VICTORY

  A predictable oute that was way overdue. This game could’ve ended 5~10 minutes earlier if only the shot-caller bothered to e up with a proper pn of attack. Instead, the guy chose to wait and watch the enemy suffer, as he often did. So unnecessary.

  “Finally, it’s over.” William sighed. It was rgely thanks to him that they finally ed up this game. If it were up to Cato, they’d tihis pointless game for at least 40 more minutes.

  “Dang, I lost again!” Ronald held his head. “Bro, what the heck? You’re 4 whole kills ahead of me! How do you always get so many!?”

  “I just kill,” William answered pinly. There was no magivolved. The strong simply crushed the weak, that’s how it worked.

  With the long game finally over, the team walked off the stage aered their waiting room. The coach, Ruez, was already waiting to review the game.

  Cato, William, Ronald, Sonya, and Matthew all lined up in front of the coach to be judged. It was supposed to be but a brief game review, but they were mentally prepared for being chewed out. That’s how these things usually went.

  “Good work,” Ruez opened with praise, but everybody knew what’s going to follow. Whehe versation started on a positive note, a blow of criticism always followed soon after.

  At least, I should be in the clear. Cato thought. He believed he was critical enough of his own performao know whether he itted any grave mistakes. As...

  “First of all,” Ruez started. “Why did the game go on for so long? You’ve had the decisive advantage for a long time. Why does it always take you so long to things up?”

  “Because a certain somebody didn’t feel like ending it,” Sonya answered pinly. Everybody knew who she was referring to, but she elegantly avoided pointing fingers. A sly ohat girl.

  “Yes, yes.” Cato raised a hand. “I didn’t make any shot-calls for ending the game sooner. My bad.”

  “It always es back to you, doesn’t it.” Ruez frowned.

  “Ehe~” iled pyfully. “Well, officially, our team doesn’t really have a shot-caller, does it? So, you ’t really pin it on me.”

  “You’re partially to bme if you realized the team was dragging the game out and you didn’t say anything about it.”

  “Then, what if I thought we were proceeding at a good pace? Am I in the clear then?”

  “Yes, in that case, you’d be clear on this at,” Ruez said. “But, then I'll be worried about your uanding of the game’s pace. It sounds like a 3-hour lecture oopic is in order.”

  “Ahaha, I cede then,” Cato replied immediately. “Yes, I realized we were dragging our feet a little but I just let it happen.”

  “A ‘little’ is an uatement. The game sted almost twice as long as it should’ve.”

  “Perhaps.” Cato raised a finger. “But, our team is more ined toward defense, right? So, ing up games quickly isly our expertise, am I right?” He turo the others for support.

  “..................”

  Yes, quite the splendid support it was. William and Sonya made faces of “Are you serious?” while Ronald knotted his brows and fell deep in thought. Apparently, the question overclocked his peanut brain.

  Only one rade here could be trusted to support Cato’s agenda. Unfortunately, that fellow was too passive for his own good...

  “I kinda like taking it slow and easy,” Matthew said. “So, I don’t really miher way.”

  “Eeeeeh...” Cato twisted his lips. ly the support I was looking for. He gets an A for effort, I suppose.

  “It doesn’t sound like all of you are on the same page here,” Ruez pointed out. “In fact, I’d say the majority seems to be against you.”

  “It kinda does, doesn’t it? Ahaha...” Cato ughed dryly. “All these rebels going up against their captain. Shame on you.”

  “There’s a differeween ‘captain’ and ‘dictator’, I’ve told you that a huimes. Just because Cato is the captain, it doesn’t mean everybody is obligated to agree with every decision he makes.”

  Ruez eyed the kids in order, to make sure he properly drilled the message into ead every one of them. He had dohat many times by now, yet it seemed like this particur message refused to engrave itself onto their brains. Even today, they left most of the shot-calling responsibilities to Cato, for the better or the worse.

  “As Cato said, I didn’t nominate any of your to be the team’s shot-caller. Naturally, some of you are bound to call shots more often than others. But regardless, none of you should be sidered the ‘voice of authority’ oter. If you find yourself disagreeing with somebody’s call, you must say so.”

  “Right, right.” Cato nodded. “So, maybe I’m partially responsible here, but it’s not really my fault. After all, I’m not the official shot-caller~”

  “Oh?” Sonya cocked her head. “So, you’re saying we should just ignore your calls whenever we feel like it? Noted.”

  “Wait, wait, wait! That’s taking it too far!” Cato backpedaled. “Let’s just say you’re free to raise an obje every on a while. Yeah, that sounds good. Mhm.”

  “As I always say,” Ruez reminded. “Voice objes as much as you deem necessary, as long as it doesn’t distract the team too much. You all bring your own game knowledge and experieo the table, so you ought to share it with each other to maximize the team’s performano matter how good somebody is at shot-calling, they’ll never be perfect.”

  The kids were probably already tired of hearing these same lines over and over, but Ruez couldn’t stress enough how important this topic was. They simply hadn’t realized the gravity of the matter yet because their scrimmages were too easy so far.

  Ohey run int oppos, then they’ll realize how much their passiveness cost them. Hopefully, it won’t happen too te in their career, or else they’ll find themselves struggling to adapt during a critical game. It may cost them aire petition.

  But, that was a long-term problem. Ruez will have plenty of opportuo lecture them oopic ter. For now, it was best to focus on the problems staring right in their faces.

  “On aopic.” Rodiguez turo the biggest troublemaker of the day. “Ron, I uand you think your oppos today aren’t at your level?”

  “Well, duh. Like, I don’t wanna throw shade or anything, but these guys are clearly no match for us.”

  “Hmm. Yes, that much is true. But, is that a reason to turn the game into a killing race between you and your brother?”

  “Weeeelp, about that…” Ronald g his big bro with an awkward smile. Help me out here, bro!

  “Hmph.” William simply averted his eyes.

  So cruel! Ronald was on the verge of tears. To think that his dear brother has forsaken him at this critical moment!

  “Well, I do feel a little bad for these dudes and all, but…” Ronald stumbled over his words. He didn’t actually think he did anything wrong, but it retty dang hard to justify these as in words. It sounded like bullying no matter how he phrased it.

  “Don’t get me wrong,” Ruez said. “I don’t n you for pying a mini-game to keep yourself motivated. It’s ly the most respectful attitude toward your oppos, but things like that are iable when the skill gap is so big.”

  “Yeah, yeah! Exactly!” Ronald nodded repeatedly. “So, I’m in the clear, right? Right?”

  “On that particur at, yes. But, that’s not the issue here. If I had a problem with your killing races, I would’ve addressed them much earlier.”

  “Oh, now that you mention it, that’s true. I’ve been doing that every game so far, but it’s the first time I’ve been called out on it.”

  “You seem to have slight issues with your short-term memories, young man,” Ruez said. “I believe this is the sed time I bring up this topic today.”

  “Really?” Ronald tilted his head. “Ooooh! Yeah, I think you said something about it st game, didn’t you?

  “My, this kid got the memory of a sieve,” mented.

  “Hey, it’s not my fault!” Ronald cimed. “I was half asleep after that game, that’s how b it was. And, this one wasn’t aer, to be ho.” He yawo support his case.

  “If that’s the case,” Ruez started. “Maybe I should prepare a bucket with cold water?”

  “o!” Ronald waved his hands. “Everything is A-Okay, coach! I was a little sleepy a moment ago, but now I’m 100% awake!”

  “That’s good to hear.” Ruez nodded. “Anyway, as much it paio hear, it seems my previous criticism went in one ear and out of the other.”

  “Apologizes, sir!” Ronald saluted. “I’m all ears, sir!”

  The “bucket of cold water” was y threat. Ruez did that once before during the previous scrimmage. It came as a shock to everybody, but especially to the victim of the ehing - Ronald himself!

  Brrr! Just remembering that gives me the jibbers. Ronald shuddered. And, just getting spshed is still ohing. After that, I also had to wipe the pce . I’m not going through that again, no thank you!

  He learned a hard lesson that day. If somebody ever dared to imply they were bored to the point of falling asleep - they gonhe bucket. No ifs or buts.

  “I’m listening!” Ronald repeated to stress just how awake and attentive he was.

  “Good.” Ruez nodded. “So, as I said, I have no problem with you and Will turning the game into a race to keep yourselves eained. But, that’s no excuse for letting yuard down. You know what I’m referring tht?”

  “Yes, sir!” Ronald answered. “It’s about that one random fluke that happened during the game, isn’t it.”

  “Oh? Was it just a fluke?”

  “Totally a fluke, sir! I was just minding my business chasing a kill, and then that dang Jungler showed out of nowhere! Darn that guy!”

  “Nobody ever shows ‘out of nowhere’. When you fail to anticipate a gank, it means your map awareness wasn’t good enough. Or, that you were distracted by something else, which I believe was the case this time.”

  “Yeah...”

  “By the way,” Cato interjected. “I’d like to add that I warned him about the risk on both occasions, both this game and st game. But, he chose to igh warnings.”

  “Oh an!” Ronald excimed. “Are you really throwing me uhe bus!?”

  “It’s what you deserve.” Cato scoffed. ime, maybe you should try not staining the team’s score with your stupidity. It makes me look like an inpetent leader here.

  “I uand.” Ruez Cato’s words.

  trary to how it looked, this wasn’t just Cato throwing shade at a fellow teammate to make himself look better. No, it was about sending a message. That ent was Cato’s passive-aggressive way to express his dissatisfa with Ronald’s presen the team.

  I also agree that the boy needs more sharpening before he’s ready. Ruez thought. And, that’s exactly why I’ve put him oeam this early.

  Ronald was an impressive pyer iain situations, but he also severely cked at other times. Therefore, for Cato, who prioritized sistend stability above all else, it was only natural to find Ronald’s rollercoaster performao be unattractive.

  They’re like oil and water. Ruez smiled meaningfully. It’ll be iing to see how they affect each other as they keep pying together. They both have something to learn from each other.

  That agenda aside, it was important to teach Ronald a lesson here. In both scrimmages, the kid showed signs of losing tration in the middle of the match. He’d develop into an unreliable pyer at this rate unless something is done.

  Easy matches like these were one of his greatest weaknesses, and that’s precisely why it was best for him to experiehem as much as possible. After all, it was of outmost importao never lose one’s focus during petitive games, no matter how “weak” the enemy was or how “easy” the game felt.

  “I’ll be switg out most of you for the wo games,” Ruez announced.

  This ar for the course wheeam scored 3-0 so vingly. There was no point in pounding a weaker oppo any further.

  Instead, it was best to give the eeam a ce to actually win something today. Crushing their spirits was the st thing Ruez desired. Unrooting young potential before it had the ce to bloom was borderline criminal. Which was why, even though he permitted Ronald and William to go on a merciless killing spree, he was no fan of that bratty behavior.

  The brothers just wao satisfy their egos and alleviate their boredom, that much was uandable. heless, their overwhelming performance had a ce to permaly scar their oppos. Unfortunately, they were probably too young to think about things like that.

  Then again, I’m not a saint here either. Ruez thought. Only a part of this decision is out of siderations for the other team. There’s mutual be to be found here.

  The goal was to help flourish as much young talent as possible. That applied to the other team’s pyers as much as it applied to the Leopards’ club members themselves.

  There were many dedicated pyers in the club who didn’t get into the first-string just because somebody else from the club was a little better. heless, these hardw kids definitely deserved to experiehe petitive se, so the easier scrimmages were a great opportunity to do so.

  Hopefully, the eeam would also learn something valuable in the process by getting a fairer fight. That’s why Ruez always did his best to match the level of the sub-team to the enemy’s level. This way, both sides beed from a banced exge of experience.

  But, that’s easier said than done. Ruez thought. The first few games usually take quite the toll oher team.

  Far too often, the eeam would lose most of its fighting spirit after fronting the Leopards’ powerful first-string. The gap in skill was sometimes too much to process. And, the blow was usually far worse when the Leopards scored an unfathomable amount of kills.

  The Apples were one of the weaker teams in the region, so they probably had many pyers who weren’t mentally prepared for such a one-sided fight. Therefore, suffering such a devastati time after time was bound to drain their fighting spirit.

  I hope I’m wrong about this. Ruez knotted his brows. No matter how much I adjust the team’s bah substitutes, it won’t do any good if the oppo has no willpower left.

  Aside from Ronald, William was alsely responsible for creating this situation. In fact, he was arguably the bigger culprit here, as he had authority over the younger brother. If there was one person Ronald listeo, it was William. The older brother’s word was god’s word.

  William had all the necessary resources for stopping the killing race from happening, and Ruez even asked him to focus more on defense for the third game. A, William still ehe killing race.

  The worst part is that I don’t have anything to criticize him for. Unlike Ron, Will didn’t lower his guard while he was busy chasing kills. His performance was near perfect.

  In that sehe older brother was actually a much bigger troublemaker, as odd as it souhe younger one was a brat, but at least he itted mistakes and that made it easy to lecture him. Meanwhile, William was a brat at heart but he carried himself in a mature manner and didn’t it as many mistakes, There wasn’t anything easy to criticize him about.

  He’s out in the game, that’s for sure. Ruez thought. I Just hope he didn’t inflict irreversible damage to the Apples.

  That’d be no good. Without any fighting spirit, the Apples won’t pose any challenge for the Leopards today, not even to the subs. As a result, her side will gain much experieoday. It’ll be very sad, especially for the Apples who could learn a lot today under fairer circumstances.

  I’m not paid to do it, but I want to raise the entire region’s skill level. That was Ruez’s agenda. The school only paid him for creating champions but that goal was too narrow-minded.

  These are kids. They absorb new experiences like a sponge. Ruez thought. Anything they pick up during these tender years will shape them up as they grow. Especially, the games they py on stage might single-handedly determine whether decide to go pro or not.

  As such, it was critical to not pound the Apples any further. For the wo games, they needed fairer petition. It meant that some of the Leopards’ first-string members had to sub out, as they were far to to provide any fairness here.

  However, subbing everybody out was too drastic of a move. Therefore, some of them will have to remain oeam for now. In particur, oroublemaker will have to stick around until the very end.

  "Ronald, you'll keep pying for the wo games.”

  "Really!?" Ronald grinned. "Heck yeah! Man, I was sure I'll get booted right away like st time, haha."

  "I wouldn't be celebrating in your pce," Ruez said. "The reason I'm keeping you in is that your performance was ckluster."

  "Say what!? But, I got so many kills!"

  "And, you also died. Twice." Ruez stressed. "As you said, the Apples are not on the same level as you. Therefore, I believe it's reasoo expect a game with near-zero mistakes. And, most of you lived up to that expectation, save for you."

  "Geh." Ronald made a face. "Yeah okay, I guess I messed up a little more thahers. But hey, at least I get to py mames! Yay me."

  "You better not take these games lightly," Ruez warned. "My expectations are still in pce. I expect everybody on the first-string to be able to avoid deaths against oppos of this level.”

  "Wait, you wao have zero deaths in the wo games too!?"

  "Yes.” Ruez nodded. “Of course, it'll be quite harder to achieve than before because your team will be filled with substitutes. I won’t hold it against you if you die due to your teammates’ mistakes.”

  “Phew.” Ronald sighed in relief.

  “heless, you’re currently part of the first-string. Therefore, I expect you to py as fwlessly as possible. So, please don’t think you die whenever you feel like it and then pass the bme to your teammates. I’ll be closely monit everything you do.”

  “Geh. Strict.”

  "Also, keep in mind that your spot on the first-string depends on your performance. If you 't live up to expectations, I’ll have to choose another pyer to fill your spot."

  "Whoa, the pressure is real now..." Ronald gulped.

  "There are many seniors who'd gdly take your spot. Not to mention, it's very rare for a junior to join the first-string in the first pce. You have to realize I'm making a big exception here because I have faith in your ability. Please don’t betray that faith"

  "Yes, sir!" Ronald saluted. "I’ll do it! No problem! Two games, zero deaths! Easy!"

  "Good." Ruez nodded and turo the others. "Matt, Sonya. I’d like one of you to stay oeam as a safeguard, just like we did in the previous scrimmage.”

  “What a drag...” Matthew sighed.

  “I’m fully aware that you’re above these oppos, but we least one experienced senior to keep the team in check. You’ll be the ag captain of this sub-team.”

  “I volunteered to do it st time.” Sonya touched her gsses. “Holy, I ot say it was a very fruitful experience. I didn’t learn anythihere.”

  “My, what a tough crowd~” mented. “In that case, I take on the role.” He wore an i smile to mask the devilish iions hiding underh.

  "No you don’t, young man," Ruez stated. There was no room fument about this one.

  "My, that's too bad." Cated in protest but he didn't pursue the topiy further. He was a smart boy, so he uood why Ruez couldn't allow it.

  He’s not an aggressive pyer like Will, so it’s not like I’m worried about the sub-team bullying the Apples with lots of kills. Ruez thought. But, he’ll bully them in other ways. In fact, he’s the one who is most likely to mentally break them if he stays in.

  Cato was the worst person to leave oeam in this situation. His pystyle had a natural affinity for bullying those weaker than him. The Apples might not realize that right away, but despair and frustration will surely ki eventually.

  In fact, it was a blessing in disguise that William and Ronald were rogues who sometimes ignored Cato’s shot-calls. Their killing race was quite disrespectful and overwhelming, but not nearly as mentally scarring as the things Cato had in store.

  Either way, with Cato off the table, it left Matthew and Sonya as the only viable options. Ruez could nomiher of them himself, but he preferred letting the kid decide among themselves.

  “Fine, I’ll do it.” Matthew caved in. “Sonya did it st time, so I’ll do it this time.”

  “Thanks,” Sonya said.

  And so, the sub-team was formed. Ruez repced three of the five pyers with less experienced members. That was supposed to even the odds and give the Apples a real ce.

  As, it was too te. The Apples’ fighting spirits were in shambles after the first three games. The neverending one-sided kills did a number on them. At this point, it was unclear whether they were still even trying to win.

  Thus, even with three less experienced pyers oeam, the games heless resulted in a one-sided massacre. Truly unfortunate.

  In the end, the scrimmage ended as a predictable 5-0 victory. With that, the Leopards fiheir sed scrimmage in a row with a perfect score.

  Their oppos will be her than Stratus. Normally, that would be anuaranteed 5-0.

  However, with Chessmaster and Gunz oeam this year, the uping match was shaping up to be an iing one...

  DarkestCymore