Chapter 212 - 209: First Blood
Chapter 212: Chapter 209: First Blood
"Uh!" Ye Xing was slightly taken aback, then said with a wry smile, "My skills are pretty trash, too. And I haven’t played in months."
Ye Xing was telling the truth. His skills really were terrible; he was the definition of having clumsy hands. In the past, when his dorm mates partied up to play, he was always the one dragging them down. In the words of his fourth dorm mate, Zheng Yiming—"Xingzai, you’re so bad you could probably play better with your feet."
"It’s fine. No matter how bad you are, you can’t be worse than me, right?" the little boy said with a pout. "I’ll add you. Let’s party up."
"Alright, but don’t blame me if I feed!" Ye Xing nodded. "Let’s not jump into ranked. We can play a normal game first to warm up."
The two immediately formed a party. Ye Xing’s account name was Peach Garden Lone Star Sword. He chose the Barbarian King, a simple and brutish champion. He carried a Great Saber, and his game plan could be summed up in one word—hack.
The little boy chose the Frost Archer.
Soon, the game began. As a pleasant musical chime rang out, the five teammates’ chosen champions loaded into Summoner’s Rift.
After buying a Doran’s Sword and a Red Potion, Ye Xing guided his Barbarian King toward the top lane.
"Huh? You’re only Bronze Two?!" The little boy pressed a key to check the game records, then rolled his eyes and said sullenly, "You really are worse than me. I’m Silver Five, and you’re only Bronze Two. Looks like we’re probably going to lose this one too."
The ranks in League of Legends, from lowest to highest, are divided into six major tiers: Heroic Bronze, Unyielding Silver, Glory Gold, Noble Platinum, Diamond, and King. Each major tier is further divided into five minor divisions: Five, Four, Three, Two, and One. Generally, players at the Bronze Level are rookies. Silver is the common rank for the average player, who is also still a bit unskilled. Gold Level is considered pretty good, and Platinum Level players are already considered experts, much rarer than Bronze or Silver players. As for Diamond and King, those are Master-level tiers, basically never seen in low-elo games like this.
"Ah, we’re screwed! The enemy team has a Platinum player! We’re definitely losing this game!" the little boy whined, his face crestfallen.
"Less talk, more focus," Ye Xing said calmly, maneuvering his Barbarian King toward the outer top lane turret.
Winning or losing wasn’t very important to Ye Xing. The only reason he’d impulsively decided to play League of Legends was to reminisce about his college days, which were now long gone.
"Okay... we might not have a Platinum teammate, but we do have a Gold one, so there’s still a tiny sliver of hope. Huh? The enemy Platinum is also playing Barbarian King, and he’s in the top lane too. Tsk tsk, you’re toast!" the little boy said quickly. "Whatever you do, don’t feed him! If you can’t beat him, just farm safely under your turret! Wait for ganks from other lanes."
Ye Xing quickly maneuvered his Barbarian King to the outer top lane turret and hid in a bush. The next moment, the enemy Barbarian King also arrived in lane, checked the same bush, and, finding no one, headed for the middle bush.
Ye Xing had been waiting for this. He charged out, sword ready, and swung his Great Saber right at him.
’A joke,’ the enemy Barbarian King likely thought, surprised by the sudden ambush but not backing down. ’I’m Platinum Level. Why would I be afraid of some Bronze-tier trash?’
And so, the two Barbarian Kings started going at it right there in the bush.
CLANG! CRACK! CLANG! CRACK! CLANG-CLANG-CRACK-CRACK!
The two Barbarian Kings furiously hacked at each other with their Great Sabers, and in the blink of an eye, half their health was gone. Thanks to his initial ambush, Ye Xing had a slight health advantage. The enemy Barbarian King sensed the danger if the fight continued and immediately used his ’E’ ability, Tornado Slash, spinning straight out of the bush.
’Trying to run? No way!’
The instant the enemy Barbarian King spun away, Ye Xing swiftly pressed ’F’ to activate Sprinting and used his own Tornado Slash ’E’ to spin after him. Not only did he close the distance, but the ability also dealt a good chunk of damage. He then started hacking away at the enemy Barbarian King’s heels, relentlessly giving chase.
The enemy Barbarian King activated his Sprinting as well, but Ye Xing chased him all the way back to his own turret.
By this point, the enemy Barbarian King had less than two bars of health left.
Ye Xing was incredibly aggressive. He charged directly under the enemy turret and—WHAM! WHAM!—landed two quick swings with his Great Saber, leaving the enemy Barbarian King with just a sliver of health in his last bar.
’Ah, what a shame. No critical strike!’ Ye Xing thought, a bit disappointed. ’My Anger Value is almost full, and still no crit? My luck seems pretty bad tonight!’ If he had landed a critical strike for double damage, he would have secured the kill.
Now that he was within the enemy turret’s attack range, Ye Xing didn’t dare go any deeper and immediately retreated.
The enemy turret had already activated, and a massive energy blast came hurtling toward Ye Xing’s Barbarian King.
BOOM!
It had to be said, the Early Stage turret damage was fucking painful. That one shot took him straight to rock bottom, leaving him with only a bar and a half of health.
And so, the two low-health Barbarian Kings stared each other down at the edge of the turret’s range. One had a single bar of health left; the other wasn’t much better off with only a bar and a half.
The enemy Barbarian King didn’t dare to charge out, as he had half a bar less health than Ye Xing, giving him a higher chance of losing. But Ye Xing didn’t dare to charge in either. He had already chased the enemy to his doorstep; if he carelessly took another turret shot, he’d be dead.
However, neither was willing to recall to base just like that; they wanted to test their nerves. The enemy Barbarian King edged a tiny step toward the turret’s attack border and performed a taunt animation at Ye Xing, trying to bait him into an attack.
’Come hit me! Come hit me!’
The enemy Barbarian King kept taunting as he took another tiny step forward, positioning himself at the very edge of the turret’s attack range. As a Platinum Level player, he was naturally very confident in himself. The earlier brute-force fight in the bush hadn’t required any technical skill. Now was the true test of mechanics. As long as he could bait his opponent under the turret for a single shot, he could smoothly secure first blood.
This was a game of chicken; any minute miscalculation in their micro-play could lead to defeat.
The enemy Barbarian King continued his taunts, but Ye Xing remained unmoved. ’What a joke,’ he thought. ’The guy is just turtling under his own turret. Even if I rush in and kill him, I’ll take a turret shot and we’ll just trade first blood at best. Only a fool would make such a thankless trade.’
The enemy Barbarian King waited a moment, clearly realizing it would be difficult to bait Ye Xing this way. He immediately took another tiny step forward—he swore it was just a tiny step, a very, very tiny step.
However, in that split second, Ye Xing moved. His fingers flew at a speed far beyond that of a normal person, pressing the keys with incredible quickness.
He used his Tornado Slash ’E’, maneuvering his Barbarian King to spin right past the edge of the turret’s range. The spin and the slash landed simultaneously, smoothly securing first blood. The move was absolutely dazzling.
KO!
"Holy crap, the Barbarian King is dead! How did you die so fast? Didn’t we agree you’d farm safely under the turret? What a feeder!" The little boy looked at Ye Xing with a hint of blame, but then his eyes widened in astonishment. "Huh? If you’re dead, why isn’t your screen grayed out?" The boy stared, dumbfounded, then exclaimed, "Holy crap! Don’t tell me you killed the enemy’s Platinum Barbarian King???"