League of Legends: League of Unknowns

“Varus, are you an idiot? Why didn’t you use your ulti sooner?” Huang Mi roared.

“I…” Yi Xing, who was playing Varus, didn’t know what to say.

He’d seen that Sona had already used her ulti, so he’d been thinking to conserve his own, since they should have essentially won the fight already. Who could have expected such an outcome instead?

“Hurry up and push their tower, and then take the Dragon!” Huang Mi was blustering with fury.

All five of their team’s members were clustered together down in the Bottom lane. They should have gotten two kills, a tower, and a Dragon. Instead, both of their prey had gotten away from them!

Team Scarlet was already adapting to the situation. Since the enemy champions were all concentrated down in the Bottom lane, Kha’Zix and Malphite had joined forces up in the Top lane, and were pressing the assault full-speed. Already, two towers had fallen before them.

Morgana had also taken down the Mid-lane tower effortlessly.

In exchange, Team Pride had merely won themselves a Bot-lane tower and one Dragon. Team Scarlet had already fully demolished three of their towers, and they were also ahead in gold.

Finances were one thing, but to have lost a central tower, along with two towers in a side lane… from a strategic standpoint, it could only be called a disaster. A large swathe of Team Pride’s map vision was now shrouded in darkness!

Even if Shen returned to his Top lane, it would be extremely dangerous for him to push the minion wave any amount of distance: it would be a long road back to safety, enough for him to get killed several times over!

***

Team Scarlet’s Kha’Zix wasn’t leaving. It was aggressively leading the onslaught down the Top lane, as though intent on breaking into the enemy base.

Meanwhile, Malphite had transferred over to hold the Mid lane. With one enemy tower already reduced to rubble, Malphite was free to prowl through the area, looking for the chance to start a fight.

Team Pride could sense that the enemy was hankering for a team fight. When they weren’t holding off the enemy’s minions, they huddled close together, determined not to lose another tower, nor for anyone to get picked off by themselves.

Constrained in this way, with no vision in the center of the map and in constant fear of being forced into a team fight, they were on the back foot.

In no time at all, the second Dragon was taken. Team Scarlet had managed to slay it for themselves while Team Pride remained oblivious, and the gap between them grew larger.

“We’re pushing Bot.” Team Scarlet’s leader Huang Yu saw that their minions in the Mid and Top lanes were already encroaching upon the enemy’s base, and so he issued this order to his team.

Immediately after their Dragon kill, the five members of Team Scarlet united to destroy the enemy’s Bottom-lane tower.

Team Pride responded swiftly. Varus, Sona, and Katarina had already been in position to defend that tower.

“They’re outnumbered. Press the attack! Malphite, tank ¹ the tower!” Huang Yu commanded.

Xiao Tongtong grunted loudly in acknowledgement. He brought Malphite forward, within the reach of the enemy tower!

Malphite had a Sunfire Cape, and had clearly chosen Masteries for besieging towers, so the tower wasn’t doing that much damage to him.

“They’re not retreating. Attack!” Yu yelled. Morgana already had Zhonya’s Hourglass, so he was spoiling for a fight.

Throwing up a ‘Black Shield’ straight away, Yu then used his Flash to jump in, and activated Morgana’s ultimate skill, ‘Soul Shackles’!

If Morgana herself was charging in, what more the rest of them? Graves, Malphite, and Kha’Zix all followed suit.

Malphite opened with his own ultimate skill, hurtling in like a falling meteor, straight towards Varus!

Pow!

Varus didn’t even have the chance to react, and then suddenly he was tossed high into the air!

By now, Morgana’s Soul Shackles had been tethered to Varus for over a second, and as he struggled to pull himself together after coming back down to ground, the ethereal shackles drew tight, stunning him again. He was as good as dead!

Whumm!

In response, Sona strummed a powerful chord across the strings of her instrument—it was her ultimate skill, Crescendo!

Shimmering golden waves of energy assailed Morgana, Malphite, and Graves.

Thanks to her Black Shield, Morgana was unaffected by the spell. However, both Malphite and Graves were unable to continue the assault.

Morgana had to remain within range of a target to apply the effects of her Soul Shackles. Displeased to see that Sona and Katarina were about to escape the spell’s area of effect, Huang Yu noticed Alistar still pacing back and forth behind Morgana, and he snapped, “Alistar, why don’t you get in there? Use your combo ¹ !”

Obviously he was talking to Yu Luocheng, who had managed to sidestep Sona’s ulti, but then held back, remaining at the center of the team’s formation.

Should he combo Sona, or Katarina?

Yu Luocheng chose neither. Sure, he might be able to tie down one of them—but he’d chosen Alistar not just for offense, but also to fulfil a more important duty.

He continued to bide his time, using only his E-skill, ‘Triumphant Roar’, to provide that minuscule bit of healing to his team . ¹

Waaaaaagh!

All of a sudden, the air was filled with ravenous crows! Popping out from behind the nearby wall, Fiddlesticks moved to envelop Kha’Zix, Graves, Alistar, and Malphite with this dark swarm.

“Fiddlesticks!” Yu gasped. The Team Scarlet leader turned ashen.

Using Fiddlesticks well was all about using his ultimate skill well. When he was able to find a good opportunity to pop up in the middle of a frenzied battle, he could deal obscene amounts of damage in a matter of moments. By the time the cawing of ravens finally died away, the battlefield would already have fallen into silence, the ground strewn with ravaged corpses!

When Team Scarlet forced a fight like this, it caused them to be packed together tightly—the perfect situation for Fiddlesticks to unleash his ulti, which was exactly what he did!

The appearance of Fiddlesticks always fills people with an inexplicable sense of dread and horror. The Team Scarlet champions scattered in all directions.

Except Yu Luocheng, whose eyes remained clear and unafraid, fixed warily upon the nearby wall the whole time. As Team Scarlet broke apart in panic, Yu Luocheng’s own eyes lit up instead!

‘Don’t you know… I’ve been waiting for you all day!’

Yu Luocheng’s finger had already been standing by over the ‘W’ key. The moment Fiddlesticks alighted in his vicinity, he hit it!

Headbutt!

Alistar charged forth, his enormous horns savagely picking up the frail scarecrow and sweeping it away.

Fiddlesticks had made quite the dramatic entrance, brandishing his sickle menacingly, arms spread wide as though in readiness to begin a dark harvest of souls—

And then he got hit by a rampaging bull!

Bam! Suddenly, Fiddlesticks was thrown right back against the wall! Barely a slip of a thing to begin with, now he was plastered across its surface like a comical poster.

Waaaaaagh!

Crowing ravens whirled terrifyingly about the scarecrow , ¹ catching not so much as a single hair on an enemy champion.

Just like that, the ulti had largely gone to waste!

“Hot damn, that was beautiful!” At that moment, Huang Yu could have kissed Alistar on both horns!

In a team fight, Fiddlesticks was nothing without his ulti, and that one had been perfectly deployed. Even if it hadn’t killed the Team Scarlet champions outright, it would have done the job most of the way, and the worst was yet to come…

While they were running around on their last legs, Katarina would appear like the chorus of that Sugababes song: Round, round, baby, round, round, spinning out on me…

Without a shadow of a doubt, it would have been a total party wipe!

But with one lovely headbutt from Alistar, the ambush had been aborted.

To think that Huang Yu had been urging Alistar to perform a skill combo. Looking back now, if Alistar had really done as he’d asked, the consequences would have been unthinkable!