Seriously, girl, I don’t have time to py with you. William stepped out of Beat’s attack range once again. This long rally of shots is pointless. I have to overpower her so I get to the Colossus. If only I had more Attack Speed…

  As, as a Droid, it was ineffit to build much Attack Speed, therefore William didn’t. But, it’s not like he didn’t build any Attack Speed at all.

  Some of the best power/crit items also offered a little bit of Attack Speed as well. As such, William’s Attack Speed was definitely higher than the Bomber’s, if only slightly.

  The only reason Wilim has been pying along with Beat’s patil now was that Beat had the initial momentum on her side. On top of that, William wasn’t quite sure of Beat’s real iions at the time, so he didn’t want to overit.

  But, that had to e to an end.

  It’s time to shift the momentum in my favor. I ’t let her drag me into her pace.

  William backstepped against Beat’s ining shot, then immediately fired back. ZAP! This time, William’s shot was on point.

  No, that wasn’t quite right. His previous shots were on point as well, but Beat read their timings ahead of time and easily sidestepped them. But, not this time.

  While Beat was busy closing the gap between them, she didn’t have as much luxury to prediing shots. Most likely, she thought her momentum will tinue forever in this fight, so she wasn’t too ed with defense.

  But, William broke her serve. Now, he was the one leading the duel.

  Too bad for you, but I know a thing or two about how momentum works in matches. William tinued maintaining ideal distance from Beat, staying just barely out of her Attack Range as he reeled her in.

  As the one who had superie and speed, it was only natural for William to be the one who dictated the flow of this fight. Beat had nht to trol anything here.

  ZAP! William fired once more at the approag enemy.

  This time, Beat reacted better and made an actual effort to sidestep. heless, she was obeat too te. The red beam pierced right through her side.

  It was easy enough to predict that she’ll sidestep to the right, so William titled his shot slightly in that dire as he shot. And, turned out he was right on the money.

  As I thought, she’s trying to zone me away from both Matt and the Colossus. William cluded. A det tactic, but it also makes your movements more predictable. With that said...

  He hit Beat twice so far, but only his main ser beam hit the target. Meanwhile, his Assault Drones missed the mark twi a row due to their deyed reas.

  At this rate, it’ll take too long. The drones don’t have an infinite lifetime. William frowned.

  At Lv. 7, the Assault Drones had a lifetime of 60 seds. It ractically infinity as far as a single duel was ed, but William didn’t e here to “duel” with anybody. His one and only priority was to destroy the Colossus.

  He booted all five of his drones back whearted pushing the Golem a while ago. That endeavor already took over 15 seds.

  After that, they started pushing the Colossus but the enemy arrived about 5 seds ter. Ever sihe enemy has been buying time with their aggressive defense.

  And so, 10 more seds passed in a blink of a this point, William’s drones had less than 30 seds remaining.

  It’ll be over for us if my drones disappear. Wilim frowned. I doubt Matthew this up by himself. I have to get to the Colossus, too.

  And to do that, it was first necessary to elimihis annoying obstacle in this path. Yes, in just under 30 seds, William will have to remove Beat from the se and break past her.

  In terms of bat skills, I’m definitely stronger. William analyzed as he fired another ser beam. But...

  The beam missed its target. Beat sidestepped earlier than expected as if predig exactly when the shot was about to be released.

  Yes, I’m strohan her, but she’s good at dodging. William thought. After just two examples, she has already adjusted to this iming and angle. Hmph, not bad. I’m vinced she’s at least a runner-up among the region’s stro pyers.

  Beat didn’t have enough opportuo shine in the previous scrimmage, so it was difficult to analyze her true skill. Her performance was very unstable throughout the majority of the Taurus scrimmage, which pegged her as a very ie pyer at first.

  heless, the girl definitely had potential and Wilim was one of the few t immediately. After all, Beat’s pystyle wasn’t all too different from William’s.

  They were both pyers who sought to gain an advahrough acute spag and accurate predi. Each of them had their own ways of achieving these results, but the core of their game pns was almost identical.

  I feel like her execution isn’t at its peak this game, but she’s definitely a lot more stable than she was against Taurus. It’s quite bothersome.

  When two experts of spag duked it out, the battle was bound to be dragged out for quite some time. Perhaps uher circumstances, William would have ehis intellectual duel. As, he ressed for time here.

  I ’t solve this alone. William finally had to admit that when his shot missed its target. At this rate, the duel was going to take way too long.

  As a former tennis pyer, the idea of relying on somebody else for a 1v1 always felt a bit unnatural. Even after three years of pying Cssmancers, he still had the habit of relying on his own strength in duels.

  Ideally, William would have wao resolve this situation with his own two hands. However, Cssmancers wasn’t that kind of game.

  Uennis, Cssmancers was a team sport where it was necessary to rely on teammates every now and then. In fact, William should have done so from the start, as soon as Beat started getting in the way.

  I wasted precious time here. William shook his head and gnced in Matthew’s dire.

  As everybody else reoccupied with their own battles, only Matthew was free to lend a hand here. And, it seemed the guy was aware that things will e down to this.

  Their eyes met ihe game, making it clear Matthew had been closely monit the situation this eime.

  “My Jet Stream and Squall are almost out of cooldown,” Matthew informed Wilim through private unication to not distract the others. He did it the moment their avatars faced each other as if he had been waiting for this moment the eime.

  Hmph, it seems like he read a few steps ahead of me, even though this was supposed to be my problem... William made a face. Seriously, I ever get a read on this guy, not even after pying with him for all these years.

  Matthew yer of few words. Normally, he was a zy bum who sought the easy way out of every situation.

  A, his intuition and precision were abnormally sharp. After pying alongside this enigma for so long and watg him perform well time and again, it became easy to take the guy’s analytical skill franted, even without fully uanding it.

  As such, it was a no-braio trust Matthew’s support in this situation. The guy will most likely do his job well, as always.

  “Alright,” William responded. “Do you need anything from me?”

  “It’d be nice if you could make her e a little closer to me, I guess. That way, I’ll be able to pce the stream right in front of her face.”

  “Got it,” William hat was easy enough te, as Beat was already hellbent on cutting off the path between Wilim and Matthew.

  If I move left here, then you’ll move even more to the right, correct? William fired a ser beam as he sidestepped to the left.

  As expected, Beat sidestepped the attack to the right, pg herself yet agaiween William and Matthew. She believed she was getting in their way, but she unknowingly pced herself in a dangerous pincer.

  “Here goes,” Matthew informed in his usual low tone as if the gravity of the situation was nothing to him.

  He fired Squall and immediately followed up with a Jet Stream, pg it right in front of Beat’s hat was as far as he could reach from this safe bae position.

  At the same exact time, William fired his ser beam. He did so from far away, with Beat standing outside his attack range.

  Normally, from this distance, his ser beam would evaporate before reag the target. However, he trusted the Jet Stream to appear there in time, right in the spot he .

  The sudden development clearly caught Beat off-guard.

  “Huh?” Kai frowned as a ser headed her way. For some reason, Winner decided it was a smart idea to fire a shot before Kai even stepped into his range. Did he panid shoot too early? Huh, amateur. Lucky for me, then.

  She celed her pns of stepping in and stayed out of the attack’s reach. Like, if her enemy wao whiff shots for free, then he was more than wele. It was easy life for her-

  WHISH! A burst of wind smmed into her back, deleting 20% of her HP!

  “Wha-?! Damn!” Kai grimaced. Was I in that bastard’s attack range!? Shit! I was sure I was staying at a safe distance! Damn, it’ll be bad if they gang up on me-

  Before she fihat thought, a stream of wind formed in front of her. This ged everything about the situation.

  Fuuuu! His shot is going to hit now!

  It turned out that the supposed “free whiff” that Winner was giving her was no whiff at all! It was going to hit home!

  The ser beam, which inally shouldn’t have reached Kai at all, passed through Merlin’s Jet Stream. As a result, it accelerated in Kai’s dire and pierced through her!

  But, that wasn’t even the worst part. A si like that wasn’t going to shake Kai. She still had over 60% HP left.

  The true danger came right after the Droid’s ser beam. It was the drones’ follow-up attacks!

  These shots were usually easy enough to sidestep, but Kai’s legs were like lead. Her Movement Speed took a hard hit because of Merlin’s Squall.

  Shit, I’m movihan a millimeter an hour! Kai grit her teeth.

  That Squall sure did a number on her. She felt like a brick stu mud.

  I gotta roll! Kai booted her Dodge Roll in the nick of time. I ’t let all these shots hit me!

  Two of the ser beams pierced through her, but at least Kai mao roll the other three. The worst-case sario was averted, but just barely.

  This isn’t good. Kai felt sweat f on her forehead. Her HP dropped below 45% HP. This was getting into dangerous territory.

  Hah, I probably gonna die at this rate. Kai tried to force a smile and alleviate the tension, but it didn’t quite work out.

  There was nothing to smile about in this situation. A, she had no choice but to keep fighting until somebody else joins the fray.

  Seriously, what’s taking them so long!? Kai gnced past Winner, searg for her two teammates.

  Yuel and Lars were supposed to e here and help her out, but they were taking their sweet time.

  Lars was stuck fending off Challenger, who insisted to block the path to Winner. Meanwhile, Yuel was on the defensive against Rook’s relentless attacks.

  Seriously, these bastards were proteg Winner as fiercely as a doting mother. They blocked off the area from all sides, forbidding everybody from ing close to their precious Carry.

  Tch, it’s like they’re c each other’s backs. Kai clicked her tongue.

  From this position, it was impossible for anybody but Kai to keep Winner occupied. But, for how long will she be able to keep doing this?

  As Merlin now joined forces with Winner, Kai’s future was looking beyond bleak...

  DarkestCymore