Chapter 104: Blade of the Exile!
“Come on, guys! You can do it!” Ren Rou shouted. She wanted to win this game! They were doing so great during the early game. What happened in the last few minutes, that was only a minor setback! Two kills and a Dragon, that’s all that happened! They could still win! There was still hope!
“YEAH! Come on, my bros! We can totally still win this!” Ouyang cheered. He punched up into the air. But it looked completely mismatched with the expression on his face. He was biting his lips and his eyes were wide open, full of worry. A trace of this worry slipped into his voice. “We can do this! Totally.”
Chen Ze didn’t say anything. He watched the players from High School 13 sitting behind their monitors. They looked lost, even from behind. He couldn’t explain why. Perhaps it was the way they were sitting in their chairs, or how they kept looking towards Lin Feng as if they were searching for his guidance. Their plays became less confident too. They hid further back. Whenever an opportunity did show up, they chose to retreat rather than engage. It looked like they’d lost the will to fight.
It made sense. This game was difficult. Tonji Affiliated High was simply better than High School 13. They were the semi finalists from last year. They had the stronger players in every role. They had everything going for them. Well, almost everything. Lin Feng was on High School 13’s team. He was the only reason the game wasn’t over yet. But how far can he carry us? Even with him, it looks like we still can’t win. We’re just not good enough. Chen Ze thought things would’ve been different if they just had more time. More time to practice. More time to learn from Lin Feng. Two weeks just wasn’t enough. It’s fine, though. Right? It's just one game. There’s nothing on the line here. We’ve already qualified. Yeah.... It’s fine.
However, the players from High School 13 hadn’t given up. Nor was their morale running low. They were just upset, that’s all. Not even upset, really. More like mildly miffed. They were mad at themselves, more than anything else. It was their mistakes that had led to them giving up two kills and a Dragon. They were annoyed that Tonji Affiliated High was back in the game because of their mistakes. But that annoyance was not the same as giving up. If anything, it made them want to fight even harder!
The usually quiet Wei Dong was the first to give voice to these emotions. “God dammit guys! I’m not gonna stand here and take this! We’re not going to let Mikey get to us! Not after that fantastic start we had! We’re going to win this damn game! We’re going to win! This is only one match, but we can make an explosion!”
“Heck yeah! What Wei Dong says! THEY SHALL NOT PASS!” Liu Yue said. He cleared the Wolf Camp on the top side of his Jungle, then added, “I’ll come help you guys in bot and mid. Screw that Elise and her shitty ganks! I’ll show them what a real gank looks like!”
Yang Fan adjusted his glasses. “Come mid first. Syndra has no Flash. Should be an easy kill.” There was something more he wanted to say, but he hesitated. He had his Orianna walk into lane to last hit a minion, careful not to get caught out by the Syndra. He clicked his tongue and added, “Of course, this isn’t great right now. We’ve given away two kills. It’d be strange if any of us were happy. But being upset isn’t giving up. We’re not giving up. Our goal is the trophy. This is just one game towards that trophy. Let’s make sure we win it.”
Tang Bingyao bit down hard on her lips. Tonji Affiliated High had gotten a kill over her. Their ad-carry was ahead of her Draven now. But she was the better ad-carry. She knew she was the better player. It was time for her to prove that. Play time is over! Instead of making promises over voice chat or cheering with the others to fight, she just stared at her screen. She stared at Tonji Affiliated High’s ad-carry. I don’t care what it takes. Starting right now, I’m going to play on! I’m going to beat you. And I’m going to win this game.