SLAM. A heavy tentacle crashed on Lars and shoved him into the ground. He was pletely immobile noerfect sitting duck for Trever.

  "Dang it! I messed up real bad," Lars admitted.

  "Don’t worry, it should be fine," Yuel said. "He 't kill you with just that. Retreat to the tower as soon as you stand up. I'll e to repce you on the ne."

  "So, I gotta run, huh," Lars smiled wryly. In his head, he uood how this stuff worked. He ying Elf, a defensive Carry css. Therefore, he always had to run away from earl fights like this. It was me but it was the best way to secure victory. He uood all that, a... meh, whatever. "Okay, I'mma retreat."

  As soon as the heavy tentacle released him, Lars made a run for it. He didn't even turn back to che his oppo. There was her time nor need for that. He was at a disadvantageous position, so he had to get outta here before he loses for real.

  Not even gonna shoot at me or anything? Weak. Trever shook his head. Well, it's smarter to retreat fast like that, so I'll give him that much. But, gotta say, he sure accepted his defeat pretty fast here.

  In the past, Lars used to bite back his attacker even in the direst of situations. Evehe enemy ered him and all the odds were stacked against him, Lars found it in himself to retaliate. Naturally, Lars died a bunch of times thanks to these stunts.

  However, this fierce attitude art of what used to make Lars a formidable oppo. He was the kind of oppo who could make a eback from any situation and pull off a miraculous win. It was dangerous to lower yuard against this beast for even a moment.

  However, the Lars in this game felt less like a vicious wolf and more like a timid puppy. His famous meical skill was definitely present, as evident by how effitly he cleared minions and how fast he reacted to Trever's Krakeheless, a certain spark was missing from Lars's pys. He felt like a fangless beast.

  I hope it's just because he’s pying a shitty css like Elf. Trever tried to vince himself. He probably learned he gotta py Elf defensively during the early-game, so maybe that's weighing him down. Then again, why did he even brio this fight? , kid. You know your Elf got nothing on me. Where's your Shooter at?

  "Is his leap down?" Aron asked.

  "Oh," Trever came back to earth. "Yeah, he just used it to get outta my fake Kraken. Haha, goteem!"

  "I believe I asked you to inform me when he spends his leap. That's kind of a big deal for me."

  "Yeah, yeah, my bad. Things were going so well I thought I might actually kill him myself, haha."

  "Spare me the excuses," Aron said. "I could've rotated fank if you told me earlier."

  "Nah, no dice. Yuel got it covered," Trever said. Just as they started talking, Yuel arrived on the ne for backup. Even if Trever informed Aron in time, Yuel’s rotation would have tered Aron's gank. Probably.

  "That's some -level hindsight you're using there," Alex ented.

  "Alright, alright, my bad! Stop chewi, you two. ime, I'll make sure to broadcast to the entire universe that Lars spent his leap. Happy now?"

  "Yes." Aron nodded. "So, what distracted you so much?"

  "Nothing, really."

  "I know you be an airhead sometimes, but it's not like you tet something so basic."

  "Not sure if you’re praising me or insultirever narrowed his eyes.

  "Just giving you some tough love," Alex smirked.

  "I don’t need any love from another dude, thank you very much!" Trever made a disgusted face. "But yeah, guess I was kinda caught up in the moment. I went hard on the offensive and all, so I was all about beating that weakling to a pulp."

  "Lars isn’t posing a challenge for you?" Aron frowned. "That Lars, of all people?"

  "Yeah, his Elf is always wack like that. Though, he got a little better at pying defense, I'mma give him that."

  "Lars and ‘defense’ in the same sentence. What an oxymoron."

  "A what? A ‘moron’?"

  "Yeah, exactly that." Aron didn't feel like teag basiglish right now. "Hrm, this is peculiar. If Lars is pying defense as well, it seems their entire game pn revolves around defending during the early-game."

  "Wouldn't expect that from Yuel in a million years."

  "True, it's rather unusual. Maybe he's experimenting with hings."

  "At our expense? Wild,” Trever grinned. “He should know he gotta go all-out against pros like us."

  "Oh, I sure he knows," Aron said. "Ahat's how he decided to approach this match. It almost feels like he's not fident about using his usual rushdown tactics at this level of py."

  "Well, I dunno and I don't care. We just gotta kick their asses all the same!”

  "True that," Aron nodded. Whatever reason Yuel had for pig a defensive lineup for this match wasn't Aron's . This was a matd Aron had to win, simple as that. If the enemy ying defehen Aron simply had to take down a defeeam, that's all there was to it.

  Meanwhile, Lars successfully escaped death and Yuel rotated to back him up.

  "Yo, I made it," Lars breathed in relief as he arrived at his tower area.

  "You should recall," Yuel said. "I'll fill in for you until you return."

  "Okey-dokey," Lars began the recalling. "Not gonna lie, dude almost got me there. I totally fell for that squid py, haha."

  "It happens. After all, it’s a 50-50 mixup."

  "Nah, dude. That ain't no mixup. I totally react to the Squid Dude if he actually shows up. But, I was real nervous back there for no reason. Damn, lost like half HP to that thing. Lame."

  "At least you're not dead."

  "Whoa, somebody is being super oday for a ge?” Lars’s blinked in disbelief. “Where's the usual lecture? Who are you and what did you do to my dude?"

  "There's nothing for me to lecture you about," Yuel shrugged. "From what I saw, you were pying just fine. You maintained your distand didn't fall for taunts. And, you also reacted correctly by retreating from the fight."

  "Well, yeah. But, you're fetting the part where I got smacked hard by the Squid Dude."

  "Yes, you didn’t get away scot-free from that surprise attack. But, that’s just because Trever is that good of a pyer."

  "Nah, that dude ain't nothing. I take him out with my eyes closed!"

  "Sure," Yuel shrugged. "The bottom line is, you pyed just fine. All the ret practice you've been putting into pying smarter seems to be paying off. Maybe pying Mid in the club has a positive effe you."

  "But, I totally lost the fight..." Lars twisted his lips. On one hand, it was awesome he got the approval of the harshest criti the world. Oher hand, it didn't feel right.

  Sure, Lars pyed det defense as an Elf should. Yes, he didn't fall for any of Trever's taunts auck to the basic (yet effective) pn of "snipe everybody from afar". And true, Lars quickly retreated from that dangerous cle fight, which was a good call and all.

  But, none of that ged one important fact: Lars totally lost that entire exge. He fell for the Krake, lost half his HP, and now had to dump the responsibility of defending the ne on Yuel. If this wasn't the definition of pying like a total potato, then what was?

  "It's all about the long game," Yuel said. "You lose a hundred fights if necessary. All that matters is that you win the war."

  "Yeah, I guess." It was one heck of a weird idea, but it actually kinda worked sometimes. As long as Lars pyed it safe and didn't let his ne oppo gain a huge lead, it was still anybody's game.

  Lars came face-to-face with that fact more often than ever as he pyed Mid at the club. He wasn't quite pro material when it came to Mid, so a lot of Diamond and Challenger dudes whooped his ass at first. To bat these mad ds, Lars had to be patient and make sure he didn’t die. Even when his oppo gaihe upper hand in the was fine as long as Lars didn't do anything dumb that got him killed.

  Once mid-game arrived, the game became all about team fights. So, Lars no longer had to fight against the strong Mid Laner dude by himself. At this stage of the game, he worked together with his dudes to defeat vilins! It was like “Avengers, assemble!” kind of stuff, yo!

  So, even though Trever totally mopped the floor with Lars in their brief exge, everything was fihis was just the beginning of the game and Lars hasn't lost mu that fight, aside from his pride as a pro-level duelist. He'll make a eba no time. Ez.

  However, not everybody felt the same about this development.

  "Damn," Kai ranted. "We're getting pushed around all over the pce."

  "True," Yuel agreed. "But, we haven't let them push much. So, they haveablished any real ne trol yet"

  "Yeah, for now," Kai said. She had to cede that despite drawing her and Lars out of their he enemy didn't get to push much duriher of these situations.

  In Top, before the enemy ganked her, Kai cleared out the enemy minions. Thanks to that, the enemy didn't have a frontlihat could tank the Turret. Oher hand, in Bot, Yuel quickly rotated to defend the ne while Lars was retreating.

  So yes, both of these times the enemy didn’t get to push much. But, was that really something to celebrate?

  You spin it as you wish. Kai thought. But, it’s clear me and Lars are having problems at our nes. We didn't lose advahis time, but who knows what’ll happeime. Yuel should realize that too. How he be so calm about this?

  "You got a pn?" Kai asked.

  "Not in particur," Yuel admitted. "We just keep doing our thing. Our team position got better tools for team-fights, so that's where we should take the initiative. Until then, we just o keep ourselves alive and defend the nes."

  "Pying the waiting game, huh," Kai carefully examihe lineups of both teams. "Yeah, we give them some heat during a team fight. But, what we gonna do until mid-game? We’re not going to get away scot-free every time we lose ne adva some point, they'll break through."

  "We just have to make sure that won't happen."

  "You serious?"

  "Yes, one hundred pert serious. I believe this is the best we dht now."

  "You gotta be kidding me..." Kai shook her head. It'd still be ohing if they were pying defense because they had te-game focused csses. But, Lumimancer and Elf? These were mid-game csses, cut and dried. And, pretty much the same applied to Yuel's Viking as well.

  The enemy's Lionfolk and Pirate were also mid-game csses. Even worse than that, Sorcerer was a css that became strong during mid-game and even stro te-game. Once he starts spamming Magia Orbs with practically zero cooldown, everybody gonna have a bad time. As such, waiting won’t do them any favors. They had to aow.

  The hell is Yuel smoking? That's some useless shot-caller. Kai sighed. Seems like I gotta make something happen myself. There's no way we gonna win if I keep letting this Sorcerer walk all over me.

  Since she recalled to the base to heal up, this gave her the opportunity to gear up before her oppo did. As such, right now, she should be slightly superior to the Sorcerer in terms of sheer stats. Therefore, it was the best time to strike that guy down!

  During the minion wave, she'll shoot for it. Freezer gonna pay for st time! This time, he'll be the one running with his tail between his legs!

  DarkestCymore