All-Round Mid Laner

A big fight was about to go down. Viewers in both streaming rooms were anxiously holding their breaths.

Besides the scuffle in which the Abyssal Lord took the first kill of the game, the blue side hadn't won any of the other team fights. They'd lost once in the mid lane 2v2, and the bottom lane brawl had resulted in a bloodbath with the blue team's marksman and jungler practically being put out of commission.

The red team's marksman had three kills, and their middle laner had three kills as well.

Ye Shaoyang issued a command: [Everyone, open your mics.]

The game came with its own voice chat function. Ye Shaoyang's teammates all hastily clicked on the speaker icon in the upper left corner of the chat interface, after which they heard a clear male voice ring out—

"Don't clump up together later, everyone. Split up and hide behind the tower. The enemy Knight has a mass crowd control skill."

The blue team's minions were quickly cleared away by the five players on the red team.

As soon as the red team's minions entered the range of the blue side's tower, the tanky Holy Knight marched out in front of his teammates!

As the meatiest tank in the entire game, the Holy Knight had twice as much HP as the other heroes in the match.

With him charging forward as a shield, there was a chance that he wouldn't fall even if the five players on the blue team ganged up against him.

"Pull back, don't target the Knight, just mind the minions." Ye Shaoyang checked their opponents' positions on the map, then quickly added, "Support, give us a haste. Berserker, go around the left and stun the enemy marksman. He's hiding there!"

As he spoke, Ye Shaoyang marked out one of their blind spots on the map, indicating the enemy marksman's position.

He couldn't actually see the enemy marksman.

But he'd caught a glimpse of the enemy support, and there were some consistencies in the positioning of a bottom lane marksman and support duo. The marksman had to be lurking in the woods behind the support; that was the safest place from which a marksman could deal damage.

The two teammates who received Ye Shaoyang's orders instantly started to move.

The Blessed Priest and the Berserker suddenly started to rush forward, with a speed buff on the Berserker. Everyone watching thought this duo would charge straight ahead and engage the Holy Knight, but then—the two of them swerved to the left, catching everyone off guard and sprinting towards the woods to attack!

At almost the exact same time, three dark shadows appeared from seemingly nowhere—

Dark Emissary, Abyssal Glare, Bloody Vengeance!

Ye Shaoyang triggered those three skills in quick succession. Those skills applied a mark, applied another mark… and detonated those marks. Ye Shaoyang's hands were so absurdly fast that the enemy marksman couldn't even react to what was happening before his head was collected by Ye Shaoyang in the blink of an eye.

Xiao Bai (Abyssal Lord) killed Murmur (Godly Sniper)!

The Berserker could only stun an enemy for one second.

But Ye Shaoyang only needed that one second to get a kill.

The even more infuriating thing was that, immediately after taking a kill, he swapped places with one of his shadows and disappeared into the woods.

Xie Yu was so pissed that he kept bouncing his leg and stamping his feet. "Dumbass marksman! Dying at the start of a team fight, doing zero damage?"

The marksman was also furious. "I was hiding in the woods! How was I supposed to know they would suddenly come around to me?"

Xie Yu couldn't be bothered to argue with him. "Kill the enemy, fast! Destroy their tower!"

However, the blue team's Divine Archer had a very notable advantage—out of all marksmen, the Divine Archer's range was the longest.

That was exactly why Ye Shaoyang had told his teammate to choose the Divine Archer at the start of the game.

At that moment, the Divine Archer was hiding out in the distance, sniping minions from afar.

Xie Yu's face contorted into an unsightly glower. He charged in with his teammates to slay the Divine Archer and the Berserker in one go.

However, before the Divine Archer died—he finished clearing the red side's minions!

When there were no minions to draw fire from the defense tower, the tower would target enemy players who were in range. Each hit hurt more than the last; no one could survive too many of those blows. Xie Yu was instantly knocked down to half-health by the tower. He and his teammates had no choice but to split up and retreat.

While retreating, Xie Yu ran into the blue team's jungler, who had been lurking in the woods and waiting for an opportunity to launch a sneak attack. The jungler realized he was in danger and swiftly fled over a wall, but Xie Yu chased him all the way to the river and killed him there.

Xie Yu had taken another head.

In that team fight, he got three heads. Three kills!

An onslaught of 'God Fish 666' messages filled up the comments section in his streaming room, but Xie Yu himself felt extremely uneasy.

That team fight was their win, right? They killed three of their enemies, while their opponents only took one kill. It looked like a win.

However, the blue side's mid lane tower was still standing. And the Abyssal Lord had gotten away again!

Plus, he'd gotten away after killing the red side's marksman…

Did he actually sneak off to push the top lane?!

If an ordinary played did this in an ordinary ranked match, they would surely be cussed half to death by their teammates. Was this acceptable behavior? Taking a kill, then escaping without a care for whether your teammates lived or died? Leaving them to fend for themselves while you ditched the fight and ran up to the top lane to push?

Xie Yu was so pissed that he wanted to smash his keyboard.

They had been blinded by their bloodlust. As a result, they didn't notice when the Abyssal Lord ran up to the top lane and destroyed the outer tower with his minions. The Abyssal Lord had continued pushing from there, making his way to the red side's inner tower and swiftly taking that down as well.

Did the red team win the team fight? Yes. They won.

But did they gain an advantage from that win? Not at all.

The blue side lost three lives, but the red side lost two towers!

Xie Yu straightened up with a dark expression on his face. He swiftly typed: [Support, protect the marksman. Go heal up at base, then come back for another team fight. I have 6 kills. They can't beat me in a fight!]

Yes. That was true.

So from then on, the blue side started to avoid team fights.

Ye Shaoyang continued to issue commands in the voice chat.

"Berserker, go push the minions down the top lane. Get them to the river, then go back to base."

"Marksman, farm the bot lane minions. I'll be in the jungle."

"Guard the mid lane."

"Support, speed buff. Grab the minor dragon with the jungler."

"Marksman and support, push with the bot lane minions. Get them to the river, then haste and run back to base."

That pleasant voice continuously sounded out through the voice chat, and the commander remained very calm.

Ye Shaoyang kept his eyes on all three lanes, moving his troops around the whole map.

He had their forces on all three lanes tightly under his control.

Under his command, their team was developing smoothly despite their headcount disadvantage.

The blue side's marksman, who had nearly been beaten into despair at the start of the game, finally realized what they were doing. "Great God, is this… guerrilla warfare?"

"That's right. The other side has a huge gold advantage over us, so avoid the front lines for now. Let's drag this out to the twenty-minute mark."

At that moment, despite having taken nine kills, the red team was in an uncomfortable spot.

It was uncomfortable as hell.

It was like training to become a martial arts master, only to have no one to fight with their skills.

When they saw someone stick their neck out in the top lane, they rushed over to surround the enemy. But after the blue team did some damage with their minions, they would flee! The Berserker was relatively fragile, but he had a lot of crowd control skills, so the red team could never catch up!

When the blue side's marksman and support advanced on the bottom lane, the red team would try to encircle them too. But then with a speed buff, they would sprint away. The red team couldn't catch them either.

As for the middle lane…

Where was the mid lane Abyssal Lord?

Xie Yu was surprised to find that the Abyssal Lord wasn't on any of the three lanes. He had to be in the jungle.

Making his jungler push the enemy towers while farming in the jungle by himself… what kind of middle laner was this? Xie Yu had never seen one of this kind before!

The headcount stayed at 9 to 2.

The red side was far, far in the lead when it came to kills and gold.

But they just couldn't get the win to end the game.

Their enemies were a bunch of glass cannons, but they were running all over the place, faster than rabbits!

Xie Yu gnashed his teeth. "Engage the dragon, force a team fight. No more playing around!"

The five red team players all gathered around the grand dragon. The red side's support was very experienced; he quickly placed wards in all the appropriate places around them. When Ye Shaoyang saw that all five enemy heroes had disappeared, he immediately marked the spot on the map where the grand dragon boss was located.

'Ancient Tyrannosaurus' was the official name of the monster known as the grand dragon. It was an extremely important boss.

The team that killed the grand dragon would receive a huge team-wide attack and defense buff. Their minions would also evolve into miniature tyrannosaurs with high attack power. After that, it would be easy to crush their opponents in a team fight and win the game in one fell swoop.

"Marksman, stay in the bot lane. Jungler, stay in the middle lane. Deal with the minions," Ye Shaoyang commanded. "Top laner and support, come to the grand dragon with me."

The marksman and jungler instantly followed his orders and went off to take care of the enemy minions. The other three players on the blue team used a speed buff to rush down to the boss in the jungle.

"Xiao Rui, decoy."

Qin Rui had been double queueing with his gege for so long now. He naturally knew what this meant.

Decoy. Which was to say, go out there and sacrifice yourself to create the ideal playing conditions for your teammates.

In the past, Qin Rui had been terrified of dying. Whenever he encountered a strong player on the other team, he would be too scared to venture out from under his side's defensive towers.

But now, things were different.

Now, he had Ye Shaoyang behind him.

Qin Rui ran out without hesitation and played decoy in front of the grand dragon. The opposing support was lurking in the woods as a guard while the other four players on the red team hacked away at the dragon. By then, the dragon was already down to low health.

The Blessed Priest was just a fragile little hero. When he ran around in front of his enemies, he was bound to be sniped in a matter of seconds.

But he survived for two short seconds, which gave Ye Shaoyang two seconds of extended visibility on the battlefield. That was enough for Ye Shaoyang to take stock of the other team's positions and conditions.

Ye Shaoyang instantly ordered, "Charge!"

The Berserker rushed straight into the dragon pit with his huge blade. With one wide sweep, he stunned three enemy heroes in one go!

A second later, Xie Yu saw a black eye appear above the grand dragon's head.

Not good!

The black eye was the symbol of the Abyssal Lord's mark!

At nearly the exact same time, three black shadows swooped out like a gust of wind. All of Ye Shaoyang's abyssal marks went off with a bang as the Abyssal Lord, who lurked in the dark, used his Bloody Vengeance to slay the grand dragon!

[Xiao Bai] has snatched the Ancient Tyrannosaurus from the enemy!

Immediately afterwards, those black shadows slipped through a wall. Ye Shaoyang swapped places with one, making a hasty retreat.

The Berserker also swiftly escaped with the help of one of his displacement skills.

With their actions, the two of them seemed to be saying—

We're taking the dragon and running. Catch us if you can.

Xie Yu swore explosively.

In the blue team's voice chat, the marksman exclaimed, "Sick, sick! You can even take the dragon like that?!"

The Berserker who'd lended a hand typed a string of sixes into the chat.

"Everyone did well to work together," Ye Shaoyang said. "Let's push the inner tower on the bottom lane."

"Understood!" the marksman chirped.

Xie Yu was pissed enough to stamp his feet again.

How could this happen?

His team had a dominating gold advantage, but they never got a chance to use that advantage in team fights.

The crushing victory he'd planned on achieving wasn't coming to pass at all.

Xie Yu took a deep breath. "That was some bad luck. Let's go again."

His mental state had already been affected. He had seven kills to his name, and his eyes were practically red with bloodlust. All he wanted was to end the game as quickly as possible. What he didn't realize… was that by continuously pushing up on all three lanes, the enemy had already caught up to their gold advantage.

The two sides were at a stalemate.

Ye Shaoyang continued to calmly instruct his teammates to push, to retreat, to reposition…

These guerrilla tactics were getting on Xie Yu's nerves.

The game was soon dragged into its twentieth minute.

Late-game had arrived. The mages and marksmen on both sides had finished leveling up their gear.

"Team fight in the mid lane," Ye Shaoyang decided. "Let's counterattack."

His teammates grouped up and started to push. The two teams clashed by the river!

The blue team had been avoiding team fights all this time. Xie Yu had been holding in a gut full of anger for a long while already. As soon as his teammate, the Holy Knight, jumped in to initiate the fight, Xie Yu swiftly maneuvered his Illusionist into the fray to take down the blue side's marksman—if he couldn't find the Abyssal Lord, he would at least take out the enemy's main source of DPS!

But he hadn't counted on Qin Rui unleashing his ult, Shield of Life!

With that shield protecting him, the marksman essentially gained a second life.

Xie Yu's skill combo failed to take down the marksman, and the marksman swiftly flashed over a wall to escape.

At the same time, Ye Shaoyang moved in with the Abyssal Lord. He flashed in behind the enemy and instantly took down the opposing marksman! It was like he was saying—

So your marksman is very well-developed, with a huge advantage?

I'll use my 'Team Fight Marksman Vanishing Act' technique to make sure his damage output is reduced to zero.

This sneak attack and swift assassination completely changed the tide of the battle.

The blue team had turned this into a 5v4 fight, in their favor.

At that time, the power gap between the two mid laners was also becoming apparent. The Illusionist was very strong in early-game, but sharply fell off in late-game. If he couldn't get a kill with his first skill combo, he basically had no means of doing damage left.

The Abyssal Lord, on the other hand, was extremely powerful after getting his optimal equipment. As long as he could kill one person, he could enter 'vengeance mode', refresh his skills, and continue killing!

Double Kill!

Triple Kill!

Three black shadows zipped and zoomed all over the place. It was impossible to tell what Ye Shaoyang was doing!

The enemy carries quickly died off, leaving behind only the tank and the support.

The Holy Knight was very tanky? The Forest Envoy could dole out big heals?

But what good was that, when your team was left with only its tank and its healer?

The slow, lumbering Knight and the Envoy who had no offensive powers could only stand around and wait to be sniped by the blue side's marksman!

Only now did everyone understand the true importance of the 'mobility' Ye Shaoyang had mentioned at the start of the game.

A slow hero like the Holy Knight couldn't use his strength against a highly mobile lineup! He trudged after the Divine Archer, who had only a drop of blood left, but…

He couldn't catch up.

With the speed buff from their support, the Divine Archer could run while attacking. The Archer ultimately took out both the enemy tank and support!

The marksman who'd taken that double kill blurted out, "Holy shit, we won! We won! The other team has been wiped out! I'm ranking up to Ultimate King too! Ahahahaha!"

This player was so excited that his voice was starting to crack.

The jungler said, "I thought I was going to lose this one. Great God, you're awesome!"

The Berserker continued to type sixes into the chat.

What a relief.

They'd been under constant pressure in early-game. Then, with just one late-game fight, they turned the tides and wrecked the enemy team.

Ye Shaoyang pushed his way to the enemy base with his teammates.

Just before the game ended, he typed out a few lines in the global chat—

[Xiao Bai]: This is a tower-based 5v5 game.

[Xiao Bai]: It isn't a one-man show.

[Xiao Bai]: Good game. ^_^

Xie Yu was rendered speechless.