You have killed an enemy!

  The message fshed on Lars's s, but it was merely a firmation of something he already khe moment he pulled the trigger. He had absolute fidence his shot will hit the rolling target, and it really did. There were no surprises there.

  heless, this occasion called for a celebration! As, the moment was ruined by an arroierced his back soon after.

  Oh, you dudes are still here. Lars turned around and shot the bowman straight in the forehead. It was an immediate shot with zero time to aim.

  But if so, then how did Lars nail it, let alone score a headshot? Well obviously, his 500% accuracy would never miss a shot.

  ... wait, 500%? Was his aim always like that? Holy, he felt a little out of it right now.

  His body moved just fine as it sniped down the bowmen one by one. heless, his head just felt… empty. Even more empty than usual.

  But, it was not the bad kind of emptiness. On the trary, by erasing all the irrelevant thoughts, he felt like his brain trated 500% on his surroundings.

  In short, Lars had transded thinking at this very moment! His brain was trated on the game to the point that "thinking" was too slow. Only scrubs had to “think”. Real pros gotta “feel” it, yo!

  Unfortunately, this state of drunkenness didn't st long. As the situation around him calmed down and the ne became empty, a switch flipped off in his mind. After that, a wave of fatigue washed over him.

  "Phew." Lars exhaled weakly as he leaned back. This gaming chair was very fy. So much, so that he almost wao take a short nap on it…

  However, that improper desire was shortly interrupted by the team’s celebration,

  "Y-You finally did it!" Ben excimed. "You killed that Korean pyer!"

  "Great job," Kai said. "Finally, you showed him who's boss."

  "Yes!" Even Nia pumped a little fist, though she tried to keep a low profile about it.

  However, uhe rest of them, Yuel paid more attention to something else.

  "Are you okay?" Yuel asked. "You're oddly quiet about all of this."

  "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. 100%, dude." Lars tried to smile as always but his voice clearly cked its usual vigor.

  "I expected you to jump around and boast about how you’ve just killed Apprentece. After all, this is the first kill we’ve mao score on him in this game."

  "Oh yeah, you're right. I totally did that dude in, didn't I? Hehe." Lars snickered. "Ain't I awesome, yo!? I showed him the business!" He pumped a fist for a moment but it soon fell off.

  He looks a little out of it. Yuel thought. As I thought, it's "that" thing again.

  Though the dition was extremely rare, this wasn't the first time Lars exhibited these symptoms. In the heat of a critical moment, the goof would sometimes go quiet and exhibit an unparalleled level of tration oask at hand. For a few short moments, it was almost like watg a pletely different person py the game.

  During those times, Lars's execution was even more fwless than usual. In fact, it was almost accurate to call it superhuman, even more than his regur execution was.

  On top of that, even his deaking seemed to skyrocket during these times, though that aspect of the state was much harder to reach proper clusions on.

  The whole thing s long enough to draw proper clusions. Yuel thought. He just turns like this, wins some fight or another, and then goes “back to normal”.

  Except, on the way back, Lars didly return to the same "normal". After going through that odd traate, Lars usually came out oddly exhausted. It's as if a huge k of his vitality was drained from him within the span of seds.

  The whole thing has only happened a couple of times in the past, but it stu my mind because we always had to cut practice short after that.

  After ing out of the traate, Lars was in no dition to tinue practig. It's not like he pyed terribly per se but he was clearly dragging his foot pared to his usual performance, so it didn't seem effit to let him tinue pying like that.

  Holy, I still don't quite uand what actually happeo him. Yuel admitted. My guess is that this is eople refer to as "being in the zone", but to me, it doesn't look nearly as impressive as some make it out to be.

  There was no question that Lars's performance skyrocketed every time he was "in the zone". Even in this game, the way he hat st shot on Appretence was nothing short of incredible.

  Sure, there was a gamble in there. Still, it was heless a brilliant py that took everything into at: Appretnece’s skill level, the cooldown of his Dodge Roll, and even the guy’s desire to quickly get back to the tower area.

  Normally, the goof wouldn’t be able to sider this many factors all at on such a short period of time. So, the “normal Lars” would’ve likely fired toward the ter of Appretence’s body. That would’ve been a straightforward shot that Appretence’s Dodge Roll would’ve tered.

  So, in that sense, entering this “traate” definitely helped Lars out. However, this great power came with a cost.

  The whole affair sted less than a minute, yet the signs of fatigue were already clear as day on the goof’s face. It seemed as if going in and out of that hyperfocus state threw his systems off banehow.

  Maybe he's just not used to it yet. Yuel thought. But, I'm not sure we have the time for him to practice this. Not to mention, I’m not even vihat this thing is really helpful in the long run.

  For a short moment, this state truly granted Lars unparalleled power. However, after that, his performance dropped sharply. So, if something like this were to happen in the middle of an ongoing match, the sequences could be severe for the following games.

  There was a lot of vague information online on this topic, so it was hard to dis the exaature of what Lars experienced. Was it really a case of "being in the flow"? The answer wasn’t clear cut because the symptoms were remarkably simir to another less desirable state of mind: hyperfocus.

  The two were simir in many ways, but one was believed to boost performance while the other simply led to a fixation on a particur topic.

  I’ve never figured out how to tell the tart. Yuel thought. After reading so much about them, they feel like almost the same thing. In fact, maybe the difference is just in how each subject operates during the state.

  For some, fog a lot boosted their performance, while for others it caused over-fixation. It was very much possible that this was the only difference, hence why it was almost impossible to tell the two ditions apart.

  Anyway, as Yuel’s research didn't yield any clusive answers, he shelved the topic for now. It was a rare phenomenon, so it shouldn't affect Lars's performaoo often.

  But it happened here, on the petitive stage. Yuel frowned. Only o during aremely critical moment. It might strike again during the regionals.

  If exhaustion randomly strikes Lars in the middle of a decisive match, it’ll likely spell doom for the eeam. There was no guarahat whatever “temporarily enhanced performance” he’d get in exge would make up for any of this.

  At least, I refuse to gamble on something uain like this. Yuel thought. Still, now that I know it happen during petitive games, it might be a good idea to better uand what triggers this state. Then again, Lars also has to practice his Elf, and we have a lot of practice to do as a team as well. Sigh…

  Unfortunately, time was a finite resource. It was impossible to deal with every siopic before the regionals.

  Likewise, time was merciless when it came to the game’s progress.

  DEFEAT

  The fifth and final game of the day ended on that predictable ratus has lost the game, and the match as a whole.

  Even though Lars scored one kill on Apprehat didn't do muprove Stratus' overall situation. In the end, they just treaded a kill for a kill in that situation, so it was barely even an advantage in the first pce.

  After that i, with Lars feeling out of it because of the questioraate, the team was uo mount any strong attacks. They already had very little aking a eba the first pce, but Lars’ suboptimal ditioy much sealed the deal.

  And so, the curtain fell on the long scrimmage between Stratus and the Leopards.

  DarkestCymore