“I’mma get this kill! Ez,” Taison proclaimed. “We gonna win this shit right here and now, yo!”
“Just don’t underestimate Julia,” Howard advised. “She’s surprisingly strong when she’s on the offense.”
“Pft, yeah, right,” Taison shrugged. “Ya think some chick gonna take me down? I’m da best at 1v1s around here, bro, Ain’t nobody gonna stop me!” Taison fired Hungering Horde. A pack of bats darted straight at Julia!
“Shit!” Julia cursed. Why is this even happening!? I gotta dodg- Shit! The bats struck her before she finished processing the situation. The ugly flying mice covered her screen and continuously bit away at her.
Shit. Shit. SHIT! Why was this crap happening!? She was a split second away from recalling to base and then this stupid shit happened.
“You have to retreat!” Yuel commanded. “You can’t beat him in a 1v1.”
“Geh, damn it!” Julia turned around and dashed, but her movements were so damn slow because of these stupid bats. To make things worse, the bats covered most of her screen, so she had no idea where the flipping heck she was even going.
I gotta get outta here! Julia's heart raced but for all the wrong reasons. She has been on the offensive for so long this game that she couldn't forget the thrill. As a result, even in this dangerous situation, she was thinking about all the wrong things. Goddammit, I so wanna turn around and beat the crap outta that dumbass!
It was no good. Julia couldn't cool down. She tried to dodge shots while running away, but it wasn't going well. Half of the problem was her slowed down movement and the other half was her mental state. She wired her brain for offense and couldn't switch gears to defense so quickly. Unlike Gilbert, she couldn’t pull a 180 on the spot.
Can I really get away like this? Julia's heartbeat hammered all the way in her brain.
ATTACK.
KILL.
TEAR THAT DUMBASS APART.
Every part of her wished to turn around and give that dumbass a run for his money. Even though she knew Taison was possibly stronger than Lars in 1v1, Julia wanted to kill that idiot. Rather, BECAUSE that dumbass killed Lars so many times today - Julia wanted revenge! She wanted to destroy scumbag!
Not good. She couldn't stop these thoughts from overflowing her. Attacking and killing enemies was just too much fun. It was the first time she allowed herself to go wild during a real match and nobody criticized her. In fact, Lars even praised her!
And, she really pulled some pretty damn good plays, if she could say so herself. In other words, Julia has been on a roll today. It was awesome!
Like, seriously, killing is the hypest part of this game. Julia smiled wryly. Just imagining how she’d crush her opponents was so delicious.
Back when Julia first started Classmancers, she died. Like, a lot. She chased kills into enemy territory, she overextended while pushing towers, she didn't protect herself from ganks and that list just went on. And, of course, everybody laughed their asses off whenever she died. Sometimes, they even got angry with her.
“Khaha! You're so bad at this shit!”
“You need to buy life insurance to keep playing this game, kek.”
These bastards told their terrible jokes as they pointed at Julia and laughed. Worst of all, they did it in front of Lars! Gaaah! It was the most embarrassing thing ever! They turned her into a laughingstock in front of the boy she loved!
Therefore, Julia decided: she won't die. She'll learn how to fortify her defense and minimize her chances of dying. She gave up on chasing kills, she stopped pushing objectives early, she retreated faster from dangerous fights and she warded the entire jungle against ganks. No matter what, she refused to die.
Thanks to that, she stopped dying all the time and nobody laughed at her anymore. However, instead, they hit her with new complaints.
“Some help would be appreciated, ya know?”
“Don't run away like a pussy! Keep pushing!”
This criticism wasn't fun to hear either but at least Julia was no longer the laughingstock. She traded all her offense in exchange for defense, but at least her defense was solid and consistent. Though, once Yuel started coaching her, she realized how god awful she has been playing back then. Truth to be told, she deserved some of the shit people were giving her.
But, Julia learned all sorts of stuff from Yuel and, eventually, her defense truly became solid. She was prepared to deflect any attack that came flying at her and she developed a sixth sense for when it was safe to punish enemies. If an enemy overextended too blatantly, Julia destroyed that dumbass.
Her playstyle was coming together pretty well in her opinion. However, deep down, she never forgot about the deaths that drove her to come this far. The same way her enemies murdered her time and again, Julia wanted to unleash the same terror on her opponents.
She wanted to make them quiver in fear from her strength and then execute them like a bunch of helpless fools! She wanted to turn them into the same laughingstock she was in the past. Why was she the only one who had to practice defense so hard like she was some scaredy-cat? She others to go through that shit too.
At some point, these repressed feelings gave birth to the other extreme inside her: the hyper-aggressive kill-hungry playstyle. Once in a while, when Julia was willing to throw her defense out of the window to assault her opponents, she invoked something scary. She became a rampaging warrior who tore everything in her path.
The first time she realized that potential was during StormBlitz's entrance exam. After Ellen pushed her buttons, Julia stopped giving a fuck and went all out. Surprisingly, she put on quite the spectacle. Her defense was shabby and she died a few times, but she compensated for that by scoring loads of kills. At that moment, she became the terrifying monster she was fearing all this time! It was awesome!
Honestly, Julia was sure she'll die all over the place once she goes on the offense, so her performance during the entrance exam surprised her. She only played defense with the boys during the summer leading to the exam, yet somehow her offense became hella impressive too. She improved all across the board as a player so, apparently, that contributed toward her offense as well.
Well, maybe the nosy idiot deserved some credit for this. Even though Yuel knew that Julia’s playstyle was defensive, he insisted to work on Julia’s offense as well. He was willing to become her target practice just to make sure she was motivated to shoot stuff.
So, even though her offensive playstyle lacked match experience at the time, she trained more than enough against Yuel in private. She entered her hyper-aggressive mode numerous times during the practice and completely wrecked that idiot. As annoying as it was to admit, Julia truly owned Yuel a lot for all that training.
And, she also owned to Ellen. That nosy girl pulled Julia into Ranked and made Julia play lots and lots of games with her aggressive playstyle. Ellen even pulled Yuel into the business so they could simulate playing as a team. It wasn’t as good as playing with a full premade team but it was close. All that experience made Julia more comfortable playing offense and she felt like she was getting really good.
Unfortunately, nothing could cure her bad habit of cursing and raising her voice while playing aggressively. Therefore, she was always embarrassed to show this playstyle in front of others, especially in front of Lars.
However, in this critical game, she finally opened Pandora's Box and unleashed her offense in all its glory. And, it was well-received! Lars even praised her! It was still pretty damn embarrassing to curse like that in front of Lars, but she finally took the first step!
Truly, this third game has been so much fun! Julia set up one kill on Gilbert, she killed Gregory twice and she even pulled off a clutch kill on the ever-elusive Ellen. She was unstoppable!
And yet, Taison was thinking he was some hot stuff by attacking her. Even though in her head she understood this 1v1 was terribly dangerous, her heart ached for it. She wanted to attack, she wanted to repay that bastard for all the bullshit he gave to her in grade school and to make a laughing stock outta him! It was her turn to laugh at that dumbass!
Julia stopped and turned around. She won’t be able to simply escape outta here alive. Therefore, she gonna fight this one out. Right now, offense was the best defense!
“Wha!?” Yuel gasped. “What are you doing? You have to retreat-”
“Shut up!” Julia fired a gust of wind at Taison. The stupid bats finally left her screen, so she could now see everything now. It was time to murder an idiot!
“Khaha, what the heck?” Taison chuckled. “Chick went crazy! She thinks she can actually take on da best 1v1 pro in the world?”
Taison fired back right away but... he missed? Dafuq!?
Damn, what the hell!? Taison flinched as another wind blast hit him. He countered back right away, but Julia sidestepped the shot while firing another blast at him. W-What the hell was going on!?
I can do it! Julia felt it in her bones. She was unstoppable! No matter how amazing that bastard was in 1v1s, she gonna tear him apart and mop the floor with his stupid face! She'll murder his ass!
Due to the hits Julia received during her short-lived attempt to escape, her HP fell from 85% to 70%. However, Taison didn't come here unscratched either. That idiot probably tanked some super minions back at Top Lane, so he started this gank at 80%. And now, after they’ve exchanged a few blows, Taison was already below 70% while Julia remained unscratched.
She could do it. With the power buff Julia has recently picked up, she had a DPS advantage. She just gotta keep pushing and she'll crush that bug!
“D-Damn!” Taison grit his teeth as he failed to dodge another shot. What the hell!? Am I really being pushed around by July? I ain’t having that shit!
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Taison fired another bat. Hell yeah, this one gonna be good! It gonna hit for sure- Shit! The bat flew right at Julia, then took a dive into the ground right before reaching her. The small dude couldn’t reach all the way to the target.
Meanwhile, Julia had no trouble landing a counter shot at Taison. Damn, it was that stupid wind! It blocked off Taison’s attack, yo!
Julia cast Jet Stream between them and the wind was blowing in Taison’s direction. As a result, the bats he fired at Julia were slowed down and dropped earlier than they should have.
On the other hand, Julia’s shots only became faster as they passed through the stream. They crashed into Taison like a Major Leaguer’s fastball. It was bullshit, yo!
She may actually do it. Yuel was astonished at this development. Even though Taison should be stronger in 1v1s, Julia held the initiative right now. Her unexpected offense made her look more powerful than she actually was.
In truth, Julia wasn’t as mechanically skilled as Lars or Taison. However, her unwavering explosive offense made her look unstoppable. On top of that, she had the surprise element on her side. Taison didn’t expect her to turn around and fight, and he definitely didn’t expect the infamous hyper-defensive player to be this strong in combat.
Taison was shook, it was obvious from his sluggish movements. Under these circumstances, Julia might very well...!
Shit! Shit! Taison cursed internally. This damn Jet Stream put him in an awkward position. The wind stream was wide enough to cover the narrow passage leading to Julia, so the only way across was to run right through that shit. But, doing so would slow down Taison’s movement speed and attack speed, so he’ll become an even easier target.
You think you’re all that, huh!? Watch this shit! Taison activated his ult to transform into a bat. He flew above the Jet Stream and dove right toward Julia. He gonna take this into close quarters and tear her apart! There’s no way he gonna lose in a 1v1 to some chick who only ever played defense like a pussy! He was the true champion here, yoooooo!
“Haha! Dumbass!” Julia grinned. Wanna bite me? Be my guest! Get destroyed by your own ult! Haha!
Julia saw the incoming attack but she didn’t dodge. Instead, she waited until the oversized bat reached her and cast Whirlwind around herself.
“Gah!?” Taison jumped. He bumped into Julia and transformed back into his vampire form, which stunned her in place and allowed him to suck her blood. That should’ve been a great development for him, but Julia somehow turned this situation into the worst shit ever.
Even though Taison was holding Julia in place and slowly sucking her HP, the whirlwind around him was fucking shit up! It dealt damage faster than Taison could absorb HP from Julia. Shit! It was one bullshit after another with this chick!
Taison canceled the ult and rolled the hell outta there. He was totally screwed at this point. Not only he dropped all the way to 40% HP, but the ticks of damage from Whirlwind also slowed him down. He was now moving in slow motion, dang it!
“You wanted a fight? You got yourself a fight, shithead!” Julia’s grinned. “Come! I’mma kick your ass into another dimension! You’re dead! DEAD!”
F-Fuck! This can’t be happening! Taison instinctively stepped backward as he fired at Julia. H-He couldn’t do this shit. Bitch was crazy, yo! It shouldn’t have been impossible for Taison to lose here, and yet...!
“Use your coffin.”
“Ah? Oh! Right! Better pull that thing while I got the chance!” Taison activated Coffin Slumber. The Vampire pulled a coffin outta thin air and locked himself inside it. He gonna be safe for the next couple of shots like this. Phew.
“Calm down,” Howard said. “You’re too agitated by Julia’s attacks. I told you, she’s surprisingly strong. Just accept that fact and treat her as a worthy opponent.”
“R-Right!” Taison nodded strongly. Yeah, what the heck was he doing? He totally let Julia take control over this 1v1.
Taison was supposed to be the king of 1v1s, he was the topdog! Sure, Julia wasn’t too shabby herself, he had to give her a little credit. Nevertheless, she had nothing on Taison! He gonna mop the floor with her once he comes outta the coffin!
Alright. Howard nodded. Once Taison regains his vigor, he should be able to put on a decent fight. Unfortunately, Taison’s shock cost him a lot of HP this fight. Escaping wasn't an option with his reduced movement speed so this might head in a bad direction...
“Oh?” Julia sneered as her wind blast hit the coffin. “You’re hiding? Come out here and get wrecked!” She unleashed one basic attack after another, then stopped to cast her ult - Hurricane. While Taison was hiding inside his precious coffin like a scaredy-cat, Julia had all the time in the world to cast this slow-ass ultimate.
“Shit!” Taison noticed what was about to go down and popped outta the coffin ahead of time. He gotta blitz the heck outta here, yo!
He rolled toward the nearby corner. It'll take the hurricane some time to catch up with him, so he'll just dodge it by going around the corner. The hurricane only traveled in a straight line, so it won't be able to follow him if he runs in a different direction.
“You ain't getting away!” Julia blinked across the wall to get Taison into view again! Casting Hurricane took quite a while but the caster was allowed maneuver around to some degree, like slowly move around or blink. Taking advantage of that, Julia caught up with her prey and unleashed the hurricane!
“What the-!?” Taison thought he dodged that shit after he got all the way here, but somehow the hurricane was coming straight at him! This ain't good, yo!
Taison tried to do a 180 and run back to where he came from but he was too late. The hurricane caught up to him and sucked him in. Normally, he should’ve have gotten away from this distance. But, the slowdowns from Julia’s recent attacks were still in effect so he couldn’t move as he pleased.
Shit, this gonna hurt... Taison braced himself for impact. He fell down to 40% HP while Julia was still sitting at 70%.
Damn, this was hella embarrassing. How was Taison losing to that chick? He was the 1v1 world champion so he ain’t gonna let it end like this! There was no chance of escaping from here alive, so nobody will complain if he goes all out against that chick.
You coming at me now? Julia shook her head. What an idiot.
At this point, Julia had a such a big life lead that the battle was as good as settled. If Taison wanted to get out of this alive, he should start running like a wuss.
“Whatever,” Julia sneered. “If it's a fight you want, then it'll a fight you'll get! I'll destroy you!”
Julia fired a wind blast right in Taison's face! ... at least, that was the plan. Taison somehow sidestepped the blow and countered right away.
“W-Wha!?” Julia flinched when a bat rammed into her. Huh, I see you still got some fighting in you. Okay, bring it on! I'll murder you!
“I ain't done yet, yo!” Taison sidestepped the next shot too, but this time it grazed him just enough to hit. Damn, these slowdowns were real brutal.
But, nothing will stop him from moping that floor with that chick. Bam! He countered right away with a bat right into Julia’s face.
“Geh, die already!” Julia fired again. Her shot landed but Taison counterattacked right away.
This sucked. A back and forth of basic attacks was learning hard in Taison's favor because he was a bruiser. His basics dealt decent damage and he was tanky to boot. Compared to that, as a mage, Julia’s basic attacks were rather weak and she was squishy as heck.
Her damage had to come from spells but most of them were on cooldown right now. Squall has just come online again but Julia couldn't just shoot it. She only had one chance to land it before it goes on cooldown again, so she had to make sure she'll land that hit.
C'mon, Julia glared at the screen. Waste your roll already so I can safely bomb you afterward.
Yo, July, Taiso wore a nervous grin. Shoot yo wind spell already so I can dodge it with a roll.
Each side waited for the other to make the first move. Julia needed Taison to waste his Dodge Roll on something trivial before firing Squall. That’d increase her chances of successfully landing it afterward.
However, Taison knew her Squall was probably online. He wasn’t keen on the idea of eating that heavy damage and getting slowed down again, so he waited with his Dodge Roll to dodge that shit.
As a result, the back and forth of basic attacks continued. Julia had a huge life lead before but this ongoing exchange reduced it to almost nothing. She was at 40% HP while Taison was at 30%. At this rate, he gonna get her!
“S-Shit,” Shivers ran across Julia's skin. If she doesn't do something, she'll die. Death was the most embarrassing type of failure in this game. It was the dumbest stuff ever.
But, that wasn't all. This was one fight she wasn't allowed to lose no matter what. If Taison kills her, the entire game will go to hell from there. The enemy will have the advantage of two living players, which will let them do whatever the heck they want. They will be able to push any lane, to take Overlord or employ any other winning strategy they fancied. They'll straight up win the entire match!
And, that’ll all be Julia’s fault. Even worse, it was already her fault they were in this position in the first place. If she just played better from the early-game, they would have penetrated Mid Lane way sooner.
Hell, maybe if she played even half this aggressive in the previous game, they would have already won the entire match right there and then. So, her underperformance led the team to the current situation.
Julia's chances of getting into the first string were already dead, she understood that much. But, Lars and Yuel could still make it. All they had to do was win this one stupid game and they'll get the starter spots they deserved.
These two deserved to play on a competitive level more than anybody else, Julia knew that better than anybody. Therefore, she won’t be able to face them if they lose this golden opportunity because of her. She had to make them win today no matter what!
C'mon, think! Julia gritted her teeth as another bat crashed into her. This fight of basic attacks was no good. Taison had way too much advantage over her. Maintaining this routine was a sure-fire way to get killed.
So, there was no choice. Julia couldn’t wait any longer for Taison to burn his Dodge Roll. She had to go all-in and unleash her Squall.
But, how could she guarantee her Squall would land while Taison still had access to Dodge Roll? Even though that guy was an idiot, he sure knew how to roll. He'd dodge Squall without breaking a sweat if Julia makes it too easy for him.
Wasn't there any trick for these situations? Something that'd help Julia land a shot despite Dodge Roll being a thing? Actually, there was one method!
It was a technique Ellen used from time to time but for a different purpose: poking. One of the things everybody hated the most about fighting Ellen was her “terribly precise timing.” She was an expert at finding the absolute best moment to poke somebody without giving them a chance to respond.
Since they have been playing together so much, Ellen taught Julia the general idea behind it. On paper, it was quite simple: Ellen just fired her shot at the same time her target started firing their shot. As a result, the opponent was locked in their firing animation while Ellen’s shot was already on its way to them. There was literally nothing they could do but get hit.
Julia didn't practice it too much, but she has seen it numerous times in action and understood the gist of it. Taison's attack animation wasn't absurdly fast like that of a proper Carry, so it didn’t have instantaneous recovery. If Julia can just fire Squall at the exact moment Taison begins an attack - it should a guaranteed hit!
But, there was no chance Julia would be able to pull this off for free during such a heated fight. She would have to pay for it with her HP. It was necessary for her bait out a shot which will be easy for her to read, even if it meant taking the hit in the process.
If it were Ellen, she'd probably be able to analyze the “rhythm” of Taison's shots and deliver a shot at the best timing possible without putting herself at risk. Alas, Julia was no Ellen, so she couldn't pull off such a stunt. Instead, she'll have to bait and gamble.
Khaha, what's wrong? Giving up? Taison sneered at Julia's frozen stance. Chick must have figured she was screwed, so she just wanted to get this over with. Okay, I'mma put ya out of your misery! Here goes!
Should be about now...! Julia took a deep breath and cast Squall. Oh god, it might be a bit too early! Taison hasn't started the animation for the shot yet!
What the-!? Taison noticed the spiral of wind gathering in Julia's hand. Bitch gonna shoot that freakin’ wind spell, yo!
Taison had to cancel his shot and roll aside, but it was too late! He already pressed the left button and fired a bat. He was stuck in the attack animation, so there was no way to dodge the incoming spell! Fuuuuuu! He let his guard down like a damn scrub!
“Yes! Get fucked!” Julia shouted. Her Squall landed perfectly and deleted 20% of Taison's HP!
But, that wasn't all. The hit also applied two slowdown effects. One due to Squall’s slowdown effect and one thanks to the Chains of Infinity in Julia’s build.
Furthermore, Aeromancer’s passive, Wind Flow, granted Julia a small speed boost after casting a spell. With all these advantages, she had everything she needed to press this fight all the way to victory!
F-Fuck! No way! Taison instinctively stepped back. That damn chick was fast as fuck, boy! Or, rather, she looked like Sonic level of fast because Taison moved like a snail in a wheelchair with all these slowdowns. He couldn't dodge anything like this!
“Gah! C'mon, out damage her!” Taison ranted at his Vampire. Why couldn't that mofo shoot faster and stronger? Damn, Taison gonna lose at this rate! No way!
Taison returned shot for shot, but Julia's pressure was overwhelming and she regained the HP lead with that wind spell. Yo, this shit was impossible to win...
6% HP.
4%.
2%.
“Gaaaah!” Taison jumped. The end was nigh!
“Go, July!” Lars cheered.
“One more hit,” Yuel said. “Finish this.”
“No need to tell me twice!” Julia fired the final wind blast. With this shot, she'll grasp victory! The team will win!