Chapter Thirty-One: Is This Really the Demacia Cup? (Construction Complete)

"Is it coming?"
"This feeling of an impending storm."

Top lane.
Luo Ji, who had clearly noticed the unusual silence on the mini-map, already had a premonition that the enemy was coming for him.
Actually, there was no need to guess.
He took a few symbolic steps back, and over there, the Gnar, who had been playing timidly under the tower, had already proactively stepped out, trying to keep him in place.

"Rookie, retreat!"
"Our positioning is off; fall back first and defend."

Rookie’s voice sounded anxious in the headset, but at this moment, Luo Ji’s attention was already locked on the TES players emerging from the fog of war.
What did Chicken say to him just now?
Was it... to give it his all?

He looked at the current situation again. The Lee Sin and Diana had already closed in on him. In fact, the Lee Sin was behind him—he didn't even know when Knight had circled around.
Draven and Thresh had yet to arrive, but they were likely on their way.
Considering his teammates' positions...
It seemed he really only had one choice: give it his all and push his mechanics to the limit.

At the casting desk.
The three commentators had instinctively tensed up. V5’s reinforcements were coming quickly—fast enough that Rookie and Karsa could reach the battlefield in just a few seconds—but the problem was that TES’s move was faster.
Professional matches are won and lost in split seconds.
A few seconds can destroy a man’s dignity, and it can just as easily turn the tide of a match.

"TES’s mid and jungle have reached the battlefield first, surrounding Aatrox!"
"V5’s mid and jungle are coming, but it looks like they won't make it in time!"
"Aatrox is still retreating, kiting, but Knight’s Lee Sin has successfully circled behind him!"
"Mebius has given them an opening here!"

On the big screen.
Hundreds of thousands of eyes, accompanied by the commentator's shouts, were fixed firmly on the screen.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Whether it was the way Lee Sin used the fog of war to flank or the timing that caught the rest of V5 off guard, this was a chance that would not come twice.

"Ready to go!" Tian shouted in the team voice chat after checking his teammates' positions.
"Wait, my rage bar is still a bit short..." Zoom said, checking his rage meter upon hearing his teammate.
"No time!"

As the saying goes, opportunity knocks but once. The longer they waited, the more likely the enemy reinforcements would arrive. Realizing this, Knight, prompted by his teammates, decisively closed in on Aatrox.

Luo Ji glanced at Lee Sin’s position.
Theoretically, there is no hero in League of Legends who can 1v5, especially on the professional stage. Professional players' coordination can chain crowd control skills perfectly. Like an ordinary man unable to withstand the sharpness of a battlefield, he would only end up like "Cheng-ge" if he blindly committed. That was why he had to keep kiting backward.
It wasn't just about lengthening the front line.
It was also about making himself a "master of time management."
This profession was quite special; it could ignore the horror of a chaotic battlefield.

The moment Knight’s Lee Sin was about to reach him, Luo Ji steered his Aatrox sharply. Instead of fleeing toward his base, he suddenly turned back, approaching the brush near the red side’s top-side Krugs.
This turn made Knight pause.
Aatrox clearly looked like he was trying to kite using the brush, but the fatal issue was that Knight only had one trinket ward. He had intended to save it to reach the distance for a ward-hop Insec kick, but now that Aatrox had turned, he had to place the ward in the brush.
Knight, in the midst of the pursuit, felt a tightness in his chest. He felt an inexplicable sense of unease.
This position...
Was it intentional, or just an accident!?

However.
The moment his ward dropped into the brush, he didn't see the lone Aatrox who had been fleeing for his life. Instead, he saw a terrifying existence with [World Ender] already activated!
The moment he glimpsed Aatrox, he saw the start of the first cast of Aatrox’s Q.

"Crack!"
The blood-soaked demon blade accurately knocked up Lee Sin at the tip of the skill’s range. Watching his health bar plummet, Knight’s mouth twitched, and he instinctively stepped back, trying to create some distance.
However...
It was this very step back that made him realize.
Beneath his feet, the dark red chains were proclaiming their silent arrival.

It wasn't a complex combo, but Aatrox’s classic "autistic" triple-Q: the slow Q1-E, where the E is cast near the end of the Q animation, allowing the displacement to continue while the Q finishes.
Simply put, it was the Q1-EW-Q2-A-Q3 combo.
Whether one was proficient in this combo was the dividing line between Diamond-tier Aatrox players and those below. In a normal laning phase, the success rate of this combo might not be high, but by using the fog of war, Luo Ji had seized this fleeting moment!

The Q2 [Umbral Dash] landed hard!
A two-item Aatrox.
He was one of the strongest heroes in the canyon at that stage. Even with only Goredrinker and Death’s Dance, the damage from this combo was shocking to behold.
Knight couldn't dodge this jumping slash; he had to brace himself and take the damage.
However...
Just after he landed from the knock-up, the moment he prepared to use his R-Flash combo, Aatrox—after landing the Q2—didn't follow up with an auto-attack. He took a step back instead.
He stepped back!

This kiting step left Knight in a dilemma. He could have jumped in to R-Flash and used Flash to escape Aatrox’s W range. If he didn't flash, Aatrox’s Q3-Flash would likely follow for the kill. But if he did flash, they would lose their most crucial initiation control. Cold sweat covered Knight’s forehead.
Until he saw Aatrox’s third Q jump into the air.
He, who wasn't exactly tanky himself, dared not take that damage. The instant Aatrox’s Q3 was about to land—

"Swish!"
He flashed out of the range of Aatrox’s W.
But...
Even though he had calculated the flash to dodge Aatrox’s Q3-Flash, he didn't hear the sound of the enemy Aatrox flashing after his own.
Knight looked up abruptly.
Not far away.
The menacing Aatrox had actually cast his Q3 into thin air.
He hadn't flashed!
He had just baited his Flash!?
They were in such a critical situation, why could he stay so calm? Are you a recovering addict or something?

Lee Sin’s mistake caused the stream's chat to scroll at an accelerated pace.
No one expected it.
Aatrox, who seemed doomed, had managed to carve out a sliver of hope in this team fight through retreating, utilizing the brush, and the "autistic" triple-Q combo.

Tian frowned. On the mini-map, V5’s reinforcements were getting closer.
Normally.
If they were countered like this by Aatrox, they would just stop the chase.
But not this time.
They had gone all-in for this play. Even if the situation was bad, they had to kill this Aatrox!
Tian’s Diana lunged forward!
Aatrox was currently in a skill cooldown window. Seizing this opportunity, they might still be able to focus him down. Thinking this, Tian, controlling Diana, unleashed a full "infinite lunar combo," dumping all his damage onto Aatrox.

Pain!
But not as painful as expected!
In the Mythic item version, another deformity—aside from the not-yet-released bounty mechanism—was that experience gains in different lanes were completely different. Bottom lane experience was slashed, while top lane was the highest. At this moment, Aatrox was two levels ahead of Diana. While Lee Sin was still waiting for an opening, with only Diana going all-in, her damage alone wasn't enough.

However.
With Tian’s initiation, Zoom felt more confident and moved closer.
His rage bar was still a bit short.
There was no help for it; opportunities were just that sudden. It wasn't as if every chance perfectly aligned with the moment he transformed.
At this moment.
The damage from Diana and Gnar rained down on him.
In the distance, Thresh and Draven were closing in, and Draven’s ultimate was even coming his way.
But Luo Ji was still waiting. After landing an auto-attack for the passive heal on Diana, he continued to kite backward into the jungle.
He wasn't waiting for his teammates; he was waiting for his cooldowns.
From the corner of his eye.
He kept a close watch on where Knight’s Lee Sin was.
Diana’s skills were on cooldown, Gnar was about to transform, and Lee Sin was watching like a tiger. The next moment, the Sonic Wave shot by Knight landed accurately on him.

It’s coming!
The final killing blow of TES’s encirclement.
Countless viewers in the stream felt their hearts skip a beat. Honestly, having lasted this long, Aatrox had already dealt a solid counter-attack, shaving off nearly two-thirds of Lee Sin’s health.
Is it over?
Once Gnar transformed, the CC from his R and W, combined with the explosive damage from the mid-lane Lee Sin—Aatrox, without having secured a kill to trigger healing, couldn't possibly survive this burst.

Finally.
Zoom’s rage bar filled up. Without needing the double-jump that would make Vergil envious, he only needed a single E-jump.
Following that...
Was the giant Mega Gnar in mid-air!
"It’s here!"
"That palm technique descending from the heavens!"

Seeming to trust his teammate's CC completely, the moment Gnar jumped, Knight, having timed the second part of his Q perfectly, activated Resonating Strike. There were no flashy effects.
But...
This was their most heated, blood-boiling combo!
Is he going to die!?
No!
Luo Ji’s pupils constricted.
In this play, he couldn't give up so soon!
There is no such thing as a "must-lose" game; he had understood that from the very beginning.
Since there was no life left in being conservative, then throw away the fear.
Go completely crazy!!!

Just as the "Palm of the Buddha" was about to land, and at the same time Lee Sin was about to hit with his second Q.
"Swish!"
The Flash he had intentionally saved for the most critical moment was finally used.
Not backward.
But—forward!
He proactively flashed toward the spot where Gnar was jumping!
The difference was, at the front end of this Flash, there was a Q-jump that had just come off cooldown.
Zoom: ?

What does this mean?
The three of us are hitting you, and you don't surrender, but dare to strike back?
And your Q is aimed way off.
Wait!
Q!?

Under the stunned gazes of the players, commentators, and even the live stream audience, the nearly perfect top-mid combo, after this Flash, turned into Aatrox passing Gnar in mid-air and perfectly intercepting the Lee Sin flying through the air with his second Q!
The "Palm of the Buddha" was dodged.
Lee Sin’s second Q was interrupted in mid-air!?
How is this possible!?

The entire stream's chat was in an uproar.
Even the well-informed commentators fell silent for an instant. Zoom, realizing something was wrong, hurriedly tried to recover after landing and used his W for control. But after missing his ultimate and Lee Sin’s second Q, not only was the CC duration reduced, but they also faced a deficit in the damage needed to kill Aatrox.

The dead end had been brought back to life!
On the field, whether it was Tian, Knight, or Zoom, they all stopped talking. They looked up, their eyes filled with shock, watching this blood-drenched Darkin figure.
From the initial kiting and retreating, to the Q3 fake-out that baited the Flash, to this incredibly bizarre forward Flash.
Regardless of which move it was.
None of it looked like something a LPL rookie could pull off. This was clearly the calm mindset and clear thinking that only a veteran top-laner could possess. But that wasn't the point; the point was...
At the instant their CC ended.
In their vision.
Aatrox played his final trump card.
Mythic Item [Goredrinker]: Heals for (20% Attack Damage + 8% missing health) for each enemy champion hit.

A Goredrinker at this timing was no different from a card game where, just as the opponent is pushed to the brink of death, you suddenly flash an emote and pull a winning card from your sleeve.
Despair had never been so vivid!

Knight instinctively wanted to run. Among the three, he had the lowest health. Once killed by Aatrox, the healing from Death’s Dance would turn this monster into the nightmare of the entire TES team.
But...
The moment he turned to run, a flash of icy blue crystal grew larger in his vision!
R [Enchanted Crystal Arrow]!
The first reinforcement from V5 became the final straw that broke TES.
This ultimate accurately hit Knight’s Lee Sin.
The key stun, lasting well over two seconds at long range, left the gathered TES members feeling like they were about to collapse.
It’s over!
It’s all over!

The hearts that had been hanging for so long died completely the moment Lee Sin was hit by the Ashe arrow.
At this moment, all the enemies surrounding Aatrox were in the most awkward of cooldown vacuums.
Everyone who wanted to kill him was ultimately blocked by one opponent after another. Although his health was precarious, everyone knew that Aatrox was the most dangerous existence at this moment.
But he didn't die!
He was still alive!
Since the health pack was ready.
Then, let's reverse the situation!

After regaining control, he landed an auto-attack, and catching the tip of his Q cooldown, Aatrox’s second Q landed again. This time, Lee Sin could no longer withstand the damage and was executed under the demon blade.
V5 Mebius killed TES Knight.
Catching the final second of [World Ender].
The ultimate was perfectly refreshed!
The healing from Goredrinker, the passive, and the crucial Death’s Dance meant that just by killing Lee Sin, his health returned to over half.
But it wasn't enough!
Still not enough!

The TES members began to scatter.
But the blood-thirsty demon soul behind them had no intention of letting them go.
The four V5 teammates on the side stood frozen in front of their screens. They remembered coming over to save their top-laner, but with the current situation... why did it feel like the ones who needed saving were the guys on the other side?

Holy crap!
Bro, are you really this strong!?

Thresh and Draven, who were trailing behind, finally managed to reach the battlefield. When they looked up, the "five-man-gank-one-guaranteed-kill" scenario had turned into the enemy Aatrox chasing their top and jungle, hacking them to pieces.
Looking at the situation, it even felt like it was about to spread to them?

In the voice chat.
Zoom screamed at the top of his lungs:
"Jackey, hurry, get him! I’ve lured Aatrox over to you."
"???"
He blankly looked at the blood-eyed Aatrox, then at the V5 players arriving one after another, and then at the 4v5—soon to be 3v5 or 2v5—disparity in numbers, and swallowed hard.
You call this situation...
Luring the monster?
DON'T YOU DARE COME OVER HERE!!!