Yuel focused almost entirely on dealing with Kai during the early-game. And, he also got to gank Mid so there was some a there too. But, how were things going in Top? Nothing seemed to be happening over there.

  Every time Yuel checked the mini-map, he immediately disregarded the situation in Top as “nothing of i” a on with his business. her Ben nor his oppo was trolling the ne, her of them got into fights and there weren't any serious ganks ing their way. It was a chill and isoted ning phase for those two.

  “So, tell me,” Vi came close. “How are you liking Ben's performahis game?”

  “It's hard to say,” Yuel answered. “He's not doing anything wrong, but he's not winning anythiher.”

  “Yes, exactly!” Vi's voied. “He is the Eternal Peacemaker! He has the ability to e all flicts on the o have a peaceful ning phase with any oppo!”

  “So, he's good at freezing nes,” Yuel trahat to human nguage. Vi's etric description aside, the meat of his words seemed to be right on the money.

  Yuel couldn't analyze Ben's pystyle iail from across the map, but it felt like Ben ying in a way that demotivated flict. Ben always stayed far enough from the eo show he had no iion of going on the offensive. On top of that, the distance disced the oppo from aggressing on Ben because any assault felt like it’d require a great itment that might result iension. So, most likely, that's why the enemy avoided frontation.

  At first gnone of this looked particurly special. It was on for Top Laress slowly ahodically. There was a reason pyers often joked about being “stuck” in Top as if it was a jail.

  But, sidering Vi went out of his way to e up with a silly niame like “Eternal Peacemaker” for Ben, it implied Ben had a knack for creating a stalemate against many oppos. If so, it was an iing teique to examine. How often did it work? Was it something Ben did on purpose or by nature? The answers should reveal themselves as they keep pying together.

  The team gained many kills during the early game so victory was all but assured. They were leading in every possible area: exp, gold, and map trol. They even rotated to Top as a gang and smashed the status quo over there by pushing all the way to the enemy Golem.

  heless, the game reached the team-fighting phase because the enemy was stubborn. This is where the mid-game began and mistakes became way more critical. And, unfortunately, the team in the lead wasn’t immuo itting such grave mistakes...

  “Okay, let's go!” Lars excimed. “I'mma push Top all the way to the win!”

  “Wait, they might-”

  “Let's goooo!” Lars opened an attack against the enemy Sorcerer. The Top Golem was down and only one enemy was defending the ne. So, it was a great opportunity to push hard, yo! He gonna kick this Sorcerer outta here and push all the way to- oh, crap! A wild Vampire appeared!

  The Vampire released a horde of bats. That stuff was bad! It gonna blind and slow and stuff! Lars rolled away as fast as humanly possible and just barely dodged that stuff. Phew, he was safe!

  Okay, not really. It was a 1v2 situation and the enemies were ing right at him!

  “I told you to not rush it,” Yuel made a face. “I hope you know what you have to do here.”

  “Of course,” Lars nodded. “Gotta take ‘em both down, yo!”

  “Really now.”

  “Haha, just kidding ya,” Lars blinked away with Thundercp. “I'mma retreat like a good boy.”

  “Good,” Yuel said so but immediately ged his mind when a giant bat rammed into Lars. “Actually, not good. Not good at all.”

  The giant bat turned bato the Vampire and held Lars io suck the goof’s blood. Meanwhile, the Sorcerer caught up and unleashed Magie Orb on the immobile goof. The magical orb deleted 20% of Lars's HP and slowed him down.

  “These guys are serious,” Lars cracked a dry ugh. “Okay, here goes nothing!” He activated Thuorm ahead of himself and dashed through it. The enemy won't dare to step into that storm of damage so he might gain some distance.

  Unfortunately, he was already down to just 25% HP. Just a couple of basic attacks from these dudes and they gonna finish him off. The situation was wad there ain't nothing he could do about it.

  Okay, then I'mma dodge all their shots- aiya! A bat rammed into him as soon as he formed that thought. This was bad! They gonna barrage him dowta slip away somehow!

  Thanks to the slowdown the Sorcerer inflicted on him, both pursuers caught up in no time and got Lars within their firing range. He juked some of their shots by zigzagging around but that was no more than a momentary dey for them. They kept nding shots and Lars already dropped all the way to 5%. He was so dead, yo!

  But, at that moment, a savior appeared! A big armored dude greeted Lars from the ju was Ben!

  “Yo, Ben, my dude!” Lars called out. “ ya get these two off me?”

  “E-Eh?” Ben jumped from the sudden attention directed at him. “Um, yeah, I'll do my best.”

  This will e down to the wire. Yuel thought. A Vanguard could get Lars out of this sticky situation but it required the Vanguard pyer to have the right mi for this operation. Namely, a mi of self-sacrifice.

  Could Ben pull this off? Yuel sidered giving them specific orders that’ll salvage the situation for sure but ultimately decided against it. This was a great opportunity to test Ben’s mettle aality. Sihe guy picked Vanguard, he had to be able to py the part. As such, there was only ohing Yuel was willing to do for them to make this py a little easier.

  “Ben, I'm rotating over there with Luke,” Yuel informed. “So, o be afraid of engaging the enemy.”

  “T-Thank you,” Ben still sounded pressured by this situation but, heless, he went ahead to ehe enemy.

  First, Ben activated his ult, “Hold the Line!”, to mitigate the damage dealt to Lars. The Vampire he decisive shot that should have killed Lars, but the defensive aura cut the shot’s damage by more than half. Thanks to that, Lars was still alive and g to the few remaining pixels of HP on his life bar.

  But, Lars wasn’t out of the woods yet. Another killing shot was ining! This time, from the Sorcerer. This attack will kill even with mitigated damage, so it to Ben to judge the situation correctly a to it.

  Did Ben have what it took to shut down this py? It'll be fine if he didn't have the mastery to pull off the right py in such a clutch situation, but it’ll be iing to see whether Ben at least had the right idea in mind.

  And, indeed, Ben had it. He stepped iween Lars and the Sorcerer without hesitation. The decisive killing shot smashed into Ben without reag its intearget. It was a beautiful body-blobsp;

  So, he got it. Yuel hat body-block was a self-sacrificial py that required Ben to be fortable with putting himself on the line for his teammates even during stressful situations like these. This body-block py had to be the first thing on Ben’s mind for him to be able to pull it off in a timely fashion like this.

  “There it is!” Vi made some he Invincible Human Shield! No attacks shall reach you when the Human Shield is there to protect you! You saw that!?”

  “Yes, I saw,” Yuel said.

  “Isn’t it amazing!? In such a tight situation, during such a critical time, the Invincible Human Shield is keeping his teammate alive against the enemy’s fatal blows!”

  “Yes, yes. You pipe down now,” Yuel shook his head. It felt like Vi was desperately trying hard to make Yuel see Ben in a more positive light. That was so unnecessary.

  By now, the ive first impression of Ben being the “deli who skips practice” vanished without a trace. A pyer, who could put himself on the line for his teammates in the heat of the moment, couldn't possibly be some selfish deli who didn't take the game seriously. There must have been some good reason why Ben skipped the first few days of practid that's why Kai and Vi let it slide.

  Unfortunately, the danger hasn’t passed yet. Lars was still at death’s door with enemies chasing him. However, from this position, things should be much more straightforward for Ben.

  Ben activated Provoke to shift the Vampire and Sorcerer's attention to himself. While the enemies were busy shooting Ben, Lars successfully slipped away. That left Ben behind in a 1v2 situation but Yuel and Luke were right around the er to help.

  Yuel inally gave Ben the heads up about the ining backup just to make sure Ben won't be afraid of using Provoke in a 1v2 situation. However, turned out it was unnecessary. Ben properly uood that, in situations like these, he should be willing to bee a disposable pawn if it meant saving a teammate with DPS.

  As promised, Yuel and Luke gahe ne and got a kill on the Sorcerer. Unfortunately, none of them was a damage dealer because Luke was memeing with Druid, so they couldn't finish off the Vampire. Oh well.

  “Good job, my dudes,” Lars gave a thumbs.

  “What do you mean ‘good job’?” Yuel narrowed his eyes. “You almost died and dragged Ben down with you.”

  “Haha, I guess.”

  “Don't you ‘haha’ me. I'm adding this match to the list of matches we're reviewing this weekend.”

  “Welp, RIP my weekend, haha...” Lars scratched his head. “But hey, it all turned out fine in the end, right? We got a kill and I got away alive-” Just as he started saying that, a mounted knight charged at him! It was the enemy Knight on his steed!

  “Oh, crap!” Lars was just about to recall to base but these dudes refused to give him a break! “Gotta get the heck out!”

  As, there was no ce for him to outrun the horse...

  An ally has been killed!

  “Haha, whoops,” Lars scratched his head. “Maybe I shouldn't have pushed Top back there after all.”

  “You don't say,” Yuel made a face. “You should be grateful you survived for as long as you did.”

  “Yesh, ya right,” Lars turo Ben. “Thanks a lot for the help, dude. Saved my butt back there.”

  “Sorry,” Ben hung his head. “You still died.”

  “Nah, it’s okay. It was all my fault anyway. Ya did all you could.”

  Ben really did well. Yuel silently agreed. He had to see more before passing judgment but, so far, Ben roving himself as a solid Top Laner.

  Will Vi be able to top this impressive performa’ll be iing to see. For now, Yuel was fav Ben over Vi for Top, if only because Vi was a thousand times louder.

  In the end, despite Lars's mess up, the team still maintaihe momentum it created during the early game and pushed toward victory with ease. Ohe game was over, Yuel suggested Ben and Vio switch.

  “Ah, but...” Ben stuttered. “I uand.” He slowly got up from his chair with the face of an abused pug.

  “I'm fih letting Ben py today”, Vi said. “I’ll just entate and help you guys out.”

  “You don't want to py?” Yuel asked.

  “Of course I do. But, Ben missed a couple of days of training so I think it's a good idea to let him py a little more.”

  “Hmm, that's true,” Yuel agreed relutly. He really wao pare how Ben and Vi pyed Top but there was no reason to rush it.

  “Um, it's okay,” Ben sheepishly spoke up and motio the chair. “You should py. It's my fault I missed training.”

  “, that's not really...” Vi didn't finish the sentence. He just gnced away with an awkward expression ahe silence sink in.

  “Besides,” Ben smiled wryly. “Yuel is asking you to py instead, so he must be thinking I'm baggage to the team.”

  “That's not true at all,” Yuel was quick to shoot down that absurd misuanding. Thinking about it, he didn't vey his iions properly when he asked Ben to step down. So, maybe Ben just assumed the worst due to his timid personality.

  “You actually pyed very well,” Yuel said.

  “R-Really?” Ben jumped as if it was a shocker.

  “Yeah, dude!” Lars smacked Ben on the shoulder. “You were sick that game! Also, just so ya know, it's super mega ultra rare for Yuel to praise anybody so it means you were totally lit!”

  “T-Thanks,” Ben shook for a moment from Lars’s smack but tired to put on a smile heless. Yuel perfectly uood that feeling. This teique of a sma the back, ied by Trever and ied by Lars, was cursed. It packed so much positive friendly energy that it hurt. Like, a lot.

  “You really pyed well,” Yuel repeated to make sure there were no further misuandings. “I only suggested you switch out because I want to see how Vi pys Top, that's all.”

  “So, you wao pare the two future didates for Tht?” Vi wore a meaningful smile.

  This guy and his big mouth! Yuel felt exposed. He was trying to be careful with his w but this needlessly observant exposed his hidden agenda! Ughhhh!

  “What does that mean?” Kai turo Yuel. “You're pnning to switch to Support?”

  “Well, I'm still sidering a lot of things,” Yuel gave the most evasive ahat came to mind.

  “Is that so,” Kai dropped the topic. It seemed like Vi's implications flew way over her head.

  “You want to take my Support spot?” Vi asked. “Please, by all means. I'll even pay you for it.”

  “Wow,” Yuel smirked. This portunity to pay back that . “You hate supp Kai so much you'd rather pay me to get away?”

  “Huh, is that so?” Kai shot Vi a look.

  “Ahahaha,” Vi produced a long hollow ugh. “Didn't know Yuel was such a jester. Maybe he got the Mystic Mouth of Jesting Perception and I didn't notice!”

  “You didn't ahe question,” Kai pointed out.

  “Right, I didn't ahe question...” Vi shifted his eyes around as if searg for an excuse he hid somewhere in the room. “What I was trying to say is that Yuel is a much better Support than me, so I rather have him py Support for the team. I meant I'd be willing to throw mo him if it meant increasing the team's ces of winning the regionals.”

  “Is that so,” Kai nodded with her usual stoic expression. Did she really buy that? Impossible to tell. At least, she dropped the subject at that.

  “How do you like the payback?” Yuel silently threw the question at Vi.

  “My bad. I won't bring this up again.” Vi seems to imply something along these lines with his apologetic bow.

  With that, Yuel's secret agenda of taking over Bot with Lars remained a secret. Well, everybody must have realized these two were shooting for it, but Yuel didn't want to stantly remind them about it. For now, he and Lars will lie loy by Kai’s rules. Then, ohe opportunity presents itself, they’ll take the Bot roles for themselves in one fell swoop!