Rise

red in reply.
They were seeing the same thing he was.
High School 13 had given the Twisted Fate, a mid lane Champion, to their Toplaner! And they’d given Wukong, a top lane Champion, to their Midlaner! Westwind clutched his microphone and shouted, “WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? Was it a mistake? IS IT? I KNOW! Let’s get a close up on that Midlaner and Toplaner! Get them on the big screen!”

The cameraman had the same idea as Westwind and was already in the process of doing that.
Every player had a camera on their computer that was pointed at their face.
The one for Lin Feng and Chen Ze were enlarged and broadcasted on the large screen.
Chen Ze looked a little nervous, but not anxious, while Lin Feng was carelessly laughing about something.
This wasn’t how a team who’d screwed up their Champion Select in the Finals of a big tournament would act.
Everyone knew that.

Silent Reed looked at the large screen, shaking her head, and said, “That’s just dirty.
I don’t know what they’re playing at here, but that’s just dirty.
They’re sending their Midlaner top and their Toplaner mid.
Let’s just ignore that and focus on the other lane.
Both Jinx and Tristana are strong meta picks.
They can really pop off in teamfights with their resets.
And Zeng Rui was allowed to choose his Thresh.
I think that is a mistake by High School 13, though their Morgana pick is a strong counter…” she rambled on, but no one was really listening to her.
The audience had their attention on the large screen, which still showed Chen Ze and Lin Feng.

✹

An Xin had come up with the plan of sending Lin Feng to the top lane and Chen Ze to the mid lane after spending some individual time with the members of High School 13’s team.
She’d learned that Chen Ze wasn’t just a good Toplaner, but also a good Midlaner.
It was this little piece of information that formed the basis of the strategy she came up with for this first game in the Finals.
She glanced over at Zeng Rui and found him staring back at her, glaring.
She giggled and then said to her team, “He looks mad.
Good.
Alright, the rest is up to you guys.
Win this one.”

Lin Feng struck his victory pose and said to An Xin, “Don’t worry! I’m really good at Wukong too!”

An Xin looked over and happened to catch a glimpse of Lin Feng’s screen.
She smiled her murder smile and said, “Are you going to play Wukong with those runes and masteries?”

“Eh?” Lin Feng turned back around to look at his screen and noticed An Xin was right.
With only three seconds until the game was starting, he switched around his rune page and masteries.
Then he laughed and said, “Woops! Almost forgot! That was close!” He was carefree, unworried about absolutely everything.
His teammates stared at him in shock.
One murder smile from An Xin was enough for them to never make the same mistake again.
But it didn’t seem to have that same effect on Lin Feng.
It was almost as if he enjoyed it when she looked at him like that.

An Xin ignored Lin Feng and turned her attention to Tang Bingyao.
“Tang Tang, you’ll have the hardest job of the team.
Try your best at bot! We trust you.”

“Mhm.” Tang Bingyao nodded.
She knew that Shanghai High School’s strongest lane was their bot lane.
Zeng Rui was a really good player and it was incredibly difficult to play against him.
She’d never played against a Challenger before, not that she knew of at least, and was both eager and terrified of this game.
Eager to tackle her biggest challenge yet.
And terrified to screw it up.

“It’s fine! Tang Tang will carry us!” Lin Feng laughed.
“She’ll win the lane easily!”

“Just make sure you win your own lane, you big idiot,” An Xin said, rolling her eyes.

Lin Feng patted his chest and said, “Consider it won!”

“Is that so?” An Xin asked.
Then she smiled her murder smile and said, “If you lose, I’ll have your ass.”

The rest of High School 13’s team felt shivers running up and down their spines.
There was nothing worse than getting looked at like that by An Xin.
They turned their heads away, pretending like they didn’t hear or see the conversation between Lin Feng and An Xin.
Anything was better than ending up in the middle of that.
But Lin Feng didn’t see it like that.
He grinned at An Xin, who murder-smiled back at him.
She walked off the stage, keeping eye contact, and set down next to Yang Fan and Ren Rou.
Then she noticed Lin Feng mouthing something to her.
She leaned forward, matching her mouth to his, until she mumbled, “I’ll crush this Irelia within five minutes.” She sighed. You big idiot…