So, I'm really doing this, huh. Kai stepped way lot deeper than a Sorcerer should. From this position, she could shoot a Magia Orb all the way to the eower.

  I still dunno how to feel about this idea, holy. There was a swirl of emotions inside her. She was annoyed by the fact she was reduced to mere bait, but also excited to finally get an opportunity to properly fight in this passive game. On top of that, there was also the ay of whether she’d actually be able to win her duel.

  Yuel always es up with pretty messed up stuff, but this oakes the cake. Kai smiled wryly. Who in their right mind asks a Sorcerer to overextend in order to bait a Lion? That's like the st thing any sane Sorcerer would want to do.

  The whole premise of the css was that it could stay far away from its oppos thanks to its amazing reach. Kai only had to advao the middle of the ne in order to be able to reach the eower area with Repelling Force. That's how absurd of a powerhouse Sorcerer was when it came to le bat.

  So, for a css that specialized in super le bat and didn't have any escape tools, trying to bait a dangerous Jungler like Lionfolk was unthinkable. This was a recipe for disaster, no two ways about it.

  But, because it's so out there, there's a good ce even the Leopards won't see it ing. Kai thought. I feel like most of Yuel’s tactics rely oypes of mind games. And, even though I know that it’s still kinda of uling.

  No matter how much time passed, it was never easy to follow such orders due to how absurd they souo make things worse, Yuel's attempts to expin his pns were usually ckluster at best. No matter ried to expin, it always felt like he made a logical leap or twenty in order to arrive at the clusion.

  A, it was undeniable that Yuel’s schemes were almost always on point. His pns weren't perfect by any means, but they worked most of the time.

  I feel like, before the Taurus scrim, Yuel held back with these crazy ideas, but not anymore. Kai thought. He seemed to appreciate safety a lot more back then, but now half of his ideas throw caution to the wind. That’s a 180 if I ever saw one.

  The Taurus scrimmage proved that taking risks was necessary every now and then. It was impossible to win every game by pying safe.

  That realization must’ve flipped a switch of some sort in Yuel’s head. Ever sihen, he had been incorporating more and more "bizarre" shot-calls into their training sessions. It's like he was trying to make the team get used to exeg absurd pys on demand.

  It’s actually kind of crazy how I just agreed to this py without even arguing much. Kai realized. I mean, baiting Lion with Sorcerer? Pft, the easiest thing ever! It's not even the most absurd pn we’ve pulled this month.

  And so, despite having some mixed feelings about the tents of the pn and their implications, Kai found herself somewhat nont about the absurdity of the pn itself.

  Besides, being this bold feels good for a ge. Kai fidently strode across the heorist is such a defense fanatic that she immediately retreated to the tower, so it's almost like I kicked her out of the ne. So, get rekt scrub, this ne is mine now!

  After the long and b stalemate, it now felt like Kai had finally seized some real ne trol. It felt refreshing.

  But, there was no time to celebrate this rare occasion. The enemy was surely already preparing a respoo Kai's bold overextension. It was just a matter of time before the Lionfolk showed up.

  "Their Mid is overextending," Sonya informed.

  "Yes, so it seems," William said. "Any idea why?"

  "I couldn't say,” Sonya admitted. “Maybe it’s because the Warlock is really rotating over here? But, evehis still seems too careless to me."

  "It's either bait," Cato said. "Or, a very risky attempt to seize ne trol by force. My, my, how iing~"

  "I'm gd you're enjoying the suspense from the backseat, but I o decide how I deal with this,” Sonya said. “My tower will lose a lot of HP if I hug the tower here.”

  "Yes, that would be quite the problem, wouldn't it?"

  Out of all Mid csses, Aeromancer was one of the worst when it came to hugging the tower due to its ck of burst damage. Its main farming tool, Whirlwind, was great for clearing stationary minions in the ter of the ne, but the spell was terrible against moving targets.

  As such, if Sonya chooses to py it safe and hug the tower from the get-go against the enemy’s bold advance, she'll first have to wait for the enemy minions to walk all the way to her tower. Only then the minions will e to a standstill and bee good targets for Whirlwind.

  However, that was still bad. It’ll take Whirlwind multiple ticks to eliminate all the threats, and in the meahe enemies will mercilessly assault Sonay's tower. It was a terrible trade even for somebody who was used to accepting suboptimal trades.

  My, what a delightfully simple yet tricky puzzle~ iled but also frow the same time. So, you're challengio solve this, aren't you, Yuel? Hmm. Tricky, tricky indeed.

  There were a few ways to solve this puzzle but which was the corree? That strongly depended on what the enemy was trying to achieve here in the first pce.

  "It looks like a free gank opportunity to me," William said.

  "Yes, it is,” Cato agreed. “But, that in itself might be the bait."

  "Even if it somehow is, what they actually aplish?"

  "A ter-gank, perhaps? Speaking of which, where is Vanishing at the moment?"

  "Aren’t you supposed to know that?" Sonya asked. "You’re the one who insisted to help keep track of her, remember?"

  "I do, I do,” Cato said. “But, I'm like a greenhorn here, you know? I wasn't paying as much attention to her until now, so it’ll take me some time to get used to dividing my attentioween her and other topics.”

  "I have no idea what's so difficult about it," Sonya said. "Anyway, I've st seen her in Top Jungle, but it was a while ago. I was just about to report that she might have rotated to Bot Jungle by now."

  "I have to say, all these unknowns are bad for my heart. We don’t know if Chess is rotating to Mid and we don’t know where Vanishing is. How am I supposed to establish good defense like this?" Cato shook his head. "I wish we at least had a hint or something."

  Just then, as if answering his prayers, a hint preseself. For the first time in a while, a ward revealed Vanishing's position.

  It was a brief glimpse that only caught the Ninja’s leg on camera, but that much was enough to figure out her iions.

  "My, my, my, so that’s how it is." iled impishly. "Matt, Vanishing is deep in Bot Jungle and she seems to be heading in your dire. You know what to dht?"

  "Yeah, retreating." Matthew backed away immediately.

  "I think I'm starting to see the bigger picture now," Cato said. "They’re trying to distract us in Mid with that btant overextension, but they’re actually pnning to sneakily gank Bot."

  Is that why Yuel worked so hard to boot me out of the ne? Cato wondered. Has he been pnning this all along?

  “If it’s just a diversion, then it’s a very risky one,” Sonya ented.

  “Yes, it sure is,” Cato agreed. “But, I wouldn’t put it past Yuel- I mean, past their shot-caller. He likes bold strategies that boggle the mind, so this is just one example of such.”

  “Hmm.” Sonya pushed her gsses. “It’s a little odd, though,”

  “What is?”

  “The ward that spotted her has been around for a while now,” Sonya expined. “I’m not 100% sure about it, but I think it even spotted her once before.”

  “Hmm, I do vaguely remember seeing her in Bot Jungle a couple of minutes ago, so it might’ve been this ward,” Cato said. “But, what’s wrong with that? It just means the ward is doing its job.”

  “Yes, I suppose that’s all it means,” Sonya agreed. I’m probably overthinking it.

  Vanishing had been doing a det job studying the Leopards’ warding positions and slipping past them, but nobody erfect. So, even though she might’ve been aware of the general area of this particur ward, she couldn’t tell with 100% certainty where exactly the ward was located.

  As such, it wasn’t too odd that the ward mao catch a glimpse of her leg. In fact, it was rather impressive that Vanishing almost slipped past the ward and just barely got caught. Sonya had to give credit where it was due.

  "So, in clusion," marized. "The overextension in Mid is just a bold py to draw our attention away from what's happening in Bot. We choose to ig, or we try to capitalize on it."

  "Obviously, we’ll capitalize on it, right?" William asked the question in a tohat made it clear he wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. "I'm almost there already, so I’ll be ready to ga in a few seds."

  "My, you're fast to act as always." iled wryly. I see he already decided to rotate over there before we even finished discussing the situation. As always, when he’s allowed to adepely, his responses are fast.

  Other team members would’ve waisted until Cato and Sonya fiheir analysis, but not William. For better and for worse, this guy always did what he believed was best. Though he generally listeo Cato's inputs, he didn’t feel obligated to act acc to them.

  Sometimes it’s a real pain. itted. But, in situations like this, the lone wolf attitude es in handy. We might’ve missed this nice gank opportunity if Will didn't act as soon as he did.

  This ability to act upon his own ideas while disregarding everything else was one of William's biggest strengths. He formed his clusions quickly and effitly, then he went straight for the a.

  What’s most impressive was how rarely William itted errors while pying in such a self-tered manner. His deaking was defiop-notch when it ed himself.

  That's why I trust his judgment. Cato thought. The only times I've seen his indepe a backfire in a big way was against pros who specifically baited him. But, our oppos aren't pros, so there's no reason to worry.

  However, the fact Cato was thinking so much about the topic showed that he WAS a bit ed. After all, William was like a hungry beast right now.

  The poor lion is starving~ Cato thought. He hasn’t gotten any kills the entire game, so of course he'd jump at the first opportunity that presents itself. I just hope we’re not missing anything here and this is really the right py...

  Was Beat’s bold overextension in Mid really nothing more than a simple diversion? Making a Sorcerer advance so far along the ne was a surefire recipe for disaster.

  Because of that, this py definitely reeked of something Yuel would e up with. However, no matter how absurd some of his decisions were, he surely was ner to the cept of risk vs. reward.

  No matter how much he liked going for risky pys, he still had to sider how the reward measured up to the risk. And, in this particur py, the risk felt much bigger thaential reward.

  Sure, it’ll be huge for them if they kill Matt. Cato agreed with that much. But, Yuel could’ve picked so many easier ways to divert our attention from that scheme. Is a dangerous overextension in Mid really required? Am I really not missing something here?

  If this were a chess match, then Cato could’ve taken his time to mull over this odd position. As, this was a real-time game, so the pieces on the board tinued moving while Cato was still in the process of analyzing the situation.

  Unfortunately, before he was done double-cheg himself, William had already reached Mid. Now, a single wall separated the hungry lion from his delieal. At long st, William was going to score the kill he o satiate his hunger!

  DarkestCymore