You have been killed!

  “T-This ’t be…” elia hung her head. “Why? How…?”

  “This is why I told you to not make any hasty moves,” Fiona said. “Extending into eerritory with Shield Bash is always risky, especially against a Viking.”

  “B-But, I…” elia tried to find something to say, but she simply couldn’t. There was nothing ving she could possibly say here. This euation was essentially her fault, she had to admit as much.

  “B-But, where did that Ninja even e from!?” elia ranted. “Fiona, even you didn’t see him ing, did you?”

  “No, I did not. His involvement caught me off guard as well,” Fiona admitted. “The Ninja we saw in Bot must have been a e that was sent to throw us off.”

  “Ugh! Such cheap peasant tricks…!” elia gritted her teeth. Why do I deserve any of this!? All I wanted was to finally get something going in this slog of a game…

  The game rogressing in a chill manner on the surface, but surely everybody in the Valkyries uood that the situation was terrible. The enemy had a Hyper-Carry in Seraph, so they were going to win for sure if things ti out in this manner.

  Thus far, Fiona failed to e up with a solution to this status quo. Therefore, as a fellow noble, elia was obligated to do something about this.

  And so, she tried! But, it proved harder than expected. Their oppos today were strong and shrewd, just like the Leopards.

  B-But, they're just peasants in the end! elia tried to vince herself. Surely, ut them in their pce as long as we keep trying...!

  As, things only went from bad to worse after that. lia's death fueled StormBlitz’s momentum, whily escated further and further as the game went on.

  Before long, the Valkyries found themselves in an unwinnable position. Everythi downhill just as Fiona predicted.

  I knew elia was making a critical py without realizing it. Fiona sighed. In a stale game like this, the first to gain momentum had a huge advantage.

  To make things worse, the timing at which StormBlitz gained momentum cided with the beginning of mid-game. This brief transition phase often involved chaos as the game shifted from o team fights. It was all too on for unfortunate acts to happen there, usually in the favor of whoever had the lead at the time.

  An ally has been killed!

  "Ah, it appears I messed up…" Andria said. "My apologies."

  "It was irely your fault, the enemy pyed well," Fiona said. "They caught you isoted in the middle of that rotation. Of course, you could have pyed it safer by taking the longer route, but that would have been suboptimal in its ht, so there was no perfect solutioher way."

  Of course, that did not mean Andria's death was unavoidable. She would have certainly survived if she had done a better job at fending off the surprise attack. However, at her current skill level, especially when pared to StormBlitz’s, that was an acceptable oute.

  I will make sure to train her plenty for situations like these after the game is over. Fiona took a mental note. For now, I would rather have everybody focus on the game without losing their fighting spirit.

  The previous scrimmage made Fiona wary of critig her teammates too harshly during the game. It was like a snowball ohe team started losing. Everything crumbled down.

  I must make sure we will not fall into the same vicious cycle again. Fiona asserted. If the team loses morale, the will be assured.

  As such, Fiona toned down her doses of criticism and made sure to remind the team that their oppo was StormBlitz, the sed-stroeam in the region. With that in mind, small mispys like these could be tolerated.

  Unfortunately, this positive mi did not help to salvage the situation. Things tio go from bad to worse for the Valkyries until the game iably reached its deadlihe te-game.

  DEFEAT

  And, this was only the beginning. A simir sario repeated itself ihird game as well. It started off on a slow note, just like the sed game. StormBlitz pyed safe during the early stages, not giving the Valkyries any opportuo build momentum.

  Then, out of the blue, an opportunity appeared! Or, at least, that was how it seemed.

  "Hey, we totally kill this bitch!" Karen realized. ", Lua! Let's do it before that freakin' Druid es back!"

  “Um, I’m not sure about this…” Lua adjusted her gsses. “It might be a trap.”

  “Naaaah, what kind of trap it even be?” Karen asked. “She’s hel injured. We’ve got this!”

  "O-Okay!" Lua followed her partner's lead despite the hesitation.

  Athena was currently alone in the ne, with only 40% HP to boot. This was a great ce to strike down that sly fox and finally get some ne advantage!

  ", go go go!" Karen slid forward with Trickslide and fired a shot! She sed Impaler for Trickshooter for this game to make a ge, and it was now going to pay off!

  While Karen was sliding, Lua blinked in and cast Ice Wall. It just so happehat ancer was a great Support for both Impaler and Trickshooter, so Lua's pick remaihe same this time as well.

  WHISH! The Ice Wall successfully cut off Athena’s escape path. She now had to circle around that big wall to get back to her tower. Basically, she was as good as trapped!

  The cssic follow-up for this py was for Lua to freeze the target with Ice Coffin, but the enemy saw it ing.

  “My, how aggressive~” Ellen rolled aside, dodging the icy breath of Ice Coffin. You still get an A for effort, sweeties.

  With this one roll, Ellen dodged both the Trickshooter’s sliding shot and the ancer’s CC. Seriously, just how good was she at this game? She even scared herself sometimes~

  But, that didn’t faze the aggressive kittens. This opening attack was just the appetizer as far as they were ed. It seemed like they were pnning to go all in with this attack, probably aiming for a kill. Such cute y~

  Their attack came out immediately. “It’s time for a trick show!” The Trickshooter announced out loud. The phrase made Ellen shudder for a moment.

  This sure brings back a lot of bad memories… Ellen smiled wryly. But, this is not Larsy I’m fighting right now, so it’s fine. Lavy is like a greenhorn pared to him, so this is going to be fun~

  With Trickshow activated, Lavender was now able to spam Trickshots and Trickslides to her heart’s tent. Clearly, she was about to unleash a relentless nonstop assault!

  But, was the girl actually going to hit anything with her shots? It’ll be iing to watch~

  “Let’s go!” Karen shouted. “I’ll kill your ass!”

  She slid forth again and fired a Trickshot at the nearby jungle wall. And, without even firming whether that boung shot was going to hit anybody, Karen immediately fired arickshot toward the Ice Wall. There was no cooldown for the skill at the moment, so she gonna spam it! After all, that’s what Trickshow was all about.

  For the third Trickshot, Karen aimed at the jurahis shot probably wasn’t going to boun any meaningful way from this angle, but maybe it’ll at least scare Athena a little and disce her from fleeing into the jungle.

  In faone of Karen’s shots were guarao hit. She didn’t have the time to carefully aim them. It was a “random bullshit go!” moment, that’s essentially what Trickshow boiled down to.

  If they hit, awesome! If not, at least I get to trol space. That was Karen’s Trickshow. As far as she was ed, the main idea behind this ult was to aggressively seize trol over the battle. Landing all these Trickshots was a sedary priority pared to that.

  I’mma start hitting actual shots once I get closer. Karen slid forth yet again, drawing ever closer to her target. Soon enough, she’ll be able to unleash Trickshht in Athena’s face!

  But, that turtly girl retty good. She carefully retreated toward the jungle while dodging all the boung shots ing her way.

  Dang, nothing ected? Not a single one of them? Karen grumped. She was sure at least one of her warning shots would hit the mark, but Athena skipped past all the bullets like they were a child’s py.

  Damn, I hate her guts, but I gotta admit that her moves are smooth. Karen thought. It’s like she was born ready for situations like this.

  Most oppos got at least a little fazed by the sheer amount of Trickshots Karen unleashed. However, Athena didn’t care at all. It’s as if this was a daily routine for her. And, in a way, it was.

  My, such amateur shots~ Ellen shook her head. Is this the best you do? How sad. This is nothing pared to the horrors Larsy put me through.

  Spamming a bunch of poorly aimed Trickshots during Trickshoretty much the industry standard. That’s how most Trickshooter pyers usually went about it, especially ohey prioritized quantity over quality, which was somewhat justified sidering the entire point behind the ult was to eliminate CD.

  But, Larsy was different from these amateurs. He did unleash a barrage of Trickshots, but his shots were perfectly aimed. Some of them even bouwice or thrid still hit the target. It ure hell.

  To deal with that nightmare, Ellen practiced lots of reended termeasures. Admittedly, she still hadn’t yet figured out how to fully ralize Lars’ overwhelming Trickshow, but at least she reached the point where every other pyer’s Trickshow was like child’s py for her

  So, naturally, Lavender's mediocre Trickhow was a nonissue. Ellen safely slipped into the juhout being hit by a single bullet. It was all about maintaining painst berserkers like these.

  Unfortunately, Ellen wasn't a superhuman, so she couldn't dodge everything that flew her way. The enemy ancer was also shooti the same time and some of the icicles strue.

  To make things worse, these pesky little hits applied Frostbite, slowing Ellen down. She was quite the damsel in distress right now~

  Fortunately, Seraph had this otle trick called Self-Nullification. Ellen activated it to remove all the slowdown from herself. Now, she was back to running at full speed again! Yay!

  However, using Self-Nullification came at a tiny little cost. Ellen could not use any skills for the few seds, which fortunately wasn’t a big issue in this particur case.

  My leap is on cooldown and I 't use my ult yet, so I'm not losing anything here. Ellen reasoned. But, I guess I'm also not gaining much, either. Not sure I'll be able to put the buff to good use before it expires, but we'll see.

  In exge for sealing all other skills, Self-Nullification granted Seraph a major boost in Attack Power and Attack Speed. However, since Ellen was on the run here, she couldn't properly utilize any of that at the moment. The only immediate be was the sing of the slowness debuff that allowed Ellen to run at full speed.

  But, the two pursuers were heless hot orail. These little beasties must've been quite bloodthirsty. At 35% HP, Ellen must've looked like a very appetizing meal right now~

  And, sidering how hard we cpped them in the previous game, I'm sure they're dying to get some kills. Ellen smiled cutely. It's so fun to make them feel like they have a ce here, only to tear them to shreds all ain~

  The enemy must have thought they had plete trol over the situation, but their arrogance would be their downfall, as Ellen had already pnned her terattack a couple of steps in advance.

  "Remember, Danny," Ellen said. "We have to take out their Shooter first."

  "Duh," Dan responded. "Don't worry. Even though I'm ing from this dire, I pn to igheir Cryo and ght after the Shooter."

  "Good boy~"

  Like in the previous game, Dan ying a css with stealth. However, instead of Ninja, it was Drow this time. Somehow, he was turning into the Dan-of-all-Stealths today.

  He had already cloaked his appearance a few seds ago, so he was in the middle of approag the se ued. Even if there were any wards along his path, none of them could spot him uhey were Stealth Wards, which was uhis early into the game.

  Meanwhile, Ellen did her part by dragging the unsuspeg prey closer and closer to their doom. Lavender and Nike chased her faithfully like good girls. They had no idea what was waiting for them just ahead~

  "Hi there," Daed his partner in crime as he passed by. For a moment there, it looked as if he was going tet the ancer. But, of course, Danny knew better than that. He dashed right past Nike and waited for Laveo catch up.

  "Surprise!" Dan pulled out a bck dagger and stabbed Lavender's fnk! It was a hit and a hefty o that!

  Cursed Dagger ractically Drow's ultimate. This bad boy dealt heavy damage, as well as poisoned and crippled the target. It was uionably Drow's most fearsome on and Dan just like a champ!

  As soon as he started the attack, Ellen switched her gears. She dropped the pretense of helpless prey and became a fident predator. The girl was quite the actor.

  "My, my, look how the tables have turned~" Ellen shot arrows of light at the injured Lavender. Of course, each of her arrows strue.

  A moment ago, she was a damsel in distress. Now, she instilled dread in her foes. How lovely~

  As if to trast Ellen's pure white arrows, Dan fired jet-bck bolts from his crossbow. bined, a barrage of bd white arrows drilled holes in Lavender from both sides!

  Naturally, the poor little girlie must have found herself rather fused by this sudden development~

  "W-What the fuck!?" Karen cursed. "Who invited you, bastard!?"

  That freaking damn Drow was not wele here! Where did he even e from!? Goddammit!

  Karen and Lua were supposed to make quick work of Athena and theurn to the ne. But instead, this shit happened.

  And, that bitch started shooting me right away! Karen gritted her teeth as white arrows pierced her side. It's like they had this pnned all along! Was this bitch leading us by the he eime!?

  Karen and Lua thought they were chasing an injured prey, but it turned out to be a fox that lotting a terattack all along! Goddammit!

  First, I’ve gotta roll to a better position... except, I fug 't! Karen mashed the Shift button but it did nothing! Why!?!?

  ht! That damn dagger has a cripple, right? Freaking hell! Karen didn’t want to admit it but she was in a very vulnerable situatiht now. She didn’t have any skills at her disposal, and she couldn’t even use her Dodge Roll either.

  So, what the hell was she supposed to do in this position? Could she somehow escape from this sandwich or arrows?!

  Nah, there’s no escape, is there? Karen cracked a dry ugh. Looks like this is a kill-or-die situation. Well, works for me!

  Instead of wasting time thinking about retreating, Karen pointed her gun at Athena. BAM! “Lua, focus Athena! Let’s just kill this bitch like we inally pnned!”

  “B-But, what about the Drow?”

  “Ighat bastard, pretend like he does. Once we kill Athena, we double-team the Drow afterward.”

  “I-Is that really fine?” Lua felt her gsses slipping off her nose from the stress the situation was causing. There was just too muxiety to handle here! Was there nobody to guide them in this moment of darkness!?

  Fortunately, there was somebody to show them the light. It was her than the captain, the renowned La Princess.

  “Karen, you should tiag.”

  “Heck yeah!” Karen nodded. “I knew you’ll uand, sis!”

  “However, Lua, you better retreat.”

  “Eh…?” Lua blinked.

  “Say WHAAAAAAT!?” Karen’s jaw dropped. “But sis, we gotta double team Athena!”

  “You will not kill her in time even if you bine forces,” Fiona expined. “The Drow has not spent his ultimate yet, so he stun you any moment. Unless you pull off a miracle, this is most certainly a lost battle.”

  “Well,” Karen said. “It’s gonhat much harder to pull off that ‘miracle’ if Lua leaves me behind!”

  “However, if she stays, both of you will likely die. Is that what you want?”

  “Naaaaah, we’ve just gotta kill Athena first and then we’ll win the whole fight. Easy! , let’s do this, Lua!”

  “No,” Fiona asserted. “Retreat, Lua.”

  “I-I…” Lua found herself sandwiched between two overwhelming forces. Whose advice should she follow in this case!? There was no time to choose!

  As usual, Fiona’s advice sounded most logical. It robably the correct course of a, but it sounded so very cruel!

  I mean, how I abandon Karen like that!? She’s my savior! I have to help her out!

  If not for Karen, Lua would have remained all alone in the dark er of the , bullied by her peers and noticed by nobody. It was only thanks to Karen’s intervention that Lua got out of that dire reality and found real friends.

  Therefore, Lua absolutely couldn’t abandon her savior! No matter how logical or correct Fiona’s advice was, in the heat of the moment, Lua had no choice but to trust her heart!

  “I-I’m sorry, but I’ll stay!” Lua announced so as she shot an icicle at Athena. “T-There’s still a ce we kill her first, right? So, we should try it!”

  “Atta girl!” Karen grinned. “Yeah, fet all that me shit about retreating. We’re going all in!”

  “Y-Yes!”

  “Is that so…” Fiona said nothing more. She delivered her advi time to salvage the situatiohe endangered soldiers on the field refused to heed it. It was unfortunate.

  On paper, it was true that Karen and Lua had a ce to dispatch Athena by joining forces. However, clearly Athena was the one who orchestrated that euation. So, was she really going to give the enemy a ce to turables on her…?

  DarkestCymore