With AbsoluteChallenger joining the battle in Mid, things turned for the worse for Yuel and Kai. Now, they found themselves falling behind in terms of clearing speed.

  Therefore, Yuel had to unch a preemptive attack before the enemy push them back.

  "I'd like to mess up the ne formation if you don’t mind,” Yuel said.

  "By how much, exactly?" Kai asked.

  "By as much as possible, to be ho. I want to get the minions outside the range of their AoE spells."

  A duo of Aeromancer and Lumimancer was quite devastating when they joined hands to clear minions. Both of them summoned an AoE area that delivered damage over time. The Aeromancer cast his Whirlwind while the Lumimancer cast Ray of Light.

  The two circles had simir radii, so they could’ve easily overpped on top of each other to verge into one AoE. However, the enemy duo made things more plicated on purpose. They didn’t align their AoE at all.

  Merlin cast his Whirlwind in the middle of the minion formatiht between the swordsmen and the bowmen. Meanwhile, Challenger cast his Ray of LIght on the frontline of both sides, dealing damage to Kai’s swordsmen while healing Merlin’s swordsmen.

  Surely, they spread out their fire on purpose, to make it that much harder to approaywhere hat se. Therefore, Yuel absolutely had to ruin this setup before it had a ce to get out of hand.

  "Well, we don’t really have a choice, do we?" Kai sighed.

  "Will you be fine farming during chaos?"

  “... yeah, no problem.” There was an odd pause at the start there, but Kai heless tinued reassuring. “, what do you take my Bomber for? I know how to py the css."

  "Okay, then I’ll aggro them."

  "Knock yourself out."

  And so, Yuel cast Gaia’s Prote on himself and stepped into the raging whirlwind. The raging typhoon assaulted him at once, but it only burned away at his shield. Meanwhile, his HP remained perfectly intact.

  heless, the allied minions didn't appreciate this iion. They now treated Merlin as an offender who hurt one of their anders, so this crime couldn't go unpunished.

  And so, the minions shifted their focus toward the criminal mage. The entire brigade took their feet and hurried to invade eerritory.

  This turn of events immediately put the enemy on the spot.

  "Not this shit again." Ronald sighed. "Man, this bruh just likes suig on spells. Word."

  "It’s not a suicide if he doesn't take any damage," Matthew pointed out. "And, it's not a real problem as long as we stay in our current positions."

  Even though Stratus’ swordsmen marched onward, their bowmen trailed behind. As a result, they remained ihe AoE of the damaging spells for quite some time. So, they were bound to reach the Leopards’ territory with almost no HP, if any at all.

  "We just o get rid of the swordsmen," Matthew cluded.

  "Yeah, let's kill these cocky dudes. Who do they think they are, invading against pros like us, right?"

  Matthew cast Jet Stream in front of them, creating a current of wind that blew in dire of the ining minions.

  With the preparations ihe two of them focused their basic attacks on the ining swordsmen. Unfortunately, they dealt meager damage.

  "Man, mages' basic attacks suck!" Ronald pouted. "Buffs when, CashSoft?"

  Despite the low damage, this was the best tool they could use at the moment. Of course, Ronald could go for Blinding Light as he has done before in Bot, but that’ll be a huge MP sink. He has already learhe hard way how preP was during such exges.

  Never again. Ronald vowed. I’m not gonna fall for this bruh’s tricks. He’s just trying to flush all my MP, right? Nuh-uh, ain’t gonna happen, bruh.

  As such, Ronald and Matthew tinued firing their underwhelming led basics. It wasn’t much, but it was ho work.

  pared to this sloitiful progression, the enemy side had plenty of burst damage potential. However, it was also very harder for them to properly farm amidst this chaos.

  And, I make it even harder for her. Matthew thought. You started this annoying py, so I’ll make sure it’s equally annoying for you, too.

  And so, he set his little scheme into motion. In the meahe enemy Bomber was busy enough decorating minions with her bombs.

  Tch, I’m not a fan of farming with Bomber during messes like this. Kai admitted. There’s too much shit to keep track of.

  As always, she started off by attag Sticky Bombs to the enemy swordsmen. However, this time, it was easier said than done.

  The swordsmen didn’t just stand in one pce like training dummies. Instead, they moved all over the pce, chasing down Kai’s minions who were in the process of invading eerritory.

  And so, Kai had to stantly adjust her aim and position in order to properly icky Bombs on all the swordsmen. And, she had to do all of this as quickly as possible, before the older bombs detach.

  Of course, nding basic attaoving minions wasn’t a real challenge by itself. Only a Bronze rank pyer would struggle with something as basic as that.

  But, being a Bomber meant Kai had to dish out all these basic attacks oer another without rest. There was no time to carefully aim every attack at the minions, but missing shots wasn’t an optioher.

  Okay, almost done! Despite the hurry, Kai successfully covered two of the swordsmen with two Sticky Bombs. Now, only one more swordsman remained, but he was the farthest away from the bunch.

  e here, you little…! Kai gave chase. There was no time, dammit! She had to apply two Sticky Bombs on that guy ASAP and then blow up all the swordsmen with a Bounb!

  But, at the same time, she couldn’t rush things too much. It’d be pointless if she misses her shots in a hurry and fails to apply her Sticky Bombs.

  Damn, why does it feel like this bastard is faster than other minions!? Kai ranted. It’s like he’s eling his inner Sonic!

  It was a real pain. That st swordsman she was dashing away at the speed of a real scumbag. Out of all her targets, only this st guy decided to be a huge pain in the ass. What was his agenda?

  Is it because his target is moving? Kai examined everybody’s positions.

  The same way Kai was currently chasing the enemy swordsman, that swordsman was also in the middle chasing one of Kai’s swordsmen. And, the allied swordsman iion was chasing one of the enemy pyers. It was quite the , alright.

  So, it's because Merlin is moving in the opposite dire. Kai gred at that sneaky bastard, who was leading Kai's swordsmen diagonally away from her, which subsequently made the enemy minions also diagonally distahemselves from Kai.

  Tch, what a pain. Kai clicked her tongue. He gotta be doing this on purpose, right? Yeah, I’m sure he is. I don’t care what anybody says, that’s my .

  That Merlin bastard was an annoying tacti, so trolling the positions of minions wasn’t beyond him. But, Kai had no iion of letting this smartass py her for a fool.

  Okay, done! Kai sighed in relief after finally attag a sed Sticky Bomb on the elusive swordsman. Now, it was time to things up with a Bounb, but...

  Damn, they're too spread out! Kai clicked her tongue.

  Decorating all the swordsmen with Sticky Bombs was the easy part. The real challenge was to find the optimal range and angle for unleashing Bounb. It was a huimes harder to do this optimally when the minions were on the move.

  Worst of all, Kai didn't have much time. Sticky Bombs didn't stay attached forever, so they’ll start falling off ihan 2 seds.

  Is this angle good enough? No, maybe a little to the right... Damn, stop moving so much! Kai adjusted her aim time and again, but the situatio ging before she could decide.

  Before long, the dreadful sound cue pyed. CLACK. The first of the Sticky Bombs fell off. That was it. Kai ran out of time.

  Damn, to hell with it! Kai unleashed Bounb in the best dire she could e up with. This was going to be far from an ideal py, but it was better than nothing.

  The bomb bounced, ramming into a single swordsman. BOOM! The Sticky Bombs exploded, yet remaitached to the swordsman.

  , the Bounb bounced again. It nded right between two swordsmen and hit her.

  Just great... Kai sulked

  Fortunately, this wasn't the end of the Bounb's adve jumped for the third time, nding in the ter of the enemy formation. Then, BOOM! The big bomb blew up.

  The explosion grazed two swordsmen and one bowman. The swordsmen blew up hard due to the Sticky Bombs on them, but the bowman received minimal damage. All in all, this turned out to be a really shabby setup.

  Yeah, Bomber is sure hard to use in chaotic situations like this. Kai ceded that muo wonder Yuel asked if I was ready for this. I thought it'd be a cakewalk, but these damn swordsmen just keep moving around so much.

  It's not like this was the first time Kai found herself pying Bomber in the middle of an active situation like this. However, the minions' movements here felt more obnoxious than usual. It's almost like they were moving away from Kai on purpose, to make her life as difficult as possible.

  I’m like 99% vinced Merlin is leading them away on purpose. Or, am I overthinking it? Kai shook her head. There was no time for such idle thoughts right now. She had to focus on the remaining minions, as her Bounb setup failed to eliminate any of them.

  And so, the chaotic struggle tinued. All allied minions invaded deep into eerritory and the enemy greeted them with heavy fire from all dires. So, it to Kai and Yuel to provide c fire.

  In the end, both sides eliminated each other’s armies at around the same time. It was teically a draw, but not everybody saw it that way.

  "Gah! I 't believe it!" Ronald caused a ruckus. "We lost!"

  "It’s a draw," Matthew said.

  "Nah, maally lost. I mean, look at us, we're two powerhouses. But, these guys? One of them is a Support."

  "Well, pretty sure you're also a Support."

  "Yeah, but man, I got a power build and all. I'm supposed to be dunking on any regur Support as far as damage goes."

  "Well, you kinda do," Matthew said. "They just created a chaotic situation. Our csses arely the best with those."

  "Yeah, for sure." Ronald nodded. "Damn, this Chessmaster bruh must be really into suig. He keeps jumping on people’s spells all the time."

  "It's a on ter-py against AoE spells. Nothing special there."

  If anything, it was surprising it took the enemy so long to start using this tech. In all the ning tests until now, Kai allowed Matthew to get away with zy farming without f him into any annoying situations like this.

  Well, I guess she also prefers to keep things simple as Bomber. Matthew didn't have robust experieh the css, but he pyed it enough times to form an option.

  In short, pying Bomber ain. It was a css that had to take so many different things into at while preparing its setups, to the point it felt unrealistic to actually py it well on the petitive se. Especially, not after Matthew learned a bunch of different ways to ter Bomber pyers.

  The diagonal movement worked like a charm. Matthew o himself.

  Back during the chaos, he iionally led the enemy minions diagonally away from Beat. As a result, Matthew’s own minions also gave chase in a diagonal dire that mimicked their targets’ movements.

  Things like that always made the Bomber's life difficult, as the pyer had to give chase diagonally while firing basics. That surely wasn’t fun for them.

  I remember Esmeralda showihis before. Matthew thought ba his former mentor. I was trying out Bomber and she pulled this frustrating tactie. That was the day I decided I won't be maining Bomber, no thank you.

  Esmeralda's pystyle revolved entirely around frustrating her oppos, and it so happehat Bomber was easy prey for her. Not only was it a meically taxing css, but it also had to deal with unfairly difficult situations like this. Holy, it wasn't a css worth iing in.

  I don't know if I should respect Beat for pying it or feel sorry for her. Matthew shrugged. Either way, I'll keep making her life as difficult as I . That's how I was taught to py.

  The wave arrived. Both Ronald and Chessmaster stuck around in the ne, giving some space to William and Gunz to duke things out in Bot.

  Is this wave also going to turn into a chaotic race like st time? Matthew made a face. Well, I don't mind. As long as I don't have to do anything too taxing, I'm good.

  Ronald would disagree, but for Matthew, reag a draw was more than enough here. As long as he didn't have to work too hard to achieve the draw, then it retty much a win in his book. Though, a real win would be even nicer, of course.

  "Do you need a hand over there?" Cato asked.

  "Nah, me and Matt are doing fine, right?" Ronald asked. "Let's show them who is boss this wave!"

  "Actually, I wouldn't mind some help."

  "You what!?" Ronald gasped. "an. This is a 2v2! Let's test these guys ahem fair and square!"

  "3v2 is easier." Matthew shrugged. Easier = better. That was the core principle Matthew operated on.

  But, it's not because he was zy or anything like that. This principle was actually one of the most important ws of the universe. It could’ve easily been ed on’s Fourth Law.

  The easier it was to aplish something, the more sistently the pyer will be able to aplish it. Basic math.

  As such, any help would be wele in this chaotic situation in Mid. The less uainty there was, the better.

  “So yes, I’d like some help,” Matthew repeated.

  “Alright, got it,” Cato responded. “I’ll rotate over there in a few seds. Try to lure them in.”

  “Then, it means one of us shouldn’t use their spell right away,” Matthew pointed out. “I'd like to go first if you don't mind.”

  “No problem,” Ronald said.

  Nice. I have the easier part. Matthew cast Whirlwind on the ining minion wave. This was the same pattern as before, so he didn’t have to do anything special.

  “So,” Ronald said. “I’m gotta wait to see how they respond and then cast my stuff accly, that’s what you meant, right?”

  “Yeah, exactly.” Matthew hat’s such a pain, though. I prefer to just cast my thing ahis over with.

  However, Ronald had no qualms about this arra. In fact, he seemed to enjoy this active role a lot mood for him.

  With only Matthew’s spell doing any wht now, it meant the enemy should have an easy time winning this ne exge. And, they surely realized that, too.

  So, how will Chessmaster a hahis temporary ne advantage? Will they choose to push onward? Or, will they see through this bait and decide to retreat?

  DarkestCymore