Chapter Twenty: The Sage’s Sudden Strike!

"This wave of sidestepping to dodge skills is just absurd!"
"The minion wave was cleared too, so the enemy can't push the top tower—no big loss!"
"Agreed, I actually think we came out ahead in this exchange, especially since their jungler died."
"Their bottom lane's Xishi got dived under tower too. This was a massive profit for us!"
"This Elder Master is starting to play like Yifan. I wonder what Yifan on the enemy team thinks, seeing Elder Master pulling off these flashy moves."

Lin Hao's livestream was filled with exclamations and sighs.
He too wore a smile.
On the surface, his current score was zero kills and two deaths.
But this game was, without a doubt, his most satisfying one in days.
He managed to queue into two other streamers in a single match and gathered so much rage!
To be fair, after these days in the game, Lin Hao had started to figure out how to collect rage points.
The trick was to avoid any predictable play—go wild and unpredictable!
But he couldn't just throw the game or feed intentionally. If his play increased the enemy's enjoyment, it would actually reduce the rage he collected.
Luckily, he was given a script-level movement skill at the start, so he rarely lost simply by being bad, and didn't boost the enemy's pleasure score.

He continued to lane against Charlotte for a few rounds.
Knowing that Elder Master could hardly beat Charlotte at this stage, Lin Hao chose to avoid fights and instead focus on clearing waves from a safe distance.
Of course, he wasn't idle. While stuck under his tower, he continued taunting Charlotte relentlessly.
Thus, the top lane became a mirrored stage:
Yifan's Charlotte calmly cleared minions, charging up her Seven-Star Radiance Slash for maximum threat.
Meanwhile, under the tower, Lin Hao would take a few steps toward the fountain, taunting all the while.
Against a full-health Elder Master, there was little Yifan could do.
After clearing the wave, Yifan simply strolled down to the bottom lane.
"Marco, come up and pressure Elder Master," Yifan called out. "I'll go cover bottom lane since our tower there is gone anyway."
Out of sight, out of mind. In Yifan's long gaming career, he'd rarely encountered a player like Lin Hao, who taunted nonstop with recall animations.
And the worst part was, Yifan genuinely couldn't do anything about it.

After running a play in mid, Marco Polo arrived top—with Yao in tow, of course.
"Marco's coming. The top lane prison sentence begins," Lin Hao shook his head. "Marco alone isn't a problem; one good flash and I'll school him. But with Yao, things get tricky."
"Can someone come up here? Otherwise, I'm about to get tower-dived."
Seeing how aggressively Marco and Yao were clearing the wave, Lin Hao sensed real trouble.

If Yao had Interference available, paired with Marco's Purify, even if Lin Hao managed to bind Marco, Marco could Purify and spin his ultimate at full throttle—Lin Hao would be helpless.
"Yao used Interference in the last fight. Hold out on top; if you can't, just give up the tower. We'll rotate up after clearing mid," Lán said over voice.
An outer top tower wasn't nearly as valuable as a mid turret.
If it was just Marco and Yao pressuring top, Lin Hao's teammates would clear mid and then collapse on top.
With Lan's fast rotations, pairing with Elder Master's flash-ultimate, they could even catch Marco out.
But if three were pushing top—like Mirror or Xishi joining—his teammates would just push mid instead.
That would be worth it.

Lin Hao got the gist.
He caught one crucial detail:
Yao didn't have Interference?
She must've used it in the last mid-lane push.
In that fight, both teams had retreated and countered, and even though the dive ended with no deaths, Marco's health hadn't taken much of a hit.
Yao must've burned Interference then.
With no Interference—
That gave Lin Hao room to make plays!

Marco Polo brought the minion wave under tower, but didn't auto the tower right away—instead, he immediately fired his first skill at Lin Hao.
Lin Hao had been recalling under tower; the moment Marco raised his weapon, he spun around, easily dodging most of the bullets.
Marco's sweep only landed two shots.
Without true damage, Marco's output was still low; Lin Hao didn't even lose a full segment of health.
"What kind of godly movement was that?"
For the first time, Marco Polo doubted his own mechanics.
If not for the golden badge on his head, he'd suspect he was just unfamiliar with the hero.

No matter.
Longer range always beats shorter range—like an adult holding a kid at arm's length.
Marco wasn't worried about Elder Master's flash-ultimate.
He could simply Purify and spin his ultimate, and Elder Master's prison would only help keep him in place during the ult.
So Marco decided to just keep poking.

One shot, another.
Lin Hao took a few hits, but the damage was low—Marco's true damage stacks were building up, though.
Another sweep with the first skill!
Again, Lin Hao sidestepped with ease, only two shots landing.
He tapped recall twice.
"Rage from Marco Polo +200!"
He stepped back a little, appearing to leave Marco's attack range.
Marco felt he was being careful—stay at the edge, and as long as he didn't auto within tower range, what could Elder Master do? Even if he got flash-ulted, he could always spin out, as long as the tower didn't target him.

But just as Marco took two steps forward,
Lin Hao spun around, fingers flying—a sudden first skill pull!
Then, a backward flash!
Instantly, he pulled Marco two body-lengths closer!
Lin Hao didn't follow up with a basic attack but went straight for his ultimate!
Marco Polo was bound at the edge of the prison, perfectly within tower range!

What the hell was that?
Marco wasn't stupid; he knew Elder Master might catch him with a sudden reposition and bind.
He kept his distance, factoring that possibility in.
Even if Elder Master caught and bound him, so what?
The ultimate is a circle, not a point—if he got pulled into tower, he could spin out with his own ultimate, as long as he didn't let the full circle stay inside tower range.
Even if Elder Master did pull-then-bind, Marco could save his Purify, since Elder Master had no further crowd control to interrupt his ultimate.
At this level, everyone played for these tiny details.
But this time, he never expected Elder Master to play such a slick move—flash-extending the distance, then binding with the ultimate to lock him perfectly under the tower!