Both sides ran into each other at the Ogre Camp right at the beginning.

  So, they really came to test it. Yuel didn't think that'll happen. Vi should have been cautious about Yuel and Lars’s skill, yet he allowed this situation to happen. This only further reinforced the suspi that Kai and Vi didn’t see eye to eye this match.

  That was useful to keep in mind. It meant the other team wasn't nearly as anized as Yuel and Lars-

  “There they are!” Lars poi the s iement as if he saw a UFO. “, let's get them!” He dashed forth without thinking twice.

  “Wait,” Yuel said. “We 't just go in there. Viking's ult will run all over us if we don't-”

  “No problem! These guys aren't that goht? Lemme beat them real quick.”

  “Wait-”

  But, Lars didn't listen. The goof darted forward and opened a primitive attack without any pnning.

  What's wrong with him!? Yuel roared internally. For a while now, somethi off about Lars. He was always a gung-ho goof, but not like this. This situation was about to get out of hand!

  “Stop, we o py this smart,” Yuel hurried after the goof.

  “Nah, it's cool, dude,” Lars insisted with unfounded vi. “I'mma take them down real quick for ya.”

  “First, let's take the red buff,” Yuel ged his argument to make it sound more appealing for the hungry beast. “Once you get more power, it'll be easier to kill them.”

  “Sounds good!” Lars dashed into the Ogre Camp without hesitation. For a moment, Yuel was sure that goof will hit the ogres and aggro their attention. Fortunately, the goof didn’t lose all of his on se.

  “” Lars urged. “Aggro these dudes so I take them down real quick.”

  “On it,” Yuel ehe Ogre Camp and fired at the big e in the ter. This triggered the entire camp and all three Ogres craved Yuel’s blood. As soon as they focused their attention on Yuel, Lars opened fire.

  Meanwhile, Kai and Vi were standing oher side of the narrow jungle passage. They must have been thinking really hard about what to do in this situation because of how disrespectful this py was.

  The entire eeam was right in their faces, yet Yuel and Lars were farming Ogres like they didn't care in the slightest. Any oppo would be taken aback by such a bold dispy of overfidehat art of the pn.

  “Huh, they're seriously doing it,” Kai raised an eyebrow. “They think we just gonhem take red buff? They gotta be really looking down on us because we're not Challenger, huh.”

  “I wonder,” Vi cocked his head. On the surface, the enemy’s py looked like a huge disrespect. It was as if Yuel and Lars pletely ignored Vi and Kai's presehey were like air.

  Was it sheer fidence? Or, was that some sort of 200 IQ ploy? Nobody should uimate Chessmaster because the Mystic Eyes of Weakness Perception were high-level sorcery. They didn't just spot weakhat already existed. These magical eyes also saw lines of py which could artificially create weaknesses in the enemy's formation.

  But, was there really anythiating a ancer and a Gunslinger could do from this position? Chessmaster was tanking the Ogres while Gunz was shooting from the bae. So, there wasn’t any reason why Vi and Kai shouldn’t assault their oppos right now. In fact, this was a great opportunity to strike!

  On top of that, this situation was very exploitable. Whichever team gets the st hit on the Ogre Leader will win the right to collect the power buff. So, even if Chessmaster and Gunz take down most of the ogre's HP, Kai only needed one quick shot to steal the buff from them. Heck, even Vi could steal the st-hit by throwing an axe.

  So, no matter how Vi looked at it, the enemy put themselves in a terrible position. This was a great ce to strike and win an early game advantage.

  “I'm going in,” Kai announced as soon as the HP of the Ogre Leader dropped to 20%.

  “Okay,” Vi nodded. “But, let me be on the front,”

  “Then hurry up.”

  “On it,” Vi ran ahead of Kai. He had to make sure they minimized risks, so it was better for Kai to stick behind him. Despite how inviting this situation looked, there was still a good ce this was some advaactic by Chessmaster.

  Therefore, it’ll be much better if Vi is the one who gets caught irap. Not only he was tahan Kai but he also had his axe blinking teique. So, he should be able to get out of every sticky situation no matter how ing the vilins were. In fact, if Viking-man were a superhero a kids show, it'll be a story about a hero who always gets out of trouble in a timely fashion with his axe. That’s how reliable the css was for esg.

  “They took the bait,” Yuel said. “Be ready to switch targets once I blink.”

  “Gotcha, dude.”

  “Okay...... now!” Yuel turoward Vi and closed the distaween them in a split sed with his cealed Blink.

  “Oh, shit!” Vi excimed. No way! That mad d just jumped into the fray like it was nothing! Chessmaster just put himself in a sticky 1v2 situation of his own accord. Was it a miscli his part? Because, who in their right mind would approach a Viking like that? It was suicide!

  And here, we gonhe cssic Viking punish from Bckhole - the ultimate wrestling throw! Vi hyped up the situation in his head as he activated Takedown, a cle CC grappling move. It’ll pin the Chessmaster down and make him a sitting duck for Kai.

  Everybody khat getting in a Viking's face was like asking for trouble and Chessmaster was no exception to the rule. There was no telling why Chessmaster went for such a suicidal move, but Vi was definitely going to take full advantage of it!

  The Viking put his sword away and thrust his arms toward the ancer's waist. This big muscur guy was going to crush the slim mage- but wait! The Viking's arms froze in the middle of the motion!

  Like, they literally froze. His whole skin turned blue. It was a timely Ice Coffin from Chessmaster!

  “No way! What a turnabout!” Vi practically shouted. So, this was the enemy’s pn! Chessmaster went for the Blink + Ice Coffin bo! Damn, it was a cssic ancer py but Vi pletely failed to take it into at.

  Chessmaster made the situation look so inviting that his enemies fot how to think! Vi grinned madly. It was amazing! Chessmaster even strategically cloaked his blink to lower the ces that Vi would think about it. It was so simple but so brilliant.

  Vi was so busy thinking about how favorable this situation was that he failed to sider this predictable ancer py. It was a weakness on his part! The Mystic Eyes of Weakness Perception struck again! Bckhole pletely fell for Chessmaster's trap!

  “It's the real deal,” Vi grinned as the hype entary exploded in his head. This py was exactly like the type of craftiness he saw during the StormBlitz vs. Leopard scrimmage. It was this tactic of instilling the enemy with a fake sense of fort, only to pull the rug from uhem! Beautiful.

  While this exge between Bckhole and Chessmaster was taking pce, Gunz used bat Roll to also get closer. So, it was a double py! Both enemies moved in at the same time as if they were synized!

  Gunz activated Fan the Hammer right as he recovered from the roll. , he was assuredly going to drill ead every bullet into Bckhole’s frozen head! It probably won't be enough to kill, but it'll be close and it'll cripple. These were terrible news for Bckhole!

  But, will Gunz be able to nd three shots in a row from Fan the Hammer? Why, of course he will! He was Gunz, the master of the Gungnir She 200% Accuracy wonderboy!

  “Got him!” Lars took aim while spinning the hammer of his revolver. He only had five bullets avaible so he had to nd a headshot with ead every one of them to get a kill. Okay, let's ro’ roll!

  He gonna nd all these shots for sure. Ez. After all, he practiced these headshots so much. He just had to adjust his aim a little to the left and- bam! The first shot fired!

  “Ah, wai...” Lars had a really bad feeling about that one. Didn’t he rotate a bit too much to the left? It was hard to tell without a mouse in hand.

  Anyway! He had no time to mull over this. The bullet was gonna burst outta his revolver and he had to make it t!

  This time, I'mma make sure I'm not pulling it too much- crap! The bullet bsted off before Lars finished adjusting the aim after the recoil. This ain't good! It gonna miss! Dang it, I'm supposed to be pro-level at nding headshots, yo!

  As, the two shots indeed missed their idle target. Gah! A new year just began but Lars has already made the most embarrassing mistake of the year!

  But, there was still the third shot- bam! It flew far off toward the sky. Lars missed the timing for adjusting the aim. He missed three shots in a row already! Gaaaaaah! That's why he hated pying with a troller! Master race mouse for the win! What he gonna do now!?

  There were two more shots in the revolver. But, the freeze from Ice Coffin wore off, so the target was going to start moving now.

  Do I keep going for headshots? But, I ’t get a cripple anymore and if I miss everything... Lars gritted his teeth. Just before the bullet came out, he made the call.

  Bam! The bullet hit Vi’s torso. Lars lowered his gun to aim for the body instead of the head. Going for headshots ointless right now. He was just going to miss everything.

  For the shot, Lars aimed for the body again and nded a shot on Vi’s shoulder. Good, at least he got some shots in. This way, he didirely waste the opportunity Yuel created for him.

  Not a single headshot? Yuel was stuhis was the plete opposite of Lars's so-called “200% accuracy”.

  Yuel suspected there will be a disparity between Lars's PC performand tablet performance, but this much? “Nailing every headshot” vs. “not nding a single headshot” were a world apart...

  Yuel specifically came with this py because he believed Lars would be able to firm headshots against an immobile oppo. As, turned out he uimated the differeween aiming with a mouse and aiming with a troller. It was terrible news!

  “Okay, no matter!” Lars advanced. “I'll just kill him with normal shots!”

  “No, we retreat,” Yuel erected an ice wall to close the narrow jungle passage. Kai was fast enough to nd two basic attacks on him before that but overall he disengaged without any losses. “Finish off the ogre aurn to ne.”

  “But-”

  “No buts. Do it.”

  “Whoa, somebody is angry,” Lars smiled wryly and obediently shifted his focus back to the dying Ogre Leader.

  “You take the red buff and we go to ne. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Lars finished off the Ogre Leader and snatched the red buff, then both of them scrammed from the area. They safely reached the ne and the danger was behind them now.

  “My bad,” Lars apologized. “I messed up the shots. Seems like practig headshots with a mouse doesn't trahat well to a troller.”

  “Who would have thought,” Yuel rolled his eyes.

  “But, don't worry! I'mma get the headshots ime for sure!”

  “No, just shoot at the body. We don't have time for you to adjust to the troller.”

  “But, I wreck them with head-”

  “We'll lose if you keep pulling that stuff.”

  “... okay, got it. I'mma prioritize body shots and only go for headshots if I'm sure I get them.”

  “Okay, but only when you’re really sure.”

  “Yeah, yeah” Lars nodded. “Gotta say, it’s been a while since I saw you this mad.”

  “I'm not mad.”

  “You are, though.”

  “Am not.”

  “You totally are, dude.”

  “NOW I'm getting angry.”

  “Haha, okay, okay.”

  “Just focus on ning,” Yuel said. And, for the record, he wasn't mad. But, admittedly, he was a little frustrated with Lars right now. That goof alromised miracles without thinking things through. Sometimes, Lars truly deliverer ued results. Other times, he failed miserably. It was so frustratingly uable.

  It’s thanks to uable factors like these that they lost the seleatch against Howard. Despite pying with Lars for so long, Yuel still hasn't quite grasped how to tell when Lars could really pull something off and when the goof was talking nonse got aggravating at times.

  So, if Yuel was mad at anybody, then it was only at himself. He was uo make the right call and that's why the entire py fell apart.

  Yuel knew Lars was a goof. He also knew about the difficulties in handling a troller. And, he definitely knew how difficult it was to nd headshots during Fan the Hammer. So, Yuel knew everything. He had all the data in hand, yet he made the wrong judgment. Dammit!

  I o be stricter. Yuel took a deep breath. This time, they miraculously escaped without suffering any grave sequences. However, ime, a huge mistake like that might cost them the entire game. If this were the regionals, the enemy would have elimihem from the eour for a mistake like this. They couldn’t let themselves slip up like this anymore.

  “Stay behind me as you farm,” Yuel instructed. “If the Vikis inte, prioritize him. We want to dition him into being afraid of the frontline. If he advances anyway, retreat right away and be ready to dodge his axe. It might be a sign he’s going to blink in and ult.”

  “Got it, got it,” Lars nodded. “o worry so much. I just messed up the headshot. I know what I'm doing.”

  How I wish I could believe that. Yuel shook his head. From now on, he should rely as little as possible on blind trust. If something sounded uhen it was unlikely, even for Lars. It’s better to be safe than sorry. That's how Yuel will have to reason from now on.

  Meanwhile, the other camp also analyzed this oute.

  “Huh,” Kai shrugged. “Didn't you say he's a sniper?”

  “Yeah, well...” Vi couldn't even begin a retort. All the hype he was building up about the enemy's amazing py came down crashing the moment Gunz missed three shots in a row.

  Vi was frozen i the time, pletely immobile. A, Gunz couldn’t nd a single shot. And, not just headshots but simple body shots too. Gunz missed everything at first.

  What kind of absurdity was that? Did Vi slip into a different timeline? Was this the Beta timeline? A timeline in which Gunz hasn’t developed the Gungnir Sniper?

  The recoil during Fan the Hammer was quite severe, so everybody k was difficult to nd multiple shots in a row. Even some pros admitted they didn't py Gunslinger because they couldn't nd these headshots sistently.

  But, not nding headshots was a world apart from not nding any shots at all. It seemed like Gunz insisted to aim for the head and failed miserably every time. Especially, the third shot looked like it was aimed toward outer space. Only after that Gunz started properly nding body shots, probably because he gave up on headshots.

  How could the mighty sniper fall so hard? Did Gunz try to style on them with headshots he didn't practiaybe it's because they were pying with trollers? Either way, the Gungnir Sniper was dormant right now. That’s ohio worry about.

  Brimming with fidence about their ces, Vi and Kai reached the he battle for territory began!