Chapter 293: Same Leopard Woman, Different Treatment

【FirstBlood！】

The merciless female voice announced in Summoner's Rift.

Ice-cold fear began to spread in the hearts of the ROX team.

「I... my... 」

Kuro's apologetic voice sounded in the ROX team's voice channel,

「He came too fast... 」

It is well known that although the Leopard Woman has extremely high jungle-clearing efficiency, she is very weak early on, especially Liang Yan's trap-laying jungle start; after clearing the first three jungle camps, her health can drop below one-third, and at the blue buff she even needs mid-lane help to be relatively safe, otherwise she could be killed by jungle monsters!

ROX had studied Liang Yan's Leopard Woman, and Coach Nofe's assignment for the mid-jungle was to wait for Kuro to push the second wave, then immediately follow Xiao Huasheng to invade, seizing the moment when the Leopard Woman reaches the blue buff for a strong invasion!

Who would have thought that the Leopard Woman in such poor condition would dare to go for a Gank!

Shouldn't you just honestly stay in the jungle and clear jungle camps?

How dare you!

A Leopard Woman with around 300 health can be instantly killed by the Dragon King's backward Q knock-up, followed by two burns and a basic attack!

But he came anyway, and with a combo from the Crocodile he instantly killed Kuro!

Totally unreasonable!

Xiao Huasheng couldn't help it either; the invasion plan naturally fell through.

A deathly silence weighed on the hearts of the ROX team.

The first blood is only worth four hundred dollars, which seems to have limited impact, but in reality its effect on the overall game is profound.

Kuro died at level two, the early-game tempo of the mid-jungle was completely cut off, allowing the Leopard Woman to easily get through the toughest period, and she may soon become unstoppable!

The spectators cheered, and the G2 Zhong Ren also celebrated.

After clearing a person, Liang Yan headed straight to his own lower jungle; this Gank only added a dozen seconds of travel time to his jungle rhythm, making the cost-performance ratio off the charts.

Perkz shouted 'nice' a few times, and the big stone in his heart also fell.

This Crocodile was something he actively asked to take; although he had practiced a lot in ranked, he hadn't undergone real combat testing, and even in practice matches he had only played two or three games; in Ka Lao Si's eyes it was purely a fun thing to mess around with, and if he took it and didn't perform, it's likely that neither Ka Lao Si nor Liang Yan would let him play it again.

Fortunately he did it!

He perfectly demonstrated the synergistic effect of the crocodile-leopard combo!

After that, it was simple.

It's just a matter of waiting for Flash to come off cooldown and then doing it again. As for whether throwing Flash would get him killed by the Mang Seng, frankly, given that amount of damage from the Dragon King and Mang Seng, the Crocodile only needs to avoid diving the Dragon King to destroy a tower and getting flanked by the Mang Seng; then Perkz just needs to hold his E ability when the enemy jungle position is unknown, and he will absolutely not die.

Although the Crocodile is a warrior, he is actually tanky, and with two built-in dashes, it's hardly easy to kill him due to insufficient damage.

"However, ROX's bottom lane has lane priority, and after Kuro's death Peanut still wanted to bring the duo to forcibly invade the enemy blue!"

"But after the Ox Head left the female sheriff to clear the lane alone, he came over to act as a bodyguard!"

"Can ROX make a move? No way! Natural health regeneration plus the Ox Head's nourish dragged the Leopard Woman's health bar to about half; the level-two Ox Head with Flash surged forward, and the Crocodile also came from the river to envelop; if they fought, I feel ROX would blow up!"

"I'm out, I'm out; the enemy teamfight is too strong, engaging just instakills someone, and ROX ultimately doesn't dare take such a risk!"

Xiao Huasheng was unwilling, but could only take the duo and leave; before leaving he tossed a Q to pull out the blue buff, trying to delay the Leopard Woman's jungle clear, but the Leopard Woman directly tagged and pounced to reclaim the blue buff's aggro.

A half-health Leopard Woman using two abilities in front of three people is truly arrogant.

Xiao Huasheng gritted his teeth in hatred, but seeing the Ox Head Chieftain, sturdy like a small mountain blocking the choke point, he ultimately dared do nothing, and before the Crocodile could complete the encirclement he fled shamefully back to the bottom lane.

Moreover, because the female sheriff had accumulated and pushed the lane, causing Xiao Huasheng to not even dare eat the river crab, he could only return to his own jungle to continue clearing.

After the Leopard Woman ate the blue buff and then cleared the toad, she emptied the three jungle camps in the lower half of the map and returned to base, yet she had no appetite for the two river crabs still roaming the river.

The time happened to jump to 3:35.

Since the Mang Seng and the Ox Head helped take the blue buff, a single Gank had almost no impact on Liang Yan's jungle clear—zero cost, pure gain—is this a trade? No, it's picking up money!

The director switched the camera to Xiao Huasheng's Mang Seng, with the Stone Armor Beetle still not dead, while on the upper half of the map a blue buff remained untouched.

"After the first jungle clear, the gap widened by nearly three jungle camps, plus an extra kill! Likewise, as a Leopard Woman, Jiao Shen is far more comfortable this game than Xiao Huasheng was last game!"

When both sides are jungling normally, the Leopard Woman finishes her first jungle clear one camp faster than a typical jungler, which is normal; the Leopard Woman has a slight economic lead but no level advantage.

Being two camps ahead counts as abnormal, because it means the Leopard Woman has gained a substantive level lead. For example, now the Leopard Woman can reach level five after just clearing two more jungle camps, while the Mang Seng still needs to clear two more camps to reach level four; if the Mang Seng gains no extra experience, a one-level difference becomes fixed.

In the early game, power imbalance caused by level differences outweighs that caused by equipment differences.

The camera left the Mang Seng and switched again to the Leopard Woman.

The Leopard Woman returned to the fountain, crafted a level-two jungle knife, bought double grass shoes, placed a true vision ward, and headed upward.

"I probably still have some money on me, but there's nothing left to buy."

"Yes, at this pace completing a level-three jungle knife within ten minutes is no problem."

"What? Ten minutes?"

"Yeah, what's up? Ten minutes feels fine to me."

"You're really underestimating Jiao Shen; let's make a bet—I think he can finish his first item at most in eight minutes!"

After the Leopard Woman cleared the Stone Armor Beetle, she placed a false ward at the upper river entrance, then continued clearing from the river crab downstream, finishing the second round of jungle monsters in under five minutes.

After securing the second river crab, the Leopard Woman reached level six.

At this point even the mid lane is only level five, and the bottom lane is only level four.

Half a minute ago the Mang Seng appeared on the top lane; Liang Yan calculated from last hits that the Mang Seng had only cleared one group of Magic Swamp Frogs, meaning he had likely just started on the three wolves, so after finishing the river crab the Leopard Woman jumped from the dragon pit into the blue side jungle and circled behind the bottom lane.

ROX couldn't see the Leopard Woman's movements, but could guess he had reached the lower half of the map; Xiao Huasheng cautiously probed the F4 camp after clearing the three wolves, while the duo simply pushed the lane.

Liang Yan happened to be flanking from behind the duo just as the minion wave was diving under the turret.