Rampaging Orc

『An enemy has been killed!』

[Nia really pulled it off.] Yuel couldn't believe the message on his screen. He simply couldn't piece this jigsaw together. How did Nia decide this was a good opportunity to gank? Nothing about that Aeromancer suggested he was going an easy target.

At 60% HP, it was only natural to assume the Aeromancer was on the lookout for ganks. Was this a fluke? Maybe Nia just gave it a shot and the gank happened to work. Besides, even if she failed to secure the kill, the Aeromancer surely wasn't going to stay and fight her after being ganked. So, this gank was a safe move for Nia either way.

[Now that I think about it, the arguments in favor of this gank seem to be pretty simple.] Yuel smiled wryly. It was simple but, for some reason, he didn't think of this gank. Something about this play bothered him but he couldn't put his finger on it.

Maybe it was actually all Vincent's fault with his "Vanishing Phantom" nonsense. It made Yuel expect something from Nia even thought it was silly. She was neither a phantom nor she had the ability to vanish. She was simply good at making the enemy lower their guard, that's all.

If Nia starts pulling off similar kills left and right, there will be more reason to believe she had a special talent. Until then, this successful gank was nothing more than a safe play that happened to reap great benefits. Yuel had far more concerning things to discuss anyway.

"Good work getting that kill but why didn't you inform anybody about your rotation?" Yuel asked. "At the very least, you were supposed to tell Lars that you were going to gank Mid."

"You're one of those, aren't you," Nia muttered. Every now and then, she met these pesky players who told her to communicate more during the match. She hasn't heard this complaint in a long time because she has been muting everybody but there it was again. Where was the mute button for real life?

"It won't be a real surprise attack if I tell people," Nia said.

"Excuse me?" Yuel raised an eyebrow. "What kind of logic is that? You're trying to surprise the enemy, not your allies."

"If I tell anybody, they'll spill the beans by acting all weird on lane. The surprise attack gonna get telegraphed."

"I know what you mean," Yuel had experiences like that when starting out. When he informed a laner about his plans to gank their lane, the laner thought this was the best time to aggress on their opponent. After all, backup was on the way so this was the best time to initiate an attack, right? Wrong!

In this kind of scenario, the laner's job was to keep the incoming gank under wraps and ensure it'll succeed. And, intimidating the gank's target into retreating was the exact opposite of achieving that. That only made it harder for the ganker to reap any rewards from the gank and it might even stop the entire gank dead in its tracks.

Therefore, when playing with randoms online, sometimes it made sense to not inform a problematic laner about an incoming gank. At low levels, doing so might have brought Nia better results. However, with high-level players, this was a non-issue.

"You need to have more faith in your teammates," Yuel said. "We're all serious players here. We know what to do when an ally is coming for a gank."

"Hmmmmm," Nia twisted her lips. It looked like she understood what Yuel was saying but wasn't entirely convinced yet.

At the very least, she proved she knew how to deliver decent ganks and secure kills. This was already more than Yuel expected from somebody who focused on Duel. With that said, none of this helped his situation in Top Lane.

"So, when are you planning to gank Top?" Yuel asked.

"Um, eventually."

"When is that 'eventually' coming? I'm losing the lane over here."

"Then play better."

"Yes, of course. Player better. Just watch me win this whole thing by myself. The easiest I've ever done in my life."

"I believe in you."

[This girl.] Yuel lost all hope again. That successful gank on Mid must have been a fluke. Nia clearly didn't know how to jungle correctly. At this rate, she'll doom the entire match.

Yuel only had one more trick up his sleeve for reversing the situation in Top but it was a shaky tactic. He'll have to rely on the full strength of his ult, Asura Strike, to take the Orc down. However, he had to level up some more before Asura Strike truly becomes lethal. By the time he gets to the required level, it might already be too late...

For now, the situation in Top was as awful as ever. The Orc pressured Yuel hard and there was nothing he could really do about it on his own. Only an intimidating gank could turn this situation around but Nia was Nia.

Meanwhile, she had no problem ganking other lanes...

『I'll gank Bottom Lane』The Ninja announced. It was one of the in-game macro commands for communication purposes. It was a tad redundant when the entire team was gathered in the same room but that's how Nia chose to inform of her incoming gank.

[Well, at least she listened.] Yuel nodded in approval. Nia took his critique to heart and tried to fix the issue in her own way. That was already a step forward.

"You coming over here?" Kai asked. "Great timing. Let's give this guy some heat."

Kai retreated to her side of the lane to lure the enemy in. That opened more space behind the enemy for Nia to exploit. It was the textbook set up for a gank and it was effective.

Kai even executed it beautifully by hiding her intentions during the retreat. She repeatedly walked back and forth while flinging spears at the enemy Pirate. These movements looked more like Kai was spacing her opponent out rather than retreating.

However, for every two steps she took back, she only took one step forward. As a result, she gradually retreated as planned, one step at a time. The retreat was unnoticeable enough to not raise the enemy's suspicion.

In fact, it made the Pirate pursue Kai a little. He must have believed Kai was scared of fighting him head-on and that he had the upper hand right now. Foolish.

In this way, the Pirate was down to 50% HP but ventured way too deep into enemy territory. Normally, he should be considering the possibility of an incoming gank in this situation even without any warning signs. Yet, this Pirate continued fighting Kai without a care in the world.

[Did I overestimate him?] Yuel wondered. Based on his observations so far, this Pirate player has been putting on a solid performance so far. The guy always went toe-to-toe with Kai in fights and never put himself at unnecessary risk.

Yet, against Nia's incoming gank, the Pirate has been acting incredibly sloppy. It's like he was planning to hand over his life to Nia on a silver platter.

[Gotcha!] Nia hugged the Pirate from behind and took him for a ride. They spun fast as they shot toward the sky.

BAM! The Pirate crashed into the ground, right in front of an iron maiden. Kai set it up ahead of time while the Pirate was still in the air.

As soon as the Pirate hit the ground, Kai fired a large spear at him. The impact shoved the Pirate into the iron maiden and the deadly torture machine ate him alive.

『An enemy has been killed!』

"Great job," Kai said. "You're really good."

"KS."

"Huh?"

"That was my kill," Nia pouted. "You took my kill. Bully."

"Ah, yeah" Kai shrugged. "You could say that was really a 'KS'. As in, a 'Kill Secure'. I didn't steal it. Just made sure we get the kill for sure."

"I could've gotten it for sure myself."

"You couldn't. He would have started moving once he recovered from the drop."

"I would've caught him," Nia insisted.

"Maybe. Or, maybe he would have slipped away. This guy is actually pretty slippery. I haven't gotten a single kill on him until now."

"I would have gotten the kill," Nia didn't let go. "That was a KS. Bully."

"Alright, alright," Kai sighed. "My bad. I'll leave the kill to you the next time you gank."

"Promise?"

"Promise." Kai nodded. She was normally rather peculiar about scoring kills but she was willing to give that up to make Nia feel better.

[She'd do anything to get Nia to join.] Yuel smiled wryly. Compared to Kai's attitude, he made himself look like a villain because he wasn't pampering Nia and constantly pushed her to make certain plays.

But, that wasn't his fault. The lane matchup of Monk vs. Orc was simply that terrible. So, ganks were a must for punishing this Orc's overextensions. It was impossible to win this matchup without Nia's help.

An alternative solution was to make Lars gank Top. Unfortunately, the enemy Viking kept Lars busy the whole time by pressuring Mid with ganks. So, if Lars dares to rotate out of the lane, he'd either run into the Viking in the jungle or they'll miss each other and the Viking will arrive on an unguarded Mid Lane. From there, he'll be in a great position to help the Aeromancer push the lane hard with his ult.

As such, calling Lars out of lane just like that was extremely risky. Similarly, Kai and Vincent were too far away to provide a gank on Top and they already had their plates full in Bot anyway. Therefore, as long as Nia refused to cooperate, there was no chance of getting any other gank on Top. Yuel's only hope was to somehow resolve this situation on his own.

By the time he hit Lv. 8, his Turret was already down to 10% HP. He has been getting better and better at defending the Turret with every level. By now, his max Chakra was more than double the amount he started with. This meant double the Chakra Bullets to snipe incoming minions with.

By clearing out most of the minions before they got to invade the Turret, Yuel stopped the Orc from diving under tower and landing hard hits on the Turret. However, a couple of enemy minions always made it to the Turret and delivered chip damage. So, Yuel was still fighting against the clock.

At this rate, the chip damage from the minions will fell the Turret. Something had to be done about this.

At Lv.8, Yuel could store up to 13 Chakra. Therefore, his Asura Strike will deliver 13 lightning-speed strikes within a second. In terms of damage, it'll roughly equivalent to hitting the Orc with 9 basic attacks. Since the Orc didn't build any defense, that'll take about 60% of the guy's HP; nothing to sneeze at.

But, it won't kill and therein laid the problem. Even if Yuel successfully delivers Asura Strike, he'll have no Chakra left and therefore nothing to use against the Orc except for basic attacks. With the Orc's attacks being at least three times stronger than Yuel's, it was clear who'll remain standing by the end of the fight.

One option was to go YOLO and build power items to boost the damage of Asura Strike as much as possible. However, that'll only leave Yuel more vulnerable to Orc's heavy attacks. So, even though this idea crosses his mind every now and then, he ultimately decided against it. After all, going for risky ideas was the very reason he was here, in this club, in the first place. If only he played smarter and safer against Howard, he could've won the selection match...

[That's in the past.] Yuel shook his head to exorcise the negative thoughts. What's done was done. He lost terribly in that match and learned an important lesson from it. From now on, he'll prioritize safe and surefire plays. He won't take risks that only had a [chance] of paying off. Just as these plays were likely to pay off, they were even more likely to blow up in his face. He couldn't have that.

So, his only real option here was to keep stalling to Orc. If he successfully defends the lane until mid-game, things will become much better from that point onward. His Asura Strike will become strong enough to be lethal and it'll stun as well. That's where Yuel's retaliation will begin.

Alas, this Orc player knew he couldn't let this happen. Once Yuel's Turret dropped below 10%, the Orc activated his ult: Last Stand. The Orc roared and intoxicated his allies, making them unkillable for a short time.

The minions' HP won't drop below 1 no matter how many times Yuel hits them. As such, he couldn't clear out the invading bowmen. They get into the Turret's range and fired away at the tower.

The Turret unleashed huge bolts on these brave invaders but the bowmen didn't even flinch. Their HP plummeted from the big hits but it never reached all the way to zero. It's like they forgot that dying was a mechanic in this game.

Meanwhile, the Orc followed the lead of his bowmen and snuck into the Turret's range as well. While the Turret was focusing all its fire on the undying bowmen, the Orc was free to strike the tower at leisure. At this rate, they'll take down the Turret!

[There's only one thing I can do here, but...] Yuel bit his lip. Instead of attacking the unkillable bowmen, he focused on the Orc.

Unlike Paladin's Aegis, Orc's Last Stand didn't grant immortality to the Orc himself. On top of that, the immortality effect on the minions will wear off immediately if the Orc falls. Therefore, threatening the Orc was the only available line of play here.

Yuel reached the Orc and unleashed Asura Strike. The Monk went into a frenzy and fired 13 lightning-speed jabs in an instant. He trashed the cocky Orc and erased 60% HP in a blink of an eye.

But, that wasn't nearly enough to kill. The Orc still stood firmly and lashed at the crumbling Turret. He had no intention of stopping this invasion!

[If you're not going to retreat, I'll just have to finish you off.] Yuel continued his assault by throwing basic jabs. Even without any Chakra, Monk's jabs were fast and strong enough to be a threat, especially with the power build Yuel focused on for the early-game. If the Orc doesn't do anything about this, Yuel might even kill the guy before the Turret crumbles.

Since Yuel aggressed on the Orc, the immortal bowmen switched their focus from the Turret onto him. The damage from their arrows was unpleasant but at least Yuel tanked it for his Turret. As such, even though the Turret only had 3% HP left, it still stood tall. Yuel saved it from crumbling by tanking the lethal arrows.

Alas, the Orc had more than enough power to bring down the Turret all by himself. He only needed two hits and it'll be over. Therefore, Yuel had to quickly take out that overconfident guy no matter what!

Yuel repeatedly jabbed at the Orc but the guy didn't budge. The Orc remained rooted in the same spot and lashed away at the Turret. It was hopeless.

『An allied Turret has been destroyed!』

The Turret crumbled. The Orc barely made it through the heat of attacks with just 25% HP but he was very much alive. Yuel still needed at least three more hits to seal the deal. As such, the Orc was in no mortal danger yet. However, he was in no condition to complete against Yuel's 85% HP either. Retreat was the only option.

The Orc rolled away and made a run for it. Yuel itched to give chase but decided against it. The three pesky bowmen were still firing at him so he had to clear them out first. By the time he punched them all down, the Orc was already gone.

[Darn it.] Yuel clicked his tongue. The game hasn't even reached the mid-game and they already lost a Turret. What a mess. And, to think that all of this could have been easily averted with a couple of good ganks from Nia. Alas, she graced him with none.

"If you ganked the lane at least once in a while, we could've stopped this from happening," Yuel addressed Nia.

"Not my fault," Nia muttered and glanced away. "You should've played better."

"Played better? It's one of the worst possible matchups. Everybody knows that. It'd still be one thing if I was playing against a weak player who picked Orc just to stomp other weak players. But, this guy knows exactly what he was doing. I need ganks to keep him at bay."

"There weren't any good chances to get kill there."

"I told you, I don't ask for kills," Yuel sighed. How thick-headed was this girl? "All I needed from you was to establish your presence in the area. You had to condition the Orc into being scared of your ganks. But, you didn't do squat and that gave him the green light to go all-out without worrying."

[Well, it's scary.] Nia twisted her lips. Orc was a very dangerous individual during the early-game. Even Tipmancer said to be careful about going through with this. Basically, it meant Nia should only gank Orc if she was really sure about it, or else she'll wind up dead. Dying would be the worst possible impression for an exam so she had to avoid it any cost.

[I bet he's really trying to make me fail.] Nia knotted her brows. Yuel was asking her to gank that skilled Orc player so she dies and makes herself look bad. Even though Yuel claimed he wasn't a bully, Nia had to press doubt on that.

[Or, maybe that's part of the test? He's telling me to make this dangerous play but actually wants me to refuse? Yeah, that gotta be it. He's not a real bully. He's just acting like one for the exam.] Nia nodded to herself and continued dismissing everything Yuel had to say.

It was all a test. Nia just had to stick to her guns and keep doing things her way.

It was too bad Yuel lost the lane to the Orc so early like that but that wasn't Nia's fault. She has been ganking other lanes to great success so far. She even has already gotten two kills! Well, one of them was stolen from her but still.

As long as she keeps getting kills like that on the other lanes, there was no need to walk into the lion's den with the Orc gank. They'll just win the game by pushing the other lanes.

"Fine," Yuel sighed. "If you're so against it, then keep playing as you see fit. But, mark my words: we'll lose if you do nothing about the Orc."

Nia just curled into a ball and didn't say anything. It was ok. Everything will be ok. This was just an exam. She'll keep getting kills and they'll eventually win this game. No problem.

[So stubborn.] Yuel sighed. Why did Nia so vehemently refused to gank the Orc? It was as if somebody seeded paranoia in her head and made her think the Orc was the scariest monster in the world.

Maybe she had some bad experiences against it? Or, maybe she read somewhere about how dangerous it was to gank Orc? After all, about any guide that brought up this topic mentioned the risk the ganker had to take when ganking Orc.

But, that didn't mean Orc shouldn't be ganked. It was just a warning, nothing more. It meant the ganker couldn't be careless because that'd be easily punished by death. However, as long as the ganker did things right, there wasn't much to worry about.

[Well, this game will teach her a hard lesson.] Yuel didn't bother arguing any further. He could already see the inevitable checkmate their team was going to suffer at this rate.

"Careful, everybody," Yuel said. "The Orc is likely going to push another lane once he returns. I suggest playing it safe until we confirm his position."

Yuel followed his own advice and retreated back to his Golem. He could use the Orc's brief absence to push forward along the lane but he didn't want to run the risk of being ganked. After all, his Turret was gone now so, if he has to run away from a ganker, that'd be a long road back to allied territory.

As Yuel suspected, the Orc didn't return to Top. Instead, the guy targeted Mid.

"The big boss is here, yo!" Lars exclaimed. "Oh crap, he's together with the Viking! And the Aero dude is coming too! They all gonna invade!"

"Get out of there," Yuel ordered. "Orc + Viking is too dangerous."

"Geh. You saying I gotta let these dudes do whatever they want on my turf?"

"Yes, unfortunately. The Orc is well-fed, thanks to a certain somebody who refused to stall him with ganks. He's also not in a hurry to return to lane so he's going to pressure you there for a while. And, this guy is daring in particular, except he knows how to be bold without overextending much."

"Lame," Lars retreated to the backline as ordered.

The enemy didn't waste any time. As soon as the Orc and Viking met on the lane, they went directly after Lars's Turret. The Viking summoned a brigade of savage warriors and they invaded the Turret's area.

The Orc followed their lead and assaulted the tower as well. With normal minions and Viking's warriors gathered together in one area, they buffed the Orc's Attack Power through the roof thanks to his passive. Each of the Orc's basic attacks deleted 10% of the tower's HP. And, that was on top of attacks delivered by the Viking, his warriors, the Aeromancer, and all the minions. The Turret's HP vanished within seconds.

Rushing towers like this was a common Orc tactic. When the team had a class that could summon minions, it was common to flood the lane with them and let them charge at the tower along with the Orc. Even though the enemy was clearly overextending by doing this, it was usually difficult to punish such a play.

Lars could've countered this play by summoning a thunderstorm to hit all enemies in range. Alas, the enemy baited the ult out of him before this attack. So, they knew very well he couldn't do anything to them.

With the tower about to crumble, the only real option Lars had was to begin an early retreat.

"Yo, I'm getting mobbed here," Lars grinned. This all-out supah attack was sick! It's like an entire army invaded. It was an unstoppable flood, yo!

"But, no way I gonna give it to them for free!" Lars advanced and fired at the Orc.

"No, don't," Yuel objected. "The tower is done for. You have to retreat."

"Dude, you wanna let them take the tower for free like that?"

"Unfortunately, we got no choice. Since a certain somebody refused to shut down the Orc during the early-game, he's becoming unstoppable now."

"Don't worry, I'mma stop this dude," Lars made a promise based on unfounded confidence, as usual. However, his attitude turned 180 the moment the entire enemy army focused their fire on him. The one attack he landed on the Orc aggro'd all the enemy minions on him! Whoopsie!

"Nevermind!" Lars darted the heck outta there! He retreated all the way to the Mid Golem. Dang it, the tower was really done for...

『An allied Turret has been destroyed!』

The Orc hasn't scored any kills yet, but he has already taken down two Turrets before mid-game. That provided his entire team with lots of extra gold, which allowed them all to get ahead. This was the beginning of the end.