Aron and Alex successfully killed the enemy Lumimancer, as well as ihe Viking enough to make him recall. The horizon was clear.

  “That was easy,” Alex said.

  “It sure was,” Aron nodded. “I’m still fused about the point behind that rescue attempt.”

  “He tried to save the Lumi, duh.”

  “Obviously, that was the goal. But, Yuel should know better than going for such a hopeless gank. There was no ce of saving the Lumimancer in that situation.”

  “I agree, his ces were bleak,” Alex nodded. “But, it probably looked doable for most people.”

  “Except, Yuel isn’t ‘most people’,” Aron frowned. “He should’ve known that this py won’t fly against me. I was expeg a twist, but there was in mispy.”

  “Are you sure you’re not giving the guy too much credit? He’s only in sed year, right?”

  “Yes, but even as a freshman, his judgment has always been exceptional. This is very mulike him. It’s almost as if his decision was...” Fueled by something other than rational reasoning.

  Aron didn’t dare to voice that thought out loud. That wasn’t the Yuel he knew. As a shot-caller, Yuel’s stro quality was his ability to always think rationally and use objective judgments. So, he couldn’t have possibly regressed into the type of pyer who made emotional decisions out of sheer optimism. Because, if so, he wouldn’t be Yuel anymore.

  “You’re sure making a big deal out of it,” Alex shrugged. “You know, even a broken clock is right twice a day. Maybe he misjudged the situation in the heat of the moment. He had to react fast, so he made a hasty decision.”

  “I suppose that’s possible.”

  “Besides, he nearly got the Lumi out. I’m not so sure you would’ve firmed the kill on your own back there.”

  “I would have gotten the job done if I focused the Lumi,” Aron objected. “But, it was easier to leave her to you. No point pushing myself and risking a mispy.”

  “Either way, you agree that, without me in the picture, there was a slight ce of them getting away, right? Maybe that’s what he was ting on.”

  “It was obvious to everybody that you’ll get involved in that situation,” Arued. “Yuel wouldn’t miss something so obvious.”

  “Maybe he gambled on the ce I won’t make it?”

  “Perhaps,” Aron sighed. “Anyway, we’re getting nowhere so let’s move on.”

  “Agreed,” Alex nodded. With the Lumimancer out of the picture and the Viking back at the base, the Top Turret was there for the taking. "So, we’re taking the Turret with the wave, right?"

  "You take it," Aron turned his bad strode toward the jungle. "I'll use this opportunity to gank Bot."

  "Wait, I'm not sure I take the Turret alone,” Alex said. “The Viking might return to defend."

  "No big deal. You'll take the Turret sooner or ter. We're in no hurry."

  "True, but pushing alone makes it awkward. I don't have any escape tools, remember? And, I spent my Blink too. So, I'll have to stantly watch out for potential ganks. Not fun."

  "Just py safe like you always do and you’ll be fine."

  "What a drag," Alex sighed. He was hoping to score the Turret now and have an easy ride on the ne from there onward, but Aron didn't care for realizing this utopia. Oh well. "So, I guess that Elf pyer is such a big deal?"

  "You put it that way," Aron said. "As long as he's alive, you ever be too sure about anything. He's a wild card. But, if we take him out now, the game is as good as over."

  "Sounds greedy," Alex shrugged. "I rather take the tower in front while I , but you do you."

  "I'm sure you take it alone."

  "We'll see how it goes."

  On that note, Aroop and headed toward Bot through the Jungle.

  "I'm rotating to Bot," Aron announced.

  "Yeah, I heard," Trever nodded.

  "Lure Lars toward me."

  "We really hafta gank him? I take him out myself. He's free as heck today."

  "Oh, really? Then go ahead. I'll wait."

  "Tch, okay, okay," Trever made a face. If it were so easy, he would've kicked Lars’s turtling arse ages ago. But, Lars's defense has been proving to be surprisingly airtight.

  Of course, part of it was Elf being broken with his asiack range. Even an infant could pick up this hax css and shoot arrows from across half the universe. Shit was dumb as fuerfs pls?

  But hey, Trever wasn't some scrubby scrub who'd lose to cheap stuff. He had more than enough experience fighting pesky elves. Especially, experien crushing the smarty-pants pyers who picked Elf for Duel, thinking they gonna cheat the system with Elf's range. Nah-uh, not gonna happen against Trever. He gave them the business every time.

  The ter to Elf was straightforward: just get in and wreck him from cle! Ezpz. Well, it wasn’t that easy in practice, but Trever knew how to be aggressive enough against these campers. After all, he was the WildDragon! He knew how to cause a storm or two.

  heless, the pyers who really knew how to py Elf gave him trouble from time to time. Turned out Lars became one of these filthy campers. The brat's Elf used to be much more active and daring, but now he roperly maintaining his distand all that me shit.

  To make things worse, Lars was still the usual aimbot. So, not only he had asinine ra his shots hit home every siime. His farming was the epitome of Elf effectiveness. Trever could clip that stuff and title it "A PRO ELF PLAYER FARMING LIKE A MAE!!!!" and nobody will doubt it’s legit pro-level material. That's how good it looked.

  So yeah, even for Trever, it wasly easy to deal with Lars’s Elf today. It was unclear what ossessing the kid, but his defense was on-point. He didn't fall for any of the usual baits ahied him to start pushing.

  To make things worse, Lars bought himself some crit after returning to base. The crit ce wasn't high but, but it’ll hurt like hell if it ects. One unlucky shot and Trever will lose like 30% HP.

  Until now, Trever has been enjoying the ez ne advantage. He fearlessly charged in with his cutss and cleared minions from melee range. Lars never dared to shoot him in fear of aggro-ing the minions, so Trever had the leisure to wreak havo the frontlihout fearing anything or anybody.

  However, Lars's newly obtained crit ce ged everything. Now, Trever actually had to be careful, because even a si could be lethal. Lars khat too, so he no longer pyed nice. As soon as Trever approached the edge of Elf’s obnoxious attack range - BAM! A ser beam straight in the chest!

  Nice shot, bastard. Trever grinned but cold sweat formed on his forehead. The aim itch-perfect, even from this range. Luckily, this shot wasn’t a critical hit. Arever lost almost 15% HP from that hit. Damn, I don't wanna find out how much a crit would deal.

  The attack aggro'd Trever's minions on Lars's ass, but Lars dealt with them ly. The brat built high attack power and some of his shots crit'd, so he shot most of the minions down before they reached him.

  Trever could've charged in to attack alongside his goons, but he decided against it. There retty damn good ce Lars will immediately switch focus to Trever and snipe again without fail. Trever could legit die from three unlucky crit hits right now, so advang was too reckless.

  So, this situation didn’t leave Trever with many options. His best shot against an Elf was to get close, but he couldn't approa oppo who had an aimbot installed in his brain. Therefore, the best Trever could do was to maintain his slight ne advantage by clearing minions a little faster. Unfortunately, that didn't move things anywhere.

  "Yeah, to be ho, a gank would be rever finally accepted Aron’s offer. "So, you just need me t Lars into the jungle?"

  "Yes, that'd be ideal," Aron said. "I don't have my ult, so my options are limited. It's best to force him into an area from which he'll find it hard to escape."

  "Roger," Trever saluted. "Food delivery ing in a minute. Don't fet to prepare your tip."

  "You make baiting sound so easy."

  ", it's Lars we're talking about. He's even easier to bait than me, haha."

  "I'm gd you're so self-aware," Aron frowned. "How about your work on that fw of yours?"

  "'t fix my geics, man," Trever ughed it off. "Anyway, I'm on it. Show me where you want your food delivery and I'll get it there."

  "Somewhere around here would be ideal," Aron drew an area on the mini-map.

  "Gotcha. Food ining!" Now, all Trever had to do was lure Lars into the jungle. A little taunt should do the trick.

  When the minion wave arrived, Trever advao the frontlih a cutss in hand.

  Crit damage? Trever sneered. Pft, who cares about that flesh wound? I’m going all in! Pulling all the stops! Not scared of you!

  That's the story Trever tried to sell to Lars by doing an in-game taunt and advang to the frontli was just a bait, he had no iion of truly putting himself at daherefore, he stopped advang a little early.

  ZIP! A ser beam flew straight at him! But, it vanished into thin air right in front of his nose.

  As absurd as Elf's attack range was, it still had a limit like every other shot. With Trever’s experience dueling this crappy css, he could more or less see that rah the naked eye. So, as soon as he stepped into the danger zone, he backpedaled out of Lars's. By the time the ser reached him, he was already out e. This kind of pro py should ght into a "Top 10 Pys" video. Too bad nobody was there to withis sick move.

  Heh, you mad? Trever stepped within Lars's attack range again. ZIP! Another ser! But, it failed to reach again. Trever stepped outside the attack range in the nick of time.

  You ain't gon me like that, kid. Trever kept repeating this taunt over and over. He stepped in, then immediately stepped out.

  , turtle. e here. Trever grinned. Any moment now.

  "Dang it!" Lars missed another shot. Or, more accurately, his shot failed to reach the target. One sed, Trever was cleary within range and the beam traveled right at him. Yet, in the end, it failed to reach. WHAY!?!?!?!?

  Grrr, dude is toying with me. Lars grumbled. He really wao get some big hits on Trever to pay back for their previous fight, but dude kept sneaking outta range. Dang it!

  I know I just ignore his shenanigans, but... Actually, no. No way I ighis, yo! Lars had to get at least some damage in. Even with his new crit item, he was still behind in terms of wave clearing speed. So, he had to get something going.

  Trever was himself on a silver ptter over there, so Lars just had to get his ser beams to ect. Ohey nd, they’ll wreck the heck outta Trever's HP. Therefore, Lars absolutely had to make something happen here! It was su awesome opportunity!

  But, I ain't hitting nothing as long as he moonwalks outta range every time. Lars clicked his tongue.

  To make matters worse, Trever started shooting while moving. Of course, he didn't shoot Lars due to the big distaween them, but dude had no trouble reag Lars’s swordsmen with his bullets. So, every time Lars whiffed a shot, Trever used that time window to snipe a minion. Then, right before it was Lars's turn to shoot again, Trever walked into attack range again and stole the spotlight, making Lars whiff yet another shot...

  Ya really hate Elf, doncha? That's why ya py like this. Lars smiled wryly.

  Truth to be told, Elf retty damn annoying css to deal with. Dude’s range was that of a sniper, so Elf pyers always camped far in the bad snipped people from half a map away. Basically, exactly what Lars was doing right now.

  I became the evil I swore to destroy. Lars chuckled. A few months ago, pying defensively like this would have been unfathomable for him. After all, he was always all about dat sweet, sweet offense. Blitzing into the fray, getting some shots in, bam, bem, boom, and done! Get the kill a out. That’s how true fights were meant to be!

  However, su approach didn't quite work for Elf. This dude had super le but his attack speed was nothing to write home about. And, in general, dude was kinda me during the early-game. Lars used to py offense as Elf in that past, but that always blew up in his face.

  So, he always thought Elf was a me css. But, the seleatch against Ellen taught him an important lesson: defense was kinda important too. No matter how strong he was, he couldn't just charge in and win against any oppo. Even if he was “stronger”, the enemy could beat him by pying smart defense or by baiting Lars into dumb stuff. That's how Ellen got him every siime during the seleatch.

  That's why Lars had to py more patiently. He had to stay in the back at first and calmly assess the situation. He’ll only start charging in once he's absolutely sure he get things done.

  It turned out Elf was one of the best csses for pying like that. It gave Lars the leisure to kick bad observe his prey from afar while getting them minions cleared. It was ez life.

  Most of the time, this id-back attitude riled up the oppos and they opened an atta him. From there, Lars just had to catch them overextending and turables on them. Pulling that off always felt hel good! It totally made up for having to py like a passive turtle at first. Mounting that sweet ter was satisfying as heck, yuess that's how they recruited me into this Turtling Elves cult. Lars smiled wryly. This strat worked pretty well, so he started employing it more often. Yuel enced him a lot too, so at some point Elf became one of Lars's frequent picks. It might even join the ranks of Trickshooter and Gunslinger one day.

  But, for now, it was still a work-in-progress with many rough edges. Experienced oppos snuck by Lars's range advantage and forced the fight into closer quarters. In those, Elf had a tremendous disadvantage pared to most marksmen, and Trever did exactly that the st time they cshed. Dude was an avid Elf Hater, so he knew how to hahis turtling.

  Fortunately, Lars dodged a bullet back then and got outta that desperate situation alive. It was a testament to how much he has been pying Elf over the past month. His defeually became pretty damn solid. Even the supreme criticizer, the guy who pined about every small mispy Lars ever made, praised Lars a few times for his well-executed defensive pys. Hell yeah!

  With all that said, Lars still wao score 'em kills. After all, pying defense all day won't win him the game. He had to go on the offe some point.

  That's why, he absolutely gotta nd shots on Trever while that cocky senior was showing an opening. Dude opping his head in and out, as if asking to be shot. So, Lars gonna drill him with ser beams!

  DarkestCymore