Chapter Ninety-Four: The Difference in Detail

For heroes who gain little or no real power spike from securing level two early, there is another approach: punish the enemy while they are fighting for the lane by whittling down their health.

If that pressure lands, then even if the enemy does claim the lane and reaches level two to learn a key skill, their reduced health makes it hard for them to find a solo kill. In most cases, they will have to wait for the one-minute health pickup to refresh and recover their sustain.

Of course, it still depends on whether the poke succeeds.

A classic example is that shadow mage whose standard opening is to harass the opponent contesting the lane.

But here, the undead general’s handling of the fine details was terribly poor.

First, he emerged from the edge of the brush, while Lin Hao’s first skill cleaved into the minion wave. Given their relative positions, he was already to the left.

So when the undead general approached Sun Ce, Lin Hao’s basic attack could strike both man and minions and still land on him.

For the undead general, that was a losing trade: not only did the enemy seize the lane, but his own health was also pushed down.

After trading one basic attack with Sun Ce, he tried to shift his position and go for a basic attack on Lin Hao.

But at that moment, Lin Hao’s footwork came into play. He turned in place by a hair, waiting out that brief post-attack delay, while also slipping his position away from the undead general once more.

With a tiny adjustment, Lin Hao had drifted behind him again. He then swung another basic attack, once more clipping both the undead general and the minion behind him.

The undead general’s second basic attack came out at the same time, but when he saw Sun Ce again striking both him and the minion, he immediately lost his composure.

Damn it, I’m repositioning again!

This time he moved toward a point a little ahead of the wave, closer to the frontline minions on both sides.

At that angle, if Sun Ce wanted to hit him, he would have to turn his body, and that would leave the two backline minions on the undead general’s side unattended.

Yet Lin Hao seemed to see straight through his intentions. He stepped forward slightly, then turned back and sent the ship anchor crashing into the undead general’s rear, once again striking both man and minions.

The undead general: “...”

What kind of footwork is this?

To reach this rank, the undead general was no novice either, and he could clearly feel the precision in Sun Ce’s movement.

Not the slightest wasted motion. It was as though they were dancing a waltz, every basic attack landing with effortless grace.

A prompt sounded in Lin Hao’s mind.

Rage from the undead general plus 300.

The undead general kept moving forward, but now he began to show signs of overcorrection, because the gap between him and Sun Ce had grown too large, and yet he still wanted to land a hit.

Lin Hao was utterly speechless.

This undead general was not merely a weak player; he was a proper mule of a man.

Had he not noticed that his two backline minions were already nearly dead, and that he was currently being focused by Lin Hao’s three minions?

Just then, the enhanced basic attack came off cooldown. Because the undead general had opened the distance with his movement, Lin Hao could no longer hit both man and minions together, but it hardly mattered. He tapped the last-hit button, instantly taking down the two backline minions and reaching level two.

He learned his second skill instantly, then unleashed Sun Ce’s three-hit combo of two basics, a skill, and two more basics.

The instant the undead general saw Sun Ce level up, he tried to retreat under the tower, but it was already too late. Sun Ce’s second skill had already applied its heavy slow to him.

If that was the case, then they would fight.

The undead general kept backing away while trading basic attacks with Sun Ce.

He believed that as a tank, he would not be so easily killed by Sun Ce, especially not within range of his own tower.

Unfortunately for him, the damage he dealt to Sun Ce was barely more than a scratch. Sun Ce’s ten stacks of armor were already fully built, and with no armor-piercing items at all, the undead general’s attacks were little more than drizzle. Sun Ce’s damage in the early game, on the other hand, was painful even when aimed at a tank.

By the time the two-skill plus basic-attack sequence ended, Lin Hao checked the undead general’s position. He had already retreated to the very edge of the tower’s range.

Lin Hao pulled back slightly, locked the first skill’s indicator onto the undead general, and released it.

Sun Ce leapt forward, and the ship anchor slammed heavily into the ground where the undead general stood. The next moment, white spray burst beneath his feet.

The undead general was taking the battle spell that smites monsters, and because he had also been slowed by Sun Ce’s second skill, Lin Hao still had his stun ready. Even so, the undead general was controlled and knocked into the air.

Lin Hao used the opening to land another enhanced basic attack.

Then, when the undead general hit the ground, he walked up and followed with the stun.

A perfect control chain.

Another basic attack.

The undead general was left with a sliver of health.

When he finally regained control, he hurriedly activated his recovery, and his health bar rose slightly.

With the slow gone, Lin Hao could only squeeze out one last basic attack.

The undead general’s health was nearly gone, but he was still alive.

Lin Hao had already been struck by the tower. If he pushed a little farther, he could land that final hit and trade his life for the undead general’s, but instead Lin Hao turned away with complete confidence.

At that moment, the ranged minions in the back line fired two arrows, both of which struck the undead general.

First Blood!

Lin Hao even followed up with a perfectly timed “Sorry.”

Rage from the undead general plus 600.

Being solo-killed while playing a tanky lane hero must have been humiliating.

Normally, a tank lane hero’s base stats are higher than those of a fighter lane hero, which means that in the early game, when neither side has much equipment or many skills, a straight basic-attack duel should always favor the tank.

“Is this undead general just a practice hero? He’s so bad.”

“Normal undead general. It’s just that Haozi’s footwork is insane. Didn’t you see how several of those attacks hit both the man and the minions at the same time?”

“I feel that too. At first, he probably just wanted to poke a bit.”

Lin Hao smiled faintly. “And not just that. When he kept moving forward, he also drew the minions’ aggro. My three minions were hitting him plenty while I was doing that two-basic combo.”

When the second wave arrived, Lin Hao returned under the tower to pick up a health pack, and the undead general came back to lane as well.

By then the undead general had also reached level two, but Lin Hao showed him no fear at all. The moment he appeared, Lin Hao dashed in with his first skill, cleared the wave, and used his second skill to strike both man and minions together.

Then, with the third wave, Lin Hao lay in wait in the inner brush on the lower lane, near the undead general’s tower. The moment the undead general returned to lane, Lin Hao leapt out with his first skill and landed another full combo.

This was the early-game undead general with no movement skill, no flash, and no answer to pressure.

If it had been another tanky lane hero, like Lian Po or Xiang Yu, they would have already charged in and turned the fight around. They would never have been so stifled as the undead general.

He could only be battered senseless by the combo.

The undead general’s health plunged. After the sequence ended, he fled back under the tower in panic, left with only a quarter of his life.

Lin Hao cleared the wave and reached level four.

Watching the minions slowly advance into the tower, Lin Hao suddenly unleashed his ultimate.

The undead general’s body visibly jolted.

He panicked.

He had placed his second skill in front of him, ready to counter. If Sun Ce charged him in a moment, then midway through Sun Ce’s combo, the second skill would interrupt it and drag him deeper under the tower. That should be enough to trade kills.

Yet Lin Hao, from a highly awkward angle right in front of the undead general’s eyes, drew a full one-hundred-and-eighty-degree arc and then drove off again!