Rise

A cloud of dust hung in the air. An orange glow filled the sky. Flames ravaged the battlefield as the corpses of soldiers in red or blue littered the ground. A woman’s voice echoed out, cutting through the air and reverberating into the surroundings. “So long have I wandered… How should I proceed?”

Five minutes into the High School 13 versus Tonji Affiliated High, Lin Feng had his Riven hide in the brush on the top side of the lane. After giving away first blood, the Darius had gone on the defensive. He hid under his tower and only farmed minions when Riven wasn’t anywhere near him. He was terrified to give away a second kill! But Lin Feng was patient. He knew this Toplaner was scared and that if he wanted to pick up a second kill, he had to give this Darius some confidence. So he pretended to have recalled and waited. The Darius took the bait. He overextended.

A silhouette broke through the brush, brandishing her heavy runic blade. She charged towards the Darius and unleashed a flurry of slashes. A dazzling eruption of runic energy erupted from her blade, scattering into fragments of mottled green light. Her swordplay was exquisite. Every slash, thrust, and movement of her blade flowed smoothly into the next. She didn’t give her opponent any opportunity to react. Then she came down on him with one final slash.

《You have slain an enemy!》

“NICE BRO!” Ouyang cried out from the sidelines. He wanted to jump up and hug Ren Rou. But her glare made him rethink that. So he turned to Chen Ze and hugged him instead. “Fuck yeah! Lin Feng is the best! Carry us with that Riven, bro!”

“I know, right! It’s looking like we might actually beat Tonji!” Chen Ze grinned. He’d been feeling a little down about swapping out from top lane in this game. But all of that was forgotten when he saw Lin Feng play. Even these first two kills that looked simple were things he couldn’t pull off himself. So he took this game as another lesson from Lin Feng and patiently started taking notes.

Impossible! Tonji Affiliated High’s Toplaner stared at his death screen, his eye twitching. How is he that good? He knew what'd happened in the game between High School 13 and High School 7. He knew this Riven was good at the game. But there was a massive difference between being good at the game and whatever he was supposed to call this performance from the Riven. Everything he tried got shut down and even when he played as defensively as he could, he was still giving away kills!

✹

The supersized LCD screens in the Wembley Arena panned to top lane in the match between KG and Legend. God Roundy was pushing out the minion wave into Legend’s outer tower. His Riven was ahead after picking up First Blood. But Demon was still a world class Toplaner. If he played safely under the tower, there was nothing Roundy could do to his Fiora. Not by himself, at least. That changed if his teammates came to help him. And they did. Two silhouettes were coming up top from the river. KG’s support Thresh and jungle Rek’Sai! They moved into the tri brush closest to Legend’s outer tower and waited for Roundy to push in the next minion wave.