You have been killed!

  FIRST BLOOD!

  "I'm sorry..." Sonya hung her head. For her, this blunder hit much harder than any normal death. She died at the hands of Vanishing, the very phantom she was supposed to supervise. Vanishing was the one pyer Sonya wao reject with all her might, yet this same pyer was the one who cimed Sonya’s life at this critical moment.

  "It's not your fault, at least irely," Cato said. "They pyed us. I admit, I also didn't sider Vanishing showing up here, not after we saw her deep in Bot Jungle."

  When the ward showed that Vanishing was heading toward Bot, it put their minds at ease. They were so gd to catch a glimpse of the highly evasive ehat they didn’t eveioa they were fed.

  "My, it was such a nasty bait," Cato said with his usual pyfulness, but his expression was stern. "Using a e to throw us off is like the oldest tri the book, yet we still fell for it."

  Basically, Yuel exploited the fact that the Leopards were paying such close attention to Vanishing's movements. He masterfully threw them off with that one simple trick.

  On top of that, Yuel also took advantage of the fact that William was an indepe Jungler who believed that he was starving to death. Uhese circumstances, it was almost guarahat a pyer like William would assault Mid.

  In addition, Yuel’s pn probably even took Cato's nature into at. As a defensive pyer, Cato had some trouble believing that Yuel would seriously rotate to Mid with 0 MP.

  It's such a barbarian py, totally unthinkable. Cato thought. Even though I khat Yuel could be a gambler sometimes, a part of me still strongly rejected this possibility.

  As a result, Cato failed to prepare his teammates for Yuel’s ploy. Of course, he at least did the bare minimum of warning the team about the possibility of an ining rotation, but that's as far as he went. In the end, he failed to exercise the necessary caution. If only he had given the idea a little bit more thought, then he might’ve been able to see through this ruse…

  Well, I just have to admit it, don't I? Cato sighed. Good job, Yuel, you’ve outpyed me there. Yeah, good job, good job...

  Holy, Cato had mixed feelings about all of this. Should he feel salty about the fact his nemesis outpyed him? Or, should he feel honored by the fact that Yuel was using his ability to exploit weako the fullest? After all, this was the very same skill that defeated Fiona at the chess regionals.

  “Chessmaster”, huh. Cato cracked a ugh. A pompous name, no doubt. But, it feels irritatingly fitting at times like this.

  Every now and then, it definitely felt like Yuel had the makings of a real evil mastermind. He thhly destructed his oppos and exposed their greatest fws. Then, he found creative tactics to exploit all these ots in the most disgustingly beautiful ossible.

  Yuel showcased the epitome of this teique when he faced the Lah Princess. Even after the match was over, everybody in the audience must’ve felt like Fiona was the stronger pyer overall. That’s because at no point during these games did it ever seem as if Yuel was “better” than Fiona at chess.

  heless, Yuel woe all odds, Yuel stole victory that day by using some absurd tactics that only worked on that particur day and only in that particur matchup. This mad d adjusted his pystyle and tacti the fly in order to mess with Fiona, and he somehow cracked the formidable prihat Cato had been trying to break for years now.

  In fact, this very same princess resent in the audience here today. Though she would definitely deny it, she definitely came here to watch Yuel’s performance.

  It’s cute how she tries to lie about things like that~ Cato eained himself with such idle thoughts to distract himself from the gravity of the situation in Mid.

  So, how do you like this py, Fiona? Are you eained by the little show Yuel cooked up for us? Is this what you were hoping to see?

  As he specuted, Fiona did, in fact, have a few ents on the development in Mid.

  “How i...” Fiona muttered.

  “Hm? What was that, sis?” Karen asked.

  “Nothing,” Fiona said. “I just felt like critig that little scheme Stratus pulled, that is all.”

  “You mean that double ter-gank? That was so slick!” Karen’s eyes lit up. “That whole overextension in Mid was totally bait, right?”

  “Indeed, it was.”

  “Aha, I k! They totally lured in that cocky Jungler and then they hit the Mid-Laoo! That’s one hell of a ballsy script.”

  “Language, Karen.”

  “Whoopsie~” The mischievous sister rolled her eyes. “Anyway, Cato was totally caught with his pants down, haha! Serves him right. Though, gotta say, it’s impressive how smoothly it worked out for Stratus.”

  "It was a calcuted scheme," Fiona said. "It took advantage of multiple specific ots."

  "Huh. So, you think it was all super pnned out and stuff? That’s really impressive."

  "I am not sure if I would call it 'impressive', but it was most certainly shrewd." Fiona knotted her brows. Seeing that scheme py out made her recall some bitter memories.

  It seemed that even after switg from chess to Cssmancers, Yuel Fermond tinued employing the same i tactics. He prioritized offense over defe any opportunity that allowed it, and he stantly sought ways to exploit the enemy’s weaknesses, no matter how small or insignifit they might have seemed. That pystyle was both praiseworthy and unsightly at the same time.

  Exposing enemy weaknesses was ily the 101 of strategy, but Yuel Fermond pushed this cept to the extreme. Instead of exploiting weaknesses as a part of a bigger game pn that was backed up by game theory, Yuel sometimes made “exploiting weaknesses” into the ENTIRE game pn. He formed some bizarre tactics that strayed from game theory ventions; he based those solely on the specific attributes of his current oppo.

  For better or worse, this aspect of Yuel Fermond's strategy remained intact even after he abandoned chess. At the very least, it was reassuring to know that the man did not abandon serious petition in general, he merely switched professions.

  "It appears I still get my rematch."

  "Hm?" Karen titled her head. "Did you say something, sis?"

  "Nothing of importance." Fiona caressed her younger sister's head with a satisfied smile. This robably the first time she smiled during today's show, as it was otherwise an embarrassing showcase in far too many ways.

  This otle scheme from Yuel Fermond was more than enough to prove that Stratus was going to be a force to be reed with, not just a lucky meme team.

  With that said, the curtain had not yet fallen on this py. Though Vanishing successfully syed Theorist, a Stealth Ward was heless pced on the ne. With its help, a ray of light shone upon Winner amidst the darkness he was locked in.

  Now, that he had vision, what did Winner see in front of him? Two injured prey, right within arm's reach. And, sidering the nature of this hungry beast, he was definitely pnning to turn both of them into a meal.

  DarkestCymore