The third game between Stratus and Taurus began.

  The opening proceeded smoothly without any ued developments. The eeam didn't invade and Yuel advised his team against invading as well. It was better to py it safe until they get more intel on their new oppos

  For this team position, the early-game was everything. Failing an early invade would doom them for the rest of the game. The risk was too high. So, they didn’t do that.

  Yuel finished clearing the Wraiths and Wolves together with Nia, then proceeded to his ne. And so, his battle with DragonMaster began.

  So, how do you pn to e at me this time? Yuel brimmed with anticipation.

  DragonMaster didn't give up on his Dragonbore suffering a devastati st game. So, he must’ve had some sort of pn. What challenges will he throw at Yuel this time? Yuel braced himself for impact.

  As, all that followed was a disappoi. DragonMaster didn't try anything special. In fact, he hasn't done much at all. He simply turtled, making it clear he was still wary of Yuel's Dark Knight.

  So, he gave up? Yuel had a hard time believing that. DragonMaster struck him as the type who hated losing. Pyers like that would keep searg for ways to win until the bitter end. More than anything, the fact he stuck with Dragonborn implied the guy came up with something.

  But, what could it possibly be? Maybe it'll only e into py ter down the road?

  Maybe he's waiting for me to wear myself out, then he’ll start an attack with his ult. Out of all the possibilities, Yuel could e up with, that one seemed the most sensible. Frankly, he didn't have enough information to work with. All he could do ecute based on what little data he had on his hands at the moment.

  I better dial down my aggression once my HP falls down to 50%. Yuel o himself.

  For a while, he has been unleashiating attacks on the enemy minions, as any Dark Knight pyer should. Unfortunately, repeated uses of Dark Bst drained his HP. Therefore, he had to slow dowime.

  But, even as Yuel hit 50%, DragonMaster showed no signs of attag. The enemy’s new Jungler, StormMonster, gahe ne a couple of times, but Yuel elegantly disengaged every time. In the end, there wasn’t much development in Top.

  Meanwhile, Bot Lane had sparks flying all around it. The situation was quite charged. Even though they were fighting inside a video game, the animosity in the air mao ihat virtual world. Vi could feel it with every bone in his body.

  They're like mad dogs who aim for each other's neck. Vi gulped. This situation was like a tig bomb.

  How did things e to this? Dr. Bckhole shall expin.

  The enemy's first direct strike at Kai actually happened before the game loaded, back when they bahe Impaler. It was obvious Taurus targeted Kai with that ban. That iicked her off a little, but it was alright. She had no qualms about pying Pirate.

  That ban alone was no more than throwing a pebble into the water. It created small ripples, but it wasn't enough to gee a real wave. It merely pnted a little bit of irritation in Kai’s mind, nothing more.

  The real offense came after that. The enemy Carry, one Mr. Renegade, has been disrespeg Kai from the moment the game began. He ying Gunslinger, a css that barely had any options us belt until mid-game. By all ats, a Gunslinger pyer should be wary of a Pirate during the early-game.

  But, not this Gunslinger, nade. He seized every little opportunity to fire shots at Kai. Needless to say, Kai wasn't thrilled about this in the slightest.

  "Damn!" Kai cursed as a bullet pierced her arm. She tried to sidestep the ining shot, but she was half a beat too te. Somehow, that Gunslinger’s shots always ected. What the hell was going on!?

  "Heh, just like I thought," Jaideed to his partner. "She's good at dodging secutive shots, but she oftes hit by the first shot. She's pretty good at predig."

  "I see," Rio nodded. "So, we better poke her to death."

  "Yep, exactly," Jaiden grinned proudly, satisfied with his scouting work. Beat’s dodges were a mystery that has been weighing on Jaiden’s mind ever since he saw Bruce fighti.

  Bruce had many fws, but he wasn’t a weak fighter. He wouldn't let some girl kick his ass for no good reason. Therefore, there has to be some sort of trick to Beat’s timely evasion.

  Jaiden couldn't tell horedicted shots, but at least he verified that her method didn't work on the very first shot. She had to be shot multiple times in a row before she could start dodging. So, Jaiden simply denied her such opportunities. He fired one bullet at a time, without any immediate follow-ups

  Every time a new minion wave arrived, Jaiden first focused on clearing it. He booted Fan the Hammer and nded critical headshots on the minions. It was tricky to nail all these headshots even against such predictable targets, but Jaiden has practiced enough to pull it off.

  Right before Jaiden pletely annihited the enemy wave, he searched for an opportunity to deliver an attack. Beat was busy clearing minions, so she had to let down her guard a little while she was trated oask.

  Especially, there was a brief moment during which pyers often became vulnerable without notig. It happened right before the minion wave was pletely gohe pyer always developed the "I'm almost doh this wave!" feeling. It clouded their judgment for just a moment, but it was more than enough to give Jaiden the opening he was searg for.

  As expected, Beat was no exception to that rule. Maybe she knew a thing or two about the game, but she wasn't petitive material, let alone captain material. She was ez.

  I'll make her uand through this match. Jaiden promised as he fired another bullet BAM.

  "Again!?" Kai didn't eve a ce to sidestep this one. Even though she was on guard against these loose shots, another one snuder the radar and pierced her stomach.

  What's the timing on this shit!? Kai bit her lip. This was annoying.

  The enemy fired only two bullets a minute, one bullet for each wave. Kai couldn't grasp a pattern from that. For all she khere was none. Renegade randomly shot her whenever he felt like it and his shots magically ected every time. All these random shots have already brought her down to 80% HP. Dammit!

  "Hey Vince, 't you do something about this?" Kai demanded.

  "I sincerely apologize for my ck of support," Vi replied. He wao help, but there roblem. Padin was a melee Support, so Vi stantly had to retreat from the frontline before all the ratackers trated their fire on him. As such, he never had an opportunity to do anything for Kai.

  Of course, he could do something random like fire a Justice Strike at Renegade. But, a Gunslinger didn't rely mu skills aside from Fan the Hammer, and Renegade always stayed out e before casting it. So, hitting that fellow with Justice Strike will earn them nothing. It’ll merely trigger the enemy minions and make Vi lose a lot of HP.

  What should one do in such a predit? Vi asked himself time and again. He had little experience against bold oppos who focused on the Carry this hard. Most oppos targeted Vi wheepped onto the frontline, but nade. This guy was dead set on hitti and nobody else.

  "O, great Chessmaster," Vi summohe evil god of tactical knowledge. "Please advise this little lost mb."

  "Hmm," Yuel carefully sidered the situation after getting all the details. It would have beeo observe the situation from up close, but that was impossible to do from the opposite side of the map. So, he had to fully trust Vi's description of the situation.

  The gist of the issue was the Carry’s focused aggression on Kai. It was rare to see this approach at this level of py. It was a risky game pn. And, a cocky ooo. It implied Renegade had full fidence about winning these exges. He wasn’t scared of Kai in the slightest.

  Against a game pn like this, a melee Support like Padin indeed had trouble helping out. But, there were some methods. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough data to work with. Yuel couldn’t make an educated decision.

  It called for experimentation. Vi will have to stick out his ne front of the guillotio test the enemy out. Their response will give Yuel more valuable data to work with.

  “So, I have to research our foes?” Vi sounded excited. “Leave it to me! Information gathering is as natural as breathing for the Information Bckhole!”

  “Are you even gonna find anything?” Kai made a face. Somehow, she didn’t see it happening. Vi was great at gathering ihat much was true. But, his intel usually praised pyers instead of exposing their weaknesses.

  In a situation like this, Yuel would have been a much more dependable Support. If only the guy wasn’t stubborn about pying Support for Lars...

  It’s like he’s also looking down on me. Kai ched her mouse, threatening to crush it. It was obvious that Yuel didn’t want to py Support for Kai because he didn’t find her worthy to be the team’s Carry. He didn’t want to waste his efforts on somebody like her.

  And, that Renegade bastard was thinking along the same lines. He was aggressing on Kai without a single care in the world, as if she was a Bronze rank scrub pared to him. Unfivable!

  You wanna go? The's go! Kai roared internally and stepped forward. She gonna drill a thousand bullets into that bastard!

  "Wait, that's-" Vi's plea was overshadowed by the loud sound of gunfire.

  BAM! Kai fired! However, her bullet failed to graze her target.

  "So it begins," Jaiden smiled meaningfully. "Rio, you ready? I'll try luring her."

  "Go for it," Rio nodded.

  "Let's see what she got," Jaiden took a fighting stance. He has been waiting for this moment all this time. Ever since he learhat Stratus had a girl for a captain, he had the urge to give her a good beating.

  BAM! Jaiden fired back. A hit.

  "Geh, you little...!" Kai stepped in even further and fired.

  "Whoa, dangerous!" Jaiden sidestepped the attack. He was maintaining the maximal distaweeo give himself enough time to react. That allowed him to dodge the girl's ining shots.

  As soon as the enemy's shot whiffed, Jaiden fired babsp;

  I got it this time! Kai sidestepped the ining shot. It was a quick ter, the likes only skilled pyers could deliver. Kai accumuted plenty of experieh those from sparring with Lars, so she was ready.

  "Whoopsie," Jaiden realized his mistake too te. He fired that quick ter like a robot. It was a swift shot, arguably the most optimal ter the world has ever witnessed! But, it redictable.

  There weren't that many pyers out there who could read shots like this a to them in time, but some existed. Jaiden has met some before, especially in the Challenger division.

  Against oppos like that, it was best to mix up the shots. It meant sacrifig some attack speed, but a deyed shot had a much higher ce of hitting oppos who based their dodges oion. A deyed shot had an uable timing, so it made living hell for these guys.

  BAM! A bullet dug into Jaiden's side. It unishment for the shot he has just whiffed.

  Yep, I deserved that. Jaiden o himself. He took a deep breath, waited for a moment, then pulled the- Oh, look. She's already moving. Heh, just like I thought.

  Jaiden adjusted his aim a little to catch his sidestepping target. BAM! Perfect hit!

  "Wha-!?" Kai grimaced. Did she mistime the sidestep? No, she should've moved with the exact same timing as st time. Then, maybe I didn’t have the timing right all along? Maybe the previous dodge was a fluke. Anyway, I gotta tune myself fast.

  Now that Kai ate a shot, it was time to ter. She fired back as soon as she collected herself. Unfortunately, the shock she received from being hit slowed her down just enough to give the eime to sidestep the ter.

  Nice shot, but a little too slow. Jaiden effortlessly sidestepped the deyed shot. This girl isn’t terrible. She got some stuff going for her. But, captain? Please. I’ll put yht in your pce!

  Beat wasn't the girl who cheated her way into StormBlitz at his expense. Jaidehat. This wasn’t the girl the one who robbed him of his important opportunity.

  But, there was no doubt that Beat acquired her captain position through simir trickery. She must have used the excuse of being a “female senior” to get the sympathy of the boys or something like that. Despicable.

  If you think you deserve to be the captain, then prove it to me. Jaiden demanded. Show me you get things dory to me! I dare you.

  And so, the two haters crossed bdes. Kai, who hated any guy who looked down on her for being a girl, and Jaiden, who hated any girl who preteo be a big shot. Will their hatred lend them strength? Or, will it cloud their judgment?

  DarkestCymore