“Phew. Safe.” Nia took a deep breath upourning to base. These few seds of recallihe lo moment of her life. “That was scary.”

  “Nice escape,” Yuel said. “Though, you took a big gamble there.”

  “He didn’t find me so I won,” Nia said. This was a on teique she employed during hide-and-seek when she didn’t feel like going far. Instead of hiding in some desote spot, she just snuck around the “it” and touched the home base ohe “it” stepped away. She only stopped doing it because some kids kept pining about how cheap it was. Though, she still resorted to that strategy from time to time because it was funny. It’s like she was a ninja. Nin nin.

  “Besides,” Nia pouted. “I wouldn’t have to take any ‘gambles’ if I didn’t gank that ne in the first pce. I didn’t eve a kill. I k was a bad idea.”

  “It turned out a little different from how I imagi but it wasn’t a bad idea.”

  “How e? I got nothing there, not even a kill. Nothing. Only almost got killed.”

  “That’s not true,” Yuel insisted. “You reduced the Dark Knight to critical health. He ’t keep farming like this so he has to return to base. That’s a huge deal. Not only it’ll let the Knight push now, but it also sets the Dark Knight back. Every sed of farming the Dark Knight loses will hurt him dearly in the near future.”

  “Sounds like shilling,” Nia gave him a look. “There wasn’t anything impressive like that”

  “Very well,” Yuel smiled meaningfully. “Perhaps you ’t see the bigger picture at the moment. But, in time, you’ll e to uand the importance of this gank. Even now, look at the Knight pushing the ne hard.”

  While Nia was busy ganking the Dark Knight and running away, the Knight recalled to base, healed up and now returo the here was no ne oppoo test him, so he pushed full gas. His minions had superior defehanks to his passive, so most of them survived the csh against the enemy wave, and they all advaogether toward the eurret.

  And, this was the only beginning. Perhaps Nia couldn’t see the ripple effect this will cause but taking ne advantage was huge against a ne bully. Dark Knight’s entire purpose in life was to domihe ne in order to get ahead and now Nia robbed him of that higher ground.

  "Meanwhile, the Pyro is doing whatever he wants in Mid," Nia ranted on her way to defend her ne. “Byebye my ne advantage.”

  While she was amiss, the Pyromancer returo ne and pushed hard. Thanks to that, she lost all the ne advantage she built earlier. At least, that's how she saw it.

  It was a trade, not a loss. Yuel reasoned. Following his instrus, Nia traded her ne advantage for an opportunity to rotate to Top and slow down the Dark Knight. It was like an exge of resources: she traded one pile of ne advantage for one free rotation.

  In the greater scheme of things, this rotation will reap greater bes for the team than holding onto a short-lived early-game ne advantage. However, with a newbie's limited ability to see the greater picture, Nia couldn't grasp how this exge worked.

  "I'm not doing that again even if you ask," Nia pouted.

  Grumpy much? Yuel smiled wryly. "If you want to win against a team that has a Dark Knight, you will gank him as neccessary. Look how much the Knight mao push thanks to yank."

  "Hm, I guess he did some work," Nia twisted her lips. The Knight brought the eurret down to 60% before the Dark Knight returhis progress was only possible because Nia drew away the Dark Knight.

  "I could've stayed in Mid and do the same, though," Nia cimed.

  "True, a valid observation. You could've used that time to push Mid just as hard. But, the difference is that you have a favorable matchup in ne while the Knight doesn't. Look how quickly yained ne trol as soon as you returned."

  "Well, I guess." Nia didn't have anything to say to that. Even though she left the ne undefended and gave the Pyromancer so much time to establish ne trol, she easily recimed trol upourning. Her Quid and Windstorm made quick work of the ining minion wave and her Fireball smacked the Pyromancer.

  It was that easy to reset the situation, almost as if Nia never left the he only penalty her ne suffered for that rotation was that her Turret lost 5% HP. No biggie.

  "As you see,” Yuel lectured. “You didn't lose much, but you helped the Knight get a lot of damage oop Turret."

  "I guess." Nia finally started seeing things Yuel's way. Or, so he thought. "But, I almost died. That would have ruined everything."

  So damn stubborn. Yuel grimaced. "Yht with the Dark Knight came down to the wire only because your rea was sloppy. You just froze back there."

  "Ah, um," Nia curled into a ball on top of the chair and mumbled. "I don't py Wizard much, so I didn't know what to do..."

  "Fair enough," Yuel said. "But, now you know how to handle yourself. So, if you have to gank again, you'll be able to defuse him no problem."

  "Maybe."

  She’d never win the “Ms. fideitle, that’s for sure. Yuel crossed his arms and thought ba the fight with the Dark Knight.

  Naturally, the faia wasirely used to yed a role in her slow deaking. However, even aside from that problem, it felt like Nia just short-circuited there for a moment.

  A simir thing happened before when she was dueling Lars. Wheried to sneak up to him but he dodged her Izuna Drop, it felt like Nia was lost. She uood she had to retreat but her retreat was incredibly sloppy.

  That instance couldn't be bmed on css unfamiliarity. After all, Ninja was one of her main csses. So, that one was all Nia. She failed to properly react to that development, just like what happened against the Dark Knight. It was surprising, sidering Nia otherwise dispyed a sharp gaming sense.

  Is it nerves? Does she buckle under pressure? Yuel wondered. Perhaps, the girl who loved ung surprise attacks on people actually hated being surprised herself.

  Thinking of it, Julia had a lot of that too when she was starting out. Yuel smiled softly. It took him a long time to help that girl overe her stage fright. Instead of fronting it, Julia chose to flood the map with wards so she could reduce the number of ued developments. That approach partially got rid of the problem but it was costly and didn't help her overe the core issue she had.

  How should Yuel go about helping Nia overe this? The one and only surefire method was to put her through many such difficult situations and force her to overe them until she bees more fortable with them. Perhaps, that'd help her build up some fidence as well. At least, that's the kind of experiehat helped Yuel level up and be able to reason more calmly under pressure. Though, admittedly, some developments still threw him off at times.

  You have killed an enemy!

  Nia killed the Pyromancer for the third time.

  "Good job," Yuel nodded.

  "This guy is kinda wack," Nia shrugged.

  "So it seems. Let's see," Yuel checked the mini-map. "Take their red buff."

  "'t I just push?"

  "It's better to use this opportunity to steal their camp."

  "But, I might run into somebody."

  "The Vampire just went far toward Top so o worry about him. The others are in their nes. So, the camp is totally free. You take it without any worries."

  "Not sure I trust you ohings," Nia peeked at him with her bck eyes through her long spaghetti bangs.

  "Don't worry, this is much safer thaime with the Dark Knight. And, getting the buff is going to make ning a breeze from there onward."

  "Hmmmm." Nia twisted her lip. "Ok, I'll try."

  She left the ne and traveled to the enemy Orc Camp. As Yuel said, the camp was undefended and free for the taking. At least, until Nia made her move.

  There was a good ce the enemy will spot her traveling toward the camp and will try to engage her there. That's what Yuel was aiming for.

  As long as Nia doesn't fold uhe pressure of the sudden attack, she should be able to get the red huff a away without any problems. However, if she reacts poorly and fails to disengage correctly, her life might be at stake. It should be a good learning experience.

  If Yuel wao advise a safe py, he'd simply tell Nia to take the Ogre Camp on her side. However, going after the enemy's red buff was the high-risk high-rey right now. Nia didn't object so she seemed to uand the appeal of this py.

  If all goes well, Nia will experience a little bit of danger and also get to reap great bes, provided she hahe situation appropriately. On top of that, she’ll get a great fidence boost after she overes this challenge.

  However, things didn't quite go as he pnned...

  "That's sure a roundabout path you're taking," Yuel ented.

  "Dodging them wards."

  "I see," Yuel frowned.

  In an ideal world, it was ihe best to py around enemy wards here. However, in practice, traveling in circles like that wasted a lot of time and there was no way to guarantee she’ll really dodge all enemy wards. So, generally, it was best to take the shortest path at the risk of being revealed by wards.

  heless, if Nia truly dodges all the wards along the way, that'd make this py ten times safer. It'd still waste some precious time but it'll potentially keep the entire py hidden from enemy eyes. It'll be pretty , actually.

  After traveling through a long and sneaky route, Nia finally reached the Ogre Camp. All the while, there were no signs of movement from the eeam. Both the enemy Ranger and Lumimancer remained in Bot. Apparently, Nia successfully snuck around the enemy’s wards. She turhis high-risk high-rey into low-risk high-reward one.

  This is both impressive and disappointing. Yuel smiled wryly. On one hand, Nia improved Yuel’s py and transformed it something amazing. Oher hand, she didn’t get to fay danger so there was no opportunity to practice stressful situations.

  Drat! And double drat! Yuel shook his head. He felt like a vilin whose pns have been foiled. Though, this was an iing development in its own way. I’m willing to bet real mohat Vi would attribute this achievement to the “Vanishing Phantom”. It sounds like something straight out a fantasy movie, but it seems to have somethio it.

  Based on her pystyle so far, Nia didn’t seem to like frontal frontations. Therefore, she always snuck around like this. And, as a result, she became profit at pying around enemy wards, and sneaking up to pyers in general.

  That was her way to “deal” with the problem. She wasn’t good with stressful situations, so she found ways to minimize and avoid them. No stressful situations = no stress = easy life.

  Teammates like that be a pain to and but maybe Yuel his kind of resista times. He had a bad habit of going for risky pys so somebody like Nia, who refused to put herself at risk, might be a good ter force. It might lower the ces of Yuel requesting a risky py from her that’ll lead to disaster. She’ll either object to it or find a way to lower the risk with her high-level sneaking skills.

  Though, at the moment, Nia was still too rebellious to Yuel’s taste. She refused to cooperate even with pys that were perfectly reasonable. However, that’s only due to her ck of experien the MOBA mode. If Yuel properly helps her grow as a pyer, Nia might bee a great asset for the team. In fact, she might even take the Jungler spot from Luke, the walking meme.

  It was still too early to tell but the potential was defihere. It to Yuel and the rest of the club to help Nia develop into the fearsome pyer she could bee. To that end, the first step was to make her more cooperative and increase her trust in Yuel’s shot-calling.

  That just became harder to achieve after Nia had an unpleasant iion with the Dark Knight while following Yuel’s instrus. heless, she listeo his suggestion about stealing the Ogre Camp and this py went by smoothly. Hopefully, that redeemed Yuel a little. Hopefully.

  DarkestCymore