Chapter Ninety: Hurry Over and Pincer Meng Tian

At this moment, all that was on his mind was: in my own jungle, my Retribution does more damage than yours.

And my teammates are coming to back me up any second now!

Masha, Star Seer, and Hellbreaker have already cut off your escape from the rear of the red side jungle, sealing you in. Even in the worst case, even if you, Iron General, do secure this red buff, so what?

Lin Hao watched as Free Emperor kept kiting backward while auto-attacking the red buff, and sneered. He locked onto Free Emperor’s position and slammed forward with his first skill!

Iron General launched a charge, knocking both man and buff skyward.

Immediately after, Lin Hao continued into the rest of Iron General’s combo, one-two-one-auto, and the instant the basic attack flew out, he cast Retribution!

Ding!

A flash of light bloomed, and a crimson ring of red buff energy appeared beneath Iron General’s feet.

Lin Hao sent the apology he had long prepared.

In a tense and thrilling counter-jungle battle like this, Iron General still needed to charge up for damage reduction, and taunting by recalling was not realistic. But Lin Hao could still irritate his opponent with quick chat.

Rage value from Free Emperor increased by 600!

At that moment, Free Emperor grew quietly anxious, but it was useless. He had been locked down the entire time by Iron General’s chain of control and could not move an inch.

After stealing the red buff, Lin Hao stayed in defensive stance and retreated from the red side jungle toward the opening into the midlane river.

Free Emperor trailed behind him step by step, using only his first skill and basic attacks to try and chip away at Lin Hao’s health.

But what drove him to despair was that Iron General kept a crab-like posture, facing him head-on while still in a charged state, backing away even as he charged.

Back away, yes, but more like retreating toward the opening in mid.

Move your damn asses and come collapse on Iron General already!

Free Emperor let out a helpless roar.

Masha finally arrived. Having rushed over from top lane, he saw the red buff beneath Iron General and immediately lost his temper. He popped his movement skill, and the level-two Masha transformed into a war god, charging straight at Lin Hao, with second skill into basic attack thrusting out at once!

It was one of Masha’s early burst windows; at level two, a normal side-laner caught by it would usually lose more than a third of their health.

But Iron General was, after all, Iron General. The moment Lin Hao saw Masha, he thrust out a spear first, then quickly adjusted the direction of his defensive stance. Timing the instant Masha lunged in, he began charging once more!

Bang!

That spear struck Iron General, yet it barely shaved off any health at all!

Masha kept running forward and circled behind Iron General.

He knew as well that Iron General’s tankiness came from the enormous damage reduction on his front.

The Star Seer on Lin Hao’s opposite side also moved in from the red jungle, unleashing his second-first combo!

Lin Hao hurriedly charged and dodged one of the Star Seer’s controls.

His own teammates arrived next to help break the fight. Jailor came over to restrict Masha’s movement, and Golden Cicada cast his ring of restraint with perfect precision onto Masha.

Lin Hao kept his defensive formation unchanged, slowly moving backward. Depending on the situation, he would charge and thrust until he had backed past the Star Seer, then switch back to normal stance and escape with first skill.

Masha was struck by a full sequence from Jailor and Golden Cicada, and with the damage already dealt by Iron General earlier, his health dropped straight to half. And with only a level-one Free Emperor on their side, bringing nothing of value to the fight, he could only abandon the chase helplessly.

“Free red buff, lovely!”

Before disappearing from the edge of the opponents’ vision, Lin Hao even sent another apology.

Come to think of it, in this context, “thank you” would have been even more sarcastic, but unfortunately Lin Hao’s quick chat only had apologies.

“This wave from Hao is so detailed!”

“When he was contesting the lane just now, he even chipped the tower’s HP a bit.”

“Within a sea of soldiers, he took the enemy’s red buff as easily as reaching into a bag.”

Lin Hao said, “Actually, no matter how Free Emperor opened, it couldn’t change the fact that I took his red buff.”

“Except for the junglers that clear buff really fast at level one, like Mirror and Prince of Wei, for everyone else, as long as they can’t finish buff before the forty-second mark, I can just steal it.”

“Because at level two, Iron General has multiple chained controls. As long as you stay on top of the enemy red buff and jungler, use one-two-one-auto, and cast Retribution in the middle as fast as possible, the enemy jungler is stuck inside your control chain. Even if they still have Retribution, they won’t be able to use it.”

Lin Hao suddenly felt a little regretful.

This opening could have become perfect clip material. Free Emperor on the other side had been driven half to death by rage.

What a pity—there was no streamer, no pro player on the enemy side, and thus no extra rage-value bonus.

The game went on, and with his red buff gone, Free Emperor could only obediently head to the blue side jungle.

Meanwhile, Han Shin on Lin Hao’s team was extremely sharp. Seeing Lin Hao’s Iron General make that play on top lane, he took the river crab and immediately headed into the enemy’s blue jungle.

He was really going to kick a man while he was down.

Another skirmish broke out, and once again they fought over the blue side jungle.

The final result was still dramatic: the Star Seer secured the blue buff, while Han Shin and Free Emperor traded one for one.

“The enemy jungler is finished,” Lin Hao said after clearing the wave again and taking the river crab. Glancing at the enemy blue side jungle, he added, “At Free Emperor’s level, the next red buff is mine too.”

Around two minutes and thirty seconds in, the second red buff spawned.

Golden Cicada in midlane was also dealing a tremendous amount of poke. By now, the enemy mid and support had both been whittled below half health and had returned to base one after another.

Once again, Lin Hao entered Free Emperor’s red jungle openly and brazenly, right in front of Masha.

The red buff had just respawned, and Lin Hao arrived at the perfect moment.

At this point, Free Emperor was still rushing over to the red side jungle. He was only level three.

Lin Hao, having taken one red-side rotation and then the whole lane, was in superb shape and had already reached level five.

Before Free Emperor could even arrive, Lin Hao took the red buff directly and, in the same motion, stole the three-boar camp as well.

Free Emperor was clearly unconvinced, and Masha nearby was also itching to act.

“Oh? What are you planning to do?”

Backed against the high wall behind the boar pit, Lin Hao instantly unleashed his ultimate!

Flying Formation!

At this position, he was surrounded by walls on three sides, and the remaining side was packed full of minions!

Iron General here was simply invincible!

Masha and Free Emperor were both rational men. Seeing this scene, even as two hot-blooded youths, they could only shake their heads and go back to farming economy.

Free Emperor still had to hurry to the blue side and clear a wave; who knew whether the enemy Han Shin would come over and counter-jungle. As for Masha, he shifted strategy and tried to pressure Lin Hao’s minion wave, forcing him back to lane.

And since Lin Hao had already used his ultimate, he naturally used the chance to start the first dragon.

After clearing the minion wave, Masha hurried over. Seeing Lin Hao taking the dragon, he immediately activated his ultimate, hoping to thrust in and steal it.

Just then, Golden Cicada and Jailor suddenly appeared from midlane. The two of them, almost simultaneously, flashed forward, closing the distance to Masha in an instant.

Golden Cicada threw out a ring of restraint to lock Masha down, while Jailor walked a few more steps forward, came right up to him, and seized him with his mechanical claws, pinning him in place.

Lin Hao took the opportunity to use Retribution and secure the Overlord, then pressed first skill to change direction and charged toward Masha, who was still trapped under the double control of the ring of restraint and the mechanical claws!

Masha could only watch in despair as Iron General’s squad’s spear drew closer and closer to him.

“With this, the early-game tempo is completely soaring.”