The board was set. Yuel and Lars rotated to defend Top from AbsoluteWinner and AbsoluteChallenger. Meanwhile, Vincent and Nia were fending off the rest of the enemy team in Mid.

At the same time, Kai farmed minions in Bot. At first, she only cleared out minions that were threatening to invade the Golem’s area, but then she continued pushing along the lane. In the process, she wiped out the next minion wave as well.

This was one of the riskiest parts of the upcoming offense. Kai’s aggressive push had a chance of alerting the enemy to the possibility of a backdoor.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem like they thought much of it, at least not yet.

“Their Bomber is pushing Bot.” Sonya brought the matter to everybody’s attention. “Do you think we should be concerned?”

“Hmm. Curious, curious indeed.” Cato hadn’t formed a proper opinion on this quite yet. “This might just be a defensive play that ensures our minions won’t invade the Golem for a while. But, it can also be the start of an attack.”

“Is there any reason for us to care?” William asked. “She’s alone over there and she’s playing Bomber. She can’t get anything started by herself.”

“Yeah, exactly!” Ronald backed up. “She’s just tryharding on the defense there, nothing interesting to see. I’m telling you, she gonna recall the moment she sees us attacking another lane.”

“My, that’s a lot of baseless confidence you got there,” Cato said. “But yes, overall I agree. Matt, what do you think?”

“Not sure,” Matthew said. “The fact it’s Bot is a little sus.”

“That’s a good point.”

By now, the Leopards have gained the upper hand in every lane, but their control was the weakest in Bot. It was the only lane in which they hadn’t destroyed the Golem even once in this game. In fact, the enemy Golem was very healthy there, currently at 90% HP and slowly regenerating.

“If they plan to backdoor us at any point, then I’m sure they’ll try it through Bot.” Cato deduced. “But, is now really a good time for this? We haven’t shown them any openings, have we? Or, am I missing something?”

“No, I don’t believe we have,” Sonya said.

“We haven’t” William agreed. “Our map control is absolute.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Cato nodded. “Hmm. Let’s wait and see what Beat does next. For now, the brothers will rotate to Mid so we can go for a full-team attack.”

“Got it,” William said.

“Okay, okay.” Ronald sounded a little dissatisfied but he didn’t argue back, if only because his older brother approved of this plan. “But real talk, when do we go for the kill?”

“When the time is right,” Cato gave a nonanswer.

“C’mon, man! We’ve been running around all day. Let’s finish this already!”

“Soon.” Cato made an empty promise. “Really, aren’t these guys just the best? Just look how hard they ran from lane to lane to fend us off. It’s beautiful~ I don’t have it in me to make them stop.”

“Agh, such a disgusting tactic.” Ronald shuddered. “It reminds me of these cheap bastards who always made me run around the court in Tennis.”

Because that’s the best way to defeat you. William commented silently. I suppose I also count among these “cheap bastards”, even if Ron didn’t mean it. But, it makes me wonder, is Cato playing this way because he’s wary of Stratus?

Cato was always the kind of sadist who prolonged games just to mess around with his opponents. But usually, he’d cut the game short after the Leopards have sufficiently proven their superiority. After that, the next games always went by much faster.

However, in this game, Cato was dragging things out far longer than usual. Even though the team has already gained an overwhelming advantage in terms of map control, Cato insisted to drag things out some more. Why?

Is he just having fun because we’re playing against strong opponents for a change? Hmm. That’s not out of the question with this guy, but I don’t think that’s the case.

It almost felt like Cato genuinely believed it was NECESSARY to play like this. It’s as if wearing the enemy out was a mandatory step, or else the Leopards might actually lose today.

But, what exactly “scared” Cato so much? Was it the fact the enemy had a strong fighter like Gunz?

No, that's not it. William thought. I’ve already proven I can go toe-to-toe with that guy. Maybe Cato isn’t convinced that I’m stronger yet, but I’m sure he doesn’t think I’m much weaker either. At worst, Gunz and I cancel each other out in terms of strength.

In the first place, Cato wasn’t the type to be too concerned about the mechanical strength of one individual player. As far as this chess nerd was concerned, all players were just “pieces” on a board.

Ultimately, no matter how strong an individual piece was, it was just one piece. Therefore, it was bound to fold against a superior board-wide tactic.

So, if there’s anybody who can make Cato wary, it’d be the enemy shot-caller. In other words, it’s Chessmaster. A former chess rival, huh.

Cato claimed he defeated Chessmaster in chess, but was that the truth? This slippery guy was no stranger to telling white lies. Perhaps he actually lost, or maybe his victory wasn’t as absolute as he claimed it to be. There was probably more to that story than he let on.

If I’m correct, then this game is turning into a dragged-out match between Cato and Chessmaster. They’re just using us as pawns to compete with each other. I can't say I’m a fan of this.

Nonetheless, William didn’t complain any further for now. He knew that sometimes it was necessary to play the long game to be on the safe side, even if it was very boring.

I’ll give him 15 more minutes. William thought. No, maybe just 10. If he doesn’t start wrapping things up by then, then I’ll just do it myself.

Despite promising that, William was already mentally preparing to deliver the finishing blow as he and Ronald rotated from Top to Mid. This game has dragged out for too long, so he was ready to end it at any moment.

All he needed was a reason. And, for the better or the worse, the enemy decided to give him that reason...

“They’re rotating, yo!” Lars announced, mainly for Kai who was pushing Bot on the other side of the map.

“Place the ward,” Yuel instructed. “This is the moment.”

“So, we’re really doing this, huh.” Kai smiled wryly as she placed the Checkpoint Ward.

This was going to be the deciding moment of the game. Either this backdoor will pay off and let Stratus deliver a sneak victory from the jaws of defeat, or they’ll fail miserably and end up looking worse than bronze players. Either way, this long tortuous game will come to an end, right here and now!

A few seconds after the Checkpoint Ward was placed, Yuel and Lars emerged in Bot using their cloaked Teleports.

Most likely, the enemy was expecting them to rotate from Top to Mid in order to join the defense. But instead, Yuel and Lars were all the way in Bot! And, they came with a vengeance!

BOOM! Kai blew the enemy army to pieces, eliminating the tower’s last line of defense.

“Let’s go, yoooooo!” Lars dashed into the tower area the moment the first allied swordsmen set foot in the area.

Yuel and Kai also joined the offense, but most of the responsibility lay with Lars here. He was the only one here who could quickly take down objectives.

Kai’s job was to clear a path for Lars, whereas Yuel’s role was to eventually tank tower shots and ward off incoming enemies in case anybody from the Leopards shows up. In essence, this entire stage was prepared for Lars to do his thing!

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! Lars ravaged the tower with his cutlass!

He has almost never switched to this melee stance during combat because he felt more comfortable using a gun. However, when it came to pushing objectives, the cutlass had objectively superior DPS, and there was no place for error against a static target anyway. As such, Lars hacked away at the tower without holding anything back!

『An enemy Turret has been destroyed!』

The tower crumbled within seconds. It was already at 40% HP from previous pushes, which was the reason Yuel chose it as the target for this operation.

Bot was the only lane in which the team wasn’t losing too badly. Therefore, any potential backdoor had to pass through here.

“Heck yeah, let’s gooooo!” Lars pumped a fist.

The enemy tower crumbled before the enemy even had a chance to react. However, this wasn’t the end of this play. No, it was just the beginning!

The trio pressed onward, eying the Bot Golem next. They were planning to go all the way with this push!

It’s a race. Yuel thought. Let’s see who takes out the Colossus first. Or, maybe Cato will play it safe and order his troops to fall back and defend, which is a win in my book either way.

So, how was the enemy going to react to this surprise backdoor!?