As expected. Yuel thought. Even during such a chaotic fight, their defense is airtight. But, there’s still one way to break through it.

There was one ally who wasn’t locked out by anybody at the moment. She had been providing artillery support from afar, but now she finally made it to the scene.

“Kai!” Yuel called out. “Get to their Droid as fast as you can and stall him so he can’t shoot the Colossus.”

“On it!” Kai said that, yet she hit the brakes and turned her back toward Winner’s position. Then, she tossed a Satchel Charge in front of her and immediately blew it up, before it even hit the ground.

BOOM! The explosion sent her flying across the area, propelling her right to Winner’s position.

Within moments, Kai was already within shooting range, yet her opponent was still locked under the Kraken’s weight. However, the Kraken won’t be holding him still for much longer.

This will get difficult once he’s free. Kai gulped and hurried to toss a Sticky Bomb at the immobile target.

It’s not like she was scared of Winner or anything, but she knew all too well how strong a late-game monster Droid was. And, Winner was a player who could go toe-to-toe with Lars, so he was no pushover for sure.

Therefore, as much as Kai wanted to believe she’ll easily destroy this guy in a fight, she knew that reality was likely going to be different. The previous scrimmage has already taught her this important lesson.

I have to secure an advantage here first. Kai threw a second Sticky Bomb on Winner. Now, the guy had two bombs attached to him, so it was time to finish him off with skills!

Just as the Kraken started lifting his tentacles, Kai activated Minefield, scattering a bunch of small bombs around Winner.

With two Sticky Bombs on the guy, triggering these mines will stun him on the spot. That’ll give Kai more than enough time to finish off Winner’s remaining 70% HP. With this, the fight was decided!

... or not! Winner rolled aside as soon as the Kraken released him, just barely getting out of the range of the mines at the last moment.

“Fuck!” Kai cursed. “You damn little...!”

This was bad. Like, really, really, REALLY bad.

Kai has already spent most of her skills, so she mostly had her basic attacks to rely on from here on out. Yes, the basic attacks of a mere mage, the least threatening weapon in the world.

What’s worse, her opponent was a late-game hyper-Carry. Damn it all!

Do I retreat? But if I do, he’ll just shoot the Colossus. Damn...!

Kai was literally the Colossus’s last line of defense right now. If she steps aside, she’ll clear an easy path for the enemy. That’ll be GG WP right there.

Therefore, Kai couldn't back off. Yet, at the same time, this wasn’t a fight she had a very realistic chance of winning.

I guess that’s why Yuel said to “stall”. Kai smiled wryly.

As depressing as it was, stalling was the most she could do in this situation. The enemy team was just a couple of hits away from taking the game and Kai was the last line of defense at the moment.

Therefore, she couldn't take any risks here. As much as she wanted to charge at that Droid and murder his ass, she had to play this safe and stop the guy from winning at any cost.

After all, the game didn’t revolve around beating Winner. The goal was to win as a team. So, as much as Kai disliked her role in this operation, it was something she had to do.

I guess I’ll just focus on dodging. Kai pulled out a Bouncy Bomb and tossed it toward Winner’s left side.

It wasn’t the masterfully aimed Bouncy Bomb, but it’ll still hit Winner if he doesn’t move out of the range. And, from this angle, he couldn’t dodge the bomb to the left, so he couldn’t retreat closer to Merlin.

It was imperative to keep those two far apart, to not give them an opportunity to join forces against Kai. That’s why Kai aimed the bomb at the left side. This made the bomb a little easier to dodge, but it ensured that Winner couldn’t reposition himself too well.

On top of that, throwing a Bouncy Bomb like that will surely make Winner’s movements more predictable for the next couple of seconds. So, Kai will just have to read Winner’s attack properly and bait out shots.

I’ll stick to the very edge of his attack range and make him whiff. That was her master plan. It was a kinda lame plan that usually turtles employed, but there was no choice but to resort to such measures here. I’ll do whatever needs to be done. We’re not losing this game, not after coming this far...!

BAM. BAM. The Bouncy Bomb bounced off the floor, heading in Winner’s general direction.

Naturally, the guy had no choice but to move away from it to the right, just as Kai wanted him to. That created a greater distance between him and Merlin, so those two had no chance of teaming up any time soon.

Alright, let’s get this started! Kai advanced just close enough to reach the enemy with her basic attacks. Then, she threw a bomb!

And of course, he gonna dodge it...

Winner effortlessly sidestepped the slow bomb. Well, that’s to be expected. Bomber’s basics were just slow like that. Anybody could easily dodge these, especially from maximum distance.

But, that’s fine. Kai threw the first rock, so it should motivate Winner to shoot back.

She’s right within my range. William thought while sidestepping the descending bomb. Is this bait? Or, should I just go for it?

There wasn’t much time to make an educated decision. In this critical situation, every second counted.

The enemy foolishly put herself within William’s attack range and carelessly attacked him, so he should just shoot back, right? It was simple logic but it sounded too easy to be true.

Let’s try it out. William fired a laser beam as soon as he finished sidestepping.

It was a lightning-fast counterattack. It came out almost instantly after his sidestepping animation ended.

In other words, it was perfect as far as the execution was concerned. But, that’s exactly what also made it so predictable...

No, you don’t! Kai sidestepped the laser beam at the last moment. And, subsequently, she sidestepped the follow-up laser attacks from the Assault Drones.

Alright! Kai nodded. It’s 1:0 for me.

Even though they both dodged each other’s attacks so far, Kai nonetheless counted this as a win for herself. Why? Because her only goal here was to stall, not to win. It was a lame role, but it was sometimes necessary for achieving victory. And, this was one such time.

Time for round two! Kai threw another bomb after finishing her sidestep.

Yet again, Winner had no trouble dodging.

I can do this with my eyes closed. William thought as he sidestepped and fired back immediately. For someone as skilled as him, this was a no-brainer. But...

Once again, his immediate counter missed the target. Beat just barely dodged the shot in the nick of time.

It was impressive footwork, and it wasn’t even Korean Cancel or anything fancy like that. It’s just that the distance between them was as big as it could possibly get, giving Beat plenty of time to recover from her shot and go for a sidestep.

Of course, if William played any other marksman here, then he would’ve easily crushed Beat in a battle of basic attacks. Most marksmen built plenty of Attack Speed, so they would’ve overwhelmed a slow attacker like Bomber without any effort.

However, Droid was one marksman who had steep diminishing returns on building Attack Speed, as most of the class’s push potential came from its Assault Drones.

The damage of these little bots scaled off the Droid’s Attack Power, but their Attack Speed didn’t scale with the Droid’s. As a result, the ideal build for maximizing pushes involved building lots of power, to make the drones hit like a truck.

That’s exactly what William did as well, and now he was feeling the consequences of this build. Despite how slow his opponent was, it was difficult for him to punish Beat’s whiffs.

But, she isn’t hitting me at all, either. William thought. From this distance, neither of us is likely to land any shots.

Beat’s situation was pretty much the same as William’s, as she built no Attack Speed either. Even worse, Bomber’s basics flew in a descending arc, so they were even easier to sidestep than most ranged attacks.

What is she hoping to achieve? William wondered. She’s making it look as if she’s trying to fight me, but I’m not so sure that’s her real intention. She wouldn’t try to maintain such a big distance if she was really trying to hit me. I’m practically on the very edge of her reach.

After dodging the previous two bombs, it was clear that Beat’s basic attacks could just barely reach William’s foot. Therefore, rather than dodging them via sidestepping, it was far more efficient to simply backstep.

We have the same reach on paper, but I have a slight range advantage because her shots drop off. He backstepped the next bomb, watching it arc downwards and hit the ground in front of his feet. Indeed, it was so easy to dodge these slow, dropping shots. But...

It’s pointless if my shots can’t hit her. William counterattacked for the third time.

ZAP! As always, the shot came out immediately. It had great timing that most opponents in Ranked would surely fail to dodge.

Yet, Beat sidestepped it as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do. Or rather, as if she was expecting it and planned her steps ahead of time.

As I thought, she’s just stalling. William concluded.

Not many players could maintain such a convincing routine of shooting and dodging, especially not against William. Nonetheless, Beat was certainly capable of it.

Tch, wasting my precious time like this. William clicked his tongue. I have more important things to do.

The enemy Colossus only had 20% HP left, but Matthew was currently the only one dealing any damage to it. His damage output was passable, but it wasn’t nearly enough to wrap this up in time.

And, Sonya can’t soak much more damage. William glanced at Sonya’s remaining 25% HP.

The girl did her best to dodge as many of the Colosuss’s dodgeable attacks, but the giant statue was slowly but surely killing her. Not to mention, InformationBlackhole was on Sonya’s case as well, so she was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Effectively, Sonya’s remaining HP served as a time limit. The team absolutely had to kill the Colossus in that time span, or else they’ll likely suffer a crushing defeat.

So, as entertaining as this back-and-forth with Beat was, William had no time to play games right now. It was time to wrap this game up!