Rampage

Just like clockwork. Miranda didn't even need to look down to see what hotbar she had. The Gambler could switch to whichever hotbar they wanted, but the special class ability was not part of the hotbar and permanently had a 5 minute cooldown not affected by cooldown reduction. Miranda hadn't used it yet.

The Rogue dashed towards her, that was to be expected. Miranda had everything prepared. She opened by throwing a die then followed up with a Vital Strike, resetting her attack animation and throwing a second die. The enemy didn't even try to dodge and instead just took them. After the second die the opponent started his attack on her. Midway through the animation Miranda had already queued up the Duelist's Pierce ability. The Rogue canceled his attack animation with Vital Strike and attacked a second time. Miranda drew a card from her deck and stabbed forwards, a rapier flaring to life briefly before becoming a card again.

Justin was very still as he sat in his chair watching his death timer countdown. He didn't understand. She had only enough health for one attack, he had enough to take several. And yet, even though he saw his second attack pass through the opponent, the other player walked away without taking damage. That could only mean that he had somehow died first.

"I'm going to start camping for you," declared Francisco.

Justin nodded weakly. It was always felt like he was better than her. Everything would be going according to how he wanted. Then, there would be one crucial moment when his opponent suddenly pulled something crazy out of nowhere and turned it all around at the last second.

Now that people were starting to gain access to their ultimate abilities, it was the perfect time to simply overpower her. Admittedly, Justin wouldn't be getting his ultimate for a little while longer having been put behind by his multiple deaths. Francisco would though and there would be two of them versus the only one of her.

"I'm coming mid soon." Archie guessed the opposing jungler would begin ganking the mid lane to try and put Miranda behind and get the Rogue ahead. He went to clear another camp when suddenly another red dot appeared in the mid lane on his minimap in the corner. "Dagnabbit," he growled. The other jungler had moved in before he was in position to counter gank. "Just try and back off."

A few seconds later, both red dots in the mid lane disappeared.

[Duo Kill!]

[An ally has been slain!]

"Worth," stated Miranda dryly quoting the common refrain players used to make themselves feel better about messing up if it wasn't really worth it or bolster their confidence if their play really was valuable.

"Wait, you killed both of them?" Archie blinked in surprise.

"Holy sh*t Miranda."

Meanwhile Francisco was complaining about how busted Gambler was.

"Did you see that? She got a reset because of Execute and that meant she could use Primal Outburst. That's broken."

"We're just unlucky she happened to roll that hotbar."

"Unlucky you say," quipped Derek sarcastically. "Has it occurred to you that she's had that all planned?"

"What? No way man. How can she guarantee that she would switch to that hotbar?"

"I never said she could."

"Then what are you saying?"

Even while Godmode bickered and did poorly in the mid lane, everywhere else was winning. They had already pushed to the second Pillar in both top and bot lane. Now they moved onto phase two of their three step plan. All five of them arrived in the mid lane and killed Miranda under her Pillar. She still managed to kill Justin before going down leaving him even more depressed.

"Just stick to the plan." Derek reassured everyone as they finished taking down the second Pillar in mid before Nobody Cares could rotate to defend it. At his command Godmode fell back slaying the Divine Guardian and Tyrant before retreating to buy items.

"We'll clear them out in one push."

Nobody Cares did their best to defend the Pillar protecting the Crystal. They managed to take down several Godmode avatars, but were wiped. Miranda was the last die, only falling when the opposing Telekineticist hit her with a Levitate + Force of Will combo.

Godmode rushed down the lane after everyone respawned. As the members of Nobody Cares respawned they reinforced the Core Pillars but were being overwhelmed by the Tyrant minions and Ballistas. Archie, Rina, and Kelly combined for a brief moment of heroism. They managed to kill Derek's Sharpshooter.

"Oh right, they have Resurrection." Kelly watched unwillingly on her gray screen as light flared around the Sharpshooter, the Resurrection earned from killing the Divine Guardian.

"I forgot about that too," admitted Archie looking at their opponents' damaged health bars. "My bad on that call."

"At least we managed to do something before we died." Rina lifted her hands from the keyboard and stretched her fingers.

Kelly sighed and leaned back in her seat still staring at her screen. "I still feel like if I had just thought about it harder, I could have found a way to win. I feel like I'm missing something." She sighed again before blinking and shaking herself out of her funk with a smile. "Oh well, there's always next year right? Ha ha ha!"

"Eh." Jacob grimly watched as his avatar died, the enemy renewing their offense after backing off the moment to let Derek resurrect. "Whatever." The expression on his face faded to melancholic acceptance.

"Well if Miranda stalls for a minute we can try to turn it around."

"A minute," replied Jacob dryly. "Yeah right."

"Oh don't be such a sourpuss." Kelly gave Miranda a thumbs up. "You have my permission to go ham." (Author's Note: One definition of "ham" is excessively theatrical. "Going ham" is a phrase used by gamers indicating full on offense with no regard for anything else.)

"Since when did I need your permission? Who here is the more experienced one?" Miranda replied with mock indignation. A glint appeared in her eyes as she counted down the last couple of seconds until respawning. "Watch the fireworks."