『VICTORY』

The first match between Stratus and Taurus concluded. Stratus dominated the entire game and came on top.

"It was amazing!" Pip wrote down notes. "Did you see that? They completely destroyed the opposition! As expected, Stratus is going to be a formidable opponent this year!"

"Formidable, huh," Julia narrowed her eyes. On paper, Stratus looked pretty strong back there because they steamrolled Taurus. Yet, somehow, it didn't feel that way to Julia. Why? She couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Lars didn’t play in the right position. And Yuel neither, not that it matters. Julia frowned. Mid and Top weren't their main roles. Those two excelled the most in Bot. At least, Lars shone brightly as a Carry. Yuel was just riding on Lars's success, so that's the only reason he seemed good. Hmph.

Compared to their usual strong performances, today's Lars and Yuel were lackluster. Neither of them has done anything particularly amazing. Lars went back and forth with his lane opponent the entire game. Meanwhile, Yuel easily countered the Dark Knight with the Jungler's help but hasn’t done anything impressive ever since. Well, not like this dumbass was capable of pulling amazing plays in the first place.

Seriously, where were their mind-blowing plays? Where was the powerful duo that could terrorize Howard and Ellen? They were nowhere to be found.

I didn't come here to watch this sorry performance. Julia stood up. She couldn't bear this any longer. She had to know what the flying heck was going on here!

"Where are you going?" Pip asked.

"Toilet," Julia strode out of the hall. Then, she realized there was a little problem. Um, where’s their room?

There was one entrance right past the stage, but Julia wasn't authorized to go through there. She considered sneaking by the referee but ultimately decided against it. No need to draw any unnecessary attention to myself.

And so, Julia went into the hallway and searched for the other door to Stratus’ room. She knew such a door existed, for she visited ProCenter multiple times last year along with the team. But, where was that door?

I probably have to circle around. She concluded and set off on an adventure. Roaming around blindly was a pain, but she’ll do it. She had to know what was up with Lars. And, with Yuel too. Maybe.

I think this is it. Julia stood in front of a familiar-looking door. She visited StormBlitz’s first-string a couple of times before during a scrimmages, so she was practically a pro here.

With that said, she never went through this door. She was always on the backseat, always on the bench. Even Lars and Yuel got to play in one scrimmage last year, but not Julia.

This year gonna be different. Julia clenched her fists. This year, she'll pass through this door many, many times, both during scrimmages and at the regionals. She’ll pass through it so many times, that the door will wear out and freaking collapse. Julia was different from last year. Everything was different from last year.

But, anyway, this wasn't about her right now. She came here to speak with Lars and the idiot.

Here goes nothing. She took a deep breath and knocked.

"Hey, what's that?" A sound came from within the room. "Pizza delivery? Coming!" An energetic boy popped out of the room. Unfortunately, it wasn't Lars, not even close.

"Oh," The boy blinked in surprise for a moment, then grinned. "Hey, what's up, cutie? Came here to cheer on us? Huehue, I bet you were impressed with our performance, right? I'm Luke, by the way." He stretched a hand.

"I don't care," Julia scoffed at him.

"Heh, play it hard to get, eh?" The boy grinned suspiciously. What a weirdo.

"Is Lars here?" Julia asked.

"I'll tell you, babe. If you go on a date with me!"

Is he mental? Julia gave him a look.

"Haha, just kidding," The boy winked and turned around. "Hey, Lars! Your girlfriend is here!"

"Wha-!?" Julia jumped. "I'm not- Grrrr!" She fired a thousand curses through her glare, but that idiot didn't even notice. However, she soon erased every trace of malice from her expression because her prince showed up.

"Hey, July! What's up!" Lars darted toward her and hugged her tight.

"W-Wha-!?" Her body temperature shot beyond 100 celsius! She was about to evaporate on the spot!

"Whew, hot," a guy whistled. "Look at them love birds!" The other members expressed some interest as well. That fact only tripled Julia’s body heat.

Oh god, they’re all staring! Julia trembled. She couldn’t tell whether this was the worst moment of her life, or the best.

“What’s up?” Lars released her and flashed a grin. He wasn’t embarrassed about any of this at all. Well, of course he wasn’t.

He didn’t mean anything special by it. Julia smiled wryly. Even though her body was still hot from the contact, she knew that for Lars it was just a friendly gesture, nothing more. He was always overly friendly with everybody and it wasn’t the first time he hugged her like this. Especially, when he was excited, he didn’t pull any stops.

I guess he’s that happy about winning the first game. Julia smiled softly, but the smile soon vanished when she remembered why she came here. She didn’t come here to celebrate.

“This is July,” Lars introduced her to the rest. “She plays Mid for StormBlitz. Cool ,right?”

“Oh! A formidable foe makes her entrance!” some guy made noise. “A former friend turned rival! An unsung tragedy!”

Is that guy mental too? Julia narrowed her eyes. It was one weirdo after another with this team.

“So, she’s a spy.” A boy, who was wearing a black sports cap indoors for some reason, was giving Julia the evil eye. No, wait. Is that a girl? Yeah, she should be. Stratus had two girls, so this tomboyish girl had to be one of them.

She better not have her eyes on Lars. Julia glared back. Invisible sparks cracked in the air. Thinking of it, she’s the captain, isn’t she? Was she the one playing Carry? Did she steal Lars’s role!?

Julia’s insides twisted. She quite couldn’t explain this irritating feeling, but she had a premonition. Julia will confront this girl. Someday, somewhere, they will definitely cross paths and clash. When that time comes, Julia will rend this girl asunder!

But, now wasn’t the time for that. Julia came here to discuss an entirely different topic and it only concerned Lars. Well, and Yuel, too.

“Can I ask you something?” Julia directed the question at Lars.

“Yeah sure. What’s up?”

“Um,” She threw a glance at him, then at the curious eyes staring at them. She didn’t want to discuss this in front of all these strangers.

“Hey, my dudes,” Lars turned to the rest. “I’mma go catch up with July on a few things. I’ll be back in a jiffy.”

Nobody objected as Lars left the room. Yuel merely watched the entire event unfold, without budging a millimeter. Julia probably only came here to visit Lars, so this had nothing to do with him.

“You come too,” Julia ordered with a lifted chin.

“Me?” Yuel raised an eyebrow. What could this be possibly about? “Sure.”

The trio walked a short distance away from the waiting room. In the past, whenever they hanged out in this hallway, they were no more than benchwarmers. Now, all three of them were first-string members. But, they no longer belonged to the same team. How did things change so much in the spawn of a few months?

“So, what was that game?” Julia shot them a glare, aiming mainly at Yuel. However, truth to be told, she was mad at Lars too.

“What do you mean?” Lars asked. “We totally owned that game. We rekt these dudes, haha!”

“And,” Yuel added. “I’d say we did it rather convincingly, too.”

“Yeah, it sure looked impressive,” Julia said. “But, only because these guys are total losers. It should’ve taken you half that time to murder their asses.”

“You expect us to wrap up the game in seven minutes?” Yuel asked. “That’s a stretch. I agree that Taurus doesn’t look strong this year, but they're still a competitive team. Asking to finish them off in under ten minutes is too much.”

“I don’t care how long it actually takes to destroy the Colossus,” Julia clarified. “What I mean is, how long it took you to make it clear that you gonna win for sure.”

“So, the time it took us to reach a position with a guaranteed checkmate.”

“Eh, sure, you can call it that. You got an early lead, but instead of attacking you just sat there doing nothing. What’s up with that? With that kind of advantage, you should’ve wrapped things up way sooner. It’s like you didn’t even try. That’s not like you.”

“It was already a checkmate position at that point,” Yuel explained. “As long as we kept playing safe and didn’t overextend, we were going to win for sure. That’s what I concluded.”

“So, that’s why you barely did anything afterward?” Julia made a face. “Gotta say, it looked weak. It felt like the enemy could turn the tables on you at any moment.”

“If that’s what you thought, then you misread the situation,” Yuel claimed. “We were winning throughout the match.”

“But, you didn’t go for the kill for like ten minutes,” Julia insisted. “The fight just dragged on and on, till your opponent finally cracked. You’d normally push for a quick win in these situations. Why not today?”

“Because it was unnecessary,” Yuel shrugged. “True, we could take a little risk and go for more aggressive plays, but why bother? As long as we pushed steadily, I knew we’ll take the win.”

"Yep,” Lars backed up. “No need to pull anything crazy when we’re already on top. Just ride the safe road to victory. Ezpz."

"Wha..." Julia's lips quivered. What was that? Even Lars was saying such a thing? Why...?

Normally, Lars was the first to go all-in on the enemy. He was strong and radiated his strength with every play he made. So, why was he talking like some weakling? Why was he siding with Yuel on this? Did Yuel brainwash Lars!?

"Ya know," Lars went on. "Back when we played against Ellen and Howard, I was kinda reckless. I chased Ellen a lot and got my ass whooped. I was so sure I could win, but it backfired every single time.”

"That's..." Julia didn't know how to retort. Lars really died many times during the selection match. It was frustrating to admit, but it was true.

"So, that's why," Lars continued. "I figured I better play it safer. If we're already winning, I better keep things as they are. No need to rush and put myself at risk. The Carry is super important and stuff, so he gotta think about the consequences. With great power comes great responsibility and all that."

"I see," Julia couldn’t say anything back. Bringing up the selection match was unfair. It was a painful memory for all three of them. It was the dreadful event that tore their friendship apart.

Listening to Lars blame himself like this only made Julia want to console him. When he was wearing such a sad expression, she couldn't help but give in. It almost made her stop the interrogation.

But, she couldn't stop here. There was something even more important she had to know.

Lars mentioned something peculiar when he was explaining himself. He said that the Carry had to be especially careful. But, Lars didn't play Carry this game. Why? That was the biggest mystery of the day.

In fact, it's probably because he wasn't the Carry that Julia felt like Stratus lacked assertiveness. Lars was a good Mid, no doubt about that. But, his skill in Mid couldn’t even begin to compare to his overwhelming strength as a Carry.

I gotta stop beating around the bush. Julia took a deep breath. Everything she asked until now was just warm-up. It paled in importance compared to THE mystery.

"Did you two change your main roles?" Julia asked.

"Welp, about that..." Lars scratched the back of his head and threw a glance at Yuel.

That's where you're putting me back in!? Yuel grumped, but it was only fair. After all, he was the one who asked Lars to go along with this arrangement until Kai changes her mind. Yuel expected the issue to be resolved by now, but Kai was sticking to her guns. What a pain.

I was sure the scrimmages will get the job done, but it looks like Taurus isn’t strong enough. Yuel sighed. He envisioned the team losing badly during a scrimmage, enough to convince Kai to step down from the Carry role. But, that probably won’t happen today.

"We're experimenting," Yuel told a little lie. "It's always a good idea to have secondary roles, just in case. It gives the team more flexibility."

"Yeah, it's fun to play other things sometimes," Lars backed up Yuel's excuse.

"So, you're still maining Bot?" Julia asked.

"I'm not sure we should be sharing this information with a spy from another team," Yuel averted his eyes.

"Oh, snap! You're right!" Lars jumped. "She came here to steal all our tech!"

"Wha-!?" Julia staggered backward. Oh god! Lars saw her as the enemy now! She was doomed! Damn you, Yuel! You and your big mouth!

"Well, it's true Howard sent me..." Julia mumbled. Wait, was she supposed to reveal info like that? Like, she was technically really a spy. She came here to gather intel on Stratus, per Howard's request.

But, to tell the truth, it was just an excuse. She used it to skip on practice and come watch the scrimmage. In addition, this spying operation was treated as a club activity, so the club paid for it from its own pocket. It even covered the bus fare. Sick deal.

So, Julia jumped on this opportunity to see Lars's new team in action. Or, more specifically, to watch Lars shine brightly on the competitive stage. Howard insisted that Pip tags along, because the kid was apparently good at summarizing data. So, that's how the two of them ended up here today.

So yeah, they were basically spies. In truth, she wasn’t even supposed to reveal herself to the “enemy”. What a great spy she was. 10/10.

"Don't worry," Yuel said. "You can report Howard that Lars and I have every intention to keep playing Bot."

"Yep, no two ways about it," Lars gave a thumbs up. "Mid and Top are fun, but they’re not our final forms!"

"That's good to hear," Julia sighed in relief. "Because, if you were planning to play like this, you’d never beat StormBlitz. You probably won’t even get to challenge us. I mean, Taurus is looking like a Bronze tier team right now. You gotta be able to murder idiots like that in ten minutes. If you can't, then your team is also trash."

"Haha, harsh," Lars grinned. "No problem! We gonna kick their butts in ten minutes next game! No, make that five! We can totally do that, right?"

"Five minutes is a stretch," Yuel said. "But, ten minutes? Definitely doable."

"Then, let's go, yo!"

"You really want to do that?" Yuel considered various options for a moment. "Well, we can probably pull it off if we go for a hyper-aggressive early-game comp."

"Okay, let's go then! A three-minutes win, here we come!"

"I said ten minutes..." Yuel sighed with a smile. Was it really possible to win in under ten minutes? That’s an interesting puzzle to solve. Any other time, Yuel would gladly take a few hours to think hard about this problem, but there was no time for that. Hopefully, a basic hyper-aggressive composition will suffice. If not, so be it. They didn’t own anything to Julia.

"We better go back," Yuel said. "There's no much time left."

"Oh, shoot!" Lars nodded. "Sorry, July. We gotta scram."

"No problem," Julia smiled at him. "Good luck in the next game. I'm expecting a great performance."

"And ya gonna get one, believe it!"

As for you. Julia gave Yuel a look. I hope they gonna kill you at least twenty times next game.

Isn't she a charm? Yuel rolled his eyes.

The boys returned to the waiting room and Julia went back to the stadium.

"Welcome back, ma'am," Pip greeted Julia with his usual nerdy roleplay. “I see you did some shopping on the way.”

“Yeah, a little,” Julia was carrying a popcorn box and a cola can. The next game should be pretty intense, so she better enjoy the show to its fullest.

Stratus has to be strong this year. Julia thought to herself as she gazed at the two popcorn pieces in her palm. They better win a lot and climb all the way to challenge StormBlitz. Then, I’ll destroy them! She crushed the popcorn into tiny bits.

Once she proves her mettle against Lars and Yuel, she should finally be able to move on. She’ll break free from the chains of guilt that have been strangling her since the selection match.