FBPP C16

Chapter 16

Nasarun dove in. After swallowing an attack power potion, he stabbed at the enemy ADC the sub-tank was holding down. Nasarun’s auto-attacks, which slid forward smoothly, were distinguished by their heavy stagger. If he stabbed three times in succession, the last strike would forcibly knock the enemy down. Most players would knock the opponent down like that, then use a down skill, and when the target got up, continue attacking again. But Seo Ji-han hated that kind of roundabout nonsense.

If the stagger was that strong, why bother knocking them down at all? Soft ADCs early game could be finished with a down skill anyway, but tanks were different.

That’s why Ji-han deliberately landed two hits and then adjusted his aim to miss the third.

It was a move only possible because he had his mouse sensitivity set to razor-fine levels.

At that moment, perhaps because the sub-tank had flubbed their combo, the enemy main tank who had been lying on the ground stood up.

Upon standing, characters enter one second of invulnerability, ignoring all hit detection. That makes it the best timing to counterattack—and it was often when players got reversed on.

Anticipating the counter, Ji-han swung his aim 180 degrees and stabbed in the opposite direction. Instead of burning his evasion, he used an attack to slip out of the enemy main tank’s range. Then, exactly one second later, he spun his aim 180 degrees again and stabbed the main tank.

Three stacks.

Ji-han pressed Q, shoving the main tank toward the ADC, then cast R, spreading a curtain of blood. Within the circle, both characters—already bleeding from Nasarun’s blades—suffered accelerated bleeding.

JiniHaniJihani has slain an enemy.

Unable to withstand the bleed damage, the ADC collapsed. Ji-han stabbed the main tank again, pushing the stacks to five. A right-click to detonate them sent the tank’s health bar blazing red.

That was when an ominous mark popped up on the minimap. The missing enemy melee and sub-tank. They’d endured the long rotation from the left to dive Inegro. The timing was only possible if they had skipped contesting Radiere altogether.

They probably assumed AkashaPhilban was still glued to Ji-han, like always. But AkashaPhilban wasn’t like the Platinum scrubs they were used to. Even before Ji-han’s call, he was already in position behind Inegro.

Chaplin: Will you come to me in my dreams again tonight?

A player skilled enough to instantly read Ji-han’s ping.

JiniHaniJihani has slain an enemy.

Double Kill!

The stacked bleed damage shredded the main tank. Ji-han ignored the support that the main and sub-tank were hammering on.

As he closed in, faint violet vines came into view.

Chaplin’s ultimate: it bound the legs of all enemies in range for five seconds, then applied two seconds of skill-silence even after release. The flavor text was that enemies were trapped in his nightmares—some cringey otaku nonsense Ji-han couldn’t care less about.

Because the AoE circle always centered on Chaplin, it meant leaving the ADC behind to dive forward just to land it. The timing was awkward. Its Z-axis detection was garbage too, missing if enemies stood on even the slightest incline. Worst of all, it lacked super armor, so even a stray auto-attack would cancel it.

And yet, within Chaplin’s ultimate zone, both the enemy melee and sub-tank were beautifully bound. Inegro, perched on a crate, was swinging away, but with no skills left, was reduced to poking with auto-attacks.

“See? That’s why you don’t waste your ult there.”

Ji-han could picture it: they’d heard Inegro’s ult, thought it was their chance, and dove in gleefully—only to get trapped by Chaplin. And all they managed was shaving half the melee’s health. Meanwhile, the enemy sub-tank Catherine excelled at chaos. Once Chaplin’s ult ended, they would’ve turned the fight on its head. The ones on the death screen would’ve been Ji-han’s team.

Charging in with relentless autos, Ji-han targeted Catherine. The melee could be left to AkashaPhilban; Catherine was the nuisance who had to go.

Auto, Q, R, right-click. As the bleed stacks piled up, Ji-han unleashed his ultimate.

Nasarun: This is art… You’ll be the flower upon my canvas…

Nasarun thrust his hand into Catherine’s chest, motioning to rip out her heart. With five stacks, Catherine entered heavy bleed. The compounded damage, ticking every 0.2 seconds, was lethal even to tanks. Healing kits couldn’t keep up. Her HP plummeted.

330, 380, 330.

JiniHaniJihani has slain an enemy.

Triple Kill!

ChouxCreamLatte has slain an enemy.

With his cooldowns refreshed, Inegro finished off the melee. A clean teamfight victory.

Ding!

AkashaPhilban orders the attack on the enemy tower.

They had a four-man advantage. Leaving the enemy support to be slowly tickled to death by the tanks, the two carries and the other support began hammering the tower.

The whining came instantly:

[All] BlockParryDodge (Pierre): Please just kill me. Don’t leave me. Kill me and go. If you kill me, you get coins.

Not a chance. There was no reason to sync his death timer with the rest of his team. The later he died, the later he’d respawn. So they deliberately stalled, keeping the enemy ADC stuck in base.

By the time they’d demolished the two remaining outer towers and secured Radiere, the kill log finally appeared.

RiceAndNothingButRice has slain an enemy.
The Flames of Radiere bless the Red Team!

Only then did the enemy support show up on the respawn screen. With the attack buff secured, they pressed forward and chipped down the rear tower.

When its HP dropped to half, they backed off, and Ji-han cleared out every camp in the enemy jungle, pushing the lanes up as a bonus.

[Team] RiceAndNothingButRice (Gaien): Are you a Nasarun main? That aim earlier was art.
[Team] ChouxCreamLatte (Inegro): Chaplin-hyung was insane too… dropped ult right on Catherine’s face.
[Team] Class1Grade4 (Bark): Well done, friends. Let’s keep this up.

But things wouldn’t be that easy. Their opponents weren’t pushovers.

An ally has been slain.
An ally has been slain.

Catherine and Dennis proved why they’d been picked. The moment Radiere’s buff expired, Catherine forced an engage without hesitation. Swinging through terrain with her chains, she relentlessly dove Inegro. Dennis, juiced with a speed boost, tore him down. The sub-tank watching his flank got caught by Catherine’s chaos, and by the time he recovered, the enemy ADC had shredded him too. In seconds, two allies were gone.

Zenox had three lanes: left, mid, right. Until both ADC and melee reached full growth, tanks were forbidden from touching minions. ADCs and melees couldn’t share last hits either, and camping the same lane risked the enemy roaming and stealing resources. That’s why melee took one lane while ADC took the opposite.

Which meant when the ADC got caught, backup was always too far. And the enemy team exploited this, hunting Inegro mercilessly while avoiding Nasarun and Chaplin.

[Team] RiceAndNothingButRice (Gaien): We can’t handle Catherine. Zero counterplay.
[Team] Class1Grade4 (Bark): I’ll stick with melee till he maxes.
[Team] JiniHaniJihani (Nasarun): What? You trying to make it three on the scoreboard instead of two? Both of you need to play safe, not dive in to die.

Gaien plus Inegro couldn’t handle Catherine and Dennis. No amount of mechanics could change the matchup, and throwing another meat shield in the mix wouldn’t help.

Worse, the enemy’s backup was too fast. Clearly, it wasn’t just the duo on voice chat—the whole team was on comms, following shot-calls perfectly. With a high-tier ex-pro BJ leading them, even in Platinum, his authority was absolute.

Meanwhile, Ji-han—the perennial stress magnet—always had to persuade his randoms into listening. The contrast burned.

[Team] AkashaPhilban (Chaplin): Listen to yourself, lol. Gaien, swap with me.

Ji-han snorted. So much for behaving.

[Team] JiniHaniJihani (Nasarun): What, couldn’t go twenty minutes without itching for a fight?
[Team] AkashaPhilban (Chaplin): You chew rags with your hands, or with your mouth?
[Team] JiniHaniJihani (Nasarun): You got a hole in your skull, huh?
[Team] Class1Grade4 (Bark): ?? Friends??
[Team] AkashaPhilban (Chaplin): At least I can speak without curses. Unlike you, who can’t say a word otherwise.
[Team] JiniHaniJihani (Nasarun): Better that than some idiot who only knows how to pick fights.
[Team] RiceAndNothingButRice (Gaien): Holy shit. Thought you two were the dream duo. Turns out you’re the nightmare duo. Knock it off.
[Team] ChouxCreamLatte (Inegro): …What the hell am I watching.

Your team is under attack.

Swapping lanes with Gaien, AkashaPhilban moved toward Inegro. But the enemy melee had already looped through the side path. He dove Inegro, shredding him, and the moment he saw Chaplin approaching, slammed his ultimate down.

An ally has been slain.

Inegro died without even pressing his evasion. Barely twenty seconds after respawn.

[Team] AkashaPhilban (Chaplin): Don’t step in front of me. And never touch side paths without vision. They’re too fast—you’ll get caught instantly.
[Team] ChouxCreamLatte (Inegro): ㅠㅠ But… does Dennis’s right-click always have that short a windup?ㅠ Couldn’t even react.

Dennis’s right-click was his surfing skill—riding a water arc as a dash. He let out that disgusting moan every time. For a non-ultimate, the cast time was long, making it theoretically dodgeable. But with the right build, the cast could be shortened. In that case, by the time you thought of dodging, Dennis was already gripping your collar.

[Team] JiniHaniJihani (Nasarun): If he stacks attack speed and dumps it all, yeah, it’s possible.