The fourth match between StormBlitz and the Leopards began. Yuel and Lars pyed in Bot as Padin and Trickshooter, fag off boBreaker's Pyromancer and SkyNight’s Lumimancer. More than anybody else, their performan ne will have a huge impa the rest of the game. No matter what, Yuel had to ehey were going to domi.

  Sihey reverted to their inal positions, I should rearrange my data. In the previous match, Yuel collected all sorts of data about the enemy's mixup formation. However, most of it was gathered in a haste and without enough validation, that’s how desperate he was to find something to tto in that dreadful match.

  It’s best to discard this information and recall everything he collected on the enemy from the first two matches. The one element which stayed exactly the same iwo matches was Breaker pying bo Pyromancer. Just like in his data, she pyed the early game safely but effectively. She remained out of Lars’s rahout being pushed back.

  “Geh, she's such a pain.” Lars ranted as Breaker slipped outside the range of his Trickshot again. “What is this? I remember her being more explosive and stuff.”

  “You could learn a lot from her,” Yuel said. “Her pystyle turns aggressive once she gets her bo pieces, but until then she pys good defense, unlike a certain somebody who only knows how to rely on aggression and meical skill.”

  “Yeah, yeah, that’s me. The one and only.” Lars made a face. How many times did he listen to Yuel critig his defehere’s probably not enough numbers iire world to represent that amount. It was like a bazillion billion million times, at least. “Welp, no matter how good she defend, it’s no use if I beat her anyway!”

  “It’ll be harder than you think,” Yuel said. It's already the third time he faced Breaker's early game in Bot, yet everuggled to find something to exploit. Same as her bos, her defense ractically perfect. In fact, her defense felt like a natural extension of the bo pystyle she mastered. It wasn't just about pying strong defense in the early game, it felt her she was stating: “That's how I py bo in the early game.”

  Was it really impossible to break through her? As a Trickshooter, Lars had the clear speed advantage over Breaker in the early game, thanks to Trickshot’s high base damage. However, the enemy ba out with Lumimancer’s ranged basic attacks, taking advantage of the fact Yuel’s Padin was melee. As a result, Lars mostly tested the wave clearing in 1v2 and Yuel barely had any safe ces to get close to the minions.

  Or rather, he could do so if he really wanted, but that involved huge risks. Breaker and Night weren’t the types to let that slide, they’d wipe him out in an instant. g first blood for no reason was the st thing the team needed right now. Therefore, Yuel pyed it safe.

  “Dude, why don'tcha body-block their shots s little more?” Lars asked. “I ’t push them back like this.”

  “This isn’t ranked,” Yuel retorted. “They know how to deal with a frontliner in the early game, so they’ll eat me alive.”

  “No spine!”

  “Whatever you say, I’m not taking the risk.” Yuel shook his head. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Bot was a very importahis match because of Lars’s inclusion, so Yuel couldn’t possibly risk itting a mistake which could cost the ne.

  And so, the early game remai standstill. Lars pouted, and of course, Yuel wasn’t satisfied with the situatioher. If possible, he wanted Lars to score at least one kill on Breaker before mid game, sirickshooter had the power advantage over Pyromancer right now.

  But, how were they going to achieve that? They both thirsted for Breaker’s blood, but no pn of attack came to mind- wha!?

  “Here I go, yo!” Lars slid forward, right toward Breaker and Night! That reckless goof...!

  “Wait! Turn back!” Yuel gave chase, but for some reason, he was too far away. When did Lars get all the way out there? They were normally much better synized than this, how did that happen!?

  At first gnce, Lars’s idea of closing the distah a Trickslide didn’t seem that terrible. Breaker was at 30% HP and got outcleared, so she was in the middle of retreating. Chasing her and firing from behind could lead to a kill, but that’s only against inexperienced and uncoordinated foes. Breaker and Night were her. They were going to turables on Lars!

  Ugh! How did it e to this!? That goof was way too excited about his debut and got carried away! Didn’t he uand his importance of this match? He was supposed to be the momentum geor for the team! If he were to cede first blood here, things would only go downhill from there. Morale would be hit across all nes and the team would fall apart.

  Wait, what am I thinking? Yuel stopped himself. None of these things mattered right now. Before anything else, he had to trate ouation at hand. Right now, at this very moment, Lars put himself in a bad spot. It already happehere’s no ging that. As Lars’s partner, Yuel had to pour everything into resg him from this predit.

  “Retreat!” Yuel repeated while dashing to the se. If Night was going for a blind, and Breaker was going to chase, and Lars fled, and then, and afterward and and and. A storm of thoughts and predis whirled inside Yuel’s mind. The situation was dire, but it wasn’t unrecoverable.

  Unfortunately, he didn’t have the luxury to calmly analyze all the best pys. As he predicted, Night made the first move. While Lars’s attention was locked on the fleeing Breaker, Night turned around and teleported in front of Lars in a fsh.

  “Crap!” Lars started turning his Trickshooter away, but it’s too te. The Lumimancer released a burst of blinding light, painting Lars's s in pure white.

  “Their Pyro is ing back for you!” Yuel informed. From this distance, providing info was all he could do to help. While Lars was blinded, Yuel was his “eyes”. “She’s ing from yht, probably going for a Fme Wave. Actually, just check my s!”

  “Oh! Sick idea!” Lars leaoward Yuel to check out the Padin's point of view. Yuel maintained a full view of the unfolding situation, so Lars could see everything clearly, even though he was supposed to be blinded. It felt a bit like cheating, but there was no rule against it and they had to avoid Lars’s death by any means.

  “I sure see ‘em.” Lars nodded. Actually, maybe he could even fight back like this! There was a differen distao at for between Yuel’s view and Lars's actual position, but if he could figure it-

  “Don’t even think about fighting back.” Yuel killed that thought before it was born.

  “Geh, okay. I’m out then! Cover me, dude!” Lars turned around and ran away... slowly, because Lumimancer’s Blinding Light also slowed its victims. Thanks to that, Night scored a couple of easy hits on the slooooowly fleeing target. Lars did his best to throw the enemy off by suddenly ging dires, but it wasn’t very effective with reduced movement speed.

  As a result, Lars dropped all the way to 40% HP. A single charged Fme Wave was going to finish him off and it’s ing soon, as Breaker was about to catch up to him. He was saving his roll to dodge that decisive strike.

  But, Breaker khat. Therefore, once Lars was within range, she just barraged him with basics attacks. o use her trump card yet.

  “Geh, why won’t she use it already!?” Lars grimaced. It’s brutal. He couldn’t dodge roll her basic attacks, because after he rolls - she'll unleash Fme Wave on him during roll recovery. His hands were tied. He had to keep saving the roll for her Fme Wave, which refused to e.

  Crap, I’m screwed! Lars uood there’s no way out. There’s no escape from this situation. The enemy pletely turhe tables on him with that Blinding Light. If he didn’t roll now, he’d be dead to basic attacks. If he did roll, he’s dead to Fme Wave. Then, how the heck was he supposed to get out!?

  There’s only one way. Even though Yuel said not to fight, that’s the only way! “Sorry dude, but-”

  “Don’t even think about it,” Yuel ordered while running toward Lars.

  “But-”

  “Keep running. You got this.”

  “Geh! Okay!” Lars plied. Even though every cell in his body screamed to turn bad fight, he instinctively followed Yuel’s orders. After pying together so much, he was certain: if Yuel saw an out from this desperate situation, then there gotta be one, yo!

  With that said, being barraged by two sources of basic attacks seriously hurt. His HP plummeted at an ie. 35%. 28%. 21%. 18%. 15%. 12%. Wait, was it just him or did the damage slow down at the end there? He didn't figure it from the dispyed pertages though, because the heck was a number even. He just got a rough feeling, based on how much was erased from his HP bar.

  That’s wheiced a violet aura stretg on the grouh him, a magical defense aura if he ever saw one. Was that Yuel’s doing? Actually, he mentioned something or another about building an item with a magical defense aura to ter the enemy position. Dude was legit genius, yo!

  With Yuel finally getting close to Lars, Breaker was now put on the spot. With Lars’s buffed magical defense, she and Night couldn’t finish him off in time with just magical basic attacks. So, she had to fire her Fme Wave before Lars got away.

  And, she also had to do so befetting in the range Yuel’s Justice Strike. In other words, she had to fire it right now. So, she did.

  “No ce, yo!” Lars reacted instantly. Even amidst this chaotic situation, he ly roll dodged the Fme Wave. That’s it! He finally got out! His blindness and sloere about to expire too. “Yeah! I’m finally... out?” Even though Lars and Yuel finally met on ne, Yuel didn't stop running toward the enemy.

  “Now! Shoot her!” Yuel summoned a holy bde above Breaker’s head, which came down crashing right on her. She was silenced and slowed, being the prey! The tables were turned!

  “What!? Now?!” Lars excimed. “You crazy bastard! Haha!” He sharply turned around and took aim. His HP was at 8%. He’d die from just a couple of hits. Yet, in this super mega tight situation, Yuel put him on the offense! Dude was nuts, haha!

  With Yuel guarding the front, Lars didn't have to worry about anything. He darted forward to get the slowed down Breaker back within firing rao finish this with a kill, he had to fire a super accurate Trickshot with at least one bounce. And, he had to do it as quickly as possible. Meaning, right after his blindness lifts up.

  On top of that, sidering the sudden shift from defeo offense, he didn’t have much time to take aim. Normally, it'd absurd to expeybody to nd a boung shot uhese circumstances. But, it's Lars. He should be able to pull it off.

  As soon as the whiteness started fading from his s, Lars’s aim was already locked on. He fired with speed and accuracy that’d put even an aimbot to shame.

  It was an amazing development. When Lars charged in alone, Yuel was sure everything was doomed. However, thanks to their persistender these harsh circumstances, something unbelievable happehey created an impossibly rare ce to score a kill on Breaker! During the early game! With this pinpoint Trickshot, Lars was going to-

  “Whaaaaaa?! You kidding me?!” Lars excimed. His shot was fast and accurate enough, no pints there. It was going to perfectly nd on Breaker... but she rolled. As if driven by instinct, she rolled forward right as the Trickshot was fired. As a result, even though Lars's bullet reached her location with pitch-perfect timing, the shot was a bit too high. She dodged Lars’s finishing blow by a hair’s breadth!

  “This girl is crazy, yo!” Lars’s grin was colored by a mixture of awe and disbelief. She’s even crazier than what he saw on s from the audiehis was sick!

  Good respohere. Well pyed. Yuel sighed. With that dodge, Breaker forced this 2v2 into a draw. With the looming danger of a gank, Lars couldn't pursue the enemy any further with just 8% HP. They tried pressuring Night instead, but he elegantly disengaged as well. It’s a draw, pin and simple.

  “Phew!” Jennifer exhaled all the air from her lungs. “Man, that shit was intense! Did you see what just happened? What’s with that Trickshooter!?”

  “Yes, I saw,” Albert nodded. “That retty hard shot to nd.”

  “‘Hard’? More like ‘impossible’! And I barely dodged that shit!” Jennifer dropped ba her chair. This st exged spent all the brain power she had in stock. She could really use a breather.

  Seriously, what’s the deal with that Trickshooter? She thought he was some nobody StormBlitz subbed in after their captain ragequit or something. And at first, it really looked that way.

  Like, that scrub charged in solo a few moments ago. He should have totally been dead meat, but he somehow wiggled his way out. And, then he almost turhe tables around with a crazy pro tier Trickshot.

  So, was he a scrub or s det pyer? Which was it!?

  As she thought ba her Trickshot dodge, her hands trembled. It was one hel clutch dodge, but it was a successful dodge heless. As soon as she heard the Trickshot’s sound effect, her fingers reacted on their own. Rolling against a Trickshot was one of the many lessons she beat into herself via endless practice.

  “Trickshot will sometimes e at you as the finisher.” One of Coach’s lectures. “Always remember: Trickshot ’t bounce downwards. So, if you roll at the right time, the bullet ’t hit you.”

  After hearing that advice, Jennifer added it to her “Stuff I Gotta Ace” list. She dragged Albert into practice mode and made him fire tless Trickshots at her. She rolled and rolled and rolled and rolled until the experience was beaten into her.

  Low HP? Trickshot ing at ya? Roll like your life depends on it! After practig it for hours and revising it every week, like with everything else ouff I Gotta Ace” list, her body reacted to this sario by instinct.

  Against that Trickshooter’s lightning speed snipe, even a split of a fra of a millised was fatal. If she were just a tiny bit slower - she’d be dead right now. Her methodical training exhibited great results!

  “Still ’t believe she dodged that,” Lars scratched his head. “I don’t get it. Was my shot too slow? Was my aim off?”

  “I don’t think it was either,” Yuel said. He was closely watg Breaker and Night’s movements the whole time, so he saw how everythi down. As soon as Lars fired the Trickshot - Breaker rolled. She didn't turn back to check whether the shot was ing at her and she didn’t try guessing the trajectory. She just rolled, as if that’s an instinct she was born with.

  “I have a feeling she practiced this sort of sario,” Yuel said. “Expect her turly roll against your Trickshot. Especially, any Trickshot you’re using as a finisher.”

  “Roger.” Lars smiled mischievously. “So? How did you like my aggressive py?”

  “You mean, the py in which you charged in solo like a suicidal terrorist?”

  “, dude! We almost got them!” Lars pouted. “Besides, where were you at anyway? I’ve been advang at them for a while now, but you stayed behind.”

  “Well, I was... thinking about things, I guess.” Yuel averted his eyes. The bme was rightfully pced. Out of all people iire world, he should have been the best at following up on Lars’s pys. They achieved an almost “telepathic” level of teamwork, the kind you’d only see at pro levels.

  Yet, Yuel failed to follow Lars’s py this time. Why? He khe answer. His mind was clouded by thoughts about the team’s morale, about his responsibilities as the netain and so on and so forth. All these thoughts about the rger picture shackled him, preventing him from perf his best during the small situations that occurred on ne. If he paid more attention to every little detail in the hey might have scored a kill iest py. Ugh.

  Lars had it good, he was so carefree about everything. That goof couldn’t for the life of him think about anything other than the fight in front of him. That’s how he could py so aggressively in this situation. Oher hand, Yuel was nervous and tried to avoid risks because it was an important match. If only he could also temporarily shut down his overheating brain...

  Between maintaining global map awareness, colleg as much data as possible on all enemies, wrestling with the pressure of being a captain and crafting strategies for the future - his brain couldn’t keep up. He wasn’t some quantum puter, he couldn’t handle tless parallel tasks.

  Through experience, he grew used to analyzing many different subjects at once, but he still had a limit. And, he just crossed it. The only solution was to narrow down his focus and trate only oruly important subjects.

  Easier said than done. He never dealt with this sort of problem. The first thing he definitely wao get rid off was the pressure on his shoulders, ing from his responsibility as the captain. But, how exactly could he erase something vague like pressure? If it were that easy, nobody would ever struggle with pressure in the first pce.

  The same applied to filtering out the endless stream of thoughts about the team’s morale and momentum. Even though his reason uood there’s no use thinking too hard about these things, the thoughts kept haunting him. When something positive happened, his brai “Yes! We may be able to gain momentum and raise team morale!”. When something bad happened, his brai “No! The team may fall apart because of this!”. Such extreme overreas were unlike him. The previous match must have shaken him really hard.

  No matter how much he wanted, he couldn’t turn his brain numb to these thoughts. He had to cut something else from his overflowing mind. The only optio were... redug map awareness and enemy analysis, perhaps? What if he pletely ighe upper half of the map for now and trated only on Bot and Bot Ju’s still early into the game, so full map awareness wasn’t that crucial yet. Still, giving up su important tactical tool wasn’t pretty, but Yuel had to do it. He had to lessen the burden on his brain at any cost.

  Therefore, he filtered out the upper half of the map, both from his sight and from his mind. He dedicated his everything to supp Lars in Bot and finding a way to gain the upper hand in the ne.

  Despite his criticism of Lars’s reckless py, it’s the first time today Breaker was about to be killed during the early game. The situation was one huge uncoordinated mess, but it’s the first time he saw Breaker tripping during the early game like that. In previous games, he poked and baited her in various ways, but she didn’t budge. That’s why he cluded nothing could be done about her solid early game defense.

  But, Lars proved him wrong. By making a hyper-aggressive and super risky py, Lars revealed cracks in Breaker’s defense. She clearly practiced a vast variety of standard 2v2 sarios, so it’s hard to fool her with standard baits and pressure tactics. But, what about an absurd sario that transded on sense? Like, Lars’s suicidal slide straight into the lion’s maw. A crazy py nobody would attempt on purpose, but it almost worked.

  Back when Yuel aired with Trever, they didn’t have any opportuo try that. Trever was an aggressive pyer, but he was more well-rouhan Lars and his fighting tactics were mostly orthodox meta pys. pared to that, Lars was like a gss on. His defense was barely better than that of a Bronze pyer, but his offense was Master tier. He was a beast who operated outside the boundaries of on sehe perfect ter for Breaker’s orthodox defense.

  Fortunately, the enemy didn’t have a ce to realize that yet. All they saw, was Lars making a fool out of himself by charging in alone like a reckless noob. They might be a bit wary of his accurate Trickshot, whiearly killed Breaker, but she dodged it in the end. So, her impression from that exge robably along the lines of “No problem, I deal with this rookie Trickshooter.”

  This was a ce. If they could recreate the circumstances from that risky py and this time coordiheir as - they were going to score a kill, maybe two. Breaker was the st enemy he wao take risks against since feeding her would spell disaster for the whole team. heless, it’s against risky pys that she had the highest ce of stumbling. Therefore, paradoxically, unventional high-risk aggression might actually be safer against her than orthodox aggressive tactics.

  “Let’s give it another shot,” Yuel said.

  “Hm?” Lars cocked his head.

  “You want to go aggressive on them, right?” Yuel smirked. “The’s do it. I’ll return to base to make some preparations. You stay on the o farm.”

  “Really? We gonna attack!?” Lars's eyes lit up. “I’m running low, though, Sure I shouldn't back?”

  “No need. Just make sure you don’t overextend and keep your eyes peeled fanks. Also, stay a little back while you farm. No matter how they bait you, don’t go on the offeil I return.”

  “Yeah, I know not to take dy from strangers, mom. Haha.”

  “Heh.” Yuel sighed with a smile. No matter what that goof said, there’s elling what he’d pull. Leaving him alone on the h such low HP was risky, but for Yuel's pn to work - Lars had to reach Lv.5 as soon as possible. While Breaker was busy traveling all the way from base to ne, Lars was going to farm some extra exp a ahead.

  As Yuel began recalling back to base, his pn was set in motion. Through the cracks he discovered in Breaker’s defense - he and Lars were going to strike her down!