The third minion wave was about to arrive. This is where Luke had to put his Dark Knight to good use and justify this absurd pick.

  Yuel had already id out a detailed pn and Luke agreed to act upon it. The idea itself was solid and it had a det ce of success in a vacuum. But, there was just one small .

  Will Cato see it ing? Yuel wondered.

  The enemy Jungler was the biggest obstacle to this pn. If Cato happens to position himself op when the py goes through, then he'll be able to respond in a timely fashion and thwart the gank in its ey.

  But, it looks like there's o worry. Yuel sighed in relief as one of his wards revealed Rook entering Bot Jungle. Looks like you guessed the wrong jungle side, assuming you saw this gank ing in the first pce.

  Part of the reason Yuel chose tet Top out of all the nes was because of how uhat decision seemed. It was natural to assume that Cato was capable of predig an ining gank, but he still had to guess whie Yuel will target.

  A simple “risk vs. reward” analysis would make it clear that ganking Top was the "worst option" out of the three. Stratus already held the advantage in that ne, and ganking a Dragonborn was difficult to boot.

  In other words, the team didn’t stand to gain much from such a gank. Furthermore, there was a very likely ce they’ll waste precious time and resources on it without even seg a kill.

  Therefore, under normal circumstaop wasn’t even an option to sider. And, that's exactly why Yuel picked it.

  No matter whie we target, a successful gank is going to push us ahead by a lot. He reasoned. So, I might as well pick the option with the “smallest reward”, but ohat has the lowest ce of being actively tered.

  And, it seemed that mi paid off. As expected, Cato analyzed the board state like the defensive pyer he was. He analyzed the “risk vs. reward” and deduced that only Mid and Bot were valid targets.

  It seemed that Cato was rather indecisive when it came to pig between Mid and Bot, so he chose to hang out in the ter of Bot Juhis way, he was ready to rotate to either ne on demand.

  But, too bad for him. By fog on Bot Juhe enemy was about to let Luke slip right past them!

  "Their Jungler is eying Mid and Bot," Yuel shared with everybody. "Look out fanks over there, just in case."

  "Sure," Kai responded.

  "No problem!" Lars grinned. "I trust ya to alert me if ya see any suspicious dudes around, haha."

  "How about keeping watch as well..." Yuel made a face. "Anyway, Luke, it looks like your path is open. You won't have to worry about their Jungler, so gank Top once you’re ready."

  "Roger!" Luke had every iion of doing that either way. Even if Rook happeo roam around Top Jungle, Luke would've still proceeded with the gank because he hat First Blood so desperately. A Dark Knight had to rampage during the early-game, or else it’d be nothing more than a Scrub Knight!

  "Are you ready to party, Vince?"

  "Yes, I was born ready," Vi reported. "It is time to unleash all the Rage tained within my right arm and deliver death to our foes!"

  "Eh, not sure what your ‘right arm’ got to do with this, but heck yeah! Let's gooooo!"

  Luke slipped through the Jungle, hopefully ued. The enemy's wards should have worn out in that area and there haven't been any signs of Theorist or Rook replenishing them so far, at least acc to Vi’s intel.

  This entire gank strongly relied on that small but crucial piece of information, so hopefully, it was accurate.

  "How’s it looking over there so far?” Luke asked.

  "Hmm. There haven't been any disturbances in the force as far as I tell," Vi reported. "It appears our prey is unaware of your immi arrival."

  "Hehe, let's do dis then! This gonna be a hel gank, just watch! You start sg her now."

  "Aowledged.” Vi nodded. “So, it is time. Let the world tremble in front of the Berserker's unleashed fury!"

  Uh previous waves, Vi didn't unleash a fully charged-up Barbarian Sm on the enemy wave this time. Doing so cost a lot e, which went against his pns of invoking the fearsome Berserk mode.

  As such, Vi settled on delivering a half-charged sm. inally, he thought he’d simply deliver one basic atta this wave and immediately go berserk, but Chessmaster advised against that reckless pn.

  “You o thin out the minions at least a little before you start,” Yuel instructed as such. “It’s not mandatory to kill any of them, but at least make sure to sm them.”

  So, being the obedient soldier he was, Vi proceeded with the half-charged sm. Both the damage and AoE size were smaller pared to before, but the shockwave still reached all the minions.

  I hope the enemy did not notice the difference. Vi nervously g Theorist, who has been monit him 24/7 without rest.

  Fortunately, as soon as Vi lifted his axes, Theorist rolled out of the area in order to not get caught up in the AoE. During the roll, she surely didn’t have a clear view of Vi’s as, so she shouldn’t be able to spot any differences between a half-charged and a fully-charged Barbarian Sm by the time she turns around.

  So surely, Theorist hasn’t caught wind of Vi’s pns quite yet. At least, it didn't seem like she did...

  A half-charged sm, huh. Sonya figured it out immediately. That sm came out way too quickly and it didn’t deal as much damage as it should have. Furthermore, it didn’t stun the minions, a detail that Sonya was just barely able to verify in time after rec from the roll.

  Could it be a misclick? Soertaihe thought for a moment before throwing the idea straight into the trash where it belonged. Even if it really was a misclick, there’s no way to verify that, therefore there’s no reason to assume that it was. My oppos are fully-fledged petitive pyers, so I must analyze them accly.

  So, there was only one logical clusion here: Bckhole was saving up Rage. But, what for? There was only one possible reason, really.

  He's finally ing after me. Sonya cluded. But, for now, she preteo not notiything. It was too early to activate her escape options.

  For now, it was best to simply tinue monit her foe. Of course, her brain was already fully wired to make a break for it at the first sign of Berserk mode kig in.

  I wonder, does this also imply that a gank is ing my way? Sonya asked herself. It's hard to tell for sure, seeing as my wards have just expired. Timing-wise it's optimal to rehem after this wave, but now I'm regretting that I haven’t do sooner.

  Against a hyper-aggressive team, it robably wiser to rehe wards ahead of time instead of letting them expire. Even a single gank that slips through could easily be fatal, so it was best to err on the side of caution.

  It ossible that an assassin was lurking around Top Ju this very moment, yet Sonya had absolutely no vision to either firm or deny that cim. This was a little stressful.

  Hmm. Well, even if the DK does e after me, I should be able to get away. Sonya reassured herself. DK doesn't have any leap abilities, so he'll have to e at me from the backdoor. Cato's ward is still alive over there, so it'll alert me in time. Besides, a gank on Top is the least likely sario. This isn't a matter of something vague like outguessing; this is pure probability.

  All in all, this was most likely Bckhole's solo operation. The guy decided to e after Sonya right before she gained access to her ult. It was a cocky, but overall sensible, course of a.

  It shouldn’t be hard to get away once he goes berserk. At least, that's what Sonya believed...

  "You start now," Luke said.

  "Very well, it shall be done." Vi let his strikes loose. He hacked, hacked, and hacked some more at the enemy minions, accumuting Rage with every hit.

  74%. 78%. 82%. That's it, he passed the breaking point!

  But, he had no iion to stop there. For the couple of seds, while the Berserker was iwilight zoween sanity and e, Vi was going to accumute as much Rage as humanly possible!

  86%. 90%. 92%. 96%. 100%. Goal! Vi hit the upper limits of e! He went past the limit and was about to unleash Ragnarok on his foe!

  “RAAAAAAA!” The Berserker roared across the entire ne as he tinued swinging his axes at lightning speed. Faster, fiercer, stronger!

  Crimson miasma erupted from his body. It was the maion of the chaos he plunged his mind into!

  With such loud visual effects, it didn’t take long for the eo catch up ouation.

  Here it es. Sonya responded as soon as the roar resounded. As expected, the enemy nning to gun for her.

  No signs of anybody else in the Ju. Sonya firmed on the mini-map once again.

  Cato’s ward was still i the bad it didn’t show anybody approag Top. Likewise, Sonya didn’t see anybody entering the ne from the tral Juraher.

  It looks like I was overthinking it after all. Sonya cluded. So, there’s o go the extra mile and maintain a safe distance from the wall. I just run straight ahead.

  With that determination, Sonya turned around and made a break for it! She had to create as much distance as possible between herself and her pursuer.

  Berserker gained a Movement Speed boost during Berserk mode, so Bckhole would catch up to Sonya in no time if she doesn’t create an appropriate head start. In fact, this speedy predator will most certainly catch up to Sonya at some point regardless of what she does.

  But, she repared to receive some damage. None of it will amount to anything anyway as long as she gets away alive.

  I nning to recall after this wave anyway, so any amount of damage is fih me as long as I don’t die.

  Besides, based h calcutions, this Berserker shouldn’t be able to erase more than 40% of her HP with this assault.

  Even though Berserk mode was very powerful, most of its damage came from the Berserker’s innate ability to increase the speed of his normal attacks via repeated strikes. Therefore, so long as Sonya avoids getting caught up in a bo, the damage will be minimal.

  With that in mind, she ran toward her tower, toward safety. And naturally, the Berserker had no iion of letting her slip away.

  WHOOSH! The guy kicked off the ground a after Sonya!

  She couldn't see any of the a with her own eyes, but the sound effects told the eory loud and clear. That was the activation sound of Berserker's Savage Leap, a skill that repced his Dodge Roll during Berserk mode.

  As the name implied, it was a loud leap. Therefore, even without cheg behind her, Sonya knew for sure: the Berserker was about to crash into her from the sky!

  If Bckhole only nds close to her, then Sonya will receive some damage from the AoE and nothing more. However, if the savage crashes directly on top of her, then he’ll pin Sonya to the ground for a short time.

  The C’t st that long, but it’ll give the Berserker time to start up his bo. It was the worst-case sario, so Sonya had to avoid it at all costs.

  Fortunately, her Dodge Roll has just e off cooldown. This was certainly the best time to make good use of it.

  I rather not take this damage. Sonya expended her Dodge Roll, rolling away from the inieor.

  BAM! The Berserker crashed into the ground! But fortunately, he missed his target. Sonya's Dodge Roll was well spent here... or, was it?

  He missed by that much? Sonya raised an eyebrow.

  Rather than nding behind Sonya as she expected, Bckhole actually nded on her left side, even a little ahead of her. And, that’s despite the fact she has just finished rolling forward.

  He wasn't aiming at me from the start. Sonya cluded. He probably expected me to roll or charge, so he didn't bother trying to hit me. Tch.

  In that sense, spending her Dodge Roll this early was a mistake. Sonya essentially threw away one of her two escape tools.

  But, it’s couldn’t be helped. I didn’t have solid data to work with for that py.

  For Bckhole, it was only natural to expect Sonya to dodge given her reputation as a defensive pyer.

  Oher hand, Bckhole was a banced pyer. Sometimes he went hard on the offense and other times he turtled up on the defense. As such, it was much harder to predict when a pyer like him would choose to strike.

  Well, what's done is done. I just have to minimize ining damage from here on out.

  Sonya shifted her dire just a little. Now, instead of heading straight to the tower, she turned sideways to the right and made her escape in a diagonal that was small enough to lead her back to the tower all the same.

  Naturally, the enemy pursued her from her left side. If Sonya tinued running forward in a straight lihen Bckhole would have gotten her into melee range in no time.

  Despite how fearsome the Berserker was in his eage, the only ons avaible to him were his axes. In other words, he could only assault Sonya from a melee range.

  Therefore, even though it meaending the escape duration by a small amount, Sonya insisted to run in a diagonal dire. This drove her away from the assaint.

  But unfortunately, the Berserker was fast. Very fast. It took him but a couple of seds to catch up.

  HACK! One axe lodged itself into Sonya's left shoulder. Then, the other axe followed up right away!

  So, it begins. Sonya gulped. One by ohese hits will bee faster. And, since he's much faster than me, I 't outrun him even while he's busy attag.

  HACK! HACKHACK! The swings kept ing, each faster than the previous.

  Attag while running should have slowed down Bckhole quite substantially, and it really did. But, the Movement Speed buff he received from Berserk made up for that loss. It allowed Bckhole to stick to Sonya’s back like glue.

  In short, it ractically impossible to create any distaween them.

  Alright, that’s four hits from you. Sonya ted. That's enough for now.

  She had to put a stop to this bo posthaste. The lo went on, the more damage Sonya will be forced to accumute in a short period of time.

  And so, she activated the st avaible escape tool in her arsenal: Draic Rush. She charged away from the se in a diagonal dire, immediately creating a rge space between herself and her pursuer.

  Hmm. It seems my aim was a little off. Sonya realized she wheeled that Draonic Rush a little too far to the right.

  This was the result of pure instinct. Her oppo was on her left side this eime, so it only made seo escape to the right.

  But, was this an effit py? Absolutely not. It didn’t get her much closer to the tower because of the diagonal dire.

  I suppose I’ll be taking a little detour. In the worst case, I escape straight into the jungle.

  Charging like this to the right brought Sonya closer to the juhis would have been a terrible mispy uher circumstances, but right now, it was retively safe. After all, there weren't any gaargeting her the moment-

  BLINK! It was a familiar sound that had no business pying right now. Certainly, it was the sound of somebody using the Blink utility skill.

  But, who? Bckhole? No, it wasn't him. It didn’t seem like the guy closed the distao Sonya or anything like that.

  The answer revealed itself in the moment. A fog of darkness emerged in front of Sonya's eyes out of thin air, threatening to swallow her whole…!

  DarkestCymore