The board was set. Yuel and Lars rotated to defend Top from AbsoluteWinner and AbsoluteChallenger. Meanwhile, Vi and Nia were fending off the rest of the eeam in Mid.

  At the same time, Kai farmed minions in Bot. At first, she only cleared out minions that were threatening to ihe Golem’s area, but then she tinued pushing along the ne. In the process, she wiped out the minion wave as well.

  This was one of the riskiest parts of the uping offense. Kai’s aggressive push had a ce of alerting the eo the possibility of a backdoor.

  Fortunately, it didn’t seem like they thought much of it, at least not yet.

  “Their Bomber is pushing Bot.” Sonya brought the matter to everybody’s attention. “Do you think we should be ed?”

  “Hmm. Curious, curious indeed.” Cato hadn’t formed a proper opinion on this quite yet. “This might just be a defensive py that ensures our minions won’t ihe Golem for a while. But, it also be the start of an attack.”

  “Is there any reason for us to care?” William asked. “She’s alone over there and she’s pying Bomber. She ’t get anything started by herself.”

  “Yeah, exactly!” Ronald backed up. “She’s just tryharding on the defehere, nothing iing to see. I’m telling you, she gonna recall the moment she sees us attag another ne.”

  “My, that’s a lot of baseless fidence you got there,” Cato said. “But yes, overall I agree. Matt, what do you think?”

  “Not sure,” Matthew said. “The fact it’s Bot is a little sus.”

  “That’s a good point.”

  By now, the Leopards have gaihe upper hand in every ne, but their trol was the weakest in Bot. It was the only ne in which they hadn’t destroyed the Golem even on this game. In fact, the enemy Golem was very healthy there, currently at 90% HP and slowly regeing.

  “If they pn to backdoor us at any point, then I’m sure they’ll try it through Bot.” Cato deduced. “But, is now really a good time for this? We haven’t shown them any openings, have we? Or, am I missing something?”

  “No, I don’t believe we have,” Sonya said.

  “We haven’t” William agreed. “Our map trol is absolute.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Cato nodded. “Hmm. Let’s wait and see what Beat does . For now, the brothers will rotate to Mid so we go for a full-team attack.”

  “Got it,” William said.

  “Okay, okay.” Ronald sounded a little dissatisfied but he didn’t argue back, if only because his older brother approved of this pn. “But real talk, when do we go for the kill?”

  “Wheime is right,” Cato gave a nonanswer.

  “an! We’ve been running around all day. Let’s finish this already!”

  “Soon.” ade ay promise. “Really, aren’t these guys just the best? Just look how hard they ran from o o fend us off. It’s beautiful~ I don’t have it io make them stop.”

  “Agh, such a disgusting tactic.” Ronald shuddered. “It reminds me of these cheap bastards who always made me run around the court in Tennis.”

  Because that’s the best way to defeat you. William ented silently. I suppose I also t among these “cheap bastards”, even if Ron didn’t mean it. But, it makes me wonder, is Cato pying this way because he’s wary of Stratus?

  Cato was always the kind of sadist who prolonged games just to mess around with his oppos. But usually, he’d cut the game short after the Leopards have suffitly proven their superiority. After that, the games always went by much faster.

  However, in this game, Cato was dragging things out far lohan usual. Even though the team has already gained an overwhelming advantage in terms of map trol, Cato insisted t things out some more. Why?

  Is he just having fun because we’re pying against strong oppos for a ge? Hmm. That’s not out of the question with this guy, but I don’t think that’s the case.

  It almost felt like Cato genuinely believed it was NECESSARY to py like this. It’s as if wearing the enemy out was a mandatory step, or else the Leopards might actually lose today.

  But, what exactly “scared” Cato so much? Was it the fact the enemy had a strong fighter like Gunz?

  No, that's not it. William thought. I’ve already proven I go toe-to-toe with that guy. Maybe Cato isn’t vihat I’m stronger yet, but I’m sure he doesn’t think I’m much weaker either. At worst, Gunz and I cel each other out in terms of strength.

  In the first pce, Cato wasn’t the type to be too ed about the meical strength of one individual pyer. As far as this chess nerd was ed, all pyers were just “pieces” on a board.

  Ultimately, no matter how strong an individual piece was, it was just one piece. Therefore, it was bound to fold against a superior board-wide tactic.

  So, if there’s anybody who make Cato wary, it’d be the enemy shot-caller. In other words, it’s Chessmaster. A former chess rival, huh.

  ed he defeated Chessmaster in chess, but was that the truth? This slippery guy was ner to telling white lies. Perhaps he actually lost, or maybe his victory wasn’t as absolute as he cimed it to be. There robably more to that story tha on.

  If I’m correct, then this game is turning into a dragged-out match between Cato and Chessmaster. They’re just using us as pawns to pete with each other. I 't say I’m a fan of this.

  heless, William didn’t pin any further for now. He khat sometimes it was necessary to py the long game to be on the safe side, even if it was very b.

  I’ll give him 15 more minutes. William thought. No, maybe just 10. If he doesn’t start ing things up by then, then I’ll just do it myself.

  Despite promising that, William was already mentally preparing to deliver the finishing blow as he and Ronald rotated from Top to Mid. This game has dragged out for too long, so he was ready to end it at any moment.

  All he needed was a reason. And, for the better or the worse, the enemy decided to give him that reason...

  “They’re rotating, yo!” Lars announced, mainly for Kai who ushing Bot oher side of the map.

  “Pce the ward,” Yuel instructed. “This is the moment.”

  “So, we’re really doing this, huh.” Kai smiled wryly as she pced the Checkpoint Ward.

  This was going to be the deg moment of the game. Either this backdoor will pay off aratus deliver a sneak victory from the jaws of defeat, or they’ll fail miserably and end up looking worse than bronze pyers. Either way, this long tortuous game will e to an end, right here and now!

  A few seds after the Checkpoint Ward ced, Yuel and Lars emerged in Bot using their cloaked Teleports.

  Most likely, the enemy was expeg them to rotate from Top to Mid in order to join the defense. But instead, Yuel and Lars were all the way in Bot! And, they came with a vengeance!

  BOOM! Kai blew the enemy army to pieces, eliminating the tower’s st line of defense.

  “Let’s go, yoooooo!” Lars dashed into the tower area the moment the first allied swordsme foot in the area.

  Yuel and Kai also joihe offense, but most of the responsibility y with Lars here. He was the only one here who could quickly take down objectives.

  Kai’s job was to clear a path for Lars, whereas Yuel’s role was to eventually tank tower shots and ward off ining enemies in case anybody from the Leopards shows up. In essehis eage repared for Lars to do his thing!

  SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! Lars ravaged the tower with his cutss!

  He has almost never switched to this melee stance during bat because he felt more fortable using a gun. However, when it came to pushing objectives, the cutss had objectively superior DPS, and there was no pce for errainst a static target anyway. As such, Lars hacked away at the tower without holding anything back!

  Aurret has beeroyed!

  The tower crumbled within seds. It was already at 40% HP from previous pushes, which was the reason Yuel chose it as the target for this operation.

  Bot was the only ne in which the team wasn’t losing too badly. Therefore, any potential backdoor had to pass through here.

  “Heck yeah, let’s gooooo!” Lars pumped a fist.

  The eower crumbled before the enemy even had a ce to react. However, this wasn’t the end of this py. No, it was just the beginning!

  The trio pressed onward, eying the Bot Golem . They were pnning to go all the way with this push!

  It’s a race. Yuel thought. Let’s see who takes out the Colossus first. Or, maybe Cato will py it safe and order his troops to fall bad defend, which is a win in my book either way.

  So, how was the enemy going to react to this surprise backdoor!?

  DarkestCymore