... that was ued. Fiona frow Venus’ Dodge Roll. To cel her ultimate with a roll even though she k would give her a cooldowy... It was not an easy call to make, especially in the heat of the moment.

  Either Venus panicked when she saw Shockwave, or she had been pnning that terpy all along. Regardless, this put Fiona in a peculiar situation.

  The recovery animation of Shockwave was rather slow, almost sting a whole sed. This slow recovery, coupled with the long startup animatiohe two main reasons why most people advised to avoid the skill.

  Based on the gelog Fiona carefully reviewed, these drawbacks were the result of many nerfs that CssSoft applied to the skill. Shockwave was deemed a must-buy at one point in time, therefore it had to be adjusted.

  CssSoft bated its meta-dominan many different ways. Aultiple patches, they increased the skill's cost, extes cooldown, reduced its range, and shortehe stun duration.

  heless, even with all these ges, the skill remairemely dominant in the pro se. It became harder and harder to use for the average pyer, but in the hands of a professional, it was as devastating as ever.

  Thus, CssSoft cluded that nerfing the skill any further in these areas would be pointless. Going any further than that would simply kill off the skill's eility, which begged the question of why keep it in the game in the first pce.

  And ihere was talk about ht removing this problematic skill from the game. However, before proceeding with that st resort, CssSoft tried hitting Shockwave’s performance from a new ahe animation durations, specifically for startup and recovery.

  Ohey extended both, the skill finally started falling off in popurity. It became much harder to firm because of the startup dey, and it became a risky itment because of the long recovery.

  And now, because of that long history of nerfs, Fiona found herself in a vulnerable state after whiffing Shockwave.

  Naturally, Venus did not skip a beat before shooting fireballs at Fiona. Everything about the girl's movements veyed plete fidence.

  She does not seem to fear me at all, despite how much ahead I am. Fiona sehat the other members of StormBlitz respected her advantage, avoiding frontal frontation whe ossible. Essentially, Fiona’s overfed state doubled as a psychological attack that disced the enemy fr anything wild.

  And, I dare say Venus also has been respeg that advail now. Fiona thought. In fact, she has been pying very defensively most of the game. I assumed it was because she uood that our side had the momentum, but perhaps I was wrong…?

  Fiona simply could not her head around what she was seeing right now. The Venus in front of her was almost like a pletely different pyer from before. The girl had been turtling for the majority of the game, yet now she was aggressive beyond measure.

  On top of that, as if to further reinforce the oddity, Venus’ Pyromancer was dealing uedly high damage with just basic attacks. Despite the girl’s defensive pystyle, her actual build was very offensive.

  It is as if she has been lying low the entire game, bidiime for this very moment. Fiona frowned. I did not see that ing. It appears I have to adjust my notes about her.

  Admittedly, out of all the pyers in StormBlitz, there was the least information about Venus. She and Adapting shared the same role, so only one of them was on stage at any given time. And, it ting who got to py the most.

  I suspect Venus is their pinch-hitter. Fiona reasoned. If so, she has successfully scored a surprise home run off me.

  Venus’s timely Dodge Roll put Fiona on the spot. By the time she recovered from using Shockwave, she was already down to 20% HP. On top of that, she was now a fair distance away from her target, so she would have to spend additional time getting closer.

  Furthermore, on top of all that, there was the Pyromancer’s Fme Wave to sider. It had a siderably low cooldown at this stage in the game, and Venus built items with cooldowion. As such, the spell was bound to e off cooldown at any moment.

  At my current HP, it would one-shot me. Fiona analyzed. Hmm. It appears I ot push any further here.

  And so, instead of taking any risks, Fioreated into the jungle. Her split-push attempt on Top ended in a failure.

  Impressive work. Fiona praised her oppo. I shall remember this exge for future referenext time, I will checkmate you properly.

  With these parting words, Fiohe ne aered the jungle. And so, this was the end of this py… or was it!?

  “Hah!” Julia scoffed. “Yeah, run back to your mama!”

  Rosemary made a hasty retreat after her Shockwave failed to ect. The girl must’ve been literally shaking and g right now about how much of a failure she was. Served her right!

  That’ll teach you. Julia puffed her chest. ime, don’t you dare messing with me, dumbass!

  With this, Julia got revenge on Rosemary. But, it was only partial. It wasn’t as satisfying as it could’ve been. She wanted MORE!

  I wanna MURDER her ass! Julia’s fmes didn’t die down in the slightest. On the trary, she was even MORE motivated to keep the attack going! She wao utterly DESTROY that pompous Werewolf, to mop the floor with that cocky mug!

  "e back here!" Julia dashed after her prey. "I'll KILL you, you fucker!" Her excitement levels reached the point she started cursing out loud, but she couldn't care less about that right now. All she wanted was to utterly CRUSH that stupid wolf!

  Her Fme Wave was about to e off cooldown. A si from it should reduary to ashes, so Julia had full dominance here! heless...

  "July, dear," Ellen whispered through private unication. "You better quit while you're ahead."

  "Huh? Why should I? This is like the best ce I've gotten all day, so I'm gonna make the most out of it! I'll WRECK that wolf! That'll teach her some respect."

  "My, so aggressive~" Ellen smiled wryly. "I uand why you want to sore points, but you're also running the risk of losing everything you’ve gained so far, you know?"

  "Hmph. That’s not gonna happen."

  "My, such fidence~" Ellen giggled. "But really, you better wake up from that daydream. Yes, you mao drive Rosey away, but don't fet she's still an incredibly dangerous pyer. She delete your HP in about 3~4 hits, which is something she dish out in a single skill, remember?"

  "Well, that's..." Julia g her remaining HP. It was down to 60% already, which a single Grievous Assault could delete on the spot because of how overfed Rosemary was.

  And I bet it's ing off cooldown soon, just like my Fme. Julia frowned. Shit, I score so many points if I get this kill, but…

  Was it worth sacrifig everything for it? As Ellen said, if Julia messes up here, she'll lose all the hard-earned points she accumuted.

  Tch, I guess I hafta quit after all. Julia took a deep breath and exhaled to discharge her aggression, just like Berserker. I’ve achieved enough, I hope.

  Even though Julia failed to seal the deal, she successfully went toe-to-toe with Rosemary and utterly SMASHED that dumbo's pns. That should be good enough to score plenty of points with the captain, right?

  "Hrm, not bad," Howard admitted. "I was sure it was a suicidal py but you pulled it off pretty nicely."

  "Right?" Julia puffed her chest. "So, I earhe right to py in the game tht?"

  "No."

  "Wha-!?" Julia gasped. "But why!?"

  "Don’t get me wrong, you pyed well here,” Howard said. “But, this just barely made up for your embarrassih earlier in the game."

  "Geh, that's..." Julia tried very hard to find something to say back but she was drawing a bnk. She was bearing the sequences of her past, foolish self.

  "You should rejoice that you at least pyed well enough to vince me to not give up on you entirely," Howard said. "After how you disobeyed me and died, I was holy thinking about booting you from the first-string food."

  "Geh, please no..." Julia turned meek against Howard's cold tohe captain wasn't messing around. He was seriously going to kick Julia off the team if she keeps screwing up.

  "Anyway," Howard tinued. "If you've had enough, let's this game."

  "Fine..."

  All the pyers pced their votes for surreheir Colossus crumbled to bits of its own accranting immediate victory to the enemy.

  DEFEAT

  We really went through with this, huh. Howard stared bnkly at the s. Even though he was the one whht up the idea, he still couldn't believe his team had just surrendered on the petitive stage, and during such a critical year in his career, no less.

  To add insult to injury, their oppos were a bunch of greenhorns. This was supposed to be an easy 5-0 for StormBlitz today, yet they somehow pletely butchered the first game.

  I hope this early surre least saved us some energy. Howard tried to sole himself. game, we have to stomp them vingly.

  Nobody erfect, so it table to mess up on a blue moon. So long as the fames will be ving victories, they’ll wash away the stain from StormBlitz’s reputation.

  I bet the scouts from Utopia won't like this surrender but I doubt it'll affect their ultimate decision. At least, I hope it won’t…

  The agreement was that Howard would get immediately accepted into Utopia as long as he won the regionals. But, he had to take their word for it. These guys could easily use whatever excuse they wao nullify the deal at the st moment, so it was best not to give them any ammo.

  If they see this game and pin about how I messed up against a "greenhorn" team, I o be able to say: "It was a oime thing. We crushed them afterwards."

  To be able to say that, StormBlitz had to win hard in the few games. Not only get a 4-1, but also do it ly in a way that’ll leave no doubts in anybody's mind about StormBlitz's superiority.

  Frankly, I almost don't want to sub in Julia today at all after this. Howard thought. She's still too error-proo my taste. I don't wao mess up any mames. Then again, it’s not like this defeat is her fault per se…

  Pyers who were talented but troublesome were so irksome to handle as the captain. On one hand, Howard wao utilize Julia's explosive power to create momentum for the team. It was something none of the other members could do as well as she did.

  Oher hand, the girl sometimes got caught up in her own aggressiveness and spiraled out of trol. Depending on the circumstahat could easily make the team lose the entire game.

  It even almost happened in that st py. Howard thought. If Ellen didn't stop her, I'm sure Julia would've chased after Rosemary and died.

  Yes, Howard actually overheard that secret little talk. Ellen probably thought she was being all sneaky by whispering to Julia in a private el, but she fot Howard was sitting right beside her.

  Howard couldn’t hear Julia’s side of things, but judging by the flow of the versation, it seemed the troublemaker was eager to chase Rosemary. She probably thought she’d easily be able to seal the deal with Fme Wave.

  I suppose it’s a reasonable idea. That is, if you pletely disregard all the dangers. Howard shook his head in disappoi. It sounded like Ellen just barely stopped her from itting that grave mistake. If not for that, Julia retty much going to lose all the good faith she earned.

  Howard didn’t care about stepping into that versation because the game retty much over at that point. However, in a real ongoing match, that would’ve been a disaster.

  It’s hat Ellen has some trol over that problem child, but she won’t be able to prevent every disaster. Howard thought. Hell, even I failed to vince Julia to retreat earlier today, and I’m supposed to be the oh the highest authority here.

  Truly, Julia was such a headache. She had enough potential to make it attractive to include her on the first-string, but using her in real games was like opening a of worms every time.

  I hope I solve this by the time the regionals e around. Howard thought. I’d really like to hit the Leopards with her extreme offe was somewhat effective during the scrim, and I’m sure it get eveer.

  Fighting defeh defense was difficult and exhausting. Not to mention, it felt like the Leopards were better trained in that department. So, frankly, in their current state, StormBlitz was going to have a very bad time during the rematch.

  That’s where Julia ehe picture. She was the one pyer in StormBlitz who had the necessary strength to bust through the Leopards’ tight defense. Unfortunately, half the time she got carried away and tered hard.

  There’s never a perfect solution, is there? Howard sighed deeply on the way back to the waiting room. I always appreciate a good challenge, but this isly it.

  A good challenge was to beat strong oppos, not to babysit his own teammates. That’s not ro pyers should be wasting their time on.

  Well, for now, I’ll use Gil in the few games. That’ll make my life a lot easier. Howard thought. The Valkyries aren’t the kind of team we should have any trouble against. It’ll be a breeze so long as we don’t actally let them gain momentum.

  With these vis, Horepared the team for the sed game of the day.

  DarkestCymore