That same day Stratus got its first practice as a team, StormBlitz also had its first day of club activity. Some of the members were late on the news so they were shocked by Yuel and Lars's transfer.
“Lol,” Roi smiled awkwardly. “You're kidding, right?”
“No,” Howard said. “They left. They attend Skyline now.”
“Wait, Skyline?” Dan raised an eyebrow. “Isn't that the school with that really weak team? What was its name, again? Status?”
“Stratus,” Howard corrected. “Yeah, it's a team that never passed the first round of the regionals. A sad story.”
“Ans they went to play there?” Roi's jaw dropped.
“Yep,” Gregory tuned in. “They couldn't hold the L so they ran away, kek.”
“I wouldn't write them off just yet,” Howard said. “Two skilled players can make the whole difference between a strong team and a weak one. Especially, when said players are the Bot duo and one of them is the shot-caller.”
“Pft, yeah, right,” Gregory waved his hand. “You telling me these two losers gonna pull a team of even bigger losers and actually get somewhere? Please.”
“You never know.”
Tch, that undying favoritism, Gregory clicked his tongue. Does he think Yuel is a superman or some shit? Man, I can't wait for these scrubs to be crushed in their first round. That'll show everybody how trash they really are.
“Hi,” A girl's voice entered the room. It was a familiar voice but it belonged to an unfamiliar face.
“July...?” Ellen jumped from the chair and cautiously approached the unknown specimen.
In truth, everybody could tell it was Julia because there was only one thing that changed about her. However, that one change was something that almost made her unrecognizable.
Julia had no hair! Okay, that's an exaggeration. She had hair but it was uncharacteristically short. Julia used to sport a long beautiful ponytail but it was gone. Instead, she almost looked like a tomboy.
“My,” Ellen examined the girl from every side. “What happened to your pretty hair?”
“What do you think? I cut it.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” Ellen's smile twitched. “But, why? It looked great on you.”
“I got tired of it. Of everything,” Julia strode into the clubroom without exchanging a single glance with Ellen. “I felt like having a change of image. What do you care?”
“Ah, well...” Ellen was dumbstruck. This was cold. The temperature in the room just dropped by five degrees.
“About what you were just said,” Julia stopped in front of Howard and Gregory. “Lars and Yuel will do just fine. They'll drag that shitty ass team out of the bottom.”
“Huh,” Howard didn't show any reaction, probably because he had the same opinion. But, the other guy insisted on denying this prediction.
“Yeah, right,” Gregory sneered. “These guys only gonna make it to second round tops.”
“No, they'll get as far as needed,” Julia's eyes glinted like a sharp blade. “Until they run into us. Then, we'll crush them like cockroaches.”
The entire room was dead silent. Nobody knew how to react to this bizarre declaration. Julia was clearly missing a screw or two right now. The girl was wilding.
“Heh,” Howard smirked. “I like that attitude.”
“Indeed,” Ellen smirked. “Let them crawl all the way up from the bottom to reach us. That'll only make crushing them that much more fun, right~?” Her angelic smile belonged to Lucifer himself.
A-Am I in a horror movie right now? Gregory gulped. A shiver ran through him.
Howard, Ellen, and Julia were all smiling innocently but Gregory could tell. In their heads, they were imagining how they'd rip Yuel and Lars apart, limb by limb. Note to self: never get on these guys’ bad side.
“So,” Howard addressed Julia. “Can you play aggressively on-demand now?”
“Try me,” Julia shrugged. “Actually, playing aggressive is all I feel like doing right now. Lemme at some of these idiots online. I’ll reap them apart.”
“That’s good to hear,” Howard nodded in satisfaction. If she can utilize her hyper offense at will, then I got my hands on one heck of a beast. She might even turn out to be a key player on our path toward winning the nationals.
“That’s great, July~” Ellen hugged the girl. “If you can rampage at will during official matches, we’ll crush all our opponents~”
“That’s my intention,” Julia nodded. “Lemme fight and I’ll crush all the idiots that stand in our way.”
“Aren’t you getting carried away?” Gilbert joined the conversation. “Don’t forget that Mid doesn’t belong to you.”
“Huh? Who are you, again?” Julia scoffed. “Oh, right. Some weak senior who can’t hold onto Mid.”
“What was that?” Gilbert twitched.
“Hey,” Howard stepped between the two of them. “Play nice, now. I didn’t pick both of you for Mid so you fight and drag each other down. You should think of each other as partners who share the same role.”
“Hmph,” Julia crossed her arms. “I don’t think this team needs more than one Mid. I’m more than enough to carry the team.”
“Aren’t you confident, girl,” Gilbert’s eyes turned sharp. “I also don’t see any reason to have two Mid Laners. One reliable and consistent Mid is everything the team needs.”
“Pft, ‘consistent’? That’s all you got going for you?” Julia cracked a cold laugh. “That’s why you can’t hold the spot for yourself. To play Mid for real, you need to be strong enough to push and pressure the enemy. They’re supposed to shit their pants when they see you coming at them.”
“I have a different philosophy about that.”
“That’s why you suck, you-”
“ENOUGH.” Howard’s voice cracked like a whip. Julia and Gilbert jumped and froze solid. “You two have different strengths and weaknesses. So, who I choose to utilize will depend on the situation at hand.” He speared both troublemakers with his glare. “Am I clear?”
“Y-Yeah,” Julia shifted her eyes away.
“Yes...” Gilbert answered in a low voice.
“Alright,” Howard nodded in satisfaction. These two will be a handful, I can already tell. But, having both of them as options is huge. Gilbert will be great for matches where we need to be consistent and versatile, whereas Julia will be great when we need to go on the offensive and pressure the enemy team. Really, if somebody could just fuse them into one person that’d be ideal.
“Say,” Julia started. “You mind letting me play online with the first0string today? I’ll show you what I’m capable of, to erase any shadow of a doubt about who is the better Mid.”
This girl... Howard sighed. It’s like he was talking to a wall. Then again, this was her first day on the first-string and she was probably mad about Yuel and Lars leaving her behind. So, Howard could give her a pass for now.
“Alright, we can start with that today,” Howard said. “Show us what you got.”
“Gladly!” Julia’s eyes lit up. She was ready to wreak some havoc. It’s like she bottled anger and frustration and wanted to unleash it on others.
Why didn’t she follow Yuel and Lars? Howard wondered. These three were inseparable, so he expected Julia to follow the guys to the ends of the earth. Even though transferring schools was a big deal, it didn’t sound like something that’d stop Julia.
Did she stay behind because she valued her position on the first-string more than her friends? That’s sketchy, considering how madly in love she was with Lars. And, she pretended to not care about Yuel but she definitely had a sweet spot for him as well.
So, no matter how Howard looked at it, he couldn’t find a convincing reason for Julia to stay. What made her turn her back on the guys and stay behind?
It was an important question that needed answering but now wasn’t the time. Howard wasn’t close enough to Julia and she was acting too cocky at the moment. It was better to make Ellen ask all these questions later and forward the answers to Howard.
Per Julia’s request, Howard put her on the main team for today’s practice. This will be a good opportunity to see how Julia fits into the team and what flaws she’ll have to work on.
For the practice, the team queued into a Ranked match.
Okay, I’ll show them. Julia took a deep breath and locked in Electromancer. In this very first match, she’ll prove everybody she was superior to Gilbert in every way. She’ll definitely secure the Mid spot on the first string, no matter what. She didn’t stay behind in StormBlitz just to be somebody’s substitute. She’ll become the team’s main and only Mid Laner. Gilbert will be her substitute at best.
As the drafting phase went on, Julia’s lane opponent was decided.
Warlock, huh. Let’s see. Julia tapped into all the knowledge she had regarding this matchup. Yuel drilled the importance of matchup knowledge into her, so it became second nature to start every game from analyzing her lane opponent.
Warlock had Eldritch Nightmare as a panic button, so it might be difficult to score too many kills on him. He’ll probably just mash the ult button in a pinch without thinking twice. No matter how good Julia was, it’ll be hard to score a kill on an opponent she couldn’t see.
Seems like I’ll need some Stealth Wards. Julia pondered. Due to how the darkness effect of Eldritch Nightmare worked, a Stealth Ward actually exposed the enemies inside it. So, by placing a Stealth Ward on the lane, Julia will be able to see the Warlock even as he tries to flee in the darkness.
However, Stealth Wards alone weren’t good a solution. She could only carry two wards at a time and she had to ward around Mid too, so she couldn’t spend all her efforts on warding Mid against Eldritch Nightmare. She needed something extra on top of Stealth Wards.
“I’ll pick Lumimancer to counter Warlock’s ult.” A voice resounded in her head. “If you get a chance to kill him but he uses his ult, tell me and I’ll counter it.”
That’s probably what that idiot would have said. He always went for the opponent’s weakness and made sure to support both Julia and Lars. According to him, the Support shouldn’t only care about the Carry; he should help out Mid to the best of his ability.
Therefore, to counter a Warlock pick, Yuel often went for Lumimancer. Of course, he didn’t do it for Julia or anything. It was a solid counter-pick that was going to play a role in many different scenarios. Nevertheless, Yuel always stressed that Julia shouldn’t hesitate to ask for his Luimancer’s services if she ever gets a chance to kill the Warlock.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He always said that stuff even though he knew I never go on the offensive. Julia smiled wryly. With her old defensive playstyle, she rarely ever got any chances to kill her lane opponents. Whenever got a kill, it was because the enemy committed a mistake or overextended so Julia punished them.
Nevertheless, Yuel always dropped that piece of advice to her because he knew Julia could do more. She always refused to show her aggressive side in battles but Yuel knew she had that side to her. That’s why, every single time, Yuel made sure to remind her: “If you want to go on the offensive, I can help you with that.”
Yuel never pressured Julia about it but he clearly wanted to see her play more aggressively. They’ve spent a lot of time training together, so he knew what she was capable of. Alas, Julia’s unjustified fear of Lars’s reaction always held her back. If only she pulled herself together earlier and started playing aggressively from the beginning, perhaps things would have turned out differently during the selection match.
No, that doesn’t matter anymore. Julia shook her head. What’s done was done. In the end, Julia got a spot on the first-string while Lars and Yuel fell short. Therefore, she had to prove she was worthy of being here. She didn’t get here just because the competition for Mid was easier or anything lame like that. No, she was here because she was worthy. And, she’ll prove beyond a shadow of a doubt by dominating the first match today.
“Howard,” Julia called. “Can you pick a Lumimancer? It’d really help me if you can counter the Warlock’s ult when he uses it to escape.”
“You want me to help you secure kills?” Howard asked. “Not quite the main reason I’d pick Lumi for but alright. It’s a good counter pick in general.”
“Thanks,” Julia said. With that, the stage was set. She’ll get as mileage as possible out of Stealth Wards but, if it turns out that’s not enough, she’ll rely on Howard’s ult to counter Eldritch Nightmare. She was going to score at least twenty kills this match!
No, calm down. Julia took a deep breath. As much as she wanted to go on a killing spree right here and now, she had to take it easy at first. Before anything else, it was mandatory to win lane advantage and pressure the opponent into a corner. Then, her onslaught will begin.
First, she hit the enemy swordsman minions with basic attacks to place Electric Charges on them. In addition, she advanced to the frontline to reach one of the bowmen on the back and placed an Electric Charge on him as well. It was a risky but extremely important move for maximizing her lane clearing speed.
Once the stage was set, Julia fired Chain Lightning at one of the swordsmen. The beam of electricity struck the first swordsman, then bounced toward the second swordsman and then hit the third swordsman. For the fourth and last bounce, the Chain Lightning jumped toward the one bowman with an Electric Charge on him.
Since this was was the final bounce, the spell exploded after hitting the bowman. It dealt damage to the entire pack of bowmen. It also placed an Electric Charge on each of the bowmen. Now, the entire enemy wave was charged with electricity. It was time to blow them up!
Julia activated Electrical Explosion and detonated all Electric Charges. The explosions eliminated the entire enemy frontline and almost killed off the backline as well. This was a great opportunity to charge forth!
Julia advanced while shooting at the bowmen, then shifted her attention toward the Warlock. The guy has already spent both of his damaging spells on the minion wave and he was still at Lv.2 so he didn’t have any other dangerous tools at his disposal yet. Julia had to push now!
Die, dumbass! She opened a relentless attack. The Warlock had no idea what hit him. Was he gonna fight or retreat? He seemed kinda lost. What a fool!
Hitting the Warlock naturally triggered the enemy minions and made them target Julia. But, who cared? All these bowmen were on their death bed anyway. Julia’s minions will soon eliminate these idiots so she only had to focus on the Warlock.
After mulling over it for a moment, the Warlock finally concluded he was outnumbered and began his retreat. Julia couldn’t get a kill on him yet, but she chased him down all the way to his Turret and made sure to get as much damage on him as possible.
Okay, this works. Julia nodded to herself. She couldn’t get the kill but she deleted a nice chunk of the Warlock’s HP. If she repeats this routine a few more times, she’ll eventually crush that bug.
During the next minion wave, Julia repeated the same routine and outcleared the Warlock. Her wave-clearing skills were top-notch thanks to a certain nagger forcing her to practice them for every class she played. It was all a huge pain in the neck but, thanks to all that hard work, Julia was dominating the lane right now.
With her lane advantage, she slowly but surely ground her opponent out of HP. Unfortunately, she couldn’t find a chance to kill him before he hit Lv.5 and unlocked his ult. However, he was at 30% now and he still hasn’t shown any signs of retreating. Good.
He probably really trusts his panic button. Julia smirked. Too bad because your ult ain’t gonna save you this time.
Julia was still carrying the Stealth Ward she bought at the beginning of the game. It was patiently waiting for the Warlock to press his panic button. Julia just had to pressure the guy into a deadly situation and she was going to do so with the upcoming minion wave!
As before, Julia cleared the wave at maximum speed by applying Electric Charges, making Chain Lightning bounce around and blowing up the entire wave with Electrical Explosion. She didn’t out-clear the Warlock as much as before because his damage output increased considerably as he leveled up but she still gained lane advantage.
Now, right as the enemy wave was about to perish, it was the time for an all-out assault! Julia pulled out all the stops and blinked right in her opponent’s face with Thunderclap!
Die, idiot! She opened a quick assault with basic attacks. That idiot had no idea what hit him! It took him like five years to realize he was being wrecked.
The Warlock’s HP fell below 20% and Julia was right in his face so, of course, he resorted to his panic button: Eldritch Nightmare. Darkness erupted from the Warlock and stretched around the lane. It robbed Julia of all her vision of the surroundings.
But, that’s what she had the Stealth Ward for. She placed the ward as far ahead as possible in the direction of the enemy tower. The Warlock was going to retreat over there for sure, so the Stealth Ward will expose all his movements.
Found you. Julia smirked as the Warlock’s figure became visible within the darkness. The Stealth Ward did its job.
“Take that, idiot!” Julia fired a ball of electricity at the Warlock’s back. Easy hit. The guy didn’t even try to juke because he didn’t expect anybody to shoot him in the darkness. “Surprise, dumbass!”
Zap. Another hit! The Warlock was down to 10% HP. Julia had to land like two more hits and it’d be a sealed deal. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy.
Shit, I can’t reach from here. Julia clicked her tongue. Even though she countered the stealth aspect of Eldritch Nightmare with a Stealth Ward, that didn’t negate the other effects of Eldritch Nightmare. One such effect was the disorientation it caused to all enemies inside the darkness. Because of that crap, was Julia lagging behind the Warlock and couldn’t shoot the guy to death. What a pain!
Darn, I thought I’ll get this done without wasting my ult. Oh well. Julia sighed and went for plan B. She activated Thunderstorm and summoned it as far ahead as was humanly possible in the direction of the enemy tower.
In the darkness that was enveloping the entire area, Julia couldn’t see the clouds she summoned or the lightning that struck at the target location. However, the loud sound of the lightning echoed throughout the area and the Warlock was visibly shaken by this line of attack. He stopped running in a straight line and rolled aside from Thunderstorm’s area.
Can’t you just die? Like, please. Freakin’ get dead already. Julia made a face. She hoped the Thunderstorm would finish the guy off but he was a persistent bastard. Only the first lightning struck him and reduced him to 2% HP. So, he was literally a few pixels away from death but he clung to his life. What a stubborn fool.
The lightning that struck the Warlock applied an Electric Charge on him but Julia’s Electrical Explosion was still on cooldown. So, she couldn’t blow up the guy from afar. Instead, she had to do things the hard way and close the distance despite her decreased movement speed.
Since the Warlock rolled to the side to avoid Thunderstorm, his retreat has been slowed down just enough. Julia rolled forward to close the distance and fired a ball of electricity as soon as she recovered.
『You have killed an enemy!』
“Ha! Get fucked!” Julia pumped a fist. The darkness vanished and revealed the victorious scene. Julia was standing tall while the enemy Warlock was lying on the floor like a helpless loser. That’s one kill! Nineteen more to go.
“GAE-” A shout resounded from the nearby jungle.
“Ah!” Julia jumped and turned around. Crap! The enemy Lancer was here! His lance was pointed straight at her and he has already started casting his ultimate. This was bad!
Could Julia take this guy on? No way. She spent her entire kit to get the kill so she had nothing right now. She gotta get outta here as quickly as possible!
O-Okay! I gotta retreat. Switch gears from offense to-
“BOLG!” The Lancer blitzed forth. His spear penetrated through Julia’s stomach and delivered a grave injury. It reduced her HP from 70% to 20% in one fell swoop! Not only that but it debuffed her stats across the board. This was bad! Bad! Bad! BAAAAAD!!!
Run! Run, dammit! Julia erased any thoughts about fighting the Lancer and turned her back to the enemy. She had to retreat. That was her only option right now. Any thoughts about fighting had to perish. She fought and killed the Warlock but now it was time to scoot!
By the time she began her retreat, the Lancer stabbed one more time. Just great, she was already down to 13% HP. The Lancer needed like two more hits to finish her off. She had to get the heck outta there!
“Run toward the Jungle,” Howard ordered.
“Huh?” Julia blinked. Wasn’t it safer to escape along the lane back to safety?
“Dan will get there in time to help.”
“O-Okay,” Julia didn’t have the time to figure out what Howard was talking about. Her brain was a mess so she didn’t trust herself to come up with a better way to survive. If Howard thought it was safer to flee toward Top Jungle, so be it.
Whish! Another stab in the back. She was down to 5% HP. It was over. She was slowed down, weakened and her HP was hanging by a thread. It was hopeless. She scored a kill but now she was going to give the enemy a kill. Damn, how pathetic...
It was coming. She couldn’t see the Lancer behind her but she knew. The finishing blow was coming.
“Coming through!” Dan popped up from behind a jungle wall. He passed by Julia and activated Lionfolk’s ultimate: The King’s Dominion. Julia didn’t have the luxury to turn around to check what happened but she could tell by the roaring sounds of lions. Dan must have formed the ring of lions right between Julia and the Lancer.
“Phew,” Julia sighed deeply. “I’m safe. Thanks.”
“No problem,” Dan said. “You better thank Howard. He’s the one who told me to rotate here.”
“Ah, I see,” Julia nodded. “Thanks, Ho-”
“Take a turn to the right there,” Howard ordered. “He might still chase you with a leap if it’s not on cooldown.”
“Oh, right,” Julia was still in a bit of a daze but she did as she was ordered. Howard’s suggestion made her venture even deeper into the jungle, which meant she was getting farther and farther away from her lane.
It felt like she was putting herself in more danger by delaying her retreat but her defensive instincts gradually kicked in and she grasped Howard’s plan. Since Julia was slower than her pursuer, it was pointless to take the shortest path to safety because the enemy would catch up to her anyway. Therefore, it was safer to deviate from the optimal route and confuse the pursuer.
This should have been the 101 of escaping during such tense situations but Julia’s brain fudged up there for a moment. If she were properly focused on surviving from the moment the Lancer showed up, she would have grasped all of that on her own and would have picked a similar escape route by herself.
Honestly, this was kinda embarrassing. She had to work harder on her ability to transition from offense to defense and vice versa.
Fortunately, the enemy didn’t chase. Maybe his Lunge skill was on cooldown or maybe he didn’t have the balls to dive deeper into enemy territory. Either way, Julia escaped alive and recalled to base.
Phew. Safe. Julia took a deep breath once she was back at the base. Okay, I did it! One kill and zero deaths. Easy.
She was off to a strong start. Now, only nineteen more kills to score! Julia will push forward in full throttle and decimate all her opponents!
Gotta admit, though. Howard is pretty amazing. Julia nodded to herself. While she was 100% concentrated on her offense the entire time, Howard arranged a safety net for her ahead of time. For this rescue operation to be successful, Howard had to order Dan to rotate toward Mid ahead of time.
This is what it means to play with Aegis. Julia smiled wryly. This was completely different from having Yuel in the lead. That greedy dumbass only focused on the team’s offense so Julia always had to be mindful about her defense and make sure she doesn’t screw up.
But, with Howard in charge, she could attack to her heart’s content. As long as she followed Howard’s shot-calls, she was guaranteed to survive even after messing up. Such was the power of Aegis, the absolute defense.
Therefore, this game, Julia could go wild and attack as much as she wanted. The goal was a 20/0 KDA!
In the end, she only got 10/2/2. Still, she pretty much dominated the entire game and scored kills left and right. The enemy team killed her twice but that didn’t stop her from attacking again and again after respawning.
Thanks to her numerous kills, the team easily pushed all the way to victory.
“So,” Julia turned to Howard. “How was it?”
“Solid performance,” Howard said. “You sure proved you can play aggressively and your aggressive playstyle is a force to be reckoned with. I wouldn’t want to be your opponent while you’re wilding like that.”
“Thank you.”
“But, you seem to struggle a bit with switching from offense to defense on the spot.”
“Ack, well...”
“But, aside from that, your offense is very impressive. I take it you have no problem playing like that whenever the team needs you to?”
“Of course, no problem,” Julia’s eyes flashed like a blade. “I’m ready to destroy enemies whenever you need me to.”
“My,” Ellen wrapped herself around Julia. “What a cute instrument of death we got ourselves here~”
“So,” Julia ignored the snake wrapped around her and continued. “You agree I’m the better Mid Laner, right?”
“Too early to say,” Howard answered. “It was just one match. I’ll have to see more of your performance to tell for sure how effective you are.”
“Okay, got it. So, if I keep scoring lots of kills every match, you’ll be convinced, right?”
“Hmm, maybe,” Howard didn’t give any promises but it was clear he was impressed by the spectacle Julia showed during the previous match. So, as long as she keeps showing him strong plays, he’ll hold her in high regard. Eventually, she’ll take the Mid Laner role all for herself.
She absolutely had to get it, no matter what. As the one who was left behind in the club and got a chance to take a spot on the first-string, Julia definitely had to make this count. She’ll prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was superior to Gilbert in every way and will claim the Mid Laner role all for herself. That’s the least she could do to justify being here.
Then, once that’s dealt with, she’ll clash with Yuel and Lars in an official match and will destroy them both!