Scary. Nia thought as she watched Lars decre war on the enemy’s stro fighters. How he just walk up to them and say all these things? He should be dubbed “Lars the Million Guts”.

  Nia could only dream about being this assertive in her unication. Though, it sounded very scary so she probably wouldn’t have do even if she could.

  heless, it was undeniable that she shared many of Lars’s ses here.

  I… I also wanhis monster. Nia gred at the alien abomination that osing as a middle schooler. That thing was definitely no human kid! He robably a pro pyer posing as a kid! Scary.

  Yes, it was very scary. Even now, thinking ba the battles with that Korean monster sent a chill down her spihat guy simply seemed invincible.

  But, we did kill him onia thought. And, I'm pretty sure I caught him off guard at least twice.

  She failed to vert either gank into a kill, but she came very close both times. If her execution was just a little better, she would’ve sealed the deal there all by herself.

  There were good ganks. Nia thought. I should've been able to vert them.

  Yet, she couldn't. A gank like this would’ve led to a kill at least 9 times out of 10 in Ranked, and quite effortlessly too. As, things worked differently in the petitive se.

  I always thought the Ranked games we py in the club were very high level. They even have scary Challenger pyers show up every now and then. Nia shuddered. But, turns out these games are nowhere as scary as the actual petitive se.

  Ranked had scary oppos every now and then, but the Leopards pretty much had aire lineup of those. And, they had one pyer that was scarier than all of them bined.

  They also came prepared. They’ve been blog me out almost the eime. Nia grumped. I don't know who it was, but somebody among them must’ve been stalking me 24/7. Sus.

  In Ranked, Nia generally had no trouble erasing her presend striking from the shadows. However, that barely worked against the Leopards.

  They knew I was the champion of hide-and-seek so they focused on me from the get-go. Because of that, the element of surprise was pletely gone. Scary. Nia gulped. As Yuel said, everybody in the petitive se spends a lot of time researg each other. I guess this means we're not the only ones who have to suffer through long review meetings...

  Yuel held multiple such meetings in preparation for today's scrimmage. At the time, it felt really overbearing, with way too mualysis and information to gh just to beat oeam.

  I somehow stayed up until like 3 am rehearsing all that stuff, just because the tyra saying how we absolutely must know EVERYTHING no matter what. Then again, it’s probably my fault I procrastinated with this homework until the st moment…

  All that preparation seemed beyond excessive, but Yuel kept droning about how absolutely crucial it was. And in the end, he was right. Knowing the quirks and attributes of her enemies made a big differen horoached her deaking today.

  Unfortunately, the same applied to the enemy. These guys definitely studied Stratus, and especially Nia. Them stalkers. They were super prepared for Nia’s strats.

  This is something randoms in Ranked 't do. Nia thought. They have no idea who they’re up against, so they don't know they gotta keep tabs on me. And, Taurus didn't know that either, that’s why it was easier against them at first.

  The first scrim of the year was an anomaly in that sense. Both teams weren't particurly prepared for each other, so it almost felt like Ranked.

  Nia thought that scrim gave her a good feel for the petitive se, but she was dead wrong. Today's scrim was the real deal. It was a world apart from Ranked.

  It's scary. But, also challenging. Nia was surprised at herself for thinking this, but that's just how much today's game impacted her. In particur, her three failed attempts to kill Apprentece seriously triggered her.

  I'm not sure yet, but I think I might be starting to uand why everybody cares so much about peting on this stage. Nia thought. It's scary and stressful, but it's a unique experience.

  In the past, Nia always said that she didn't mind if Luke pyed on the petitive stage instead of her. But after today’s matia realized it was actually… kind of fun. The petitive stage showed a facet of Cssmahat Nia couldn't experienywhere else. It was very iing. Scary, but iing.

  Of course, she'd gdly do away with the audience because that part added absolutely nothing as far as she was ed. As, that was the cost everybody had to pay in order to be oage.

  The eam we’ll py against probably also researched me. Nia specuted. So, I have to improve a lot, to the point their data is super outdated. And, I also have to make sure I actually participate in all the games ime...

  As enlightening as today's scrim was, Nia actually only pyed two games in it. Or well, three games if she were to t the absolute disaster that was the first game where she was super sleepy.

  I want to be able to py all the games. Nia asserted. I have to always be ready to py, or else I might miss some iing matches.

  This already happened against Taurus, where Nia tuned ht as things got iing. Sure, she was also scared of the enemy's “Bermuda Triangle of Certain Doom” and kinda wao flee, but in hindsight, it would’ve been a valuable learning experience for her, ohat she pletely missed.

  I shouldn't have dodged it. Nia realized that now. If I properly faced them, then maybe I would've realized earlier that scary petitive games actually be fun. But well, I was too sleepy to think straight back then anyway…

  Sleepiness was like an app installed in her system. Its main fun was to drain Nia’s battery around noon and force her into sleep mode.

  I’ve always thought it's a fy app, but now I suspect it might be malware. So, how to uninstall pls?

  Unfortunately, this habit wasn't going to go away on its own. Nia had been taking regur naps around noon for years now, it art of her genes by now.

  So, would ould she even go about fixing a deeply rooted problem like this? It was totally different from practig some specific skill in Cssmancers for which the path forward was clear.

  Well, Yuel did suggest a few options, like exerg... Nia shuddered at the mere thought. D-Do I really o do stuff like that? Does it even help at all?

  Yuel talked many times about how he also used to have stamina issues. Supposedly, exerg on a regur basis helped him resolve the problem.

  As such, the alien robot was very passionate about selling this solution to Nia as well. Whenever he talked about it, he sounded like a cult leader trying to initiate a new member. Scary.

  But, if it worked for him, maybe it could work for me too. Hmm. Maybe. Nia twisted her lips. D-Do I really have to do something like that? Do all petitive pyers use this hack?

  She still wasn’t sold on the idea, but at least now she was more open t it out. Well, a little more open. No promises!

  But, I really do want to bee better. A lot better, eveime, I want to be able to kill Appreteh my own two hands without goofing.

  With that goal in mind, Nia steeled herself for the uping training regime. She’ll probably regret it, but she was finally going to ask Yuel for advice for real.

  Most likely, that alien robot will suggest some hellish training routine. Until now, Nia had dodged multiple of those without giving them a sed thought. However, this time, she was more motivated to give it a try. It was going to be a scary and painful experience for sure, but the same was also true for today’s scrimmage anyway.

  Between going through hellish training or experieng hellish petition, I prefer the former. I don’t want to feel salty like this after a scrim ever again.

  If she participated in every single game, then today’s result might’ve been different. This frustrated her to no end.

  I could’ve doer. I WANT to do better. Nia asserted. I never k was so frustrating to not be able to py whenever I want to…

  In fact, it was more frustrating than the defeat itself. Nia didn’t mind losing so much. She cared much more about the fact she failed to participate in all the games that led up to this defeat.

  This couldn’t go on anymore. Something had to ge.

  And so, as the exge of pleasantries came to an end, Nia braced herself for the harsh training ahead…

  DarkestCymore