Initiating Berserk Mode

The third minion wave was about to arrive. This is where Luke had to put his Dark Knight to good use and justify this absurd pick.

Yuel had already laid out a detailed plan and Luke agreed to act upon it. The idea itself was solid and it had a decent chance of success in a vacuum. But, there was just one small concern.

[Will Cato see it coming?] Yuel wondered.

The enemy Jungler was the biggest obstacle to this plan. If Cato happens to position himself near Top when the play goes through, then he'll be able to respond in a timely fashion and thwart the gank in its entirety.

[But, it looks like there's no need to worry.] Yuel sighed in relief as one of his wards revealed Rook entering Bot Jungle. [Looks like you guessed the wrong jungle side, assuming you saw this gank coming in the first place.]

Part of the reason Yuel chose to target Top out of all the lanes was because of how unlikely that decision seemed. It was natural to assume that Cato was capable of predicting an incoming gank, but he still had to guess which lane Yuel will target.

A simple "risk vs. reward" analysis would make it clear that ganking Top was the "worst option" out of the three. Stratus already held the advantage in that lane, and ganking a Dragonborn was difficult to boot.

In other words, the team didn't stand to gain much from such a gank. Furthermore, there was a very likely chance they'll waste precious time and resources on it without even securing a kill.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, Top wasn't even an option to consider. And, that's exactly why Yuel picked it.

[No matter which lane we target, a successful gank is going to push us ahead by a lot.] He reasoned. [So, I might as well pick the option with the "smallest reward", but one that has the lowest chance of being actively countered.]

And, it seemed that mindset paid off. As expected, Cato analyzed the board state like the defensive player he was. He analyzed the "risk vs. reward" and deduced that only Mid and Bot were valid targets.

It seemed that Cato was rather indecisive when it came to picking between Mid and Bot, so he chose to hang out in the center of Bot Jungle. This way, he was ready to rotate to either lane on demand.

But, too bad for him. By focusing on Bot Jungle, the enemy was about to let Luke slip right past them!

"Their Jungler is eying Mid and Bot," Yuel shared with everybody. "Look out for ganks over there, just in case."

"Sure," Kai responded.

"No problem!" Lars grinned. "I trust ya to alert me if ya see any suspicious dudes around, haha."

"How about keeping watch as well..." Yuel made a face. "Anyway, Luke, it looks like your path is open. You won't have to worry about their Jungler, so gank Top once you're ready."

"Roger!" Luke had every intention of doing that either way. Even if Rook happened to roam around Top Jungle, Luke would've still proceeded with the gank because he needed that First Blood so desperately. A Dark Knight had to rampage during the early-game, or else it'd be nothing more than a Scrub Knight!

"Are you ready to party, Vince?"

"Yes, I was born ready," Vincent reported. "It is time to unleash all the Rage contained within my right arm and deliver death to our foes!"

"Eh, not sure what your 'right arm' got to do with this, but heck yeah! Let's gooooo!"

Luke slipped through the Jungle, hopefully undetected. The enemy's wards should have worn out in that area and there haven't been any signs of Theorist or Rook replenishing them so far, at least according to Vincent's intel.

This entire gank strongly relied on that small but crucial piece of information, so hopefully, it was accurate.

"How's it looking over there so far?" Luke asked.

"Hmm. There haven't been any disturbances in the force as far as I can tell," Vincent reported. "It appears our prey is unaware of your imminent arrival."

"Hehe, let's do dis then! This gonna be a hella clean gank, just watch! You can start scaring her now."

"Acknowledged." Vincent nodded. "So, it is time. Let the world tremble in front of the Berserker's unleashed fury!"

Unlike with previous waves, Vincent didn't unleash a fully charged-up Barbarian Slam on the enemy wave this time. Doing so cost a lot of Rage, which went against his plans of invoking the fearsome Berserk mode.

As such, Vincent settled on delivering a half-charged slam. Originally, he thought he'd simply deliver one basic attack on this wave and immediately go berserk, but Chessmaster advised against that reckless plan.

["You need to thin out the minions at least a little before you start,"] Yuel instructed as such. ["It's not mandatory to kill any of them, but at least make sure to slam them."]

So, being the obedient soldier he was, Vincent proceeded with the half-charged slam. Both the damage and AoE size were smaller compared to before, but the shockwave still reached all the minions.

[I hope the enemy did not notice the difference.] Vincent nervously glanced at Theorist, who has been monitoring him 24/7 without rest.

Fortunately, as soon as Vincent lifted his axes, Theorist rolled out of the area in order to not get caught up in the AoE. During the roll, she surely didn't have a clear view of Vincent's actions, so she shouldn't be able to spot any differences between a half-charged and a fully-charged Barbarian Slam by the time she turns around.

So surely, Theorist hasn't caught wind of Vincent's plans quite yet. At least, it didn't seem like she did...

[A half-charged slam, huh.] Sonya figured it out immediately. That slam came out way too quickly and it didn't deal as much damage as it should have. Furthermore, it didn't stun the minions, a detail that Sonya was just barely able to verify in time after recovering from the roll.

[Could it be a misclick?] Sonya entertained the thought for a moment before throwing the idea straight into the trash where it belonged. [Even if it really was a misclick, there's no way to verify that, therefore there's no reason to assume that it was. My opponents are fully-fledged competitive players, so I must analyze them accordingly.]

So, there was only one logical conclusion here: Blackhole was saving up Rage. But, what for? There was only one possible reason, really.

[He's finally coming after me.] Sonya concluded. But, for now, she pretended to not notice anything. It was too early to activate her escape options.

For now, it was best to simply continue monitoring her foe. Of course, her brain was already fully wired to make a break for it at the first sign of Berserk mode kicking in.

[I wonder, does this also imply that a gank is coming my way?] Sonya asked herself. [It's hard to tell for sure, seeing as my wards have just expired. Timing-wise it's optimal to renew them after this wave, but now I'm regretting that I haven't done it sooner.]

Against a hyper-aggressive team, it was probably wiser to renew the wards ahead of time instead of letting them expire. Even a single gank that slips through could easily be fatal, so it was best to err on the side of caution.

It was possible that an assassin was lurking around Top Jungle at this very moment, yet Sonya had absolutely no vision to either confirm or deny that claim. This was a little stressful.

[Hmm. Well, even if the DK does come after me, I should be able to get away.] Sonya reassured herself. [DK doesn't have any leap abilities, so he'll have to come at me from the backdoor. Cato's ward is still alive over there, so it'll alert me in time. Besides, a gank on Top is the least likely scenario. This isn't a matter of something vague like outguessing; this is pure probability.]

All in all, this was most likely Blackhole's solo operation. The guy decided to come after Sonya right before she gained access to her ult. It was a cocky, but overall sensible, course of action.

[It shouldn't be hard to get away once he goes berserk.] At least, that's what Sonya believed...

"You can start now," Luke said.

"Very well, it shall be done." Vincent let his strikes loose. He hacked, hacked, and hacked some more at the enemy minions, accumulating Rage with every hit.

74%. 78%. 82%. That's it, he passed the breaking point!

But, he had no intention to stop there. For the next couple of seconds, while the Berserker was in the twilight zone between sanity and enragement, Vincent was going to accumulate as much Rage as humanly possible!

86%. 90%. 92%. 96%. 100%. Goal! Vincent hit the upper limits of enragement! He went past the limit and was about to unleash Ragnarok on his foe!

"RAAAAAAA!" The Berserker roared across the entire lane as he continued swinging his axes at lightning speed. Faster, fiercer, stronger!

Crimson miasma erupted from his body. It was the manifestation of the chaos he plunged his mind into!

With such loud visual effects, it didn't take long for the enemy to catch up on the situation.

[Here it comes.] Sonya responded as soon as the roar resounded. As expected, the enemy was planning to gun for her.

[No signs of anybody else in the Jungle yet.] Sonya confirmed on the mini-map once again.

Cato's ward was still in place at the back and it didn't show anybody approaching Top. Likewise, Sonya didn't see anybody entering the lane from the central Jungle entrance either.

[It looks like I was overthinking it after all.] Sonya concluded. [So, there's no need to go the extra mile and maintain a safe distance from the wall. I can just run straight ahead.]

With that determination, Sonya turned around and made a break for it! She had to create as much distance as possible between herself and her pursuer.

Berserker gained a Movement Speed boost during Berserk mode, so Blackhole would catch up to Sonya in no time if she doesn't create an appropriate head start. In fact, this speedy predator will most certainly catch up to Sonya at some point regardless of what she does.

But, she was prepared to receive some damage. None of it will amount to anything anyway as long as she gets away alive.

[I was planning to recall after this wave anyway, so any amount of damage is fine with me as long as I don't die.]

Besides, based on rough calculations, this Berserker shouldn't be able to erase more than 40% of her HP with this assault.

Even though Berserk mode was very powerful, most of its damage came from the Berserker's innate ability to increase the speed of his normal attacks via repeated strikes. Therefore, so long as Sonya avoids getting caught up in a combo, the damage will be minimal.

With that in mind, she ran toward her tower, toward safety. And naturally, the Berserker had no intention of letting her slip away.

WHOOSH! The guy kicked off the ground and leapt after Sonya!

She couldn't see any of the action with her own eyes, but the sound effects told the entire story loud and clear. That was the activation sound of Berserker's Savage Leap, a skill that replaced his Dodge Roll during Berserk mode.

As the name implied, it was a loud leap. Therefore, even without checking behind her, Sonya knew for sure: the Berserker was about to crash into her from the sky!

If Blackhole only lands close to her, then Sonya will receive some damage from the AoE and nothing more. However, if the savage crashes directly on top of her, then he'll pin Sonya to the ground for a short time.

The CC won't last that long, but it'll give the Berserker time to start up his combo. It was the worst-case scenario, so Sonya had to avoid it at all costs.

Fortunately, her Dodge Roll has just come off cooldown. This was certainly the best time to make good use of it.

[I rather not take this damage.] Sonya expended her Dodge Roll, rolling away from the incoming meteor.

BAM! The Berserker crashed into the ground! But fortunately, he missed his target. Sonya's Dodge Roll was well spent here... or, was it?

[He missed by that much?] Sonya raised an eyebrow.

Rather than landing behind Sonya as she expected, Blackhole actually landed on her left side, even a little ahead of her. And, that's despite the fact she has just finished rolling forward.

[He wasn't aiming at me from the start.] Sonya concluded. [He probably expected me to roll or charge, so he didn't bother trying to hit me. Tch.]

In that sense, spending her Dodge Roll this early was a mistake. Sonya essentially threw away one of her two escape tools.

[But, it's couldn't be helped. I didn't have solid data to work with for that play.]

For Blackhole, it was only natural to expect Sonya to dodge given her reputation as a defensive player.

On the other hand, Blackhole was a balanced player. Sometimes he went hard on the offense and other times he turtled up on the defense. As such, it was much harder to predict when a player like him would choose to strike.

[Well, what's done is done. I just have to minimize incoming damage from here on out.]

Sonya shifted her direction just a little. Now, instead of heading straight to the tower, she turned sideways to the right and made her escape in a diagonal that was small enough to lead her back to the tower all the same.

Naturally, the enemy pursued her from her left side. If Sonya continued running forward in a straight line, then Blackhole would have gotten her into melee range in no time.

Despite how fearsome the Berserker was in his enraged stage, the only weapons available to him were his axes. In other words, he could only assault Sonya from a melee range.

Therefore, even though it meant extending the escape duration by a small amount, Sonya insisted to run in a diagonal direction. This drove her away from the assailant.

But unfortunately, the Berserker was fast. Very fast. It took him but a couple of seconds to catch up.

HACK! One axe lodged itself into Sonya's left shoulder. Then, the other axe followed up right away!

[So, it begins.] Sonya gulped. [One by one, these hits will become faster. And, since he's much faster than me, I can't outrun him even while he's busy attacking.]

HACK! HACKHACK! The swings kept coming, each faster than the previous.

Attacking while running should have slowed down Blackhole quite substantially, and it really did. But, the Movement Speed buff he received from Berserk made up for that loss. It allowed Blackhole to stick to Sonya's back like glue.

In short, it was practically impossible to create any distance between them.

[Alright, that's four hits from you.] Sonya counted. [That's enough for now.]

She had to put a stop to this combo posthaste. The longer it went on, the more damage Sonya will be forced to accumulate in a short period of time.

And so, she activated the last available escape tool in her arsenal: Draconic Rush. She charged away from the scene in a diagonal direction, immediately creating a large space between herself and her pursuer.

[Hmm. It seems my aim was a little off.] Sonya realized she wheeled that Draonic Rush a little too far to the right.

This was the result of pure instinct. Her opponent was on her left side this entire time, so it only made sense to escape to the right.

But, was this an efficient play? Absolutely not. It didn't get her much closer to the tower because of the diagonal direction.

[I suppose I'll be taking a little detour. In the worst case, I can escape straight into the jungle.]

Charging like this to the right brought Sonya closer to the jungle. This would have been a terrible misplay under other circumstances, but right now, it was relatively safe. After all, there weren't any gankers targeting her lane at the moment-

BLINK! It was a familiar sound that had no business playing right now. Certainly, it was the sound of somebody using the Blink utility skill.

But, who? Blackhole? No, it wasn't him. It didn't seem like the guy closed the distance to Sonya or anything like that.

The answer revealed itself in the next moment. A fog of darkness emerged in front of Sonya's eyes out of thin air, threatening to swallow her whole…!