Just as the thought of retreating crossed Lars’s mind - he realized he was in a terrible position!

  Yo, this is like Ellen’s shenanigans all ain! Except, a huimes harder to notice!

  Ellen was also a pro at baiting people into whichever position she wanted, but at some point, Lars learned how to see through her ploys (for the most part).

  But, against Wihat bait was as heck. There was no opportunity to even sider the possibility of bait due to how inteheir fight was.

  I had to use like 200% of my focus on dodging and aiming. I had no time to think about my position and stuff. But, this dude thought about everything! What a beast.

  Even while keeping up with Lars, Winner mao secure himself a favorable position for this sed phase of the battle. That was some pro-level stuff, no joke.

  So, what’s now? Lars racked his brain to the best of his ability.

  Retreating to the tower would be difficult. Yes, difficult but irely impossible.

  I run past him and shoot myself bato the tower area. He had been saving Backfire on for a desperate situation like this, so maybe it was time to use it?

  But, if I do that, it’s like admitti. I mean, with how much HP will I make it back to the tower, realistically?

  ZAP! ZAP! Two ser beams flew at Lars without warning!

  The first beam grazed his side, but he successfully sidestepped the other one. Yep, this was Lars’s current situation in a nutshell.

  This is rough. I only dodge Winner’s shots on a blue moon. Dude sure knows how to marksman.

  Lars sidered retaliating right away as usual, but he passed on the opportunity this time. His only option was shooting at the Droid’s exposed legs, but that’ll probably be easy for Wio evade.

  I need more time to think. Lars had no reason to rush things so he backed away for now.

  With every passing sed, the Deflector Shield was getting closer and closer to its expiration. So, maybe Lars could just wait it out?

  As far as he could tell, the best-case realistic sario for him was to stay afloat with at least 40% HP by the time Deflector Shield ends. At that point, he’d be gging behind Winner by only 20% HP, a gap that Lars was fident he’ll be able to close after destroying the drone.

  Easier said than doho. Lars chuckled. Dude is legit strong. I hafta pull all the stops just to beat him normally, and that shield gonna make it like a billion times harder.

  So, what was the right course of a here? If Yuel were here, he'd surely provide some brilliant advi the spot; that dude knew how to deal with literally anything.

  As, Yuel was busy in Mid right now and there wasn't much time to sult him. Besides, this was a duel between Lars and Winner.

  I'mma figure something out by myself. I don't need advice about every little thing anymore.

  Lars outgrew that kind of mentality. Pying Mid by himself this year opened his eyes to many things.

  Turning to teammates for help was important, but it was also as important to know how to deal with difficult situations by himself. The others won’t always be avaible to help him out because they had their own problems to deal with.

  So, let's pretend this is a Duel match for a moment. Lars reframed his mi.

  As of this moment, the game mode was no longer a 5v5 MOBA. Instead, it was a 1v1 Duel between Lars and Winner.

  I’m a pro at these, right? Lars thought. And, in this mode, I only have myself to rely on. So, let’s focus on that.

  Unfortunately, what little time he bought himself by backstepped has run out. His oppo must have grown tired of waiting for a terattad realized that Lars was just stalling for time.

  He's not shooting back? William cautiously observed his oppo. He'd normally fire back right away, but not this time. Hmph. I see how it is.

  Instead of terattag, Gunz was only moving around, trying to create more space between himself and William. Most likely, his pn was to stay out of the drone’s range, and maybe even out of William's raogether.

  So, you rather wait until my shield ends. William cluded. Not a bad decision, but a rather defeatist one. In that case, I k up the offense!

  ZAP! ZAP! The Droid fired and the drone followed suit. Their sneaky target was still very much within range.

  Crap! Lars realized he couldn’t sidestep in time, so rolled aside to dodge the two beams. His rea was slower than usual, as 200% of his mind was still preoccupied with thinking about what to do .

  Yeah, okay. Waiting it out sounds ni paper, but it ain’t gonhat easy. Dude will just run all over me!

  Winner must’ve realized what Lars nning, so dude dialed his aggression up to eleven all of a sudden.

  ZAP! ZAP! Two beams bolted toward him again!

  Geh! I’m still within range!? Lars just barely sidestepped the ining shots. Dang, I gotta focus! I should’ve used that roll to get farther away! But, then again...

  If he used the Dodge Roll in order to back away, then he would’ve found himself in the middle of the ne, even farther away from his tower than before. That was no good, either.

  It’s like all my options py against me here, yo! But, it shouldn’t take that much longer for his shield to expire. So, I should at least try heading in the dire of the tower...

  Once his Dodge Roll came out of cooldown, he rolled in a diagonal, getting himself closer to his owory. He couldn't roll in a straight line because of the gatekeeper blog the path, so he had to maneuver around that wall.

  But, Winner was no push-over. Dude immediately moved in to block Lars’s path again. There was ing past this blockade.

  Well, if that's how you y...! Lars recovered from the roll and BAM! He fired at the only exposed spot on Wihe legs! If ya think you just keep ing hard at me like that, then ya have ahing ing, yo!

  Hmph. William effortlessly sidestepped the bullet. It was a good shot but it's not enough, not against me.

  "Yo, this dude...!" Lars found himself smiling from ear to ear even though he just missed a shot. I should've totally caught him off guard but he just stepped like it was nothing! Yeah, this approach ain't gonna work out either, I already see it.

  It was impossible to fight ba any way while the Droid had his Deflector Shield. Lars either had to suck it up and dash past the Droid while eating the damage, or to keep running around like a helpless rabbit while waiting for the shield to expire. Nothing else will work here, not against Winner.

  So, do I just give up oing back to tower? Lars wondered while trying to circle around William to no avail. Yep, this dude sure knows his zoning. What was that other nick Vince used for this dude, again? Something like "Zone Dominator", I think. A siame, fitting this dude's sick skill.

  AbsoluteWihe master of spag and zoning, that's the title Vi ed this dude with during their meetings. And, even Yuel seemed to agree to some extent.

  I actually didn't notice it much during repys, probably because his oppos didn’t give him enough of a challenge. But, now I see that Yuel and Vince were spot-on about this dude’s zoning.

  In this duel, the biggest hurdles for Lars were he enemy's rea speed, shooting accuracy, or any other meical stuff like that. Of course, Winner was det at all of these, but dude wasn’t anything too crazy.

  Nah, the real challenge for Lars was something much simpler but equally dangerous: spag and positioning. Winner always maintained ideal spag between himself and Lars, making it difficult for Lars to retaliate effitly.

  As a result, even though Lars was meically strohan this dude, he still struggled a lot in this fight.

  So really, what do I do? Lars gnced bad forth betweeower and the ter of the ne. Where should he go ? He didn't have a good answer for anything here and there was no time to e up with oher.

  ZAP! ZAP! Two sers darted at him once again.

  With Dodge Roll being on cooldown, Lars had to sidestep these shots. As, he found himself too distracted by everything and failed to rea time.

  The first beam hit him right in the ter of the body, really embarrassing stuff. And, to add insult to injury, even the drone’s beam mao graze his shoulder.

  Crap, I'm getting dunked on. Lars chuckled nervously. The more brain juice he spent on thinking, the slower and heavier his body felt. The way he was now, he couldn't react to ining attacks with the same swiftness as before.

  The differen performance was so noticeable that even his oppoook note of it.

  Hmph. I see. William nodded. Not a thinker, are you? Reminds me of a certain brat I know.

  These so-called "power pyers", who relied on raw strength, were often momentum-driven brutes, even in tennis. As long as they maintaihe upper hand via initial momentum, they had no problem delivering powerful groundstrokes aurning every ball that came their way; their performance seemed fwless.

  However, the moment they were forced into a difficult spot and had to actually use their brains, then suddenly over half their meical skill evaporated without a trace. They started pying slowly and awkwardly, and that was usually William’s cue to press harder and crush them.

  And so, that’s how brains triumphed over brawn. Games like that were the most satisfying.

  Shortly after pig up Cssmancers, William noticed that simir rules applied here as well. The most notable example of this was her than his younger brother, who was almost unstoppable when he was on a roll, but also quickly fell apart when his momentum hit a wall.

  Based on that, William adopted his favorite methodology from tennis and applied it here as well. He patiently defended against the fierce offense of meically superior oppos and waited for the right moment to pull a reversal on them.

  This approach worked suffitly well. Point in case, this year he has bee the No. 2 stro middle schooler in the region based on Sonya's tier list.

  The only oppo William still couldn't topple was the Korean prodigy. That monster had both brains and brawn, so it was impossible to submit him via William’s usual approach.

  However, Gunz was different. This guy was like a slightly more polished version of Ronald, nothing more. He was the kind of oppohat William’s methodology was desigo crush.

  That's why I refuse to accept this demotion to No. 3. William fired again without giving his prey any breather. ZAP! ZAP! Both sers ected on the slow target.

  Just look at him. He's nothing once you stump him like this. There's no way he deserves the No. 2 spot.

  William held plete dominance over this fight right now. With the Deflector Shield blog out all ining attacks, his momentum-driven oppo had no ce of starting anything.

  Geh! Not good! Lars shook his head. I'm falling apart here. Literally everything hits me now yo!

  He had to e up with a solution, and fast! But, at the same time, he also had to carefully distance himself from Winner in order to give himself an opportunity to calm down and think. BUT ALSO, he had to keep dodging ining ser beams every dang sed because Winner was chasing him nonstop!

  Seriously, there were far too many things to juggle here at once! What the heck should be Lars’s priority in a situation like this!?

  Dang, I'm already running pretty low... Lars g his 40% HP. This was getting bad. Real bad.

  Winner was still at 60% HP. The gap between them was growing bigger and bigger by the moment. At this point, Lars didn’t have any good options avaible to him.

  Initially, he estimated he’d fall down to 40% HP in case he tried to brute force his way to the tower. It would’ve been a me py, but after that, Lars could’ve safely waited it out at the tower. He would have had all the time in the world to wait for Deflector Shield to expire, after which he would’ve challenged Winner again.

  I still think it’s a me py, but pared to what I have now…

  He was already down to 40% HP, yet he was nowhere near his tower. By taking his sweet dang time to decide on the best course of a, Lars ended up putting himself in a far worse situation than before!

  This ain’t good. I gonna crash and burn real hard at this rate. Guess it’s time to start thinking about my st resort options.

  Backfire on and Release the Kraken were still avaible trump cards. They were both great tools fetting out of pinches like this.

  I wao save them for ter, but I'm starting to think that this "ter" might actually be NOW. Welp, alrighty then. Might as well use both to get out!

  "RELEASE THE-" The Pirate started his infamous line, whiaturally made the oppo freeze. At least, it should have...

  So, you’re finally bringing it out. William twitched oion, but only for a moment. Despite the threat in front of him, he fidently stepped forward and fired.

  ZAP! ZAP! Two beams darted at the Pirate, who was currently busy summoning the sea monster.

  Maybe he p to be a feint, or maybe he didn’t. William thought. Either way, I trust his rea speed. Now that he saw me attag, I'm sure he'll gh with the Kraken, regardless of what he inally had in mind.

  Therefore, William immediately celed his recovery animation with Dodge Roll and rolled away. He had been saving his precious roll for this very moment, so now was the time to trade Dodge Roll for the enemy's ult. At least, that was the pn...

  Yo, he's attag!? Lars gasped. Two ser beams flew at him while he was still busy calling upon the Big Squid Dude! I ’t dodge this even if I cel early, yo! But wait, this means…

  Winner had to be locked in his attaimatiht now. In other words, dude shouldn't be able to dodge the Krakeher! It was the perfect opportunity to strike that dude down!

  Nah, I'm not doing that. Lars celed his ult into Backfire on and dodged the ining beams by pushing himself backward.

  There’s like no ce that was a real opportunity. Way too easy. Lars knew better than that. He had more than enough bitter experiences of falling for ploys like this.

  Yep, just like I thought. Lars chuckled at the sight of his rolling oppo. Dude made himself look vulnerable while buffering in a Dodge Roll. That's Ellen tactics 101.

  AbsoluteWinner was one heck of a dude. He was nearly as strong as Lars on the meical level, yet he was almost as crafty as Elle came to spag and baits. Truly, that guy could do anything, yo!

  But, thanks to the robust experience Lars accumuted from fighting Ellen, he learned how to spot and ter baits like this. Naturally, his oppo didn’t see this ing.

  He still celed his Kraken? In that situation? Hmph. William scoffed. Did I overestimate him? No, I don't think so. I doubt his inal pn was to cel Kraken into Backfire. I mean, I know he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, but that'd be straight-up dumb. Then again, if it wasn't his inal iion…

  Then it left only one possibility, ohat William wao reject. Did he see through this bait? Hmph. I thought he was just a simpleton, but maybe he got more bat experiehan I thought.

  Gunz should’ve been nothing more than an "upgraded version" of Ronald, a power pyer who relied solely on meical skill and instinct. As such, baits like this should have worked splendidly on him.

  In fact, William baited Ronald tless times in a simir fashion. Therefore, the same trick should’ve worked on Gunz as well, especially sihis was the first time William showed this tri the petitive stage.

  Hmph. Maybe his “instincts” are a lot more hohan Ronald's due to past experiences or such. They’re both in the same year, but Gunz is clearly one league above my simpleton brother.

  Ultimately, words like "instinct" and "intuition" were just fancy terms to describe the pyer's ability to tap into their experience. Either Gunz was very good at it, or he had tons of experience fag baits like this. Or, perhaps even both.

  Either way, without Dodge Roll, I 't keep pressing the attack. William backed away. His Deflector Shield was still up but it would do little good against the Kraken.

  Oh? Lars grinned as he advaoward the backpedaling oppo. Why are you running, dude? Why are you running?

  Even though Lars was severely gging behind in terms of HP and his oppo was still using that hax Deflector Shield, it was actually Lars who was holding the upper hand now. He still had his Kraken whereas his oppo didn't have a Dodge Roll.

  In other words, this was the perfect opportunity to smack that dude down and finish him off! Let’s gooooooooo, yo!

  But, should I? Lars didn't hurry to dump his ult on the was too important of a trump card to be spent carelessly, and Yuel made sure to drill that lesson into Lars on a regur basis. I bet he’d say it's not worth using here. And, I kinda agree, to be ho.

  “Release the Kraken” was one of the most infamous ults in the game. Not only did it deliver good damage alongside powerful CC, but it also had a built-i option via skill g.

  It was the kind of oppressing tool that forced the eo hold onto their Dodge Roll just to py around it. And, even with that precaution, they still had to guess the 50/50 when the Pirate started casting the ult.

  Pyers with superb rea speed could usually wait until the st moment and then decide whether to roll, but the euation still pced tremendous pressure on them. Meanwhile, the Pirate didn’t have to sweat at all. Dude could just cel the ult as he pleased, ezpz.

  And heck, even if the enemy rolls in time, the Pirate could still potentially hit them with the Kraken by guessing right. So seriously, all the odds were in the Pirate’s favor here.

  This thing is hax, yo! Lars grinned. It's like I'm holding an atom bomb here, hehe. But welp, I guess we’re both cheats, huh. Dude got his shield while I got the Big Squid Dude. #Banced

  And so, that’s why Lars boldly advaoward Winner, and why Winner backed away like a scaredy-cat. In these st few seds, right before the minion wave arrives, the situation flipped on its head! It was Lars’s overwhelming victory!

  Though, his oppo seemed to disagree with that.

  So, this is the end. William retreated far enough into his territory, and Gunz stopped giving chase as well. With minions about to arrive on the his sighe end of their sed bout.

  The way it ended wasn't pretty, but I won this round. William decred so based on their remaining HP values. He still had over 60% HP left whereas his oppo fell below 40%.

  Therefore, this was absolutely William’s victory, no doubt about it. After this, Gunz had no choice but to recall to base in order to heal up, which will allow William to domihe unprotected ne.

  With that said, the little mess-up I had at the end was dangerous. William admitted. He nearly turhe tables oh that Krake.

  At the very st moment, Gunz seized trol of the duel. It was a short-lived advahat ended befunz even had the ce to capitalize on it, but it was undeniable that, for a few moments at the end there, Guhe upper hand.

  So, I 't say I'm 100% satisfied with this oute. William frowned. He's not even using his best csses, so this should've been a breeze for me.

  The pn was to stomp Lars's regur csses in order to prove to Sonya that William was the superior pyer on average. After that, oo stops being a scaredy-cat and allows Gunz to pick Trickshooter unslihen William inteo defeat these csses too.

  With all that evidence, Sonya would have no choice but to give him back the No. 2 spot. But…

  I couldn't even properly crush one of his weaker csses. William frowned. From the side, this outight even look like a draw to some. Tch.

  Why was this happening? Without Trickshooter and Gunslinger, Gunz should have been easy prey.

  Or, maybe his Pirate is on par with his Shooter and Slinger? William wohough I have to say, it really didn’t feel that way…

  Gunz’s execution was great no matter which css he used. As a result, his meical skill made his Pirate seem strong. But, that’s all there was to it.

  It doesn’t feel like he actually “mastered” Pirate. For example, he hasn’t even used his cutss yet, not even once.

  In fact, their fight could’ve turned out very different if Gunz properly close the distaween them and utilized Pirate’s melee range advantage. However, the guy showed no iion of doing so, therefore William pyed accly and abused the mid-range.

  If he just showed me that he knows how to make use of his cutss, then I would’ve had to py it safer and create more space between us. And, then my drone would’ve struggled to nd any shots.

  So, all in all, it didn’t feel like Gunz exhibited true mastery of Pirate. But, at the same time, it was impossible to say for sure after just two fights.

  I'll have to watch the repys to say for sure. William cluded. I'm sure Sonya will watch them during the break, so I should be able to get my answer soon enough. Until then, I'll arrange as many duels as possible, to make sure there’s plenty of footage to analyze. By the end of this game, I'll prove to everybody that I'm No. 2, not this average power pyer.

  Both pyers were very much eager to tihe ongoing duel. So far, they have exged plenty of blows, but no clusion has been reached yet. Therefore, they had to fight some more!

  As, as it turned out, they won’t get many more ces to do so in this game. That’s because the situation in Mid escated far beyond what anybody expected at the time...

  DarkestCymore