Nia vs. Jin

With everybody's approval, Nia pressed on with her plans to gank Apprentece in Bot. It was scary, but it was something she had to do!

And so, she used Phantasm to summon her dear twin sister. This granted her invisibility, so was now ready to slay the monster!

[H-Here goes!] Nia braced herself as she braved through the jungle.

The more she thought about this situation, the more absurd it all felt. It was no exaggeration to say that Nia was on her way to fighting the biggest final boss she might ever face in her life. What's more, this scary guy had already wrecked her twice by now.

Nonetheless, there Nia was, creeping up to this god-tier scary dude. At this point, it was hard to tell what was actually scarier here: that Korean monster, or Nia's uncanny determination to take on this terrifying challenge.

[In short, everything is scary here. But, I'mma do this...!]

She entered the lane and pressed onward. With each step, her heart beat harder and harder. A part of her kept telling her that this was suicide, that she should retreat before she regretted this.

Nonetheless, her legs continued onward. Nia took multiple deep breaths to dispel all that anxiety as she forced herself to push forward.

[I'm almost there. Almost.] Nia crept ever closer to her target.

So far, there hadn't been any signs of the enemy noticing her presence. The Orc was pushing the Turret along with his minions, acting as if he owned the entire lane. This level of cockiness was par for the course with this guy.

[I REALLY wanna smack this guy...!] Nia grumped. She was itching to open her attack with Cursed Dagger for maximum damage, but she knew it might backfire. Against an opponent of this caliber, it was too risky to go for this unguaranteed combo.

[I'll just hit him with the ult. That should be enough. Yeah.]

Her target was almost within reach. The cocky guy still showed no signs of reacting to Nia's sneaky approach, which implied he didn't have a Vision Ward hidden around this time. As Nia speculated, the guy was totally absorbed in pushing the lane. He was barely paying any attention to his surroundings at all.

In fact, he was so determined to see this push through that he even cast his ult.

"Stand your ground, grunts! You're not permitted to die until I say so!" the Orc yelled at the minions, forcing them to stay on their feet no matter how much damage they take. Even if they were to drop to negative damage, the little guys will continue pushing!

[Isn't it a little late for that?] Nia wondered.[ This is something he should've cast right at the start, right? Back when his minions first entered the tower area.]

The timing was really weird. This wasn't the kind of misplay an Asian pro would make. But, it wasn't Nia's concern. The only thing she cared about was pushing this guy deep into the tower area and finishing him off!

[Here comes!] Nia got into position and unleashed Force of Rejection. Darkness erupted all around her, rejecting everything in sight! But, something went wrong.

"E-Eh!?" Nia jumped. [W-Why did he...!?]

Just as Nia unleashed her ult, the Orc rolled in her direction! And, since Nia made sure to approach the guy as closely as possible in order to maximize the ult's push-back effect, the guy ended up rolling past her!

"N-No!" Nia shrieked. Everything was going according to plan, but then in an instant, everything crumbled!

Well, maybe not everything. Force of Rejection still hit Apprentece and pushed him away. However, instead of pushing him deeper into the allied territory, it pushed the guy away toward the middle of the lane!

[Nuuuuuu!] Nia cried internally as the entire play crumbled in front of her very eyes. [B-But, I still hit him! I even stunned him! I can keep attacking...!]

Instead of crying over spilled milk, Nia shifted gears and fired a black bolt at the stunned enemy. WHISH! It was a clean hit. She nailed the shot right before the enemy regained his ability to move.

[Well, whatever.] Nia smiled wryly. [I mean, when was the last time any of my ganks went smoothly against this monster? Yeah, exactly. So, this much is to be expected.][I can't freeze because of a little surprise like this. I have to keep attacking!]

She loaded another black bolt into her crossbow and fired away! However, this time, her opponent was no longer stunned. So, how was the Korean monster going to respond!?

[Jen-jang!] Jin cursed internally at the entire development. His deduction was spot-on, yet he still got hit by the Drow's ult. This was such an embarrassing blunder. He surely lost lots of evaluation points because of this development.

[Tch, she also hit me while I was stunned.] Jin frowned. [The slowdown on her arrows is no joke at this stage of the game.]

Drow's passive, Marks of Decay, applied a Movement Speed debuff on hit. To make things worse, the impact of the effect scaled with the Drow's level.

At the start of the game, Marks of Decay inflicted a meager 10% slowdown. However, in the mid-game, the number was around 20%. Getting hit by one of these made it almost impossible to escape from the Drow by foot.

[If I try to run, I'll just keep getting hit.] Jin reasoned. [So, there's no point. Instead, I just have to kill her!]

Jin sidestepped the incoming bolt while thrusting his scourge at the Drow! Unfortunately, with his Movement Speed reduced, his sidestep was slow. As a result, he failed to dodge the predictable enemy shot.

Nonetheless, his opponent will suffer a far graver injury from this exchange. WHISH! The scourge stretched across the area and slashed the Drow! With just one hit, 20% of Vanishing's HP was gone.

[As I thought, her spacing isn't optimal.] Jin criticized. [She's either playing it safe, or she can't read distances well enough.]

Drow was a ranged class like all marksmen, but its attack range was a bit shorter than most. It was on par with Ranger's, which meant it was almost a mid-range attack. Nonetheless, Drow's crossbow still had a bit more reach than Orc's scourge.

[She has an advantage of about two steps to work with.] Jin thought. [But, she seems to be overextending needlessly. Typical amateurs.]

Vanishing must've been inexperienced or insecure. Or, perhaps both.

[S-Scary!] Nia gulped as she saw 20% of her HP disappear in an instant. Just like that, she fell from almost 100% to below 80%. That was a savage strike! Scary!

Nia went into this fight with more than 20% HP advantage, but after one exchange of blows, this advantage had already shrunk to 15%. All the attacks Nia launched at Apprentece this far, including her ult, only reduced the guy's health from 80% to 65%. What a stubborn monster!

[B-But, it's ok, right? I have the range advantage.] Nia tried to convince herself. [I mean, I know Drow's range isn't exactly the best, but it should still be better than that whip, right? Pretty sure it is.]

Admittedly, she wasn't 100% sure about the details. It's just that [logically] it made sense that a crossbow would have a better reach than some bribed whip. But in truth, Nia had never compared their attack ranges.

[Anyway, if he can still reach me from there, then maybe I can back off a little?] Nia took one step back before firing her next shot. [I can't step too far away. I need to keep applying the slow on him, or else he'll run away.]

Drow's passive applied a brutal slowdown but it only lasted for 2 seconds. Therefore, to keep her opponent detained, Nia had to keep reapplying the debuff.

[H-Here goes...!] Nia fired another bolt, praying that she did things properly this time. Surely, after she stepped back, she should be outside the opponent's counterattack range, right? Alas, she was wrong.

WHISH! The whip cracked once more and slashed right through her!

[W-Wha!?] Nia gasped. [Did he just step in really fast in between his attacks? I swear he was farther than this just a moment ago. Hax!]

The Orc jerked weirdly before his second attack. Instead of fully retracting his scourge, the whip just snapped back to him as he stepped forward.

[Is that the infamous KC?] Nia wondered. [But, I thought this thing is usually used for defense...?]

Her confusion was only natural. Every time KC was brought up today, it was accompanied by a complaint about "missing shots", mainly by Lars who had to face multiple KC-users today.

Normally, the whole point of canceling the recovery animation early was to sidestep an incoming attack. At least, that's how Nia understood the purpose of this technique.

[But, this is different.] Nia shuddered. [He used that hack to close the distance between us! It's offensive KC! Scary.]

She wasn't ready for this at all. With this KC hack, Apprentece could practically match the crossbow's attack range. In other words, it's as if Nia didn't have a range advantage at all!

To make things worse, bowmen started shooting her from behind. These pesky little fellows were under the effect of Orc's ult, so they refused to die even as Lars and the tower gunned them down.

[I-I'm in a pincer here! Scary!] Nia's flight instincts implored her to run away ASAP.

The entire gank devolved into a mess. Instead of making quick work of Apprentece, it was Nia who lost tons of HP. She was now below 60% and things were only going to get worse from here!