Chapter 81

            

The game began.

NTG's captain got into the team voice chat and said, "We'll stick with the plan of attacking Tianhuan's jungle. Don't let Captain Chi get powered up!"

Chi Shuo's hero for this round, the Brawler, was fairly weak in early-game. But once he got geared up, he would have movement and control and burst damage skills… which would enable him to put so much pressure on the enemy that they wouldn't even dare step out from under their towers.

So, NTG couldn't change their plans of getting the jungle under their control.

This understanding was shared between all teams in the league.

The game interface loaded up. With the new version of the game offering 90 seconds of 'free time' at the beginning of a round, NTG's five players predictably invaded Tianhuan's jungle. They pieced together their map visibility along the river, with the ultimate goal of stealing Chi Shuo's blue buff.

Qu Jiang got there first to defend. He saw the enemy team's movements. Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo instantly circled through the right side of their territory, intending to sneak across the map to steal the enemy's blue buff.

Both sides clashed in a push and pull for a while. In the end, NTG successfully took down Chi Shuo's blue buff.

Chi Shuo also swiftly hacked the enemy's blue buff down to low health, then stepped back to let Ye Shaoyang take that first buff.

A wave of bullet comments rippled through the livestream—

[Captain Chi is playing the part of a poor support jungler again. He's even giving the first blue buff to the mid laner?]

[They're treating the new mid laner so well!]

[I hope the little omega gege won't give away a kill after getting that blue buff!]

[Chi Shuo's meaning: 'They'll all target me if I get the blue buff, so it's better to give it to a teammate. You guys stop dissing me.']

Tianhuan gave that first blue buff to their mid laner, and they gave the first red to their marksman.

Besides the support, Chi Shuo was the poorest player on the field. He was truly a support jungler, through and through.

But that was fine. The Brawler's control skill was his Q skill; even before reaching Level 6, this hero could serve his purpose.

After getting the red buff, Cheng Xing had a much easier time against the enemy bottom laners. He even had Qu Jiang with him, for additional protection.

In the 2v2 on the bottom lane, Cheng Xing wasn't able to fully send the enemy marksman home, but he was able to establish a small advantage through farming creeps.

In the middle lane—

NTG's captain was in a bit of an uncomfortable position.

It wasn't the sort of discomfort that came from being abused by the enemy mid laner, but just the sort of discomfort which rose from small details.

The enemy omega wasn't actually all that fierce. That Abyssal Lord was very docilely staying under his own defensive tower. It looked like he was simply steadily clearing minions. But every time he released a shadow to kill off some minions, he also disrupted the other mid laner's movements. This made NTG's mid laner miss enemy minions, letting them slip past him. As a result, NTG's mid lane outer tower lost a heap of HP.

This detailed sort of play was exactly what made a mid laner shine in their lane.

Although the Abyssal Lord's shadows didn't do a lot of damage, their repeated attacks against the enemy tower dropped NTG's mid laner tower to 80% HP in the blink of an eye. Meanwhile, the Abyssal Lord who remained in hiding under his own tower was still at full health.

NTG's jungler asked, "Captain, need help in the mid lane?"

NTG's mid laner breezily replied, "No need! This omega has an extremely cautious play style. He's been hiding under his tower this whole time, too scared to come out. I get he's waiting for assistance from the jungler. Once I get to Level 6, I'll solo kill him. You go help out in the bottom lane!"

As soon as these words fell, the Abyssal Lord—who'd gotten a blue buff at the start of the game—reached Level 6.

Immediately afterwards, three black shadows suddenly shot out before the eyes of NTG's mid laner. Black marks swiftly appeared above the Illusionist's head. NTG's mid laner realized something was going wrong. He instantly used his flash to get away!

However, the Abyssal Lord decisively flashed out from under his own tower. With an ult that detonated all his abyssal marks, he instantly butchered the enemy mid laner.

First Blood!

By the time the audience members came back to their senses, the Abyssal Lord had already swapped places with a shadow to return to his own tower.

That swift, instant kill that had been as fast as a bolt of lightning made many people think their own eyes were showing them an illusion. It looked to them like the Abyssal Lord had remained under his tower the whole time? How had the enemy mid laner died all of a sudden?

Xie Xiaotian, who was watching from the spectating area, couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Hahaha, my Yang-ge's Abyssal Lord will always do his best to not leave the tower. When he does leave, he takes the enemy's wretched life!"

NTG's mid laner was a bit stupefied.

The viewers of the livestream were also dumbstruck. Everything had happened too quickly. They weren't able to get a clear look at all.

The two commentators were the first to react. They hurriedly started to discuss.

"Director, let's get a slow motion replay of that moment… we can see now that the Abyssal Lord released his shadows first in that sudden solo attack. He let those shadows stack abyssal marks on the enemy. Once there were enough marks, and once the enemy had used a flash to escape, the Abyssal Lord instantly flashed in, used his ult to instakill his opponent, and returned to his own tower."

"That's right. Lieyang's movements in this attack were extremely smooth. His shadows flew out like the wind. Too cool!"

After the viewers of the livestream watched the replay of that moment, they finally came back to their senses.

[Mid lane solo kill, 666]

[Fuck, our little omega gege is this fierce?]

[This mid laner is truly aggressive to the max. Using his flash to pursue a kill!]

[He went right back to his tower after getting a kill… that was just too cool, I'm going to be a Ye Shaoyang fan!]

Ye Shaoyang swiftly cleared a wave of enemy minions, then made his way down to the bottom lane.

NTG's mid laner instantly warned, "Mid laner's missing! You guys retreat as soon as you finish fighting on the bottom lane!"

NTG's jungler had already reached the bottom lane to provide support. When he heard the captain's voice, he instantly leapt in and flung out a skill set, crippling the Frost Goddess. Tianhuan's marksman was too far away, but NTG's jungler could settle for killing a support.

But the jungler couldn't have imagined that Tianhuan's support would use a W skill while clinging on to his final thread of life. White snow crystals formed on the ground, rendering NTG's jungler and marksman immobile at the same time!

Cheng Xing stood under Tianhuan's tower, flinging out normal attacks. He got both enemy players down to low health. By the time the Frost Goddess's freeze effect was close to wearing off, the Brawler—who had been lurking in the woods since a long time ago—charged in with two movement skills and used his big blade to stun the two enemy heroes.

Chi Shuo and Qu Jiang worked together to create a seamless crowd control effect, which gave Ye Shaoyang the perfect opportunity to strike.

The Abyssal Lord, who had just taken a kill, had all his skills off cooldown. He was also in vengeance mode, which granted him a huge boost to magic damage. Ye Shaoyang's left hand swiftly flew across his keyboard while his right hand struck with a few precise clicks of his mouse. All anyone could see was the sight of three black shadows shooting out like gales of wind. In an instant, they surrounded the two enemy players!

Double Kill!

The Abyssal Lord had taken a double kill!

Although Qu Jiang died in that battle, the enemy jungler and marksman fell along with him.

Tianhuan came out with an advantage, taking two kills for one death!

Thunderous applause shook the stadium. The screen of the livestream filled up with '6666' comments, along with people chattering about how fierce this omega was and how Tianhuan's new mid laner was pretty cool.

At Beimu's HQ.

Zhao Xin'an saw all of this. His mouth was hanging so wide open that you could have stuck a whole egg in there. "Holy fuck?"

Zhao Xinping said, "Tianhuan's new mid laner is way too fast with his assists."

Ye Shaoyang did indeed set a very fast rhythm for the game.

After catching the enemy mid laner off guard and getting a solo kill, Ye Shaoyang had taken care of the mid lane minions. While his ult was up, he swiftly rushed down to the bottom lane with his black shadows and worked with his teammates to get another two kills.

Chi Shuo placed a marker by the minor dragon pit. "Get ready for a dragon fight."

At that moment, NTG's five players had all reached Level 6. As for Tianhuan, their jungler Chi Shuo was only at Level 4. Of course, the Abyssal Lord was already at Level 7, and he had three kills to his name. This mid laner's gear was much, much better than the enemy mid laner's.

Plus, NTG's jungler had just been killed. Even if NTG wanted to try to steal the dragon, they wouldn't be able to mount an attack.

NTG's captain decisively said, "Let the dragon go. Jungler, come up top with me to push their tower!"

Four of Tianhuan's players gathered outside the minor dragon pit while three of NTG's players grouped up on the top lane and started to attack Tianhuan's tower. These were emergency measures for NTG; if they could take down Tianhuan's top lane tower, then losing the dragon wouldn't put them at a huge disadvantage.

Qin Yizhu was faced with the joint assault from three NTG players. His HP quickly plummeted. Before he was taken down to critically low health, he used his skills to clear the wave of enemy minions. NTG failed to take down Tianhuan's tower in one push.

Chi Shuo said, "Old Qin, go back to base. Shaoyang, get ready to assist in the top lane."

Ye Shaoyang confirmed, "Understood."

Qin Yizhu obediently went back to their base at low health. By the time he rushed back to his lane, he saw that the next wave of enemy minions had arrived. Tianhuan's top lane tower was down to just 20% health. NTG's three players finished stealing a blue buff from Chi Shuo in the jungle, then came up to attack the top lane tower again.

NTG's captain warned, "Careful on the bottom lane. Their jungler is down below. The Abyssal Lord might go down there too!"

Their two bottom laners instantly raised their guard.

In the top lane, NTG created another 3v1 fight, steadily gaining the upper hand.

Qin Yizhu had gone forward just to put on a show of resisting. He then acted like he couldn't defeat them and slowly slunk away in defeat.

NTG's three players naturally continued to push. They saw that Qin Yizhu was down to his last sliver of HP, close to death…

Suddenly, the Black Dragon Knight flashed forward and used a taunt to immobilize the enemy's back line mid laner and jungler. Then, three shadows popped up from god only knows where, once again surrounding the enemy heroes.

Black markers appeared and instantly detonated, blowing away more than half of the enemy heroes' health bars!

Double Kill!

Qin Yizhu had instantly followed up with an attack of his own, taking the double kill. He excitedly exclaimed, "Nice!"

All of NTC's players were silent.

Holy shit? Wasn't Ye Shaoyang supposed to be going down to the bottom lane?

He'd actually hidden out by the top lane to put on a deceptive show with their top laner!

Ye Shaoyang had hidden himself in a rather diabolical place. The three enemies had advanced too far. They could forget about taking down Tianhuan's tower. They were trapped when Ye Shaoyang circled behind them, allowing Old Qin to take two kills!

In the bottom lane, Qu Jiang and Cheng Xing were working together to slowly pressure the enemy bottom laners back to NTG's tower.

Chi Shuo arrived just on time, turning the situation into a 3v2 fight. The enemy duo didn't dare engage at all. Qu Jiang used his large-range 'Blizzard' skill to target the enemy's tower, making the enemy heroes beat a hasty retreat.

Tianhuan's minions advanced upon NTG's tower, and Cheng Xing attacked swiftly, taking down that outer tower.

In this exchange, the mid laner had gone up to assist on the top lane, and the jungler had gone down to assist on the bottom lane. With Tianhuan dividing their forces, NTG was forced to take a huge loss.

Plus, Tianhuan had taken the minor dragon as well. Tianhuan had a gold advantage of 3,000 by now. Their overpowered Abyssal Lord already had enough resources to obtain three key pieces of gear!

NTG had to think of a way to turn the tides.

Otherwise, they would be swallowed up by the ferocious snowball Tianhuan was forming. They would quickly be imprisoned, trapped in a situation where they couldn't even leave their base.

NTG's captain said, "The Abyssal Lord has three movement skills, his speed is too fast. Support, come up to the mid lane as soon as you can, target him! Jungler, come with me. We'll find a breakthrough point in the jungle!"

However, was it really so easy to find a breakthrough point in the jungle?

NTG's bottom lane outer tower had already fallen. If they wanted to break through, they could only break through on the top lane.

But Qin Yizhu wasn't someone they could easily mess with either. He'd just taken two kills and equipped a serious piece of defense-boosting gear. When three players from NTG invaded their jungle, Old Qin played defense with Chi Shuo. Ye Shaoyang arrived just in time to provide his assistance. His black shadows did so much damage that NTG was immediately forced to retreat!

Tianhuan's five players grouped up and started to advance towards NTG's mid lane tower.

Three of NTG's players had been crippled in the jungle, barely escaping with their lives. They could only retreat now, leaving their mid lane tower to be attacked.

The game proceeded to the fifteen-minute mark, at which point a very important grand dragon fight broke out.

At this point, NTG's three outer towers were all gone. If they lost the grand dragon now, Tianhuan would take the grand dragon buff and continue their push. It was very likely that all of NTG's defensive towers would fall to them, making it much harder for NTG to turn things around.

So, NTG absolutely had to steal this dragon!

NTG's captain grit his teeth and said, "Support, get us visibility around the dragon. Jungler, come lurk with me in the lower jungle. Ideally, we want to take down their marksman!"

The Abyssal Lord was too difficult of a target. He could switch places with his shadows, making him too nimble.

But Tianhuan's marksman was a glass cannon! That would be an easy kill!

NTG's mid laner was the Illusionist, an assassin mage. Their jungler, the Ninja, had huge burst damage potential as well. The two of them could stake out the area from the woods and kill off the first hero they managed to ambush. That way, they could create a 5v4 fight for the grand dragon, which they stood a chance of winning.

The audience could see, from the eagle-eye view of the game, that NTG's mid/jungle duo were slipping away to lurk in the lower jungle. They hid themselves by a path that Qu Jiang and Cheng Xing would absolutely have to take.

When Qu Jiang passed by that hidden area, he very cautiously threw his Q skill into the woods.

The two enemy players were also very quick to react. The Illusionist immediately used a W skill to try to stun Tianhuan's marksman.

Over the past while, Cheng Xing had been abused day in and day out by Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo. He'd long since developed a conditioned response to this sort of thing. As soon as the enemy appeared and took aim at him, he decisively used his flash to evade!

As a result, NTG's two players weren't able to instakill Cheng Xing. He escaped with a sliver of health left.

NTG's captain excitedly shouted, "The enemy marksman is down to his last drop of health, he's definitely going back to their base. We can make this a 5v4 and take the dragon!"

NTG's teammates all cheered in unison, "Brothers, charge! Turn the tables, turn the tables!"

Tianhuan's marksman was so badly bloodied that he would have to go back to their base. Tianhuan definitely wouldn't engage in this fight. That was what everyone was thinking.

NTG's five players arranged themselves around the grand dragon pit.

Just as they believed they were about to collect the grand dragon—

Qin Yizhu suddenly flashed up in front of them and used the Black Dragon's Roar to taunt and reel in three of the enemy heroes. At nearly the exact same moment, Qu Jiang targeted the spot under Qin Yizhu's feet with a freezing skill.

One of the commentators couldn't help but exclaim, "Beautiful! Seamless crowd control!"

"By placing this freezing skill under his teammate's feet, he's declaring his trust in his teammate, isn't he? If Old Qin hadn't been able to reel in those players with his taunt, Qu Jiang's freezing skill would have hit nothing at all."

"And the result here is that Old Qin successfully taunted three of the enemies. Qu Jiang's freeze… landed on those three enemies too!"

Qin Yizhu and Qu Jiang were indeed very good at working together to crowd control their enemies. They'd been teammates for a long time already, after all.

Immediately afterwards, it was time for Tianhuan's mid laner to shine.

Ye Shaoyang's hands worked at explosive speeds. The Abyssal Lord's three shadows flashed around like lightning, instantly surrounding the three frozen heroes. Those shadows moved around endlessly, inflicting six abyssal marks. The Abyssal Glare added another stack of marks, and then—Ye Shaoyang unleashed his ult.

Double Kill!

Triple Kill!

NTG's three players had been dragged in by Old Qin's taunt. Since they were clustered together, the detonation of the abyssal marks created an AoE magic damage effect, instantly slaughtering three glass cannons!

NTG's top laner and support were a bit more tanky. They instantly turned and fled.

Fuck, didn't they agree to turn the tables?

NTG's captain mourned, "They're too much! Don't let them get a team kill, hurry and run!"

Ye Shaoyang called out, "Chase them down, don't let them get away!"

Chi Shuo's Brawler shot out with two uses of his movement skill. He stunned the enemy top laner. Ye Shaoyang immediately flashed over the wall of the grand dragon pit and swiftly sent out his three black shadows to surround the enemy top laner.

Quad Kill!

Ye Shaoyang's ult was refreshed again. Those three shadows swayed around the Abyssal Lord's body like loyal demons. With his E skill, Ye Shaoyang repeatedly commanded those shadows to shift and swap places, creating a dazzling display that could make anyone's head ache.

He actually managed to chase NTG's support halfway across the map!

The nimble Abyssal Lord swiftly darted through the jungle. Those shadows endlessly teleported ahead, like a black tornado. Very quickly, Ye Shaoyang caught up to the fleeing support.

Ye Shaoyang unleashed a skill combo, decisively taking the other player's head.

PENTAKILL!

NTG suffered a team wipeout.

Everyone watching the game felt like their eyes were about to fall out of their sockets. The two commentators were completely dumbstruck as well.

An eerie silence descended upon the stadium.

Until, two seconds later, the stands exploded with thunderous applause!

The two commentators came back to their senses.

"This battle unexpectedly ended in a total team wipeout! Tianhuan went into this at a 4v5 disadvantage. Their top laner and support seamlessly kept their enemies immobilized, giving the Abyssal Lord the best possible opportunity to join the fight. Then, Tianhuan's Lieyang continued the pursuit and took five kills!"

"This is the first pentakill of Season 10! Tianhuan's new mid laner, the omega player Ye Shaoyang, has taken a pentakill with the Abyssal Lord!"

The commentators' voices were trembling with excitement, and the applause in the stadium roared to the roof.

In the livestream, a dense forest of '6666' comments packed the screen.

[This is an omega? My scalp is tingling just from watching this!]

[Ye Shaoyang is so, so, so cool!]

[I thought this was just a cute little omega. I didn't think he could play so aggressively?]

[He's way too aggressive. He's chasing his enemies all across the rift!]

[Flashing over a wall to chase a kill… he didn't let a single enemy go! Too fierce!]

[Ahhhhh, I'm turning into a fan of this little omega gege! He's so cool~!]

[Previous commenter, don't try to steal him from me. I swear right now, that starting from today, I'm going to be Yangyang's diehard fan!]

After NTG's sudden demise in the fight for the grand dragon, Tianhuan led their troops forward and pushed straight down all three lanes to NTG's base.

NTG was powerless to fight back. The game ended at the twenty-minute mark.

"Congratulations to Team Tianhuan for taking the first win!"

"This round's MVP is unquestionably Tianhuan's new omega mid laner—Tianhuan's Lieyang!"

"Eight kills, zero deaths, and two assists. He did 45% of the damage in these fights. This new mid laner has brought us nothing but incredible surprises! We just saw S10's first pentakill today. Let's all give Lieyang a huge round of applause!"

Inside the soundproofed room, Ye Shaoyang still wore a smile on his face. He lifted his hands off his keyboard.

In his debut game, he'd taken a pentakill with the Abyssal Lord.

This was the best answer Ye Shaoyang could give to all those dubious voices online.