Supreme Opponent

The situation was terrible. The enemy minions were charging straight at him, aiming to strike him down!

What's worse, Ben didn't have his shield available, so he absolutely couldn't allow the minions to maintain their aggro on him. So, as unfortunate as it was, he needed them to focus on the tower this time.

Thus, even after he reached the tower area, Ben continued running. He had to create as much distance as possible between himself and the minions, to make the little fellows lose their aggro on him. This was pretty much the exact opposite of what he worked so hard to achieve in the previous wave...

[The truth is, the tower is way more important than me.] Ben thought. [But, I'm the only one who can defend it. So, I can't let Apprentece force me out of the lane, not this early.]

So, there was no choice but to sacrifice some of the tower's HP in this round in order for Ben to be able to keep protecting it in future waves. It sounded almost paradoxical, but Ben knew that this was the recommended line of play.

[As long as I'm here, I can at least help the Turret clear minions. But, if I leave the lane all alone...]

That'd spell imminent doom for the tower. An Orc will be more than capable of finishing the tower off with one strong push, especially in the next wave once he unlocks his ult.

And so, Ben retreated to the back of the tower area, far enough to lose the minions' aggro. Then, once the minions shifted their attention to the tower, Ben came back to assault them.

As expected, Apprentece joined the push as well. Like before, he lashed at the tower with his scourge, delivering hefty damage with each strike.

[Such confidence.] Ben swallowed. [I could only dream of playing boldly like this. Does he have no fear?]

It was such a dangerous push, so many things could go wrong when playing boldly like this. And yet, Apprentece didn't care. He confidently pressed onward and struck the tower, disregarding any danger.

[This time, I have to pull him for sure.] Ben nodded to himself. [But first, the minions.]

He focused most of his fired basic attacks on the bowmen, as they were the main source of DPS for the minion squad. But unfortunately, taking them down took quite a while with Druid's weak basics. 

[If only I had a way to make the tower focus them over the swordsmen...] Ben grumped as he continued doing his slow and steady work.

However, he couldn't concentrate all his fire only on the bowmen. He had to land last-hits on the swordsmen, too.

[I'm already bleeding a lot of farm here, so I have to grab what I can.] Such was Ben's conviction as he threw a big seed at the last swordsman, whose HP was reduced to almost nothing by the tower.

It was a successful last-hit, which granted Ben a bit of extra exp and gold. These were the kinds of opportunities he absolutely had to take since farming inside the tower area lowered the amounts of exp and gold he received from minions. 

In addition, it also helped optimize the clearing speed. After all, was a waste to let the tower waste an entire shot on a nearly-dead minion. The big, damaging bolts were best reserved for healthy minions.

So, after Ben took out the dying swordsman, the tower focused on the bowmen next. The end of this push was nigh.

[And yet, he's still here.] Ben glanced at Apprentece, who didn't seem to have a single care in the world.

BAM! The tower eliminated a bowman in one fell swoop. Only two more remained in the area and they weren't long for this world, either. And yet, Apprentece was still here, whipping the Turret as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do.

[If he doesn't retreat after the next Turret shot, then I'll try to pull him.] Ben nodded to himself. [I failed last time, but this time for sure...!]

BAM! Another giant bold rained from above, crashing onto one of the two remaining bowmen. The shot wasn't enough to kill, but Ben helped with that by delivering the last-hit.

And so, only one bowman remained. The tower was just moments away from finishing the wave and shifting its focus to Apprentece. Nonetheless, the guy boldly remained in the area, unleashing devastating basic attacks until the very last moment. Apprentece was seriously taking it too far at this point.

[That's it. I'm pulling him!] Ben stepped toward, with his Nature's Grasp aimed at the overextender. [This time, for sure...!]

He fired his branches forth! They stretched across the area and reached all the way to the Orc. The aim was on point, but nonetheless, the branches pierced through nothing.

[Ugh, again...] Ben gritted his teeth. [How can he dodge it so easily every time...?]

Despite waiting for a moment when Apprentece would be vulnerable during his attack animation recovery, Ben failed to land Nature's Grasp for the second time in a row.

[I have to get better at this.] Ben criticized himself. [I can't let him keep getting away with these overextensions.]

And so, once again, Apprentece escaped the overextension scot-free. He lost 10% HP earlier when he turned on Ben in the lane, but he had lost nothing ever since.

Meanwhile, Ben lost 40% HP in that same exchange. On top of that, his tower lost over 15% HP in this push. In total, the three pushes thus far had reduced the tower's HP to a dangerous 65%.

[I-It won't take him long to destroy the tower at this rate!] Ben gulped. [Is there nothing I can do? I feel so helpless against his advances...]

If this were a regular Ranked game, then Ben should've been able to counter such a reckless opponent by now. He faced countless such Top Laners and he stopped most of them in their tracks.

But, Apprentece was different from all of them. It felt as if nothing worked against him. Though his offense seemed reckless, it was actually very calculated. He was dancing on the thin line between efficiency and overextension.

[It really feels like he's almost pro-level.] Ben gulped for the hundredth time since this game started. His mouth was starting to run dry from the repeated activity.

"I see that things didn't work out this time, either," Yuel said. "I only tuned in halfway, so do you mind sharing how you lost so much HP?" 

"That's..." Ben hung his head. It felt like the question was layered with criticism, regardless of whether Yuel intended it or not.

Indeed, losing 40% HP while being on the defensive was normally unthinkable, especially for Ben. And yet, it happened. Apprentece made it happen.

"He scourged me out of the blue when I stepped in to shoot him, and then..." Ben summarized how Apprentece masterminded the entire counterplay.

For Ben, it was supposed to be just one little innocent shot. He just wanted to get a hit on Apprentece and draw the minions' attention along the way. After that, the plan was to retreat to the tower and tank the minions with Gaia's Protection.

Yes, the plan was that simple. Ben had employed such tactics countless times by now.

However, it didn't work against Apprentece. This fearsome pro took this simple tactic and countered it thoroughly, turning all the possible tables on Ben.

"I've never faced an opponent who pulled anything like this," Ben testified. "I mean, I got countered a few times in the past, but not like this..."

"I see." Yuel nodded. "It sounds like his execution and decision-making are top-notch as advertised."

"Yes." Ben nodded. "Honestly, it didn't even feel like he was doing anything that special, yet the whole play just worked out so well for him."

"I understand. So, the devil is in the details here."

When the skill gap between two players was sufficiently high, even simple plays could become devastating due to mechanical finesse. That's how a "simple" counterattack turned into a crushing 40% HP loss for Ben.

It's not like Apprentece weaved magic into existence or did something that nobody knew was possible. No, Apprentece just predicted Ben's movement and countered accordingly. He played to Orc's strengths as he made his efficient moves, and so the entire play became overwhelming.

[It's nearly impossible to find any "weakness" in plays like this...] Yuel frowned. [I can't even think of any advice to give Ben, except for the mundane "Be more careful next time." Ugh...]

Just the sound of this "advice" almost made him want to puke. It had such a defeatist mindset.

[I need to come up with something more practical.] Yuel asserted. [I need a plan for how to proceed from here. A solid plan will be more reassuring than some weak "advice".]

The first step was to consider the evidence thus far. It was apparent Ben had trouble against Apprentece when it was a pure 1v1. His usual hyper-defensive playstyle failed to discourage Apprentece from mounting strong, decisive attacks. 

[Honesty, despite what he said, I don't think Ben can handle this alone.] Yuel reasoned. [There's an obvious skill gap between them and the matchup isn't favorable for him in the first place.]

In the face of such a great skill gap, there was only so much Ben could achieve by himself. He'll surely learn and improve from this harsh experience, but that's not the kind of progress that'll magically happen in the span of 20 minutes. As it stood, Ben had no chance of gaining the upper hand here, and he even struggled to properly defend, as unusual as it was.

So, there was no question about it. Ben needed somebody to help him.

"Nia, can you stick around Top for a little longer again?" Yuel requested.

"To do that 'remote intimidation' thingy?" 

"Yes, basically. We need to keep Apprentece in check as much as possible." 

"Ok," Nia said. "But, I'll lose farm because of this. So, it's not my fault if I fall behind because of this, ok?"

"Yes, of course."

As proven, applying remote intimidation was very effective even against a strong player like Apprentece. However, it came with the cost of Nia losing on some precious farm. So, even though it helped to maintain the status quo in Top, it harmed the team in other ways.

"I'm really sorry about this," Ben apologized. "If only I were a better player..."

"It's ok," Nia said. "It's easy work for me, so I don't mind." 

"But you'll lose on farm because of me. That's not how it should be. This is only happening because I'm so worthless..."

"Eeeh, ok..." Nia wasn't sure how to respond to Ben's self-bashing, so she awkwardly slipped out of that conversation. [I'll let the alien robot deal with this one. Yeah.]

But, it's not like Yuel knew any better what to say. To make things worse, Kai and Lars were both preoccupied with other matters at the moment, so they weren't involved in the conversation at all.

[What do I say here, exactly?] Yuel frowned. [This feels like a problem with three variables but only two equations. It's unsolvable.]

Would Howard have been able to say something good to Ben in a situation like this? Could that guy come up with an effective defense plan against Apprentece's strong pushes?

[Nothing comes to mind.] Yuel frowned. [The best I can tell Ben is that his performance is "within expectation", but I already told him that. It didn't seem very effective.]

All things considered, Ben was holding up fine against this strong Korean player. This guy was nearly a pro-level threat, yet Ben survived one onslaught after another. Sure, he lost a sizable amount of HP in the process, but he still successfully deflected these attacks in the end.

So, basically, everything was "within expectations" here. That's the only words of encouragement that came to mind.

[But, that's not what Lars or Vincent would have said here, right?] Yuel thought. [They'd drum up these facts up to eleven with some hype.]

Unfortunately, Yuel couldn't do the same. Spouting such exaggerated nonsense felt the same as coming up with a clickbait title for an article. It just didn't sit right.

Nonetheless, the way Lars and Vincent did those things was always so effective. It came across as natural, perhaps because these goofs were genuinely hyped about the things they were talking about.

But, Yuel wasn't the same. All his analysis was tied to reason, so he couldn't bring himself to say nonsense that didn't make rational sense to him.

[But, I should say something, at least.] Yuel thought. [Anything will do as long as it doesn't add more fuel to the fire. Though, I'm not 100% confident it wouldn't accidentally happen...]

Judging by how his interactions went down in grade school, Yuel was apparently a master at discouraging and frustrating his teammates. That's how he ended up playing Classmancers all alone until he met Lars.

Was somebody like him even capable of giving relief to a teammate? Did Yuel grow up at all since that time two years ago?

"Ben, you're doing fine so far," Yuel said. "That attack was brutal and it's unfortunate that you lost this much HP, but you still deflected it in the end."

"That's the least I could do," Ben said. "It'd be a disaster if I died there..."

"Don't forget that your opponent is supposed to be pro-level material. Even mediocre achievements against him should be highly regarded."

"Right..." Ben didn't seem wholly convinced, but his expression brightened up a little. As expected, Yuel was unable to pull the guy from the pits of self-deprecation.

[But, at least, I didn't accidentally push him any deeper in.] Yuel smiled wryly. [So, I can consider this a "success" on my end, right? This is pretty much a "pro-level" challenge in this case, so any modest achievement counts, haha...]

In the end, the cloud over Ben didn't entirely disappear. The guy continued blaming himself for the misplays he had made thus far, and he worried nonstop about how he had to "do better".

But, at least, with Nia hanging around Top Jungle, Ben won't have to worry about another fierce attack coming his way... right?