"My, somebody is making a very difficult face over here~" Ellen giggled. "What's wrong, Wardy? Feeling down?"

"Yeah, a little,” Howard admitted. “This game is rough."

"It sure is. Do you think we still have a chance?"

"That's exactly what I keep asking myself." Howard sighed. "It's not looking good. Rosemary is too fed at this point, and she only keeps snowballing more and more."

"Yep, Rosey is sure feeling herself~"

"... Rosey? Did you just come up with a nickname for a nickname?"

"Yep! I do that sometimes."

"I guess you do..." Honestly, Howard shouldn’t even be surprised at this point. Ellen would go to any length to attach a nickname to anything and everything.

"So," Ellen continued. "Do we have any backup plans left, or...?"

"Nothing I can think of. The only way I see to handle this snowballing is to start turtling and hope we can stretch out this game for as long as possible."

"My, that sure paints a grim picture. I personally have no problem with that plan, but I doubt the others will enjoy it much."

"Yeah, they won't."

Howard and Ellen trained a ton in the arts of defense under Esmeralda, so turtling was just another legitimate technique in their arsenal. However, most players didn't like playing like that.

Julia might be fine with it because she already had been turtling ever since she died in the early-game. But, Roi and Dan will surely hate Howard for suggesting such a dragged-out game plan. They’ve expressed their hatred plenty toward the Leopards' playstyle when watching replays, so it was clear where they stood on the subject.

They'll go along with it but they'll whine for sure. Howard thought. Their morale will be in shambles, which is the last thing we need for winning this game.

StormBlitz already found itself in an almost unwinnable position. From here, to have a chance at all, they had to play their absolute best. High morale was mandatory.

Sadly, Roi and Dan won't be able to draw out their "best" with a turtling strategy. Even worse, forcing them to play like this now might affect their mood for the next game as well.

Sure, if the turtling strategy wins them the game, then Roi and Dan would celebrate and move on. But, what if the turtling fails?

They’ll eat my head about it. Howard sighed. There’ll be some salt too, which might carry over into the rest of the match.

There could be long-term consequences to this. That’s the last thing the team needed right now.

The current game is an anomaly. Rosemary won’t get to snowball that like that again today. Howard asserted. So, there's no reason to linger about anything that happens here.

Rosemary was snowballing hard only because she pulled a fast one on StormBlitz at the start of the game. Since then, she has been abusing her initial momentum to gain more and more advantage.

Of course, there was no denying that Rosemary abused that momentum exceptionally well. But, if StormBlitz had never given her that opportunity, then the game would turned out very differently. As in, StormBlitz would have dominated it from start to finish.

So, the last thing I want is to linger too much about what happened here. The longer we drag this game out, the worse it is for our mental health.

The more Howard thought about it from that angle, the more convinced he became that turtling was a bad idea. It'll only stretch out the game needlessly.

But, what else can we try? He frowned. I'm not Yuel. I’m not good with smartass turnabout ideas.

"My, you'll become all wrinkly if you keep frowning like this~" Ellen chuckled. "You're probably thinking too hard about it, Wardy. If you don't see a way to win, then F6 is a button, you know?"

"... are you suggesting to surrender?"

"I'm just saying that's an option."

"Hmm..." Howard instinctively wanted to reject the proposal but he couldn’t. There was some sense to it, as unfortunate as it was.

Generally speaking, forfeiting this early was frowned upon in the competitive scene. Pros were expected to fight their hardest to the bitter end, as there was always a chance to turn things around in the late-game.

But, when the enemy had a tremendous advantage, there were benefits to giving up and moving on. It saved a lot of time and energy, as well as interrupted the enemy's ongoing momentum.

But, forfeiting here is embarrassing. Howard grumped. It's like admitting that this amateur team is “so much better” than us.

StormBlitz was supposed to be the "second strongest" team in the region, on par with the Leopards. Surrendering against a newbie team like the Valkyries will destroy their reputation.

The scouts from Utopia will chew me out on this if they see it. Howard shuddered at the thought. Then again, they’ll also chew me out if I continue playing and lose. Neither result is good for the team's image, or mine.

"Listen, everybody," Howard spoke up. "As I’m sure you’ve all realized by now, this game is almost certainly lost. At best, we can try to turtle and hope to pull something off in the late-game, but that sounds more like torture."

"Dang, boss." Dan chuckled. "That wasn’t your best motivational speech."

"Lol, it sure wasn’t." Roi laughed dryly.

"It's because that wasn’t a motivational speech," Howard clarified. "What I'm suggesting is that we end it here and now. In other words, we surrender."

"Whoa…" Roi and Dan blinked in disbelief. That was the first time this kind of talk was on the table for a competitive game. Even against the Leopards, StormBlitz played all the games until the bitter end. Yet now, against a greenhorn team, Howard suggested forfeiting…?

"What? This makes no sense," Julia argued. "Isn't their team way weaker than us? Why would we ever surrender against them?"

"Because this game got out of hand," Howard explained. "Rosemary is too fed and she knows how to use that fact to her advantage. It's no longer possible to have a fair game here."

"But, we're still way better than them, so it should even out, right?" Julia insisted. "We should be able to turn the tables on them somehow!"

"Well, if you want to suggest a winning strategy, then I'm all ears."

"Eh, well, I don't really have one yet..."

"And neither do I," Howard admitted. "Trust me, I thought this over. Surrendering is always a last resort, but I believe we need it in this case."

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"But, surrendering against that team sounds so stupid..." Julia grumped. If it were Lars calling the shots, he would've never given up. And heck, even Yuel would’ve had more backbone than that. Instead of suggesting something stupid like surrendering, he would’ve cooked up some stupid but effective plan.

Surrendering this early was nonsense. It’s not like any quitters disconnected from the game or anything. This was still a 5v5 and StormBlitz was the stronger team by far. At least, it should’ve been…

Sadly, Julia didn’t have any bright ideas for fixing this game. She only knew that she absolutely didn't want to surrender because that would leave a bad taste.

I still haven't scored any points yet! She grumped. The only notable thing I did in this game so far was to die like an idiot. That’s only negative points…

Julia was supposed to prove herself worthy of the first string in this game. So, things couldn't just end like this without her achieving anything.

Then again, most of this is Dan’s fault anyway, so maybe I'll get some pity points from Howard? Julia prayed. Who knows, maybe he'll forget about my mistake because the entire game was a mess? Yeaaaah, fat chance…

Howard wasn't the type to forget that kind of thing. He'll surely grill Julia about it during the match review.

So, she had to achieve at least SOMETHING, anything, before this game ended! Otherwise, there’ll only be bad things to say about her performance here!

Unfortunately, while she was busy thinking about all that, everybody else started agreeing with Howard. Nuuuuuu!

"Welp, surrendering is kinda lame and stuff," Dan said. "But, I'm in. I mean, I've already died a billion times. I'm lagging behind everybody by at least five waves, so I don't see any future for me here."

"Yep," Roi said. "And that Rosemary chick is overfed as hell, I dunno how we gonna deal with that shit, lol. So, to be honest, I kinda agree with quitting."

"Mhm.” Ellen nodded. “I also think that surrendering is a timely idea, as expected from Wardy~ We should cut this circus short and move on to the next game."

"Yeah." Howard nodded. "It sounds like everybody is on board. Save for you, Julia."

"Ugh..." Julia groaned. Four pairs of eyes drilled through her, pressuring her to submit. "Y-You can't convince me that’s a good idea," she insisted. "I still think we should try harder to turn this around."

“As I said,” Howard repeated. “If you have any ideas, then I’m all ears. But, you have nothing, right?”

“Well, yeah, but… I want to keep fighting! Rather, I have to!”

“You ‘have to’?” Howard blinked. “Oh, so that’s what this is all about. You’re only thinking about scoring some ‘points’, aren’t you?”

“Eh, well, that’s part of it, yeah, I guess…” Julia averted her eyes. “Like, think about it. I haven’t gotten the chance to do anything in this game yet. I can’t just let it end on me like this!”

“What do you mean?” Howard asked. “You’ve already provided me with tons of material.”

“Huh? I did?”

“Yes, you did,” Howard said. “First, you ignored my orders when I told you to retreat against Rosemary. As a result, you died.”

“Ugh…”

“Ever since then, you’ve been overly cautious, essentially turtling the entire game. Not the worst thing you could’ve done, but a mediocre performance all in all.”

“W-Well, I was just waiting for the right opportunity to attack…”

“With that kind of passive mentality, you might as well wait for the messiah,” Howard said. “How do you imagine you’ll ever find opportunities if you only turtle? In case you didn’t know, good opportunities usually don’t come knocking on your door on their own.”

“Well duh, I know that.” Julia grumped. “I was waiting for them to make some mistake, or for Dan to stop feeding and actually rotate over here for a gank.”

“Dang, so now it’s my fault?” Dan made a face. “I mean, I admit I wasn’t very helpful in this game. Sorry about that, guys. This game has been real rough for me.”

"Yeah, there's a lot to say about your performance as well," Howard commented. "But, we'll leave that for the match review."

"Sounds like fun, haha..." Dan laughed dryly. He could already imagine himself getting ripped apart in that meeting. Yay…

"Anyway, back on topic, Julia," Howard continued. "From the sound of it, you were just waiting for an opportunity to magically appear out of thin air."

"Well, what else was I supposed to do?" Julia challenged. "I’m lagging a little behind and they have all the momentum because of their overfed Jungler. So, I had to lay low and wait for something to change."

"On paper, that sounds reasonable enough," Howard said. "But, how about trying to change something about the situation yourself? Or, at least discuss any of this with the team to brainstorm ideas?"

"Eh, I trusted somebody would pull something..." Julia's voice grew dimmer with every word. She already realized how bad it sounded before she even finished the sentence.

"I'm glad you have so much faith in your teammates," Howard said. "But, to me, it sounds like you just didn’t want to step out of your comfort zone. It was easier for you to play defense and lay low, so that’s what you did."

"... yeah, I guess I could've tried harder to start something." Julia lowered her head in defeat. God damn it. I thought I had this one, but he somehow turned the argument against me. He always does this.

Worst of all, Julia had no idea how else to counter at this point. After all, Howard was technically right.

Indeed, Julia didn't lift a finger to change anything about the team’s situation. She went full Defense Mode after getting killed once, and she was stuck in that mode until now.

It felt dangerous to try anything with that overfed Jungler around, so I stayed put. But, I guess everybody thought the same thing, that’s why nobody tried anything big...

Anybody who had eyes could clearly tell the game was heading in a bad direction. Something had to change, they all knew that.

But, making yet ANOTHER bad move was the last thing the team needed. And so, they were all "waiting for an opportunity", just like Julia. Nobody was going to bring her that opportunity on a silver platter, that’s for sure.

At the very least, the others were more proactive in their attempts to make something happen. They ultimately failed to do so and got punished hard, driving the team even closer to defeat. But, at least they tried. Julia didn’t.

"It looks like it finally sank in," Howard said. "In that case, are you ready to wrap up this game?"

"N-No!" Julia insisted. "I understand that nobody else will create an opportunity for me, so I'll create one myself!"

"Cool speech but you’re ten minutes too late for that kind of talk."

"Ugh, I... I can still make something happen!"

"At this point? Unlikely."

"But, I have to..." Julia bit her lip. I can't just quit here without scoring any points at all! At this rate, I'll never get to be a mainstay on the first-string, and I won't be able to play against THEM.

Julia had to get into the first-string, no matter what. Not only to affirm her skill but also to challenge the opponents waiting for her on the competitive stage. She just had to get there, no matter what!

But, real talk, what can I do at this point? Julia looked around. As Howard said, the game looks pretty much lost. If I didn't have to worry about scoring points, I probably would've agreed to quit.

Alas, this game was too important for Julia to simply throw it away. After the mistakes she committed, she probably won't get another chance today.

"Be honest,” Julia started. “If we surrender, am I going to get another chance in the next game?"

"No, I'll sub Gil in for now," Howard said matter-of-factly. Judging by his tone, there was no changing his mind on this. “If we win the next three games, then I might give you another chance."

"I see." Julia knotted her brows. This is better than nothing, but it's still wack. I want to play as many games as possible today! I don’t want to be reduced to a sub again!

At present, Julia's status in the first-string was that of an "experimental substitute". Nobody really considered her a core member of the first-string, they all saw Gilbert as the real Mid Laner of StormBlitz.

This game was supposed to be my golden opportunity to change that! Grrr!

Julia really blew it. Of course, most of the fault lay with Dan’s feeding, but Julia could’ve played so much better as well.

At this point, I don't think I can do anything to make the team win. Julia reasoned. But, is there at least anything I can do to look a little better? Something to compensate for the points I've lost?

There had to be something Julia could still do to salvage her points. It could even be an absurd play, that didn't matter at this point. The team was about to throw the game anyway, so Julia won't cause anybody any more problems even if she were to royally screw up at this point.

With that realization, the frozen gears inside her started to heat up again. They span faster and faster, accelerating to a boiling point!

“Playing it safe”? “Waiting for an opportunity”? Pft, what kinda dumb shit was she even thinking about until now?

Nah, screw all that. She just gotta go in there and DESTROY these cocky greenhorn girls!

Like, who do they even think they are!? I mean, it's impressive how they managed to form a team in that conservative rich girls' hellhole, but that doesn't give them the right to beat us or to interfere with my exam!

Opponents of that level were supposed to be like a free snack for StormBlitz. They were supposed to STEAMROLL these scrubs!

I dunno why I even became so defensive against them. Julia thought. Like, so what if their Jungler is a little fed? I still could’ve kept playing aggressively in the lane, that would’ve scored me at least some points.

Hell, maybe the game wouldn’t have been such a lost cause if she did that. The reason StormBlitz stagnated so hard was because Rosemary conditioned everybody to fear her.

Even if it’s too late now, I REALLY wanna say in their faces that I’m NOT scared of them! Like, at all!

And, as if answering her request, an opportunity to do so presented itself...