The situation was terrible. The enemy minions were charging straight at him, aiming to strike him down!

  What’s worse, Ben didn’t have his shield avaible, so he absolutely couldn’t allow the minions to maintain their aggro on him. So, as unfortunate as it was, he hem to focus oower this time.

  Thus, even after he reached the tower area, Ben tinued running. He had to create as much distance as possible between himself and the minions, to make the little fellows lose their aggro on him. This retty much the exact opposite of what he worked so hard to achieve in the previous wave...

  The truth is, the tower is way more important than me. Ben thought. But, I’m the only one who defend it. So, I ’t let Apprentece force me out of the ne, not this early.

  So, there was no choice but to sacrifie of the tower's HP in this round in order for Ben to be able to keep proteg it in future waves. It sounded almost paradoxical, but Behat this was the reended line of py.

  As long as I'm here, I at least help the Turret clear minions. But, if I leave the ne all alone...

  That'd spell immi doom for the tower. An Orc will be more than capable of finishing the tower off with orong push, especially in the wave once he unlocks his ult.

  And so, Bereated to the back of the tower area, far enough to lose the minions' aggro. Then, ohe minions shifted their attention to the tower, Ben came back to assault them.

  As expected, Apprentece joihe push as well. Like before, he shed at the tower with his sce, deliveriy damage with each strike.

  Such fidence. Ben swallowed. I could only dream of pying boldly like this. Does he have no fear?

  It was such a dangerous push, so many things could g when pying boldly like this. A, Apprentece didn’t care. He fidently pressed onward and struck the tower, disregarding any danger.

  This time, I have to pull him for sure. Ben o himself. But first, the minions.

  He focused most of his fired basic attacks on the bowmen, as they were the main source of DPS for the minion squad. But unfortunately, taking them down took quite a while with Druid's weak basibsp;

  If only I had a way to make the tower focus them over the swordsmen... Ben grumped as he tinued doing his slow and steady work.

  However, he couldn't trate all his fire only on the bowmen. He had to nd st-hits on the swordsmen, too.

  I'm already bleeding a lot of farm here, so I have to grab what I . Such was Ben's vi as he threw a big seed at the st swordsman, whose HP was reduced to almost nothing by the tower.

  It was a successful st-hit, which granted Ben a bit of extra exp and gold. These were the kinds of opportunities he absolutely had to take since farming ihe tower area lowered the amounts of exp and gold he received from minions.

  In addition, it also helped optimize the clearing speed. After all, was a waste to let the tower waste aire shot on a nearly-dead minion. The big, damaging bolts were best reserved for healthy minions.

  So, after Ben took out the dying swordsman, the tower focused on the bowme. The end of this push was nigh.

  A, he's still here. Ben g Apprentece, who didn't seem to have a single care in the world.

  BAM! The tower eliminated a bowman in one fell swoop. Only two more remained in the area and they weren't long for this world, either. A, Apprentece was still here, whipping the Turret as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do.

  If he doesn't retreat after the urret shot, then I'll try to pull him. Ben o himself. I failed st time, but this time for sure...!

  BAM! Aniant bold rained from above, crashing onto one of the two remaining bowmen. The shot wasn't enough to kill, but Ben helped with that by delivering the st-hit.

  And so, only one bowman remaihe tower was just moments away from finishing the wave and shifting its focus to Apprenteoheless, the guy boldly remained in the area, unleashiating basic attacks until the very st moment. Apprentece was seriously taking it too far at this point.

  That's it. I'm pulling him! Ben stepped toward, with his Nature's Grasp aimed at the overextehis time, for sure...!

  He fired his branches forth! They stretched across the area and reached all the way to the Orc. The aim was on point, but heless, the branches pierced through nothing.

  Ugh, again... Ben gritted his teeth. How he dodge it so easily every time...?

  Despite waiting for a moment when Apprentece would be vulnerable during his attaimation recovery, Ben failed to nd Nature's Grasp for the sed time in a row.

  I have to get better at this. Ben criticized himself. I 't let him keep getting away with these overextensions.

  And so, once again, Apprentece escaped the overextension scot-free. He lost 10% HP earlier wheurned on Ben in the ne, but he had lost nothing ever since.

  Meanwhile, Ben lost 40% HP in that same exge. On top of that, his tower lost over 15% HP in this push. In total, the three pushes thus far had reduced the tower's HP to a dangerous 65%.

  I-It won't take him long to destroy the tower at this rate! Ben gulped. Is there nothing I do? I feel so helpless against his advances...

  If this were a regur Ranked game, then Ben should’ve been able to ter such a reckless oppo by now. He faced tless such Top Laners aopped most of them iracks.

  But, Apprentece was different from all of them. It felt as if nothing worked against him. Though his offense seemed reckless, it was actually very calcuted. He was dang ohin liween effid overextension.

  It really feels like he's almost pro-level. Ben gulped for the huh time sihis game started. His mouth was starting to run dry from the repeated activity.

  "I see that things didn't work out this time, either," Yuel said. "I only tuned in halfway, so do you mind sharing how you lost so much HP?"

  "That's..." Ben hung his head. It felt like the question was yered with criticism, regardless of whether Yuel inte or not.

  Indeed, losing 40% HP while being on the defensive was normally unthinkable, especially for Ben. A, it happened. Apprentece made it happen.

  "He sced me out of the blue when I stepped in to shoot him, and then..." Ben summarized horentece mastermihe entire terpy.

  For Ben, it was supposed to be just otle i shot. He just wao get a hit on Apprented draw the minions' attention along the way. After that, the pn was to retreat to the tower and tank the minions with Gaia’s Prote.

  Yes, the pn was that simple. Ben had employed such tactics tless times by now.

  However, it didn't wainst Apprehis fearsome pro took this simple tactid tered it thhly, turning all the possible tables on Ben.

  "I've never faced an oppo who pulled anything like this," Beified. "I mean, I got tered a few times in the past, but not like this..."

  "I see." Yuel nodded. "It sounds like his execution and deaking are top-notch as advertised."

  "Yes.” Ben nodded. “Holy, it didn't even feel like he was doing anything that special, yet the whole py just worked out so well for him."

  "I uand. So, the devil is iails here."

  When the skill gap between two pyers was suffitly high, even simple pys could bee devastating due to meical fihat's how a "simple" terattack turned into a crushing 40% HP loss for Ben.

  It's not like Apprentece weaved magito existence or did something that nobody kneossible. No, Apprentece just predicted Ben's movement and tered accly. He pyed to Orc's strengths as he made his effit moves, and so the entire py became overwhelming.

  It's nearly impossible to find any "weakness" in pys like this... Yuel frowned. I 't even think of any advice to give Ben, except for the mundane "Be more careful ime." Ugh...

  Just the sound of this "advice" almost made him want to puke. It had such a defeatist mi.

  I o e up with something more practical. Yuel asserted. I need a pn for how to proceed from here. A solid pn will be more reassuring than some weak "advice".

  The first step was to sider the evidehus far. It arent Ben had trouble against Apprentece when it ure 1v1. His usual hyper-defensive pystyle failed to disce Apprentece from mounting strong, decisive attacks.

  Hoy, despite what he said, I don't think Ben hahis alone. Yuel reasohere's an obvious skill gap between them and the matchup isn't favorable for him in the first pce.

  In the face of such a great skill gap, there was only so much Ben could achieve by himself. He'll surely learn and improve from this harsh experience, but that’s not the kind ress that'll magically happen in the span of 20 minutes. As it stood, Ben had no ce of gaining the upper hand here, and he even struggled to properly defend, as unusual as it was.

  So, there was no question about it. Ben needed somebody to help him.

  "Nia, you stick around Top for a little lain?" Yuel requested.

  "To do that 'remote intimidation’ thingy?"

  "Yes, basically. We o keep Apprente check as much as possible."

  "Ok," Nia said. "But, I’ll lose farm because of this. So, it’s not my fault if I fall behind because of this, ok?"

  "Yes, of course."

  As proven, applyie intimidation was very effective even against a strong pyer like Apprentece. However, it came with the cost of Nia losing on some precious farm. So, even though it helped to maintaiatus quo in Top, it harmed the team in other ways.

  "I'm really sorry about this," Ben apologized. "If only I were a better pyer..."

  "It's ok," Nia said. "It's easy work for me, so I don't mind."

  "But you’ll lose on farm because of me. That’s not how it should be. This is only happening because I'm so worthless..."

  "Eeeh, ok..." Nia wasn't sure how to respond to Ben's self-bashing, so she awkwardly slipped out of that versation. I'll let the alien robot deal with this one. Yeah.

  But, it's not like Yuel knew aer what to say. To make things worse, Kai and Lars were both preoccupied with other matters at the moment, so they weren't involved in the versation at all.

  What do I say here, exactly? Yuel frowhis feels like a problem with three variables but only two equations. It's unsolvable.

  Would Howard have been able to say something good to Ben in a situation like this? Could that guy e up with an effective defense pn against Apprentece's strong pushes?

  Nothing es to mind. Yuel frowhe best I tell Ben is that his performance is “within expectation”, but I already told him that. It didn't seem very effective.

  All things sidered, Ben was holding up fine against this strong Koreahis guy was nearly a pro-level threat, yet Ben survived one onsught after another. Sure, he lost a sizable amount of HP in the process, but he still successfully deflected these attacks in the end.

  So, basically, everything was “within expectations” here. That’s the only words of encement that came to mind.

  But, that's not what Lars or Vi would have said here, right? Yuel thought. They'd drum up these facts up to eleven with some hype.

  Unfortunately, Yuel couldn't do the same. Spouting such exaggerated nonsense felt the same as ing up with a clickbait title for an article. It just didn’t sit right.

  heless, the way Lars and Vi did those things was always so effective. It came across as natural, perhaps because these goofs were genuinely hyped about the things they were talking about.

  But, Yuel wasn't the same. All his analysis was tied to reason, so he couldn't bring himself to say nonsehat didn't make rational seo him.

  But, I should say something, at least. Yuel thought. Anything will do as long as it doesn't add more fuel to the fire. Though, I'm not 100% fident it wouldn't actally happen...

  Judging by how his iio down in grade school, Yuel arently a master at discing and frustrating his teammates. That's how he ended up pying Cssmancers all aloil he met Lars.

  Was somebody like him even capable of giving relief to a teammate? Did Yuel grow up at all sihat time two years ago?

  "Ben, you're doing fine so far," Yuel said. "That attack was brutal and it's unfortuhat you lost this much HP, but you still deflected it in the end."

  "That's the least I could do," Ben said. "It'd be a disaster if I died there..."

  "Don't fet that your oppo is supposed to be pro-level material. Even mediocre achievements against him should be highly regarded."

  "Right..." Ben didn't seem wholly vinced, but his expressihtened up a little. As expected, Yuel was uo pull the guy from the pits of self-deprecation.

  But, at least, I didn't actally push him any deeper in. Yuel smiled wryly. So, I sider this a “success” on my end, right? This is pretty much a "pro-level" challenge in this case, so any modest achievement ts, haha...

  In the end, the cloud over Ben didirely disappear. The guy tinued bming himself for the mispys he had made thus far, and he worried nonstop about how he had to “do better”.

  But, at least, with Nia hanging around Top Jungle, Ben won’t have to worry about another fierce attaing his way... right?

  DarkestCymore