I just turned eighteen, and you want me to make a comeback?

Yuan Shen's Olaf knelt on one knee, his knuckles tracing the rune pattern on the handle of his battle axe.

This is his 17th time using this Nordic Berserker this season, and the 82% win rate makes the calluses on his palms radiate with confidence.

On the minimap in the upper left corner of the screen, Jayce's icon is slowly moving along the trajectory of the river crab, and Smeb's signature aggressive movement draws a provocative diagonal line in the field of vision.

"We need to let the line fall in this wave."

The jungler's notification came through the earphones, but Yuan Shen pressed his tongue against his back teeth, letting out a low laugh.

He knew Smeb's habits well—this Korean top laner always liked to use his cannon form to poke at level three, timing his push under the tower precisely when the enemy had no skills to counterattack. The battle axe twirled halfway in his palm, its cold gleam flashing across the bracers on his wrist, where faint marks from the electric blade burn he'd suffered during his last match against Kennen remained.

The sound of keyboard tapping was like war drums. The moment Olaf unleashed his Q skill, "Reverse Throw," the wolf phantom behind him let out a silent roar.

In the shriek of the battle axe slicing through the air, Yuan Shen could even see the cold glint reflected in Smeb's pupils—the Jayce who had predicted the movement had just stepped into the trajectory, and the sound of the battle axe piercing the shoulder, mixed with the splash of blood, stirred up a circle of pale golden slowing ripples in the canyon.

"Got it!" The commentators' exclamation was almost synchronized with the hum of the turret. Just as Jayce raised his hand for his basic attack in his cannon form, Olaf's sprint icon lit up, a crimson aura spreading from his feet to his battle axe, and the grass was pulverized under the berserker's trampling.

Smeb swiftly switched to hammer mode, only to see Olaf's second battle axe graz his nose as it landed, creating a spiderweb-like crack on the cobblestones.

"Watch out for his E skill!"

The coaching staff's warning penetrated the earpiece, but Yuan Shen's lips curled into a ruthless smile. At level three, Olaf possessed 538 attack power, and with the armor penetration from [Ragnarok], Jayce's thin shield was nothing more than a piece of candy wrapper in his eyes.

When the third tomahawk hit, a skill cooldown reduction notification popped up in the lower right corner of the screen. The 4.5-second cooldown reduction made Smeb's jaw ache – it meant that for the next ten seconds, every time he was hit by Q, he would face a death loop of tomahawk attacks.

Jayce's hammer form accelerated the trigger of his passive, and the moment the blue shield unfolded in front of his chest, Olaf's battle axe cleaved into his shoulder armor with a ripping sound.

The first shell from the turret grazed Olaf's scalp, but the berserker slammed his battle axe into the ground and used the momentum of his charge to knee Jayce in the abdomen.

This technique of timing the tower's attack interval is a skill that Yuan Shen honed through thousands of ranked matches in the Korean server.

Smeb's forehead was beaded with sweat as his left hand typed a continuous, rhythmic auto-attack on the keyboard, each of Jayce's hammer strikes creating shimmering golden light.

But when he saw that Olaf's health bar had only dropped by a third, his heart skipped a beat—only then did he remember that he had brought a reusable potion as his starting item, while the madman on the other side had brought a corruption potion, and the advantage in trading blows in a level 3 duel had been tilted from the very beginning.

"Hold on to Flash!"

The jungler's signal flashed three times on the map, but Smeb, looking at the speed boost circle under Olaf's feet, suddenly remembered being solo-killed by the same strategy in a scrim three days ago.

In the 0.3 seconds that his finger hesitated on the Flash button, the fourth axe had already pierced Jayce's shield. The moment the slow effect stacked to 40%, Olaf's Reckless Slash, with its Bloodrage effect, pierced through the air.

The turret's second shell finally hit, and Olaf's health bar was reduced to the danger line, but Yuan Shen's index finger was already on the R key.

The wolf spirit phantom suddenly expanded behind him, and the sniper laser in Jayce's cannon form grazed Olaf's side. The berserker took the damage and jumped up to slash, the shockwave from the falling axe blowing up the ice shards in the river.

Smeb finally used Flash, but the landing point was predicted - Yuan Shen's axe had already calculated his escape trajectory. The fifth hit not only slowed him down, but also reduced his cooldowns in a desperate way.

When Jayce tried to create distance by desperately returning to his hammer form, Olaf's dash and ultimate speed boost combined to create a double effect. His chained boots sparked as they splattered on the cobblestones, each step precisely landing in the center of Jayce's shadow.

"E skill is still active!"

The analyst in the live stream suddenly raised his voice. Smeb, as if grasping at a straw, watched as Jayce's [Thunderbolt] struck the ground with lightning, the shockwave creating a ring-shaped crack between the two.

But Olaf's battle axe was a fraction of a second faster. The instant the axe blade cleaved through the electricity, the Berserker's Bloodrage stacks jumped to five, and the true damage from his basic attacks rendered Jayce's magic resistance items useless.

The third shell from the turret came hurtling in, but Olaf suddenly turned to the side and took the hit with his shoulder.

Jayce's basic attack in cannon form was blocked by Olaf's "Iron Buddy" shield as soon as he launched it. The blood-red barrier shimmered eerily in the sunlight, as if mocking Jayce for making all his attacks futile.

When the sixth tomahawk shot hit, Smeb heard himself swallow hard.

Jayce's health had fallen below the kill threshold, while Olaf's Ragnarok effect continued to burn his armor.

He saw Yuan Shen's mouse pointer click twice on his own avatar, a "sorry" signal that was customary among professional players, but it seemed particularly glaring at this moment.

The final blow, the battle axe, fell with a piercing shriek as it tore through the air, and Jayce's scream was drowned out by the explosion of the turret. Yuan Shen stared at the "First Blood" message that popped up in the center of the screen, his fingers typing "GG" on the keyboard. The cheers of his teammates came through his headset, but they sounded exceptionally clear—clear enough to hear the scraping sound of the metal hook scraping against the microphone when Smeb took off his headset.

In the post-match replay, the commentators repeatedly paused at the moment Olaf threw his fifth tomahawk.

In slow motion, the trajectory of the spinning tomahawk almost overlapped with the light trail of Jayce's flash, and the chat was filled with exclamations of "That's real awareness." Yuan Shen stared at his trembling fingertips and suddenly remembered that afternoon when he first played Olaf and was scolded by his master for "just mindlessly charging in."

The night breeze of Summoner's Rift brushed against his cheeks, and he smelled the lingering rust on his battle axe—the scent of glory that belonged to a berserker.

Smeb rubbed his temples on the bench, the image of Olaf's bloodshot pupils still flashing before his eyes. He recalled the video footage he had studied before the match, where Yuan Shen's Olaf averaged 3.2 fewer wards per game than a typical top laner, but 1.7 more kills per game.

This data suddenly felt real at this moment—while everyone thought he was letting the line fall, that madman had already sharpened his tomahawk in the shadows, waiting to tear open the gap to victory in the bloodiest way.

As the smoke from the battle in the canyon gradually dissipated, Yuan Shen took out a wrist guard from his backpack and covered the old burn marks with the new ones.

The ban/pick screen for the next match had already popped up, but he knew that the battle just now had planted a shadow called "Olaf" in Smeb's heart. Like a required course for all top top laners—every man who can stand to the end in Summoner's Rift must learn to dance with fear, and he was the one who wielded the battle axe, etching fear into the marrow of his opponents.

I feel very regretful for my impulsive behavior just now.

If you don't act rashly and force the opponent to use Flash, simply back away; you absolutely won't die and will even gain a Flash advantage. In professional matches, Flash's impact on players is unmatched by any other Summoner Spell.
Moreover, Jayce is a champion primarily used for lane dominance and pushing lanes.

Once you lose your flash, it's impossible to push the line too much. Even if you have sufficient vision, you may still be ganked by the opponent's jungler.

Now, Smeb's Jayce has completely lost his effectiveness.

In the glow of the fountain on the blue side's high ground, Smeb's Jayce stared at his empty Summoner Spell bar.

The Flash icon in the upper left corner of the screen was dim and lifeless, just like his mood at this moment—the sudden Olaf raid three minutes ago not only took away his first blood, but also completely crushed the lane dominance that this hero relied on for survival.

Jayce's core tactical value lies in the seamless transition between long-range harassment in cannon form and burst pursuit in hammer form.

But when Flash enters its 300-second cooldown, this already low-mobility heavy warrior instantly becomes a sitting duck.

Smeb stared at the siege minion wave piled up in front of his own turret, his knuckles touching his chin as he fell into deep thought: the high experience and gold rewards from the siege minions were tempting, but pushing the lane meant being exposed to the enemy jungler's blind spot, and without Flash, he didn't even have the most basic means of escape.

"Control the line to the riverbed and grass."

The coaching staff's instructions came through his headset, but Smeb gritted his teeth. He knew that if the minion wave got under the tower, not only would he lose a lot of CS, but Olaf would also use his lane control to infinitely expand his level advantage.

Jayce's passive ability, [Electric Shock], only had a strong early game period of three minutes. Now that he's forced to stay under his tower, it means the entire laning phase has completely fallen into the enemy's hands.

The defensive towers fired their cannons, and the first wave of siege engine soldiers were slowly killed.

Smeb's Jayce deliberately stood three yards behind the tower, his eyes fixed on the river crab—where the control ward he had placed three minutes earlier stood, its green glow flickering in the twilight, yet unable to illuminate the unease in his heart. He recalled the analyst's pre-match warning: Yuan Shen's Olaf roamed for an average of 1.2 minutes more than the average top laner, a statistic that, in this moment of missing Flash, felt like a Damocles' sword hanging over his head.

In the fountain of the red team's base, Yuan Shen's Olaf twirled his battle axe, the blade still stained with Jayce's blood. The stopwatch in the lower right corner of the screen showed 17 seconds until he would log back in.

His gaze swept across the minimap, precisely calculating the trajectory of the minion wave: the siege minion wave would enter the enemy tower in 25 seconds. At this time, he would return to base to buy Tiamat, just in time to reach the lane when the wave entered the tower. He could then use [Reverse Throw] to clear the wave while keeping it within a 300-yard death zone in front of the tower.

"Mingkai, the river crab has spawned and is in our half of the map."

Yuan Shen typed on the keyboard, his tone confident. He knew that Jayce, having lost Flash, would inevitably choose to farm under the tower, and control of the Rift Scuttler's vision would be key to the next gank.

The jungler Xin Zhao's icon moved across the map, and the blue smite effect lit up in the river bush. This was a tactic they had practiced before the match—using Olaf's lane pressure to lure the enemy jungler to the top lane for support, and then using the vision difference to counter-gank.

But Yuan Shen didn't expect that the enemy jungler, Lee Sin, would choose a different route.

On the other side of Summoner's Rift, in the triangular bush of the bottom lane river, Pray's Ashe was holding her breath. Her index finger hovered over the ultimate button, her pupils reflecting the movement trajectories of the enemy duo.

The enemy support Thresh's lantern had just gone on cooldown, and this was the opportunity she had been waiting for.

"Watch out for the bushes."

The auxiliary warning sounded in the headset, but Pray's lips curled into a confident smile.

She recalled that historic moment from Season 6: in the semifinals between SKT and ROX, her Ashe fired a piercing arrow from the blind spot, precisely interrupting Duke's recall and giving the team a crucial advantage in the team fight.

The timer on the screen shows that the enemy Thresh's Flash has 12 seconds left on cooldown, which is enough time for her to initiate a textbook team fight.

The moment the arrow left the bowstring, the frost wolf phantom behind the ice let out a silent roar.

The golden trajectory of the ultimate skill pierced the twilight and exploded at the feet of the enemy ADC, Ezreal—the squishy hero who thought he was hiding behind the minion wave didn't even have time to react before being pinned to the spot by the sudden chain of control.

Pray's kiting rhythm was instantly maxed out, with critical strike effects exploding one after another on the enemy ADC, and the support's Ardent Censer glowing. The horn of the bottom lane team fight was sounded.

But at that moment, the blind monk leaped out of the crab pit in the river.

This jungler, who had failed to ambush the top lane in the early game, used his exceptional intuition to detect the subtle fluctuations when Ashe unleashed her ultimate in the bottom lane. The sound effect of the Heavenly Sonic Wave rang out from the tri-bush, and Lee Sin's figure kicked towards Ashe with the force of a blast. The Golden Bell Shield lit up the moment of contact, adding a touch of unpredictability to this sudden encounter.

The minion wave in the top lane entered the tower on time. Smeb's Jayce had just last-hit the third cannon minion when Olaf appeared at the corner of the river.

Yuan Shen's sprint icon lit up, its crimson glow mingling with the cold gleam of his battle axe. The image of him being solo-killed in a practice match three days prior suddenly flashed through his mind. His finger hovered over the teleport button, but then he heard the coaching staff's anxious shouts: "A team fight is happening in the bottom lane!"

On the minimap in the bottom right corner of the screen, the battle icon for the bottom lane is flashing wildly.

Pray's Ashe is trading blows with the enemy duo, Lee Sin's ultimate is about to be ready, and his own ADC's health has dropped below half.

Smeb gritted his teeth, his TP pointer landing on the control ward in the bottom lane river. But the instant he pressed it, he saw Olaf throw out his tomahawk—the parabola precisely calculated the landing point of his TP. The moment the slow effect exploded beneath his feet, Jayce's figure disappeared into the blue team's light.

Yuan Shen watched as Jayce's teleportation effect disappeared, a cold smile creeping onto his lips.

He knew that this TP support meant Smeb had completely abandoned the top lane turret—when Jayce landed in the bottom lane, the red team's cannon minion wave had just chipped away at the turret's first health bar. Mingkai's Xin Zhao leaped out of the river bush, securing the river crab with Smite, a hint of worry flashing in his eyes: the team fight in the bottom lane probably wouldn't end so easily. (End of Chapter)