Rise

It was Nasus versus Riven in the top lane! Nasus, the jackal-headed monster who needed time to scale, and Riven. Riven was an early game beast, especially if she got that first kill. That was why the towerdive earlier with her Jungler was so important. And they got that all important kill! The kill that could make the lane! If only the Riven had gotten it. But she hadn’t. The Jarvan IV had. And in the process, they’d given two kills to the Nasus. Now, the Riven found herself up against a Nasus with two kills. A Nasus who’d gotten enough gold to buy items with health and armour. There wasn’t much she could do in this matchup anymore.

The Jarvan IV had gotten the kill on the Nasus. He might’ve lost his double buffs, but he got that important kill. It was enough for him to stay relevant. More importantly, he could go and fight in another lane, a winning lane, and get back into it again. But this wasn’t the case for the Riven. There was nothing she could do but sit in top lane and face off against a Nasus she couldn’t kill anymore, waiting for the game to reach the point where she fell into the pits of futility. She didn’t even dare to step up to the Nasus anymore. His Siphoning Strike was quickly becoming the most powerful skill in the game.

✹

Lin Feng focused on farming his Siphoning Strike. Siphoning Strike was perhaps the most important skill on Nasus. This was not for its power at the start, but for what it could become. Every time Siphoning Strike whacked a monster, minion, or Champion to the next life, its power increased. This stacked indefinitely. Lin Feng was calm and confident, smiling. But Su Xue wasn’t as convinced and had mumbled more than a few complaints. So Lin Feng turned to her and explained, “Don’t worry! Things are only just getting started! Nasus needs at least 300 stacks on his Siphoning Strike! That’s what I’m getting right now. I just push this lane and get stronger, all the way until I destroy the nexus. And if a teamfight breaks out somewhere, then I have my teleport and can jump into the action. I’ll clean house, get more kills and more stacks and then go back to farming in my lane. It’s easy. Really!”

Su Xue shook her head and sighed. “You know, I normally have some confidence in you. And you sure sound believable. If not for the fact I just saw you look up a guide on your phone…”

“Oh, that? Don’t worry about that,” Lin Feng laughed, waving her worries away with his arm. “It’s been a while. I was just making sure I was doing this right. No worries, haha!”

Su Xue looked at Lin Feng and then back at the game. She bit on the inside of her lips. He looks confident, it’s just that… It was just that his actions didn’t match his confidence. So she asked, “A-are you really sure?”

“Ease up a little! Haha! Have I ever let you down? My Nasus is great. I told you already! Just have a little faith in me,” Lin Feng replied. Then he paused for a moment. He nodded to his phone and asked, “Oh, uh, can you maybe open that guide again and tell me what items I should get? I forgot…”

Su Xue was about to fire off a sling of insults, fighting the very real urge of tearing Lin Feng a new asshole. But then she gave up. This kid is hopeless… She shook her head and grumbled a little, quietly enough so that Lin Feng couldn’t hear her, but still grabbed his phone and opened the guide. A deep breath to force away the last of her annoyance and then she said, “First you want to buy…”