Due to Jim’s death, Yuel and John were put in a 2v3 situation and had to retreat. Thankfully, JIm respawned in blue team’s base after a couple of seds and arrived at the ne alongside the blue minions. It ositive development for a ge... or so Yuel thought.

  “Yo! I’mma show ‘em! Watch me go!” Jim charged forward. He got to the frontline, as expected of the Warrior css, but he didn’t stop there. He dashed all the way to the enemy Archer and smacked that bot in the face. He did all of that, right in front of the red minions. Dear lord.

  Is he for real!? Yuel barely stopped himself from shouting. The teacher clearly expined what happened in these sarios, but Jim just... ugh!

  The red minions immediately reacted to the assault. Instead of g with the blue minions, the red minions focused all their attention on Jim. This situation was even worse than st time! Jim was attacked not only by bowman minions, but also by swordsman minions!

  “Jim, pull back!” Yuel called out.

  “Pft, the heck are you doing!?” John was torween ughter and anger.

  “Yo! I’mma take out this guy!” Jim didn’t listen. His Warrior was sshed by swords and pierced by arrows, but he kept hitting the Archer bot. Ohe enemy Archer started retaliating, Jim’s HP plummeted at the speed of light.

  “Ugh.” Yuel gritted his teeth. He didn’t know how to rescue Jim. Taking out the enemy minion wave would help a lot, but Yuel’s Pyromancer didn’t have any ve led spells with burst damage.

  Yuel cast Pilr of Fire around the red swordsmen, but it sapped their HP very slowly. He had to hit the minions with Fme Wave to finish them off, but that required throwing his squishy Pyromancer into the frontlihat’s too risky. Once Jim fell, Yuel would be the on the list.

  John didn’t have any tools to deal with this situatioher. Through bined effort, Yuel and John quickly shot down the enemy swordsmen. But, they weren't fast enough.

  An ally has been killed!

  “Gah! Yo! I almost had him!” Jim waved his fists. He had just returo ne and he was already dead. Now, Yuel and John were forced into a 2v3 situation. Again. Sigh.

  The only good news were that Jim soaked a lot of minion damage, which meant the blue minions were rgely uninjured pared to the red minions. The healthy blue minions helped bang out the 2v3 situation. At the very least, Yuel and John had a det ce to hold the his round.

  Still, we’re gging behind. Yuel frow the Lv.3 enemy Archer. Even though the red minio the most damage to Jim, the one rewarded for the kill was the enemy Archer. The Archer gained lots of exp and gold from Jim’s death, reag Lv.3 before everybody else. Jim was feeding the enemy with a spoon. This had to stop.

  There must be a way to exploit this situation. Yuel analyzed the state of the battlefield. Blue team had the advantage in term of minion numbers. Thanks to Jim’s foolish efforts, the squishy enemy Archer was down to 30% HP. If Yuel could get closer and hit the Archer with Fme Wave, he could shave off at least 15% of that HP. But, who would remove the remaining 15% HP?

  Oion was to charge forward, Jim-style, and assault the Archer with both Fme Wave and basic attacks. A terrible idea. If Jim’s beefy Warrior died so quickly, then Yuel’s squishy Pyromancer would be crushed in an instant. The same applied to John’s Archer. They wouldn’t st even two seds on the frontline.

  The only remaining source of damage was the blue minion wave. Sadly, unlike in strategy games, Yuel couldn’t order the blue minions to attack the Archer. In Cssmancers, Minions automatically attacked enemy minions. They’d only attaemy pyers ono enemy minions were in range, or when an enemy pyer was attag an allied pyer.

  If only their Archer was a goof like Jim and attacked me... wait. Yuel was hit with by a sudden realization. The enemy Archer wasn’t as reckless as Jim, so he wouldn’t attack Yuel on purpose. But, what if it happened by act!?

  I got this! Yuel ran toward the frontli looked like a Jim-style suicidal py, but this one roperly calcuted.

  Instead of going all the way to the front, Yuel hid behind a blue swordsman and waited for the enemy Archer to take aim. When the arrow was about to be released, Yuel stepped in front of the targeted swordsman. The Archer’s arrow rojectile which flew in a straight line. By standing in the arrow's way - the arrow had no choice but to hit Yuel! The Archer “attacked” him!

  Yes! Get him! The blue minioo lynch the offehe Archer took his sweet time to retreat, realizing he was in danger only after dropping to 20% HP. At that point, it was already too te. Yuel came close enough to cast Fme Wave. The enemy Archer was ed by the fmes.

  You have killed an enemy!

  Level Up!

  Taking advantage of the spell’s width, Yuel made sure to also hit the enemy Warrior and minions. Surprisingly, Fme Wave erased a sizeable k of the Warrior’s HP. Apparently, the Warrior’s magical defense was siderably lower than his physical defense. With all the red minions gohere was a ce to defeat the Warrior as well!

  “John, shoot the Warrior.” Yuel instructed as he started hitting the Warrior with basic attacks. Both of his spells were on cooldown, but a mage’s basic attacks also dealt magical damage. They were weak, but proved effective against the Warrior.

  In addition, now that Yuel hit Lv.3, he unlocked his st skill: Burning Spirit. It was steroid ability which temporarily buffed the Pyromancer’s attack speed and movement speed. For a mage, that kind of powerup seemed odd and ineffit. But, sih Fme Wave and Pilr of Fire were on cooldown, Burning Spirit was the only way Yuel could boost his damage right now.

  Through bined effort, Yuel and John barraged the enemy Warrior to death.

  An enemy has been killed!

  Level Up!

  This time, Johhe st hit and scored the kill. heless, Yuel received a det amount of exp and gold for assisting. They pletely turhe tables around, going from a 2v3 to a 2v1!

  They focused on the enemy Wizard , but he was already in the middle of fleeing. They chased him down, but were forced to give up. The Wizard safely reached the red team’s Turret.

  The Turret was the first deferucture on the ne, which prevented enemies from pushing forward. Once a pyer got close to aurret, they’d be bombarded by arrows. Acc to the teacher, low level characters would be killed in two hits. The Turret sounded dreadful.

  To keep chasing the Wizard, Yuel and John would have to step into the Turret’s fire rahat was out of question. They’d both be eliminated before they’d get to do anything.

  Their only choice was to wait for the minion wave. The teacher expihat minions were crucial for demolishing Turrets, siurrets prioritized shooting minions over pyers. In other words, minions should be used as a meat shield against the Turret.

  To do so, minions first had to survive long enough to reach the eurret. Yuel and John focused their attacks on the ining enemy wave and cleared the path for the blue minions. Ohe blue minions ihe Turret, Yuel and John would be able to demolish it.

  However, things didn’t go that smoothly. Ohe blue minions came close enough, the Wizard created a quid on the was a damage-over-time spell, simir to the Pyromancer’s Pilr of Fire. All the minions whitered the quid had their HP gradually sapped.

  But, that wasn’t all. The quid also slowed down the minions’ movement, deying their progress and f them to stay longer within the damaging area. While Yuel had to carefully po pce Pilr of Fire so that eayed within its rahe Wizard’s hax spell just forced eo stay in range by slowing them. That seemed fair.

  After the minions finally passed the quid, what awaited them was the Wizard’s ultra beginner-friendly wind spell. Not only did it hit the whole minion wave, but it also knocked back the swordsmen, further deying their arrival at the Turret. Great! Amazing! Much skill!

  By the time the blue wave reached the Turret, only two swordsmen were left standing. Yuel and John hurried after them and started shooting the Turret as soon as the minions got its attention. However, that offense didn’t st long. The Turret ravaged the blue minions with arrows and blue team had to retreat. John was a bit too slow and got hit by ourret shot. That instantly deleted 60% of his HP.

  In the end, they barely got to graze the Turret. The damage they dealt was almost unnoticeable ourret’s HP bar. The enemy Warrior and Archer soouro the ne, f Yuel and John to retreat to the ter. Jim also returned from the dead, turning the situation into a 3v3. It felt like they were back to square one.

  “John, go back to base.” Yuel suggested. “I’ll hold the il then.”

  “Yeah, that’s a good idea.” John nodded. His Archer was missing over 60% HP thanks to the Turret shot. Healing up at the base sounded like a very appealing idea. “You sure you hold the ne against them?”

  “Yes, no problem. In the worst case, we turtle at our Turret like the Wizard did.”

  “Got it.” John turned around and began running back to base.

  “You press ‘B’ to teleport back.”

  “ht! My bad.” John stopped running and pressed ‘B’ on his keyboard. Magical aura formed around his Archer. After eling for three seds, the Archer vanished from the ne and spawned back at the base.

  “Jim, be ready to retreat to the Turret if our minions lose.” Yuel gave a warning long before the minions even began g. By now, it was obvious Jim had to be warned five minutes ahead of time, or else it’d be too te.

  “Don’t worry, yo. I’m not dying again this game!”

  Yes, I’m 100% sure that’s true. Yuel mentally retorted.

  Despite the situation being a 2v3, he defehe ne well with his Pyromancer. Even with all the peculiar traits the Pyromancer possessed, he was still a mage with burst. With fully charged heat, the AoE damage of Fme Wave was nothing to s. Thanks to that, the csh of the two minion waves nearly ended in a tie.

  Only two red bowmen survived, but that still meaeam held the upper hand in the ne. With red team The enemy bots saw this as a cue tgressive.

  “Jim, we’re retreating.”

  “Sure thing!”

  Yuel and Jim returo their Turret. Even in a 2v3, the enemy bots were wary the Turret. Instead of hitting the pyers, red team attacked the Turret areated once all red minions were gone.

  Yet again, the ne was back to square ohe only difference was the slightly lower health of both Turrets.

  After Johuro the h full HP, it was now Yuel’s turn to back. His Pyromancer was running low on MP. A mage who couldn’t cast spells was as good as useless.

  “Make sure to use the Turret if you’re pushed back.” Yuel repeated the advid teleported back to base. Standing at the spawning spot quickly restored him to full HP and full MP.

  In addition, he could now buy ems from the shop. He had accumuted a fine sum of gold by taking out all these minion waves.

  So, now what? Yuel frowned as he examihe shop’s sele. He could go for many different options with the amount of gold he had: buy two ems, buy three cheaper items rade Demonic Arm. He had hought being rich could make life so difficult.

  His teammates were definitely struggling to hold the hout him right now, so he didn’t have the time to think. He opted for what seemed most reasonable and upgraded Demonic Arm to Lv.3. He firmed that the Auto-Buy fun also upgraded John’s starting item to Lv.3, which made Yuel fident in his decision.

  The deal-sealer was the passive effect which Demonic Arm gai Lv.3,. On top of providing more magical power and attack speed, Lv.3 Demonic Arm also made Yuel’s basic attacks shred the target’s protes. Each hit would lower the target’s magical defense by 10% for 3 seds, stag up to 4 times oarget.

  This adds even more utility to my basic attacks. Iing. Yuel had grown aced to the Pyromancer by now, so this new yer of plexity was a wele addition. His basic attacks were no longer just a st resort for when all his spells were on cooldown. Now, the best tactic was to hit an enemy with 4 basic attacks in order to lower their defehen finish them off with spells.

  This will be useful, but is it enough? Yuel pondered while running back to aking out the enemy Wizard and Archer was the top priority. As long as either of them survived, the status quo at the ne wouldn’t be broken. The tricky part was how these two always stayed at the rear and ran away as soon as things went south.

  If only I could fnk them somehow. Maybe I use this “jungle”? He sed the mini-map. The “jungle” sisted of two unexplored paths, which sandwiched the all walls separated the ne from the jungle, so It was impossible to freely walk bad forth between these areas.

  There were three passages between the jungle and the ne. One of them was deep inside eerritory, but the other two were very accessible. The first passage was close to blue team’s base, whereas the sed passage was he ter of the map.

  Instead of going along the ne, Yuel could veo the jungle from the first passage and arrive at the ter of the ne via the sed passage. That’d take lohan running straight along the ne, but Yuel would stay hidden ihe juhe enemies wouldn’t see him ing until he appears right behind them.

  “I want to fnk them by going around.” Yuel drew his pnned route on the mini-map and the information was transmitted to his teammates’ maps as well. “If it works, we kill both the Wizard and Archer. Think you hold the il then?”

  “Sounds like a pn.” John nodded. “We should be okay for a while as long as we keep hugging this Turret.”

  “Alright.” Yuel ventured into the jungle. He activated Burning Spirit, which granted him a temporary movement speed buff.

  Along the way, he came across camps inhabited by monsters: hyenas, wraiths and ogres. These monsters weren’t marked as either blue or red on the mini-map, which meant they were “ral”. They most likely existed to let pyers farm additional exp and gold, beyond what minions provided on the ne.

  Reag Lv.5 will really help my fnking. Yuel was already halfway to Lv.5, so clearing one of the ral camps would hopefully get him there.

  The Hyenas Camp was the closest to the ne, but hyenas looked like generic mobs whily granted exp and gold. They were dispyed on the mini-map as simple white dots.

  The Ogre Camp was different. It had a rge sword i on the mini-map, which suggested that defeating the ogres would grant some special be. The Wraith Camp also had an i, that of a potion, but it was too far from the o be sidered.

  Thus, Yuel headed toward the Ogre Camp. It sisted of only three ogres: two small ones and one big boss guy. He stepped into the camp and shot each of the ogres multiple times to lower their defenses with Demonic Arm.

  Ohe ot close to hit him, he cast Pilr of Fire in front of himself. The cires tinuously damaged the ogres, but they just kept standing there and smag Yuel in the face.

  Oh, this also gives me power? Not bad. Yuel realized he got buffed while standing on the fme geed by Pilr of Fire. There were so many fiails to learn about the Pyromancer. It was amazing.

  After he shredded enough protes from the od his heat gauge reached 70%, Yuel unleashed Fme Wave and wiped them out. The ogre leader dropped a sword, which was coated in a magical aura. Once Yuel touched it, the sword fused into the Pyromancer and vanished.

  I see. It’s a power buff. Yuel firmed that his power value increased oat s. The buff granted +20% power and sted for 3 minutes. Not the lo buff ever, but long enough to be put to good use.

  Clearing the camp alsht him to Lv.5. He gained access to the Pyromancer’s ultimate ability: Bze of Inferno. It was a damaging spell, with a... peculiar hit range. He wasirely sure what to make of its potential yet, but it should be prove useful in the uping fnking attack.

  With all these tools in hand, he headed toward the ne. While he was busy with the Ogre Camp, red team had pushed blue team all the way to the Turret. A red swordsman and three red bowmen ihe blue Turret’s area.

  While the red minions tahe Turret’s shots, the red bot pyers barraged the Turret with basic attacks. All enemy pyers extended so far into blue team’s territory. They were so far from their own Turret. This was the perfect opportunity to fnk them!

  They will react as soon as they notice me, so I better move fast. Yuel activated Burning Spirit to boost his movement speed and swiftly approached the enemies from behind. As he drew closer, the enemy bots... didn’t react. Huh? Why?

  The intermediate bots had done a great job pying safe until now, so what ged? A pyer sneaking up from behind should had rung some arms. Yet, the bots didn’t even turn around to aowledge Yuel’s presence... wait.

  Oh! They ’t see me!? It finally hit him. Cssmancers was a third-person game, which meant pyers couldn’t know what was happening behind them until they turned around. Even bots had to follow that rule to feel like real pyers.

  With the enemies’ backs turo Yuel right now, he could leisurely optimize his positioning for the fnking. He snuck up behind the enemy Wizard, cast Pilr of Fire in front of himself to boost his power and fired basic attacks at the Wizard.

  After getting hit, the Wizard finally realized the danger. But, it was too te. The Pyromancer's fast attacks shredded the Wizard’s protes within moments. While the Wizard had just started the casting for his spell, Yuel had already finished unleashing his Fme Wave.

  You have killed an enemy!

  “Ha... haha...” Yuel couldn’t believe his eyes. The Wizard was deleted. pletely wiped out. Eliminated. Just like that, with o from Fme Wave. All the preparations Yuel had made paid off big time with this one py!

  Realizing the dahe enemies fled toward their Turret. But Yuel wasn’t going to let that happen. After the Wizard, his arget was the Archer. He hit the Archer with four basic attacks, then unleashed his ultimate ability.

  Ugh, this is such a weird skill! Yuel messed up the process. Bze of Inferno required him to draw an area on the ground. Fire erupted along the path he drew, damaging all enemies in range.

  It was his first time casting su odd spell, so the path he drew was far from optimal. Part of the attack hit the enemy Archer, but it wasn’t enough. The Archer was about to get away.

  “I’ll try to finish him off.” John said. His Archer crouched and took aim at a distant target. Was this the Archer’s ultimate? Yuel hadn’t seen this move yet.

  After a sed, John released his arrow. It flew all the way from the ter of the map up to the eurret. Even though the fleeing Archer ged his running dire at some point, the arrow pursued him without fail.

  What is this? A guided missile? These easy csses... While Yuel had to draw his ultimate’s hit area like some Picasso, the Archer’s ultimate simply locked onto a specific target and pursued them to the ends of the earth. So fair.

  An enemy has been killed!

  The broken ultimate made it feel like a cheap kill, but it warranted celebration all the same. With this successful fnking, Yuel had finally punished his enemies for a mispy. The thought of repeating this against human pyers made him giddy.

  With both enemy damage dealers go was the perfect ce to push forward!

  “John, focus ourret. Ighe minions.” Yuel ordered as they ihe eurret. He took care of ining minion waves with spells, while John barraged the Turret with swift basic attacks. This was the optimal arra, as Turrets were immuo damaging abilities. All of Yuel’s spells were useless against it.

  After wiping out the minions, Yuel also attacked the Turret. His basic attacks were way weaker than John’s, but they were about as fast. This allowed him to deal sizable damage to the Turret, despite being a mage.

  Try to top that, Wizard. Yuel smirked. Pyromancer lost to Wizard in many ways as a mage, but the high attack speed allowed Pyromao fulfil additional roles, which the Wizard could never dream of. Yuel was vihat, with the right handling, the Pyromancer was superior to the Wizard.

  Aurret has beeroyed!

  After that, blue team became unstoppable. They woeam fight by lurieam away from safety and fnking them. Respawn times for pyers became longer and longer as the match progressed, so every won team fight gave blue team a lot of time to push forward.

  Before long, they defeated the enemy Golem, the sed objective on the his temporarily empowered blue minions, making them trample all over red minions. Together with these powerful minions, blue team ihe enemy base aroyed the enemy Colossus.

  VICTORY

  This match was just a little taste of what Cssmancers had to offer. The enemies were mere bots and this was just a small 3v3 practice map. heless, Yuel was already sold. The map, abilities, items, strategies and team fights. He was totally hooked by the plex bination of all these factors.

  It was decided that day: Cssmancers was the team sport he wao py!