“Nia!” Vi called out. “I believe their mighty Lion is pnning tet you! You must front it at once!”

  “E-Eh!?” Nia jumped. In her drowsy state, it took her a moment to process this sudden development.

  Most of the enemies were going hard at the Golem, about to demolish it. However, while that was taking pce, a wall of lions suddenly appeared! What’s more, a lion man was charging straight at Nia! Scary!

  G-Gotta run! Nia turned her back to the ining threat and made a break for it.

  “Wait!” Vi called out. “We ot escape this prison. As such, our only choice is to take down the warden!”

  He coated his body and bde in fmes and rushed to intercept the assaulter.

  “Let us join hands!” Vi implored. “Together, we smite down this foolhardy invader!”

  As, his pleas fell on deaf ears. Nia tinued running away, half startled and half sleepy.

  Her movements were fueled by nothing but pure instinct, as her mind was a mess at the moment. And, what did these instincts tell her in this case?

  Scary! Gotta run! That’s all Nia could think about. In this limbo state between sleeplessness and alertness, she could only think about her own survival and nothing else.

  Unfortunately, running away was futile. Ihe King’s Dominion, none could outrun the king. Among the various buffs the Lionfolk received inside his domain, a Movement Speed buff was included as well.

  And so, Rook caught up to Nia within moments. CLAW! CLAW! Sharp bdes pierced her back, deleting big ks of her HP!

  “A-Ah!” Nia trembled. She was like a hapless rabbit at the mercy of a big lion. The predator was faster than her and there was o run.

  CLAW! One of the lion guards cwed Nia as well, telling her she wasn’t wele here.

  At some point in her daze, she rammed into the edge of the prison without realizing it. This was a dead end.

  CLAW! CLAW! The Lionfolk’s vicious attacks didn’t stop. Each strike hit home, filling with intense killing i.

  There was o run. Nothing to do. It was over…

  “Nia!” Vi called out again. “Your foe is within arm’s reach! You use your ult to turables on him!”

  “Eh?” Nia blinked in fusion. Her brain was like swiss cheese.

  Fortunately, before her HP fell below 20%, she finally figured out what Vi was talking about: Izuna Drop!

  Right! He’s so close that I hit him! Nia turned around.

  She was on the verge of death with o run, but she wasn’t dead yet. What’s more, she had this powerful trump card at her disposal, ohat only worked at point-bnk. And, her oppo pced himself at the perfect range for it!

  I-I still do it! Nia turned around a for Izuna Drop!

  The Lionfolk was right in front of her. Yes, he was that easy to grab! And, that’s precisely why this turned out to be a mispy...

  “Eh?” Nia blinked in fusion. She inteo give the Lionfolk a deadly hug, yet her arms passed through empty air. Her target was nowhere in sight.

  Muhaha! Cato ughed maniacally on the inside, like a mastermind whose genius pn came together just right.

  When it became clear that Vanishing was turning around, Cato already started rolling to the side. He khat the ult was ing but he didn’t have the necessary rea speed to respond to pys like that i split sed, so he had to roll ahead of time.

  Against skilled oppos, an early roll like that could have failed miserably. However, Vanishing wasn’t a prodigy and she has been underperf the entire game, so an early roll was more than enough to ter her obvious ult.

  She must’ve panicked. Pirl~ iled impishly. Now, time to tihe attack.

  Despite all the fwless predis Cato did, he still took extra safety measures just in case. So, he rolled a little far from his oppo, to make sure Vanishing won’t be able to grab him with her ult even if she were to notice the roll in time.

  Because of that, it took him ora sed to close the distao his prey again. But, now he was ba range again.

  Time to finish this. He opened a relentless assault once more.

  This time, Cato didn’t have a single worry during his offense. After all, his oppo was effectively fangless without Izuna Drop. Therefore, Cato could attack, attack, and attack to his heart’s tent~!

  CLAW! The sharp cws sshed across Vanishing’s body, deliveriy damage. The hit must have shaken Vanishing awake, as she finally started moving again.

  Like before, the girl made a pitiful attempt to escape from certaih. However, it seemed her Backflip Shuriken hasn’t e off cooldow, so Shadow e was the only remaining escape tool at her disposal.

  As, amidst the panic, it seemed like she had fotten about it entirely. Or, did she...?

  “Heed me, o phantom of vanishing!” Vi excimed. “Cloak thyself in invisibility so you escape thy pursuer!”

  Vi was fident he delivered the advice very clearly, yet it seemed his words only served to fuse Nia. In her sleepy state, Vi’s theatrics failed to deliver the message.

  “Your Shadow e!” Vi implored. “Use it! You escape the-”

  CLAW! Sharp bdes sshed across Nia’s back, delivering a fatal blow.

  An ally has been killed!

  The Ninja colpsed on the floor, uo run anymore.

  “Curses!” Vi grimaced. “Worry not, for I shall avenge you!”

  Vi was already in a position to strike the Lionfolk. His body was cloaked in fmes and his bde was on fire. He was ready to wage war and smite down this bold invader! However...

  “Vi, retreat,” Yuel ordered. “You’re still inside his ult, so you won’t win a 1v1.”

  “Ah, that is indeed correct!” For a moment there, Vi almost fot he was still within The King’s Dominion, Rook’s personal Reality Marble. In this accursed space, the ws of physics twisted in the Lionfolk’s favor, leaving all his foes powerless.

  As much as Vi wao avenge Nia - this was no time to act emotional. Retreating was the only viable option.

  “Apologies, Chessmaster,” Vi said. “You’re correct. I shall retreat at once!”

  Viurned his back to Rook and dashed away. It was quite ironi fact. This eime, he has been rushing over there to save Nia, but the moment he nearly reached his destination - he had to do a 180 and run in the opposite dire. It was a terrible performance.

  I’m most certain that Chessmaster will chew me out about this in the match review. Vi smiled wryly. Fortunately, Rook is a cautious fellow. He seems to be a truce.

  Even though Vi was still in The King’s Dominion, Rook didn’t chase him further. Perhaps that cautious strategy deemed it too risky to extend any further into eerritory. Or, maybe Vi’s dark fmes instilled terror as they radiated from his entire body.

  Regardless of the reason, Rook turned around and joihe atta the Golem.

  Oh, that’s right! Vi remembered. My own life should be the least of my s right now! olem is still under heavy fire!

  The entire eeam ganged up on the Golem and made quick work of the rocky fellow. However, at the same time…

  An enemy Golem has beeroyed!

  Despite all odds, the backdoor team of Chessmaster, Gunz, a won the first p of the race! They trampled the enemy Golem and opened a path to the Colossus, the ultimate win dition!

  “Spectacur!” Vi excimed. “To think that a strike team of just three pyers outrace the enemy’s entire force!”

  No, it’s not that amazing. Yuel thought. All of this was already within his calcutions. We had the initiative and I used my ult to tank the Golem before minions arrived.

  Oher hand, the Leopards hadn’t used any of their ults yet, save for the Lionfolk’s which wasn’t great for pushes anyway. Clearly, the enemies were saving their most deadly ons for the Colossus. A, even though they were so servative with their resources…

  An allied Golem has beeroyed!

  The enemy’s push shortly caught up to the backdoor. It was only natural, really.

  Even though Yuel’s group had a head-start, the enemy ushing with a full team of 5 pyers. Soon enough, they’ll outrace Stratus’ backdoor.

  I hoped Vi and Nia would do a better job stalling their push, but it seems like Cato took that into at.

  Cato’s quick assault messed up the defenders’ formation and threw them into disarray. As a result, Vi and Nia couldn’t focus on their jobs as defenders, as they had their hands full dealing with Cato instead.

  That little attack allowed the rest of the Leopards to push the Golem without slowdowns. It was most certainly the best line of py Cato could've gone for in that situation.

  But, that’s still within expectations. Yuel thought. We’re heading toward one of the more troublesome sarios here, but I’ve already analyzed it all the same.

  “Let’s recall,” Yuel said. “We o defend the base.”

  “Say what???” Lars blinked. “Weren’t we going to backdoor to victory!?”

  “I’m pretty sure I already expihe pn...” Yuel sighed.

  “Yeah, you did.” Kai started recalling. “This was just an aggressive diversion. We were going to retreat after the Golem either way.”

  “ht! I totally remember that, haha!” Lars ughed awkwardly as he also booted Recall. “Gotta say tho, we were doing such a great job, so I thought we gonna push all the way.”

  “I wish it was that easy,” Yuel said. “We’re not dealing with amateurs here. The Leopards judged the situation correctly and realized they outrace us, so we have to adjust accly.”

  “So, what’s the big pn for this sario, again?” Lars asked.

  “We return to base and defend,” Yuel expi briefly as they teleported back to base.

  “Wait, that’s it? I remember you had some amazi pn.”

  “I’m not sure what you call ‘amazing’, but this is the entire pn. Our enemies are rushing to victht now in order to outrace our ‘backdoor’, so we’ll catch them off guard by returning to base. That’s ought to give us a ce to turables on them.”

  “In order words,” Kai paraphrased. “It’s a surprise terattack.”

  “Oh, I like the sound of that!” Lars grinned. “So, when you say we gonna ‘defend’, you actually mean we gonna go for the kill on these dudes with a terattack, right!?”

  “It depends ouation,” Yuel expined. “But yes, I’m hoping we turables on them a a few kills. If not, then this game is as good as lost.”

  “Roger!” Lars gave a thumbs up. “It’s time to go ham, yoooooo!”

  “Just don’t overdo it. We’re in a 4v5 situation here.”

  “No problemo!”

  The trio teleported to the base and dashed to front the enemy invaders. As expected, the entire eeam hastily rushed into the Colossus’s area and already opened a swift attack.

  The Droid was employing all five of his drones, barraging the Colossus with tless ser beams. His strength as a hyper-carry shi this stage of the game, allowing him to melt the HP of the giant statue.

  Likewise, the rest of the Leopards didn’t pull any punches either. Merlin unleashed Hurrie, ing the Colossus in a giant storm. The ult dealt heavy damage per tick while simultaneously making it dangerous for Stratus to approach the area.

  Rook and Challenger tributed to the assault with ranged basic attacks, while Theorist was right in the Colossus’ face, tanking the entire operation until more minions arrive.

  It was a devastating five-man band push. The Colossus’s HP plummeted by the moment.

  However, despite the enemy holding all that firepower on their side, Stratus’ Colossus refused to fall that easily. Though its HP was going down at a high speed, it wasn’t going to colpse that quickly.

  The main reason for that was the ck of enemy minions in the viity. The preseninions shredded the defenses of “tower” objectives, but the Leopards were currently pushing without any soldiers on their side.

  Good. Yuel nodded. Even a defeeam like this isn’t immuo feeling the o rush to victory every now and then.

  Under normal circumstances, it was unthinkable for the Leopards to it to a big push like this without any minions on their side. 99 times out of 100, they would’ve retreated from an objective as soon as their minions perished.

  The only occasional exceptions to that rule were Winner and Challenger, but these two were exceptions among the Leopards in almost every ossible. So, they didn’t t here.

  As such, the fact that ALL the Leopards were pushing so hastily right now proved that Stratus’ backdoor successfully put pressure ohis was the big ce Yuel was trying to create!

  There’s no question that they’re superb at pying defense. Yuel admitted. There haven’t been any weaknesses for me to strike the entire game. But now, as they’re throwing their everything into offense - I might finally find an opening!

  This e-dit was riding on this dodgy premise. If pierg through the enemy’s defenses was impossible, then it was necessary to first force these turtles out of their shells. Then, an opportunity would present itself for sure!

  In this situation, with the Leopards fully itted to rushing the endgame, there might finally be a ce to turn this depressing game around!

  DarkestCymore