Delayed Kill

By killing the Pyromancer, Nia forced the enemy Vampire to rotate to Mid and defend the lane. At first glance, it didn't look like she achieved much. Yes, the exp and gold from the kill were nice but she failed to take control over the lane due to the Vampire's timely rotation. She did remove the Pyromancer from the game for a while, but respawn times were short during the early game; the guy will be back in business in no time.

In truth, what Nia achieved was a great position. However, there was little chance she knew how to best capitalize on it. On the other hand, Yuel knew exactly what could be exploited in such scenarios.

Following the textbook jungling routine, the Vampire was supposed to go after the Griffin Camp after finishing the Hyenas. It was a neutral camp in the center of the map which was highly contested by both sides for extra gold and exp. Around this time, the junglers from both sides were supposed to gather around the Griffin Camps and the Mid Laners usually assisted in contesting the camps. Fortunately, the Lionfolk on Nia's team knew the meta and was already on his way toward one of the camps.

There were two Griffin Camps, one in Top Jungle and one in Bot Jungle. As such, usually, one of two scenarios occurred: either both sides targeted the same camp and a battle broke out, or they peacefully resolved the conflict by trading camps, each taking one.

However, right now, Nia's side could take both Griffins with ease.

"Help out the Jungler at the Griffin," Yuel said.

"Ok," Nia entered the Top Jungle. The Griffin was standing right around the corner so Nia didn't even have to stray too far from the lane to get to the camp.

Since she unleashed her entire kit on the Pyromancer, everything was still on cooldown. So, she only backed up the Lionfolk with basic attacks. It wasn't a huge contribution but it helped to defeat the Griffin a little faster.

Besides, nobody was even there to contest the camp. That was only natural, since the Pyromancer was dead and the Vampire was stuck defending Mid. These two were the prime suspects who were supposed to come here and fight for the Griffin, but neither of them had the leisure to do so right now.

As such, Nia and the Lionfolk killed the Griffin with little effort. However, it wasn't over there.

"Signal that you want to attack the other Griffin as well," Yuel said.

"Hm, sure," Nia followed the instruction and pinged the other Griffin Camp with an "Attack" instruction.

The Lionfolk didn't respond with any macros, messages or even pings. But, he seemed to understand the message because he headed in the direction of the other Griffin Camp.

[At least, he didn't steal my role for nothing.] Nia thought. It wasn't like she forgave the guy, far from it. But, at least, he seemed knowledgeable and cooperative enough. The system placed him first during the drafting phase for a reason.

Nia and the Lionfolk rotated to Bot Jungle and attacked the Griffin there. By now, the Vampire has finished clearing the lane and could contest the Griffin Camp. It was apparent he considered doing so, judging by the way he traveled toward Bot Jungle as well and stared down at Nia and the Lionfolk attacking the Griffin.

However, the Vampire didn't dare to contest the camp. A smart decision. It'd be foolish to walk into this dangerous 1v2 situation. Vampire didn't have any tricks for winning such a fight.

And so, Nia and the Lionfolk secured the second Griffin. That put both of them ahead of the competition. As long as they don't commit any grave mistakes, they'll maintain this advantage for a long time. It meant they'll always be able to buy and upgrade items slightly before their opponents, so they'll constantly be a little stronger.

"This is how you capitalize on such situations," Yuel said. "I hope you understand why this worked."

"Yeah, it's smart," Nia nodded. "Never saw it in Tipmancer."

"You wouldn't find something so specific in Tipmancer. It's the kind of thing you learn by watching others play or by experience."

"Noted," Nia nodded.

Due to the short respawn times during the early-game, the Pyromancer returned to the lane along with the next minion wave. This time, Nia was already prepared for the incoming wave, so she executed the proper Wizard farming technique, the one advised by Tipmancer.

First, she summoned a quicksand underneath the approaching swordsmen. It slowed them down and made the bowmen catch up to them. Before long, the entire wave was running through the damaging sand.

To finish things off, Nia unleashed Windstorm on the entire wave. She positioned herself as far away as possible while firing to take full advantage of the spell's range.

[He can burst me down if I get close so let's not do that.] Nia nodded to herself. A Pyromancer with a full kit out of cooldown was scary. She has faced many Pyromancers in Duel and they were always a pain. This class was like a marksman, mage, and assassin all packed into one. That's what you call #balanced.

[But, gotta say, this range feels good.] Nia smirked. This Wizard gal completely outranged that cheap Pyromancer. With just two spells, she almost wiped out the entire enemy wave and Pyromancer couldn't do anything about it. [Ha! Serves you right. Maybe next time you won't pick this dumb OP class.]

Despite the huge lane advantage Nia established, this Pyromancer was full of himself. His wave was almost dead but he still advanced to the frontline to unleash his spells on Nia's minions. What a brave guy. Or, maybe he was just dumb?

[Giving me a free hit? Ok.] Nia activated Fireball and fired it at the Pyromancer. It erased a nice 25% HP. Fireball had a relatively short cooldown, so that Pyromancer might eat another one if he stays here for too long.

[She's adapting.] Yuel nodded to himself. It seemed Nia already got used to Wizard. It was evident by how she correctly bullied the Pyromancer with her range without any advice from Yuel or Tipmancer.

Of course, part of it was the Pyromancer's obvious overextension. Instead of drawing the fight to his side of the lane and safely bursting minions from there, he set foot on the frontline and put himself at risk for no reason. Such foolishness.

Unfortunately, Nia couldn't punish this overextension with a kill right away. She spent two-thirds of her kit on the minions and just now fired her last remaining spell. Still, that 25% HP the fireball took was nothing to sneeze at. Three more hits and the Pyromancer will be dead. If he keeps overextending like this, he might wind up dead during the next minion wave.

This was an extremely dangerous situation for the Pyromancer, yet all these considerations seemed to go way over his head. Instead of retreating, he unleashed Flame Wave and Pillar of Fire on Nia's wave. The spells delivered sizeable damage that almost rivaled Nia's, but the range difference was a huge factor.

Compared to how Nia safely bombarded the enemy minions from afar, the Pyromancer had to venture into the frontline and put himself in danger to get any work done. Naturally, that reckless action was rewarded with a fireball to the face.

BAM! Another 25% HP gone. The Pyromancer was too late to retreat from the frontline.

[He's so weak.] Nia giggled to herself. This was felt like fighting a Bronze rank scrub in Duel. There was zero logic to his plays and he apparently had zero matchup knowledge. Nia was the stronger one here. She could easily push here for free!

"Wait," Yuel said. "No need to get carried away. We don't have vision of the enemy jungle around Mid. The Vampire might be planning to rotate over here. I haven't seen him for a while now."

"Oh, ok." Nia retreated without pressing onward with her minions. For a moment there, she forgot there were other players involved in this match. That was dangerous.

Just a few seconds later, the Vampire really showed up on the lane. Luckily, Nia was already outside his reach. With no target to gank, the Vampire only helped the Pyromancer clear out the remaining minions and then left.

"Phew," Nia sighed in relief. "Almost died."

"Yeah, pretty sure that would have been death if you didn't retreat in time," Yuel nodded. "More than anybody, the Mid Laner must always watch out for incoming ganks. Mid is gankable from two sides, so it's always safer assume a gank might be coming unless you know exact positions of all enemies."

"You really know a lot about this game," Nia nodded.

"Well, I'm hoping to become a pro player one day. And, it all starts from taking the regionals this year."

"That's an ambition. But, doesn't this team suck? I heard it never wins."

"That's in the past," Yuel proclaimed. "This year, Stratus got a decent team. Though, the clubroom conditions are terrible, not going to lie."

"Hm?" Nia titled her head. "What's the problem with it?"

"Are you serious? Just look at this basement."

"I like it. It's dark and calm."

"That's not a healthy environment for club activity."

"Hmm, ok." Nia shrugged and returned to the game. The next minion wave was incoming.

Yet again, Nia easily gained the upper hand thanks to her spells' high damage and long range. Her Quicksand and Windstorm combo eliminated the enemy bowmen and brought the swordsmen one hit away from dying. Meanwhile, the Pyromancer didn't get lift a finger on Nia's wave because he was way out of range. Serves him right.

Even with only 50% HP left, the Pyromancer wasn't afraid of advancing to the frontline to clear minions. What an absolute mad lad. Nia could easily reduce that HP to a measly 25% with a single Fireball.

But, she didn't do so. Instead, she attacked the enemy swordsmen with basics and let the Pyromancer farm on the frontline. Once all enemy minions were down, Nia retreated to dodge any potential ganks. As Yuel said, she always had to watch out for those when in Mid.

"Any reason you didn't shoot him?" Yuel asked.

"He'd just run away afterward," Nia said.

"True, even this suicidal fellow will probably figure he better recall when he's left with only a quarter of HP. But, so what of it? You'll win the lane either way."

"It's a waste. I can kill instead."

"But, you can't kill him immediately," Yuel glanced at Nia's level. She was going to hit Lv.5 with the next wave. "I see. Interesting approach. Okay, that's an option."

[Did he really figure my plan?] Nia stared in suspicion. [ESPer confirmed. Or, maybe an alien.]

"Okay," Yuel continued as if he didn't just read Nia's mind. "If you're not going to pressure him right now, might as well take the hyenas in Bot Jungle while the Pyromancer is busy clearing."

"Sounds good," Nia retreated from the lane and headed to Bot Jungle. There was no need to worry about the Pyromancer pushing because all his minions were out of the picture, so Nia could do whatever she wanted right now. She could even take a nap and nothing would happen. Probably.

After farming the hyenas, Nia hit Lv.5. That unlocked her ultimate: Meteor. It was a key part of her evil plan.

It was a good thing she leveled up to Lv.5 over here without the Pyromancer seeing it. The guy might become wary of her if he sees her leveling up. The game played a special animation for that to make it easier to see when enemies and allies leveled up. The animation showed the exact level the player reached, so now it showed Lv.5. If the Pyromancer were to see this, he'd realize things were bad for him.

Granted, the Pyromancer could still check her level on the status screen. But, that required him to be actively interested in her level. Frankly, he didn't seem smart enough for that kind of stuff.

"This should help you plan, right?" Yuel smiled like a know-it-all.

"Ah, um, yeah," Nia stared at him in suspicion. Did Yuel suggest to farm the hyenas because he figured Nia's Lv.5 plan? Definitely a mind reader. Scary.

When the next minion wave arrived, Nia executed the usual routine of Quicksand into Windstorm. The Pyromancer didn't suspect a thing and advanced to the frontline like always. This fool had no idea what was coming.

Nia fired Fireball, which erased 25% of the Pyromancer's HP. However, this Pyromancer knew no fear. He just ignored that damage and proceeded to clear the wave. After all, until now, Nia didn't have any means to quickly delete the remaining 25% HP.

But, things were different at Lv.5. Nia unleashed Wizard's ultimate: Meteor! The Wizard stretched her arms toward the sky and summoned a huge meter.

The Pyromancer panicked and rightfully so. He activated Burning Spirit in a feeble attempt to escape but it was too late. The radius of Meteor was too big to escape from it on reaction without a leap skill. It was over.

『You have killed an enemy!』