Chapter 241: 【The Dragon's Tail Sweep Across Time and Space】!

Just as the god's-eye view suggests, it is impossible for T1 to avoid this fight again.

The first two small dragons were inconsequential and could be used to trade for resources, but the soul-point dragon is of extraordinary significance; to give it up would mean losing all margin for error.

At this moment, there is still half a minute until the small dragon respawns, but both teams have already gathered and are posturing in the river. And this has become V5's home turf!

In fact.

If not for T1 repeatedly avoiding fights, the front-line battlefield at this point in time would absolutely have seen the V5 lineup holding every advantage.

This V5 lineup has strong engage, counter-engage capabilities, and at the same time, the poke king, Nidalee!

The T1 lineup is not bad, but the only one capable of poking is LeBlanc; clearly, the efficiency of their poke is worlds apart.

Especially after the previous wave where the Lee Sin nearly predicted the landing spot of her W, and a Thresh prediction hook nearly landed, LeBlanc's movements have clearly become much more cautious.

If not for the fact that Xun's spear accuracy was truly a bit touching, and the chat was happily spamming "Sora-Nidalee," the front-line advantage would be even greater.

"Although Xun's accuracy is indeed not very high, fortunately, it is safe poke, and Nidalee's items are excellent; as long as one hits, T1 won't be able to handle it!"

"Now the pressure is entirely on T1's side!"

"They must engage, otherwise even if they secure the position, they cannot actively take the dragon; if they keep posturing, they will definitely be the ones at a loss!"

T1 also knows that no matter how low Nidalee's accuracy is, it is impossible for her not to hit a single one!

A Nidalee with two completed items only needs to land one, and even Ornn can barely take it.

Continuing the stalemate will definitely result in a loss.

Yet V5 deliberately ceded the position to them; now they have been framed by the opponent—advancing is not an option, and retreating is not either!

Not engaging is a slow death.

The problem is that V5's formation is still being maintained extremely well!

Sion stands at the very front like a mobile fortress, ready at any moment to use his ultimate to instantly block a forced engage from Wukong or Rakan.

Lee Sin stands in the second position, ready to "follow up with a kick" at any time; once T1 foolishly rushes in all at once, they might just get hit by Lee Sin's "Horror Bowling Combo"!

With the damage output of an armor-penetration Lee Sin, being kicked out by that kind of ultimate would absolutely be a devastating event.

Li Xianghe has been looking for an opportunity to engage, but has yet to find a suitable angle.

Finally, after Nidalee landed two consecutive spears on the front-line Ornn, directly poking away one-third of his health, V5 also seems to have the intention to engage.

And at this moment, Keria seems to have an idea: "Min-hyeong, give me a position!"

Li Xianghe simultaneously realizes the opponent also wants to engage: "We engage first!"

The V5 members are just pressing forward, but Ye Bo hears the sound of a ram in his ear and immediately senses danger.

"Back, back, back!"

But just as V5 is preparing to re-enter the jungle entrance.

Xayah, who was standing slightly forward due to her short range and hiding behind Ornn, suddenly dashes forward with Galeforce!

Xayah is almost about to rush into Sion's face, and is completely disconnected from her teammates; it is practically like looking for death!

But Beryl suddenly shouts: "Focus! Rakan!"

Thresh himself immediately moves forward and "empty-sweeps" with Flay.

And immediately following, Rakan, who had disappeared from everyone's vision, appears in the distance, his body already quietly blooming with the golden light of 【Grand Entrance】, leaping and using 【Battle Dance】 to fly toward the Xayah at the very front, mid-air stepping into 【Grand Entrance】!

Rakan first activates his ultimate in the shadows, utilizing the double distance of casting E on Xayah to cross a thousand miles and engage in an instant!

With almost no warning, Rakan first charms the front-line Lee Sin and Sion, and intends to continue dashing into the back-line crowd!

But the originally lethal engage method encounters a deviation.

Because when the opponent called the ram to engage, Rakan did not appear in vision, and coupled with Xayah's inexplicable move—only support players understand support players best, and understand the hero Rakan best.

Beryl's reminder was very fast, but there was simply no time to react to this Rakan combo.

But the Thresh chosen in the tenth-floor counter-pick position exerts the value of ten thousand gold at this moment.

The 【Flay】 that was swung forward in advance, because it is a front-to-back trajectory, happens to swing its tail end just as Rakan arrives to cast 【Grand Entrance】, interrupting his W!

"Rakan's W failed to knock up!!"

Rakan's ultimate only has a 1. 5-second charm duration; if this W had landed, it would have been a 2. 5-second control chain, undoubtedly making the control power even more terrifying.

But, despite the broken control chain, this engage can still be called perfect.

Fortunately, the Kalista who was standing at the very back was the only person not charmed in the first instance due to the Flay, and she immediately activated her ultimate, the spirit ball, to pick up Thresh.

"Save your lives first! Try to survive!"

Ye Bo commands with a clear head, knowing that this wave cannot be hard-cleared, and he has no angle to kick with his ultimate while the opponent is rushing in like this.

As long as they aren't hit by a perfect team fight and lose too many people, the worst result is merely losing the small dragon.

V5's gold advantage is quite significant; if only two or three people die, it is still acceptable, at most letting the opponent claw back one or two thousand gold, which is not fatal.

Hearing the command, the V5 members divide their tasks clearly; Kalista runs backward after pressing the spirit ball, while Thresh and Sion charge forward without hesitation to intercept the people.

"Just kill Nidalee!"

T1 synchronizes their charge; Wukong W-dashes in, flashes, and ER-spins, LeBlanc QW-dashes in, Xayah jumps up with Featherstorm and lands with E-Flash. The target is Nidalee!

Fortunately, V5's previous positioning was sufficiently meticulous; even in the narrow path, they did not pile together, especially the mid, jungle, and ADC.

And because of the bullying in the jungle, Nidalee's bounty is higher than the Lee Sin who had a solo kill; similarly, without Flash, Nidalee is definitely easier to kill.

Of course, the most important thing is to kill Nidalee; no matter how many they can kill in this fight, at least the soul-point dragon can definitely be safely tucked into their pockets.

After Lee Sin breaks the crowd control, he immediately W-dashes toward Kalista to retreat together.

However, the focused-down Nidalee is not so lucky.

"Nidalee is about to be instantly killed! But the two carries must survive! If only three die, it's still acceptable!"

T1 is clearly not satisfied with this.

Ornn charges forward with the second stage of the ram to try and delay the two.

But Thresh and Sion are also doing their best to keep them; the 【The Box】 at the narrow passage entrance is fully slowing them, and Sion also drives his car point-blank, and after seeing the ram go, he raises his battle axe high.

"See if we can keep the two in the back!"

Sion and Thresh are already trapped in the urn, and their health is rapidly dropping to critical levels; as long as they let Xayah chase while auto-attacking, it will work.

Before Zeus gets up to chase, he sees Sion charging his Q, and even makes a detailed turn to auto-attack, popping the {Brittle} mark left by the second stage of the ram on the opponent, interrupting the cast with a knockback before continuing the chase!

"Don't walk toward the Blast Cone! Just walk," the fleeing Ye Bo reminds them.

His reminder is correct.

Because Zeus also saw the Blast Cone above while chasing; as long as the opponent dared to walk toward the cone, he was already prepared to Flash and auto-attack to bounce them back.

Both are players known for their mechanics; clearly, they both thought of this.

But T1 acts as if they are desperate, determined to keep Lee Sin.

Xayah dashes forward with speed, and Rakan and Wukong no longer entangle with the critically low-health Sion behind them, only Wukong holds back his second R, prepared to interrupt Sion or guard against a Lee Sin counter-attack.

LeBlanc has long since risen and chased forward.

"You-qi!"

A voice rings out, and Ornn immediately Flashes and E-dashes forward, hitting the wall at the limit distance and knocking both of them up!

And LeBlanc, who had already been waiting, throws her E-Flash forward, utilizing the coordination of the knock-up to throw her chain at the maximum distance and hit Lee Sin!

"Beautiful!!! Everyone must die! At least Lee Sin must be killed!"

"It's over!!! Were they still kept after all!?"

The two commentary booths erupt with diametrically opposed emotions across the air.

However.

In a scene everyone thought was a desperate situation, Ye Bo does not think so.

This scene is not a desperate situation!

Lee Sin lands and lifts his foot, kicking toward the Ornn in his face.

But the T1 members are not fools; they remember Lee Sin still has his ultimate held back, and LeBlanc also twists and walks away at the first moment—while the three below have only just started moving, and the distance Ornn flew over is still quite far.

But just as the latter flies out.

The former moves along with it.

The afterimage of Safeguard and Ornn's molten body seem to overlap in the air.

Lee Sin's ward-hop forward looks incredibly inexplicable.

You must know he has LeBlanc's chain hanging on him, and in the next second he will be {Stunned} in place; this W doesn't ward-hop to escape but instead ward-hops to rush over, and he can't do anything upon landing!

However.

Being able to auto-attack is enough.

The location where Ornn and Lee Sin fly together is exactly the "Blast Cone" that the two V5 members deliberately avoided just now.

And Lee Sin lands half a second early, slamming his fist hard into the center of the cone.

A burst of roar and huge recoil arrive.

The Ornn who was kicked onto the Blast Cone, with the {Knock-up} effect of the Dragon's Tail still not faded, is immediately followed by the {Knock-up} of the Blast Cone.

The LCK commentary booth wants to laugh; what kind of home delivery is this?

Watching Ornn and Lee Sin being bounced over together for the second time, the T1 members are also a bit confused, unable to understand what the opponent wants to do.

But the next moment they understand.

The flying Ornn is like a human warhammer, slamming hard into the center of T1's formation and touching his three teammates in the back—and the three health bars instantly melt like thin ice under the scorching sun!

"Hey!!!!"

"Axi!"

"#@! %?"

The T1 voice chat suddenly descends into chaos, full of surprise and confusion.

The LCK and LPL broadcast channels, which had two completely different atmospheres three seconds ago, saw their screens instantly flip to the opposite extreme!

"What just happened!"

"What is the situation!?"

"Since when can Lee Sin do that???"

"My god! T1 looks like they're about to explode!!!"

Just like that terrifying scene when he kicked the Gragas of JDG, secondary units not only take the full damage from the Dragon's Rage itself, but also take additional damage based on a percentage of the target's maximum health.

Even more terrifying is that Sion's fully charged giant axe strike follows immediately after!

Sion's Q had been interrupted by Ornn earlier and entered a 3-second cooldown; normally, this charged Q would certainly have been interrupted by Wukong's R2, but at this moment, Wukong was still flying in the air.

The brutal strike of the charged battle axe slams down heavily, knocking three people into the air!

"Pizza!!" the Roaring Emperor lets out a roar that sounds inhuman: "The three in the back were almost controlled the entire time and were instantly killed, and Kalista is still outputting damage without any pressure!"

"Can LeBlanc and Ornn trade for Lee Sin? Lee Sin has eaten three stacks of Triumph!"

The two survivors of T1 clearly have no mind to care about the two low-health teammates and Kalista in the back; they only have eyes for Lee Sin.

Fortunately, Lee Sin is also out of abilities, and the cornered beast struggle of Ornn and LeBlanc manages to kill him.

But in the end, they have nowhere left to go, and Kalista picks up a triple kill.

Seeing Lee Sin fall, the LCK commentary desk shows not a hint of joy.

It is only because this wave, which should have been a Dragon plus a 0-for-3 or even 0-for-5 trade, ended up being a 5-for-2!

And the Dragon still has to be given up!

So, what exactly happened?

The principle is actually not hard to see.

It is that "the knock-up state of Dragon's Rage can be 'delayed' by other knock-up effects, while retaining the full effect of Dragon's Rage throughout."

The residual {knock-up} state overlaps completely with the secondary lift, forming a fused "delayed knock-up" superposition state.

Achieving the effect of a "Two-Stage Rising Dragon Whirlwind Kick"!

It looks simple enough.

But for almost everyone, this is undoubtedly a completely unknown and bizarre pure "mechanic"!

After all, it is a hidden mechanic with a level seven proficiency.

When the replay footage freezes at the moment the Blast Cone blooms, global viewers clearly witness the two figures resonating perfectly with the shockwave of the Blast Cone, with Ornn transforming into a kicked chariot that crushes three of his own allies!

A torrent of chat messages instantly engulfs the broadcast channel!

【I'm convinced! I'm truly convinced!】

【It's just freaking ridiculous, a champion who debuted 13 years ago in the S1 season, and he can still dig up a mechanic that nobody knew about!?】

【Physics no longer exists!】

【I don't care! Master Ye, you are my god!!!】

【Damn it, he really has mastered this broken game; I suspect he understands the game better than the designers!】

【Don't insult my Master Ye! What the hell do the designers know about the game?】

"A barely good piece of news is that both shutdown bonuses were collected, and both were taken by Li Xianghe," Bang is still trying to save face.

"But after V5 takes the Dragon, they can still go and take the bottom tier-one tower, and even the tier-two tower will be lost," Wolf is more honest: "The gold gap might be pushed to 6k, and most importantly, the opponent also got the Dragon Soul point."

The Roaring Emperor can only helplessly respond to summarize: "Yes, even with two bounties collected, this situation is very hard for T1 to accept." "Losing the critical Dragon Soul point means T1 cannot avoid fighting and must face a decisive battle. And the main thing is the mentality of the players!"

Resource trading is not without a price.

It was precisely because of the Dragon trade that T1 was given the foundation to execute a perfect team fight.

But it was also because of the Dragon trade that they have to face a decisive battle just past the 20-minute mark.

What's important is that this wave is clearly very easy to affect morale.

A battle that was originally a great victory suddenly turned into a crushing defeat in the blink of an eye; it would be hard for anyone to recover from that for a while!

But this is T1.

As long as the person sitting in the mid lane has not given up, once he speaks, he can quickly stabilize the team's morale.

"It's okay, we can still play."

Li Xianghe does his best to suppress the shock in his heart, striving to remain calm.

And the results are significant.

The attention of the entire T1 team quickly refocuses, continuing to drag out the situation with all their might, becoming a solid block and trying to find an opportunity.

And they actually found some flaws.

This MSI is the first time in Xun's life participating in an international tournament, so it is inevitable that there will be some nervousness and mistakes.

Reasonably speaking, this is also normal.

Humans are not machines that can guarantee no mistakes, let alone with a high-risk champion like Nidalee.

LeBlanc, moreover, is one of Li Xianghe's most signature champions!

Relying on two spiritual catches of Nidalee, plus T1's solid defensive line and critical decisions with very few mistakes.

The game rhythm, which was expected to collapse, actually had some signs of being dragged out.

20 minutes.

During this time, V5's gold lead did not expand significantly.

Ye Bo is even marveling at the opponent's resilience, which is different from other teams, and even different from themselves last year.

Although retreating while fighting, they managed to stabilize the situation by relying on excellent team coordination, and through disciplined operational trades, they avoided giving up kills as much as possible.

But the previous wave ultimately had a huge impact.

This decisive battle for the Dragon Soul is like the final ultimatum for their stalling.

"Actually, to be honest, V5's team composition is not as good as T1's in the mid-to-late game; the blue side always has the draft advantage!"

After the rhythm stabilized over these few minutes, the Roaring Emperor seems to have become optimistic again.

"If they can win this fight, the situation will be hard to say!"

"As long as they don't get poked too hard by Nidalee, Rakan lands another perfect engage, then dodges Thresh, doesn't get kicked by Lee Sin into multiple people, and finally kills Kalista, they should be able to win!"

Perhaps he himself feels that the conditions he mentioned are a bit harsh.

Even the two T1 guests beside him are silent and don't respond.

The Roaring Emperor quickly takes a deep breath, gathers his Qi into his dantian, and shouts: "Others might not be able to do it! But this is T1! This is the T1 that has created countless miracles for us!"

"They must be able to do it, right? Believe in them!"

And to be fair, the impassioned speech really did give the T1 fans in the broadcast channel some hope.

Since they were able to pull it off once before, who's to say they can't do it a second time?

And at least one thing he said was not wrong.

If they can survive the crisis of this Dragon Soul fight, V5 has several "Ultraman champions," so there might really be a glimmer of hope.

Both sides are once again facing off in the lower river.

The scene of the previous team fight is like a reenactment.

Nidalee's spear accuracy is still touching... but reasonably speaking, this actually doesn't have much to do with Xun.

Nidalee on the professional stage is just like that, very similar to Malphite; professional players' movement makes it very difficult to get hit by such skills.

And Xun also bought a Zhonya's Hourglass this time, no longer so worried about being engaged on.

This time there is no need for too much kiting.

As soon as the Dragon respawns, V5 chooses to start it directly, pulling the Dragon out of the pit.

T1 originally only planned to let the jungler try to steal the Dragon, as it's hard to win the frontal fight, so it's better to find an opportunity for Oner.

But Li Xianghe seems to have other ideas.

LeBlanc is the one who took two shutdowns in the previous wave, with the best items on the team.

LeBlanc is seen taking the lead by W-dashing over the Dragon wall, carrying a {Banshee's Veil} and venturing toward the crowd, clearly intending to intimidate and poke.

V5 knows this person is not easy to catch, so they just let Sion and Thresh move forward into the Dragon pit to pressure the opponent's position.

Seeing there is truly no opportunity, LeBlanc, just before Distortion expires, can only Q Nidalee from a distance, and without even being able to fire a second ability, she quickly turns back.

The Dragon's health is already dropping below half.

"Actually, V5 isn't worried about the Dragon being stolen at all; with Kalista's Rend-Smite combo, there's definitely no pressure!"

"Looking at it this way, is T1 preparing to just give it up?"

"Hey, Faker still dares to come down?"

Two seconds later, LeBlanc W-dashes down again.

All of his actions perfectly conform to the normal pre-fight behavior of a LeBlanc, and even someone as knowledgeable about LeBlanc as Ye Bo shouldn't be able to realize there's a problem—

—if Ye Bo hadn't had an in-depth exchange with the "Idea King" himself.

Seeing the opponent's move, Ye Bo seems to think of something.

"Xun, be careful, he might want to burst you!"

Because he had given an opening before, Xun, who was so honest he was almost afraid to speak, hears the warning and quickly transforms back into human form to heal himself, bringing his health back up from the Q poke, and places his finger on the 1 key for Zhonya's in advance.

Although he doesn't know why LeBlanc would dare to come...

And it is just as Nidalee finishes drinking her milk.

Immediately following, LeBlanc moves.

A golden light flashes for no reason, and LeBlanc, without any justification, Flash-dashes forward, forcibly passing through the two human walls, and RW-dashes into Nidalee's face at close range!

"Holy shit!!"

It was clear that the LeBlanc, with a mere RW, had unreasonably chunked the Nidalee for half her health!

Ye Bo had guessed correctly.

What Li Xianghe was thinking was to utilize the W cooldown mechanism to manipulate the duration of the Q mark.

With the cooldown at this point in time, the W would have a 2-second cooldown after returning at the limit, while the Q skill mark could persist for 3. seconds.

By refreshing the W to dash over the wall, then suddenly flashing RW to close the distance and instantly casting QE, he could execute the ultimate cooldown-manipulation burst combo: "Double W + Double Q Double Proc"!

Li Xianghe pushed his hand speed to the limit, relying on the Banshee's Veil to block the Thresh's E.

RW landed into QE; the three skills were cast almost simultaneously, but there was a very short casting animation between Q and E. Despite being caught off guard, the Nidalee still managed to press Zhonya's Hourglass at the very last moment!

The final 0. 5 seconds of the chain passed through the golden stasis, missing the kill on the Nidalee by a sliver of health!

But this was still unexpected enough, enough to make the LCK commentary desk cheer and shout, and enough to ignite hope.

"Faker!!!"

"T1's eternal last hope! He almost pulled it off!"

"But the Nidalee is down to her last sliver of health! Although the LeBlanc's passive was triggered, she has already safely returned using her invisibility. Could this wave be an opportunity?"

Li Xianghe had not expected the opponent to be able to react to that.

Even with Ye Bo's warning.

Unless the Nidalee had used Zhonya's the moment she saw the LeBlanc descend, it would be impossible to react to an instant close-range RW-Flash-Q, and even just landing that one combo had nearly killed the Nidalee!

But while Li Xianghe felt regret, he also sensed an opportunity—perhaps the only opportunity.

"Go down together!!"

"Kill the Nidalee first, then contest the dragon! Watch out for the Lee Sin, we can fight this!"

Shouts rang out in the T1 team voice chat.

The five of them decisively rode the Blast Cone on the bank to bounce down into the dragon pit!

The Nidalee was in too poor a state; as long as they could kill the Nidalee first, even with the Kalista present, T1 would still have a chance to contest the Smite.

And although the LeBlanc had been slapped by everyone on V5 in that brief moment, dropping her health to the 40% threshold and triggering her passive, she had still returned safely by relying on the key block from her Banshee's Veil.

But at the same time, shouts were also ringing out on the V5 side.

When Ye Bo saw the LeBlanc trigger her passive 【Mirror Image】, he could have actually just stuck to her face and instantly cast Q, gambling on hitting the real body to kick her into a crippled state.

But at that very instant, he suddenly thought of another possibility.

The Lee Sin's subsequent action left the entire arena stunned and speechless.

"Master Ye, what are you doing!!!"

He performed a near-stationary ward-hop forward to adjust his angle.

Then, the Lee Sin suddenly twisted his waist and aimed in the opposite direction—at the LeBlanc who had stopped in place and had not followed the Distortion back, making her 100% a "clone"—and blasted out 【Dragon's Rage】!

The "LeBlanc" was kicked flying in the direction out of the dragon pit, her remaining 40% health almost completely depleted.

The shout in the V5 voice chat just now had been: "Don't hit that clone!!"

Hitting the clone might cause the clone's health to be unable to withstand the kick, causing it to disappear instantly + 50g.

The next moment.

The Mirror Image clone that had been kicked away, because it exceeded the radius of the main body, instantly crossed space and flashed back to the LeBlanc's side.

And the T1 members were currently riding the Blast Cone, flying down the wall in preparation for a life-or-death battle.

But Li Xianghe's pupils suddenly contracted violently.

Because he suddenly saw someone else "following in flight" through the air behind them.

"Boom!!!"

The sound of the collision echoing from mid-air against the dragon pit wall was deafening, and five scarlet critical hit numbers bloomed above the canyon.

The "illusion clone" kicked away by the Lee Sin smashed into the center of the crowd like an intercontinental missile!

The T1 members were knocked high into the air as if they had been struck by a bowling ball!

"Dragon's Rage Across Space and Time"

Before they could even react, the Sion in their faces followed up with his unstoppable charge, and the Kalista threw the Thresh to launch them a second time; the T1 players didn't even manage to touch the Flash key on their keyboards.

The Lee Sin's Sonic Wave silver thread entered the fray to shatter their final hope.

And what this kick stirred up simultaneously were the roaring waves of sound echoing throughout the London venue, as well as a collection of "national treasures" (profanities) in various languages from the depths of everyone's instincts.

"Holy shit!!!"

"What the f***!"

"Ah! Sibal!!"

"Baka!!!"

The chat in the livestream became instantly unreadable.

【66666666666666666666*n】

【No way, brother, this actually works????】

【Genius! Genius! He is a genius!!!】

【Master Ye leaned over and whispered in its ear, the Mirror Image clone suddenly shouted "Lee Sin gave me humanity!" — and directly betrayed its master on the spot to give the fake a kick!】

【This is a bit too insane, a true "trans-dimensional" kick!】

【Damn, no problem at all, it turns out Cake didn't lie to us back then! The Blind Monk really can R the fake!】

【T1: Ban the Blind Monk!】

The LCK commentary desk was already a scene of mourning.

"Ye, what did he do! What on earth did he do!"

"T1 is completely finished!"

The director, who was excited to pull up the replay, already realized the match was about to end.

The almost instantaneous zero-for-five trade broke the stalemate, and V5 charged toward the opponent's bottom lane high ground, pushing all the way through.

A wave of noise that could flip the roof erupted from the stands, and the blue light of the T1 base exploding illuminated the audience.

And viewers of the global stream were all dragging the progress bar, wanting to see that final, incredible scene clearly once more.

(End of chapter)