First Blood Against a Pro

The pick chosen by the current pro versus former pro matchup was the Wraith Knight. I already knew the general skill composition, but since the opponent was who he was, I needed to read through it meticulously once more.

The Wraith Knight had an excellent skill set with superb offensive and defensive balance. On top of that, most of the Wraith Knights I’d seen until now had failed at managing their armor stacks and handed over crucial openings, or messed up their distance control and died easily.

If he’s around my level, he’ll definitely be a tricky opponent.

A one-on-one against Bahamut, who seemed nearly perfect in those areas, was on an entirely different level from anything I’d faced before.

The Cult seemed to find the one-on-one between the Saintess and Bahamut quite entertaining. They typed rapidly, hyping up the chat atmosphere. Unfortunately, I was currently in the middle of a suffocating lane against Bahamut, so I could only reply to the chat a little late.

“Everyone in the Cult, please understand that it’s difficult for me to respond right away at the moment.”

The Cult seemed quite shocked by those words in a completely different sense.

Most of the Cult’s reactions were basically begging me to focus on the opponent in front of me. Since I genuinely wanted to fight him with everything I had, from the moment both sides hit level 3, I poured my entire concentration into his movements alone.

Then, exactly when I was last-hitting a minion, the Wraith Knight’s sword glowed blue and his figure vanished in an instant. By the time I blinked, he had already teleported in front of me and was swinging his sword.

The attack came in at a sharp angle and perfect timing, so I had to use my leap to dodge. But if I burned my leap now, it was basically guaranteed that I would hand over lane priority to the Wraith Knight who still had his mobility skill.

So what was the correct answer here?

Even in the brief moment I was thinking this, the tip of the Wraith Knight’s sword was flying toward my throat. I needed to decide quickly.

I used the Priest’s ultimate shield to first negate the incoming damage, then tried to slow the now mobility-less Wraith Knight.

However, the opponent also made a quick decision and used his leap to escape the sanctuary’s range. Because of that, my plan to deal extra damage and look for a counter-kill fell through.

After that, both sides continued trading blows and playing mind games while carefully managing resource consumption until they reached level 7. And in a prolonged fight between a Priest who excelled in sustain and a Wraith Knight who had the advantage in attack and defense, the one who smiled in the end was the Priest.

Eventually the impatient Wraith Knight began looking for a one-shot kill, waiting for his leap cooldown that was slowly coming back up. He seemed to be trying to bluff using his low health, deliberately acting as if he was losing the matchup even more than he actually was to lure the Priest out of turret range.

Normally, the correct play at this point—now that I knew he was looking for a kill angle—would be to stay close to my turret and play safely. But what if I gave him a slightly faster gap in distance, judging that his leap would be up soon in the upcoming fight?

Just from looking at that movement, it was highly likely he would think “perfect” and dump every single one of his skills.

The Wraith Knight who had taken the bait attacked while consuming all his armor stacks with his ultimate, Soul Rampage. He immediately recovered the consumed stacks with Ultra Regeneration, then used Cursed Strike to close the distance.

Even though I blocked a decent portion of it with Sanctuary, his sudden all-in combo still shredded a significant amount of my health. Of course, this was within the range I had calculated.

The mere fact that the Wraith Knight had failed to burst me down just now meant this bait had already succeeded halfway.

Right now the Wraith Knight’s leap had only a tiny bit of cooldown left, but it still wasn’t up. On top of that, he had just used all his skills and ultimate. Once he stepped into the Sanctuary, he had no way to avoid the Bible rush.

Moreover, from the perspective of a Wraith Knight who had spent all his armor, the Priest’s damage felt even stronger than expected. Even the movement speed he had gained was completely overpowered by the Sanctuary’s slow and the movement speed boost from the Priest’s Sacrifice.

As a result, the Saintess finally landed the last blow, securing a clean solo kill.

Just like the last comment from the Cult said, it did feel a bit easier than I had anticipated. Before the match started I had been thinking of the Bahamut from my first life, expecting to win by a hair’s breadth or possibly even lose, so this outcome left me even more puzzled.

Suddenly, one assumption I seemed to have overlooked until now came to mind.

“May I ask how old you are this year?”

“Ah… I see.”

So he wasn’t the seasoned veteran top laner I knew, but a young, hot-blooded rookie top laner. Only then did I understand why his playstyle had been so aggressive and full of spirit. At the same time, I recalled what Oh Seeun had said about how this world had only introduced a professional league this year.

Coming back to the present, seeing Bahamut speak so purely like that made me think that if I played my cards right, I could cook him just enough and expand the board even further.

“I heard the Spring Season just ended… Would you be interested in duo queuing with me?”

“If I win, we’ll pretend the ‘Priest below Wraith Knight’ chant never happened.”

Considering that the pro league had only just been established, the players who had finished their Spring Season were relatively free, and they still needed to climb the ranks again during this period. For someone his age—still pure and full of curiosity—this offer should be tempting enough to accept.

“Then I’ll send you a voice chat link. Please join through the link I send.”

With the successful duo queue with a pro, the chat window’s energy was fueled even further as expected. Before long, the viewer count had surpassed the 800 it had been at the beginning of the stream and reached the 1,500 range. It had nearly doubled.

“Ah. You’re here. Shall we get started then?”

“Yes. I’m ready.”

And so, the Grandmaster promotion match with a current pro began.