Chapter 214. The Skill To Give Up Vision (2)
Chapter 214. The Skill To Give Up Vision (2)
Kwaang!
A shining light enveloped ForeverAlone's silhouette.
"Wow! What was that damage!?"
"Wow!"
His HP was instantly cut by 30%, and the casters went wild.
"If the monk is that strong and still lost that much health, it must mean that Ran's damage is massive, right?"
"If it was the ADC that was hit instead, they would've lost half of their HP!"
The monk was sturdier than other mid-laners, but even he lost a huge chunk of HP. It was a grave situation, but ForeverAlone remained unfazed and shouted into the voice channel.
“Get him!”
ForeverAlone turned around to Almond and Tako as if he expected them.
“Okay!”
Pollock, the jungler, came out of hiding as ForeverAlone commanded.
"Almond vs. ForeverAlone!!"
"Tako vs. Pollock!"
"They're fighting to see who the best snack is!!"
"Sorry?"
"T-The game could be decided here!"
As the casters predicted, the battle to decide the match began in the middle lane.
***
'They're here!'
Pollock, the jungler for Solo Is Back, was playing as Spider Queen - Arachne.
"Spiderman~!"
That was how she could shoot sticky webs.
Chiiik!
The webs shot toward Almond.
Swoosh!
However, Tako's harpoon pushed away the web and negated the skill.
"This is the human cobweb!"
Tako confidently threw a net toward Arachne. Arachne tried to tie down the two opponents but became tied down instead.
Tako shouted as he struck down Arachne, "Kill Arachne first!"
"Nice net."
Bzzzt!
Almond formed a pistol with his white mana and aimed at Arachne.
"Get away!"
Spit!
Arachne spat her poison at Tako. Simultaneously, Ran's mana shot pierced through the air and landed perfectly on Arachne.
Kwaaang!
It knocked back Arachne, and as a result, her poison missed.
'What is this damage?'
Arachne didn't even notice her attack missing because of the damage inflicted. Her HP was cut in half.
Bzzzt!
Ran collected mana at the tip of his finger again. Arachne didn't think much of it earlier, but now the light looked different.
'That means the next hit will kill me, right?'
A two shot kill?
'How bad is our bottom lane...'
It wouldn’t be easy to run away because of the net.
Pung!
Just then, Ran fired his second shot.
'Please miss...'
The shot couldn't miss a target that wasn’t moving. Not to mention, it was Almond firing. He had already proved his aiming skills in Battle Large.
Kwaang!
The mana flared and covered her sight, but she wasn't dead.
[Resonance]
She could see ForeverAlone's back as the bright light faded.
Wooong!
"ForeverAlone!"
The wave from Resonance flowed out from ForeverAlone. The Resonance skill allowed the monk to quickly move to ally champions. A protective barrier from the resonance would cover the ally when the monk landed next to them. Based on the monk's HP, the barrier gave the allies a 1-20% shield. As a result, Arachne survived.
Almond’s expression darkened.
'What the?'
From Almond's perspective, the shot he could barely make was negated into nothing.
'Is it Resonance?'
Almond was now memorizing the skills of popular champions, but he wasn't sure about the monk. The monk was hardly used in the current meta. Even if he was, the monk was usually used in the top lane or jungle. However, the monk Almond was currently up against was a strong mid-laner.
Champions who were strong in the mid-lane were often the strongest in the game. It was hard for him to predict the monk’s current strength. ForeverAlone seemed stronger than any other monk he had faced.
The monk got ahead by killing Miho multiple times, so it was hard to gauge his strength now. It was dangerous.
'Tako's way too close.'
They were in an awkward position now with ForeverAlone in between Arachne and Tako's fight. Tako was the only one facing the two while Almond was far away.
"Ka-Pow!"
ForeverAlone made an excited noise and kicked up at Tako’s chin.
"Kugh!"
Pssht!
Blood and spit came out of Tako's mouth as his eyes rolled back. Tako flew into the air.
"Here comes the combo!"
ForeverAlone shouted as if he was streaming and started his combo. He kicked Tako in the air with his knee and turned around to strike him with his elbow.
"Chiki-cha!"
In the end, he punched Tako straight in the chest and knocked him away.
Paang!
— Puhahahaha!
— What a guy!
— ForeverAlone! ForeverAlone! ForeverAlone!
— Let's gooo! Everybody come to ForeverAlone's stream!
The crowd went wild as they saw his showmanship.
Slam!
Tako's body bounced off a tree as the tree split in half.
[ForeverAlone is unstoppable!]
[ForeverAlone -> Takoyaki]
The crowd went wild.
— Wow!
— Holy shit!
— ForeverAlone! You're crazy!
— Solo is strong! Solo is strong!
ForeverAlone's fans started chanting. Meanwhile, Almond wasn't just sitting around.
Kwang!
A light shone from somewhere.
[LazySoldier is Legendary!]
[LazySoldier -> Pollock]
Arachne suddenly died.
— Wow! Almond!
— Almond!
— Oppa! Kill them all!
He perfectly dodged the monk and landed his shot on Arachne.
ForeverAlone cringed.
"Huh?!"
Other than veterans at the monk, it was difficult to react to the surroundings while landing combos because there were too many wavelengths to tell them apart.
'What the!?'
As a result, ForeverAlone was confused that Pollock suddenly died.
'Oh well.'
The confusion only briefly lasted. He readied his form and prepared to shoot a shockwave at Ran.
'A one-on-one with the ADC. There's no way I’ll lose this.'
Tako also died and the fight was in ForeverAlone's favor. The monk could kill the ADC as easily as Flashy Blade.
"Alright! I'll show you what a piece of cake killing the ADC is!"
Clap!
He ran toward Almond while making his own comments.
***
Almond was aware that the situation didn’t favor him.
'A one-on-one... isn't good.'
He had been attacked by champions like the monk during solo-queue several times. Once the shockwave hit him, the monk would instantly approach and execute his combos. ADCs despised the combination of skills.
“Almond, run.”
“We traded our support for their jungler. It's a win for us!”
His teammates advised him to run, but could he? The monk had several movement skills, whereas Ran was slow.
"Haaaaa!" ForeverAlone shouted and struck his hand out to shoot a shockwave.
Wooong!
He couldn't see well with his eyes, but he could see the space distorting and quickly heading for Almond.
Tak!
Almond kicked off and threw his body to the left. The shockwave went toward his right and missed.
Almond jumped back and thought to himself, 'His accuracy... is quite low.'
ForeverAlone missed by a long shot considering he was Challenger tier. Almond turned around and looked precisely at ForeverAlone’s eyes covered by a bandage. This was why the monk was so hard to learn compared to other champions.
'He's not used to the monk even if he is in Challenger.'
There was a difference between being good at the game and getting used to being blind.
'He can't play to his fullest.'
Almond felt like he could beat the monk one-on-one as long as he dodged the shockwaves.
'I think it's doable.'
Tak.
Almond stopped walking back.
“Oppa, come closer!”
“Almond oppa? You're not moving on the minimap??”
“Hello!?”
Miho kept talking through the voice channel as she approached them, but Almond didn't respond. If he even slightly opened his mouth, the opponent would hear him. She couldn't even hear him breathe. Almond stood breathless with mana fully charged at his fingertip and aimed at the monk.
"!?"
ForeverAlone also stopped moving in confusion.
'What the... he’s stopped?'
The monk couldn't figure out what was happening because he could only see wavelengths. His opponent suddenly stopped and only aimed at him. He figured out that much, but why?
Was Almond waiting for support? ForeverAlone looked around at the different wavelengths.
'There's no one!'
He didn’t spot any other wavelengths in the surroundings, so Almond was that confident. ForeverAlone was inexperienced with the monk, so it took him roughly 0.1-1 seconds to figure this out. Normally, this would still be enough to react, but 0.1 seconds was the difference between a critical hit and missing in LIL.
Kwaaaang!!
"Urgh!"
Almond's shot perfectly landed, and a beam of white light pushed back ForeverAlone.
'Dammit.'
He could've dodged it, but panicked at the last second and lost 30% of his HP.
[HP 40%]
Ran was running away again.
'I can see him now.'
He could easily tell from the strong wavelength. ForeverAlone lost some time because he was pushed back, but quickly ran and shortened the distance.
'It'll be quick.'
They were so close that ForeverAlone could reach out and grab Ran by the neck. Without even noticing that the opponent was running slow, ForeverAlone threw out his fist to punch Ran.
Whack!
Almond lost some HP.
'Alright, you're dead.'
As he was about to start his kick combo…
Bzzzt!
He heard Almond's mana crackling.
'He's going to shoot one more time.'
Ran could fire another shot with enough time to fully charge his mana again. If this hit ForeverAlone, he would lose most of his HP and be knocked back.
'I'll dodge it and kick him into the air.'
Monks commonly made this play. They dodged by crouching and used the momentum from getting up to kick the enemy for a combo.
'Shoot. I dare you.'
Once the monk closed in, he could feel the slightest wavelengths. He could even recognize movements before the enemy acted.
'Now!'
Almond's hand recoiled from the immense mana he was charging.
"Heeup!"
ForeverAlone quickly ducked with intense concentration. His surroundings and the wavelengths slowed. The frames were stretching.
"!?"
However, something was off. Nothing went past him. He couldn't feel anything flying past him.
'What the?'
He thought something was weird, but his body was already kicking up. Just then, a large wave came flying toward him.
'Huh?!'
Kwaaaang!
A white beam overwhelmed him and knocked him back.
'What the?'
ForeverAlone was so confused.
[HP 10%]
He lost almost all of his HP.
'Was it a feint?'
The motion from Almond’s hand earlier had been a feint. He took advantage of the fact that the monk couldn't see well.
'What a guy.'
He was impressed that Almond used a feint in such a situation. That was impressive game sense even for a Challenger.
However—
'I almost missed the kick.'
Even as he was pushed back, the monk landed his kick on Almond's chin just at the tip of the hitbox.
Wack!
Almond's body lifted into the air, and ForeverAlone ran toward him with all he had.
'It's over.'
Almond had around 70% HP left. It would be difficult to start the combo from far away, but a Challenger player was still a Challenger. He initiated the combo.
'It'll hit by a narrow margin.'
His uppercut landed on Almond, but—
Was it a coincidence? Or was it because the kick landed at the tip of Almond’s chin?
Tuk.
"!?"
His fist struck Almond's foot, and the uppercut didn’t properly land. Almond stepped on his fist.
'What the. This is a different feeling.'
The monk was blind, so he wasn't aware of the situation and continued to hit.
Puung!
The uppercut landed, and Almond flew, but...
'What the?! Why's he going so far?'
The distance he flew in the air was off. Almond kicked off the punch and flew much farther away to where the combo could no longer land.
Slam...!
He could see the wavelength where Almond landed.
'Almost 40-50 meters away...'
Almond was too far.
Bzzzt...!
"!"
ForeverAlone felt a white mana wave as Almond prepared to shoot the monk from a distance. The monk only had 10% of his HP left, and the crowd was already cheering.