Chapter 256: 《Fusion Technique: Tathagata Imperial Guard》

The early-game skirmishes completely altered Gen's pre-match plan.

Sejuani's health was poor, and with a disadvantageous start in the bottom lane, she naturally had to return to the top half of the jungle—which effectively meant V5 had taken both bottom quadrants and secured the initiative for attacking that half of the map!

Given the lineup advantage from the level-one team fight and a successful start in the bottom half, the strong combination of Draven and Braum, along with mid-lane priority, allowed Sejuani to be counter-jungled and bullied by Wukong instead.

But now, everything was wrong!

And looking at it this way, the selection of Rumble had clearly become a foreshadowing.

From the perspective of team composition, Score's choice was fine; adding a flexible AP and AoE hero to the top lane was reasonable.

The problem lay in his original assumption that neither side would pay attention to the top lane in the early game, just like in the previous matches, letting the two top laners grind and farm against each other.

Rumble is a hero where "player difference" has a massive impact; some players are great at laning, while others can only serve as a "team-fight tool," or perhaps even a tool that just sets the mountain on fire.

To say nothing else, just the {Temperature Control} mechanism alone makes Rumble far more complex than Gnar.

It is hard enough to practice Gnar in a single season, let alone Rumble, which would take who knows how many seasons~

Furthermore, Doran's proficiency with Rumble was very average; it was chosen as a stopgap to round out the lineup, so expecting him to win the lane against Gnar—which was already a difficult matchup—was clearly a pipe dream, and the hero himself was difficult to coordinate with the jungler.

Sejuani tried very hard to stir up trouble in the top half, but with Flandre playing so safely, she had no opportunity and was forced into a period of farming.

Peaceful farming was naturally what V5 was happy to see.

"Gen hasn't launched any offensive in these few minutes, and it seems like they haven't pressured the mid lane either..." The Roaring Emperor looked a bit anxious.

"This tempo isn't right; Chovy should be playing more aggressively. This is Gen's only advantageous lane in the early game!"

Although the coach saw Ye Bo pick Azir, he didn't expect Chovy, who had been traumatized in the previous game, to exert pressure in lane; he just wanted a pick like Tristana that could mindlessly push the wave.

In any case, the bottom lane in the lineup had an absolute advantage, so Gen could completely revolve their attacks around the bottom lane and just get Draven fed.

But because of the early-game incident, Sejuani was temporarily unable to return to the bottom half, and Draven needed to catch up on farm, which resulted in the mid lane unexpectedly becoming the only advantageous lane.

And in this situation, if Tristana just kept farming and pushing, it would be far from enough.

Ye Bo was actually a bit puzzled.

Logically, Tristana had an advantage in experience and items and should have been able to suppress him in lane, but the opponent was "honest" to a fault, basically just pushing waves and farming by the book.

Ye Bo had thought of several clever ways to trade health, but they were useless—the opponent wouldn't trade with him at all!

Of course, Chovy also had something to say.

Didn't the coach want me to push the wave and stay alive? I'm executing what I'm supposed to do, what else do you want?

Do you want me to die for you to see!

If this were the first game between the two, he would certainly have looked for frequent opportunities to jump in and harass, but after the previous game, at least for the moment, he couldn't muster the evil thought of fighting.

Waiting until five and a half minutes in, Gen waited for the mid lane to hit level six first before daring to go for the small dragon, which counted as entering the first wave of tempo.

"V5 gives up the small dragon directly; Wukong heads to the top lane to harass Rumble and steals the newly spawned top jungle camps from Sejuani!"

"Sejuani traded her jungle camps hard to take the dragon, she lost quite a lot of monsters."

"Another problem is that none of the three lanes have managed to wear down tower health, so even if they take the Rift Herald at eight minutes, it won't be very useful. Just taking map resources is far from enough for Gen."

Even if Gen didn't usually play a heavy-attack system, they had seen enough of it to know that this advantage was completely insufficient.

Peanut also wanted to make a move.

But, as the saying goes.

The intent of the team composition was simply too obvious!

Just looking at the lineup, it was impossible for Gen to gank the top lane, which was extremely difficult to coordinate with.

And Azir in the mid lane was also extremely hard to gank, especially after level six with Flash available—the Flash that was burned at level one had already refreshed by the time Sejuani hit level six.

Although this lineup looked like a heavy-attack composition, if you looked closely, it seemed it hadn't escaped the prototype of "four protecting one."

Therefore, Wukong had been staying in the bottom half; he didn't even need to counter-gank. Just by intentionally showing himself from time to time to apply pressure, combined with the top lane's Teleport, he made Gen afraid to dive the tower easily.

And this offensive dilemma was a problem of team composition.

If Gen had chosen a top laner with a strong early game that was easy to coordinate with the jungler, and the mid lane played more aggressively, Sejuani would have had opportunities to gank all three lanes.

Naturally, there would be no shortage of offensive tempo points!

But now it had turned into Sejuani not daring to go to other lanes easily, otherwise, she had to be careful that Wukong would go straight for her Draven!

Draven's death at the start was already very costly; if he were killed again, the collapse of the key tempo axis would be something Gen absolutely could not accept.

Until seven minutes.

After wandering through the mid and bottom lanes and finding absolutely no opportunities, Peanut headed to the top half to prepare to take the Rift Herald first.

Although Doran's Rumble was poor in lane, he was certainly no less capable than Gnar in team fights.

And at this time, the level-seven Azir's level-one Q was still on a 14-second cooldown, lacking the ability to team fight; the sand soldiers summoned could only stand guard in place, in a situation where he had damage but couldn't output it!

However, on the eve of the Rift Herald.

Both junglers seemed to have some ideas.

Tristana's willingness to trade health clearly became stronger; although she didn't use W to jump in and alert the enemy, she began to press forward the moment she saw the sand soldiers disappear.

Azir immediately set up another sand soldier in place to conduct a standard trade.

And this trade actually showed that the W-max Azir of this version wasn't entirely useless.

A level-four W sand soldier's every auto-attack already had nearly 170 points of panel damage—in the past, Azir could never have had this kind of panel damage at this point.

By comparison, Tristana's single auto-attack was only 101.

These three Hail of Blades auto-attacks even resulted in a significant health loss!

Of course, that was because Tristana didn't throw E 【Explosive Charge】 while starting the auto-attack; otherwise, the trade would definitely have been profitable for Tristana.

Ye Bo keenly sensed a few clues.

Positioning pressed forward, harassing without using E—that might be because she wanted to use it to refresh the W double jump, combined with the suddenly aggressive trading style.

"The enemy jungler might be in the middle again."

Xun immediately responded: "Then I'll come to the middle!?"

And Ye Bo, who was being frequently harassed, thought calmly and had a new idea.

The enemy Chovy was marking his own {Hail of Blades} cooldown.

Peanut saw that Azir's positioning still hadn't pulled back and clearly sensed something: "If he doesn't retreat even when you trade like this, the jungler must be behind him. I'll initiate this wave, just burning his Flash is enough!"

Peanut knew it was hard to kill Azir with all his skills up; anyway, they could fight the Rift Herald team fight easily, so even if Sejuani's ultimate was used to trade for Azir's Flash, there was no pressure.

If they could burn Azir's Flash, Sejuani's next ultimate would pose a fatal danger to Azir, creating a new tempo point.

The Hail of Blades cooldown refreshed.

Tristana immediately jumped with W and threw out her E skill 【Explosive Charge】 in mid-air!

At the same time, Sejuani had already dashed out from the top river bush and thrown her 【Glacial Prison】 lasso!

Ye Bo reacted very quickly, almost immediately placing a sand soldier behind him and driving 【Shifting Sands】.

But to the Gen mid-jungle duo, this move looked like a huge opening!

"He wants to save his Flash! Then he might be killable!" Peanut shouted excitedly.

Without needing a reminder, Chovy repeated the same trick exactly as he had at level one, once again using a {Flash-into-face} at the limit of his range to interrupt the Shifting Sands while Azir was halfway through his flight!

It looked like Azir's WE pull-back would have been enough to dodge the long-range Sejuani ultimate.

But anyone who thought of the level-one scene would know it was possible to be interrupted again; only burning Flash would be the safest and most secure option.

In the eyes of the Gen duo, this was the opponent being overconfident, holding onto a fluke mentality and wanting to save his Flash.

And this kind of mentality was precisely the fatal flaw!

Although Azir successfully dodged 【Glacial Prison】 with a short-distance dash, the lasso automatically exploded after flying to its maximum distance, still creating a frost storm to slow him.

Tristana used Hail of Blades to quickly auto-attack the charge, refreshing and resetting her W.

Sejuani flanked from below, approaching the direction of the defensive tower.

The two stood in two different positions to ensure that Azir's ultimate could only hit one of them.

Anyway, Sejuani was thick-skinned; pushing him under the tower wouldn't hurt, and there was absolutely no risk of death.

As for Tristana, she kept her reset W skill tightly in hand.

Chovy relied on top-tier reaction speed and had quite a bit of experience with {Control Cancellation} for 【Rocket Jump】, and could even be said to be the most proficient person in the entire LCK.

He had absolute confidence that he could use W to cancel the control when Azir used his ultimate!

"Caught him! He might be killable!"

"A reenactment of the Gen mid-jungle scene! Ye really doesn't learn his lesson; he forgot how he just died at level one!"

After the charge detonated, Azir had already dropped to half health.

Tristana only needed a few more auto-attacks, and throwing out her ultimate would be enough to execute him!

And at this moment, 99% of normal people's first reaction would be to Flash into the tower.

But Ye Bo didn't run toward the tower.

Because that way, it would be impossible to pull away from the dual attack coverage of Sejuani and Tristana.

Azir had clearly walked to the front of the tower but didn't Flash into it; instead, he flashed into the wall of the Raptors!

"Aigoo, what a smart decision!" ShowMaker realized at a glance from the commentary desk.

"No wonder he dared to give that position; he calculated Tristana's Flash-interrupt! Maybe he just wanted to trade Flashes?"

It was easier to see the thought process from the God's-eye view.

ShowMaker believed that Azir wanted to use the wall as true cover, forcing Tristana to use her W to cross the wall first, and then he would push the opponent out of the wall with his ultimate in mid-air.

{Tristana's control cancellation must use W as a follow-up}

Chovy had already walked this far, so how could he just give up? Even if he saw the subsequent operation, he still decisively jumped over the wall with W to try to initiate in the air.

But he only saw that the landed Azir didn't strike directly, but continued to walk forward one more step, taking another shot from Tristana, his health already extremely close to the execution line of the ultimate.

At this moment, Azir finally summoned his Imperial Guard to defend and strike!

The Tristana was pushed high into the air by the Imperial Phalanx.

"Finally, the trap is sprung."

Xu Xiu had only guessed half of it right.

Although the defense tower dealt high damage, it could not "stop" the opponent's advance; the two, possessed by a desire for a sure kill, would absolutely Flash into the tower to finish the job, and the Azir would surely die.

But it was different here.

The reason Ye Bo had deliberately walked here—was because this place was the true domain of the Azir!

"Eh!?" Chovy, realizing the situation, let out a sound of doubt.

It was seen that the Tristana had not been pushed out of the wall by the Imperial Phalanx, but was instead "blocked" in the corner at the edge of the Raptors camp!

It was as if there was less than an inch of space between the Imperial Phalanx and the wall, yet it was just enough to wedge the Tristana into the crevice, unable to move a single bit!

The Azir took one more step back before beginning to raise his scepter.

The W-reserved Sand Soldier and the second Sand Soldier refreshed by the E-dash impact stood up one after another; the order was given, and the two Sand Soldiers fiercely lunged forward in a short-range dash!

The Tristana stood foolishly in place, watching helplessly as the two sand spears rushed over, the white shafts constantly entering and the red tips exiting!

"What is this!!"

"The Azir can kill with one auto-attack plus his ultimate at this health! But it seems the Tristana doesn't have enough range to auto-attack; he can't get an attack off!"

The Tristana's ultimate only had a 550-yard target acquisition range, and his attack range was only 605 yards.

While the Azir's W into Q could manipulate Sand Soldiers at a distance of over 900 yards!

If this were in lane or on normal terrain, the Tristana would only need to step back to easily create distance—but at this moment, he could only be like a sinner judged by an emperor, pinned to the corner by the Imperial Phalanx and forced to take his punishment!

The pitiful Tristana was huddled in the corner, looking exactly like a 【Wall-Blocking Bullying Kill】!

It had been shown before that a W-max Azir was not without damage, just without the opportunity to output it.

The Imperial Phalanx could last for 5 seconds; under the boost of Hail of Blades, it was enough for the two Sand Soldiers to poke out a full 7 auto-attacks, enough to turn a full-health Tristana into a sieve!

The Sejuani, having traveled a long way to the wall, hesitated for a long time but still did not Flash over the wall.

The Sejuani had neither Q nor R; watching the Azir auto-attacking while walking toward the brush of the rear tier-one tower, she knew that even if she Flashed over the wall, she couldn't stop him from commanding the Sand Soldiers from a distance, and she watched helplessly as the Tristana fell.

"Not here! Here!" The Roaring Emperor's pupils shook in disbelief, and he even stuttered while speaking: "This is practically a solo kill!"

"Azir... Azir! Did the Azir solo kill the Tristana in the early game!!!"

Xu Xiu reminded him very dutifully: "It's not over yet, top lane seems to be dying too."

Just as Peanut hadn't thought the mid lane could be killed at first, Xun also felt there was no opportunity in the mid lane.

He chose to go to the top lane, firstly because he believed GEN wouldn't want the Rumble to use his extremely critical ultimate before the Rift Herald fight, so the Sejuani would likely not come top, and he was certain there was no danger of a counter-gank.

Secondly, it was naturally due to his absolute peace of mind and trust in the mid lane, allowing him to go do other things without worry!

Doran heard from his jungler that the opposing jungler was in the mid lane, and he was still trying to push the wave to prepare for the Rift Herald fight, but he didn't expect the Wukong, who had stealthily crept over from the toilet pit, to suddenly appear from the upper lane brush!

Cyclone directly stirred things up.

The Rumble used Flash, the Wukong followed with Flash to stir up the second knock-up, and in coordination with the Gnar's back-toss, they easily completed the kill!

"Beautiful! Beautiful!!" Miller was so excited he couldn't control himself: "Mid and top blooming at the same time before the Rift Herald fight! Can they actually find such an opportunity with this lineup!"

The high-spirited Wawa shouted even more arrogantly: "You like to gank! You like to gank the mid lane, right! Is Master Ye someone you can bully so easily!!!"

"GEN's attempt to steal a chicken resulted in losing the rice; the Rift Herald fight that V5 couldn't possibly face head-on has turned into a 3-on-1 situation, and V5 is actually going to take the Rift Herald with this lineup!"

【(All) V5 Zhu Ye: Ganking-your-dad-is-useful-? ? ? ? ?】

【What a wall-blocking bullying! Master Ye is too cool!】

【It's over, Ye's persona is ruined, turns out he also bullies people!】

【Chovy: Familiar, a very familiar feeling...】

【Heh heh, a level 6 Tristana getting solo killed by an Azir; someone gets bullied on stage, and they'll continue to be bullied in the next match~~~】

【I think this trash Tristana is really not as good as the one played by the OMG mid laner, Chovy? More like Cry-vy!】

The atmosphere at the LCK commentary desk could only be described as mournful.

Everyone knew that a lineup like GEN's not only failed to gain the offensive advantage it should have in the early game, but even handed over the critical Rift Herald fight, which was simply terrible news.

But at the critical moment, someone finally stood up.

The director's replay hadn't finished yet when it suddenly cut back quickly to the live feed of the bottom lane.

"Oh, they're fighting in the bottom lane!"

"But the Draven doesn't seem to be level six yet!"

Everyone appeared on the map, and the bottom lane became a place completely isolated from the world.

Viper felt his heart sink in horror when he saw the notification that the Azir had completed a counter-kill.

He knew he had to fight.

Because of his death at level one, the Draven hadn't reached level six yet, but precisely because of this, the V5 bottom lane duo had been positioning quite aggressively after hitting level six.

But the Draven missing one ultimate wasn't fatal to his combat power.

The Braum W'd to a minion and auto-attacked the Tahm Kench to trigger his passive, and the Draven used two spinning axes, quickly coordinating to land a stun.

But this usually wouldn't result in a winning trade—because both ADs were hitting the supports, and it was obvious that the Tahm Kench, who was farming and enjoying ADC economy, was far tankier than the Braum; at this moment, the Draven's damage wasn't enough to threaten the Tahm Kench.

However, the moment the Tahm Kench was stunned, the Braum suddenly initiated with his ultimate, Glacial Fissure, and unexpectedly Flashed forward to smash the Senna in the face, triggering his passive and applying Ignite!

The Draven caught an axe to refresh 【Blood Rush】 for speed, and a 【Stand Aside】 with a tricky angle flew out from the middle, perfectly separating the Tahm Kench and the Senna, and he used a second speed boost to close the distance to the Senna!

"Flash and swallow me!"

"Don't Flash!"

Deft and Beryl said almost the same thing with perfect tacit understanding.

If this were a panicked player, seeing the Braum get in their face and apply the passive, they would have Flashed backward immediately, and the Senna would have died eight times out of ten!

The reason was simple: because the Tahm Kench had already been knocked back, if the Senna Flashed backward at this moment, the distance between the two would exceed two Flash distances!

By then, if the Draven followed with a Flash to close the distance, the extremely fragile Senna wouldn't just fail to create distance, but would instead be the first to be burst down!

Facts proved this, as the Draven rushed up and landed a few axes, the Senna's health dropped visibly and rapidly into the danger zone.

Deft's attention to detail was maxed out; the moment the passive mark triggered, he controlled his character to cancel the ultimate animation, using the crowd-controlled state to guide the casting of 【Dawning Shadow】 to gain a shield.

The Tahm Kench, having broken free from the 1. -second stun, Flashed and swallowed her in one gulp!

"Thank goodness, she shouldn't die like this!" Wawa breathed a sigh of relief. The Tahm Kench carried the Senna under the tower, and she would be safe and sound with the ultimate shield when she came out.

Of course, they definitely couldn't stay under the tower; the GEN bottom lane would spare no cost to help the Draven cash out, and the Senna retreated several meters alone to recall.

But at this moment, Beryl suddenly saw the Braum heading toward the river, unusually not following the Draven to push the wave into the tower.

"Be careful, Brother Hekui! The Draven might be about to hit level six!"

The next moment, a flash of light appeared on the Draven, and the dragon-shaped arm guards on his shoulders shone brightly.

He swung his hands forcefully to throw the snake-shaped giant axes, aiming forward!

Deft reacted in advance, but the blind-shot giant axe guessed his recall position, and he could only decisively Flash upward to dodge, brushing past the deadly giant axe and letting it continue forward.

But the deadly giant axe gained a moment of vision as it passed.

The Draven suddenly W-dashed upward, and then inexplicably used an air Flash!

And at the same time, the recalled 【Whirling Death】 suddenly changed trajectory at its destination; the giant axe of the mythic championship skin flashed with a sacred golden light, turning back in a V-shape!

Deft couldn't see the axe's trajectory change, and by the time it reached his eyes, there was nowhere left to dodge.

The double-headed dragon giant axe fiercely crushed the Senna's body, bringing with it the sound of gold coins hitting a bag.

"V~~i~~~~per~~~~!!" The Roaring Emperor sat up from a dying dream, his passionate, ultra-long tail note full of emotion.

"This is our two-time champion AD! The true Draven king! Using his own championship skin from last year to secure a kill and cash out a whopping 670 gold in extra bounty! One kill worth three!"

"The most core figure has finally risen! GEN is saved!!"

Scout said with what seemed like praise: "Daoxian is in such good form; he really has always been this stable, and every year he can carry the match as the team's most core carry."

Scout, who never missed an opportunity to be 'sarcastic,' didn't even mind dragging himself into it; anyway, it wasn't the first time he'd been called the Thief Saint.

【Holy crap, Viper 3!】

【This championship skin is truly handsome; when can I see my favorite FMVP skin? Very urgent.】

【The Thief Saint finally admits that year was stolen? He hates himself so much he's even cursing himself!】

【It's time for my favorite 'Believe in Viper' segment again.】

【What's the use, let me ask; to put it bluntly, this Draven hero won't even be able to touch the Azir's leg hair later before he gets poked to death!】

【That's only if you can get to play him; you don't really think the current two-item Azir has damage, do you? Let's talk after thirty minutes!】

The Draven's self-cashing out was undoubtedly a powerful shot in the arm for the LCK audience and the GEN members, who had already been feeling somewhat desperate.

The match, which had seemed to have no hope, suddenly seemed to have a direction again.

"Sorry, my fault." Deft's voice was slightly self-reproachful.

Ye Bo comforted him nonchalantly: "It's fine, this kind of early game start is already very smooth; the ones who are anxious are them!"

These words were indeed a fact.

Looking at the draft, it was clear that the bottom lane was the sacrifice this game; the opponent picking Draven and Braum first, and then picking Tahm Kench and Senna, was a combination meant to purely take a beating.

If it weren't for the level one, a scene similar to this should have happened long ago.

And for V5, being able to get such an advantage in the early game was already an unexpected harvest.

They took the Rift Herald and gave it directly to the mid lane for the Azir to eat the economy.

The 12-minute second small dragon was left to GEN.

And the Draven's cash-out didn't bring the chain reaction they imagined—in the final analysis, the previous wave only leveled the economy and gave the bottom lane the initiative.

But the mid lane's lane priority advantage had already declared bankruptcy!

The Azir bought the mythic item Crown of the Shattered Queen, and in lane, he was no longer afraid of the Tristana; although he still couldn't suppress him because his Q skill level wasn't high enough, the wave-clearing efficiency was already about the same.

Without a numerical advantage, and with both top and mid having Teleport protection, Gen. did not dare to rashly dive the Senna-Tahm Kench duo.

They could only let Draven slowly push the wave into the tower, slightly chipping away at the turret's health with each wave.

It wasn't until the 14-minute mark, when the turret plating fell off, that V5 directly abandoned the remaining turret health and let the opponent take the bottom tier-one tower.

But it took until after 14 minutes to barely push down one outer tower, and the top and mid towers were still nearly at full health—this was undoubtedly extremely urgent for Gen. 's offensive tempo!

At 15 minutes, Gen. gathered first to take the Rift Herald, while V5 let the Emperor (Azir) go to the bottom lane alone to push towers and level up, waiting at least until level 13 with Q and W maxed before choosing to take the team fight.

One of the key uses of the Senna-Tahm Kench combo was also revealed—these two could afford to take absolutely no farm!

The Emperor was effectively farming the minion waves of both the mid and bottom lanes alone, and his growth speed was far faster than imagined.

At 17 minutes, the third dragon spawned.

Gen. , who were usually best at turtling, were clearly a bit anxious during this period because they couldn't find a fight at all.

In the past, they were the ones kiting their opponents; they never expected that today it would be their turn to be kited!

"They seem to want to take it?" Peanut looked happy: "I can engage on the Emperor! Can you follow?"

Lehends hesitated for a moment: "It's hard to engage on the Emperor with Tahm Kench there; he's been guarding the Emperor the whole time. How about engaging on Tahm Kench?"

"That works! Viper can actually hurt Tahm Kench now, he hasn't been taking farm!"

The V5 members approached the dragon pit from above the river.

The two carries didn't rush to use their two Blue Trinkets, preparing to use them to check health bars.

"Xun, you can try to steal it this time, we'll cover you," Ye Bo said aloud.

"It is possible to try, there are no resources anyway, they are already having a hard time pushing in~" BeryL also agreed very much.

Gen. 's lineup only had Tristana as a long-range threat, which didn't amount to much in front of the Emperor.

The previous time they summoned the second Rift Herald, they hadn't even been able to knock down the full-health mid tier-one tower, which already proved that their front-to-back pushing ability was extremely poor; the only thing they could rely on was forcing V5 out to fight a head-on team fight over key resources.

If they could steal just one dragon, they could delay the game time by 5 minutes!

Even if they didn't steal it, there were no map resources at this moment anyway, so it would be acceptable as long as they didn't get too many people caught.

Wukong touched near the top of the dragon pit alone, preparing to use the blue side's terrain advantage to sneak down and contest the Smite.

The four below were pacing forward in a neat formation; while BeryL was still clearing wards with his sweeper, he threw a ward into the opponent's jungle out of habit, though its intent was unclear.

The first Blue Trinket revealed the dragon, its health having dropped by nearly half.

The second Blue Trinket revealed the dragon, its health left at only 2000.

Xun activated his sweeper and hugged the wall to reach the bank; he didn't get greedy for the Blast Cone that likely had defensive awareness, and directly used 【Warrior Trickster】 to stealth down the wall!

But just as he stealthily went down the wall, what he saw were several people standing against the wall, ready to pounce.

"Careful, they seem to be looking to engage!"

The vision gained from stealth revealed their intentions without a doubt.

From Gen. 's perspective, V5's entire team was present and looked like they wanted to take the fight, and once the dragon was taken, the opponent would surely retreat immediately—compared to the dragon, the gains from keeping a few more people behind were clearly higher!

The gold difference between the two sides hadn't widened much even now.

With the Emperor's current gear and growth, even if they just dragged it to 20 minutes, they didn't have the confidence that forcing a Baron would be a guaranteed win.

But if they could win one team fight and widen the gold gap, they might be able to force a Baron at 20 minutes, without even needing a Dragon Soul to force a fight!

At this moment, Sejuani had already Q-dashed out of the thick wall of the dragon pit, throwing her ultimate mid-dash!

The target was pointed directly at Tahm Kench, while simultaneously preparing to use the ultimate's AoE slow to keep everyone in place.

But... a sand soldier suddenly stood in front of Tahm Kench.

"What is Master Ye doing!?"

Seeing the Glacial Prison thrown out in their vision, the Emperor actually flew straight into it!

The Glacial Prison slammed heavily into the Emperor, freezing him into an ice statue—but it failed to restrict the Emperor's movement!

It was the ultra-long EQ double-back of Shifting Sands.

After taking the ultimate, the Emperor actually carried the ice blocks all over his body and forcibly used "Swallow Return" to drift far back to his original position!

{The control duration of Glacial Prison is linked to the flight distance, and it requires at least 30% flight distance to have the second-stage AoE wide-range slow.

But because it was intercepted by the Emperor flying into his face, not only was the control duration only 1 second, but it didn't even travel far enough to trigger the second-stage AoE blizzard!

"Sejuani's ultimate was blocked by the Emperor! Even Braum missed his ultimate... they were baited!"

"What kind of move is that from the Emperor? He's too bold!"

"Wukong is still in the dragon pit! If you can't start the fight, you have to watch the dragon!"

In a moment of shock, the Gen. members discovered Wukong appearing in the back.

It was clear they couldn't keep anyone in the front, so Sejuani hurriedly turned to try and contest the Smite, but Xun directly used QE followed by a 1200-damage Primal Smite to kill the dragon instantly, then walked toward the dragon pit while tanking damage, flashing over the wall at the limit of his range after Draven landed three hits!

"Great block, Master Ye, damn!"

"Nice, brothers!!"

"Haha, Xun finally stole a dragon too."

"Hey, Chuan-ge, my Smite contest is bad, hey hey hey, the one in the back! Did you learn that!"

There was a burst of jubilation in the V5 team voice chat.

But the Gen. team voice chat was dead silent.

"Forget it, let's push the mid tower," Viper said simply.

Gen. clearly couldn't swallow this, and seeing Wukong in terrible shape, this was a four-versus-five opportunity; perhaps they could force-demolish the mid tier-one tower that had been hit by the second Rift Herald.

But V5 saw the opponent's movement through vision.

Ye Bo suddenly sensed an opportunity: "I feel like this position..."

The gold gap between the two sides was close, and V5's top, mid, and jungle were all growing excellently; anyway, the bottom lane could just be treated as two supports.

More importantly, Gen. had used two key control ultimates this time; if it weren't for Doran's slow reaction, maybe Rumble would have been forced to use his ultimate.

"If we can engage on Draven, we can burst him; they only have Draven with damage right now!"

BeryL frantically pinged on the map: "Holy Gun God! There's a ward there!"

He had a habit of placing a ward behind the opponent's jungle while clearing wards earlier, which happened to be in the blind spot of Gen. 's vision...

If it were a head-on confrontation, with Tristana, Braum, and Sejuani all having peel, the few engage heroes on V5's side wouldn't be able to get close to Draven at all, and could only rely on the Emperor's long range to poke.

But at this moment, Wukong's low health and the appearance of V5's entire team retreating left Gen. in a completely unguarded state.

This was a fleeting opportunity!

Gnar returned under the tower to Q the jungle monsters to build up his Rage, precisely entering Mega Gnar state, and directly Teleported to the ward in the back.

"There's a flanking Teleport! There's a flanking Teleport!!!" The Roaring Emperor screamed on stage in a panic.

"Can they flank? Can they fight this?" Scout looked skeptical: "Who is shot-calling for V5? Being down two ultimates doesn't have much impact, but Wukong will be one-shot the moment he enters with that health!"

"Unless they can one-shot Draven... but V5 doesn't have much burst right now either," ShowMaker was also a bit confused.

The Gen. members initially didn't notice, but the landed Mini Gnar was already closing in with the Teleport speed boost.

But accidents inevitably happened after all.

Viper knew the heavy burden of pressure he was under this game, always being extremely careful about his positioning, and paying close attention to those on the opposite side who could engage on him.

Especially his former teammate; he had clearly witnessed the engage ability of Ye Bo's Emperor!

At this moment, he suddenly noticed the Emperor positioning forward and instantly became vigilant... as a result, he suddenly noticed that the opponent seemed to be missing one person, who was also his former teammate.

Where is Gnar!?

"Careful of Gnar!"

Just as Viper finished shouting, the Mega Gnar that had flanked them walked out of the corridor in front of their own tier-one tower!

But Gen. 's five members, whose positions were originally slightly closer to the wall, instantly stood together toward the middle of the lane, not giving Gnar a chance to slam them into the wall.

Whether Gnar's ultimate slams into a wall or not makes for two different skills.

If it doesn't slam into a wall, there is only knockback and no extra control—but if it slams into a wall, there is an extra 1. 5-second stun, plus doubled critical damage!

"They seem a bit disconnected! We can kill Gnar first!"

"Watch the engage! Tristana has to push the Emperor away..."

Just as everyone was shouting commands, Gnar suddenly made a move that was completely "unpredictable."

The reason it was called unpredictable was because the position everyone was standing in looked very safe, and Gnar couldn't possibly slam them into a wall—and if he just slammed them back, it would actually be equivalent to helping the five Gen. members "Flash into their faces."

They could start fighting face-to-face as soon as they landed!

Think about it, Gnar slamming five people into the faces of the Emperor and Senna, wouldn't they instantly die and harm their teammates?

But Gnar really did slam them back.

Flash-R 【GNAR!】, the giant palm swept all five back.

During this, Shifting Sands followed by an aerial Flash was done in one go; the Emperor's figure flashed forward twice in the air, pushing out a "Back-facing Ultimate" in the opposite direction!

It had to be a back-facing R because {the Emperor's Divide is created starting from behind the Emperor}.

And that 【Emperor's Divide】 that appeared instantly from three inches behind the Emperor—"caught" the five people who had been slammed back from the air!

The Emperor's Divide is also a wall.

And what's even more terrifying is...

The five figures, flashing with {Critical} and {Stun} icons, were being carried by the Emperor's Divide all the way from the starting point to the end point!

They were actually carried across nearly 2500 yards from behind the mid-lane minion wave, as if they had switched from a bus to a Boeing airplane, and were "transported" all the way under V5's tier-one tower!!!

At the same time, they had truly reached their destination.

If Gnar's ultimate was the Tathagata Palm.

Then this wave was called the "Double Emperor's Tathagata Palm"!

The five landed, with the {Stun} still hanging over their heads for 1. seconds, unable to move.

The Monkey King stepped forward to wreak havoc in the Heavenly Palace, cosplaying as a Malphite, while Tang Mu followed up with Abyssal Voyage to cosplay as a second Malphite, treating the five members of Gen as if they were a dish, frantically "tossing the wok" on the spot!

The scene instantly erupted with thunderous screams!

"What on earth is this!!!" The Roaring Emperor leaned forward exaggeratedly, completely unable to believe his eyes.

"Pizza!!!!"

It wasn't just him.

At this moment, every live broadcast room for the tournament was filled with the incredulous roars of the commentators!

"It's exploding! Gen is going to explode!!!" Wa Wa strained his vocal cords to the limit.

Mi Le clenched his fists and howled loudly: "Martial Soul Fusion Skill! It's the Martial Soul Fusion Skill of Master Ye and Saint Gun Brother again! And it's the Emperor of the Sands again!!"

"This, this is the true Emperor of the Sands!"

Countless spectators could not believe their eyes, their gazes filled only with disbelief.

The cheers in the audience rose one after another, evolving into a mountain torrent and tsunami in the blink of an eye.

A zero-for-five trade, executed with almost no room for error, left no room for the previously deadlocked situation.

Meanwhile, the V5 player bench under the cameras had instantly become a scene of jubilation!

"Awesome!!!!!"

"Badass!"

"Director Chuan!! Get ready to come out and pick people up!!"

"This is the bond between Brother and Master Ye!"

On the other side, the Gen player bench looked as if it had lost all signs of life.

Viper covered his forehead in slight despair; he remembered the last time this scene occurred, it seemed to have been on his side.

The remaining time had basically entered a countdown.

The biggest problem for Gen in this match was their team composition—the selection was not extreme enough, which was one of the reasons they couldn't break through with their attacks.

If the top laner hadn't been a Rumble that needed to scale, and the jungler had been swapped for a more aggressive fighting hero, even with an economic disadvantage, they could have fought and gambled on it—this is also the characteristic of the "Ultraman Composition."

But a composition like Gen's, which wants everything and tries to balance everything, ultimately leads to everything being just a little bit lacking!

Not to mention that they had already conceded the advantage to the opponent in the early game.

At 22 minutes, the Emperor of the Sands completed his three-item core and began to transform into the true Emperor of the Canyon.

Gen's composition looked scientific, but in reality, with the protection of Tang Mu, it was still very difficult to touch the Emperor of the Sands; they were basically only there to be poked, and it would only get harder to play!

As the tip of the Emperor of the Sands' staff flickered with a terrifying glow, a Rabadon's Deathcap sat like the coronation crown of a true emperor ascending the throne, truly manifesting the name of the Emperor of the Sands!

The match finally concluded at 27 minutes and 27 seconds.

Gen's main nexus exploded into fireworks!

(End of chapter)