After Challenger recalled to base and Yuel departed to Mid, Lars and Winner remained alone in Bot.

  Okay, let's get the little dudes out of the way real quick. Lars approached the enemy frontline and unleashed Backfire on, bsting the entire minion wave while pushing himself away.

  It was an aggressive opening, ohat made his iions very clear.

  So, you want to pete. William nodded. What a ce because I want the exact same thing. He summowo Assault Drones behind his back. Let's see which of us really deserves the No. 2 spot...!

  BAM! A bullet came flying at him as soon as he finished summoning the drones. And, as always, the bullet wasn't directed at him.

  The shot targeted one of the drones behind William’s back, and it ected perfectly as always.

  Impressive. William admitted. But, that's not enough to stop me.

  He fearlessly advaoward the minion wave in order to pce the enemies within the drones’ attack range. Of course, this move made it that much easier funz to shoot the drones, but it’s fihis was how a duel between a Droid and a Pirate had to go.

  I just have to move around a lot to make it hard for him. William thought. I've already got a good idea of how he moves, so I’m sure I space him out.

  And so, William moved around in an arc while firing sers at the enemy minions. And, since he made sure to stay close enough to the enemies, his drones provided supp fire from behind. biheir shots melted the enemy minions one by one.

  Meanwhile, Gunz did his best to chase the drones. But, it wasn’t as easy as it sounded.

  The guy had to stantly split his attentioween shooting minions and shooting drones. Fortunately for him, the Attack Speed he built via Ninja Tabi made the task that much easier.

  Okay, so I shoot this dude. Lars sniped a swordsman in the head to secure a st-hit. And then, I'm in rao shoot this drone! He turned 90 degrees and instantly fired at one of the drones!

  He spent practically zero time on aiming this quick shot because he stantly kept tabs on Winner from the er of his eye. This transition from shooting a swordsman to shooting a drone was so instantaneous that even Winner failed to react to it in time.

  Tch, I ’t dodge this one. William grimaced.

  He tried his best to sidestep the shot oion but he wasn’t fast enough. There were zero telegraphs about this quick shot ing, so William barely had any time to react.

  Ohing I have to admit. William ceded. The way he switch between targets on the fly without wasting any time is quite impressive. In terms of meical skill, I agree he might be a little better than me overall. But, he do THIS?

  It was time to reveal a teique that William has been cealing until now. He had no reason to use it in the previous scrims because his oppos were too weak to bother, but Gunz was definitely worth the effort.

  And so, William fired a ser beam as soon as he fihe sidestep. As usual, his drones followed suit with beams of their own.

  Then, as soon as William finished firing the shot, he quickly sidestepped again. Likewise, his drones moved along with him after a brief dey.

  BAM! A bullet came flying in his dire, but it just barely missed the dro was targeting.

  “Geh!” Lars made a face. “So close, yooo! How did he even do that???”

  It looked unreal. That sidestep had such perfect timing! No, even more than perfect! It seemed dht impossible, yo!

  Winner should’ve been vulnerable while shooting, yet his recovery animation ended super fast. It’s as if dude celed it early by using some wizardry.

  I mean, I know you do cels like that with Dodge Roll and some skills, but dude didn’t do anything special. He just stepped, yo. Lars shook his head. Am I going crazy? Nah, I probably just read the timing wrong, that’s all it is.

  Lars ighis one wacky i and moved on. The ime Winner fired a ser beat, Lars shot the dude immediately! This time, he ain’t gonna miss, yo!

  BAM... and nothing else. The gun made a loud there was no impact sound. The bullet didn’t hit anything.

  “What the...?” Lars’s jaw dropped. “How is this even...?”

  Just like st time, Winner sidestepped the shot way too quickly. And, his drones followed his footsteps soon enough, so Lars’s accurate shot ended up whiffing. The heck, yo!?

  This doesn’t make any sense! Lars insisted. I hafta get to the bottom of this. What’s really happening here?

  Like st time, Winner’s recovery animation was cut short as if he glitched out of it somehow. It was so bizarre. Maybe it was some special Droid bug?

  I don’t remember anything like it, tho. Lars thought ba the few times he pyed Droid, but he was drawing a bnk on this topic. He never experienced anything like this.

  Well, Yuel hasn’t said anything, so maybe I’m just imagining things? Then again, I’m the one who has been shooting this dude. Yuel is only cheg on my situation every now and then, so it’s easy for him to miss these weird cels.

  The whole thi rather insistent, too.

  BAM! Ohird shot, Lars finally nded a hit on one of the drohis time, there was absolutely nothing strange about Winner’s movements.

  BAM! On the fourth shot, Lars missed again...

  “How tho!?!?!?!” Lars was losing his mind. “This makes no sense, yo!”

  BAM! BAM! BAM! Lars tinued firing shots at the drones.

  HIT. MISS. HIT. That was his score this round.

  Like, sometimes dude be doing that hax sidestep, but sometimes he doesn’t. I just don’t get it, yo.

  Throughout the many exges, Winner only pulled that glitch a handful of times. Maybe he wasn’t very profit at it, or maybe there were some special ditions that had to be fulfilled first. Either way, the whole thing was wack.

  “Hey, my dude,” Lars called out. “Is Droid bugged or something? I sometimes see him cel his attack recovery animation like real fast.”

  “He cels into it what?” Yuel asked.

  “Into… a sidestep, I guess? At least, that’s how it looks.”

  “I don’t think I’ve seen him do that.”

  “Yeah, he only pulled that a couple of times so far. But, it catches me off-guard every dang time, making me whiff shots. Any idea what the heck that is?”

  “If he’s really g the animation into a step, then I do have one idea of what it might be…” Yuel was relut to tinue. What he was about to suggest seemed very unlikely, especially for the middle school level.

  But, I already know they got a Korean pyer who do it. Yuel thought. So, maybe it’s not a stretch to assume that other members do it, too. I didn’t expect this...

  "It's probably a Korean Step cel, or KC for short," Yuel expined.

  "Wut? Is that some super-advanced Korean tech?"

  "Something like that..." Yuel made a face. "We actually saw it a few times, remember? Back wheched the Korean and ese teams at the world championship."

  "Oh, yeah! I remember thinking there was something cool and weird about the way some of them were moving."

  "Yes, they used the Korean cel quite often. It's a popur teique in the east, not so mu the west."

  "And, you’re saying Winner do it?”

  “Yes, that’s how it seems.”

  “Sick, yo! So, how does it work, again? Does he, like, cel his recovery animation with a step?"

  "Yes, that's the gist of it. You buffer a step during specific frames of the recovery animation and it'll cel the animation into a step."

  "Yo, that's rad as heck!" Lars excimed. "Why am I not using it then??? It sounds mad useful."

  “You tried it before, remember?”

  “Did I?”

  “Yes, you did,” Yuel insisted. “It sounds like you erased it from your memory because it didn’t go that well.”

  “Dang, did I suck that much?”

  “Hmm. That’s a difficult question to answer,” Yuel said. “You definitely did a lot better thahat’s for sure. But, it seemed like it’d take you a few good months to get proper results, so we dropped it.”

  “Oh yeah, it’s ing bae now, I think.” Lars scratched his head. “So anyway, this KC thingy sounds like a real useful teique. Why isn’t it more popur over here?”

  "Because it's difficult to execute, extremely so," Yuel expined. "The timing is very strict. They say it's 'frame perfect' for most csses.”

  “Frame perfect?”

  “It means you have to press a button at one very specific frame of the animation.”

  “Wait, isn’t this game like 60 FPS?” Lars knotted his brows and tried to run the numbers. “That basically means… Hmm… Welp, I’m pretty sure it means something. Probably.”

  “It’s ‘frame perfect’ specifically for 30 FPS,” Yuel expined. “For 60 FPS it means there’s a window of two frames, and for 120 FPS it means there are 4 frames.”

  “Oh, I get it! So, it’s easier with more FPS.”

  “No, it’s practically the same.”

  “Wait, wut? But you just said with higher FPS there are more frames in which I do the cel.”

  “True,” Yuel said. “But, if your FPS is higher, theual time for the cel remains the same. 2 frames in 60 FPS st as long as 1 frame in 30 FPS.”

  “Oh, yeah. That makes sense, I think.” Lars nodded with a bnk expression. “So anyway, how tight does the input o be, exactly? Like, iime, not acc to them fusing frames.”

  “At 30 FPS, you have 30 frames per sed. So, if you have to hit a specific frame, then you have 1 / 30 seds to do it.”

  “Wait, that’s less than a sed, isn’t it?”

  “... yes, of course it is. You divide 1 sed by 30 here.”

  “Dang, that sounds unreal! What the heck.”

  “Yes, it’s that hard. I heard it's practically impossible to do with online g."

  "Heh, sounds like a fun challenge!" Lars grinned. "I remember learning a few animation cel glitches like that for ames. It always feels awesome to pull them off! It’s like you’ve mastered the system and stuff, yo! I really dunno how I slept on this Korean cel thing. Until now"

  "That’s how difficult it is,” Yuel said. “So difficult, that even somebody like you quit early. You even erased it from your memory it seems.”

  “Dang, ’t believe I actually fot something like that.”

  “Well, that’s just how hard it is to execute sistently.”

  "Is it really, tho?” Lars asked. “To me, it looks like he's just doing a step. Sure, the timing may be strid stuff, but I’m sure anybody get used to it with enough practice."

  "It’s not that simple. To put it into perspective: even most pros in the west don't bother learning it."

  "Say what?"

  "We often watch western pro matches, right? But tell me, when was the st time you saw somebody perform a Korean cel in a match?"

  "Oh, good point..." Lars frowned as he tried to recall the st time he saw something simir to this teique. "Yeah, I only remember them ese pros pulling some godlike moves I didn't uand. But, the pros we usually watch make seo me, so they’re not doing any of this KC stuff, huh."

  "And there you have it. Even pros, who are supposed to aim for the highest level of mastery, give up on this teique.”

  "Dang, it sounds like some godlike tech! I gotta master it too, yo!"

  "I'm sure you will at some point." Yuel nodded. "But, the reason I haven't made you seriously practice Ktil now is that you have many other problems to work on first.”

  "Haha, harsh…"

  "It's the truth, and you have to face it."

  With Lars's natural gift for mastering difficult teiques, he'll surely pick up and master the Korean cel iure. However, that future wasn't here yet. The goof had plenty of other areas to improve in, which were far easier to work on and will tribute a lot more to Lars’s overall performance.

  "Besides," Yuel said. "K't even as useful for marksmen."

  "How e?" Lars titled his head. "This Winner dude over here is putting it to some good work."

  "It has some uses for the early-game, but its value diminishes over time. Marksmen usually build a lot of Attack Speed, so their attaimation bees very fast. As a result, it bees even harder to use the Korea such high speeds. And, it's barely even worth it to cel a short attaimation."

  "Yeah, I think I get watcha mean." Lars nodded. "Once I build some sick Attack Speed, I already quickly move after shooting, so o animation cel."

  In this game, the Attack Speed stat affected the eaimation, from the startup frames and all the way to the recovery frames. As such, the higher the Attack Speed was, the faster and shorter the animation was. So, at certain speeds, it became ht impossible to even buffer a step in the right spot of the recovery animation.

  These are the same arguments I used st time to vince him to give up on KC. Yuel sighed. He pretty much made me repeat everything ain. Oh well, it's important to remind him about these things every now and then, to make sure he doesn't get carried away and start practig it on his own.

  The goof was very impressionable, so he'd try to master any "cool" high-level teique he came across. So, it was important to put a leash on him every now and then, to make sure he focused ohings that mattered the most.

  Time was a finite resource. Yuel and Lars only had so many hours a day to practice Cssmancers, yet they had tless things to learn and master. As such, Lars didn't have the luxury to waste any of his precious time on less productive teiques like Korean cel.

  And so, with Lars now vihe versation died out. However, the ning duel between Lars and Winner raged on. The two of them tiheir tango, with Lars stalking the drones and Winner moving them away.

  Overall, they matched each other in terms of wave-clearing speeds, which was very different from how previous waves went down. In fact, Winner even had the edge this time.

  Dang, what gives? Lars grumped. I just ’t destroy his drone fast enough anymore. It feels like his spag got way better, yo! Or, is it me who got worse somehow?

  Part of it was that the versation with Yuel distracted Lars a little, but that was no excuse. For reasons unclear, there was a signifit improvement in how Winner maneuvered around the ne.

  But, why? What was different from before?

  Yuel isn’t here, for one. And, her is that Challenger dude. Lars thought as he checked his surroundings. Thinking of it, it feels like there’s suddenly a lot more open space around us. Could that be reted?

  Perhaps Winner felt more fortable moving around when there were fewer distras present. In particur, having to deal with just Lars probably made things that much easier for him.

  Yuel didn’t chase the dude around like me, but he did apply some pressure too. Lars thought. He sure did it quietly, tho. So much, that I barely noticed. But, I’m sure his presence had an impa this dude.

  Basically, Lars and Yuel have been double-teaming Wihis eime. It just didn’t seem that way because Lars was the only oively stalking Wihis eime.

  But, Yuel was also there in the shadows, further straining the amount of avaible space Winner had to move in. And now, that strain was gone.

  So, that’s why it feels like he suddenly move all over the pce. And, there’s also this sick teique all of a sudden.

  That Korean cel thingy was definitely guilty. It made Lars miss some critical shots, which allowed the droo survive that much longer.

  In fact, one of these little metal dudes was still hanging in there. This dro hit twid dodged twice, making the current score 2-2.

  Not bad. But I’m sorry, little dude. Victory is mine!

  BAM! Lars fired the decisive shot. The aim was 200% on point. It gonna be bullseye!

  With this, the score will be 3-2. It’ll be Lar’s victory, yoooo!

  However, long before the bullet even reached the drohe little dude exploded all by itself…

  DarkestCymore