Thanks to Julia’s double kill, the score was eveo 2-2. Although Cssmancers wasn’t a ball game and the kill t old the eory, in this case, the score was a fairly accurate representation of the game’s state. Each side scored two kills and their positions were eveher side held a notable advantage as they were approag the mid-game.

  That’s why I don’t like the early game. Howard sighed. The team gained an early game advantage by sg kills on Yuel and Roi, but that achievement was quickly overwritten by Julia’s double kill. All that effort was essentially wasted. In fact, killing Roi only led to losing two team members in exge. The payoff was terrible.

  “I gotta admit, Julia retty impressive,” Howard turo Ellen. “So, that’s the ‘full strength’ you’ve been talking about?”

  “Y-Yeah,” Ellen shifted her eyes away with a dumb smile. Her expression was somethiween happiness and awkwardness. On one hand, Ellen was happy that Julia finally came out of her shell and dispyed her full strength in a real game. But, oher hand...

  “You said you were worried about Julia because you told her something over the break?”

  “Haha...”

  “I have a distinct impression there’s nothing worry about,” Howard frowned. “Rather, it’s WE who should start w.”

  “N-Nah, we’re fine,” Ellen forced a smile.

  They both khat Julia’s sudden ge of gears couldn’t have happened haphazardly. The girl has been struggling to draw out her aggressive side throughout the entire year, so something must have triggered this ge. And, that “something” was...

  “I really wonder what it was,” Ellen smiled like a dummy. “Maybe Yuel actually had a pep talk with her?”

  “Yeah, a you’ll suggest the zombie apocalypse is tomorrow. A very believable theory.”

  “W-Well, it’s not my fault,” Ellen pouted. “I didn’t mean ter her like that.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure you didn’t mean to. You’re just a natural-born terrible person, so you did it subsciously.”

  “Rude,” Ellen twisted her lips. “So, what we gonna do?”

  “This sure plicates things,” Howard frowned. Lars’s aggressive strength was already causing more than enough trouble to Howard, to the point Howard had e up with the whole “Lars Killer” tactic as a ter. If Julia also starts pying like a berserker with high-level aggressiveness, things will get rough.

  Acc to Ellen, Julia had “two forms”. The first form was the one everybody was familiar with: the overly defensive Julia. The other form was the exact opposite: an overly aggressive pystyle. The sudden switch between them was like ice transf into magma; it was mind-boggling.

  The “defensive Julia” was cautious and had great map awareness, so it was nigh impossible to gank her. However, she was too cautious, to the point she missed many great opportuo kill her oppos.

  The “aggressive Julia” was the exact opposite. She struck at every opportunity she got while throwing caution out of the window. As a result, her defense suffered and it was easy to trap her. At least, it should’ve been easy...

  Back when Julia arrived in Top Lane, Howard has already realized something was amiss. He didn’t want to believe it, but there was no other expnation: a wild Aggressive Julia appeared! He had a feeling things will go south from there, so he ordered Taison to gank Top.

  As, Howard wasn’t fast enough. While he was busy analyzing that irregur situation and figuring out what calls to make, Julia destroyed Gilbert in that 1v1. Gilbert must have been as shocked as Howard by this development, probably even more. So, Julia totally ripped him apart in that 1v1.

  I should have ordered a retreat right away. Howard shook his head. There was no doubt that Gilbert underperformed in that 1v1, but Howard shared some of the responsibility too. Howard khat Gilbert wasn’t strong in 1v1 and he also had intel about Julia.

  Ellen often droo Howard about Julia’s “amazing potential”, so he was very familiar with the topic. However, Gilbert didn’t know the first thing about this and surely didn’t anticipate that level of py from Julia. Not inf the team about this was a huge blunder on Howard’s end. All this time, he was sure Ellen has been exaggerating just because she was thinking of Julia as her little sister.

  Alright, that’s enough. Switch gears. Howard closed his eyes, too a deep and slow breath, then slowly opened his eyes again. Learning from mistakes was a good practice, but hanging on them was the worst thing a pyer could do. He had to move on with the program.

  What’s done was done. Instead of losing his mind over Julia’s aggressiveness, he had to figure a way to deal with her. If that double kill wasn’t a oime performahere was no choice but to cssify Julia as a high-level threat on par with Lars.

  Fortunately, the “Lars Killer” tactic would probably wainst her as well. The idea was simple: Lure Julia somewhere => Make her fight Taison 1v1 => Profit. However, that’d be difficult to pull off sistently. The team only had one expert at luring oppos, so they’ll be spreading too thin if they go after both Julia and Lars at once.

  I didn’t prepare for this. Howard sighed. I should’ve taken Elly’s words more seriously.

  No matter from what angle Howard tackled this problem, he couldn’t e up with any quick solutions here. The team hasn’t practiced any tactics for dealing with two oppressive threats in one game. Unless some inspiration strikes him, Howard could only keep going with the usual game pn.

  “We’re entering the mid-game,” Howard announced. “This game, our formation will be Type-2. Everybody remembers, right?”

  “What was that again?” Taison asked. “Something about going full aggro and kig everybody’s ass?”

  “Not quite,” Howard retorted. Seriously, that guy had the memory of a flea. In the first pce, this team hasn’t practiced any aggressive tactics. Taison was drunk.

  “Alright, I’ll go over it briefly,” Howard sighed. “Type-2 is the other defensive formation we practiced. It’s the same as a usual defensive formation, except we also try to create situations that’ll let us kill a major threat from the eeam. In this case, I’m talking about Lars’s Seraph. We ’t allow that thing to reach the te-game.”

  “So, as I said,” Taison grinned. “We gonna go full aggro, yo!”

  “Yes, yes,” Howard rolled his eyes. “One more thing, be careful about Julia. As you may have already noticed, she’s a little different this game. And by ‘little’, I mean she’s like a pletely different person. Don’t t oaying on the defensive anymore. She WILL e to attad she WILL defeat you if you’re not careful.” He threw a g Gilbert as he was saying this.

  “Just lemme at her!” Taison made noise. “I’ll kick her ass.”

  “So, we’re all clear on that?” Howard tinued as if nothing happened. “Don’t engage Julia alone unless you have a big advantage over her. And, a general reminder: don't wander around alohis will only make it easier for Yuel te an ambush on you.”

  Once everybody firmed they were on the same page, Howard spoke directly to Gilbert. “I’m sure you already realized, but you were too greedy in that fight.”

  “I was sure I had her,” Gilbert said. “So, it looked like a free kill.”

  “Did you really have to take on her despite the HP disadvantage? You should've secured an escape route first, then fight. But, instead, you chose to go all in and had no way out ohings became hairy.”

  “I just misgauged her skill,” Gilbert said. “I didn’t expect her to fight this well because she usually only turtles.”

  “Yes, that’s definitely a part of it. But, don’t deny the other part: you took the fight to her, that’s not like you. You’d normally be more aware of the situation. Did you really o unload your e on her right away?”

  “I was just trying to finish it quickly...” Gilbert’s voice went down. He probably began realizing his mistakes while trying to make excuses.

  Gilbert was clearly out of his element this game and it all started from the unusual request to py Pyromancer. It wasn’t like Gilbert was a terrible Pyromancer, it was just that Pyromancer didn’t py to Gilbert's strengths. He beed more from banced csses which could py both offense and defense; an aggressive burst mage didn’t suit him. Maybe Howard should’ve tried harder to vince Gilbert against that pick.

  Anyway, Gilbert must have realized by now that he rushed that fight, so that was good enough for a review right now. There was o poke him any further while the game was still in session.

  “Just rex and py your usual game,” Howard said. “I did say I’ll be testing you against Julia this match, but it’s not like her ces were ever that high in the first pce. I just said it to give you a little spark of motivation, that’s all. I see it’s doing more harm than good at this point, so I better e .”

  “I see. It was one of your usual mind games, huh,” Gilbert smiled wryly. Yeah, he totally fell for that one. As much as Gilbert hated to admit it, he was too hung up on proving himself superior to Julia. It has been throwing him off his game the entire day.

  Julia was just some rookie, so there was nothing filbert to fear. As long as he pys his usual game and helps the team win, he’ll get his spot on the first string. Therefore, he should only foaking optimal pys in any given situation. There was o chase any sedary goals which had nothing to do with winning the game.

  Though, given Julia’s ret performance... No, he had to stop with that line of thinking. , brain. Stop thinking about useless stuff and focus on the game. We have to win here.

  The game transitioned into mid-game. Pyers began leaving their nes and roaming around. Skirmishes broke out here and there, but her side won any major battles. Both sides aloked each other and then disengaged.

  So, it’s this tactic again. Yuel cluded after the enemy’s formation for a while. Yet again, everybody on the eeam traveled in duos and trios. This made them incredibly difficult to isote and ambush. No matter how hard Yuel searched, he couldn’t find any good openings in the enemy’s movements.

  Last game, this tight defensive formation made Yuel panic a little. He did everything in his power to find a weako strike because he couldn’t allow the game t into the te-game.

  However, this game was different. His team’s position was geared toward the mid/te game and they had Seraph, a te-game monster. Even though Yuel still preferred to win as quickly as possible, there was no reason to be hasty.

  “Dude, this mid-game is stale as heck,” Lars pouted. “’t we just rush them?”

  “There’s no need,“ Yuel said. “They’ll have to e to us eventually uhey’re fih letting Seraph reach te game. Just keep doing what you’re doing and we’ll be fine.”

  “Meh, so me,” Lars pined but he kept pying as ordered. But, seriously though, where was all the a at? Lemme at somebody, yo!

  It should be about time. Ellen smiled meaningfully. Larsy must be getting bored with this situatiht about now so I’ll liven things up for him~

  “Oh!” Lars excimed. “Athena is alone in Bot! I’mma snipe her!”

  “It’s bait,” Yuel said. The enemy’s game pn revolved around traveling in groups, so there was no way Ellen would just happen to be alone all the way out there. This had to be a trap.

  “Don’t worry,” Lars insisted. “I’ll just check it out real quick. If things get rough, I’ll get outta there.”

  “Wait, this is-”

  “Here I e!” Lars grinned as he dashed toward Bot Lane.

  I have a bad feeling about this, but... Yuel frowned. It was risky, but it was also a rare opportunity. Bait or not, this was a ce to strike an isoted target, who happeo be the enemy Carry. If they vert this into a kill, they’ll get mueeded freedom to push Bot without being stalled.

  Assuming it’s a bait, where will Ellen go? And, where will she try to set up an ambush? Yuel thought ba all of Ellen’s baits today. The baits were always well-crafted and executed to perfe, but they were all orchestrated by the same pyer. Therefore, there had to be a pattern to them which Yuel could predict.

  Ellen’s escapes always led into the jungle and this time will no exception. There were multiple reasons to flee through the jungle. First, there were many twists and turns, so it was harder to chase anybody ihe jungle. Sed, Ellen had Devourer’s Mask, which allowed her to quickly restore herself from killing jungle camp bosses.

  With all of that in mind, what would be Ellen’s most likely escape route this time? Assuming she wao reach a jungle camp to restore her HP after getting away, her escape route will have to lead toward a camp that was currently alive.

  Unfortunately, Yuel didn’t have suformation at hand because nobody warded the enemy’s jungle camps. Julia warded the jungle a lot around Mid and Yuel warded around Bot, but they focused on warding passages rather than camps. Therefore, the enemy camps were pitch-b the map.

  Taison got the red buff, so ogres are probably down. Then, Ellen will have to either go for the wolves near Bot or for the hyenas near Mid. Either way, she should pass through this interse. Yuel calcuted the various possibilities and arrived at a satisfactory clusion.

  “Julia,” Yuel pihe map. “Get here as soon as you . I expect them to ambush Lars here.”

  “Gotcha!” Julia replied with unusual vigor. For a moment, Yuel almost mistook her for Lars. She sounded gung-ho about the game ever since she drew out her aggressive side. Not to mention, she must have beera motivated about this py because it involved helping Lars.

  Okay, Yuel o himself. Julia will intercept the ambush. Then, I'll intercept Ellen. If this works, we get up to two kills here.

  Yuel was the closest to the jungle area through which he expected Ellen to escape route, so he took it upon himself to intercept her. It wasn’t ideal sidering his low damage output, but he was the only one for the job. Roi and Dan were stuck fighting in Top, so asking any of them to rotate all the way out here would be pointless; they won’t make it.

  Once Lars reached Bot, a 1v1 broke out. As expected, it was bait. Once Ellen’s HP fell below 20%, she mounted her wolf and darted into the jungle.

  “Dang it!” Lars gave chase. “Every siime, yo! 't she stay and fight for once? Geh!”

  Okay, so far so good. Yuel nodded. It looked like Ellen was heading toward the interse he had in mind.

  Meanwhile, Julia was on her way to back Lars up. If Taison arrives to gank, he'll be forced into a 1v2. That'll stop the gank right in its tracks and- wait, it wasn't Taison!

  “Yo!” Lars excimed. “They're double-teaming now!”

  The enemies who showed up for the gank were Gilbert and Gregory. It was a two-pyer gank!

  Of course, they’d gank as a group, Yuel shook his head. He should have taken this possibility into sideration. Everybody on the eeam was stig together in duos and trios, so the same rule applied to this gank. Instead of sending Taison alone as an easy target for Yuel, Hoyed it safe a a tag team.

  “Kek, we got him,” Gregory smirked.

  “Let's finish this quickly,” Gilbert said.

  “You got it,” Gregory blinked forward and activated Provoke.

  Crap! Lars wasn't quiough to dodge. That taunt skill was way too fast! It was uable, yo!

  The taunt forced Lars to advaoward the Vanguard and fire basic attacks at that big dude. This was the plete opposite of what he should be doing right now. Lars should be creating distance from the enemies and firing from afar, not running head-first into this danger!

  “Done,” Gregory said. “He's all yours.”

  “On it.” Gilbert went in for the kill. While Lars couldn’t trol his Seraph, Gilbert was going to unload his e to burst the guy down. This time, it was going to be a swift and smooth gank-

  “Not so fast, dumbass!” Julia appeared! She unleashed a huge hurrie as soon as she got there.

  “Wha!?” Gilbert jumped. That was Aeromancer’s ult and it was heading straight toward him! I'll be sucked in if I go any clilbert stopped dead in his tracks and turned around.

  “Wait, where are ya going?” Gregory asked. “e kill this mofo over here.”

  “I ’t,” Gilbert said. “Unlike you, I'm not resistant to CC.”

  “Huh? Oh.” It finally hit Gregory. The closer the hurrie got, the stros pull power became. However, Gregory’s fat Vanguard didn’t budge in the slightest thanks to his passive, Immovable Object.

  “Okay, so,” Gregory started. “I'mma knock Lars up anyway and- huh!? When the fuck did he get away!?”

  Too slow, dude! Lars rolled away as soon as the taunt wore off.

  Fuuuu! I fudged up. Gregory cursed. The pn was to follow up with Heavy Stomp while Lars was taunted, but this ued hurrie distracted him. “Welp, this gank just went to poop.”

  “.......” Gilbert just knotted his brows in response because he didn't have the luxury to talk while repositioning himself. Ihis gank didn’t turn out well. More accurately, it was about to bee a disaster.

  “Thanks, July!” Lars called out. “You really saved my butt there!”

  “N-No problem,” Julia’s cheeks burhe mixture of ecstasy and embarrassment made her a little dizzy.

  “But, we're not do,” Julia shook her head and trated on the enemies in front of her. “We still gotta murder these asshats!” ... Oh shit! Did I just say that out loud!? To Lars!? Ahhhhh!

  “I-I mea's-”

  “Yeah! Let's wreck these dudes!” Lars went on, seemingly uned by Julia's nguage.

  “R-Right! They're dead meat!” Julia smiled from ear to ear. Phew, there was nothing to worry about. She was still alright in Lars's book.

  With Julia joining in oion, the situation turned into a 2v2 now: Lars & Julia vs. Gilbert & Gregory!

  “My, my, my,” Ellen twisted her lips. Her entire bait phrough. Hopefully, it won't lead to any major losses from their side. Oh well, at least Ellen herself got away safely... or not.

  So, you finally came, Yuyu. Ellen smiled wryly. She k was a question of time before Yuel catches up to her baits. And of course, it had to happen with the worst timing possible.

  Got her. Yuel intercepted successfully. Despite the ued factor of the two-man gank on Lars, Yuel’s ter-py still turhe tables around on Ellen's py.

  Julia backed Lars up to make the situation a 2v2, whereas Yuel cut off Ellen's escape route. From this position, they might get up to three kills! It was time to seize the momentum of the game!