A Magia Orb appeared out of nowhere and imploded, making everybody bump into each other. They all lost over 20% HP from this four-way collision. Yuel only lost a little over 20%, but his squishier allies lost around 30%. It was damage from just one spell but it was devastating. Alex must have built as much power as humanly possible to pull this off.

  "Yo, these dudes are invading!" Lars excimed.

  "Yeah, we kinda noticed!" Kai gritted her teeth. Shit! This is the worst opening ever! I gonna give these invaders a piece of-

  The enemy's attack wasn't over yet. Before the team got a ce tanize, a big lion man crashed on them from the sky like a meteor! The impact was s it knocked all of them into the air!

  "Damn, this 't be happening!" Kai ched her troller. No way! What kind of game opening was this!? They’ve already dropped below 70%! "Didn't you check for invades!?"

  "I did, but..." Yuel bit his lip. Back when he was scouting there area, there was nobody in sight. These guys didn't take any of the standard invade routes. They must have taken a long roundabout route that circled around Yuel’s wards. Darn it!

  "Heh, how you kids like this little surprise party?" Trever dashed into the se with his pistol poi the sky. All these air-bound targets were free real estate!

  Naturally, the prey he targeted first was her than Lars. "Lemme show you what happens when you don't pick your stro css against me!"

  Bam! The bullet flew at Lars. Hitting a falling target was quite the art, but Trever has mastered it a long time ago. His aim ot on!

  No dice, yo! Lars performed a Dodge Roll to the side in the middle of his fall!

  "Wow! You gotta be shittirever excimed. His bullet was so-well pced, yet Lars dodged it in the nick of time! What an absolute mad d!

  Figured something like that might happen. Alex was already prepared with a Magia Orb floating in front of him. He estimated where Lars was going to nd and unleashed a magical force that sent the orb flying across the area. It was heading straight toward Lars's future nding spot!

  Yo! No way! Cold sweat ran down Lars’s forehead. Where did this Spetznaz assault team e from!? They didn't give anybody a breather! It was oack after another!

  There was no telling how dangerous this orb was because Sorcerer’s damage was always weird like that. It might even kill Lars on the spot the moment he nds on the ground! Stuff was crazy, yooooooo!

  "Heh, haha." Despite the enormous danger, a grin surfaced on Lars's face. This pressure! This danger! Yeah, this was how things gotta be! It was the first time he felt this rush of adrenaline sihe seleatch. This invade was sick!

  But, ya ain't gonna catch me sleeping! Lars activated Elven Leap as soon as his feet touched the ground. There was almost no recovery time after the nding, so he leaped away as soon as his toe touched the ground.

  "Phew!" Lars excimed loudly as the bck orb failed to graze his feet. It was hel close! But, just like I thought. No way that dude could be fast enough to guarahat hit. Too slow, dawg!

  "Well, I tried," Alex shrugged. "It's up to you now."

  "You did good, my man," Trever turned his back to the enemy and prepared to close the distah Backfire on. "I'll chase him down from here-"

  "ge of pns," Aron said. "He's too far now. Take out the mage instead."

  "Tch, firever celed his fun chasing pns and shot the Lumimancer instead.

  While Lars just barely escaped from the brink of death, Yuel and Kai nded on the ground after being knocked up by Aron's Majestic Leap. However, that wasn't the end of this calcuted attack. As soon as they hit the ground, a deafening roar thundered!

  "Shit!" Kai cursed. She pressed buttons but they did nothing. The Mighty Roar inflicted her with fear and made her automatically run away from the Lionfolk as if she was scared of him. Huh! Nonsense. I take that guy out no problem. Just let me trol my damn character!

  This invade is too high level. Yuel grit his teeth. They have been had, no two ways about it. We have to get out of here as fast as humanly possible.

  As soon as the fear effeded, Yuel hurled his axe across the area and was about to blink toward it. However...

  You wanna fight, huh!? Kai activated Blinding Light. The Lumimancer began shining, preparing to unleash a blinding burst of light. It was going to hit Aron but it was a waste of time. She had to retreat!

  "Blink out of here!" Yuel ordered. "We won’t win this fight."

  "I know that! Damn," Kai cursed through gritted teeth. Yeah, the hell I’m doing? I gotta scram! It didn't matter how embarrassing this defeat looked, for she'll get these guys ime. For now, retreat at full gas! No time to even look back!

  Thanks to her own stupidity, she let the Lionfolk cw her once before she got away. That cost her 8% HP. With all the accumuted damage, she was already at death's door with just 30% HP. A couple more hits and she was a goner!

  Before her Blinding Light finished charging, she activated Fsh and blihe hel outta there. She ultimately unleashed her Blinding Light at her the target location, but there was nobody to hit there. It was a waste of MP but oh well, at least she got out of the danger. Or, so she thought...

  "You ain't getting away, babe!" Trever was right on the case! The chick blinked far away but she wasirely outta reach yet. Trever turned his ba her dire and activated Backfire on.

  Bam! The impact sent him flying toward the cute mage chick! This on was such a bro, he knew what's up.

  Damn, is that after me? A shiver ran on Kai's back. She khese situations very well. When Backfire on resounded from behind like that, imes out of ten it was used for chasing. Bad news!

  But, I 't turn back. Kai pressed onwards without wasting a moment. Turning around to firm the details will only slow her down. No time to check. Gotta press on.

  Meanwhile, Yuel saw everything from his position. Trever closed a lot of distan an instant with the Backfire on tech. This chase might be cutting it a little close.

  Fortunately, Yuel was in a great position to interfere.

  "I'll stall him," Yuel announced and took off toward Trever.

  "Wha-!?" Trever jumped as two muscur hands ed around him from behind. "Hey! Hands off, macho!"

  But, it was to no avail. Yuel hurled Trever away from Kai. That halted the chase in its tracks.

  Okay, I'm out. Yuel finally blio the axe he threw a few seds before. With that, the invade has been thwarted. Even though everybody sustained heavy injuries, they were all alive and safe.

  "Dang it, yo!" Lars ranted. "These dudes walked all over us! Lemme at them!"

  "You'll die if you go in there now," Yuel said.

  "So what, we just gon 'em take our camps free of charge like that?"

  "Unfortunately, we have no choice," Yuel frowned as he watched the eake the Wraith Camp belonging to Yuel's team. There was a good ce they'll also take out the Ogre Camp afterward, leaving Yuel's team with zero buffs at game start. Frankly, this was a terrible opening.

  "Nothing we do to stop them. Let’s just clear the hyenas over here," Yuel suggested. "I don't see them invading any deeper right now."

  "Geh, fine," Lars was still pouting but he followed Yuel to the nearby Hyena Camp and they cleared it together.

  "Well, that was a huge blunder," Kai stated. "You should've scouted better against an invade."

  "I checked all the likely invade routes," Yuel said. "But, it seems I overestimated the distaween Bot Lahe Wraith Camp on this smaller map. I didn't expect them to invade from there. That's mode unfamiliarity for you."

  "Nice excuses."

  "Oh, yes? Then, where's your excuse for not blinking out of the fight right away? What was the point of that Blinding Light you wasted?"

  "That's..." Kai gnced aside. "Just keeping these guys ooes and all that."

  "Yeah, a smart thing to do instead of immediately getting away. Sure."

  "It's been a while since I pyed Lumi, alright? Blinking wasn't the first thing that came to mind."

  "I say the same about Csh mode. I haven't pyed this mode much, so I don't have enough experien scouting invades here."

  "YO. MY DUDES." Lars smacked both of them on the back. "Save that stuff for after we wi a crappy start but we're still ki'. If we let that small thio us, we gonna lose the whole thing."

  "Right," Yuel nodded.

  "True that," Kai threw Yuel o look, theuro the game. "So, where do we go from here? I ght to ne?"

  "Yes, that seems like the best line of py," Yuel nodded. "Lars, you better recall to heal up befoing to ne."

  "Roger!"

  "As for me, I'll get straight to jungling since I haven't lost much HP."

  And so, the deyed ning phase began. Both ners were already at a disadvantage in terms of level and buffs.

  This is definitely what you call starting the game on the wrong foot. Yuel bit his lip. Despite what he said about mode unfamiliarity, this invade was unmistakably his fault. He had to make up for it as soon as possible to set the record straight.

  After he and Lars cleared the Hyena camp, Yuel went straight after the griffins in the ter of the map. Normally, these stronger creeps were supposed to be challenged only after ing the Wolf Camp near Bot. However, Aron probably had his hands full with clearing the buff camps on his side of the Jungle, so it should take him a while to get to the Griffins. Or, so Yuel hoped...

  Tch, he covered that opening. Yuel clicked his tongue as his ward by the Griffin Camp revealed Aron. Instead of returning to his side of the jungle, Aron first stopped to farm the griffins. It seemed he was i on leaving Yuel's team with zero ces of winning.

  These guys don't pull any punches. Yuel gulped. This match was the real deal through and through. On top of that, it felt like their oppos were rather familiar with Csh mode. And, they clearly had plenty of experience pying together, as evident by the smooth teamwork during that invade. Not to mention, that team was posed of talented high-schoolers with more experien general.

  In short, the circumstances were rough. Yuel's team was inferior in every possible regard here. Even the ter-pig attempts turned out so-so. Yuel successfully ter-picked Aron’s Lionfolk, but the chups were far from favorable.

  This is perfect. Yuel smirked. This disadvantageous match was a great simution for where Stratus and StormBlitz were standing right now. If Yuel and Lars wanted a realistic shot at beating a powerhouse like StormBlitz with their new inferior team, they had to be able to overe tough matches like this.

  Now, how do I turn this terrible position around and start building an advantage for the team? The match has just started and there was a lot of work ahead of them!

  DarkestCymore