The Robot’s Pep Talk

In his carelessness, Ben aggro'd one of the bowmen.

[Well, this isn't ideal.] Ben frowned. [But, it's not the worst that could happen.]

In response, Ben cast Gaia's Protection, granting himself a shield. The bowman was quick to nock his arrow, but the long-ranged shot only struck against Ben's shield, delivering zero damage to Ben himself.

Still, the arrow did damage the shield itself. As sturdy as Gaia's Protection was at Lv. 2, it couldn't tank an infinite amount of hits. The shield will likely crumble against a combined attack of the swordsmen and this one rogue bowman.

To make things worse, now that the stray bowman was targeting Ben, the pesky guy was no longer advancing toward the tower area like the rest of his peers. Instead, he stopped in place in order to shoot arrows at Ben.

Yet again, Ben was messing up, even though he had just promised that he won't make stupid mistakes anymore...

[Stupid, stupid, stupid!] Ben beat himself up.

"You can pull that bowman into the tower area with Grasp," Yuel advised.

"Oh, right!" Ben jumped. Without further ado, he aimed Nature's Grasp at the rouge bowman and pulled the troublemaker right into the tower area.

[I should've been able to think of this myself.] Ben criticized. [I'm familiar with this edge-case scenario and I've used this solution before with Druid, but...]

The pressure was getting to him, no two ways about it. He felt like everybody's eyes were on him, more than ever before. Surely, the audience was most interested in Top right now, which was actually rather unusual in Classmancers.

Normally, Top was the most uneventful lane. Both sides simply held their forts and bided their time until mid-game.

However, in this game, Top had every reason to draw people's attention. Not only was there an Orc pick, but it was piloted by a mysterious new player; a Korean prodigy! So, surely, everybody was watching Top right now with great interest.

[Brrr.] Ben shuddered at the mere thought of that image. The pressure was real.

Thankfully, Yuel also seemed to closely follow the events in Top. If not for his timely advice, then Ben would have severely messed up the defense in this round.

"Thank you," Ben said. "I'm sorry you have to waste your precious time looking out for me..."

"It's okay," Yuel reassured. "Your lane situation is very important and informative, so of course, I have to monitor it." 

"But, you have your hands full in Bot, right? If only I was more reliable..."

"It's true that Bot occupies me pretty badly, but it's fine," Yuel said. "It looks like you feel a little pressured by the whole situation, but otherwise, your performance is within expectations. So, you have nothing to worry about."

"I see..." Ben lowered his head. ["Within expectations", he says. It means he expected me to perform this poorly. Well, I guess that's a given...]

After all, Ben wasn't as good as the rest of the team in the first place. The only ace up his sleeve was his defense, but even with that he occasionally messed up on this stage. Truly, there was not much reason to expect anything from him...

"Yo, dude!" Lars whispered to Yuel. "Look what you've done! Dude is all depressed now!"

"Yes, I can see that." Yuel frowned. "It looks like he didn't take that comment positively." 

"Of course not! What do ya mean 'within expectations', yo? Ya make it sound like you expect Ben to lose!"

"I just meant he's performing as his usual self for the most part, aside from the obvious pressure that's getting to him." 

"Then ya gotta be clearer about it!" Lars insisted. "Stuff like that is way too easy to interpret the wrong way, ya know? Especially, right when he's already blaming himself for all sorts of stuff."

"When is Ben ever NOT blaming himself?"

"Haha, sad but true." Lars chuckled. "So, that's all the more reason ya gotta be careful with him, dude. If ya say anything vague like that, he gonna assume the worst for sure."

"Hmm. Yes, that makes sense," Yuel agreed. "This is actually important to keep in mind, thanks."

"No problem, dude." Lars gave a thumbs up. "So, ya gotta say something to him before he gets all depressed."

"Right, to say something..." Yuel knotted his brows.

"Watcha thinking so hard about? Just tell him what ya told me."

"Easier said than done," Yuel argued. "If I have to consider the possibility that he might interpret anything I say in a negative light, then it becomes that much harder to come up with safe to say."

"Just speak from the heart, yo!"

"What does that even mean?"

"Like this: Hey Ben, chin up!" Lars called out. "Yuel said a bunch of complicated stuff there, but he didn't mean anything bad by it."

"Really...?" Ben wasn't convinced. "But, he said my poor performance is 'within expectations'..." 

"By that, I meant that you're staying true to your playstyle despite the enemy's aggression," Yuel clarified. "Your defense is solid as usual, though it's noticeable that the pressure is making you commit small mistakes. But, it's natural for you to feel pressure in a situation like this, so that's why I said this performance is 'within expectations."

"Oh, I see." Ben sighed in relief. A rock fell off his heart thanks to this clarification. [Now that I think about it, this situation isn't even as disastrous as I thought it was.]

It's not like this was the first time Ben ever made a mistake before. It's just that every mistake he made in this game felt a hundred times more critical because it was on the competitive stage, but otherwise, nothing was too different from usual. Indeed, his performance was "within expectations", as Yuel said.

Even in the most recent play, Ben did mess up a little and needed Yuel's timely advice, but otherwise, everything was "fine". After he pulled the bowman into the tower area with Nature's Grasp, the Turret focused on the intruder and shot the guy down.

In the meantime, the rest of the bowmen made their way into the area. Later, the swordsmen Ben was aggro-ing made it in as well.

By default, the tower prioritized shooting the closest enemies. Normally, that would be the swordsmen, the frontline of the minion formation. However, due to the disruption Ben caused, the backline and the frontline switched places. Now, the bowmen were in the front, going after the tower, whereas the frontline was lagging behind, still gunning for Ben.

As a result of this switcheroo, the Turret targeted the bowmen first. BAM! BAM! The minions were struck by one giant bolt after another. They were like spears of judgment raining from the heavens.

In a matter of seconds, the tower annihilated the squishy intruders. The bowmen only got to shoot a couple of arrows at the tower before they were erased from existence.

Next, the turret turned its attention to the swordsmen. These guys were tougher, but at least they weren't attacking the tower. They were still chasing Ben down.

Despite being slow on his feet, Druid was no match for the sluggish minions that pursued him. They hacked away at him with their blades, but his shield absorbed all the damage, protecting him from harm.

Though the entire process took quite a while and Ben lost a lot of precious farm in the process, he ultimately got rid of all the intruders. The tower had only lost 2% HP this time around, which was a huge improvement compared to the 12% lost in the previous round. So, despite the few mishaps, Ben decently performed his role as a defensive player here. It was really all "within expectations", as Yuel put it.

[Y-Yes, I can do this!] Ben reassured himself. [Next wave, I'll just have to do the same. No problem. Yes, I can do this. Easy. For sure. Yes. Definitely.]

As hard as he tried to cast suggestion on himself via repetition, his skin was still overrun by shivers. Somehow, he felt like this wasn't the end. The real struggle was still ahead of him.

Perhaps Ben successfully thwarted Apprentece's offense this time around, but there was no telling how the next round would go. It felt like the quiet before the storm.

Apprentece probably only "played nice" in this round because Nia was in the nearby jungle. But, she won't be there for the next wave, so Apprentece will be free to do whatever he wants there. And, surely, he will do something. Something big and overwhelming, just like in the first round.

[I hope this is just my imagination getting the better of me.] Ben gulped. [After all, my defense is "within expectations", so everything should be fine, right? ... right?]