I have to escape. Escape. Escape. Escape! Scary! Nia drilled the thought into her brain over and over, to make sure her numb brain stayed concentrated. If she were to let her guard down for even a moment, then the tiredness might knock her out on the spot.

It was an odd feeling. On one hand, her body was surging with adrenaline. She was moving pretty well overall, even good enough to dodge the enemy's roar in the nick of time.

But, at the same time, her thoughts were scattered all over the place. She had a hard time forming coherent thoughts or keeping up with the unfolding events. Essentially, she was moving based on instinct alone.

"Nia, may I ask what you're doing?" Yuel inquired.

"Gufu... Trying to escape, I think."

"What do you mean you 'think'? That's all you can do in this situation unless you feel Iike taking on the Lionfolk."

"No, no, no. No way. Too scary." 

"Yes, I figured as much. So then, why are you still hanging around enemy territory?" 

"This is my escape route. Or was, at least." Nia pouted. "I hate that Lumi ult. Not fun. Bully." 

"Yes, I understand that the Lumimancer's ult ruined your plans,” Yuel said. “So, you should’ve been working on returning to our territory instead of diving deeper into theirs.”

"Yeah, I want to. But, he keeps blocking my way. That bully."

"You mean their Lionfolk?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmm. I see." Admittedly, Yuel couldn't tell Rook's exact position at all times. Nia was running away with her back turned to her chaser, so she couldn’t actually see Rook the entire time.

As such, her analysis had to rely mostly on the sound of her pursuer’s footsteps. However, on top of that, she also turned around every now and then to confirm the Lionfolk’s location.

After hearing Nia’s explanation, Yuel started paying extra attention to that occasional visual information. That’s when the "irregularity" of Rook's movements revealed itself.

He's not trying to go straight for the kill. Yuel deduced. He's just matching Nia's steps and making sure she can't easily return to our side. Typical Cato. 

Even back in chess, this was one of Cato's trademark tactics. Instead of capturing a piece right away, he often took his sweet time cornering the piece from all sides. It's as if he derived joy from the act of stretching out these things.

This reminds me a little of Ellen. Yuel shuddered. As I feared, the Leopards this year have two Ellen-esque players. This is going to be fun...

Regardless, this was no time to feel depressed. Nia's situation required Yuel’s full attention, even more so than the upcoming wave in Mid.

Is Cato just playing with his food? Yuel wondered. He should know he'll never catch up to Nia like this. So, he's either messing around, or he's leading her into a trap.

It was difficult to tell for sure. There wasn't nearly enough information about Cato's movements to conclude anything.

Nia didn't have the luxury to turn around every second, so she only caught a glimpse of her pursuer every once in a while. Yuel had to work with incomplete bits of information here.

Is he leading her toward Top? That’s the only hypothesis Yuel could come up with. That's what I'd probably do in his shoes.

As uncomfortable as it was to admit, Yuel actually shared a handful of similarities with Ellen’s playstyle as well. Though he wasn't a fan of slowly torturing his prey, he was nonetheless a great believer in trapping his opponents in unwinnable situations. Therefore, trapping Nia in Top just made too much sense.

That naturally begged the next question: what was TheTheorist doing at the moment? If Yuel’s deduction was correct, then Theorist was going to play a big role in all of this.

Until recently, the Monk was peacefully sitting under her tower and meditating. But, it seemed like her Chakra finished replenishing and she entered the jungle soon afterward.

Did she go there just to clear jungle camps? Or, was she planning to assault Nia?

“Vincent, listen,” Yuel said. “They might be trying to pincer Nia near Top. I suspect Theorist will be the one to go for the kill.”

“Nani!? Such underhanded tactics!” Vincent exclaimed. “I must put a stop to this at once! I shall join the fray!”

“Fighting them 2v2 is out of the question,” Yuel warned. “Though their Lion exhausted all his skills, the Monk still has access to everything, especially her ultimate.”

“But, that is no reason for concern,” Vincent reassured. “After all, our VanishingFlower has access to her powerful ultimate move as well!”

“Except, I don’t think she’s in any shape to fight.”

On paper, Vincent was correct. Nia’s Izuna Drop was about as dangerous as Monk’s Asura Strike in terms of raw damage.

“But, we have to be realistic here,” Yuel said. “Judging by how Nia has been performing, I don’t think she can put on a decent fight right now. So, the way I see it, going for a 2v2 is a surefire way to concede two kills to the enemy.”

“I see, I see.” Vincent nodded. “In that case, a rescue operation is in order, am I right? Essentially, you need me to deliver VanshingFlower to safety under these dire circumstances.”

“Yes. And, I was hoping you have a plan on how to do this efficiently because I’m drawing a blank at the moment.”

“Say what?” Vincent blinked. “The master of tactics, the renowned Chessmaster himself, cannot come up with a powerful counterplay for this scenario!?”

“Give me a break. Defensive shot-calls aren’t my specialty.” Yuel racked his brain as hard as possible, but he couldn’t come up with an adequate solution for the current situation.

There was no denying that Cato masterfully cornered Nia. She became a trapped piece with no good spaces to retreat to.

As such, the only way to bail Nia out was by moving other pieces around the board in hope of regaining control over the position. Alas, Yuel didn’t see a good way to achieve that.

Would Howard be able to come up with a strong play in a situation like this? Yuel wondered. No, he probably wouldn't even have to. If Howard were the shot-caller, then he would’ve made sure that things wouldn’t escalate to this point in the first place.

Alas, in his carelessness, Yuel allowed this position to happen. If Classmancers had AI engines like chess does, then they would have surely evaluated the current situation in favor of the Leopards, overwhelmingly so.

It’ll be bad if Nia dies here. Really, REALLY bad. Yuel gulped.

Under normal circumstances, conceding First Blood was an unfortunate event but not a deal-breaker. However, in this game, both sides were about to reach the mid-game without a single kill on their records.

So, a First Blood in this stalemate had a lot of weight to it. In fact, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that a single kill here could determine the momentum for the rest of the game.

Just don't die, I'm begging you. Yuel found himself praying, that’s how hopeless he felt against this situation. If there was any magical shot-call that could salvage this critical situation, then Yuel was unable to conjure it.

As such, all the hope here lay with Vincent’s ability to make a difference. And, as requested, he chased Theorist into the jungle in hope of intercepting the enemy’s attack.

Alas, the enemy had a head start on him, so it proved rather difficult to catch up. At this rate, Theorist was bound to run into Nia before Vincent could do anything about it.

Of course, dodging the fully recharged Monk was the top priority here, but it seemed like Nia didn’t get the memo. She continued running toward Top while fleeing from Rook. 

It’s like he’s leading her there. Yuel frowned. "Nia, I'm sure you heard, but their Monk is coming after you. You have to avoid her at any cost" 

"Yeah, but..." Nia pursed her lips. She wanted to escape in a different direction, she really did. But, no matter where she tried to take a turn, that annoying Lionfolk always blocked her options. I-I think I'm dead here...

Just as the thought crossed her mind, the grim reaper appeared in front of her! This was a reaper who practiced holy arts, but a reaper nonetheless. Theorist arrived!

No, no, nonono! Nia's brain kept telling her to steer clear of that grim reaper, yet her legs continued driving her toward her doom.

As much as she wanted to turn around and head in a different direction - there was simply nowhere else to go. A scary lion was breathing down her neck from behind, whereas a grim reaper monk was blocking the front. And, with the jungle walls on the sides - Nia was like a trapped rabbit!

"If you can’t get away from both them of them, then just turn around!" Yuel advised. "Try to get past the Lionfolk. You’ll receive some damage for sure, but it’s much better than getting one-shot by the Monk."

"R-Right!" Nia realized something so basic only now. And so, she did a 180 and started running in the opposite direction.

In fact, she probably should've tried to slip past the Lionfolk from the get-go instead of extending this far into enemy territory. But, her numb brain failed to solve this basic 1 + 1 exercise.

Truly, Nia's consciousness was a mess. One moment, she committed a stupid mistake due to being drowsy, while the next moment she suddenly woke up and realized how poor her play was.

I should’ve continued sleeping instead of joining this game. Nia sighed. I’m totally out of it. At this rate, I’m going to ruin the game for the entire team…

Alas, it was too late to regret that mistake. Nia was already here on the stage, so she had to do what she could.

And so, she headed back toward the Lionfolk who was chasing her. But, will it really be that easy to get past Rook?

"Oh? My, my." Cato smiled impishly. "Looks like she prefers to die a slow and painful death instead of getting one-shot.”

"A logical decision," Sonya said. "She has a higher chance of surviving like that."

"Yes, she really does," Cato agreed. "And, I say we let her go."

"I agree."

They already saw one step ahead from this position. The most ideal scenario was for Sonya to quickly eliminate VanishingFlower, but they suspected things won’t go that smoothly. Fortunately, there was another juicy alternative.

"Well then, here comes our brave knight~" Cato smirked.

As expected, InformationBlackhole shortly arrived on the scene. The plan of this knight in shining armor was no doubt to disrupt Sonya and rescue Vanishing. It was as predictable as it was desperate.

Instead of targeting the sneaky princess that you came to rescue, why don’t we just kill you instead~? Cato smiled impishly as he continued running in Vanishing’s direction.

The poor girl was probably clenching her teeth right now, bracing for impact. She no doubt expected Cato to claw hard at her, to tear her apart as much as possible. The fear and frustration on her face were surely a delight to behold~

G-Gufu! He's here! Scary! Nia shuddered as the big lion man sprinted toward her. That guy was like a hungry beast about to assault a helpless rabbit!

"A-Ah!" Nia shrieked as the Lionfolk appeared right in front of her. Scary! Too scary! This grim reaper was about to tear her to shreds!

Nonetheless, Nia had to keep running forward while enduring all the terror and damage. No matter how brutally the Lionfolk was going to rend her asunder, Nia should be fine as long as she gets past him with at least a little bit of HP remaining. Her Movement Speed was just a little higher, so she should be able to get away after that.

H-Here it comes! Nia was about to crash into the lion man! Nonetheless, she continued running in his direction and... passed him?

"Eh?" Nia blinked. “Wut?”

Nobody slashed or clawed her. Nia casually passed by the scary predator as if it was nothing.

Did he forget to target me? Nia cocked her head. Maybe I reached the point where I can turn invisible right in front of people's eyes!? Anyway, lucky!

Nia had no idea what to make of this development, but she didn't have the luxury to sit back and think about it. RUN! She had to keep running!

And so, she continued fleeing deeper into the jungle without informing anybody about this important piece of information. And, this mistake was going to cost the team dearly...