An enemy Golem has beeroyed!

  “We’re doing it, my dudes!” Lars excimed. “One molem to go! Or, we even push all the way right here and now!”

  “No, let’s retreat for now,” Yuel said. His baactic of offense and defense has been w so far, so there was o rush.

  The tactic was simple: Lars followed Yuel’s orders and rotated from o o push in the area where enemy defenses were the thi. At the same time, Yuel made sure there was always somebody there to back Lars up. It was an idea Yuel stole from Howard’s defeeam py.

  Yuel split the babysitting job between himself and Julia. sidering Roi and Dan’s ret slip-ups, Yuel couldn’t bring himself to entrust su important task to these two. So, Dan and Roi’s primary task was to serve as a diversion and lure out enemy defenders.

  At this point, Yuel was vinced: Howard’s defense has been slipping. The imperable Aegis was crag down. Even straightforward attacks passed through Howard’s defense right now. Yuel could aim at any ot without fearing a ter.

  However, even without Howard’s bulletproof guidahe eeam was still putting on a solid defehey couldn’t prevent Yuel’s attacks ahead of time, but they deflected the attacks with minimal loses. Nobody on the eeam made any punishable mistakes while defending, not even Gregory and Taison.

  As a result, it was difficult to score any kills on the defenders. Howard must have coached his team when it came to pying airtight defehus, the game dragged on.

  Fortunately, if things keep going like this, the game will be over soon. Two Golems were already down, so only o. If all three Golems are down at the same time, all three nes will be swarmed with super minions; the enemy won’t be able to defend from all three dires at o would be a plete checkmate.

  Yuel eained some alternative game pns, like busting through one of the nes before taking the st Golem to steal the Overlord Buff while the enemy was busy. However, both approaches invited unnecessary risk. This time, he preferred to slowly and steadily pressure the opposition into submission.

  “Let’s get Bot ,” Yuel dashed toward Bot Lane.

  “ing!” Lars approved. “Time to take down that st Golem Dude!”

  Yuel and Lars cut through Bot Jungle and arrived- ah! Taison and Gregory stood in their way!

  Was this attack too predictable? Yuel bit his lip. Even though Howard wasn’t as sharp as usual, it seemed he could still defend against overly obvious attacks.

  “Alright, there you go,” Howard exhaled. Somehow, he mao squeeze just enough brain juice to foresee Yuel’s move. It was rgely thanks to Yuel’s attacks being more straightforward retly. The guy was feeling himself and striking at any opportunity that preseself without respeg Howard at all.

  Knowing that chesskid, Yuel must have figured that Howard wasn’t in the best shape right now. That’s why that brat fearlessly seized every opportunity he found. Unfortautnely for him, it helped Horedict this overly obvious rotation toward Bot Lane.

  “Alrighty,” Ellen nodded. “Taitai, GG, don’t fet what I told you. You absolutely have to score at least one kill here no matter what. We’ll keep the rest of their team busy, so I trust you to do your part, right?”

  “No problem!” Taison nodded. “We gonna wreck these scrubs!”

  “This gonna be good.” Gregory much appreciated this opportunity. This was a fateful 2v2! Everything started back when Gregory and Taison pyed 2v2 against Yuel and Lars. They lost horribly back then and everythi downhill from there.

  So, it ayback time! They gonna kick these losers off the high horse and drag them down to oblivion! This seleatch was the perfect opportunity to end Yuel and Lars’s whole careers.

  “Hey, they’re ing at us!” Lars’s tone made it clear he wao duke this out with Taison and Gregory. It wasn’t surprising, sider how much the enemies have been turtling until now. The st time Lars scored a kill was ages ago.

  Looks like it was supposed to be a trap of some sort, Yuel pondered. But, it’s actually ve for us. It’s a rare ce to score some kills and weaken the enemy’s defense.

  “Okay,” Yuel said. “Let’s take them on.”

  “That’s what I like to hear! Let’s go, yo!”

  Holy, I’m not sure what Howard is thinking. Yuel knotted his brows. Did Howard believe Taison and Gregory could defeat Yuel and Lars in a 2v2? Past experiences should have poio the opposite. Whehey faced each other in Bot La the club, Yuel and Lars always came on top.

  Was this even Howard’s idea in the first pce? Howard rarely ever went for such pys. Maybe Ellen? Or, maybe these two were running amok? It was really hard to tell the goal behind this 2v2.

  But, they clearly want this 2v2 to gh. Yuel g the rest of the map. Ellen was occupying Julia in Top, while Howard and Gilbert were g with Roi and Dan in Mid. All supply lines were cut, so this was going to be a 2v2 fight without any backup for either side.

  Maybe I’m digging too muto it. Yuel thought. No matter what Howard had in mind, we’ll be fine as long as we win the fight-

  “Dude, watch out!”

  “Wha-!?” Yuel noticed too te: Gregory was right in front of him! And, already with his big foot raised into the air! Damn, Yuel won’t be able to- BAM! A heavy stomp! The impulse bsted Yuel away.

  Not good...! Yuel grimaced. He didn’t expect Gregory to blink forward and initiate su aggressive attack. The eeam has been in full defense mode until now, but Taison and Gregory were clearly out for blood out here.

  Lars dodged the stomp in time with Angelic Grace but ended up oher side of the area. Yuel and Lars have been separated.

  “We have troup- ah!?” Yuel paused. Gregory stood between him and Lars like a gatekeeper.

  You ain’t getting through, cuckhead. Gregory swung his bde and cut through Yuel.

  He’s going to block me? Yuel hit back with a water ball and ran to the side. He had to maneuver around Gregory troup with-

  I won’t let ya! Gregory activated Provoke and dragged Yuel farther away from Lars. You ain’t passing, not under my watch.

  Ugh, this is a problem. Yuel recovered from the taunt and tried breaking through again, but the giant Vanguard blocked the narrow jungle passage.

  What was going on here? What sort of 2v2 battle was this? The frontliner was supposed to be on the frontline and protect his DPS, not to stall the enemy frontliner. Instead, this battle tactic was as if...

  It’s ain’t a 2v2, sucker! Gregory smirked. It’s two 1v1s!

  That’s the idea Ellen came up with. In a straightforward 2v2, everybody knew Yuel and Lars were better than Gregory and Taison. However, in a 1v1, Taison proved he was strohan Lars. So, instead of cooperating as a duo, it was best for Taison and Gregory to fight separately across two 1v1s.

  Though, I’m just the diversion here. Gregory smiled wryly. The only reason this double 1v1 arra was superior to a 2v2 was because of Taison’s amazing skill in 1v1. Everything was riding on Taison’s ability to beat Lars.

  In other words, Gregory’s only job here was to keep Yuel at bay while Taison was doing his thing. Despite pying Solo this game, Gregory yet again ended up as being nothing more than Taison’s Support. Yet again, Taison was overshadowing Gregory.

  It sucks, but I’ll take it. Gregory unleashed his frustration by sshing Yuel. Even though he was just a diversion, even though he was just the backup - he wao win this damn fight! This was the best opportunity he’ll ever get to kick dowwo losers from their high horses! Yuel and Lars won’t be getting into the first string this year!

  Go, Tai! Gregory cheered silently. Wreck Lars while I jail Yuel for the rest of the day. You gotta do it!

  Ugh, I ’t pass through! Yuel maneuvered left and right to no avail.

  Gregory’s blog was surprisingly tight. Every time Yuel moved in one dire, Gregory covered the area right away with his big body. This particur passage was so narrow that Vanguard’s big armor almost covered half of it. So, Yuel had to find a way to squeeze through a tiny opening and Gregory wasn’t making this easy.

  What’s worse, Gregory delivered one blow after another while blog the passage. Eadividual attack didn’t deal that damage because Gregory and Yuel both had tanky builds, but the damage accumuted over time. If this goes on, Yuel will eventually be forced into a dangerous situation.

  He’s really good at this, Yuel frowned. It’s like he practiced this specific type of marking.

  If Gregory had been pying any other css, then passing through would have been a simple matter of using Geyser Eruption to knock him up and dash through underh him. However, Vanguard’s Immovable Object made him immuo such dispt CC. Gregory was literally immovable right now.

  Yuel could retreat and reach Lars through an alternative route, but that’d take too long. Not to mention, it’d mean abandoning Lars in a 1v2 situation. That was a surefire way to lose this fight.

  So, her approach was viable. Passing through Gregory seemed hopeless and going around was too risky. It was impossible to reach Lars like that!

  Kek, you mad? Gregory snickered as he moved from side to side to block Yuel.

  This job iece of cake with how much of a fatty Vanguard was. Gregory just had to keep his eyes on Yuel’s movements and match his own movements. He was doing no more than stalling, but it actually felt great. Just imagining Yuel’s angry expression was hel satisfying.

  Kek, guess it wasn’t such a bad idea to practice all this shit after all. Gregory thought ba how much he ranted during training. Howard came up with this silly training routine about “marking” enemy pyers and put Gregory through that shit.

  At the time, it was nothing than a giant pain in the ass. It was legit the most b training ever. Gregory had to spend an hour, sometimes more, on just moving bad forth to block the enemy’s route and to bodyblock attacks. It was like training to bee a professional pung bag; the mest shit ever.

  heless, Howard insisted this was an area Gregory severely cked in, sory had to polish it for the uping match. So, already back then, Howard must have foreseen that Gregory will be pying defense like this. Dude was legit an ESPer, no doubts about it.

  That training was a huge pain back then, but right nory was gd. Messing around with Yuel like this was topkek shenanigans. Not to mention, on top of blog the path, Gregory has been nding hits, so Yuel has been gradually losing HP. It’d take like twenty years to actually drop Yuel to low HP, but just being able to repeatedly cut that mofo was all Gregory needed. Right now, Gregory had the upper hand! He was the stronger pyer!

  “Lars!” Yuel called out. “ you get any closer to me? We have troup!”

  “Sorry, no dice,” Lars answered. “Taison is totally log me down.”

  “What about leaping over here?”

  “’t do, dude. I leaped away to dodge GG’s stomp.”

  “Damn...” Yuel clicked his tongue. Indeed, Lars’s Angelic Grace was on cooldht now. The situation was rough.

  While Yuel was struggling to break through Gregory, Lars was locked in an intense fight with Taison. They dashed all over the area while firing at each other.

  Yo, dude is strong as ever! Lars dodged o with a roll, but another bat crashed into him during the recovery. This stuff was savage! Taison was on point right now. This gonna be a good fight!

  That hit during the roll recovery was cool stuff, but Lars was no pushover himself. The ime Taison dodged with a roll, Lars fired a follow-up shot while Taison was rec. Payback, yo!

  Ony marksman css hit the te-game, their attack speed became so sick that dodge-rolls almost became pointless. Like, it wasn’t easy to predict the entire roll’s route and fire ahead of time at the right spot, but Lars and Taison were above such limitations. They were real duelists!

  Khaha, you piece of shit! Taison ughed. Think you’re some hot shit, eh? Taison received a ser beam in the face right as he recovered from his roll but he didn’t waste any time and fired right back! ter hit, bitch! Ain’t nobody hitting The Great Taison without getting burned iurn!

  The ter shot nded perfectly. This fight was tight!

  I do this shit! Taison grinned. Even though there was some distrag shit going on nearby between Gregory and Yuel, Taison mao trate on his 1v1 with Lars and his performance was hel smooth. All that b “mental training” nonsense was actually paying off!

  Throughout the past week, Howard has been making Taison gh some shit he called “mental training”. Basically, Taison just had to stand there and imagiuff. In order words, most b shit ever.

  Apparently, the idea was to help Taison filter out the noise around him. Basically, Taison had to imagihat none of the shit around actually mattered. Only Taison and his oppo existed iire universe. The rest of the world ure bess and totally silent.

  Yeah, like hell that ossible to do. Every time Taison started trating on Howard as the oppo during training, somebody just had to go ahead pop a loud skill nearby. That shit was distrag as hell and Taison always had to check what the actual heck just happened.

  In the brief moment Taison took his eyes off his oppo, Howard nded an easy shot on him. Taison didn’t even notice that thing ing.

  Well damn, maybe this training is kinda important after all. That’s what Taison realized after getting hit time and again by me shots like that. There was no reason that kind of stuff should work on him.

  When it was a 1v1, it was a 1v1. Nothing more and nothing less. Most of the time, Taison had no reason to take his eyes off his oppo during a fight. So what if somebody cast a loud spell nearby? It probably had nothing to do with Taison at the moment. His job was to wreck the oppo in front of him.

  So, Taison took the “mental training” seriously. Well, kinda. He almost fell asleep every now and then because half the training was about blog out everything around him. And, what was the easiest way to filter out his surroundings? Just gotta close his eyes and take a good long nap, khaha.

  A single week wasn’t enough to master this mental filter thing, but Taison got a little better at it. When he trated hard enough, he could kinda ighe irrelevant stuff around him. The game also had an option to lower the audio sensitivity to pick up less noise from afar, so Taison dialed up that shit up to eleven.

  Thanks to all that, Taison could now fight Lars in a pure 1v1! Whatever shit was going dowween Gregory and Yuel nearby didn’t matter in the slightest. Taison maintained 100% focus on the oppo in front of him. So, this was just a normal 1v1 and Taison gonna win this shit!

  “Let’s goooo!” Taison fired. His bat missed the target, but no big deal. He just sidestepped Lar’s ter-attad fired again! Bullseye! This one was a hit. Taison was in the zone, yo! Full focus on the 1v1! He got this one in the bag.

  Geh, not bad! Lars finched as a bat rammed into him like a bullet. Vampire’s basic attacks looked so silly ohey reached high attack speed. It’s like dude was firing bats from a freakin’ mae gun.

  But, my attacks are still faster! Lars fired a ser beam and grazed Taison’s shoulder. Taison’s sidestep was te by like a nanosed, but a hit was a hit.

  The fight was rough, as expected from a 1v1 against Taisoheless, with this te-game Seraph, Lars could do it. You killed me enough times today, dude. This time, I’mma win! And, it gonna be fair and square! Let’s goooooooooo!

  After the ser beam hit Taison, six robotic arms stretched from Lars’s back. Six Wings was on! When a marksman’s te-game attack speed didn’t cut it, Seraph got ya covered with even faster attacks! Six shots in a row with zero reload time. Lars gonna bombard the heck outta that dude!

  Ha! You wish! Taison sidestepped the first shot like a boss. But, against Lars’s accuracy, there was no way io dodge the following shot which came out a split millised ter. That’s why: Coffin Slumber!

  A coffin popped out of thin air behind Taison and sucked him inside. Lars’s ser beam strue, but it hit the coffin instead of Taison himself. Khaha, ez defense!

  Damn. Every. Siime. Lars grumped as he unleashed his fast shots at the coffin. The attacks didn’t do any damage, but after three hits they destroyed the coffin and forced Taison ba the open.

  Lars unleashed the two remaining shots and both nded perfectly despite Taison’s attempts to dodge. Taison avoided getting utterly wrecked a on the offensive again! Yeah baby, let’s geh...! Lars flinched as two bats hit him in a row. Taison attacked like a beast. Dude moved around from side to side while firing nonstop! Lars did the same, but he couldn’t keep up. What gives!? Why he feels faster!?

  While Lars was stantly going bad forth between dodging and attag, Taison somehow bined both into one. Dude moved and attacked at the same time, so he both dodged shots and nded shots at the same time. It was some crazy shenanigans!

  There shouldn’t have been much differeween their bat skills, yet Taison was half a step faster. No, not even half a step. It was like half of a quarter of a step or something. Yet, this small difference was enough to gradually overwhelm Lars.

  Damn, I ’t win like this! Lars gritted his teeth. In this 1v1, Taison was stronger. As hard as Lars wao deny that - it was a fact.

  Lars could have put on an even fight if he was using a Trickshooter unslinger, but not with Seraph. It was a css he only pyed from time to time, so it was nowhere he level of his main csses. Thus, he cked the necessary mastery to fight Taison on even ground here. Dang it!

  “I-I think I’m in a tight spot,” Lars gulped.

  “You should’ve regrouped with me while he was in the coffin,” Yuel criticized. This artially his fault because he was too busy with Gregory at the time, so he failed to make the call in time. They missed a great opportunity to turn this situation around.

  The situation was turning from bad to worse by the moment. They had troup no matter what. But, how!?

  Lars’s Angelic Grace was still on cooldown, so he couldn’t leap over here. His Divine Messenger was on cooldown too, so that’s all Lars’s mobility options ght there.

  There was the option of making Lars try busting his way through Gregory, but it won’t be easy. Taison will surely use that opportunity to assault Lars from behind, so Lars will likely die trying. It was already hard enough for him to stay alive in a straightforward 1v1, so if he turns his back to his oppo... Yeah, not the brightest idea.

  Should they just retreat food? This has bee an unfavorable situation, so a tactical retreat wasn’t unreasonable. But, at the same time, this was a rare opportunity to score kills and thin out the enemy’s defenses. Not to mention, if they retreat now, they’ll be giving up orong momentum they have been maintaining so far. They were so close to pushing this game all the way to victory, they couldn’t stop here!

  “Okay, listen,” Yuel said. “ime you get Six Wings, your ult should already be out of cooldown. So, fly out of there and regroup with me. For now, this is the most I do to help you out.”

  Yuel cast Rainstorm, the Overflow version of Rainfall. This was almost a waste of an ult, but it was the only support Yuel could provide in this situation.

  Rain clouds formed around the entire area and heavy rain poured. The rain reduced the attack speed and movement speed of all the oppos in the area, which should give Lars an edge in the 1v1. On top of that, it may even allow Yuel to finally slip past Gregory.

  As the entire area was covered in rain, the unventional 2v2 was heading toward its climax.