The seinion wave arrived. Just like before, the Dragonborn advaoward Ben's army, no doubt pnning to unleash Draic Rush.

  I won't let you...! Ben also stepped forward. His heart was beating like an interhquake and his throat was dry to the point of stinging. heless, he quered all these pains and pressed onward to front his foe!

  Despite all that, his respoo the enemy’s advance was on the slower side. Ben didn't get to the se as quickly as he should have, but his te arrival might have been a blessing in disguise.

  Against an ining Vanguard, most oppos would back away from the frontline in fear of Provoke. So, whenever Ben stepped forward, his ne oppo would normally give up on whatever sinister pn they were hatg areat. That helped Ben to avoid many flicts in the ne, which was his ideal ate.

  However, this time, Ben stepped in a little te. As a result, he failed to “scare” his oppo in time.

  Challenger paid o Ben and unleashed Draic Rush just like st time. He charged forth and rammed into Ben's swordsmen!

  I'm sorry, but I'll have to retaliate against this. Ben apologized in advance as he reached the se. He hoped to resolve this peacefully but Challenger was a little too cocky with that overextension. I'm sorry but pys like this have to be punished.

  Draic Rush was an amazing skill. It had fast movement, a strong knockback, and even damage immunity. However, it also had one gring weakness: a long recovery animation that couldn't be celed with Dodge Roll. And, that's exactly the opening Ben was going to exploit now.

  With Challeu the middle of the long recovery animation, Ben had the perfect opportunity to unleash his Provoke!

  "e at me!" The Vanguard struck his mace against his metal shield, provoking all the enemies in front of him. From his resolute voice, it was clear that this big knight was 100% fident in his ability to deal with the foes in front of him.

  I wish I had at least half of this fidence myself. Ben thought. B-But, at least I'm pretty fident about this py!

  The taunt effect successfully hit Challenger. With this, the oppoemporarily lost trol over his own character. The Dragonborn now acted of his own accord, seeking to strike Ben down.

  The AI for the taunt effect was very simple. It sought the shortest path to the aggret and tried to hit it with basic attacks.

  Ranged csses weren’t as vulnerable to this type of taunt because they could safely remain at a distance as they fired their basic attacks. However, Dragonborn was a melee css, so the taunt reeled Challenger deeper into Ben’s territory.

  I draw him even further in if I backpedal a little. Ben thought. But, I also have to make sure that he aggros the minions.

  As such, Ben did the opposite of backpedaling. He actually advaoward Challeo make it easier for the guy to hit him. It seemed masochisti nature, but there was a very good reason for all of this.

  SLASH! Challenger hacked away at Ben without a sed thought. The man wasn't worried about the situation at all! Or rather, even if he was worried, he couldn't do anything about it because he had no trol over his character.

  And so, by nding a hit ohe minions brahe Dragonborn a criminal scum. Now, Beire army was on Challenger's case!

  They sshed him, barraged him, and then sshed some more. And, Challenger could do absolutely nothing about it. His character was still at the mercy of the taunt, which was teically short-lived but sted just long enough t Challenger into this unfavorable position.

  Ben backpedaled from the se to make the situation even worse for the enemy. Doing so forced the melee Dragonborn to give chase, dragging him even deeper into Ben’s territory while all of Ben’s minions were already in the process of decimating the invader.

  With that said, Ben himself didn't y a finger on Challenger. Vanguard’s damage output was nothing to write home about, so there was no point in aggro-ing the enemy minions by exhibiting acts of violence. Instead, Behe role of a simple punchbag and lured the enemy into overextending harder.

  As, the taunt effeded right as things started getting good. Before the situatioed any further, the Dragonborn woke up from his fever dream.

  "Dang, finally!" Ronald rolled away, just barely esg the round of attacks. The swordsmen whiffed their sshes and the bowmen's arrows missed their mark.

  "Phew." Ronald sighed in relief after creating some distaween himself and the hungry pack of wolves that were trying to eat him alive. For a moment there, he actually started sweating a little.

  "Looks like this bruh get shit done when he wants to," Ronald reported.

  "I warned you about doing this twi a row," Wilim reminded. "He seemed a little unsure of himself at first, but that wasn't likely to st."

  "Hey, you never know,” Ronald said. “I remember in our first scrim my oppo was shook from start to end. The harder I pressured him, the more flustered he became. Poor bruh, I ended his whole career."

  "Yes, there is merit in pressuring unfamiliar oppos in order to test the waters. But, you should have do more carefully."

  "Hey, no pain, no gain!"

  "And what did you ‘gain’ here, exactly?"

  "Eh, a firmation that the guy isn't that shook anymore, I guess?"

  "And, was that worth losing 20% HP for?"

  "Probably not, haha..." It was impossible to e up with a good retort here. Ronald really did lose about 20% from that little exge. Ouch.

  He was taunted for just a couple of seds, but it happened right in the ter of the enemy formation. On top of that, Provoke also lowered his defense, making all the ining attacks hurt more than they should have. In short, the situation was one big yikes.

  “Well, it’s all water uhe bridge now,” Ronald said. “Trust me, bro, it won’t happen again.”

  “It better not,” William said. “Don’t fet that the Vanguard didn’t buy any HP Potions, so you’re supposed to focus on bullying him out of the ne. Right now, you’re doing the exact opposite of that.”

  “No problem, I got this,” Ronald promised. Now that he had proof that Phoenix wasn’t a total wuss, it was time to start pying for real! I gonna wreck you, bruh!

  With that determination, Ronald headed into the third wave of the game. For now, William did a good job putting his younger brother ba track.

  “My,” Cato started. “I didn’t eveo say anything this time. You did all the work for me~”

  “Well, I at least put my bratty brother in line sometimes,” William said. “It looks like you’re pretty busy, so I’ll keep an eye on him.”

  “My, how thoughtful of you. Many thanks.”

  Indeed, Cato was rather busy in Bot. Every new minion wave that arrived was like the beginning of a new chess game between him and Yuel. Each side schemed to overtake the other, so Cato didn’t have much spare tration to spare on other matters.

  And, in what little extra time he had, he spent it keeping an eye on Vanishing. It was teically Sonya’s job to supervise Vanishing, so Cato was essentially just supervising Sonya ily. He had to make sure that the analytical android had the capacity to pay attention to both Vanishing and her owuation at the same time.

  Though, perhaps his worries were unwarranted. So far, Sonya has been delivering sistes regarding Vanishing’s movements. Maybe this walking puter was actually capable of multitasking just fine.

  But, it remains to be seeher she’ll be able to keep up the good work throughout the entire game…

  DarkestCymore