However, Seven’s expression didn’t change in the slightest. Calmly, he picked an unexpectedly unpopular character, drawing gasps all around.
“Why that one?”
Seven had chosen a relic from the game’s early days—the High Paladin, once revered as a god-tier pick. In his prime, he boasted devastating burst magic damage, with each attack dishing out hundreds of thousands of damage points.
When the character was first released, he was immensely popular thanks to his refined voice, opulent attire, striking good looks, and overwhelming damage potential. But as updates rolled out and new characters with more complex mechanics entered the scene, the Paladin gradually fell out of favor.
These days, hardly anyone picked him in tournaments. He lacked mechanical versatility, and his damage output relied purely on high-skill maneuvers. As a mage with almost no defense, he was glass-thin—one well-placed enemy ultimate in a team fight could take him out instantly.
For longtime players, seeing the High Paladin again stirred up nostalgia. Newer players, though, were simply drawn to his flashy looks, whispering among themselves in confusion as they tried to figure out what his skills even did.
Amid the growing murmurs of disbelief, the entire WT squad remained eerily calm—each one reflecting Seven’s collected demeanor as they locked in their characters.
Sensing an opportunity, SY instantly counterpicked with a character that specialized in suppressing mid-laners, raising the difficulty level significantly.
“This is bad… Seven’s going to have a hell of a time scaling with that pick,” muttered Tao Ran.
Even Chi Zhan looked uneasy. In a team comp where the mid-laner served as the cornerstone of their strategy, failure to scale could mean the entire game plan would collapse. That meant the pressure on Seven was immense. One slip in his mechanics, or even a well-executed enemy gank, and things could go downhill fast.
But over the next thirty minutes, Seven showed everyone what it truly meant to be invincible—and unbearably lonely at the top.
From early-game ambush reversals and team fights at the enemy Buff zone, to skirmishes in bot lane and full-on brawls mid, the match was a whirlwind. Chi Zhan couldn’t recall a single game with this many clashes. Yet from start to finish, Seven’s character hovered dangerously low on health—but never once was he touched by the enemy’s true damage.
Only once did things look dire.
The enemy team ambushed him from the bush with a control-type Support—clearly aiming straight for him.
Seven had no teammates nearby. His ultimate was still on cooldown. All his smaller skills were spent. The enemy had clearly done their homework and seized the moment to strike.
“Oh no, this is it—he just got the Buff too!” someone cried out.
Even Chen Che kept glancing nervously at the minimap.
“Qi-ge, want me to rotate over and help?”
Qi Song replied coolly, “No need.”
The caster’s voice grew tense:
“Seven’s in serious danger! What will WT do now? Another fight just erupted bot lane—looks like SY planned this ambush ahead of time, locking WT in place and cutting off support. Can Seven survive?”
Seven’s cooldowns were crawling back up, but the enemy’s control skill was already flying toward him—undodgeable. He got bound.
The control would last three seconds. The enemy’s ultimate? Three and a half. They spammed their skills at him in desperation—not even trying to combo properly. They just wanted to shut down his scaling. Fast.
The enemy was a Warrior. Even basic skills could one-shot a squishy mage like the Paladin. And right now, Seven had zero ways to fight back.
His HP dropped like a rock.
This was the Paladin’s fatal flaw: he couldn’t survive burst. Even with a healer on standby, he’d probably still get deleted. And right now, no one was close enough to save him. Even if they were—it would be too late.
Was this it?
The audience fell silent. Stunned. It was unthinkable, yet the facts were clear. Even if Seven used a healing item now, it wouldn’t change the outcome.
Chi Zhan subconsciously held his breath.
…Was there still a chance?
That half-second stretched into eternity, like a taut, trembling wire. The only sound in the arena was the furious clatter of keyboards. Seven stared at his screen—not moving. He seemed to be thinking… or maybe he’d already given up. He made no attempt to act.
There was nothing he could do. Bound like that, any input was futile. His skills were all locked out, even basic attacks unusable.
Though his ultimate was just about ready, it was probably already too late.
But this was Seven.
How could he just die like this?
His HP was almost gone. The Paladin’s body glowed ominously red, signaling imminent death.
And then—everything changed.
The chains snapped off in an instant.
With a casual flick of his sword, the High Paladin’s blade shimmered with cold lightning. A streak of divine thunder cracked across the battlefield as he murmured:
“—Are you ready to face my judgment?”
SY’s two ambushers dropped instantly—dead before their ultimates could even go off. It was over.
The Paladin sheathed his sword slowly. His gloved hand withdrew in silence. His pure white cape billowed, untouched by wind. The five-star insignia on his shoulder gleamed coldly in the light. His face was streaked with blood, hair disheveled. Even his usual pristine formalwear was torn and soaked in red. All the refined restraint and elegance had been ravaged by battle.
Yet he still bowed to the two corpses before him with solemn grace.
“Farewell, gentlemen.”
The entire arena froze. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop—until someone finally broke the silence with a cry. But this time, it wasn’t panic—it was sheer disbelief at what they’d just witnessed.
It was over.
No one had ever imagined… this character could be used like that.
“What even happened just now? I didn’t get it!”
“Yeah! Wasn’t Seven’s ultimate still on cooldown? How did he one-shot them with just a basic attack?”
“I’ve suddenly fallen in love with the Paladin again, what do I do? He’s so elegant—even after a kill, he bows! And that battle-worn look? All bloody and glorious? It’s everything I live for!”
The entire stadium was in shock. Tao Ran, like many others, had already whipped out his phone to frantically Google.
“That was the Paladin’s passive—Judgment of Fate. When HP drops below 1%, casting the ultimate automatically triggers a damage rebound—doubling all incoming damage and sending it back. But there are two conditions: you can’t receive any healing after the last ultimate, and you can’t use any health items.”
Those two restrictions made the passive brutally hard to use. One, you had to go between ultimates without a single point of healing. Two, you had to ride the razor’s edge of HP—exactly 1%. For ordinary players, that was basically suicide. But for a pro?
It still held infinite potential.
