Despite the obvious fw in the way Challenger “solved” the problem of the previous ne exge, the guy heless opehe attack with Ray of Light again. Did he think Yuel wouldn’t step into the light this time?

  Because I definitely will. Yuel set foot ihe AoE of Ray of Light, then he immediately backed out. He made sure the skill only hit him for the briefest of moments.

  This time around, he didn't even bother soaking the damage with Gaia's Prote. The only reason he used it st time was to test the enemy’s aggression level. He suspected that the enemy might shoot him once he gets too close.

  However, there was no indication that happening any time soon. Therefore, the shield wasn’t necessary at the moment. It’ll be better utilized once real darikes.

  Okay, that’s it. Yuel nodded in satisfa after stepping out of the bzing AoE.

  The damage he received for standing in the light for less than a sed was less than minuscule. heless, the damage was doherefore the minions got angry. They branded Challenger as a vicious assaulter who was after Yuel’s head.

  And so, once again, the mob opeheir witch hunt.

  “Not this shit again…” Ronald spat a sigh. “B. I thought they’d e up with something more creative this time.”

  “Why would they?” Cato asked. “Their pn worked out just fi time. Perhaps they didn’t win ne advantage, but they made you waste a ton of MP. So, it was their victory as far as they’re ed.”

  “Really? Is that how people see it?” Ronald twisted his lips. “That’s some backward ass logic if you ask me. Who in his right mind would be fih losing ne trol every time like this?”

  “Then, answer me this,” Cato started. “How useful is ne trol when you ’t even push it all the way to the tower?”

  “What do you mean? Lane trol is super important at any time.”

  “Sure. But then again, look at your situation. You’ve won two exges by now, but how much HP did the eowers lose? None of it. You didn’t get to push anything.”

  “Yeaaaah, they’re pretty good at defending against pushes, I’ll give them that.”

  “So, just as I said, your little stunt didn’t achieve anything. It ointless showcase of skill that cost you a lot of MP for no good reason. It didn’t solve anything about the real issue you have.”

  “Damn, harsh…” Ronald slumped. He waue back, but Cato’s criticism strue for once. Dang, what do I actually do here? Do I go for the same bo again? But, my MP…

  Thanks to that sly bastard Chessmaster, all the enemy minions were currently targeting Ronald. So, what was the best way to hahem? Go for Blinding Light + Fsh again? It’s a hel cool trick, but so costly, too.

  “Bro,” Ronald turo William. “What do we do?”

  “Nothing,” William answered pinly. “Just keep drawing them in. I summon two Assault Drohis time, so we start matg them in clearing speed even without your AoE.”

  “Oh, you gonna use two drones? Cool! Oh, but it means you gonna give up on that ward drone, right?” Ronald checked the mini-map. “Yep, it’s sure gone.”

  “It was about to expire soon anyway,” William said. “So, I celed it early.”

  “ht, these drone wards got a pretty short lifespan pared to actual wards. Meh, I ever get used to these things. Droid is such a wack css.”

  “It’s not rocket sce. You just have to learn the numbers and pn accly.”

  “Bleh. Only you mianage all of these while pying Carry, bro.”

  Droid could summon two types of drones: Assault Drones and Sensor Drones. While Assault Drones were used to increase DPS, Sensor Drones were essentially budget wards. They had less vision, they weren't invisible, and they sted for half the lifetime of a regur ward. However, they didn't cost any gold to pce, so that justified their inferior quality.

  With that said, pg these drones did cost something. That’s where the Droid’s mia came into py.

  The Droid had a Battery gauge instead of an MP gauge, and every deployed drone required a certain number of batteries. A Sensor Drone cost 1 battery, whereas an Assault Drone cost 2 batteries.

  At game start, the Droid only had 3 batteries avaible, so it was impossible to summon 2 Assault Dro the same time. So instead, Wilim pced one Sensor Drone in the juo serve as a budget ward. Together with the Assault Drone he summoned for clearing the wave, he was utilizing his etery gauge at the time.

  However, now that he was Lv. 4, he unlocked another battery for his gauge. So, with 4 batteries at hand, William could deploy exactly 2 Assault Drones.

  But, the enemies were aware of this too, and they had no iion of making his life easy. And so, Gunz’s movements shifted slightly to adjust to this new situation.

  Hmph. I see he's c both sides now. William frowned.

  Instead of stalking William directly, Gunz was hanging around the middle of the ne, ready to shoot any drone Wilim will pce.

  From that position, he won’t be able to elimihe drones as quickly as before. William thought. But, his rea time is still a threat.

  William couldn’t deploy an Assault Drone anywhere he wanted as the skill’s range was restricted to a rather small radius around him. Therefore, no matter how far William tries to pce the dro won’t take Gunz too long to step in and shoot that drone down.

  There isn’t much I do about this. William accepted the situation as it was. I'll sacrifice the first drone so I safely summoher one.

  However, the younger brother had a different idea in mind.

  "Hey, how about we fake him out?" Ronald smiled mischievously. "This guy reacts hel fast to your drones, right?"

  "Yes, he does."

  "Then, how about I blink in on him while he's distracted? We gang on him while he's blinded!"

  "Hmm." William gave it some serious thought. It was an ued, but definitely iing, idea.

  The suggestion was on the reckless side, but it wasn't a bad atta. This little ploy had a very good ce of catg Gunz off-guard and striking him hard, maybe even killing him.

  Most of the time, it wasn’t worth taking such a risk against an early-game Carry. However, Pirate was an exception.

  It was weaker than most marksmen in this phase of the game, and its game pn revolved around gaining a gold advantage over time via his Plunder passive. Therefore, dying early could be a substantial setback for Pirate.

  Also, we're right before Lv.5. William thought. It'll be o get a kill before he unlocks his Kraken.

  Droid didn't gain anything special at Lv. 5, but Pirate unlocked the fearsome tool that was “Release the Kraken”. From that point onward, it’ll be that much riskier to assault Gunz. So, it was now or never.

  Hmm. It's an important decision but I didn't have much time to decide. While William was busy analyzing the situation from various ahe enemy minions tinued chasing Ronald. I have to make my move soon. Hmm. Well, let’s try it then. I’m sure Cato won't approve of it, but I don't care as long as it pays off.

  "Alright, let's go for it," William decided. "I'll give you the sign. Start up your spell."

  "Roger!" William activated Blinding Light, coating himself in dazzling white.

  "Alright, I'm pg the drone in 3, 2, 1…"

  A sita was about to unfold. However, the eime, their prey should have had no idea that this hunt was ing.

  With that said, the enemy duo did realize that something was off a while ago. Before William reached his important decision, Chessmaster and Gunz had already started w whether something was afoot.

  "," Lars pined. "Where are the drones? I'm wasting time my time over here, yo!"

  "I agree, it's a little odd." Yuel wasn't sure what to make of it.

  Their minions started chasing Challenger a few seds ago, yet Winner didn't lift a fio summon a drone. And, that’s despite the fact he could summon 2 dro this point.

  Instead, the guy only fired basic attacks at the minions. It was rather peculiar.

  Is he that ed about Lars shooting down his drones? Yuel wondered.

  Due to the threat of 2 Assault Drones, Yuel advised Lars to hang out around the middle of the ne instead of stalking Winner. Even though it hampered Lars’s ability to instantly shoot down any newly summoned Assault Dro allowed him to apply pressure on a wider area.

  This tactic made it that much harder for Wio find a good spot to summon his drones. But, was that alone enough to disce Winner from summoning any dro all?

  It shouldn't be. Yuel thought. It's not like he has anything to lose by summoning a drone or two. Unlike most csses, he doesn't have to worry about MP.

  Droid's Battery gauge worked quite differently from the standard MP bar. Even though he had to spend batteries in order to deploy drones, he ter got refunded for it.

  A deployed droively occupied batteries from the gauge, preventing the Droid from allog these batteries for any other skills. However, ohe drohe field, it freed the occupied batteries.

  With that said, these freed batteries weren’t immediately usable again. They had to recharge over a period of time before they were full again. This essentially served as an artificial cooldown for the Droid’s skills, which were otherwise spammable as long as the Droid had the batteries to spare.

  The cooldown for each battery recharge was rather lengthy, clog at 15 seds at its highest. Therefore, it could be said that the cooldown of a single Assault Drone was almost 30 seds, sidering the drone cost 2 batteries to deploy.

  It was a long cooldown, especially sidering it took only three shots to elimihe dro this stage of the game. And, sihe drone’s HP scaled with the Droid’s and Carries didn’t build much HP, it meant the drone will only bee squishier as the game goes on.

  So truly, mianaging batteries was the biggest challenge of pying Droid. It demahe pyer to be at the top of their game when it came to deaking. One small misstep could cost dearly, as the Droid would be stuck waiting for his skills to e off the artificial cooldown caused by battery recharge.

  In that sense, I uand Winner’s caution. Yuel thought. He doesn’t want to mispce the drones and make them easy targets for Lars. But, is it really worth dragging this out for so long? He could at least pe drone for now in order to help his Support.

  While Winner was withholding his drones, minions were chasing Challenger around. So, it would make more sense for Wio summon at least one drone by now in order to mitigate the threat.

  Yet, Winner didn’t do even that. Why? It’s not like there was much risk in doing so.

  Maybe the two of them had a discord of some sort? Yuel wohat sounds very unlikely.

  One of the most notable traits of AbsoluteWinner and AbsoluteChallenger was how well they cooperated as a duo. Even their niames hi the close retionship they had. Therefore, it was uhat these two, of all people, had a teamwork issue.

  Regardless, Winner insisted on not summoning any drones. Rather, it was Challenger who made the first move. He cast Blinding Light, turning himself into a human-shaped mp.

  So, he’s going to blink in again? Yuel sighed. It looks like he learned nothing. I’m a little disappoio be ho.

  Based on previous scrimmages, Challenger wasly the sharpest tool in the shed. But as a member of the Leopards’ first-string, he should at least be better than this.

  Besides, he had Winner for a ne parthis guy showed impressive deaking and tactical thinking, so together they should’ve been able to e up with a smarter solution to the little problem Yuel gave them. Or, maybe they actually did…?

  One sed after Challenger booted his Blinding Light, Winner finally decided to summon a drone. He pced it on the far side of the o make Lars run for it.

  The timing feels a little suspicious. Yuel thought. It’s like they po synize these two pys.

  However, the goof didn’t pay ao such siderations.

  “Okay, finally!” Lars chased the faraway drone as quickly as possible.

  “Don’t spend your roll on this,” Yuel warned.

  “Yeah, I don’t think it’s worth,” Lars agreed. And so, instead of quickly rolling in order to close the distao the newly spawned drone, he lightly jogged to the destination.

  Good, he still remembers his defense. Yuel nodded in satisfa.

  Some months ago, Lars would have definitely rolled toward the drohout thinking twice. But today, he yer with much tighter deaking aer self-trol.

  That aside, I have a bad feeling about this py. Yuel chased after Lars, making sure to keep the goof within arm’s reach.

  Shortly, Lars got the drohin attack range. “Yoing down, dude!”

  BAM! WHISH! BAM!

  "Hm?" Lars blinked. An ued noise mixed in amidst the booming sounds of guhe heck?

  It sounded like a teleportation a. Specifically, like Lumimancer's blink, which sounded a little different than a regur blink.

  And indeed, a human-shaped mp vanished from the er of Lars's eye. The Lumimancer, who was shining brightly like a human torch, suddenly disappeared from view.

  A moment ter, dude reappeared again... right in front of Lars!

  "Crap!" Lars excimed. He timed it to my shot! I 't even look away from it!

  His Pirate had already started the attaimation for the shot, so it was impossible to cel out of it in any way! Gaaaaaah!

  WHOOSH! Whiteness covered Lars’s entire s!

  DarkestCymore