So, she decided to retreat. Jin cluded from Ignis’s as.

  The womaured into the juo not make her schemes too obvious. However, given her remaining HP and MP, she was certainly pnning to recall. heless…

  “Top missing,” Jin informed just in case. “She is probably recalling but I ’t know for sure.”

  “Got it.” Adapting, the Mid Laner, replied. He’s the only one who had to worry about that piece of information at the moment. If Ignis’s pn was to rotate somewhere, it could only be toward Mid.

  With that formality out of the way, Jin focused on his ne.

  I booted Ignis out of the hat’s a good start. But, she’s adapting to my KC. I have to press my advantage now while I have the ce.

  After clearing the enemy minions, Jin pushed onward with his army. Despite the risks, he nning to invade deep into eerritory and deliver a hefty blow at the eurret. At least, that’s how it seemed.

  “Aren’t you overextending a little too much?” Howard asked. “Their Jungler should still be around Top Jungle.”

  "Yes, he most likely heading over here," Jin reasoned as he tinued charging forward.

  "If you're aware of it, then why are you overextending? You remember that you're pying against prht?"

  "Yes, I noticed we're pying against pros. That's why I'm going for a py like this."

  "Say what?" Howard raised an eyebrow. "Against pros, you should be pying safer, not riskier."

  "No, the opposite," Jin cimed. "When oppo is strohe only way to win is by taking risks with big payoff. If you py safe, you let the strong oppo remain strong."

  "So, you're saying you have to take some risks if you want to win against them?"

  "Yes. If I take a risk and it pays off, I have a ce to beat a stronger oppo."

  "Is that so." Howard made a face. That sounds like something Yuel would say. I bet those two would make good friends.

  "Alright," Howard ceded. "You do you. But, keep in mind that I advised you to retreat. So, it’s not my fault if you end up dead."

  "Sure," Jin responded. What a nosy captain. It reminds me of Cato’s shot-calling. It’s really weak.

  Jin had no iion of turning back. Despite the danger, he pressed onward, right toward the eurret area.

  However, he didn't dare to step ihat would truly be too dangerous. His primary goal here was to safely deliver his minions to the tower.

  While Jin was btantly overextending like this, a fident predator was creeping up to him.

  "Look at this kid, overextending in our face like that." Hawk snickered. "It's like he's asking to be ganked."

  "That damn brat." Ignis scoffed. "Looks like he’s partying hard right now, thinking he 'won' just because I recalled first."

  "Is that really the case?" Esmeralda tilted her head. "From the way you've been saying about Jinjin, it sounded like he's a very skilled boy."

  "I only said he does a passable job in fights. I bet he sucks ihing else."

  "My, but wasn't his farming solid as well?"

  "Yeah, I guess it was. But, that gotta be all he's good at."

  "Is that really so?" Esmeralda didn't buy that. A cute boy who match Igny in both ning and bat won’t suddenly overextend like that. It has to be a trap of some sort. This is getting more iing by the moment~

  As an expert at baiting oppos, Esmeralda could tell that Jinjin's “overextension” was some sort of ploy. The boy put a mark on his own back. He was baiting Hawk.

  "Hawky, be careful," Esmeralda advised. "This wonderboy is pnning something for you. Keep your eyes peeled."

  "Excuse me? Are you seriously worried I gonna have trouble with some kid?" Hawk made a face. ", you guys. I know you like making fun of me for being new oeam, but I'm not that bad."

  "Reminder: even Igny didn't fare so well against that wonderboy."

  "Hey, no true!" Ignis butted it. "It was just a warm-up, that's all. Yeah, I was just testing the waters."

  "I'm sure you were~” Esmeralda smiled sweetly.

  " round, I'mma kick his ass!"

  "Of course you will~ You're the best~"

  "Yeah, you got that right!" Ignis lifted her .

  Alrighty, now that we're doh the ego trip... Esmeralda returned on topic. "Hawky, I'll just say this: don't take anything franted. Jinjin is clearly a league above the other children. So, don't assume you run over him that easily."

  "Sure, sure." Hawk shrugged. "Man, you always worry too much about everything, don’t you?"

  "Mommy has to worry about her children~"

  Despite the advice, Hawk had every iion to open an atta the overextending Knight. He wasn't worried about any of this in the slightest, but he couldirely ignore Esmeralda's words either.

  I mean, this kid did give Ignis some trouble. Hawk thought. Like, she’s ly the sharpest tool in the shed and I bet she uimated the kid on top of that. But still, it doesn’t look good.

  With that said, Ignis was a veteran member of the team, so everybody gave her a free pass. But, they surely won’t be as oward Hawk if he makes a simir mistake.

  I'm still on my trial period so I ’t afford to do anything too stupid, not even against middle schoolers.

  As the fresh meat of the team, who only retly advanced from the ers, Hawk was at a delicate moment of his career. There were tless stories out there about C-Leaguers who prematurely ehe B-League and performed poorly.

  In some of these cases, the pyer left a terrible impression on everybody and got demoted back to C-League right away. After that, it took them years to get back to B-League again. And, that’s only for those who did make it back. Some of them just straight up didn’t.

  I definitely don’t want that. Hawk thought. Ro is here watg, so I ’t do anything stupid. This old man is always smiling and all, but I know he be ruthless. If he doesn’t like what he sees - he gonna give me the boot without batting an eye.

  Hawk absolutely wasn’t allowed to mess up this gank. Therefiven how little he knew about the extent of the target’s potential, he couldn’t make any assumptions.

  I better take Esmeralda’s advito sideration here. There are many things I say about that woman, but her intuition tends to be on point. So, I’ll pretend I’m about to gank a pro. Though, a real pro wouldn’t overextend so obviously like this…

  heless, Hawk did his best to disregard that bias and analyze the situation as thhly as possible.

  Data gathering was the most crucial part of the Jungler’s job. It was the key to delivering the most optimal ganks possible, far more important than the Jungler’s meical skill.

  As long as the Jungler had all the right information, he could always go for the winning move. Such was Hawk’s belief.

  So, he’s pushing the minions into the tower. Hawk carefully analyzed the se, like a detective searg for evidence. Is this kid really going to ehe tower area? No, of course not. He’s not that suicidal, at least.

  The target halted before stepping into the tower area. It was both surprising and uandable at the same time. No matter how bold of a pyer Apprentece was, he wouldn’t dare to pce himself in immi danger like that. After all, getting ganked ihe enemy’s tower area was about as bad as it could possibly get.

  Looks like Esmeralda was right on the mohis kid is up to something, I see that now.

  At the very least, it was clear Apprentence wasn’t blindly overextending. The kid wasn’t drunk from his ret victainst Ignis.

  No, Apprentece came here with a clear pn in mind. And, Hawk almost fell for the trap if not for Esmeralda’s timely advice.

  Odd. Jin thought. I was expeg to be ganked by now. Did I overestimate how fast their Jungler get here? Or, maybe they decided to give up on this wave? No, I doubt it.

  Jin researched everybody from the Sweepers, so he knew what kind of pyer Hawk was.

  Despite being a newer to the Sweepers, there were plenty of match records from Hawk’s time in the ers. The guy didn’t stand out when it came to meical skill, but he made up for it with his sharp deaking.

  As such, Hawk wasn’t the kind of Jungler who instilled much fear when he unched an attack all by himself. However, he excelled at being at the right pce at the right time, oftentimes doing the “right thing” sidering his skill level.

  So, he was supposed to get here by now. Jin thought. There’s no way somebody like him would let my minions push the tower for free. Getting to the se on time is about the only impressive thing about Hawk as a pyer, so he should be pying to that strength. But, sidering he hasn’t ganked yet…

  There was only one possible expnation: Hawk saw through Jin’s pn. Most likely, the predator was currently in the process of closely its prey from around the er, carefully pnning his line of attack.

  This puts me in an awkward spot. Jin thought. The entire idea behind this “overextension” was to intercept the Jungler and divert his attention from the minions.

  By presenting himself as an “easy target”, Jin hoped to bait Hawk into attag him instead of clearing the minions. And, while the two were engaged in bat, Jin’s minions would deliver hefty damage oower.

  It was a risky pn but it was a calcuted risk. After all, Hawk was one of the weakest members of the Sweepers when it came to 1v1 bat.

  And, I’ve already firmed I match Ignis in bat. Jin o himself. Ignis is one of the better duelists oeam. So, if I handle her, I surely handle Hawk too.

  That belief was at the core of Jin's calcuted risk. He overextended in order to lure in an oppo who shouldn't pose too much of a threat in a duel. From there, all he had to do was to front Hawk and drag the battle out.

  As, for one reason or another, Hawk was taking his sweet time rotating to the ne. As a result, Jin's minions have already started ganging up ourret.

  In a way, everything was going eveer than expected. But, why?

  Are they uimating me? Is that why Hawk didn’t bother to rotate? Jin wondered. Or, maybe Ignis decided to give herself some sort of handicap? She totally seems like the type to give an advao somebody she uimates, just so she prove her superiority by beating them from a bad position.

  If any of that was true, it’d be rather sad. It’ll surely make Jin’s life easier during this exam, but it’ll also mean that the Sweepers weren’t taking him seriously so far.

  Besides, all of that was jecture at the moment. There was also the very likely possibility that Hawk po rotate to the ne as Jied, but then stopped at the st moment for whatever reason. It was best to stay vigint.

  Is Hawk studying my as right now? Jin wohis isn’t a bad oute for me, but it does put me in an awkward spot.

  Jin advanced all the way here with his minions, but he never had any iion of stepping into the tower rahe pn was to retreat as soon as enemies arrive, yet there were no enemies in sight at present.

  In other words, this looks like a great opportunity for me to push. Yet here I am, standing outside the tower area like a scarecrow. I bet this doesn’t look too good for the audience.

  Hopefully, the ones judging his performan this game will uand the situation properly. That, even though there was no solid proof, it was best for Jin to ader the assumption that Hawk was nearby, biding his time.

  So, assumihere, how will Hawk respond to this situation? Judging by how that Jungler usually pyed, he'll most certainly attempt to intercept Jin in the middle of the hat was the best way to cut off Jin, an option that only opened up for Hawk because he patiently waited before making his move.

  Hawk excelled at deaking, so he would see this as a great opportunity to strike. Jin was at 60% HP and the Sweepers probably haven't registered him as a major threat yet, so Hawk had every reason to strike.

  This is a slightly worse situation than how I envisioned my inal pn. Jin thought. But, I still make this work to my advahe question is whether I trust StormBlitz’s Jungler.

  The team's Jungler, Average, was in the middle rotating to the Wolf Camp op Lane. In other words, he was close enough to provide Jin with assistan case a fight breaks out. But, how useful was this guy actually going to be?

  For ners, the team’s Jungler was like an additional resource that was occasionally avaible for them. And, to use this resource effitly, it was important to first uand its potency. As, that was one piece of information Jin didn't have.

  I say of StormBlitz’s first scrimmage, but their oppos were too weak. So, I 't determine how Average will fare against pros. I only judge him based on what little I saw of the previous game when I arrived, but even that information is probably far from reliable.

  heless, Jin had to use anything he could to gain information, for information ower.

  Judging by the previous game between the Sweepers and StormBlitz, Average did a passable job overall. Of course, that was far from reassuring, but at least it suggested that using this Jungler won't be a plete disaster. Probably.

  "Jungler, you please rotate to Top?" Jin requested. "The enemy Jungler is going to gank me soon, so I appreciate some help."

  "Sure thing, buddy!" Average replied. "By the way, the name is Dan."

  "Thank you."

  With that, the stage was set. Jin prepared all the pieces he needed against Hawk's most likely course of a. The ball was now in Hawk's court.

  Will this Jungler pro really go for the py Jin was anticipating?

  I cut the kid off in the middle. Hawk ihe ne from the jungle. "Sny, I 't clear the minions for you at the moment. I got this great opportunity to gank the kid."

  "Tch." Ignis clicked her tongue as she watched her tetting demolished. "You really think you gon anything good started there? I mean, brat or not, this whippersnapper even gave me a tiny bit of trouble."

  "Yeah, I probably won't get a kill," Hawk admitted. "But, pretty sure I at least kick him out of the ne."

  "You better do, or else your eation would be a waste."

  Nicement there, teammate. Hawk made a face, but then shook his head and trated on the uping py. That kind of treatment was nothing new, so it was fine.

  Hawk hasn't had many opportunities yet to prove himself worthy of pying on this B-League team, so this was one ce to show off a little. He'll smack this Korean kid who gave Ignis trouble. That should make him look good pared to Ignis, who was a veteran oeam. It was a tiny step, but it’ll heless bring him a little closer to establishing himself as ae B-Leaguer in everybody’s eyes.

  Okay, let's go! Hawk arrived in the middle of the ne, ready for bat!

  Even though he wasn't as strong of a fighter as Ignis, he had one great advantage for this fight: his ranged basic attacks as a Vampire. So, by cutting off the enemy's best escape route like this, Hawk had the opportunity to bombard the ining oppo nonstop!

  Let's get this party started, kid! Hawk fired a bat at the approag Knight. And so, the fight was on!

  DarkestCymore