Chapter 687

Seeing Xiao Huasheng's excavator dig out from the shadow behind the wall on Faker's rear side, the moment it burst out, Easyhoon, who had just launched the ball, felt his heart jolt.

He immediately and without hesitation used Flash.

"Easyhoon feared being flashed and would directly use Flash to create distance, but Faker was even more decisive, actually directly following the Flash with a Stone Wall and then a Rock Thrash!!"

"Easyhoon failed to dodge the Rock Thrash and was knocked back!!"

"After Peanut landed a Hunter's Talon, he immediately followed up with a Flash!!"

"Faker's Stone Slash damage is maxed out!"

"After Renekton's combo, Easyhoon landed already low on health! A weakling tried to retreat but Renekton's abilities were already locked on!"

"In the end, he was still bitten down by a Ferocious Bite, losing his head!!"

"Damn, SKT is ruthless!!"

"They had to burn two Flashs just to secure the kill!!"

At the moment Easyhoon fell, Liang Yan's Pig Sis happened to appear in the river grass brush on the left side of Zhong Lu in the vision from the ward Faker placed.

Xiao Huasheng grinned, pressed the hotkey to display the ROX team mark, quickly helped Faker clear the remaining minions in lane, then turned and left.

Seeing the sign light up on the excavator's head, Liang Yan guessed there was a ward in the grass and also realized the opponent had deliberately lit it for him to see.

Liang Yan wasn't angry at all; merely a hint of amusement flickered in his eyes.

"My...... gave him a chance."

Easyhoon was soaking in the Quan Shui, slightly nervous as he pushed up the black-rimmed glasses on his nose, and apologized over the microphone.

"It's fine, I came late; he moved a few seconds earlier than I expected. This route must have been heavily practiced." Liang Yan said gently with a smile.

Easyhoon took a deep breath: "I can tank it, you can go counter-jungle."

"Good."

Liang Yan, not one to stand on ceremony, after finishing the minions under the tower, headed straight for the enemy's upper jungle.

Faker's Rock Sparrow carried a Purify, but it had no Teleport.

Moreover, the top lane was VG's lane priority; even if Liang Yan hadn't originally planned to counter-jungle—since it wasn't meaningful, Pig Sis wasn't a Wild Core and didn't need much development—yet Xiao Huasheng dared to flash the dog tag, so he had to go.

"Jiao Shen's got some guts, after their mid laner died they still dare to come counter-jungle!"

"No problem, Faker also went home, and Easyhoon has Teleport; early game low level means short respawn time, so he'll leave earlier than Faker. Also, the top lane is Sheng Qiang Ge's lane priority; if support is needed, he'll be even faster than Huni!"

"Yes, and Renekton has no Flash, so we can't beat Pig Sis right now!"

"Hey, I'll just eat your Three Wolves face‑to‑face! This way we'll recover a lot of the mid lane loss, and the minion wave is also eaten by Jiao Shen—it's basically only half a kill!"

"But the mid lane gap has been truly widened…… The good news is the kill wasn't taken by Faker, but by Peanut."

Xiao Huasheng could anticipate that Pig Sis would come to counter‑jungle, so after killing him he first ate the river crab, then immediately turned back to run to his own upper jungle. But he never expected Pig Sis to be so bold as to dive straight into his jungle and start counter‑jungling from the Three Wolves!

And he did it right in front of him, not even using Smite!

Unacceptable!

Xiao Huasheng was grinding his teeth in anger, yet could do nothing, for his reason told him he couldn't beat Pig Sis now, and since Faker likewise lacked Flash, whether it was upper jungle 2v2 or mid jungle 2v2, VG currently held the advantage!

"Need help?"

Faker, who was just heading out, kindly asked.

Peanut fell silent for two seconds, utterly unwilling yet having no choice but to swallow his anger: "No thanks, Brother Xiang He, just go back to lane."

Mainly, by the time Faker arrived at this spot, Pig Sis had already finished the Three Wolves and gone to counter‑jungle the Magic Swamp Frog; if Faker followed, this position is very far from Zhong Lu, and the round‑trip plus dragging time would cost him two minion waves.

Last year Xiao Huasheng was definitely the Wild Core in ROX, but he knows full well SKT is not a Wild Core team; if he dared to mobilize forces to defend a Magic Swamp Frog camp, letting Faker risk losing two minion waves to protect him, Kkoma scolding him twice would be trivial—he could be benched and a rookie pulled from the academy to replace him.

"It's fine, even if Sejuani is well‑farmed it won't help; you don't need to face him head‑on, and since you haven't gone back to change gear, your development is surely better than his."

Faker gave Xiao Huasheng another reassuring remark. Xiao Huasheng felt warm inside, agreed with the brother, turned and headed down, planning to eat the river crab, but it wasn't to be: the bottom lane was VG's lane priority, and mid lane Easyhoon, after using Teleport to leave, had also cleared a wave and could act first; the three of them grouped up and directly ate the river crab.

Xiao Huasheng walked away with a bruised ego, then trudged back to his own jungle to farm Stone Armor Beetles.

On the Shang Ban Qu side, Liang Yan finished eating the river crab, then returned to his own jungle to clear F6 and the Stone Armor Beetles, and almost simultaneously headed out with Xiao Huasheng.

This round of monsters, Pig Sis, having cleared two jungle camps, amounted to six camps plus the river crab all cleared, and even pushed back more than half a minion wave; Xiao Huasheng, however, lost two jungle camps, and although he gained a kill, in experience he has already been lagged behind Pig Sis by one level.

As for gold, when the two simultaneously left the Quan Shui, Xiao Huasheng's gear was no better than Pig Sis's—in fact, he lacked a Control Ward compared to her.

Liang Yan headed out downward to clear the two jungle camps in the lower half that he hadn't had time to farm in the first round.

Xiao Huasheng's jungle was completely empty; without Flash it was hard to catch anyone, so after leaving he had nothing to do, ran top to help Green Steel Shadow clear a wave, then sneaked into VG's jungle to place two wards, and headed toward mid lane.

Meanwhile, the oppressed bottom lane of SKT, hampered by their combo disadvantage, finally saw things ease a little as Jinx reached level; they then pulled back the accumulated minion wave advantage and quickly pushed a lane, after which the two feigned a retreat to base, while in fact Titan sneaked into the jungle from the goat‑behind path behind the Dragon Pit and crept toward mid lane.

Just as Titan walked behind the blue side's red buff camp, VG's Frost Archer suddenly loosed an arrow from bottom lane; its trajectory wasn't toward SKT's jungle but flew straight up along the riverbank edge next to the Dragon Pit!

Eagle strikes the long sky, scattering specks of starlight, illuminating a large area along the way, revealing the Titan wandering Zhong Lu and Rek'Sai crouching in the grass by the river on the left side of Zhong Lu!

At the moment the Titan's position was exposed, a huge beast arched up from the river's shadows!