Ben expined iail why everything was fine in Top and why the others shouldn’t waste their precious time helping him out. Kai seemed vinced enough, but Yuel still exercised caution.

  "The's do it like this," Yuel suggested. "Nia’s rotation will make her go to Top Jungle during the wave anyway, so she stick around there for a little lohis won’t waste much of her time, but it’ll greatly boost our defeions in Top."

  “Ok.” Nia nodded. “You wao do that ‘remote intimidation’ thingy, right?”

  “Yes, pretty much,” Yuel said. “We’ll use your preseo disce the Or pushing. The rest of their team had already shown how anxious they are about yanks, so I hope Appretence will be just as careful.”

  “Ok, but I don’t have a good grasp over their wards yet,” Nia said. “So, they might spot me.”

  “That’s fine,” Yuel said. “But, in case you feel like the enemy isn’t aware of your position and you see the Orc overextending, the ready to gank. But, make sure to discuss that decision with me first.”

  “Roger.”

  “Is this arra alright with you too, Ben?” Yuel asked.

  “Yes,” Ben answered. “If Nia doesn’t mind this little detour, then it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

  “Okay, then it’s decided.”

  With this defensive pn in hand, the team greeted the seinion wave of the game.

  Nia went about her usual routine in Top Jurying to evade all enemy wards. As, it didn’t quite work out…

  “Gufu. I think they found me.” Nia scowled. “I guess I’ll just stick to that ‘remote intimidation’ pn then.”

  There was no longer any hope of invading Top ued and stabbing that scary Or the back. In the past, Nia would’ve treated these sorts of situations as an absolute loss. But, not anymore. Yuel taught her the gss-half-full approach.

  On one hand, the enemy was aware of Nia’s presence, which denied her the ce to deliver a surprise gank. But, oher hand, being aware of her presence will likely make the Leopards overly cautious, hurting their game pns in the process.

  Just by being close by, Nia lying pressure on the enemy without lifting a finger. It was that impressive “remote intimidation” thingy that Yuel preached so much about.

  Does that mean the ehinks I'm "scary"? That's scary to think about. Nia smirked to herself as she farmed Top Jungle. She was like a Slenderman creeping in the darkness, sg the living shit out of her potential victims without actually doing anything special.

  How will Apprentece respond to this Slenderman? Will the guy exhibit the same amount of aggression as in the previous wave? Or, will he respeia's presend py it safe?

  As the wave arrived, the answer soon revealed itself.

  He doesn't seem scared at all... Ben gulped. Holy, I was half this, but still...

  Just like st time, Apprentece rolled in and assaulted Ben’s bowmen with the sledgehammer. After making quick work of the squishy minions, Apprentece went after the swordsmen. He had no qualms about extending into eerritory even with Nia right around the er.

  Truly, this Korean prodigy was fearless. So much, so that it was getting a little irritating.

  He's not supposed to be able to get away with this. Ben stepped forward and fired a basic attack at the overfident foe. There wasn't much else he could do in this situation anyway, so he might as well graze the Apprentece's HP a little.

  WHOOSH! The big seed flew across the air... and crashed into the ground. It nearly grazed Apprentece, but the guy sidestepped in a timely fashiohough his back was still turo Ben.

  Say what!? Ben gasped. B-But, he wasn't even looking at me! How could he...

  It made no sehe Orc was busy swinging his giant sledgehammer at the swordsmen, so Apprentece couldn't possibly know what was going on behind him.

  No, wait. Ben tried to calm dow’s think about it logically. Maybe he reacted to the sound of the attack? But, is it even possible to react to it that quickly...?

  This was most certainly another example of KC, as Ben made sure to shoot the ht in the middle of the guy’s swing. Any normal oppo would’ve been stu the middle of the recovery animation and couldn't have done anything against this shot, but not Apprehe guy sidestepped the shot as if it was nothing, without even looking at it.

  Just how strong was this guy!? The more Ben was seeing, the harder his faith tanked...

  "Ben, are you retreating?" Yuel asked.

  "O-ht!" Ben shook his head and focused ouation at hand.

  While he was wasting time being depressed, the enemy had already finished clearing out the swordsmen. And so, the entire enemy wave was now on its way to get Ben! If he didn’t retreat ASAP, the minions would assault him!

  Ack! I was careless...! Ben rolled away from the se before anything bad happened. It was unfortuhat he had to waste his Dodge Roll on something minor like this, but it was better than receiving unnecessary damage from the minions.

  Besides, I probably don’t he Dodge Roll anytime sooried to fort himself. I don't think anybody is pnning to ga least, the wards haven’t shown any iing movement tely.

  Winner did veo Top Jungle retly, but it seemed the guy only strolled in to farm a fes. After that, he likely tinued onward to Bot Jungle.

  With that in mind, wasting a Dodge Roll here wasn’t a big mispy or anything. Though, it was still rather embarrassing on a personal level...

  Focus, focus. Ben spped his cheeks. I 't drag the team down. I have to perform well. Nia is even dedig some of her precious time to help me out here, so I 't disappoint her like this...!

  Ben had already troubled the team more than enough. He had been absent from tons of practice sessions this year, which was unbeing of any petitive pyer.

  So, the least I do to repent is to perform adequately on this stage. Ben thought. For now, let’s carefully retreat to the tower and farm from there. But, for that to work, I o get the minions' attention first.

  Instead of fleeing deep into the tower area right away, Ben hit the brakes and turned around. The enemy minion wave was sloroag him, so he decided to greet them at the door.

  This is one example of a py that would’ve been much safer to do with a roll. Oh well. Ben shook his head and focused on what he COULD dht now, rather than lingering on what he couldn't.

  For starters, he fired a shot at the ining minions. The shot hit home, which meant Ben was right within the swordsmen’s aggre.

  However, the same couldn't be said for the bowmen in the back just yet. These guys gged behind the swordsmen, so they weren’t close enough to Ben to spot him.

  So, I o rearraheir positions. Ben o himself. First, drawing away the swordsmen...

  Instead of retreating deeper into the tower area, Ben circled around the outskirts of the zone, and the aggro'd swordsmen followed his moves. The soldiers broke formation and chased Ben diagonally.

  So far, so good. Ben examihe area behind the minions. There was no sign of Apprentece going on the offehis round, which made this defensive py that much easier to execute.

  Good to see that he won't overextend THAT much, at least. Ben thought. Seriously, if he could get away with overextension uhese circumstahen I might have lost all hope, haha... Anyway, back to the py.

  Breaking the enemy's formation was just the beginning. Ben lured the swordsmen further to the side, to separate them from the bae.

  Meanwhile, the bowmen tinued matg forward, oblivious to the fact their frontlirayed from the path.

  This is where it gets down to the wire. Ben gulped. I have to make sure the swordsmen doer the area first, but also make sure the bowmen don't aggro on me.

  This was the crux of this entire py. The goal was to make the bowmeer the tower area first, so that the Turret would be focused ohis way, Ben will be able to elimihe enemy bae faster, thus redug the amount of damage the tower will receive.

  However, this was easier said than doo aplish this, Ben had t the enemy swordsmen far away from the tower area. However, he couldn't run away too quickly, or else the minions would lose their aggro.

  At the same time, he couldn't do it too slowly either, or else the bowmen in the back will catch up and aggro on him as well. This was a delicate teique with a big margin of error.

  Having access to Dodge Roll usually makes this a lot easier, but…

  With access to Dodge Roll, it ossible to draw the swordsmen very close to him and then immediately roll away while still maintaining the aggro. That made it much smoother to execute this error-proeique.

  As, in his stupidity, Ben wasted his roll earlier, so no he had to do it the hard way. And so, he tinued camping at the outskirts of the tower area while slowly moving away from the approag swordsmen.

  Unfortunately, his execution proved to be imperfect. He overstayed his wele by just a split sed, and that’s all it took for the bowman to set his eyes on Ben...

  DarkestCymore