Rise

“WHAT!” Yan Liang blurted out. His Twisted Fate was stunned by Tibbers, Annie’s teddy bear. The monster fueled by flames swiped down at the Twisted Fate with its massive claws, tearing away at his health. A mana infused fireball slammed into him. He had a sliver of health left. SHIT! NO! Not like this! Yan Liang clicked towards his own tower, but his Twisted Fate wouldn’t move. The stun hadn’t broken yet. Fortunately, the Annie had cast all her spells. She hit him with an auto attack and then another. But that wasn’t enough to kill him before the stun broke.

Yan Liang slammed down on his W key–Pick a Card! Yellow! Yellow! Come on! A blue card appeared above his Twisted Fate, followed by a red card. COME ON! Then the golden card came. Yan Liang hammered down on his W key, selecting the golden card, then clicked on the Annie. STUN! The golden card whizzed through the air and struck the Annie, stunning her, while the Twisted Fate ran back towards his tower. But the Annie wasn’t the main threat. She’d used all her skills and could now only throw little embers at him. It was the massive teddy bear of her that was dealing all the damage! Tibbers chased him down and swiped down again with its massive claws, killing him before he could even get close to his outer tower.

《You have been slain!》

Yan Liang stared at the grey screen in front of him. No. No. This stupid little girl! ...I just made a small mistake, I can still change this. We’ll win. He was trying his best to calm himself down. But over the edge of his screen, he could see the crowd in the venue jumping up from their seats and cheering. They should be cheering for me. The Annie just got lucky in Champion Select— He was interrupted by a cheerful voice that traveled all the way to him from the other side of the stage. “Wow! Who would've guessed? I’m really good at Annie too!” I’m going to… kill that fucker! I’ll fucking show you, you little piece of, of, arggh!

The crowd erupted! This was a solo kill! The two Midlaners had faced off and the Annie had won in impressive fashion! This time, it wasn't only the students from High School 13 who jumped up from their seats, shouting and screaming. But they were the loudest.

“WOOO! Maul his ass! Maul his ass!” “Fucking yes! That was… AWESOME!” “How’s that feel? Getting killed by a little girl! HAHA!” “HEEYYAAAHH! Little girl beats up old man!” “That play was crazy!” “HOLY DAMN! That dude is good…”

“I gotta say,” Westwind said, his voice booming through the speakers in the venue. He waited for the crowd to quiet down, then continued, “That play was probably the single most impressive play I’ve seen all tournament! The Annie knew exactly when she was hitting Level 6. Impressive. Just, impressive.”

Silent Reed looked over the venue from her vantage point at the caster desk and waited for the crowd’s roar of approval to die down. She nodded at Westwind sitting next to her and said, smiling, “You’re right. That was very impressive. Yan Liang didn’t know what hit him. He had no time to react! The Annie hit Level 6 mid-fight. She planned and executed it perfectly!”

Everyone in the venue agreed with this sentiment, even Zeng Rui. He watched the replay on the large screen and raised an eyebrow, surprised and even a little impressed with the Annie’s performance. Huh… That was… good? So the thundering dumbass also knows how to play mid… Weird. But that was a good bait. Yan Liang fell for it hard. He paused. Analyzing games was second nature to him. He noticed when something looked wrong before he even understood why. He sat up straight and looked, really looked, at the players from High School 13. Don’t tell me, hmm… If it goes on like this, High School 13 is actually going to win. This was an outcome he hadn’t even considered before. But now he had to accept the possibility that the Finals would see them facing High School 13, and not Shanghai International. That would be unexpected.