Chapter Fifteen: The Greatest Joy Is Built Upon Another’s Suffering

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“Over here. V5’s movements look a little strange. It seems they still have their eyes on the Rift Herald.”

“Four against five? That’s a rather risky call.”

“The Herald has respawned, but LNG have noticed V5’s movements as well. What are they going to do?”

“Thresh and Akali are moving up to meet them.”

The commentators spoke at a breakneck pace.

On the Rift.

The members of LNG all frowned when they noticed V5 closing in. If Akali had her ultimate and Thresh had both Flash and his ultimate available, they would absolutely take the fight. The problem was, neither of them did.

“Hold them off for a moment. They’re probably just looking to harass us.”

“Harass us...?”

Ale glanced at the opposing Gwen, who was practically itching to fight. From the beginning of the game until now, this was the first time he had seen the enemy Gwen so aggressive.

Especially considering what she was carrying.

Apart from those two obnoxious armor-penetration items, she had also completed Leeching Leer, one of Riftmaker’s components. Its ability power was nothing special, but the extra health and omnivamp suited Gwen’s development curve perfectly.

Luo Ji was waiting.

In a four-versus-five team fight, they either had to quickly eliminate someone on the opposing side, or carefully control the extent of their aggression.

So, for LNG, what was the best moment to engage?

The answer was:

When the Rift Herald had around two thousand health remaining.

As the saying went, both sides were still rising teams. When it came to discipline and coordination, they could not possibly match the understanding of veteran rosters that had fought together for years.

Their own plan was simple enough: everyone had agreed to fight.

But LNG were in a different situation. Some of them felt they should take the battle, while others...

Had only one thing on their minds: that damn Herald.

Four thousand health...

Three thousand...

Two thousand five hundred...

From beginning to end, V5 kept hovering just outside the pit, applying pressure. Their constant feints—always looking as though they might engage without quite doing so—made the LNG players’ hearts race. At the same time, it gave them the inexplicable thrill of trying to steal something, even though what they were stealing was not a person. Their hearts were still pounding like mad.

Was this merely a feint... or were they really preparing to fight?

Doinb had no idea.

Normally, with his seniority and list of achievements, he was the person most qualified to unify the team’s strategy. This was exactly when he should have spoken up.

But he said nothing.

He merely kept a wary eye on V5’s advance while frantically throwing abilities at the Herald.

Until the Herald’s health dropped by another five hundred.

Here they came.

“I can hear the echo of Good Fortune.”

What struck first was not Karsa’s Trundle, but Gwen’s sudden combination of Ghost and R-W-E. Her blue figure flashed past like a streak of light. Her target was not Thresh, who would have been easier to hit, but Ale’s Akali, who was also stepping forward to apply pressure.

The advantage of the R-W-E combination was that Gwen could hug the edge of the circle and deal damage from outside while remaining difficult to punish.

Ale was stunned for a moment when Gwen engaged him. In the next instant, Gwen’s ultimate came down like a storm of pearly needles, forcing him to instinctively use E to dash backward.

But the moment he used that E, his expression visibly darkened.

He had been fooled.

From the very beginning, that R-W-E had not been intended to kill him. It had been meant to force out his escape.

With neither her ultimate nor E available, Akali’s threat to Caitlyn would be reduced even further.

Damn it!

Wasn’t a madman supposed to think only of himself?

You bastard.

How could you have nothing but other people on your mind!?

Realizing something was wrong, Greenhair hurried over to cover for Ale. With Gwen’s Hallowed Mist and Ghost still active, he chose the safer approach: get closer first, then use E to pull her around.

But then—

E: Pillar of Ice!

A sudden pillar of ice forced Thresh to pull back the foot he had just taken. And that was not all.

After drawing out Akali’s E, both Gwen—who had activated Ghost—and Trundle immediately crossed LNG’s frontline and charged toward the Herald pit.

Thresh still wanted to stop them.

Behind him, Lux’s Light Binding came hurtling in.

What was this?

Mechanized-infantry coordination!?

“They’re really going in?”

Tarzan gritted his teeth. The Herald’s health was already hovering around smite range, so he ignored V5’s dive and continued pouring damage into it.

He could afford to do that.

But Light and Doinb certainly could not.

Fortunately, their support was not entirely useless. Although he could not stop Gwen, he managed to lock down Karsa’s Trundle with Q for a moment.

That left them facing—

A cybernetic Invincible East wielding a storm of pearly needles.

Light instinctively turned his gun toward Gwen. The next moment, however, Gwen triggered the second phase of her W.

While Hallowed Mist was active, Gwen could not be targeted by Jinx.

The scissor strike and the second wave of needles came rushing in once more.

“It’s fine. Her damage isn’t that high. Focus her.”

After taking the full combination from Gwen and seeing that his health had fallen within an acceptable range, Doinb instantly regained his confidence.

That was the weakness of armor-penetration Gwen. With only Leeching Leer serving as her damage item, she could not do much to a tanky Ryze.

But—

“Her damage isn’t high!? Are you kidding me!?”

Light stared at the huge chunk of health that had inexplicably vanished from his bar. Countless curses raced through his mind.

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It was especially devastating when he realized that Doinb’s Ryze had landed an entire rotation of spells on Gwen, yet the health bar above her head had barely moved.

His fragile little heart instantly went cold.

In general, Gwen really was not particularly good at killing people with those items at this stage of the game.

But it mattered who she was hitting.

League of Legends had a fascinating rule.

A warrior top laner who was zero kills and five deaths might not be able to defeat a mid laner who was zero kills and zero deaths.

But in most situations, that same warrior top laner could still beat an AD carry who was eight kills and zero deaths.

Why?

Because the AD carry was squishy.

And this Gwen was not even behind. She was ahead.

No items?

No problem. Levels and base stats could make up the difference.

Luo Ji had originally planned to step forward and soak damage. After all, he was the senior top laner—the one supposed to shoulder the enemy’s fire and create a favorable environment for his teammates to deal damage.

But after using Q and R, he saw the health bar of the opposing Jinx visibly drop by a huge amount.

In that case...

Sorry, brother.

Up front, Gwen immediately drew the fire of LNG’s two carries. Behind her, Karsa finally broke free of Thresh and flashed into the fight, placing his ultimate directly on Xin Zhao’s head.

His eyes gleamed as he watched the Herald’s dwindling health.

Unlike the substitute XLB on V5’s roster, this year’s XLB might have had a dragon in his name, but losing dragons during dragon fights was practically routine for him.

Karsa was different.

You could say the old veteran’s reactions were slow, but his greatest strength was that his experience in every aspect of the game was exceptionally deep.

That naturally included smite battles.

And so, the instant the Herald’s health reached the critical threshold, the Smite he had prepared landed safely.

“There it is!”

“V5 have started the attack! Gwen’s combo forced Akali to use her abilities. Greenhair tried to come over and cover, but Trundle’s pillar interrupted him. Beautiful coordination between V5’s top laner and jungler!”

“What can LNG do? The Herald is nearly dead. Tarzan is choosing to continue, but Gwen has already gotten onto both carries!”

“Gwen! This build makes her incredibly tanky. Jinx has no damage, Ryze can’t deal enough either, and Karsa has flashed in to use his ultimate. The Herald is within smite range!”

“Who gets the Herald!?”

Outside the game.

The commentators, too excited to restrain themselves, had risen completely from their seats.

At that moment, every eye was fixed on the top of the screen. Everyone held their breath, waiting for the kill notification to appear.

Until—

The announcement of V5’s successful Smite flashed across the top of the screen.

Karsa had won the smite battle!

“Smite! Smite! Smite! Karsa has done it! Karsa has done it!”

“V5 have given LNG no chance at all! At the very front of the battle line, Gwen is tanking the damage from both LNG carries like a god of war. She has inherited the proud traditions of LPL top laners. Looper, Letme, and GimGoon have possessed him in this moment!”

“At this moment, he is not fighting alone! He is not alone!”

From the spectator’s perspective, everyone could see who the true hero of that exchange had been.

Once LNG’s burst proved insufficient to kill Gwen, her terrifying ability to divide the battlefield immediately became apparent.

Her first R-W-E combination drove Akali away and created a perfect damage window for Caitlyn and Lux. When she entered again, she personally tanked both of LNG’s carries and gave her jungler an ideal one-versus-one environment in which to contest the Herald.

She was like a dump truck that refused to run anyone over, charging recklessly through LNG’s formation in every direction.

And yet—

LNG’s scattered damage genuinely had no answer for the damn truck.

[Holy hell, what a dream!]

[Is this Gwen even human? She just charged straight into the middle of them, killed people, and came back out three times!]

[Don’t ask. The answer is that Gwen is unaffected.]

[Gwen: I only lose to your top laner. That doesn’t mean I can’t beat everyone else on your team. Completely normal play, all right? Completely normal.]

On the stage.

The players of LNG already looked utterly defeated.

If they had established their team-fighting plan from the start—focused Gwen down first, or committed immediately to taking the Herald and running afterward—this would never have happened.

But that was the problem.

They wanted to engage, they wanted the Herald, and they wanted everything at once.

It was exactly the kind of fantasy one would expect from people in their early twenties.

Anyone a little older already knew that having everything was impossible.

Because the body could not handle it.

“Feels so good! This feels damn amazing!”

“Insane, brothers!”

“That was so damn good!”

In V5’s team voice chat, Xiao Yan and PPGOD perfectly played the role of mediocre players reacting like an excited cheer squad after their more skilled teammates had pulled off an incredible play.

Though calling them mediocre was not quite fair. The main issue was that they had discovered their damage-dealing environment was almost absurdly comfortable.

Akali had no abilities. Thresh posed no threat. The jungler had eyes only for the Herald. And the opposing carries had been completely occupied by their own Gwen.

No one could threaten them in the team fight. They only had to hit whoever came close.

How could a four-versus-five team fight ever be this easy?

Faced with the praise from their bottom lane duo, both Karsa and Luo Ji looked remarkably calm.

As the saying went, true masters remained unruffled. The calmer they appeared, the more impressive they seemed.

Karsa, as a veteran player, understood this perfectly.

What he did not know was that V5’s rookie top laner was equally well versed in the art.

And so, when the camera turned toward V5’s players, what it showed was:

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Rookie: utterly “dog”-struck.

Xiao Yan and PPGOD: Big bro, six six six!

Karsa: Slightly dirty at the hem of his clothes, wearing sunglasses.

Luo Ji: A touch weathered, wearing sunglasses.

The sight made the commentators—and every viewer beyond the screen—burst out laughing.

And that was not even the funniest part.

Everyone knew that happiness built upon another person’s suffering was the sweetest kind of happiness.

For LNG, the Herald had been stolen and the team fight had collapsed. At the very least, they could make sure no one died. They could simply return for the next fight.

What?

You meant the support?

Could a support even count as a person? Wasn’t the support simply the necessary sacrifice in a team fight?

Akali successfully retreated. Tarzan, having lost the smite battle, flashed out of the pit. Doinb’s Ryze was tanky enough, and the moment he sensed something was wrong, he ran for his life.

Only Light remained.

With no mobility skill—and without building Galeforce—he could only watch helplessly as the savage Gwen, who had absorbed all of his and Doinb’s damage, chased after him and repeatedly tore him apart with her scissors.

Eventually, even Doinb fled. Then Light realized that the damage from his basic attacks was not even greater than the health Gwen restored with a single Q.

At that moment, his heart stopped completely.

V5 Mebius has slain LNG Light.

Light’s mentality shattered.

[LNG—finished.]

[I’m dying. Gwen played terrified throughout the entire laning phase, then suddenly realized in the team fight that she was everyone else’s father. This is too funny.]

[Jinx already has no damage, and Doinb’s Ryze built the same way. Xin Zhao completely ignored his own carries. Wasn’t this just handing Gwen a free dragon dance?]

[What Gwen? You saw wrong. Crowd-control immunity, true damage, and slows—this is actually Olaf in a dress.]

The Demacia Cup audience had been thoroughly stirred up by that team fight.

But behind the entertainment was the complete formation of V5’s Caitlyn composition. A fight that ended with zero deaths for V5 and two for LNG, combined with the second Herald, meant that LNG could no longer withstand V5’s frontal pressure.

Was that it?

No.

That was not yet the point that truly drove Light and Tarzan to despair.

The real despair came when they realized that, once the team fell behind and their room to farm had been squeezed away, the first person to seize the safest lane and take the available resources was none other than Doinb—the most accomplished player on the roster.

There was nothing wrong with giving resources to the team’s leader.

The problem was, big brother, you were building half tank!

Building tank items while ahead was perfectly reasonable.

But if you built tank items while behind as well, weren’t all those resources simply being wasted on you?

That was what they thought.

But no one on the team dared say it aloud to Doinb. After all, the items had already been purchased, and selling everything to rebuild for damage would only make matters worse.

By contrast, Luo Ji had recovered the farm he had lost in lane through team fights and shared team gold.

From that point onward, Gwen began her truly inhuman rampage.

For an ordinary Caitlyn composition, the team’s standard three-step plan was simple.

Every champion following Caitlyn and enjoying the good life alongside her would gleefully build damage items.

Except for Luo Ji’s Gwen.

After completing Riftmaker, his next item was Spirit Visage, upgraded from the Spectral Cowl he already possessed. That much was understandable. He already had the thirteen-hundred-gold component, so upgrading it was perfectly reasonable. Besides, it allowed him to complete the item quickly.

But the third item he built after Riftmaker and Spirit Visage left every Demacia Cup viewer sucking in a cold breath.

Anathema’s Chains.

At full stacks: damage taken from your Nemesis is reduced by up to thirty percent.

LNG had already struggled to damage Gwen. Once she began building this third item, they truly had no way to deal with the monster.

When her mist was active, enemies outside could not hit her, while those inside could not defeat her.

When the mist faded, the durability provided by Spirit Visage and Anathema’s Chains, combined with Riftmaker’s omnivamp, left LNG’s players just as desperate.

Was that it?

And that was before accounting for the fully fed Caitlyn and Lux, firing from extreme range in the backline.

As V5’s Caitlyn composition reached complete maturity, LNG lost one team fight after another. Their room to survive shrank again and again, and the balance of the game visibly began to tilt.

Until the final battle before the inhibitor.

Luo Ji, the team’s battlefield commissar, slammed a hand onto his keyboard and delivered one final rallying cry:

“Come on, brothers!”

“The Sun family rules the world, and the Sun family’s soldiers win the day. Achievement unlocked: 54320.”

“Our era has arrived!”

“Charge!”

Honestly, the few professionals on the roster had only experienced this kind of fiery passion back in their internet-café days.

To suddenly unleash it on the professional stage sent their adolescent blood surging through them once more.

Even Rookie and Karsa could not escape the atmosphere. Their crooked grins were more exaggerated than the Dragon King’s.

V5 transformed into a massive road-hauling truck. Under Luo Ji’s leadership, they began careening wildly into LNG’s base.

The entire road was crushed beneath their wheels.

One minute later.

As the Nexus exploded in the heart of LNG’s base—

V5.

Red defeats Blue.

They had created a miracle.

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