The Captain's Regrets

It was time for the fifth and final game of the day.

Everybody walked onto the stage with their hearts steeled for the upcoming battle. However, one of them was dragging her feet as she walked. It was Kai.

"Is she okay?" Yuel whispered.

"Hmm, I think she is?" Lars twisted his lips. "I told her she's an awesome player and that everybody got their bad days. But, I'll be real. I don't think it reached her."

"That doesn't sound reassuring."

"Right? Haha..." Lars laughed awkwardly. "But hey, it gonna be A-Okay! She's not the type to lose to some small stuff like that. No matter how depressed she looks, she always fights back, right?"

"I suppose," Yuel agreed with that assessment.

Even during training, there were times when Kai became incredibly frustrated about losing to some opponent. Sometimes, she even spent the entire day sulking about it.

Nevertheless, even in that state, Kai always continued playing. She often underperformed because of it, but she rarely ever committed any terrible mistakes. At the very least, she almost never fed the enemy.

[I have a feeling her state is more extreme than usual this time around.] Yuel frowned. [But, she should be fine.][Worst case, Lars and I can rotate to Mid to help her out.]

With the worries still abound, the drafting phase began.

Yuel's ideal lineup involved Trickshooter, Aquamancer, Electromancer, Knight, and Viking. However, the enemy had no intention of making it easy for him.

"I consider banning Trickshooter," Raymond shared his thoughts.

Mid Trickshooter wasn't supposed to be a practical pick, but Gunz made it look broken. It's as if Gunz's skill was on a completely different level when piloting Trickshooter.

"Do we really have to ban Shooter?" Jaiden asked. "I mean, he was pretty good, but we whooped him in the end, right?"

"Yeah, that scrub was ez!" Nash gave a thumbs up.

"Even though you died against him," Rio added quietly.

"I-I didn't die!" Nash insisted. "I knew ya gonna revive me, so I kept that extra HP in mind! Yea, that's how good I am."

"Sure." Rio rolled his eyes.

[These guys...] Jaiden made a face. [I can't tell if they're helping my case or making things worse.][All I want is to let Gunz have his Trickshooter again. This time, I'll get to fight him in Bot. I'm feeling it.]

It had to be the case. After Jaiden thoroughly destroyed Beat in the previous game, the girl will surely surrender the Carry role to Gunz.

Beat's sore face only served as further evidence. There wasn't a lick of fighting spirit in her expression. She must've been drowning in self-pity.

It wasn't cool to bully girls, but that's what Beat deserved for biting more than she could chew. She was the one pretending she could carry the entire team, so she had to own up to it.

[But, instead, she got mopped.] Jaiden snickered. [So, all I have to say is "QQ, scrub."]

Gunz will play Bot this time, he had to. And, it'd be the most fun to challenge the monster's strongest weapon, his Trickshooter.

Only by defeating Gunz's Trickshooter, Jaiden will be able to say he triumphed over Gunz and Chessmaster in the truest sense. Any less than that could be dismissed with an excuse like "It wasn't even Gunz's final form!" or such.

That won't do. Jaiden had to defeat Gunz while that monster was at his strongest! But, unfortunately, the captain didn't share the same enthusiasm.

"I don't understand why we should allow them to pick Trickshooter." Raymond frowned. "We successfully dealt with it last game, but that doesn't change the fact it's dangerous. This time, we might fail to subdue it."

"Well," Jaiden started. "If we know they gonna pick Shooter for sure, we can plan around it. Like, counter-pick and stuff."

"How do you suggest we counter-pick it?"

"We pick Lion, I guess?" Jaiden didn't think that one through. He just spouted the first thing that came to mind.

"Lionfolk is already banned."

"Oh, shoot." Jaiden laughed awkwardly. [Of course, the obvious counter gonna get banned. I bet it was Chessmaster pulling the strings on that one.]

What other classes were decisive counters against Trickshooter? There weren't many, honestly. Trickshooter was a rather well-rounded class, so Jaiden was drawing a blank.

[Damn, boss is being such a tough cookie.] Jaiden pouted.[ How do I convince him to leave Shooter alone?]

"I also don't like leaving Shooter open," Rio admitted quietly, making sure Raymond didn't catch it. "Honestly, I think you're being unreasonable. When you know one of the enemy's best classes, you ban it. That's the rule."

"Yeah, but..." Jaiden stumbled over his words. [Man, even Rio is chewing me out on it? Well, it makes sense. It IS pretty dumb, I know that too. But...]

Despite all that, Jaiden wanted to face the Trickshooter. He wanted to defeat Gunz and Chessmaster while they were at their top form. Only this way, Jaiden will be able to prove that StormBlitz committed a terrible mistake when they disqualified him.

"I think you're being silly," Rio repeated. "But, I understand what you're hoping for. So, I'll help."

"Really!?" Jaiden jumped. "Man, you're the best!" He squeezed Rio tightly.

"W-W-Wha!?" Rio shook. His face burned. "A-A-Ah, um, I..." He lost all his verbal functions like a short-circuiting robot.

"A-Ahem, anyway." Rio turned away to hide his tomato face and spoke from there. "Compared to a mage, Shooter isn't that good at clearing minions during to late-game. So, they'll be sacrificing a lot by picking it for Mid."

"That's true," Raymond agreed. "But, last game, they eliminated this issue by adding a Pyromancer."

"But, Pyro isn't a good Jungler. If they pick it again, their ganking potential will be compromised."

"That might be true, but..." Raymond frowned. He wasn't sure how to proceed from here. [Am I the one in the wrong here...?]

[Heh.] Jaiden smiled proudly. [Leave it to Rio to pull convincing arguments out of thin air.][I feel like we almost got him. Ray needs just one more push.]

"I totally agree with Rio," Jaiden spoke up. "They'll dig their own grave if they pick Shooter with Pyro again, so let them do it."

"Yep, yep." Nash didn't even understand half the argument, but he agreed anyway. [Bring that Shooter again. I'mma take you on, Gunz! Ya ain't gonna kill me again, fam!]

[They're pushing really hard for this.] Raymond couldn't wrap his head around it.

Rio's argument was the most reasonable one so far, but it was still far from convincing. On the other hand, Jaiden and Nash sounded like brats who just wanted to take on a difficult challenge. There was little to no logic to anything they've said.

Nevertheless, three teammates were arguing against banning Trickshooter, it was a majority vote. As the captain, wasn't it Raymond's job to heed his teammates' opinions and act accordingly?

The banning timer was about to run out. Raymond had to submit something now. So, he settled on Monk for now

"Thanks, cap!" Jaiden smiled.

"I'm not convinced yet," Raymond retorted. There was still one more ban left. A voice in his head was telling him to ban Trickshooter despite everything.

[But, everybody seems to be against it.] Raymond frowned. "Zeph, what do you think?"

"I dunno." Zeph shrugged. "I haven't really fought that Shooter much last game. But, I saw he gave you the business. So, if I were in your shoes, I'd ban his ass for good. I wouldn't wanna deal with that kind of shit again unless you figured how to beat him."

"No, can't say I have," Raymond admitted. Even now, after the game was over and they emerged victoriously, he still feared that Trickshooter. That beast was on a completely different level from anybody else here. Raymond's gut feeling was whispering that he won't be beating Gunz's Trickshooter today.

[So, I better ban it. But, the juniors wouldn't like it...] Raymond frowned.

If he were making this decision all by himself, he wouldn't even have to think twice about it. However, with three teammates practically pleading him to let Trickshooter be, it turned into a serious dilemma.

As the captain, Raymond was supposed to keep the team unified and satisfied. As such, he should leave the Trickshooter be, right? That's what he believed until today.

From the beginning of the year and until now, he has been trying to be a "good captain", one who respected the majority's opinion. Even when a clubmate committed a deed that Raymond didn't agree with, he let it slide as long as the majority willed it. In short, he believed in democracy.

But, where did that mentality get him? To the current miserable state of the club. It was a club overrun by Bruce and his thugs, while all other seniors turned into ghost members. Such was the outcome of giving free rein to the most vocal members of the club.

Bruce's gang came just a little short from terrorizing the club, of course Raymond understood that. However, every time he wanted to step in and stop Bruce, he found himself backing away.

Why? Was he scared of confronting those delinquents? No, that wasn't the problem.

The problem was Bruce's loud group of supporters. Bryan, Dylan, and even Zeph later. They were a big vocal group, almost big enough to form a majority. No other such group existed among the seniors, so nobody could outnumber Burce's dominant gang.

Therefore, Raymond couldn't bring himself to interfere. Was he scared? Perhaps a little. But, above anything else, he simply didn't believe he had the right to say anything.

Even though he was the "captain" in name, he understood little of what that title entailed. The seniors from last year didn't coach him much and practically left him with "You'll figure it out." It was a little irresponsible. In fact, it was INCREDIBLY irresponsible.

Due to these circumstances, Raymond had no choice but to come up with his own interpretation of the captain role.

[I suppose my job will be to listen to the majority's wants and make sure the team stays unified.] That was the gist of what he came up with. It became his mantra for the job.

Following that mentality, it seemed wrong to get in the way of Bruce's gang. After all, the gang had the most numbers, so it was a majority of sorts.

If there was a united force that stood up to Bruce's gang, then Raymond would have gained legitimization to step in and do something about it. However, in the face of Bruce's terror, all the other smaller groups scattered apart. Nobody dared to stand against the tyrant.

And so, Raymond felt like he couldn't intervene either. The rest of the club didn't express any desire to stop Bruce, so the captain had no right to act upon his own sense of justice. If he were to confront Bruce of his own accord without anybody backing him up, he'd be acting like a vigilante, not a captain.

[And yet, I probably should've done exactly that.] Raymond thought. Today, he learned a valuable lesson that flipped all his beliefs on their heads.

There must have been a strong will in the club to oppose Bruce's acts of terror. However, everybody was scared of banding together. Most likely, they were all silently waiting for Raymond, the "big strong guy", to step in and intimidate the rascals.

Perhaps, Raymond was picked as a captain for that very reason. A year ago, the seniors have already tagged Bruce's gang as troublemakers. Therefore, the top priority for picking Raymond as the captain might've been to ensure he had the authority to stop Bruce.

However, Raymond was too slow to realize any of that. He ran away from this challenge just because there was nobody to back him up. He was a coward.

[No more of that.] Raymond swore. The captain didn't only exist to echo the opinions of the majority. From here on out, he'll think for himself and make his own decisions too!

Of course, he'd still do his best to minimize conflict among clubmates, and he'll definitely take all their inputs into consideration. However, before anything else, he'll share his own opinion with the rest and will stand by it.

If the others fail to change his mind, Raymond will simply push his decision through, even if it goes against the majority. After all, the majority wasn't always right, as proven by the situation with Bruce's gang.

"I'm sorry," Raymond apologized to Jaiden's group. "But, I still feel that banning Trickshooter is the right move. So, that's what I plan to do unless you have any more convincing arguments."

"Oh, um..." Jaiden was taken aback by this bold assertion. Since when Raymond was this pushy? Normally, it was easy to convince the guy of anything by ganging up on him, but this time the big guy stood his ground. He was acting like a real confident captain for a change. [Somehow, I don't think like we'll be changing his mind on this one...]

The trio fell silent. There was a heavy atmosphere surrounding their captain. If they toss any silly protests at him, he'll crush them on the spot. He was in no mood for jokes or any adventurous idea. Raymond was dead set on winning this game, nothing more and nothing less.

The captain transformed into a completely different person at this moment. He wasn't a "tyrant" by any means, but he was no longer the goody-two-shoes "nice guy" captain. Raymond thoroughly seized the authority that belonged to him all along. He will not tolerate any of that nonsense Jaiden was trying to feed him.

[Dang, looks like that ship has sailed.] Jaiden sighed in defeat.

It was obvious all along that his suggestion regarding the Trickshooter served only his own self-satisfaction. So, he couldn't really blame Raymond here. The captain made the decision that was best for the team as a whole, and the one that should increase their chances of winning. There was no fault to be found there.

And so, Taurus' third ban became none other than Trickshooter. That threw a wretch in the lineup Yuel envisioned.

"Yo! They took my Shooter!" Lars exclaimed.

"Yes, they did." Yuel nodded. "Maybe it was a mistake to show them your Trickshooter."

"Looks like I scared them, haha." Lars scratched his head. "So, what's next? Am I going Gunslinger? Or, is it time for my improved Elf to debut!?"

"Your Elf isn't ready yet," Yuel argued. "So, Gunslinger it is. But, we'll have to grab it fast because Renegade plays it too. For our first pick, we'll get Knight for Luke before the enemy takes it. Then, we go straight for Gunslinger."

"Okey-dokey."

With that decided, the drafting phase started with Stratus picking Knight.

"Heh, look at these guys." Zeph sneered. "First they ban my Dragon, now they take my Knight. Freakin' assholes."

"Is there anything you'd like to pick instead?" Raymond asked.

"Berserker, I guess." Zeph shrugged. "If I can't play Dragon and Knight, might as well rampage on their asses."

"Just make sure you don't aggress too hard," Raymond warned. "Chessmaster is a tough opponent. He'll turn the tables on you if you overextend."

"Yeah, I know that all too well by now." Zeph smiled wryly.

Even though Taurus dominated the last two games, Zeph himself has barely accomplished anything of note. He always joined the party after the team has already developed unstoppable momentum.

It was all the fault of that damn Chessmaster and his pro-level skill. Even after four games, Zeph still couldn't find a method to crush that nerd.

So, if there was one lesson Zeph definitely learned today, it was to not push his luck against Chessmaster. Even the slightest mistake could lead to disaster against that ruthless guy.

As such, despite picking an aggressive class like Berserker, he wasn't going to go too wild on the lane. He'll save the aggression for the later parts of the game. Hopefully, with an aggressive class, he'll score a lot of kills there.

[I just wanna feel like I'm actually contributing.] Zeph thought. [Otherwise, what am I even here for? Just to follow others' lead? I'm sick of that shit.]

After the Berserker pick, Rio picked Cleric.

The enemy didn't get to ban the class, probably because there weren't enough banning slots during the first banning phase. It seemed like Rio's Cryomancer left a greater impression on the enemy, so they preferred to ban it over Cleric.

[I was hoping my Cleric's performance will unlock Cryo.] Rio pouted. His master plan fell through. The enemy seemed to have figured that Cryomancer was his best class. [Did they conclude that after just one game? Impressive.]

It was Stratus' turn to pick classes. Their next pick was rather unexpected. It was Gunslinger.

"Say what!?" Jaiden exclaimed.

"Haha, the freak?" Nash laughed. "These bruhs be stealing our shit. First Knight, now Slinger. Do they thinking we've been winning because of these classes or something?"

"I doubt it," Rio said. "This might be an 'extension' of the banning phase. They banned some of our best classes, and now they're taking some of our best secondary options. Maybe they're betting on our third best options being weak."

"Heh, they're sure naive then." Nash grinned. "Who the hell do they think we are? We're pros, man! Each of us can play like a hundred classes!!"

"You can really do that?" Raymond asked.

"Y-Yeah, sure! Ez."

"That's impressive," Raymond nodded. "Before the next club meeting, I'd like you to write down a list of all those hundred classes you can play. It's important for me to know which classes everybody can play."

"Eeeeeeeeeh," Nash shrunk. He was regretting his big mouth now.

"Heh, just kidding," Raymond smirked.

"Wha-!?" Nash was taken aback, and he wasn't the only one. "Y-Yo, my guys," he whispered. "Did cap just crack a joke on me?"

"Yeah, sounds like it..." Jaiden was equally bewildered.

It felt as if their captain evolved somewhat, like a butterfly bursting out of a cocoon. Perhaps, in this game, they'll be witnessing their captain's full potential.

[It gonna be sick!] Jaiden grinned. [But, I hope he leaves Gunz and Chessmaster to me and the boys. We'll be the ones to take out these powerhouses! They better be playing Bot this game.]

The enemy's next pick was Aquamancer, most likely the Support. It was a class Taurus haven't played against today, so nobody knew what to make out of it.

Next, the ball was back in Taurus' court again. It was their last pick before the second banning phase.

[They haven't banned Aeromancer this time.] Raymond thought. [They've been banning it every game since the first, but not this time. Why? Are they trying to bait me?]

Part of it was definitely the limited number of bans they had during the first banning phase. But, on top of that, they might have been baiting Raymond here. They were luring him into picking Aeromancer in order to counter him with an Electromancer pick.

If that was their plan, then this was the perfect time to throw a wrench into it.

"They left Aeromancer open, so I'm taking it," Raymond shared his thoughts. "And, they probably hope to counter it with Electromancer, so I'll be banning it."

"Heh, what a smooth criminal." Zeph smirked.

Raymond grabbed Aeromancer, then eliminated Electromancer from the picture. It was an effective blow.

[So, they caught on.] Yuel frowned. He left the Aeromancer open as bait, hoping to make the most out of the Electromancer pick he has already decided on for Kai. Alas, the enemy was smarter than expected. They grabbed the Aeromancer but also sealed the Electromancer. Instead of making the most out of Electromancer, now Stratus couldn't use it at all. Great

[What a blunder. I was a bit too greedy on that one.] Yuel was forced to adjust the lineup for the second time now.

It's not like he didn't think of alternatives ahead of time, but this development really hit them hard. Electromancer was one of the few mages with a good escape tool. The only other one of this caliber was Lumimancer, but it was a wonky pick for Mid.

"Kai, change of plans," Yuel explained. "Electromancer is a no-go, so how do you feel about Sorcerer? It doesn't have escape tools but it got range, so you can focus on farming from afar."

"Sure," Kai replied with an indifferent tone. Even though the topic was the class she was going to play, she didn't sound very involved in the whole affair.

[Well...] Yuel thought. [I know she can play Sorcerer, so it should be okay.]

And so, after the banning phase, Stratus picked Sorcerer for Kai. The final lineup turned into:

Chessmaster (Yuel): Aquamancer

Gunz (Lars): Gunslinger

LegendaryMemer (Luke): Knight

Beat (Kai): Sorcerer

InformationBlackhole (Vincent): Viking

Renegade (Jaiden): Pirate

Laplace (Rio): Cleric

StormMonster (Nash): Lancer

Nirvana (Raymond): Aeromancer

DragonMaster (Zeph): Berserker