The Valkyries’ Achilles’ Heel

"Cornelia, do not advance any further after you kill the swordsmen," Fiona instructed. "There is no value in picking a fight here."

"I'm afraid I disagree," Cornelia asserted. "This peasant had the gall to assault me in the previous round, so I must repay him in kind."

"He is merely taunting you. Do not fall for it."

"Hmph." Cornelia scoffed. "He is free to taunt me all he wants. I will make sure he regrets every last bit of it!"

"I would like to remind you that your previous fights against him have not gone so smoothly."

"Hmph. I was still warming up back then," Cornelia argued. "Now, I'm fully ready to put this nobody in his place!"

"Do not do it," Fiona implored. "It is too risky. Your opponent has proven himself adequate, so it is not wise to pick a fight against him without establishing a proper advantage first. You should retreat."

"What's that?" Cornelia raised an eyebrow. "Are you telling me, a noble, to run away!? Blasphemy! Blasphemy, I say!" 

As usual, this "noblewoman" was a tough customer. Her pride always took over and made her needlessly engage her lane opponents in combat.

As proven time and again, the enemy Knight was stronger than her in 1v1 exchanges. However, Cornelia insisted on denying that fact with every fiber of her being. And because of the girl's stubbornness, the lane situation in Top went from bad to worse as the game progressed.

It was only a matter of time before the enemy conquered the area entirely. And, it happened sooner than even Fiona anticipated.

"W-What!?" Cornelia exclaimed. "Their Jungler is here!" 

"He is...?" Fiona was taken aback. [I was sure he had departed to Bot Jungle by now...]

By Fiona's command, the team had been keeping the jungle warded at all times. As such, she was aware that the enemy Viking had recently finished clearing all the camps in Top Jungle.

From there, the man should have rotated to Bot Jungle. That was the optimal continuation for this line of play.

Instead, it seemed the Viking lingered in Top Jungle for a while. There should not have been anything of note for him to do there while he waited, yet he chose to wait it out regardless.

That was how the Viking managed to appear on the lane out of the blue and gang up on Cornelia along with the Knight. Fiona completely failed to anticipate this development. What a blunder.

『An ally has been killed!』

This message signaled the end for Top Lane. Shortly, the tower followed in Cornelia's footsteps.

『An allied Turret has been destroyed!』

This whole disaster took place while Fiona was in the middle of rotating from Top Jungle to Bot Jungle. Less than a minute ago she was in Top, helping out Cornelia. Then, shortly after she left, the enemy struck.

[Did they wait for me to leave?] Fiona wondered. [Just how long was their Jungler preparing for this play?]

Lying in wait for so long was far from efficient. Fiona did not even consider this possibility due to how suboptimal the idea sounded. And yet, ultimately, the play proved quite effective.

[Then again, this only happened because Cornelia did not tighten her defense as she should have. If she started retreating as soon as I asked her to, the gank would have lost most of its value.]

In that scenario, the Viking would have had to pay the price for all the time he wasted idling. It was a high-risk high-reward line of play. The Viking placed all his eggs in one basket by banking so heavily on scoring a kill.

Sometimes, taking a risk was necessary in order to get a decent payoff. However, this Viking went all-in with this one play, which was not to Fiona's taste.

Nonetheless, the tactic worked for him this time, so he will certainly attempt it again in the future, possibly in this very game. As such, Fiona had to be on the lookout for any similar ideas throughout the rest of the game.

However, the enemy had no intention of giving her the luxury to worry about such small things. After demolishing the Top Turret, the duo launched a coordinated attack on Mid.

From that point onward, the game was thrown into disarray and skirmishes happened across the map. The enemy team had the initial momentum and it carried them the entire way through.

The Valkyries were forced on the defensive. There was no choice but to retreat from nearly every fight, exchanging lane control for survival.

On her end, Fiona did everything in her power to salvage the situation. She assaulted key targets and instructed her teammates on how to best respond to the difficult scenarios at hand. Alas...

『DEFEAT』

The team failed to recover from the negative momentum. They managed to drag out the game for a while by tactically defending against the enemy's pushes, but only defending was never enough to win a game.

As always, regardless of victory or defeat, the scoring screen showed up at the end of the game. Here, each player received or lost rank points based on their performance.

The amount of points varied widely based on player rank. For example, Cornelia was only at Gold II, therefore a loss like this did not affect her rank too much. On the other hand, Karen lost plenty of points as a Diamond II. 

Fiona was Platinum I, so her punishment should have been rather harsh as well. However, she managed to earn some extra points to mitigate the losses. The game rewarded her handsomely for the amount of kills and assists she scored, in conjunction with how she had the highest GPM in the game despite being on the losing team.

These bonuses were never enough to completely erase the penalty of losing, but at least they mitigated the damage to Fiona's rank. It was thanks to such repeated mitigations that Fiona was still climbing up the ranks even as her team was stuck at a 50% win rate.

This was both reassuring and concerning at the same time. On one hand, it proved to Fiona that her performance was solid. On the other hand, it implied her team was struggling in this Diamond league.

[Was this outcome my fault in any way?] Fiona re-ran the details of the match in her head. [Were my shot-calls not good enough? Did I make any glaring mistakes? Or, was it our teamwork? Of course, it could also be a difference in our teams' skill levels, though I do not want to believe that.]

These were difficult questions that always popped up. Most likely, the truth was somewhere in between all these possibilities.

It was undeniable that Fiona's teammates needed a lot of polish, but she had plenty of room to improve as well. Not to mention, their teamwork was not nearly as solid as it could have been.

In chess terms, there were two main issues with the current team. Firstly, the pieces at Fiona's disposal were mostly pawns and knights' they were in desperate need of an upgrade. Secondly, Fiona's tactics for these pieces were far from optimal.

[Worst of all, these two issues feed into each other.] Fiona had realized that a while ago. It was difficult for her to come up with good tactics when her teammates were only at this level. The more they improved, the better Fiona could utilize them with her shot-calls.

However, her teammates could shoot a similar argument back at her. It was harder for them to improve and build confidence when their shot-caller was providing a subpar strategy. However, nobody ever leveled such complaints against Fiona.

"FIN!" Andria announced the end of the tragic play. "This was a rough one. I was sure we were the heroes, the underdogs who'd come back from behind in the second half. Alas, we failed. Such a twist ending!"

"It's all because of Cornelia," Karen accused. "I mean, it all started when she died and let the enemy push."

"Excuse me!?" Cornelia retaliated. "Do you intend to blame everything on me!? I don't recall YOU achieving anything in Bot!"

"Yeaaaaah, it wasn't my best performance, that's for sure," Karen admitted. "But, the situation was pretty even, right, Lua?"

"E-Eh!?" Lua jumped. "Um, well, yes. We did okay, I think..." 

"You see?" Karen turned to Cornelia. "We were doing just fine in Bot, so this is clearly all your fault, haha!"

"Y-Y-You darn plebeian! You dare to accuse me!?" As usual, Cornelia and Karen started passing the blame around. It became a predictable routine at this point.

Fiona used to step in but she stopped bothering after a while. The girls used these fights to blow steam, so they were entirely without merit.

[Besides, Karen's analysis is correct.] Fiona thought. [The enemy's momentum indeed started with the kill they scored in Top. However, as to whether this should be blamed on Cornelia, that is a separate issue.]

As a newcomer to the world of video games, Cornelia was naturally the weakest link in the team. Even Fiona had more months of experience under her belt, and she further boosted her skills through professional coaching.

[I believe she has the knack for it, just as she does for other sports. However, as always, her skill tends to be unrefined...]

Cornelia was always a difficult player, no matter the sport. In volleyball, her serves and spikes were intense enough to instill terror, but their aim was all over the place.

In addition, she was quick in responding to developments and converting tosses into attacks. Alas, her selfishness often got in the way of teamwork, and she also lacked concern for her fatigue, often burning herself out to the point of collapse.

Similarly, in tennis, Cornelia was the type to mindlessly dash from corner to corner to return the ball. She was quick on her feet and her returns were solid, but she exerted all her energy without thinking twice.

To win against her, all Fiona had to do was make the girl run around. No matter how strong Cornelia's strokes were, it was all moot once she ran out of steam.

[Considering all that, I thought a video game would be the perfect sport for her as it does not place as much burden on the body. But...]

Even in Classmancers, Cornelia's issues found a way to surface. Like always, she poured her absolute everything into the fights and exhausted herself, both mentally and physically. Apparently, she did not know the term "self-restraint". 

Fortunately, her stamina usually lasted until practice was over. And, as far as competitive games were concerned, Cornelia could play three games in a row without much issue.

However, five competitive games was a stretch for her. In the scrimmage against the Leopards, Cornelia's performance dropped sharply from the 4th game onward. It was hard to even call it a "fair match" at that point. Cornelia was actively dragging the entire team down by insisting she was "fine" and pushing herself to try plays that she clearly could not execute in that state.

However, that was still a relatively trifle issue when it came to Cornelia's skill in Classmancers. The biggest problem was her neverending eagerness to "prove herself".

Unlike in ball games, where a player could only make a big play when the ball was headed their way, in Classmancers everybody had the freedom to act as they pleased at all times. For example, a player was always free to aggress on their lane opponent and push for kills to assert dominance.

Unfortunately, Cornelia was drunk on this very concept. The game allowed her to be assertive and aggressive at all times, so that was exactly what she did. 

Frankly, it was a headache to keep this "wild animal" at bay. Fiona frequently had to warn Cornelia about not overextending, but it was never enough.

[In this game, the enemy must have figured out what kind of player she is.] Fiona analyzed. [That was why they targeted her specifically with the gank. They lured her in to turn the tables on her. She is that easy to read.]

Cornelia was the obvious weak link in the team. Even random opponents in Ranked could figure her out and strike accordingly. It was quite disheartening…

[This will only get that much worse in the competitive scene.] Fiona thought. [Analysts like Yuel Fermond will come up with a hundred different ways to exploit a glaring weakness like this.]

In general, any opponent with access to the Valkyries' replays would figure out this obvious weak spot. It was a critical issue for the team to resolve, but Fiona was at a loss here.

[The most I can do is keep pointing her in the right direction during matches and lecture her about any mistakes. But, that is easier said than done.]

Team sports were always a headache because of situations like these. It was impossible to form a proper team strategy when one of the pieces was malfunctioning.

[This is not chess, I knew that much when I started out.] Fiona thought. [Even now, I cannot think of a proper solution for this. I can only keep honing my shot-calling skills in the hope of mitigating such issues.]

While she was busy analyzing all these important topics, Karen and Cornelia kept bickering like children. Sigh. Was nobody going to stop them?

[I suppose I have to do it myself, after all…] Fiona sighed and approached the raging battleground. But, just as she got closer, she heard a blunt WHAM. It was the familiar sound of a hollow object hitting the floor.

"You two, cut it out." A woman scolded them as she entered the room. She was armed with a shinai, a type of bamboo sword used in kendo.

This should have made it a very bizarre picture, especially out there in the West. However, the sword somehow complemented the woman's Asian looks.

… or, perhaps the club members simply got used to it by now. After all, this woman was the club's coach: Ms. Kei Nakajima.