Think. Think! Yuel took a deep breath. The match wasn't over yet. There still had to be something he could try. If there's even the smallest ounting a eback here, Yuel will find it.

  To deal with Howard's tough defense, Yuel’s team first needed momentum. Simple tricks won't work here. Any easy opening in the enemy’s formation otential trap, just like the one which got Lars killed. Tactics alone won’t be enough. Even after ing such a long way from being a total rookie during the entrance exam, Yuel still didn't have a way to pierce through Howard's defeh strategy alone.

  Power and momentum, that's what the team needed. Ohey seize the initiative, they'll be able to pressure the eeam into submission.

  Positive momentum should also inspire everybody to py better. Right nged behind as Dark Knight, Dan didn't get any ces to deliver det ganks and Julia turtled too hard. If everybody tihis way, the team will never make a eback.

  Something had to ge. Right now. Fortunately, there was one pyer who harbored the same feeling as Yuel: Lars. That goof was the keyman here. Even without momentum, Lars’s spirit didn't waver, he was dead set oing Taison even after dying twice.

  Therefore, Lars had to be the oo spark a turnaround in this situation. He’ll have t the team out of this predit and carry it to victory!

  Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple. Gunslinger's mid-game was too weak and Lars has started gging behind after dying twice. His power curve will stabilize again ie game, but dragging the game until that point was bad news. Oe-game hits, it'll be game over for sure.

  But, there was one way. It was a risky approach that went all out, but it had a ce to pay off.

  “You said you need more power, right?” Yuel asked.

  “Yep. Just a little bit more DPS and I'll be able to beat Tai for sure!”

  “And, you'll be fih it even if it's demonic power, right?”

  “Hoho, sounds edgy as heck. Whatcha got?”

  “Something that may bee our st ce,” Yuel expihe gist of his idea. “For now, make sure you always stick close to a teammate so the enemy doesn't catch you isoted. We'll have to slow doy defense for a while, but then...”

  It was a gamble that might not pay off, but they reached a point at which taking risks was necessary. Nothiured, nothing gained.

  Hmm, Howard squinted his eyes. It seemed the enemy resorted to defense because their attacks didn’t work. Is that it? Yuel no longer sees a road to victory?

  It took a long time to reach this point, but it seemed like Howard’s defensive pn finally crushed out the enemy’s fighting spirit. When faced against an imperable defehe enemy felt like they were bashing their heads against a wall whetacked. The harder they hit, the more it hurt them. Therefore, at some point, they were bound to lose the will to tinue.

  This applied all the more to Yuel's aggressive team, which was in total disarray at this point. Roi and Dan underperformed all across the board and Julia turtled for no reason. Yuel probably didn't even bother to address any of that a issuing orders as if everybody was alright.

  No wonder Yuel's attacks didn't reach Howard at all. As long as Yuel's teammates were in a turmoil, their performance was bound to be ckluster. No matter how many times Yuel thrust his spear, it'll never break through Howard’s shield as long as the spear was unsharpened. Will Yuel realize that at some point?

  Either way, this game was over. Yuel showed an iion t this fight to the bitter end by pying defense, but it won’t work. Maybe Yuel was banking on Lars to somehow turn things around, but it was futile.

  Taison was already at 5/0 thanks to everybody leaving the kills to him, per Howard’s request. At this point, Taison was no longer just a “Lars Killer” - he was the pilr of the team's offense and the one who’ll this game up. Holy, Taison performed beyond expectations. His strong desire to defeat Lars must have tributed to that.

  With unbreakable defense across the map and with a fed aggressive Jungler, Howard’s team had all the means to win this. If Yuel wants tle to the bitter end, that's his choice. Howard will simply keep defleg attacks and keep driving the enemy into a er until they lose all hope and beg for a swift death.

  This is my fault. Julia pursed her lips as she retreated to base again. All she has been doing this game was staying far in the bad poking the enemy every now and then. She had zero kills, oh, and one assist. She hasn't done anything meaningful at all and allowed the eo take Mid. At this rate...

  I'm totally blowing this game. Roi tapped his foot. He has already died three times this game and he scored only one kill via the executiate of Sheol. On top of that, his bat failed to make tact with enemy shots, so he barely got to parry anything and ended up eating a lot of damage while swinging. The entire enemy lineup was made ed attackers, yet Roi couldn’t parry for the life of him. What a terrible batting average...

  Is it just me or I’m messing up too much this game? Dan tilted his head. There was that oime when he didn’t ask whether Gilbert had blink to escape. Then, aime whe killed in a team fight due to poor positioning. And then, that other time when he... Yeah, that was a nid long list of mess-ups. Nobody erfect, but this game just looked bad. So much for “not throwing the game” like he cimed he’d do...

  While individual pyers were carrying their own worries and frustrations, the game went on. Yuel switched to defensive shot-calling and deflected the enemy's pushes to the best of his ability. All they were doing right now was stalling the enemy's progress, it didn't feel like they were getting any closer to victory.

  But, Yuel believed. If there was still a way to turn this game around, it'll be during the transition from mid to te game. Once Lars pletes his build of attack power, crit damage and cooldowion, as well as maxes out the level of Fan the Hammer, he’ll bee a killing mae. That'll be their ce to go on the offensive!

  An ally has been killed!

  This is rough. Yuel frowhe team didn't practice defense much, so their defensive py was a bit shallow. There were so many holes that even a defeeam like Howard's found weako exploit.

  However, the same seemed to apply to the eeam. After being forced on the offensive, Howard’s team hasn’t been doing too hot. They pyed too cautiously and gave up many great opportuo push. In addition, small gaps opened in the enemy formation and Yuel had no iion of missing them.

  “Lars,” Yuel pihe mini-map. “Go cut Gregory off.”

  “Gotcha!” Lars dashed into the juo greet the ining ihe distaween nes shrunk dowhey were this deep ierritory, sory’s rotation from Top to Mid must have felt like a short walk. But, there was still some distao travel and Yuel was going to use that to his advantage.

  “Got him!” Lars opened an attack with bat Roll into Fan the Hammer. One headshot! Two headshots! Three headshots! Stun! 200% accuracy! This was easy! Gregory couldn't dodge a single bullet!

  Good! Yuel nodded. Gregory has just retly spent his Gaia's Prote in Top, so it should be still on cooldown. Therefore, he wasn't tanky enough to survive this onsught-

  ry. Howard arrived on the se and booted Cryo-Freeze right befregory’s HP dropped to zero. He froze Gregory still, which made Gregory invulnerable to all attacks and quickly restored HP.

  Even here!? Yuel felt like yelling. It was absurd. Nothing escaped Howard's attention. Every little hole in the enemy's formation was covered up immediately. “Retreat!”

  “But,” Lars insisted. “I take on him-”

  “Don't. Gilbert and Ellen are close enough to rotate there. You don't suppose you win a 1v3, do you?”

  “Bring it on, yo!” Lars said that, but his Gunsliurned around areated. Wheuation was this dire, even this goof uood the importaninimizing risks and making the right decisions.

  “e with me to the ogres,” Yuel said. The time was almht to mount a eback. After Lars gets the red buff on top of his blue buff, they'll finally begin their terattack during the eam fight.

  It didn't take long for the fight to e to them. Most of the eeam gathered in Mid, save for Taison who was likely farming Dragon. Even though the enemy held the advantage across all nes, breaking through Mid was always the preferable tactic. Howard’s team let their super minions push the other nes while they all focused on Mid.

  This was the st stand. If Yuel’s defense falls here, the game will be over.

  “Julia,” Yuel said. “Right after we start, advance a little and use Hurrie.”

  “Huh? But, what about Thuorm and Kraken? They gonna gun for me right away.”

  “It’ll be fine.”

  “I wouldly describe anything as ‘fihis game so far.”

  “Just do it, please.”

  “Okay, sure. Not like we got any yway.”

  “That's not the right mentality to have during a fight.”

  “Hmph.”

  Both sides got into position. Roi and Yuel were at the front, while Lars and Julia started at the rear. Simirly, the enemy had Howard and Gregory on the front while Gilbert and Ellen were in the rear. Both sides had two damage dealers, so everything will boil down to which side loses their DPS first.

  As the only melee fighter, Roi had no choice but to advance all the way to the enemy’s face. Yuel followed closely behind, but he didn't stick out his neck more than was necessary. This was the optimal arra because, with Roi's defensive build, he was quite tahan Yuel. In addition, Roi was the most disposable teammate this game because Dark Knight didn't have any good d his overall value was low when he was gging behind.

  The team fight began. First, zoning shots were fired. Lars and Julia fired at Howard, whereas Ellen and Gilbert fired at Yuel. Both sides gunned for the squishiest target they could reach without putting themselves at danger. However, even though they were the “squishiest” in range, both Yuel and Howard had defensive build, so they endured without a problem.

  “Julia, now,” Yuel ordered. “Make sure to maintain some distao make Kraken feel like a waste if they go for it.”

  “Sure,” Julia didn't sound too enthusiastic, but she followed the order heless. She broke formation to a far to the left side. Ohe eeam was at the tip of her range, she began eling her ultimate: Hurrie. It was a huge AoE spell which dealt high damage and sucked enemies into its ter, which pced them in a pact area that made it easy to follow-up with even more AoE attacks.

  However, the downside of this great skill was the long windup animation. The Aeromancer filed her arms around to gee a spiral of wind and it took a couple of seds until the hurrie reaches its full size and was ready to be unleashed. Therefore, the enemy had plenty of time to read one of the most on ters was Eleancer’s Thuorm.

  “Wait,” Howard said. “Don't step-”

  I'll get her this time! Gilbert stepped forth to ter Hurrie. This was a great opportunity! He'll get this easy kill on Julia and prove that he was uionably the best Mid Laner in StromBlitz- wha!? A knock-up!? Water erupted from the ground a Gilbert flying toward the sky! It was Aquamancer's Geyser Eruption!

  “Tch!” Howard erected an ice wall betweewo teams and fired ands. “Greg, shield me. Ellen, Kraken her.” Right after Gregory cast Gaia's Prote to give Howard a shield, Howard blinked forward across the wall and darted in Lars’s dire. He had to prevent the worst-case sario!

  That Hurrie was clearly a bait. The enemy’s real goal was to bait somebody and knock them up, which allowed Lars te them in midair. To prevent that kill, Howard had to freeze Lars here and now.

  One headshot. Two headshots. Lars nded his shots without breaking a sweat even though his target was far and high in the air. The shots came out in blinding speed during Fan the Hammer, but he had no iion of dropping even a single headshot!

  Okay, I got this! Lars grinned. It was about flippin’ time he got himself another kill! He gonhis one for sure and- wha!? Big Shield Dude!? That absolute mad d was charging right at Lars! Even though this was all the way in the Golem’s area!

  So fast! Yuel expected Howard to ter this py in some way, but that rea was way too fast! Yuel inally po follow up with aneyser Eruption to knock up any enemy who advanced forward in an attempt to interfere with Lars, but he couldn't keep up with how fast Howard executed this ter!

  Your offense is over. Howard decred as he released a burst of cold air. Ice Coffin will put ao this- wait, Lars was gohe guy was literally there a moment ago, but then he vanished! He couldn’t roll while Fan the Hammer was active, but he could still do a bat Roll! Lars rolled right underh Howard’s spell and got behind him!

  You ain’t getting in my way, yo! This kill is mine! Lars quickly recovered behind Howard and fired another shot at the falling Gilbert! It wasn't a headshot, though. Dang it, eg a headshot on an air-bound target right after a bat Roll was sure hard. Lars wasn’t worthy of being called a master Gunslinger pyer yet, he gotta practice more.

  What an absurd guy. Howard shook his head. Even though Lars should have been preoccupied with nding headshots on Gilbert, he still noticed Howard's advand tered in a split sed with bat Roll. These reflexes are beyond human. It’s like pying with sis, maybe even worse...

  heless, this wasirely outside Howard's estimation. That’s what he created the ice wall for. Once Gilbert falls low enough, the ice wall will hide him from Lars's sight.

  “Another one!” Yuel announced. He caused aneyser eruption and knocked Gilbert bato the sky right befilbert hit the ground.

  Again!? Gilbert made a huge mistake. That knock-up spell wasn't Geyser Eruption, it was the Overflow version of it: Hot Spriion! It grade which put the skill on par with an ultimate ability and allowed the caster to spam three geyser eruptions in a row without a cooldown. Gilbert won't be toug ground today...

  An enemy has been killed!

  The turnaround was starting here and now! If Yuel’s team wins this fight, they’ll be able to turn this game on its head! This was their st d they had to seize it!