You have killed an enemy!

  “Woohoo! Let’s go!” Lars pumped a fist. He totally rekt that Berserker. Poor dude didn’t stand a ce.

  “Awesome, dude!” Luke excimed.

  “Magnifit!” Vi added noise. “As expected from the Insa of the Apocalypse! Anyone who dares to stand in his path shall face death!”

  “Good job,” Yuel praised the achievement with flicted feelings.

  It was an ued turn of events. He was so afraid of Lars messing up that he almost celed that push, but Lars surpassed all expectations. Not only did Lars survive, but he even scored a kill on the defehis was a big deal, probably bigger than anybody realized.

  If he take the Golem on top of that- Oh, drat. Yuel’s thoughts were cut short as a new defender showed up in Bot. The enemy had no iion of surrendering the Golem that easily.

  “Whoa!” Lars jumped. A bst of wind was ing straight at him! It was that wind burst spell thingy the Aeromancer used. Where did that thing e from!?

  No matter! I just gotta dodge! Actually, wait. Is it even gonna reach me?

  That wind bst was ing from far away. Lars’s intuition was telling him that the wind will lose all its momentum and disperse before reag him.

  So, there was o panic. Lars could just retreat by foot and keep his Dodge Roll for ter.

  But, just as the thought crossed his mind, a stream of wind formed between him and the ining bst. It was that thingy the Aeromancer always installed to speed up his projectiles!

  “Oh, snap!” Lars excimed. It pletely escaped him in the heat of the moment. Today’s Aeromancer was no normal Aeromancer. It was Nirvana, the dude who has been giving Lars trouble the entire day! And, dude had this one sick setup...!

  “Dang it!” Lars resorted to rolling after all, but it was already too te. The bst of wind smashed into him right before he took off. It struck him hit hard and slowed him down. His split-sed hesitation cost him dearly.

  “Dang it!” Lars dashed the heck outta the Golem area. At least, he wao dash, he really did. But, his legs were like lead. That slowdown from the wind was the real deal.

  BAM! A boulder crashed on his back right before he escaped the area. 15% of his HP vanished on the spot. It hurt, yo!

  Whoa, that Golem dude be mad. Lars smiled wryly.

  This was actually the sed boulder in a row. The Golem attacked Lars once while he was chasing DragonMaster, but that was a calcuted risk. He was already mentally prepared to get smacked by one boulder, but he thought he’d escape the area in time before the sed boulder es. As, that wind slowdown ruined everything.

  Welp, my HP doesn’t feel so good. Lars’s smile shook a little. After getting smashed by a boulder twid also bsted by wind, he was already down to 60% HP. Things were getting a little risky.

  To make things worse, the oppohat appeared in front of him was her than Nirvana, the enemy captain himself. This was gonough.

  “Heh, where did that dude even e from?” Lars grihis Nirvana dude was something else. He had the uny ability to show up at the worst timing possible. How did Vi call this ability, again? Something like “Silent Sniper” or such. It was lit as heck!

  “He must’ve recalled as soon as they started retreating in Top,” Yuel reasoned.

  Nirvana had been fidently pushing Top alongside Renegade and Lapce, but at some point, they suddenly decided to retreat. At the time, their iions weren’t immediately clear.

  It looked more like bait than a sireat. As such, it was difficult to make the right call on that move. And so, Yuel chose to observe the enemy’s movements some more before drawing any clusions.

  As it turned out, Nirvana exploited that brief period of “Fog of War” to recall to base a ready to defend Bot. All of that was happening while Lars was still in the middle of attag DragonMaster, so Nirvana must’ve predicted the oute ahead of time.

  “Silent Backer”, huh. Yuel smiled wryly. As Vi cimed, Nirvana had that kind of skill.

  It was like a mini-Aegis. It didn’t provide perfect map-wide defense, but it definitely had the ability to cover up holes ieam’s formation. Truly, a troublesome ability.

  With this one defensive move, Nirvana single-handedly stopped an ining checkmate. The Bot Lane Golem won’t be colpsing any time soon.

  “Lars, retreat,” Yuel ordered.

  “Yep, already on it,” Lars said. As much as he wao challenge an awesome dude like Nirvana, he khis was her the time nor the pce.

  Nirvana was one heck of a dude. He held Lars down in Bot for three games straight, and he didn’t even crack against Lars’s Trickshooter. So, there’s no way Lars could take on this dude in his owory, not with 60% HP left and without Fan the Hammer.

  ime, yo! Lars promised. ime we meet, I’mma beat ya for sure! He decred as he scrammed. He felt like a cliche vilin who was fleeing the se while yelling “I’ll remember that!” It was a me exit, but he had to run for now. No matter what happens, he absolutely couldn’t let himself die here.

  Lars was the Carry, the one who had to propel the team to victory. If he falls here, the eeam will lose momentum. So, staying alive was far important than recklessly pushing after the Golem.

  And so, Lars ran away and the Bot Golem remaianding with 30% HP. Nirvana successfully put a stop to the intense split-push. But, to make sure the attacker didn’t have any funny ideas, Nirvana made sure to give chase.

  This should be far enough. Raymond stopped chasing. After ing this far, it was clear Gunz was going to retreat, so there was no point in chasing any further. It’s tempting to try and catch him, but I shouldn’t fall for that temptation.

  Despite Raymond’s great HP adva was still very much possible funz to turables on him in a fight. Raymond had already experienced Gunz’s interickshooter st game, and the Gunslihis game was looking just as strong. It was clear Gunz wasn’t the kind of oppoo challehout a decisive advantage.

  Besides, we’re not out of the woods yet. Raymond reasoned. I may have saved the Golem for now, but he’s still low on HP.

  With just 30% HP, the Golem will easily fold to another enemy push. Therefore, it had to be defe any cost.

  “Jaiden, Rio, join me in Bot,” Raymond ordered.

  “Got it,” Jaiden replied for the two of them. They were using the “dead time” to steal the enemy’s Wolf Camp op, but it was time for them to recall.

  “Man, this was such a wild ride.” Jaiden smiled wryly. “One moment, we were going strong in Top. Then, the moment, we’re falling back to defend Bot. What a rollercoaster.”

  “It was a mistake to he split-push for so long,” Rio spoke frankly.

  “Whoa, harsh.” Jaiden smiled awkwardly.

  “I agree, it was a mistake,” Raymond admitted. “I should’ve recalled earlier and ha myself from the start.”

  “Well...” Zeph grumped. “I’m very sorry for being this unreliable.”

  “It’s not your fault,” Raymond said. “At least, irely. You had the least experience fighting Gunz today, so you couldn’t have known what to expect. There’s a big differeween hearing how strong Gunz is and actually fighting him.”

  “Yeah, true dat.” Zeph nodded. No matter how much he heard about Gunz being “amazing”, none of that sunk in until he had to actually front the beast by himself. That’s when he finally realized the immense skill gap between himself and that ex-StormBlitz monster.

  “This game has been a bumpy road, but we’re still alright,” Raymond reassured. “We still have our map trol. Let’s defend Bot and wait for everybody to revive, then we go on the offensive again.”

  “Sounds good.” Jaiden nodded.

  That encement was huge ing from Raymond. The captain had always been a guy of few words and he didn’t like deceiving people. So, when he said the team had a good ce to win here, he meant every word of it.

  Raymond was a skilled pyer with great judgment. As such, his few words were far more reliable than any nonsense Bruce liked to yell, like “We gonna win this for sure! I just know it! Trust my baseless fidence!!!”

  I ’t believe I’ve lived to see the day when Ray ands the team like a real cap. Jaiden almost got teary about it.

  Truth to be told, Raymond had always been one of the seniors Jaiden looked up to. The captain had solid meical skill, sharp deaking, lots of game knowledge, plenty of accumuted experience, and he always retained his cool under any circumstances. He was the kind of well-rounded pyer that Jaiden always aspired to bee.

  Raymond’s only gring fw was his passiveness when leading the club. He handled all the basic responsibilities of a captain without a hitch, but he couldn’t for the life of him deal with the more plex issues. For example, that’s why Bruce’s reign of terror remained unaddressed for so long.

  But, all of that came to aoday. Here and now, in this very scrimmage, Raymond finally burst out of his co and emerged as the powerful leader he was always meant to be!

  With such a reliable leader pulling the team, there was no ce they could lose this game. They had it in the bag! Taurus will emerge victorious in today’s scrimmage!

  DarkestCymore