While Ellen was baiting Lars to his death, Howard stalled Julia by blocking her path. However, it wasn"t nearly as easy as he expected.[Julia sure packs a punch.] Howard glanced at his 30% HP. Maybe it"s in part because he was exhausted, but he couldn"t give Julia an even fight. The girl overwhelmed him big time. Even considering the fact Howard was on the defensive and his main goal was to stall instead of winning the 1v1, this was still a surprising development.
For a player who was infamous for her overly defensive playstyle, Julia"s fierce offense was overwhelming. Was this the result of Ellen and Julia training together? They have engineered some aggressive monster, alright.
"I gotta let her go," Howard informed Ellen. "She"ll kill me at this rate... and you"re not even listening." He sighed. Ellen was concentrated on landing shots on Lars while her wolf was pinning him down.
[This should be good enough.] Howard nodded to himself and snuck away from the fight. Ellen was about to finish her job, so there was no need to worry about Julia anymore.
"Huh!" Julia exclaimed. "You think I gonna let you run away, you-"
『An ally has been killed!』
"... ah." Julia paused. That message delivered terrible news: Lars died. How? Why? Wasn"t he winning against Ellen? G.o.ddammit!
Julia should"ve taken Yuel"s warning more seriously and dashed to help Lars right away. But, instead, she wasted a c.r.a.pton of time on fighting Howard and didn"t even get a kill. She was a complete and utter failure. But, she won"t let it end like this!
"Ellen, you b.i.t.c.h!" Julia thundered. "I"mma destroy you!" She cast Whirlwind behind her and sprinted into the jungle.
Thanks to Aeromancer"s pa.s.sive, Wind Flow, casting a spell gave her a boost of movement speed. She would have liked to cast Jet Stream for even more speed but, unfortunately, it was on cooldown right now. Still, she should be able to catch Ellen before that fox vanishes from the crime scene.
"Wait," Yuel said. "You should chase Howard instead. You may still get a kill on him. You won"t reach Ellen on time."
"Shut up, I know what I"m doing." Julia dashed onward without heeding Yuel"s words.
[And I thought this situation can"t get any worse.] Yuel sighed. He underestimated the "wild" part of Julia being a "wild card". She was a strong and promising candidate for carrying the team in Lars"s absence, but Yuel couldn"t control her. This was a problem.
[Great, so we won"t get a single kill from this entire play.] Yuel sighed. It"s true that killing Ellen would be ten times more beneficial than killing Howard because Ellen was the Carry, but there was no chance Julia will get to Ellen in time.
"Phew," Howard breathed in relief after escaping to safety. Thankfully, Julia didn"t catch up to him. Despite his solid defense, that berserker girl almost murdered him in that 1v1. If she insisted to chase him all the way, there was no telling whether he would have gotten away.
[Why didn"t she chase, though?] Howard knotted his brows. Ever since Julia turned on her berserker switch, she always chased down her prey and did everything in her power to get a kill. Yet, this blood-thirsty berserker chose to not chase Howard this time.
Why? Was there something that interested her more? Another target, perhaps?
[Wait, did Elly ever get my message?] Howard checked Ellen"s position. Not good! Ellen hasn"t recalled to base yet!
Ellen was so absorbed in the fight against Lars that she didn"t hear Howard"s warning about Julia. So, after killing Lars, Ellen carelessly headed toward a nearby Hyena Camp in order to heal up via lifesteal.
"Elly!" Howard called out. "Julia didn"t chase me, so she may be coming after you. Recall to base. Now."
"Eh!? Really!?" Ellen jumped like it"s the first time Howard dropped this news. "My, I was sure you had her under control."
"That girl is crazy, I can"t hold her down on my own." [Especially, not when I"m this tired.]
"Heehee," Ellen puffed her chest. "Isn"t my dear July amazing? I told you she had the potential to become a great player."
"I"m pretty sure you only pushed so hard for her to be accepted into the club because you wanted another girl in the club, but alright."
"My, zero trust in my judgment skills. Hmph." Ellen pouted but her lips curved into a smile. It was a good thing that Julia was leaving such a strong impression on everybody. The girl started this match on the wrong foot because she couldn"t bring out her offense, but now she was totally rocking it.
So far, the only time Julia looked a tiny bit bad on the offense was when Ellen got a kill on her. It was an unfortunate development but Ellen had no choice, she had to do it for victory. Ellen felt a little bad for exploiting Julia"s weakness back then, but there was no need to worry because Julia"s performance remained strong and she even overwhelmed Howard in a 1v1. The girl was on a roll and even Howard was mildly impressed. Who knew, Julia might even get a spot on the first string at this rate~
[Well then, I better recall.] Ellen nodded to herself. It felt like it was a waste because she could quickly recover a lot of HP via lifestealing from jungle camps and then push a lane right away, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Ellen activated Recall, which formed a magical circle under her feet. In just a couple of seconds, she"ll be back to safety.
"My, she"s really after me," Ellen smiled when a ward revealed Julia sprinting through the jungle. Instead of chasing Howard for a good chance to get a kill, Julia chose to go after Ellen.
[Revenge for Larsy? How cute~] Ellen smiled. It was a cute motivation, but Julia won"t make it. The girl was too far away and Ellen"s recalling was halfway done.
[I"ll murder her.] Julia cut through the jungle without slowing down. She had a good idea of Ellen"s position thanks to the vision from wards, so there was no need to play hide-and-seek. Julia dashed directly toward Ellen!
[I knew you"ll try healing up from jungle camps instead of recalling right away.] Julia smirked. She has played more than enough games with Ellen to notice how greedy that fox was with HP recovery. When the situation looked safe, Ellen always preferred to heal up via lifestealing off jungle camps instead of recalling to base.
In addition, Ellen had a bad habit of celebrating her victories. Even though she was one of the strongest defensive players in the club, she often lowered her guard a while patting herself on the back for a scheme that was well executed.
When they played together in Ranked, there were a few occasions when these two bad habits played against Ellen and led to her death. Therefore, Julia insisted to strike right here and now. Perhaps she wasn"t as sharp as Yuel when it came to exploiting weaknesses, but she sure knew how to do it right against Ellen. So, she"ll get this kill for sure!
Ellen has been helping Julia a lot throughout the year, going as far as holding special training to invoke Julia"s dormant aggressive side. Julia wouldn"t have improved even half as much if it wasn"t for Ellen always dragging her into that kind of unsightly practice. Therefore, exploiting Ellen"s weakness like that based on what Julia has learned from the time they"ve spent together felt a little low.
Nevertheless, there won"t be any mercy. Ellen was on the opposite team and she was Lars"s murderer. Therefore, Julia gonna get this kill no matter what!
[She won"t make it in time.] Yuel shook his head. In theory, it should be borderline possible for an Aeromancer to cross that big distance and deliver a blow in time. However, he wasn"t even sure what was the correct sequence of plays to make that happen. There wasn"t nearly enough time to a.n.a.lyze the situation and make the correct judgment, so...
"Elly, DIEEEEEEEE!" Julia blinked through a jungle wall. It was a huge shortcut that got Ellen into her sights but she was still too far away! Neither her basic attacks nor Squall would be able to reach Ellen from here. Meanwhile, Ellen"s recall was almost done. It was hopeless, and yet...
"Eat this!" Julia pressed on without hesitation. She activated Jet Stream and generated a trail of wind up ahead. Then, she fired Squall through the flowing wind. The gust of wind darted into the jet stream and gained a huge speed boost. And, with higher speed, it also gained increased reach!
"N-No way!" Ellen flinched as the gust of wind was running at her like an excited puppy. [I-It may actually reach!]
Should she try dodging it? No, that"s suicide. Dodging meant interrupting her Recall, which meant she"ll stay in the area after that. Ellen had less than 20% HP, so there was very little chance she"ll be able to slip away from Julia. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
[I"ll just gamble on July"s shot missing.] Ellen gulped. [C"mon, it"s her first time using her aggressive playstyle in a real match with the others, so she can"t possibly be at full strength-]
BAM! The wind blast slammed into Ellen and erased her HP bar.
『You have been killed!』
"Heh," Ellen produced a dry laugh as she dropped back on her chair. That was amazing. Nothing else to say here. Ellen really trained that girl well. [Too well], in fact.
"Yes!" Julia pumped a fist. "Get freakin" dead, haha!"
"You really did it..." Yuel didn"t even know what to say. He had a feeling an Aeromancer could pull it off, but he wasn"t even sure what sequence of plays was required for that. Yet, Julia executed that amazing play without a moment"s hesitation. It was Blink into Jet Stream into Squall. A simple but genius sequence of plays that required unwavering confidence in one"s skills.
"Amazing..." Lars mumbled as he slowly raised his head. He was sure they"ve already lost the entire game because of his stupid death, but Julia was still going strong. Killing Ellen reset the situation because now neither team had a Carry, so both teams" push potentials were about the same. It was a sick turnabout, yo!
"July! You"re awesome!" Lars exclaimed.
"E-Eh? Ah, yeah, I..." Julia shifted her eyes away and her intense att.i.tude died out. No matter how aggressive or kill-hungry she was during her "Attack Mode", she still had the usual soft spot for Lars.
"We can still win this!" Lars shouted. "You gotta attack! You"re the only one we got left!"
"Hold your horses," Yuel said. "I agree that we have to keep pushing, but we need to do it carefully. This is still a 1v2 situation."
"Oh, right." Lars piped down. Yeah, they shouldn"t be reckless here. It"s thanks to Lars"s recklessness that they got into this sticky situation in the first place. If only he didn"t chase Ellen back then, the team would still be in the lead right now. Even though he knew there had to be some kind of trap, he still chose to chase and almost blew the entire game.
Thankfully, Julia"s kill reset the situation and gave the team another chance. The game wasn"t lost yet! They"ll win this momentum and go to nations, yo!
"See?" Julia lifted her chin in Yuel"s face. "I can totally get kills when I want to."
"Yeah, you did great." Yuel had nothing to criticize this once. That play was beyond his expectations and it single-handedly saved the team from disaster. It was a magnificent play, which was on par with the miraculous shenanigans that Lars often pulled off. Julia really did a good job.
"Hmph, so you finally admit I"m a great player. About d.a.m.n time."
"Heh," Yuel chuckled. The girl was getting ahead of herself and he really wanted to jab at her, but it"s better to not ruin this positive atmosphere. He"ll let Julia have her moment of glory.
More importantly, Yuel had to decide on the team"s next move. Or, most specifically, he had to decide on Julia"s next move because she was the only one alive. She alone was the entire team at the moment.
Should she push one of the lanes? Taison was last seen pushing Top, so pushing Top Lane was out of the question. On the other hand, Mid and Bot weren"t much better either because Howard will likely rotate to defend them in response. Howard most likely returned to base after the fight with Julia and restored his HP to full by now, so Julia won"t be able to break through his defense all by herself.
With all of that considered, pushing any of the lanes would be a bad idea during this 1v2 situation. However, Julia was relatively healthy at around 80% HP, so it felt like a waste to tell her to recover at the base. Decisions, decisions.
"Since you"re already in the area," Yuel said. "Clear the Ogre Camp first. After Dan resp.a.w.ns, group up with him to push Bot.
"Got it," Julia responded. Despite her gung-ho behavior, she was more cooperative than ever. As long as Julia proceeds carefully, the outcome of this match still favored Yuel"s team with all the lane advantage they had.
Julia"s Whirlwind came out of cooldown just as she reached the Ogre Camp, so she cast it on the three ogres and the tornado knocked them out in a couple of seconds. Her reward for that work was the red power buff. This was the first step in preparing for her next big attack.
"Hmm," Yuel pondered. "It feels like a waste, but I think you better recall to base and wait for Dan to resp.a.w.n."
"I guess," Julia shrugged. She itched to go out there and blast some idiots with her power buff. Alas, she was alone right now so the odds weren"t in her favor.
Thus, Julia cast Recall and formed a magical circle around her. Three, two, one and-
"Here comes Taaaaaaaison!"
"Wha!?" Julia jumped. A bat rammed its ugly face into her and interrupted the recalling! What the h.e.l.l!?
[Where did he...!?] Yuel flinched. That shouldn"t have happened. Taison was supposed to stay in Top and push, or at most rotate to Mid and defend. He shouldn"t have been all the way down here in Bot Jungle!
"You made it," Howard smiled weakly. "Good job."
"Heh," Taison grinned. "The party is just getting started, yo!"
[Alright, this turned out perfectly.] Howard nodded to himself. He originally asked Taison to rotate to Bot Jungle in case something goes wrong with the Ellen vs. Lars fight. As convinced as Ellen was about her tactic, there was no telling what could happen when Lars was involved.
Admittedly, Howard made that call a bit too late. As a result, Taison arrived in Bot Jungle only now. So, even if Lars were to kill Ellen, Taison most likely wouldn"t have gotten there on time to clean up. That delay almost turned Taison"s entire rotation into one huge misplay.
However, one thing led to another and Julia became the new attractive target in Bot Jungle. How nice of her to stay in the area long enough for Taison to get there. From almost becoming a terrible misplay, Taison"s rotation suddenly transformed into an amazing opportunity!
If Taison can get a kill on Julia here, it"ll put Howard"s team ahead by two players. It might very well decide the entire game right there! No matter how competent Julia was in her Attack Mode, there"s no way she"ll be able to stand up to Taison, the king of 1v1s. The outcome of this 1v1 might very well decide the entire match and the odds were in Taison"s favor!
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