I let the gank slide once.
The reason was simple.
Our team had concentrated power in the mid lane, but not a single person was covering it.
Of course, it would be unreasonable to ask our bot duo to suddenly come and intervene when they were fighting in the bottom lane. Still, I expected at least Frissel and Sejuani to show their faces while clearing jungle camps, but they didn't. That clearly meant they were preparing to intervene elsewhere.
And the only viable place was top lane.
There's a non-zero chance they might go bottom where trades were going well, but logically, a jungler who started hunting from the jungle camp near top lane wouldn't abandon everything to rush bottom.
Sure, it might be worth trying once if they were going for a lottery play. But if that happened, our bot duo could simply use Blink to retreat without hesitation.
Losing a spell early would definitely be a significant disadvantage, but Frissel and Sejuani, who wouldn't gain any gold advantage, would fall behind our jungler Poppy in terms of growth.
So my task was simple: give up on last-hitting minions completely and just stay back to soak experience.
Of course, Frissel and Sejuani might not come top lane at all. I might be shadow boxing alone and losing gold while they peacefully jungle.
But watching Gnar's movements gave me a pretty good estimate. Normally, Gnar would carefully maintain distance with me, trying to gain any advantage possible. Now he was wagging his tail and beckoning me to come closer.
He might think he's acting normally, of course. Maybe he believes we're just having a regular lane phase.
But human psychology doesn't work that way. If someone is completely unaware that help is coming, that's one thing. But once they know, their movements inevitably change, however slightly.
If my opponent had been someone who didn't watch the map and maintained the same attitude throughout, only reacting hastily when their jungler arrived, I would have suffered from the enemy jungle's intervention. There's a reason I got ganked so often in Silver and Gold tiers.
After holding my breath for about twenty seconds, Gnar's movements returned to normal, and we continued our stagnant lane phase.
I kept attempting trades, but Gnar minimized damage and backed off. When he was determined to maintain distance, he would throw his boomerang from far back just to farm minions.
Even after reaching level 6 and learning his ultimate, Gnar continued to avoid fights. I got so annoyed that I invested Blink to engage, but unfortunately, I was short by about two basic attacks' worth of damage, and he escaped with his own Blink.
After returning with new items and continuing the top lane phase, I noticed something unusual. The enemy jungler was spotted entering our jungle camp.
"Hey, Noel. This looks like a tower dive."
"Leonia is coming up too. There's no larva camp up there either. Looks like they're trying to force a kill on you. I can't come—too far away."
"I'm heading there, but... can you hold out?"
Of all times, this news came when my Counterattack was on cooldown. I quickly checked the minimap, but Frissel and Sejuani had already disappeared into the fog of war. The information about Leonia coming up meant that since she wasn't bottom, she must be mid or top.
Meanwhile, Gnar had transformed after building up rage. The minion wave was decently stacked, setting up for a dive.
If two tanky champions in perfect condition blocked my escape route and dove the tower ignoring its damage... the calculation was clear. There was no way to escape or survive.
In that case, I'd fight as best I could using the tower. Leonia was still level 5—her leveling had fallen behind due to roaming.
Without Blink, I needed to focus on fundamentals to create the maximum variables here.
I waited behind the tower, not just beside it, trying to minimize health loss until our minions arrived. Gnar, still in his enraged form with his massive body, leaped toward Jackson.
He knocked me back with his ultimate, and while Jackson was airborne and unable to move, Gnar stomped the ground, stunning Jackson with no chance to dodge.
Fortunately, thanks to my excellent positioning, Jackson wasn't pushed toward the tower, so I wouldn't be stunned for an extended period by hitting a wall.
With all my skills on cooldown, all I could do was use movement to avoid the combo that SKY's champions would attempt once the stun wore off. Fundamentals—focusing on what's simple yet most difficult.
As soon as the stun ended, I hit Gnar with a basic attack and an empowered weapon strike, slightly recovering my health. Reducing Gnar's health was a bonus.
At that moment, perhaps trying to catch me during my attack animation delay, Leonia extended her golden sword while using Blink from outside my vision.
But unless it had been a complete surprise from an unexpected angle, I could reflexively click my mouse to avoid the straightforward frontal sword thrust.
Jackson tilted his head slightly to avoid being impaled by the sword. Thanks to this, I only took Gnar's follow-up basic attack, and Jackson, who had been pulled slightly away from the tower, could walk back to position himself next to it. With my escape route blocked, I planned to hold this position.
Leonia, having already used her dash, seemed determined to make use of her drawn sword. She walked toward me, intending to stun me instead of targeting the slightly damaged Gnar.
Even with one skill on cooldown, she still had her shield bash stun and her damage reduction buff, so she probably thought it was worth trying.
But I was thinking the same thing. The lower-level Leonia couldn't tank the tower shots for long. This was manageable. They had no threatening gap closers—they had to walk up to me.
Unfortunately, Counterattack was still on cooldown, but when Leonia approached, my ultimate's cooldown had just finished. My left index finger lightly pressed the R key.
As Leonia struck me with her shield, Jackson swung his weapon around him. Immediately, colorful currents flowed around Jackson, reducing the damage he took.
Thanks to this, even without durability items, Jackson became tough enough to withstand attacks from the now-smaller Gnar whose rage had dissipated, even when he triggered the mark left by Leonia.
I pounded on Leonia alongside the tower. Unable to kill Jackson quickly, Leonia died first from the increasingly powerful tower shots, and just as Gnar's basic attack flew toward the dying Jackson to finish him off...
Jackson began spinning a lamppost above his head. Counterattack—the skill that dodges all basic attacks. It had been on cooldown until now, becoming available at this critical moment.
As the lamppost whirled around, Gnar seemed to sense something was wrong. He turned to retreat.
But the fully empowered tower was already firing at Gnar, and I used my saved Leap on him. Jackson rushed toward the fleeing Gnar, releasing his built-up rage in reverse.
As Counterattack ended, Gnar, who had allowed Jackson to approach, was stunned. Simultaneously, Jackson's ultimate-enhanced basic attack and empowered attack landed, followed by another basic attack with the animation canceled by his weapon enhancement skill.
In a final desperate move, Gnar threw his boomerang at Jackson, finally killing the already dying Jackson, but...
[SKY Odin has slain HLG Noel!]
[HLG Noel has slain SKY Odin and achieved a Double Kill!]
Thanks to another tower shot that fired while Gnar was stunned, the already weakened Gnar fell with a scream.
As a result, Frissel and Sejuani, who arrived at the top lane too late, turned back disappointedly without even getting assists, returning to their own tasks. My teammates each offered a comment on my narrow escape from disaster.
"Well done, Noel. Sejuani's coming down now. Poppy, can you head home from near mid after taking that?"
"That special training paid off!"
"Sis, how did you do that? Wasn't that a three-person dive?"
"Ah, that's what we call dive defense. Something an ADC like Kyunghwan could never do."
"Wow, Donggyu, that's so harsh."
Only then did I exhale the breath I'd been holding, followed by a wave of exhilaration.
Ah, this is why I play top lane. This is my purpose for joining this team.
In that moment of elation, I lifted my head slightly and rolled my eyes around, spotting Yeseul jumping up and down in the middle of the arena, cheering wildly. Despite wearing a blouse and formal skirt, she looked just like a cheerleader.
Feeling like I might burst into laughter at the sight, I quickly opened the shop window. I figured calculating gold would help clear that amusing image from my mind.