Veteran Aggressors

Stratus arrived at the Mid Golem in an organized formation.

AbsoluteWinner and AbsoluteChallenger were waiting there, ready to defend. They were the only two survivors from the Leopards.

[And, Theorist will join them soon.] Yuel confirmed by checking the respawn timer. [We have to destroy the Golem before she gets here.]

"Lars, make sure to zone them out once we invade the Golem."

"Gotcha, dude!"

Before getting to the Golem, their first priority was the incoming minion wave. They had to eliminate the small soldiers first before gaining access to the big boss.

As such, Stratus stopped a little before the Golem area and waited for the minions to come out first. Even though the pushers were in a rush to wrap up this operation, it was necessary to play this smartly and not overexert themselves needlessly.

With that said, they didn't have much time to waste on these minions, either.

"Let's make this quick," Yuel said. "Luke, blast them."

"For real?" Luke grinned. "I thought we'll be saving the big guns for the defenders."

"It's not necessary," Yuel explained. "Those two don't have very good clearing speed, so they won't be able to eliminate our minions too quickly. Besides, Lars will zone them out once we invade."

"Okay, gotcha." Luke did as instructed and unleashed his Dark Blast. Good soldiers followed orders.

WHISH! The enemy squad vanished without a trace as if they were no more but a mirage in the first place.

With this, the path was clear. Stratus' minions advanced onward without slowing down, with the rest of the pushers following from behind.

Against this overwhelming push, the enemy defenders found themselves at a grave disadvantage.

"Dang, they're pulling all the stops!" Ronald grinned. "It gonna be one heck of a challenge to stop these mad lads. I love it!"

"What's there to love?" William asked. "We're most likely going to lose the Golem."

"Nah, we got this! Sonya gonna join us soon, so we're about to kick some serious ass here!"

"You wish."

William wasn't the type to hold onto false optimism, so he could already tell this was a lost battle. Not only did the enemy have superior numbers, but their movements were also swift and sophisticated, two extremes that were delicate to balance. Clearly, they knew exactly what they were doing with this absurd play.

Anybody could tell that there was little to no chance of William and Ronald holding the fort on their own. Ronald was no idiot either, so despite his attitude, he surely understood the odds were severely against them.

Nonetheless, the brat carried on with confidence, reassuring everybody (and himself) that things were going to turn out alright.

Perhaps, this ability to grin happily during the hardest of times was what made Ronald a favorite for becoming the team's captain next year. Just like Cato, Ronald excelled at putting on a smile no matter how rough the situation was.

[Is that how captains are expected to be?] William wondered. [Just smile and pretend that everything is fine? If so, then once again, I'm glad I passed on competing for the role.]

Perhaps there was some value for the team when the captain carried himself with such positivity and exhibited unfounded confidence, but William couldn't force himself to do it. Or rather, maybe he [could] if he [really] tried to, but he definitely didn't want to.

[Knowing that you're at an obvious disadvantage but pretending like everything is "fine" is just plain wrong. You have to be honest about these things and understand that you'll be playing from behind to catch up.]

That's how William had climbed his way through the ranks his entire life, both in Tennis and in Classmancers. He acknowledged which opponents were stronger than him and worked out strategies to take them down.

All of that was only possible because he admitted that these opponents were fundamentally "stronger" than him. In other words, the burden of coming up with countermeasures lay with him.

And, the current situation was the same. No matter how much Ronald tried to smile and brush things off, the two of them were clearly at a grave disadvantage in this situation.

It'll take Sonya some time to get here, so William and Ronald were alone to hold the fort. Yes, they had to somehow defend against five incoming attackers.

[And, these guys have momentum, too.] William analyzed. [Maybe if I had more time to prepare then I would've come up with something. But, they're already here, so...]

It sounded like an excuse but that was the reality of the situation. This aggressive attack came out of left field and William had no time to prepare for it at all. As such, he could only default to generalized solutions here.

[With bold attacks like these, it's usually best to wait for the opponents to self-destruct.] William thought. [If we can stall them to the point they get desperate, we might make them rush things and misplay.]

This was a common scenario for any sports game. William had seen it countless times.

Opponents who gained sudden momentum often let it get to their heads. This made them press the offense even harder, believing they already had the game in the bag.

At that point, if things suddenly stopped going their way and their momentum started slowing down, then they'd get irritated. After all, they had been winning so hard the whole time, so why couldn't they "wrap things up already"?

That kind of mentality often led to rushing things, and rushing often created openings for their opponent.

[Not to mention, these guys already have a lot of pressure on their shoulders.] William thought. [They're pretty much obligated to rush this game because of how their team comp is made. And, now they're putting all the eggs in one basket with this risky play. So yeah, the pressure must be on. They're bound to make a mistake sooner than later.]

Even though the Stratus of this year was no longer a bottom-tier team, it didn't come across as a top-tier team like StormBlitz either. It was just an average team with a couple of decent players who were pulling it along, that's about it.

As such, during such a critical moment, it was only natural to expect a mediocre team to fumble and misplay. William simply had to be on the lookout for such an opportunity and seize it. Or, so he thought.

In reality, his analysis was a little off the mark. Stratus was definitely under pressure as they rushed to claim victory, yet they carried themselves like seasoned veterans.

ZAP! A laser beam cut through William's shoulder while he was busy analyzing the situation.

"Wha-!?" William grit his teeth. [Are you going to shoot from all the way over there? Seriously?]

William was cautious all along about the Elf's long-ranged shots. He already got first-hand experience with Gunz's sniping ability back in lane, so he took a mental note to always position himself out of range or in a covered spot.

And, that's what he did this time as well. Or, at least he thought he did.

William positioned himself behind the Golem for now, to make it difficult to hit him. That should have turned him into a difficult target to snipe from the front.

But, Gunz didn't approach from the front. Instead, he circled outside of the team's formation, to get a better view from behind the Golem. From there, sniping William was child's play for somebody of his skill.

[Should I make Ron wall him off?] William pondered. It'd be easy to place an Ice Wall to block off all incoming shots from that angle.

[No, that's overkill.] He concluded. [There are better uses for the wall for this defense. I'll just reposition myself.]

William circled around the Golem to get out of Gunz's line of sight once more. This forced him to step a little closer to the frontline but it wasn't a problem.

The enemy couldn't carelessly charge into the Golem's area anyway, so they'd have to find a way to pull William closer first in order to do anything to him.

[Pull closer... Ah!] William quickly turned around. [Are they going to...!?]

The enemy did, in fact, possess one ability capable of pulling enemies in. And, William might have carelessly stepped into this attack's range without noticing!

WHISH! An axe flew through the air at lightning speed, aiming straight at William!

"Tch!" William rolled away in the nick of time, just barely dodging the axe. It was too close to comfort. A tiny misstep almost cost him his life. The enemy would have ravaged him like a pack of hungry wolves if they successfully pulled him in.

[I was careless.] William criticized himself during the Dodge Roll. [I was thinking so hard about them messing up that I ended up messing up myself.]

Spacing was supposed to be second nature for William, but he let his thoughts drift for just a moment and it almost cost him the game. But, things were fine now.

[Despite the pressure, I rolled decently.] William analyzed the roll objectively.

He successfully dodged the axe while simultaneously reaching a good position. It should prove difficult for Gunz to snipe William here. Truly, it was a very well-executed roll.

But sometimes, a highly optimized play could become a misplay in its own right. There was one player on the enemy team who carefully eyed each and every move William made, trying to predict William's position ahead of time…