Chapter 29:
Rayn hovered over the assassin tab.
He'd never really played them seriously before. Too risky, too fast. But after watching a pro montage the night before — a hero blinking in, deleting the carry, and vanishing — he couldn't resist.
He locked in Rivena, a sleek dagger-wielding assassin known for high burst and low forgiveness.
> "Another assassin main wannabe," someone on his team typed.
"Hope you don't feed."
Rayn said nothing. Just pinged jungle and loaded in.
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From the start, everything felt faster. He wasn't reacting — he was predicting. His first gank at 2 minutes ended in a clean kill mid. At 4 minutes, he baited the enemy Fighter under turret and dashed out with 20 HP.
His heart raced. Fingers tense. Aether wasn't in this match — this was solo.
Every time he found the enemy marksman, it was the same: blink in, spin-dagger combo, and vanish.
By 10 minutes, he was 7/0/3.
But not everyone was impressed.
> "You're just kill-hunting," his Fighter typed.
"Help split push for once."
Rayn furrowed his brows. He had top gold and most map pressure — wasn't that enough?
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At 12 minutes, the enemy Mage typed:
> "Dude your Rivena is nuts. Respect."
Then another:
> "Add me after this? Want to scrim sometime."
Rayn didn't respond. But something inside smiled. Not pride — more like... confirmation. That he could hang at this pace.
Still, the game wasn't easy. They had no tank, and after a failed Lord fight, the enemy took mid turret and nearly equalized.
For once, Rayn pulled back.
He stopped chasing kills.
Started shadowing his Marksman, securing vision, waiting.
At the 18-minute mark, he caught the enemy carry mid-lane and triggered a 4v5 team fight.
Clean wipe.
Victory.
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As the end screen flashed, messages poured in.
> Teammate 1: "You actually played smart late. Nice."
Teammate 2: "Still think you tunnel vision sometimes but gg."
Enemy: "No cap, you carried that."
Rayn didn't save any of the chats. But he rewatched the replay — not for highlights.
For mistakes.
He noted every late rotation. Every time he could've used his blink to bait rather than chase. His notebook was filling again — with thoughts, not instructions.
---
He received a friend request.
RivenHunter_09
(The Mage who praised him.)
He accepted.
Still didn't say a word.
---
As he shut the game down, a voice message from Aether popped up:
> "You know our school is prob doing a mini Legends of Dawn 5v5 in a few weeks? Just rumor though."
Rayn didn't reply.
But he didn't delete the message either.
Just marked it unread, so he wouldn't forget.
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