Chapter 49: The Nakano Rupture! Shaqima's Stone Was Just Pure Luck
Chapter 49: Mid-Jungle Fallout! Is Shaqima's Malphite Just Pure Luck?
Damage numbers popped up over Malphite's head.
-281!
He was done for.
Rookie, currently basing to buy items at home, shook his head slowly.
Once knocked up like that, death would be instantaneous. There was simply no way...
"Huh?" Before Rookie's thought could even settle, his eyes suddenly narrowed.
The Malphite, who should have been locked down in crowd control, suddenly leaned forward and surged directly into a fierce dash.
Almost in the blink of an eye.
"Boom!!" A thunderous sound erupted!
The one who got knocked up was actually Sylas himself!
Malphite's ultimate, Unstoppable Force!
"Using my own ultimate!! To dodge my own ultimate!!!"
A dead end!
Then, his E skill pinned Sylas down at the exact micro-second of his animation wind-up, seizing the initiative for a free auto-attack and W.
Auto-attack!
Auto-attack!
Three auto-attacks chained into a newly refreshed W skill to reset the basic attack timer, bringing the Jarvan IV down into execution range!
In the nick of time, Tian frantically mashed the E-Q keys.
"Not only that! Shaqima also successfully knocked up both Sylas and the arriving Jarvan IV simultaneously! Auto-attacking and seamlessly chaining into the already-cooldown-refreshed E skill, the AP-built violent Malphite instantly reaped Sylas's life right there in mid-air! Oh my god!! Shaqima has pulled off another gorgeous counter-kill!!! Huff... huff..." Miller almost blew out his vocal cords and had to gasp heavily for air.
The skill icon finally lit up, stretching the hope of survival infinitely wider.
Yet the battle on the stage raged on!
After dispatching Sylas, Cheng Xuan had no intention of letting Jarvan IV walk away!
"You're asking me? How would I know?"
If Sylas landed and utilized his W to heal up for a counter-offensive...
Run?
There was no running away!
***
Thud!
A beam of blue light descended from the heavens, and the Malphite immediately slapped a chilling Smite onto him, dealing a small amount of true damage while also stealing 20% of Jarvan IV's movement speed.
Malphite showcased three dazzling plays in succession, first using a stationary Flash to evade Jarvan's E-Q combo.
"Rather than saying Shaqima is lucky, it's more like FPX's stars just happened to align against them this game. A single second earlier, and Malphite would have been dead too."
He thrust his dragon strike toward the standard.
Jarvan IV's health bar hadn't been full during the gank, and taking Malphite's ultimate plunged his health plummeting below the halfway mark.
A dead end!
It felt truly like being at the end of your rope, only to find a new village amid the willow shade and bright flowers.
Pursuit!
"I can make it out!" Tian gritted his teeth, a flicker of hope shining in his eyes.
Even playing a hero as clunky and honest as Malphite, he somehow managed to imbue it with heart-pounding thrills, a cliff-edge crisis turned into safety.
The standard was already planted, its landing spot right by their own mid-lane tier-one turret!
With a twitch of his finger, he pressed the Q skill once more.
Another wave of cheers erupted inside the IG team communications.
The solemn and dignified female system voice chimed in: Malphite was now on a 5-0 killing spree! He was legendary!
The balance of victory, following this mid-lane double kill by Malphite, had tilted overwhelmingly toward IG!
"Is the gap really this big? Why does it always feel like it's just a tiny bit short? But why is his luck always so good?! A stationary Flash to dodge your E-Q, trading ultimates to steal the ult and nullify the crowd control... Why is it always just a tiny bit short?!"
On the flip side, the atmosphere within the FPX team was growing somewhat stiff.
"Why don't you mention how you were styling on your own in the mid lane and handed Malphite a free double kill in the second wave?!"
"Smack!"
If that E micro-interaction hadn't been handled properly, hitting the auto-attack and W a second too late, this ultimate likely would have fallen short on damage.
"If your E-Q could actually hit just now, none of this bullshit would have happened!"
Double kill!
"If my blue buff hadn't been invaded and stolen at the start, he wouldn't have hit level 3 so fast. Do you know I got snowballed on in the mid lane because of that?"
That final R-dodging-R play looked simple enough, but if he had been 0.1 seconds slower on the keypress, Malphite would have likely been knocked up first, rendering him unable to cast his own ultimate.
A dead end!
Not to mention that final clutch ultimate—if he hadn't gotten it off...
It dragged away the very last shred of his health bar.
***
Tian pressed a single hand to his forehead, leaning his body back slightly as he sat in silence.
If that Flash had blinked him too far away, Malphite wouldn't have entered combat with Sylas quickly enough, especially if Jarvan IV looped back around.
This guy was always so astonishing.
Doinb's expression was similarly gloomy as he shook his mouse, speaking in a chilling tone.
"Luck is also part of strength." Jagex let out a heavy breath and praised with a smile.
The casters on stage relaxed slightly.
"It's fine, this is only the first game, and the deficit isn't that big. There's still hope." Top laner Nuguri glanced over the dejected Tian and the furious Doinb.
The already frostbitten relationship between the two finally erupted like a volcano.
Yet right now, a jungling Malphite had put up a gorgeous 5-0 scoreline just ten-odd minutes into the game, completely styling on the mid-jungle duo and pressing their faces into the dirt.
No one could have anticipated that in a small-scale 1v2 skirmish, events could be timed with precision down to a ten-second window.
"Hiss..." Jagex drew in a sharp breath, leaning forward as he stood up: "Malphite's ultimate came off cooldown in the very last second!! That guy Shaqima utilized the unstoppable characteristic of Malphite's ultimate to weather through the crowd control of the ultimate stolen by Sylas! He cleverly evaded the knock-up effect of the ultimate, taking only the damage from the R skill without being crowd-controlled at all!!!"
And the end result was that Malphite successfully cast his R, combining it with basic attacks and the E skill's damage to instantly melt a half-health Sylas!
"I have to say, Shaqima's play here had a component of gambling his life on luck, but he won the gamble!" Rita's face was also flushed, looking quite exhilarated.
Toggling on his W shield to exchange a brief rotation of health with Malphite, Jarvan IV saw the writing on the wall and hoisted his standard to retreat backward.
His entire body moved at high speed toward the defense tower!
Unfortunately, the moment he took flight, the ground behind him split into a deep fissure, and a stone wheel emerged, rolling along the trench all the way forward.
The mid and jungle players' relationship wasn't great even before the match, but for the sake of the game, neither had brought it up.
Auto-attack!
Jarvan IV displaced himself under the tower, and the stone wheel closely followed, rolling right to his feet.
As his mouse swiped swiftly across the pad, Jayce maneuvered to find an opening, unleashing an accelerated E-Q shockblast that blew away a chunk of Yasuo's health bar—the latter having already expended his wind wall.
Stepping onto the acceleration gate to switch forms, his movement speed skyrocketed!
Charging forward, a barrage of abilities with no explanation directly deleted the unprepared Yasuo.
Then, he pursed his lips, light reflecting off his lenses in a sharp arc.
"Let me step up this game. His Malphite isn't strong; it was just pure luck."
(End of this chapter)