I have to escape. Escape. Escape. Escape! Scary! Nia drilled the thought into her brain over and over, to make sure her numb brain stayed trated. If she were to let her guard down for even a moment, theiredness might knock her out on the spot.

  It was an odd feeling. On one hand, her body was surging with adrenaline. She was moving pretty well overall, even good enough to dodge the enemy's roar in the nick of time.

  But, at the same time, her thoughts were scattered all over the pce. She had a hard time f coherent thoughts or keeping up with the unfoldis. Essentially, she was moving based on instinct alone.

  "Nia, may I ask what you're doing?" Yuel inquired.

  "Gufu... Trying to escape, I think."

  "What do you mean you 'think'? That's all you do in this situation unless you feel Iike taking on the Lionfolk."

  "No, no, no. No way. Too scary."

  "Yes, I figured as much. So then, why are you still hanging around eerritory?"

  "This is my escape route. Or was, at least." Nia pouted. "I hate that Lumi ult. Not fun. Bully."

  "Yes, I uand that the Lumimancer's ult ruined your pns,” Yuel said. “So, you should’ve been w ourning to our territory instead of diving deeper into theirs.”

  "Yeah, I want to. But, he keeps blog my way. That bully."

  "You mean their Lionfolk?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Hmm. I see." Admittedly, Yuel couldn't tell Rook's exact position at all times. Nia was running away with her back turo her chaser, so she couldn’t actually see Rook the eime.

  As such, her analysis had to rely mostly on the sound of her pursuer’s footsteps. However, on top of that, she also turned around every now and then to firm the Lionfolk’s location.

  After hearing Nia’s expnation, Yuel started payira attention to that occasional visual information. That’s when the "irregurity" of Rook's movements revealed itself.

  He's n to ght for the kill. Yuel deduced. He's just matg Nia's steps and making sure she 't easily return to our side. Typical Cato.

  Even ba chess, this was one of Cato's trademark tactics. Instead of capturing a piece right away, he often took his sweet time ering the piece from all sides. It's as if he derived joy from the act of stretg out these things.

  This reminds me a little of Ellen. Yuel shuddered. As I feared, the Leopards this year have two Ellen-esque pyers. This is going to be fun...

  Regardless, this was no time to feel depressed. Nia's situation required Yuel’s full attention, even more so than the uping wave in Mid.

  Is Cato just pying with his food? Yuel wondered. He should know he'll never catch up to Nia like this. So, he's either messing around, or he's leading her into a trap.

  It was difficult to tell for sure. There wasn't nearly enough information about ovements to clude anything.

  Nia didn't have the luxury to turn around every sed, so she only caught a glimpse of her pursuer every on a while. Yuel had to work with inplete bits of information here.

  Is he leadioward Top? That’s the only hypothesis Yuel could e up with. That's what I'd probably do in his shoes.

  As unfortable as it was to admit, Yuel actually shared a handful of simirities with Ellen’s pystyle as well. Though he wasn't a fan of slowly t his prey, he was heless a great believer in trapping his oppos in unwinuations. Therefore, trapping Nia in Top just made too much sense.

  That naturally begged the question: what was TheTheorist doing at the moment? If Yuel’s dedu was correct, then Theorist was going to py a big role in all of this.

  Until retly, the Monk eacefully sitting under her tower aating. But, it seemed like her Chakra finished replenishing and she ehe jungle soon afterward.

  Did she go there just to clear jungle camps? Or, was she pnning to assault Nia?

  “Vi, listen,” Yuel said. “They might be trying to pinia op. I suspect Theorist will be the oo go for the kill.”

  “Nani!? Suderhaactics!” Vi excimed. “I must put a stop to this at once! I shall join the fray!”

  “Fighting them 2v2 is out of the question,” Yuel warned. “Though their Lion exhausted all his skills, the Monk still has access to everything, especially her ultimate.”

  “But, that is no reason for ,” Vi reassured. “After all, our VanishingFlower has access to her powerful ultimate move as well!”

  “Except, I don’t think she’s in any shape to fight.”

  On paper, Vi was correia’s Izuna Drop was about as dangerous as Monk’s Asura Strike in terms of raw damage.

  “But, we have to be realistic here,” Yuel said. “Judging by how Nia has been perf, I don’t think she put on a det fight right now. So, the way I see it, going for a 2v2 is a surefire way to cede two kills to the enemy.”

  “I see, I see.” Vi nodded. “In that case, a rescue operation is in order, am I right? Essentially, you need me to deliver VanshingFlower to safety uhese dire circumstances.”

  “Yes. And, I was hoping you have a pn on how to do this effitly because I’m drawing a bnk at the moment.”

  “Say what?” Vi blinked. “The master of tactics, the renowned Chessmaster himself, ot e up with a powerful terpy for this sario!?”

  “Give me a break. Defensive shot-calls aren’t my specialty.” Yuel racked his brain as hard as possible, but he couldn’t e up with ae solution for the current situation.

  There was no denying that asterfully ered Nia. She became a trapped piece with no good spaces to retreat to.

  As such, the only way to bail Nia out was by moving other pieces around the board in hope aining trol over the position. As, Yuel didn’t see a good way to achieve that.

  Would Howard be able to e up with a strong py in a situation like this? Yuel wondered. No, he probably wouldn't even have to. If Howard were the shot-caller, then he would’ve made sure that things woulde to this point in the first pce.

  As, in his carelessness, Yuel allowed this position to happen. If Cssmancers had AI engines like chess does, then they would have surely evaluated the current situation in favor of the Leopards, overwhelmingly so.

  It’ll be bad if Nia dies here. Really, REALLY bad. Yuel gulped.

  Under normal circumstances, g First Blood was an unfortunate event but not a deal-breaker. However, in this game, both sides were about to reach the mid-game without a single kill on their records.

  So, a First Blood in this stalemate had a lot of weight to it. In fact, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that a single kill here could determihe momentum for the rest of the game.

  Just don't die, I'm begging you. Yuel found himself praying, that’s how hopeless he felt against this situation. If there was any magical shot-call that could salvage this critical situation, then Yuel was uo jure it.

  As such, all the hope here y with Vi’s ability to make a difference. And, as requested, he chased Theorist into the jungle in hope of intercepting the enemy’s attack.

  As, the enemy had a head start on him, so it proved rather difficult to catch up. At this rate, Theorist was bound to run into Nia before Vi could do anything about it.

  Of course, dodging the fully recharged Monk was the top priority here, but it seemed like Nia didn’t get the memo. She tinued running toward Top while fleeing from Rook.

  It’s like he’s leadihere. Yuel frowned. "Nia, I'm sure you heard, but their Monk is ing after you. You have to avoid her at any cost"

  "Yeah, but..." Nia pursed her lips. She wao escape in a different dire, she really did. But, no matter where she tried to take a turn, that annoying Lionfolk always blocked her options. I-I think I'm dead here...

  Just as the thought crossed her mind, the grim reaper appeared in front of her! This was a reaper who practiced holy arts, but a reaper heless. Theorist arrived!

  No, no, nonono! Nia's braiellio steer clear of that grim reaper, yet her legs tinued drivioward her doom.

  As much as she wao turn around and head in a different dire - there was simply nowhere else to go. A scary lion was breathing down her neck from behind, whereas a grim reaper monk was blog the front. And, with the jungle walls on the sides - Nia was like a trapped rabbit!

  "If you ’t get away from both them of them, then just turn around!" Yuel advised. "Try to get past the Lionfolk. You’ll receive some damage for sure, but it’s much better thaing one-shot by the Monk."

  "R-Right!" Nia realized something so basily now. And so, she did a 180 and started running in the opposite dire.

  In fact, she probably should've tried to slip past the Lionfolk from the get-go instead of extending this far into eerritory. But, her numb brain failed to solve this basic 1 + 1 exercise.

  Truly, Nia's sciousness was a mess. One moment, she itted a stupid mistake due to being drowsy, while the moment she suddenly woke up and realized how poor her py was.

  I should’ve tinued sleeping instead of joining this game. Nia sighed. I’m totally out of it. At this rate, I’m going to ruin the game for the eeam…

  As, it was too te tret that mistake. Nia was already here oage, so she had to do what she could.

  And so, she headed back toward the Lionfolk who was chasing her. But, will it really be that easy to get past Rook?

  "Oh? My, my." iled impishly. "Looks like she prefers to die a sloainful death instead of getting one-shot.”

  "A logical decision," Sonya said. "She has a higher ce of surviving like that."

  "Yes, she really does," Cato agreed. "And, I say we let her go."

  "I agree."

  They already saw oep ahead from this position. The most ideal sario was for Sonya to quickly eliminate VanishingFlower, but they suspected things won’t go that smoothly. Fortunately, there was another juicy alternative.

  "Well then, here es our brave knight~" irked.

  As expected, InformationBckhole shortly arrived on the se. The pn of this knight in shining armor was no doubt to disrupt Sonya and rescue Vanishing. It redictable as it was desperate.

  Instead of targeting the sneaky prihat you came to rescue, why don’t we just kill you instead~? iled impishly as he tinued running in Vanishing’s dire.

  The pirl robably g her teeth right now, brag for impact. She no doubt expected Cato to cw hard at her, to tear her apart as much as possible. The fear and frustration on her face were surely a delight to behold~

  G-Gufu! He's here! Scary! Nia shuddered as the big lion man sprioward her. That guy was like a hungry beast about to assault a helpless rabbit!

  "A-Ah!" Nia shrieked as the Lionfolk appeared right in front of her. Scary! Too scary! This grim reaper was about to tear her to shreds!

  heless, Nia had to keep running forward while enduring all the terror and damage. No matter how brutally the Lionfolk was going to rend her asunder, Nia should be fine as long as she gets past him with at least a little bit of HP remaining. Her Movement Speed was just a little higher, so she should be able to get away after that.

  H-Here it es! Nia was about to crash into the lion man! heless, she tinued running in his dire and... passed him?

  "Eh?" Nia blinked. “Wut?”

  Nobody sshed or cwed her. Nia casually passed by the scary predator as if it was nothing.

  Did he fet tet me? Nia cocked her head. Maybe I reached the point where I turn invisible right in front of people's eyes!? Anyway, lucky!

  Nia had no idea what to make of this development, but she didn't have the luxury to sit bad think about it. RUN! She had to keep running!

  And so, she tinued fleeing deeper into the juhout inf anybody about this important piece of information. And, this mistake was going to cost the team dearly...

  DarkestCymore