Chapter 152: Focus Fire on Luna
Before the minion waves collided, Lin Hao's vision within the defensive tower remained concealed.
Lin Hao was hiding in the bush on the lower-left side of the mid lane. For Luna, this position was nothing short of exceptional. If the opposing melee hero dared to step up to push the tower, an initiation with the first and third skills would catch the enemy completely off guard.
"Just give up the tower, I don't feel good about defending this," Xinran said worriedly over the microphone.
"Quiet, I can outplay this wave," Lin Hao said very seriously.
He had one major trump card: the enemy's Donghuang had used his ultimate, and the enemy's Jing had used her ultimate.
With that being the case, once the enemy pressed the tower, the only source of hard control left was Jin Chan.
Xinran sounded a bit annoyed and retorted, "Outplay my ass! A single Jin Chan is enough to lock you down completely!"
Meanwhile, the sub-drama unfolding in the bottom-left corner was quite entertaining; the Bull Demon was using voice-to-text to teach Gongsun Li how to play.
Having reached this tier, Lin Hao's teammates averaged around the top 100 on the peak leaderboard, so naturally, they all valued their ratings dearly and wouldn't intentionally ruin a teammate's mindset. Although the Bull Demon's words were a bit harsh, they hit all the right points.
Lin Hao did not voice any interference.
"Initiate an attack!"
Lin Hao sent out a signal.
The Bull Demon responded with a message indicating his ultimate was on cooldown, pacing back and forth behind the tower, not daring to rush too far forward.
Finally, the minion waves cleared, and the enemy's wave entered the defensive tower, accompanied by the figures of four opposing players.
Jing stepped up to poke the tower, while Donghuang walked forward while attacking, seemingly applying pressure to catch anyone attempting to recall and to scout the surrounding area.
For a moment, no one noticed Lin Hao's position.
Donghuang and Jing had already entered the range of Lin Hao's skills.
Yet, Lin Hao still made no move, silently stacking his passive instead.
One stack, two stacks.
Possessing the skill points of a national-ranking Luna, he naturally knew to adjust his target-locking settings to close-range in the menu, which facilitated smoother combo execution during team fights.
With this close-range targeting now set, even if the enemy was a full first-skill distance away, Lin Hao could still use basic attacks to build up his passive.
The Bull Demon stood between the first and second towers. Spotting Lin Hao's position, he took two steps forward, approached Donghuang, and slid out with his first skill.
Just as Donghuang intended to trade blows with this support, a streak of moonlight suddenly sliced in from the side, striking him before he could react at all.
The next instant, Luna flew out from the bush!
Meanwhile, over in the river, Lao Fuzi also sent out a signal.
Initiate an attack!
Lao Fuzi was hurrying up from the top lane to assist, taking the river route.
In this exchange, even though the enemy held a numerical advantage and stood in a relatively dense formation, their health bars, combat states, and skill cooldowns were far from optimal.
The moment he saw Lao Fuzi flanking from behind, the Bull Demon had a sudden surge of adrenaline; throwing caution to the wind, he lowered his horned head and charged straight in!
Originally, his teammates' lack of trust in the Bull Demon and reluctance to step up and absorb damage had led Lin Hao to contemplate a more conservative approach. But seeing the Bull Demon finally commit to the charge, Lin Hao altered his plan on the fly.
Upon flying to Donghuang's side, he triggered a basic attack to leave a mark and took flight once more. This time, flying past Donghuang, he plunged straight into the thick of the enemy formation!
Relative to his current position, he even soared past Jing under the tower, landing right in front of Di Renjie and Jin Chan!
The enemy seemingly never anticipated this direct facial dive.
A momentary lapse in reaction gave Lin Hao his opening.
Luna's moonlight blade drove into the ground, and a powerful gravitational pull trapped both Jin Chan and Di Renjie!
Recovering from the shock, Di Renjie instantly cleansed the control effect with his second skill, retreated to the side, and prepared to turn back and deal damage.
Jin Chan frantically spammed his first skill, but with Luna right before his eyes, his first skill simply refused to cast!
Lin Hao did not linger; catching them in that brief suction was merely a buffer and a springboard. The next moment, he continued flying forward with his third skill!
The trajectory of this flight angle was extraordinarily tricky. The tail-end of his skill barely reached the wall, and after flying across, Luna actually vanished into the vast expanse of bushes on the left side of the mid lane!
His hand speed was simply too fast!
Trapped in the pull, Jin Chan frantically hammered his first skill, only to discover when it finally went off that he had mistakenly cast it on the Bull Demon standing right beside him!
He dodged it!
Lin Hao breathed a slight sigh of relief.
The ultimate, which originally needed to be unleashed in two consecutive segments, was canceled by him right at that moment.
Had the Bull Demon chosen not to engage, even with the advantage of hiding in such a prime position to strike first, Lin Hao would never have been able to pierce straight through the enemy formation and fly into the rear.
That was because Jin Chan would undoubtedly have kept his eyes glued on him.
Lin Hao's original backup plan was that if Jin Chan followed up with his Mantra of Binding, he would simply break his ultimate chain and pull back.
As it turned out, due to Lin Hao's brief initial crowd control, Jin Chan botched his skill timing and wasted it on the nearby Bull Demon.
"Focus Luna down!"
Over in Weiliang's voice channel, Weiliang called out calmly.
Aside from Donghuang, who had overextended, the other three immediately turned around and rushed toward Lin Hao's location.
Di Renjie was still firing basic attacks while moving, but upon noticing Luna's current position, he abandoned his pursuit of the Bull Demon.
Clearly, taking down Luna was a much more tempting prospect!
Utilizing the fog of war to break line of sight, Lin Hao emerged from the brush and proceeded to pull off an immensely arrogant maneuver.
He stood right in place and began channeling his recall animation twice.
He paced back and forth while channeling, maintaining the distance with pinpoint precision. The dark cloud special effect flashing above his head seemed to broadcast: "Come and catch me if you can!"
Could anyone endure that?
In a high-stakes, nerve-wracking peak match, while actively being hunted down, you pull stunts like this?
Weiliang could not bear it.
Dashing forward with his first skill, he directly slapped a Smite onto Luna!
Instantly, a Chill Smite was applied to Luna.
Jin Chan and Di Renjie followed close behind, their basic attacks finally coming within range of Luna!
It seemed Lin Hao was left with only one option: break his ultimate chain and retreat first.
A smile crept onto the corner of Weiliang's lips.
He had invisibly sealed off Luna's path of retreat, and Jing was already glued to Luna's face. For Luna to rely on empty basic attacks to stack a passive and refresh her ultimate for another takeoff was simply out of the question.
Slowed by the Frost Smite, Luna would have to fly toward their red buff jungle quadrant just to shake off Di Renjie's pursuit within a short window.
However, from Weiliang's perspective, Charlotte had not been clearing minion waves; instead, she was cutting through from the red buff side to reinforce. If Luna flew in that direction, she would undoubtedly run straight into Charlotte's ambush.
You're going to pay the price for that recall!
Jing's second skill grazed Luna, and immediately afterward, with her skill refreshed, Jing dashed forward with her first skill right up to Luna's face, making it abundantly clear she intended to have a close and personal exchange.