Chapter 62: Big Red Pot Croc, Level-Three Tower Dive!

No fury stacked, don't know how to cooperate?

That's exactly the effect they wanted—after all, the one with fury is the Desert Reaper, the one with mediocre fury is the little Croc, and with red fury on his body, Kennen would instinctively be a few degrees more cautious.

"Besides, we never said we had to kill him outright."

Shi Zhenyu walked out from the river, instantly warded-hopped to close in on Kennen among the minion wave, and slammed Bone Breaker onto the ground, dealing damage while quickly applying the second-stage slow.

"Hehehehe—everyone, must die!"

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Still at level two, Song Yuan instantly learned the E skill, mashing both dashes of Headbutt–Tail Sweep in succession, and just as the second cast of E clipped the hem of Kennen's coat and the giant axe landed its auto, the crimson fury suddenly dropped past half.

Whoosh!

【Tyrant Smash】

A skill whose bonus is the noble 1.0 AD ratio—today's Desert Reaper embodies, from head to toe, a beauty called raw stats.

Kennen's health bar plummeted, sheets of blood spraying from his body.

"Holy crap, I'm dead, I'm dead."

The BLQG top laner, who just a second ago had been smugly pleased that he, a Diamond-ranked player, could fight across tiers against a Master and slowly grind the Croc to death, was now terrified beyond words.

Fortunately, facing the focused fire of NXG's top-jungle duo, he hadn't completely lost his mind—while popping E to pull back distance, he kept his eyes locked on the Blind Monk's every move.

"Here it comes, I see it—Sonic Wave!"

Kennen felt that, at this moment, his reaction speed had reached the peak of his life.

"Hah!"

Bang!

Two flashes of white light—and because the top lane was simply too long, Kennen's E acceleration couldn't possibly carry him under the safety of his tower, so BladeCrusher had no choice but to burn Flash to save his life.

"OK, Flash is out, and I've chunked you down plenty—rest is up to you."

Seeing the opponent decisively burn Flash, Shi Zhenyu immediately turned and left without a second thought.

Song Yuan gave a thumbs-up and said through the voice channel, "Just sit back and watch me perform."

Up on the analyst desk, WaWa and Joker were somewhat puzzled by the Blind Monk's aggressive gank.

"Feels like there wasn't much point—although the Blind Monk did burn Kennen's Flash, he didn't get the kill, and because he tanked the minion wave, the Croc, who'd already taken a chunk of damage earlier, is now in even worse shape."

"True—BLQG's Kennen can still use the Doran's Blade and his ranged-attack advantage to slowly claw his health back up…"

"Impulsive. With the Blind Monk now exposed in the top side of the map, the Caitlyn—who originally didn't have both summoners—now doesn't have to worry about the jungler's threat, and can freely bully NXG's bot-lane duo…"

NXG-norsha has slain BLQG-BladeCrusher!

But just as the two were confidently delivering their analysis, the system's female kill-announcement rang out in-game.

The two clowns' follow-up words got stuck hard in their throats.

"Huh?"

"Wait, how did he suddenly burst him down for a solo kill!"

The top-lane kill, paired with the two casters' stunned reactions, sent the stream's chat into an uproar.

【Pfft, dying laughing, the face-slap came so fast it was like a tornado.】

【One second ago: NXG's top-jungle duo were being impulsive, ganking top was pointless.】

【Next second: kill secured!】

【Desert Reaper: Yo, what rank are you, kid? How dare you question our call?】

【Replay, is there a replay? I wanna know how the solo kill happened up top—wasn't Kennen under tower?】

【Same, Croc main here, wanna see how NXG's god plays it.】

"Ahem, alright, let's take a look at the top-lane kill replay together."

WaWa and Joker stood awkwardly in place for several seconds, until the director's voice in their earpiece reminded them a replay angle was available, saving them both.

On the venue's big screen, the logo of the inaugural LPL flashed by as a transition animation.

The screen was locked back onto the top lane.

The next second, a half-health Kennen stood a little outside his tower, doing exactly what the viewers had seen before—trying to use his range advantage to last-hit minions and heal back up.

The Blind Monk's unhesitating departure gave Kennen enormous psychological relief.

The opponents must have given up…

But the NXG top laner, who had previously shown no reaction—as if he didn't really know how to play Croc—was now very actively last-hitting minions, giving off the impression of someone wanting to quickly clear the wave so he could base first and update his items.

Just then, the timestamp on the OBS screen jumped backward—three minutes and nine seconds!

The Croc last-hit the final ranged minion, and the level-up glow suddenly flared around him.

Level three!

Bang!

The familiar white light flashed once again.

The Desert Reaper, carrying two-thirds of his fury bar, suddenly appeared under the tower—along with the Corrupting Potion that vanished from his inventory at the same time.

Whoosh!

The champion's health bar shot up a chunk—and not just that, under the potion's effect, the Bloodthirsty Beast's attack power also rose.

Auto attack.

Swish!

In red-fury state, 【Ruthless Predator】 fired off three quick strikes—Kennen lost a huge chunk of health and was locked in a 1.5-second stun.

Ignite went on, an in-place E-A combo added more damage, and under the seamless weave of autos and abilities, another fifty points of fury were finally scraped together.

"Pale meat, dark meat—both are good meat."

The Desert Reaper swung his giant axe in a full circle on the spot to finish the damage, paid no more attention to the electric mouse behind him who was left on a sliver of health, and stylishly used the second cast of E to exit the tower.

Finally, white true damage kept bouncing above the hero's head, taking away Kenan's last sliver of health.

【Six-Six-Six!】

【Damn, this top laner has such fast hands.】

【Flash, potion, red-enrage W—almost all those moves were executed in an instant.】

【Is the Crocodile this fierce? Half-health Kenan plus Ignite and he's instantly dead!】

【NXG's top laner is so detailed; he didn't deliberately stack full fury, but acted just past two-thirds, and after using W, relied on basic attacks plus E's boost to somehow squeeze out the damage of a red-enrage Q at the very end.】

【Looking at it that way, the jungler coming top earlier to harass stats feels like it was planned in advance; otherwise, with a full-health electric rat that has long range, the Crocodile being unpressed would already count as impressive personal skill.】

Yes, the coordination between Stone and Song Yuan was of course preceded by prior communication.

Among the game concepts Jiang Ming instilled in the players was this one—to help teammates gain an advantage, sometimes it doesn't count as success only if you kill them.

Harassing stats, harassing summoner spells can also yield good results.

Just like that seemingly reckless forced gank by the Blind Monk just now, which can be said to have directly laid the foundation for the Crocodile's absolute advantage to follow.

Kenan, without Flash, was tower-dived and killed again; both level and gold fell behind, and on S3 top lane summoner spells, Teleport is basically not considered, so his situation would only be worse than the Caitlyn in the bottom lane.

The Desert Blind Monk combination, though not as effortless as the Desert Spider tower-diving, was only slightly inferior.

For the time that followed, it could be said that if BLQG's Imperial Prince glanced at the top lane even once less, Kennen would have died with unusual peace, the kind without any pain.

With the top lane gaining an advantage, the Blind Monk's movement space immediately expanded greatly; after Shi Zhenyu returned to clear his own top-side jungle and updated his equipment, he headed toward the Imperial Prince's jungle.

Gank Caitlyn?

No, causing trouble for your jungler is simpler.