The sed game began. Yuel and Lars arrived in Bot, pying Aquamancer and Gunsliheir ne oppos were ancer and Pirate.

  The oute of this ning phasing will probably be decided by how much the enemy uimate Lars's Gunslinger. If they think Gunslinger is just one of the many csses which Lars py at a passable level, they’re in for a surprise.

  “He's good.” Howard had to admit while Lars. The Gunslinger scored one headshot after another on minions, which made each hit deliver critical damage due to Gunslinger's passive: Bullseye. Even without any AoE ne clears, Lars held the ne by simply nding one critical hit after another.

  “No,” Ellen shook her head. “He's not good. He's VERY good. Actually, TOO good, I'd say.”

  “Well, they supposedly grinded dder like crazy this summer, so it's not that strange Lars improved.”

  “Maybe, but I don't like it.” Ellen puffed her cheeks. ”Gunslinger is supposed to lose ne trol early on, but Larsy isn’t losing squat. Cheater.”

  “You o py mgressively if you want ne trol.”

  “But, that means riskiing headshot. No thanks”

  “Sorry to inform you, princess, but you 't have ne trol unless you actually take trol.”

  “What a pain.” Ellen pouted. “You think it's safe to e closer?”

  “Heck if I knew,” Howard shrugged. “Against Trickshooter, it'd be a clear O. But, I don't know what to tell you yet about his Gunslinger. He only built Lv.1 Samurai Tabi, so I suppose he could have ied the rest into Blink or Dark tract. So, he got some iing options, but we won't know unless we poke him.”

  “You askio go ahead and bee a guinea pig?”

  “You think of it that way, heh.”

  “You meanie! Hmph.” Ellen puffed her cheeks but her lips soon curved into a smirk. She wasn't any less ied than Howard. Poking Larsy to test the limit of his ability with Gunslinger will be fun, it’ll give her a good idea how much she could mess with him this game~

  “Oh!” Lars excimed. “She came closer. I go for it? I? Please?”

  “Hmm,” Yuel firmed the stats. Lars was at Lv3, with an Lv.1 bat Roll and an Lv.2 Fan the Hammer. Good, that's exactly the sario they wanted. “You should be good. Just don't fet to use the potion.”

  “Okay, here we gooooo!” Lars drank his Potion of Strength and rolled forward with bat Roll. It was simir to the regur dodge-roll, except this bad boy was faster and had better recovery properties. On top of that, it increased Lars’s crit damage for his shot and gave it a cripple effect.

  But, that’s not even the coolest part! By following up with Fan the Hammer, the crit buff and the cripple effect goend to all the quick shots Lars gonna fire during that sick skill! Stuff gonna go down, yo!

  Lars spun the hammer of his revolver and pulled the trigger. Owo! Three! The shots fired oer another like a maegun! Ellen was dead meat, yo!

  “M-My!” Ellen excimed. She slipped away with Backfire on as soon as Lars rolled forward... or, at least, that was the pn. Lars recovered from his roll way too fast and shot Ellen in the middle of the knockback from Backfire on.

  Bang. Headshot! The bullet crippled Ellen, which abruptly interrupted the knockbaent from Backfire on.

  Bang. Another headshot! Her HP fell below 50%.

  Bang. ANOTHER FLIPPING HEADSHOT! Three headshots in a row! It stunned Ellen in pce!

  You shitting me!? Ellen received astronomical damage and fell from 80% HP to below 20% in a matter of a single sed. What the actual bloody flipping hell!?

  Not a single shot missed its target. Lars nailed ead every headshot. He hit Ellen in the middle of the knockbaent, he hit her again right as she started moving a her a third time when she was already running away at full speed. Didn’t these shots have recoil which made them harder to nd in succession? And, these were all HEADSHOTS too! It reposterous!

  And now, Ellen was stunned ier eating three of these shots in a row. She was pletely powerless. Larsy, you bully!

  You’re done for, dude! Lars aimed the fourth shot. Another headshot gonhe deal. He gonna win against Ellen! Easy!

  Bang. The bullet flew right toward Ellen's head. That's it! It's a sealed deal- g. The bullet hit a wall.

  “Wha!? No way!” Lars excimed. An ice wall formed between him and Ellen. Not only it stopped the killing blow but it also prevented any follow-up shots. That Shield Dude, yo! It was sick defense and all, but nuuuuuuuu! Whaaaaaay!? Lars was so close!

  “I'll knock her up!” Yuel dashed toward the ice wall. He has been following the attack from the get-go, so he was close-by. There was elling what kind of defensive masterpiece Howard would pull off. As Yuel feared, Howard responded splendidly with that Ice Wall and almost stopped the assault. Almost.

  Lars's attack was like a swift spear thrust which got deflected by a shield before delivering the finishing blow. However, Yuel was going to grab that spear and thrust it once more! This time, it'll break through Howard's defense for sure!

  Yuel activated Geyser Eruption and targeted it behind the ice wall. He couldn't see Elle position, but he knew she has been stunned by Lars’s shots up until now. The cripple effect from the shots sted lohaun, so Ellen was still crippled at the moment and couldn’t roll away. Therefore, she had to be around the same pce she was before. Maybe Yuel didn't have Lars's amazing split-sed accuracy, but he still could accurately calcute the enemy’s position with enough data.

  Spsh! Water erupted oher side of the ice wall a Ellen flying high into the air! For a brief moment, she flew above the ice wall and became visible.

  “Whoa! Sick!” Lars excimed as he ut on the spot outta nowhere. Yuel literally notified of this py at the st moment, so Lars had like a millised to hit a target whily briefly popped her head over the wall. It's like a sudden whack-a-mole from two meters away and up in the sky! Crazy shenanigans!

  But, Lars has already pointed his revolver toward the sky as soon as Yuel dropped the news. Headshot or not headshot, he just gotta hit, yo! His aim was ready!

  As soon as Ellen's head appeared - Lars fired. He had no idea how quickly she was gonna fall down, so he had to fire instantly.

  Well, crap. It wasn't a head shot. There went his bo. He hree straight headshots but messed up the fourth. That sucks.

  But hey, at least he hit! Easy kill!

  You have killed an enemy!

  “Woohoo! Let's go!” Lars raised his left hand toward Yuel.

  “We're not supposed to do that during the game, you know.” Yuel sighed but he gave Lars a high five anyway.

  They did it. They actually did it! This time, they he whole offense from start to end. Howard interrupted them in the middle, but they pierced through his shield! They broke through the absolute defense!

  The special training regime for Lars paid off. Even though Lars's Gunslinger wasn't nearly as strong as his Trickshooter before, it became almost as deadly through special training throughout the week!

  “L.A.R.S.Y.” Ellen puffed her cheeks and aggressively waved her arms as if shaking Lars’s imaginary shoulders. “Gaaaah! I'm mad. I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooo mad! Did you just see that bullshit?”

  “Yeah, I saw it alright.” Howard nodded.

  “He hit me three times. Three!” Ellen shoved three fingers into Howard's face. “And all them were headshots. Ead every single one of them! Because it's not like that skill has a big recoil or anything. And it was three shots! Three!”

  “That was really something,” Howard knitted his brows. “Tai, didn't you say Lars's Gunslinger wasn't anything special?”

  “Yep.?”

  “Then, how would you call it when a Gunslinger nds three headshots in a row during Fan the Hammer?”

  “Aimbotting! Khaha... Wait, don't tell me that mofo...!”

  “Yeah, Lars just pulled that off and pretty vingly too.”

  “You gotta be shitting me! I missed some hel cool stuff.”

  “I take it you never saw him pull anything like that?”

  “Nope. I only ever saw highlight clips of pros pulling that cool stuff.”

  “I see,” Hot the firmation he his wasn’t normal. Taison pyed Lars more than anybody else here, so he knew Lars's level the best. This deadeye headshot accuracy was clearly beyond what Lars's current skill with Gunslinger was supposed to be.

  sidering how fident Lars seemed when he opehe attack, this wasn't a fluke. Lars even drank a Potion of Strength beforehand to boost his damage. That was likely an idea Yuel came up with because starting with Potion of Strength wasn't popur in the currea but it has been done before in some uation. This opening worked wonders funslinger because it provided a ft power boost, which the Gunslinger doubled with guaranteed crits when nding headshots.

  So, this clearly wasn’t a fluke. Yuel and Lars were fiden this py from start to end. Somehow, Lars leveled up like fifty levels as a Gunslinger in term of meical skill and there was only one expnation Howard could think of.

  “I think I get it,” Howard said. “Lars must’ve heavily focused on practig Gunslihis past week.”

  “Hmm,” Ellen cocked her head. “You think he could really improve so mu just a week?”

  “It sounds unreal, but it's Lars we're talking about. I’m not sure sg headshots is any harder hitting boung Trickshots. So, if he really focused on Gunslinger, and I mean REALLY focused on it, then it may be possible.”

  “Like, you mean he barely pyed any other csses at all?”

  “Yeah, he probably spammed Gunslinger every game. And, I assume he did some special head-shooting practice. The goal robably...”

  A strong sedary css. Yuel smiled proudly. They did it. They really did it! By fog almost exclusively on Gunslihis past week, they bumped Lars's skills almost to the same level of his Trickshooter.

  Most people probably had a huge misuanding about Lars’s skills. Indeed, he was a meical monster gifted with godlike coordination and superhumaion speed. These talents definitely tributed a lot to Lars’s amazing Trickshotoer skills, but they were only the baseline.

  Lars’s talents enabled him to py on that level, but they weren’t the only reason he performed so well. Everything was thanks to his daily training with Trickshooter. Every night, without fail, Lars practiced Trickshooter befoing to sleep, it became something of a habit. Lars even said he couldn't fall asleep if he missed his Trickshooter training that day.

  It was through this bination of talent and daily training that Lars asded to his supreme level with Trickshooter. So, Yuel capitalized on that successful training regime and asked Lars to incorporate another css into it. It just so happehat the sed css Lars loved the most was Gunslinger and it icked solely based on that factor. As long as it was a css Lars loved, he’d enjoy practig it eve night.

  Yuel also plemented Lars’s solo training with team practice by letting Lars py lots and lots of Gunslinger with everybody in Ranked. So, even though the training sted “less than a week”, Lars practically spent every day pying Gunslinger from m to evening. In term of total training hours, it rivaled a month of practice!

  Lars was still a little rough around the edges, but he pletely nailed down the headshots. It was the most important aspect of pying Gunslinger a apart an amateur from a pro. They had this game!

  This is bad. Hritted his teeth. That Gunsliunt pletely stole the momentum, Yuel, and Lars were on a rht now. If things tinue like this, this game will bee unrecoverable.

  Thankfully, the other nes were doing alright so far. Even though Ellen’s death set the team a little back, the others will make up for it. They'll turn this around, step by step. The real battle was only beginning!