94 Fatal Hesitation (2/2)

”Come at me, bro!” The Vanguard shouted. This meme voice pack for Vanguard was worth every penny, kek.

[Tch, this sucks.] Roi frowned. Instead of slashing the Vanguard with Blade Swing, he was forced to use basic attacks due to that damn taunt effect. But, no matter. Gregory was already down to 15% HP, so this will be over soon- wha!? A ring of fire formed under Roi's feet!

[When the hell did Gil get here!?] Roi turned aside to confirm the identity of the aggressor: it was Gilbert! He rotated from Mid to Top at some point! [Where was the missing call!? Damn!]

It was a pincher! Gregory from the front and Gilbert from behind! This was hella bad news. Roi had to get outta here! [I can't die here, dang it!]

All Roi wanted was to make this match a bit fairer. By not utterly destroying Gregory, he was giving the enemy a chance to settle everything during the team-fighting phase. However, dying here wasn't part of the plan! Dammit, now it gonna look like he's really throwing the game! Shit!

[How these two are planning to wreck me?] Roi shifted his eyes between the Vanguard and the Pyromancer. [So, GG gonna CC me and Gil gonna hit me with his ult. Something like that? In that case...!] Roi rolled the heck outta there!

[Shit!] Gregory exclaimed. His Vanguard has already raised his foot and was gonna stomp on the ground with all his strength. The idea was to knock Roi up so he becomes an easy target for Gilbert, but Roi slipped outta range!

The most annoying thing was that Vanguard's Heavy Stomp couldn't be canceled. So, Gregory had to go through with the stomp he started even though it was pointless. What a waste of skill, MP and time.

[Okay, that's one.] Roi recovered from the roll and broke into a dash. With Gregory not longer posing any CC threats, Roi had a good chance to flee the scene. At least, that's what he hoped. Unfortunately, his Knight was moving at a snail's pace.

[Ah, shit. The slowdown.] Roi clicked his tongue. The Pillar of Fire, which Gilbert used to open this attack, applied multiple ticks of slowdown due to the Chains of Infinity in his build.

[Damn, I won't be able to get away on foot. Better bring out the horse... ah.] Roi paused. He didn't have enough MP, so he couldn't cast Noble Steed. Daaaaaaaamn! When did he burn so much MP? Or rather, why wasn't he more careful about maintaining enough MP for an emergency like happens!? [Damn! I'm an idiot!]

Damn, there was no time to mull over his mistake. How Roi gonna turn this around? Escaping seemed unlikely. Running away at a turtle's pace only gonna make him a perfect target for Gilbert's Blaze of Inferno. So, in that case...!

[They say offense is the best defense!] Roi dashed straight at Gilbert! The guy had 40% HP left and he was a squishy mage, so Roi might get this kill!

[Frontal attack!?] Gilbert jumped. That wasn't part of the plan! The simple elegant gank he envisioned turned into a complete mess.

[So, I'll have to kill him in a straight fight.] Gilbert shook his head to recollect his thoughts. The situation was a mess, but that didn't give him an excuse to just stand there and whine. He had to act. Now.

Gilbert started drawing a line for Blaze of Inferno around the approaching foe. Even though Roi was a moving target, the guy was moving like a snail thanks to Gilbert's slowdowns. Therefore, it was a no-brainer to hit Roi with every tick of Blaze of-

[You ain't casting that!] Roi burned what little MP he had on Honorable Duel, Knight's aggro ability.

”Let us fight honorably!” The Knight shouted. The taunt interrupted Gilbert's casting and forced Gilbert to use basic attacks. So, instead of a hellish firestorm, a single fireball flew Roi.

[Ez parry!] Roi swung his blade in the middle of running and sliced the fireball into two. He won't die here! He wasn't allowed to!

This entire situation was Roi's fault. From dragging the fight against Gregory and up to not keeping mana for Noble Steed 0 everything was on Roi. Therefore, he had to clean up his own mess by winning this fight!

Roi swung his blade at the enemy and it struck home. Gilbert's Pyromancer was still controlled by the taunt, so he had no control over his movements; dodging attacks was impossible.

However, the taunt was short-lived. Now, things will get interesting.

[How Gil gonna move?] Roi eyed his prey like a predator. [I bet he gonna start by creating some space.]

[First, I have to create some distance between us.] Gilbert rolled aside to get as far away as possible from Roi's reach. [Alright, now to- Wha!? He's already here!?]

[Lololol, I knew it!] Roi slashed through Gilbert again! [Too predictable, man!]

Retreating toward the jungle was the natural instinct when a player was caught in a sticky situation on the enemy's side of the lane. Therefore, Roi ran toward the jungle as soon as Gilbert started the roll and caught up in no time! [Worst case, if my guess had been wrong, I could have escaped through the jungle myself from that position. 200 IQ play!]

[There's no choice,] Gilbert frowned. [I have to take him head-on.] He unleashed Flame Wave right at Roi's face. With how wide the burst of fire was, there was no dodging the attack from this range.

[Welp, nothing I can do about this one.] Roi ate the fire damage in the face like a man. Instead of wasting time trying to dodge the Impossible, he slashed Gilbert again without wasting any time.

It was almost over. Gilbert only had about 25% HP left. Just three more slashes and Roi will redeem himself!

So, the first swing! Ez homerun! Alas, the attack didn't deal as much damage as Roi hoped. [Damn, GG is still here? Go home already, kid!]

Gregory, the absolute mad lad, approached the battlefield and booted his ultimate: ”Hold the Line!” It spread a big aura around him which extended all the way to Gilbert. The aura negated some of the damage dealt to Gil by transferring a portion of the damage to Gregory.

[Damn, what a pain in the ass.] Roi clicked his tongue. Because of this shit, it gonna take like twice the time to kill Gilbert, This ain't good! Roi had to win this fight no matter what! [Maybe I should switch to killing GG first? No, then Gil will run all over me off from behind. What a damn situation. REEEEEEEEEEEEE!]

Everything was Roi's own damn fault. If he hadn't messed around with GG and took this seriously from the start, GG would have been dead by now. But, because Roi has been taking it slow like an indecisive scrub, he found himself in this gank.

Was there even a ”missing” call from Mid about Gilbert's rotation? Damn, it felt like everything was out to get him right now. This situation royally sucked in every way possible!

Roi tried his best to score at least one kill in this desperate situation, but Gregory and Gilbert ganged on him from both sides. Roi simply didn't have enough damage to get a fast kill here. GG was tanky as heck, so bringing him down required some time. On the other hand, Gilbert was squishy but any damage Roi dealt him was almost halved by Gregory's ult.

Thus, it was impossible to quickly kill any of these guys. And, escaping wasn't an option either with all these slowdowns stacked on Roi...

『You have been killed!』

[Fuck.] That's all Roi had to say on the matter. From start to end, he has been fucking shit up. This wasn't how this game was supposed to go. All Roi wanted was to even out the odds of this game a little, not to get wrecked like a pleb and give the enemy an easy lead.

He wasn't supposed to be throwing the game! He wasn't doing it! He just...

Together with Yuel's earlier death, the team was losing 0-2 while the game was transitioning into the mid-game. Will they be able to recover from this? [Dammit, I gotta make up for this shit somehow...]