In his carelessness, Ben aggro’d one of the bowmen.
Well, this isn’t ideal. Ben frowned. But, it’s not the worst that could happen.
In response, Ben cast Gaia’s Prote, granting himself a shield. The bowman was quick to nock his arrow, but the led shot only struck against Ben’s shield, delivering zero damage to Ben himself.
Still, the arrow did damage the shield itself. As sturdy as Gaia’s Prote was at Lv. 2, it couldn’t tank an infinite amount of hits. The shield will likely crumble against a bitack of the swordsmen and this ue bowman.
To make things worse, now that the stray bowman was targetihe pesky guy was no longer advang toward the tower area like the rest of his peers. Instead, he stopped in p order to shoot arrows at Ben.
Yet again, Ben was messing up, even though he had just promised that he won’t make stupid mistakes anymore...
Stupid, stupid, stupid! Be himself up.
“You pull that bowman into the tower area with Grasp,” Yuel advised.
“ht!” Ben jumped. Without further ado, he aimed Nature’s Grasp at the rouge bowman and pulled the troublemaker right into the tower area.
I should’ve been able to think of this myself. Ben criticized. I’m familiar with this edge-case sario and I’ve used this solution before with Druid, but...
The pressure was getting to him, no two ways about it. He felt like everybody's eyes were on him, more than ever before. Surely, the audience was most ied in Tht now, which was actually rather unusual in Cssmancers.
Normally, Top was the most uful ne. Both sides simply held their forts and bided their time until mid-game.
However, in this game, Top had every reason to draw people's attention. Not only was there an Orc pick, but it iloted by a mysterious new pyer; a Korean prodigy! So, surely, everybody was watg Tht now with great i.
Brrr. Ben shuddered at the mere thought of that image. The pressure was real.
Thankfully, Yuel also seemed to closely follow the events in Top. If not for his timely advice, then Ben would have severely messed up the defense in this round.
"Thank you," Ben said. "I'm sorry you have to waste your precious time looking out for me..."
"It's okay," Yuel reassured. "Your uation is very important and informative, so of course, I have to monitor it."
"But, you have your hands full in Bht? If only I was more reliable..."
"It's true that Bot occupies me pretty badly, but it's fine,” Yuel said. “It looks like you feel a little pressured by the whole situation, but otherwise, your performance is within expectations. So, you have nothing to worry about.”
"I see..." Ben lowered his head. "Within expectations", he says. It means he expected me to perform this poorly. Well, I guess that's a given...
After all, Ben wasn't as good as the rest of the team in the first pce. The only ace up his sleeve was his defense, but even with that he occasionally messed up on this stage. Truly, there was not much reason to expeything from him...
"Yo, dude!" Lars whispered to Yuel. "Look what you've done! Dude is all depressed now!"
"Yes, I see that." Yuel frowned. "It looks like he didn't take that ent positively."
"Of course not! What do ya mean 'within expectations', yo? Ya make it sound like you expect Ben to lose!"
"I just meant he's perf as his usual self for the most part, aside from the obvious pressure that's getting to him."
"Then ya gotta be clearer about it!” Lars insisted. “Stuff like that is way too easy to interpret the wrong way, ya know? Especially, right when he’s already bming himself for all sorts of stuff."
"When is Ben ever NOT bming himself?"
"Haha, sad but true.” Lars chuckled. “So, that's all the more reason ya gotta be careful with him, dude. If ya say anything vague like that, he gonna assume the worst for sure."
"Hmm. Yes, that makes sense,” Yuel agreed. “This is actually important to keep in mind, thanks."
"No problem, dude." Lars gave a thumbs up. "So, ya gotta say something to him before he gets all depressed."
"Right, to say something..." Yuel knotted his brows.
"Watcha thinking so hard about? Just tell him what ya told me."
"Easier said than done,” Yuel argued. “If I have to sider the possibility that he might interpret anything I say in a ive light, then it bees that much harder to e up with safe to say."
"Just speak from the heart, yo!"
"What does that even mean?"
"Like this: Hey Ben, up!" Lars called out. "Yuel said a bunch of plicated stuff there, but he didn't mean anything bad by it."
"Really...?" Ben wasn't vinced. "But, he said my poor performance is 'within expectations'..."
"By that, I meant that you're staying true to your pystyle despite the enemy's aggression," Yuel crified. "Your defense is solid as usual, though it’s noticeable that the pressure is making you it small mistakes. But, it’s natural for you to feel pressure in a situation like this, so that's why I said this performance is ‘within expectations."
"Oh, I see." Ben sighed in relief. A rock fell off his heart thanks to this crification. Now that I think about it, this situation isn’t even as disastrous as I thought it was.
It's not like this was the first time Ben ever made a mistake before. It's just that every mistake he made in this game felt a huimes more critical because it was on the petitive stage, but otherwise, nothing was too different from usual. Indeed, his performance was "within expectations", as Yuel said.
Even in the most ret py, Ben did mess up a little and needed Yuel's timely advice, but otherwise, everything was "fine". After he pulled the bowman into the tower area with Nature’s Grasp, the Turret focused oruder and shot the guy down.
In the meahe rest of the bowmen made their way into the area. Later, the swordsmen Ben was aggro-ing made it in as well.
By default, the tower prioritized shooting the closest enemies. Normally, that would be the swordsmen, the frontline of the minion formation. However, due to the disruption Ben caused, the bae and the frontline switched pces. Now, the bowmen were in the front, going after the tower, whereas the frontline was gging behind, still gunning for Ben.
As a result of this switcheroo, the Turret targeted the bowmen first. BAM! BAM! The minions were struck by one giant bolt after ahey were like spears of judgment raining from the heavens.
In a matter of seds, the tower annihited the squishy intruders. The bowmen only got to shoot a couple of arrows at the tower before they were erased from existence.
, the turret turs attention to the swordsmen. These guys were tougher, but at least they weren't attag the tower. They were still chasing Ben down.
Despite being slow on his feet, Druid was no match for the sluggish minions that pursued him. They hacked away at him with their bdes, but his shield absorbed all the damage, proteg him from harm.
Though the entire process took quite a while and Ben lost a lot of precious farm in the process, he ultimately got rid of all the intruders. The tower had only lost 2% HP this time around, which was a huge improvement pared to the 12% lost in the previous round. So, despite the few mishaps, Bely performed his role as a defensive pyer here. It was really all "within expectations", as Yuel put it.
Y-Yes, I do this! Ben reassured himself. wave, I'll just have to do the same. No problem. Yes, I do this. Easy. For sure. Yes. Definitely.
As hard as he tried to cast suggestion on himself via repetition, his skin was still overrun by shivers. Somehow, he felt like this wasn’t the end. The real struggle was still ahead of him.
Perhaps Ben successfully thwarted Apprentece's offehis time around, but there was no telling how the round would go. It felt like the quiet before the storm.
Apprentece probably only "pyed nice" in this round because Nia was in the nearby jungle. But, she won't be there for the wave, so Apprentece will be free to do whatever he wants there. And, surely, he will do something. Something big and overwhelming, just like in the first round.
I hope this is just my imaginatioing the better of me. Ben gulped. After all, my defense is "within expectations", so everything should be fine, right? ... right?
DarkestCymore
