Despite the obvious flaw in the way Challenger “solved” the problem of the previous lane exchange, the guy nonetheless opened the next attack with Ray of Light again. Did he think Yuel wouldn’t step into the light this time?

Because I definitely will. Yuel set foot inside the AoE of Ray of Light, then he immediately backed out. He made sure the skill only hit him for the briefest of moments.

This time around, he didn't even bother soaking the damage with Gaia's Protection. The only reason he used it last time was to test the enemy’s aggression level. He suspected that the enemy might shoot him once he gets too close.

However, there was no indication that happening any time soon. Therefore, the shield wasn’t necessary at the moment. It’ll be better utilized once real danger strikes.

Okay, that’s it. Yuel nodded in satisfaction after stepping out of the blazing AoE.

The damage he received for standing in the light for less than a second was less than minuscule. Nonetheless, the damage was done, therefore the minions got angry. They branded Challenger as a vicious assaulter who was after Yuel’s head.

And so, once again, the mob opened their witch hunt.

“Not this shit again…” Ronald spat a sigh. “Boring. I thought they’d come up with something more creative this time.”

“Why would they?” Cato asked. “Their plan worked out just fine last time. Perhaps they didn’t win lane advantage, but they made you waste a ton of MP. So, it was their victory as far as they’re concerned.”

“Really? Is that how people see it?” Ronald twisted his lips. “That’s some backward ass logic if you ask me. Who in his right mind would be fine with losing lane control every time like this?”

“Then, answer me this,” Cato started. “How useful is lane control when you can’t even push it all the way to the tower?”

“What do you mean? Lane control is super important at any time.”

“Sure. But then again, look at your situation. You’ve won two exchanges by now, but how much HP did the enemy towers lose? None of it. You didn’t get to push anything.”

“Yeaaaah, they’re pretty good at defending against pushes, I’ll give them that.”

“So, just as I said, your little stunt didn’t achieve anything. It was a pointless showcase of skill that cost you a lot of MP for no good reason. It didn’t solve anything about the real issue you have.”

“Damn, harsh…” Ronald slumped. He wanted to argue back, but Cato’s criticism struck home for once. Dang, what do I actually do here? Do I go for the same combo again? But, my MP…

Thanks to that sly bastard Chessmaster, all the enemy minions were currently targeting Ronald. So, what was the best way to handle them? Go for Blinding Light + Flash again? It’s a hella cool trick, but so costly, too.

“Bro,” Ronald turned to William. “What do we do?”

“Nothing,” William answered plainly. “Just keep drawing them in. I can summon two Assault Drones this time, so we can start matching them in clearing speed even without your AoE.”

“Oh, you gonna use two drones? Cool! Oh, but it means you gonna give up on that ward drone, right?” Ronald checked the mini-map. “Yep, it’s sure gone.”

“It was about to expire soon anyway,” William said. “So, I canceled it early.”

“Oh right, these drone wards got a pretty short lifespan compared to actual wards. Meh, I can never get used to these things. Droid is such a wack class.”

“It’s not rocket science. You just have to learn the numbers and plan accordingly.”

“Bleh. Only you can micromanage all of these while playing Carry, bro.”

Droid could summon two types of drones: Assault Drones and Sensor Drones. While Assault Drones were used to increase DPS, Sensor Drones were essentially budget wards. They had less vision, they weren't invisible, and they lasted for half the lifetime of a regular ward. However, they didn't cost any gold to place, so that justified their inferior quality.

With that said, placing these drones did cost something. That’s where the Droid’s micromanagement came into play.

The Droid had a Battery gauge instead of an MP gauge, and every deployed drone required a certain number of batteries. A Sensor Drone cost 1 battery, whereas an Assault Drone cost 2 batteries.

At game start, the Droid only had 3 batteries available, so it was impossible to summon 2 Assault Drones at the same time. So instead, Willaim placed one Sensor Drone in the jungle to serve as a budget ward. Together with the Assault Drone he summoned for clearing the wave, he was utilizing his entire Battery gauge at the time.

However, now that he was Lv. 4, he unlocked another battery for his gauge. So, with 4 batteries at hand, William could deploy exactly 2 Assault Drones.

But, the enemies were aware of this too, and they had no intention of making his life easy. And so, Gunz’s movements shifted slightly to adjust to this new situation.

Hmph. I see he's covering both sides now. William frowned.

Instead of stalking William directly, Gunz was hanging around the middle of the lane, ready to shoot any drone Willaim will place.

From that position, he won’t be able to eliminate the drones as quickly as before. William thought. But, his reaction time is still a threat.

William couldn’t deploy an Assault Drone anywhere he wanted as the skill’s range was restricted to a rather small radius around him. Therefore, no matter how far William tries to place the drone, it won’t take Gunz too long to step in and shoot that drone down.

There isn’t much I can do about this. William accepted the situation as it was. I'll sacrifice the first drone so I can safely summon the other one.

However, the younger brother had a different idea in mind.

"Hey, how about we fake him out?" Ronald smiled mischievously. "This guy reacts hella fast to your drones, right?" 

"Yes, he does."

"Then, how about I blink in on him while he's distracted? We can gang on him while he's blinded!" 

"Hmm." William gave it some serious thought. It was an unexpected, but definitely interesting, idea.

The suggestion was on the reckless side, but it wasn't a bad attack plan. This little ploy had a very good chance of catching Gunz off-guard and striking him hard, maybe even killing him.

Most of the time, it wasn’t worth taking such a risk against an early-game Carry. However, Pirate was an exception.

It was weaker than most marksmen in this phase of the game, and its game plan revolved around gaining a gold advantage over time via his Plunder passive. Therefore, dying early could be a substantial setback for Pirate.

Also, we're right before Lv.5. William thought. It'll be nice to get a kill before he unlocks his Kraken.

Droid didn't gain anything special at Lv. 5, but Pirate unlocked the fearsome tool that was “Release the Kraken”. From that point onward, it’ll be that much riskier to assault Gunz. So, it was now or never.

Hmm. It's an important decision but I didn't have much time to decide. While William was busy analyzing the situation from various angles, the enemy minions continued chasing Ronald. I have to make my move soon. Hmm. Well, let’s try it then. I’m sure Cato won't approve of it, but I don't care as long as it pays off.

"Alright, let's go for it," William decided. "I'll give you the sign. Start up your spell."

"Roger!" William activated Blinding Light, coating himself in dazzling white.

"Alright, I'm placing the drone in 3, 2, 1…"

A sinister attack plan was about to unfold. However, the entire time, their prey should have had no idea that this hunt was coming.

With that said, the enemy duo did realize that something was off a while ago. Before William reached his important decision, Chessmaster and Gunz had already started wondering whether something was afoot.

"C'mon," Lars complained. "Where are the drones? I'm wasting time my time over here, yo!"

"I agree, it's a little odd." Yuel wasn't sure what to make of it.

Their minions started chasing Challenger a few seconds ago, yet Winner didn't lift a finger to summon a drone. And, that’s despite the fact he could summon 2 drones at this point.

Instead, the guy only fired basic attacks at the minions. It was rather peculiar.

Is he that concerned about Lars shooting down his drones? Yuel wondered.

Due to the threat of 2 Assault Drones, Yuel advised Lars to hang out around the middle of the lane instead of stalking Winner. Even though it hampered Lars’s ability to instantly shoot down any newly summoned Assault Drone, it allowed him to apply pressure on a wider area.

This tactic made it that much harder for Winner to find a good spot to summon his drones. But, was that alone enough to discourage Winner from summoning any drones at all?

It shouldn't be. Yuel thought. It's not like he has anything to lose by summoning a drone or two. Unlike most classes, he doesn't have to worry about MP.

Droid's Battery gauge worked quite differently from the standard MP bar. Even though he had to spend batteries in order to deploy drones, he later got refunded for it.

A deployed drone actively occupied batteries from the gauge, preventing the Droid from allocating these batteries for any other skills. However, once the drone left the field, it freed the occupied batteries.

With that said, these freed batteries weren’t immediately usable again. They had to recharge over a period of time before they were full again. This essentially served as an artificial cooldown for the Droid’s skills, which were otherwise spammable as long as the Droid had the batteries to spare.

The cooldown for each battery recharge was rather lengthy, clocking at 15 seconds at its highest. Therefore, it could be said that the cooldown of a single Assault Drone was almost 30 seconds, considering the drone cost 2 batteries to deploy.

It was a long cooldown, especially considering it took only three shots to eliminate the drone at this stage of the game. And, since the drone’s HP scaled with the Droid’s and Carries didn’t build much HP, it meant the drone will only become squishier as the game goes on.

So truly, micromanaging batteries was the biggest challenge of playing Droid. It demanded the player to be at the top of their game when it came to decision-making. One small misstep could cost dearly, as the Droid would be stuck waiting for his skills to come off the artificial cooldown caused by battery recharge.

In that sense, I can understand Winner’s caution. Yuel thought. He doesn’t want to misplace the drones and make them easy targets for Lars. But, is it really worth dragging this out for so long? He could at least place one drone for now in order to help his Support.

While Winner was withholding his drones, minions were chasing Challenger around. So, it would make more sense for Winner to summon at least one drone by now in order to mitigate the threat.

Yet, Winner didn’t do even that. Why? It’s not like there was much risk in doing so.

Maybe the two of them had a discord of some sort? Yuel wondered. That sounds very unlikely.

One of the most notable traits of AbsoluteWinner and AbsoluteChallenger was how well they cooperated as a duo. Even their nicknames hinted at the close relationship they had. Therefore, it was unlikely that these two, of all people, had a teamwork issue.

Regardless, Winner insisted on not summoning any drones. Rather, it was Challenger who made the first move. He cast Blinding Light, turning himself into a human-shaped lamp.

So, he’s going to blink in again? Yuel sighed. It looks like he learned nothing. I’m a little disappointed, to be honest.

Based on previous scrimmages, Challenger wasn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. But as a member of the Leopards’ first-string, he should at least be better than this.

Besides, he had Winner for a lane partner. This guy showed impressive decision-making and tactical thinking, so together they should’ve been able to come up with a smarter solution to the little problem Yuel gave them. Or, maybe they actually did…?

One second after Challenger booted his Blinding Light, Winner finally decided to summon a drone. He placed it on the far side of the lane, to make Lars run for it.

The timing feels a little suspicious. Yuel thought. It’s like they planned to synchronize these two plays.

However, the goof didn’t pay any heed to such considerations.

“Okay, finally!” Lars chased the faraway drone as quickly as possible.

“Don’t spend your roll on this,” Yuel warned.

“Yeah, I don’t think it’s worth,” Lars agreed. And so, instead of quickly rolling in order to close the distance to the newly spawned drone, he lightly jogged to the destination.

Good, he still remembers his defense. Yuel nodded in satisfaction.

Some months ago, Lars would have definitely rolled toward the drone without thinking twice. But today, he was a player with much tighter decision-making and better self-control.

That aside, I have a bad feeling about this play. Yuel chased after Lars, making sure to keep the goof within arm’s reach.

Shortly, Lars got the drone within attack range. “You're going down, dude!”

BAM! WHISH! BAM!

"Hm?" Lars blinked. An unexpected noise mixed in amidst the booming sounds of gunfire. The heck?

It sounded like a teleportation action. Specifically, like Lumimancer's blink, which sounded a little different than a regular blink.

And indeed, a human-shaped lamp vanished from the corner of Lars's eye. The Lumimancer, who was shining brightly like a human torch, suddenly disappeared from view.

A moment later, dude reappeared again... right in front of Lars!

"Crap!" Lars exclaimed. He timed it to my next shot! I can't even look away from it!

His Pirate had already started the attack animation for the next shot, so it was impossible to cancel out of it in any way! Gaaaaaah!

WHOOSH! Whiteness covered Lars’s entire screen!