Classmancers - A MOBA Esport Story

Vol.5 Ch.17: Gilbert's Hesitation

The fight between Lars & Julia and Gilbert & Gregory began.

"Die!" Julia fired wind blasts.

"Tch," Gilbert got hit despite his attempt to dodge. Julia's attacks were fast and fierce, she has been playing like Gilbert has never seen before. From the moment she arrived, she has been relentlessly barraging Gilbert and he couldn't do anything about it.

Thankfully, Gregory's ult was mitigating some of the damage Gilbert was receiving. That kept Gilbert alive for now. Otherwise, he would have been dead meat by now.

This fight is getting ugly. Gilbert assessed the situation.

While Gilbert was busy dealing deal with Julia, Gregory has been trying to aggress on Lars with little success. As a melee fighter, Gregory had to get close in order to strike. Unfortunately, Lars constantly maneuvered around the area to get out of Gregory's range and fired from afar. As a result, the only thing Gregory achieved was keeping Lars away from Gilbert.

Per Howard's orders, everybody should prioritize killing Lars whenever there was a chance. Therefore, Gilbert should be following Gregory's offense and focus on taking Lars down.

Alas, Julia's presence ruined everything. She stuck to Gilbert like glue and shut down all his offensive options. Her earlier surprise Hurricane forced Gilbert to retreat away from Lars and that gave Julia enough time to step in between the two of them. So, to get to Lars, Gilbert first had to pass through Julia.

You ain't getting through! Julia fired without tiring. You wanna kill Lars? Over my dead body!

"Geh!" Gilbert flinched. Even though he used a dodge-roll, Julia immediately hit him during the recovery animation. How could she be so good? She was supposed to be nothing more than a scaredy-cat defensive player. This plain wrong.

Go down already...! Gilbert cast Pillar of FIre under Julia while she was busy shooting. Alright, this should do the trick!

Thanks to the Chains of Infinity in Gilbert's built, the ticks of damage from Pillar of Fire will slow down Julia's movements. That'll make her into a much easier target-

"Not gonna work, dumbass!" Julia blinked away as soon as she saw the circle of fire forming under her feet. She completely dodged Pillar of Fire!

Seriously? Gilbert grimaced. What's with this reaction speed? It's almost as if Julia's reaction time was on par with the likes of Lars and Taison. How was that even possible!?

Damn, each and every one of these rookies. Gilbert gritted his teeth. These greenhorns were one year younger than Gilbert and they haven't been playing the game for nearly as long as him, and yet...! Damn. Gilbert had to put them in their places!

"Don't force the fight," Howard cut into Gilbert's thoughts. "You can't win every battle. I thought you learned that a long time ago."

"Ah, I..." Gilbert paused for a moment. "You can't win every battle." These words took Gilbert back all the way to the first time he came across Classmancers in grade school.

It was during fifth grade when he first heard classmates getting excited over some "RPG MOBA" thing, whatever that meant. Out of curiosity, Gilbert took a peek at their tablets and followed the match. On the surface, it didn't really look like anything special. The graphics weren't on par with AAA games and the map looked kinda small and basic. Nothing to be excited about, really.

However, one boy in the group caught Gilbert's attention; it was Howard.

"Ted," Howard called out. "Rotate to Mid, please."