The game between Stratus and the Leopards tinued, but things weren’t looking good for Stratus.

  Following Vi's death and the colpse of the Turret in Top, the Leopards started grouping up together for pushes. This was their way of enf an early mid-game. They wao capitalize on the momentum while they had the advantage of numbers.

  But, they're not rushing it. Yuel frowhey're pushing but just enough to force us to defend.

  The Leopards were feeling themselves with that advaheir as veyed a clear message: "We have already won, so we take our time ing this up."

  This is also meant to frustrate us, isn't it? Yuel grimaced. I swear this is su annoying pystyle. I 't believe I found a team more annoying than Howard's.

  And, he wasn’t alone who felt that way.

  "Damn, finally!" Kai excimed. "Alright, we made them retreat. Now, let's attack!"

  "Wait," Yuel said. "They're luring you in. It's definitely bait."

  ", dude!" Lars interjected. "Are ya getting cold feet again? I thought we solved that problem in the previous scrim."

  "This is different. Against Taurus, I really pyed too safe and avoided risks,” Yuel admitted. “But here, we're fighting against oppos who are actively trying to frustrate us and make us unch a careless attack."

  "Yeah, dudes are sure a pain in the ass. They just keep hitting and running."

  "Yeah, it reminds me of guerril warfare."

  "Goril warfare? Yeah, them hit-and-run shenanigans sure feel unga bunga to me, haha!"

  "Anyway," Kai interjected. "Yes, these guys are baiting us, we get that. But, so what? They're baiting us now, and they'll keep baiting us until the end of this damn game. So, does that mean we should never ever attack them? That sounds dumb as hell."

  "We just o create a good opportunity,” Yuel said.

  "And, when's that gonna happen?"

  "Yeah, dude. When? It better not be Soon?, yo."

  The two of them were breathing down Yuel's neck. They were raring to go on the offensive no matter the circumstances, which was exactly what Cato banked on.

  The only other voice of reason ieam was Vi, but he wasn't immuo frustratioher.

  "Let us not rush, my rades," Vi said. "Our time will e eventually. And, o does, we shall make the enemy guerril squad experierue hell!"

  He outing the same bombastisense as usual, but there was a noticeable hint of spite in his as. This was no longer just about beating the enemy. Nay! He, like everybody else, wished for the Leopards to suffer a fate worse than just a simple defeat. These turtles shall all be punished for all the frustration they’ve been spreading around like poison!

  I have a feeling it won't be long before Vi snaps too. Yuel frowned. And, I'm not sure about myself, either. It's hard to stay impartial against oppos like this.

  Hit-and-run.

  Hit-and-run.

  Every.

  Single.

  Time.

  The Leopards alushed just hard enough to force Stratus to run around and defend. heless, these guys never overextended enough to leave an opening for a proper terattack. At least, that’s how the majority of the Leopards pyed.

  The only exceptions to that rule were AbsoluteWinner and AbsoluteChallehese two unched far more forceful and dynamic attacks thahers.

  "The Absolute Duo is ing to Bot!" Vi informed.

  While the rest of the team was busy defending Top, Vi alone was tasked with clearing the invading minions in Bot. And, that's when the Absolute Duo uheir ued attack!

  As always, the fearsome duo picked the worst time to strike. They used their own teammates as a diversion as they uhis unstoppable two-man assault!

  With perfect teamwork, the one duo of Winner and Challenger was equal to an army of hundreds! None could stop them! And, especially not Vi by himself.

  "Retreat," Yuel ordered. "Nia, you lend him a hand?"

  "Ok..."

  "Just make sure to stay in the back as you attack. The most important part is showing them that you're there to help Vi. There’s o actually aggress on them."

  "Ok..." Nia repeated the same weak reply. Her voice was always rather stoic, but right now, it sounded ht indifferent.

  It’s as if the girl wasn't really paying any attention to what Yuel was saying, or that she COULDN’T pay attention to it because her brain refused tister the details. The yawning didn't help her case either.

  heless, Nia faithfully followed the instrus and rotated to help Vi. And, as ordered, her of them directly engaged with the enemy duo. Their top priority was to defend the ne and intimidate the eo make them retreat. If it was only that much, then Nia could hahat fine even in her current sleepy state.

  Unfortunately, it seems this is the most I ask of her in this game. Yuel frowned.

  Even after 20 minutes of gamepy, Nia showed no signs of waking up. She was just alert enough to avoid terrible misys, and she did mao follow simple orders. But, that’s all she was capable of.

  This is almost like a 4v5. Yuel frowned. I really shouldn't have foria to py this game. If I had let her rest during the first game, then she probably would've been ready to py in game 2. What a blunder.

  Yuel tried too hard to start this scrimmage on the right foot and it backfired terribly. Instead of opening the mat the best shape, Stratus ended up using the worst lineup possible.

  I 't believe I'm thinking this, but I actually wish Luke pyed this game instead. Sigh.

  When having a memer oeam sounded like an appealing proposal, it was an obvious sign that the game was doomed.

  With that said, Stratus couldn’t simply give up here. Even as the enemy was slowly strangling them to death, Stratus had to keep fighting.

  "Fuck!" Kai cursed. "Alright, I'm doh this defense shit! We're getting nowhere like this. Let's attack already!"

  "Yeah! Right behind ya!" Lars followed up.

  "Wait-" Yuel tried to stop the reckless duo but it was too te. Lars and Kai were already charging up ahead, walking straight into a deadly trap.

  At first ghis attack didn’t seem that bad. The two enemy pushers, Rook and Merlin, lost all their minions and had no choice but to retreat. It seemed like a very straightforward situation in which Stratus had the obvious upper hand.

  On top of that, sidering how deep the enemy duo extended into Stratus’ territory, it was easy to believe that Lars and Kai will domihis situation with a terattack. However, that’s exactly the impression the enemy was trying to create.

  Lars and Kai’s terattack led to… a ter-terattack! Winner and Challenger emerged from the jungle and tackled the reckless duo!

  And naturally, Rook and Merlin did a 180 at the same time in order to joiack. And so, Lars and Kai found themselves in a deadly pincer!

  “Crap!” Lars excimed. “I think we screwed up, haha…”

  An ally has been killed!

  Lars failed to escape. He already spent his Backfire on on clearing minions, so he had no escape tools left.

  To make things harder, the enemy focused all their firepower on him. They clearly treated him as the top priority threat, as they should.

  “Phew! That was close.” Kai sighed in relief after retreating to safety.

  She unched herself backward with Satchel Charge as soon as the enemy duo showed up from the jungle, so she escaped the se with just a couple of bruises. Not much HP was lost, but her pride took a hard hit for sure.

  This eack was one huge mispy. Yuel sighed deeply. But, I don’t even have it io bme them. After all, this art of the enemy’s pn. Or, more specifically, Cato’s pn.

  “What, you not gonure me?” Lars asked.

  “Since you’re asking about it yourself, I assume you uand just how badly you messed up.”

  “Yep, I totally blew it, haha…”

  “How you have the strength to ugh in this kind of situation is beyond me.”

  The eeam was drowning in despair. The enemy was slowly, VERY slowly, dragging Stratus toward their demise.

  Ahe Leopards still refused to deliver the finishing blow. They hadn’t made the game-deg move. It’s like they waratus to experience a sloainful death.

  Therefore, Stratus couldn’t throw the towel, not yet. Despite how disadvantageous their position was, there was still a faint glimmer of hope that the enemy hadinguished yet.

  Normally, that would have been a good thing. It meant Stratus still had a ce, small as it was. But, iy, it was more like a curse.

  Just because this tiny little ce existed, it pelled everybody to keep fighting their best. Everybody tiruggling against the impossible odds, believing there was still a “ce” to turn things around.

  It feels like a psychological trap. Yuel grimaced. The harder we struggle, the more we tire ourselves out. No matter how much effort we put in, it doesn’t feel like we’re actually making any progress.

  It was beyond obvious that the Leopards were toying with their food at this point. They didn't go for the killing blow, but her did they show any openings.

  This must be Cato’s doing. Yuel frowned. Back when I pyed him, he pulled the exact same thing on me. Even after he got into a winning position, he didn’t hurry to finish me off. That pelled me to keep fighting even though I knew I lost. It was so draining.

  And now, the eeam was subjeir mental exhaust. This wasn’t good

  In a five-game scrimmage, serving energy was very important. Overexerting on the very first game was deadly.

  Ahis is exactly what we’re doing right now... Yuel grimaced as he checked the status of his teammates.

  “Damn, e here and fight!” Kai ranted as Theorist disengaged from battle.

  “Annoying...” Nia pined when Rook targeted her with hit-and-run tactics.

  “This has turned into a battle of endurance!” Viried to vince everybody, including himself. “Shall we survive through the enemy’s siege, we might emerge victorious still! Yes, we might emerge victorious... indeed... surely...!”

  “Yo, these dudes be dragging out this game like crazy.” Lars tried to smile but there was a hint of irritation in his voice. “I’m tellin’ ya, it’s like we’re pying against a team full of Ellens, haha! Haha...”

  He was ughing, but it was a hollow ugh. Despite his seemingly positive attitude, it was obvious Lars wasn’t enjoying the situation in the slightest either. At this rate, even the ever-positive goof might crack.

  Should we just call it quits and surrender? Yuel couldn’t believe he was seriously eaining the thought, but that’s how far Cato’s tactics pushed him.

  pared to suffering through this fake stalemate and holding onto shaky hope, it was that much easier to just end it here and now. They still had 4 mames to work with today, so not all will be lost.

  With that said, there’s still a small ce the Leopards are actually terrible at ing up games in which they don’t have an overwhelming advantage. A slim ce, but a oheless.

  I two scrimmages, the majority of the Leopards also pyed rather defensively, but they also developed an overwhelming momentum thanks to killing sprees of Winner and Challenger. With that much adva was easy enough for them to the games despite their turtle tendencies.

  But, the same didn’t apply to the current game. Even though the Leopards had some momentum on their side, it was far from overwhelming. After all, Stratus wasn't some weak team that’d easily fold to oppos from the region.

  So, maybe they’re just dragging things out to minimize risks, but I really doubt it. If a defeeam doesn’t know how to the endgame, how does it even pn to win?

  For defeeams, the te-game was supposed to be their forte. Their entire game pn was supposed to revolve around dragging the game out until the te-game, at which stage they’d finally unch their terattad things up.

  Therefore, it was unthinkable for the Leopards to be bad at ing up the te-game. If anything, that was supposed to be one of their stro points.

  So, this was definitely all Cato’s doing. It was borderline sadism.

  And, it feels like they’re keeping up the gig even lohan in previous scrims. Or, maybe it only feels longer because I’m on the receiving end of this time?

  Either way, little by little, Cato was ing a rope around Yuel’s ned tightening the knot.

  However, that sadist didn’t ght for the strangle. No, he just tightehe rope a little at a time, making it harder and harder to breathe.

  Slow and gradual suffocation. Yuel felt like he was submerging to the bottom of a deep o, uo swim his .

  “Just give in already. You know you want to~” Yuel could hear Cato’s poisonous words directly in his head. There was no doubt the snake was getting a kick out of watg Stratus struggle.

  Our lives would be so much easier if we just gave up. Yuel thought. But, we ’t throw any games today. We have to keep fighting! Yes, we have to...

  With his spirit in shambles, Yuel tinued rag his brain to find a solution to this unpleasant predit...

  DarkestCymore