In her final moments, Sonya placed a Stealth Ward inside the lion cage. This warded off the darkness surrounding William, allowing him to see his foes again.

It's a 1v3 situation, but... William swiftly scanned the two opponents ganging up on him. They're both almost dead.

Beat was below 10% HP, just a single hit away from dying. Meanwhile, Chessmaster was at 20% HP at the moment, but his health bar was ticking down fast because of the ongoing Eldritch Nightmare.

I can kill them! William charged at them! The King's Dominion expired by now, but William was confident he’ll be able to seal the deal even without the buffs.

"Hold it, I don't think that's a good -" Cato's words didn’t register. William had no time to be distracted by the words of someone who only analyzed this scene from afar.

William was the one on the scene right now, so he knew best what he was capable of accomplishing here. With over 40% HP remaining, he should be able to get a kill or two here, then safely evacuate before Vanishing reaches him.

Without further ado, he targeted Beat first. The girl had been shooting him from a safe distance for a while now, and William couldn’t retaliate at all because of the darkness. But, things were different now.

William stepped toward his target, but just then- WHISH! A wave of darkness hit him from the side! It was undoubtedly the Warlock's sorcery.

Is he sane? William frowned. He's throwing all his HP away, not that I'm complaining.

This was certainly an unexpected development. So unexpected that William allowed himself to be caught off-guard. He would've easily dodged a shot like that under other circumstances, but right now, all his attention was on Beat, and Chessmaster found the perfect moment to exploit that.

Well, the damage isn't anything to write home about. William examined his remaining 35% HP. But, he also used a Slowdown Invocation, that's why he lost almost all his HP.

Using that invocation cost Chessmaster additional HP. It was a play made by a madman.

It was really unfortunate that The King's Dominion had already expired. It would’ve saved him the trouble of dealing with soft CC effects like this Slow, but alas.

As if something like that will stop me. William rolled forward to get to the target faster. Unfortunately, even his roll was slower than usual because of the debuff, so this gave the enemy plenty of time to respond.

And so, Beat rolled away before William had the chance to strike.

This isn't looking good. William frowned. From this position, she can keep zoning me out for days.

Which, of course, Beat immediately did. As soon as she recovered from the roll, she fired a shot at William while backpedaling. Even though she was on the verge of death and a predator was coming straight at her, Beat was not scared in the slightest.

Yeah, figured. William sighed. When I'm this slow, she can almost match my speed while backpedaling.

As an expert on spacing, William perfectly understood just how disadvantageous this situation was for him. His opponent was a ranged attacker who could backpedal as quickly as William could advance. In other words, William had no hope of closing the distance between them as long as the slowdown debuff persisted.

To make things worse, Beat could freely shoot at him as she backpedaled. There were no consequences for her whatsoever.

My only option is to jump her. He glanced at the cooldown of Majestic Leap. Unfortunately, there were still 3 more seconds on the clock. Tch, too long. Besides, I much rather save it for escaping.

Considering that Vanishing was in the vicinity, it was clear William would have to retreat soon. Majestic Leap was his best tool for getting out of this sticky situation, but at the same time, it was also his best weapon for killing Beat. This was a tough dilemma.

"What are you waiting for?" Cato scolded. "Get out of there. You missed your opportunity."

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"But, they're..." William gritted his teeth.

This situation was so cruel. Both opponents in front of him were on the brink of death. William merely had to sneeze in their general direction in order to take them out. And yet, pulling off that one little “sneeze” turned out to be impossibly difficult.

This was like some sort of sadistic teasing. William finally had an opportunity to score a kill, maybe even two! And yet, he was going to let this opportunity slip right through his fingers...

"... I'm out." William turned toward the jungle and activated Majestic Leap. But, just as he launched into the air - there was a thud. Something hit his back and got stuck in there; it was a shuriken.

Seriously? William frowned. I took the distance between us into consideration to avoid this kind of situation. At least, I should’ve...

He was certainly aware of Vanishing’s presence and the threat she posed. So, naturally, William had been properly gauging his distance from her back when he moved toward Beat, right? ... right?

I'd like to say I did, but... William couldn’t claim it with full certainty. His mind was so preoccupied with Beat at the time that he didn’t spare much attention to anything around him.

William was supposed to be the master of spacing, yet he failed to do a basic checkup on Vanishing in the heat of the moment. But, why? Was this part of the girl's ability to "erase her presence"? Or, was William just too tunnel-visioned in general back then?

Just how much of this situation did the enemy plan in advance? William couldn't help but ask himself that while he was flying through the air, going over the jungle wall.

The way this whole situation unfolded felt incredibly scripted as if there was a higher being toying with the Leopards. And, that “higher being” was most likely Chessmaster.

Did William really choose to gank Mid of his own will? At the time, he thought he was delivering a timely counterplay to Beat’s blatant overextension. So, he rotated to Mid as quickly as possible to deliver punishment. Everything about that decision seemed like the “optimal play”.

Yet, right afterward, Chessmaster showed up in the lane to counter-gank. How? Why? Did they actually bait William into ganking Mid by taking advantage of the fact he was hungering for kills?

And, that wasn't all. It almost seemed like they used that counter-gank as another layer of bait, this time to lure Sonya out. Was that also part of some grand scheme? Did Chessmaster really come up with one plan that hit both William and Sonya at once? Just how far did the guy's schemes extend!?

At this point, William felt like a clueless mouse dancing to Chessmaster's tune. All his actions were anticipated, controlled, and taken advantage of.

This isn't how it's supposed to be. William thought. It's supposed to be MY playstyle to control the enemy, and yet...

He just got a taste of his own poison, except it was ten times more lethal. This whole was rather impressive, even amazing.

No wonder it’s come to this. William thought. I didn’t realize I was going up against somebody who was thinking five steps ahead of me.

His Lionfolk safely landed beyond the jungle wall. He still had 40% HP, and the Warlock’s slowdown was gone by now. So, it meant William could escape from here, right?

Wrong. The shuriken stuck in his back was going to be his undoing. A moment after he landed - a shadow appeared behind him!

SLASH! A dagger cut across his back. Vanishing was here, planning to seal the deal.

I don't have my leap, ult, or even roll. William frowned. The only thing I have is the roar, which won't do much for me here.

Nonetheless, William unleashed Mighty Roar at his opponent's face. "RAWWWWWR!" the Lionfolk roared loudly, trying to intimidate the assaulter.

However, the Ninja didn't falter in the slightest. She slashed William again as if nothing happened.

If William had a sufficient HP advantage in this situation, then his Mighty Roar would have instilled his opponent with fear. Alas, at only 30% HP, he was the one at a grave disadvantage here.

As such, all his Mighty Roar achieved was stealing a small portion of the Ninja’s Attack Power and Defense. This gave William an edge over his opponent in terms of raw power, but will this be enough to win the clash?

Probably not. William kept it real. But, I still have to do what I can.

And so, the cornered beast struck back! This feeble retaliation was all William had.

CLAW! SLASH! It was a barbarian exchange of blows. William lashed at the assailant with sharp claws, and the Ninja responded in kind with her dagger.

At point blank, there was not much room for combat finesse. They just bashed each other like ogres until one of them dropped.

『You have been killed!』

『DOUBLE KILL』

Naturally, it was William who fell. He managed to bring Vanishing’s HP from 80% to 40%, but that’s as far as he went. She extinguished his 30% HP before he could go any further.

In terms of percentages, I did more damage. William tried to reassure himself. But, that doesn’t really matter, does it?

In the end, it's only the final outcome that matters. Regardless of how well he fought, he nonetheless allowed the enemy to score a Double Kill, right after she got First Blood. Therefore, this was a defeat, through and through.

With this outcome, the scheme involving Mid came to an end. Stratus scored two kills in a row, kicking off mid-game with great momentum. What’s more, they eliminated all players who were available to defend Mid.

With that said, Chessmaster and Beat sustained grave injuries during the whole operation. So, surely, they wouldn't risk pushing the lane in this state, right...?