The Leopards were p their everything into a rushed assault on the Colossus. They probably still thought that Yuel, Lars, and Kai were pushing down in Bot.

  If so, the Leopards were in for a surprise. The backdoor trio actually returo base to deliver a surprise terattack!

  “Wele back, warriors of purgatory!” Vi greeted the brave heroes. It was unfortuhat he was the only oo greet them, but such was the dire situation at hand.

  Even though this was a 4v5 situation, the eeam was clearly rushing here. As such, Stratus had more than enough opportunity to gain the upper hand.

  They’ve eve all their dangerous tools. Yuel analyzed the situation at hand.

  Rook used his ult to kill Nia, Winner summoned all five of his drones, and Merlin used Hurrie on the Colossus. Just like that, the eeam threw away three of their most dangerous tools. There was only one more dangerous tool that ossibly still oable.

  “Have their Monk used her ult?” Yuel asked.

  “Non, not yet,” Vi reported. “It appears the TheTheorist is still in the middle of formuting the ultimate winning theory. She refuses to let go of her trump card so easily.”

  “I see.” Yuel frowned. Smart py.

  Unlike Droid’s Assault Drones and Aeromancer’s Hurrie, Asura Strike delivered all of its deadly damage in a burst. As such, there was no hurry to spend it early even as the enemy was rushing to seal the deal.

  Most likely, Theorist was saving her ult until the Colossus was on its deathbed, that’s when she’ll finish it off in one fell swoop. Until then, she preferred to save it in case she’ll he Chakra for something else.

  Even though they should be panig, they’re not slipping up. Yuel nodded in respect. Looks like turning the tables on them would be harder than I expected. But, we have no choice but to do it, here and now!

  “Your top priorities are the Droid and the Monk,” Yuel expined. “The Droid is self-expnatory. As for the Monk, she still hasn’t used her ult, so it’s best to eliminate her before she gets the ce to drop that burst on the Colossus.”

  “Okey-dokey!”

  “Got it.”

  The trio rendezvoused with Vi and the terattack began! Will they be able to strike down the invaders and turn the game around? Everything was riding on this st line of defense! Only oeam will walk away victorious from this battle.

  “Kai, shoot your ult from the base,” Yuel instructed.

  “Wait, I’m not joining the fight?” Kai asked.

  “We o scatter them first. Your ult is the best for that.”

  “Okay, got it.” Kai backed away deeper into the team’s base, the safest p their territory. Here, nobody would dare to assault her while she’ll be providing artillery support.

  “Vi, ohey scatter around, try to keep their Monk away from everybody, including the Colossus.”

  “Very well, it shall be done!” Vi saluted.

  “Just make sure you’re careful. Your job is to make sure the Monk doesn’t get a ce to ult anybody, whicludes you, too.”

  “A difficult task, indeed.” Vi nodded in uanding. “Just to be clear, between stopping Theorist from ulting the Colossus and stopping her from ulting myself, whie possesses the higher priority?”

  “Hrm...” Yuel frowhe guy just had to ask such a difficult question during this plicated situation. “It’ll depend on the Colossus’s remaining HP, but if I had to say...”

  “I’ll have to sacrifice myself, will I not?”

  “Perhaps.”

  “Very well!” Vi nodded. “I shall gdly offer my life to save our team from ruin!”

  “Just so we’re clear, that doesn’t mean you’re supposed to suicide on her,” Kai pointed out. “You really like that kind of shit, don’t you?”

  “But of course!” Vi announced proudly. “There’s no greater honor than dying in a bze of glory while saving the rest of my nakama!”

  “.............” Everybody gave him a cold look, except for Lars who nodded with respect for some reason.

  “A-Alright, alright.” Vi caved in. “I heard your pleas loud and clear. Worry not, for I shall not forfeit my life needlessly!”

  “I sure hope so.” Yuel sighed. “Okay, as for our st target - Lars, you focus on the Droid together with me. We have to eliminate him first.”

  “Got it!” Lars grinned. “Are we gonna do any of our usual tricks?”

  “I’ll fire my CC at the right time. You follow up on whatever happe.”

  “Gotcha!”

  These vague instrus were more than enough to give Lars an idea of what to do. After all, the two of them have pyed so many games together.

  They developed tless tricks and bos that became sed nature to them at this point. As such, they kly how to follow up on each other’s pys without much expnation needed.

  And so, everybody’s positions were decided. Amidst this tense, plicated, and chaotic situation, Yuel calmly assigned everybody their roles.

  Okay, this should work. Yuel sighed in relief. He made it look easy, but it was actually extremely stressful. He had to analyze so many factors and sider so many possible lines of py in order to e up with one solid pn here.

  Fortunately, he repared for a development like this ahead of time, so he made some of these calcutions all the way back when they were pushing Bot. Thanks to that preparation, the defenders were now ready to effitly fend off the assaulters!

  The terattack started off with a loud BOOM! Kai fired off a giant bomb from a .

  Her target was her thaeam’s Colossus. Or, more specifically, the area surrounding it, as it was crawling with ehat had to be wrecked!

  The Colossus’s surroundings turned into a danger zohat ainted in a threatenihe enemy saw this mark as well, which gave them about a sed and a half to respond.

  “Snap!” Ronald casually backpedaled to safety. “This is dangerous as heck, man!”

  “Tch!” William barely rolled out of the danger zone in the nick of time.

  He had no choice but to fight deep inside eerritory until now because his attacks were carrying the entire push. heless, he mao get away from the bombardment in time, if only thanks to his rea speed.

  “Phew.” Matthew also stepped out of the danger zone just before the bomb nded.

  It took him a moment to react to this sudden development, but he was already close to the edge, so he didn’t have to retreat much. It was a good thing he stantly maintained a distance from the Colossus, just in case. This push was super risky, so a development like this wasirely ued.

  And so, three out of five pyers fled the danger zone in time. Oher hand, Cato and Sonya weren’t as fortunate.

  “Agh!” Sonya flinched as a giant bomb exploded right in her face!

  As the tank, her role was to fight in the Colossus’s face. As such, she had no ce of esg that bombardment in time.

  Maybe if I had Jenny’s rea speed then I could’ve done something. Sonya’s shoulders slumped. Oh well.

  “Curses!” Cato ranted.

  He was the only melee fighter ieam aside from Sonya, so he had to stick close to the Colossus as well. Coupled with the fact his rea speed was nothing to write home about, Caro also had no ce of dodging this big damage.

  Of course, he tried to roll away, but his response came far too te...

  Awesome. I just gave them a fifth of my HP for free. Cato grumped as he g his HP bar, or rather at what was left of it. This one bomb erased 20%, and it was only the first bomb of the uping bombardment.

  “So, they’ve returo defend. I see...” uttered. This was all rather ued.

  “They’re all here,” Sonya reported. “What’s our move?”

  “Um, we...” Cato frowned. I want to scream “RETREAT!!!”, but should we, really? They’ll chase us hard, I’m pretty sure. We won’t be able to get out of here unscratched. And, we’re already so close to winning...

  The enemy Colossus was down to 30% HP. Furthermore, allied minions were about to join the fray.

  Truly, the team was a short distance away from finishing this game. But, should they really go for ora final push uhese harsh circumstances?

  Whie is Yuel’s real trap? Cato wondered. Does he want us to push or retreat? I seriously ’t tell.

  This entire sario was one giant script Yuel wrote. He must’ve prepared for all the likely possibilities and adjusted his calls accly.

  First, there was the ued backdoor that put the Leopards in a 50-50 situation: push or retreat. It seemed like a gamble, but Yuel probably analyzed both lines of py ih.

  At the time, retreating seemed like a bad choice because it was going to let the enemy get away with that backdoor for free. So naturally, pushing was the option that’ll give Stratus the most trouble, right?

  Right, Will? Right!? Cato felt like pining to the one who steered the team in this dire. But, I don’t have the right to pin.

  Back then, Cato was stu analysis paralysis. So, William already did more than him by at least making some kind of call in that difficult situation.

  I have nobody to bme but myself. Cato bit his lip. And now, yet again, I’m wasting time because I ’t e to a decision. Some pro-level shot-caller I am, haha...

  Ued situations like this were the worst. They were like an Achilles’ heel in Cato’s otherwise foolproof shot-calling.

  He was always on top of things as long as he did his homework and prepared for all the likely lines of pys. But, onething pletely ued happened - it threw him off his game in a big way. It was such a pain.

  I have to admit, Yuel pnned all of this so damn well. That backdoor wasn’t just some desperate attack. He repared to e back to defend from the get-go. He knew his team’s advantages all too well.

  When it came to dominating the te-game, the Leopards were better equipped as a whole. They had a hyper-carry in Droid and a “one-shot” expert in Monk. With these two giant threats, merely allowing the Leopards to reach the te-game was almost as good as handing them the game.

  heless, Stratus’ team position also had its own share of advantages. Most notably, their team fighting potential.

  BAM! An bomb was unched into the air as if to agree with Cato’s analysis. A sed wave of the bombardment was ing!

  Curses! At least give me some time to think!

  This sed bomb inteo drop in Cato’s general area, aiming to hit him, Ronald, and William all at once. And, the radius of these atom bombs was nothing to s.

  But, I might make it out! Cato dashed to the edge of the red zone.

  There was no time to think about anything but evacuating as fast as possible. Getting hit a sed time by this bomb would be far too devastating…!

  These giant bombs weren’t just regur bombs. They were actually a cluster of smaller bombs that were glued together into one big bomb.

  Upon hitting an enemy, this cluster of bombs attached 2 Sticky Bombs to the target if they had less than that. This is how Cato ended up carrying two bombs on his chest right now.

  Now, if an bomb hits him, then all the Sticky Bombs on him will blow up, dealira damage.

  I believe I’ll lose between 30% to 40% HP from this. Cato gulped as he hurried to safety.

  Fortunately, he wasn’t the primary target of this sed bombardment. He was rather far from the ter of the red circle, so he mao dash out of the area in time.

  But, that begged the question: if Cato wasn’t the primary target, then who was? A trivial question, of course.

  Any half-petent team would choose to prioritize the same target in this situation: the hyper-carry!

  DarkestCymore