You have been killed!

  Jeared at her s, twisting her lips. She done goofed. She done goofed HARD. Even though she’s the one who started the atta Gunz, she’s also the one who wound up dead. And she would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for that meddling ancer. Dang it.

  Still, even without the ancer’s ued gank, she khe truth: she pyed like trash in that 1v1. Gunz almost destroyed her. The most she managed was to barely slip away alive.

  Why? How? Jehought she iloting Pirate detly back there. She started off with Kraken to bait out Elven Leap. When that didn’t work, she instantly closed the distah Backfire on + Blink and po wreck Gunz from cle.

  There shouldn’t have been any issues with these pys and she pulled them off pretty smoothly, if she say so herself. Yet, none of them worked!

  The Kraken bait didn’t work and her saber ssh missed. Both times, Gunz pulled off crazy clutch dodges, but somehow his pys brimmed with fidehey... They weren’t flukes. Jennifer uood that now.

  Gunz wasn’t even fazed by the fact he dodged these attack by a hair’s breadth. He immediately ected one py into another without dey. He leaped over the Kraken, dodged Jennifer’s ssh and immediately shot her.

  The only one fazed by this absurd development was Jennifer. After being thwarted twi a row, she ut in a difficult spot. She had to decide whether to keep pushing this ky attack or to call it a day areat.

  While Jennifer was mulling over her options, Gu on the offehout a sed thought. From start to end, all his pys were so damn fast, so natural. It’s like he had experiehis exact sario a thousand times already. He knew all the best moves, like some freaking time traveler from the future.

  Well, jokes aside, the guy must have practiced Elf to death to py so naturally. But then, what about Jennifer? She also practiced Pirate a lot because Coasisted. That’s how she ko farm effectively early on, to open a fight with a Kraken bait and to er the enemy Carry into melee bat. These were stroa pys she learned and practiced to perfe.

  Then why? What was the problem? Didn’t she learn and practice how to py Pirate? What was the differeween her and Gunz? It felt like she was missing something. There was something Gunz possessed that she didn’t, and that’s why she got her ass whooped. It kinda sounded like an excuse, but it really felt that way.

  “What a headache.” Jennifer sighed.

  “I think you should’ve pressured him more during the early game,” Albert said.

  “Hm? You talking about Gunz?”

  “Yeah.” Albert nodded.

  “Hmm, but isn’t that kinda bad? I mean, Pirate is kinda trash during the early game, so I gotta py defense and farm hard.”

  “True, Pirate is a bit weak, but the same goes for Elf. Even though Elf has great ra’s a mid-tier css because it doesn’t have many tools fhts and its stats aren’t that high. So, Pirate pressure Elf during the early game.”

  “Hoh.” Jennifer nodded.

  “You didn't know that?” Albert raised an eyebrow.

  “A-Aahaha, of course I did!” Jennifer forced a huge smile. “I’m just impressed how much you know about these csses! I mean, Carry is your sedary and all, but you sure know your stuff!”

  “I see.” Albert nodded.

  Phew! Dodged that bullet. Jennifer secretly sighed in relief. Seemed like Albert was vinced-

  “Sorry, I should have said something earlier.” Albert tinued. “Coae to speak my mind, but I was sure you know what you’re doing. Sorry, didn’t know you’re not familiar with the Pirate-Elf matchup.”

  “Geh!” Jennifer jumped. “I-It’s not like I’m not familiar it! It’s just, ya know. my own personal pystyle and stuff! This is my pirate way, believe it!”

  “Really.” Albert narrowed his eyes. “Thinking of it, I don’t even remember seeing you py Pirate during practice matches.”

  “Well, that’s... ya know.” Jennifer looked away. “You must’ve missed it. I mean, I don’t take Pirate into real matches that often. I mostly practice specific pys and situations in training mode, haha...” A dry ugh. As she was saying these words out loud, she was beginning to realize h all of this sounded.

  “I see,” Albert had a difficult expression. “Well, what’s done is done. I ’t travel ba time to stop your death, but from now on I’ll make sure to throw some advice your way when there’s a ce.”

  “Hey, if you got something good to say - speak up. I always listen.” Jennifer gave a thumb up. Especially, I gotta listen REAL good when it’s about shit I don’t know. Man, even Albert seems to know more about Pirate than me, and I’m supposed to be the one maining Carry. Derp.

  Jennifer somehow wiggled her way out of this discussion without embarrassing herself too much, but Albert’s question still lingered in her mind. Did she even ever py Pirate during practice matches? Hmm, probably like two or three times? Yeaaaah, most of her knowledge and experience came from practig Pirate in training mode.

  Oh, that’s it! That’s what she was missing! The differeween her and Gunz must have been their experience!

  Gued quickly and naturally as if guided by instinct. To bee so natural, he must have pyed lots and lots of Elf in real matches, against real oppos who were out to murder his ass. He didn’t just “practice” Elf, he went out there and kicked the shit outta people with it.

  That must be it. That’s how he knew Elven Leap was fast enough to dodge Kraken i moment, and that he could quickly cel it into a roll to dodge Jennifer’s ssh. He khis Elf vs. Pirate matchup a huimes better than Jennifer.

  He’s good. He knew every aspect of this matchup. Gunz was a world apart from Jennifer, who never faced an actual Elf pyer as a Pirate. She only khe general theory behind fighting an Elf, and even that was on the weaker side. Elf was just a mid-tier css, so it didn’t warrant much attention. Yeaaaaah, derp.

  And even beyond the matchup, turned out Jennifer’s mastery of Pirate... well, it wasly what she thought. She did take Pirate to Ranked from time to time, due to Coach’s pesky demand to py every relevant Carry css at least once a month. The few times she pyed, she simply executed the stroa pys she practiced and nobody pined about her performance. She felt pretty fident.

  But, now she knew: it wasn’t good enough. Ranked wasn’t the same as petitive. Coach always said that and Jennifer uood it at the back of her head, but it’s the first time she experie on her flesh like that.

  Unlike in Ranked, here she couldn’t get away with just knowing the gist of her css. This was a petitive enviro. Each pyer here polished their main csses to almost perfe, the way Jennifer did with her bo csses.

  There’s no way she could go toe-to-toe with them as Pirate, a css she never bothered to truly master. She had been uimating it, thinking it’s easy because it’s a high tier meta css. But like with any other css, she needed high mastery and tons of experieo make it work.

  As the game progressed, Jennifer was forced to aowledge this fact time and again. Every time she cshed with Gunz - she was overwhelmed. His rea was faster, his pys were smoother and he tered everything Jehrew at him.

  It’s like Gunz kly what Jennifer gonna do before she even figured it out herself. Actually, “knerobably the wrong word here. That Gunz fellow didn’t strike her an intellectual. It’s his robust experience, which was carved into his instincts. He didn't eveo think, he just acted.

  Jennifer knew how this shit worked because she was exactly the same way when she pyed bo. She practiced and pyed bo to death,. At some point, it became as natural as breathing. She didn’t eveo “think” much, she just did what seemed “right” and it worked most of the time.

  But, it was a long road. At first, pying bo was hel tough. It required fast, but careful, deaking. Jennifer often found herself pausing in the middle of a heated fight, unsure what should be her move. Of course, that pretty much always led to being killed in some me way aing scolded by both her teammates and Coach. Geh, them memories.

  Anyway, things were crappy like that for a while. She even sidered quitting ultiple times, which meant quitting Cssmancers altogether. But, Coasisted things will get better. He always said “Just give it another month or two. If you work hard, you’ll develop the intuition for it.”

  Jennifer already developed some respect for Coach by that point, something she never had for any teacher in her entire life. Coach was a really petent teaot like the those who lecture you to death in css about shit you couldn’t care less about. Thanks to his interaining regime, Jennifer leveled up from “Weakest Freshman” to “Average Pyer”.

  So, she decided to trust his guidand tinued w hard on her bo. Eventually, it paid off. After experieng tless bat sarios, watg repys of her mistakes, getting advice about them and simuting them in training mode - her bo pystyle finally came together. There was virtually no situation she couldn’t deal with, she no longer paused to ponder her options.

  Eve was some absurd situation she hadn’t experienced before, her honed instincts guided her. It didn’t mean she always executed the best pys, but they were generally hel good. And so, she successfully graduated from being a bo pleb and was ready to take on the world!

  But, she couldn’t be arsed to gh this long process with non-bo csses. She was busy polishing her bos, so she had her the time nor the io work on non-bo csses. Okay, may she DID have the time, just not the motivation. Like, bo was the real shit, that’s where it’s at. Screw other csses.

  Besides, it’s fine, right? Meta csses were a lot easier to py anyway, right? So, there’s o pour tons of hours into them. Surely, it was enough to just practice them from time to time, right?

  Well, Coach said Jennifer was wrong about it, but she was sure it’ll be A-OK. She did practice these b csses from time to time, so she shouldn’t have any trouble pying them in a petitive match. At least, that’s what she thought.

  Turned out she was an idiot. Only now that she faced Gunz, she realized her foolishness. Pirate was higher tier than Elf and was even somewhat of a ter to Elf, so she was supposed to wreck Gunz apart. But, he owned her ass.

  Even while getting tips from Albert, Jeill couldn’t score a single kill on Gunz. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t paint a mental image or victainst Gunz.

  Every time she assaulted Gunz from an advantageous position, it somehow turned into a near-death experience for her. She eventually got killed one more time duritempts, but at least this time it rank which turhe situation into a 1v2. Phew, at least she didn’t let Guroy her in 1v1 again... wait.

  Am I seriously happy I died from a gank and not from 1v1? Jennifer facepalmed. The heck am I saying? I still died. I got rekt. There’s nothing to be happy about, dang it!

  At some point, “winning the game” was overshadowed by “don’t lose to Gunz”. After realizing how embarrassing her Pirate skills were, she had been preoccupied with how to not embarrass herself any further. Getting a kill on Gunz, or at least beating him up enough to force a retreat. Something, anything. She had to prove she’s not just some scrub.

  So, she focused only on that and got repeatedly wrecked in the process. Dang it. It’s impossible. She couldn’t win against Gunz this game. At this point, she had no choice but admit it.

  The differen their experience was too much. It’s not a gap she could close by trying hard etting a few tips from Albert. It’s frustrating, but her only option was to py defensively against Gunz. In other words, to give up.

  And how exactly we gonna win like this? Jennifer chewed her lips. If she, the Carry and captain, quakes in one's boots, then who gonhe team to victory? Nobody.

  Momentum was on the enemy’s side, so at this rate, they’ll rend the Leopards asunder. Especially, Gunz was growing inter and rger threat with every sed.

  No, defending won’t cut it. Gunz had to be stopped, or the Leopards won’t have a future. But what could Jennifer do? How was she supposed to take down that beast!?

  “Man,” Jennifer sighed. “This is rough. I ’t figure out how to deal with Gunz.”

  “Then don’t?” Albert shrugged. “If all we gonna do is turtle to not lose the ne, I do it alone. You go gank other nes.”

  “Hoh!” Jennifer excimed. “That’s not a bad idea! You should really speak up more often, Al. You actually got a head on your shoulders.”

  “Unlike a certain somebody.”

  “Okay, I ged my mind. Don’t ever speak again.”

  “Heh.”

  Okay, I’mma do it! Jennifer cracked her knuckles. Al got it right. I gotta think bigger. It’s not just between me and Gunz, there are other fish ier too. This is a team game, not a 1v1. If we wreck the rest of these scrubs, we win!

  As soon as she regained her fighting spirit, she noticed a great opportunity in Mid. The enemy Sorcerer and Warrior fought 2v2 there, then got ganked and it became a 2v3. The gank didn’t go smoothly and both sides disengaged, but Sorcerer and Warrior were both low on HP.

  Jennifer wasn’t too far from Mid, so maybe she could do something with this. No, she WILL do something! Yes, she saw it! The picture of her, standing on top of two corpses! She had it! Her groove was babsp;

  Instead of heading to Bot as pnned, she dashed to Mid through the jungle. By the time she arrived, the Warrior escaped into the jungle oher side. Tch, that’s one corpse gone from her picture

  Oh well, no big deal. The Sorcerer was still there, running along the oward his Turret. Easy! She gonna cut him off!

  Jennifer switched from gun to saber and waited behind a jungle wall. Once Sot inte, she blihrough the wall and appeared right in front of him.

  Eat shit! Jennifer delivered a lightning speed ssh, cutting across the Sorcerer’s chest. And another ssh! However, this time she missed.

  The Sorcerer vanished right before the bde struck him again. He blinked past Jennifer and tinued running away. Sneaky bastard.

  Not bad, but not good enough! Jennifer activated Backfire on, with her back still turo the enemy. It pushed her backwards and pced her right beside the Sorcerer again. No escape!

  Another ssh! Down to 18% HP. And, another ohis time she had to shoot, because the Sorcerer was gaining distance. Bam! hit! Down to 7%! One more hit and it’s over!

  Jeook aim and... Huh? A wild Warrior appeared! He rolled into the se stood iween Jennifer aarget. Didn’t that scrub retreat to the jungle?

  Well, that didn’t ge a damn thing, because the Warrior only had 5% HP. What did he even hope to aplish by returning? Sacrifice himself for a teammate with higher damage? How noble.

  In Jennifer’s picture, there was still a dead scrub crushed underh her foot. Will it be the Sorcerer or the Warrior? No matter which, she gonna turn that picture into reality.

  In fact, this development was awesome. Jennifer wahe Warrior dead a huimes harder. Why? Because bastard had been giving her shit this entire day, parrying shots like he’s irix.

  Not this time, boy! Jennifer grinned as she aimed her gun. Unlike Pyromancer’s big fireballs, Pirate’s gunshots were tiny projectiles. That Matrix-wannabe won’t get to parry shit this time!

  Jennifer fired, her aim locked on the fleeing Sorcerer. With all said and dohe damage dealer was the bigger fish. So, either she’ll hit the Sorcerer like inally pnned, or the Warrior will step in to take the shot in the face. Either way, somebody gon dead! So, who gonhe corpse from Jennifer’s picture!?

  You better focus oter when pitg. Roi licked his lips, his eyes locked on Breaker’s movements. Already at two strikes, the up batter found himself in a pinch! He had only one ce! The enemy pitcher was tough, known for her trademark pitch: Pirateball! Fast, pad deadly! Could the team’s up ha!? The fate of his eeam rested on his shoulders!

  Okay, let’s goooooo! Roi swung his giant bat. The Pirate’s shot was notably rger and slower than a real-life bullet, but it was still tiny and fast. If Roi pying Knight, he'd be struck out for sure.

  Fortunately, he was Warrior this time and dressed in a baseball skin to boot. His bat was giant and he swung it faster than Knight ever could. He gonna show these guys parrying like they have never seen before! Even against Pirateball, he gonna sm it out of the stadium!

  HOME RUN

  Huge colorful words popped up in front of him. It was a gimmick of his baseball skin. Normally, that message would say PARRY. He did it!

  “Bullshit...” Jennifer’s jaw nearly hit the desk. D-Did that just really happen? Seriously? Her shot was... parried. It was freaking parried. That tiny fast bullet. Parried. Dafuq.

  Was she dreaming? Pinch, pinope, seemed like the real world. Ha. Haha. HAHAHAHA! Iing! Fine! Bring it on! You wanna be oo die so badly, then I’mma grant your wish!

  This ain’t over yet. She refused to give up on her beautiful picture. There’s one corpse drawn there and she gonna recreate it iy!

  Besides, she had been wanting to get back at this baseball idiot for a while now. Like seriously, who called themselves upHitter? And that baseball skin, too. The guy was trying way too hard, thinking he’s some major leaguer. Jennifer gonna strike out his ass!

  She actually pyed a little baseball in grade school, and as the pitcher no less. So, there’s no way some wannabe gonna hit her shots!

  Hitter already dispyed his ability to parry high balls, evehey were tiny bullets. Then, how about a low ball? Yeah, a low ball, right at his feet! Warrior couldn’t possibly hit a low shot due to how he swung his bde, so that’s where she gotta shoot!

  But, there’s a catch. A low shot was easier to dodge, so there’s no guarater would even try to parry again. After all, why parry when you easily sidestep?

  heless, throwing low was the best bet. So Jennifer had to shoot low, but without making it obvious she was going to shoot low. A breaking ball would do the job in baseball, but this was Cssmancers. Just like Warrior’s swings were restricted in movement, the same applied to Pirate’s shots. Jennifer only had fastballs at her disposal.

  However! That’s where her practies into py! There were barely any oppos online who relied on parrying, so Jennifer dragged club members into her anti-parrying practices. They were sed rate batters at best, but she had to make do with that.

  Not the most professional training in the world, but it helped her develop some useful teiques. One such teique was what she called “Pretend to Shoot High, Then Shoot Low in the Last Moment!” It’s like a pro level py and stuff!

  Jennifer aimed her gun at Hitter’s upper body. But wheually left-clicked to shoot, she swiftly lowered her gun and fired toward Hitter’s legs. Surprise, bitch!

  I knew you’d go for the legs! Roi grinned as he stepped forward. Aiming at the legs was basiowledge for anybody who ever read tips about bypassing parries, and Breaker clearly did. She already used this strat against him a couple of times today, so he k was ing.

  Waving her gun like that, pretending to aim for his upper body. Not the worst ag ever, but it’s just a cheap attempt at misdire. It not gonna work on a real up hitter like Roi!

  By moving forward, he could hit the ining Pirateball before it went below his reach. A tricky parry, but he did it!

  HOME RUN

  Two home runs in a row! Ezpz.

  “You shittin’ me...” Jennifer froze. What. How. Bullshit. Did he seriously just parry that? But, but, but! This move worked on everybody in the club! No matter how many times they saw a low shot like this, nobody could ever parry it! What’s with this guy!? He’s nuts!

  “Nothing personal, lol.” Roi grinned as he blinked forward, appearing behind Breaker.

  “Crap!” Jennifer shook her head and trated on the enemy beside her. Did Hitter just enter her ra of his own volition? What a fool! He’s done for!

  Jennifer switched to her saber and turoward Hitter. I wanna see you parry THIS! She sshed. There’s no way Hitter could dodge this o’s over! This will snuff out his remaining... 45% HP? Huh? Wait, wasn’t it like 5% a moment ago? What the heck!?

  Oh. OH. OOOOOOOOH! Hitter actually went and did it! He built Fg of Rebellion, which restored HP after each successful parry. It’s a crappy item with shit stats for its price, but in the hands of this baseball maniac... Dam her good. What a guy.

  Jennifer’s saber sshed across Hitter’s chest, but it was far from enough. He still stood firm aaliated with Fearless Charge, pushing Jennifer back. And what’s behihe eurret! Fuuuuuuuuuu!

  BAM. A huge bolt hit her like a bomb, pung down her HP from 80% to 55% in an instant. And what’s worse, she had no escape tools! She spent both her Blink and Backfire on on her failed attempt to kill the Sorcerer. Kraken was on cooldown too. Fuck my life.

  And if all this crap wasn’t enough, Hitter also booted his ult: Swordwhirl. He turned into a human fidget spinner and smacked Jennifer with his oversized bat. Then smacked again and again and again. Each strike slowed her down and lowered her defense, making the situation a million times worse with every passing moment.

  No way outta this, huh. Jennifer chewed her lips. Another undodgeable Turret shot rained on her and Hitter kept beating the shit outta her... Yeah, she was royally fucked. It was over. Trying to escape ointless.

  So instead, Jeood her ground and struck back. At least, Hitter would be forced to retreat right away if he loses enough HP.

  She delivered three strikes in succession, bringing Hitter down from 45% to 25%. But, that’s as far as she could go.

  You have been killed!

  He totally rekt me. Jennifer sighed and dropped ba her chair. There’s nothing she could even say here. Hitter just pyed hel well. Jennifer was fident about the anti-parry teiques she practiced, but she was forced to realize yet again: real matches were a world apart from practice.

  Hitter surely worked on his parries a lot, both in practid in real matches. It must have been easy to rack up experience, sidering any ranged oppo otential practice partner. It was pletely different from Jennifer’s anti-parry practices, which were restricted to Practice mode due to hoarrying was on their level of py.

  It was hard to improve when all her practice oppos were scrubs who couldn’t parry for life. It’d be awesome if she could practiti-parrying against Hitter, he was hel cool- Er, ahem, like, he retty good at parrying! Yeah! Above the level of a scrub, at least. Hmph.

  Anyway, this wasn’t the time to think about this stupid stuff. They still had a match to win. Their ces looked grimmer with every passing moment, but Jennifer won’t back down just because she died a couple of times. Hell no! She gonna fight hard until the bitter end, even if it meaiedly stomped due to her ck of experience! Let’s goooooooooooooooooooooo!