Nia opened an attack on Top Lane. She summoned a quicksand underneath the Dark Knight and fired a fireball at him. That alone should bring the Dark Knight low enough to discourage him from fighting back. Except, the fireball didn’t hit!

Even though the Dark Knight didn’t see Nia’s incoming rotation, he was prepared for the possibility. As soon as the quicksand formed at his feet, he blinked toward Nia and slipped past her fireball!

“A-Ah!” Nia jumped. Again, the demon stood in front of her. The iron-clad knight was coated in a dark miasma, ready to lay waste to everything his path.

A heavy slash. Just like that, Nia lost 25% HP. These attacks became even more dangerous than before! This Dark Knight packed himself with tons of power items! It was true terror!

I-I have to get outta here! Nia trembled. This was impossible. The power gap between them was too much. She had to run for it. Run. Run. RUN!

“Blow him away with wind!”

“Ah, r-right!” Nia turned around and activated Windstorm in the Dark Knight’s face. The demon slashed her once more, then the winds pushed him away. Phew, Nia created some distance between them.

However, this was far from over. She had 50% HP left and the Dark Knight was hot on her trail. He’ll rend her asunder if he gets close, so she had to get as far away as humanly possible!

The Dark Knight gave chase. This madman had no fear. Even though his HP was hanging at 35%, he was confident he was on top of the situation and there was nothing to worry about.

And, he was right. He was going to completely decimate Nia at this rate. She had run for her life!

"Wait," Yuel said. "Ult him."

"E-Eh? Now?" Nia flinched. This wasn't the time to pick a fight with the demon. She was about to die! She had to scram!

"Do it."

"O-ok!" Nia turned around and cast Meteor. The radius of the spell was huge so she didn't even need to spend any time aiming it.

A giant meteorite rained from the sky and crashed on the Dark Knight. It erased 25% so the Dark Knight was down to 10% now. But, he was very much alive and he wasn't happy about this development.

As if in retaliation, the Dark Knight raised his blade and swung it downwards from afar. A black slash of magic flew straight at Nia!

"Dodge-" Yuel was too late. The Dark Blast hit Nia straight in the face and eliminated 30% oh her HP.

He made a good trade. Yuel frowned. The Dark Knight realized he couldn't dodge the Meteor in time, so he opted for exchanging blows with Dark Blast. It cost him an additional 5% HP but he landed a hit. Now, he only had to land one more to finish this.

I should’ve told her to Dodge Roll right away. Yuel frowned. Darn it. Now, this situation became needlessly difficult.

The good news was that Dark Knight was now below 10% HP, which meant he no longer had access to Gate of Sheol. That was the option Yuel had to seal above all else. However, in the process, Nia ended up putting herself in even more damage than before. She was now one hit away from dying.

Originally, Yuel wanted her to stay and fight the Dark Knight to the death after the Meteor. However, with the situation coming down to the wire like this, that’d be suicide.

But, it should be fine. Yuel glanced at the mini-map. Help was on the way, that was the backup plan in case something goes wrong. For now, Nia should just focus on retreating.

"Retreat- huh," Yuel smiled wryly. Nia has already started running away five hours ago.

"Guguguuuu," Nia trembled while clutching her controller. It's like she was going through a panic attack from this whole thing

"No need to worry at this point," Yuel said. "He has to turn off Nightmare with such low HP and he already spent his Blink, so he can’t catch up to you."

"I-I don't trust anything you say anymore!" Nia ranted with ragged breathing. It's like she was gasping for air.

"If my estimation is correct, the Dark Knight should be dropping dead right about... now."

『An enemy has been killed!』

"Eh?" Nia came to a halt. The Dark Knight fell. The demon was defeated. Huh? What? How?

"You better start recalling."

"Ah, oh, right," Nia shook her head and returned to earth. Even though she just dodged the Dark Knight, this was no time to relax. She only had 20% HP so it was best to get the heck outta there.

"How did you like that play?" Yuel asked.

"It was terrible," Nia pouted. It put her through some real stress. She was sure she'd die over a hundred times over there. This called for a breather.

Let's see what I get. Nia blindly fished inside her bag and pulled the first snack she landed on. With her years of experience, she could tell just by the touch it was a bar of Cnickers.

"The match isn't over yet, you know," Yuel said.

"Mfmf." Nia stuffed her mouth with the bar of chocolate and quickly bit away at it like a hamster. She couldn't hold her controller properly while doing this, so she stood idle at the base and wasted precious match time.

"Ah~" A shiver ran through Nia. She could feel the sugar seeping into her veins. A fuzzy feeling enveloped her and made her feel protected, like a warm motherly embrace. Except, her mom wasn't there when she opened her eyes again. Real Life was such a disappointing video game sometimes.

"Calmed down?" Yuel asked.

"Mm," Nia gave a small nod and proceeded to purchase a Sentry Ward. She only got enough gold to buy it thanks to the short break she took, so at least that time wasn't in its entirety.

"I admit, I underestimated that Dark Knight," Yuel said. "He sure knows how to pilot the class. But, it turned out fine in the end. He didn't have a real way out of that situation. It was checkmate in a couple of moves."

"How did he die?" Nia checked the log. "Oh, that guy was there?"

"Yes, the Knight was chasing the Dark Knight the whole time. I saw it on the mini-map so I figured we have to prepare the stage for the Knight. That's why I asked you to cast Meteor despite the risk."

"You trusted him to do the job? But, last time, he ran away."

"True, I couldn't tell his intentions 100%. But, he had more HP than last time and he was chasing the Dark Knight, so I figured he'll go for it.”

“Too trusting.”

“Perhaps. But, you have to rely on your teammates sometimes. After all, you’re both fighting for the same goal. So, it only makes sense he jumped on an opportunity to take out the Dark Knight.”

“Hm, I guess,” Nia replied vaguely as she returned to her lane. It didn’t seem like she was entirely convinced yet.

“Remember, you don’t have to do everything yourself,” Yuel went on. “When you rotate to gank a lane, it’s not just about you attacking the enemy. You also got your teammates over there. You have to trust them to do their part of the job.”

“Risky,” Nia said.

“True, risky but necessary. It’s a team game for a reason.”

“Hm,” Nia’s reaction remained unclear but, hopefully, she began understanding the concept cooperating with her allies. There were many bad apples online but not everybody was an uncooperative scumbag.

It feels like Kai all over again. Yuel sighed. For whatever reason, both Kai and Nia didn’t understand the basic concept of splitting the burden with teammates and relying on others. Kai always went about her plays the hard way and handled everything herself, whereas Nia outright avoided plays she deemed too difficult for her alone.

Was this a result of playing online alone for too long? At one point in time, Yuel also relied mostly on himself. He was sick of how nobody on his team ever did their job, so he resorted to carrying the team on his own shoulders.

During that dark age of his past, he absolutely hated playing Support. It was such an interesting and complex role, yet he couldn’t do anything with it unless his teammates had at least half a brain. Unfortunately, they often didn’t.

Thankfully, Yuel was blessed with the opportunity to meet Lars. That was when his entire world flipped on its head. He finally got a Carry he could trust and with whom he could pull off strong plays. And, Julia was also there to provide more stability in Mid, even though things weren’t that smooth with her at first.

Truly, Yuel was lucky to meet Lars and Julia so early in his Classmancers career. If not for that fateful meeting, he might have grown too used to playing “alone” in this team game. He’d keep hating Support and would try to handle everything himself, just like Kai and Nia.

Unlike Yuel, Kai and Nia played alone for too long before meeting anybody trustworthy to play with. Perhaps, it was harder for them to find kids to play with because they were girls. Or, maybe they just didn’t have the right personalities for reaching out to others.

Either way, they both crawled all the way to Lv.50 with the negative mentality that “teammates were wack” and “nobody could be trusted to do anything”. This caused them to develop terrible habits.

It was a shell they absolutely had to break out from. On the competitive stage, there was no room for solo play. Everybody had to work together in order to win.

Five minutes after the enemy Dark Knight fell, Nia’s match reached its conclusion. The team pushed hard through Mid and Top until the enemy defenses crumbled. Due to that one death, the Dark Knight lagged behind everybody for the rest of the game and became mostly irrelevant. It was like 5v4 game.

『VICTORY』

“Remember this victory,” Yuel said. “I know you still want to complain about the ganks I asked you to do, but you only won the game thanks to them.”

“Ok,” Nia averted her eyes. She understood what Yuel was saying but it was hard to digest. After all, she almost died in both of these ganks and she failed to get any kills. It was such a pointless risk. It was awful.

And yet, these plays undeniably helped the team win this match. Her ganks, as risky and seemingly pointless as they were, stalled the Dark Knight and didn’t let the demon to get out of control. So, he never had a chance to grow into a true monster and hunt down other lanes. By smithing the Dark Knight down in Top, Nia indirectly protected herself and her lane from future threats.

This outcome was a world apart from how things played out during her entrance exam with the Orc. Back then, she let the Orc run free and that monster overwhelmed Yuel. After that, the Orc came to hunt everybody else and spread terror throughout the entire map.

If only Nia listened to Yuel’s advice back then and ganked the Orc, perhaps she could’ve prevented that tragedy. Too bad she couldn’t turn back time to find out. Oh well. From now on, she’ll be more open-minded about Yuel’s advice. At least, she’ll try to be...