"I'm rotating," Nia finally gathered the ce.

  "Good," Yuel hen quietly sighed in relief. Okay, I think my attempt at pep talk worked. Now, we take out this Dark Knight food. I didn't tell Nia, but the guy has beeier aer throughout the match. We o shut him down now, before he gets out of hand.

  I gotta get there fast. Nia thought to herself as she traversed through the jungle. Ah, but they got a ward somewhere in here, right? That’s how they saw me ing st time. Hmm.

  " I take the long path?" Nia asked. "I think there's a ward here somewhere."

  "There's no rush," Yuel said. "Use the best route you find."

  "Ok," Nia carefully analyzed the mini-map. There were a couple of interses that served as on warding spots. Mainly, the pathways around the Overlord's camp.

  The evil boss hasn't spawned yet, but multiple juhs intersected nicely around his camp. In fact, they were so hat Nia tried to rush to Top through one of them st time. So, the enemy’s ward was most likely somewhere around there.

  If they're warding there, they're probably not warding around our camps. Nia cluded. There was no hard limit on the number of wards a team could pce at the same time, but each pyer could only carry two normal Wards at a time. So, if they wao spam wards, they'd have to keep recalling to base and buy new ones.

  Nobody loved warding so much that they'd gh all that trouble. Besides, it cost a pretty penny. So, assuming the enemy warded the Overlord’s camp and their side of the ju should leave Stratus’s jungle mostly devoid of enemy wards.

  Ok, so I take this route. Instead of heading straight to Top, Nia circled around allied jungle camps until she finally reached the ne.

  Ok, here goes. She took a deep breath and activated Shadow e. She pondered for a moment whether to send the e to the ne, but ultimately decided against it.

  Sending the e to the ne was a good bait against aggressive and fident oppos. This usually fell for it and focused their attacks on the e, allowing Nia to sneak on them.

  But, acc to Yuel, this Dark Knight was a defensive pyer. So, he'll probably retreat at the first sight of her e.

  Sorry, my sister. You have to go over there. Nia sewin sister deep into the jungle, o be seen again. The e was unnecessary for this gank. All Nia needed from the Shadow e skill was the stealth it granted.

  Ok, careful now. ered the ne while stealthed. She was already so close to her target, yet the Dark Knight couldn't see her.

  Now, do I hit him once? Or, do I just Izuna? Nia pohe cssic setup was to nd one basic attack to proc Imperial Spear, then follow up with Izuna Drop. But, this setup wasn't 100% guaranteed, as proven by Lars’s inhumaion before.

  This was the petitive stage. The oppos were top-notch. So, there was a e of them could pull a Lars and dodge her setup. Scary.

  "Go for the full setup," Yuel said. "I doubt he got the meical skill to dodge the Izuna."

  "Ah," Nia blinked for a moment. How did Yuel know what she was mulling over? Mind-reading alien firmed! Scary.

  Ok, here goes...! Nia emerged from the darkness and sshed!

  "Wha-!?" Zeph jumped. An attack!? From where!? There was nobody behind him the st time he checked. And, he was the type to often g the jungle, so nobody should've slipped past him. Yet, somebody did! In other words, it an unseen foe.

  Fuck, it's the Ninja! Zeph figured. Gotta get the hell out before I get Izuna'd! He pressed space to perform a Dodge Roll, but it was too te.

  The Ninja locked her arms around the big knight and leaped toward the sky. They spun around like a fidget spinner on steroids, then crashed into the ground. It left Zeph at 40% HP. Fu' great.

  And, that wasn't even the end of it. As soon as Zeph recovered from the fall, a taunt effect reached him.

  "Let us fight honorably!" the Knight pointed his bde at Zeph.

  What do you mean "honorably"? It's a 2v1 here! Damn it. Zeph ranted internally. The taunt forced his Dark Knight to chase the Knight and throw out basic attacks. Zeph temporarily lost all trol over his character. The enemy didn't waste this opportunity and struck hard.

  "Fuck it," Zeph dropped ba his chair. It was over. The faster he dies, the faster he'll respawn. There was no poiing at this point. He was dead.

  Did he give up? Yuel wondered. After the taunt wore off, the Dark Knight got a brief moment of freedom to act. He could attempt to roll away, but he chose to do nothing. Well, it's over for him either way. It just makes things easier for us.

  An enemy has been killed!

  FIRST BLOOD!

  Nia delivered the final blow. The girl liked sg kills, so Yuel let her have this one. Besides, her gank was what ehis py and she dealt most of the damage to the Dark Knight. Yuel just tagged along to help things go smoother.

  "I-I did it!" Nia trembled.

  "Woohoo!" Lars made noise. "Nice kill, dude! We’re ro’ this!"

  "Marvelous!" Vi hyperventited. "As expected from the Vanishing Phantom! Silent, but deadly!"

  "It's Vanishing Flower, though..." Nia mumbled. Her cheeks felt a little hot. I-I just scored a kill! W-Well, it’s not such a big deal, right? I mean, I get kills all the time. So, why does it feel so... gufufufu!

  Her heart raced and her body shook like she was having a spasm. It was just one kill, she scored plenty of those before. Yet, it felt like her first time all ain. That satisfying feeling of sneaking up to an unsuspeg oppo and striking them down before they realize what happened. It was the first time she pulled it off on such a grand stage, against a strong petitive oppo!

  Maybe I do it after all. Nia ched her mouse. Maybe I py petitively too!

  "Good job," Kai gratuted briefly, theuro the game.

  "Nicely done." Evehe bully who only ever had mean things to say, raising Nia for this achievement. It felt great!

  Then, what about the audiehey must have all seen that fwless dispy of skill! They must be thinking Nia was some sort of genius, huehue.

  "Lame kill." Julia crossed her arms. "Is that DK blind or something? That gank was so obvious."

  "Hmm. Was it, really?" Pip scribbled in his notebook. He drew an ellipse, a rough illustration of the game's mini-map. Then, he added some jungle walls in the form of thick lines. Finally, he drew a line from Mid to Top through the jungle.

  "I believe her rotation to Top looked something like this?" Pip showed the path to Julia.

  "Something like that," Julia couldn't tell for sure. She was too busy watg the ners fight at the time. Especially, Lars. Why was he pying in Mid? And, why wasn't he mopping the floor with that Nirvana guy? Just, why...?

  "That’s roughly how the Ninja rotated to Top," Pip tinued. "But, Taurus only got wards here, here, and over here. So, she slipped by most of them ued. The st ward would’ve caught her, but she was already ih at the time. I think that's why the Dark Knight didn't see it ing."

  "Huh," Julia carefully examined Pip's scribbling. The sense of art left much to be desired, but at least it got the point across.

  That girl sure chose an odd route. Julia thought. Instead of heading straight to Top like a good Jungler would, the Ninja took a detour that passed through allied territory. It was a huge waste of time.

  heless, it was thanks to this peculiar route that the Ninja avoided all enemy wards. By eluding the enemy’s eyes, she secured herself a kill. It made up for the time she spent on her roundabout rotation route.

  "It's probably a fluke," Julia cluded. "Maybe she was going for one of the camps and only then realized she should go gank."

  "But, the camps over there were on cooldown," Pip pointed out.

  "Well, this team isly the sharpest tool in the shed, remember? Besides, the wraiths have already spawned, so maybe she nning to wait for them. As a Jungler, it's a pain to always run around like a headless chi. Sometimes, it's easier to stop for a while and wait a few seds for a camp to respawn."

  "Yes, you're absolutely right, ma'am!" Pip saluted, seemingly impressed with Julia's words of wisdom.

  Whatever it was, she wouldn't have gotten past my warding. Julia gred at the Ninja on the s. That bck-haired Rapunzel didn't stand a ce against Julia. I hope Lars isn’t thinking that girl is any good, because I'm way better.

  Meanwhile, in Taurus's camp...

  "Hey, Zephy!" Bruce thundered. "The hell was that shit, huh? Did you just let some chick beat ya?"

  "Not my fault," Zeph gnced aside. "She appeared outta nowhere and it became a 1v2.”

  "Should've bought Stealth Wards, idiot."

  "With what money, exactly? I got enough now, but at game start? It’s either oealth Ward or two normal Wards."

  "Should've made the right call, fam,” Bruce shrugged. “Also, I see you barely made any progress ohe fuck, man? How you get that little tower damage with DK? You’re pying the css with the highest early damage, but you’re hitting like a lil’ bitch."

  "I told you DK isly my best css," Zeph ranted. "Besides, this Knight pyer... He's pretty good."

  "He's what?" Bruce spat a ugh. "Hold up right there, man. Do you even remember what team we're pying again? It's Stratus, ya know? The weakest team, remember? It ain't got any good pyers. Even their captain is a chick because all of them are damn cucks."

  "I was surprised too, but that bastard is really good. He tered a lot of my stuff."

  "Spare me yo excuses. You fucked up, just admit it."

  "Sure, whatever," Zeph sighed. There was no ging Bruce's mind anyway. But, that didn't mean Zeph will go down without throwing any dirt back. "Okay, then they're all scrubs, right? So, where are your kills at? And, your amazing ne advantage? I don’t see shit."

  "Huh?" Bruce's face torted.

  ", it should be easy for you to win the ne against these ‘scrubs’, right?"

  "Yeah, these guys are nothing," Bruce cimed with a straight face. "I'm just taking my time with them. Pying with my food, ya dig?"

  "Sure," Zeph rolled his eyes. Thankfully, Bruce didn't see that gesture because he was too trated on the game. The situation in Bot was far from hot. So much for stomping some “scrubs”.

  I have a feeling he go his words soohought. The enemy Impaler seemed like a fairly strong pyer, possibly on par with Chessmaster. She arently the team’s cap. Zeph and the rest ughed at how Stratus was run by a girl, but this damn chick packed a punch.

  We called these guys trash, but look how we faring against them. Zeph thhly examihe status s and the mini-map. He has already purchased everything he needed from the shop, so he didn't have anythier to do while waiting to respawn. Might as well kill some time looking at the numbers.

  In Top, Zeph died and gave the enemy a great opportunity to push. The Knight and Ninja joined forces and rushed Zeph's tower. They brought it down to 70%, then scrammed before they got their asses ganked.

  Shit, my tot lower health now. Zeph clicked his tongue. He has been w so hard to establish ne advantage, yet the enemy overthrew it in a single push. Such bullshit. Top Lane was done for.

  , in Mid, the enemy had some random dude named Gunz. He was fighting Taurus' captain, the big boi Raymond. They were actively firing bad forth, but her side established a clear advantage. In short, it was a stalemate.

  These guys actually got someone who give Ray a run for his money? Zeph couldn't believe it. Raymond was the best pyer in the club, no question about it. He was more dedicated to the game than any other senior, so he was supposed to be the team’s powerhouse, the unstoppable force that’d propel the team to the top.

  Yet, Raymond was struggling against somebody from a lowly team like Stratus. The heck was going on here? Was this some sorta bad dream? Was Zeph still sleeping or something? his was real life.

  Is it just me, or Stratus is looking kinda strht now? Where the heck did they get all these good pyers? Zeph couldn't his head around this. Was their enemy really that good? Or, maybe the fault id with Taurus. Maybe this year they were straight trash.

  Nah, no way. Zeph dismissed the thought. It's the guys from Stratus pying way better than they should be allowed to.

  Anyway, to summarize, the enemy gained an advantage in Top and enforced a stalemate in Mid. So, the course of this game depended on the result in Bot. Will Bruce prove he's a man and crush that captain chick? Or, will he eat his own words a his ass whooped?

  Either way, Zeph will get a good ugh outta it.

  DarkestCymore