Starving Dark Knight

"Live report from Top Lane!" Vincent called out. "The enemy did not target me at all this round. I suspect it means he is on his guard against an incoming gank. Chessmaster, what are your thoughts on this?"

"It sounds reasonable," Yuel said. "He strikes me as the type to go on the offensive at every opportunity that presents itself. So, if he's skipping, it means he's being cautious of something. But of course, there's also the possibility that he's saving up Rage for the next wave and plans to go on the offensive there."

"Or, he might be saving up Rage to defend himself better in the next round! The possibilities are endless!" Vincent exclaimed. "On that matter, it should be noted that he went for a half-charged Barbarian Slam this round, most likely to not expend his Rage too much."

"I see. Luke, are you listening?"

"Hm? Eh, yeah, sure. Something about the Berserker possibly maybe kinda expecting my gank, right?"

"Yes." Yuel nodded. "He might be saving up Rage to go Berserk once you show up."

"Awesome." Luke rolled his eyes. "Hey Vince, can't you, like, reduce his Rage somehow? Say, hit him a bunch of times to trigger his Berserk early?"

"That is a most interesting idea for sure," Vincent said. "Alas, I'm afraid it's beyond my humble capabilities. Getting anywhere near that barbarian alone is as good as signing a death contract."

"Dang, that sucks." Luke shook his head. "So, I take it that I hafta assume like it's guaranteed the guy will turn Berserk when I get there, right?"

"Yes, that sounds like a good mentality to have."

"Dang, dude really be conditioning us hard with that shit, huh."

Ganking an enraged Berserker was always a dangerous endeavor. If not executed carefully, the Berserker might easily turn the tables on the attacker. Especially, this bruh Challenger sounded like a dangerous fellow who would gladly do just that.

In the last two games, Challenger didn't stand out much because he was locked away in the Support role. But this time, dude had the freedom to hit people to his heart's content. And, he already bonked Vincent to death right at game start. That shit was spooky alright.

[I dunno which one of the two came up with that gank idea, but it was hella aggressive.] Luke thought. [If it was Challenger's idea, then dude is one heck of a daredevil. There's no way I can just go to his lane and expect to smack him without a plan.]

"There's also the possibility of a counter gank to keep in mind," Yuel warned. "I'd like to remind you that in this formation, their Top and Jungler frequently cooperate."

"Yeah, the 'Absolute Duo', right?" Luke remembered that much. Or, rather, he had [no choice] but to remember it, considering how many sermons Yuel gave everybody on the topic.

Over the past month, Luke and everybody had to sit through so many lectures and watch so many video compilations. At this point, the Leopards' players almost felt like some superstars from a TV show.

Among the many clips, the "Absolute Duo" definitely left an impression. They were the "exception to the rule", just like Luke's memeing was.

Winner and Challenger were part of the Leopards, yet they pushed offense at any opportunity they got. So basically, from within the constraints of a heavily defense-oriented team, that duo rebelled against the status quo and pursued their own playstyle! It was beautiful!

[They're like the memers of the Leopards!] Luke grinned. [Heck yeah, gotta break all the conventions, man!]

That duo was sure wild. They slaughtered so many scrubs in the replays. Their team ended up with like 30 kills every time thanks to those two alone.

[Bruhs got no chill.] Luke nodded. [To be honest, I was even a little scared that we'll come here today and get mopped by these two. But hey, we're doing hella fine somehow. Heck, we've tied the score against these guys, the champions!]

It was truly a surreal situation. To think that Stratus, the darkest horse a region could ever have, was currently threatening to grab the lead against the undefeatable champions. That was some lit shit.

[And, I'm a part of this dark horse team. Heck, I'm even a big part of why we won the previous game!] Luke snickered. [Man, even I almost can't believe that my memes are working this well. But hey, that doesn't change the fact that I'm gonna use this as proof to tell people that memes DO work in competitive games. Haha, goteem!]

Of course, as usual, haters will say ["It was just one game"] or ["It was just a fluke"]. And as it stood, Luke couldn't deny such annoying claims just yet. After all, it was really just one game so far.

[So, I just hafta reproduce it again!] Luke grinned confidently for a moment but then came back to earth. [Seriously tho, I'm not doing so hot in this game so far…]

The game had already reached the fifth minion wave, yet Luke still hadn't achieved anything notable thus far. He even unlocked his ult already, but there hadn't been an opportunity to execute anybody thus far.

[These guys are tough nuts to crack.] Luke thought. [Mid and Bot feel literally ungankable right now. Even Yuel couldn't arrange a good gank opportunity for me.]

Luke had been traveling from corner to corner across the map. Not only to farm jungle camps but also to find opportunities to get them kills. As a Dark Knight, he had to get those ASAP.

Yuel also knew how important it was, so he provided Luke with some tips along the way and tried to arrange a good gank opportunity. Alas, none of this had led to a kill thus far.

[These dang dudes in Mid and Bot, they're playing way too safe! Lamers.]

Last game, Luke delivered one huge SURPRISE MOTHAFUCKA attack on Theorist in Top, which was the catalyst for his snowballing. But, it looked like the gal learned a hard lesson there, so she was playing hella safe in Mid.

Girl was sticking to the edge of her tower area like she was glued to it. And, it didn't help that she was playing Sage, a class that had pretty good dang range. This enabled her to stay away from danger and farm safely from her tower. Basically, she was super hard to gank.

[And, that Bot duo isn't any better.] Luke sighed.

Merlin and Rook also maintained a distance from Stratus's side of the lane. Though, in their case, they usually had a very good reason to do so. After all, they were dealing with Lars and his long-ass snipes. That Elf was conditioning them real hard.

So, at one point, Yuel came up with a nice trick. He made Lars recall, then asked Luke to stealthy rotate to the lane. It was one heck of a plan!

In this 2v1 lane situation without the Elf to oppress them, the enemies were supposed to be tempted into pushing harder than usual and overextending. That should've been the opportunity Luke needed to score some delicious kills!

[But, these guys are not biting.] Luke grumped. [No matter what bait we throw their way, they just don't care.]

And, then there was also the enemy Jungler who made life harder for Luke. That dude always showed up with the most annoying timing.

[Every dang time I try to counter-jungle, this dude pops outta nowhere. It's like he's stalking me!]

Most likely, the enemy went hard on warding the jungle in this game. This was all part of their sinister ploy to kill Luke's meme dream!

As long as the enemy knew exactly where Luke was at any given moment, then he suddenly stopped posing much of a threat. Whenever he was nearby, the enemy simply had to retreat, that's all. They were starving him to death here!

[Dang, I wish I had Nia's ability to sneak past wards.] Luke made a face. [I really think Yuel made a mistake back then, though. He should've let me fight their Jungler when I was trying to counter-jungle.]

Whenever AbsoluteWinner showed up to cockblock Luke's counter-jungling, Yuel always ordered an immediate retreat. Dude didn't even want to listen to anything Luke had to say on the matter. He was all like: ["Retreat unless you want us to lose."]

There was just no room for arguing there. Even when Luke tried to rope others into this discussion, they all sided with Yuel or acted neutral.

[Bruh brainwashed our entire team!] Luke exclaimed. [It's like I'm the only human left and the rest are zombies! Though, it's not like I don't understand where he's coming from.]

AbsoluteWinner was a dangerous guy, no question about that. After all, he was always the one who scored the most kills in the previous scrims when he played Jungler. He and Challenger were the wild kids of the Leopards.

What's more, they were strong. Like, really strong. Challenger was mostly a wild beast, but Winner was a cold-hearted killing machine. Dude played carefully and methodically, yet at the same time, he found opportunities to royally mess up his enemies. He was a bonna finna terminator.

[So yeah, it's gonna be rough to fight him 1v1, I get it.] Luke admitted. [But, I'm playing DK, man. That should give me enough leverage, right? I mean, I know I'm not on Lars's level when it comes to fights, but I can hold my own pretty well, too.]

Alas, he never got the opportunity to prove any of that. Yuel rejected the idea every time, claiming it was far too risky.

And, maybe dude was right. Maybe Luke's Dark Knight was getting too hungry and that clouded his reasoning. He was getting anxious about feeding the DK properly, so he was thinking only about that.

At this rate, Luke won't be able to reproduce the success of the previous game. Haters will say that the previous game was a fluke and that Luke will never be able to do this again.

Was there anything at all that he could do to prevent that…?