"Here I am, " Cato announced his arrival in Mid. "It looks like they're still coming here after all, huh. Even though I dropped them such a nice hint that I'll be rotating over here…"

"It sounds like you just gave them free information," Matthew pointed out.

"True, true. Well, so be it. Let's just fend them off and stop their offense in its tracks."

"Alright."

They grouped up in the tower area and braced for impact. This was going to be a 2v3 situation, with one of the attackers being a Dark Knight who started snowballing. This was bound to be rough.

"What a drag." Matthew sighed. "Are you sure we don't need an extra pair of hands here?"

"My, do you have so little faith in our combined defense?" Cato blinked. “And you call yourself one of Esmeralda’s disciples?”

"It’s just that it’ll be easier to defend with more people. I wouldn't have to think as hard."

"Stop loafing around, young man. This isn't one of your daily grind missions that you can play on auto-pilot. You have to pour your everything into this."

"I know..." Matthew sighed. Indeed, this was a boss stage that he couldn't put on auto-battle. And, life wasn't convenient enough to offer "skip tickets" either.

As such, there was no easy way out of this predicament. Matthew had no choice but to actually do some mental work here in order to ensure that his defense was top-notch.

"Though, maybe there’s no need to think too hard about something so simple,” Matthew said. “Basically, I just need to get rid of their minions, and then their push is a bust, right?”

"Yes, that would be ideal," Cato agreed. "But, I'm sure they won't let it be that easy.”

Just as he said that, InformationBlackhole arrived on the lane first and positioned himself between Matthew and the incoming enemy wave.

“See? The Berserker is already playing goalkeeper."

This was a simple but effective method of shutting down Sorcerer's long-range spells.

Firing a Magia Orb with Repelling Force was the Sorcerer's best method for clearing minions from very far away. The setup was a little MP-hungry, but the amazing attack range it provided usually paid off and allowed the Sorcerer to outrange most Mages.

However, this setup had one glaring weakness. Repelling Force fired the Magia Orb in a straight line. It was like kicking a soccer ball without the ability to bend its course.

Furthermore, the Magia Orb itself was rather chunky. It was most likely designed in this way in order to make it easier to hit enemies with it. However, in this case, this feature played against the user.

To make this worse, the orb slowed down a little every time it hit an enemy. This wasn’t a problem when the shot was directed straight at the enemy wave, as the orb was capable of reaching the bowmen in the back despite first ramming into the swordsmen.

But, what if the orb were to run into an enemy long before reaching the swordsmen? For example, into Blackhole who was standing over there like a goalkeeper, blocking Matthew’s field of view.

With how chunky and straightforward the Magia Orb was, it would be impossible for Matthew to shoot this ball around this goalkeeper. The orb will crash straight into the enemy and slow down, barely reaching the enemy wave.

"What a drag." Matthew sighed. "Well, at least there’s no similar way to block Dimensional, so I guess I'll just use that instead once the minions get closer."

"Yes, that's going to be the decisive factor,” Cato said. “If they let us clear their minions, then they’ll lose their entire offense. So, I’m sure they’ll try to pull something first."

"They can’t pull anything right away, though. They’ll have to clear our minions first before they can get started. Then again, I assume the DK will handle that in a jiffy."

"It depends. They might choose to keep DK’s blast around for the actual push, to scare us away.”

“Either scenario sounds like a drag.”

“Haha, that’s true.” Cato smiled wryly. “I have to say though, isn't the DK taking his sweet time to get here?"

The Berserker had arrived in the lane a couple of seconds ago, yet there was still no sign of the Dark Knight. The two of them were supposed to rotate over here together, so this delay was a little odd.

Sure, Dark Knight was a slower runner than Berserker, but not THAT much slower. Unless...

"My, what a daredevil." Cato smiled impishly after checking the area behind him.

He didn't actually expect to find anything there, but he sure did. The Dark Knight was right there, right behind the tower area!

"A flank attack?" Matthew cocked his head. "Wait, no. He’s probably there for the minions."

"Bingo.."

A moment later, the Dark Knight proved their guess correct. He unleashed a Dark Blast on the incoming minion wave, wiping it out in one fell swoop.

My, so aggressive. Cato smiled wryly. But, I suppose this much is necessary to make their attack a success. I already had a good plan for countering his blast on the lane itself, so it looks like Yuel made sure to play around it.

Dark Knight's wave-clearing skill shared a similar weakness to Sorcerer's. Namely, both of them could be slowed down by a goalkeeper.

Of course, given the high damage of Dark Blast, nobody would normally dare to stand in its way. However, Cato would have no trouble withstanding that force of destruction thanks to the invincibility of Coffin Slumber.

Yuel must've anticipated a counter-play like this, which was why the Dark Knight took the risk of rotating behind the Mid tower and using proxy farming. However, doing so put the guy in immense danger.

"We’re going to attack, right?" Matthew asked while placing a Magia Orb on the scene.

"Of course we’re attacking." Cato dashed forth to punish the overextending fool. "They made such a delicious mistake right in front of us, so we have to capitalize on it, right~?"

This proxy farming stunt might’ve seemed like a good idea for Stratus. However, in reality, it was a grave misplay that'll cost them the entire operation.

Yuel must've thought that Cato and Matthew won't budge from their positions because they were "defensive players". But, this juicy opportunity was too big to ignore even for turtles like them.

A big part of being a professional defensive player was knowing when to flip the switch. At some point, it was necessary to switch gears and go on the offensive in order to reap great benefits. And, the time was now.

Cato didn't even need to think twice here. He booted his ult and transformed into a giant bat, darting straight toward the overextending prey!

Night Hunt was supposed to be Cato’s main escape tool in case things get rough on the defense, but he decided it was best to use it here for a counterattack. Sometimes, offense was the best form of defense, even Cato had to agree.

It's checkmate once the DK is captured. Cato thought. He's the heart of their entire push; they got nothing without him.

"I'm setting up the resonance," Matthew informed as he placed a Magia Orb along the Dark Knight's retreat path.

"Yes, let's blow him up for good."

They were about to spend two ults for a single kill but it was totally worth it. Eliminating the DK was just that important.

Not only it'll stop Memer’s snowballing in its tracks, but it'll also leave his allies with nothing to do on the lane. It'll turn this entire rotation into one huge waste of time, which was devastating for a hyper-aggressive team for whom every second counted in the early-game.

Naturally, Memer noticed Cato and Matthew’s intentions right away. After all, they weren't exactly discreet about it as they charged straight at their prey.

As much as the two of them liked playing sneaky and sophisticated, this was one situation in which these things would only slow them down needlessly. Besides, even though Memer was aware of the incoming attack, the guy had no way to counter this deadly assault... or did he?