Thanks to Julia’s double kill, the score was evened to 2-2. Although Classmancers wasn’t a ball game and the kill count never told the entire story, in this case, the score was a fairly accurate representation of the game’s state. Each side scored two kills and their positions were even. Neither side held a notable advantage as they were approaching the mid-game.

That’s why I don’t like the early game. Howard sighed. The team gained an early game advantage by scoring kills on Yuel and Roi, but that achievement was quickly overwritten by Julia’s double kill. All that effort was essentially wasted. In fact, killing Roi only led to losing two team members in exchange. The payoff was terrible.

“I gotta admit, Julia was pretty impressive,” Howard turned to Ellen. “So, that’s the ‘full strength’ you’ve been talking about?”

“Y-Yeah,” Ellen shifted her eyes away with a dumb smile. Her expression was something between happiness and awkwardness. On one hand, Ellen was happy that Julia finally came out of her shell and displayed her full strength in a real game. But, on the other hand...

“You said you were worried about Julia because you told her something over the break?”

“Haha...”

“I have a distinct impression there’s nothing worry about,” Howard frowned. “Rather, it’s WE who should start worrying.”

“N-Nah, we’re fine,” Ellen forced a smile.

They both knew that Julia’s sudden change of gears couldn’t have happened haphazardly. The girl has been struggling to draw out her aggressive side throughout the entire year, so something must have triggered this change. And, that “something” was...

“I really wonder what it was,” Ellen smiled like a dummy. “Maybe Yuel actually had a pep talk with her?”

“Yeah, and next you’ll suggest the zombie apocalypse is tomorrow. A very believable theory.”

“W-Well, it’s not my fault,” Ellen pouted. “I didn’t mean to trigger her like that.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you didn’t mean to. You’re just a natural-born terrible person, so you did it subconsciously.”

“Rude,” Ellen twisted her lips. “So, what we gonna do?”

“This sure complicates things,” Howard frowned. Lars’s aggressive strength was already causing more than enough trouble to Howard, to the point Howard had come up with the whole “Lars Killer” tactic as a counter. If Julia also starts playing like a berserker with high-level aggressiveness, things will get rough.

According to Ellen, Julia had “two forms”. The first form was the one everybody was familiar with: the overly defensive Julia. The other form was the exact opposite: an overly aggressive playstyle. The sudden switch between them was like ice transforming into magma; it was mind-boggling.

The “defensive Julia” was cautious and had great map awareness, so it was nigh impossible to gank her. However, she was too cautious, to the point she missed many great opportunities to kill her opponents.

The “aggressive Julia” was the exact opposite. She struck at every opportunity she got while throwing caution out of the window. As a result, her defense suffered and it was easy to trap her. At least, it should’ve been easy...

Back when Julia arrived in Top Lane, Howard has already realized something was amiss. He didn’t want to believe it, but there was no other explanation: a wild Aggressive Julia appeared! He had a feeling things will go south from there, so he ordered Taison to gank Top.

Alas, Howard wasn’t fast enough. While he was busy analyzing that irregular situation and figuring out what calls to make, Julia destroyed Gilbert in that 1v1. Gilbert must have been as shocked as Howard by this development, probably even more. So, Julia totally ripped him apart in that 1v1.

I should have ordered a retreat right away. Howard shook his head. There was no doubt that Gilbert underperformed in that 1v1, but Howard shared some of the responsibility too. Howard knew that Gilbert wasn’t strong in 1v1 and he also had intel about Julia.

Ellen often droned to Howard about Julia’s “amazing potential”, so he was very familiar with the topic. However, Gilbert didn’t know the first thing about this and surely didn’t anticipate that level of play from Julia. Not informing the team about this was a huge blunder on Howard’s end. All this time, he was sure Ellen has been exaggerating just because she was thinking of Julia as her little sister.

Alright, that’s enough. Switch gears. Howard closed his eyes, too a deep and slow breath, then slowly opened his eyes again. Learning from mistakes was a good practice, but hanging on them was the worst thing a player could do. He had to move on with the program.

What’s done was done. Instead of losing his mind over Julia’s aggressiveness, he had to figure a way to deal with her. If that double kill wasn’t a one-time performance, there was no choice but to classify Julia as a high-level threat on par with Lars.

Fortunately, the “Lars Killer” tactic would probably work against her as well. The idea was simple: Lure Julia somewhere => Make her fight Taison 1v1 => Profit. However, that’d be difficult to pull off consistently. The team only had one expert at luring opponents, so they’ll be spreading too thin if they go after both Julia and Lars at once.

I didn’t prepare for this. Howard sighed. I should’ve taken Elly’s words more seriously.

No matter from what angle Howard tackled this problem, he couldn’t come up with any quick solutions here. The team hasn’t practiced any tactics for dealing with two oppressive threats in one game. Unless some inspiration strikes him, Howard could only keep going with the usual game plan.

“We’re entering the mid-game,” Howard announced. “This game, our formation will be Type-2. Everybody remembers, right?”

“What was that again?” Taison asked. “Something about going full aggro and kicking everybody’s ass?”

“Not quite,” Howard retorted. Seriously, that guy had the memory of a flea. In the first place, this team hasn’t practiced any aggressive tactics. Taison was drunk.

“Alright, I’ll go over it briefly,” Howard sighed. “Type-2 is the other defensive formation we practiced. It’s the same as a usual defensive formation, except we also try to create situations that’ll let us kill a major threat from the enemy team. In this case, I’m talking about Lars’s Seraph. We can’t allow that thing to reach the late-game.”

“So, as I said,” Taison grinned. “We gonna go full aggro, yo!”

“Yes, yes,” Howard rolled his eyes. “One more thing, be careful about Julia. As you may have already noticed, she’s a little different this game. And by ‘little’, I mean she’s like a completely different person. Don’t count on her staying on the defensive anymore. She WILL come to attack and she WILL defeat you if you’re not careful.” He threw a glance at Gilbert as he was saying this.

“Just lemme at her!” Taison made noise. “I’ll kick her ass.”

“So, we’re all clear on that?” Howard continued as if nothing happened. “Don’t engage Julia alone unless you have a big advantage over her. And, a general reminder: don't wander around alone. This will only make it easier for Yuel to arrange an ambush on you.”

Once everybody confirmed they were on the same page, Howard spoke directly to Gilbert. “I’m sure you already realized, but you were too greedy in that fight.”

“I was sure I had her,” Gilbert said. “So, it looked like a free kill.”

“Did you really have to take on her despite the HP disadvantage? You should've secured an escape route first, then fight. But, instead, you chose to go all in and had no way out once things became hairy.”

“I just misgauged her skill,” Gilbert said. “I didn’t expect her to fight this well because she usually only turtles.”

“Yes, that’s definitely a part of it. But, don’t deny the other part: you took the fight to her, that’s not like you. You’d normally be more aware of the situation. Did you really need to unload your entire kit on her right away?”

“I was just trying to finish it quickly...” Gilbert’s voice went down. He probably began realizing his mistakes while trying to make excuses.

Gilbert was clearly out of his element this game and it all started from the unusual request to play Pyromancer. It wasn’t like Gilbert was a terrible Pyromancer, it was just that Pyromancer didn’t play to Gilbert's strengths. He benefitted more from balanced classes which could play both offense and defense; an aggressive burst mage didn’t suit him. Maybe Howard should’ve tried harder to convince Gilbert against that pick.

Anyway, Gilbert must have realized by now that he rushed that fight, so that was good enough for a review right now. There was no need to poke him any further while the game was still in session.

“Just relax and play your usual game,” Howard said. “I did say I’ll be testing you against Julia this match, but it’s not like her chances were ever that high in the first place. I just said it to give you a little spark of motivation, that’s all. I see it’s doing more harm than good at this point, so I better come clean.”

“I see. It was one of your usual mind games, huh,” Gilbert smiled wryly. Yeah, he totally fell for that one. As much as Gilbert hated to admit it, he was too hung up on proving himself superior to Julia. It has been throwing him off his game the entire day.

Julia was just some rookie, so there was nothing for Gilbert to fear. As long as he plays his usual game and helps the team win, he’ll get his spot on the first string. Therefore, he should only focus on making optimal plays in any given situation. There was no need to chase any secondary goals which had nothing to do with winning the game.

Though, given Julia’s recent performance... No, he had to stop with that line of thinking. C’mon, brain. Stop thinking about useless stuff and focus on the game. We have to win here.

The game transitioned into mid-game. Players began leaving their lanes and roaming around. Skirmishes broke out here and there, but neither side won any major battles. Both sides always poked each other and then disengaged.

So, it’s this tactic again. Yuel concluded after observing the enemy’s formation for a while. Yet again, everybody on the enemy team traveled in duos and trios. This made them incredibly difficult to isolate and ambush. No matter how hard Yuel searched, he couldn’t find any good openings in the enemy’s movements.

Last game, this tight defensive formation made Yuel panic a little. He did everything in his power to find a weakness to strike because he couldn’t allow the game to drag into the late-game.

However, this game was different. His team’s composition was geared toward the mid/late game and they had Seraph, a late-game monster. Even though Yuel still preferred to win as quickly as possible, there was no reason to be hasty.

“Dude, this mid-game is stale as heck,” Lars pouted. “Can’t we just rush them?”

“There’s no need,“ Yuel said. “They’ll have to come to us eventually unless they’re fine with letting Seraph reach late game. Just keep doing what you’re doing and we’ll be fine.”

“Meh, so lame,” Lars complained but he kept playing as ordered. But, seriously though, where was all the action at? Lemme at somebody, yo!

It should be about time. Ellen smiled meaningfully. Larsy must be getting bored with this situation right about now so I’ll liven things up for him~

“Oh!” Lars exclaimed. “Athena is alone in Bot! I’mma snipe her!”

“It’s bait,” Yuel said. The enemy’s game plan revolved around traveling in groups, so there was no way Ellen would just happen to be alone all the way out there. This had to be a trap.

“Don’t worry,” Lars insisted. “I’ll just check it out real quick. If things get rough, I’ll get outta there.”

“Wait, this is-”

“Here I come!” Lars grinned as he dashed toward Bot Lane.

I have a bad feeling about this, but... Yuel frowned. It was risky, but it was also a rare opportunity. Bait or not, this was a chance to strike an isolated target, who happened to be the enemy Carry. If they can convert this into a kill, they’ll get much-needed freedom to push Bot without being stalled.

Assuming it’s a bait, where will Ellen go? And, where will she try to set up an ambush? Yuel thought back on all of Ellen’s baits today. The baits were always well-crafted and executed to perfection, but they were all orchestrated by the same player. Therefore, there had to be a pattern to them which Yuel could predict.

Ellen’s escapes always led into the jungle and this time will no exception. There were multiple reasons to flee through the jungle. First, there were many twists and turns, so it was harder to chase anybody inside the jungle. Second, Ellen had Devourer’s Mask, which allowed her to quickly restore herself from killing jungle camp bosses.

With all of that in mind, what would be Ellen’s most likely escape route this time? Assuming she wanted to reach a jungle camp to restore her HP after getting away, her escape route will have to lead toward a camp that was currently alive.

Unfortunately, Yuel didn’t have such information at hand because nobody warded the enemy’s jungle camps. Julia warded the jungle a lot around Mid and Yuel warded around Bot, but they focused on warding passages rather than camps. Therefore, the enemy camps were pitch-black on the map.

Taison got the red buff, so ogres are probably down. Then, Ellen will have to either go for the wolves near Bot or for the hyenas near Mid. Either way, she should pass through this intersection. Yuel calculated the various possibilities and arrived at a satisfactory conclusion.

“Julia,” Yuel pinged the map. “Get here as soon as you can. I expect them to ambush Lars here.”

“Gotcha!” Julia replied with unusual vigor. For a moment, Yuel almost mistook her for Lars. She sounded gung-ho about the game ever since she drew out her aggressive side. Not to mention, she must have been extra motivated about this play because it involved helping Lars.

Okay, Yuel nodded to himself. Julia will intercept the ambush. Then, I'll intercept Ellen. If this works, we can get up to two kills here.

Yuel was the closest to the jungle area through which he expected Ellen to escape route, so he took it upon himself to intercept her. It wasn’t ideal considering his low damage output, but he was the only one for the job. Roi and Dan were stuck fighting in Top, so asking any of them to rotate all the way out here would be pointless; they won’t make it.

Once Lars reached Bot, a 1v1 broke out. As expected, it was bait. Once Ellen’s HP fell below 20%, she mounted her wolf and darted into the jungle.

“Dang it!” Lars gave chase. “Every single time, yo! Can't she stay and fight for once? Geh!”

Okay, so far so good. Yuel nodded. It looked like Ellen was heading toward the intersection he had in mind.

Meanwhile, Julia was on her way to back Lars up. If Taison arrives to gank, he'll be forced into a 1v2. That'll stop the gank right in its tracks and- wait, it wasn't Taison!

“Yo!” Lars exclaimed. “They're double-teaming now!”

The enemies who showed up for the gank were Gilbert and Gregory. It was a two-player gank!

Of course, they’d gank as a group, Yuel shook his head. He should have taken this possibility into consideration. Everybody on the enemy team was sticking together in duos and trios, so the same rule applied to this gank. Instead of sending Taison alone as an easy target for Yuel, Howard played it safe and sent a tag team.

“Kek, we got him,” Gregory smirked.

“Let's finish this quickly,” Gilbert said.

“You got it,” Gregory blinked forward and activated Provoke.

Crap! Lars wasn't quick enough to dodge. That taunt skill was way too fast! It was unreactable, yo!

The taunt forced Lars to advance toward the Vanguard and fire basic attacks at that big dude. This was the complete opposite of what he should be doing right now. Lars should be creating distance from the enemies and firing from afar, not running head-first into this danger!

“Done,” Gregory said. “He's all yours.”

“On it.” Gilbert went in for the kill. While Lars couldn’t control his Seraph, Gilbert was going to unload his entire kit to burst the guy down. This time, it was going to be a swift and smooth gank-

“Not so fast, dumbass!” Julia appeared! She unleashed a huge hurricane as soon as she got there.

“Wha!?” Gilbert jumped. That was Aeromancer’s ult and it was heading straight toward him! I'll be sucked in if I go any closer! Gilbert stopped dead in his tracks and turned around.

“Wait, where are ya going?” Gregory asked. “Come kill this mofo over here.”

“I can’t,” Gilbert said. “Unlike you, I'm not resistant to CC.”

“Huh? Oh.” It finally hit Gregory. The closer the hurricane got, the stronger its pull power became. However, Gregory’s fat Vanguard didn’t budge in the slightest thanks to his passive, Immovable Object.

“Okay, so,” Gregory started. “I'mma knock Lars up anyway and- huh!? When the fuck did he get away!?”

Too slow, dude! Lars rolled away as soon as the taunt wore off.

Fuuuu! I fudged up. Gregory cursed. The plan was to follow up with Heavy Stomp while Lars was taunted, but this unexpected hurricane distracted him. “Welp, this gank just went to poop.”

“.......” Gilbert just knotted his brows in response because he didn't have the luxury to talk while repositioning himself. Indeed, this gank didn’t turn out well. More accurately, it was about to become a disaster.

“Thanks, July!” Lars called out. “You really saved my butt there!”

“N-No problem,” Julia’s cheeks burned. The mixture of ecstasy and embarrassment made her a little dizzy.

“But, we're not done yet,” Julia shook her head and concentrated on the enemies in front of her. “We still gotta murder these asshats!” ... Oh shit! Did I just say that out loud!? To Lars!? Ahhhhh!

“I-I mean, let's-”

“Yeah! Let's wreck these dudes!” Lars went on, seemingly unconcerned by Julia's language.

“R-Right! They're dead meat!” Julia smiled from ear to ear. Phew, there was nothing to worry about. She was still alright in Lars's book.

With Julia joining in on the action, the situation turned into a 2v2 now: Lars & Julia vs. Gilbert & Gregory!

“My, my, my,” Ellen twisted her lips. Her entire bait plan fell through. Hopefully, it won't lead to any major losses from their side. Oh well, at least Ellen herself got away safely... or not.

So, you finally came, Yuyu. Ellen smiled wryly. She knew it was a question of time before Yuel catches up to her baits. And of course, it had to happen with the worst timing possible.

Got her. Yuel intercepted successfully. Despite the unexpected factor of the two-man gank on Lars, Yuel’s counter-play still turned the tables around on Ellen's play.

Julia backed Lars up to make the situation a 2v2, whereas Yuel cut off Ellen's escape route. From this position, they might get up to three kills! It was time to seize the momentum of the game!