The decisive final match was transitioning into the te-game. At this point, Seraph's full potential was already unlocked. Six Wings of Holiness finally allowed Lars to fire all six shots in a row and his finished build provided mueeded power to each of his shots. As a result, he demolished objectives in an instant.

  Aurret has beeroyed!

  “Woohoo!” Lars excimed. “Let's go, my dudes!”

  “Good job,” Yuel nodded in approval. That's the sed turret down, so the enemy only had Top Turret left. But, that’s not for long. No objective sted in front of Seraph's overwhelming push potential.

  Aurret has beeroyed!

  “Triple Turret Kill, yo!” Lars pumped a fist. He destroyed the Top Turret shortly after destroying the Bot Turret even though the two turrets were a whole map apart from each other. By using his ult, Divine Messenger, he quickly flew from one side of the map to another and split-pushed.

  “Okay, we got this, my dudes!”

  “Don't let yuard down,” Yuel said that, but he couldn't deny he was also gettied. This was the te-game, a phase that was supposed to be Howard's dominion. A, Yuel's team was winning! They were beating Howard in his own pyground!

  Hoerfectly predicted Lars's rotation toward Top Lane and even got there in time to defend, but he owerless against Seraph's onsught. With Lars's skill and Seraph’s high DPS, the team destroyed Howard's tight defehrough sheer strength!

  However, Lars wasn't the only oting on a strong show.

  An enemy has been killed!

  “Haha! Die, dumbass!” Julia caught Gregory off-guard in the middle of his rotation and wiped him out. Her pys were rough and reckless, but als and overwhelming. Since Roi and Dan have been slipping up this match, Julia became one of the top-perf pyers oeam, sed only to the great goof himself.

  Yuel sidered having a talk with Roi and Dan, but he ultimately decided against it. The team had momentum right now, so he didn't want to ruin it by creating discord ieam.

  It didn't seem like Roi and Dan were doing any of that on purpose because they overall performed fihey only goofed during critical moments, so maybe the pressure was getting to them. Yuel had no idea what he could possibly do to alleviate their stress, but critig them definitely didn’t sound like the solution.

  It was unclear why experienced pyers like them would crader pressure during a mat which they didn’t have personal stakes, but Yuel didn't have the luxury to iigate. He just had to accept the fact he couldn't 100% rely owo to do their job every time, so Lars and Julia had to lead the team. Two aggressive beasts were more than enough at the moment.

  But, things were only getting harder. The deeper Yuel’s team pushed the enemy, the easier it was for the eo defend their objectives. The nes curved inwards toward the enemy base, so the enemy Golems were positioned much closer to each other thaurrets. Therefore, it took less time for the defeo rotate between the Golems.

  “Lars,” Yuel called. “Switch to Bot.”

  “Got it, dude!” Lars stopped pushing Top Golem against and rotated all the way to Bot Lahrough the juhe same way the defenders had an easier time traveling from one Golem to ahe same applied to the attackers.

  One moment, Lars ushing Top Golem. The moment, he was already all the way down in Bot-

  “Oh, snap!” Lars excimed. “There's an ice wall!” Just as he was about to enter Bot through the jungle, an ice wall formed in front of him and covered the entire passage.

  Howard anticipated it. Yuel bit his lip.

  Howard should have gone back to the base to recover but, instead, he rotated to defend Bot ahead of time. With Yuel, Julia and Dan pushing Mid Golem, any normal oppo would expect Lars to rotate from Top to Mid ahem to break through. Therefore, Yuel expected the eo fortify their defenses in Mid and that’s why he sent Lars all the way from Top to Bot. It was supposed to be a smart outpy, but it didn’t wainst Aegis.

  Howard noticed the opening in Bot Lane and hurried to cover it. As a result, the Bot Lane push fell through.

  Kudos, that was a good py. Yuel shook his head. With the ice wall stalling Lars, the enemy gained enough time their forces and send people to defend Bot.

  “I'mma go help ya dudes in Mid!” Lars decred.

  “Wait, that's unnecessa-”

  “Here I e!” Lars booted Divine Messenger and flew across the sky toward Mid. It was an unnecessary stunt, sidering the short distaween Bot Golem and Mid Golem.

  He's getting carried away. Yuel knotted his brows. Well, that wasn't a bad py per se. Flying to Mid saved Lars some time, so Howard and anybody who went to defend Bot won't be able to rotate baid in time. It may very well create an opportunity to break through this barricade.

  We gonhem by force! Lars grinned. Before these dudes even figure what's going on, Lars will drop from the sky aroy the Golem Dude! By the time Big Shield Dude gets baid, it’ll be too te- gah!? What!? How did Het there so fast!?

  Right after Lars nded in Mid Lane, Howard appeared there too and joihe defense effort. That was nuts, yo! What that guy a wizard!?

  Again. Yuel frowned. It's like Howard had a GPS which told him Lars's position at every given time. Even worse, said GPS somehow predicted where Lars will be going seds in advahat’s the only way to expin how Howard always quickly got in position to intercept Lars.

  “Let's just push through!” Lars insisted. “We take down that Golem Dude!”

  “You're right,” Yuel hanks to previous efforts, the Mid Golem was down to 20% HP. With one more hyper-aggressive push, they should be able to take it down no matter how well the enemy defends. Therefore, they’ll push through regardless! If it was impossible to pass through Howard's defense via tactics, they'll just break through by force!

  “I'm opening with Tsunami,” Yuel announced. “After it scatters the enemy, charge in and attack the Golem as much as possible before the enemy reposition.”

  “Okay.”

  “Gotcha.”

  “Let's goooo!”

  Yuel hid behind his teammates to not make his motions too obvious and began casting Tsunami, the Overflow version of Spsh. By unleashing a huge wave oire Golem area, he’ll hit the entire eeam.

  They're going to push. Howard instinctively uood. His eyes naturally fell ohe Support. If something big was about to go down, Yuel will be the oo duct it.

  Yuel moved a little to the bad hid behind Dan and Julia. Something was definitely afoot. What would an Aquamary to pull from this dista’ll surely be something with Overflow, so there were three options: Rainstorm, Hot Spriion, and Tsunami.

  Rainstorm would immediately cover the entire area with heavy rain. Howard’s team didn’t have a way to interrupt that py, so there was no need for Yuel retreat to the bae. Oher hand, Hot Striion had limited range, so going backward only made it harder for Yuel to reach Howard’s team. Thus, there was only oio...

  It gonsunami! Howard darted away from the Golem area. Yue was going to knock back the eeam and ihe Golem! If Howard’s team loses its ground here, the Mid Golem will fall for sure!

  Alright, I should be good. Howard reached the edge of the Golem’s area right as Yuel unleashed the huge wave.

  Oh, wait. What about the rest!? Howard fot to warn them! “A tsunami is ing! Get out of the Golem’s area!”

  Unfortunately, the warning came too te. The tsunami was already here! The huge wave blew Gilbert and Ellen out of Golem’s area and all the way into the base. Only Howard dodged the disaster and was still within rao defend the Golem.

  “Get back to defend!” Howard ordered as he ran into the Golem's area. He immediately returo defend, but he couldn’t hold the fort his own.

  “Let’s go go gooooo!” Lars ihe Golem’s area along with Yuel, Julia and Dan. It was a 4v1! Howard had no ce to stop them.

  I’m dead if I face them head-on. Howard had no choice but to wait for backup. If he tries to block this gang on his own, they’ll run over him in an instant. He needed Ellen and Gilbert to fight back together with him... wait, where was Taison at?

  “Tai!” Howard called. “Why are you in Bot!?”

  “Huh?” Taison cocked his head. “Ya told me to go here, bro.”

  “Yeah, but... ah.” Hoaused. Back when Howard intercepted Lars in Bot, he ordered Taison to follow up and rotate to Bot as well. It reventive measure in case Lars was to gun for Bot even after being stalled.

  However, while that situation was unfolding, Howard realized Lars might aim for Mid instead, so he rotated baid. He rotated alone, without telling Taison to follow. Howard pletely fot about Taison at the time and trated only on what he had to do .

  I’m slipping. Hritted his teeth. He was too te to warn the rest about Yuel’s tsunami and he failed to update Taison’s orders in time. Howard’s tration was slipping.

  He could still figure things quickly and provide optimal defense, but he failed to provide timely shot-calls. It was like he fot the others existed and focused on blog all ining blows on his own. He was messing up big time...

  An allied Golem has beeroyed!

  “Damn,” Howard muttered. If he just warned everybody earlier, they would have dodged the tsunami and could help to hold down the fort. On top of that, if he told Taison to rotate to Mid earlier, they would have formed an imperable barricade around their Golem. This Golem could’ve been saved! Damn! Damn it all!

  “My, you’re running out of gas?” Ellen asked.

  “Nah, I’m alright.”

  “Su~re,” Ellen rolled her eyes. “I know what it means when you’re being slow on the orders and focus only on your own pys.”

  “Heh,” Howard smiled wryly. There was no ce of hiding this from Elly, was there? He switched over to private unication and spoke quietly. “Yeah, I’m starting to lose focus. This match is rough.”

  “My, and it’s only the third game. How would you st in a best of five at the regionals?”

  “I’m not used to defending 24/7, alright?” Hrumped. Against normal enemies, it was enough to only cover up some of the holes ieam’s defehere was o be cautious about every little weakness because there was no way the enemy would find all of them.

  But, Yuel was a different story. That chessboy could make a weakness out of literally anything. If you just sneeze during a match, that guy would somehow se and he’ll strike you down instantly. It was some superhuman bullshit.

  Therefore, Howard had to make sure the team’s defense had absolutely zero holes. He evaluated and reevaluated everybody’s positions, pystyle and quirks. He had to make sure nobody left any opportunities for Yuel to strike. Even the smallest of openings could turn into fatal game-ging pys when Yuel was involved, so Howard had to cover them all.

  Unfortunately, maintaining this trated routine came at a terrible price: Howard’s mental juice. He wasn’t used to maintaining that level of intense tration for three games in a row, so mental fatigue kicked in.

  “It’s all because you don’t do exercise a junk all day,” Ellen jabbed.

  “That got nothing to do with it,” Howard rolled his eyes. “It’s just that I never practiced su intense shot-calling routine. I like taking longer breaks after intense games, okay? Kill me.”

  “But,” Ellen tapped on her cheek. “I have to say, Yuel is hanging just fine uhis ‘intense routine’, isn’t he?”

  “Yeah, he seems to be doing alright, as annoying as that is.”

  “Because, unlike you, he exercises.”

  “Nah, I bet it’s because he’s a chessboy. You knoeople do in chess, right? They just sit there in front of the board and fry their brains for hours. No wonder Yuel is used to this kind of stuff.”

  “All I’m hearing is excuses,” Ellen said. “Exerg makes your brain work better. I read some articles and stuff.”

  “Yeah, I know, I know. I’ll think about it after the match. Maybe I’ll start doing it. Maybe.”

  “What a zy bum you are, Wardy,” Ellen pouted. It was always the same story with Howard. He was a skilled and experienced pyer, but he never worked hard enough.

  During this year’s entrance exam, Howard’s match against Yuel served as a wake-up call of sorts. It showed Howard there were other skilled pyers out there and they might overtake him despite being younger. It was a heavy but mueeded blow for this zy bum.

  Thanks to that, Howard started taking his training and his duties in the club more seriously. In fact, that’s probably ushed Howard te practice matches against Ignis’s team. He wao get stronger and wao grow an overwhelming first-string at any cost.

  But, no matter what, Howard just refused to work out. Even back when he was uaking StormBlitz’s entrance exam, he faked siess to get a note from the doctor. Thanks to that, he got exempt from the rag test and passed it without even stepping orack.

  Worst of all, Howard knew about this test ahead of time and didn’t even tell Ellen. He only told her to practie-kilometer jogs and that it was important. He totally just wao see her sweat hard during that exam. What a bully.

  Well, at least Ellen passed the race with flying colors thanks to jogging all summer. In addition, she shaved off some excess fat and learo appreciate this healthy routine. She felt more focused during games and could py longer without getting tired.

  But, unlike her, Howard remained a zy bum and now he aying the price for it. Ellen almost wao see that bum gettien this game to teach him a lesson.

  But, of course, they weren't allowed to lose. That silly bet Howard made with Yuel was still in effect. Howard’s pride won’t allow him to turn ba it, so losing this match meant saying bye-bye to this year’s tour. That was a big no-no.

  If Wardy is out of gas, Ellen smiled meaningfully. I’ll have to pick up the sck by being an angel of death for him.

  Now, that it was te-game, Seraph became an unstoppable force, especially in the hands of a beastie like Lars. Therefore, the oute of this match will boil down to how effitly they shut Lars down. And, who was better for the job than Ellen?

  “I'll kill Lars for you,” Ellen decred. “I promise.”

  “That's reassuring,” Howard smiled weakly. Hopefully, this won’t end up as another instance of Ellen giving herself too much credit while role-pying some evil witch.

  “Okay!” Lars excimed. “One Golem dow's go let's go let's goooo!”

  I thi this. Yuel o himself.

  Taking down the Mid Golem was huge. It gave Yuel’s team a big advantage in the most important ne and paved a path toward the enemy Colossus. With Seraph's te-game strength, it ossible to take down the Colossus in a 1v1 with enough preparations. However, it was a lengthy and dangerous line of py, so it wasn’t realistic to pull off against Howard.

  Therefore, the team first had to weaken the enemy’s defenses further by destroying additional Golems. They already took one down, so they'll eventually destroy the others too. Even though the enemy's defense was tight, it wasn't fwless. Yuel smashed through it quite easily with his ret tsunami py.

  In fact, that o a little TOO easy. Howard was quick to react to the tsunami, but the rest of the eeam froze in pd got washed away. As a result, all the defenders were scattered and only Howard was in a position to defend. Yuel expected his Tsunami py to cause the enemy some trouble, but it turned out way too effective.

  Normally, Howard would have evacuated his eeam in a timely fashion. That's why he was Aegis, the imperable shield. Yet, for some reason, in that particur situation, he didend his amazing defeo the rest of the team. Or, maybe he couldn't?

  Is he losing focus? Yuel wondered.

  As a fellow shot-caller, Yuel knew all too well how mentally exhausting it was to and a team during a difficult match. Yuel should've beeo long sessions of mental activity as a chess pyer. Even so, he found himself pletely exhausted during the Leopards scrimmage

  It certainly didn’t help that he had to deal with difficult topics like the team’s atmosphere in that scrimmage, but that wasn’t an excuse. Yuel shouldn’t have run out of gas like that. If he wao pull through long matches in the petitive se, he had to prepare his brain for long sessions.

  Therefore, to make sure he won’t run out of gas again, Yuel took his jogging routine more seriously. He has been exerg less ahroughout the year, but after the Leopards scrimmage - he made sure to jog at least once every two days. It was hard to tell how much w out really helped him py better, but there was ohing he knew for sure: this was the third game of the day and he was fully trated. Meanwhile, the enemy shot-caller seemed to be falling apart.

  We o use this opportunity to push hard, but we 't be careless. It was tempting to go all in and bst through the enemy's weakened defenses, but a single mistake could cost the ech during te-game.

  Therefore, Yuel had te an offerategy that had solid backup pns in things g. They were so close to grasping victory, they couldn’t mess up here!

  “Lars, go push Top.”

  “Okey-dokey!”

  “Julia, follow Lars. Your priority is to keep him alive.”

  “Alright.”

  Lars was like the Queen piece of this match, a unit with enough strength to single-handedly pressure the opposition into submission. As long as Lars was alive and targeted objectives - they’ll win this game!

  “My, how annoying,” Ellen pouted. “I 't find a good ce to take on him. They're always teaming somebody up with Larsy.”

  “So it seems,” Hreed. Instead of going full offense, Yuel picked a more banced approach. Lars pushed at full throttle, but his teammates never left him aloher Yuel or Julia was always there to be back Lars up, so it was impossible to score an easy kill on Lars like that.

  “I say,” Ellen started. “First, we get rid of ohe guardians. I'd like to get rid of Yuyu personally because Aquamancer is such a pain in te-game.”

  “I agree,” Howard nodded. “But, how do you suggest we do that? It's not like we just fet about defense and hunt Yuel down.”

  “It's simple, darling. We just bait them into a bad position a rid of them~”

  “Alright, sounds good. Now, tell me something that sounds like an actual pn with details and everything”

  “I got just the thing~” Ellen's lips curved into a smirk. “Hey, Taitai and GG, do you feel like giving Lars and Yuel some pain?”

  “You eveo ask?” Taison chuckled. “Of course we wanna wreck these guys!”

  “Yeah, what that idiot said,” Gregory nodded.

  “My, how passiohere we go, we got two volunteers for the suicide squad~”

  “Huh?” Taison raised an eyebrow. “Did ya just assume these shitheads gonna own us?”

  “Oopsie, a slip of toeehee~” Ellen stuck out her tongue. “Anyway, here you go,” she switched her mic to a private el with Howard. “We got two faithful beasties who'll do everything in their power to kill Lars and Yuel. We just gotta unleash them on Lars and Yuel at the right time and pray for the best.”

  “You're really suggesting this 2v2?” Howard asked. “You know just as well as me who’ll win there.”

  “Sure, if we were talking about the standard Bot Lane 2v2, we know which pair is better. But, this game, the brats on our team are pying Jungler and Top, so they don’t have to cooperate like a duo. They split this fight into two 1v1s.”

  “That still sounds like a recipe for disaster.”

  “Then, what you suggest? We gonna keep defending like this until we're squashed?”

  “No, but...” Howard sighed. His thoughts refused to e together. All he could think about was “which area to cover ” and “how to deflect the attack”. There was no spare braio sider sophisticated pys. Besides, such pyers weren't Howard's forte in the first pce. His game pn was the same as usual: maintain solid defeil the enemy its a fatal mistake.

  Unfortunately, Yuel hasn't been taking any risky bets retly. If things keep going at this rate, no amount of defending will save the team from iable defeat. They'll lose this game, this match, and the entire year.

  “Alright,” Howard said. “If you think Taison and Gregory pull it off, the's give it a shot. I trust your trolling skills.”

  “My, you make me blush~” Ellen giggled. “Alrighty, but I need your help with this. To catch them off-guard, I o know where they'll be attag . you do that for me?”

  “I'm not a damn oracle,” Howard chuckled.

  “Sorry, I'm just not good at that kinda stuff,” Ellen said. She was good at messing around with Yuel, but she wasn't nearly as good at predig Yuel’s moves. Only Howard had the natural affinity for doing that because he was good at spotting holes in their defense, which were exactly the spots Yuel teet.

  “Alright,” Howard said. “I’ll try to figure where they’re likely to strike , but no guarantees.”

  “I know, I know. But , you o sound more fident. What do you mean you’ll ‘try’? You gotta DO it. You’re the captain, you ’t sound like a wuss.”

  “Heh, ’t even say anything back to that.” Howard smiled wryly. That’s right, he was the captain and he was the one whed this ech. Therefore, he had to stay strong and believe ieam’s victory.

  “Alrighty then,” Ellen cluded. “I’ll give our brats a few tips, while you focus on reading Yuel’s pns.”

  “Alright.” Howard nodded. He had to reverse-engineer Yuel’s atta from the current state of the team’s defe wasly the most reliable way to predict things and it was ten times harder than usual with his fried braiheless, for the sake of mounting a eba this situation, he had to predict correctly one more time...!