WHISH! A dark blast shot forth, cutting through the very fabric of air! It sliced straight through Cato and there was nothing he could do about it, not while he was stunned by Barbarian Slam.

And so, just like that, 20% of his HP vanished into the ether. And that, combined with the rest of the abuse he had been going through from the moment Yuel appeared on the lane, Cato’s HP bar was threatening to disappear in its entirety.

The Tsunami, the Thunderstorm, the Barbarian Slam, the Berserker's quick axe strikes, and now even Dark Blast. The enemy threw one punch after another at Cato without ever stopping to rest.

Tch, what a perfectly logical decision. Cato clicked his tongue. I'm the only one here who got access to defensive options, so of course, they want to take me out first.

Truly, there was nothing "weak" about Stratus’ performance here. This was a well-organized, well-executed plan, as expected from Yuel.

In Cato’s last moments, right before his HP faded away, he finally regained the ability to fight back, as futile as it was at this point. Nonetheless, if there was anything at all he could do in order to frustrate the enemy and slow down their snowballing, then he was obligated to do so.

Thus, he retreated into his coffin and negated all incoming damage. However, this was a short-lived resistance.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! The coffin shattered almost immediately. It could not withstand the Berserker's lightning-fast barrage of strikes.

B-But, it’s not over yet! Cato gritted his teeth as he rolled away from all the attackers surrounding him.

Doing so put some distance between him and the Berserker, forcing the enemy to cut the combo short. In retrospect, Cato probably should’ve rolled before activating his Coffin Slumber.

Though, I wouldn’t have made it either way...

『You have been killed!』

His futile resistance came to an end at the hands of the Dark Knight. The opponent anticipated this roll and brought down his blade in the middle of Cato’s recovery animation.

Yes, this "meme" had just destroyed Cato, and this wasn't even the end. The Dark Knight was assuredly going to snowball further and terrorize the entire team. And, his first target was already in sight: Matthew.

“I’m not going to make it,” Matthew informed before the enemy even had the chance to switch their attention to him. Clearly, he had no intention of even trying, which was very much in character.

“Yeah, it figures you can’t get away,” Cato said. “But, at least get some damage on them, alright?”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Eh, sure.” Matthew shrugged.

Fighting back was an exercise in futility, but sure, it might be better than nothing. At least, Matthew’s damage will be able to slow down these guys by a little. Maybe.

Since it’s pointless anyway, I might as well hit this guy... Matthew stopped running and turned around to face his pursuers, who were guaranteed to catch up to him in no time anyway.

Among the available targets, he directed his fire at none other than InformationBlackhole.

Will this shake his memory a little? ... do I even want it to? With these conflicted thoughts, Matthew fired basic attacks at InformatinoBlackhole specifically.

It’s not like the guy was the closest target available, or even the best target for that matter. But, since this entire ordeal was pointless in the first place, it didn’t really matter who Matthew was shooting, did it?

So, it was fine to target Blackhole just because Matthew felt like it, right? Of course, he also made sure to unleash Dimensional Collapse at the first opportunity that presented itself, but the enemy didn’t let it impact things too much.

『You have been killed!』

As expected, the resistance was futile and Matthew shortly followed in Cato's footsteps. There was nothing he could possibly do in this 1v4 situation, no matter how good he was at defense.

"My, this is quite the predicament we got ourselves in Mid..." Cato tried to smile in order to relieve some of the tension but he was clearly forcing it.

The situation was turning from grim to grimmer, everybody could tell. With this one strong play in Mid, Stratus had secured themselves a long-lasting advantage in Mid.

And apparently, Stratus wasn’t satisfied with just that. The four pushers in Mid could already push very far by themselves but that wasn't enough for Stratus.

Shortly, Gunz showed up in Mid as well, using the same Teleport shortcut that Yuel employed. It seemed Stratus was adamant about wrapping up the entire game through this one big push.

This play was reminiscent of the tactics Taurus employed against Stratus. It was a ballsy push that put all the eggs in one basket, but it also had a very high chance of working here, especially given their hyper-aggressive lineup.

『An allied Turret has been destroyed!』

The Turret didn't stand a chance against this penta push. Next, Stratus set their eyes on the Golem.

"It goes without saying, but you have to recall to defend," Cato addressed the only two survivors of the team.

"Of course." William was already in the middle of the recalling animation.

"Man, really?" Ronald pouted. "Sonya gonna revive soon, so wouldn't that be enough? We should totally push Bot while we got the chance!"

"I'm sorry to inform you," Sonya said. "But it’s unreasonable to expect me to hold the fort in a 1v5 situation."

"Of course," William agreed. "We need as many defenders as we can get in order to have a chance to slow them down. If we can't stop this push, then we might lose the whole game right there and then."

It was blunt and to the point. William voiced the thoughts that everybody in the Leopards had but nobody dared to speak of.

This was a harsh evaluation of the situation, but it was necessary to make it sound this grim in order to sway the bratty younger brother.

"Okay, I'm on it!" Ronald started recalling as well. "Let's turn the tables on these mad lads and counter them with our own big push!"

"Sure, if we can get that far," William said. I doubt we can even stop this strong push, let alone mount a counter. This game sure took a sharp turn that nobody was expecting...

And so, the brothers returned to the base in order to fend off the incoming assault. But, did they even stand a chance against the overwhelming aggression...?