Nia opened an atta Top Lane. She summoned a quid underh the Dark Knight and fired a fireball at him. That alone should bring the Dark Knight low enough to disce him from fighting back. Except, the fireball didn’t hit!

  Even though the Dark Knight didn’t see Nia’s ining rotation, he repared for the possibility. As soon as the quid formed at his feet, he blioward Nia and slipped past her fireball!

  “A-Ah!” Nia jumped. Again, the demon stood in front of her. The iron-ight was coated in a dark miasma, ready to y waste to everything his path.

  A heavy ssh. Just like that, Nia lost 25% HP. These attacks became even more dangerous than before! This Dark Knight packed himself with tons of power items! It was true terror!

  I-I have to get outta here! Nia trembled. This was impossible. The pap between them was too much. She had to run for it. Run. Run. RUN!

  “Blow him away with wind!”

  “Ah, r-right!” Nia turned around and activated Windstorm in the Dark Knight’s face. The demon sshed her once more, then the winds pushed him ahew, Nia created some distaween them.

  However, this was far from over. She had 50% HP left and the Dark Knight was hot orail. He’ll rend her asunder if he gets close, so she had to get as far away as humanly possible!

  The Dark Knight gave chase. This madman had no fear. Even though his HP was hanging at 35%, he was fident he was on top of the situation and there was nothing to worry about.

  And, he was right. He was going to pletely decimate Nia at this rate. She had run for her life!

  "Wait," Yuel said. "Ult him."

  "E-Eh? Now?" Nia flihis wasn't the time to pick a fight with the demon. She was about to die! She had to scram!

  "Do it."

  "O-ok!" Nia turned around and cast Meteor. The radius of the spell was huge so she didn't eveo spend any time aiming it.

  A giaeorite rained from the sky and crashed on the Dark Knight. It erased 25% so the Dark Knight was down to 10% now. But, he was very much alive and he wasn't happy about this development.

  As if ialiation, the Dark Knight raised his bde and swung it downwards from afar. A bck ssh of magic flew straight at Nia!

  "Dodge-" Yuel was too te. The Dark Bst hit Nia straight in the fad eliminated 30% oh her HP.

  He made a good trade. Yuel frowhe Dark Knight realized he couldn't dodge the Meteor in time, so he opted for exging blows with Dark Bst. It cost him an additional 5% HP but he nded a hit. Now, he only had to nd one more to finish this.

  I should’ve told her to Dodge Rht away. Yuel frowned. Darn it. Now, this situation became needlessly difficult.

  The good news was that Dark Knight was now below 10% HP, which meant he no longer had access to Gate of Sheol. That was the option Yuel had to seal above all else. However, in the process, Nia ended up putting herself in even more damage than before. She was now o away from dying.

  inally, Yuel wanted her to stay and fight the Dark Knight to the death after the Meteor. However, with the situation ing down to the wire like this, that’d be suicide.

  But, it should be fine. Yuel g the mini-map. Help was on the way, that was the backup pn in case something goes wrong. For now, Nia should just focus oreating.

  "Retreat- huh," Yuel smiled wryly. Nia has already started running away five ho.

  "Guguguuuu," Nia trembled while clutg her troller. It's like she was going through a panic attack from this whole thing

  "o worry at this point," Yuel said. "He has to turn off Nightmare with such low HP and he already spent his Blink, so he ’t catch up to you."

  "I-I don't trust anything you say anymore!" Nia ranted with ragged breathing. It's like she was gasping for air.

  "If my estimation is correct, the Dark Knight should be dropping dead right about... now."

  An enemy has been killed!

  "Eh?" Nia came to a halt. The Dark Knight fell. The demon was defeated. Huh? What? How?

  "You better start recalling."

  "Ah, ht," Nia shook her head auro earth. Even though she just dodged the Dark Knight, this was no time to rex. She only had 20% HP so it was best to get the heck outta there.

  "How did you like that py?" Yuel asked.

  "It was terrible," Nia pouted. It put her through some real stress. She was sure she'd die over a huimes over there. This called for a breather.

  Let's see what I get. Nia blindly fished inside her bag and pulled the first snack she nded on. With her years of experience, she could tell just by the touch it was a bar of ickers.

  "The match isn't over yet, you know," Yuel said.

  "Mfmf." Nia stuffed her mouth with the bar of chocote and quickly bit away at it like a hamster. She couldn't hold her troller properly while doing this, so she stood idle at the base and wasted preatch time.

  "Ah~" A shiver ran through Nia. She could feel the sugar seeping into her veins. A fuzzy feeling enveloped her and made her feel protected, like a warm motherly embrace. Except, her mom wasn't there when she opened her eyes again. Real Life was such a disappointing video game sometimes.

  "Calmed down?" Yuel asked.

  "Mm," Nia gave a small nod and proceeded to purchase a Sentry Ward. She only got enough gold to buy it thanks to the short break she took, so at least that time wasn't in its ey.

  "I admit, I uimated that Dark Knight," Yuel said. "He sure knows how to pilot the css. But, it turned out fine in the end. He didn't have a real way out of that situation. It was checkmate in a couple of moves."

  "How did he die?" Nia checked the log. "Oh, that guy was there?"

  "Yes, the Knight was chasing the Dark Knight the whole time. I saw it on the mini-map so I figured we have to prepare the stage for the Knight. That's why I asked you to cast Meteor despite the risk."

  "You trusted him to do the job? But, st time, he ran away."

  "True, I couldn't tell his iions 100%. But, he had more HP than st time and he was chasing the Dark Knight, so I figured he'll go for it.”

  “Too trusting.”

  “Perhaps. But, you have to rely on your teammates sometimes. After all, you’re both fighting for the same goal. So, it only makes sense he jumped on an opportunity to take out the Dark Knight.”

  “Hm, I guess,” Nia replied vaguely as she returo her didn’t seem like she was entirely vinced yet.

  “Remember, you don’t have to do everything yourself,” Yuel went on. “When you rotate to gank a ’s not just about you attag the enemy. You also got your teammates over there. You have to trust them to do their part of the job.”

  “Risky,” Nia said.

  “True, risky but necessary. It’s a team game for a reason.”

  “Hm,” Nia’s rea remained unclear but, hopefully, she began uanding the cept cooperating with her allies. There were many bad apples o not everybody was an uncooperative scumbag.

  It feels like Kai all ain. Yuel sighed. For whatever reason, both Kai and Nia didn’t uand the basicept of splitting the burden with teammates and relying on others. Kai always went about her pys the hard way and handled everything herself, whereas Nia ht avoided pys she deemed too difficult for her alone.

  Was this a result of pying online alone for too long? At one point in time, Yuel also relied mostly on himself. He was sick of how nobody on his team ever did their job, so he resorted to carrying the team on his own shoulders.

  During that dark age of his past, he absolutely hated pying Support. It was su iing and plex role, yet he couldn’t do anything with it unless his teammates had at least half a brain. Unfortunately, they often didn’t.

  Thankfully, Yuel was blessed with the opportunity to meet Lars. That was when his entire world flipped on its head. He finally got a Carry he could trust and with whom he could pull off strong pys. And, Julia was also there to provide more stability in Mid, even though things weren’t that smooth with her at first.

  Truly, Yuel was lucky to meet Lars and Julia so early in his Cssmancers career. If not for that fateful meeting, he might have grown too used to pying “alone” in this team game. He’d keep hating Support and would try to handle everything himself, just like Kai and Nia.

  Unlike Yuel, Kai and Nia pyed alone for too long before meeting anybody trustworthy to py with. Perhaps, it was harder for them to find kids to py with because they were girls. Or, maybe they just didn’t have the right personalities for reag out to others.

  Either way, they both crawled all the way to Lv.50 with the ive mentality that “teammates were wack” and “nobody could be trusted to do anything”. This caused them to develop terrible habits.

  It was a shell they absolutely had to break out from. On the petitive stage, there was no room for solo py. Everybody had to work together in order to win.

  Five minutes after the enemy Dark Knight fell, Nia’s match reached its clusion. The team pushed hard through Mid and Top until the enemy defenses crumbled. Due to that oh, the Dark Knight gged behind everybody for the rest of the game and became mostly irrelevant. It was like 5v4 game.

  VICTORY

  “Remember this victory,” Yuel said. “I know you still want to pin about the ganks I asked you to do, but you only won the game thanks to them.”

  “Ok,” Nia averted her eyes. She uood what Yuel was saying but it was hard to digest. After all, she almost died in both of these ganks and she failed to get any kills. It was such a pointless risk. It was awful.

  Ahese pys undeniably helped the team win this match. Her ganks, as risky and seemingly pointless as they were, stalled the Dark Knight and didn’t let the demon to get out of trol. So, he never had a ce to grow into a true monster and hunt down other nes. By smithing the Dark Knight down in Top, Nia ily protected herself and her ne from future threats.

  This oute was a world apart from how things pyed out during her entrance exam with the Orc. Back then, she let the Or free and that monster overwhelmed Yuel. After that, the Orc came to hunt everybody else and spread terror throughout the entire map.

  If only Nia listeo Yuel’s advice back then and gahe Orc, perhaps she could’ve prevehat tragedy. Too bad she couldn’t turn back time to find out. Oh well. From now on, she’ll be more open-minded about Yuel’s advice. At least, she’ll try to be...

  DarkestCymore