Leap’ to move aside in time, and was dragged before Blitzcrank’s feet once again!

It was a miracle shot, worthy of legend. The Class 8 spectators were going wild!

Whirr!

First he used his ultimate skill to Silence Kha’Zix, preventing it from getting away, and then he knocked it into the sky with Power Fist, holding it in place for that much longer!

For a fragile champion like Kha’Zix, being disabled like this for 1.5 seconds was life-threatening. Wang Qin’s Annie was the quickest to respond, dropping her teddy bear’s colossal sit-me-down right on its face!

That meant it was now Stunned!

“Eat it!” It was Wang Qin’s turn to get something back in this cockfight. He dumped every one of Annie’s skills onto Kha’Zix, with equal parts wrath and glee!

Poor Lin Xu had to watch his Kha’Zix get killed off just like that, never even getting to use a single one of its skills!

“Damn it, isn’t there a single one of you who knows how to block for me? Worthless bunch of noobs!” Lin Xu had totally lost it now, and the whole cyber café echoed with his fury!

Yang Qianqian ganced sidelong at Lin Xu, who was so incensed that his varicose veins might pop at any moment. A corner of her lip wrinkled with a little frown.

Lin Xu realized he was committing a social faux pas, and scrambled to get his emotions back under control.

His Kha’Zix was the main damage dealer of the Class 3 team. For it to be taken down first, right at the start of a team fight, meant that the battle was already lost. Miss Fortune’s ‘Bullet Time’ scoured the battlefield, and Garen, Xin Zhao, and Jax fled, their health bars badly ravaged.

“Don’t let a single one escape. Kill them all!”

“Keep going! Xin Zhao is nearly dead!”

“Triple Kill! Zhong Xiaoyun’s gonna get a Triple Kill!”

Class 8 was going hysterical, everyone screaming at the top of their lungs, having the time of their lives.

Wang Qin, Zhong Xiaoyun, Zhao Kesong, and Cao Sheng were chortling and spitting out a whole stream of off-the-shelf obscenities. Last week, the team from Class 3 had beaten them so badly that they couldn’t look up from the floor.

Today, they were getting payback, with interest. Never mind the third-tier Towers, the Inhibitors, the twin Nexus Towers… not even the Fountain could keep them away from their long-awaited vengeance!

Jax was next to fall, nearby the Middle Inhibitor, his body trampled underfoot by the enemy. Xin Zhao and Garen continued to run for all they were worth.

Do you know what happens when two people run into a bear, up in the mountains? That’s right—the slower one dies first.

With a last, apologetic look to Xin Zhao, Garen activated his ‘Decisive Strike’ and raced ahead.

“Argh!” Xin Zhao cried out in anguish as he was slain in the heart of his own base.

The Nexus Towers flared bright. In the many long years they’d stood watch directly over the Nexus, they’d never been so blatantly ignored before—they were the Nexus Towers, for crying out loud! They were the mightiest Towers on the whole map, and these rascals… to think that they’d pay no heed at all!

Rushing, rushing, rushing like that… were they going to run straight into the enemy’s Fountain?

Sure enough, with Yu Luocheng absorbing the damage from the Towers for them, the rest of the team had gone mad with bloodthirst. They’d killed Xin Zhao, and Garen wouldn’t be allowed to escape, either!

“Holy crap, this bunch of lunatics!” hollered Xue Ben from Class 3, frantically driving Garen for the safety of the Fountain.

Thanks to his speed-boosting abilities, Garen was able to make it onto the raised dais of the Fountain ¹ , and Xue Ben exhaled in relief.

Seeing that Garen had managed to survive, Lin Xu consoled himself that at least they hadn’t suffered a whole-party Ace.

No, wait—Blitzcrank was still in pursuit!

Realizing what he intended to do, Lin Xu whipped around to Xue Ben. “Watch out for his hook!”

Xue Ben stared for a moment, uncomprehending, while a golden metallic claw hurtled in behind him!

In the end, he’d barely made it a couple of steps up the pedestal, his health only just beginning to replenish itself, when that horrific robotic claw pulled him out of his sanctuary and back into the nightmare again!

With three others following close behind Blitzcrank, the moment Garen was caught, what little health he still had was swiftly washed away under an overwhelming torrent of skills!

Wham!

That was the sound of his forehead whacking against the steps of the Fountain, his blood staining its blessed waters, his face frozen in an expression of abject disbelief.

Oh my goodness, had they really snatched him out from the Fountain?

Xue Ben stared at his computer screen dumbly, staggered by the savagery of his enemies.

Which champion was getting it worst this game? Whatever had happened to Graves and Xin Zhao, all of it paled in comparison to how Garen had been torn away from the safe zone of their own Fountain.

Perhaps only the Baron Nashor could truly understand the pain he felt right now.

“Ah, that was so brilliant, I’m blinded!” cried Huang Yu, assistant monitor of Class 8.

“You’re too cool, Yu Luocheng!”

“Just like shooting fish in a barrel. You guys are stomping all over their base now!”

“Killed at the Fountain!”

Endless praise rose up from behind Yu Luocheng. He thought he even heard someone saying, “I want to have your children!”

If that had come from Yang Qianqian, Yu Luocheng would be all for it. Samantha would be fine, too. However, it had been clearly been some deep and throaty man’s voice. Absolutely repugnant.

“Ace!” That meant the entire team had been eradicated, for the second time this game!

And it wasn’t an exchange of four deaths for five kills, like the last time. On their side, only Master Yi had fallen to a Tower, but everyone else was still alive and kicking!

For Zhong Xiaoyun, Wang Qin, Zhao Kesong, and Cao Sheng, in all the time that they’d been playing League of Legends, this was definitely the first time they’d invaded the enemy base while all their third-tier Towers were still standing, and wiped out the entire opposing team!

In Wang Qin’s mind, this situation was tantamount to breaking into Lin Xu’s family home, letting each of the guys have a go with all their womenfolk, and then casually strolling out!

Wang Qin could feel himself expelling all the hatred, resentment, and malice that had been pent up within his heart!

Meanwhile, Zhao Kesong—always going through life in a hazy blur—finally knew what it felt like to be a man.

Zhong Xiaoyun, of course, had been riding a high this whole game, and he might very well have made a mess in his pants!

Diving Towers, raiding the enemy base, killing champions beside their own Fountain—slaughtering everyone! It was exhilarating!

On the other side, everyone who’d come to cheer on the Class 8 players was now standing with their jaws hanging agape. Lin Xu, Xue Ben, Feng Xiaoqing, Li Zan, and Gavin were stricken and aghast.

Lin Xu had boasted to Yang Qianqian, beautiful Yang Qianqian, that she would always find victory by his side. Now, with the way things were going, he didn’t dare to so much as look at her.

Before they’d started, Feng Xiaoqing had proclaimed that he would get twenty kills this game. He was currently at zero. Now he had respawned at the Fountain, only to be greeted by the corpses of his fellows, and the enemy champions, pulling their trousers back up as they saw themselves out.

Ah, perhaps he should just drown himself in the Fountain.

Needless to say, Xue Ben was down in the dumps, too. Never had he ever done so badly as Garen, and he still hadn’t gotten over that traumatizing hook at the Fountain… the Fountain, of all places!

“What’s happening to us?”

“Last week, weren’t we beating the stuffing out of those Class 8 guys?”

“I can’t stand this game anymore. It hurts even to watch.”

“That Blitzcrank is too good.” The Class 3 spectators spoke in whispers, no longer loud and self-assured like they had been before.

“That’s right. This is the first time I’m seeing someone play Blitzcrank like that.”

As Lin Xu and his team wallowed in their shame and misery, dreading their impending defeat, unbelievable though it may be… they were suddenly reminded by the chattering behind their backs!

That’s right, it was all because of Blitzcrank!

Blitzcrank’s player was too good. He was snatching their champions up like chicks in the coop!

And every time he advanced, they felt the pressure. By now, no one dared to stand anywhere near him any longer!

“Who’s that, playing Blitzcrank?”

“Don’t know him…”

“I heard the people over there calling him Yu Luocheng.”

Lin Xu finally remembered. That guy had introduced himself as Yu Luocheng, here to replace Yang Soon in the Support role. He was only Level 13.

There was no way this guy was a Level-13 noob!

Yu Luocheng!

Lin Xu fervently committed the name to memory. From now on, this was the name of Lin Xu’s disgrace!